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Thread: Israel Air Strikes On Gaza Kill 155

  1. #101
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    'Pro-Israel' TV ads from group tied to Hagee, Abramoff

    http://rawstory.com/news/2008/ProIsr...moff_0107.html

    Muriel Kane
    Published: Thursday January 8, 2009

    A graphic television advertisement pleading for aid to Israel, which has recently run during Countdown with Keith Olbermann and other cable shows, is the product of a group with close ties to neoconservatives, the right-wing evangelical community and former associates of Jack Abramoff.

    The ad follows the standard pattern of most conservative fundraising appeals -- after first creating a sense of panic, it then assures viewers they can help by sending money. It begins with a female voice intoning, over what appears to be stock footage of wounded Israelis, "This nightmare is very real, a daily horror happening now for those living in Israel near Palestinian Gaza."

    Yechiel Eckstein, identified as founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, next appears on screen to assert, "Right now, there are thousands of missiles prepared to be launched. The storm is coming. ... They seek to drive us into the sea."

    The female voice then returns to plead, over a tollfree number, "Israel and its beleaguered people need our support now. ... Your call can save the life of an innocent man, woman, or child. ... The difference between life and death for Israel and its people is in our hands."

    The group behind the ad, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, is no stranger to controversy. For example, it has been criticized by Israeli newspaper Haaretz for painting an unrealistically bleak picture of life in Israel in order to encourage donations.

    However, IFCJ has enjoyed strong support from such right-wing religious stalwarts as Pat Robertson, the late Jerry Falwell, and Pastor John Hagee

    When Falwell died in 2007, Eckstein called him "a true friend of Israel and the Jewish people, and a man that I was honored to call a personal friend."

    Two years ago, IFCJ bestowed its highest honor on Pastor Hagee. Eckstein stated on that occasion, "More and more Christians are understanding their Jewish roots and the Biblical perspective that calls them to stand with Israel. That didn’t just happen. Committed leaders like John Hagee have led the way, and for that, we are grateful."

    Hagee's endorsement last year of Senator John McCain created an uproar when it was revealed that he had described Hitler as doing "God's work" by forcing the Jews to return to Israel and supported a permanent Israeli occupation of all Palestinian lands.

    At that time, Eckstein refused to distance himself from Hagee, stating merely, "The Jewish community should accept his support but make known its opposition to those dimensions it finds offensive, including Hagee’s reported attacks on other faiths and his opposition to a two-state solution."

    IFCJ's supporters also include two close associates of convicted felon Jack Abramoff -- Rabbi Daniel Lapin and Ralph Reed.

    Lapin's Toward Tradition was used by Abramoff as a front group to raise donations for George W. Bush's re-election campaign. It also accepted $50,000 from two Abramoff clients to hire former Tom DeLay aide Tony Ruby's wife, in an arrangement that Abramoff's own plea agreement described as a bribe.

    Ralph Reed was closely associated with Abramoff for many years, and his Century Strategies worked directly for Abramoff on Indian gaming issues in 1999-2002. Reed's firm also worked for IFCJ, and he and Eckstein co-founded a group called Stand For Israel in 2002.

    According to Media Transparency, " Eckstein ... has raised millions of dollars from conservative Christian evangelicals for his organization's various projects. ... However, on the road to raising tens of millions of dollars, it appears that he has diverted a fair portion of the money to a half dozen media relations, direct mail and telemarketing companies, including Century Strategies, run by Ralph Reed."

    A blogger known as "Mrs. Panstreppon," who frequently posts on Abramoff-related topics at Talking Points Memo, remarked tartly of this relationship, "Right Wing Ralph is still leveraging his credentials as a card-carrying member of the 'Christian' right to line his bank account. After helping Jack Abramoff stick it to the Indians big time, Ralphie baby went on to make a few more bucks by pretending to 'care' about the Jews in Israel. ... Ralph Reed and Rabbi Eckstein forgot to mention that most of the funding for the 'Stand Up For Israel' campaign was going to go in Ralph Reed’s pocket."

