Israel wiping the floor with Palestine

[nkdlunch]

seems like noone cares in the US of what is happening, or are news agencies somewhat ignoring this event???

Obama seems to be dodging commenting too much on this too...



bbc.com

Gaza air campaign 'a first stage'
Israel's air assault on Gaza is "the first in several stages" of operations aimed at ending militant rocket fire, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said.

As bombing continued for a fourth day, another top official said Israel was ready for "long weeks of action".

Palestinian officials say more than 360 people have been killed since Saturday. Four Israelis have died in rocket fire.

As EU officials prepared to discuss the crisis, some reports from Israel said it was considering a temporary truce.

Mr Olmert was set to discuss the idea of a 48-hour suspension, suggested by France, with his officials later in the day, the French news agency AFP said.

But Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer warned a truce would allow militant group Hamas - which controls Gaza - "to regain strength... and prepare an even stronger attack against Israel".

US President Bush agreed in a telephone conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that for any ceasefire to be effective it had to respected by Hamas, the White House said.

A BBC reporter says Israeli tanks and troops are massed along Gaza's border.

Correspondents say this could be a prelude to ground operations, but could also be intended to build pressure on Hamas.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana called for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of crossings to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, as EU foreign ministers prepared to discuss the crisis in Paris.

'Defenceless population'

On Tuesday, Israeli jets attacked more targets linked to Hamas, hitting a number of government buildings and security installations.

At least 10 people were killed and 40 said to have been wounded in the raids.

One air strike killed two sisters, the eldest aged 11, riding in a donkey cart in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, Palestinian medical sources said.

The UN has called for an investigation into the attacks, which are causing heavy civilian casualties. It says at least 62 of the Palestinians killed so far were women and children.

Richard Falk - the UN special rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territories - said the international community must put more pressure on Israel to end its assault.

"Israel is committing a shocking series of atrocities by using modern weaponry against a defenceless population - attacking a population that has been enduring a severe blockade for many months," Mr Falk said in a BBC interview.

But Israeli officials said there was more to come.

The Israeli military "has made preparations for long weeks of action", deputy defence minister Matan Vilnai said.

Mr Olmert's statement that the bombardment was "the first of several stages approved by the security cabinet" was quoted from a briefing he gave to President Shimon Peres on Tuesday.

Separately, Israeli naval vessels confronted pro-Palestinian activists seeking to break the Gaza blockade by boat. The activists said one vessel rammed them; their boat made port in Lebanon with heavy damage on one side.

Rocket fire

The Egyptian-Gaza border was due to be opened to permit more trucks carrying aid to enter the territory, and for wounded Palestinians to be transported to Egyptian hospitals.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, under popular pressure to open the crossing fully, said that could not happen while Hamas, rather than the Palestinian Authority, led by its rival Fatah, controlled the border.

Demonstrators in Yemen, angered by Egypt's co-operation with the blockade on Gaza, briefly stormed the country's consulate in Aden, where they burned an Egyptian flag and hoisted a Palestinian one.

There have been angry protests against the Israeli offensive in many other cities across the Arab world and in several European capitals.

Hamas has pressed on with rocket and mortar assaults, killing three Israeli civilians and a soldier in areas that have not previously suffered such fatalities.

Israeli military officials said rocket attacks landing more than 25 miles (40km) from Gaza put nearly 10% of Israel's population of seven million within range.

Israeli political leaders have been under pressure to act against rocket fire with a general election looming in early February.

Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu has backed the offensive, telling the BBC that "Israel is using a fraction of its power to try to target surgically the terrorists".

The strikes began less than a week after the expiry of a six-month-long ceasefire deal with Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007.

Correspondents say short of a full-scale invasion of Gaza, it is unlikely Israel will be able to prevent rocket fire permanently.

Israel dismantled its strategic settlements and military bases in Gaza in 2005 but has kept tight control over access in and out of the narrow coastal strip and its airspace.



Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...st/7804218.stm

Published: 2008/12/30 18:07:29 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

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[nkdlunch]

Gaza relief boat damaged in encounter with Israeli vessel
Story Highlights
Israeli naval vessel, boat with medical volunteers collide in Mediterranean

Boat's crew contends naval vessel rammed it intentionally

Israel denies intentionally hitting boat carrying journalists, medical supplies

Damaged boat arrives safely at Lebanese port after incident

(CNN) -- An Israeli patrol boat struck a boat carrying medical volunteers and supplies to Gaza early Tuesday as it attempted to intercept the vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, witnesses and Israeli officials said.

CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul was aboard the 60-foot, Gibraltar-registered pleasure boat Dignity when the contact occurred. When the boat later docked in the Lebanese port city of Tyre, severe damage was visible to the forward port side of the boat, and the front left window and part of the roof had collapsed.

The Dignity was carrying crew and 16 passengers -- physicians from Britain, Germany and Cyprus and human rights activists, including former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney -- who were trying to reach Gaza through an Israeli blockade of the territory.

The captain of the Dignity said the Israelis broadcast a radio message accusing the vessel of being involved in terrorist activity. But Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denied that and said the radio message simply warned the vessel not to proceed to Gaza because it is a closed military area.

Palmor said there was no response to the radio message, and the vessel then tried to out-maneuver the Israeli patrol boat, leading to the collision. Watch Penhaul describe the boat damage »

Penhaul said at least two Israeli patrol boats had shadowed the Dignity for about half an hour before the collision, moving around the vessel on all sides. One of the patrol boats then shined its spotlight on the Dignity while the other, with its lights off, "very severely rammed" the boat.

The captain of the Dignity told Penhaul he received no prior warning. Only after the collision did the Israelis come on the radio to say they struck the boat because they believed it was involved in terrorist activities. Watch the chaos in Gaza and Israel »

The captain and crew said their vessel was struck intentionally, Penhaul said, but Palmor called those allegations "absurd."

"There is no intention on the part of the Israeli navy to ram anybody," Palmor said.

"I would call it ramming. Let's just call it as it is," McKinney said. "Our boat was rammed three times, twice in the front and one on the side. Watch Cynthia McKinney discuss the collision »

"Our mission was a peaceful mission to deliver medical supplies and our mission was thwarted by the Israelis -- the aggressiveness of the Israeli military," she said.

The incident occurred in international waters about 90 miles off Gaza. Israel controls the waters off Gaza's coast and routinely blocks ships from coming into the Palestinian territory as part of an ongoing blockade that also applies to the Israel-Gaza border. Human rights groups have expressed concern about the blockade on Gaza, which has restricted the delivery of emergency aid and fuel supplies.

The collision was so severe, Penhaul said, that the passengers were ordered to put on their life vests and be ready to get in lifeboats. The Dignity began taking on water, but the crew managed to pump it out of the hull long enough for the boat to reach shore.

Palmor said the vessel refused assistance after the incident.

The boat was carrying boxes of relief supplies, volunteers and journalists to Gaza, the Palestinian territory now subject to an intense Israeli bombing campaign.

Israel launched airstrikes against Gaza on Saturday in what Defense Minister Ehud Barak called an "all-out war" against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has ruled the territory since 2007.

The Palestinian death toll has topped 375, most of them Hamas militants, Palestinian medical sources said Tuesday. At least 60 civilians have been killed in Gaza, U.N. officials said.

Hamas has responded with volleys of rocket fire aimed at southern Israeli towns, which have left six Israelis dead -- five of them civilians.

Hamas has vowed to defend Gaza in the face of what it calls continued Israeli aggression. Each side blames the other for violating an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, which formally expired December 19 but had been weakening for months.

All AboutGaza • Israel • Cynthia McKinney








Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/...oat/index.html

[nkdlunch]

US tacitly backs Israel offensive

By Kim Ghattas
BBC News, Washington



The White House has given its tacit backing to Israel's military operation against Hamas and the Gaza Strip, a flare-up that is threatening to seriously complicate any peace efforts envisaged by the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

"The United States understands that Israel needs to take actions to defend itself," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

"In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire."

It is an at ude that is very similar to the one adopted by the Bush administration during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon - calling for a sustainable cease-fire and a lasting peace rather than pressuring Israel to immediately halt a military operation that was killing civilians.

Short of a dramatic development, observers expect no shift in this position - or the administration's support for Israel - during the remaining three weeks of President George W Bush's term in office.

Mr Bush has not made any public comments so far, and neither has his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. But the state department has been keen to stress diplomatic efforts are underway to bring the crisis under control.

