U.N. Special Rapporteur Calls for Global Protection of Gaza Civilians from U.S.-Backed Israeli Assault

Democracy Now!

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Richard Falk, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, calls on the international community to help defend the people of Gaza from the ongoing U.S.-backed Israeli assault. "It’s time, it seems to me, for the international community to take some responsibility for protecting the people of Gaza," Falk says. "The responsibility to protect norm was very self-righteously invoked in relation to Gaddafi’s Libya, but there’s utter silence when it comes to the people of Gaza." Falk is a professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and the author of more than 50 books on war, human rights and international law. We also speak with Raji Sourani, an award-winning human rights lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza....."

Live Report from Gaza Hospital: As Civilian Toll Mounts, Israel Again Bombs Palestinian Journalists

Democracy Now!

"Printer-friendly

We get a live report from independent journalist Mohammed Omer from a hospital in Gaza City, where injured journalists, medical workers and civilians — including children — are arriving for treatment. An award-winning journalist based in Gaza, Omer has been covering the latest Israeli assault since it began six days ago. We’re also joined by Richard Falk, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories....."

Elites Will Make Gazans of Us All

By Chris Hedges
TruthDig

"Gaza is a window on our coming dystopia. The growing divide between the world’s elite and its miserable masses of humanity is maintained through spiraling violence. Many impoverished regions of the world, which have fallen off the economic cliff, are beginning to resemble Gaza, where 1.6 million Palestinians live in the planet’s largest internment camp. These sacrifice zones, filled with seas of pitifully poor people trapped in squalid slums or mud-walled villages, are increasingly hemmed in by electronic fences, monitored by surveillance cameras and drones and surrounded by border guards or military units that shoot to kill. These nightmarish dystopias extend from sub-Saharan Africa to Pakistan to China. They are places where targeted assassinations are carried out, where brutal military assaults are pressed against peoples left defenseless, without an army, navy or air force. All attempts at resistance, however ineffective, are met with the indiscriminate slaughter that characterizes modern industrial warfare......"

“We will not fear their strikes”: Gaza journalists defiant after Israeli attack on media center

Rami Almeghari

The Electronic Intifada

Gaza Strip

18 November 2012

Al-Quds TV cameraman Khader al-Zahhar at the intensive care unit of al-Shifa hospital after he was seriously injured in an Israeli air strike on a media building.

"The rocket hit me directly after it made a hole into the roof,” said Khader al-Zahhar, 20, from his hospital bed in Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital on Sunday.

Al-Zahhar, a cameraman for al-Quds TV, spoke to The Electronic Intifada and other reporters after his right leg was amputated following an Israeli strike on the Shawa and Hussari press building the night before in the al-Rimal quarter of Gaza City.
Al-Zahhar said that just before the strike, “Some of my colleagues and I were having some rest after a long working day during the Israeli escalation. I wanted to sleep for only an hour, as the situation seemed to be getting sort of calm.”
But the calm was illusory. Israel intensified its attacks on Gaza on Saturday night, bringing the death toll to more than 60 persons with hundreds more injured.
In the single bloodiest incident, an Israeli bomb completely destroyed a two story house of the Dallou family in a residential district of Gaza City, killing 11 persons. Among the dead were five women, including one 80-year-old, and four small children, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

Journalists were resting when missiles hit

Smoke rises as an Israeli air strike hits a media center in Gaza, 18 November.
(Majdi Fathi / APA images)

Cameraman al-Zahhar was later reported to have been transferred to an Egyptian hospital for more medical care. His colleagues described the attack on their offices that occurred at about 1:30 in the morning..."

“Flatten” Gaza like Hiroshima and “mow” the population, Israeli public figures urge

By Ali Abunimah

"Among the latest horrifying examples of incitement to mass murder by Israeli public figures, Gilad Sharon, the son of former prime minister and notorious war criminal Ariel Sharon, has called for the Israeli army to “flatten” Gaza as the US flattened the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945 with an atomic bomb.
“The residents of Gaza are not innocent, they elected Hamas. The Gazans aren’t hostages; they chose this freely, and must live with the consequences,” wrote Sharon in the extremist publication The Jerusalem Post. Sharon elaborated:

We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima – the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too.
There should be no electricity in Gaza, no gasoline or moving vehicles, nothing. Then they’d really call for a ceasefire.
Were this to happen, the images from Gaza might be unpleasant – but victory would be swift, and the lives of our soldiers and civilians spared.

Sharon added that “There is no middle path here – either the Gazans and their infrastructure are made to pay the price, or we reoccupy the entire Gaza Strip.”....."

Why Gaza?

