FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 7, 2009 1:37 PM
CONTACT: Media MattersBrandon Hersh (202) 471-3205 bhersh@mediamatters.org
"Media conservatives have made a sport of vilifying ACORN and immigrants. In lieu of engaging in substantive policy debates, they simply point fingers at the poor and disenfranchised. It is both dishonest and irresponsible," said Media Matters spokesperson Erikka Knuti.
Media Matters' study documents numerous examples of media conservatives returning to their favorite scapegoats, including:
EXPANSION OF THE STATE CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM
In reporting on or discussing the 2009 expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), many in the media asserted or uncritically repeated the claim that the bill would provide health benefits to undocumented immigrants. In fact, the legislation includes a citizenship verification process and explicitly states that "[n]othing in this Act allows Federal payment for individuals who are not lawfully residing in the United States."
2008 FINANCIAL CRISIS
Several conservative media figures have claimed or suggested that excessive lending to undocumented immigrants was responsible for the financial crisis, but have failed to cite any credible evidence to support that claim. They also advanced the idea that ACORN contributed to the housing crisis by "bullying" banks into lending irresponsibly to minorities, and in many instances, asserted that the group used the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to intimidate banks into making risky loans. But as Media Matters has documented, the assertion that the CRA had anything to do with the financial crisis has been widely discredited.
2009 AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT
In their coverage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, many in the media falsely asserted or uncritically reported accusations that the legislation would provide tax credits to undocumented immigrants. In fact, the bill limited the Making Work Pay tax credit to individuals with Social Security numbers, thereby excluding undocumented immigrants. Numerous media figures have also claimed that ACORN would benefit from the legislation -- to the tune of $4.19 billion. In fact, the act does not mention ACORN or otherwise single it out for funding; ACORN itself has said that it is ineligible for the funds. The false claim was based on a misrepresentation of a provision in the House version of the bill that would have appropriated $4.19 billion "for neighborhood stabilization activities related to emergency assistance for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes authorized under division B, title III of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008."
U.S. CENSUS
Reporting on the 2010 U.S. Census, many in the media have focused on ACORN's reported role as a national partner with the Census Bureau in its effort to recruit more than 1 million temporary workers to knock on doors and baselessly suggested that the group will fraudulently influence the count in favor of Democrats or that the Obama administration is politicizing the process. In fact, ACORN is reportedly one of "more than 250" groups that are partnering with the Census Bureau to recruit workers.
2008-2009 MINNESOTA SENATE RECOUNT
In covering the Minnesota Senate recount, many in the media seized on a Republican talking point that Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has "ties" to ACORN, in many instances using it to suggest that he would be biased toward Democratic challenger Al Franken over Republican incumbent Norm Coleman.
Full Research Item HERE.
Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
UNODC produces a broad range of publications in our areas of work.
All documents are in pdf format, unless otherwise specified.
The World Drug Report presents comprehensive information on the illicit drug situation. It provides detailed estimates and trends on production, trafficking and consumption in the opium/heroin, coca/cocaine, cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants markets. The drug problem is being contained but there are warning signs that the stabilisation which has occurred over the last few years could be in danger. Notable amongst these is the increase in both opium poppy and coca cultivation in 2007, some growth in consumption in developing countries and some development of new trafficking patterns. There have also been encouraging contractions in some of the main consumer markets. This year, almost one hundred years since the Shanghai Opium Commission in 1909, the Report presents an historical review of the development of the international drug control system.
From the Los Angeles Times
The Rick Wagoner vehicles: Hits and misses
There's the EV1, Hummer H2, Malibu and the Volt -- all emblematic of GM during Wagoner's leadership. By DAN NEIL 11:29 PM PDT, March 30, 2009 "As Rick Wagoner rides off to whatever biz-school sinecure he's destined for, his nine years at the helm of General Motors Corp. will be evaluated in many ways and by many hands. And yet, fairly or not, auto company chief executives are best remembered for the cars produced during their tenure. People still refer to the Cadillac Cimarron as a "Roger Smith" car, and the Ford Mustang will somehow always belong eternally to Lee Iacocca. The four vehicles offered here are emblematic of Wagoner's time and leadership, of challenges met and opportunities missed. They will forever be Wagoner cars. General Motors EV1 Wagoner has said the biggest mistake he ever made as chief executive was killing the EV1, GM's revolutionary electric car, and failing to direct more resources to hybrid gas-electric research. This admission is acutely painful for green-car advocates who know GM squandered its early lead in electric-hybrid technology. The EV1 began in the 1990s as a response to a zero-emission vehicle mandate by California's Air Resources Board. GM built about 2,500 EV1s in 1996-99 and leased them to consumers in California and Arizona. When, finally, GM and other automakers managed to get California to soften its zero-emission mandate in 2002, Wagoner promptly canceled the program. GM ordered the cars confiscated and destroyed. From an accountant's point of view -- and Wagoner was, first of all, a counter of beans -- the decision was correct. The cars cost far more than GM could sell them for, and maintaining a service infrastructure for the exotic cars was also expensive. Then there was the potential liability; there were reported cases of the batteries overheating. But from a public relations perspective, the decision to haul off and crush the cars was an unmitigated disaster. EV1 advocates picketed outside GM's West Coast offices in Thousand Oaks, spammed the automaker with angry e-mails and ranted on TV news programs. The crowning blow was the release of Chris Paine's 2006 documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" The film alleged there was a