Iran: Torture for imprisoned Baha'i

Specter of Torture and Ill-Treatment Rises High for Baha'is in Prison

 

(22 January 2009) – The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran expressed grave concern for the situation of Iran's largest religious minority group today. Members of the Baha'i Faith have been targeted with alarming frequency in recent months with 36 Baha'is currently under arrest in Iranian prisons.

 

"The continued targeting of members of the Baha'i community is indicative of the larger goal of suppressing individual human rights by the Iranian government. All Baha'is detained and arrested, have committed no crime whatsoever," said Hadi Ghaemi, Campaign spokesperson.

 

On the morning of 14 January 2009, Intelligence Ministry officials raided the homes of 12 Baha'is in Tehran. The officials confiscated books, materials, and photographs related to the Baha'i Faith as well as computers and CDs. The agents arrested Shahrokh Taef, Jinous Sobhani, Didar Raoufi, Aziz Samandari and Payam Aghsani. They are currently being held incommunicado in Evin Prison. Their families have met with the presiding judge but have been unable to see their loved ones.

 

These recent arrests come on the heels of the raid of 20 Baha'i homes in Semnan on 15 December 2008. Another raid of a Baha'i home in Yazd was carried out on 11 December. Three Baha'is were arrested in Ghaemshahr, Mazandaran the week of 18 November 2008, and one of them, Mr. Masou Ataiyan is still in prison. In October, Ziaollah Allahverdi and his wife Sonia Tebyani were arrested in Behshahr, Mazandaran. Other arrests and raids were carried out in August in Mehrian.

 

More:  Specter of Torture and Ill-Treatment Rises High for Baha'is in Prison

Continued (Permanent Link)

Iran: False televised confessions

A Message to Obama Based on False Televised Confessions

Intelligence authorities exploit claustrophobic detainee to coerce sham confession

(21 January 2009) The Iranian Intelligence Ministry's purported uncovering of a CIA-backed "coup plot" is being used as a propaganda tool at the dawn of Obama's presidency, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

"Hard-line elements are using the alleged plot to seize the initiative in Iran-US relations in a period of tense maneuvering by both sides as Obama's administration takes charge," said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign's spokesperson.

"The intelligence apparatus is claiming this is a message to the incoming Obama administration that it can uncover any American plots. But, in the process, the rights of physicians who have brought international respect to Iran's AIDS programs and two other people are being ruthlessly abused," he added.

On 20 January 2009, a high-ranking Iranian counter-intelligence official told the official Islamic Republic News Agency details of the prosecutor's case against four Iranians, including Drs. Arash and Kamiar Alaei, accused of working on behalf of American agents to overthrow the state. "Those arrested in connection with this case were the main agents and network leaders who have deliberately and intentionally cooperated with U.S. intelligence agents and were doing whatever they wanted," he was quoted as saying.

The intelligence official said that the evidence is based on the detainees' "confessions," which would soon be televised. He also claimed that the discovery of the plot should be a lesson for the Obama administration in formulating its Iran policy.

The Judiciary has confirmed that internationally renowned AIDS physicians, Drs. Arash and Kamiar Alaei have been sentenced to six and three years in prison respectively. The officials have not provided any clues as to the identity and sentences of the other two defendants.

The Campaign has learned that one of the defendants is Sylvia Hartounian, 33-year-old Iranian-Armenian woman, who worked for the international organization IREX on a project regarding birth methods in Iran. Intelligence agents detained Hartounian around 6 pm on 26 July 2008, the same day that Arash Alaei was detained.

After searching her house, the agents took her to the Esteghlal Hotel in Tehran for interrogations. They questioned her about her medical project and pressured her to admit it was a cover for politically motivated activities on behalf of the US government. Her refusal to admit to any such allegations led her two interrogators, who identified themselves as "Haj Agha," and "the Doctor," to transfer her to Evin Prison's ward 209.

According to a former prisoner who spent days with Hartounian in ward 209, Hartounian suffers from acute claustrophobia. Upon learning of her imminent imprisonment, she suffered a severe panic attack at Hotel Esteghlal. Ignoring her medical condition, the agents transferred her to Evin prison and put her in solitary confinement in cell 25, which is reportedly extremely small and dark.

After ten days of solitary confinement, the interrogators exploited her illness by forcing her to read a prepared written statement, which was videotaped.
She reportedly "confessed" that the CIA and the Pentagon recruited and directed a group of medical experts led by Dr. Arash Alaei to foment unrest in Iran and "widen the gap between people and state."

More: A Message to Obama Based on False Televised Confessions

Continued (Permanent Link)

Marching for Hamas

Guest Columnist: Marching for Hamas

 

Jan. 22, 2009
DENIS MACEOIN , THE JERUSALEM POST
Hamas is a bully aided by a bigger bully, Iran. And, just as strident and threatening human bullies get away with their aggression so long as no one calls their bluff, so Hamas has been getting away with murder and torture because the UN and many states won't call its two-faced self-portrayal as the victim in the piece. In the struggle to take over Gaza from Fatah, it went on a rampage that killed hundreds of Palestinians. Even during this most recent assault, in early January, it executed Fatah members for violating their house arrest. A few weeks ago, Hamas determined to hurt yet more of its compatriots by introducing Islamic hudud punishments to the Strip, from amputations and stonings, to crucifixions and hangings.

 

Like all bullies, it likes to taunt its victims. It did just that for years after Israel left Gaza, firing rockets every day into towns like Sderot or Netivot. No one who has dismissed these rockets as harmless homemade toys has ever had the guts to spend a few weeks in Sderot, scurrying from shelter to shelter. And, oh yes, it also built up an arsenal (supplied by Iran) of Grad missiles that certainly aren't anybody's toys.

 

Like all bullies, Hamas likes to make boastful threats. Its 1988 Covenant is replete with them. It threatens to destroy the State of Israel by violence and violence alone. It says it will never accept the work of conferences or peacemakers, and only jihad will solve its problems. Meanwhile, the Palestinians see their lives drained away in a culture that embraces death and martyrdom, their children exposed to a steady diet of military training and preparation for violent death as suicide bombers.

 

Even if the Palestinians want peace, Hamas won't let them have it, because Hamas knows best, and jihad "is the only solution." Don't believe me, read the Covenant. It likes nothing better than killing Jews, and the bigger bully in Teheran thinks that's a damn fine thing too. No one says a word, because the UN is dominated by the Islamic states, and the Western governments know where the oil comes from, and nobody likes the Jews much anyway. The people calling for the end of Israel while they march on the streets of London and Dublin aren't all Muslims by any means.

 

There can be no greater indication of this boastfulness than what has happened in recent days. Having taken a heavy battering from Israel, Hamas now proclaims a "great victory," and its supporters dance in the ruined streets of Gaza, drunk on their own demagoguery. For all its bluster, Hamas, like all bullies, is a coward at heart. Watch those films of Hamas gunmen dragging screaming children along with them to act as human shields, watch how they fire from behind the little ones, knowing no Israeli soldier will fire back. And even as they put their own children's lives at risk, they shout to high heaven that the Israelis are Nazis and the Jews are child-killers. This blatant pornography spreads through the Western media, and people never once ask "what does this look like from the other side," because they are addicted to the comforting news that the Yids are baby-killers as they'd always known, that they do poison wells, that no Christian child is safe come Passover. Hamas has become proficient at resurrecting the blood libel, just as its fighters use the Nazi salute, just as their predecessor in the 1930s and '40s, Haj Amin al-Husseini, conferred with Hitler about building death camps in Palestine and raised a division of SS troops in Bosnia to fight for the Reich.

 

We watch The Diary of Anne Frank on television, and some of us attend Holocaust Remembrance Day events, and others pay lip service to Jewish victimhood; we like our Jews emaciated and helpless under the SS boot. But the moment real Jews stand up and show themselves the stronger for all their deaths, it awakens an atavistic fear, and people recoil from them. Jews in uniform, how unseemly. Jews beating the bully, how unheard of. Jews with their own state, what upstarts.

 

IN MY home country of Ireland, we glamorize the great nationalist heroes who rebelled against the bullying forces of imperial Britain in the uprising of Easter Sunday 1916. In France, they venerate the heroes of the Resistance against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany. In Spain, they have not ceased to heap praise on those who fought against the forces of fascist bullies and lost. To stand up against an enemy bent on your destruction is everywhere counted an act of bravery. But not when it comes to Israel. In 1948 and 1967 and 1973 and 2006, Israel fought off overwhelming forces who made no secret of their plans for an imminent massacre of the Jews. But nobody now seems to care, no one lauds the courage the Israelis displayed, and no one praises the extraordinary restraint they showed in victory.

 

In a bizarre reversal of all their commitment to human rights and the struggle of men and women for independence and self-determination, the European Left has chosen again and again to side with the bullies and to condemn a small nation struggling to survive in a hostile neighborhood. It is all self-contradictory: The Left supports gay rights, yet attacks the only country in the Middle East where gay rights are enshrined in law. Hamas makes death the punishment for being gay, but "we are all Hamas now." Iran hangs gays, but it is praised as an agent of anti-imperialism, and allowed to get on with its job of stoning women and executing dissidents and members of religious minorities. If UK Premier Gordon Brown swore to wipe France from the face of the earth, he would become a pariah among nations. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatens to do that to Israel and is invited to speak to the UN General Assembly

 

Israel guarantees civil liberties to all its citizens, Jew or Arab alike, but it is dubbed "an apartheid state"; Hamas, ever the bully, kills its opponents and denies the rest the most basic rights, but we march on behalf of Hamas. The Left prefers the bully because the bully represents a finger in the face of the establishment? Almost no one on the Left has any understanding of militant Islam. Their politics is a politics of gesture, where wearing a keffiyeh is cool but understanding its symbolism is too much effort even for intellectuals.

 

I have personally had enough of it all. The whining double standards, the blatant lies, the way their leaders have forced Palestinians to suffer for 60 years because peace and compromise aren't in their vocabulary and because they won't settle for anything but total victory. Painful as it was, in the 1920s Ireland created a republic by compromising on the status of the North. Ireland subsequently became a prosperous country and, in due course, one of the hottest economies in the world. When the Israelis left Gaza in 2005, they left state-of-the-art greenhouses to form the basis for a thriving economy. Hamas destroyed them to the last pane of glass. Why? Because they had been Jewish greenhouses.

 

The writer is the incoming editor of the leading international journal Middle East Quarterly and the author of a blog entitled 'A Liberal Defence of Israel.'

 

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

Hamas attacking and weakenig Fatah

More and more stories are confirming that Hamas are cruelly and systematically suppressing Fatah in Gaza. For example:

 

GAZA CITY — The 27-year-old in a sweatsuit limped to the table, heaved himself into a chair and began to talk about how he had been shot. Men from Hamas have begun to assault people they suspect of supporting its chief political rival, Fatah, he said, and on Sunday, he became one of the victims.

It was impossible to verify the man's account, which he provided on the condition that he remain anonymous, out of concern for his safety. But it came during a week in which leaders of Fatah accused Hamas of harassing and harming its members in the Gaza Strip.

Yasser Abd Rabbo, an ally of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said at a news conference in Ramallah on Thursday that Hamas had "turned its rifles in the direction of Fatah members" after Israel stopped its military offensive on Sunday. Mr. Rabbo accused Hamas of placing Fatah supporters under house arrest and shooting some of them in the legs, an intimidation tactic that it used in the past.

 

The same story was told numerous times previously, yet the New York Times account above makes beliee it is a single unconfirmed report. More of the same evidence in the story below.

 

 

 

Last update - 06:06 23/01/2009       
With war over, Fatah members say Hamas sees them as the real danger
By Dana Weiler-Polak

 

Israel's operation in Gaza may have ended, but the internal Palestinian fighting is still going strong. According to a Fatah source, Hamas operatives have thus far killed 10 Fatah members and wounded hundreds, fearing that Fatah might try to undermine Hamas' rule in the territory.

 

"When the war began, we started to see a tendency within Hamas to attack our members," said A., a Gaza resident who belongs to Fatah. "They feared that we would exploit the war and were constantly talking about the 'internal danger.' They could be heard saying they were fighting on two fronts, against Israel and Fatah. They were constantly fanning the flames, saying that thousands of Fatah members were planning to come from Egypt to help fight them - which is totally false."

 

Once, after a Fatah member was killed by Israeli fire, "we were marching in procession toward the cemetery when Hamas men fell on the convoy and killed three of our people," A. said. In another case, a group of Fatah members were celebrating the release of one of their comrades from jail when "Hamas men arrived and said we were really celebrating and handing out candies in schadenfreude over Hamas members who had been killed, and once again, they threatened us."
 
A. said that Hamas also put large numbers of Fatah members under house arrest.

 

"They went from house to house and told hundreds of people not to go out, and that if they were seen outside, they would shoot them," A. explained said.

 

Moreover, "dozens of people were shot in the legs," and two of them died while awaiting treatment for their injuries. "At least 100 people were shot in the legs for no reason," he claimed.

 

"They killed Isham Najar, a man of 70, in front of his family, just because he is affiliated with Fatah," A. said. "That is also what happened to Ahmed Sagura. He was under house arrest, and when he was found outside, he was shot because his brother is one of the leaders of Fatah in Gaza .... They say that we are the danger, not the Jews, because they [the Jews] come and go, but we are here. We are the real problem."

 

A. said he goes outside as little as possible. "If I go out, I look around carefully to see whether anyone is waiting for me. I try to do everything quickly. We've been living like this for some time and have already learned how to maneuver for ourselves; the fear is mainly for our families and children. Why should they have to pay?"