Because it's all about politics

by Justin Raimondo, November 19, 2012 

".....What enables this perpetual warfare is unconditional US support for Israel, both materially and diplomatically. The Jewish state could not exist beyond the next decade without the billions of US taxpayer dollars we ship to Tel Aviv every year. Israel is the single largest recipient of US “foreign aid”: we pay $3.5 billion in tribute to the warlords of Tel Aviv on an annual basis — not counting all the interest-free and forgiven “loans.” In return, they brazenly interfere in our politics — and that may be the least offensive form of Israeli intervention on American soil.

Yet appeasement of Israel has been a bipartisan policy pursued by every American administration since Bush the elder, and Obama is no exception......"

The Four Guilty Parties Behind Israel’s Attack

By Jonathan Cook

".......Also, it should be remembered that Israel’s belligerence toward Gaza, and the easing of domestic pressure on Israel to negotiate with Hamas or reach a ceasefire, has largely been made possible because Obama forced U.S. taxpayers to massively subsidize Israel’s rocket-interception system, Iron Dome, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Iron Dome is being used to shoot down rockets out of Gaza that might otherwise have landed in built-up areas of Israel. Israel and the White House have therefore been able to sell U.S. munificence on the interception of rockets as a humanitarian gesture.

But the reality is that Iron Dome has swung Israel’s cost-benefit calculus sharply in favor of greater aggression because it is has increased Israel’s sense of impunity. Whatever Hamas’s ability to smuggle into Gaza more sophisticated weaponry, Israel believes it can neutralize that threat using interception systems.
Far from being a humanitarian measure, Iron Dome has simply served to ensure that Gaza will continue to suffer a far larger burden of deaths and injuries in confrontations with Israel and that such confrontations will continue to occur regularly.

Here are the four main culprits. They should be held responsible for the deaths of Palestinians and Israelis in the days and, if Israel expands its operation, weeks ahead."

Al-Jazeera Video: ما وراء الخبر -الموقف العربي من الملف الفلسطيني

Turkey's Erdogan: Israel carrying out "terrorist acts" in Gaza

"(Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel on Monday of carrying out "terrorist acts" in its bombardment of Gaza.

"Those who associate Islam with terrorism close their eyes in the face of mass killing of Muslims, turn their heads from the massacre of children in Gaza," Erdogan told a conference of the Eurasian Islamic Council in Istanbul.

"For this reason, I say that Israel is a terrorist state, and its acts are terrorist acts.""

Guardian Video: Israeli air strike kills 11 family members in Gaza

                   
                   
                                 

"An Israeli air strike believed to be aimed at a Hamas official kills 11 members of a single family, including five women and four children, in Gaza City on Sunday. The air strike flattened the home of the Dalou family in the Sheikh Radwan district of the city, causing the biggest death toll in a single incident since the offensive began last Wednesday."

Netanyahu's high-stakes game in Gaza

By Ramzy Baroud
Asia Times

"The last time Israel attacked Palestinians in full force many UN and international rights organizations said it committed war crimes worthy of international tribunals. None took place, thanks to the shield of the US government and media. Now Palestinian deaths will again buttress Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an unbending guardian against "an existential threat" to the Jewish state. The truth remains irrelevant.....

Now that Israel is once more pushing its agenda as an American priority, the time is ripe for further escalation and for more saber-rattling against Iran, Hezbollah and whomever else Israel perceives as an enemy. Israeli causalities will be used to demonstrate Israel's supposed vulnerability, and Palestinian deaths will buttress Netanyahu's rightwing government as Israel's unbending guardian against those who continue to pose "an existential threat" to the Jewish state. The truth, of course, remains the least relevant. "

Al-Jazeera Video: As it happened: Huge airstrike in Gaza

"Have a listen to what happened as our Al Jazeera news presenter was speaking to our correspondent Nicole Johnston in Gaza.

Moments later Johnston tweeted that the Israeli airstrike hit a police station, some 400m away from Al Jazeera's offices.

Drones and aircrafts are constantly circling the strip which has about 1,500,000 people living in it."

Video: This is a message from Anonymous Op Israel, Greetings Citizens of the world, this is Anonymous.

We in the Gaza Strip will not die in silence

If the world will not defend the Palestinians against Israel, we have the right to defend ourselves

A VERY GOOD COMMENT

Musa Abumarzuq
The Guardian, Sunday 18 November 2012

"......With the approach of the Israeli elections, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, wanted to trade with the blood of the Palestinians, especially after his alliance with the ultra-extremist Avigdor Lieberman failed to boost his popularity in the polls as he'd expected. This is not the first time the Israelis have launched a war for electoral gain. Shimon Peres did it to Lebanon in 1996 and the Olmert-Livni-Barak alliance did it to Gaza in 2008. What is important here is the immoral and short-sighted stance of the European and US governments; they have misconstrued the facts and displayed complete partiality in favour of the aggressor.

The western position has given political cover to the Israeli aggression and encouraged its leadership to continue their attacks. Thus, in the eyes of our people and those of the entire region, western countries are complicit. European governments, in contrast to their peoples whose majority support Palestinian rights, have demonstrated their double standards and hypocrisy again......


