Monday, 29 December 2008
The Dilemma That Is Gaza
By Morgan Strong
December 27, 2008 (Originally published December 15, 2008) Editor's Note: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has returned to the news, as Israeli warplanes blasted away Saturday at security compounds in Hamas-ruled Gaza, killing at least 155 and wounding more than 310, according to news accounts. The Israelis said they were retaliating against rocket fire from
the Gaza Strip.
Given this new crisis, we are republishing a first-person account by former "60 Minutes" consultant Morgan Strong about the tragedy that is Gaza: Gaza was and is an anomaly, a piece of land left over from the calamity of history, created it seems in a moment of distraction.
It was once Egyptian, then Ottoman, then British, then Israeli, now Palestinian. In truth no one quite knows what to do with - or what to do about - Gaza. The Palestine Liberation Organization governed Gaza most recently, but did nothing to ease the burden of the wretched existence of Gaza's 1.4 million people.
Arafat built a splendid headquarter in Gaza and an airport. He had a little house on the beach as well. The house was a modest unpretentious one-story bungalow. He wanted to show the people of Gaza that he was quite as ordinary as they.
However, Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, felt no need for such modesty. He built a gigantic multi-story holiday house on the beach, with a grand view of the sea. If you looked behind you, from his wrap-around balcony, you could gaze on the squalor of the refugee camps beneath you that make up much of Gaza.
The people of Gaza live in deplorable conditions for the most part, rudimentary shacks of plywood covered with a tin roof. There are no amenities in their homes, not so much as indoor plumbing. They rely almostentirely on the United Nations for their most basic needs.
There is no industry in Gaza, no economy, few jobs and little hope. Altogether there is precious little to sustain the people who are unfortunate enough to find themselves imprisoned there. Many arrived as refugees, coming by the thousands, driven by wars to the uncertain safety of this little strip of land by the sea. They did not escape the wars for long, but they could run no farther because the sea and an unfriendly Egypt were at their backs.
The people of Gaza are surrounded by the Israeli Army on three sides, with that army denying them - at its whim - the most elemental necessities for their primitive existence. Israel, through an agreement with the Palestine Authority, controls everything beyond Gaza's fenced-in world, making the people of Gaza completely hostage to Israel.
And Israel is now making their precarious existence unbearable. They are deliberately starving them, among other injustice and outrages. What Israel is doing might be called genocide, but there is great reluctance to name Israel as the perpetrator of genocide.
Israel does not want Gaza to exist as it is. Israel cannot afford to allow Gaza to exist. It must remove the population from Gaza, by whatever means it can and occupy that territory. And the Palestinian Authority will do nothing to stop this. The Palestinian Authority after years of corrupt management of Gaza lost its right to govern the place to the radical Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement.
The Palestinian Authority, the Israelis or the United States will not permit Hamas to exercise power in Gaza, since Gaza is a serious threat to each if it remains under the control of Hamas. And Hamas is not going away. When the Palestine Authority governed Gaza in the heady days immediately following the Oslo accords, traffic to and from the strip was largely un-impeded by the Israelis.
Arafat used to fly in one of his helicopters in and out of his brand new airport. And Palestine Airlines made scheduled flights to Egypt and Jordan daily. But other things happened that created great alarm to the Israelis. For one, Gaza became the hub of a stolen-car industry. High-priced automobiles were stolen in Israel and sold, or chopped up for parts, in Gaza. And there was more. Drugs were being smuggled in from Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East through tunnel's dug from Gaza to the Sinai.
Israel had, and has, a drug problem among its population though we do not hear much about that in the United States. The Palestine Authority thugs frequently exchanged drugs in return for weapons with the Israeli soldiers who guarded them.
Gaza was a smugglers paradise, and there was no law, or agency of the law, to intrude. In truth, the police and other law-enforcement agencies often were complicit. I had visited Arafat on more than one occasion in Gaza during the brief honeymoon the Palestinians enjoyed with the Israelis. Entry into and out of Gaza was at first almost alarmingly easy.
I together with a member of Arafat's staff would simply drive through the Israeli checkpoint at the border with no obstruction by the Israeli border guards. A wave of the hand from a soldier, and we went from Israel to Palestine in a flash.
A few years later, I had dinner with Arafat at his headquarters on the beach a short distance from his modest cottage, largely un-used little house. The headquarters building was several stories high, and encompassed at least two city blocks. So much for modesty.
We sat at a grand table in a room in the massive building, which provided a great view of the sea. He was grim and troubled at dinner. He told me in exasperation that there was an Israeli gunboat just over the horizon which would on occasion lob a shell onto the beach immediately in front of the building.
The Israelis were simply harassing Arafat, showing him who was boss. And he did not like that a bit. But in reality it was his fault. He did not govern Gaza, he simply let the thugs take command, and that was the beginning of the end for Gaza and its people.
Gaza went from bad to worse. Hamas promising reform, and a return to a normal society free from the intimidation of Palestinian Authority thugs, became the de facto governing entity.
Hamas rule turned out to be a mixed blessing. They did not stop the drug smuggling or the car theft. They just took the profits. Smuggling drugs into Israel to create more addicts was a form of warfare for them, and besides they made a nice buck doing it. The same was true of the car theft. And there were sundry other illegal activities they had their hands into. And it was no longer easy to enter or leave Gaza. My later visits to see Arafat entailed far more difficulty. I could no longer just be driven in.
I had to pass through a series of border checks, and once cleared, I was required to walk a few hundred yards from the Israeli border across an open no-mans land to Palestinian Gaza. The Israelis have succeeded, to a degree, in stopping the drug smuggling, but not entirely. The stolen-car business was stopped entirely however.