    Panstreppon went on to note certain questionable payments listed in IFCJ's tax filings for 2002-04 and concluded, "If I thought Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein was a crook, I'd guess that the 'Stand Up For Israel' project was created to prepay and disguise illegal 2004 Republican campaign expenses. But I don't know if Rabbi Eckstein is a crook."
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  2. #102
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    Obama camp 'prepared to talk to Hamas'
    Incoming administration will abandon Bush's isolation of Islamist group to initiate low-level diplomacy, say transition sources

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...ama-gaza-hamas

    Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
    1/8/2009

    The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon George Bush's ^doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say.

    The move to open contacts with Hamas, which could be initiated through the US intelligence services, would represent a definitive break with the Bush ^presidency's ostracising of the group. The state department has designated Hamas a terrorist organisation, and in 2006 ^Congress passed a law banning US financial aid to the group.

    The Guardian has spoken to three ^people with knowledge of the discussions in the Obama camp. There is no talk of Obama approving direct diplomatic negotiations with Hamas early on, but he is being urged by advisers to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, and there is growing recognition in Washington that the policy of ostracising Hamas is counter-productive. A tested course would be to start ^contacts through Hamas and the US intelligence services, similar to the secret process through which the US engaged with the PLO in the 1970s. Israel did not become aware of the contacts until much later.

    A draft was agreed last night at the UN, calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire between Hamas and Israeli forces in Gaza, the head of the Arab League said. Amr Moussa said Arab countries want the security council to vote on the resolution. It was supported by the US, Israel's closest ally, and Arab countries with ties to Hamas.

    Richard Haass, a diplomat under both Bush presidents who was named by a number of news organisations this week as Obama's choice for Middle East envoy, supports low-level contacts with Hamas provided there is a ceasefire in place and a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation emerges.

    Another potential contender for a ^foreign policy role in the Obama administration suggested that the president-elect would not be bound by the Bush doctrine of isolating Hamas.

    "This is going to be an administration that is committed to negotiating with ^critical parties on critical issues," the source said.

    There are a number of options that would avoid a politically toxic scenario for Obama of seeming to give legitimacy to Hamas.

    "Secret envoys, multilateral six-party talk-like approaches. The total isolation of Hamas that we promulgated under Bush is going to end," said Steve Clemons, the director of the American Strategy ^Programme at the New America ^Foundation. "You could do something through the Europeans. You could invent a structure that is multilateral. It is going to be hard for the neocons to swallow," he said. "I think it is going to happen.

    But one Middle East expert close to the transition team said: "It is highly unlikely that they will be public about it."

    The two weeks since Israel began its military campaign against Gaza have heightened anticipation about how Obama intends to deal with the Middle East. He adopted a strongly pro-Israel position during the election campaign, as did his erstwhile opponent and choice for secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. But it is widely thought Obama would adopt a more even-handed approach once he is president.

    His main priority now, in the remaining days before his inauguration, is to ensure the crisis does not rob him of the chance to set his own foreign policy agenda, rather than merely react to events.

    "We will be perceived to be weak and feckless if we are perceived to be on the margins, unable to persuade the Israelis, unable to work with the international community to end this," said Aaron David Miller, a former state department adviser on the Middle East.

    "Unless he is prepared to adopt a policy that is tougher, fairer and smarter than both of his predecessors you might as well hang a closed-for-the-season sign on any chance of America playing an effective role in defusing the current crisis or the broader crisis," he said.

    Obama has defined himself in part by his willingness to talk to America's enemies. But the president-elect would be wary of being seen to give legitimacy to Hamas as a consequence of the war in Gaza.

    Bruce Hoffman, a ^counterterrorism expert at George^town University's school of foreign ^service, said it was unlikely that Obama would move to initiate contacts with Hamas unless the radical faction in Damascus was crippled by the conflict in Gaza. "This would really be dependent on Hamas's military wing having suffered a real, almost decisive, drubbing."