Hamas has decided to defend the rights of its people with a measure of deterrence against one of the most well-equipped (and western-funded) armies. As the world refuses to defend Palestinians, we will defend ourselves. Our people have the right to self-defence and we will not die in silence anymore.

Hamas may not be able to defeat Israel but we can stand firm against it, and paralyse life in a significant part of the country. This is the right of any free people. Gaza and Hamas are not alone, and the enemies of Israel are increasing. The Arab world is changing. The Palestinian people today see in Hamas hope and leadership.
Israel has embarked on an adventure it has not calculated properly. It must now bear the consequences. A truce will be on Hamas's terms, not Israel's. The first of these will be to lift the oppressive blockade on the Gaza Strip."

Al-Jazeera Video: Conflict places stress 'specifically on children' of Gaza

"Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ramesh Rajasingham, of the United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in the Palestinian territories, says the current conflict is having an affect on essential services in the enclave.

Rajasingham tells Al Jazeera's Darren Jordon that "for the time being there is sufficient electricity" in Gaza, but that may last for only another few days.

Describing the overnight bombings on Saturday as "incessant", he said the conflict has placed a signifigant amoung to stress "specifically on children' in the Gaza Strip."

Al-Jazeera Video: Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston reports on Israeli attacks on Jabaliya refugee camp

"Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston, reporting from Gaza, says there has been "a lot of attacks" on the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Among those attacks, was the residence of the Dallo family, who lost 11 members on Sunday.

Though many of the airstrikes have been over the so-called buffer zone, a less populated area of the enclave, our correspondent said "it's only a few kilometres wide", so for residents of the nearby communities there is still a heightened sense of fear."

l-Jazeera Video: Hamas official: 'Now is time of action' for Palestine

"Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ghazi Hamad, Hamas deputy foreign minister, said Arab countries understand the Palestinian plight better now but that more is expected from them. 

"This is a very important message, they want to tell the world that Gaza is not alone"."

Al-Jazeera Video: مظاهرات دعم متبادلة بين سوريا وغزة

Israeli bombardment of Gaza enters fifth day – live updates

The Guardian

"....

Egyptians cross into Gaza

About 500 Egyptian activists have crossed into Gaza to deliver medical supplies and show support for Palestinians, according to a report from the Associated Press.
The US news agency adds:

The visit indicates a new Egyptian policy toward to Gaza following the ouster of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak and the rise to power of Islamists.
Mubarak, Israel's longtime ally, had poor relations with Hamas and teamed up with Israel to blockade Gaza after the militant Hamas seized the territory in 2007.
The new Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi, comes from the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent group of Hamas and has met with Hamas leaders in Cairo.
"We are telling the Palestinians that we are on their side," said activist Adam Mubarak. "Our visit is a message to Israel that we will not abandon the Palestinians in Gaza.".....

Deadliest day of the conflict

Sunday has been the deadliest day since Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defence against Hamas militants on Wednesday.
A total of 19 people are reported to have been killed in Gaza by Israeli bombardments on Sunday. According to Gaza health officials nine were children and four were women.

This brings the death toll in Gaza to 65, the officials said.....

Condemnation of strike on media building

Reporters Without Borders has condemned Israeli missile attacks on two media centers in Gaza that wounded six Palestinian journalists and damaged the equipment of foreign media outlets,the Associated Press reports.

Sunday's attacks on the two high-rise buildings damaged offices of the Hamas TV station, Al Aqsa, and a Lebanese-based broadcaster, Al Quds TV, seen as sympathetic to the Islamists.
Germany's public broadcaster ARD; Russia Today, a state TV network that broadcasts in English; and Sky News Arabia said they lost equipment in the attacks.

Christophe Deloire, the director of Reporters Without Borders' international headquarters in Paris, called the attacks unjustified and a threat to freedom of information. He called for an investigation into the circumstances of the raid.....". 

Clashes in West Bank as anger over Gaza is directed at Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian Authority blamed for failing to take action and for co-operating with Israeli security forces against protesters

Rebecca Collard Ramallah
The Guardian, Sunday 18 November 2012 

"Fresh clashes erupted in the West Bank on Sunday as Palestinian youths threw rocks at Israeli soldiers, who responded with teargas. But anger in the West Bank has not only been directed at Israel: many also blame the Palestinian Authority for failing to take action over the Gaza offensive and for co-operating with the Israeli security forces against protesters.

Hazem Abu Helal was arrested after joining a protest at the Bet El checkpoint near Ramallah after several female demonstrators were arrested by the Israeli army. "They began shooting a lot of teargas so I moved back to the City Inn Hotel, which is inside the Palestinian controlled area," he said.

Abu Helal was detained not by the Israeli army but by Palestinian security forces, who took him to a Ramallah police station for questioning. "They said, 'You're making a problem for the [Palestinian Authority]'," Abu Helal said. "They told me, 'Go make a demonstration in Ramallah'."

