January 2009

Continuing Bush policies in Israel and Afghanistan
Posted: Wednesday, January 28, 2009

¤ Afghans want 'foreigners' out of Kabul

¤ Continuing Bush policies in Israel and Afghanistan
By all accounts, the U.S. is suffering extreme economic woes. We continue to borrow trillions of dollars simply to prevent financial collapse. Our military resources are spread so thin that the establishment consensus view blames the failure of our seven-year (and counting) occupation of Afghanistan, at least in part, on the lack of necessary resources devoted to that occupation. And a significant (though not the only) reason why we are unable to extricate ourselves from the endless resource-draining and liberty-degrading involvement in Middle East conflicts is because our one-sided support for Israel ensures that we remain involved and makes ourselves the target of hatred around the world and, especially, in the Muslim world.

¤ Surviving Octuplets Born for Second Time Ever
¤ US pays $40,000 after 15 Afghans die in raid
¤ Obama tells Al Arabiya peace talks should resume
¤ Obama administration warns public to expect rise in US casualties

¤ Ahmadinejad demands US apology for 'crimes' against Iran
The US should apologise for "crimes" it has committed against Iran if it wants a better relationship with Tehran, the Iranian president said today, after recent overtures to the Muslim world from the new administration in Washington. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's uncompromising tone followed a conciliatory message from Barack Obama, the US president, earlier this week when he told the Islamic world: "We are not your enemies." In his inauguration last week, Obama offered to extend a hand of peace if Iran "unclenched its fist".

¤ IMF predicts UK will be hardest hit
¤ Foiling Another Palestinian "Peace Offensive"
¤ News We Can't Use

¤ The United Haters of America
Somewhere deep inside the authoritarian minds of the ultra right-wingers, the fear, helplessness and paranoia that have always been so evident have reached the boiling point. For them, Obama's election and, perhaps even more so, the sight of him standing on the Capitol steps and taking the oath of office, have brought home a grim truth. They have tried to deny it for many years now, but America is not what they think it is. And because of their own incompetence, blindness to reality and the changing demographics among voters - the growing minorities and young voters who have rejected the GOP - they have lost America, perhaps for good.

¤ CIA Station Chief in Algeria Accused of Rapes
The CIA's station chief at its sensitive post in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their drinks with a knock-out drug, U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News.
Algeria CIA. Officials say the 41-year old CIA officer, a convert to Islam, was ordered home by the U.S. Ambassador, David Pearce, in October after the women came forward with their rape allegations in September.

¤ Raul Castro arrives in Russia to boost ties

¤ With Gaza, Journalists Fail Again
The assault on Gaza exposed not only Israel's callous disregard for international law but the gutlessness of the American press. There were no major newspapers, television networks or radio stations that challenged Israel's fabricated version of events that led to the Gaza attack or the daily lies Israel used to justify the unjustifiable. Nearly all reporters were, as during the buildup to the Iraq war, pliant stenographers and echo chambers. If we as journalists have a product to sell, it is credibility. Take that credibility away and we become little more than propagandists and advertisers. By refusing to expose lies we destroy, in the end, ourselves.

¤ Israeli Troops Killed Gaza Children Carrying White Flag, witnesses say
¤ History, Hypocrisy, and Empire

¤ Venezuela gov't: We're honored Israel expelled our diplomats
Venezuela's government said Wednesday it was proud that Israel has expelled its diplomatic envoys, calling Israel's leaders criminals while denying allegations of anti-Semitism at home. Israel's Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday that it had ordered the Venezuelan ambassador to leave this week, responding to Venezuela's Jan. 6 declaration that it was expelling Israeli diplomats in protest of Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

¤ Turley: Obama 'Accessory' To War Crimes If No Prosecution
A few weeks ago, George Washington University Constitutional Law professor Jonathan Turley, while appearing on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, essentially said that the Obama administration would "own" any war crimes -- such as the reported waterboarding of 9/11 suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- if it chose to look the other way. On Monday's show Turley went a little further and suggested that if Obama impedes investigations or prosecution that he wouldn't just be an "apologist," but also an "accessory."

¤ Top Defense Ministry official: Egypt sees Hamas as 'national enemy'

¤ US Attacks Fuel Afghan Anger Video
Afghan civilians have rallied against America amid reports that civilians were killed in a US air raid over the weekend. The US military says 15 fighters were killed in Laghman province, but the provincial governor says at least 10 civilians were among the dead.

¤ Obama: Regime Rotation
"While around the world, Obama's measures were interpreted as completely reversing the Bush administration policies of torture, extraordinary rendition and secret prisons – starting with the declaration of the complete closure of Guantanamo Bay – deeper inspection of the details of his Executive Orders suggests, unfortunately, that cries of joy are slightly premature."

¤ Worst. First Week. Ever.
Oh, WOE IS US! President Obama has been in office a WHOLE WEEK and already he is THROWING HALF OF US OVERBOARD!!! The compromise on the contraception issue in the stimulus package MUST be a sign that Obama means to ABANDON WOMEN FOREVER; surely, he means to throw us all under the bus, just as his naming Rick Warren to give that thoroughly forgettable invocation meant that he was going to completely dismiss all gay people forever, right?

Obama on Israel-Palestine
Posted: Wednesday, January 28, 2009

By Noam Chomsky
January 26, 2009

Barack Obama is recognized to be a person of acute intelligence, a legal scholar, careful with his choice of words. He deserves to be taken seriously - both what he says, and what he omits. Particularly significant is his first substantive statement on foreign affairs, on January 22, at the State Department, when introducing George Mitchell to serve as his special envoy for Middle East peace.

Mitchell is to focus his attention on the Israel-Palestine problem, in the wake of the recent US-Israeli invasion of Gaza. During the murderous assault, Obama remained silent apart from a few platitudes, because, he said, there is only one president - a fact that did not silence him on many other issues. His campaign did, however, repeat his statement that "if missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that." He was referring to Israeli children, not the hundreds of Palestinian children being butchered by US arms, about whom he could not speak, because there was only one president.

Full Article : zcommunications.org

Ron Paul Talks About the Economy (Video)
Posted: Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Is Obama just playing good cop?
Posted: Monday, January 26, 2009

¤ Is Obama just playing good cop?
The Obama administration could be a case of the medicine being worse than the sickness, unless it addresses the abuses of the past Bush regime. Obama spoke of a new era of responsibility in the White House and we should hold him to his word. Under the previous Bush administration, we witnessed the lack of limits that allow the U.S. governmental power to be abused. Whether or not the U.S. government had prior information and was complicit in the 9/11 attacks, it seized the event and the fear it generated to politicize its anti-Muslim, anti-non-White, pro-Christian agenda under the guise of a War on Terror that has had a far-reaching, negative impact in a multitude of countries worldwide.

¤ One Black Man's Critical Notes on Post Inauguration and Black America

¤ Concerning Chavez both Bush and Obama sang the same Swan's Song
The extravagant United States "150 million dollar" presidential inauguration festival cannot hide the current deepening economic recession and global depression, also not the cancerous alienating outgrowths and the dangerous, belligerent contradictions of the coming of a possible global fascism. The Gaza horrendous massacre of innocent children and women, using sophisticated weaponry of human torture and agony, was a gruesome kind of political lightning conductor to deviate the world public attention away from the real causes of the Gaza genocide and of more atrocities to come. Furthermore, historical experience indicates that during all economic cycles of depression, tendentially world wars threaten to break out; latently, a nightmare for the system, possible anti-capitalist social revolutions also tend to flare up across the globe and the weakest links of the metropolitan imperialist chains begin to erode, to shatter.

¤ Evo Morales hails 'new Bolivia' as constitution is approved
Bolivians yesterday approved a new constitution granting more power to the country's indigenous majority and rolling back half a millennium of colonialism, discrimination and humiliation. After a bruising struggle between supporters and opponents of the president, Evo Morales, the country voted to adopt the new constitution in a referendum.

¤ Obama administration warns public to expect rise in US casualties

¤ Chomsky: No change coming with Obama
Well, it was pretty clear that Obama would accept the Bush doctrine that the United States can bomb Pakistan freely, and there have been many case which are quite serious. There has been for example a great deal of chaos and fighting in Bajaur province, which is a adjacent to Afghanistan and tribal leaders- others there- have traced it to the bombing of a madrassa school which killed 80 to 95 people, which I don't think was even reported in the United states, it was reported in the Pakistani press of course.

¤ Vatican criticizes Obama on abortion issue
¤ Afghan president: US forces killed 16 civilians
¤ Winning and Losing in Gaza
¤ The worst downturn since 1980
¤ UK PM Gordon Brown admits failing to recognise crisis
¤ Global recession claims 67,000 jobs in a day
¤ The Torture Ban That Doesn't Ban Torture

¤ As the Economy Slides, Will the Military Follow?
We seem to be living in an age where so much that we thought certain and permanent crumbles into dust be fore our eyes. Our once robust economy founders while our once cherished personal liberties fade away. Less apparent has been the ongoing decay and corruption that could lead to a crisis for our nation’s armed forces.

¤ Obama's orders leave framework of torture, indefinite detention intact

¤ Punishing the Palestinians: State Terrorism Against Gaza

¤ Afghanistan is No Threat to America

¤ Bowing to the Masters of War?
The American people did not elect the Pentagon. They elected Barack Obama based a good deal on his promise to get US troops out of Iraq sooner rather than later. Since he was elected, Mr. Obama has hedged on this promise. Since he was inaugurated, the Pentagon and its civilian boss Robert Gates have hedged even more. Now, they insist, US troops should remain until the Iraqis hold a national election that is as of today not even scheduled. Then, even after that election is held, the departure of some US troops should depend on the outcome of the election. In other words, the Pentagon and Defense Department are telling Mr. Obama that no US troops should leave Iraq unless the election results meet the expectations of Washington.