grand conspiracy among the oil companies, the government and the car companies. The EV1 saga was thus a failure of both style and substance. Hummer H2 It is too easy to say that the Hummer H2, a civilian riff on the military's "HMMWV" (High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, or Humvee), is an example of everything that was indictable and wrong about GM: an oversized, guzzling Goliath; a blundering bully of the road; rude and reactionary. The 6,614-pound, 6-foot-8 monster provoked howls of protest from environmentalists when it debuted in 2002. "It was just so over the top," said Michael Marsden, an auto culture historian at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis., in an interview last year. "It had excess written all over it, the SUV times 10. Everything about it suggested not practical, not reasonable. It was consumerism at its peak." Wagoner wasn't exactly wrong in signing off on the Hummer H2 (built under contract by AM General at a factory in Indiana). In fact, the vehicle was a cult hit and became a totem of wheel-spinning bling excess, favored by pro athletes, hip-hop stars and other auto extroverts. The Hummer brand instantly became one of the strongest in the GM portfolio. And yet, those sales -- which peaked in 2003 at about 35,000 -- later cost GM dearly in terms of public perception. The company had provided an easy target, a made-to-order villain in the national debate about fuel economy, war for oil, and global warming. When fuel prices began to climb last year, Hummer's fragile mystique collapsed, as did sales. Hummer H2 sales in 2008 totaled 6,095 units. Hummer's fall also reflects another error in Wagoner's product strategy: Too much of GM's profits relied on large trucks and SUVs, which made the company highly vulnerable to volatility in fuel prices. GM announced last year that, as part of its reorganization plan, it would sell Hummer. Wagoner had another failed brand on his record. Chevy Malibu One of the great frustrations for GM partisans has been the fact that cars built by subsidiaries overseas were often better than the ones designed and built for the North American market. Wagoner, with a strong push from GM product czar and Vice Chairman Robert Lutz, helped change that. The 2008 Malibu is the result. Built on GM's global Epsilon platform -- engineered by Opel and shared with the Saturn Aura and Pontiac G6 -- the current-generation Malibu is a fine car, with up-to-date engineering, suave and artful styling and good quality. Among other critical acclaim, the Malibu won the 2008 North American Car of the Year award at the Detroit auto show (in I called the Malibu "a fine-drawn and harmonious design, pretty but chastened with Teutonic seriousness"). The Malibu has been a fairly steady seller. With GM's total sales off 49%, Malibu sales are off 23% for the first two months of this year compared with the same period in 2008 -- better than arch rivals Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. Even so, with 2008 sales totaling 177,089, the German-engineered Malibu has not come close to threatening those competitors. The Accord's 2008 sales totaled 372,789, and the Camry chalked up 436,617 sales. Chevy Volt A large part of Wagoner's legacy has yet to be written and will depend on the outcome of the highly anticipated Chevy Volt. A range-extended electric sedan -- using a small gasoline engine to charge the batteries that drive electric motors -- the Volt has redeemed GM in the eyes of many environmentalists. On a memorable evening in November, the Volt was the guest of honor at a party at director Chris Paine's house in Santa Monica. Paine had vilified GM in "Who Killed the Electric Car?" With all the chaos and downsizing at GM, Wagoner and Lutz remained committed to bringing the Volt to market by late 2010. It seems likely that GM brass does not want to relive the miseries of the EV1 episode. And yet, the Volt cannot hope to restore GM to profitability. In fact, as noted in the government's auto task force report on GM's viability, the Volt is "likely to be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short-term." Even so, the Volt is a dramatic advance in the technology of the automobile, a fundamentally different way to look at transportation. Whether Wagoner supported the Volt program purely for PR purposes or out of some awakened sense of corporate conscience, it deserves a measure of our respect. And so does he." dan.neil@latimes.com
"WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland will bolster its 1,600-strong contingent in Afghanistan with 400 more troops to help improve security in the leadup to an August election there, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said recently the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan will need some 4,000 extra soldiers to secure Afghanistan's presidential poll.
"We have taken today a decision to formally ask the president to increase our contingent by 400 soldiers," Tusk told a news conference.
"It is related to the elections in Afghanistan and we are all aware the situation there will not be any easier over the weeks to come. Sending more troops is justified from the point of view of our own forces' security there," Tusk added.
Poland, NATO's largest ex-communist member, had previously said it would not increase its forces in Afghanistan as it looks to make budget savings because of a sharp economic slowdown.
Poland's Defense Ministry recently agreed to cut spending plans this year by 2 billion zlotys ($601.5 million), but Tusk said it could afford the 35.1 million zlotys needed for the troop reinforcements.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who as commander-in-chief must approve the additional deployments, has spoken in favor of increasing Poland's engagement in Afghanistan and is widely expected to approve Tusk's request.
The government also said in a statement it had put a further 200 troops on standby in Poland for possible rapid, short-term deployment in Afghanistan if required."
(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska, editing by Gareth Jones)
Obama’s Silence on Immigration Can’t Last Long: Albert R. Hunt
Commentary by Albert R. Hunt
March 2 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama, in his speech to Congress last week, painted a canvas of issues breathtaking in scope: creating jobs, rescuing banks, overhauling the health- care system, reforming education, fixing Social Security and reversing the nation’s direction on energy -- all this year.
In the 6,134-word speech, which briefly touched on Afghanistan and the Middle East, one crucial issue wasn’t mentioned: immigration.
The agenda is so full that the political circuits may be overloaded. Some argue the urgency is eroding with the deteriorating economy. The number of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. has plunged -- down to as few as 300,000 last year, or less than half what it was several years ago -- with more leaving now than arriving.