    Even with such caveats, there is ^growing agreement, among Republicans as well as Democrats, on the need to engage Hamas to achieve a sustainable peace in the Middle East – even among Obama's close advisers. In an article published on Wednesday on the website Foreign Affairs, but apparently written before the fighting in Gaza, Haass, who is president of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote: "If the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continues to hold and a Hamas-PA reconciliation emerges, the Obama administration should deal with the joint Palestinian leadership and authorise low-level contact between US officials and Hamas in Gaza." The article was written with Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel and an adviser to Hillary Clinton.

    Obama has said repeatedly that ^restoring America's image in the world would rank among the top priorities of his administration, and there has been widespread praise for his choice of Clinton as secretary of state and Jim Jones, the former Marine Corps commandant, as his national security adviser.

    He is expected to demonstrate that commitment to charting a new foreign policy within days when he is expected to name a roster of envoys to take charge of key foreign policy areas: Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, India-Pakistan, and North Korea.

    Obama has frustrated and confused those who had been looking for a more evenhanded approach to the Israeli-^Palestinian conflict by his refusal to make any substantive comment on Israel's ^military campaign on Gaza, nearly two weeks on.

    He said on Wednesday: "We cannot be sending a message to the world that there are two different administrations conducting foreign policy.

    "Until I take office, it would be ^imprudent of me to start sending out ^signals that somehow we are running ^foreign policy when I am not legally authorised to do so."
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  3. #103
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    That's a clever story to put out there. He's willing to talk to Hamas, which would be a good thing, but oh yeah... um... he can't say anything until he's sworn in.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  4. #104
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    US army engineers helping detect Gaza tunnels: Pentagon

    http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_army..._01082009.html

    1/8/2009

    The US Army Corps of Engineers has been helping the Egyptian government detect tunnels used to move weapons and other contraband into Gaza, the Pentagon said Thursday.

    A small number of US civilians with the Corps have been providing technical advice to the Egyptians over a period of months, said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary.

    "There has been a concerted effort for some time by the Egyptians to go after some of these tunnels -- detect them, block them, eliminate them -- and I think the Army Corps of Engineers has provided some technical advice on how to do so," Morrell said.

    The Army Corps of Engineers role was providing "strictly technical advice," he said.

    Morrell said no US civilians were working near the border with Gaza currently because of the violence arising from an Israeli ground offensive.

    Border tunnels were targeted by Israeli aircraft from the outset of the conflict.

    The Pentagon press secretary said they were suspected of being used to smuggle in rockets that Hamas has used to attack Israel.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  5. #105
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    US abstains from UN vote on Gaza cease-fire

    http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...BC8eQD95JGC5O1

    By EDITH M. LEDERER – 5 hours ago

    UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States says it supports a U.N. resolution that calls for a cease-fire in Gaza but abstained from the Security Council vote because it is awaiting the outcome of Egyptian-mediated talks with Hamas and Israel.

    Thursday's 14-0 vote came on the 13th day of an Israeli air and ground offensive against the Islamic group Hamas which rules Gaza and has been launching rockets and mortars into southern Israel for years. It followed three days of intense negotiations between ministers from key Arab nations and the council's veto-wielding Western powers — the U.S., Britain and France.

    The text of the resolution was hammered out by the United States, Israel's chief ally, and by Arab nations that have ties to Hamas and the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories. It calls for "an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza." While the call is tantamount to a demand on the parties, Israel's troops won't be required to pull out of Gaza until there is a durable cease-fire.

    Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States "fully supports" the resolution but abstained because it "thought it important to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation," referring to an Egyptian-French initiative aimed at achieving a cease-fire.

    The U.S. decision not to block the resolution has provided the Security Council with "a road map for a sustainable, durable peace in Gaza," she said.

    "I believe that it is those efforts that will ultimately help to lead to a durable cease-fire ... but to a sustainable peace in Gaza, and we must all support the Egyptian efforts," Rice said.

    Israel and Hamas were not parties to the vote and it will now be up to them to stop the fighting.

    "We are all very conscious that peace is made on the ground while resolutions are written in the United Nations," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.

    Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki told reporters he was "not happy" and had expected all 15 council members to vote for resolution. He said Palestinians are concerned that Israel will delay a cease-fire for several days and expand its attack to new targets in Gaza.

    Israel "must immediately implement this resolution," Malki said. "The moment that they do so, I believe that Hamas will do the same."

    Malki is a member of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' government, whose authority extends only to the West Bank after rival Hamas violently took over Gaza in June 2007.

    Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev did not comment directly on the call for an immediate cease-fire, saying the international community must focus its attention on the cessation of "Hamas terrorist activity and make clear that a terrorist organization can never be a legitimate leadership."

    "The past eight years have taught us that an arrangement must be fully respected and secured, including the total cessation of rocket fire and smuggling, in order to be durable and to allow the possibility of lasting peace," Shalev said.

    With Palestinian civilian casualties mounting, the Arabs were under intense pressure to get a resolution — and several diplomats said they wanted it before Friday prayers at mosques in the region.

    As of early Friday, about 760 Palestinians, at least a quarter civilians, had been killed along with 13 Israelis.

    The resolution calls on U.N. member states "to intensify efforts to provide arrangements and guarantees in Gaza in order to sustain a durable cease-fire and calm, including to prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition and to ensure the sustained re-opening" of border crossings.

    This is a weaker statement than Israel sought, and the U.S. would have liked. There is also no mention in the resolution of an "international observer force" proposed by the Arabs — and the word "Hamas" was dropped during the negotiations.

    The resolution "condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians," calls for "unimpeded" humanitarian access to Gaza, and welcomes the initiative to open "humanitarian corridors." It urges international efforts to provide humanitarian aid and rebuild Gaza's economy.

    Shortly before the final day of U.N. negotiations began, Israeli envoys went to Cairo and held talks with Egyptian officials on an initiative by the presidents of Egypt and France that calls for a temporary truce. Hamas militants have yet to commit to coming to Cairo for talks and said they have major reservations about the plan.

    Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told the Security Council his government was "totally satisfied" with the resolution and would "spare no effort" in dealing with the parties to restore calm and revive the peace process.

    A joint statement issued by Palestinian groups based in Syria's capital Thursday rejected the Egyptian-French initiative, saying it would undermine Gazans' resistance and give Israel "a free hand" to continue aggression.

    Hamas is normally a member of the coalition, but it wasn't clear if it signed the statement. Hamas officials in Syria were not available for comment.

    Israel's government said Wednesday that it viewed the Egyptian-French proposal positively but stopped short of acceptance.

    The Egyptian-French initiative aims to achieve a "lasting halt" to the fighting and a pullout of Israeli troops along with a cessation of militant rocket fire into Israel and arms smuggling to Hamas, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  6. #106
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    Olmert rejects 'unworkable' UN Gaza truce resolution

    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054201.html

    By Barak Ravid and Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondents and News Agencies
    1/9/2009

    Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as "unworkable" and, noting Palestinians fired rockets at Israel on Friday, said the army would go on defending Israelis.

    In Israel's first official response to the resolution, Olmert's office said Israel "has never agreed to let an external body decide its right to protect the security of its citizens."

    The military "will continue acting to protect Israeli citizens and will carry out the missions it was given," the statement read.

    "The firing of rockets this morning only goes to show that the UN decision is unworkable and will not be adhered to by the murderous Palestinian organizations," he said in a statement.

    Hours after the Security Council passed Resolution 1860 calling for an immediate cease-fire in Israel's offensive in Gaza, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Friday that Israel would continue to act only in its interests and according to its own security needs.

    "Israel has acted, is acting and will act only according to its considerations, the security needs of its citizens and its right to self-defense," a statement said. It made no direct reference to how Israel would treat the call for a ceasefire.

    Livni, along with Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, convened in session on Friday to discusss the Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cessation of violence and their next moves in the conflict.

    The UN resolution, drafted by Western powers, "stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza."