When Hamas began to fire rockets into Israel that ended any pretense on the Israelis' part that they would allow the entity of Gaza to remain as it was. Gaza was just too much trouble no matter how it was dealt with. So Israel has closed it tight, very tight, without any regard to the consequences to the population, most of whom are innocent of any crimes against Israel.
The poor, wretched people of Gaza are as much victims as they are marginally responsible for their own difficulties. Perhaps it is apathy, perhaps it is because self-governance is so alien a concept, but they suffer manifold indignity and terrible hardship by just being in the middle.
How they are able to extricate themselves now is a rather pressing question, but their lives truly depend on it.
http://www.consorti umnews.com/ 2008/122708a. html
December 27, 2008 (Originally published December 15, 2008) Editor's Note: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has returned to the news, as Israeli warplanes blasted away Saturday at security compounds in Hamas-ruled Gaza, killing at least 155 and wounding more than 310, according to news accounts. The Israelis said they were retaliating against rocket fire from
the Gaza Strip.
Given this new crisis, we are republishing a first-person account by former "60 Minutes" consultant Morgan Strong about the tragedy that is Gaza: Gaza was and is an anomaly, a piece of land left over from the calamity of history, created it seems in a moment of distraction.
It was once Egyptian, then Ottoman, then British, then Israeli, now Palestinian. In truth no one quite knows what to do with - or what to do about - Gaza. The Palestine Liberation Organization governed Gaza most recently, but did nothing to ease the burden of the wretched existence of Gaza's 1.4 million people.
Arafat built a splendid headquarter in Gaza and an airport. He had a little house on the beach as well. The house was a modest unpretentious one-story bungalow. He wanted to show the people of Gaza that he was quite as ordinary as they.
However, Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, felt no need for such modesty. He built a gigantic multi-story holiday house on the beach, with a grand view of the sea. If you looked behind you, from his wrap-around balcony, you could gaze on the squalor of the refugee camps beneath you that make up much of Gaza.
The people of Gaza live in deplorable conditions for the most part, rudimentary shacks of plywood covered with a tin roof. There are no amenities in their homes, not so much as indoor plumbing. They rely almostentirely on the United Nations for their most basic needs.
There is no industry in Gaza, no economy, few jobs and little hope. Altogether there is precious little to sustain the people who are unfortunate enough to find themselves imprisoned there. Many arrived as refugees, coming by the thousands, driven by wars to the uncertain safety of this little strip of land by the sea. They did not escape the wars for long, but they could run no farther because the sea and an unfriendly Egypt were at their backs.
The people of Gaza are surrounded by the Israeli Army on three sides, with that army denying them - at its whim - the most elemental necessities for their primitive existence. Israel, through an agreement with the Palestine Authority, controls everything beyond Gaza's fenced-in world, making the people of Gaza completely hostage to Israel.
And Israel is now making their precarious existence unbearable. They are deliberately starving them, among other injustice and outrages. What Israel is doing might be called genocide, but there is great reluctance to name Israel as the perpetrator of genocide.
Israel does not want Gaza to exist as it is. Israel cannot afford to allow Gaza to exist. It must remove the population from Gaza, by whatever means it can and occupy that territory. And the Palestinian Authority will do nothing to stop this. The Palestinian Authority after years of corrupt management of Gaza lost its right to govern the place to the radical Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement.
The Palestinian Authority, the Israelis or the United States will not permit Hamas to exercise power in Gaza, since Gaza is a serious threat to each if it remains under the control of Hamas. And Hamas is not going away. When the Palestine Authority governed Gaza in the heady days immediately following the Oslo accords, traffic to and from the strip was largely un-impeded by the Israelis.
Arafat used to fly in one of his helicopters in and out of his brand new airport. And Palestine Airlines made scheduled flights to Egypt and Jordan daily. But other things happened that created great alarm to the Israelis. For one, Gaza became the hub of a stolen-car industry. High-priced automobiles were stolen in Israel and sold, or chopped up for parts, in Gaza. And there was more. Drugs were being smuggled in from Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East through tunnel's dug from Gaza to the Sinai.
Israel had, and has, a drug problem among its population though we do not hear much about that in the United States. The Palestine Authority thugs frequently exchanged drugs in return for weapons with the Israeli soldiers who guarded them.
Gaza was a smugglers paradise, and there was no law, or agency of the law, to intrude. In truth, the police and other law-enforcement agencies often were complicit. I had visited Arafat on more than one occasion in Gaza during the brief honeymoon the Palestinians enjoyed with the Israelis. Entry into and out of Gaza was at first almost alarmingly easy.
I together with a member of Arafat's staff would simply drive through the Israeli checkpoint at the border with no obstruction by the Israeli border guards. A wave of the hand from a soldier, and we went from Israel to Palestine in a flash.
A few years later, I had dinner with Arafat at his headquarters on the beach a short distance from his modest cottage, largely un-used little house. The headquarters building was several stories high, and encompassed at least two city blocks. So much for modesty.
We sat at a grand table in a room in the massive building, which provided a great view of the sea. He was grim and troubled at dinner. He told me in exasperation that there was an Israeli gunboat just over the horizon which would on occasion lob a shell onto the beach immediately in front of the building.
The Israelis were simply harassing Arafat, showing him who was boss. And he did not like that a bit. But in reality it was his fault. He did not govern Gaza, he simply let the thugs take command, and that was the beginning of the end for Gaza and its people.
Gaza went from bad to worse. Hamas promising reform, and a return to a normal society free from the intimidation of Palestinian Authority thugs, became the de facto governing entity.