And the politics are even tougher than in the last Congress, when the bipartisan effort of Senators Ted Kennedy and John McCain and President George W. Bush exploded in emotional recriminations by Republicans and crass calculations by some Democrats. With joblessness having soared since then, it is tougher to argue that the economy needs these workers.
Still, the notion that illegal immigration can be finessed is a mirage. The problem will only get worse, and so will the politics. Obama, 47, a Democrat, would have to renege on his campaign promise to push a major immigration overhaul along the lines of the Kennedy-McCain measure in his first year.
There are industries -- agriculture, food service, construction -- that rely on immigrants. They are going through down times, yet they’ll need more people when they bounce back.
No Easy Case
That’s true of the overall economy, says Tamar Jacoby, a scholar who favors an overhaul of the immigration system.
“Immigration reform may be harder in the middle of a recession, to make the case that we need more workers,” Jacoby says. “But the only way out of a recession is to grow out of it, and we need workers to do that.”
Even with the dropoff in the number of illegal aliens -- there are still an estimated 11.5 million in the country, or about 4 percent of the population -- the social tensions are worsening. Highly publicized raids are disrupting communities and generating furious resentment among Hispanics.
The new Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, wasn’t even notified of a raid in Washington State last week.
And 40 percent of inmates in federal prisons are Hispanic, half of them in for committing immigration crimes, not because they are violent criminals, according to the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center. That’s a huge cost to society.
‘Waited Too Long’
Given the full agenda, some say the White House should wait on immigration until after the next congressional elections in 2010. That, Jacoby warns, would be a mistake. “Bush waited too long, and then he didn’t have the juice.”
Two Democrats who are now among the most critically situated on the issue, former Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, were impediments in the last Congress, although both are immigration-reform advocates.
Emanuel worried that the issue would hurt House Democratic candidates in conservative districts, and Schumer clashed with Kennedy, the architect of the Senate bill, over strategy.
Emanuel is now White House chief of staff, and Schumer has taken over the Senate’s immigration subcommittee from the ailing Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat who is focusing all his political efforts on health care.
Politics Changed
Those two smart politicians no doubt appreciate a changed political landscape, with a bigger-than-expected Latino turnout last November. “Both Schumer and Emanuel understand the 2008 election was a game-changer,” says Frank Sharry, founder and director of the pro-immigration group, America’s Voice.
Earlier fears that immigration had hurt Democrats in 2006 in an Illinois House race and a special election in Massachusetts were trumped by several dozen races where immigration-bashing failed and advocates of the Kennedy-McCain- type measure succeeded.
Dramatic illustrations came in the heavily Hispanic states of New Mexico and Arizona. Three years ago, nine of the 11 House members from those states were Republicans; today eight of the 11 are Democrats, in large part because of Hispanic voters.
The impact wasn’t only in Western states. In places such as Virginia and North Carolina, a smaller number of Hispanic voters provided winning margins.
One Survived
One incumbent Democrat whom House Republicans were confident of defeating last November was Representative Paul Kanjorski of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The Republican candidate was the mayor of Hazleton, whose local crackdown included fining landlords for renting to illegal immigrants and inspired a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. Yet on Election Day, Kanjorski survived.
In the presidential race, McCain unfairly suffered, because the Republicans became identified as the anti- immigration party. Obama carried the Latino vote by better than 2-to-1, with a big turnout.
As an issue that divides constituencies, immigration is more of a problem for Republicans. Still, there are tensions among Democrats. Major elements in organized labor -- mainly the AFL-CIO -- are hostile to permitting more liberal procedures for future immigrants; deals will have to be struck.
Reid Faces Voters
It’s instructive, however, that a driving force for action may be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who was lukewarm in the last Congress. Reid faces re-election in Nevada in 2010 in a state whose Hispanic population now accounts for almost a quarter of the total. Those voters helped Obama win Nevada last November.
While the agenda that Obama laid out is stunning in its scope, the president and his politically astute chief of staff are likely to conclude that stalling isn’t an option on immigration. Emanuel wants to “clean up his image” with Hispanics, says one top Obama adviser.
If so, immigration-reform advocates insist they’re ready. “I expect we’ll have a come-to-Jesus moment in June, and Rahm will check on how many Republicans there are for the bill,” says Sharry. “If there’s any sign of economic stabilization, we’ll be ready to go.”
(Albert R. Hunt is the executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Albert R. Hunt in Washington at ahunt1@bloomberg.net
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.” – Founding Father and Former President, Thomas Jefferson
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” – Former President, Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” – Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin
Some hard facts:
U.S. unemployment rate at 7.6% as of January 2009. 600,000 jobs lost in January alone. With a U.S. population approaching 304 million, that is 23 million people that are out of work. At the peak of the great depression in with unemployment at 25% in 1933, the population was at 125 million and 31 million people were out of work.
Total public and government debt taking into account reserve banking and all the created asset and derivative bubbles is at over $70 trillion. With gross domestic product (GDP) at $14 trillion and falling, that means every person in the US needs to allocate all their real value and compensation produced for at least the next five years to repay the debt. The three larges foreign buyers and holders of us debt are china with $682 billion held in the form of U.S. Treasury Securities, Japan with over $577 billion, and Britain with over $360 billion in holdings as of November 2008. Total foreign debt amounts to over $3.1 trillion or about 21% of U.S. GDP. This does not come free, as the U.S. government pays interest on these loans which takes away from health care, education, public spending, and other social programs.
The trade deficit. In November alone, U.S. imports of goods and services have exceeded exports by over $40.4 billion adding more burden into the already catastrophic public and government debt. The top 3 U.S. trade partners are Canada with 17.7 % of the total, China with 11.9%, and Mexico with 10.8%. As of November 2008 total U.S. imports in goods and services for the year amounted to $1.96 trillion, whereas exports were at $1.21 trillion leaving a net loss of $750 billion.