According to Shawan Jabarin, the director of Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group, Palestinian security forces often suppress protests against Israel in the West Bank.
"They stop them, arrest them, beat them sometimes," Jabarin said.

On Sunday, he said, Palestinian security forces prevented protesters from reaching Israel's Al Jalame checkpoint near Jenin. "The Palestinian police have become a guard for Israel's interests," he said.
This security co-operation, outlined under the now two-decade-old Oslo Accords, is a key grievance for Palestinian activists. "At minimum what [President Mahmoud] Abbas could do now is stop this co-operation with Israel," Abu Helal said. "He doesn't believe in the power of his people, only of the people outside. Now he only cares about the UN."......"

“IDF must learn from the Syrians how to slaughter the enemy,” says prominent Israeli rabbi

By Ali Abunimah

"The Israeli army should learn from Syria how to “slaughter and crush the enemy” said Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, the son of Israel’s former Chief Rabbi and spiritual leader of the Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
This report, from the Israeli financial news website Globes, was translated by Dena Shunra:

Rabbi Yaakov Yosef: “The IDF must learn from the Syrians how to slaughter the enemy”
“The army has got to learn from the Syrians how to slaughter and crush the enemy” - that is how Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, “blessed” the IDF [sic] soldiers who may soon find themselves within the Gaza Strip, within the framework of a ground operation which may happen in practice.
According to the report on the Jewish Voice [hakol hayehudi] website, Rabbi Yosef gave a sermon today at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and among other statements blessed the IDF soldiers by saying: “we warmly bless the soldiers and pray that they leave in peace and return in peace.” Immediately thereafter he said that the IDF should learn from the Syrians “how to slaughter and how to crush the enemy.”
According to the report, Rabbi Yosef said similar things in a sermon he gave in Jerusalem last weekend. Yosef was interrogated by the police in the past for alleged incitement, due to his statement of consent and approval for the Torat Hamelech book, which deals in the halacahic laws of war under the Torah.

The Syrian army has been universally condemned for indiscriminate shelling and bombing of Syrian towns and cities resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries and widespread destruction amid the ongoing civil war in that country.

Frequent incitement....."

المطلوب إلغاء مبادرة السلام العربية

By Azmi Bishara
18 نوفمبر 2012

 " كم تغير العالم العربي!! كل هذا حصل في أقل من عامين. من حصار قطاع غزة وهو يقصف في العدوان الأخير وتأجيل الاجتماعات الى أن ينهي العدوان مهمته إلى تناد لعقد جلسة وتنافس على زيارة القطاع تضامنا. و أولئك الذين حضروا من الوزراء العرب يتكلمون وعينهم على مكان واحد: الشارع العربي. حسنا، على المستوى السياسي، الشارع العربي كما يمكن ان يبين اي استطلاع، يرى أن قضية فلسطين قضيته، وأن إسرائيل عدوّه، ويطالب بإلغاء مبادرة السلام العربية. "

Al-Jazeera Video: Al Jazeera reporters on the latest Gaza-Israel attacks

Real News Video (with Transcript): London Protests in Solidarity with Gaza

Protestors are furious with both Israel and their own government, as the UK's foreign office supports Israeli action 

Real News Video (with Transcript): The Roots of Israeli Attack on Gaza

Phyllis Bennis: The current conflict did not begin with rockets fired at Israel

In photos: Israel relentlessly bombs Gaza, West Bank protests repressed

The Electronic Intifada

18 November 2012

(29 photos)

The mother of 10-month-old Hanen Tafesh, killed the day before in an Israeli air strike, mourns over her daughter’s body before her funeral in Gaza City, 16 November.
(Majdi Fathi / APA images)

Palestinians inspect a destroyed mosque after an Israeli air strike in Bureij in the central Gaza Strip, 17 November.
(Ashraf Amra / APA images)

Not Even the Dead Can Rest in Peace: A Palestinian man carries bones from a grave after an Israeli airstrike on a cemetery in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, 16 November.

(Eyad Al Baba / APA images)

Ten civilians killed in Israeli strike on house: medics

"(Reuters) - Ten Palestinian civilians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza, Palestinian medics said, the highest civilian death toll in a single incident during five days of fighting.
An Israeli military spokesman said he was checking the report.
Medics said three women, six children and one man were killed in the attack on the three-storey building. Rescue workers were still at the site searching for people who might be buried under the rubble......"

Israeli bombardment of Gaza enters fifth day – live updates

The Guardian

"....

World Health Organisation

The World Health Organization says hospitals in Gaza are overwhelmed with casualties and short on supplies.
Reuters reports that the U.N. health agency appealed for $10 million from donors to meet the need for drugs and supplies over the next three months.

