Rolling Updates on the Israeli Invasion of Gaza (6 January — Evening)
Posted by Scott Lucas in Middle East & Iran2:20 a.m. That’s it for a while. Thanks to all who checked in with us on a turbulent day. I hesitate to think about tomorrow….
2:15 a.m. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is pushing the “Mubarak plan” for “immediate cease-fire for a limited period” for humanitarian aid deliveries and Egyptian invitation to Israel and “Palestinian factions/authorities” to talks on border security and blockade.
But….Kouchner sidesteps questions of whether Europeans will deal with Hamas by repeating this is an “Egyptian proposal”. Yeah, right — that’s why Nicolas Sarkozy was hopping from Jerusalem to Ramallah to Damascus to Cairo before the proposal appear.
And…Kouchner makes clear that this proposal is not alongside UN Security Council resolution but instead of one. Arab journalists (and I suspect a lot of Arab people outside Governments) are not impressed.
2 a.m. Media reporting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s “impassioned plea” to the UN Security Council for “an urgent intervention by the Security Council to…deter the aggressor”. Hmm…. Forgive my scepticism, but in light of today’s manoeuvres, some cease-fires are more equal than others: what are the political objectives of this one?
Meanwhile, Israel is scrambling to regard publicity advantage (or at least a shred of respectability) by opening a “humanitarian corridor”. Israeli spokespersons are still insisting that the Jabaliya school/shelter struck by Israeli tank fire, killing 40 Gazans, was being used by Hamas militants as a base for operations.
1:30 a.m. CNN missed the significance in Rice’s statement — totally missed it. Their UN correspondent, Richard Roth, is wittering on without any reference to the Secretary of State’s call for restoration of Palestinian Authority in Gaza.
1:22 a.m. RICE CALLS FOR LEGAL COUP IN GAZA
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice begins speech at UN Security Council. She’s very much on-message: basic problem is “ongoing attacks against Israel” (which followed Hamas’ “illegal coup” in Gaza), so have to have “sustainable and durable” cease-fire for “true calm” and not “return to status quo ante”.
Rice does throw in the concession of opening border crossings on lines of 2005 agreement, but the basics of this are control of tunnels and cut-off of arms into Gaza.
Then the killer phrase: this is to restore Palestinian Authority’s “legitimate control” of Gaza.
Got it? Rice has in fact inverted history and current events: she has turned Hamas’ electoral victory in Gaza in 2006 into an “illegal coup” to justify a “legal coup” by Fatah/Palestinian Authority, under cover of Israeli military operations, in January 2009.
Tags: Al Jazeera, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Bernard Kouchner, CNN, Condoleezza Rice, Dana Perino, Denmark, Egypt, Erik Fosse, Gaza, Golda Meir, Gordon Brown, Ha'aretz, Hamas, Hosni Mubarak, Israel, Israeli Defense Forces, Lebanon, Mahmoud Abbas, Nicolas Sarkozy, Palestine, Richard Roth, Ro, United Nations Security Council
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