On the other hand, this is a useful video to see. Regarding this issue, and it also touches on Israel’s policy to intentionally improvish Gaza and allow the West Bank to build up a bit.

What bothers me is that people like that come on TV speaking authoritatively to the public. This is ridiculous.

Plus, what’s up with arguing that “we pushed for an election but Palestinians were not ready for it yet” ?!!

Let’s be clear, there is not a humanitarian crisis in Gaza … the hospitals are fully stocked, the food markets are fully stocked!

WHAAA???? At first I was so shocked that I thought I must have misheard it. So I watched it again and again; nope that is what he said! Apparently Gaza is in top shape and we didn’t know it! Rep. Pence, I salute you (albeit, it is a one-finger salute).

Pence must have smashed all sorts of spin records. Gaza not in a humanitarian crisis?! Michael Pence, what have you been smoking? In what world do you live? Did you leave planet Earth for Pandora? Actually you know what, if you are so confident that what you say is true, I am willing to personally fund you to travel to Gaza with a camera crew and show us how we got it all wrong. Please Pence, enlighten us.

Here is a video of his CNN interview. Prepare to be dazzled!

Much has been said about Israel’s violent interception of the humanitarian aid flotilla headed to Gaza. Both sides have put forth their claims and counter claims. But the basic facts remain: Israel attacked non-military ships in international waters, Israel used lethal force against unarmed civilians (the activists attacked the Israeli commandos with sticks, rods, and chairs … but what do you expect when you drop commandos on a ship in the middle of night? a dance festival?!), and Israel killed 9 unarmed protesting civilians. After all was said and done, no weapons were found on-board any of the ships.

A year ago to this date, a brutal Israeli offensive on Gaza took place. This tiny strip of land had been besieged for many months already and its people were already denied the very basic amenities of life. Yet, a year ago Israel launched a brutal and bloody attack on Gaza that killed at least 1400 people. This savage attack did not distinguish between civilians and militants, and people generally agree that the Israeli response to the termination of the cease fire was at least disproportionate.

The Israeli-given reason for this attack was to fend off the Hamas make-shift rockets that were fired onto southern Israel, which have escalated after the end of the cease-fire. However, this is hardly the case. The Hamas rockets are very primitive and make-shift. They are literally composed of gun powder in pipes that fly. Thus there was no infrastructure for Israel to take out. Plus, the Israeli attack did not stop the Hamas mortars even after it finished.

Unfortunately, it seemed that this attack was little more than a political move to help a candidate win an election. At the start of the offensive, the ruling Israeli party (Kadima) headed by Tzipi Livni were losing in the primary polls against pro-war hardliners and right-wingerssuch as Benjamin Netanyahu. This full-scale attack (without the interference of George Bush in has days in office) boosted Livni’s poll numbers and made the elections closer. Unfortunately, besides the large Palestinian death toll, this was the only outcome of this campaign on the Israeli side.

The Israeli attack didn’t distinguish between militants and civilians, and very little was done to minimize civilian casualties. Israel continued to justify that their mass bombing was because Hamas militants were hiding behind women and children. However, it seemed like Israel was using that as a ready excuse to justify anything (and little proof of that was provided in many cases). For example, Israel bombed a U.N. school that was temporarily housing refugee families which resulted in killing at least 40 people all of which were civilians. Israel also ignored international conventions and weapons that were banned internationally to be used against civilians. For example, white phosphorus was used in civilian locations which is banned internationally. To make matters worse, Israel prevented international news reporters from entering Gaza so as to limit the amount of information getting out.

As I mentioned before, much has been said about this offensive. A U.N. fact-finding investigation of this conflict (what is sometimes called the “Goldstone Report”) concluded that both Hamas and Israel were to blame for the conflict, and concluded that Israel committed war crimes and and possible crimes against humanities.

I personally do not agree or support Hamas, and I have stated that on multiple occasions. However, regardless of your political views you have to acknowledge that what Israel did in killing more than 1400 people, at least 1000 of whom were unarmed civilians, and at least 300 were children was extremely wrong and inhumane. Today, Israel is still denying basic amenities and even cement from entering Gaza to rebuild the destroyed homes.