    It also called for arrangements in Gaza to prevent arms smuggling to Palestinian militants and reopen border crossings, and for "unimpeded provision" and distribution of aid in Gaza, where more than 750 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed.

    The resolution was passed by a majority vote of 14-0. The United States abstained, saying it was interested in looking at alternative drafts, but voiced support for the objectives of the resolution.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  7. #107
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    Iran bans activists from fighting Israel

    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull

    1/9/2009

    Iran's top leader banned hardline Iranian volunteers on Thursday from leaving the country to carry out suicide bombings against Israel, but he warned that Iran would not spare any effort to assist Hamas in other ways.

    Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's ban sought to tone down calls by allies of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to toughen Iran's stand against Israel. But they also exposed hidden rifts between the supreme leader and the president five months before elections in which Ahmadinejad, whose popularity has been waning, is seeking a second term.

    Hardline Iranian student groups had asked the government to authorize volunteers to go carry out suicide bombings in Israel in support of Hamas.

    The students began signing up volunteers after Khamenei issued a religious decree on Dec. 28 saying anyone killed while defending Palestinians in Gaza against Israeli attacks would be considered a martyr.

    But a week later, Khamenei's comments sharply contrasted his religious order.

    "I thank the pious and devoted youth who have asked to go to Gaza ... but it must be noted that our hands are tight in this arena," Khamenei said on state television. He did not elaborate about what efforts Iran would take to help Hamas in other ways.

    The student groups claim that more than 70,000 people throughout Iran have registered as volunteer suicide bombers since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead.

    Khamenei also criticized the United Nations and European powers for their failure to condemn the Gaza operation, saying Israeli attacks wouldn't stop Palestinian resistance.

    "Even if the enemy (Israel), God forbids, kills all Hamas and Palestinian combatants ... such crimes won't resolve the issue. Undoubtedly, Palestine will stand up stronger and will ultimately achieve victory," he said.

    Iranian political analyst Saeed Leilaz said hardline student groups, provoked by Ahmadinejad, were getting out of control and Khamenei intervened to end any possible political manipulation of students by the president.

    Criticism of Ahmadinejad has been increasing in the wake of rising inflation and the belief by some conservatives and reformists that his anti-Western rhetoric has done more harm than good for the country.

    "Ahmadinejad has used the Gaza fighting as an opportunity to further radicalize the political situation in Iran for two reasons: to provoke tensions in order to cause a hike in oil prices and improve his chances of re-election in the presidential vote in June. But the top leader doesn't support a further radicalization of Iran," he said.

    Oil prices have plummeted from a high near $150 in July last year to around $35 - severely straining the Iranian economy and undermining Ahmadinejad's ability to pursue his economic agenda. In recent days, oil prices has been increasing, reaching about $43 a barrel on Wednesday.

    Khamenei has strongly supported Ahmadinejad since his election in 2005, but the two don't necessarily agree on all issues. Khamenei, who stands above factional politics but generally supports hardliners over reformists, reversed a decision by Ahmadinejad last year and ordered him to implement a law supplying natural gas to remote villages during a dispute with the parliament.

    Leilaz said it was clear that Iran won't allow suicide bombers to cross its border and fight Israel and Ahmadinejad simply sought to manipulate the issue for his own political agenda.

    In the past week, Ahmadinejad allies have been encouraging hardline students to gather in various cities. Mahdi Kalhor, Ahmadinejad's press adviser, sought to further inflame hardline protests last week when he urged the students take measures beyond street demonstrations.

    "We have to be a pioneer nation (in assisting Hamas) ... why should we not be in Gaza today?" Kalhor asked a hardline student gathering on Sunday.

    The same day, Ahmadinejad's brother was ordered to address the same students to calm them down.

    Davoud Ahmadinejad told the gathering an hour later that it was not possible to send any volunteers to Gaza, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.

    On Dec. 30, dozens of hardline students broke into the British Embassy residence in Teheran, accusing Britain of supporting IAF raids on Gaza.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  8. #108
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    Israel presses on with Gaza strikes despite UN resolution

    http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Israel...ikes_0109.html

    Agence France-Presse
    Published: Friday January 9, 2009

    GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israel battered Gaza with bombs and shells on Friday, vowing its offensive on Hamas would go on despite an order by the UN Security Council to stop the assault that has killed hundreds of civilians.