 

After Israel declared a cease-fire, A. added, Fatah began trying to assess its damages, but every such effort was met by Hamas threats. "Anyone suspected of doing something for his surroundings receives a house call and is warned not to go out. They don't allow us to organize or even to see our people, to see if they need something."

 

Hamas is also keeping humanitarian aid for its own people, A. charged.

 

But A. is not without complaints about his own organization's leadership. "There's a problem because Fatah's senior leadership is trying to sweep this appalling situation under the rug so as not to sabotage the chance of dialogue between us and Hamas. They don't want to escalate the situation and are trying not to let the story get out. So meanwhile, they [Hamas] do as they please without hindrance."

Continued (Permanent Link)

«That's how the youths of Hamas have used us as targets»

«That's how the youths of Hamas have used us as targets»

 

Gaza inhabitants accuse the Islamic militants: «They prevented us from leaving our houses and fired from there»

 

GAZA - «Go away, get out of here! Do you want the Israelis to kill us all? Do you want to see our children die under the bombs? Take away your weapons and missiles», shouted many of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip to the militiamen of Hamas and their allies of the Islamic Jihad. The most courageous had organized themselves and blocked the gates to their courtyards, nailed boards to the entrances of apartment houses, quickly and angrily blocked the stairs to the higher rooftops. But mostly the guerrilla took heed of no one. «Traitors. Collaborators of Israel. Fatah's spies, cowards. The holy war soldiers will punish you. And in any case you all will die, as we will. Fighting the Zionist Jews we are all destined to paradise, aren't you happy to die together?». And so, angrily shouting, they would smash down doors and windows, hide in the higher floors, in the vegetable gardens, use the ambulances, and barricade near hospitals, schools, and UN buildings.

 

In extreme cases they fired on those who were trying to block the road to save their own families, or beat them wildly. «The militiamen of Hamas tried on purpose to provoke the Israelis. Often they were young boys, aged 16 or 17, armed with submachine guns. They couldn't do anything against tanks and jet fighters. They knew they were much weaker. But they wanted them to fire on our houses so they may later accuse them of war crimes», affirms Abu Issa, aged 42, resident of the Tel Awa neighborhood. «Practically all of Gaza's high-rises that have been hit by Israeli bombs, such as the Dogmoush, the Andalous, the Jawarah, the Siussi, and many others, had rocket launch ramps or Hamas observation points on their roofs. They had also placed them near the large UN warehouse that later went up in flames. And the same applies to the villages along the border that were more devastated by the mad punitive fury of the Zionists», echoes his cousin, Um Abdallah, aged 48. They use their family nicknames. But they provide very detailed facts. It has been difficult to collect these testimonies. By and large, here the fear of Hamas triumphs and the ideological taboos fed by a century of wars with the «Zionist enemy» prevail.

 

Whoever tells a version different from the narrative enforced by the «muhamawa» (the resistance) is automatically an «amil», a collaborationist, and his life is at risk. However, the recent fratricidal clashes between Hamas and PLO do help. It would have been easier if Israel or Egypt had allowed foreign journalists to get in straight away. These local residents are often threatened by Hamas. «It is not a new fact; the Arab societies in the Middle East lack the cultural tradition of human rights. It happened that under the regime of Arafat the press was persecuted and censored. Hamas is even worse», says Eyad Sarraj, a well-known psychiatrist in Gaza city. And there is another fact that is emerging more and more evidently by visiting clinics, hospitals, and families of the victims of Israeli fire. In truth their number appears to be much lower than the almost 1300 dead, in addition to about 5000 wounded, reported by the men of Hamas and repeated by UN and local Red Cross officials. «The deaths could be not more than 500 or 600. Mainly boys 17 to 23 years old recruited among the ranks of Hamas that has literally sent them to be massacred», tells us a doctor of the Shifah hospital who absolutely refuses to be mentioned, for fear for his life. A fact, however, also confirmed by local journalists: «We have already reported it to the heads of Hamas. Why insist on inflating the numbers of victims? It is weird, among other things, that the non-governmental organizations, even Westerners, report them without verification. Eventually, the truth may come to light. It could be like in Jenin in 2002. Initially they talked about 1500 dead. Then there came out that they were only 54, of which at least 45 were guerrillas who died fighting».

 

How we have arrived at these figures? «Let's take the case of the massacre of the Al Samoun family of the Zeitun neighborhood. When the bombs struck their houses they reported that 31 had died. And so they were registered by officials of the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health. But later, when the bodies were actually recovered, the total number was doubled to 62 and so they were passed to the calculation of the total numbers», explains Masoda Al Samoun, aged 24, and adds an interesting detail: «To muddle the waters there were also the Israeli special teams. Their men were disguised as Hamas guerrillas, with green bandanas tied to their foreheads with the usual inscription: there is no other God besides Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet. They sneaked in the alleys to create chaos. We shouted at them to leave, for fear of reprisals. We later understood that they were Israelis». Just visit any hospital to understand that the figures do not add up. Many beds are free in the Rafah European Hospital, one of those that should be more involved with the victims of the Israeli «tunnel war». The same goes for the "Nasser" of Khan Yunis. Only 5 out of the 150 beds of the Al-Amal private hospital are occupied. In Gaza city there was evacuated the Wafa, built with the «Islamic charitable» donations of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf countries, and bombed by Israel at the end of December. The institute is known to be a stronghold of Hamas, which hospitalized there its fighters wounded in the civil war with Fatah in 2007. The others were instead at the Al Quds, which in turn was bombed on the second week of January.

 

Magah al Rachmah, aged 25, residing a few dozen meters from the four large buildings of the now seriously damaged health complex, says about this fact: «The men of Hamas took refuge mainly in the building that houses the administrative offices of the Al Quds. They used the ambulances and forced ambulance drivers and nurses to take off their uniforms with the paramedic symbols, so they could blend in better and elude Israeli snipers». This has greatly reduced the number of beds available in health institutions in Gaza. Also, Shifah, the largest hospital in the city, is far from being completely used up. It seems however that its basements are densely occupied. «Hamas had hidden there the emergency cells and the interrogation room for the prisoners of Fatah and the secular left front that had been evacuated from the bombarded Saraja prison», say the militants of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. There has been a war within this war between Fatah and Hamas. The local humanitarian organizations, mostly controlled by PLO, tell about «dozens of executions, cases of torture, and kidnappings in the last three weeks» perpetrated by Hamas. One of the most notorious cases is that of Achmad Shakhura, aged 47, resident of Khan Yunis and brother of Khaled, right-hand man of Mohammad Dahlan (former head of the security services of Yasser Arafat, now in exile) who was abducted by order of the head of the local secret police of Hamas, Abu Abdallah Al Kidra, tortured, had his left eye torn away, and eventually killed on January 15.

 

Lorenzo Cremonesi
January 21, 2009 (latest change: January 22, 2009)

Continued (Permanent Link)

Obama urges Israel, Hamas to keep peace in Gaza

Obama urges Israel, Hamas to keep peace in Gaza

US president says he plans to send new Mideast envoy Mitchell to region 'as soon as possible' in bid to promote lasting peace between Israel, Palestinians. Obama vows to 'aggressively seek' durable, credible solution for conflict

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3660707,00.html

Associated Press

Published:

01.22.09, 22:41 / Israel News

President Barack Obama on Thursday named special envoys for the Middle East and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and promised US help in ensuring a lasting truce in Gaza.

 

Obama chose George Mitchell, a former senator and seasoned international trouble-shooter, as an envoy who will try to jump-start moribund Arab-Israeli peace talks.

 

In a flurry of diplomatic activity in his first week in office, Obama also tapped former ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke as a special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan and related issues.

 

Both the envoys have records of success in helping settle long-running violent conflicts - Mitchell in Northern Ireland and Holbrooke in the Balkans.

Clinton and Obama on Thursday (Photo: AP)

 

"We have no time to lose," said Obama, who was sworn in on Tuesday and is moving quickly to tackle foreign policy challenges he highlighted during his campaign.

 

Obama introduced Mitchell and Holbrooke at an event with newly confirmed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and underscored his pledge to engage early on the Middle East.

 

Mitchell will go to the Middle East to help ensure the durability of the ceasefire in Gaza, which was left devastated by a 22-day Israeli offensive against Hamas.

 

"It will be the policy of my administration to actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as Israel and its Arab neighbors," Obama said.

 

Mitchell: There's no conflict that cannot be ended

On the morning after his inauguration, Obama called Israeli and Arab leaders to commit himself to "active engagement" in the Middle East and to promise help consolidating the Gaza ceasefire.

 

Mitchell, 75, is best known for peacemaking efforts in Northern Ireland, but he also has experience in the Middle East and was appointed by former President Bill Clinton to find ways to halt Israeli-Palestinian violence.

 

Mitchell's 2001 report called for Israelis to freeze construction of new settlements and for Palestinians to crack down on terrorism. Mitchell is the son of a Lebanese immigrant mother and a father of Irish descent.

 

Mitchell said that from his experience working on the Northern Ireland issue, he "formed the conviction that there is no conflict that cannot be ended."

 

"I believe deeply that with committed persevering and patient diplomacy it can be achieved in the Middle East," he said.

 

He acknowledged there were many reasons to be skeptical that peace could be achieved in the Middle East. The conflict there had gone on for so long that "many have come to regard it as unchangeable and inevitable," he said.

 

Hamas: Obama does not represent change

 

Nabil Abu Rdainah, aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said he hoped the appointment of the new Mideast envoy would signal a shift in the US approach toward the Arab-Israeli conflict.

 

"We will deal with Obama's envoy and we hope he will work fast to implement the road map and the Arab peace initiative as well as international agreements and to implement Obama's change policy in order to bring justice and freedom to our people," he said.

 

Hamas said Thursday that Obama's position toward the Palestinians does not represent change and will lead to the same mistakes as his predecessor.

 

The comments by Beirut-based Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan follow Obama's first public comments on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis since his inauguration.

 

Hamdan told Al-Jazeera television he expected Obama to experience failure in the region over the next four years if he sticks with his current position.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Israel's Arab diplomats

Ismail Khaldi and Reda Mansour, Israeli consuls in the United States, may be Israel's greatest diplomatic assets, both because they are  very talented fellows, and because they are not Jews.

 

Khaldi always has problems understanding why Jews don't like Israel. Earlier (in 2004) Ismail Khaldi said:

 

 How can Israel's voice be heard if the Jewish students don't have the facts or the knowledge to speak up? I don't take the mass of Jewish students to task for not agreeing with all of Israel's policies, but I do take them to task for not caring about Israel or what happens there. It is the apathy which allows the anti-Israel propaganda to strengthen itself more and more over time.

 

...

Even more upsetting, I expected to see many more Jewish students who were aware of the situation in Israel, but that wasn't the case. I expected the Jewish students to realize that the situation was not only affecting Israel and Israelis, but Jews all over the world.

On the other hand, the Arab students and their supporters almost all had the last minute news clips from the Middle East. How can Israel's voice be heard if the Jewish students don't have the facts or the knowledge to speak up? I don't take the mass of Jewish students to task for not agreeing with all of Israel's policies, but I do take them to task for not caring about Israel or what happens there. It is the apathy which allows the anti-Israel propaganda to strengthen itself more and more over time.

As a personal aside, sixty years after the horrors of the Holocaust, Israel is going through one of the most critical times in its history. More  than 60 years after my grandparents joined their destiny to that of the Jews coming to the Land of Israel, I feel that history is somehow moving backwards. Antisemitism and hatred towards Israel is soaring. Comparing me, a Muslim Bedouin who supports Israel, to the  Nazis is just another clear piece of evidence.

And yet, 60 years after the horrors of the Holocaust, I felt that on campus, the Jewish voice is silent. Where are the Jewish students fighting back? My commitment in these crucial days, while Israel is struggling for its right to exist, is to continue the heritage of my grandparents and to stand together to fight for the State of Israel.

History will not tolerate us if we keep our voice silent. We must roll up our sleeves once again to build a better future for Israel and all of its loyal citizens. Israel's right to exist is my right and my people's right, just as Israel's destiny is our destiny.

But just as history demands for me to fight for Israel, history also will not tolerate a generation of Jews who don't

 

And now he strikes at the same theme as well:

 

But the most explosive reactions had come from Jews, Khaldi said. He recounted a visit to Berkley during which a Jewish professor had refused to shake his hand. "He said it wasn't personal, but I was a representative of a racist, child-murdering state. There is an odd phenomenon here of Jews who object to Israel and yell at me, how can a non-Jew be on that side," he said.

It is worth considering how Israel can make more patriots and diplomats like Reda Mansour and Ismail Khalidi, because they are living demonstrations that Israeli democracy works and that our cause is just. Zionism is not racism and Israel is not an "apartheid state.|  

 

Ami Isseroff

 

Druze, Bedouin diplomats wage PR war
Reda Mansour, Ismail Khaldi defend Gaza op to CNN, Berkley faculty, and Muslim protestors in US

 

Yitzhak Benhorin
Published:  01.22.09, 23:52 / Israel News

 

WASHINGTON – A Druze ambassador and a Bedouin deputy consul general have positioned themselves at the forefront of Israel's PR battle in the US.

Reda Mansour, Israel's consul general to the southeast US, and Ismail Khaldi, San Francisco's deputy consul general, have made round-the-clock appearances on television and radio interviews, published articles, and stood before Muslim protestors who accused them of traitorous behavior.

