The Czech EU presidency urged Israel and Hamas to avoid a further escalation of the violence in the Gaza Strip Friday, saying it was "deeply concerned" at the situation and urged the two sides to embrace a UN truce deal. "The Presidency is deeply concerned over the continuing Israeli military action in Gaza and the continuation of indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel," the EU presidency said in a statement. "We call on all parties to restrain from acts that further escalate an already tense situation," it added. The EU presidency called on all parties to fully implement a truce order from the UN Security Council. A defiant Israel pounded Gaza with bombs and shells Friday, vowing to pursue its war on Hamas despite the UN decision, amid warnings the population was running out of food. The European Commission meanwhile condemned "in the strongest terms" the attacks on UN humanitarian convoys and personnel in Gaza.
"The Presidency is deeply concerned over the continuing Israeli military action in Gaza and the continuation of indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel," the EU presidency said in a statement.
"We call on all parties to restrain from acts that further escalate an already tense situation," it added.
The EU presidency called on all parties to fully implement a truce order from the UN Security Council.
A defiant Israel pounded Gaza with bombs and shells Friday, vowing to pursue its war on Hamas despite the UN decision, amid warnings the population was running out of food.
The European Commission meanwhile condemned "in the strongest terms" the attacks on UN humanitarian convoys and personnel in Gaza.
Never has kissinger's lament been so true; "when I need to call europe, what number do I dial?" keep to the Fen Causeway
Both Israel and the militant Palestinian group Hamas have dismissed a UN Security Council resolution that calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the resolution was unworkable noting that Palestinians had fired more rockets at Israel on Friday. As Israel's security cabinet decided to continue its military campaign, warplanes bombed the outskirts of Gaza City, killing seven Palestinians
The Israeli military may have committed war crimes in Gaza, the UN's most senior human rights official said tonight, as Israeli troops pressed on with their increasingly deadly offensive in defiance of a UN security council resolution demanding a ceasefire.Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, singled out the killing this week of up to 30 Palestinians in Zeitoun, south-east of Gaza City, when Israel shelled a house where its troops had told about 110 civilians to take shelter.Pillay, a former international criminal court judge from South Africa, told the BBC the incident "appears to have all the elements of war crimes". She called for "credible, independent and transparent" investigations into possible violations of humanitarian law.
The Israeli military may have committed war crimes in Gaza, the UN's most senior human rights official said tonight, as Israeli troops pressed on with their increasingly deadly offensive in defiance of a UN security council resolution demanding a ceasefire.
Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, singled out the killing this week of up to 30 Palestinians in Zeitoun, south-east of Gaza City, when Israel shelled a house where its troops had told about 110 civilians to take shelter.
Pillay, a former international criminal court judge from South Africa, told the BBC the incident "appears to have all the elements of war crimes". She called for "credible, independent and transparent" investigations into possible violations of humanitarian law.
The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon George Bush's doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say.The move to open contacts with Hamas, which could be initiated through the US intelligence services, would represent a definitive break with the Bush presidency's ostracising of the group. The state department has designated Hamas a terrorist organisation, and in 2006 Congress passed a law banning US financial aid to the group.
The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon George Bush's doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say.
The move to open contacts with Hamas, which could be initiated through the US intelligence services, would represent a definitive break with the Bush presidency's ostracising of the group. The state department has designated Hamas a terrorist organisation, and in 2006 Congress passed a law banning US financial aid to the group.
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Haas, 2xBush state department, current president of CFR, president-elect's designate. "[Obama] supports low-level contacts with Hamas provided there is a ceasefire in place and a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation emerges." This is the recommendation of Martin Indyk in a Foreign Affairs article, notes the reporter.
Clown #1: "This is going to be an administration that is committed to negotiating with critical parties on critical issues." Hopefully, this person is not party to the issues that Indyk refuses to issue, critically.
Clemons: "Secret envoys, multilateral six-party talk-like approaches. The total isolation of Hamas that we promulgated under Bush is going to end." Epic fail.
Clown #2: "It is highly unlikely that they will be public about it."
