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Image by David Baldinger

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THE MIDDLE EAST 'ENERGIZERS'

THE MIDDLE EAST 'ENERGIZERS'

A DesertPeace Editorial

Are we witnessing another Annapolis in the making? A week from today the (non elected) President of the United States will meet with the (self appointed) President of the Palestinian Authority and the Prime Minister of Israel.

Before his arrival, Bush has already insulted the entire nation of Palestine by making a point of announcing that he has no intention of placing a wreath at the tomb of Yasser Arafat. Arafat was/is more than just a name, he was the symbol of Palestinian resistance. Bush's declaration of his intentions is a slap in the face on the people of Palestine. This is not the way to start off on a peaceful solution. The non recognition of Hamas combined with this insult will certainly result in failure.

Peace will not result from any treaty signed by people who represent nothing and nobody... Bush and Abbas are those people. Peace must be negotiated by representatives of the parties involved, this will not be the case at next week's meeting. The event will be nothing more than an energizing exercise, giving power to the situation itself. Nothing will change.

The image below represents what happens when the true representatives of a peaceful solution are rendered powerless. This must be recognised by the world and the world must insist on a reality solution... not the one planned.

The Witness
The doves, without eyes, beaks, or legs, are caged within barbed wire. How can peace move forward in such circumstances? Israel has wrought havoc to the Palestinian infrastructure, destroying our agriculture and industry. But as long as Palestinian mothers bear children, the next generation will pass on the torch of resistance. Tamam Al-Akhal

2008 ~~ 60 YEARS OF ISRAELI OCCUPATION

Image 'Copyleft' by Carlos Latuff
SIXTY YEARS IS WAY TOO LONG FOR THIS TO HAVE GONE ON ~~ PALESTINE MUST BE FREE NOW!

60 Years of Nakba

May 15th, 1948, was the Palestinian Al-Nakba (the Catastrophe), or what Israel refers to as the “Day of Independence.” To Palestinians, it symbolizes the dispossession, displacement, and uprooting of 800,000 Palestinians from their homes in what then became Israel. Many of these refugees and their descendants, who now number more than 4 million, still languish in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and surrounding Arab countries. While Al-Nakba embodies the first major wave of forced expulsion of Palestinians from their land, Israel’s premeditated campaign of ethnic cleansing continues to this very day.

PICKS OF THE DAY ~~ JANUARY 1st

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)
From ~~~


Annie's Letters ~~ News clips of the day


I Love Munich


Random Pottins


The Holly Tree


Sabbah's Blog

POPE BENEDICT XVl: "WORLD PEACE IS A DIVINE GIFT"

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)

Today, January 1st has been declared World Day of Peace. Peace is a 'divine gift' according to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVl...

It will only become a reality if his words are heeded and not shoved aside by those that profit by war.... it can happen if we all work together.... Christians, Muslims, Jews and those of all other faiths.... the 'family of man'.

Let us all forge together to a New World Order in 2008!

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI opened the New Year on Tuesday with an appeal for world peace, calling it a "divine gift" and stressing the role of family as the foundation for it.

The Catholic Church celebrates January 1 as its World Day of Peace, and during a midmorning Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, the pope called for "the gift of peace: for our families, our cities and the whole world.

"We all aspire to leave in peace, but real peace ... is not the simple conquest of man or the result of political agreements: it is above all a divine gift," Benedict said.

At the same time, the pope added, peace is a "commitment that must be pursued with patience."

Benedict also returned to a theme that has been central to his papacy when he spoke of the importance of the traditional family based on the marriage between man and woman.

*************************************************

CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS APPEAL TO THE POPE TO END THE SIEGE IN GAZA

Muslims and Christians of Gaza Strip make an appeal to the Pope

Urgent appeal to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI

"From the land of prophets, peace and blessings and from the besieged Gaza we send you our heartfelt greetings as well as toward all Christians around the globe. On behalf of the besieged, poor and simple people of the Gaza Strip, we pass on our greetings on the occasion of Christmas. We aspire from our only God to bring security and peace to all nations in this world.

To His Holiness the Pope,

We address His Holiness in honour of your vital religious roles, effective actions and echoing sermons. We address and urge His Holiness on behalf of Palestinians, especially the besieged Gazans who live under a devilish siege imposed by Israelis, to intervene without delay. Israeli occupation has imposed comprehensive siege in which all crossing points and terminals are closed, preventing people from moving in and outside the Gaza Strip.

Serious ramifications have resulted from this illegal siege and flagrant violations of human rights laws have been committed. People are not allowed to obtain medicine or travel abroad for treatment! Basic medical devices are out of order now and Israelis have forbidden the entry of spare parts into Gaza, causing more health complications for patients. So far, 51 patients have died due to Israeli closure and medications shortage. Additionally, more than 1,500 are about to encounter imminent death for the same reason and other patients are exposed to further deterioration of their health, including people who suffer from chronic illness, infants and the elderly.

In addition to that, projects of infrastructure, building and development have been stopped! All raw materials needed in these projects are prevented from entering the Gaza Strip. Moreover, more than 3,900 factories and industrial enterprises have shut down, which resulted in leaving 140,000 unemployed! Poverty rates have reached incredible levels pushing more people under the poverty line and towards misery and bringing about a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Thus, we appeal to His Holiness to hear and eases off our pains, sufferings and ordeals caused by occupation. We appeal to you to intervene by your sermons that touch hearts and consciences and call for ending this siege. This siege is an obvious violation against human rights laws, Geneva conventions and all international human charters.

We aspire in God and You, a just word of wisdom and support for our just Palestinian cause.

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas.

With all respect,

Pastor of Latin sect in the Gaza Strip,

Manuel Musalam &

Popular Committee Against Siege Chairman,

Independent Parliamentarian in Gaza Strip,

Jamal N. El Khoudary"

PALESTINE 2008 ~~ A NEW YEAR, A NEW BODY COUNT

Abir Aramin, one of the 373

As we enter the new year we look back at the old one... we mourn those that are no longer with us, but we especially remember those that left us before their time.... murdered in cold blood. Children, women, innocent civilians.... may their memory be a blessing for all of humanity...

Third of Palestinians killed by Israel in 2007 were civilians: report

JERUSALEM (AFP) - More than one third of the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in 2007 were civilians who were not involved in hostilities, an Israeli human rights group said in a report released on Monday.

"In 2007, about 35 percent of those killed were civilians who were not taking part in the hostilities when killed," said the report by the B'Tselem organisation.

Out of the 373 Palestinians killed, 131, or some 35 percent, were civilians who were not involved in fighting, the report said -- a decrease of 19 percentage points from the 2006 figure of 54 percent.

The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in 2007 nearly halved compared to the previous year -- 373 died up to December 29 this year, while 657 were killed in 2006, it said.

The majority of the Palestinians who died by Israeli fire in 2007 were killed in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas -- an Islamist movement pledged to Israel's destruction -- violently seized power in June.

Since then, Israel has launched regular air and ground operations in the densely populated Palestinian territory aimed at stopping the near daily firing of rockets and mortars from the territory.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said she could not immediately comment on the report because the army had not yet received a copy of it.

The report also said that 2007 saw a "deterioration in many other measures of the human rights situation in the occupied territories. The primary one is the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, which has declined to an all time low, following Israel's siege on the area."

Following Hamas's seizing of power, Israel in September declared Gaza a "hostile entity," upping restrictions on the movement of goods and people to the impoverished territory.

On the Israeli side, seven civilians were killed this year by militants, three of them in a suicide bombing attack in the Red Sea report town of Eilat in January, two in rocket attacks on the town of Sderot near Gaza, and two by gunfire in the occupied West Bank.

Six members of Israel's security forces were also killed in 2007, including two off-duty soldiers shot dead in Friday near the West Bank town of Hebron.

Also read THIS report from B'Tselem... 373 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in 2007

SUBLIMINAL BLESSINGS FROM WATCHING STAR TREK

I'll bet that most of you didn't know it, but every time you watched a Star Trek episode you were blessed...

Watch THIS to see why and how....

You might notice that there was more true Judaism practiced on the starship Enterprise than in Israel itself..... a state that seems to have forgotten the values spoken of in the clip.

Oh, and Blessings to all of you for the New Year!

WHEREVER YOU ARE ~~ HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Image 'Copyleft' by Carlos Latuff

Wherever you are, whoever you are... heres hoping that you and yours have the best in the New Year. Let us hope that 2008 will usher in a lasting peace and justice for all of humanity... a year of love and understanding for all of us.