The WHO, quoting Health Ministry officials in Gaza, said 382 people have been injured - 245 adults and 137 children.
"Many of those injured have been admitted to hospitals with severe burns, injuries from collapsing buildings and head injuries," the WHO said in a statement issued in Geneva.
Health authorities have declared an emergency situation in all hospitals to cope with patients, it said.
"Before the hostilities began, health facilities were severely over stretched mainly as a result of the siege of Gaza," the WHO said. Israel maintains a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip with the help of neighbouring Egypt.
The Gaza Ministry of Health's supplies of many life-saving drugs and disposable equipment were at "zero stock", it said.
"The Ministry of Health has postponed all elective surgeries due to the emergency and shortages in anaesthesia drugs," it said. Non-urgent cases are being transferred to hospitals run by aid groups and health personnel have been asked to report to the nearest health facility for extended shifts, it said.
"WHO appeals to the international and regional community for urgent financial support to provide essential medicines to cover pre-existing shortages, as well as emergency supplies for treating casualties and the chronically ill," it said......"

Arab Officials Meet to Consider Support for Palestinians in Gaza

Arab Officials Meet to Consider Support for Palestinians in Gaza

Zionist Viagra, by Khalil Bendib

Targeting the Messenger: Israeli air strikes hit media centres in Gaza City

Six injured as strikes target buildings housing media organisations including Sky News, al-Arabiya and al-Quds TV

Harriet Sherwood in Gaza City
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 18 November 2012 

"Israeli military planes struck two media headquarters in Gaza City in the early hours of Sunday morning, injuring six people including a cameraman, who lost a leg.

A number of media organisations are based in the al-Shawa building, including al-Quds television, which is associated with Islamic Jihad. Khader al-Zahhar, a cameraman with al-Quds TV, had his leg amputated as a result of injuries sustained in the attack.

A second air strike struck another media complex in the city, the al-Shuruq building. It houses Sky News, the al-Arabiya news network, Dubai TV and an office of al-Aqsa TV, which is affiliated with Hamas.

Sky News reporter Sam Kiley was sleeping in the offices when the missile struck shortly before 7am. "The missile hit the floor above us. There was a big flash of light and the sound of breaking glass.".....


The Palestinian death toll since the war began last Wednesday topped 50 after a night of sustained bombing. Three children were killed in overnight bombing. Two of the children were killed and 12 people injured when two houses were struck in northern Gaza.


Shells fired from Israeli gunboats positioned off the coast pummelled Gaza for an hour in the middle of the night, causing massive explosions......"

Al-Jazeera Video: Blistering bombardment of Gaza continues

"The Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues with another 15 Palestinians killed on Saturday and the Hamas Government headquarters destroyed.

Meanwhile Israel has deployed more tanks to the border and called up thousands more reservists as fears of a ground offensive increase.
At least forty-five Gazans have been killed and more than 390 wounded since Israel launched its aerial campaign on Wednesday.
As the toll rises sirens have sounded in Tel Aviv for a third day as Israel says it shot down a rocket fired at the city while another fell in an open area.

And Arab League foreign ministers have been attending an emergency session in Cairo where they're expected to demand that Israel immediately halt its campaign.
Jacky Rowland has been following events in Gaza."

Stop pretending the US is an uninvolved, helpless party in the Israeli assault on Gaza

The Obama administration's unstinting financial, military and diplomatic support for Israel is a key enabling force in the conflict

Cartoon by Carlos Latuff

A VERY GOOD COMMENT

Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 17 November 2012 

"A central premise of US media coverage of the Israeli attack on Gaza - beyond the claim that Israel is justifiably "defending itself" - is that this is some endless conflict between two foreign entitles, and Americans can simply sit by helplessly and lament the tragedy of it all. The reality is precisely the opposite: Israeli aggression is possible only because of direct, affirmative, unstinting US diplomatic, financial and military support for Israel and everything it does. This self-flattering depiction of the US as uninvolved, neutral party is the worst media fiction since TV news personalities covered the Arab Spring by pretending that the US is and long has been on the side of the heroic democratic protesters, rather than the key force that spent decades propping up the tyrannies they were fighting.

Literally each day since the latest attacks began, the Obama administration has expressed its unqualified support for Israel's behavior. Just two days before the latest Israeli air attacks began, Obama told Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas "that his administration opposes a Palestinian bid for non-state membership of the UN". Both the US Senate and House have already passed resolutions unequivocally supporting Israel, thus earning the ultimate DC reward: the head-pat from Aipac, which "praised the extraordinary show of support by the Senate for Israel's struggle against terrorist attacks on its citizens". More bipartisan Congressional cheerleading is certain to come as the attacks continue, no matter how much more brutal they become......