¤ The Worst Lies of All? The Ones You Expect

¤ The World Won't Buy Unlimited U.S. Debt

¤ Brain-dead media
The British Broadcasting Company, BBC, refused last week to broadcast a message to help for Gaza relief sponsored by the British Red Cross and 10 other international and British humanitarian organizations. The broadcast is intending to collect donations for the benefit of the victims in Gaza. The BBC reason for not airing was that it wants to be neutral and this broadcast would contradict its impartiality.

¤ Exposing Israel's war crimes is child's play

What we don't know about Obama
Posted: Friday, January 23, 2009

¤ Israel Deploys Lawyers to Head Off War-Crimes ChargesThe Israeli army deployed more than military force in its Gaza Strip campaign: Along with tanks and soldiers, it used lawyers and leaflets in what it says was an effort to save civilian lives and bolster its case against accusations of war crimes.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and B’tselem, the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, say Israeli actions in Gaza, where a 22-day war killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, should be investigated for possible war crimes.

¤ Gaza war ended in utter failure for Israel

¤ What we don't know about Obama
We know a lot more about Barack Obama than we did on Election Day. He wastes little time making big decisions. He was serious about surrounding himself with seasoned people, even if they are outsized personalities likely to jostle one another and unlikely to salute on command. He intends to move quickly to put his personal stamp on government and national life. Yet much about how the 44th president will govern remains a mystery—perhaps even to Obama himself.

¤ Obama repudiates Bush era in address

¤ Obama halts all regulations pending review
One of President Barack Obama's first acts Tuesday was to put the brakes on all pending regulations that the Bush administration tried to push through in its waning days.
The order went out shortly after Obama was inaugurated president, in a memorandum signed by new White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

¤ Bush Mocked As He Arrives on Inauguration Dais

¤ Obama takes power, urges unity vs. 'raging storms'

¤ Gordon Brown brings Britain to the edge of bankruptcy
They don't know what they're doing, do they? With every step taken by the Government as it tries frantically to prop up the British banking system, this central truth becomes ever more obvious. Yesterday marked a new low for all involved, even by the standards of this crisis. Britons woke to news of the enormity of the fresh horrors in store. Despite all the sophistry and outdated boom-era terminology from experts, I think a far greater number of people than is imagined grasp at root what is happening here.

¤ Iraq willing to see US troops leave early

¤ Roubini Predicts U.S. Losses May Reach $3.6 Trillion

¤ Throwing out your old computer? Think again. It’s time to get out your pickaxe...

The Marketing of Hope
Posted: Thursday, January 22, 2009

¤ Sacrificing Gaza to revive Israel's Labor party
On 27 December 2008, Israel initiated yet another heinous carnage of the Palestinian people because of its democratically elected Hamas government. It did so with the silent encouragement of the US, the European Union and their Arab subcontractors, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. I have spent the past few weeks talking on Skype with friends in Ashdod, an Israeli town about 30 kilometers north of the Gaza Strip. Several times, they have had to seek safety from the rockets by fleeing to Jerusalem. The background noise to our conversations has been the sophisticated newspeak oozing from the Israeli TV.

¤ Israel Recruits Army Of Bloggers To Troll Anti-War Websites
Israel has announced that it is setting up a network of bloggers to combat websites deemed "problematic" by the Zionist state, presumably to propagandize about the necessity of killing babies and infants in the name of self-defense. Israel's global reputation for being the new Nazis was already firmly established, but the ceaseless and indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, labeled a war crime by international observers, has hardened opinion against the country and this has manifested itself nowhere more than the world wide web.

¤ Bolivia to take Israel to The Hague

¤ After the Party, Obama Has One Long To-Do List

¤ Will This President Murder Civilians?

¤ The Marketing of Hope
Utopias have a habit of tumbling down in the long run, falling foul of brutal realities and nasty predicaments. In the short-run, they resonate with a pop-like glow, mesmerizing crowds narcotized on slogans and promises. Regarding the inauguration of the Forty-fourth president, 'hope' has become a market slogan, with 'change' purring in its motor. The market has moved in with vigour to capitalize on Obama's incipient presidency. The time has come for money to be made – and in America, selling the Presidency, like selling products about the British Royal family, is a fairly common practice. The surprise is that anybody should be outraged at its supposedly diminishing value.

¤ 'Israeli pullout, a favor to Obama'

¤ So far, Obama's missed the point on Gaza...
It would have helped if Obama had the courage to talk about what everyone in the Middle East was talking about. No, it wasn't the US withdrawal from Iraq. They knew about that. They expected the beginning of the end of Guantanamo and the probable appointment of George Mitchell as a Middle East envoy was the least that was expected. Of course, Obama did refer to "slaughtered innocents", but these were not quite the "slaughtered innocents" the Arabs had in mind.

¤ Obama inauguration: Words of history ... crafted by 27-year-old in Starbucks

¤ Obama's Work Ethic: Or the Slave's Disdain for Leisure
It wasn't a very good speech. Even his brother-in-law yawned.
The oration's first problem was accidental: how he must have regretted opening with a reference to all the men who have said the Oath of Office, given that (ouch) his own oath had just got mangled -- but he passed on the opportunity to ad-lib a joke about that. From that point on its larger problems were fundamental to Barack Obama's politics: CounterPunch readers won't have been surprised at his dull technocratic insistence that there's no more room for argument about the path forward; we know the code when he talks of “hard choices” and “unpleasant decisions”; and we've seen enough of Washington's idea of 'change' to know that 98 per cent of the speech would have fit comfortably in John McCain's mouth.

¤ Barack Obama inauguration: his worst speech
QUITE a day, but not much of speech unfortunately. Obama got where he is by speechifying, but this effort would not have won him many votes. It was his worst on a grand stage, though still better than most politicians could muster. The delivery, as ever, was first class, but the message was wasn't clear enough and the language not insufficiently inspiring.

¤ Not All Black People Voted For B. Hussein-Obama
¤ U.N. special rapporteur on torture calls on U.S. to prosecute Bush and Rumsfeld.

¤ Gitmo war crimes court halted at Obama request

¤ "Prima Facie Evidence of War Crimes" by Israel
¤ Posturing and Laughter as Victims Rot
¤ Embedded With Gaza Medicsvideo

¤ Now We've All Seen Through The Israeli Government's Excuses
The worrying part about whether the ceasefire in Gaza can hold together will be whether the international community can stop the flow of arms to the terrorists. Because Israel's getting their planes and tanks and missiles from somewhere and until this supply is cut off there's every chance it could start up again. The disregard for life from these terrorists and their supporters is shocking. For example Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, wrote that the purpose of the Israeli attack must be to "inflict a heavy death toll and heavy pain on the Gaza population".

¤ How to sell 'ethical warfare'
¤ Venezuela and Bolivia sending message that they side with Hamas

¤ Will the real Barack Hussein Obama please stand up?
The American people right now are giddily supporting their president. The feeling of unity and excitement is palpable. The feel is not unlike the days after the tragedy of 9/11/01, when Americans were told they were attacked by terrorists who hated freedom. Many young Americans rushed to join the military to wreak vengeance on "the enemy". All politicians unquestionably supported legislation such as the Patriot Act that had deep ramifications even though the legislators admitted they had not read the Act. Almost all Americans and the U.S. media competed to support wars of aggression against Afghanistan and then Iraq as though pre-emptive wars were appropriate and even necessary to protect the American people.

¤ Obama and the Muslims

President Barack Obama: Change...What Change?
Posted: Tuesday, January 20, 2009

¤ Who is Black America's Moral Emissary to the World?

¤ President Barack Obama: Change...What Change?
Today, Tuesday 20th January, 2009, Barack Obama officially becomes the President of the United States of America. While there is much elation about this occasion, especially as the Bush era was marked by overt extremities, Obama has not mapped out a clear path for the change that he constantly spoke about on the campaign trail. However, Obama did express some views on several key issues recently and we can gauge those to see if he is really about meaningful change.

¤ Timing of Israeli invasion limited Obama's options
Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in a bid to destroy archenemy Hamas before President-elect Barack Obama takes office Tuesday, preventing the new president from negotiating with a militant group that would no longer exist, Middle East analysts say.
Unlike President Bush, Obama advisers have talked of a willingness to talk with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group who violently took control of the 25-mile-long Gaza Strip in June 2007.

¤ So, I asked the UN secretary general, isn't it time for a war crimes tribunal?
It's a wrap, a doddle, an Israeli ceasefire just in time for Barack Obama to have a squeaky-clean inauguration with all the world looking at the streets of Washington rather than the rubble of Gaza. Condi and Ms Livni thought their new arms-monitoring agreement – reached without a single Arab being involved – would work. Ban Ki-moon welcomed the unilateral truce. The great and the good gathered for a Sharm el-Sheikh summit. Only Hamas itself was not consulted. Which led, of course, to a few wrinkles in the plan. First, before declaring its own ceasefire, Hamas fired off more rockets at Israel, proving that Israel's primary war aim – to stop the missiles – had failed. Then Cairo shrugged off the deal because no one was going to set up electronic surveillance equipment on Egyptian soil. And not one European leader travelling to the region suggested the survivors might be helped if Israel, the EU and the US ended the food and fuel siege of Gaza.

¤ US Execution Breached International Law: World Court

¤ Palestinian Loss of Land 1946 to 2005(image)

¤ Chomsky: Undermining Gaza
There's a theme that goes way back to the origins of Zionism. And it's a very rational theme: "Let's delay negotiations and diplomacy as long as possible, and meanwhile we'll 'build facts on the ground.'" So Israel will create the basis for what some eventual agreement will ratify, but the more they create, the more they construct, the better the agreement will be for their purposes. Those purposes are essentially to take over everything of value in the former Palestine and to undermine what's left of the indigenous population.