AFRIKAANS	gelukkige nuwejaar
ALBANIAN	Gëzuar vitin e ri
ALSATIAN	e glëckliches nëies / güets nëies johr
ARABIC	aam saiid / sana saiida
ARMENIAN	shnorhavor nor tari
AZERI	yeni iliniz mubarek
BAMBARA	bonne année
BASQUE	urte berri on
BELARUSIAN	З новым годам (Z novym hodam)
BENGALI	subho nababarsho
BERBER	asgwas amegas
BETI	mbembe mbu
BOBO	bonne année
BOSNIAN	sretna nova godina
BRETON	bloavezh mat / bloavez mad
BULGARIAN	честита нова година (chestita nova godina)
BURMESE	hnit thit ku mingalar pa
CANTONESE	kung hé fat tsoi
CATALAN	bon any nou
CHINESE	xin nian kuai le / xin nian hao
CORSICAN	pace e salute
CROATIAN	sretna nova godina
CZECH	šťastný nový rok
DANISH	godt nytår
DUTCH	gelukkig Nieuwjaar
ESPERANTO	felicxan novan jaron feliæan novan jaron (Times SudEuro font)
ESTONIAN	head uut aastat
FAROESE	gott nýggjár
FINNISH	onnellista uutta vuotta
FLEMISH	gelukkig Nieuwjaar
FRENCH	bonne année
FRISIAN	lokkich neijier
FRIULAN	bon an
GALICIAN	feliz aninovo
GEORGIAN	გილოცავთ ახალ წელს (gilocavt akhal tsels)
GERMAN	ein gutes neues Jahr / prost Neujahr
GREEK	kali chronia / kali xronia eutichismenos o kainourgios chronos (we wish you a happy new year)
GUJARATI	sal mubarak
GUARANÍ	rogüerohory año nuévo-re
HAITIAN CREOLE	bònn ané
HAWAIIAN	hauoli makahiki hou
HEBREW	shana tova
HINDI	nav varsh ki subhkamna
HMONG	nyob zoo xyoo tshiab
HUNGARIAN	boldog új évet
ICELANDIC	farsælt komandi ár
INDONESIAN	selamat tahun baru
IRISH GAELIC	ath bhliain faoi mhaise
ITALIAN	felice anno nuovo, buon anno
JAVANESE	sugeng warsa enggal
JAPANESE	akemashite omedetô
KABYLIAN	asseguèsse-ameguèsse
KANNADA	hosa varshada shubhaashayagalu
KAZAKH	zhana zhiliniz kutti bolsin
KHMER	sur sdei chhnam thmei
KIRUNDI	umwaka mwiza
KOREAN	seh heh bok mani bat uh seyo
KURDE	sala we ya nû pîroz be
LAO	sabai di pi mai
LATIN	felix sit annus novus
LATVIAN	laimīgu Jauno gadu
LIGURIAN	feliçe annu nœvu / feliçe anno nêuvo
LINGALA	bonana / mbula ya sika elamu na tonbeli yo
LITHUANIAN	laimingų Naujųjų Metų
LOW SAXON	gelükkig nyjaar
LUXEMBOURGEOIS	e gudd neit Joër
MACEDONIAN	srekna nova godina
MALAGASY	arahaba tratry ny taona
MALAY	selamat tahun baru
MALTESE	is-sena t-tajba
MAORI	kia hari te tau hou
MARATHI	navin varshaachya hardik shubbheccha
MONGOLIAN	shine jiliin bayariin mend hurgeye (Шинэ жилийн баярын мэнд хvргэе)
MORÉ	wênd na kô-d yuum-songo
NORWEGIAN	godt nyttår
OCCITAN	bon annada
PERSIAN	sâle no mobârak
POLISH	szczęśliwego nowego roku
PORTUGUESE	feliz ano novo
ROMANCHE	bun di bun onn
ROMANI	bangi vasilica baxt
ROMANIAN	un an nou fericit / la mulţi ani
RUSSIAN	С Новым Годом (S novim godom)
SAMOAN	ia manuia le tausaga fou
SANGO	nzoni fini ngou
SARDINIAN	bonu annu nou
SCOTTISH GAELIC	bliadhna mhath ur
SERBIAN	srećna nova godina
SHIMAORE	mwaha mwema
SHONA	goredzwa rakanaka
SINDHI	nain saal joon wadhayoon
SINHALA	suba aluth avuruddak vewa
SLOVAK	stastlivy novy rok
SLOVENIAN	srečno novo leto
SOBOTA	dobir leto
SPANISH	feliz año nuevo
SRANAN	wan bun nyun yari
SWAHILI	mwaka mzuri / heri ya mwaka mpya
SWEDISH	gott nytt år
SWISS-GERMAN	es guets Nöis
TAGALOG	manigong bagong taon
TAHITIAN	ia orana i te matahiti api
TAMIL	iniya puthandu nalVazhthukkal
TATAR	yaña yıl belän
TELUGU	nuthana samvathsara subhakankshalu
THAI	สวัสดีปีใหม่ (sawatdii pimaï)
TIBETAN	tashi délek
TURKISH	yeni yiliniz kutlu olsun
UDMURT	Vyľ Aren
UKRAINIAN	Z novym rokom
URDU	naya saal mubarik
UZBEK	yangi yilingiz qutlug' bo'lsin
VIETNAMESE	Chúc Mừng Nǎm Mới / Cung Chúc Tân Niên / Cung Chúc Tân Xuân
WALOON ("betchfessîs" spelling)	bone annéye / bone annéye èt bone santéye
WELSH	blwyddyn newydd dda
WEST INDIAN CREOLE	bon lanné
WOLOF	dewenati
YIDDISH	a gut yohr

WILL REJECTION OF HAMAS RESULT IN AL QAIDA'S GROWTH?

Image 'Copyleft' by Carlos Latuff
In plain simple English, Palestinians are sick and tired of being bullied by outside forces. They have lived now for six decades as a dispossessed nation, for four of those decades under the most brutal occupation of the century.

Their political choices have been rejected both by Israel and the West leading to a situation of political frustration that can and will lead to a 'backlash' unseen until now.... one that will surely be regretted by her enemies. One view on this situation was just sent to me, it's quite an interesting take on the situation....

Narrowing Hamas’ horizons means one thing: Helping al-Qaida

Comment by Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem

The day when Israel, the West and puppet Arab regimes will be regretting their approach to Hamas may not be very far-off.

Israel and its guardian-ally, the US, along with despotic Arab regimes, calculate that the callous blockade of the Gaza Strip and systematic savaging of its 1.5 million human beings will eventually force Hamas to fall on its knees and cause many Palestinians to shun the movement.

However, in light of evidence accumulating through the years, the weakening of Hamas would more likely lead to the consolidation and strengthening of the al-Qaida among Palestinians, both as an ideology and an organization.

The unrelenting savaging of innocent Gazans, coupled with an affronting peace process under whose rubric Israel is building more settlements on occupied Arab land, is only preparing the most fertile ground for the growth of al Qaida.

This is why Osama Bin Laden’s recent statements that al-Qaida will intensify its operations in Palestine should be take very seriously.

Bin Laden seems to know what he is talking about. According to usually-reliable Palestinian sources, al-Qaida succeeded of late in recruiting hundreds of young Palestinians to its ranks, many of them erstwhile members of Hamas and Fatah.

One Gaza journalist described al-Qaida as “ constantly winning more hearts and minds.”

“Al-Qaida is telling potential recruits that the only way for salvation in this world and the hereafter is the way of al-Qaida and that Hamas made a grave mistake when it believed the western lie about democracy and that it is now paying the price for its naivety and blunder.”

In short, the misery that transcends every aspect of life in Gaza is the perfect environment conducive to the consolidation and growth of al-Qaida.

A few weeks ago, I asked Palestinian political analyst, Hani al Masri, if he thought that the weakening of Hamas would be good news for Fatah in the long run.

His answer was interesting.

Masri pointed out that the Palestinian arena would soon become a fertile soil for all kinds of radical organizations, not just al Qaida, since many Palestinians, religious and otherwise, would feel they had nothing to lose from engaging in an extended and uncompromising political program.

“A serious weakening of Hamas would have far-reaching consequences, with the main ramification being the exodus of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of erstwhile Hamas’ supporters, to al-Qaida.”

Abdul Sattar Qassem, Professor of Political Science at the Najah University in Nablus, believes most Palestinians who might shun Hamas (because of its perceived moderation) wouldn’t join Fatah or similar factions.

“Some of them might join Fatah,” he argued, “ but the vast majority wouldn’t because Fatah’s way of thinking and behavior doesn’t attract them. These people are religious and are well-inculcated in religious doctrine, and it would be difficult for them to join Fatah and retain their religiousness.

“Al-Qaida would be their natural destination.”

Israel, the West and certain Arab regimes think that an implosion of Hamas’s house will enable Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to capitulate to Israeli hegemony without having to worry about a serious Palestinian opposition to his rule.

However, this thinking is misleading and very short-sighted. Today, the Palestinian society is very much experiencing a state of frozen rage resembling the days and weeks preceding the outbreak of the Aqsa intifada in the fall of 2000.

Indeed, a general examination of the prevailing mood in the Main Palestinian street reveals that the outbreak of a new uprising is only a matter of time. The frozen rage can simply go off anytime. Palestinian forbearance seems to have reached its limits.

However, unlike the previous two uprisings, the new intifada would witness the active appearance of a new un-Orthodox player, namely the al-Qaida organization, with its ideological nihilism, fearlessness and unmatched radicalism.

In the short run, an effective, high-profile presence of al Qaida in the occupied Palestinian territories might provide an unprecedented asset for Israel, especially from the propagandistic view point. It would also provide the Zionist state with a ready-made, plausible and effective excuse to take even more draconian measures against the Palestinian population.

Hence, it is not out of question that Israel, for its own strategic reasons, may well be interested in seeing al-Qaida gain a certain foothold in the West Bank and Gaza.

But in the long run, Israel, too, stands to lose. Israel can’t fight al-Qaida using the same tactics it has been employing against Hamas. Al-Qaida pays very little attention to public opinion and has nothing to lose in terms of a civilian apparatus—because it has none. Moreover, al-Qaida has no MPs or political activists whom Israel can round up and throw in jail, nor does it have charities and other institutions which the Israeli army can close down.

Indeed, al-Qaida, a secret and secretive organization, would be much more immune to Israeli retaliations than is Hamas, a generally pragmatic organization that pays attention to the balance of power and wouldn’t cross certain red lines in its low-combustion confrontation with Israel.

This means that al-Qaida would be freer and bolder than Hamas in attacking mainly Israeli civilian targets, using suicide bombings.

Some Palestinian leaders predict that should al-Qaida succeed in gaining a real foothold in the occupied Palestinian territories, not only Israelis would be targeted, but Palestinians as well, probably including Hamas itself.

“We are talking about a nihilistic organization which believes in open-ended confrontation until the Day of Judgment,” one Hamas leader intimated to this writer.

“Al Qaida views all those opposing, even differing with its ideology, as enemies that ought to be liquidated. I wouldn’t even rule out the possibility that al-Qaida would detonate car-bombs in the heart of Palestinian cities in order to spread terror in the hearts of those who might dare oppose its ways.”

Jordan, which has large concentrations of Palestinians, also stands to sufferer immensely as a result of the mushrooming of al-Qaida in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Then, numerous Palestinians wouldn’t stand idle watching their brothers in faith across the River Jordan being scuttled and decimated by Israel, the US and treasonous Arab regimes that are at Israel’s and America’s beck and call. Hence, suicide bombings and similar acts of terror might then turn Jordan’s present political and economic stability upside down.

Egypt, too, would suffer, and no amount of security precautions would prevent determined and frustrated al-Qadia militants from targeting the soft-underbelly of the Egyptian economy, namely Egypt’s tourism industry.

This is more than just a prophecy of doom and gloom, for the writing is already on the wall for those who are willing to see.

This week, the collective Palestinian frustration reached unprecedented levels when hundreds of helpless Palestinian pilgrims returning from Mecca, having performed the Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, were kept stranded like livestock at the Egyptian port of Nwebie’.

