The military used overwhelming firepower from tanks, artillery and aircraft to protect the advancing soldiers, and Gaza officials said at least 31 civilians were killed in the onslaught. The military said troops killed several dozen militants, but Gaza officials could confirm only four dead -- in part because rescue teams could not reach the battle zones. One Israeli soldier was killed....The new deaths brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip to more than 500 since Dec. 27. Palestinian and U.N. officials say at least 100 civilians are among the dead.
...The new deaths brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip to more than 500 since Dec. 27. Palestinian and U.N. officials say at least 100 civilians are among the dead.
In an official statement on behalf of the EU presidency, the Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg has stressed that the right to defend one's nation does not allow for actions largely affecting civilians. At the same time, the foreign minister stated that Israel's decision to send in ground forces was "not surprising". Along with negotiations towards a ceasefire, the Czech EU presidency is urging for humanitarian aide to be made available to Gaza Strip inhabitants. Mr Schwarzenberg left for the Middle East on Sunday, heading an EU mission focused on the current conflict. Other officials on the mission include EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. Prior to the team's departure on Sunday, she stressed that the violence on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides needed to stop.
Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said on Sunday that a spokesman for the EU presidency, currently held by Prague, had blundered in describing Israel's ground assault in Gaza as "defensive." "It was his personal mistake," he told Czech TV, adding it was a "serious one." On Saturday Jiří Potužník, Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek's EU presidency spokesman, initially described the Israeli operation as "more defensive than offensive." and told AFP this was the position of the Czech prime minister for the European presidency. The Czech Foreign Ministry later changed tack, while Mr Potužník himself said his words had been misunderstood. The statement on Saturday was denounced by an aide close to the Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as well by the radical movement Hamas.
APA-Tripoli (Libya) The Qaddafi Foundation has announced that he would request the Libyan government to severe economic and political relations with the Czech Republic unless its Prime Minister formally apologises and withdraws his remarks regarding the Palestenians in Gaza. In a statement here on Sunday night, the head of the Qaddafi Foundation, Seif Eleslam Qaddafi, son of the Libyan leader, said the foundation had the moral responsibility to request the State of Libya to take such a measure against any offending party.
In a statement here on Sunday night, the head of the Qaddafi Foundation, Seif Eleslam Qaddafi, son of the Libyan leader, said the foundation had the moral responsibility to request the State of Libya to take such a measure against any offending party.
US envoy Alejandro Wolff, who refused to support a draft text put forward by Libya, said there was no point in issuing statements that Hamas would ignore. Wolff added that the actions of Israel could not be compared with those of Hamas, which he described as a terrorist organisation. Egypt's ambassador to the UN, Maged Abdelaziz said it was regrettable that one council member refused to accept any statement at a time when aggression was escalating and more people were dying. France's UN envoy and Security Council president Jean-Maurice Ripert emphasised the need for an immediate and permanent Gaza ceasefire and humanitarian aid.
...In a statement from the Egyptian presidency seen on Sunday, Egypt said it "places the onus on Israel for the innocent civilians martyred and wounded."..."Egypt condemns in the strongest possible terms the beginning of Israel's ground operations in the Gaza Strip and the invasion of the territory by its forces," the statement said."Egypt once again calls upon Israel to end its aggression immediately and without preconditions, and calls upon the United Nations Security Council and Quartet to swiftly fulfil their responsibility without delay to end the Israeli aggression."
...In a statement from the Egyptian presidency seen on Sunday, Egypt said it "places the onus on Israel for the innocent civilians martyred and wounded."
..."Egypt condemns in the strongest possible terms the beginning of Israel's ground operations in the Gaza Strip and the invasion of the territory by its forces," the statement said.
"Egypt once again calls upon Israel to end its aggression immediately and without preconditions, and calls upon the United Nations Security Council and Quartet to swiftly fulfil their responsibility without delay to end the Israeli aggression."
The European Commission has pledged an additional three million euros in emergency aid for Gaza. Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said in a statement that the situation for Gaza's 1.5 million residents was becoming more desperate by the day. He also urged the Israeli authorities to meet their international obligations and let the aid through.
€3 million? That's enough for what? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
I remember, was that in 2002? when they invaded the left bank, accusing Arafat of eating children or something, Israeli soldiers entered the P.A. building and proceeded to destroy every single computer, all stuff that had been donated by the EU. A 'centrist' is someone who's neither on the left, nor on the left.
As Israeli ground troops entered Gaza, Hamas's already fragile incentive to rely on diplomacy alone was trampled underfootIsrael's invasion of Gaza comes hard on the heels of its massive air campaign which, it says, is a justified retaliation for the Hamas rocket attacks against southern Israel. Every rocket or mortar fired from Gaza into Israel is reported to the international media and, at the time of writing, more than 400 had been counted during the week. Details of the Israeli attacks are harder to find, but the week's report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) states that the Israeli Air Force also dropped 400 bombs, not over seven days, but in just the first few minutes of its opening assault on Gaza. These and hundreds more bombs have killed over 400 Palestinians. The Hamas missiles have caused just four deaths.