 

Mansour, 43, comes from Usafiya. He made history twice in Israel, by becoming the first minority member to be sent on a diplomatic mission, and the youngest ambassador ever to be sent overseas. At the age of 35 he became Israel's ambassador to Ecuador.

He was serving as consul in Atlanta when the fighting in Gaza broke out. "People joked that I should be given a bed at CNN," he recounted. "The first three days were very intense. I was at the studio from 6 am until late at night. There was a lot of curiosity and desire to cover it live… Our presence at the studio was a good thing."

Mansour opined that CNN had been surprisingly unbiased. "During the first few days of the operation in Gaza we had total domination," he said. "When we checked with the Foreign Ministry, it turned out that the ratio of appearances was two-thirds Israeli speakers to a third of Palestinian speakers."

 

He also expressed satisfaction with Israel's improvement in the field of public relations. "During this war we did better than in other wars. From the beginning of the war the amount of material that came in from Israel was great, full of texts and videos," the ambassador said.

 

'It would be easier to fight in Gaza'

 

Deputy Consul General Ismail Khaldi was somewhat less satisfied with the atmosphere in San Francisco, where numerous anti-IDF protests were taking place.

 

Khaldi, 36, is a Bedouin from the lower Galilee region and a former shepherd. He has been serving as a diplomat for the past four years, and has formerly been charged with the task of explaining the Gaza pullout to the Arab press.

"San Francisco – and especially Berkley University – is one of the toughest regions for PR," he said. "We Israelis are perceived here as the ones who dragged the US into a war with Iraq, and those attempting to drag it into an attack on Iran. They see us as racist."

Khaldi explained that these opinions make his job nearly impossible. "Even the most educated don't know the history of Israel," he said. "They feed off of press that is biased against Israel. Yes there was destruction in Gaza, but they don't understand the reason, and we are always on the defensive."
   
But the most explosive reactions had come from Jews, Khaldi said. He recounted a visit to Berkley during which a Jewish professor had refused to shake his hand. "He said it wasn't personal, but I was a representative of a racist, child-murdering state. There is an odd phenomenon here of Jews who object to Israel and yell at me, how can a non-Jew be on that side," he said.

Khaldi has also heard deprecating remarks from Muslims who call radio stations that interview him in order to condemn him for siding with Israel. "Sometimes I think it would be easier to be a soldier on the sand dunes of Gaza than here," he said.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Cast Lead: - A success -- The Impact And Achievements

Cast Lead: The Impact And Achievements
by Gerald Steinberg - 22 January 2009

 

Israel's Gaza operation - in reality, a mini-war - was in many ways the opposite of the 2006 Lebanon War.
In Gaza, the stated goals were deliberately limited, in contrast to the boasts made by Prime Minister Olmert in 2006, while the outcome was far more favourable. One-third of the country withstood missile attacks for three weeks, reflecting the effectiveness of the preparations this time. Israelis demonstrated the capabilities and determination necessary to defend themselves against attack, and restored the balance of power.

 

The deterrence against Iran and its proxies that was only partially achieved against Hezbollah was far more visible in Gaza. The mistakes of the Lebanon war were gone, and the political leadership - for the most part - acted wisely. At each stage, Israel took Hamas by surprise, overcoming the array of explosives and weapons placed in, around, and under the houses, hospitals, mosques, and schools. Key terrorist leaders were killed, and when the optimum results had been achieved, Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire, pulling out the ground forces before they could be targeted.

 

The diplomatic initiatives - led by French President Sarkozy, with his British, German, Italian, Spanish and Czech counterparts - provided a theatrical diversion with little substance. This intense motion propped up Mubarak's crumbling regime, and created a facade of international cooperation in preventing Iran from rearming Hamas. In Lebanon, UNFIL (also led by the French) failed to stop new arms from reaching Hezbollah, and only the IDF, in cooperation with advanced American technology, can prevent the rebuilding of the tunnels, and another round of attacks and response.

 

In parallel, the continuing demonisation of Israel and anti-Semitism that accompanied the war reinforced Israeli distrust of Europe. Self-important campaigners from Oxfam, Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and dozens of groups funded by British and other European governments falsely blamed Israel for a "humanitarian crisis", while ignoring the import and manufacture of thousands of rockets under Hamas. And UN officials charged with providing aid and running schools joined the political war that denied evidence of Hamas attacks from their facilities.

 

For Palestinians, these propaganda victories do not offset the Israeli successes on the ground. These may also strengthen the small group of Palestinian pragmatists, and open the way for economic cooperation with Israel, as occurred after the 1967 war. But history shows that this will not lead to a quick change on core political issues.

 

For over 60 years, Palestinian society has viewed Israel as an illegitimate creation and rejected Jewish sovereignty, regardless of borders. Instant peace plans and grand conferences will not reverse this - the process will take at least a generation. In the meanwhile, stability depends on Israel's ability to maintain its deterrent capability.

 

Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg is Chairman of Political Science at Bar Ilan University and Executive Director of NGO Monitor

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Jordan Times confirms Hamas stealing Gaza aid

We know that Hamas have been seizing aid shipments and UN agencies have not been reacting in any way. This report comes from the Jordan Times in Amman.

Armed men seize Jordanian relief cargo in Gaza'
 
By Hani Hazaimeh
AMMAN - Anonymous armed men captured a 13-truck convoy laden with foodstuff donated by Jordanians after entering the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official told The Jordan Times Tuesday.

Neither the convoy's drivers nor the trucks, which entered Gaza at the Karm Abu Salem crossing, are Jordanian, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

The drivers were released; the hijackers drove the trucks.

The shipment was unloaded from a Jordanian convoy after it crossed into the Palestinian territories and then carried by non-Jordanian trucks rented by UNRWA into Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority official said: "This is not the first incident of this kind. We have learned that the food items, which were supposed to be given to Gazans for free, were being sold in the marketplace in Gaza City."

On Monday, an 11-truck convoy carrying food items from Kuwait was also seized at gunpoint, he added.
The Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation spokesperson denied he was informed of any hijacked aid convoys.

Government officials in Amman did not know about the case or were not available for comment.

UNRWA spokesperson Sami Mshasha told The Jordan Times on the phone from Jerusalem that he was not aware of any hijacked aid convoy, being busy with arrangements for the visit of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Gaza.

Mshasha said he would follow up on the report, but remained unavailable despite repeated attempts by The Jordan Times to contact him.

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Gaza operation Myth and Reality: Inernational Law

The NGO Front in the Gaza War: Exploitation of International Law

NGO Monitor

January 21, 2009

The exploitation of international legal rhetoric is a major weapon in the political war to delegitmize Israeli anti-terror operations.  Under this strategy, crystallized at the NGO Forum of the UN's 2001 Durban Conference, the terminology of international humanitarian (IHL) and human rights law is selectively applied to charge Israel with "violations of law," "crimes against humanity," "war crimes," "disproportionate force" and "indiscriminate attacks." In contrast, the violation of Gilad Shalit's human rights and Hamas' use of human shields are ignored.  NGOs use the legal language to increase the credibility and  seriousness of the charges, and in the Gaza conflict, many are already calling for international "investigations" and "lawfare" (i.e. filing lawsuits against Israeli officials in different countries) based on these accusations.  Hamas, Hezbollah, and the PLO have reaped significant political benefits from this strategy in their conflicts with Israel. 

This NGO Monitor report analyzes common NGO legal claims:

•  NGO silence on Gilad Shalit's rights under international law is a significant moral failing by these self-proclaimed defenders of human rights and international law.  Held hostage by Hamas since June 2006, Shalit is entitled to the rights and protections of prisoners of war guaranteed in the Third Geneva Convention, including the right to unfettered access to the Red Cross.  Hamas flouts international law and very few NGOs call it to account or demanded enforcement of Shalit's rights.
• Hamas exploits schools, mosques, hospitals and cultural centers to carry out its attacks in flagrant violation of article 51 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.  This factor is minimized or ignored by numerous NGOs, and the emphasis is placed on Israel to avoid civilian casualties. But international law is clear: in cases of human shields, civilian deaths that result are clearly the responsibility of Hamas and not Israel.
• Under international law, the test for proportionality is whether civilian harm is "clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated."  Casualty ratios are not relevant, and this standard does not require equivalency in weaponry.
• NGO claims that Israel deliberately targets civilians or does not attempt to distinguish between civilian and military targets are entirely without foundation.  The NGOs leveling these charges do not possess military expertise, detailed information on the dispersal of weapons by Hamas, and they are not privy to Israeli targeting decisions.  Such information is essential in order to make a credible evaluation of Israeli military responses to the thousands of rocket attacks by Hamas.
•   The NGO charge of "collective punishment" is false both legally and factually.  "Collective punishment" refers to the imposition of criminal penalties, not economic sanctions.  Israel is in compliance with article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and allows access for humanitarian supplies well in excess of its legal obligations while under attack.
• Calls for "war crimes" investigations and lawsuits are part of the NGO anti-Israel lawfare strategy, in order to harass Israeli officials with civil lawsuits and criminal investigations and to promote a negative media image of Israel.  Rather than obtaining "justice" for victims, these cases are intended to punish Israel for its anti-terror methods, to prevent future operations, to interfere with Israel's diplomatic relations, and to advance boycotts and other aspects of the Durban strategy.

Claim:  The fate of Gilad Shalit is an unimportant international legal issue.

Analysis:  The refusal of the NGO community to demand Red Cross access to Gilad Shalit is a significant moral failure.  International humanitarian law was enacted to guarantee the rights and protections of prisoners of war.  The Third Geneva Convention lays out these rights unequivocally:  the right to humane treatment (article 13); the right to have knowledge of a POW's location (article 23); the right to send and receive letters and cards on a monthly basis (article 71); the right to unfettered access to the Red Cross (article 126), and others.  Hamas has flouted each of these provisions and the NGO silence causes considerable damage to international humanitarian law and universal human rights. 

Claim: The use of human shields by Hamas is irrelevant to Israel's compliance with IHL

Analysis:   These NGO claims misstate the law as it applies to Israel and deliberately ignore violations by Hamas.  Under article 51(7) of the First Protocol of the Geneva Conventions, civilians "shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations."   Hamas is in direct violation of this rule, yet few if any NGOs mention it.   Regardless of Hamas' abuse of article 51, under article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, "the presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations."  Therefore, Israel is not prohibited from attacking a military target simply because there are civilians present.   The documentary and video proof of Hamas's exploitation of schools, mosques, hospitals and cultural centers to carry out its attacks is overwhelming, and responsibility for any civilian deaths that follow belongs to Hamas.[1]

Claim: NGOs such as Oxfam, Gisha, and B'Tselem, claim Israel has used "disproportionate force" highlighting the number of Palestinians killed especially children with emotive "testimonies" and anecdotes from Gazans in their reports.  These claims frequently compare Palestinian casualties with Israeli casualties.

Analysis:    While every civilian death is regrettable, casualty ratios are not relevant to the standard for evaluating proportionality. Pursuant to article 2(b)(iv) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, an attack is "disproportionate" if  it causes damage or loss of civilian life "which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated" and as Israel's former UN Ambassador, Dore Gold notes, Israel "is not required to calibrate its use of force precisely according to the size and range of the weaponry used against it." "Just war" theorist Michael Walzer has also remarked that the concept of proportionality cannot be applied "speculatively."  He points out that the test of proportionality is in relation to the future expected military advantage, not in relation to past events or civilian deaths from previous attacks.  In his view, those leveling the charge of "disproportionate" do so only when it is "simply violence they don't like, or it is violence committed by people they don't like."  Therefore, "Israel's Gaza war was called 'disproportionate' on day one, before anyone knew very much about how many people had been killed or who they were."

Claim:  Human Rights Watch, Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Amnesty, Al Mezan, and others accuse Israel of "indiscriminate attacks" against Gazan civilians.

Analysis:  The claim that Israel deliberately targets civilians or does not attempt to distinguish between civilian and military targets is entirely unfounded.  The IDF has legal advisors embedded with combat units making analyses prior to any military action. Many attacks have been aborted when it was deemed the potential harm to civilians was too great.  Moreover, the NGOs leveling these charges do not possess military expertise, detailed information on the dispersal of weapons by Hamas, and they are not privy to Israeli targeting decisions.  Such information is essential in order to make a credible evaluation of Israeli military responses to the thousands of rocket attacks by Hamas.

Claim:  Amnesty International accuses Israel of "unlawfully" killing "scores of unarmed civilians, as well as police personnel who were not directly participating in the hostilities". 

Analysis:  Amnesty has no basis relabelling Hamas operatives as "civilian" police officers and presents no evidence supporting its claim that these men were not "directly participating in the hostilities".  In fact, a Hamas-linked website claims that these men were members of Hamas' Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam brigade. 

Claim:  Israel is engaging in "collective punishment"

Analysis:  Restriction on the flow of goods in a war environment does not constitute "collective punishment" under international law and this charge is not only false legally, but factually as well.  "Collective punishment" refers to the imposition of criminal penalties and does not refer to the legal act of retorsion (e.g. sanctions, blockades).  In fact, pursuant to article 23[2]  of the Geneva Convention (which sets standards for the provision of limited humanitarian aid), Israel has no obligation to provide any goods, even minimal humanitarian supplies, if it is "satisfied" that such goods will be diverted or supply of such goods will aid Hamas in its war effort.  As numerous credible accounts have reported, Hamas has diverted supplies from Gaza's civilian population.  Although Israel is under no legal obligation and despite the diversion as well as attacks on the Israeli border crossings, including the April 9 attack on the Nahal Oz fuel depot and the May 22 truck bomb attack at the Erez crossing, Israel continues to provide thousands of tons of humanitarian supplies to Gaza.  This is above and beyond any obligation under international law, and the claim of "collective punishment" is entirely unjustified.