The Egyptian authorities reportedly were still refusing to allow them to return to their homes in Gaza via the Rafah border crossing. The pilgrims refuse to go through an Israeli-controlled border-crossing, fearing arrest and torture and lengthy imprisonment for their suspected affiliation with Hamas.

Meanwhile, Israel keeps murdering Palestinians in large numbers and is expanding Jewish settlements while PA leaders, like wide-eyed imbeciles, are watching helplessly, not knowing what to do, apart from imploring Condoleezza Rice to pressure Olmert to respect the Annapolis spirit.

Well, who is then pushing the Palestinians to join the ranks of al-Qaida?

BENAZIR BHUTTO ~~ THE RELUCTANT 'MARTYR'

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)
BENAZIR BHUTTO ~~ THE RELUCTANT 'MARTYR'

A DesertPeace Editorial

The second 'martyr' in one family.... the first being the father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto... the second the daughter, Benazir. Let's take a short look at the political history of the Bhutto family..

Benazir Bhutto's father, former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was removed from office following a military coup in 1977 led by the then military chief General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who imposed martial law but promised to hold elections within three months. But later, instead of fulfilling the promise of holding general elections, General Zia charged Mr. Bhutto with conspiring to murder the father of dissident politician Ahmed Raza Kasuri. Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was sentenced to death by the martial law court.

Despite the accusation being "widely doubted by the public", and despite many clemency appeals from foreign leaders, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged on 4 April 1979. Appeals for clemency were dismissed by acting President General Zia. Benazir Bhutto and her mother were held in a "police camp" until the end of May, after the execution.

In 1985, Benazir Bhutto's brother Shahnawaz was killed under suspicious circumstances in France. The killing of another of her brothers, Mir Murtaza, in 1996, contributed to destabilizing her second term as Prime Minister. Source

Yesterday, Benazir's son and husband took over the reins of the Pakistan People's Party. Looking at the name of the political party, one wonders if Bhutto Family Party might not be a more fitting one.

Benazir Bhutto's political motives have always been questionable. *She was an inconsistent democrat at best, and a willing tool of US imperialism, repeatedly making conciliatory gestures to a discredited military regime when she could afford to take a stand against it. *Source

She was also considered to be a friend of Israel. It is for these reasons that I question her motivation and question also if she is in fact a martyr, who or what did she die for?

The following essay by Robert Fisk is also worth reading...
'Who Killed Benazir Bhutto ? They don't blame al-Qa'ida. They blame Musharraf'

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)

PICKS OF THE DAY ~~ DECEMBER 30th

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)



From ~~~


Annie's Letters ~~ Press Briefs


Palestinian Pundit


Sabbah's Blog


Umkahlil

'LET MY PEOPLE GO' ~~ ISRAELI OCCUPATION IN EGYPT

Image by Ismael Shammout
There's no other way to put it.... Egypt is literally under the control of its zionist neighbours. Over a thousand observant Muslims are being punished for going on a pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca.

The joint excuses of both the Israeli and Egyptian governments show the disregard for the very lives of the Palestinian people, a people who for 60 years have literally been at the mercy of both Israel and the Arab world.

The rhetoric we hear is nothing but nonsense.... leading many to believe that the only reason many of these pilgrims made the trip is so they can 'sneak' into Israel on their return trip. NONSENSE!

They just want to go home and be with their families... a crime?

The want to return to their jobs... a crime?

There is a crime involved in all of this, it's called silence and complicity... where are the protests from the rest of the world? Doesn't anybody give a damn??

Egypt moves stranded Palestinian pilgrims to temporary Sinai camps
By The Associated Press

More than a thousand Palestinian pilgrims, including members of the militant Hamas group, were put in camps in the northern Sinai on Sunday until a dispute over how they will return to the Gaza Strip is resolved.

The Palestinians arrived in the Egyptian port city of Nuweiba in southern Sinai on Saturday after completing their pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia but have resisted Egypt's attempts to have them return to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, where they must go through Israeli security checks.

Some of the pilgrims are members of the radical Islamic group Hamas, which seized Gaza in June, and they fear Israel will arrest them if they return through Kerem Shalom. Instead, they want to cross into Gaza through Rafah, which is outside Israeli control.

The 1,166 Palestinians who left Nuweiba Sunday boarded 29 buses headed for El-Arish, some 250 kilometers north of the Sinai port city and less than 25 kilometers west of Rafah, the security official said.

A total of 3,060 Palestinians have arrived in Nuweiba on two ferries, and authorities plan to send a second batch of buses to transport those who remain, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Hamas representatives had indicated Saturday that some 1,900 pilgrims were stuck in Nuweiba, but this figure apparently only included those on the first ferry.

Egypt's attempts to force the pilgrims to use the Kerem Shalom crossing have outraged Hamas supporters in Gaza, who staged large-scale protests on Saturday.

Al-Jazeera television aired interviews with the pilgrims before they left Jordan in which they showed a paper Egypt allegedly asked them to sign saying they would to return to Gaza through Kerem Shalom.

Israel fears that if the pilgrims are allowed to return to Gaza through Rafah, Hamas militants might get through and sympathizers could smuggle cash to the Islamic group.

Some 7,000 demonstrators gathered at the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing Saturday waving Palestinian and Hamas flags and demanding the pilgrims be allowed to enter.

Hamas lawmakers echoed these calls, saying Egypt has a moral obligation to bring the pilgrims home as quickly as possible by allowing them to cross through Rafah.

The leader of Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, called on the Egyptian authorities Sunday to exercise their historical duty to the Palestinians and let them return to Gaza using the Rafah crossing.

Egypt has set up 11 temporary camps in El-Arish to house the pilgrims until authorities come up with a solution to the current crisis, security officials said.

KURT VONNEGUT ~~ HIS LAST INTERVIEW

Definitely one of the greatest men of American letters of the 20th century, Kurt Vonnegut passed away earlier this year at the age of 85.

And the US news media all but ignored him....

Why?

Here are some of the simple truths he spoke
about whenever he was given a public forum.....




Also see THIS post..

WOMEN ~~ YA'GOTTA LOVE THEM

Women in Black protesting in Jerusalem Friday. (Tomer Neuberg/Jini)

Women have traditionally been the motivating force and inspiration of the various peace movements throughout the world. They work tirelessly and seem to have a special energy unknown to the males in the species.

This has been true in the States, most of Europe and in Israel. One group of these courageous women, Women in Black, just marked the 20th year of their formation. They have demonstrated continuously against the Israeli occupation and have pledged to continue until they achieve their goals.

Following is a report from their 'anniversary demo'.....

Women in Black marks 20th year, but occupation continues
By Tamara Traubmann, Haaretz Correspondent

The hundreds of women and the few men who on Friday celebrated the 20th anniversary of Women in Black didn't seem to know whether the event they were attending was a somber one, or a party. After all, the cause the movement has championed for the past 20 years has not been achieved. The Israeli occupation still exists.

"It's the only demonstration that has been going on for 20 years now," one of the participants said.
The place where the crowd of 250 women gathered was the same place where Women in Black always hold their Friday demonstrations: Paris Square in Jerusalem. As always, they were carrying signs against the occupation.

"The peace movements have succeeded. We have thousands of demonstration hours," Hanna Safran boasted. "We have all been very creative. We've marched naked, we went down to the Territories. Our message has been accepted, but it hasn't put an end to the occupation and the wrongdoings that go along with it. In fact, things only got worse."

The movement was born in late 1987, weeks after the outbreak of the first intifada, which turned the attention of most Israelis to the very fact that the Palestinians were living under occupation. The first demonstrators, Safran among them, gathered at Paris Square, not far from the prime minister's official residence. They stood in silence, carrying signs the shape of a stop sign, reading: "Stop the occupation."

Within several months, other women joined the protest, demonstrating at junctions outside towns and cities. The members of Women in Black represent the full spectrum of the Israeli Left, from Labor to the anti-Zionists.

Two of the most frequently asked questions Women in Black have had to answer over the years were why women, and why black. They say the absence of men in their ranks is meant to allow women to make their voice heard in a militaristic society.

As for black, there are several versions as to why the color was chosen as a trademark.

"What can I tell you, it's just a visually strong color," said Debbie Lerman from Tel Aviv.

One characteristic of Women in Black's protest rallies was the torrent of swear words, curses and fulminations they usually elicited from passersby, who vent out their hostility toward the organization. But nowadays they are no longer targeted.

Women in Black members explain that the hostility subsided because 20 years ago, a congregation of women engaged in political protest was perceived as defiant ipso facto.

"That's why the first demonstrators were spat on, and subjected to sexist and bigoted remarks from passersby," one activist said.

In Israel, Women in Black has failed to bring about the end of occupation. But the movement has become a role model for other countries, where certain sectors of the population have to endure humiliation, oppression and racism.

At present, Women in Black organizations exist in over 40 countries, the Israeli members say. In India they are protesting religious discrimination. In the former Yugoslavia, various splinter states saw the formation of Women in Black protesting the war. In Germany they address fascism, nuclear weapons, and the Israeli occupation, too.

PICKS OF THE DAY ~~ DECEMBER 29th

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)

From ~~~


Annie's Letters ~~ Press Roundup


Chet


Liberal White Boy


PeacePalestine ~~ and

EGYPT PUTTING THE GEARS TO PALESTINIANS

Over two thousand Muslims returning from their Pilgrimage to Mecca are being prevented from returning home to gaza... not by Israel, but by their ally Egypt.

Palestinians have been a 'pawn in the game' for years as far as the Arab world is concerned alowing the zionists to continue with their genocidal policies against them.... SHAMEFUL!

Hamas urges Egypt to open Gaza border to pilgrims

Fearing Israel will arrest wanted militants making their way through with Muslim pilgrims returning from Mecca, Hamas demands more than 2,000 stranded Palestinians be allowed to return to Gaza through Rafah crossing

News Agencies

Hamas Islamists called on Egypt on Saturday to open its shuttered border crossing with the Gaza Strip to let more than 2,000 Palestinians return to their Gaza homes from the annual haj pilgrimage in Mecca.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, is demanding that Egypt reopen the Rafah crossing to allow the pilgrims to pass directly into the coastal territory rather than force them to pass through Israeli border posts first.

Hamas fears Israel will arrest wanted militants among the pilgrims.

Hamas officials estimated that 2,200 Gaza pilgrims were stranded on ships at an Egyptian port on the Red Sea.

