Wednesday
Dec312008
Gaza Update (2 p.m. Israel, 7 a.m. Eastern US): The Israeli War Continues, Fuel and Food Crisis in Gaza
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 11:35
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5osk2toY1E[/youtube]
Later Update: Gaza Black Comedy Moments
Israel has rejected a French proposal for a truce to allow aid into Gaza. Using the same line put forward by the US Government on Tuesday, Israeli spokesman Mark Regev insisted on "a real and sustainable solution", one that would "not [be] a Band-Aid that will just kick the can down the road".
Regev's statement, however, hides division in the Israeli Cabinet, which discussed the French proposal for four hours. According to The Daily Telegraph, Minister of Defense Ehud Barak supported the two-day truce but was overruled by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Lvini.
There is no fuel and electricity in Gaza, as Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday again hit the offices of Gazan Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and the Interior Ministry. The Israelis also reinforced their economic stranglehold by bombing the "lifeline" for Gaza, the tunnels connecting it to Egypt.
The European Union again called for "an unconditional halt to rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel and an end to Israeli military action". Gulf Arab leaders agreed on a demand for a cease-fire but unsurprisingly, given Saudi Arabia's backing of the Palestinian Authority against Hamas, were divided over support for the Government in Gaza.
Later Update: Gaza Black Comedy Moments
Israel has rejected a French proposal for a truce to allow aid into Gaza. Using the same line put forward by the US Government on Tuesday, Israeli spokesman Mark Regev insisted on "a real and sustainable solution", one that would "not [be] a Band-Aid that will just kick the can down the road".
Regev's statement, however, hides division in the Israeli Cabinet, which discussed the French proposal for four hours. According to The Daily Telegraph, Minister of Defense Ehud Barak supported the two-day truce but was overruled by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Lvini.
There is no fuel and electricity in Gaza, as Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday again hit the offices of Gazan Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and the Interior Ministry. The Israelis also reinforced their economic stranglehold by bombing the "lifeline" for Gaza, the tunnels connecting it to Egypt.
The European Union again called for "an unconditional halt to rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel and an end to Israeli military action". Gulf Arab leaders agreed on a demand for a cease-fire but unsurprisingly, given Saudi Arabia's backing of the Palestinian Authority against Hamas, were divided over support for the Government in Gaza.
Reader Comments (14)
I'm not surprised that Livni was against a truce as she is up against Bibi Netanyahu in the upcoming election, so she is probably happy for Kadima to move to the right.
I think its interesting that Olmert is being so hawkish however. It seems that many exiting Israeli PMs in the past have attempted to secure a 'peace-maker' type legacy for themselves as they leave office, for example when Sharon pulled out of Gaza, or when Rabin ('Mr. Security' after all) signed on to the Oslo Accords.
Olmert must be quite confident that history will judge him kindly on this Gaza operation
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ISRAEL = GOOD COUNTRY, WHEN THE WORLD WILL UNDERSTAND THAT
good luck israel i with you , no more terorism!...the world not understand that israel vary good and hurt country and thay must to attack the teror in gaza , the soldjer of the israel army try to strike only in the teroristim !!
I LOVE AND APPRECIATE THIS CONTRY THAT FIGHT AGAINST THE TEROR!
GO ISRAEL THE WORLD WITH YOU!
Hamas is speaking through the Russians? Is Israel speaking through the United States? Russia is no longer a superpower so it should tend to its own back yard where there is plenty of trouble in Ukraine and Georgia.
Gaza belongs to Egypt which has been very silent - probably hoping Israel will rid it of Hamas. Cairo has been ineffective in dealing with the radical elements in the Gaza strip. Unlike the Palestinian Authority, Hamas is an unproductive entity, interested only in its own survival. It has just fired rockets into Be'ersheva, the biggest Israeli city in the Negev desert 30 miles away. Why should Israel put up with that? Israel won't flatten Gaza, so far it has pinpointed those buildings housing Hamas elements. Yes, some innocents have been killed, explosives are not that precise. Why have the people in Gaza allowed Hamas to live and work right amongst them? They knew they'd get hurt if Israel retaliated. Of course, it's an Arab tradition to hide behind women and children in an attack, there was a well-reported incident in Jordan during WWI when Arab men hid behind a wall of women with the non-Arab Turk soldiers on the other side.
If Israel can scour out Hamas from Gaza they can replace it with the Palestinian Authority troops that have done well on the West Bank. I would hope that the Gazans would prefer peace and stability to pursue their lives rather than this horror that Hamas has foisted on them.
Why would Israel accept a truce when they have an insatiable lust for killing? Who's going to stop them anyway? The US blindly supports Israel. Obviously the people in Gaza have no means of protecting themselves and bottle rockets are certainly not an effective form of self-defense, but that's all they got. And I mean ALL they got, the people of Gaza don't have food, fuel, electricity among other items necessary for survival. By the way, Israel broke the ceasefire first by carrying out an illegal tunnel raid and by not lifting the blockade that it promised to remove as outlined by the ceasefire. Hamas's rocket attacks were not pre-emptive, but in fact a response to Israel's refusal to adhere to the ceasefire.
Responding to racists is a waste of time.
I think the Reuters report below reveals a great deal about the extent of freedom in the US.
Second NY man pleads guilty to airing Hezbollah TV
NEW YORK, Dec 30 (Reuters) - A second New York City man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization by broadcasting Hezbollah television channel Al Manar to U.S. customers, prosecutors said.
Saleh Elahwal, who lives in New Jersey, admitted that between about September 2005 and August 2006 he provided satellite transmission services through Brooklyn-based HDTV Ltd to Al Manar, in exchange for thousands of dollars payment.