"We are encouraging all the nations in the region to take an active part in rebuilding the cease-fire so that we can return to the relative calm that was enjoyed in the region over the past six months," said state department spokesman Gordon Duguid.

He listed all the foreign leaders that Ms Rice had spoken to, from Tzipi Livni, her Israeli counterpart, to Saudi Foreign Minister Saud el-Faisal.

"We are working for a cease-fire now where Hamas must stop its rocket attacks on Israel," said Mr Duguid. "All sides then need to respect the ceasefire."

Bush failure

This is also in line with the approach taken by the Bush administration during its second term, according to Dan Senor, a former Bush administration official now working with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) - with the White House making strong statements in support of Israel while Condoleezza Rice leans a bit more strongly on Israel.

The flare-up also highlights the failure of Mr Bush to bring about a peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis.

After he launched his ambitious Annapolis peace initiative in 2007, few believed anything concrete would come out of it, but some argued that at least Mr Bush was leaving behind a work-in-progress, with relative calm on the ground.

Instead, the last few weeks of his presidency will be mired in yet another crisis - the biggest Israeli offensive against Gaza in decades.

While the escalation was pegged to a date - the end of a six-month cease-fire on 19 December - both the Israelis and Hamas seem to be using the political calendar in Israel and the US to reshuffle the cards before the next administration comes in.

Israeli officials know they can count on the Bush administration's support but are less sure about how an Obama administration would have reacted were they to have launched this operation after 20 January.

Mr Senor also argued that Israel did not want a flare-up in Gaza to be the first issue that Mr Obama would have to contend with when he moved into the White House.

"There was a sense in Israel that action was needed as the cease-fire was set to expire and they had to either move quickly or wait a long time - four or six months - and that was not something Israel could deal with," he said.

No details

But the developments are on such a scale that even if calm returns in a few days, the crisis will have an impact, possibly even regional, that will last beyond 20 January, so the Middle East is forcing itself high onto the agenda of the incoming administration.

Mr Obama has often said he would tackle the challenge of Middle East peace from day one, but has not given many details on how he plans to reach the peace deal that has eluded the Clinton and Bush administrations.

Israel's military operation in Gaza is also likely to limit his room for manoeuvre and diplomacy, at least in the beginning.

Mr Obama's team, stressing that there is only one president at a time, has kept its statements about the crisis to a minimum, but has provided assurances of its support for Israel.

"He's going to work closely with the Israelis," said David Axelrod, a senior advisor to Mr Obama. "They're a great ally of ours, the most important ally in the region."

"But he will do so in a way that will promote the cause of peace and work closely with the Israelis and the Palestinians on that, towards that objective," Mr Axelrod told the CBS Sunday talk show Face the Nation.

Steve Coll, a senior CFR fellow on Middle Eastern studies, said the Israelis were trying to do everything they could to get political cover from the incoming administration by highlighting statements by the president-elect, such as the one he made in August in Sderot, the Israeli town targeted by Hamas rocket attacks.

"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that," said Mr Obama during the visit. "And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."

Gaza may well be that first international crisis that Vice President-elect Joe Biden predicted Mr Obama would have to face when he came into office, with both Israel and Hamas testing the incoming leader.

And while there is a reasonable amount of good will awaiting Mr Obama in the Arab world, how he handles similar flare-ups during his presidency will determine how long the honeymoon lasts.

[Wild Cobra]

As long as Hamas is attacking Israel from Gaza, Israel ius witrhin their right to dessimate the region is they desire. Since the Gaza government isn't stopping Hamas from within their borders to be a good neighbor, them!

[hater]

well Israel will tear Palestine up for the next month or so. Bush could not give 2 s about it and Obama... he is too inlove with himself right now to even think about it. He is preparing for his coronation as the king of kings.

meanwhile when all is said and done and Obama starts to give a (say mid-February)...Gaza strip might be a dead zone by then

[Rohirrim]

[Winehole23]

. Since the Gaza government isn't stopping Hamas from within their borders to be a good neighbor, them!

Hamas is the duly elected government in the Occupied Territories. It was the US who insisted they be allowed to participate in the elections. That turned out well.

well Israel will tear Palestine up for the next month or so. Bush could not give 2 s about it and Obama... he is too inlove with himself right now to even think about it. He is preparing for his coronation as the king of kings.