Some Proposed Solutions:
Basic income guarantee in the form of negative tax credits. Every person in the U.S. working or not would be guaranteed a monthly stipend in the amount of $1,000 in the form of negative tax incentive. With rising income, let’s say over $12,000 the amount of the stipend would began diminishing at a given interval to where after making, let’s say $36,000 the a person would be obligate to start paying taxes at a prescribed interval. With less than 10% making below $12,000 annually, an unemployment rate of 5%, and another 25% making below $36,000, the government burden would amount to about $1.08 trillion dollars, that is less than the $1.5 trillion in proposed defense spending for 2009.
Import Certificates. Buffett's plan proposes creating a market for import certificates that would represent the right to import a certain dollar amount of goods into the United States from other countries. These certificates would be issued to US exporters in an amount equal to the dollar amount of the goods they export, and can be sold to importers, who must purchase them in order to legally import goods. The price of an import certificate is set by free-market forces, and therefore ultimately is dependent on the balance between imported and exported goods through supply and demand.
Proceeds from the sale of import certificates would encourage exporters (who would gain that extra money in addition to the proceeds of their exports) and discourage importers (who would need to pay the additional cost to acquire import certificates as well as the cost to acquire the goods they are importing)
This system would essentially create a broad-based tariff on imports to the United States. Unlike traditional tariffs, however, this would not favor any particular industry or punish any particular country. Market forces would also keep the tariff at exactly the amount required to achieve trade balance, eventually eliminating it when it is no longer necessary. (www.wikipedia.com)
Another idea would be to close the over 200+ U.S. Military bases and installations located all over the world and use the resources on rebuilding U.S. real producing industrial base and economic infrastructure.
Some Definitions:
What is an economy? An economy is a place where people bring whatever goods and/or services they can produce and trade them with other participants for the goods and/or services they offer. Since it does not make much sense to divide goods and/or services into units, individual productivity is saved and divided into units with the help of currency recognized by other participants as a means of exchange.
How do we create value? We create value through the production of real goods and/or services that are nonpredatory in nature. In return, we are paid a real wage that suffices our real needs and creates additional demand for real goods and/or services.
What is a multiple effect? A multiple effect is what happens when as a result of supply and demand for real value. When individuals are compensated with real wages, they have the means to demand real value, thus creating additional jobs and those participants likewise, and so on. On the other hand, when individuals are compensated less than the value of their real work, they are reluctant to spend and create additional demand, thus destroying jobs and creating a further decline, and so on.
What is free trade? Free trade is a way for ecologically diverse macroeconomic groups to specialize in what they have and advantage over and exchange that with a likewise group for a good and/or service they have a disadvantage in. Modern trade deviates from this understanding as it is based on differences in cost and price regimes. Real value of goods and/or services as well as the means of exchange differ from one regime to another. In that sense regimes with higher cost and price regime have every incentive to exploit the real value of the regimes with lower costs and prices.
What is the market? The market is comprised of all participants creating real value that have the means are willing to trade their goods and/or services with other participants. As participants move from higher to lower cost and price regimes, the real value of production and individual compensation begins to diminish creating a multiple effect. This can only be sustained temporarily through predatory lending and asset bubbles. Once banks run out of reserves, people start panicking, and bubbles burst until finally all market and economic activity slows and comes to a stop.
What is the role of banks? The role of banks is to fill in the void when individual compensation falls below real productive value, thus creating a predatory, debt based, economy that creates no real value, but enslaves society into eternal debt. It gives rise to panzi schemes and speculative bubble casinos that, according to, according to Richard Cook, “[skimishes] the cream off the top of the producing economy by financing consumption and facilitating the most irresponsible types of speculation in the real estate, equity, hedge fund, and derivative markets.”
How strong is your support for Israel's actions today? Is the recent resolution by Congress representing your belief? Call your representatives to help the peace process, no matter which side you are on. Help senator Kucinich's resolution which calls for an immediate ceasefire and unobstructed Humanitarian Aid in Gaza: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/CenterDoug/gGxFQy (quick link in comments) And thanks, O-Doug! fib
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Monday, Jan. 12, 2009
Holding Out in Gaza: Waiting for the Israelis
As Israeli tanks push deeper and deeper into the Gaza Strip from the north, south and east each night, we feel certain that come morning, Phase Three of the Israeli offensive will be upon us. Yet the Israeli military seems insistent upon teasing the population, playing a ruthless game of terror against those living in neighborhoods that are at the forefront of the incursions, which are heavily bombarded each night. Each afternoon, four families of relatives who live only five minutes away from us gather their blankets, cloths and valuables, and arrive at our front door, fearing that this will be the night. Each morning they return to their homes, thankful that, so far, only minimal damage has been done to their houses during the night. Each morning the Israeli military retreats to their original posts, on the outskirts of the neighborhoods. So far.
But others living here are not so lucky. One friend whose family and extended family live in the southern area of Gaza City told me that 10 homes have been evacuated, and 120 people have fled to a small house, also in the same Zatoun district, but further into the city. They got out just in time. Last night the 10 homes were either bulldozed or set on fire. They've lost everything, but their only aim at this moment is to stay safe and stay alive. (See pictures of Israel's assault on Gaza.)
