Infinite Unknown

A father carries his wounded daughter into the al-Shifa hospital after Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, Jan. 6, 2009. Photographer: Saleh Jadallah/Bloomberg News

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) — The Israeli government will weigh the future of its military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as mounting casualties among Palestinian civilians increased pressure for a truce.

At least 40 Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces struck a school run by the United Nations in Gaza, a UN official said. Israel, which struck at least 40 more Hamas targets overnight, said it responded after its soldiers were fired at from the building.

Related articles:
- Optimism over Gaza ceasefire plan (BBC)
- UN rights body calls special session on Gaza (Reuters)
- Homeless and terrified, 15,000 seek refuge in UN schools (Guardian)
- Shell-shocked children who are drawn into the cult of the martyr (Guardian)
- Obama fiddles while Gaza burns (Guardian)
- Gaza killing sparks attacks on Jews across Europe (Telegraph)

The school deaths yesterday added urgency to diplomatic efforts aimed at reaching a cease-fire as the conflict entered its 12th day. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak proposed a new initiative last night and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been lobbying throughout the region for a truce, said the casualties at the school demonstrate the urgent need to stop the fighting. “Time works against us,” he said.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice backed the proposal and Mubarak’s call for peace talks in Cairo, which may begin as early as today.

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Tags: Ban Ki-moon, Civilians, Condoleezza Rice, Gaza, Government, Hamas, Israel, Military, Palestinians, Politics, U.N.

Added: Jun 9, 2007
Source: Google Video

Tags: Civilians, Documentary, Gaza, Government, Human Rights, Israel, Martial Law, Palestinians, Politics

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review.

This article is a must read.

President George W. Bush was in his stand-up comedian role when he declared that he wanted to be remembered as a fighter for human rights.

Seldom has a fighter for human rights amassed Bush’s death toll. According to Information Clearing House, Bush’s invasion and occupation of Iraq has resulted in 1,297,997 dead Iraqis. Millions more have been wounded, and millions are displaced. Bush’s legions have taken out weddings, funerals, kid’s soccer games, hospitals, and mosques.

And that’s before we come to Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan “we don’t do body counts” declared a commander of Bush’s imperial legions. But the thousands of dead civilians and school children have rallied Afghans to the Taliban, whose lightly armed fighters have retaken most of the country from the Unipower.

The Taliban doesn’t have an air force, or cluster bombs, or drones, or “smart missiles,” or tanks, or satellite capability. The Taliban has Afghan resistance to occupation.

Bush was fighting for human rights in 2006 when he prevented for one month the civilized world from stopping Israel’s massive bombing of Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure and civilian neighborhoods. Israel had intended to clear Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon in order to steal that part of the country for its water resources. When the vaunted Israeli Army was defeated and put to rout by a few lightly armed Hezbollah guerrillas, Israeli rage took the Israeli defeat out on Lebanon’s civilian population–from the air, of course. The murder of Lebanon’s civilian population was enabled by the American weapons with which Israel is flooded.

Now Israel is bombing civilians in Israel’s Gaza Ghetto. Nothing has been spared. Not the hospitals, the university, or the children. Again, President Bush, to America’s everlasting shame, is blocking the civilized world’s attempt to force a halt to the Israeli aggression against the civilian population in Gaza.

If only Bush were merely a stand-up comedian. In truth, he is a puppet. A puppet of Zionist Israel.

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Tags: Afghanistan, Civil liberties, Gaza, George Bush, Government, Hamas, Hezbollah, Human Rights, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Military, Politics, Taliban, U.S., War, War on Terror, warrantless wiretapping program, White House

GAZA CITY, Gaza - Israeli forces edged closer to Gaza’s major population centers on Tuesday and attacked new sites, including a U.N. school, claiming more civilian lives after ignoring mounting international calls for an immediate cease-fire. A Palestinian rocket attack wounded an Israeli infant.

Related articles:
- Gaza clashes spark ‘major crisis’ (BBC)
- Israel ‘expands Gaza offensive’ (BBC)
- Israel Pushes into Southern Gaza (The Washington Post)
- Death toll rises as Israel encircles Gaza City (CNN)

The United Nations said three civilians were killed in the airstrike late Monday on the courtyard of its school, where hundreds of people from a Gaza City refugee camp had sought shelter from Israel’s blistering 11-day offensive against the Hamas militant group.