Chomsky: Undermining Gaza
Posted: Tuesday, January 20, 2009

By Sameer Dossani "Foreign Policy In Focus
January 16, 2009
Editor: Emily Schwartz Greco

DOSSANI: The Israeli government and many Israeli and U.S. officials claim that the current assault on Gaza is to put an end to the flow of Qassam rockets from Gaza into Israel. But many observers claim that if that were really the case, Israel would have made much more of an effort to renew the ceasefire agreement that expired in December, which had all but stopped the rocket fire. In your opinion, what are the real motivations behind the current Israeli action?

CHOMSKY: There's a theme that goes way back to the origins of Zionism. And it's a very rational theme: "Let's delay negotiations and diplomacy as long as possible, and meanwhile we'll 'build facts on the ground.'" So Israel will create the basis for what some eventual agreement will ratify, but the more they create, the more they construct, the better the agreement will be for their purposes. Those purposes are essentially to take over everything of value in the former Palestine and to undermine what's left of the indigenous population.

I think one of the reasons for popular support for this in the United States is that it resonates very well with American history. How did the United States get established? The themes are similar.

There are many examples of this theme being played out throughout Israel's history, and the current situation is another case. They have a very clear program. Rational hawks like Ariel Sharon realized that it's crazy to keep 8,000 settlers using one-third of the land and much of the scarce supplies in Gaza, protected by a large part of the Israeli army while the rest of the society around them is just rotting. So it's best to take them out and send them to the West Bank. That's the place that they really care about and want.
Full Article : informationclearinghouse.info

Timing of Israeli invasion limited Obama's options
Posted: Tuesday, January 20, 2009

by Rowan Scarborough
Monday, January 19, 2009

Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in a bid to destroy archenemy Hamas before President-elect Barack Obama takes office Tuesday, preventing the new president from negotiating with a militant group that would no longer exist, Middle East analysts say.

Unlike President Bush, Obama advisers have talked of a willingness to talk with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group who violently took control of the 25-mile-long Gaza Strip in June 2007.
Full Article : washingtontimes.com

Chavez: 'Obama Is Confusing Me with Bush'
Posted: Saturday, January 17, 2009

by Erik Sperling
January 16th 2009
Venezuelanalysis.com

Chavez speaks to supporters on Thursday. (YVKE) Carora, January 16, 2009 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country is open to unconditional talks with the new U.S. president, but rejected comments Barack Obama made in a television interview this week.

Chavez read the comments from the president-elect, in which Obama repeated Bush administration claims that Venezuela had "exported terrorism" and interrupted progress in the region.

"How can you say that?" Chavez asked, incredulous. "He is misinformed, repeating what they are telling him. It's very regrettable."

"Could it be he's confusing me with Bush?" Chavez joked, before taking a more serious tone. "Bush has been the one who has interrupted world progress, has sunk it into an abyss."

Chavez expressed hopes that Obama would stop listening to "far right advisors," and instead follow the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Chavez noted that Thursday would be the 80th anniversary of King's birth, eliciting applause from the hundreds of supporters in attendance.

"There is still time for [Obama] to correct these views though," Chavez added. "We will wait and see, we will know him by his actions. He is really an unknown."

"If he wants to respectfully talk with Venezuela, we are at his service, but the Venezuelan people must be respected," Chavez insisted.

Chávez also said, "No one should say that I threw the first stone at Obama; he threw it at me!"

John Caulfield, currently the top U.S. embassy official in Caracas, met Thursday with Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolas Maduro. According to Caulfield, the meeting focused on the "opportunity for a renewed dialogue" between the two nations, whose diplomatic relations have been at a low point since the Sept. 12 expulsion of their respective ambassadors.

Caulfield was recently accused of being involved in a clandestine meeting in Puerto Rico between Venezuelan opposition leaders and an oppositional private television station. Chavez said last week that if Caulfield's presence at the meeting was confirmed, he would be expelled. The embassy press spokeswoman said he was in Puerto Rico to attend a wedding.

Also on Thursday, the National Assembly's Foreign Policy Commission received a delegation of labor and peace and justice activists from the United States.

Deputy Roy Daza, president of the commission, considered the meeting a success, explaining that the Venezuelan representatives were very interested to hear about prospects for improved relations between the countries, as well as the situation of workers in the United States amidst the economic crisis that has caused the nation to shed over 2.5 million jobs this year.

Source: venezuelanalysis.com

Give Bush the Shoe!
Posted: Saturday, January 17, 2009

¤ Where are the R2P advocates now?
More than 1,000 residents of Gaza are dead, over 300 of them children, and nearly 5,000 are wounded as a result of the continuing Israeli assault on the blockaded Gaza Strip. Some 90,000 Gazans have been forced to flee their homes, according to al-Mezan human rights centre. "Residents of Gaza City and the north have no water. They have no electricity. They're trapped, traumatized and terrorized."

¤ US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Rules Out Talks With Hamas
¤ Obama's Pro-Israel Congressional Welcome
¤ Obama preparing order to close Gitmo
¤ Oil falls below $39 as investors eye US earnings
¤ Remember Gaza - One of History's Terror Bombing Victims
¤ Barclays shares in new collapse as bank crisis enters second phase

¤ Fresh evidence of Israeli phosphorus use in Gaza emerges
Fresh evidence of the firing of white phosphorus weapons by Israeli forces in Gaza has emerged from witnesses heard by the Guardian and first hand accounts by human rights groups of their use against civilians.
Graphic descriptions of attacks by Israeli forces near the Gaza town of Khan Younis are contained in footage shot by Fida Qishta for the International Solidarity Movement and obtained by the Guardian.
A woman described how on Tuesday Israeli forces "started to fire phosphorus bombs against the people, of course, they are civilians ..."

¤ Israel Bombs Main UN HQ / Compound With White 'White Phosphorus' Shells
The main UN compound in Gaza was left in flames today after being struck by Israeli artillery fire, and a spokesman said that the building had been hit by shells containing the incendiary agent white phosphorus.
The attack on the headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) came as Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, arrived in Israel on a peace mission and plunged Israel's relations with the world body to a new low.

¤ Hail to the Chief
I've always been a fan of George Bush, on the simple grounds that the American empire needs taking down several notches and George Jr has been the right man for the job. It was always odd to listen to liberals and leftists howling about Bush's poor showing, how he'd reduced America's standing in the family of nations. Did the Goths fret at the manifest weakness of the Emperor Honorius and lament the lack of a robust or intelligent Roman commander?

¤ The Humiliation of America
"Let me see if I understand this," wrote a friend in response to news reports that Israeli Prime Minister Olmert ordered President Bush from the podium where he was giving a speech to receive Israel's instructions about how the United States had to vote on the UN resolution. "On September 11th, President Bush is interrupted while reading a story to school children and told the World Trade Center had been hit--and he went on reading. Now, Olmert calls about a UN resolution when Bush is giving a speech and Bush leaves the stage to take the call. There exists no greater example of a master-servant relationship."

¤ 700 Palestinian Refugees Forced To Flee
¤ The United Nations Equals Zero
¤ Give Bush the Shoe!

¤ Israel, US Foil UN Condemnation

¤ "We Are The Authors Of This Tragedy"
¤ Israeli strike over a UN school in Beit Lahia
¤ Secret List of U.S. Military Bases to Replace Gitmo
¤ White supremacists, racism, Obama, and my YouTube
¤ There Will Be Another War Video

¤ Jewish British Lawmaker Likens Israel to Nazis

¤ Israel 'breaking law' with Gaza war

¤ Bush Drops Fake Cowboy Shtick
George Bush bought his "ranch" down in Crawford in 1999 shortly before he started running for president. And now that he's done with politics, he is moving out of there as soon as he possibly can. The Bushes have bought a new home in a tony neighborhood (and until recently a whites-only community) in Dallas. So, what happened to retiring down to the ranch? Well, it's what most of us suspected - all total bullshit.

¤ Bush's Final Gift: Gaza
Just when we thought it was impossible for the calamitous George Bush and Svengali Dick Cheney to do any more damage to the world or to America's interests, they loosed one final Parthian shaft into the heart of the Mideast by giving Israel a green light to blitz Gaza and try to exterminate the Hamas movement. The assault on Gaza, which has provoked worldwide outraged, was President Bush's parting gift to Israel.

¤ President Bush's Farewell Address (with honesty imbedded for your reading pleasure)

Chavez Turns Into Palestinian Hero
Posted: Monday, January 12, 2009

¤ Chavez Turns Into Palestinian Hero
Venezuelan flags and portraits of President Hugo Chavez have been flying high during protests in the West Bank against Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip. The Venezuelan president's decision on January 6 to expel Israel's ambassador from Caracas -- the only country apart from Mauritania to take such a step -- has made the left-wing South American leader a hero to Palestinians. Hamas, the Islamist movement which controls Gaza, has welcomed Chavez's "courageous decision," while Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon's Hezbollah group, urged Arab states to follow the Venezuelan president's example.

¤ The Enduring Priorities in Obama's Time of Change
If you want a glimpse of the fundamental moral obscenity that underlies our bold new era of hope and change, look no further than Barack Obama's promise this week to "overhaul" Social Security and Medicare. This effort to cut back on support for the sick, the old, the weak, the unfortunate and the abandoned will be a "central part" of the new administration's economic program, a linchpin of its struggle to curb federal spending, Obama declared.

¤ US Senate Supports Israel's Gaza Incursion

¤ This brutality will never break our will to be free
For 18 months my people in Gaza have been under siege, incarcerated inside the world's biggest prison, sealed off from land, air and sea, caged and starved, denied even medication for our sick. After the slow death policy came the bombardment. In this most densely populated of places, nothing has been spared Israel's warplanes, from government buildings to homes, mosques, hospitals, schools and markets. More than 540 have been killed and thousands permanently maimed. A third are women and children. Whole families have been massacred, some while they slept.