Israel believes some of the militants may be carrying money for Hamas and other groups.

"We are aware of the Israeli and American pressures on Egypt, and we urge Egypt to reject these pressures and to allow the pilgrims a safe return through Rafah," Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told a news conference.

Hamas said a 62-year-old woman who fell ill died aboard one of the ships, which have been stranded for a second day.

Abu Zuhri said the Gaza pilgrims have rejected Egyptian demands that they agree to return through Israeli-controlled crossings.

Egyptian officials had no immediate comment.

Israel and the United States are pressing Egypt to do more to prevent the smuggling of guns, explosives and funds into the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has rejected Israeli complaints about the smuggling, accusing Israel of trying to distract attention from settlement.

In mid-December, Israel allowed hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza to cross Israeli territory on their way to the annual haj pilgrimage.

Earlier in the month, about 2,200 pilgrims heading for Mecca crossed from Gaza into Egypt through Rafah.

READING THE NEWS WITH BLINDERS ON

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)

Some people absolutely refuse to see the truth even when it's right in front of them. They are so biased, so full of hatred that they cannot conceive something they believe in is being criticised.

Zionists fall into this category, refusing to see the evil deeds committed by the State of Israel. There was a featured article published this week in the Wall Street Journal critical of Israeli polices in the occupied West Bank. It is presented below, followed by a response to it found in a zionist Website, condoning all that was said in the original article.... proving my point that many people read the news with blinders on...

The Plight of Bethlehem
Why Christians can't visit the holy shrines in Jerusalem.

BY KENNETH L. WOODWARD

A mere nine kilometers separates Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, from Jerusalem, where he was crucified, died and was buried. Pilgrims can easily visit both the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in half a day--as long as they are not Palestinian Christians. Israel's security wall, its restrictive exit permit system, roadblocks and military checkpoints now make it impossible for most Holy Land Christians to visit the shrines that, for all Christians, make the Holy Land holy.

Like East Jerusalem, Bethlehem is part of the West Bank, not the State of Israel. Temporary exit visas to go from one to the other to worship--or see a doctor or even visit relatives--are hard to come by, of brief duration even when granted, and always subject to the whims of Israeli soldiers.

The squeeze is economic as well as religious. Few producers in Bethlehem can get their goods to markets in Jerusalem. Fewer buyers can get to Bethlehem to sustain its markets. Tourism, a huge segment of the city's economy, is up since 2004, but it is still far from robust.

When last I was in Bethlehem, in 2000, an average of more than 91,000 tourists visited the city monthly. This year, the average is half that number. When buses do arrive, tourists are routinely whisked in and out without time to shop. As a consequence, nearly 100 hotels and restaurants have closed since my last visit. More than 250 workshops that made olive wood crèches, mother-of-pearl crosses and other religious souvenirs have disappeared too. And so, of course, have many of the stores that sold them. In sum, where Bethlehem once enjoyed one of the lowest urban unemployment rates in the Holy Land, it now has one of the highest--by some estimates as much as 60%.

Recently on a visit, former British prime minister Tony Blair tried to boost tourism to Bethlehem, even though his own country, like the U.S., discourages its citizens from traveling there. He also called on Israel, which bans its own citizens from traveling to the West Bank, to ease its restrictions.

Israel, of course, must protect its security. But it cannot blame the Christians' dire circumstances on the second intifada: Muslims are suffering just as much as the tiny Christian minority. Indeed, Bethlehem has historically been one place where Muslim-Christian relations have been remarkably friendly. Now, however, urban Bethlehem finds itself encircled by Israeli settlements, and where the settlers go, there follows the concrete wall, topped in places by razor wire and snipers' towers.

For example, the wall is being completed around Beit Jala, separating this Christian village from 70% of its lands, which are mostly owned by Christian families. Some of the families are attempting to contest the confiscations in court, but construction--and the confiscation--goes on.

In Bethlehem itself, the wall severs the city from nearly three-fourths of its western villages' remaining agricultural lands, as well as water resources that have served the region since Roman times. This area contains much of Bethlehem's remaining room for development and its nature reserve, where city dwellers took their children.

From the Church of the Nativity, Christians can also look out on Har Homa ("Wall Mountain"), a verdant Jewish settlement on a hillside that was formerly Christian land. Since the Annapolis, Md., meeting just a few weeks ago, the Israelis have approved construction on 300 additional homes--despite an official complaint from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice--that further constrict the city's population.

Unfortunately, many Christians in the Holy Land have no legal recourse to this absorption of their lands and property. As part of the 1993 treaty between Israel and the Vatican, by which the Holy See officially recognized the State of Israel, Israel was to codify the rights of Christian churches and institutions as part of a comprehensive agreement. But because of disputes over taxation of churches and related issues, the Knesset has yet to act. The Franciscans, the Sisters of Charity and other religious groups both Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox have had property confiscated and Christian housing destroyed.

Israel cannot afford to lose the Palestinian Christians: They have long represented a moderating force. A century ago, they accounted for 25% or more of the Holy Land population. Today, they represent less than 1.5%. Since 2000, Bethlehem alone has lost 10% of its Christian population.

Palestinian Christians regard their ancestors as the first Christians, and no doubt some of them were. They call themselves the "living stones" of Biblical Christianity, preserving ancient communities and traditions in the midst of repeated armed conflicts. They deserve to keep their land and work for "peace on earth, goodwill toward men."

In this crisis they deserve the support of all Americans, not just Christians. And not just at Christmas.

Mr. Woodward is a contributing editor at Newsweek.

Inflammatory Bethlehem Column in Wall Street Journal
by Ricki Hollander, Alex Safian, PhD

In late December every year the media carries articles or Op-Eds reworking "the Bethlehem Formula" where "Israel’s critics describe the impact of Israeli security measures on the city’s current residents without describing why these measures are in place." Key items usually ignored include the campaign of violence that prompted Israeli security measures in the first place, including construction of the security barrier, the number of suicide attacks emanating from Bethlehem, and the intimidation of Christians in Palestinian society at the hands of the Muslim majority.

This year is no different, with Israel-bashing Christmas columns appearing in an array of newspapers and magazines. One of the most disturbing, perhaps, is the muddled and distorted Dec. 24th Op-Ed by Kenneth Woodward, a contributing editor at Newsweek and formerly the magazine’s religion editor, which was published on the generally well-vetted Op-Ed page of the Wall Street Journal. "The Plight of Bethlehem," is so filled with falsehoods and far-fetched claims, one wonders whether the regular Op-Ed editors were on vacation.

Woodward, who admits in his column that he hasn’t actually been to Bethlehem in seven years, begins by claiming Israel’s security measures "make it impossible" for Christians to visit their holy shrines. But this is clearly false according to Lt.-Col. Kamil Wahabee, commander of the IDF’s Bethlehem District Coordinating Office. The Israeli government lifted a general prohibition on Israeli civilians visiting the West Bank without a permit in order to allow Israeli Arabs to visit family in the West Bank over the holiday season. And eight thousand Christians from Bethlehem alone have been granted travel permits, while Israel will allow 500 Christians from the Gaza Strip to enter Israel and the West Bank for up to one month during the Christmas season. (AP, "Israel Eases Bethlehem Christmas Travel ," Dec. 18, 2007)

True to formula, Woodward does not bother to discuss the reason security measures are in place. In fact, he only mentions Israel’s security concerns in order to dismiss them with an artificial and illogical cause and effect:

Israel, of course, must protect its security. But it cannot blame the Christians’ dire circumstances on the second intifada: Muslims are suffering just as much as the tiny Christian minority.

The security barrier was built as a result of the deadly suicide bombings and shooting attacks by various terrorist groups in the West Bank during the second Palestinian intifada. In the just-over two years between December 2001 and February 2004, 16 suicide bombings were planned, dispatched from or carried out by operatives in the Bethlehem area alone. Over 80 people were killed and nearly 500 wounded in those attacks--many of them bus bombings that claimed dozens of lives in nearby Jerusalem. (See, for example: Suicide bombing terrorism during the current Israeli-Palestinian confrontation.)

Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah Tanzim and Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade all operated from Bethlehem. Since one of their primary targets was Jerusalem, this is hardly surprising, since as Woodard himself points out, "a mere nine kilometers separates Bethlehem" from Jerusalem.

Indeed, a few years ago a Hamas suicide-bomb factory was even discovered near Manger Square, just yards from the Church of the Nativity compound (Washington Post, May 5, 2002; Associated Press, May 4, 2002 ). And since the erection of the barrier, there has been a drastic reduction (90%) in the number of suicide bombings emanating from the Bethlehem area.

Was Woodward unaware of these facts – or did he just choose to leave them out? Either way, the omission underscores the ill-founded nature of his charges.

In the first years of the Second intifada, there were also hundreds of shooting attacks from Beit Jala into the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo by Palestinian Muslims who had taken over the homes of Christian residents of the village to launch their attacks. Only after Israel stepped up its security measures in that area, did the shooting stop.

Those Christians who tried to stop the Muslim gunmen from using their property to fire into Gilo later reported that they had been beaten or threatened by the gunmen. ( Jerusalem Post, "Away From the Manger - a Christian-Muslim Divide," Oct.21, 2005) It is this sort of persecution of Christians by Palestinian Muslims that is the primary cause for Christian flight – an inconvenient truth that does not fit into Woodward’s holiday diatribe.

Also ignored by Woodward is why Muslim gunmen choose to attack Israel from Christian – or formerly Christian towns – like Bethlehem or Beit Jala, when nearby Muslim towns would serve just as well. There are two main reasons: First, because any Israeli effort to stop the attacks is sure to provoke ill-informed screeds like Woodward’s, especially if Israel damages a church by mistake. And two, because when peaceful Christian residents flee their homes due to the resulting hostilities, Muslim families can move in and occupy their homes and land.