“There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized,” said John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza.

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Tags: Gaza, Israel, Military, Palestinians, Politics, U.N.

Israel rebuffed a call from visiting European foreign ministers on Monday for an immediate ceasefire in its Gaza offensive, as troops engaged in their heaviest clashes with Hamas fighters and the civilian death toll mounted. At least 14 children were reported to have been killed.

Speaking after a meeting with a European Union delegation that included foreign ministers from the Czech Republic, France and Sweden, Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, said: “A necessary war on terror does not end with an agreement. We don’t sign agreements with terror; we fight terror.”

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Tags: Civilians, EU, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Politics, Terrorism, Tzipi Livni, War on Terror

“White phosphorus: the smoke-screen chemical that can burn to the bone”

Israeli artillery shells explode with a chemical agent designed to create smokescreen for ground forces (Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images)

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops’ advance. “These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in,” said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.

Related article: Bloodied and dying Gazans hunt for cover (The Age)

The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel’s offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded.

The Geneva Treaty of 1980 stipulates that white phosphorus should not be used as a weapon of war in civilian areas, but there is no blanket ban under international law on its use as a smokescreen or for illumination. However, Charles Heyman, a military expert and former major in the British Army, said: “If white phosphorus was deliberately fired at a crowd of people someone would end up in The Hague. White phosphorus is also a terror weapon. The descending blobs of phosphorus will burn when in contact with skin.”

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Tags: Gaza, Israel, Military, Politics

IN AN extraordinary outburst, the president of the United Nations General Assembly has branded Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza a “monstrosity” and a marked failure for the UN.

Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, of Nicaragua, blasted the Israeli action on Saturday as the UN Security Council convened its third Gaza emergency session.

“I think it’s a monstrosity; there’s no other way to name it,” Mr Brockmann said. “Once again, the world is watching in dismay the dysfunctionality of the Security Council.”

Related articles:
- Australian Jews protest against Israel’s action (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Israeli forces kill five Palestinian children in Gaza (The Guardian)
- Fear, shortages for civilians caught in Gaza fight (AP)
- Gaza ghetto is destroyed and the world stays silent (Sunday Herald)
- Do Israel pilots feel happy killing innocent women and children? (The Guardian)

His remarks were seen as putting a slight upon the United States, which again prevented the council from issuing an agreed statement on the crisis.

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Tags: Ban Ki-moon, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Politics, U.N., U.S.

DUBAI, Jan 4 (Reuters) - U.S. ally Qatar said on Sunday Israel’s attack on Gaza amounted to a war crime and renewed calls for an emergency summit of Arab countries.

“Our (Arab) people in Gaza are subject these days to an unjust aggression which does not differentiate between children, women and old people, and between civilians and fighters,” Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said.

“A war launched with such tools (modern weapons) at such targets (refugee camps) cannot be anything other than a war crime,” he said in comments aired on Al Jazeera television.

Related articles:
- EU and Britain call for Gaza cease-fire (CNN)
- In Gaza, at least 35 Palestinians killed in Israeli ground attack (Los Angeles Times)
- Israeli Forces Push Farther Into the Gaza Strip (Washington Post)
- Muslim anger grows over Israeli strikes on Gaza (AFP)

Israel’s military offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers has killed 500 Palestinians, including a growing number of civilians. Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians in the Gaza Strip as “human shields”, saying the Islamist group has fired rockets at Israeli towns from densely populated areas.

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Tags: Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Military, Palestinians, Politics, U.S.

Dr. Paul discusses the invasion of Gaza on January 3, 2009 and its implications for America.

Source: YouTube

Tags: Afghanistan, Bailout, Bush administration, Concentration Camp, Constitution, Debt, Deflation, Dollar, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Gaza, Government, Hamas, Hyperinflation, Inflation, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Middle East, Military, Obama administration, Palestinians, Politics, Recession, Ron Paul, Treasury, U.S., War

PARIS (Reuters) - France condemned Israel’s move to send ground forces into the Gaza Strip on Saturday as well as continued Hamas rocket attacks and urged both Israel and the Palestinian group to accept cease-fire proposals.

“France condemns the Israeli ground offensive against Gaza as it condemns the continuation of rocket firing,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

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Tags: France, Gaza, Government, Hamas, Israel, Military, Politics