¤ Rights group: Israel uses incendiary bombs in Gaza
¤ Oil falls below $39 as investors eye US earnings
¤ Gaza is Sinking in a River of Blood: A Message from a Gazan to the World
¤ The First Mistake: Barack Obama’s Silence on Gaza

¤ America’s Shame
Why does Israel have a right to exist, but Palestine doesn’t? This is the question of our time.
For sixty years Israelis have been stealing Palestine from Palestinians. There are maps available on the Internet and in Israeli publications showing the shrinkage over time of what was once Palestine into what Palestine is today--a small number of unconnected ghettos or bantustans. Palestine became "the occupied territory" from which Palestinians were ejected and Israeli settlements built for "settlers." Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are full of refugee camps in which Palestinians driven off their lands by Israeli force have been living for decades.

¤ The United States Promotes Israeli Genocide Against the Palestinians
¤ How Israel Gets Away With Murder
¤ Rethinking Zionism
¤ The Blood-Stained Monster Enters Gaza

¤ How Israel's Propaganda Machine Works
As in past Mideast conflicts, both the media story line and political commentary here in the U.S. has closely followed Israel's talking points on the war. This has been an essential component in Israel's early success and in its ability to prolong fighting without U.S. pushback. Because it recognizes the importance of the propaganda war, Israel fights on this front as vigorously and disproportionately as it engages on the battlefield.
Here's how they have done it...

¤ Ann Jones, The Afghan Reconstruction Boondoggle
¤ US unemployment hits 16-year high
¤ Israel's Gaza Atrocities Recall America's Atrocities in Vietnam
¤ Blueprint for Gaza attack was long planned

Chavez Turns Into Palestinian Hero
Posted: Monday, January 12, 2009

By Anna Pelegri
January 12th 2009
Middle East Online

Venezuelan flags and portraits of President Hugo Chavez have been flying high during protests in the West Bank against Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.

The Venezuelan president's decision on January 6 to expel Israel's ambassador from Caracas -- the only country apart from Mauritania to take such a step -- has made the left-wing South American leader a hero to Palestinians.

Hamas, the Islamist movement which controls Gaza, has welcomed Chavez's "courageous decision," while Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon's Hezbollah group, urged Arab states to follow the Venezuelan president's example.

Chavez on Saturday accused Israel of being the "murder arm" of the United States and said the solution to the Gaza crisis was in the hands of Barack Obama when he becomes US president later this month.

Mohammed al-Lahham, an MP for the Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, said Chavez was "a symbol of the struggle for liberty, like Che Guevara. This distinguishes him from the world's other presidents."

His opposition to Washington, Israel's loyal ally, over the invasion of Iraq and to the Israeli offensive against Lebanon in 2006 have made Chavez a symbol for all peoples who "are resisting and fighting against occupation," he said.

Venezuelan flags and portraits of Chavez could be seen lofted by demonstrators in the West Bank towns of Bethlehem, Ramallah and Hebron during rallies last week.

Al-Jazeera television ran an interview with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro in which he slammed "the criminals who govern Israel" and who have "carried out a holocaust against Palestinians for 60 years."

"I would like to be able to give Chavez a Palestinian passport so he could become a Palestinian citizen. Then we would elect him and he would become our president," said Mahmud Zwahreh, mayor of Al-Masar, a community near Bethlehem where 8,000 people live in poverty.

"This is the right reaction" to American domination, said the mayor, who is printing out as many portraits as he can of the Venezuelan president to hand out to protesters.

"Everyone here knows about him. More and more people are coming to ask me for photos to carry during the demonstrations," Zwahreh said.

Mohammed Brijeh, who heads an action group in the Bethlehem area against the security wall between Israel and the West Bank, said: "Chavez's response is worth more than the UN's."

The United Nations "only does what Israel wants," he said.

"If only we had leaders as strong as Hugo Chavez," Brijeh said, while Zwahreh said: "We have no leader with a clear strategy and mission."

Abbas and his moderate Fatah movement have been weakened by rivalry with Hamas and by the ever-present memory of his predecessor Yasser Arafat, whose portraits still adorn many public buildings and homes.

Iyad, who runs a shop near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, has no doubt: "Chavez is the best president. He always supports the Palestinians."

"He is better than Arab leaders. Jordan and Egypt should have also expelled their ambassadors (from Israel). It is a real shame that we have no leaders like him," said Assem, another shopkeeper.

Source: Middle East Online

Hero Chavez
Posted: Monday, January 12, 2009

BETHLEHEM — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is fast becoming a national hero for many Palestinians who feel betrayed and abandoned by Arab leaders in their hour of need.
Full Article : islamonline.net

Venezuelans Protest Israel's Attack and Send Aid to Gaza

U.S. Weaponry Facilitates Killings in Gaza
Posted: Saturday, January 10, 2009

¤ Rocket attacks raise fear of second front for Israel
¤ Attack on Israel from Lebanon threatens 2nd front
¤ Obama camp 'prepared to talk to Hamas'

¤ Can Israel Survive Its Assault on Gaza?
As Israeli troops encircle Gaza City, their commanders are faced with a painful dilemma: How far must they advance into the deadly labyrinth of slums and refugee camps where Hamas militants await with booby-trapped houses and snipers? With each passing day, Israel's war against Hamas grows riskier and more punishing, with the gains appearing to diminish compared to the spiraling costs — to Israel's moral stature, to the lives of Palestinian civilians and to the world's hopes that an ancient conflict can ever be resolved.

¤ Israeli Attacks Leaving Most Gazans Hungry - UN Body
¤ UN: '257 children killed in Gaza'
¤ Red Cross Finds Starving Children with 12 Corpses in Gaza 'House of Horrors'
¤ Meet the children left to die among the bodies of their parents and families Video

¤ Masters In Distortion Of The Truth
The media coverage of the war in Gaza by Western television companies is largely unfair and biased because of a refusal to show viewers the real images of the victims. One of the reasons for this is Israel’s decision not to allow the Western media in to Gaza. In addition to this outrageous censorship by a so-called democracy, we get the usual arguments that most of the images shown by the Arab media are too shocking to show the viewing public in the West. Admittedly, the horrific clip sent to me of a child’s head lying detached, among debris in Gaza did make me gasp.

¤ The Outcry Is Muted, But The Food Crisis Is Getting Worse

¤ Condoleezza Rice, Gaza and Zimbabwe

¤ We will never surrender to occupation
For 18 months my people in Gaza have been under siege, incarcerated inside the world's biggest prison, sealed off from land, air and sea, caged and starved, denied even medication for our sick. After the slow death policy came the bombardment. In this most densely populated of places, nothing has been spared Israel's warplanes, from government buildings to homes, mosques, hospitals, schools and markets. More than 540 have been killed and thousands permanently maimed. A third are women and children. Whole families have been massacred, some while they slept.

¤ UN human rights chief accuses Israel of war crimes
¤ Israelis 'Bombs Civilian Shelter' Kills 30 People
¤ Gaza Victims' Burns Increase Concern Over Phosphorus

¤ The Difficulty of Being an Informed American
The American print and TV media have never been very good. These days they are horrible. If people intend to be informed, they must turn to foreign news broadcasts, to Internet sites, to foreign newspapers available on the Internet, or to alternative newspapers that are springing up in various cities. A person who sits in front of Murdoch’s Fox "News" or CNN or who reads the New York Times is simply being brainwashed with propaganda.
Before conservatives nod their heads in agreement, I’m not referring to "the liberal media." I mean the propaganda that issues from the US government and the Israel Lobby.

¤ U.S. Weaponry Facilitates Killings in Gaza
Israel's two-week military onslaught has resulted in the deaths of over 700 people, including more than 300 civilians, mostly victims of U.S. weaponry.
The devastating Israeli firepower, unleashed largely on Palestinian civilians in Gaza during two weeks of fighting, is the product of advanced U.S. military technology.
The U.S. weapons systems used by the Israelis -- including F-16 fighter planes, Apache helicopters, tactical missiles and a wide array of munitions -- have been provided by Washington mostly as outright military grants.

¤ US Senate Endorses Israel's War on Gaza
¤ John Pilger: "Palestine is Still the Issue"

¤ Venezuela Condemns "Criminal" Israeli Attack
Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli bombing of Gaza in a statement released Saturday, expressing its "profound indignation" over the "criminal attack," and urged the Israeli government to adhere to the United Nations Charter. The Venezuelan government affirmed its "solidarity with the Palestinian people," and called for "the governments of the world who desire peace and justice to raise their voices against this aggression."
A number of world leaders and governments have since criticized the Israeli attacks, including the European Union, Russia, China, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

¤ Chavez Got A Head Start On Obama
¤ The Fishbarrel War

¤ Haiti's Gas Gang
¤ Wal-Mart Caught Stealing

¤ Shock and. . . Oil?

The Real Goal of the Gaza Assault
Posted: Sunday, January 4, 2009

¤ Bodies of Hamas leader's children paraded as group promises 'painful' revenge for their deaths
The bodies of a senior Hamas leader's small children were today ghoulishly paraded through the streets of Gaza as the group pledged to avenge their deaths. Nizar Rayan, his four wives and 10 of his children were all killed by in an Israeli air strike on his home after he ignored warnings they should go into hiding. In grisly scenes, mourners held up the bloodied bodies of the children to the cameras in a clear attempt to blacken Israel's name and highlight its brutality.

¤ Hamas accuses senior Palestinian aides of spying for Israelis
¤ Europe at odds over Israeli land offensive in Gaza

¤ Israeli ground forces enter Gaza in escalation
Israeli tanks and troops launched a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip Saturday night with officials saying they expected a lengthy fight with Hamas militants in the densely populated territory after eight days of punishing airstrikes failed to halt rocket attacks on Israel.
Hamas vowed that Gaza would be a "graveyard" for Israelis forces. "This will not be easy and it will not be short," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said soon after the ground invasion began.