Hamas rule turned out to be a mixed blessing. They did not stop the drug smuggling or the car theft. They just took the profits. Smuggling drugs into Israel to create more addicts was a form of warfare for them, and besides they made a nice buck doing it. The same was true of the car theft. And there were sundry other illegal activities they had their hands into. And it was no longer easy to enter or leave Gaza. My later visits to see Arafat entailed far more difficulty. I could no longer just be driven in.
I had to pass through a series of border checks, and once cleared, I was required to walk a few hundred yards from the Israeli border across an open no-mans land to Palestinian Gaza. The Israelis have succeeded, to a degree, in stopping the drug smuggling, but not entirely. The stolen-car business was stopped entirely however.
When Hamas began to fire rockets into Israel that ended any pretense on the Israelis' part that they would allow the entity of Gaza to remain as it was. Gaza was just too much trouble no matter how it was dealt with. So Israel has closed it tight, very tight, without any regard to the consequences to the population, most of whom are innocent of any crimes against Israel.
The poor, wretched people of Gaza are as much victims as they are marginally responsible for their own difficulties. Perhaps it is apathy, perhaps it is because self-governance is so alien a concept, but they suffer manifold indignity and terrible hardship by just being in the middle.
How they are able to extricate themselves now is a rather pressing question, but their lives truly depend on it.
http://www.consorti umnews.com/ 2008/122708a. html
Sunday, 28 December 2008
Naim: Israeli air strikes on Gaza kill 300 Palestinians, wound 1000 others
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GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian health minister Dr. Basim Naim has affirmed that the brutal Israeli air strikes on Gaza Strip reaped more than 300 Palestinian lives, and wounded close to 1000 others, scores of them in critical conditions. Israeli warplanes of all kinds were used in attacking the densely populated Gaza Strip, and unleashed tens of missiles against Palestinian police headquarters and civilian buildings, increasing the death toll. In a press conference he held Sunday evening, Naim underlined that bodies of tens of civilians were still under the rubble of the destroyed buildings, adding that Gaza sky was covered with smoke and occupation warplanes. He said that blood and chopped limbs were seen everywhere on the streets. But Naim highlighted that the most serious obstacle facing Palestinian doctors was the severe shortage in medicine and medical equipment to treat the growing number of injuries among the Palestinians. He added that almost half of the ambulance vehicles in Gaza Strip were out of work due to lack of spare parts as a result of the Israeli economic blockade on Gaza, adding that Gaza hospitals urgently need electricity generators to help run the remaining equipments. "This brutal Israeli aggression is carried out amidst awful Arab silence, and clear international connivance", stressed Naim, pointing out that the Israeli warplanes have indiscriminately bombed civilian and security buildings in the Strip, and that it was calling owners of Palestinian homes to vacate their housed in preparation to flatten them. Moreover, Naim called on Arab health ministers to dispatch medical teams to the "steadfast" Strip, and to send medicine and ambulances equipped with intensive care equipments. He also shrugged off statements of Ahmad Abu Al-Ghait, Egypt's foreign minister, alleging that Hamas was blocking wounded Palestinians from passing into Egypt, explaining that Egypt is still sealing off the Rafah crossing point, in addition to the fact that many of the wounded Palestinians were in serious conditions and "transporting them could jeopardize their lives". "We still remember the six wounded Palestinians who were martyred after transferring them to Al-Areesh (in Egypt)", underscored Naim, disclosing that the PA government in Gaza had requested Egyptian ambulances to come into the Strip and to carry the wounded Palestinians, but, he added, Egypt refused our request in addition to preventing hundreds of Arab volunteer doctors from helping their comrades in Gaza. In this regard, Naim urged the Egyptian regime to allow Arab medical assistance into the Strip through the Rafah border terminal, saying that Egypt was still blocking such medical aid from passing on to the Palestinians. In Damascus, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, the spokesman of Hamas, rejected Abul Ghait's fabrications on opening the Rafah crossing before the wounded Palestinians, asserting that the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza was declared from Cairo. "It is clear that those statements were meant to cover up positions of certain Arab parties involved in the conspiracy against Gaza", asserted Abu Zuhri in a press release Sunday and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC. He also lashed out at PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and Abul Ghait for "trying to justify the Israeli massacre in Gaza, accusing them of attempting to exploit the precious Palestinian blood for mean political goals". |
Egyptian forces kill one Palestinian wound 15 others
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RAFAH, (PIC)-- The Egyptian forces stationed at the Rafah border crossing killed a Palestinian man when a group of Palestinian managed to make an opening in the border fence and bring 12 trucks loaded with aid into the Strip. Local sources told PIC correspondent that the Egyptian forces killed Muhammad Ismail al-Kurd, 21, and wounded 15 others when they opened intensive fire at a group of Palestinians who managed to breach the border fence. The Egyptian forces fired at a group of Palestinians near the border fence after the Israeli occupation airforce destroyed 40 tunnels used for smuggling essential goods to the besieged Gaza Strip. Eyewitnesses said that a number of Palestinians managed to make a hole in the border fence and let 12 stranded trucks at the Egyptian side and loaded with medical aid into the Gaza Strip. Egypt refused to allow those trucks through the Rafah border crossing. |
Israeli occupation air strike against a university, a mosque and fishing harbour
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| The Islamic University |