On this day, it is worth giving a moment to think and reflect.

Even if we chose to believe that Israel is only surgically targeting militants and not infrastructure, civil services facilities, or just bombing anything that moves; That still does not justify Israel’s actual actions on the ground.

For example, Israel already had complete knowledge of GPS locations of hospitals, UN schools and facilities, and even residential towers. Israel also has complete knowledge that civilians fled to these locations for shelter and treatment. So, if Israel was really trying to minimize civilian casualties in the densely populated Gaza Strip, and even if a sniper or a rocket was fired from a hospital or a school’s vicinity, is the surgically targeted response to bomb the entire area ? Does that really minimize civilian casualties ? What benefit would Israel get from bombing a hospital ??

In the following video, Kenneth Roth, an executive director at the Human Rights Watch describes how Israel used 155 millimeter caliber weapons in a densely populated civilian area. A single fire from this weapon can cause casualties within a 300 meeter radius of its impact location. So, would an army seeking to minimize civilian casualties use such a weapon in a dense urban setting ? The answer is of course not.

The following interview is only 3 minutes long and is really worth the viewing. Unfortunately, it only aired on CNN International which is rarely viewed inside America.

During the 22 day war only Arabic news networks had reporters embedded in the strip. Aljazeera English was the only international news network with reporters. Hopefully now

The following are a couple of reports filed by CNN’s Ben Wedeman. Unfortunately it seems that these reports were only aired on CNN international which does not really watched in America.

Kudos to Wedeman and all other journalists in Gaza for following the truth and reporting what is happening on the ground.

Israel’s declared goal from this assault was to stop the Hamas rockets coming out of Gaza. However, in a matter of 20 days Israel has killed more than 850 Palestinian adults and 300 children, and has injured more than 5000 people. Israel’s brutal attack on Gaza and the amount of death and destruction it has inflicted on the civilian population has given the Hamas government in Gaza increased sympathy and support. Not only that, but Israel’s brutality and excessive use of force has undermined the voices of moderates, instilled doubt in the Palestinian street about Israel’s true intentions for peace, crippled the credibility of the peace advocates, and diminished the expectations of any peace process. All of this seems to strongly indicate that the end of this current assault will not usher in an era free of rocket attacks.

After all, how can the Palestinian street believe that Israel seriously wants peace if Israel has been stalling the peace process for years and continues to expand illegal settlements and illegal outposts in the West Bank, while at the same time killing more than 1150 Palestinians in an all-out assault on Gaza ?

Israel of course realizes this. Many have argued that the true intention of this assault was to seize the opportunity while George Bush is in the white house and boost the electability of the Kadima party with Tzipi Livni against the right-wing hardliner Netanyahu who advocates for more violence against the Palestinians.

My question is: In your opinion, How do you think this current assault will end ? When will it end ? and what will cause it to end ? What will the end result be ? and How will the situation in Gaza be after it all ends ?

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria warned that Israel’s campaign would fuel extremism and terrorism in the Arab and Muslim world.

“The effect of war is more dangerous than war. It is sowing seeds of extremism around the region,” Mr Assad said in an exclusive BBC interview.

[source]

Also, here is a graphical representation of the amount, and break down by category, of the casualties resulting from the 19-day Israeli assault on Gaza.

[source: BBC article]

Here is a link to the main site with the maps.

Here is a link to the reports page.

A screenshot of the map and timeline present on the site.

In a rare deviation from their pro-Israel stance, CNN (not CNN International, but the CNN that airs in the USA) did a little investigation of this (i.e. a Google search) and found out that indeed Israel broke the truce in early November by carrying out an attack inside Gaza.

In order to protect himself from a possible flood of Israeli and pro-Israeli complaints, Rick Sanchez had to have the camera man actually film the news articles while he read them on air just to prove that many credible news sources reported on this incident early on.

Here is a video of this event.