Even those of us who haven't been forced out of our homes are living in constant fear of having to do so, in daily terror of the Israeli military's next move. Israel has infiltrated the local news channels and radio broadcast. While watching the news, the screen goes black and a message comes up for a few moments. It says something along the lines of "You will witness our wrath." We turn off the television and turn on the radio, only to hear the transmission being interrupted and another message from the Israeli military comes forth: "Leave your homes for your own safety! Gather in the center of your town! This is the IDF" [Israel Defense Forces] And even if you decide to give up both TV and radio, these messages will get to you through the phone. Almost all of the residents of the Gaza Strip have been receiving recorded messages from the IDF over the phone telling us that we will pay a high price for the actions of Palestinian fighters. There's nothing we can do. Phones are indispensable. We need to keep in touch with family and friends.
As if to make sure that terror rains down on the Gaza population, Israel has been dropping thousands of leaflets from the sky, conveying various messages. Some of these messages advertise intensified attacks against the area, claiming that weapons and munitions stores would be targeted, while others warn of new methods of fighting to come. But perhaps the most perplexing and frightening of these notes are the ones calling on the residents of the area to leave their houses, urging them to cooperate with the IDF and contact it by e-mail or phone (both provided) to report "terrorist activity."
Such notes are baffling. They assume that the resistance is an organized army with bases, weapons storage facilities and organized affiliations. Most people are confused as to who these notes refer to. The Hamas we know is a political, religious and social organization. Most of the population at large is uninvolved in that entity's military activities. (See pictures of life in Gaza under Hamas before the Israeli assault.)
The word "catastrophe" is on everyone's lips. People cannot help but recall the similar scenes from 60 years ago. But in 1948 the Israeli goal was the expulsion of the Palestinian people. This time around, it seems as though their goal is elimination.
So, where are the residents of these areas supposed to go for safety? There has already been a massive influx of people from the northern half of Gaza Strip into Gaza City, while the thousands of families in the southern and eastern areas of Rafah have left their homes to be destroyed by Israeli forces there, moving farther inward. Some people stay with relatives or friends. Almost all of the 80 apartments in my building complex are already accommodating more than one refugee family, as are most homes in the city, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency shelters are overflowing with people.
Many families have nowhere to go and end up staying in their homes. These people would leave if they could, but the Gaza Strip is sealed off from all directions and surrounded by the Israeli military forces. So while Israel claims to "warn" them prior to destroying their homes over their heads, in reality they are not giving them any other option. Many people feel that it would be more merciful not to give "warnings." That way, these people would not have to anticipate their imminent deaths.
Amid all this, some still have the presence of mind to act on principle. Some family friends who live in the Jabalia area, where the refugee camp is, left their home the first two days, then decided to go back at whatever cost. Part of their home has been bombed since, but they remain there with no plans of leaving. They prefer death to indignity.
Safa Joudeh is a journalist living with her family in Gaza City.
Israel to Get $30bn US Defense Aid - In America we need jobs NO WARS
Israel to Get $30bn US Defense Aid
"This is an increase of 25 percent for the military aid to Israel from the United States. I think this is a significant and important increase in defense aid to Israel," Olmert said at the opening of the weekly Israeli Cabinet meeting.
Olmert added that the aid package was offered during his meeting with US President George W. Bush in Washington on June 20.
"This would mean a lot to Israel’s security, and this is a good opportunity to thank President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice," Olmert said.
Other Israeli ministers stressed during the Cabinet meeting Israel’s need to secure its "quality advantage" over its neighbors in the Mideast and the US’ major role in maintaining this advantage.
"Defense aid to Israel is still a top priority for the United States," Olmert told the Cabinet, adding that Israel enjoys more financial assistance than other countries in the Middle East.
"We have renewed agreements and a renewed commitment from the Americans that would help preserve our advantage over the Arab countries," Olmert said, referring to reports by the New York Times and the Washington Post that the US is mulling a $20 billion arms deal with Gulf states and increasing military aid to Egypt to $13 billion over 10 years.
The deal with Gulf states includes advanced satellite-guided bombs, upgrades to their fighter jets and new naval vessels. It has reportedly raised concerns in Israel and among its supporters in the Congress. However, Olmert said that Israel fully understood the US’ need to support the moderate states in the region.
"We understand the US’ need to assist the moderate Arab states, which are standing in one front with the United States and us in the struggle against Iran," Olmert said, referring to its nuclear program.
Israeli security officials called the increase in military aid "an unusual achievement."
According to Israeli diplomatic sources, the final details about the new aid package to the Jewish state will be worked out during the visit by US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns to the region, adding that his visit is slated for mid-August.
The military aid is made up of 75 percent US military hardware, ranging from ammunition to warplanes, with the other 25 percent in cash, which goes mainly toward securing new Israeli-made weapons.
There is one extremely easy way for the US government to do that - and that way is, the US government could stop participating in terror, and stop supporting it when others do it! That would automatically reduce the level of terror enormously - as I said, over 90 percent world-wide. You do the math: draw up a table, putting in one column the number of people affected by US terror directly or indirectly, and in the other, the number of people affected by terror against the US and its allies. If the US stops participating in and supporting terror, the level of terror world-wide would become a tiny fraction of what it is today."- Prof. Noam Chomsky, MIT Oct 18, 2001
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Noam Chomsky Interview on CBC (Part 1 of 2)
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Support Our Allies - They Support US?
"...For Your Freedom and Ours..."
Gen. T. Kosciuszko (Poland and America's Patriot)
POLAND IS GETTING ONLY 25-40 $ MILLIONS per year
- Poland sent combat troops to Iraq, Afghanistan , Kosovo, Panama, Haiti, Polish Army's Peacekeepers in Golan Heights, Americans during the war.