¤ The Real Goal of the Gaza Assault
¤ Diplomats say US blocks UN statement on Gaza

¤ We Arm the World
A $7 billion missile-defense system for the United Arab Emirates. An estimated $15 billion potential sale of Lockheed Martin’s brand-new fighter plane to Israel. Billions of dollars in weaponry for Taiwan and Turkey. These and other recent deals helped make the United States the world’s leading arms-exporting nation. In 2007, U.S. foreign military sales agreements totaled more than $32 billion — nearly triple the amount during President Bush’s first full year in office. The Pentagon routinely justifies weapons sales as "promoting regional stability," but many of these arms end up in the world's war zones. In 2006 and 2007, the five biggest recipients of U.S. weapons were Pakistan ($3.5 billion), Iraq ($2.2 billion), Israel ($2.2 billion), Afghanistan ($1.9 billion) and Colombia ($580 million) — all countries where conflict rages.

¤ US Weapons 'Killing Innocent Civilians' in Gaza

¤ The True Story Behind this War Is Not The One Israel Is Telling
The world isn't just watching the Israeli government commit a crime in Gaza; we are watching it self-harm. This morning, and tomorrow morning, and every morning until this punishment beating ends, the young people of the Gaza Strip are going to be more filled with hate, and more determined to fight back, with stones or suicide vests or rockets. Israeli leaders have convinced themselves that the harder you beat the Palestinians, the softer they will become. But when this is over, the rage against Israelis will have hardened, and the same old compromises will still be waiting by the roadside of history, untended and unmade.

¤ Bush a “Total Failure” Says Former Iraqi PM
¤ 462 Palestinians killed, 2300 wounded in 8 days of Israeli offensive on Gaza: official
¤ The Matrix Of Power
¤ Gaza attack a 'monstrosity': UN chief
¤ The 'silent War' In Gaza

¤ America's other glorious war
The Pentagon pushes hard for a large increase in troops for Afghanistan. Barack Obama has been calling for the same since well before the November election. Listen to the drumbeats telling us that the security of the United States and the Free World necessitates increased action in this place called Afghanistan. As urgent as Iraq 2003, it is. Why? What is there about this backward, reactionary, woman-hating, failed state that warrants hundreds of deaths of American and NATO soldiers?

¤ Do Israel pilots feel happy killing innocent women and children?

¤ On the Murder of Saddam
¤ Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 37 Near Shrine
¤ This is YOUR War on Drugs - and it's killing Mexico.
¤ One Giant Rez

¤ The AIG Story: A Brief Introduction
A single company is getting $150 billion in funds from the government (including the Fed). One source puts the government’s annual subsidies to all of agriculture at $35 billion or so. The space program costs $20 billion a year. Medicaid is one of the largest government programs. It runs about $339 billion a year (slated to rise to $674 billion in 8 years). The size, suddenness, and manner of the government’s loan to AIG are all extraordinary.

¤ What's in a Name? Quite a Lot, Where the Military Is Concerned

Blaming the Victims: The Dominant Media Vilify Hamas
Posted: Sunday, January 4, 2009

By Stephen Lendman
January 03, 2009

The blame game - no one plays it better than the dominant media, and they're at it again over Gaza. Expect no comments below in their spaces, yet honest journalism would headline them.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt addressed Congress - with an appropriating updating for Gaza:

December 27 "will live in infamy." The people of Gaza were "suddenly and deliberately attacked by....air forces of the" State of Israel. The "attack was deliberately planned many (months) ago. During the intervening time (Israel) deliberately sought to deceive (Palestinians) by false statements and expressions of hope for" the peace process.

"The (weekend and continued) attack(s) caused severe damage to" property throughout Gaza. In addition, "many (Palestinian) lives have been lost. The facts (on the ground) speak for themselves....this "unprovoked and dastardly attack" must not go unanswered.

Note the contrast. Japan in the 1940s sought accord, not conflict. Not America. FDR goaded them to attack through numerous harassments and provocations - selling arms to Tokyo's enemies, denying Japan strategic resources and port access, as well as imposing a damaging embargo.

For its part, Hamas has been conciliatory and sought peace. It's willing to recognize Israel in return for a sovereign Palestinian state inside pre-1967 borders - just 22% of it original homeland. In 2008 and earlier, it agreed to unilateral ceasefires in spite of repeated Israeli violations and Gaza in duress under siege. It responds only in self-defense when attacked as international law allows, yet Washington, Israel, and the West call it "terrorism."

The dominant media also in their customary role - guarding the powerful and suppressing uncomfortable truths in lieu of full and accurate reporting. They're in high gear over Gaza. They vilify Hamas, stay silent about Gazan suffering, are mute on the crippling blockade, its devastating human toll, and practically champion Israel's call for "all-out war" and the slaughter of defenseless men, women, children and infants.

"The more damage to Hamas, the better the chances for peace" says the Wall Street Journal in a lead December 28 editorial headlined "Israel's Gaza Defense." The Journal rewrites history this way:

"The chronology of this latest violence is important to understand. Israel withdrew both its soldiers and all of its settlers from Gaza in August 2005. Hamas won its internal power struggle with Mr. Abbas' Fatah organization to control Gaza in 2006. Since 2005 Hamas has fired some 6300 rockets at Israeli civilians from Gaza, killing 10 and wounding 780."

"Hamas did agree to a six-month ceasefire earlier this year, during which the rocket attacks declined in number but never stopped. But Hamas refused to extend the truce past December 19, and the group has since resumed attacks...." Israelis in the south "live under constant threat, often in bomb shelters, and the economy has suffered. Yet the world's media (only pays) attention when Israel responds to that Hamas barrage."

The Journal's op-ed page standard fare twists facts into a fabric of misinformation and agitprop, and when vilifying Hamas it's vicious. A few corrections:

-- Israel never disengaged from Gaza;

-- it relocated its settlers to seized West Bank land to strengthen its hold on the Territory;

-- it redeployed to new positions; re-enters Gaza at will; controls its airspace and coastline; movement within and between Gaza and the West Bank; virtually all other aspects of Palestinians' lives; and since Hamas' January 2006 electoral victory, falsely called it a terrorist organization; cut off all outside aid; imposed a crippling economic embargo; imprisoned 1.5 million Gazans in isolation; inflicted devastating human suffering; and stepped up oppression in an all too familiar pattern: repeated incursions, killings, targeted assassinations, mass arrests, incarcerations, torture, and all the rest;

-- then, after mid-June 2007, collaboratively and at the behest of Washington and Israel, president Mahmoud Abbas declared a "state of emergency" (when there was none); he dismissed Hamas' prime minister; appointed an "emergency" cabinet; split Palestinian authority between Gaza and the West Bank; incited internal conflict to divide and conquer; and acceded to Israel blockading Gaza - closing all border crossings; cutting off most essential to life supplies; creating critical shortages of everything; devastating local production and agriculture; sending poverty and unemployment soaring; and grievously harming the health and welfare of the population;

-- no Journal op-eds condemn this; they call Israel the region's "only democracy" and a model for others to emulate;

-- no op-eds mention thousands of Palestinians killed, many more wounded, even greater numbers imprisoned, many uncharged, torture as official policy, and no chance for redress in Israeli courts;

-- none mention previous Hamas unilateral ceasefires, one lasting 18 months despite repeated Israeli violations and continued other failures to observe international law;

-- none explain that rocket fire from Gaza during Hamas' ceasefire came from other elements in the Territory, not its own members;

-- none say that Hamas uses crude, homemade rockets and light arms against the world's fourth most powerful military, a nuclear power, with the latest home-produced and US supplied technology and weapons;

-- nothing gets reported about over 60 years of Israeli state terror; the unimaginable harm it's done; the continued theft of Palestinian lands; the destruction of their homes, crops and other property; the ethnic cleansing of its people; and Israel's slow-motion genocide against a population too isolated and weak to contest it;

-- no op-eds about one-sided media reporting; suppressing uncomfortable truths; defending the indefensible; ignoring Israeli crimes; vilifying Hamas without cause; Palestinians for being Arabs; and Arab Israeli citizens because they're not Jews;

-- no mention that the ratio of Arabs to Jews killed and harmed is disproportionately one-sided; or

-- that Palestinians have endured a brutal, illegal 41-year occupation in violation of international law; Journal editors find those facts uncomfortable, unimportant so they ignore them.

Instead the Journal supports the Gaza siege, and says "If Hamas wants its people to have freer movement, it can stop sponsoring terror killings." Even Arab leaders were "urged to demand that Hamas maintain the truce....so we could have avoided what happened."

In the aftermath, Journal editors hold Hamas responsible as does Washington. Arab leaders "understand that (Hamas' leaders), like Hezbollah, (are) increasingly allied with Iran and its goals for fomenting regional instability."

In fact, despite pro-forma criticism and anger on Arab streets, leaders in the region's capitals offered little support for Gazans for fear of antagonizing Washington and their powerful Israeli neighbor.

The Arab League won't discuss a common response until a January 2 Doha summit, and when it does expect little more than from the UN. As for Arab foreign ministers, they postponed an "emergency" meeting until December 31, so the killing continues while they attend to more pressing business.

Journal editors have a message for Obama. He's "about to discover that the terrorists of the Middle East (won't) change their radical ambitions merely because America has a new president." For their part, Palestinians will learn that the new one is no friendlier than the incumbent and may turn out even worse. White House occupants, key congressional members, and the entire Senate pledge unswerving support for Israel. At the same time, blaming their victims (and ours) is one of Washington's favorite spectator sports.

On December 28, the Journal gave two noted Israeli flacks prominent space - Michael Oren of Jerusalem's Shalem Center and Yossi Klein Halevi of the Shalem Center's Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies for their op-ed headlined: "Palestinians Need Israel to Win."