    "Israel has never agreed for any outside influence to decide on its right to defend its citizens," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said, according to a statement from his office.

    "The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will continue to operate in order to defend the citizens of Israel and will carry out the task it was given for the operation," said the statement, which was released as the Israeli security cabinet met to debate how to proceed with the two-week-old campaign.

    "This morning's rocket fire against the citizens in the south only proves that the UN resolution is not practical and will not be respected by the Palestinian terror organisations," Olmert said.

    A Hamas official in Beirut, Raafat Morra, said his group was also rejecting the UN resolution, because "it is not in the best interest of the Palestinian people."

    Israel staged more than 50 air strikes in Gaza which Palestinian emergency services said killed 12 civilians, taking the death toll since the campaign began to almost 800.

    Hamas and its allies fired more than 15 rockets into southern Israel, injuring one person, the military said. At least four Grad rockets hit Beersheva, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Gaza.

    Pressure on the two sides increased with the UN Security Council resolution which demanded an "immediate, durable" ceasefire leading to the "full withdrawal" of Israeli forces from Gaza.

    Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called the UN move an "important step," but stressed that applying it was key.

    "The credibility of the international community is at stake," his spokesman quoted him as saying. "We need words to be translated into deeds."

    Israel has been strongly criticised by UN agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other aid groups. The text called for "the unimpeded provision and distribution throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including of food, fuel and medical treatment."

    Fourteen of the 15 council members voted in favour. The United States, Israel's main ally, abstained but refrained from vetoing the resolution agreed after lengthy negotiations between Arab and Western foreign ministers.

    Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States had wanted to see what happened to a peace initiative by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who has invited Israel and the Palestinians to Cairo for talks on truce conditions.

    Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, political rivals in the ruling coalition, held a special meeting before starting a security cabinet with other top ministers and military leaders.

    The three key ministers are divided over how to continue Operation Cast Lead.

    Olmert is reported to be in favour of pursuing the military offensive, while Labour leader Barak wants a ceasefire. Livni has spoken out against any ceasefire with Hamas because this would give implicit recognition of the Islamist movement which Israel and most Western nations have on their terrorist lists.

    Israel launched its war against Hamas on December 27 aiming to end rocket attacks in southern Israel and the smuggling of weapons into Gaza from Egypt. Palestinian medics say at least 785 people have been killed since then.

    Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed in combat or rocket attacks into Israel over the same time. Hamas has demanded the end of Israel's blockade of Gaza, imposed after the Islamist group pledged to Israel's destruction seized power there in June 2007.

    The ICRC said it is restricting Gaza operations to the territory's main city after a vehicle was hit, apparently by Israeli forces, a spokeswoman said.

    "We had an incident when one of our trucks travelling at the front of a convoy of 13 ambulances delivering medical assistance to south Gaza was shot at," ICRC spokeswoman Anne Sophie Bonefeld told AFP. She said one person was wounded.

    "We very much believe it was the IDF (Israeli military)" and the ICRC was temporarily limiting operations to Gaza City to review security arrangements.

    There has been mounting criticism of the civilian death toll from Israel's offensive. The main UN Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, suspended operations in the enclave on Thursday after a UN convoy was hit by two Israeli tank shells, killing a truck driver.

    Hamas criticised the decision by the agency, which distributes food to about half of Gaza's 1.5 million people as well as running schools and other centres.

    The ICRC has accused Israel of failing to help the wounded after rescuers found four small children clinging to their dead mothers.

    Israel has said it was investigating the incidents but has repeatedly insisted Hamas is to blame for civilian deaths because the Islamist fighters operate from densely populated areas.

    Thousands of Israeli security forces were deployed in east Jerusalem on Friday after Hamas called for a "day of wrath" over the Gaza offensive following similar protests last week.