Claim:  NGOs ignore and even imply Israel should violate its international legal obligations to fight terrorism

Analysis:  Israel has numerous binding obligations to fight terrorism under international law.  These include Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001) made pursuant to Chapter VII of the UN Charter requiring Israel to:

• "prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist acts";
•  "criminalize the wilful provision or collection, by any means, directly or indirectly, of funds" used to carry out terror attacks
•   "refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts";
• "deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support, or commit terrorist acts, or provide safe havens";
• "prevent those who finance, plan, facilitate or commit terrorist acts from using their respective territories for those purposes against other States or their citizens";
•  "prevent the movement of terrorists or terrorist groups by effective border controls and controls on issuance of identity papers and travel documents."

The NGO statements on Gaza overwhelmingly ignore this obligation and seek to place "human rights" duties upon Israel that stand in direct conflict with Israel's legal obligations – in essence, demanding Israel violate international law. 

Claim:  Many NGOs have called for "war crimes investigations" and lawsuits against Israel for its operations in Gaza

Analysis:  These calls are part of the lawfare strategy, adopted at the 2001 Durban Conference, used to harass Israeli officials with civil lawsuits and criminal investigations for "war crimes" or "crimes against humanity" by exploiting universal jurisdiction statutes in Europe and North America.  These cases are a means for NGOs to punish Israel for its anti-terror methods; to prevent future operations; and to promote a negative media image of Israel.  They are also a means of interfering with Israel's diplomatic relations.  Leaders in this movement include the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Al Haq, the International Federation of Human Rights (France (FIDH)) and the Center for Constitutional Rights.  PCHR is already issuing calls to bring suit for the killing during Operation Cast Lead of Shiekh Nizar Rayan, one of the leading architects of Hamas atrocities, and who sent his son out on a suicide bombing mission in 2001.  To date, these cases have been dismissed at the preliminary stages.  See NGO Monitor's monograph, NGO "Lawfare":  Exploitation of Courts in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, for more information on this issue.

Conclusion:

The exploitation of international law by NGOs as seen in the Gaza conflict, according to Washington attorneys David Rivkin and Lee Casey, reflects an effort to "criminaliz[e] traditional warfare" rather than promote universal human rights.

Notes:

[1] This concept is analogous to the "felony murder" rule where the perpetrator of a crime will be held liable for murder if an innocent bystander is killed by a police officer or other law enforcement agent while attempting to apprehend the felon.

 

[2] Article 23 provides that  
Each High Contracting Party shall allow the free passage of all consignments of medical and hospital stores and objects necessary for religious worship intended only for civilians of another High Contracting Party, even if the latter is its adversary. It shall likewise permit the free passage of all consignments of essential foodstuffs, clothing and tonics intended for children under fifteen, expectant mothers and maternity cases.
The obligation of a High Contracting Party to allow the free passage of the consignments indicated in the preceding paragraph is subject to the condition that this Party is satisfied that there are no serious reasons for fearing:

(a) that the consignments may be diverted from their destination,

(b) that the control may not be effective, or

(c) that a definite advantage may accrue to the military efforts or economy of the enemy through the substitution of the above-mentioned consignments for goods which would otherwise be provided or produced by the enemy or through the release of such material, services or facilities as would otherwise be required for the production of such goods.

The Power which allows the passage of the consignments indicated in the first paragraph of this Article may ma permission conditional on the distribution to the persons benefited thereby being made under the local supervision of the Protecting Powers.
Such consignments shall be forwarded as rapidly as possible, and the Power which permits their free passage shall have the right to prescribe the technical arrangements under which such passage is allowed.

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IDF: About 1,300 died in Gaza, most Hamas

This is a retraction, more of less, of the previous report.

 

IDF denies report that no more than 600 people died in Gaza
Jan. 22, 2009

 

YAAKOV KATZ and JPost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

 

Despite a report by Lorenzo Cremonesi, a correspondent for Italy's Corriere della sera, that the number of Palestinians killed in Operation Cast Lead did not exceed five or six hundred, Israeli defense officials on Thursday said there were around 1,300 Palestinians killed during the fighting in Gaza and that a majority of them were Hamas operatives.

 

The IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration has already compiled a list with 900 names of Palestinians killed during the operation, out of which 750 are believed to be Hamas operatives.

 

The IDF estimated that two-thirds of those killed were gunmen affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian terror factions. At least 500 are believed to have been members of Hamas's military wing.

 

Hamas, defense officials said, purposely covered up the number of dead and on Sunday claimed that only 48 members of its military wing had been killed. Many bodies belonging to Hamas operatives were being stored - officials said - in the morgue in Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

 

The vast majority of the Hamas operatives killed were not wearing uniforms to disguise their affiliation, another reason for the exaggerated estimate of civilian casualties by the United Nations.

 

The IDF's Military Intelligence has set up a team to come up with a comprehensive list including the names and affiliation of all of the Palestinians killed during Operation Cast Lead. The list, officials said, would be completed in the coming two weeks....

 

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Report - Gaza casualty figures greatly exaggerated

Was there another "Jenin Massacre" in Gaza - a false inflation of death figures?

'Maximum 600 Palestinians died in Gaza'

Jan. 22, 2009
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

The number of Palestinians killed in Operation Cast Lead did not exceed five or six hundred, Lorenzo Cremonesi, a correspondent for Italy's Corriere della sera reported on Thursday.

Cremonesi based his report on tours of hospitals in the Gaza Strip and on interviews with families of casualties. He also assessed the number of wounded to be far lower than 5,000, the number quoted by Hamas and repeated by the UN and the Red Cross in Gaza.

"It is sufficient to visit several hospitals [in the Gaza Strip] to understand that the numbers don't add up," he wrote.

In the European hospital in Rafah, one of the facilities which would presumably be filled with wounded from the "war of the tunnels," many beds were empty, according to Cremonesi. A similar situation was noted in the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, and in the privately-run Amal Hospital Cremonesi reported that only five out 150 beds were occupied.

Cremonesi interviewed Gazans who echoed Israel's insistence of how Hamas gunmen used civilians as human shields. One Gazan recalled civilians in Gaza shouting at Hamas and Islamic Jihad men, "Go away, go away from here! Do you want the Israelis to kill us all? Do you want our children to die under their bombs? Take your guns and missiles with you."

"Traitors, collaborators with Israel, spies of Fatah, cowards! The soldiers of the holy war will punish you. And in any case you will all die, like us. Fighting the Zionist Jews we are all destined for paradise. Do you not wish to die with us?" the religious fanatics of Hamas reportedly responded.

Other Palestinians told Cremonesi of Hamas operatives donning paramedic uniforms and commandeering ambulances. A woman identified as Um Abdullah, 48, spoke of Hamas using UN buildings as launch pads for rockets.

Cremonesi reported that he had difficultly gathering evidence as the local population was terrified of Hamas.

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Hamas arresting Fatah

 Hamas reasserts control in Gaza, rounds up 'collaborators' 

 By Reuters 

 

The Islamist Palestinian group Hamas said on Wednesday it had begun reasserting control in the Gaza Strip and rounding up suspected collaborators with Israel, drawing accusations from the rival Fatah group that its members were being targeted.

 

"The internal security service was instructed to track collaborators and hit them hard," said Ehab al-Ghsain, spokesman of the Hamas Interior Ministry, without singling out Fatah members by name.

 

"They arrested dozens of collaborators who attempted to strike the resistance by giving information to the occupation about the fighters," he said, using a Hamas term for Israel, whose 22-day offensive devastated the Gaza Strip.

 

Earlier this month, Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass first reported the secret executions of dozens of Gazans consider by Hamas to be "collaborators" with the enemy.

 

Hamas and Fatah supporters have traded accusations in Arab media that Fatah collaborated with Israel in the hope it could return to power in the Gaza Strip and that Hamas provoked the Israeli invasion by firing rockets into southern Israel.

 

Hamas, an Islamist group that won the 2006 Palestinian election, violently seized the coastal enclave from Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in 2007.

 

A statement issued by Fatah in Gaza said that since fighting between Israel and Gaza militants ended - Hamas and Israel put separate ceasefires into effect on Sunday - Hamas militias had carried out a number of attacks against Fatah members.

 

These attacks, according to the statement, included "shooting at the feet of Fatah members, brutal crimes of execution and throwing the bodies in the rubble of destruction." Fatah appealed to Abbas' Palestinian Authority to intervene.

 

Ghsain denied the allegations but said authorities had begun tracking down suspected "collaborators" with Israel.

 

"These are familiar lies and false allegations from Fatah and the forces of sedition," he said.

 

"It is also an attempt to steal the light of victory and cover up how they bet on the enemy and their disappointment that the enemy could do nothing to return them [to power]."

 

Residents said several suspected collaborators were killed by unknown assailants during the Gaza war. No Hamas-related groups have claimed responsibility and relatives of militants killed by Israel are thought to be behind some of the attacks.

 

Some prisoners escaped from the Israeli-bombed security complex housing Gaza's main prison early in the conflict. At least two were subsequently shot in a settling of scores with people suspected of collaboration with Israel.

 

The offensive Israel launched on Dec. 27 with the declared aim of ending rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip killed nearly 1,300 Palestinians and made thousands homeless. Gaza medical officials said the Palestinian dead included at least 700 civilians.

 

Israel, which put its own losses at 10 soldiers and three civilians, says hundreds of militants died. It completed a Gaza troop pullout on Wednesday.

 

The Hamas government said many employees were back at work on Wednesday in buildings such as the Ministry of Education that survived the Israeli attack intact. Employees of destroyed ministries would be relocated to other buildings.

 

Armed police in official uniforms were on the streets, organizing traffic and guarding government buildings. Hamas says 230 policemen were killed during the fighting. An Israeli attack also killed Hamas' security chief, Said Sayyam.

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From UAE with Love: Hopeless in Gaza: it didn’t have to be this way

Salute to Sultan Alqassemi! This is the Arab truth, not "Zionist propaganda." Even the biggest enemies of Israel must see the logic of this, unless they are enemies of the Palestinian Arabs as well. 

 
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Hopeless in Gaza: it didn't have to be this way

I recall as a child being told the old saying: "There's no use crying over spilt milk." On Thursday evening, as I made my modest contribution to the Dubai Cares Gaza campaign by carrying boxes filled with school bags, I suddenly felt my eyes watering up. For I thought to myself that each bag I filled with school equipment and piled on top of the others to be shipped to the helpless children of Gaza represented a child, probably one who had lost his mother, or father or entire family.

For each bag that we filled there was another that we didn't, simply because the child is no longer there. I looked away so as not to embarrass myself in front of the other volunteers. I breathed deeply and continued working. Bag after bag we filled with school materials.

There's this one girl I saw on TV, she lost a limb in the attacks. Precision bombing, Israel calls it. I packed a small eraser for her small hands but these won't erase the terror she endured. "Don't forget the colouring pens," I yelled. Certainly, there are more injured children. "Shall we put bandages in the same bag?" I asked an organiser. Apparently not: there are other bags reserved specifically for medical equipment. Silly me.

In 1994, Yasser Arafat, the PLO leader, arrived in the Palestinian Territories for the first time in decades and declared that he would turn Gaza into the Singapore of the Middle East. Fifteen years later it couldn't be more different. Arafat's prediction of Gaza being used as an example will certainly come true, but not in the way he envisioned. Today, Gaza is more like Somalia than a Mediterranean port. In fact, one day soon people will be using Gaza as the example of a failed state as Somalia continues to fade into distant memory. Thus Afghanistan will be called the Gaza of Central Asia, and Zimbabwe will be the Gaza of Africa.

But it didn't have to be that way, if it wasn't for the fear of certain countries in the region that they would lose the Palestinian cause as a bargaining tool if the Palestinians made their peace with the devil. What would they be left with as negotiating leverage? The idea of using Palestinian youth as an outsourced army to fight the Israelis was too appealing to lose. Setting them up with firepower and turning their dials – fire at will. But it was less their will than that of certain characters who have come and gone in the Middle East. Endless blood and destruction. The Holy Land, indeed: unholy is more like it.

No, it didn't have to be that way at all. It's February 2005. The Israelis announce their withdrawal from Gaza. The occupiers are leaving. Good riddance. Let's build something now, shall we? In walks none other than a Dubai tycoon, the man responsible at one time or another for the most valuable property company in the world, operating in 17 countries with a global portfolio worth more than $100 billion that includes the tallest building on Earth and the biggest mall on the planet, and above all one of the right-hand men of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai. Enter Mohammed al Abbar, chairman of Emaar with all its pomp and glory, to start building. His offer was to pay $56m for the 21 settlements that the Israelis were to evacuate. Finally, we can get started with turning this port city into Singapore, as Arafat wanted.

But wait. How can the sensationalist Arabic press let go of this golden opportunity? Rather than headlines reading "Dubai to spearhead Gaza development", there were headlines that accused the UAE of normalisation with Israel. "Rewarding aggression in Palestine", read one editorial. The horror! Public outcry ensued. Mohammed Al Abbar was forced to appear on Dubai TV and defend his position. "These journalists," he said, "they've so much spare time. They should use it better. Go visit Gaza and see how they live there."