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GAZA, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation airforce, Sunday night, continued its air strikes on the Gaza Strip targeting a number of targets, including the Islamic university and the Imad Aqel Mosque. The Islamic University in Gaza is the largest and oldest of the Gaza Strip universities, it was established in 1978 and grew to become the main university in the Strip with about 25,000 students in various faculties of the university. The aerial bombardment of the university resulted in the destruction of a number of buildings and setting them ablaze. No human casualties were reported so far. Another air strike targeted a mosque in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. Initial reports talk of the death of 5 little girls siblings from the Balousha family whose home was destroyed in the bombing of the mosque. This is the third mosque to be targeted since the start of this latest Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on Saturday. Meanwhile, Israeli airforce and naval boats targeted the fishing harbour at an early hour Monday. |
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Egyptian demonstrators call for expulsion of Israeli ambassador
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CAIRO, (PIC)-- Hundreds of Egyptian protestors demonstrated in Cairo on Sunday to condemn the latest Israeli occupation massacres in the Gaza Strip. The demonstrators strongly protested the Egyptian collusion and the Arab silence towards the latest Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian security forces placed a security cordon around the demonstrators closing the road of Qasr al-Aini. Participants in the demonstration, who came from across the political and social spectrum, presented the Egyptian government with three demands; the opening of the Rafah crossing, the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and to stop exporting Egyptian gas to Israel. They also accused the Egyptian government of collusion and called for the resignation of the Egyptian foreign minister and the chief editor of the Aram newspaper for their anti-resistance stands. They chanted slogans such as "we sacrifice our blood for you Palestine", "FM, are you a minister of Egypt or a minister of Israel", "be steadfast Hamas, you are the gun and we are the bullets", "Mubarak, tell us: are you with or against us?", "Shaikh of Azhar, why are you quiet, do you see what is happening in Gaza or not?" Dr. Muhammad Biltaji, member of the Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc delivered a speech in which he blamed the impotence of Arab rulers and accused the Egyptian government of giving the Israeli occupation the green light to go ahead in its carnage against the Gaza Strip. He stressed that the wrong policies of the Egyptian regime brought shame onto the Egyptian people pointing out to the arrest of Dr. Jamal Abdel-Salam the Secretary General of the Relief Committee as proof that Egypt is reinforcing the occupation policy of starving the people of Gaza. He also said that the Egyptian official media has implemented the instructions of the Israeli security cabinet to the letter with regard to a media campaign in preparation for the war on Gaza. |
IOF air strikes claim more lives, start fires in bombed buildings
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RAFAH, (PIC)-- Israeli warplanes on Sunday blasted more targets in the Gaza Strip including a fuel truck in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, which started a huge fire that engulfed nearby homes. Eyewitnesses said that Israeli warplanes fired a number of rockets at a big truck loaded with fuel starting huge fire that extended to nearby homes. They said that inhabitants fled their homes and miraculously escaped death, noting that a store for medicines was destroyed in the fire that threatened the entire neighborhood. The warplanes also blasted the Tal Al-Sultan police station west of Rafah city, the locals reported. Later Sunday, Israeli F-16s raided the security compound in Gaza city called "Saraya" that hosts a number of security apparatuses and includes a central prison. The building dates back to the Ottoman era. Locals said that most of the historical building was destroyed after three missiles blasted in it. Heavy smoke was seen billowing from the Saraya compound along with the nearby Shuhada Mosque. The raids earlier targeted a police vehicle in Zaitun suburb, Gaza city, that left a number of policemen killed in addition to passersby. A number of police stations in Khan Younis city were also targeted. Other air raids targeted security and government vehicles and installations that killed ten Palestinians and wounded many others. The raids destroyed the Palestinian government's premises in Gaza city, Rafah district headquarters and security positions in Beit Hanun, Khan Younis and central Gaza. In the same context, Palestinian security sources denied that any of the Fatah detainees in Gaza jails were killed in the Israeli aerial bombardment. The sources told PIC that there is no political detainee from Fatah in any of the Gaza jails. They added that a number of prisoners are held in Gaza central prison for homicide charges and the Red Cross knows that it is a jail for civilians. |
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Two Palestinians killed, others wounded during West Bank protests
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RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Two Palestinian young men were killed in Ramallah in the West Bank on Sunday by IOF troops trying to suppress demonstrations against the Israeli occupation massacres in the Gaza Strip. The first was killed in the village of Nilin to the west of Ramallah, tens others were wounded with live bullets or rubber coated bullets during confrontations between Palestinian protestors and IOF troops. Arafat Rateb al-Khawaja, 22, was hit with an IOF bullet during the second day of demonstrations in the village of Nilin to protest the Israeli occupation massacres in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Hamed Hamed, from the village of Silwad was killed by the IOF at the Ein Yabroud crossings. Tens of Palestinians were also wounded in confrontations between Palestinian demonstrators and IOF troops at the Qalandia roadblock near Ramallah. All towns and villages in the West Bank witnessed a strike and demonstrations against the massacres in the Gaza Strip. |
Shalit may have been wounded in an Israeli occupation air strike
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GAZA, (PIC)-- Sources in Gaza said that the captured Israeli occupation soldier Gilad Shalit was wounded in one of the Israeli occupation air strikes on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli occupation airforce bombed more than 300 targets in the Gaza Strip since noon Saturday killing over 300 Palestinians and wounding around 1000 others. Hamas official sources refused to confirm or deny the news about the wounding of Gilad Shalit or the extent of his injuries if he was wounded holding the Israeli leaders responsible for anything that happens to him. The sources added that Shalit was an important card for reaching a prisoner exchange deal, but the latest Israeli escalation could result in him becoming another Ron Arad. |
Hamas: Gaza hard to break