By rather stark contrast, Obama continues to defend Israel's free hand in Gaza, causing commentators like Jeffrey Goldberg to gloat, not inaccurately: "Barack Obama hasn't turned against Israel. This is a big surprise to everyone who has not paid attention for the last four years" (indeed, there are few more compelling signs of how dumb and misleading US elections are than the fact that the only criticism of Obama on Israel heard over the last year in the two-party debate was the grievance that Obama evinces insufficient fealty - rather than excessive fealty - to the Israeli government). That the Netanyahu government knows that any attempt to condemn Israel at the UN would be instantly blocked by the US is a major factor enabling them to continue however they wish. And, of course, the bombs, planes and tanks they are using are subsidized, in substantial part, by the US taxpayer......

UPDATE

According to Haaretz, Israel's Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, said this about Israel's attacks on Gaza: "The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages." Let me know if any of the US Sunday talk shows mention that tomorrow during their discussions of this "operation"."

Al-Jazeera Video: Latest updates on the Gaza crisis

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - A sign of shifting Egypt-Israel relations?

Al-Jazeera Video: Israeli air strikes hit Palestinian PM's office

"In an interview with Al Jazeera, Palestinian journalist and Columbia Journalism School fellow Mohammed Omer said that Israeli air strikes have hit the Palestinian Prime Minister's office and Interior Minister's residence.

Mohamed Morsi's approach to Gaza air strikes falls short for many Egyptians

Egypt's president is taking a diplomatic route over Israeli assault, but response is unlikely to placate anger at home

Abdel-Rahman Hussein in Cairo
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 15 November 2012

".....Hamas is an offshoot of the Brotherhood, and it was believed that the Egyptian reaction to an Israeli assault on them would be markedly different with the ascension of the Brotherhood to power in Egypt and the longstanding ties between the two groups. However, many who have been following the Brotherhood over the years believe otherwise.

"They are a reformist, not revolutionary, group. They have shown on many occasions that they are more than happy to keep the [1979] Camp David peace treaty with Israel and not radically alter Egyptian foreign policy. The excuses are ready, let's build Egypt first and so on," said Hossam Hamalawy, journalist and member of the Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists movement.

Morsi's measured response may not be enough to placate Egyptians, who have already begun protesting against the latest Israeli offensive, with more demonstrations scheduled for the next few days. The government response so far falls short of demands articulated by Hamalawy, which include the permanent opening of the Rafah crossing and not just for humanitarian reasons, but also to provide relief to the besieged territory, and the abolishment of the Camp David accords or, at the very least, a referendum on whether to keep the treaty....

This seeming disconnect between Brotherhood members and its leadership, as well as secular opposition forces – whose commitment to the Palestinian cause is no less unerring than Islamist forces – could potentially prove troublesome for Morsi.

"The young base cadres of the Brotherhood are sincere about the Palestinian cause," Hamalawy said, "what concerns me is the hypocritical and opportunistic leadership that mobilised mass protests when they were in opposition – with Morsi himself once calling for an end to Camp David – but now that they are in power they will not act upon it.""

صواريخ فجر 5 وام 75 التي ضربت تل أبيب والقدس مفاجأة المواجهة الحالية

عرب48 /وكالات

"استخدمت الفصائل الفلسطينية أنواعا عدة من الصواريخ والقذائف المحلية الصنع، واذا كانت صواريخ «القسّام» و«قدس» قد أقلقت راحة المستوطنات الاسرائيلية على حدود قطاع غزّة، فإن تطوّر الأسلحة الفلسطينية ونوعيتها في الرد على عدوان «عمود السحاب»، أو «السماء الزرقاء» بحسب «الجهاد الاسلامي»، وضع القيادة الاسرائيلية في مأزق.

فما هي أبرز الصواريخ التي استخدمتها المقاومة حتى الآن؟

÷ «فجر - 5» الايراني: شكّل مفاجأة حقيقية بالنسبة الى الحكومة الاسرائيلية، اذ تبلغ وزن الحشوة الشديدة الانفجار منه 90 كيلوغراماً، ويصل طول الصاروخ الى 6.485 أمتار، والأهم أن معدّل مداه يتراوح بين 68 و75 كيلومترا، ما قد يجعل القدس المحتلة وتل أبيب تحت مرماه. استخدم «حزب الله» صواريخ «فجر - 5» أثناء حرب تموز 2006. ويمتلك كل من حركة «حماس»، حركة «الجهاد الاسلامي»، سوريا، ليبيا، بالاضافة الى «حزب الله»، هذا النوع من الصواريخ.

- «غراد» الروسي: لا تستعمله المقاومة للمرة الأولى، لكنها تستخدمه بكثرة، بعد التعديلات المحلية التي طرأت عليه. ووصل مدى صاروخ «غراد» بعد مراحل تطويرية متعددة الى أكثر من 20 كيلومترا، كما أُجريت تحسينات على فعالية قدرته التدميرية على الرغم من حجم عياره الصغير. يُقلق صاروخ «غراد» مستوطنات نيتيفوت وسديروت وعسقلان.