Suddenly the initiative to create Emaar Palestine was no longer there. The result was that the Gazans were left with scant employment opportunities. "The crossings are still controlled by the enemy," was the broken record that Arab patriots played. I say, why not make the best of a bad situation instead of making the worst of it? A few more years of such mentality guaranteed further radicalisation. Good evening, Hamas. Hello, hopelessness. Enter Israeli terror.

Back in the Dubai Cares tent among the 700 volunteers, as we packed 50,000 bags to send to Palestinian schoolchildren, I couldn't help but wonder: what if Mohammed al Abbar had bought these plots of land and developed them? Building houses. Building homes. Creating jobs. Creating hope. Would we be packing these bags at all?

Indeed, I recall that there's no use crying over spilt milk. Nevertheless, I couldn't stop shedding a tear over that little girl's spilt blood.

This article first appeared in The National newspaper on Sunday January 18th 2009

Sultan Al Qassemi is a Sharjah-based businessman and graduate of the American University of Paris. He is the founder of Barjeel Securities in Dubai.

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Palestinian President Abbas gets first Obama call to foreign leader -- promise to work for peace

Obama vows to seek 'durable' Mideast peace in Abbas call

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – US President Barack Obama promised to work towards a "durable peace" in the Middle East during a phone call to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said.

 

Obama called the Palestinian leader a day after taking the oath of office and assured him that he intended "to work with him as partners to establish a durable peace in the region," Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.

 

Obama told Abbas that the president was the first foreign leader he called since taking office, Rudeina said.

 

"This is my first phone call to a foreign leader and I'm making it only hours after I took office," Rudeina quoted Obama as telling Abbas.

 

Obama and his secretary of state-designate Hillary Clinton vowed to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict immediately after taking office.

 

During his inauguration speech on Tuesday, Obama pledged a new approach to the Muslim world.

 

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

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Israel: View from the target Zone

Gaza/Israel: View from the Target Zone

 

Haim Harari

 

January 2009

These words are written a short distance away from the most northern hit, so far, of the Hamas missiles, which are methodically aimed only at civilian population in Israel. You may refer to this message as "A View from the Target Zone".

 

For eight years, approximately 5000 rockets have been sent deliberately into Israeli population centers, by the Hamas terrorists. The rockets are extremely inaccurate. The good news is that they often hit an empty field. The bad news is that, when they do hit buildings and people, they kill, maim and destroy. It is a very ugly game of Iranian Roulette.

 

But the most significant fact is that the undisputed purpose of the rockets is to kill civilians in a random manner. Since they miss entire towns, they could not possibly be aimed at military or strategic targets. No claim is made by the Hamas of anything other than a deliberate attempt to kill civilians within Israel. The world knows about the rockets but rarely mentions that they are aimed only at the civilian population and at nothing else.

 

The Hamas consistently refers to Israel itself as "the occupied territory". It refers to any town in Israel as an "illegal settlement". Its declared aim is to destroy Israel. It has proudly endorsed, initiated and sent numerous suicide murderers into Israeli buses, supermarkets, shopping malls, weddings and other crowded places. It explicitly states that it will continue to do so. Since Israel succeeded in preventing the suicide murders by a combination of the protective wall, other defensive measures and good intelligence penetration, the missiles became the preferred way of killing Israeli civilians.

 

Hamas is declared to be a terrorist organization, not only by Israel, not only by the US, but also by the European Union, who is not suspected of being pro-Israeli. This is the same European Union that refuses to label the Hizbullah as a terror organization, but repeatedly and officially declares the Hamas as such. Hamas is fully funded and largely controlled by Iran, a country openly and totally committed to the destruction of Israel, while continuing to enjoy trade with much of the western world.

 

The Hamas media, and especially its independent TV station, carry daily children programs (including programs for kindergarten age) depicting the Jews (and not only the Israelis) as pigs, dogs, scum of the earth and creatures that must be killed. One of these program features a rabbit which eats Jews. There is plenty of documentation of these programs, including animations and programs with child presenters. Major western news media never report on this phenomenon, while some of them publish op-ed pieces by declared Hamas leaders.

 

The favorite hour of launching the daily Hamas rockets during the last eight years was 7:45 in the morning, but only on weekdays. Why? Because this is the time in which the streets are full of Israeli children, on their way to school. No one wants to waste rockets when no children are in the streets, during the weekend.

 

Eight year old children in the Israeli town of Sderot, a few miles from the Gaza border, live, since they were born, with these rockets. They know no other life. When the alarm sounds, they have exactly 15 seconds to reach an improvised cover. Eighth grade children, age 13, have never gone to school, since kindergarten, without the real threat of having a rocket hit them on the way. Their parents have never felt safe about sending their child to school. It is very difficult for anyone living in a normal safe place, to imagine what it means to send your child to school, every single day, for eight years, with the fear that he or she may never reach school because of a missile attack, aimed at killing the children. The world seems to accept this.

 

Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip in 2005. Not one Israeli soldier or civilian remained there. Everything was ready for the people of Gaza to start a new life and economic development. There was no blockade, border crossings were open. Instead came increased shooting of rockets into Israel, a Hamas coup, throwing Fatah Palestinians from roofs of buildings to their death and torturing their own people in their prisons. It is regrettable that Israel did not react with full force to the very first rockets after its withdrawal from Gaza, but there was always the naïve illusion that perhaps talks, discussions, verbal threats and temporary closings of the border crossings, might do the job. What Israel did not take into account was that Iran, directly or through Hizbullah, was paying the Hamas operatives, per rocket launch.

 

Through the elaborate system of tunnels dug by the Hamas under the Gaza-Egypt border, thousands of tons of explosives and larger and better Iranian missiles have been continuously smuggled into Gaza. The Israeli Government stupidly agreed in mid 2008, to a six-month cease fire. During the "mock cease fire", many rockets were launched into Israel by a variety of real and fictitious Palestinian organizations, with a clear Hamas sub-license, pretending that the Hamas itself is observing the cease fire.

 

In the meantime, the Hamas could successfully prepare for the next round. It acquired Iranian rockets that were equally inaccurate, but carried larger warheads, had a longer range and contained numerous tiny still balls, in order to increase the civilian casualties over a larger radius. Again, the inaccuracy of the rockets guaranteed that they could only be sent into random civilian targets. But now the rocket range covered a population of close to one million Israelis and the damage is much more significant.

 

Larger and better rockets were now stored in mosques, schools, hospitals and normal apartment buildings. Mortars were added to the menu of shooting at Israeli civilians. Schools financed by the UN were used in order to launch mortar shells and missiles. The greenhouses left intact by the withdrawing Israelis were destroyed, their metal parts were converted to primitive rockets and their locations became favorite launching areas. Launching rockets at the Israeli population brings a much better income than growing strawberries and flowers in greenhouses.

 

Whenever Israel opened the border crossings to supply Gaza with basic food and fuel, the Hamas was attempting to blow up the crossing points. Providing too much food and fuel would disturb the flourishing black market totally controlled by the Hamas chiefs and their allies. It would also spoil their propaganda machine. Most supplies were transported through the tunnels from Egypt, under Hamas auspices, creating a lucrative business for the Hamas "families".

 

The absurd notion that Israel must supply fuel, electricity, food and medication to an outlaw region controlled by a terror organization, became a permanent mantra in the western media. Israel was supposed to provide the Hamas with raw materials for the rockets launched at its citizens, with electricity for the machinery used to produce these rockets, with food for its designers and manufacturers, and with building materials in order to construct safe bunkers for the Hamas leadership under schools and hospitals. On one hand the Hamas was claimed to have been the legitimate democratically elected government of the majority of the population and on the other hand the population, that allegedly elected these thugs, was declared innocent and suffering. The inconsistency was never pointed out.

 

Once the border crossing was closed, as a result of the repeated Hamas attacks, the international game of a "humanitarian crisis" was successfully played, with full cooperation of the western media. Famous incidents included photographs of poor Gaza residents with candles and (allegedly) no electricity, staged behind black curtains in full outside daylight (visible through cracks between the curtains). Most western media happily used these fake pictures and, when the lie was exposed, never mentioned it. Hamas leaders were never lacking food, fuel, electricity, luxurious private vehicles and all amenities of well to do black market profiteers.

 

Very few western journalists remained in Gaza, after several were kidnapped by the Hamas. Almost all reports to western media come from Palestinians, who are either sympathetic to Hamas, or afraid of it, or openly active in its ranks, or all of the above. The reader of the New York Times, or the viewer of a European TV network, never notices who provides him or her with the news. All photographs, both stills and videos, are provided by Palestinian operatives, who would stop at nothing in order to support the propaganda machine. On western TV, Hamas rockets are launched only from empty fields, never from a school or a crowded neighborhood, as it is in real life.

 

United Nation sources in Gaza are often quoted, condemning Israel for the "Humanitarian Crisis". But these sources are normally employees of UNRWA, the UN agency that, since 1948, makes every effort to perpetuate the "refugee" status of the great-grandchildren of the 1948 refugees. The grandparents of these "refugees" were displaced 60 years ago by a distance of a 20 minute drive and were never resettled because they were receiving free food from the UN. The UN objected vehemently to any attempt at settling the refugees, their children and grandchildren. The few real refugees, who remain alive today, and are 80 year old, were 18 year old when they were displaced. All the terrorists are third or fourth generation "refugees" held as such, courtesy of UNRWA.

 

These UN organizations employ, by their own admission, numerous active Hamas members. When the latter make statements on behalf of "UN sources in Gaza", the Palestinian journalists never mention to us who these "UN sources" are. The public gets the impression that these are truthful objective sources, while being fed with standard Hamas lies. Western media never disclose to us that the jobs of these people depend on perpetuating the misery of the so-called "refugees".

 

A Headmaster and science teacher of one of the UNRWA schools in Gaza was a leader in the rocket industry of the Islamic Jihad, a satellite terror organization in Gaza, collaborating with Hamas. The UN strongly denied the Israeli accusations that they are employing such a person, until the man was killed by Israel and was eulogized by his friends as a leader of the Islamic Jihad and a designer of rockets.

 

When Israeli truck drivers were bringing the humanitarian supplies to Gaza, during the period of Hamas rocket fire, they were frequently attacked by Hamas. At least one Israeli truck driver, supplying the Palestinians, was deliberately murdered. No protest was launched by the UN. But, when during the current fighting, an Arab truck driver, employed by the UN, was accidentally killed, the UN became indignant and stopped all its "humanitarian" activity in protest, to the tune of loud denunciations from all "UN sources".

 

The Israeli defense forces monitor every detail of this fantasyland by using airborne drones and by a very successful intelligence penetration of the Hamas ranks. They know which apartment building serves as a missile storage place, the addresses and phone numbers of Hamas leaders, which school serves as an ammunition depot, etc.

 

When the six-month "ceasefire" ended, in mid December, Hamas refused to continue it, launching 90 rockets into Israeli towns and villages in one day. In retrospect, this has prevented a much more dangerous future situation. Had there been an additional "ceasefire", Hamas would have acquired rockets covering all of Israel and possibly much more accurate Iranian missiles. The Iranian supply line of explosives and weapons, together with the flourishing business of smuggled goods, went through the tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border with efficiency and regularity. Had such efficiency been attempted in improving the lives of the Palestinians in Gaza, the entire Middle East would have been an entirely different place. But, coupled with the weapon smuggling, it was essential to create the charade of the "Humanitarian Crisis".

 

During the current operation, when the Israeli Air Force wants to blow up a house which serves as a missile storage, Israel phones every family in the house and gives them 15 minutes to evacuate. The Hamas is then sending the women and children to the roof of the building in order to prevent the Israeli aircraft from making the kill. Israel has now developed a tiny arrow-like missile which can be sent to the corner of the roof, making a loud noise and harming no one, in order to scare away the women and children on the roof, before the real bomb destroys the missile collection or the explosive storage place. Often, the women and children used by the Hamas as a human shield, escape and the house is then blown up, with a spectacular secondary explosion of the stored missiles or other war materials. On other occasions, a Hamas person gets to the roof and prevents the women and children from leaving. In those cases, the operation is not completed by the Israeli Air Force, in order to spare civilian lives, at the risk of having the rockets launched into Israel on the following day.

 

Never in history, has any country made such an enormous effort to avoid civilian casualties, in fighting against murderers who target only civilians and never anything else. No one in Kosovo, Serbia, Georgia or Iraq, was offered such a courtesy by the bombing and attacking powers. This fact is never mentioned by the western media.

 

Many of the heroic commanders of the Hamas are hiding in the central hospital of Gaza, in an elaborate network of bunkers, trusting that Israel will not attack the hospital. Hamas spokesmen issue proclamations from the maternity ward of the same hospital, knowing that Israel will not hit them there. Ironically, of all non-Israelis, the Hamas leaders are the only ones who know for sure that Israel never deliberately hurts civilians. They exploit this fact. The rest of the world buys the Hamas lies and blames Israel for hurting civilians.

 

Repeated claims of "humanitarian crisis" are made from the same hospital. The doctors in charge never tell us that the hiding leaders of the Hamas are using them and the patients as human shields. Whether the doctors are only scared or are deliberate accomplices, we do not know. Probably some are active Hamas members and others are justifiably scared to speak up. We never hear a word from the International Red Cross regarding the use of the hospitals as the headquarters of terror leaders.

 

One of the most horrible "impartial" testimonies on the humanitarian situation, in the hospital, is delivered repeatedly to the western media by a "Norwegian Doctor" serving there. The man is well known from his 2001 interviews with Norwegian TV, in which he explicitly supported and justified the 9/11 attacks. Needless to say, none of the networks who bring us the righteous doctor, mention this. He is just "A Norwegian Doctor" attending to the wounded.