Miller: "We [Obama administrateion] will be perceived to be weak and feckless if we are perceived to be on the margins, unable to persuade the Israelis, unable to work with the international community to end this." On the margins, meaning "low-level" or "clandestine" muscle of reconcilliation? This is a lonely, thankless job. Mercifully for America, Barry is photogenic in 4C and B/W. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Love this headline: Obama names Panetta, Blair as top spymasters | Reuters | 10 Jan 2009 (3,409)
Panetta and Blair did not come up through the ranks of intelligence agencies, and their nominations reflect Obama's determination to restore a U.S. reputation battered by accusations of torturing suspected terrorists and secret wiretapping of Americans' overseas phone calls. "To be truly secure we must adhere to our values as vigilantly as we protect our safety, with no exceptions," Obama said in announcing his picks. "Under my administration the United States does not torture. We will abide by the Geneva Conventions. We will uphold our highest ideals," he said. Obama pledged to ensure that U.S. intelligence is accurate and untainted by politics, after the spy agencies failed to prevent the September 11 attacks and wrongly concluded that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
"To be truly secure we must adhere to our values as vigilantly as we protect our safety, with no exceptions," Obama said in announcing his picks.
"Under my administration the United States does not torture. We will abide by the Geneva Conventions. We will uphold our highest ideals," he said.
Obama pledged to ensure that U.S. intelligence is accurate and untainted by politics, after the spy agencies failed to prevent the September 11 attacks and wrongly concluded that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
OK, Wrong Blair. But I ask you: What better cover for clandestine diplomacy in the EU than President of the EU? Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel rejected a U.N. resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Friday and warplanes and tanks pounded the Palestinian enclave. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dismissed Thursday's binding Security Council resolution demanding an "immediate and durable" ceasefire in the two-week-old war as "unworkable." Israel said Hamas fighters had fired at least 30 rockets into its territory on Friday. No casualties were reported. Medics in Gaza said the Palestinian death toll had risen to 784. Ten Israeli soldiers have been killed, as well as three civilians hit by Hamas cross-border rocket fire. Hamas officials in Gaza say they are weighing the U.N. resolution, but have voiced irritation they were not consulted.
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel rejected a U.N. resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Friday and warplanes and tanks pounded the Palestinian enclave.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dismissed Thursday's binding Security Council resolution demanding an "immediate and durable" ceasefire in the two-week-old war as "unworkable."
Israel said Hamas fighters had fired at least 30 rockets into its territory on Friday. No casualties were reported.
Medics in Gaza said the Palestinian death toll had risen to 784. Ten Israeli soldiers have been killed, as well as three civilians hit by Hamas cross-border rocket fire.
Hamas officials in Gaza say they are weighing the U.N. resolution, but have voiced irritation they were not consulted.
ROME, Jan 9 (Reuters) - At least 80 percent of people in Gaza need urgent food assistance and Israel must make access to the area easier for humanitarian aid to be delivered, the head of the United Nations' food relief agency said on Friday. The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was becoming increasingly difficult to find food in Gaza, with little available in markets, bakeries running out of wheat flour, flour mills running out of grain and many people too frightened to leave their homes.
The removal of Coca-Cola from thousands of restaurants in Malaysia in protest at US support for Israel will hurt the local economy, the company has said. The drinks company was responding to boycotts of US-made goods called by Muslim groups in Malaysia. Malaysia has called at the United Nations for action to stop the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Former leader Mahathir Mohamad has also called for a global boycott of the US dollar and US products.
The removal of Coca-Cola from thousands of restaurants in Malaysia in protest at US support for Israel will hurt the local economy, the company has said.
The drinks company was responding to boycotts of US-made goods called by Muslim groups in Malaysia.
Malaysia has called at the United Nations for action to stop the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Former leader Mahathir Mohamad has also called for a global boycott of the US dollar and US products.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir had earlier called for a boycott of US currency and goods. "If you stop accepting US currency, the US can't trade and can't make any money, it will become very poor and it will have to stop the production of more and more weapons in order to kill people," he said on Monday. "We should not be buying all these weapons from the US, we can buy from the Russians if we must have aeroplanes and things like that," he added. "People must act... they won't die if they don't drink Coca-Cola," he said.
"If you stop accepting US currency, the US can't trade and can't make any money, it will become very poor and it will have to stop the production of more and more weapons in order to kill people," he said on Monday.
"We should not be buying all these weapons from the US, we can buy from the Russians if we must have aeroplanes and things like that," he added.
"People must act... they won't die if they don't drink Coca-Cola," he said.