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KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)-- Hamas's spokesman in Khan Younis district, south of the Gaza Strip, Hammad Al-Rokob affirmed that the brutal Israeli aggressions on Gaza were meant to subjugate the Palestinian resistance and the Gaza Strip. But he stressed that the Israeli efforts in this regard would fail despite the Arabs' feeble reaction towards the Israeli massacre going on in Gaza. "It is clear that amidst the unsolicited Palestinians political division that wasn’t of Hamas's choice and the weak Arab position vis-à-vis the Israeli atrocities against the Gaza civilians, Gaza would pay the bill of the dignity of the entire Arab Ummah. "The (Israeli) enemy might think that he could subjugate Gaza; but it tried Gaza before and knows that it is hard to break", Rokob stressed, "We, in Hamas, have no huge military arsenal, sophisticated weapons, and big army…. all what we possess is a little amount of weapons and ammunitions (manufactured locally) in addition to a great faith and unbreakable determination that victory would be ours", he emphasized. (Palestina Info) |
IOA summons reservists
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OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation government on Sunday decided to summon 6,500 reservists in anticipation of launching a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. The government said that the step was adopted to enhance the military operations and to support the forces currently surrounding the Strip. It pointed out that the step also was in preparation for a longer period of military operations in the area. Hebrew press reports had quoted Israeli war minister Ehud Barak as saying that he would ask the cabinet to agree on summoning thousands of reservists to boost the border areas with Gaza. Meanwhile, PLC acting speaker Dr. Ahmed Bahar called on the Palestinian resistance factions to retaliate to the ongoing Israeli occupation forces' air strikes on the Strip that killed almost 300 Palestinians and wounded about 800 others. In a statement on Sunday on Al-Aqsa TV, he expressed indignation at the official Arab silence towards the Israeli carnage in Gaza. (Palestina Info) |
With brothers like these, who needs enemies?
By Khalid Amayreh
(Note: This piece was written before the latest Israeli massacres in Gaza)
There is more than just a whiff of hypocrisy in the way Arab states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia as well as the American-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) are dealing with the continuing nightmare in the Gaza Strip.
A fleeting examination of recent statements by Egyptian and Saudi officials indicate that the rulers of the two countries are effectively adopting the Israeli stance on the Gaza plight.
For example, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit recently blamed Hamas for the collapse of the Egyptian-mediated tacit ceasefire understanding in Gaza , forgetting the obvious fact that it was Israel , not Hamas, that violated the ceasefire when Israeli forces carried out a deadly foray in Gaza in mid November, killing a number of Palestinian resistance fighters.
Abul Gheit has also been oblivious to the fact that throughout the duration of the ceasefire (June 19-June19-2008), Israel kept up, even intensified, the cruel blockade of the Gaza Strip, pushing desperate Gazans to the edge of physical annihilation.
Egypt, too, we must not forget, knowingly or unknowingly assisted Israel by making sure that the Rafah border crossing remained almost hermetically closed, so that the estimated 1.5 million Gazans would suffer and die both at the hands of Israeli Nazi Nazism and by brotherly Arab love and solidarity.
I can’t really understand why Egypt , the largest and most powerful Arab state, is behaving the way it is.
Egyptian officials present a number of confused and inconsistent arguments to justify the scandalous stand of their government.
They claim that the continued closure of the Rafah crossing was serving Palestinian national interests since opening the crossing would free Israel from its responsibility as an occupying power.
This is a mendacious argument because all that Gazans want is to be able to buy food and consumer products from Egypt for survival.
Occasionally, Egyptian officials defend their cruel treatment of Gazans seeking to get back to Gaza or get out of it for medical treatment by invoking the “international agreement” governing the operation of the border crossing.
According to that infamous agreement, the Rafah border-crossing can only be opened with Israeli consent.
Well, a scandalous agreement as such is not worth maintaining in the first place, since it gives Israel the right to besiege and strangle and starve Gazans to death, very much like the Nazis did at Ghetto Warsaw.
I don’t know if the Egyptian authorities are giving more weight to honoring a brazenly shameful agreement than to the survival of 1.5 million Palestinians who are being subjected to a slow-motion genocide because they dared elect a government that Israel and the Bush administration didn’t like.
Are agreements that effectively place the people of Gaza under the mercy of Israeli whims, cruelty and blood lust worth maintaining? This is a question that the leader of Egypt ought to answer faithfully and honestly.
Last year, Abul Gheit claimed that Egypt was keeping the Rafah crossing closed based on a request to that effect by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Well, but the Egyptian leadership should know better than just heeding instructions from a “leader” that is willing to go to any extent in order to appease the occupiers of his country and enemies of his people at the expense of his suffering people and their enduring just cause.
Besides, Israel has been telling the world that it ended its occupation of the Gaza Strip more than three years ago. If so, why is Egypt so reluctant to tell the Zionist regime and its American guardian-ally that Israel can’t have it both ways, keeping Gaza under tight Israeli control and at the same time claim to have ended its occupation of the coastal enclave?
Otherwise, Egypt is allowing itself to be party to the Israeli designs to annihilate the people of Gaza under the rubric of keeping the moribund peace process a live.
More disturbing still is the silence with which Egyptian officials, including Abul Gheit, met the insolent remarks made by visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Cairo on Thursday, 25 December.
Livni, the racist woman who earlier this month called for the expulsion of Israeli non-Jewish citizens to a prospective Palestinian entity on the West Bank , made a series of arrogant threats to destroy Hamas and end its rule in the Gaza Strip.
Well, since when are such Judeo-Nazi leaders allowed to speak in this tone in the capital of the largest Arab state, the home of al-Azhar, without any retort by Egyptian leaders and spokesmen.?
Is Egypt completely impotent, sterile, dead?