 

Palestinian ambulances are routinely used to move terrorists around. This has also been the Palestinian practice in the West Bank during the terror wave in 2001-2002. An ambulance is an ideal method of transporting a suicide murderer across check points. In the unlucky case that the criminal is caught, there is at least a good press photograph of the ugly Israelis attacking or stopping an ambulance. It is a win-win situation. If an ambulance full of healthy Hamas terrorists and explosives is hit from the air, the pictures are even better for the western media and for Al Jazeera.

 

Several Hamas leaders are moving around Gaza surrounded by children, and often holding a child on their arms. There are well documented cases in which Hamas terrorists were pulling reluctant children by their ears to accompany them when they move from one building to another. None of this is mentioned by the western media.

 

Several Mosques, which were used as ammunition dumps, were destroyed by Israel. In every one of these cases, the air photographs showed a primary explosion, from the air missile or bomb, and a much bigger secondary explosion, from the stored missiles or other explosives in the mosque. The secondary explosion is an absolute clear proof of what was hidden at the mosque. The normal beautiful carpets in a mosque would not create a secondary explosion. Western media have these videos, but rarely show them or mention their existence.

 

But the same western media repeatedly show the pictures of injured or dead children, some of whom were indeed accidentally injured or killed by the Israeli attacks on military and terror targets, and some are obviously fake pictures with red paint smeared on children faces. At least in one case, the same child, obviously painted and not injured, has been paraded in front of various TV cameras by several different men, each declared to be his father by a different network.

 

Children and innocent civilians are, indeed, killed and injured, in spite of all the enormous precautions and efforts of the Israeli forces. This is truly tragic. But the only alternative for Israel is to sit still, absorb the thousands of missiles on its civilian population and wait for bigger, deadlier and longer range missiles to start destroying everything in Israel. Israel is offered a choice between a complete national suicide, on one hand, and an attack on the terrorists, with extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties, but with the knowledge that such casualties must occur when the other side is using children as human shields, storing explosives in mosques, shooting mortars from schools and hiding the perpetrators in hospitals.

 

Most Hamas terrorists hide in safe bunkers, leaving their families in the war zone. They are happy to fight to the last Palestinian civilian, not to the last Hamas terrorist. Women and children are moving within the battlegrounds, with Hamas snipers shooting, using them as cover. The women and children are not allowed into the limited space of the Hamas bunkers. More than once, a woman is observed carrying a suicide belt. Israeli soldiers, who are trying to help these women to move safely away from the fighting area, are at a very serious risk of a suicide murder.

 

When the Hamas terrorists are killed, they are counted by the "UN Sources" as civilians. That is how the "UN sources" reach the huge numbers of dead civilians they are reporting. Interestingly, Al Jazeera almost never shows dead bodies of young males, and the western media, being fed by Palestinian stringers, follow suit.

 

The Hamas TV ("Al Aksa TV") and Al Jazeera show, 24 hours a day, repeated video clips with loud music, showing injured bloody children, including some body parts. Some injuries are real, some are not, but the videos are shown nonstop between every two news items. The news items themselves are often lies, but that really does not matter. What do matter are the video clips, edited like commercials, brainwashing a worldwide audience and a new generation of future terror sympathizers.

 

A video taken several years ago in Gaza, surfaced. The video documents an accidental explosion of a Hamas truck, carrying a large number of missiles, among celebrating Palestinians somewhere in Gaza. Many were killed and injured in this accident, and the pictures were devastating. There is no Israeli involvement whatsoever, and the event happened a few years ago. European networks, including France 2, are showing it now as evidence for the current "criminal" behavior of Israel. The French channel apologized later, but the number of people who heard the apology is significantly fewer than those who saw the horrible pictures and believed the lies. In this case, at least, the hoax was delivered by the Hamas and France 2 was apparently the victim, not the perpetrator, as it definitely was in well known previous cases.

 

Israel opens the border crossings daily, during the fighting, in order to provide basic food ingredients and medication to the civilian population. No one can remember such a gesture in any other war in history, certainly not toward the side that attacks only civilians and repeatedly announces that its only aim is to totally annihilate its opponent. Most of the supplies are captured by the Hamas terrorists and used for their own troops and their flourishing black market, never providing them in an organized way to the population. "UN sources" claim that not enough food is transmitted.

 

That the Hamas murderers use these tactics, lies and methods, is not at all surprising. That the international community, with all its investigative reporters, swallows these lies so eagerly, without exposing them, is something which demands an explanation.

 

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

Meshal surprised by IDF response

"Well gee, I thought they would hand out candy."

 

Last update - 14:09 20/01/2009       
Report: Hamas leader says he never expected scale of IDF op in Gaza
By Haaretz Service

 

The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram quoted Hamas' political leader Khaled Meshal on Tuesday as saying his Islamist group was surprised by the force Israel recently used against it in the Gaza Strip.

 

Meshal, who was speaking at an Arab conference on Gaza in the Qatari capital Doha, reportedly told a closed forum that Hamas had believed that Israel's 22-day campaign against it would last no longer than three days. The offensive ended Sunday, after Israel and Hamas separately declared a cease-fire.

 

"We didn't expect the crimes that were committed against our citizens, the residents of Gaza," Al-Ahram quoted the Damascus-based Meshal as saying.
 
Approximately 500 Hamas militants were killed in the operation, Israeli estimates state, and hundreds more were wounded.

 

The IDF also killed hundreds of militants belonging to various armed factions and militias. More than 1,250 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the offensive. Hamas says just 48 of its fighters died in the fighting.

 

According to Al-Ahram, Meshal said there were meant to be massive protests in front of Egyptian embassies across the Arab world, to pressure Cairo into opening its border crossing with Gaza at Rafah.

 

"We had relied on the Arab street," Meshal is quoted as saying. These protests never took place, although there were major demonstrations around the world against Israel for its actions in Gaza.

 

Egypt boycotted the Doha summit, suspecting that Hamas and its sponsors, Syria and Iran, would use it as a platform for a hard-line position and hurt Egypt's efforts to mediate a Gaza truce.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Is the defensive wall cracking?

Last update - 20:09 20/01/2009       
France may talk to Hamas even if group doesn't recognize Israel
By Assaf Uni, Haaretz Correspondent

France signalled on Tuesday that it might be prepared to hold talks with Hamas even if the Palestinian Islamist group does not recognize Israel as Paris and other Western powers have demanded for years.

 

The "Quartet" of Middle East mediators - the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia - has said there can be no dealings with Hamas until it recognises Israel, renounces violence and accepts existing interim peace deals.

 

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier, however, said that renouncing violence was the most important of those three conditions, an apparent shift in France's position.

 

"We repeat that the elements of the Quartet have been defined. There is obviously an absolutely major element, which is renouncing violence," Chevallier told a news conference.

 

When asked if France was scrapping the recognition of Israel as a precondition, he said: "I did not say that it was not a precondition" but repeated his phrase suggesting that renouncing violence was more important than the other conditions.

 

Hamas seized control of Gaza from the Fatah forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007 after winning an election the year before.

 

Israel and the West boycotted governments led by Hamas because the group rejects Israel's right to exist.

 

Abbas, whose Fatah faction controls the West Bank, has called for a Palestinian national unity government to pave the way for elections after Israel's 22-day military offensive in Gaza, which killed more than 1,300 people.

 

Chevallier said France was prepared to work with a Palestinian national unity government.

 

"We are ready to work with a national unity government that will respect the principles of the peace process and commit itself to negotiations with Israel to obtain the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security," Chevallier said.

 

His comments followed remarks by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in which Ban said the United Nations could work with any united Palestinian government to rebuild the Gaza Strip.

 

Sarkozy to host global summit on Mideast peace

 

French President Nicholas Sarkozy plans to host in the coming months an international conference in Paris to advance stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the French daily Le Figaro reported Tuesday.

 

Sarkozy seeks to capitalize on the momentum created by the participation of European leaders at a summit Sunday in Sharm al-Sheikh summit on the recent hostilities in Gaza, according to Le Figaro.

 

The paper also states that Sarkozy convinced German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who had feared the cease-fire would not be kept, to attend the summit in Egypt.

 

The goal of the conference, the paper reported, is to reach a peace accord within a year, and it will be held a few weeks after a meeting of European foreign ministers in Egypt due to take place in February.

 

The form of the summit will reportedly be similar to that of the one the United States hosted in Annapolis in late 2007.

 

About 40 countries participated in the U.S. conference, including Saudi Arabia, Syria and Indonesia.

Continued (Permanent Link)

IAF bombs Gaza target after 8 mortar shells fired at Israel

Last update - 23:25 20/01/2009       
IAF bombs Gaza target after 8 mortar shells fired at Israel
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

The Israel Air Force on Tuesday evening bombed a target in the Gaza Strip used earlier in the day Palestinian militants to fire eight mortar shells at Israel.

 

Militants on Tuesday also opened fire at Israel Defense Forces soldiers in Gaza in two separate incidents, in the first violation of a shaky cease-fire in the coastal strip that ended Israel's 3-week offensive against Hamas.

 

No IDF soldiers were wounded in the incidents, one of which took place near the Kissufim border crossing, and the other in the center of the Strip. In one of the incidents the troops returned fire.

 

Also Tuesday, Gaza militants in the Gaza Strip fired a mortar shell toward Israel, the IDF said. But police reported that it looked like the projectile never reached Israel.

 

Earlier in the day, Israeli security forces backtracked on an earlier report of a firing. The military said a warning siren that went off was a false alarm.

 

On Monday, IDF officers supervising the pullout of troops from Gaza were working to have the last soldier leave Gaza on Tuesday before the inauguration of United States President Barack Obama at around 6 P.M. Israel time.

 

The IDF was expected Tuesday to begin discharging many of the reservists drafted two weeks ago under emergency call-up orders.

 

Troops began significantly reducing their presence in the Gaza Strip as early as Saturday night, immediately after Israel declared the unilateral cease-fire which put an end to Operation Cast Lead. The troops took key positions around the Strip, poised to reenter if and when ordered.

 

IDF sources said that the peace was maintained despite alleged orders by Hamas leadership in Damascus for their operatives in Gaza to carry out attacks against IDF forces. Israeli officers said that the militants had chosen to ignore the order.

 

Hamas militants on Monday took steps to avoid violating the cease-fire, not firing any rockets into Israel and not attacking the IDF troops still stationed in the Strip.

Continued (Permanent Link)

[info] In USA we are winning the Hasbara battle

Interview dates: January 6 - 12, 2009
Interviews: 1054 adults
Margin of error: ±3.02 for all adults
Ipsos/McClatchy Poll
PROJECT #81-4621-23
NOTE: all results shown are percentages unless otherwise labeled.
www.ipsos-na.com/news/client/act_dsp_pdf.cfm?name=mr090114-2a.pdf&id=4236

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted January 6 - 12.
For the survey, a nationally representative,
randomly selected sample of exactly 1,054 adults aged 18 and older across
the United States was interviewed
by Ipsos. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate
within +/-3.02 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of
what they would have been had the entire adult population in the U.S. been
polled. All sample surveys and polls may be
subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage
error, and measurement error. These data were
weighted to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the actual
U.S. population according to U.S. Census figures.

Respondents had the option to be interviewed in English or Spanish.

MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT STUDY

1. As you may know, violence has recently erupted in the Middle East in the
Gaza Strip and Israel. Based on what you
have seen, read or heard, do you think that the use of force by [RANDOMIZE:
Israel/Hamas] has been excessive or is
appropriate given the circumstances?
Hamas Excessive 57 Appropriate 18 (DK/NS) 25
 Israel Excessive 36 Appropriate  44 (DK/NS)  20

2. Do you personally make a distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian
people, or not?
Make a distinction 37 Do not make a distinction 53 (DK/NS) 10

3. And regardless of your personal feelings, who do you believe is more to
blame for the current conflict? (READ LIST.)
Hamas 44 Israel 14
(Do not read) Both 9 (Do not read) Neither 4 (DK/NS) 29

4. Now, do you think the United States should or should not favor creating a
Palestinian state?
Should favor 31 Should not favor 45 (DK/NS) 24

5. How confident are you that the incoming Obama administration can resolve
the conflict between Israel and the
Palestinians? Are you . (READ LIST.)
Very confident 10 Somewhat confident 32
Not too confident 22 Not at all confident 29
(DK/NS) 7

Continued (Permanent Link)

Kaufman: Israeli "Nazis"

Isn't anyone tired of the Nazi-Schmatzi stuff? More people were killed in a day in Auschwitz than all the Arab Palestinians killed in the entire history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Kaufman's grannie obviously died so he could badmouth Israel.

 

 Kaufman: Israeli "Nazis"

 

Jon Craig January 15, 2009 9:29 PM

 

Labour veteran Sir Gerald Kaufman is an often-lampooned figure in the House of Commons, affectionately known by some colleagues as "Dame Gerald".

 

In partisan exchanges between Labour and the Conservatives, he can be a dreadful old ham actor. And when he chaired the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, he often shamelessly upstaged witnesses.

 

But his chilling and devastating speech during the Commons debate on Gaza - in which he compared Israeli "murderers" to Nazis - was breathtaking box office and showed that at 78 Sir Gerald remains one of Parliament's star performers.

 

In an emotional speech in a hushed Commons chamber, Sir Gerald told MPs how he was brought up as an orthodox Jew and Zionist after his parents came to Britain as refugees from Poland.

 

"My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town," he said. "A German soldier shot her dead in her bed.

