Headlines for 12-31-08

A Stand For Justice

Israeli airstrikes kill dozens of Gaza civilians The United Nations reported that at least 62 of the dead were women and children, and medics said eight children under the age of 17 were killed in overnight strikes.


Three Palestinian brothers Sidki, 8, Ahmad, 12, and Mohammed Absi, 14, (no left-right available) who were killed in an Israeli missile strike, during their funeral in Rafah refugee camp


Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: End Unlawful Attack and Meet Gaza's Emergency Needs Palestinian civilians remain at risk of being killed or injured in the Israeli air strikes and are increasingly lacking adequate medical care food, medicines, electricity, water and other necessities, Amnesty International said today after three days of the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip in which more than 300 Palestinians have been killed.


Kucinich Calls For Independent UN Inquiry on Gaza Israeli government attacks civilians in violation of international law


China calls for immediate halt to Gaza attacks China said it is shocked by Israel's attack on Gaza and has called for an immediate halt to the military campaign that has killed nearly 300 people.


Civilian Death Toll Rises After Second Day of Air Strikes Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees and feeds 750,000 Gazans, called for an inquiry into the attack. "Grave question marks hang over this killing ... There must be an investigation and the facts must get out. There must be accountability."




Cynthia McKinney Relief Boat Hit by Israeli Ship CommonDreams.org.url The boat was in international waters at the time (as was the case of the USS Liberty when Israel attacked).


Britain and US refuse to demand end to Israeli airstrikes on Gaza Britain and the United States were on a collision course with their European allies last night after refusing to call for an end to Israeli airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza.


UN official says Israel attacked during lull "What we understood here (was) that there was a 48-hour lull to be called, and this was called by the Israelis," Abu Zayd said. "They said they would wait 48 hours. That was on Friday morning, I believe, until Sunday morning, and that they were going to evaluate."


Arab outrage over Gaza carnage targets Egypt Embarrassing for Egyptian officials, Mubarak met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni only a day before Israel launched its assault, and the foreign minister ? though he urged Israel to show restraint ? was photographed smiling and shaking hands with her at a news conference.




Protesters worldwide keep up pressure over Gaza In Washington, between 2,500 and 5,000 people protested outside the US State Department chanting slogans like "Stop the Killing, Stop the War, Stop the Genocide of Palestinians" and with some carrying banners saying "Stop US Aid to Israel"....At a separate demonstration attended by around 100 protesters in Westwood, actor Mike Farrell, a star of the hit 1970s television series "MASH", said he was "one of those people horrified by Israel's over-response."


Foreign journalists demand Gaza access Israel's supreme court will hear a petition tomorrow brought by the Foreign Press Association, which represents around 400 foreign journalists, demanding that Israel allow reporters into Gaza to cover the latest conflict.


'Israeli air strikes represent massive violations of international law' Written by Professor Richard Falk, United Nations Special Investigator for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories



Clueless in Gaza by Philip Giraldi Is this a deliberate attempt to create a widening conflict that will draw in Iran among other players?


The Gaza Blitz by Patrick J. Buchanan For us to remain silent in the face of this comports neither with our interests or our values. Israel's policy of withholding from the weak and innocent of Gaza, women and children, the necessities of life, to punish the guilty who rule at the point of a gun, is a policy that Obama should declare the United States will no longer support with tax dollars.


Britain slams 'unacceptable' loss of life in Gaza Britain renewed its call on Monday for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants, while lamenting the "unacceptable" loss of innocent lives as Israeli strikes in Gaza continued for a third day.


UN chief urges end to 'unacceptable' Gaza violence "The suffering caused to civilian populations as a result of the large-scale violence and destruction that have taken place over the past few days has saddened me profoundly."


Egypt accused of 'deceiving' Hamas London-based newspaper quotes sources who say Egyptian intelligence minister deliberately misled Palestinian organization about IDF intentions; Hamas sources say this is why movement's compounds were not evacuated


World Powers Call for End to Gaza Fighting


Gaza: Where Civilians Become Targets Israel's spokespersons may constantly repeat that these attacks are "targeted", but targeted attacks don't kill this many civilians. They don't destroy and cause chaos and panic in entirely residential areas. If we accept - by silence or without questioning - that anything and everyone can be defined as "terrorist infrastructure", then we are designating all civilians in Gaza as being targets. And the targeting continues.