In fact, these sorts of land grabs and attacks on Christians by Muslims grew so bad that several of Bethlehem’s Christian families appealed to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Vatican Church leaders and European governments, all of whom ignored the complaints. The Jerusalem Post’s Palestinian affairs correspondent, Khaled Abu Toameh, interviewed the families who say that "many Christians have long been afraid to complain in public about the campaign of intimidation for fear of retaliation by their Muslim neighbors and being branded ‘collaborators’ with Israel." ("Bethlehem Christians Fear Neighbors," Jerusalem Post, Jan. 25, 2007)

For example, Abu Toameh reports the case of Fuad and Georgette Lama who discovered their six dunam property in Bethlehem had been seized by Muslims from a nearby village. When they turned to PA security officers to help them recover their land, the officers took money from them and then decided to keep the land for themselves, destroying the olive trees and subdividing the land for sale. According to Abu Toameh:

"Unfortunately Christian leaders and spokesmen are afraid to talk about the problems we are facing [the Lamas said]. We know of three other Christian families - Salameh, Kawwas and Asfour - whose lands were also illegally seized by Muslims."

A Christian businessman who asked not to be identified said the conditions of Christians in Bethlehem and its surroundings had deteriorated ever since the area was handed over to the PA in 1995.

"Every day we hear of another Christian family that has immigrated to the US Canada or Latin America he said. The Christians today make up less than 15 percent of the population.

People are running away because the Palestinian government isn't doing anything to protect them and their property against Muslim thugs. Of course not all the Muslims are responsible but there is a general feeling that Christians have become easy prey."

Aaron Klein of World Net Daily similarly reports that Christian leaders and residents say "they face an atmosphere of regular hostility" with "Palestinian armed groups stir[ring] tension by holding militant demonstrations and marches in the streets," attacks on Christian homes, and "Christian shopkeepers' stores ransacked." He gives the example of how Samir Qumsiyeh, a Bethlehem Christian leader and owner of the Beit Sahour-based private al-Mahd TV station was targeted by Islamic gangs, "his home was firebombed after he returned from a trip abroad during which he gave public speeches outlining the plight of Bethlehem's Christian population." ("Silent Fright," World Net Daily, Dec. 23, 2007)

But none of this is mentioned in Woodward’s column. Instead, there are questionable statistics and ludicrous claims of the security barrier severing "water resources that served the region since Roman Times" (Is there no running water in Bethlehem? Do Bethlehem residents still obtain their water in buckets from wells, access to which is cut off by the barrier?) and Israeli construction on Har Homa, which he describes as "a verdant Jewish settlement on a hillside that was formerly Christian land." In fact, the vast majority of land upon which Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem, was built was Jewish-owned, not Christian or Muslim owned.

The real question is why did the Wall Street Journal allow Woodward’s sloppy anti-Israel rant to serve as its holiday column?

(For further background on the status of Christians in the Middle East see also "New York Times Omits Major Reason Christians are Leaving Bethlehem" and "Reuters Fails to Root Out Facts on Palestinian Christians". )

A LOVE STORY FROM PALESTINE

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)

The infamous wall of apartheid divides a nation... divides families... puts a halter on life itself. Those of you that have the fortune to live in the (shrinking) 'free world' cannot imagine the effect this has on the average person and family.

A few years ago I wrote the following poem which is fitting for the report that is presnted below.....

MY FAMILY IS DIVIDED

A wall has been built,
I cannot see my neighbor
I know not when he needs my help
I know not when he is hungry.

My brother’s child cannot come for an afternoon snack
I cannot bring it to him
The wall is in the way
Dividing families and loved ones.

“They” told us the wall is for protection.
From what?
Must our children go hungry?
Must we be jobless?

“They” say we are the enemy.
Is going to work a crime?
Is going to school a crime?
Try to tell a child that hunger is a good thing.

If the wall stays up
There will be an enemy
Uneducation and hunger leads to resentment
Resentment will lead to revolt.

Learn from your history my friends
Learn that walls are not the solution
Learn that unity is strength
And learn that justice triumphs over evil always.

Here is the report of one family reunited....

A Palestinian love story

Ghassan Abdullah writing from Ramallah, occupied West Bank

Jalal al-Hremy hugs his 10-year-old daughter Samaher after the two were reunited after Samaher was denied entry to Bethlehem because she was registered with her deceased grandmother's ID, Bethlehem, 26 December 2007. (Luay Sababa/MaanImages)

A few months ago, a European professional in Ramallah threw a farewell party after completing part of the project for which he was recruited. The European himself, a Belgian, spent many years previously in the Palestinian territories and was very well liked locally, not least because he married a Palestinian woman, but that's another story.

A friend and old colleague of mine came up to me at the party and asked me discretely about A., a good-looking and outgoing woman who works with us: "What religion is she?" "Muslim, I said." "Good," he said. "What sort of ID does she hold?" I replied, "She is Palestinian with a Jordanian passport who overstayed here. Why?" "What a pity," he said, "because a friend of mine, Y., who has just met and chatted with her likes her and wanted to find out."

Such a question might seem odd elsewhere. But in Palestine it is very relevant.

There are tens of thousands of Palestinians with Jordanian or other foreign passports who are denied by the Israeli occupying army, or by the Israeli ministries of interior or labor, from residing in the Palestinian territories. Others are prevented from visiting or returning to the territories, although they have family, friends, business or studies, in a very arbitrary manner. The reason given by the Israeli authorities is often bitakhon, or security, without bothering to give any shred of justification. This has led many Palestinians, and even non-Palestinian wives and relatives, to overstay their Israeli permits for fear of not being allowed back. This was the case of A.

So many families in Palestine, and also in Israel, are separated by different passports. A Palestinian orange ID holder marrying a Palestinian with an Israeli nationality will not be allowed to live in Israel and the spouse with Israeli nationality will be not allowed to live in the Palestinian Authority areas. Even a Jerusalem blue ID holder marrying a West Banker will not be permitted to have her spouse live with her in Jerusalem. So the question of what ID is held by the subject of one's fancy has to be asked before one falls in love with her or him.

This Israeli policy was met with resistance prompted by an active grassroots campaign and pressure from the governments of nationals denied entry or re-entry to the occupied Palestinian territories. Israeli overtures towards the Palestinian Authority in response included the granting of family unification to members of families torn apart by differing nationalities and IDs. A. was eventually among the lucky ones, but not all her family.

I have never seen A. so ecstatic as when her name appeared on the list of those to be allowed to apply for a Palestinian ID, itself issued by the Israeli occupying army. She immediately sent in her papers and a week later went to Jordan to see her sisters and relatives that she had not seen for close to ten years. She also found that there is more choice in shopping there than the confines of Ramallah which she was always afraid to leave lest she be caught at an Israeli army checkpoint.

A. came into my office this week, with a broad and telling smile, to say that her admirer Y., who stayed mostly away after the party, has turned up again to visit A., showing renewed interest. The rest might become history.

Ghassan Abdullah is a computer adviser in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Source

PICKS OF THE DAY ~~ DECEMBER 28th

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)



From ~~~


PeacePalestine



The Holly Tree



Umkahlil

OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD

Osama bin Laden is Dead

Who murdered Benazir Bhutto?

Murdered by intelligence agency
supported terrorists

When Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan to take a stand for democratic government, 3 million Pakistanis greeted her at the airport.

Now she is dead.

At 6:15 in this video, Benazir Bhutto refers in a matter-of-fact manner to "the man who killed Osama bin Laden."

If this was a misstatement, she did not correct herself, nor did the interviewer call attention to it.

Before she was murdered, there was another attack on Benazir Bhutto's life. She told David Frost that she was not even allowed to file a police report let alone get a serious investigation of the attack.

She specifically stated that she wanted the finances of the terrorists traced.

Saeed Sheikh is the man Bhutto refers to in this interview.

He is charged with killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl who tracked the relationship between Pakistani intelligence and terrorist groups. He is also suspected of having wired money to Mohamed Atta on behalf of Pakistani intelligence right before the 9/11 attacks.

George Bush & Company wholeheartedly support the current Pakistani regime.

Source
**********************************************************

Benazir murdered: what next?

Kanishk Tharoor

With global scrutiny once more on Pakistan, Kanishk Tharoor offers a guide through the fall-out of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today in an attack that has sent shock-waves across the world. As she left a political rally in the northern town of Rawalpindi, Bhutto was allegedly shot three times before the gunman detonated a suicide bomb, killing twenty-one others.

Her death has incited unrest across Pakistan, with activists of her party, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), taking to the streets. Violence overnight is thought to have left at least a further dozen people dead. President Pervez Musharraf has called for a three-day period of national mourning, while leaders around the world have condemned the murder of Pakistan's ostensibly pro-democratic, pro-western champion. It is still unclear which fragment of the country's shattered and bleak political landscape is responsible for the attack; while Islamist, anti-American militants remain the most likely culprits, many in Pakistan - especially PPP supporters - blame the Musharraf government itself.

With international scrutiny once again fixed on Pakistan, a number of issues demand greater attention amidst the fall-out of Bhutto's murder.

• Elections: Will elections, scheduled for 8 January, continue as planned? Probably not. PPP activists may be unwilling to go ahead without their talismanic leader. Nawaz Sharif has now pledged, as was his original position, to boycott the elections. Western leaders have insisted that postponement of the elections is tantamount to "appeasing the terrorists", but Musharraf may find it impossible to hold parliamentary elections in the present tumult. Expect the democratic future of Pakistan to once more be cast into gloomy doubt.
  
  
• The future of the PPP: As Anatol Lieven told toD in our recent seminar on Pakistan, Bhutto's PPP is hardly a political party in real terms, but more of an alliance of "feuding barons" held together by the gel of Bhutto's persona. Without her, the PPP is in disarray. It remains to be seen who will take the leadership of the party, or whether the party will even stay intact.
  
  
• Investigation: Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, Mahmud Ali Durrani, has told the American press that a formal investigation into Bhutto's killing will soon be launched. Who will conduct the investigation, and how independent will it be? In the past, Bhutto has called Musharraf to bring the FBI or Scotland Yard into Pakistan. Will Musharraf belatedly invite foreign agencies to join the investigation?
  
  
• Popular unrest: Bhutto's killing has sparked off riots across the country. Security forces in Pakistan are on "red alert". If violence continues, will a degree of emergency rule once again descend on the country?
  
  
• Claims of responsibility: If Bhutto's assassination was indeed perpetrated by al-Qaida or al-Qaida-affiliated groups, one would expect to soon uncover claims of responsibility for the attack. The successful killing of an avowedly pro-American leader like Bhutto could make for invaluable propaganda. Al-Qaida has been behind numerous failed attempts on Pakistani political leaders, including Musharraf.