They claim that while Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni "implore(d) Egyptian leaders (on December 19) to urge restraint on Hamas....prime minister Ehud Olmert told viewers of Al-Arabiyah Television that Israel had no interest in a military confrontation" at the very time it was long-planned and about to be unleashed.

"If Israel was guilty of acting disproportionately, it was in its willingness to seek any means, even at the risk of its citizens' lives, to resolve the (brewing) crisis diplomatically." The writers blame the UN for not condemning Hamas and for "growing media criticism of Israel."

Israeli security comes first, and "Gaza is the test case. Much more is at stake than merely the military outcome." It's about Israel's "deterrence power and uphold(ing) the principle that its citizens cannot be targeted with impunity." They're not unless Palestinians are attacked first and even then have little to fear beyond their government's own rhetoric.

Syria is an issue as well...."triggering the Gaza conflict only deepens Israeli mistrust. The Damascus office of Hamas, which operates under the aegis of the regime of Bashar al Assad, vetoed the efforts of Hamas leaders to extend the ceasefire and insisted on escalated rocket attacks."

The Gaza conflict may "intensify with a possible incursion of Israeli ground forces. Israel must be allowed to conclude this operation with a decisive victory over Hamas....This is an opportunity to redress Israel's failure to humble Hezbollah (in 2006), and to deal a substantial setback to another jihadist proxy of Iran....without Hamas' defeat, there can be no serious progress toward a treaty that both satisfies Palestinian aspirations and allays Israel's fears. At stake in Gaza is nothing less than the future of the peace process."

Their rhetoric defies comment. It's breathtaking, mirror opposite of the truth, and credible only to the truest of true believers of the most dubious analysis the two writers lay out.

New York Times Press Handout-Style Journalism

The Times' 1997 proxy statement calls itself "an independent newspaper, entirely fearless, free of ulterior influence and unselfishly devoted to the public welfare" in reporting "all the news fit to print." No media source anywhere has more clout. None more effectively influences world opinion, and none show more one-sided support for Israel, disdain for Palestinian rights, and justifying the unjustifiable when they're so grievously harmed.

It's December 29 Ethan Bronner/Taghreed El-Khodary "No Early End Seen to 'All-Out-War on Hamas in Gaza" article is typical. It highlights Israel's aim "to cripple Hamas' ability to fire rockets into Israel," never mentioning they're for legitimate self-defense and never preemptively fired. It calls Hamas a "terrorist organization" when, in fact, it's Palestine's legitimate government. It respects the rule of law, and it fearlessly defends the rights of its people. It reports nothing about its democratic election, its seeking peace and rapprochement, its unilateral ceasefires, its support by the great majority of Gazans, and the efforts it makes for them in spite of overwhelming challenges under siege.

Instead it states that "Hamas killed four Israelis on (December 28) after firing more than 70 rockets, including a long-range one into the booming city of Ashdod some 18 miles from Gaza, where it hit a bus stop, killing a woman and injuring two other people. Earlier a rocket hit nearby Ashkelon, killing an Israeli-Arab construction worker and wounding three others. The other dead Israelis....were a civilian in the Negev desert and a soldier."

"Thousands of Israelis huddled in shelters as the long-range rockets hit streets or open areas in....the most serious display of Hamas' arsenal since the Israeli assault began." It referred to "Hamas gunmen," reported that "Israel would widen and deepen the attack if necessary....until Hamas no longer had the ability to fire rockets into Israel." It said that Israel has "nothing against the citizens of Gaza and that it had more than once offered its hand in peace to the Palestinian nation."

"Israel sent in some 40 trucks of humanitarian relief, including blood from Jordan and medicine. Egypt opened its border with Gaza to some similar aid and to allow some of the wounded through." No mention of the Gaza siege, the devastating pre-conflict humanitarian crisis, or that Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak initially ordered his soldiers to shoot Gazans breaching border barriers, then only reluctantly allowed in some of the seriously wounded for medical treatment.

"Meanwhile in Israel, sirens wailed over mostly empty streets in the seaside city of Ashkelon. Storefronts were battered shut. Families clustered inside the city's stretches of towering white apartment blocks and single-family houses. Weary of venturing too far outside, they scurried into protected rooms when sirens sounded, listening for the sound of another rocket crashing somewhere in their city. 'It's frightening, but what can we do?' asked a high school senior."

Plenty The Times won't report. Ask your government to stop attacking Gazans so they won't respond in self-defense. Demand that Palestinian rights be respected, the illegal siege ended, the IDF aggression stopped, and the occupation of the West Bank. Insist Israeli laws apply equally to Arab citizens, that Palestinians no longer will be persecuted, that peace will take precedence of war, that Israel will engage its neighbors, not attack them, and that real democracy will replace the sham kind now practiced.

Make it impossible for The (outrageous December 29) New York Times' "War Over Gaza" editorial to be written. It begins:

"Israel must defend itself. And Hamas must bear responsibility for ending a six-month cease-fire this month with a barrage of rocket attacks into Israeli territory. Still we fear that Israel's response....is unlikely to weaken the militant Palestinian group substantially or move things any closer to what all Israelis and Palestinians need: a durable peace agreement and a two-state solution."

"Hamas' leaders, especially those safely ensconced in Damascus, are unconcerned about their people's suffering - and (are) masters at capitalizing on it." The writer urges other Arab leaders "to cajole or more likely threaten Hamas (or its patrons in Syria and Iran) to accept a new cease-fire (read "surrender")."

The editorial claims most casualties were "Hamas security forces" when, in fact, the great majority are civilian men, women and children, including police with no military connection. It stresses Ehud Barak's promised "war to the bitter end."

It says there's "no justification for Hamas' attacks or its virulent rejectionism," but turns a blind eye to Israel's culpability. It refers to the failure of the never was and never will be "peace process" but won't report that Washington and Tel Aviv won't tolerate one. That they choose dominance over peace, violence over reconciliation, and conquest above the rule of law.

It claims Condoleezza Rice sought Middle East peace, and it's up to Barack Obama to accomplish it himself - when, in fact, Democrats and Republicans one-sidedly support Israel, seek dominance over Middle East states, want a subservient Hamas like Fatah, back the Gaza conflict to weaken its effective rule, and are for the illegal occupation of Palestine to continue.

Times' articles reveal more about what they don't report than what they do. They:

-- leave Israeli brutality unexplained; its vicious 41 year occupation;

-- let Gaza images inciting world outrage go unpublished;

-- suppress Israel's continued waging of the bloodiest, most unjustifiable war on Palestine since 1967;

-- won't report how its current air strikes hit civilian targets (including residential neighborhoods, homes, workshops, medical warehouses, a sewage lagoon, a plastics factory, a TV broadcasting center, universities and mosques) while claiming only military ones are attacked;

-- don't explain the terror on ordinary Gazans; the traumatizing effects on children and how psychologically damaged they are;

-- the night phone calls Israeli intelligence personnel make to families, ordering them out of homes to be bombed;

-- Gaza's humanitarian crisis compounded by Israel's "war to the bitter end;"

-- the immensity of Israel's crimes of war and against humanity; its mockery of the rule of law; its worse than apartheid South African practices according to observers who know.

-- the near-silence and inaction of the international community; the compliance of regional Arab states;

-- the Palestinians' total isolation; Gaza's tighter than ever siege; the media mostly barred from entering and when allowed are few in number, carefully screened, and greatly circumscribed; reports are from Gazans on the ground; they include much higher death and injury totals; hundreds still alive but clinically dead and will perish; surgeries performed without anesthesia because little to none is available; and the impossibility of proper medical care because of Israel's imposed blockade.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reports that "its field workers have faced extreme difficulties in documenting crimes due to the dangers of getting close to" bombed areas and the chaos throughout the Territory as war rages round the clock. Yet they do what they can throughout Gaza and in horrific pictures they take and publish - images suppressed in America.

It urgently asked the UN Human Rights Council to act under its ("Uniting for Peace") UN Resolution 377 authority. It permits the General Assembly to address peace and security matters when the Security Council doesn't do it. General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto said: "the time has come to take firm action if the UN does not want to be rightly accused of complicity by omission."

As of New Year's day, Ma'an News reported 428 known killed (other reports are higher) and over 2000 injured, many too seriously to survive.

On December 28, the US vetoed a Security Council draft resolution to end Israel's "disproportionate use of force" on Gazans. The vote was 11 ayes, three abstentions (Britain, Germany and Bulgaria), and one nay - America. John Negroponte did the dishonor following a long-standing practice of blocking any UN condemnation of Israel, regardless of how justified.

The Security Council held an emergency meeting on New Year's eve at which Negroponte again rejected a legally binding resolution condemning Israel and demanding its attacks stop. At the same time, Israel rejected pressures for a 48-hour ceasefire to allow in humanitarian aid. According to The New York Times, "The government said it would push ahead with its air, sea, and ultimately ground operation, which one senior military official described as 'making Hamas lose their will or lose their weapons.' "

Earlier on December 30 at 5:00AM, Israeli gunboats (without warning) attacked the humanitarian boat Dignity (in international waters 90 miles from Gaza) bringing three tons of medical supplies. It was rammed three times, heavily damaged, and took on water. Israelis also threatened to shoot its occupants and fired machine guns overhead and around it attempting to head it off. It managed to get to the Lebanese port of Tyre in the afternoon. Luckily no one was injured. The Free Gaza Movement founder, Paul Laurdee, said 11 Israeli vessels surrounded Dignity, ordered it to stop, but it refused.

The New York Times was silent on the incident. However, on December 29, it gave pro-genocide historian Benny Morris space for his "Why Israel Feels Threatened" op-ed - a disturbing justification of Israel's attacks and warning of much more to come. This by an advocate of attacking Iran with nuclear weapons and a believer in ethnic cleansing who once described Palestinians as "wild animal(s who have) to be locked up in one way or another....When the choice is between destroying or being destroyed, it's better to destroy."