- Polish troops are responsible for security in 1 of the 4 zones in Iraq
- 20,000 soldiers from 17 countries served under Polish command
Poland sent its elite commando unit, GROM, which means thunder. It helped secure the port at Umm Qasr, which was vital to delivering aid to Iraq. The unit also secured nearby oil platforms before they could be sabotaged.
In the first Gulf War, Polish intelligence officers snuck into Iraq to rescue a group of CIA operatives trapped behind enemy lines.
Poland's secret agents disguised CIA agents as Polish construction workers and smuggled them out of Baghdad.
This was not the first time Polish soldiers risked their lives for our freedom. Generals Casimir Pulaski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko were two of the first foreigners to fight in the American Revolution. Kosciuszko designed and oversaw the construction of West Point. After that, he returned to Poland, where he led a democratic uprising. As a result of that fight, Poland had the first written democratic constitution in Europe, second in the world only to the U.S.
USA DEPORTED POLISH WOMAN IN US SINCE 1989 PERFECT CITIZEN FORMER SOLIDARITY, PERFECT MOTHER, NO CRIMES
I have to bring to your attention. What kind of:
How autocratic our Homeland Security in US is.
New US military aid to Israel and the Lieberman-Kyl amendment bring the US closer to war with Iran, say Greens
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
Monday, October 8, 2007
Contacts: Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org
Greens: Bush has no credibility on Iran, but Democrats and Republicans are lining up behind Bush's next military disaster
WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders strongly cautioned that the combination of a $30 billion military aid package for Israel and growing threat of a US or US-backed Israeli attack on Iran could trigger a major regional conflagration in the Middle East.
"There's little doubt that the $30 billion in US taxpayers money sent to Israel will be used for two things: to maintain Israel's illegal and murderous military occupation of Palestinian lands, and to prepare for a military assault on Iran," said Paul "zool" Zulkowitz, a member of the Green Party's Peace Action Committee (GPAX). "The new military aid for Israel and the Lieberman-Kyl amendment, passed on September 26 with strong bipartisan support, have brought the the US closer to war with Iran."
Greens stressed that White House claims that Iran is assisting Shiite militias in Iraq and plans to produce nuclear weapons for possible use against Israel or western nations have been contested. Iran has denied such intentions; Greens noted that such use would amount to suicide for Iran.
"The Bush Administration, after its deceptive rationales for invading Iraq, should have no credibility on Iran or any other foreign policy," said Justine McCabe, Connecticut Green and co-chair of the party's International Committee. "Unfortunately, Democrats -- especially presidential candidates like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama -- have signed on to the AIPAC-Neocon-Republican line that an attack on Iran is 'not off the table.' If a global war starts because Bush ordered an attack, it'll be a bipartisan disaster, like the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the continuing Middle East crisis."
In one scenario, confirmed by Newsweek, Vice President Cheney considered asking Israel to launch a missile attack either on a nuclear power site in Natanz, Iran, or on an alleged Syrian-Iranian-North Korean nuclear installation in northern Syria, which might result in a retaliatory strike that would motivate a larger US military assault on Iran. Israel has already launched an air strike on the suspected Syrian site in September.
"The Lieberman-Kyl amendment designates Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a 'foreign terrorist organization.' The amendment makes the Iran military a target in President Bush's 'war on terror.' This is a major step towards a military confrontation with Iran, whether the attack comes from the US or Israel or both," said John V. Walsh, delegate from the Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party to the Green Party's National Committee.
The Green Party has called for an international effort towards nuclear disarmament of all Middle Eastern and western Asian nations, including Israel and Pakistan, which are known to possess nuclear weapons, as part of a greater global nuclear disarmament project. Greens have called the Bush Administration hypocritical for condemning Iran while expanding US nuclear weapons programs and after removing the US from antinuclear treaties. The party has called for the US to rejoin the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and eliminate American nuclear weapons. Greens have also accused the Bush Administration of squandering pro-US sentiment that exists among many Iranians in its attempt to vilify their country.
The Green Party has sharply criticized both Democrats and Republicans for maintaining support for Israel's six-decades-long violations of civilian human rights and bowing to the demands of AIPAC and certain Christian rightwing lobbies that the US endorse the Israeli government's military ambitions and ethnic policies. (Israel has placed the Gaza Strip under siege and threatens to cut off water and fuel supplies, to punish civilians over rocket attacks launched by militias.)
The Green Party calls for negotiation by both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; a cut-off in US military aid to Israel; and an economic boycott of Israel until the latter recognizes full human rights, including the right of return for Palestinians and abolition of internal apartheid laws. Greens have called for support for Israeli and Palestinian groups seeking peaceful resolution, observance of human rights, and a halt to all violence and coercion directed against civilians.
German soldiers fighting the 1944 Warsaw Uprising
He was surprised they were ordered to burn what was already burned. The petrol they were supposed to use wasn’t the right quality either. Townhouses woldn’t burn easily. After work they went back to Mokotów district, where they lived several soldiers in one room. They felt safe there: the gates to German-controlled part of the city were guarded by 50 German soldiers.
Yet everyday they drank spirit. One friend of his couldn’t cope with this work. He poured petrol over himself and set himself on fire.