Already, Bhutto's death is swallowed in the sound and fury of the "war on terrorism". Musharraf and Pakistani officials have blamed her murder on Islamist militants, just as they justified November's emergency rule on the threat posed by jihadists. So too have governments around the world - including those in Washington and New Delhi - used today's tragic events to urge more vigorous action against terrorists.

Terrorism in Pakistan and elsewhere must be tackled head-on. But the killing of Benazir Bhutto amounts to more than the martyring of a modern democrat by the forces of intolerance and extremism. In the coming weeks, one cannot afford to lose sight of the specifics of Pakistani politics - darker and more difficult though they may be - in the face of casual over-simplification.

Source

PALESTINE 2007 ~~ A YEAR OF DISUNITY

Image 'Copyleft' by Carlos Latuff

A year of Palestinian disunity

Amid intense foreign interference, 2007 marked a year of critical meltdown for Palestinians and their enduring cause, writes Khaled Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem

---

Click to view caption

Hamas members walk through the streets of Gaza few days before the movement took over the city in June (photo: AFP)

2007 has not been an ordinary year for Palestinians and their enduring cause. It witnessed a mini-civil war between Fatah and Hamas, a short-lived government of national unity, followed by a brief but bloody showdown in Gaza that ended with Hamas taking over the coastal strip. For its part, Fatah retaliated by establishing its own separate authority in Ramallah and instigating a vindictive and widespread inquisition against Hamas supporters and institutions in the West Bank.

Towards the year's end, another "peace conference" sponsored by the United States took place in Annapolis, Maryland. However, like numerous prior peace conferences and initiatives, the Annapolis meeting, despite its initial fanfare and euphoria, carried little promise for genuine peace in Palestine. And as always, the reason was Israel's adamant refusal to end its decades-old occupation of Palestinian territories, particularly Arab-East Jerusalem.

The harsh financial, economic and political sanctions imposed by Israel and the West on the Palestinian Authority (PA) following Hamas's electoral victory in January 2006 continued to devastate the Palestinian economy and living conditions in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 2007. Draconian sanctions soon paralysed the Hamas government's ability to pay regular salaries for over 165,000 employees and civil servants.

This, coupled with Israel's refusal to release Palestinian tax revenues levied as tariffs on Palestinian imports passing through Israeli seaports, created an implosive situation, especially in Gaza. Rampant poverty and a haunting sense of claustrophobia tempted Fatah to destabilise Hamas through a host of disruptive tactics, such as instigating demonstrations, organising strikes, and vandalising public property.

Eventually, mounting tension between Fatah and Hamas culminated in open street battles, with each painting the other as responsible. Infighting in 2007 killed as many as 350 Palestinians. In retrospect, the near tribal confrontation between the two largest Palestinian political organisations seemed inevitable given the active interference of the United States in internal Palestinian affairs.

Indeed, through its security "envoy" to the PA, General Keith Dayton, a visibly rabid Bush administration did everything possible to ignite the flames of civil war between Hamas and Fatah, transferring large amounts of cash and weapons to former Fatah security chief Mohamed Dahlan, ostensibly in preparation for military insurrection against the Hamas government.

Truckloads of high-velocity rifles, machineguns, night-vision equipment and other military hardware were seen on several occasions crossing into the Gaza Strip from Israel. At one point, Hamas said it seized a truckload of weapons that was en route to a PA security headquarters in Gaza. Hamas asked PA President Mahmoud Abbas for an explanation, but none was forthcoming. Infighting continued intermittently in Gaza in the first few weeks of 2007 as Egyptian General Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman and his lieutenants sought laboriously to bring it to a halt. However, ceasefire agreements were violated as soon as they were signed, a clear indication that certain people were hell-bent on expediting a decisive showdown. Hamas accused former Fatah strongman in Gaza Dahlan of standing at the helm of the "coup-mongers", an accusation that seemed to carry more than a modicum of veracity. Indeed, American officials -- in addition to the Western media -- pointed out on numerous occasions that Dahlan was being used by as a pawn to destabilise Hamas's rule and hopefully bring it down entirely.

Fatah retorted by attacking Hamas and accusing it of subservience to Iran and of harbouring Shia loyalties. These insinuations were more rhetorical than real and were essentially aimed to incite the Arab masses against Hamas, an authentic religious Sunni movement. More seriously, Fatah militiamen in Gaza carried out a series of assassinations targeting Hamas politicians as well as university professors and religious scholars. In February, delegations from Fatah and Hamas travelled to Mecca for national reconciliation talks. The Saudi-mediated talks eventually yielded the "Mecca Accord" signed under the auspices of Saudi King Abdullah on 8 February. According to the accord, both Hamas and Fatah agreed to form a government of national unity that would seek to negotiate a final peace settlement with Israel pursuant UN resolutions. In the accord, Hamas agreed to "honour" outstanding agreements between the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel, which tacitly implied recognition of Israel. For its part, Hamas denied that the use of the word "honour" implied recognition of Israel, saying the issue was a religious and moral redline that Hamas would never cross. The Mecca Accord sought to resolve this knot by stipulating that only the ministers of national unity governments -- not their respective political factions -- would be committed to upholding prior agreements with Israel.

Hamas and Fatah thereafter formed a national unity government. However, as the West -- especially the United States -- and Israel kept sanctions intact, disharmony reappeared and sporadic but bloody clashes between the two militias continued, eventually evolving into an all-out war with no holds barred. Infighting escalated sharply on 14 June as Hamas's Executive Force and Fatah security agencies -- superior in numbers and armaments but inferior in quality and motivation -- fought for control of Gaza. The fighting, lasting for 10 days, ended with Hamas routing Fatah and taking control of erstwhile PA security headquarters in Gaza.

Outraged by "the bloody coup" against Palestinian "legitimacy", Abbas immediately dismissed the national unity government headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and appointed a de facto emergency government in Ramallah headed by Salam Fayyad, a former finance minister favoured by the US and Europe. In principle, the Ramallah government was illegal and illegitimate, as testified by scholars of constitutional law who prepared Palestinian basic law. However, Abbas and the Fatah movement were in no mood to discuss constitutionality in light of the "Hamas coup" in Gaza.

For its part, Hamas denied the accusation of a coup, arguing that it embodied Palestinian legitimacy since it came to power via the ballot box, not by decree or violent revolution. Moreover, Hamas leaders in Gaza told Al-Ahram Weekly on several occasions that the Palestinian Islamic movement had to act swiftly to thwart a real coup against the democratically elected government, backed and financed by the Americans.

Hamas politician Yehia Moussa told the Weekly : "what were we supposed to do? What would anyone have done in such circumstances, seeing Dahlan and Dayton sharpening their knives and preparing to decapitate us?" Abbas didn't stop at bringing down the national unity government and neutralising the Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament. He also ordered his forces, beefed up by fresh American weapons, to wage a widespread campaign against Hamas throughout the West Bank. The campaign targeted Hamas's social, charitable, educational, cultural and even religious institutions, many of which were thoroughly vandalised.

Further, nearly 3,000 Hamas political leaders and activists were arrested, with many of them harshly tortured. This inquisition wouldn't have been possible had it not been for active security coordination between PA-Fatah forces and the Israeli occupation army. Fatah gunmen killed several Hamas supporters and Hamas's political and cultural activities were effectively banned.

In December, the Fatah-backed Minister of Religious Endowments Jamal Bawatneh issued a decree closing down all zakat (alms) committees in the West Bank. Bawatneh sought to justify the decision by arguing that the charities needed to be reformed. It was clear to many, however, that the main purpose of the decree was to stamp out Hamas's influence over these committees. Gleeful at Palestinian schism and national disunity, Israel and the US hastened to back the Ramallah-based authority of Abbas. Israel agreed to unfreeze some of the Palestinian tax revenue money withheld in order to "strengthen Abbas". Similarly, the US and European states resumed financial aide to the Salam Fayyad government. Citing the Hamas takeover of Gaza, Israel -- possibly in collusion with the US and the Ramallah regime -- on 19 September 2007 declared the Gaza Strip a "hostile entity", imposing a hermetic blockade on the densely populated and thoroughly impoverished territory. The blockade, unprecedented in its ruthlessness and harshness, brought 1.4 million Gazans to the brink of starvation with dozens of ill Palestinians dying because of a dearth of medicine.

Additionally, Israel decided to significantly reduce fuel and electricity supplies to Gaza, apparently to force Gazans to revolt against Hamas. Further, Israel generally barred Gazans from either leaving or returning to the Strip, which also caused tremendous distress to tens of thousands of students, patients seeking medical care abroad, as well as ordinary Palestinians. Some reports from Gaza described the situation as "very similar to Warsaw Ghetto" and as "a slow-motion genocide". On 13 December, and in a rare foray into politics, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) harshly condemned Israeli policies against Palestinians. "Palestinians continuously face hardship in simply going about their lives; they are prevented from doing what makes up the daily fabric of most people's existence. The Palestinian territories face a deep human crisis, where millions of people are denied their human dignity. Not once in a while, but every day," an ICRC report stated.

The ICRC report also highlighted Israel's economic stranglehold on Gaza and its system of roadblocks that has divided the West Bank into disconnected cantons, cutting farmers off from their lands and preventing free movement. Concomitant with the virtual humanitarian and economic meltdown in Gaza, Israeli and the PA leaders held a plethora of high-profile meetings aimed at reaching a broad common understanding of how a final status settlement of the enduring conflict would look. However, the numerous meetings, often accompanied with high-expectations and propped up by highlighted visits to the region by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, failed to reach any agreement as Israel continued to refuse to commit itself to ending the 40-year-old military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Eventually, Israeli and Palestinian leaders did attend the American-hosted peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, which most Arab commentators and observers described as a resounding failure, some of them applying to it the famous Arab proverb, "the mountain went into labour, but gave birth to a rat." Though such epithets may carry an air of exaggeration, Israel and the PA continue to be as far apart from each other on core issues as they were before the Annapolis conference. The two sides did agree to commence talks that would lead to a final status settlement based on the now-revived American-backed "roadmap" plan. However, the two sides do not share a common understanding or interpretation of the American plan, which could cause the rupture of talks sooner rather than later. For example, Israel does not consider East Jerusalem part of the West Bank, and insists that pledges made by President Bush to former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon be treated as part and parcel of the roadmap.