He paints a totally disingenuous picture of isolated Israel surrounded by hostile neighbors and losing support from the West. "To the east, Iran....to the north, the Lebanese fundamentalist Hezbollah....to the south...the Islamist Hamas movement (controlling) the Gaza Strip."
These "dire threats" make Israel "feel that the walls - and history - are closing in on their 60-year-old state."

Israel threatened? Syria, Lebanon and Iran should worry based on past and current provocations. No country attacked Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur war, and none today would dare - given its military strength, nuclear arsenal, and close ties to America and the West.

Morris cites another threat - demography. The 1.3 million Israeli Arabs "offer the recipe (for the) dissolution of the Jewish state." They've become "radicalized, embrac(e) Palestinian national aims," Jews see them as a "potential fifth column," and, with their higher birthrate, will outnumber Israeli Jews by 2040. Within five years, Arabs may become the majority in pre-1948 Palestine.

According to Morris, Israel is endangered because of its commitment to "Western democratic and liberal norms." Violence in Gaza resulted, and "it would not be surprising if more powerful explosions were to follow" - a clear assessment that slaughter is OK in the name of "self-defense" and an indication that The Times agrees.

The Los Angeles Times' Misinformation "primer on Gaza, Israel, and some key factors behind the current violence."

On December 30, Michael Muskal wrote it asking:

-- "Why is Israel attacking Hamas? To curb rocket attacks he maintains, when, in fact, neutralizing the government is the real aim, destroying its ability to rule effectively, weakening its support on the ground, and, in the end, co-opt it like Fatah and the PLO under Arafat; rocket attacks are just pretext.

-- "What is Hamas?" An Islamist group founded to destroy Israel and refuses to accept its right to exist, he claims. In fact, after its establishment during the First Intifada (in 1987), Israel supported it against the PLO (as it now backs Fatah against Hamas). Ever since, it's been an effective resistance movement. Its goal - ending Israel's illegal occupation through negotiation and international consensus, not terrorism, war, or denying Israel's right to exist. However, its charter states that it wants peace, equity and justice for all Palestinians; supports the weak; defends the oppressed; and will fight for its rights if Israel won't grant them peacefully. Hamas is clear on its willingness to recognize Israel in return for a Palestinian state inside pre-1967 borders - a nonstarter for Israel.

-- "Does Hamas speak for all Palestinians? No. Hamas gunmen took full control of Gaza in the summer of 2007. The West would prefer to deal with (Fatah's) Abbas, who has shown a willingness to negotiate with Israel, and it tried to topple Hamas with economic and political sanctions." No is right as well as the West going along with Washington and Israel trying to topple Hamas, but unmentioned is the crippling siege. Hamas is a legitimate political group with a military wing for defense, not offense. They're not "gunmen" or militants. Abbas' subservience endears him to America and Tel Aviv. Hamas is independent. It champions Palestinians' rights, and therein lies the conflict.

-- "If Hamas is so opposed to Israel, why did it agree to a truce? Hamas had hoped to end the blockade, but the cease-fire collapsed in November and expired Dec. 19. Abbas blamed Hamas for prompting the Israeli attack by refusing to extend the cease-fire." True on the first point. False or misleading on the rest. Hamas declared a ceasefire unilaterally. Israel never respected it and killed over two dozen Gazans while it was in force. Abbas blamed the victims and absolved the aggressor in deference to Tel Aviv and Washington - in betrayal of his people for his own political aims.

-- "What has been the response to the Israeli attacks in the Arab world?" Saying that anti-Israeli demonstrations have been held in several countries greatly understates how many, their size and where. They're large and growing and are being held across America, throughout the Middle East, and in many other countries worldwide.

"What about Egypt? (It) opposes Islamic radical groups, including its own Muslim Brotherhood, which helped give birth to Hamas. Egypt has a difficult relationship because they share a border (and) clashes have been reported between Palestinians and Egyptian security forces at border crossings?" Half truths and misleading. Egypt is allied to Washington and Israel. It opposes the Muslim Brotherhood and all independent opposition to president Hosni Mubarak's dictatorship. Egyptian forces initiated border clashes by firing on Gazans trying to escape the violence.

-- "What about the US?" A "power vacuum" suggests Muskal until Obama takes office. Unexplained is a continuity of policy that unswervingly supports Israel, its right to wage aggressive war, violate international law, slaughter Gazan civilians, maintain its illegal occupation, and deny Palestinians their right to self-determination.

-- "What has the Bush administration done?" Saying it blamed Hamas and asked Israel publicly to avoid civilian casualties is right but misleading. For eight years, George Bush disdained Palestinian rights, supplies Israel with billions of dollars in aid, the latest weapons and technology, and full support for its occupation, oppression and aggressive wars.

-- "What about the Obama administration?" Repeating his saying the US has only one president at a time is right. So is affirming his strong support for Israel. Unmentioned is his indifference to Palestinian issues and that chances for regional peace will be no greater than under George Bush so expect little hopeful change.

-- "How do Israeli politics figure in the equation? Muskal is right in relating the current conflict to Israel's February 10 elections. A new prime minister and Knesset will be chosen and polls show a large majority of Israelis back its government's attacks. Acting tough could prove a winning strategy even at the expense of human lives and less security than without conflict.

Misinformation like the above is de rigueur throughout the dominant media, especially when it comes to Israel. Tel Aviv can do no wrong even when it inflicts vast amounts of destruction, massacres hundreds of civilians, and injures tens of hundreds more, defenseless against its onslaught.

Profiting from Human Slaughter

On December 27, the London Guardian reported that the "Israeli far right gains ground as Gaza rockets fuel tension." Jerusalem-based Toni O'Loughlin wrote that pre-conflict polls showed "the Israeli public calling for harsher military strikes in Gaza." It's been a boon for former Likud member Avigdor Lieberman's extremist Yisrael Beiteinu. It advocates ethnic cleansing by revoking Israeli Arabs' citizenship and transferring Palestinian towns in Israel to PA control.

Likud leader, Binyamin Netanyahu also stands to gain because he states: "In the long run, we have no choice but to topple Hamas rule....we have to go from passive response to active assault." That got Kadima's foreign minister Tzipi Livni saying: "Israel must topple the Hamas rule in Gaza and a government under my command will do just that." Campaigning is in high gear for the upcoming February elections with all sides vying to look toughest.

War rages as a result, and according to Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem founder Michael Warschawski: "all Israeli leaders are competing over who is the toughest and who is ready to kill more." Mass slaughter makes good campaign politics, and whoever looks the meanest may become Israel's next prime minister. Follow the body count for clues. Watch TV clips of Tzipi Livni disheveled with no makeup to show machismo, and as Tariq Ali puts it: "dead Palestinians are little more than election fodder" and may help Kadima retain power.

Justifying the Unjustifiable

On December 28, O'Loughlin in the Guardian headlined: "Israel mounts PR campaign to blame Hamas for Gaza destruction" as Kadima put positive spin on mass murder and destruction.

Israeli media suggested the following preceded the attack:

-- six months of intelligence-gathering to pinpoint bases, weapons silos, supplies, training camps, senior officials' homes, and other strategic targets, including civilian ones; the attack also began exactly at 11:30AM Saturday when children just finished morning classes, were in the streets, and others were en route to school;

-- disinformation and deception were used to keep the media and public uninformed and off guard;

-- Hamas was lulled momentarily into a false sense of security to give the initial onslaught maximum tactical effectiveness;

-- on December 26, food, fuel and other humanitarian supplies were let into Gaza as part of the deception; and

-- when the assault came, officials justified it saying "patience ran out" to hide their real motives.

Ahead of the attack, Britain, the EU, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were briefed, and Israel coordinated everything with Washington the way it's always done at least since the 1967 war. According to the Jerusalem Post, the Bush administration also supplied the Israeli Air Force with "a new bunker-buster missile" called GBU-39 - a small-diameter bomb for low-cost, high-precision, minimal collateral damage strikes.

Congress authorized 1000 of them in September, and defense officials said the first shipment arrived in early December for use in penetrating underground Gaza Kassam launcher sites and bombing Egyptian border tunnels in Rafah through which emergency supplies were funneled.

Israel's PR spin began before the assault. According to the Guardian, "the foreign ministry honed its message and amassed its staff....Israeli diplomats were recalled from holidays and ordered back to work, and in" Sderot, a multilingual media center was opened to brief foreign journalists.

Everything was orchestrated. At the right moment, Tzipi Livni called foreign ministers in Washington, London, Russia, China, France and Germany as well as EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. She also briefed around 80 international representatives and dignitaries in the Sderot media center. World leaders spread her message, blamed Hamas for "breaking" the ceasefire, and claimed Israel had to respond.

Israeli envoys around the world did the same, and Livni vowed to end Hamas rule if elected. She told Kadima party members and the media that "The State of Israel, and a government under me, will make it a strategic objective to topple the Hamas regime. The means....should be military, economic and diplomatic."

As war rages, Israel is in full spin mode. According to Haaretz, even Fatah loyalists say Gaza is "Allah's revenge" - referring to the 2007 clashes that secured Gaza for Hamas and left Fatah, under Abbas, in control of the West Bank. For his part, prime minister Ehud Olmert said the bombardment is "the first of several stages approved by the security cabinet" - a clear signal of more to follow and Israel's intent to destroy Hamas' effectiveness and render it as weak as possible.

Livni also released a document to the Israeli and world press spreading deceit, disinformation, exaggeration, and agitprop. Examples included:

-- "Israeli citizens have been under the threat of daily attack from Gaza for years;

-- Only this week hundreds of missiles and mortar shells were fired at Israeli civilian communities;

-- Until now we have shown restraint; but today there is no other option than a military operation;

-- We need to protect our citizens from attack through a military response against the terror infrastructure in Gaza;

-- Israel left Gaza in order to create an opportunity for peace;

-- In return, the Hamas terror organization took control of Gaza and is using its citizens as cover while it deliberately targets Israeli communities and denies any chance for peace;

-- We have tried everything to reach calm without using force; we agreed to a truce through Egypt that was violated by Hamas, which continued to target Israel, hold Gilat Shalit, and build up its arms;

-- Israel continues to act to prevent a humanitarian crisis and to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians."