Israel's invasion of Gaza comes hard on the heels of its massive air campaign which, it says, is a justified retaliation for the Hamas rocket attacks against southern Israel. Every rocket or mortar fired from Gaza into Israel is reported to the international media and, at the time of writing, more than 400 had been counted during the week. Details of the Israeli attacks are harder to find, but the week's report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) states that the Israeli Air Force also dropped 400 bombs, not over seven days, but in just the first few minutes of its opening assault on Gaza. These and hundreds more bombs have killed over 400 Palestinians. The Hamas missiles have caused just four deaths.
Hamas, Israel, Gaza and Violent Resistance
Hamas descended directly from an earlier Islamic movement concerned primarily with the provision of education, health care, food aid and other social services to Palestinians suffering under the Israeli occupation. This group was funded by the Saudi monarchy and... the government of Israel! The latter provided the movement with land, buildings and no small measure of encouragement.
This group was funded by the Saudi monarchy and... the government of Israel! The latter provided the movement with land, buildings and no small measure of encouragement.
Hell bent as Israel was on undermining Arafat and the secular PLO, in the 1980s, Israel and the US supported the nascent, apolitical Hamas. Until, of course, Hamas and its growing constituency realized that they had the means to challenge the corrupt and compliant PLO.
More:
America's Hidden Role in Hamas's Rise to Power
The demands imposed at the insistence of the Bush administration and Congress on the Palestinian Authority in order to lift the sanctions appeared to have been designed to be rejected and were widely interpreted as a pretext for punishing the Palestinian population for voting the wrong way. For example, the United States demanded that the Hamas-led government unilaterally recognize the right of the state of Israel to exist, even though Israel has never recognized the right of the Palestinians to have a viable state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or anywhere else. Other demands included an end of attacks on civilians in Israel while not demanding that Israel likewise end its attacks on civilian areas in the Gaza Strip.
And this from William Sieghart,
We Must Adjust our Distorted Image of Hamas
Who or what is Hamas, the movement that Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, would like to wipe out as though it were a virus? Why did it win the Palestinian elections and why does it allow rockets to be fired into Israel? The story of Hamas over the past three years reveals how the Israeli, US and UK governments' misunderstanding of this Islamist movement has led us to the brutal and desperate situation that we are in now.
The three articles are worth reading in their entirety.
I am appalled beyond words at the media and governmental madness, attacking Hamas at all costs, ignoring the genocide caused by American (US) bombs and Israeli ...there just isn't a word describing behavior so bestial against people of ones own tribe.
Imagine if it was Iran making these incursions against a segment of their population. But nuclear power Israel blowing 100s of tons of ammunition into the schools, hospitals, homes and public areas...imagine if England had decided to stop the Irgun terrorists, then the Stern Gang with these same measures. Imagine if David Ben-Gurion and his family were attacked by new bunker busting bombs and killed for not giving up Yitzhak Shamir...then bombing a classroom full of kids in order to kill Shamir, and an entire village to 'get' Menachem Begin while visiting a pharmacy.
These people justified the planting land-mines in Arab markets and blew up hotels and killed diplomates and decimated villages...and now they force people into camps and are killing them wholesale under the pretext that they are lobbing rockets from the area. And not just for the last week...but for years and years and years and years.
It is so much a microcosm of American arrogance and exceptionalism, so much a lesson in lies and deceits, so stark a representation of "If they accuse others, they are doing it themselves in spades"...it is a sickening portrayal of the worst in human behavior.
As someone who believes in the basic goodness of individuals, it frightens me. Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
As someone who believes in the basic goodness of individuals, it frightens me.
I couldn't agree more.
Teaser quote:
The conflict between Palestinians and Israelis has heightened since 2001, even as any perceived threat to Israel from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, or even Syria, has declined. Israel, according to Chaim Herzog, Israel's sixth President, had been "born in battle" and would be "obliged to live by the sword." Yet, the Israeli government's conquest and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza brought about a very difficult challenge, although armed resistance on a mass basis was only taken up years later in the Intifadha. Israel could not tolerate Palestinian Arabs' resistance of their authority on the legal basis of denial of self-determination, and eventually preferred to grant some measures of self-determination while continuing to consolidate control of the Occupied Territories, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. However, a comprehensive peace, shimmering in the distance, has eluded all, even as inter-Israeli and inter-Palestinian divisions deepened as peace danced closer before retreating.
The above link is to a Top Level summary. This link is to the full study (107 page pdf file.)
It is to be noted this study was written and published prior to the current invasion of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Defense Forces.
To bad "he who lives by the sword dies by the sword" is in the New Testament... Most economists teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless. -- James K. Galbraith