Israel also continues to build hundreds of "for Jews only" settler units all over the West Bank, especially in and around Arab East Jerusalem. Similarly, Israel insists that in the context of a final status agreement with Palestinians, the future Palestinian entity would have to recognise Israel as a "Jewish state" of the Jewish people everywhere -- a clear allusion that non-Jewish Israelis have no permanent right to residency, let alone equality.

As to the PA leadership, it is clear that it is negotiating from a position of critical weakness, not only because of the enduring rift with Hamas, which is likely to persist for sometime, but mainly due to American and Israeli pressure on Abbas. The Weekly has been struggling in vain to obtain from PA and Fatah leaders in Ramallah a coherent and credible answer for the following question: What strategic alternatives does the PA have in case negotiations with Israel hit a dead end?

Alternatives there must be. The failure of talks with Israel, which is more than expected, may very well lead to the collapse of the PA itself, in which case all parties concerned would return to square one. Such an ominous event would be the best news ever for radical forces on both sides, including for the United States and its strategy of "creative chaos" in the so-called "Greater Middle East".

Source

PALESTINE ~~ THE NEW TWILIGHT ZONE

Killings... killings and more killings.... much like the set of a Robert de Nero movie, in other words.... unbelievable.

BUT... to millions of Palestinians the situation is very real, not a work of fiction. Sixty years of occupation has created a monster more frightening and more dangerous than any ever written about in a screenplay.... more frightening than the Twilight Zone itself.... see for yourself in this report...

Twilight Zone / Deer hunters

By Gideon Levy

After a night of rain, the sun broke through the clouds. Two brothers and their brother-in-law decided to go for a hike in the wild, through the spectacular valley of olive trees, west of Ramallah in the West Bank. Around midday they suddenly noticed a herd of deer descending pell-mell into the valley. They stood and watched, certain that in the wake of the frantically fleeing animals, other people would appear. And, in fact, a few minutes later they spotted a group of soldiers slowly making their way into the valley.

The three young Palestinians stood on the ridge of the hills that overlook the valley, a few hundred meters from the soldiers as the crow flies. Suddenly, according to the testimony of one of them, without any prior warning, the soldiers fired bursts of bullets at them. Firas Kaskas, 32, an unemployed gardener from the village of Batir, near Bethlehem, who had come to visit his brother-in-law in his new apartment, fell to the ground. He died of his wounds the next day. He left a young wife and three daughters, of whom the eldest is four.

This week the sun poured down again on the beautiful valley. We went there with Jamil Matur, the victim's brother-in-law, who was with him on that brilliantly bright, but grimly dark day. We stood exactly where the three had been when Firas was shot and killed. Here, this is where Matur was standing; Kaskas was here, and his brother, Baha, was standing there.

A shepherd gathered his flock in the valley below, making strange groaning noises that carried a long way. In contrast, the tinkling of the sheeps' bells was sharp and pleasant to the ears. A great calm descended on the valley, on whose stepped terraces are a number of ancient ruins. On the ridge across the way are the houses of the Mustaqbal neighborhood. The way to the valley also cuts through A-Tira, a prestigious neighborhood on the western slopes of Ramallah, a city which is today experiencing a building boom and economic prosperity. A few weeks ago, the members of the Kaskas family - Firas, his wife Majida, and their three little girls - visited Majida's brother in A-Tira. He had just moved in, and the family went to see the new place and spend a peaceful weekend together. On that Sunday morning the family had a late breakfast and lounged on the porch of their house. Firas suggested a walk. Majida wanted to visit another brother in nearby Bitunia; Jamil, Faris' brother-in-law, suggested that they go into town. Finally, they decided that Majida and the girls would go to Bitunia and the three men - Jamil, Firas and Baha - would go for a little hike. Leaving their neighborhood, they walked along the ridge above the wadi. Near one concentration of ruins they stopped to watch the deer. Ramallah residents like to come here on weekends to spend some time in nature, to barbecue meat, smoke a nargileh and enjoy the view. The three men were standing a few meters apart from each other when they noticed a group of soldiers descending into the wadi. They were about 300 meters away, as the crow flies, the valley separating them. The soldiers stopped next to the ruins on the slopes of the ridge opposite them. Jamil counted seven or eight soldiers. Then, suddenly, without any prior warning, Jamil relates, the soldiers opened fire. It came in one or two bursts, he says. Jamil immediately took cover behind a boulder, Baha lay down supine behind him, while Firas stood out in front, exposed to the gunfire. Jamil managed to call to Firas to take shelter behind the boulder, Firas turned toward him - and then collapsed. "Are you hit?" Jamil asked in a panic. "It's nothing, just a rubber bullet," Firas replied. Jamil and Baha moved cautiously toward Firas, who was able to stand up. They supported him for a few steps, and then he fell again. Foam gathered on his lips and he gasped for breath. Jamil stripped off his brother-in-law's clothes and saw a few drops of blood on his underpants and small holes in his lower stomach and lower back. Leaving the wounded man with his brother, he ran to the nearest house to summon help. He also waved his hands toward the soldiers, so they would not shoot at him, too. They stood mute. Employees from an ironworker's shop and a few neighbors rushed over. They carried Firas to a private car and called a Palestinian ambulance. They met the ambulance up on the road and transferred Firas to the vehicle. "Firas, are you alive?" Jamil asked his brother-in-law. "It's nothing," Firas replied. In the emergency room of the government hospital in Ramallah, he was still able to resist having his pants removed, but finally agreed and was taken immediately to surgery. From the medical report: "The above-named man was brought to the government hospital in Ramallah on December 2, 2007, after being hit by a bullet, which penetrated behind the stomach region and exited in front. The patient was operated on urgently and it emerged that the small intestine was torn. Part of it was removed and the other part was stitched. It also emerged that there was heavy bleeding as a result of a torn central artery in the hip region. The bleeding was stopped and the arteries were connected. After the operation the patient was placed in intensive care. After the surgery the stomach bleeding began anew. The patient was taken to the operating room. It turned out that there was bleeding of all the stomach tissues." Firas died at five the next morning. The Israel Defense Forces spokesman informed us that after a preliminary investigation, it transpired that soldiers at an army observation post had spotted three Palestinians who were behaving suspiciously. "The three, who were identified as being busy on the ground for quite a few minutes, were suspected by the force of planting a bomb," the statement said. "A force ... was rushed to the site and launched a pursuit of the suspects, during which they called on them to stop and also fired into the air. When the calls were ignored, the force opened fire at the suspects." According to the IDF, "the incident was investigated at all levels of command, and the lessons will be learned and applied. The findings of the investigation will be conveyed to the Mili-tary Advocate General's Office." Antigona Ashkar, from the human rights organization B'Tselem, who also investigated the event, wrote to the chief military prosecutor, Colonel Liron Liebman, saying: "The soldiers opened fire at Jamil, Baha and Firas suddenly, with no prior warning. The three were sitting on a boulder and looking at the view, and did not endanger anyone. They were surprised by the emergence of the soldiers from between the trees and remained where they were until the soldiers started shooting at them." B'Tselem requested a Military Police investigation of the circumstances of the killing. The B'Tselem field-worker in the Ramallah region, Iyad Hadad, said this week at the site of the killing: "It was a hunt. Those soldiers went on a hunting expedition. They killed Firas the way you hunt a deer or a stag. They couldn't have had any other reason for shooting him." Jamil added: "What did the soldiers see in his hand? What did we do? Did they see a weapon in his hand? Was there a demonstration going on? Did we throw stones at anyone? They just shot us without batting an eyelash." In the village of Batir, Firas' widow, Majida, in black mourning clothes, sits in her small, simple home. She is holding her infant daughter Sadil. At three months, Sadil's father has been taken from her. The other two girls - Latifa, four, and Naama, two and a half - wander restlessly about their meager living room, blowing soap bubbles, until the whole room is filled with them. Majida waited and waited in her brother's home in Bitunia for Firas to arrive that day, as he had promised, after the hike. But Firas did not arrive. Not until the next day did her father come and tell her, "Firas is dead." Now Majida, her voice broken with crying, says: "I want to ask you and the whole world: What did he do? What was his crime? What was he guilty of? The father of three little girls - I want to know, why was he killed? Because I don't know."

TWO REPORTS FROM GAZA ~~ DON'T SAY 'I DIDN'T KNOW'

The Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs gets the truth out.... the problem is getting Americans to read that truth.

Presented here are two recent reports from Gaza... just two of many that must be read. The facts must be known to avoid the situation of 'I didn't know'..... no one can say that in 2007..... a far cry from 1940.

“I Want to Live”: Israeli Authorities Deny Dying Young Cancer Patient Access to Care

By Mohammed Omer

	At his funeral, Mahmoud Abu Taha’s mother, Umm Hani, and sister Asma’a hold pictures of the young man who died en route to an Israeli hospital (Photo M. Omer).

Frail, a mere ghost of a youth, 20-year-old Mahmoud Abu Taha lay listlessly in a Gaza hospital room, nurses helpless to assist. The strain of his illness and uncertain future was etched on the faces of his family members who surrounded his bed.

Diagnosed with colon cancer earlier this year, the young man’s life had been taken over by the disease. Merely raising his head or speaking required all his energy. “It hurts,” he whispered when asked how he’s doing. “I feel pain in every part of my body.”

Having lost one-third of his body weight in the months since his diagnosis, Abu Taha was unable to walk or stand. The lack of vitamins, essential nutrients and medications in Gaza due to the closure of its borders meant that even the most basic treatments are unavailable to him. In August doctors discovered that the cancer had spread to his small intestines.

The U.S.- and EU-backed and Israeli-enforced siege of Gaza continues to devastate the healthcare system, depriving hospitals and clinics of medications, supplies and equipment—not to mention the absence of basic necessities such as food, water and electricity, denied to all Gazans. Those who require medical care must seek treatment in Egypt, Jordan or Israel, with Israel being the closest. Regardless of their destination, however, all must overcome one major obstacle: permission from Israel to leave Gaza.

The first attempt by aid workers, physicians, and Abu Taha’s friends and family members to secure papers for the chronically ill youth failed because, according to an Israeli army official, he had been deemed a “security risk.” Two subsequent attempts also failed, with no explanation given.

Of course, the denial of passage for critically ill Palestinians represents the norm rather than the exception to Israeli control of Gaza’s borders. According to a coordinator with the Palestinian Ministry of Health, six such patients currently are awaiting Israeli permission to leave Gaza for medical treatment. Most have cancer or require heart surgery, but one is a young girl whose neck was broken in a car accident. She has been denied passage to a hospital with a trauma unit.