Kudos and Thank you Rick Sanchez for your courage and taking an honest journalistic stance. Also thank you to Dr. Barghouti for his continuous interviews trying to give a moderate Palestinian perspective on the Gaza issue to anyone willing to listen.

[also reported here.]

To explain this, the Israeli military said that there were some fighters who attacked Israelis from that location, and that they even saw the dead bodies of the fighters after the strike. They later released a video on YouTube showing people firing rockets from that school’s area.

Later on, an officer in the Israeli military admitted there was no firing of rockets from that school in that incident. On top of that, the video that was released by the IDF was of October 2007 which was more than 2 years before the incident.

I am not coming up with this on my own, it was even published in an article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

So for those who still want an evidence that Israel does not avoid civilians and they do not obey international codes for military conduct, I hope this gives you the proof.

New York’s mayor had the audacity to compare this to a madman knocking on your door. Other senators asked wouldn’t the USA have to interfere if rockets fell on Southern California from Mexico or Seattle from Vancouver. I wonder how would that mayor and those senators react to 250+ children dead in New York, Seattle, or Southern California. Are we not as much human as they are ? How would they react if they lost every single member of their families ? This is pretty horrific. Yet this is just a glimpse of what is taking place in Gaza with their approval and the implicit approval of the U.S. government. So how can they have humanity and sympathy towards some group people, and none towards another group ?

If you still need further evidence of the horrible, cold-blooded, and inhumane death that Israel has brought to the people of Gaza and the children of Gaza, I give you this 2 minute news report.

The current ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza has resulted in the death of more than 400 people and the injury of more than 2000 people in just one week. It has also directly affected the lives of more than 1.4 million people.

Unfortunately, many of the Western media outlets have not paid attention to this situation, or blindly stated Israel’s view without regard for the humanitarian crisis and the rising death toll. My advice to people in the west (and specially the United States) is to diversify their news input. Use automatic aggregators like Google News to read their news. Read/Watch international news sources like BBC News and AlJazeera English.

The following is a simple guide to this conflict.

• What is Gaza ? The term Gaza refers to either the Gaza Strip or Gaza City.
• Gaza Strip: The Gaza strip is a small strip of land along the Mediterranean between Israel and Egypt. The total area of the Gaza Strip is 360 sq. kilometer (139 sq. mile) which is roughly twice the size of Washington D.C.
• Gaza City: Gaza City is the largest city in the Gaza.
• Population: The Gaza Strip is inhabited by 1.48 million people. The small area means the population is highly dense. Almost half of the population of the Gaza Strip are children under the age of 14.

Here are a couple of maps to put things in context:

• Occupation: Prior to 1948, The Gaza Strip was part of the British Mandate of Palestine. After the 1948 war which led to the creation of the state of Israel, the Gaza Strip was under the governance of Egypt. In 1967 Israel seized control over the strip until its withdrawal in 2005.
• Settlement: Israel maintained settlements in Gaza Strip from 1967 to 2005. In 2005 Israel withdrew from its settlements in the Gaza Strip. The current population (1.48 million) are all Palestinians.
• Government: As of June 2007, Hamas took control of Gaza following a battle with Fatah (both of which are Palestinian parties). Since then, Gaza has been under the authority of Hamas. The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and its president Mahmoud Abbas currently have no jurisdiction there.
• Why are they fighting with Israel? Although Israel withdrew its physical presence from the strip in 2005, the Palestinians did not gain sovereignty over Gaza.  Israel continued to control the Gazan sea front, the air space above Gaza, the roads into Gaza, and even the fuel and electrical supplies of Gaza. Israel sealed off the Mediterranean from Gaza and prohibited the entrance of supplies to it by sea or air. The only remaining exit was via the border with Egypt through Sinai. But this border has been mostly closed because of Egypt’s diplomatic ties with Israel.
  Food, water, medicine, fuel, and electricity were all controlled by Israel and coming from Israel to Gaza.
• The Blockade: After Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, Israel severely limited the entrance of supplies to the strip. Approximately 84% of the population are living off of U.N. humanitarian supplies. Hospitals are suffering severe shortage of medication and equipment. Water is available only for a few hours every few days.
• The Rocket Attacks: Palestinian fighters from Hamas and other factions fired makeshift, steel rockets called Qassam Rockets onto close southern Israeli towns, mainly Sderot. Although limited in casualties and destruction, the Qassam rockets caused terror and insecurity among the Israeli residents of the targeted towns. Israel also launched missile attacks against Gaza from sea and air.
• The Cease-Fire: In June of 2008, Israel and Hamas entered a 6-month cease-fire to stop the attacks from both sides. As part of the truce, Israel agreed to lift the blockade on Gaza and allow food and medical supplies to enter Gaza.
• Outcomes of the Cease-Fire: In October the cease-fire started to break apart. Israeli attacks on Gaza resumed and the blockade had not been lifted. Supplies in Gaza remained scarce and limited. Hamas and other factions also violated the cease-fire by launching rocket attacks on Israel.
• Current Conflict: After the cease-fire ended, violence escalated again. Rocket attacks resulted in the death of one Israeli civilian, and Israel stepped up its attacks. On December 27th 2008, Israel launched a wide-scale offensive on the Gaza Strip and completely sealed off all of its borders. A week of aerial bombing from Israel has resulted in wide spread destruction and the death of more than 460 Gazans (more than a 100 of which are civilian women and children by U.N. estimates). The death toll among Israelis during that week was 4, 3 of which were civilians.
• Humanitarian Crisis: The vast majority of Gaza residents are unarmed civilians. Gaza has no advanced military installations. So the majority of Israeli bombs fell on individuals and in residential areas. Some of the buildings targeted by Israel were police stations, ministries, mosques, and houses. There are more than 2000 wounded people in Gaza with no medical aid. Many Gazans have found their homes destroyed and with nowhere to go.

A Palestinian Perspective: Certainly all Palestinians would like the violence to stop. Also not all Palestinians or all Gazans support the rocket attacks. As I mentioned before, the vast majority of the population of Gaza are civilians. At the same time Israel has followed a path of mass punishment. Israel claims that its attacks are made to stop Hamas from firing rockets at Israel and to achieve peace. However, the killing of more than 400 Palestinians in Gaza in just one week will not sway them towards peace. A continuous blockade will not send a powerful message of peace. Violence only yields more violence.

I, as well as many other Palestinians, do not condone the rocket attacks or the death of any civilian. However, Israel’s response has been terrible and disproportionate. This cycle of violence must end.

What is perhaps more shocking in this whole situation is that the world stood still and watched as Gazans were bombed and slaughtered. No country rushed to ask for a cease-fire. No country rushed to help the escalating humanitarian crisis. The world stood in idle as 460 people were killed and 2000+ people were injured in 7 days. The hospitals can not cope with the injured and have to make choices on who to treat. Fuel is running out, so ambulances can not make all the needed trips. The situation is getting worse and worse every day.

Here is a small button you can use to encourage people to learn more about what is going on in Gaza. It can also be optionally linked to this article if you would like to spread the word.

<a href="http://www.za3tar.net/?p=585"><img src="http://files.za3tar.net/learn-gaza.png" border="0" /></a>

I will post a video of this heartless “person” once i find a copy online.

Please spread the word; tell your friends, and redistribute this picture.

… in the news

Traveling thousands of miles to start my graduate education, i was disconnected from the world for about 10 days. With a couple of days driving on the road, and no internet set up at home yet, i had no means to check the news or anything. So, when i was planning to write my next post, i was thinking of talking about my 2-day driving road trip.

However, as soon as i got connected, the stark dark news was hard to escape. The mass punishment of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza is just inhumane. No words can really describe what is going on. It is truly frightening. What would happen if this was done to people in Europe or the USA ? How would the world react ? What description would be given to the country/people applying such mass punishment ? Why is it not done now ? Why is the world turning its blind eye ?

Words escape me trying to come up with something different that what many great bloggers have said about this. I leave you with this nice article by Sabbah.