 

"My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.

 

"The current Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt among gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians.

 

"On Sky News a few days ago, the spokeswoman for the Israeli army, Major Leibovich, was asked about the Israeli killing of, at that time, 800 Palestinians. The total is now 1,000.

 

"She replied instantly that '500 of them were militants'. That was the reply of a Nazi. I suppose the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as militants."

 

Powerful stuff. A memorable speech.

 

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

ICRC: Israel did not use white phosphorus illegally

ICRC: Israel's use of white phosphorus not illegal

GENEVA – The international Red Cross said Tuesday that Israel has fired white phosphorus shells in its offensive in the Gaza Strip, but has no evidence to suggest the incendiary agent is being used improperly or illegally.

 

The comments came after a human rights organization accused the Jewish state of using white phosphorus, hich ignites when it strikes the skin and burns straight through or until it is cut off from oxygen. It can cause horrific injuries.

 

The International Committee of the Red Cross urged Israel to exercise "extreme caution" in using the incendiary agent, which is used to illuminate targets at night or create a smoke screen for day attacks, said Peter Herby, the head of the organization's mines-arms unit.

 

"In some of the strikes in Gaza it's pretty clear that phosphorus was used," Herby told The Associated Press. "But it's not very unusual to use phosphorus to create smoke or illuminate a target. We have no evidence to suggest it's being used in any other way."

 

In response, the Israeli military said Tuesday that it "wishes to reiterate that it uses weapons in compliance with international law, while strictly observing that they be used in accordance with the type of combat and its characteristics."

 

Herby said that using phosphorus to illuminate a target or create smoke is legitimate under international law, and that there was no evidence the Jewish state was intentionally using phosphorus in a questionable way, such as burning down buildings or consciously putting civilians at risk

 

However, Herby said evidence is still limited because of the difficulties of gaining access to Gaza, where Palestinian health officials say more than 900 people have been killed and 4,250 wounded since Israel launched its offensive late last month. Israel says the operation aims to halt years of Palestinian rocket attacks over the border.

 

Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of firing phosphorous shells and warned of the possibilities of extreme fire and civilian injuries. The chemical is suspected in the cases of 10 burn victims who had skin peeling off their faces and bodies.

 

White phosphorus is not considered a chemical weapon.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Huge gas reserves discovered off Haifa

Huge gas reserves discovered off Haifa

 

Jan. 18, 2009
Sharon Wrobel , THE JERUSALEM POST
A historic natural gas reservoir found offshore from Haifa is poised to meet Israel's natural gas demand for about 15 years and reduce the country's dependence on gas imports from Egypt and offshore from Gaza.

 

The discovery of the natural gas field 90 km. offshore from Haifa, known as Tamar, was made by a US-Israel consortium including the Delek Group, through its subsidiaries Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration, Isramco Negev 2, Dor Gas Exploration and US oil operator Noble Energy Inc.

 

Preliminary estimates indicate that the Tamar field might contain over 88 billion cubic meters of gas.

 

"If the Tamar site opposite the Haifa coast succeeds in producing the significant quantities of natural gas predicted, we are talking about a revolution which will have an impact on the Israeli economy for the coming generations," said Dan Halman, CEO of Halman-Aldubi Group. "The vast reservoir is poised to bring down electricity prices, reduce the country's dependence on gas from foreign countries, in particular from Egypt, and thereby turn Israel from a gas importer into a gas exporter."

 

Yoav Burgan, analyst at Leader Capital Markets, believes in the possibility of long-term deals resulting from the Tamar well which could generate a potential value of $15.5 billion.

 

However Halman cautioned that despite the optimism it was too early to celebrate.

 

"Big celebrations are still premature," said Halman. "It needs to be remembered that the drilling is complicated and production possibilities are not yet completely clear. In addition, gas transportation is a much more complex and expensive process compared with oil transportation."

 

Similarly Yuval Zehira, head of the research department at IBI Investment House, raised doubts over the economic viability of the project.

 

"For the time being it remains very difficult to assess the profitability of the project given that we don't have figures regarding the initial cost of drilling, production costs, the time it will take to sell the gas, and at what price, and the effect of competition with Egyptian gas," said Zehira. "At this point it seems that the project is more of a strategic asset than an economic one."

 

The Tamar prospect, located under 1,676 meters of water, was drilled to a total depth of about 4,900 meters. Production testing at Tamar will be performed after the well is completed.

 

Gal Reiter, analyst at Clal Finance Batucha estimated that the production tests would cost about $20 million and should be completed in about three weeks.

 

Noble Energy, which operates the well with a 36% working interest, and its Israeli partners said that they might keep the rig to drill two additional wells in the basin.

 

"This is one of the most significant prospects that we have ever tested and appears to be the largest discovery in the company's history," said Charles D. Davidson, CEO and chairman of Noble Energy Inc.

 

Following the announcement of the discovery, shares of Delek Drilling, which holds 15.6% of the Tamar prospect, jumped 41.7%, and shares of Avner Oil Exploration, which holds another 15.6%, surged 21.4%. Both companies are owned by billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva. Shares of fuel exploration company Isramco, which owns 28.7%, leaped 123.8%.

 

Additional reporting by John Benzaquen.

 

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

Israel plans to complete Gaza pullout before Obama inauguration

Israel plans to complete Gaza pullout before Obama inauguration

 

Senior officials tell visiting European leaders that, barring any unforeseen developments, Israel will withdraw all IDF forces from Strip as gesture to incoming US president and to consolidate 'anti-smuggling' memorandum

 

Roni Sofer
Published:  01.19.09, 00:33 / Israel News

 

Barring any unforeseen developments, Israeli forces are expected to complete their withdrawal from Gaza prior to the inauguration of US President-elect Barack Obama on January 20 (7 pm GMT).

 

Israel's plan to withdraw prior to the inauguration as a gesture to the incoming US president was mentioned during Sunday's talks between visiting European leaders and Ehud Olmert at the prime minister's official Jerusalem residence.

 

 French President Nicolas Sarkozy, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Spanish Premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Czech PM, Mirek Topolánek, all traveled to the Middle East over the weekend to assist in the Gaza ceasefire efforts.

 

 Senior officials who attended a dinner party with the world leaders at the PM's residence, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel is looking to complete its withdrawal as soon as possible.

 

 srael has conditioned its pullout on the complete halt of all rocket attacks on its southern region and the stability of the ceasefire in Gaza.

 

Cabinet ministers told Ynet that Israel does not want to "embarrass" Obama as he takes office and is hoping to continue its cooperation with the US in the global fight against Islamist terror and the prevention of arms smuggling into Gaza, in accordance with the "memorandum of understanding" signed this week by Livni and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

 

The IDF began pulling some of its troops out of Gaza earlier in the day, and reservists who were called-up by an emergency draft order may be discharged as early as Tuesday.

 

IDF officials estimate that Hamas will begin to assess the damage done to the group in the coming days. "When the leaders will come out of their hideouts, they will have to confront the Palestinian population – and then they will realize that another round of fighting against Israel is not in their best interest," one official said. 

 

Among the troops who have left Gaza are soldiers serving in kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit's former unit. The tank involved in the kidnapping has long been made operational again, and was part of the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

 

 Some of them told Ynet they felt a clear sense of mission entering Gaza, that they had score to settle with Hamas, but that they have since realized they would not be able to bring their comrade home; but "If what we did here did anything to help bringing him home… it feels good."

 

"We wish things were different," said one of the soldiers, "but we're leaving proud of the fact that we hurt those who have made everyday life so hard for the people of the western Negev."

 

The final decision on continuing to pull troops out of the Strip is in the hands of IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi and Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin. Any decision they make would pend the approval of Olmert and Barak.

 

 

Hanan Greenberg contributed to the report

Continued (Permanent Link)

Israel opens field clinic at Gaza border to treat Palestinians

Last update - 20:35 18/01/2009    
Israel opens field clinic at Gaza border to treat Palestinian wounded
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Israel opened a small field clinic on the Gaza border Sunday to treat sick and wounded Gazans, but a human rights group said the move on the day a fragile truce took hold after a bloody three-month offensive was too little, too late.

 

Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog, who attended the clinic opening in the Erez crossing pedestrian zone, said the clinic would treat as many people as possible.
 
"I wish this place will serve as a place of humanity, friendship and support for the needy," Herzog said.

 

One Palestinian woman was already being treated in the eight-bed clinic that includes a pharmacy, an X-ray machine and five consultation rooms. The patient blessed the clinic from her hospital bed, although her ailment was unclear.

 

Israel had been criticized by human rights groups for not protecting Gaza's civilians or facilitating medical access to the wounded. More than 1,250 Palestinians were killed in the three-week offensive against Hamas militants, half of those civilians, and more than 5,000 were injured, according to Palestinian medics. Thirteen Israelis were also killed.

 

Miri Weingarten of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said the Israeli army has repeatedly refused her group's requests to evacuate wounded Gazans during the war, and called the border clinic too little, too late.

 

"We think that it demonstrates a cynical use of medical care for propaganda, meaning that when Israel wants to correct its public image, it can and will evacuate the wounded," Weingarten said.

 

In a rare case, a Palestinian doctor known to Israeli TV audiences for his reports of human suffering during the war was able to secure the transfer of two of his daughters to Israeli hospitals after they were wounded by Israeli shells. Three of Dr. Ezzeldeen Al-Aish's daughters and a niece were killed in the attack Friday.

 

Herzog said the transport of patients to the clinic would be coordinated with the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and other medical groups working in Gaza

Continued (Permanent Link)

Haniyeh: Hamas won Gaza war, but was wise to declare truce

This was predictable....

  
Haniyeh: Hamas won Gaza war, but was wise to declare truce
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Sunday that Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip was a failure and had not cowed the Palestinians, but praised his movement for deciding to declare a cease-fire.

 

"The enemy has failed to achieve its goals," Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader in the territory, said in a speech broadcast on Hamas television.
 
Though he called the war, in which more than 1,300 Gazans and 13 Israelis died, a "popular victory" for Palestinians, Haniyeh said Hamas's decision to declare a truce on Sunday was "wise and responsible".

 

Hamas announced an immediate cease-fire by its militants and allied groups in Gaza on Sunday, giving Israel a week to pull out its troops from the coastal territory.

 

Israel, which mounted an offensive against Hamas three weeks ago to halt years of rocket attacks, agreed to silence its guns and ground its aircraft early Sunday.

 

"We the Palestinian resistance factions declare a cease-fire from our side in Gaza and we confirm our stance that the enemy's troops must withdraw from Gaza within a week," said Damascus-based Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk.

 

Ayman Taha, a Hamas official in Cairo for talks with Egypt on a truce deal,
demanded that Israel open all of Gaza'sw border crossings to allow in food and other goods to meet the "basic needs for our people."

 

The cease-fire came after 22 days of fighting that killed some 1,200 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, according to Palestinian and United Nations officials. Ten Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians were killed during the campaign.

 

Israel said earlier on Sunday that it will not consider a timetable for withdrawing all of its forces from the Gaza Strip until Hamas and other militants cease their fire.

 

A leader of the militant Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip on Sunday said his group had also agreed to stop attacks on Israelis for a period of one week, following Israel's declaration of the unilateral cease-fire.

 

Daoud Shihab, the Islamic Jihad official, said other smaller militant groups have also agreed to join the truce. There has been no immediate response from Israel.

 

Shihab told The Associated Press that the factions will jointly make a formal announcement later on Sunday.

 

Shihab also said a longer cease-fire would be conditional on Israel withdrawing from Gaza the troops it sent into the Strip two weeks ago.

 

The Hamas announcement came after Gaza militants on Sunday fired at least 17 rockets into Israel, lightly wounding one man. One of Israel's stated goals in the campaign, code-named Operation Cast Lead, was the cessation of cross-border rocket fire.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Shin Bet: Hamas will resume arms smuggling to Gaza within a few months

You don't say!

Last update - 15:21 18/01/2009       
Shin Bet Chief: Hamas will resume arms smuggling to Gaza within a few months
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin on Sunday told the cabinet that Hamas would resume smuggling arms into Gaza within a few months, despite Israel's recent destruction of many tunnels used for this purpose.

 

Diskin said that the Palestinian Islamist group would soon rebuild the tunnels, which were destroyed during Israel's 22-day offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

 

He said that despite heavy criticism of Israel, Gaza residents are "fiercely criticizing Hamas for the destruction it has brought to Gaza."

 

Diskin emphasized that there has been mass confusion among the Hamas leadership in both Gaza and Damascus since Israel's announcement of a unilateral cease-fire.

 

"The confusion stems from the fact that Hamas' stance, in the context of the UN resolution and in the context of the Egyptian initiative, placed the organization in a very problematic position in which it is likely to emerge exposed from all sides."

 

Diskin added that Hamas suffered a strategic surprise and that it "did not expect that Israel would begin an operation in the lead up to elections, not of such a scope and magnitude and not one in which Israel would send troops deep into Gaza."

 

He said the IDF's pressure on Gaza City put Hamas in a very difficult situation.

 

One of Israel's stated goals in the campaign was to halt the smuggling of weapons from Sinai to Gaza. A unilateral cease-fire in Gaza declared by Israel took effect early Sunday.

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

Cease fire in Gaza - for now, maybe

Last update - 16:42 18/01/2009    

 

 Hamas announces cease-fire in Gaza, gives IDF week to leave  By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies

 

Hamas announced an immediate cease-fire by its militants and allied groups in Gaza on Sunday, giving Israel a week to pull out its troops from the coastal territory.