His co-defendant Javed Iqbal, a Pakistani who moved to the United States more than 25 years ago, pleaded guilty to the same charge on Dec. 23.
Hezbollah, an Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi'ite Muslim group with a powerful guerrilla army, was designated by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization in 1997.
The U.S. Treasury branded Al Manar a terrorist organization in March 2006, saying it supported Hezbollah's fund-raising and recruitment activities.
Elahwal is due to be sentenced on Feb. 19 and Iqbal on March 24. Both face up to 15 years in prison. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols, editing by Vicki Allen)
To Carole Clark:
Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years.
Israel "aided Hamas directly -- the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization)," said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies.
Israel's support for Hamas "was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative," said a former senior CIA official
Some in Israel saw some benefits to be had in trying to continue to give Hamas support: "The thinking on the part of some of the right-wing Israeli establishment was that Hamas and the others, if they gained control, would refuse to have any part of the peace process and would torpedo any agreements put in place," said a U.S. government official who asked not to be named.
According to former State Department counter-terrorism official Larry Johnson, "the Israelis are their own worst enemies when it comes to fighting terrorism."
"The Israelis are like a guy who sets fire to his hair and then tries to put it out by hitting it with a hammer."
"They do more to incite and sustain terrorism than curb it," he said.
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Would you like to read the whole history of Hamas? To begin with, Hamas was registered in Israel in 1978.
But that was back in 1978. It was before the surge of Islamic movements after the Iranian revolution in '79. The objective was to keep the powerful and secular PLO in check. Despite the continuation of secular, socialist regimes, the region is more theocratic today than it was 30 years ago. Nationalism/pan-Arabism gave way to Islamism.
To Irfan Haqqee: I wouldn't be at all surprized if Israel tried to play Hamas against the PLO or the Lebanese Christians against Hezbollah. That's standard tradecraft in intelligence work. Divide and conquer. The aid is withdrawn when the balance tips the wrong way. But I wouldn't say that Israeli policy is self-defeating. They do the best they can with the time and circumstance of the moment. They have been fighting for their lives since long before they declared independence. And no matter where you fall in Israeli politics, no Jew has forgotten that the local Arabs sided with the Nazi's in WWII. The memory of the fate of the six million lies in the back of every Jewish mind, not just in Israel but all over the world.
No one doubts that the ordinary people of the Gaza Strip would like all this horror to stop but I don't see that happening, do you? They are confounded from opposite extremes by their history, their culture, their faith and, of course, by current politics. How can the same men who want those jobs over in Israel support deadly actions against Israel and then complain they can't get to their jobs or the Israelis have closed the border? Take those tunnels the Israelis are trying to collapse. Deadly force to use against Israel is coming through those tunnels so you can't blame the Israelis for bombing them. In America we have the same problem along the southern border where drugs and guns and exotic animals are smuggled into the country using illegal aliens as "porters". So far we have not had to do anything as drastic as Israel but it may come to that. Opposing forces exploit weaknesses in each other and if you don't confront it, it just gets worse.
Thank you for posting such worthwhile commentary and allowing me to do the same. You've given me alot to think about concerning Hamas. A complex problem not to be solved quickly...
To Dave:
Unless you take off your Christian garb you would never see the whole picture. to you it seems okay to support a religious Islamic organozation if it suits your purpose. Support Hamas if it weakens PLO (now ex-terrorists) who were friendly to the Soviets at that time.
As long as there is occupation of Muslim land, there will be violence. It could be by a secular organization like PLO or an extremist organization like Taleban. Hamas and Hezbollah maybe terrorist organization in the eyes of the western world and Israel but to Palestinian and Lebanese population they are political organizations fighting occupation by a foreign entity of their homeland.
How is the Iranian revolution affecting you? The government maybe strict on its citizens on certain aspects of their lives but it is an independent government not under the influence of a super power as it was for 25 years under the dictator Shah Reza Pehalvi brought to power by CIA.
To Carole:
Standard tradecraft in intelligence work!! Ha ha You really amuse me. I would rather call it "Hold on to the occupied land whatever way you can and keep calling yourself the victim". You get what you sow.
Why are you so worried about drugs & guns etc. Gun running and drug smuggling has been a side job of your intelligence organization CIA. Go study Vietnam war and Illegal Contra War (in fact both wars were illegal).
Arabs sided with the Nazis! that's news to me!!! any proof of that?
Yeah Carole that's the irony. You build illegal settlements on occupied land (if exotic bird smuugling is illegal , so is occupation of someone else's land) and hire that same people to construct those houses and parks, road and what not. Well the whole area is a big open air prison and the prisoners have not much choice when it comes to hard labour. Now they even have a wll around that prison.
"How is the Iranian revolution affecting you? The government maybe strict on its citizens on certain aspects of their lives but it is an independent government not under the influence of a super power as it was for 25 years under the dictator Shah Reza Pehalvi brought to power by CIA."
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I agree, but I believe that all governments should be held accountable when the rights of the citizenry are violated. The United States has been criticised for many violations over the years. Mistreatment of prisoners (American and foreign), torture (gas chamber, lethal electrical injection) and other barbaric forms of punishment. The United States has not signed the UN sponsored 'Rights of the Child' act. If I recall correctly, the only other country that has not signed the act is Somalia. The United States is a self proclaimed champion of human rights and sees itself as a beacon to all the nations for its record...and yet I know the truth. And I believe the international community must condemn the United States for these things.
I am not completely one-sided.
However, Iran and Arab countries have some of the worst human rights records.
Great read! I want you to follow up to this topic?
My regards,
Tommy
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