And now to the ruling Saudi dynasty?
It is really shameful that while the rulers of the desert Kingdom are currying favor with Zionist Jews, especially by organizing “inter-religious conferences” in Europe and North America , they are being so harsh on the Palestinians by demanding that they give up the bulk of their legitimate rights to freedom and liberation from the claws of Israeli Nazism.
Well, the Saudi rulers are well-advised to keep their mouths shut. If they want to continue their promiscuous relationship with Israel and her Zionist agents, that is their business. But they must stop telling us to give up the right of return. For us Palestinians, the right of return is as sacred as the Makka and Madina
If the Saudis are interested in obtaining a certificate of good conduct from Zionist Jews, then this shouldn’t be at the expense of the Palestinian people and their inalienable right.(palestina-info)
Iran strongly denounces the Israeli holocaust in Gaza
TEHRAN, (PIC)-- Dr. Hasan Kashkawi, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, has strongly denounced the "barbaric" Israeli raids on residential quarters in the Gaza Strip that left hundreds of Palestinians citizens either killed or wounded.
He said that the "savage" attack is another crime to be added to the Israeli black record and state terrorism.
The spokesman said that the crime, which was committed to gain more votes in the imminent Israeli elections, also posed as an "important document" pointing to the ceaseless Israeli aggressive intentions.
Kashkawi charged that the crime was the result of the "painful international silence" towards the "oppressive siege" on the women and children in Gaza.
He finally called on the world community to adopt urgent and immediate steps to check the "Zionist crimes" and to help the Palestinian people.
Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip ongoing since yesterday claimed the lives of more than 280 Palestinians and wounded about 800 others, a big number of whom seriously. (Palestina-info)
New wave of IOF air raids on Gaza kills four, destroys mosque
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces using American supplied F-16 warplanes resumed on Sunday "targeted raids" on the Gaza Strip killing four citizens and wounding others in addition to destroying a mosque near the Shifa hospital in Gaza city.
PIC reporter said that the aerial raids leveled the mosque in which tens of citizens, relatives of patients, were taking refuge killing two and wounding many others.
He added that material damage was inflicted on the nearby Shifa hospital, which is the biggest in the Strip.
The warplanes bombed a building for the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, killing two of its members.
The new wave of raids targeted security installations, workshops, factories and houses inflicting an unspecified number of casualties.
Citizens said that they received messages on their mobile phones from Israeli officers threatening that their homes would be bombed and asked them to evacuate them if they had any weapons stashed in them.
The IOF devastating raids started on Saturday noon and dropped at least 60 missiles at various areas in the Gaza Strip in what a western news agency described as "raining death on Gaza".
The strike, which started with simultaneous air raids on 50 targets along the coastal Strip, left 271 Palestinians killed and more than 750 others wounded, almost 200 of whom are in very serious conditions, the PA health ministry in Gaza said.
Medical sources said that the number of martyrs could rise to 350 in view of the seriousness of a big number of the injured.
They said that 15 martyrs were not yet identified, and added that 80 bodies were shredded while many others were still under the debris.
The sources said that hospitals in the Strip suffer from shortages in medicine and first aid materials, other than medical utilities for urgent surgeries, and appealed to the Arab countries to expedite sending those medical supplies. (palestina-info)
IOF warplanes blast Aqsa TV station headquarters
GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli warplanes blasted the premises of the Aqsa TV station in the Gaza Strip at dawn Sunday in line with a series of devastating air raids on the Strip that started at noon Saturday.
The Aqsa TV, which did not go off the air, said that the warplanes fired a number of rockets at its headquarters west of Gaza city inflicting big damage but no casualties.
A station announcer said that the TV would continue to broadcast regardless of the destruction in a bid to unveil the "savagery of the Zionist occupation".
A spokesman for the Israeli occupation forces has said that the air force had launched 170 air raids since the devastating aerial bombardment started until Saturday night.
The intensified air raids claimed the lives of 270 Palestinians and wounded more than 750 others tens of whom are in very critical conditions.
The spokesman said that the IOF warplanes also targeted tunnels used for smuggling from Egypt into the Strip.(Palestina-info)
Muslim Association of Britain condemns massacres in the Gaza Strip
London, (PIC)-- The Muslim Association of Britain issued a statement on Saturday calling for a halt of "the criminal massacres in the Gaza Strip," which came after a " scandalous siege of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Occupation"
"After the scandalous siege of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Occupation that began more than one year ago from which hundreds of innocent children, women and elderly have perished, notwithstanding the other forms of human suffering, Israel has today carried out simultaneous barbaric air and ground attacks on the besieged territory leaving in its wake 205 dead and more than 400 injured in addition to the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure," the statement read.
"This brutal and criminal attack on the Gaza Strip, the most densely populated part of the world, would result in an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe if it is not brought to an immediate end. We call upon all Muslims with their institutions, official and popular, and the free people of the world and civil society bodies to take urgent steps to force the Israeli Occupation and those who have influence over them to stop this savage crime and the impending disaster.
"Commenting on the attacks President of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), Dr Ahmad Al Rawi said, ‘What the Zionist Occupation has done today constitutes a flagrant crime against humanity, against a defenseless people who do not have the most basic means to defend themselves in the face of the Israeli killing machine. He added, ‘the attack on Gaza is by all standards a blatant violation of international law and affront to all standards of human conduct. We call upon the world community to bring the Zionist war criminals to justice before the International Criminal Court.’