“At least three patients denied exit permits have died since June,” a spokesperson for Human Rights Watch noted, “and others have lost limbs or sight.”

But Abu Taha’s family refused to give up. A fourth attempt finally yielded the necessary papers and permits from the Israeli Army Coordination and Liaison Administration at Erez Crossing to transfer the teen to Tel HaShomer hospital in Tel Aviv—a mere hour’s drive away.

On Oct. 18, 2007, their papers in order, Abu Taha’s 58-year-old father, Kamal, accompanied his son in an ambulance to the Erez Crossing. All appeared to be proceeding well when, after a half-hour wait, the father heard his name called over the loudspeaker. Mahmoud’s brother Hani continued the saga.

“My brother continued to wait, lying on a stretcher receiving a transfusion and hooked up to an oxygen tank in the ambulance,” Hani said. “After two hours, the loudspeaker announced he was denied entry into Israel.”

Forced to turn around, the ambulance transporting its young cancer patient returned to the hospital in Gaza. Mahmoud’s father, however, was detained at Erez. A few days later, Hani received a phone call informing him that their father had been arrested by Shin Bet. Palestinian sources have since confirmed that Kamal Abu Taha was transferred to Israel’s Ashkelon prison. No reason for his arrest was given.

Another cancer patient’s father had a similar experience. When Mohammad Al Najjar’s 20-year-old daughter’s condition recently worsened and he attempted to escort her to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, where she previously had been treated, the Israeli army official at Erez conditioned their passage on the father’s becoming a collaborator for the Israeli military. He refused, and his daughter was denied entry to Israel and the medical attention she needed.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud’s time continued to run out. “I want to live,” the young man pleaded, his voice wavering under the strain. “I don’t want to die.”

Finally, on Oct. 29, his family received assurances from the Israelis that Mahmoud would be allowed to pass through Erez. When the ambulance transporting him once again arrived at the Israeli-controlled border, however, it was kept waiting for eight hours, according to a spokesperson for Physicians for Human Rights.

When it finally was allowed to cross into Israel, it was too late to save the young Palestinian’s life. Mahmoud Abu Taha died en route to the hospital—having spent his final weeks of life suffering not only because of his disease, but from the political whims of a hostile and inhumane occupier.—M.O.

**********************************************

Ramallah Government Pays Gaza’s Civil Servants—If They Promise Not to Work

By Mohammed Omer

	At a post office in Gaza, a Palestinian Authority employee receives his much-needed salary (Photo M. Omer).

A PLUME OF smoke, its scent redolent of roasted apples, wafts out the paneless window into the autumn air. A rhythmic bubbling can be heard as 47-year-old Abu Khaled inhales from the ornate hookah set beside him. As he exhales deeply, his heavy eyes watch the latest snakelike plume follow its predecessor. Once a man of action, today he simply sits, sentenced by political maneuvering to a sedentary existence and lamenting the life he until recently led.

Prior to June of this year, Abu Khaled worked as a security officer at Gaza’s border crossings. Walkie-talkie in hand, he bustled between the operations room, gates and terminals, shouting orders, checking identifications and maintaining order. Today he idles his day away channel surfing his TV and keeping up with current events on the Internet. He would rather work, yet today civil servants in Gaza receive wages from the U.S.-backed Palestinian government in Ramallah on one condition: that they not work.

A few weeks after Hamas came to power in January 2006 elections, Israel and Washington imposed an international boycott on the new, democratically elected government. Eighteen months later, having failed to topple Hamas, U.S.- and Israeli-funded and trained Fatah militia attempted a coup. While Fatah gained control of the West Bank, Gaza remained under the control of Hamas.

The American and Israeli governments began funneling cash and support to Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, and declared the elected Hamas government illegitimate. Declaring Gaza a “hostile entity,” Israel proceeded to increase its pressure. Tactics have included sealing Gaza’s borders, Israeli military incursions and regular bombings, the cutting off of water and electricity, bank closures, and cutting off aid.

Ramallah’s latest anti-Hamas tactic is to pay government employees not to work, while providing them a small stipend to compensate for 18 months of unpaid wages. Those who continue to work at hospitals, schools, police stations and other public institutions have their wages withheld.

The result of this strategy was quickly apparent. Commerce skidded to a halt, inflation soared, and the most basic necessities of life virtually disappeared from this 23-mile strip of land, home to 1.5 million people, of whom 68 percent are under the age of 18. An atmosphere of fear enveloped Gaza.

“Why should I work?” asked Abu Khaled in a hushed voice, looking around to ensure no one could hear him. “I support our leader, President Abbas. If I work under Hamas, my salary will be cut off by the Ramallah-based government.”

Abu Khaled, who declined to reveal his full name, personifies the anxiety shared by most Fatah loyalists in Gaza. By not working, the idle security guard could get in trouble with Hamas. On the other hand, he at least receives compensation. Officials estimate that 55,000 Gazans currently are being paid not to work. Some do it out of loyalty to Fatah, others out of fear or necessity.

A Life-or-Death Decision

Healthcare providers face a unique dilemma. Their choice whether or not to work can literally be a matter of life or death.

At Al Nasser Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, 30-year-old staff nurse Hamam Nasman remained on duty, assisting in operations. The Ministry of Health in Gaza falls under the control of Hamas.

“Ramallah’s government deprived me of my salary,” he explained in frustration. “How can I sit at home and just leave children to die? This is a crime!”

In enforcing the salary rules laid down by the U.S. and Israel, the Fatah government in Ramallah has created a severe crisis for public employees in Gaza, forcing them to choose between feeding their own families and serving or saving the lives of others.

“This is my human duty,” Nurse Nasman insisted. “I took an oath to treat patients, not to be a tool used for political purposes.”

Speaking on behalf of Hamas, Palestinian Legislative Councilman Dr. Salah Al Bardawil summarized the purpose of the latest directive from Ramallah.

“The objective in cutting off employee salaries is political,” he stated. “It is designed to cause a failure of democracy in Gaza—the same democracy which is not honored by the American or Israeli administrations.”

Though strapped for cash, the Hamas government manages to sporadically pay approximately 10,000 public sector workers as funds become available. According to Dr. Al Bardawil, however, 33,000 civil employees currently work without pay, and that number is increasing. Gaps in services are filled by Hamas supporters who volunteer by stepping into critical positions in the various municipal agencies, schools and hospitals.

But not all gaps can be filled in Gaza, where today only emergency humanitarian aid is occasionally allowed to enter.

A Culture of Fear

The worsening shortage of necessities resulting from this latest tightening of the screws on Gaza increasingly is pitting friends and families against one another. Abu Khaled knows this pain only too well. Trepidation coupled with discretion has prevented him from spending time with a friend in the Hamas security force.

“I’m afraid that if Fatah agents see me hosting him, the Ramallah-based government will assume I am not loyal and cut off my salary,” he explained nervously.

Even those in positions of authority feel pressured to comply. Abu Waled, a Fatah loyalist and supervisor at the local police station, admitted that he now spends his days like a retiree, visiting friends and sitting at home.

“I’m not going to risk losing my salary by going to work,” he said sharply. “Let Hamas manage Gaza by themselves.”

Mohammed Omer, winner of New America Media’s Best Youth Voice award, reports from the Gaza Strip, where he maintains the Web site <www.rafahtoday.org>. He can be reached at <gazanews@yahoo.com>.

PICKS OF THE DAY ~~ DECEMBER 27th

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)
From ~~~


A Mother From Gaza


Annie's Letters


I Love Munich


The Holly Tree


Sabbah's Blog


Umkahlil

BUSH AND THE ELDERS OF ZION

Image 'Copyleft' by Carlos Latuff

BUSH AND THE ELDERS OF ZION

A DesertPeace Editorial

As far as Ehud Olmert is concerned, the Annapolis 'farce' gave him and his government the go ahead to expand existing settlements on Palestinian soil. The 'promises' to halt these operations fell on deaf ears as did all the other promises regarding roadblocks and the dismantling of illegal West Bank outposts.

As far as Abbas is concerned, his 'job' is on the line unless he outwardly appears to oppose these expansionist policies.

Hence a new meeting in Jerusalem between the two misleaders of the region, the first since Annapolis.

One Israeli official is quoted as saying, "We attach great importance to our dialogue with the Palestinian leadership and we understand that the process is challenging," Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said ahead of the meeting at the prime minister's residence. "Israel is committed to doing everything we can to make this process work."

Sounds good, right? WRONG!!!! One slight problem being the term 'Palestinian leadership'..... Abbas??? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was Hamas that was elected to be the leadership of Palestine. It was Abbas that walked away from the coalition government set up in the Palestinian Authority. It was Abbas that literally sold his soul to the Elders of zion for his 'place in the sun'. It is Abbas that represents those very same zionists sitting in Jerusalem while the Palestinian people continue to suffer under their occupation....

Now he wants to discuss settlements again? Could it have anything to do with Bush's planned visit next month? Could it be that Olmert and Abbas want it to appear as if peace is REALLY on the agenda? Bush just might be an easy target to fool, given his understanding of the situation (zilch), but there are millions of other people in the region that see and know the truth...

President Bush, trying to nurture fragile peace talks between Israeli and Palestinians, will make his first trip to Israel and the West Bank next month as part of a nine-day swing through the Middle East.

In Jerusalem, Bush will meet with President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and in the West Bank he will meet with President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The president will then travel to Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

Bush says conditions in Israel and the Palestinian territories now are ripe for a more aggressive U.S. role: Abbas and Olmert agreed in Annapolis to renew peace talks, there is a unifying fight against extremism fed by the Palestinian conflict, and the world understands the urgency of acting now.

The above (in italics) is taken from THIS report...

So it appears that the non elected President of the United States has decided that the non elected President of Palestine is the true representative of the Palestinian people.... talk about 'conspiracy theories'.....

The amazing thing is that the American people don't seem to recognise this international farce and don't realise what their President is doing, not only to them, but to the entire world. Must we wait for an election for this to stop? One more year means thousands more dead.... the world must not allow this to continue. Impeachment is no longer an option, it is the only solution.

Israeli attrocities since Annapolis... (just this week alone) can be read about HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Also read Amira Hass' take on the situation from today's HaAretz.