Perhaps. But maybe he's deferring to the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Imagine the howls of outrage if Obama were to contradict Bush in some way.

meanwhile when all is said and done and Obama starts to give a (say mid-February)...Gaza strip might be a dead zone by then

Remember how the 2006 invasion of Lebanon went? It could turn out something like that. Moderates marginalized, civilians killed, Hamas still in power, no clear victory for Israel.



Here's PJB's take:

http://www.creators.com/opinion/pat-...olumnsName=pbu

Bush, Obama and the Gaza Blitz


Unwilling to control its fighters, who fired scores of missiles into Israel at the end of their six-month ceasefire, Hamas gave Israel the provocation it needed to deliver a savage blow to the Palestinian enclave in Gaza.


Saturday was the bloodiest day in the history of the Palestinian people since being driven from their homes in the War of 1948. One thousand were killed or wounded, as the Israeli Air Force conducted over a hundred strikes — on graduation ceremonies for Hamas fighters, police stations and storage sites for rockets.


About Israel's right and duty to defend its border towns, there is no dispute. When Hamas permits Gaza to be used as a launch pad for rockets, it must expect retaliation. Nor can Hamas claim some right to dictate the limits of that retaliation.


Yet the wisdom of so savage a retribution for rockets that killed not one Israeli is open to question. And crass Israeli politics seems to be behind this premeditated and planned blitz.


With Likud's hawkish "Bibi" Netanyahu ahead in the polls for the Feb. 10 election, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Labor's candidate, had to show that he, too, could be ruthless with Hamas.


Kadima Party candidate and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has an even greater need than the highly decorated Barak to show toughness. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, departing in scandal, wants to exit in a blaze of glory, to blot out the memory of a botched war against Hezbollah that he launched in the summer of 2006.


However, while Israel's politicians all seem to have a stake in these devastating strikes, Israel herself will pay the price.


Given the casualty toll, over 300 dead and 1,300 wounded as of this writing, Hamas will have to exact its pound of flesh. The Hamas wing that seeks renewed war with Israel will now shout into silence the wing working with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak on a new ceasefire.


The moderate Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas, who has been talking to Israel, testifying to her good faith, has been made to appear the puppet and fool. A new intifada spreading to the West Bank, with suicide attacks inside Israel, is now possible.


Moderate Arabs, who have recognized Israel or backed peace, will now be seen by the Arab street as appeasers impotent to stop the public suffering of the Palestinian people.


As for President Bush's hopes of midwifing a peace that would create a Palestinian state, they are as dead as the Annapolis process he set in train. In advancing peace in the Middle East, Bush's eight-year record is now a near-absolute failure.


For four years, Bush refused to talk to Yasir Arafat, though Bill Clinton had negotiated with him, as had four Israeli prime ministers, two of who shared a Nobel Prize with Arafat. In his second term, Bush, after insisting Hamas be included in free elections in Palestine, refused to recognize Hamas when it won those elections.


Arafat was a terrorist and Hamas is a terrorist organization, declared Bush, and we don't negotiate with terrorists. Yet, Bush de-listed Libya as a state sponsor of terror and sent Condi Rice to chat up Col. Gadhafi, though Gadhafi still has on his hands the blood of scores of American school kids from the Lockerbie massacre of 1989 that Libya and Gadhafi engineered
For eight years, like the "dummy" in a hand of bridge, Bush has sat mute as his Israeli partner, Sharon or Olmert, played America's cards as well as their own. The Bush response to Saturday's carnage, as anticipated, was to blame Hamas for causing it and urge Israelis to be careful about civilian casualties as they go about their reprisals.


Whatever Israel decides, we support. For eight years that has been the most reliable guide to U.S. Middle East policy.


And Barack Obama? Forty-eight hours after the Israeli blitz began, he and his national security team remain silent.


Hopefully, Obama will bring with him a new Mideast policy, one made in the U.S.A., for the U.S.A. Hopefully, just as Israel has its private links to Syria through Turkey, to Hamas through Egypt and to Hezbollah, Obama will establish independent U.S. channels to all three, and adopt a separate U.S. policy toward all three, as Israel does.