When Erich watched Polanski’s Pianist on tv, things came back to him. ‘It wasn’t at all as showed in this movie. Many people lived in ruins - not only Szpilman. Several hundred at least’, he convinced. ‘They walked out at night. I saw them, when we went out to the ruins, driven by curiosity, once. We saw how they pull burned potatoes from cellars. There were no orders to shoot at these people’
ISRAELI soldiers fighting the PALESTINIAN GAZA Uprising
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The conflict did not begin in 1967, and anti-Zionism and Arab objections to the existence of Israel did not begin then either. All of the ills that have befallen the Arabs of Palestine result in large part from their refusal to allow Jewish settlement in their midst. Violent opposition began with the riots and massacres of the 1920s, and continued in the 1948 war of independence. Despite the opposition of Palestinian Arabs, the Jews of Palestine built a state, and because of the war, the Arabs of Palestine were deprived of their own chance for self determination. Their opposition to Israel was expressed as Palestinian Arab nationalism in the formation of the Fatah and the PLO, well before 1967. These organizations aimed to destroy all of Israel, "occupied" by the "Zionist entity." Given that position, it was hardly likely that Israel could negotiate peace with the Arabs of Palestine.
Gamal Nasser closed the straits of Tiran and threatened to annihilate Israel in 1967. The PLO declared that their goal was to evict every Jew who had entered Israel after 1917. Jordanian guns fired continuously on Jerusalem and other parts of Israel despite warnings to stay out of the conflict. Israel was forced to defend itself. The territories were conquered primarily as "hostages for peace." This was an Israeli government decision, and it was repeated often and openly in public speeches by Israeli officials in the summer of 1967. However, it soon became apparent that there would be no peace negotiations. At the Khartoum conference, the Arab states vowed, "no peace, no negotiations, no recognition." In their 1968 covenant, the PLO vowed to "liberate" all of "Palestine" - including Israel.
Until 1967, the West Bank was part of Jordan and Gaza was administered by Egypt. Israel did not prevent the Palestinians from forming a state, but they did not do so. The 1949 armistice borders were never recognized by any Arab state. They were meant to be the basis of peace talks, not permanent borders, but the peace talks never happened. In international law, an occupied territory is territory of another sovereign that has been conquered in war. Jordan renounced its claims to the West Bank, and Egypt never claimed the Gaza strip as part of its territory. The Palestinians do not have a state, and have said they do not want a state with interim borders. Therefore the legal status of these territories as "occupied" is dubious. Nonetheless, many Zionists have come to recognize that another people live in Gaza and the West Bank. The Arabs of Palestine have declared themselves to be a nation, just as we Jews recognized our own nationhood in the Zionist movement. Most Zionists now recognize that we must take cognizance of Palestinian national aspirations. However, at the same time, and by the same logic, the Arabs of Palestine and their supporters must honor the Jewish right to self determination.
The occupation was for many years relatively benign. Palestinian Arabs worked in Israeli towns and Israelis visited Arab towns. There was no "Apartheid" and the checkpoints were usually a formality.
A part of the Zionist public believed that the newly conquered territories should be part of Israel. They included areas that had held Jewish communities for many years, as well as holy places of the Jewish religion such as the wailing wall in Jerusalem, the tomb of Rachel near Bethlehem, and the tomb of Abraham in Hebron. They included areas such as Gush Etzion, Atarot and the old city of Jerusalem, where Jewish communities had been ethnically cleansed and expelled or forced to flee in 1948. Nonetheless, initially, the majority consensus in Israel was that most, or all of these territories would be returned in return for a genuine peace offer.
As the years passed, attitudes hardened. In 1975, the UN passed the infamous "Zionism is Racism" resolution. Israeli political sentiment veered to the right in reaction, and the Labor government was forced to allow the founding of Elon Moreh. In 1977, the rightist Likud party came to power. They believed in the cause of Greater Israel, and they gave settlement expansion a big boost. However, even the leader of the Likud, Ariel Sharon, has come to understand that it is wrong to rule over another people. Israel is withdrawing from the heavily populated Gaza strip, taking the calculated risk that this area may become a base for intense terrorist activity against Israel, under the control of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad extremists. These organizations believe it is their holy duty to wipe Israel off the map.
Optimism over a reasonable solution that would allow self-determination for both sides was born in the Oslo accords. Unfortunately, though the PLO officially renounced violence in the Oslo accords, Palestinian Arab extremist organizations began a series of lethal terror attacks, forcing Israel to institute a harsh regime of checkpoints, and to build "Jews only" bypass roads to Jewish settlements. In 2000, the negotiations broke down and the Palestinian Arabs resorted to terror attacks and suicide bombings in Israeli cities. At one point, there were 130 Israeli casualties in a single week. To control the bombings, Israel stepped up the regime of checkpoints and is building a security fence. These measures undoubtedly cause regrettable hardship to the Palestinians. However, they were implemented reluctantly. They are not the result of an "apartheid" ideology, as critics claim, nor are they attempts to "ethnically cleanse" Palestinians. They are security measures implemented with the greatest reluctance. In particular, the security fence contradicts the "Greater Israel" ideology and is certainly not a product of radical Zionism.
The occupation is more benign than its critics would have you believe. The "evils of the occupation" have been deliberately exaggerated by Palestinians and enemies of Israel. Officials of the Palestinian Authority spread false rumors that Israel was injecting Palestinian children with AIDs and distributing poisoned candies, that Israel had dumped radioactive waste in the West Bank, that Israel was irradiating Palestinians and giving them cancer at checkpoints, and that Israel had killed over 500 Palestinians in Jenin in operation "Defensive Wall." Several anti-Zionist writers insisted that the Israeli government is engaged in a diabolical plot to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank, offering no proof at all. None of these rumors and announcements have any truth to them. They are part of a propaganda war aimed at justifying terrorism and extremist demands.
Isn't Israel doing to Palestinians what the Germans did do the Jews - Another "Holocaust"?