- «أم - 75» الفلسطيني الصنع: الصاروخ - اللغز، الذي فاجأ الجيش الاسرائيلي، واستخدمته «حماس» بكثرة في الحرب، والذي وصل مداه الى تل أبيب والقدس المحتلة. ويقول المتحدث باسم «حماس» أبو عبيدة إن «صاروخ «أم - 75»، الذي أصاب مستوطنة غوش حتسيون، خارج القدس، كان سلاحاً جديداً، وأوصلنا رسالة عبره تفيد بأنه لم يعد هناك أي صهيوني على أي شبر من فلسطين في مأمن». ويرمز الرقم «75» الى المدى الجغرافي بالكيلومترات، أي الى المدى الذي يُمكن أن يصل اليه الصاروخ.

- «ناصر - 5» الفلسطيني الصنع: الجيل الجديد من سلسلة صواريخ «ناصر»، والتي تتميّز بطولها القصير (2.50 متر)، وقدرتها التفجيرية عند ملامستها أي شيء.
- «107» الفلسطيني الصنع: وصل مداه الى 40 كيلومتراً، ويطال مستوطنة بئر السبع، التي باتت أسيرة هذا النوع من الصواريخ.

- «الهاون» البريطاني الأصل: من أقدم أنواع الصواريخ وتمّ تطويره على مرّ السنوات، يُستعمل بكثرة في حروب الشوارع لفعاليته، يتراوح مداه بين 7 و10 كيلومترات، وفي هذه الحالة، فإن كل المستوطنات الاسرائيلية على تخوم قطاع غزة تُعتبر أهدافاً له."

A Pillar Built on Sand

By John Mearsheimer 16 November 2012

".....Nevertheless, Pillar of Defence will not achieve its ultimate goal of getting the Palestinians to abandon their pursuit of self-determination and accept living under the heel of the Israelis. That is simply not achievable; the Palestinians are never going to accept being consigned to a handful of enclaves in an apartheid state. Regrettably, that means Pillar of Defence is unlikely to be the last time Israel bombards Gaza.

Over the long term, however, the bombing campaigns may come to an end, because it is not clear that Israel will be able to maintain itself as an apartheid state. As well as resistance from the Palestinians, Israel has to face the problem that world opinion is unlikely to back an apartheid state. Ehud Olmert said in November 2007, when he was prime minister, that if ‘the two-state solution collapses’ Israel will ‘face a South-African-style struggle’, and ‘as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished.’ One would think Israel’s leaders would appreciate where they are headed and allow the Palestinians to have a viable state of their own. But there is no sign that is happening; instead, Israel foolishly continues to rely on military campaigns like Pillar of Defence to break the Palestinians."

Fireworks in Gaza

Israel must re-think its strategy in a post-Arab Spring Middle East if it wants to achieve real peace.

By Larbi Sadiki

Al-Jazeera

"......Israel looks increasingly desperate. It is left with an anachronistic means of self-defence: War-making in an age where war is becoming redundant.

Israel will never conduct a war the same way it did in the pre-Arab Spring era. Arab public opinion would not allow it, nor will the emerging democracies being secured in countries such as Egypt. Morsi's Egypt, committed still to international agreements with Israel, give the Palestinians the kind of moral and psychological depth Mubarak denied them. At least, they are no longer alone and there is humanitarian and material aid at their disposal.

If the war partly is intended to test this new dynamic, Israel should re-think: Millions and millions of Arab youth would not hesitate the call of Palestine. Neither the Arabs nor the Israelis want this scenario of belligerence. That is why Israel should not test the resolve of newly empowered Arab masses for whom Israel is an occupier, usurper of Palestinian land, and a killer of children. Nor should it test Morsi, who will beg to differ with Western administrations, including the Americans, on the root causes of the current conflict.

Through solidarity, these masses form a moral equaliser that give Palestinians some parity in a war of narratives in which Israel, at official and public levels, has often enjoyed largely unfettered and uncritical Western support."

Mideast redux: End the cycle of retaliation

Israel must end its provocations and cycles of retaliations if it ever wants to achieve peace.

By Marwan Bishara

Al-Jazeera

"Watching the escalation in Israel/Palestine and the preparations for a possible all-out assault on the Gaza Strip, one hears many insightful and original commentary. Alas, when it's original it's usually inaccurate, and when it's right it's hardly new. Netanyahu, like his predecessors, is using the assassination of Hamas's leader Ahmad Jabari and subsequent escalation to undermine the Palestinian leadership's (Hamas and Fatah's) political standing and improve his own political chances, by underlining Israel's national security over economic security as the core issue preoccupying the nation, ahead of the elections.

To make the point, here's a piece I published six years ago titled, "Mideast: End the cycle of retaliation", with minor changes of dates, names etc. As they continue to repeat themselves tirelessly and recycle the same claims, I shall repeat my analysis......"

Syrian Karzai Waiting for Charity From "Friends of Syria."

Syrian Karzai Waiting for Charity From "Friends of Syria."