 

Israel, which mounted an offensive against Hamas three weeks ago to halt years of rocket attacks, agreed to silence its guns and ground its aircraft early Sunday.

 

"We the Palestinian resistance factions declare a cease-fire from our side in Gaza and we confirm our stance that the enemy's troops must withdraw from Gaza within a week," said Damascus-based Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk.

 

Ayman Taha, a Hamas official in Cairo for talks with Egypt on a truce deal,
demanded that Israel open all of Gaza'sw border crossings to allow in food and other goods to meet the "basic needs for our people."

 

The cease-fire came after 22 days of fighting that killed some 1,200 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, according to Palestinian and United Nations officials. Ten Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians were killed during the campaign.

 

Israel said earlier on Sunday that it will not consider a timetable for withdrawing all of its forces from the Gaza Strip until Hamas and other militants cease their fire.

 

A leader of the militant Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip on Sunday said his group had also agreed to stop attacks on Israelis for a period of one week, following Israel's declaration of the unilateral cease-fire.

 

Daoud Shihab, the Islamic Jihad official, said other smaller militant groups have also agreed to join the truce. There has been no immediate response from Israel.

 

Shihab told The Associated Press that the factions will jointly make a formal announcement later on Sunday.

 

Shihab also said a longer cease-fire would be conditional on Israel withdrawing from Gaza the troops it sent into the Strip two weeks ago.

 

The Hamas announcement came after Gaza militants on Sunday fired at least 17 rockets into Israel, lightly wounding one man. One of Israel's stated goals in the campaign, code-named Operation Cast Lead, was the cessation of cross-border rocket fire.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Israel: No timetable for IDF Gaza exit until militants halt attacks

Last update - 13:18 18/01/2009       
Israel: No timetable for IDF Gaza exit until militants halt attacks
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Staff and Agencies
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056246.html

 

Shortly after it announced a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza, Israel said on Sunday it will not consider a timetable for withdrawing all of its forces from the Gaza Strip until Hamas and other militant groups halt their attacks.

 

"We can't talk about a timetable for withdrawal until we know the ceasefire is holding," said Mark Regev, spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, rebuffing United Nations calls for setting a timetable.

 

"If there is a danger Hamas is going to deliberately torpedo the cease-fire, and we will have to reinitiate offensive actions against Hamas, for that reason we have to be reticent about withdrawing our forces."

 

"If the ceasefire holds, we can start a process of moving out," Regev added.

 

Olmert earlier on Sunday branded Israel's cease-fire in Gaza as fragile and said the Israel Defense Forces was free to respond to attacks by Gaza militants.

 

"The conditions have ripened for a fundamental change of the situation of the residents in the South after the operation. We have operational freedom to respond if terror organizations continue attacks," Olmert said at the opening of Sunday's cabinet meeting.

 

Olmert's comments came shortly after IDF troops and Hamas gunmen exchanged fire in northern Gaza on Sunday.

 

"Israeli forces inside the Gaza Strip and many more encircling the Gaza Strip are...prepared to act in any area in accordance with their commanders' orders if and when the cease-fire violations, such as those that occurred this morning, continue," Olmert added at the cabinet meeting.

 

Late Saturday night, the prime minister said the IDF would only leave Gaza if Hamas ceased its rocket attacks. Olmert made the pledge as he announced a unilateral cease-fire in the coastal strip.

 

"If Hamas entirely ends its rocket fire on Israel, Israel will consider an IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip," Olmert declared.

 

If that did not occur, he said, "The IDF will continue to operate in order to protect our citizens."

 

The cease-fire went into effect at 2 A.M. local time, shortly after Olmert announced that Israel's security cabinet has voted in favor of it.

 

The announcement came after three weeks of fighting in the coastal strip, as Israel launched a massive military offensive aimed at halting years of daily rocket fire on its southern communities.

 

Palestinian sources say that more than 1,100 Gazans have been killed since the offensive began on December 27. Three Israeli civilians and 10 Israel Defense Forces have been killed during that period.

 

"I want to thank, first and foremost, my friend the defense minister, Ehud Barak, for his professional expertise, and the understanding he showed throughout the whole operation," Olmert said.

 

"I also want to thank and express my appreciation to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for her contributions to the wide-ranging diplomatic efforts that greatly enhanced the international support Israel has received."

 

The decision to launch the cease-fire was approved during a lengthy security cabinet meeting which began after sundown in Tel Aviv. Two ministers were against the move, and another abstained.

 

"Our fight is not with the people of Gaza," Olmert said at the Tel Aviv press conference following the cabinet meeting. "We left Gaza in 2005 with the intention of never returning," he said, referring to Israel's unilateral withdrawal of troops and settlers from the territory under former prime minister Ariel Sharon.

 

Olmert warned that Iran, through its proxies Hezbollah and Hamas, was trying to establish its own hegemony in the region. He said that Hamas had underestimated Israel's decisiveness, had been "surprised" by the launch of the offensive, and was still not fully aware of how badly it had been damaged.

 

"If our enemies decide the blows they've been dealt have not been sufficient and they are interested in continuing the fight, Israel will be prepared for such and feel free to continue to react with force," the premier added.

 

"[Hamas'] leaders are in hiding, many of its members have been killed, its rocket factories have been destroyed, its smuggling routes through the tunnels have been blown up, its ability to move weapons in the Gaza Strip has been reduced and the launching sites where most of the rockets are fired are under Israeli military control," Olmert said.

 

Barak warns Hamas against cross-border rocket attacks

 

Barak said on Saturday that if Hamas continued firing, the IDF would respond forcefully.

 

Calling the operation "a justified war of choice," the defense minister said he was pleased with the results.

 

"We did not go to war to fight the people of Gaza," he said. "Hamas has taken half of the Palestinian people hostage. The IDF and the Shin Bet dealt Hamas a painful blow."

 

Barak added that the army "will maintain its level of readiness in Gaza" and that Israel would renew military operations "if the need calls." The defense minister also reiterated Israel's commitment to win the release of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit.

 

A strong hint at the impending cease-fire announcement came earlier Saturday, when Ehud Barak said that Israel was very close to meeting the objectives of its 22-day-old offensive in Gaza.

 

"After three weeks of Operation Cast Lead, we are very close to reaching the goals and securing them through diplomatic agreements," Barak said during a visit to the south of the country earlier Saturday, according to a statement from his office.

 

The decision means Israel has put an end to Operation Cast Lead without an agreement with Hamas, relying instead on the support of the United States and Egypt in battling arms smuggling into Gaza.

 

Israel said on Sunday it will be prepared to sharply increase the flow of food and medicine to Gaza if the unilateral cease-fire holds, but it ruled out fully lifting a blockade until captured Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit is freed.

 

"If the quiet holds, there will not be any problem dramatically increasing aid like food and medicine. If this quiet holds, we will work with the international community for reconstruction," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Olmert.

 

"But you can't have anything close to full normalization of the crossings as long as Gilad Shalit remains a hostage," Regev added. Shalit was captured in a cross-border raid in 2006.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Rockets red glare gave proof through the night, that Hamas is still there

Last update - 13:17 18/01/2009      
Eight Gaza rockets hit Israel after cease-fire takes effect
By Haaretz Service and the Associated Press
 
Gaza militants fired eight Qassam rockets and three mortar shells into southern Israel on Sunday, despite Israel's declaration of a unilateral cease-fire in the coastal territory on Saturday night.
 
One of the rockets was fired into Ashkelon at noon. Earlier Sunday two rockets hit a chicken coop in Shafir Regional Council causing severe damage. The rest of the rockets hit open areas near the southern Israeli town of Sderot, causing no casualties.
 
Following the salvoes fired into the South, Israel Air Force aircraft attacked rocket launchers in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said.
 
"We hit the launcher that had fired rockets into Israel," an IDF spokesman said.
 
At least seven Grad rockets were fired into southern Israel late Saturday, shortly after the cease-fire declaration.
 
On Saturday night Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that Israel's security cabinet had voted in favor of the unilateral cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, which went into effect at 2 A.M. local time.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Tragedy strikes Dr Izzeldin Abu al-Aish of Gaza

The war got personal when an Israeli tank shell hit this man's home, killing his three daughters.  Izzeldin is a friend of the peace movement and has been an inspiration to all those who have met him and worked with him. Such things are beyond politics. Unfortunately, in this part of the world, politics will never leave you alone, no matter what.

 

Gaza doctor loses 3 daughters

 

Shell fired by IDF tank in Jabalya area hits family of Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, who has been working in Israeli hospital for many years. Two of his daughters evacuated to medical centers in Israel. 'My daughters were soldiers of peace,' he says

 

Meital Yasur-Beit Or
Published:  01.17.09, 08:46 / Israel News

 

Another tragedy in Gaza: Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, a gynecologist from Gaza who works in Israel, lost three of his eight children in an Israel Defense Forces shelling, Channel 10 reported Friday.

 

Two of Abu al-Aish's daughter are hospitalized at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in serious condition.

 

Dr. Abu al-Aish is a fertility expert who has been working at the Sheba Medical Center for the past few years and researching the treatment of Palestinian and Israeli children at the Gertner Institute. He also worked at the Soroka Medical Center for many years.

 

His wife died of leukemia several months ago.

 

An initial IDF inquiry revealed that a tank fired back at the Jabalya refugee camp after being fire on by gunmen. After learning that Abu Al-Aish's family members had been hurt, the Coordination and Liaison Authority at the Erez crossing decided to evacuate the injured to Israeli hospitals.

 

A Palestinian ambulance led the wounded to the Erez crossing, where they were transferred to an Israeli ambulance. The investigation into the incident continues.

 

Prof. Ze'ev Rothstein, director-general of the Sheba Medical Center, told Ynet, "Since the operation began, Dr. Abu al-Aish returned to Gaza to be with his daughters. There are not enough words to describe the tragedy which has hit this man of all people, who does everything for the treatment of children and studied the health of children in Gaza and Israel.

 

"From what I understand, his daughters were killed by an Israeli tank shell. I wish I could wake up and realize this is a bad dream. Hamas may have taken advantage of his home. This is one of the worst tragedies of this war, which illustrates the absurd in the use made of the population exposed to the fire. All of Sheba's staff bow their head in the face of this loss."

 

 
Ruins after Gaza strikes (Photo: AFP)

 

'My children should be the last to die'

 

Dr. Abu al-Aish arrived at the Sheba Medical Center where he works as a gynecologist on Friday night. "I had three beautiful daughters who loved to help people. They were soldiers of peace," he said.

 

"I hope this is the end. If this death satisfies the leadership, my children should be the last to die," he told his colleagues at the hospital.

 

Abu al-Aish was not at home when the tank hit the building, and learned of his daughters' death when he got there.

 

"I wanted to devote my life to the girls. I only lost my wife several months ago," he told the many friends who arrived at the hospital.

 

Many of the doctor's acquaintances – including reporters, human rights activists and physicians who have worked with him – arrived at the hospital immediately after the incidents.

 

 

 

Radio host Gabi Gazit, who had spoken to him many times since the start of Operation Cast Lead, said, "It's this ugly war. A doctor is sitting here, I would almost call him a Zionist Palestinian, and grieving the loss of his three daughters, wanting to know what this happened."

 

'He believes in coexistence'

 

Dr. Liat Lerner-Geva, Director of the Women and Children's Health Research Unit at the Gertner Institute, who has worked with Dr. Abu al-Aish on his research, told Ynet, "I don't know how this man will get back on his feet after this tragedy."

 

She said that she had tried to contact the doctor immediately after watching the report on television.

 

 

 

"He returned to Gaza on Thursday before the operation began. He went to see the children and was supposed to return to Israel on Monday, but on Monday he could no longer return.

 

   

 

"He would arrive in Israel and stay with friends three nights a week. Although he had permits, they would always give him trouble at the crossings. He believed in coexistence and practiced it in his work," she said.

 

 

 

Dr. Abu al-Aish's study examined the treatment of Palestinian children at Israeli hospitals. As opposed to Israeli children who are released after a short while, the Palestinians children usually remain hospitalized in Israel for a long time because the treatment and follow-up cannot be continued in the Strip.

 

 

 

Hanan Greenberg and Ali Waked contributed to this report

 

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

IDF troops trade fire with Hamas gunmen in Gaza, despite cease-fire

Last update - 10:04 18/01/2009       
IDF troops trade fire with Hamas gunmen in Gaza, despite cease-fire
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies

Israeli troops and Hamas gunmen exchanged fire in northern Gaza on Sunday, only hours after Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire in its campaign against the Palestinian Islamist group.

 

The incident began when the Hamas militants opened fire at an Israel Defense Forces infantry patrol near the Jabalya refugee camp.

 

The troops returned fire and hit the group of gunmen, the army said, also directing artillery and aircraft to strike back.

 

None of the soldiers was wounded in the gunfight.

 

An IDF spokesman said that the troops opened fire according to the rules of engagement, and vowed that any assault on soldiers in Gaza would meet with a harsh response.

 

The clash came after a Hamas official said late Saturday that it reserves the right to continue resisting Israel "with all means" if Jerusalem does not follow up its ceasefire with a withdrawal from Gaza and lifting the blockade on the territory.

 

At least seven Grad rockets, meanwhile, were fired from the Gaza Strop into southern Israel shortly after Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire. Gaza militants fire another six rockets into Israel later Sunday morning, causing no casualties.

 

On Saturday night Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that Israel's security cabinet had voted in favor of the unilateral cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, which went into effect at 2 A.M. local time.

Continued (Permanent Link)