These and other statements blame Hamas for the violence; accuse it of being a terrorist organization backed by Iran; has a radical Islamic agenda; is the enemy of all Palestinians seeking peace; is criminal under international law, and seeks Israel's destruction.

These comments are from Israel's foreign minister and a leading candidate for prime minister; someone representing a state founded on terrorism by massacring and ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their land; that disdains international law; illegally occupies Palestine; collectively punishes its people; denies them self-determination; their right of return; seizes their land; demolishes their homes; imprisons and tortures their people, impoverishes them; denies them free movement, essential services, employment and enough food and clean water; destroys their crops and factories; and grants them no judicial redress because they're Arabs in a Jewish state or under occupation.

On December 31, Livni was in Paris meeting with president Nicolas Sarkozy, foreign minister Bernard Kouchner and other officials. In response to a French two-day truce proposal, she rejected the idea saying: "there is no humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce."

Protests Worldwide Over Gaza

Carnage and destruction trump spin, and it shows worldwide on city streets - across the Arab world, in America, the EU, London, and even parts of Asia, Latin America and Africa.

The New York Times reported that "After four days of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, an outpouring of popular anger is putting pressure on American allies in the Arab world and appears to be worsening divisions in the region." Egypt has been especially pressured because it's a close US and Israeli ally. But "demonstrations continued....from North Africa to Yemen."

Al Jazeera reports that protests spread across the Middle East, and in the West Bank Israeli troops opened fire, killed one Palestinian, and critically injured two others. One was declared brain damaged from a bullet to his head. In Yemen, "tens of thousands of people gathered in and around a stadium in the capital, Sanaa, chanting anti-Israeli slogans and criticizing Arab leaders for failing to act."

It's been much the same in Cairo, Beirut, Baghdad, and dozens of other world capitals. In Tehran, students broke into the British Embassy's residential compound, vandalized buildings, and replaced the British flag with a Palestinian one.

Al Jazeera added that several members of Jordan's parliament burned the Israeli flag in protest and called for the expulsion of Kadima's ambassador. In Lebanon, hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian refugees staged a sit-in near the Beirut UN office. Hezbollah condemned the attacks as a "war crime and a genocide that requires immediate action from the international community and its institutions."

Its statement called on Arab countries to "take a firm stand and exert its utmost efforts against the Israeli barbarism - which is (endorsed) by the US - and the international community (must) stop this ongoing massacre."

In Damascus, thousands were in Yusif al-Azmeh square shouting slogans and displaying flags of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Hezbollah, Syria, Iraq and Palestine. From loudspeakers, calls were for "jihad" against Israel and for continuing the "struggle in the name of God."

Protests across Iraq took place - in Baghdad with messages supporting Gaza, anti-Israeli slogans, and the Palestinian ambassador, Dalil al-Qasoos, saying: "Gaza will remain steadfast in the face of Americans and Zionists whatever the plots and conspiracies hatched by tyrants and arrogant enemies."

Across Britain as well in Belfast and London where hundreds demonstrated in front of the Israeli embassy and outside the BBC.

In Washington, 5000 gathered at the State Department and marched to the White House. In San Francisco, over 10,000 protested in front of the Israeli consulate. In Los Angeles, around 5000 did the same, and in New York thousands more were at the Israeli consulate waving Palestinian flags and chanting "Free Palestine." Similar demonstrations were held in dozens more US cities, including Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Portland, Houston, Dallas, Seattle and in Hawaii in front of Obama's vacation compound where he remains indifferent.

On January 2, the ANSWER Coalition, Muslim American Society Freedom, and National Council of Arab Americans plan a major protest at the Israeli embassy in Washington and at the Egyptian embassy as well.

Expressions of World Outrage

On December 29, a National Lawyer's Guild (NLG) press release condemned the Israeli massacre, called for a ceasefire and urged participation in New York protests. NLG president and Thomas Jefferson School of Law professor Marjorie Cohn stated:

"The Human Rights and Security Assistance Act mandates that the United States cease all military aid to Israel, which has engaged in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights." America, like Israel, disdains international law and has supplied Tel Aviv governments with tens of billions of aid, weapons and technology for decades, and as explained above, with special bunker-buster bombs to attack Gaza. It also partners in Israeli aggression, assists all aspects of it, and provides cover through vocal support and UN resolution vetoes for it to continue.

On December 29, the Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) condemned Israel's Gaza attack, its slaughter of civilians and "violation of all international laws and treaties," and its crippling siege as "another crime and collective punishment against (over 1.5 million Gazans) living in an atmosphere of continued terror and intimidation."

HRA also denounced world leaders for failing to speak out or act and thus effectively give "a green light for Israel to escalate its siege, topped with the barbaric bombardment" of Gaza and its people. "The Security Council's non-binding statement (calling for "an immediate halt to all violence" and for both sides "to stop immediately all military activities") is evidence of (the UN's) incompetence (and impotence) in implementing its primary duty in maintaining world peace and security."

In his "Dachau to Gaza" article, law professor, international law expert, and former PLO legal advisor Francis Boyle compared Washington and Israel's aims to Hitler's Munich Pact for Germany to occupy and annex the Sudetenland. Today it's to seize Palestinians' land and deny them "self-determination and a real independent state of their own." As a result, he fears a "high probability that history will repeat itself" in more conflict.

In 1986, he visited the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, complained about "criminal Israeli occupation practices," its violations of international law, and that America "has an absolute obligation to use its enormous political, military and economic leverage over Israel to terminate (these) practices immediately."

Yet since Israel's establishment in 1948 and its post-1967 occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, Washington has one-sidedly supported Israel and denied Palestinians their "freedom, justice, dignity, respect and independence." One day, America must end this policy and "order Israel out of Palestine." Until then, no Middle East peace is possible and the possibility of greater conflict exists.

Like others wanting war crimes to be punished, Boyle also advocates "An International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as "the Only (possible) Deterrent to a Global War." He urges the General Assembly to establish one as a "subsidiary organ" under Article 22 of the UN Charter. It would be similar to those for Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR) to:

"investigate and prosecute Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the People of Lebanon and Palestine." It would "provide some small degree of justice to the victims" of decades of Israeli crimes, thus far committed with impunity. "It would also have a deterrent effect" on current Israeli leaders and generals and force future ones to obey international laws or face similar prosecution.

Without legal restraints, Boyle, like others, fears possible new Middle East conflict that could "degenerate into World War III," not by intent but by accident, much like WW I developed. He urges General Assembly action to prevent it at a time attacks on Gaza persist, the Arab street is enraged, and the longer fighting continues, the greater the risk of something far greater.

Israel is a serial aggressor. Its lawlessness can no longer be tolerated. Mass outrage and world pressure must build for a global campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions until its human rights abuses stop, its war crimes are punished, its occupation and colonization end, Palestinian refugees have the right to return, and the people of Gaza and the West Bank achieve their long-denied self-determination rights in an internationally recognized sovereign state, free from Israeli oppression. For people of conscience, that's Resolution One for the new year.

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday through Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues.

Funding the Israeli Military
Posted: Friday, January 2, 2009

¤ 'Eight Civilians Killed' in Israeli 'Surgical' Strike on Truck
¤ Israeli bombs kill hundreds in Gaza's bloodiest day
¤ Livni: Cease-fire in Gaza would grant Hamas legitimacy

¤ The truth about those Hamas rockets
Five years ago, the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass destruction to dupe us into supporting an illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq. A few days ago, Israel trotted out only an infinitesimally more credible excuse -- the Hamas rockets case -- as justification for its own murderous shock and awe in Gaza, a long-planned campaign perniciously aimed at ousting a “regime” that came to power via popular, democratic vote. Yes, such rockets exist, but they’re little more than slingshots against Israel’s incredible military might, and they’re used out of desperation by Palestinians who’ve never been accorded the democratic space within which to gain redress of their eminently just grievances.

¤ US Military Aid Underpins Gaza Offensive
¤ Funding the Israeli Military
¤ We Lived to Tell the Story

¤ Obama, Afghanistan and Israel
As the euphoria that seemed to engulf much of the world following the election of Senator Barack Obama as President of the United States fades into a more cautious optimism, some ominous red flags must not be ignored. There are some significant topics which the president-elect’s gifted rhetoric has either not clearly addressed, or on which he as been largely silent. Two will be discussed here, in no particular order.

¤ Inheriting Bush's blinkers
¤ Israel maintains ban on journalists entering Gaza
¤ Blaming the Victims - The Dominant Media Vilify Hamas

¤ Israel's War Crimes and "Change we can believe in"
Once again, Israel is in the midst of murder and wanton destruction in Palestine. Gaza, after being starved of food, shelter, medical supplies and electricity, is again the stage for mass murder, the likes of which would normally elicit cries of protest the world over. However, the warped zeitgeist that currently pollutes reactions to Israeli violence has led to the usual commentaries of moral equivalency.

¤ McKinney to Obama: "Say Something" About Gaza Humanitarian Crisis

¤ The self delusion that plagues both sides in this bloody conflict

¤ Israel Can't Bomb Its Way to Peace

¤ America Bleeds Its Way Into 2009
On average, the United States has seen the loss of nearly 14,000 jobs each day since September 1. In 90 days from that date, close to 1.3 million Americans lost their jobs. After weeks of headline-grabbing events on Wall Street, these developments tend to recede into the background. Current estimates suggest over half a million Americans lost their jobs in November alone. This is omething not seen in a single month since December 1974.

¤ Torture & the Crime of Aggressive War

¤ Welcome to America's Hall of Shame

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