Standing, not kneeling: watchacall "de-colonization" of de mind. LOL. It's a crucial foundation of self-determination, but as we shall see, insufficient defense in of itself of life and liberty.
'Developing' World Pragmatism, continued | Press TV | 9 Jan 2009
Press TV: How do you assess the prospects for the global economy in 2009 and how will ASEAN members, of which Malaysia is also one, figure? Mohamad: Well, the global economy is still going to deteriorate further...is going to become bad simply because all the efforts taken by the United States and Europe to stop the slide has failed. Bailing out companies, bailing out banks have not really worked. So the situation will get worse and ASEAN countries will feel the impact because largely ASEAN countries have trade with the rest of the world and their economies are dependant on trade. If the markets are unable to buy what they produce, then, off course, they will not able to export as much as they used to and this will affect the economy. Press TV: Sanction regimes are regarded more and more as the diplomatic tactics from a bygone age. How effective do you consider them to be in the present diplomatic climate and what could replace sanctions? Mohamad: Well, sanction has proven a failure in terms of changing the attitudes of government, but it has, off course, succeeded in doing a lot of damage, in killing a lot of people.
Mohamad: Well, the global economy is still going to deteriorate further...is going to become bad simply because all the efforts taken by the United States and Europe to stop the slide has failed.
Bailing out companies, bailing out banks have not really worked. So the situation will get worse and ASEAN countries will feel the impact because largely ASEAN countries have trade with the rest of the world and their economies are dependant on trade.
If the markets are unable to buy what they produce, then, off course, they will not able to export as much as they used to and this will affect the economy.
Press TV: Sanction regimes are regarded more and more as the diplomatic tactics from a bygone age. How effective do you consider them to be in the present diplomatic climate and what could replace sanctions?
Mohamad: Well, sanction has proven a failure in terms of changing the attitudes of government, but it has, off course, succeeded in doing a lot of damage, in killing a lot of people.
Ironically, news of an organized boycott, action, puts to lie Mr Mohamad's apparently equanimous acceptance of globalized "interdependence." LOL. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. is seeking to hire a merchant ship to deliver hundreds of tons of arms to Israel from Greece later this month, tender documents seen by Reuters show. The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) said the ship was to carry 325 standard 20-foot containers of what is listed as "ammunition" on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January. A "hazardous material" designation on the manifest mentions explosive substances and detonators, but no other details were given. "Shipping 3,000-odd tons of ammunition in one go is a lot," one broker said, on condition of anonymity. "This (kind of request) is pretty rare and we haven't seen much of it quoted in the market over the years," he added. The U.S. Defense Department, contacted by Reuters on Friday in Washington, had no immediate comment.
LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. is seeking to hire a merchant ship to deliver hundreds of tons of arms to Israel from Greece later this month, tender documents seen by Reuters show.
The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) said the ship was to carry 325 standard 20-foot containers of what is listed as "ammunition" on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January.
A "hazardous material" designation on the manifest mentions explosive substances and detonators, but no other details were given.
"Shipping 3,000-odd tons of ammunition in one go is a lot," one broker said, on condition of anonymity.
"This (kind of request) is pretty rare and we haven't seen much of it quoted in the market over the years," he added.
The U.S. Defense Department, contacted by Reuters on Friday in Washington, had no immediate comment.
Haaretz:
The United Nations is claiming Israeli military officers have admitted there was no Palestinian gunfire emanating from inside an UNRWA school in Gaza which was shelled by an IDF tank.
They're also doing exactly what they accuse others of doing:
He noted that all the footage released by the IDF of militants firing from inside the school was from 2007 and not from the incident itself. "There are no up-to-date photos," Gunness said. "In 2007, we abandoned the site and only then did the militants take it over."
"There are no up-to-date photos," Gunness said. "In 2007, we abandoned the site and only then did the militants take it over."
There's a big protest demonstration that has just left Place de la République, heading down to Bastille and finishing at Place de la Nation at about 7:00pm.
This morning, police were busy on the Place removing anything that looked like it could be used as a projectile. A friend came back to his bike just in time to avoid them cutting through his chain and taking everything away. A lot of shops near the Place said that they were going to close (despite this being the first weekend of the January sales).
Liberation reports that 3800 police have been deployed to maintain order. About an hour ago I saw my first ever water cannon, driving up my street. Not sure if I want to venture out to find out what's happening.