(فيديو) رعب وبكاء مجندات الاحتلال من صواريخ المقاومة

عرب48 /وكالات


"اجتذبت تسجيلات الفيديو المتعلقة بالهجوم على غزة متابعة مئات الآلاف على الموقع، من بينها تسجيل يظهر مجندات في الجيش الإسرائيلي وهن "يبكين ويصرخن هلعا بسبب دوي صفارات الإنذار وسقوط الصواريخ."

وحمل أحد التسجيلات تلك عنوان"رعب وبكاء وهلع مجندات الاحتلال من صواريخ المقاومة،" واجتذب أكثر من 111 ألف مشاهدة، مع الكثير من التعليقات التي صبت في إطار "الشماتة بالعدو.""

Gaza rockets land near Jerusalem as fears of ground offensive grow

As tanks gather near border Israeli minister says invasion could come before end of weekend

Gaza is Now a Free Fire Zone, by Carlos Latuff.

Harriet Sherwood in Gaza City, Peter Beaumont in Cairo, Chris McGreal and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 17 November 2012 

"The Israeli cabinet has authorised the call-up of 75,000 reserve troops as fears grow that the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, will order a ground invasion after Egyptian efforts to broker a ceasefire did not make headway and Hamas fired a rocket at Jerusalem.

The US was scrambling to prevent a further escalation of what it described as a "very, very dangerous situation" in Gaza. Britain warned that a ground invasion could cost Israel international support.

But concerns that Netanyahu is preparing to escalate the assault were strengthened as he held a strategy session with senior ministers. Also, the size of the call up is on a scale comparable to Israel's invasion of Lebanon six years ago, and several times larger than the number of reservists drafted during the last major incursion into Gaza in 2008. Tanks were seen gathering near the Gaza border, and roads in the area were closed to Israeli civilians.

Israel's deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, told CNN that a ground invasion could come before the end of the weekend if the rocket attacks continue......"

Love Letter and Response

Egyptian President Morsi's Love Letter to Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Shimon Peres' Response to Morsi.

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

Are you satisfied with the level of solidarity of the countries of the Arab Spring with Gaza?

With over 600 responding so far, 74% said no.

Real News Video: Protests Erupt Worldwide Against Israel's Bombing Campaign in Gaza

Global demonstrations against Israel's Operation Pillar of Cloud growing as death toll mounts. 

Al-Jazeera Video: Israel and Gaza trade fire

"Air strikes from Israel have continued to take a devistating toll on Gaza as Hamas landed a rocket in an uninhabitated area of Jerusalem.

Among those killed on Friday was a two-year-old Palestinian boy.

Elsewhere in Gaza, continued Israeli air strikes destroyed a family-owned textile factory that employed at least 20 workers and a food store.

The Hamas Interior Ministry was also decimated, but the group continued to launch rockets into Israel despite Tel Aviv announcing it would hold its fire while Hesham Qandil, Egyptian prime minister, was in the enclave. 

Tel Aviv's statement came on the condition that Hamas fighters also halt any attacks on Israel.

Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba reports from Gaza."

Al-Jazeera Video: Rockets from Gaza reach Tel Aviv, Jerusalem

"Despite the Israeli airstrikes, Hamas continue to fire rockets across the border from Gaza.

And as Nisreen El-Shamayleh reports from Jerusalem, the rockets are penetrating further into Israel than ever before."

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - Gaza strikes: Motives and consequences

"As Israel and Hamas fighters attack each other, fears are growing that their conflict could develop into a full-scale ground war in the Gaza Strip. Israel says all options are on the table. Hamas says dark days await Israel. It also says it has, for the first time, fired missiles at Tel Aviv. So, what are the motives and the consequences of this latest series of attacks on Gaza? And could these be the opening shots in Binjamin Netanyahu's election campaign?"

Al-Jazeera Video: 'Ceasefire' collapses as Egypt PM visit Gaza

"Explosions were reported after Israeli military offers conditional halt to strikes during Hesham Qandil's solidarity meeting in Gaza.

Al Jazeera brings you the latest from Nadim Baba in Gaza, Nisreen El-Shamyleh in Jerusalem, and Sherine Tadros in Cairo."

Al-Jazeera Video: Gaza hospitals struggle to cope

"Israel's campaign of air strikes on Gaza's continued for a second night. 
 
The number of casualties is rising and Hamas' retaliation is causing panic inside Israel.

For the first time, rockets fired from Gaza have reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Air raid sirens sounded there for the first time in more than 20 years.

Inside Gaza, the bombardment is causing so many injuries that hospital staff face being overwhelmed. And the return fire into Israel is also causing casualties.
 
Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba reports from Gaza."

Al-Jazeera Video: ما وراء الخبر/ اغتيال أحمد الجعبري

A GOOD VIDEO
Guests: Osama Hamdan, Jamal Zahalqa

Israel's "Iron Dome"

Courtesy of Arabs48.com