" Al Rawi called upon Islamic organizations in Britain and civil society bodies to demonstrate their unreserved solidarity with the Palestinian people by providing all forms of humanitarian assistance and support and protesting against the barbaric Zionist campaign. The MAB urges the British government to condemn in unambiguous language the Israeli war crimes. Finally we urge the European Union and international community to adopt whatever measures are needed to end Israel’s criminal aggression."(palestina-info)
PFLP: PA negotiation with IOA covers up for massacres
DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Dr. Maher Al-Taher, one of the prominent political leaders of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine, has asked the PA leadership in Ramallah to stop all talks with the Israeli occupation authority and to reconsider agreements signed with it.
Taher told Al-Jazeera TV that the continuation of negotiations with the IOA serves the Zionist program.
"What is happening (in Gaza) is a crime against the Palestinian people that could not be covered by Palestinians through continuing those talks," he elaborated.
The PFLP official also called for re-considering agreements with Israel because it practically cancelled them.
Taher advocated a national, comprehensive dialog among all Palestinians to form a unified national leadership that would run the Palestinian affairs.
Meanwhile, a Saudi religious scholar, Dr. Awad Al-Karni, said that Muslims should target Israeli interests all over the world in retaliation to the bloodbath in Gaza.
He also asked the American administration to re-consider its relations with Muslims, and charged that an "Arab conspiracy" encouraged the Israelis to commit those pogroms.
The massive Israeli air raids on Gaza since yesterday claimed the lives of 275 Palestinians and wounded almost 800 others with a big number of them women and children, who at the first wave of the air strikes were returning home from their schools. (palestinainfo)
Hamas: Severing relations with Israel, opening Rafah crossing practical response
DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement on Saturday said that the "practical response to the ongoing Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip is to sever relations with the Zionist enemy and to open the Rafah border terminal with Egypt".
A Hamas statement said that hundreds of Palestinians were the victims of a "Zionist criminal, brutal and savage aggression" in an attempt to subdue the steadfast Gaza with the collusion of official Arab and Palestinian parties and with unlimited support from the American administration.
Hamas said that the aggression will be defeated and the scenes of blood and scattered bodies would not weaken the Palestinian steadfastness.
The Movement strongly denounced the statement of one of the advisors of PA chief Mahmoud Abbas who blamed Hamas for the IOF aggression, and asked Abbas to sack him as a minimum punishment for such a "shameful position".
Hamas finally called on the Arab and Islamic masses to pressure their governments with all peaceful means to support the people of Gaza and to halt the attacks on them.
The AP reported, "Israeli warplanes rained more than 100 tons of bombs on security sites in Hamas-ruled Gaza Saturday and early Sunday, killing at least 230 people in one of the Mideast conflict's bloodiest assaults in decades".(infopalestina)
230 Killed and 750 wounded in the latest Israeli massacre
GAZA, (PIC)-- On the most bloody day witnessed in Palestine since 41 years the Israeli occupation war machine on Saturday killed more than 230 Palestinians and wounded around 750 others, 200 of them in serious condition.
More than a hundred American supplied F16s carried out a series of simultaneous air strikes at noon Saturday across the Gaza Strip targeting police stations and a mosque.
The air strikes were timed to coincide with time school children leave their schools home causing many casualties amongst school children.
Muaweyya Hasanin, director of emergency services, said that 230 people were killed in the attacks and 750 were wounded, 200 of them seriously, adding that a large number of civilians were amongst the victims. Medical sources expected the death toll to rise to 350.
Hasanin added that there 15 victims who could not be identified because their bodies were badly mutilated, adding that at 80 of the victims were mutilated.
He said that the rapid rise in the death toll was due to the recovery of new victims from under the rubbles and the continuing Israeli air strikes which have not stopped until the early hours of Sunday.
Hasanin also said that hospitals are lacking medicines and medical materials necessary for treating the wounded calling on Arab countries to provide the essential medical supplies urgently.(palestine-info)
Haneyya: The Israeli aggression aims to break the epic steadfastness of Gaza
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian Prime Minster Ismael Haneyya called on the Palestinian people for more unity in the face of the continuing Israeli occupation onslaught stressing that the Israeli occupation aggression will not break the Palestinian people's will or insistence on their rights.
In a televised address aired by al-Aqsa satellite channel Haneyya said that the Israeli occupation massacres will not weaken the Palestinian people who are more insistent on their rights pointing out that the Israeli occupation has committed many massacres against the Palestinian people in the past including al-Buraq Massacre, Deir Yassin Massacre, Sabra and Shatila, Nahallin, the Ibrahimi Mosque, the old city of Nablus, Bethlehem, al-Buraij and Khan Younis, yet the Palestinian people emerged after each massacre stronger and more determined.
"They want to break the Palestinian epic steadfastness in the face of the Israeli imposed siege, to end the culture of resistance and to create a rift between the elected government and its popular base. They seek to divert the attention of the world from the real problem, which is occupation, Judaization of Jerusalem, hundreds of roadblocks and a siege the like of which has not been witnessed in modern history, so they use their propaganda machine to claim that Hamas and its resistance is the problem."
He greeted all free people around the world who protested at the Israeli occupation massacres in the Gaza Strip.(palestine-info.co.uk)
Mishaal: This is the time for the third intifada
DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Khaled Mishaal, the head of Hamas's political bureau said on Saturday that Hamas will not be defeated by barbaric massacres committed by the Israeli occupation stressing that "the enemy's war machine will be broken at the rock of Palestinian people's steadfastness."
Mishaal said in an interview on al-Jazeera satellite television on Saturday evening, on the day of the great massacre which claimed the lives of more than 230 lives, "this is the time for perseverance, Hamas along with other resistance factions will resist the Israeli occupation aggression."