While the United States must support Israel's right to defend her towns and to strike bases from which Israelis are being attacked, Obama should denounce the collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, by Israel's cutting off their electricity in the dead of winter and denying them the food and medicine many need to survive.


For us to remain silent in the face of this comports neither with our interests or our values. Israel's policy of withholding from the weak and innocent of Gaza, women and children, the necessities of life, to punish the guilty who rule at the point of a gun, is a policy that Obama should declare the United States will no longer support with tax dollars.

[ChumpDumper]

I thought Israel is Palestine. Part of it anyway.

[Nbadan]

....we bombed a country that never attacked us.....

[Nbadan]

I thought Israel is Palestine. Part of it anyway.

Close.....in Jerusalem it is...

[ChumpDumper]

Historically, it all is.

[Nbadan]

With Likud's hawkish "Bibi" Netanyahu ahead in the polls for the Feb. 10 election, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Labor's candidate, had to show that he, too, could be ruthless with Hamas.

If the Likud get elected again watch out....

[Nbadan]

....the collateral damage...

According to published news reports, since the commencement of aerial strikes, over 300 Palestinians have been killed and approximately 1,400 have been wounded. The dead include 20 children under the age of 16--nearly half of them killed while on a school bus, according to the United Nations--and 9 women. The attack aggravated a humanitarian crisis wrought by the Israeli-imposed blockade of food, fuel, and medical supplies. With a population of 1.5 million people, the Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated territories in the world.

Link

[Nbadan]

...the carrot..

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States announced on Tuesday it would give $85 million to the U.N. agency providing aid to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

The announcement comes as the humanitarian situation is worsening in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which has been pounded by Israel for the past four days in retaliation for rockets fired into the Jewish state by Hamas and other Palestinian factions.

The U.S. funds, which will help cover appeals for aid by the agency for 2009, would pay for urgently needed food, medicines and other humanitarian aid for Palestinian refugees, said the department in a statement.

Of the $85 million, the State Department said $25 million would go to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) emergency appeal for the West Bank and Gaza and the remainder to a general fund run by the agency for Palestinian refugees in the region.

Reuters

[Oh, Gee!!]

Israel ius witrhin their right to dessimate the region is they desire

huh?

[nkdlunch]

damn right there is a reason for this Israeli attack. Elections are coming up in israel

[nkdlunch]

Saturday was the bloodiest day in the history of the Palestinian people since being driven from their homes in the War of 1948. One thousand were killed or wounded, as the Israeli Air Force conducted over a hundred strikes — on graduation ceremonies for Hamas fighters, police stations and storage sites for rockets.

meanwhile in the US, newspapers are concerned of what Sarah Palin has named her child

[MaNuMaNiAc]

4 Israelis dead = 300+ Palestinians dead... talk about a proportional response. Still, you can't really argue against Hamas needing to be eradicated. If Palestinians are willing to hide them in their houses, then they should be prepared to face the consequences. Is tragic really.

[SnakeBoy]

Historically, it all is.

And I live in comanche territory.

[Wild Cobra]

4 Israelis dead = 300+ Palestinians dead... talk about a proportional response.

Onjly losers believe in a proportional responce.

If someone hits me, I hit them hard enough so they are incapable of attacking back! If anything, Israel is being too nice.

proportional responces.

[SnakeBoy]

If I spit in your face you cannot punch me. You may spit back at me with an equal size lugey. If your mouth is dry you can subs ute one small squirt of pee at me equal to the volume of my lugey. Not two squirts that would be disproportionate.

[MaNuMaNiAc]

Onjly losers believe in a proportional responce.

If someone hits me, I hit them hard enough so they are incapable of attacking back! If anything, Israel is being too nice.

proportional responces.

Sure you do... that's why you're a ing joke

[Winehole23]

If I spit in your face you cannot punch me. You may spit back at me with an equal size lugey. If your mouth is dry you can subs ute one small squirt of pee at me equal to the volume of my lugey. Not two squirts that would be disproportionate.

Nice. It's really like that.

I take it you're familiar with the blockade obtaining in Gaza before the outbreak of hostilities. The shortages of energy, foodstuffs and medical supplies and so forth? Did you form an impression of that yet?

[jack sommerset]

When will they learn. Don't with Israel.

[Winehole23]

When will they learn. Don't with Israel.

When will Israel learn they can't all be stamped out like roaches?