    The army also sealed off the West Bank for 48 hours, with movement in and out of the territory prohibited except for emergencies and special cases.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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    Gaza children found with mothers' corpses

    http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/...09redcross.php

    1/9/2009

    PARIS: The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it had discovered "shocking" scenes — including small children next to their mothers' corpses — when its representatives gained access for the first time to parts of Gaza battered by Israeli shelling. It accused Israel of failing to meet obligations to care for the wounded in areas of combat.

    In response, the Israeli military did not comment directly on the allegation. In a statement, it accused Hamas, its foe in Gaza, of deliberately using "Palestinian civilians as human shields" and said the Israeli Army "works in close cooperation with international aid organizations during the fighting so that civilians can be provided with assistance."

    The Israeli military "in no way intentionally targets civilians and has demonstrated its willingness to abort operations to save civilian lives and to risk injury in order to assist innocent civilians," the statement said, promising that "any serious allegation" would "need to be investigated properly, once such a complaint is received formally, within the constraints of the current military operation."

    In an unusually blunt criticism, the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross said it had been seeking access to shell-damaged areas in Zeitoun in the east of Gaza City since Saturday but the Israeli authorities granted permission only on Wednesday — the first day that Israel allowed a three-hour lull in the attacks on Gaza on humanitarian grounds.

    The statement said a team of four Palestine Red Crescent ambulances accompanied by Red Cross representatives made its way to Zeitoun Wednesday where it "found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses."

    In another house, the statement said, the rescue team "found 15 other survivors of this attack including several wounded. In yet another house, they found an additional three corpses. Israeli soldiers posted at a military position some 80 meters away from this house ordered the rescue team to leave the area which they refused to do. There were several other positions of the Israeli Defense Forces nearby as well as two tanks."

    Because of berms built by Israeli forces, the ambulances could not enter the area so "the children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart," the statement said.

    The statement quoted Pierre Wettach, an International Red Cross representative for Israel and the Palestinian areas, as calling the incident "shocking."

    "The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded," he was quoted as saying.

    The statement said the international Red Cross "believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded. It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable."
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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    Ron Paul: Gaza crisis is blowback for past US interventions

    http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Paul_E...pons_0109.html

    1/9/2009

    Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) spoke on Friday in opposition to a non-binding House resolution (pdf) expressing "strong support for Israel" in its invasion of Gaza and decrying Hamas as a terrorist organization that has put "hundreds of thousands of Israelis in danger."

    "I rise in opposition to this resolution, not because I am taking sides and picking who the bad guys are and who the good guys are." Paul stated. "I'm looking at this more from the angle of being a United States citizen, an American, and I think resolutions like this really do us great harm."

    "The weapons being used to kill so many Palestinians are American weapons, and American funds, essentially, are being used for this," continued Paul. "There's a political liability, which I think is something that we fail to look at, because too often there's so much blowback from our intervention in areas that we shouldn't be involved in."

    Paul pointed out that if Hamas now has too much power, it is the fault of past actions by Israel and the United States. "We first, indirectly and directly through Israel, help establish Hamas," he noted, "then we have an election [in Gaza], then Hamas becomes dominant -- so we have to kill them. It just doesn't make sense."

    "There's a lot of reasons why we should oppose this resolution," Paul concluded emphatically. "It is not in the interests of the United States. It's not in the interests of Israel, either."

    Paul's statement was consistent with his past positions. Last March, he was the sole member of Congress to vote against a one-sided condemnation of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.

    Paul stated on that occasion, "I believe it is appalling that Palestinians are firing rockets that harm innocent Israelis, just as I believe it is appalling that Israel fires missiles into Palestinian areas where children and other non-combatants are killed and injured. Unfortunately, legislation such as this is more likely to perpetuate violence in the Middle East than contribute to its abatement. ... I strongly believe that we must cease making proclamations involving conflicts that have nothing to do with the United States. We incur the wrath of those who feel slighted while doing very little to slow or stop the violence."

    This video is from C-SPAN, broadcast Jan. 9, 2009.

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    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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