He called for a third intifada saying: "this is the time for a third intifada, to make the Israeli occupation aware that Gaza is not alone."
In a message to those who wager on breaking the will of the Palestinian people, Mishaal said: "Yes, the Zionist enemy in the past was skilful in using the element of surprise and deciding when to start a war and have control over the conclusion. Today Israel with its advanced weaponry and international support could choose the time to start and cause death and destruction but lacks the ability to control the end."
He added that every Israeli leader sees the blood of the people of Gaza as his way to be elected, but they are wrong, Gaza will be the end of those politicians.
Mishaal stressed that the movement will defend Gaza and retaliate to Israeli atrocities, adding that "the enemy will not hear from us, it will see."
He further called on Fatah for national unity in both Gaza and the West Bank stressing that Fatah and the PA in Ramallah are two different bodies calling on the PA to stop its security campaigns in service of occupations and to stop futile negotiations with the Israeli occupation.
Mishaal said the Arab official stance should be working towards stopping the onslaught on the Gaza Strip and lifting the siege once and for all.(palestine-info.co.uk)
Israeli Attacks in Gaza Strip Continue for 2nd Day
By TAGHREED EL-KHODARY and ETHAN BRONNER
Palestinian prisoners fled after an Israeli missile struck the Hamas security compound known as the Saraya in central Gaza City on Sunday.
Mohammed Saber/European Pressphoto Agency
Israeli airstrikes against Hamas facilities in Gaza continued on Sunday and the death toll rose to more than 280 in Israel’s most severe campaign against Palestinian militants in decades. (NYT)
Israeli Attacks in Gaza Strip Continue for 2nd Day
Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Palestinian protesters threw stones at Israeli soldiers in clashes near Jerusalem on Saturday. An injured Palestinian was helped from the rubble after an Israeli airstrike struck Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
By TAGHREED EL-KHODARY and ISABEL KERSHNER
GAZA — Israeli airstrikes against Hamas facilities in Gaza continued for a second day on Sunday and the death toll rose to more than 280 as Israel retaliated for rocket fire from the area with its most severe campaign against Palestinian militants in decades.
The Palestinian groups again launched barrages of rockets and mortars into Israel on Sunday, extending their reach further than ever before, and the Israeli government approved the emergency call up of thousands of army reservists in preparation for a possible ground operation.
Speaking before the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the army “will deepen and broaden its actions as needed” and “will continue to act in Gaza.”
Among the 30 or more targets hit Saturday night and early Sunday was the main security compound and prison in Gaza City known as the Saraya; metal workshops throughout Gaza; Hamas military posts; and the house of a chemistry professor from Gaza’s Islamic University. The Hamas-owned Al-Aqsa television station was also struck, as was a mosque that the Israeli military said was housing armed men and was being used as a terrorist operation center.
Palestinian officials said that most of the dead in Gaza were security officers for Hamas, including two senior commanders, and that at least 600 people had been wounded in the attacks.
The prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, said on Sunday that “the patience, determination and stamina” of the residents of the Israeli home front would, in the end, determine the success of the Israeli military and diplomatic campaign.
Two rockets fell in the vicinity of the major Israeli port city of Ashdod, almost 25 miles north of Gaza, a military spokeswoman said. Others landed in the coastal city of Ashkelon. Several Israelis were lightly wounded by shrapnel. The hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens now within rocket range have been instructed by the authorities to stay close to protected spaces and an emergency has been declared.
Israeli military officials said that the airstrikes, which began on Saturday morning, were the start of what could be days or even months of an effort to force Hamas to end its rocket barrages into southern Israel.
After the initial airstrikes, dozens of rockets were fired into southern Israel sending thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters. One man was killed on Saturday in the town of Netivot, the first death from rocket fire since it intensified a week ago.
A number of governments and international officials, including leaders of Russia, Egypt, the European Union and the United Nations, condemned Israel’s use of force and also called on Hamas to end the rocket fire. But in strong terms, the Bush administration blamed Hamas for the violence and demanded that it stop firing rockets.
Early Sunday morning in New York the United Nations Security Council issued a statement expressing concern about the escalation of the conflict and calling on both parties for an immediate end to all violence. The statement came after envoys of the 15-member council met for over four hours in a closed session, Reuters reported.
A military operation had been forecast and demanded by Israeli officials for weeks, ever since a rocky cease-fire between Israel and Hamas fully collapsed a week ago, leading again to rocket attacks in large numbers against Israel and isolated Israeli operations here.
Still, there was a shocking quality to Saturday’s attacks, which began in broad daylight as police cadets were graduating, women were shopping at the outdoor market, and children were emerging from school.
The center of Gaza City was a scene of chaotic horror, with rubble everywhere, sirens wailing, and women shrieking as dozens of mutilated bodies were laid out on the pavement and in the lobby of Shifa Hospital so that family members could identify them. The dead included civilians, including several construction workers and at least two children in school uniforms.
By afternoon, shops were shuttered, funerals began and mourning tents were visible on nearly every major street of this densely populated city.
The leader of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, said in a statement that “Palestine has never witnessed an uglier massacre.” Later, in a televised speech, he vowed to fight Israel. “We say in all confidence that even if we are hung on the gallows or they make our blood flow in the streets or they tear our bodies apart, we will bow only before God and we will not abandon Palestine,” he said.
In Damascus, Syria, Hamas’s supreme leader, Khaled Meshal, said in an interview with Al Jazeera television that he was calling for a new Palestinian intifada against Israel, including the resumption of suicide attacks within Israel for the first time since 2005. Hamas, he said, had accepted “all the peaceful options, but without results.” (nytimes)
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