UN official says Israel responsible for breaking truce with Gaza


IAF uses new US-supplied smart bomb The Israel Air Force used a new bunker-buster missile that it received recently from the United States in strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, The Jerusalem Post learned on Sunday.




Pelosi US must stand strongly with Israel Pelosi should speak for herself.


An Israeli War Crimes Tribunal (ICTI) May be the Only Deterrent to a Global War The establishment of ICTI would provide some small degree of justice to the victims of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine--just as the ICTY has done in the Balkans


Obama Adviser Aligns with White House in Criticism of Rocket Attacks on Israel Before running for president, he provoked suspicion among Israelis and some US Jewish groups when he expressed sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians. But after winning the Democratic nomination earlier this year he veered in the other direction, voicing strong support for Israel in a speech in Washington to the Israeli lobby group Aipac.


Next EU president supports Israeli op The Czech Republic, which takes over the European Union's presidency on January 1, defended Israel's strikes against Hamas on Tuesday.




Neocons, NYT Demand More War, Torture - by Philip Giraldi It is astonishing that the New York Times would even print a piece advocating torture, but the article is just one more indication of the access that the neocons have to the nation's editorial pages.


Lights Out in Gaza, News Blackout in US Despite international outcry over escalating violence, the U.S. mainstream media continues to privilege a prepackaged narrative in which Israel's actions are never disproportionate, never counterproductive and certainly never gratuitous


Leaders Lie, Civilians Die, and Lessons of History are Ignored by Robert Fisk Ever since 1948, we've been hearing this balderdash from the Israelis - just as Arab nationalists and then Arab Islamists have been peddling their own lies: that the Zionist "death wagon" will be overthrown, that all Jerusalem will be "liberated". And always Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise "restraint" - as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery.


Israeli intensifies PR campaign to gain int'l sympathy for Gaza operation On Sunday, Livni and other officials gave interviews in English and Arabic to various international news stations.


Ex-U.S. Army engineer Kadish pleads guilty to spying for Israel An 85-year-old former U.S. Army engineer on Tuesday admitted he passed classified documents to the Israelis in the 1970s and 1980s. Kadish said he believes he was promised that the government will not seek imprisonment at his February sentencing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Iris Lan said prosecutors promised only that they would not oppose or challenge a sentence that included no prison time.


Turkey ends Israel-Syria peace effort over Gaza Turkey said on Monday it was ending efforts to organise peace talks between Israel and Syria because of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.


Gaza Day Two The Israeli analyst Daniel Levy reminds us why we shouldn?t be indifferent to Israel?s air attacks (with American weapons) on defenseless Palestinians in Gaza.


Hezbollah watches for now as Israel hits Hamas


Schooling Scarborough Guest Zbigniew Brzezinski skewers Joe Scarborough's "stunningly superficial knowledge" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this remarkable clip


George Washington's warnings and U.S. policy towards Israel Americans shouldn't be in the position of endlessly debating Israel's security situation and its endless religious and territorial conflicts with its neighbors. That should be for Israeli citizens to do, not for Americans. But that distinction -- between the U.S. and Israel -- barely exists because our political leaders have all but eliminated it, and have thus imposed on U.S. citizens responsibility for the acts of Israel. In doing so, they have systematically ignored the unbelievably prescient warnings issued by George Washington in his 1796 Farewell Address, and have thereby provoked exactly the dangers he decried Against the insidious wiles... I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens..


When Make Believe Makes Us Believe That rhetorical bet of last July is now being called, before the president-elect has even sat at the table in earnest, as sanction for a gruesomely disproportionate military response leveled upon an all but powerless adversary.


White House Presser Live From Crawford ?Let?s be careful about how we are assessing the numbers coming out of Gaza? ? White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe in response to press question regarding Palestinian civilian casualties in the Israeli bombardment.


A spy goes to work for a thinktank the Middle East Forum has hired Steve Rosen, once the head of policy development for the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Rosen is accused of stealing highly classified information from the U.S. government and passing it on to Israeli government officials.


World Rallies Around Palestinians Amid Gaza Offensive


Iranian official Israeli offensive in Gaza similar to Hitler's actions A senior Iranian Parliament member compared the Israel Air Force strikes in the Gaza Strip to Adolf Hitler's actions during World War II.