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.

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- 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.

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

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

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

“I am greatly surprised by, and I reject, the words of the Israeli foreign minister, who asks: ‘Is there a humanitarian crisis? There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,’” he said. “This is an astonishing thing, that after more than 450 victims and more than 2,000 injured… then it is said there is no humanitarian crisis.

Related articles:
- Gaza humanitarian plight ‘disastrous,’ U.N. official says
- Israeli blockade ‘forces Palestinians to search rubbish dumps for food’
- Hungry Gazans Resort to Animal Feed as U.N. Blasts Israel
- BBC: Gazans despair over blockade
- U.N. calls for an immediate halt to all violence in Gaza

Israeli troops enter Gaza. Screengrab courtesy of Sky News

Israeli tanks and troops have launched a ground invasion to reoccupy parts of the northern Gaza strip as the military escalated its assault on the Palestinian enclave in an attempt to curb Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.

With Israel’s chief military spokesman warning that the attack would take “many long days”, the Israeli Cabinet also authorised the call of thousands more reservists. As Israeli tanks and infantry crossed into northern Gaza reports began to emerge of fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops. The invasion comes after Hamas warned Israeli forces entering Gaza faced a “black destiny” and vowed that they would be defeated.

Palestinian witnesses said a small column of military vehicles moved across the border firing tracer bullets after dark. The Israeli army said the assault is intended to take control of territory in the north of the Gaza strip from where Hamas fires its rockets.

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Tags: Gaza, Government, Hamas, Israel, Military, Palestinians, Politics, Tzipi Livni

The streets in Jakarta were filled with protesters today (Adek Berry/AFP/Getty)

From Jakarta to London, a wave of protest erupted across the world today against Israel’s assault on Gaza.

More than 10,000 marched through the Indonesian capital and Israeli flags were burnt and trampled upon in Asia as the Palestinian death toll in the offensive rose above 430, including three young brothers killed this morning.

Thirty new Israeli raids struck the Gaza Strip today as thousands of Hamas supporters attended the funeral of Nizar Rayan, the most senior Hamas victim of the offensive. He was killed with his four wives and 11 of his children in another Israeli raid yesterday.

Hamas leaders responded by calling for a “Day of Wrath” to avenge the deaths as the party warned that it may resume suicide attacks against Israel for the first time since January 2005.

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Tags: Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Palestinians, Politics, Protesters

Final preparations by Israeli troops

DEBKAfile’s Washington source report that in a telephone conversation with prime minister Ehud Olmert, US president George W. Bush okayed Israeli air, sea and ground operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He promised the US would veto a resolution condemning Israel at the UN Security Council meeting next Monday. Early Saturday morning, Jan. 3, Day 8 of Israel’s Gaza operation, US and British media described the Israeli invasion as hours away.

In his weekly radio address - brought forward by a day, the US president spoke with exceptional firmness: “Another one-way ceasefire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable,” he said. “This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas - a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel’s destruction.”

He noted that “Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a coup and routinely violated an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire…” and went on to define the exit point for Israel’s military operation:

“Promises from Hamas will not suffice,” he said. There must be “monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end.”

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Tags: Ehud Olmert, Gaza, George Bush, Hamas, Israel, Military, Palestinians, Politics, U.S.