One of the most diabolical claims of anti-Zionists is that Israelis are like Nazis, and are perpetrating an Holocaust in the Palestinians. Israelis are not putting Palestinians in gas chambers or starving them to death. Israel is fighting a war, against a vicious and implacable enemy. The Jews of Europe were innocent citizens who were selected by the Nazis for extermination solely because of their religion. Israel has instituted security measures that are cause hardships for the Palestinians and are sometimes harsh. Occasional excesses, committed by Jewish and Muslim and Druze IDF soldiers alike are not the result of evil conspiracies or racist ideology, but errors of individuals that are the sad and inevitable result of a war that has been forced on Israel.
Ami Isseroff
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United States
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Click here to add you name to an Open Letter to Israeli Soldiers.
American Jews for a Just Peace (AJJP) is an alliance of activists in the United States working to ensure equal rights, safety, and dignity for all the people of historic Palestine. AJJP operates as an alliance of autonomous chapters and individual members across the United States. AJJP is a grassroots, membership-driven network with the goal of coordinating our collective work under a shared name and agreed statement of Common Ground principles.
We are a predominantly Jewish organization, but welcome the full participation of all people of good will who agree with our Common Ground.
"The rationalization for Israel's massacres, already being faithfully transmitted by the English-language media, is that Israel is acting in "retaliation" for Palestinian rockets fired with increasing intensity ever since the six-month truce expired on 19 December (until today, no Israeli had been killed or injured by these recent rocket attacks).
"But today's horrific attacks mark only a change in Israel's method of killing Palestinians recently. In recent months they died mostly silent deaths, the elderly and sick especially, deprived of food and necessary medicine by the two year-old Israeli blockade calculated and intended to cause suffering and deprivation to 1.5 million Palestinians, the vast majority refugees and children, caged into the Gaza Strip. In Gaza, Palestinians died silently, for want of basic medications: insulin, cancer treatment, products for dialysis prohibited from reaching them by Israel."—Ali Abunimah (Electronic Intifada)
Emergency Alert: Take Action to End Israeli Attacks on Gaza
AJJP Press Release: Call to Stop the Bombing in Gaza
Enough of the massacre on Gaza (placard, right). The sign in the background says: Solidarity with the families of Sderot, Ashkelon and Gaza.
Check out our new Trees of Reconciliation project.
The Shministim are Israeli high school seniors—596 of them at the last count—who are taking a strong and principled position against the occupation of Palestine and the oppression of Palestinian citizens of Israel. They are refusing military service in order to focus world attention on the injustice and cruelty of the occupation.
AJJP urges all progressives to show their support now for these courageous young Israelis. Their stand takes courage because they are imprisoned, often in solitary confinement, and often multiple times. Each refusal to serve is treated as a new crime. Some shministim have been imprisoned for up to two years. Four of them are serving repeat prison sentences now for their principled opposition to the Occupation.
New Profile, a group that supports the shministim, is itself under criminal investigation for counseling them. Read the open letter from the shministim here.
CO Tamar Katz refused to wear a military uniform when she returned to Military Prison no. 400 for the third time on 1 Dec., and was therefore placed in the Isolation Ward of the prison.
We now received information that the prison authorities are mistreating Tamar, probably in an attempt to pressure her to wear a uniform against her decision. More specifically, Tamar is not allowed to make phone calls to her family, not allowed to change clothes, and has even been denied the opportunity to wash her teeth.
This calls for some special action to be taken. First and foremost, Tamar herself needs moral support. You can write her messages of encouragement to her prison address:
Tamar Katz Military ID 5396326 Military Prison No. 400 Military Postal Code 02447, IDF Israel Fax: ++972-3-9579389
But please be sure to back them up with messages sent by e-mail to shministim@gmail.com, as other messages will take much longer to arrive and might well be blocked.
Alternatively, you can fax your letter of support for the shministim directly to:
"What You Don’t Know About Gaza "
By Rashid Khalidi View This Article Online
NEARLY everything youve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israels attack on the Gaza Strip.THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948. THE OCCUPATION The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gazas air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. THE BLOCKADE Israels blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation. The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment with the tacit support of the United States of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights. THE CEASE-FIRE Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed. WAR CRIMES The targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel, is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip. This war on the people of Gaza isnt really about rockets. Nor is it about restoring Israels deterrence, as the Israeli press might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, is the author of the forthcoming Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East."
CNN Confirms Israel Broke Ceasefire First
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And there lie the bodies
By Gideon Levy
Tags: israel, gaza, hamas
The legend, lest it be a true story, tells of how the late mathematician, Professor Haim Hanani, asked his students at the Technion to draw up a plan for constructing a pipe to transport blood from Haifa to Eilat. The obedient students did as they were told. Using logarithmic rulers, they sketched the design for a sophisticated pipeline. They meticulously planned its route, taking into account the landscape's topography, the possibility of corrosion, the pipe's diameter and the flow calibration. When they presented their final product, the professor rendered his judgment: You failed. None of you asked why we need such a pipe, whose blood will fill it, and why it is flowing in the first place. Regardless of whether this story is legend or true, Israel is now failing its own blood pipeline test. As Israel has been preoccupied with Gaza throughout the entire week, nobody has asked whose blood is being spilled and why. Everything is permitted, legitimate and just. The moral voice of restraint, if it ever existed, has been left behind. Even if Israel wiped Gaza off the face of the earth, killing tens of thousands in the process, as a Chechnyan laborer working in Sderot proposed to me, one can assume that there would be no protest. They liquidated Nizar Ghayan? Nobody counts the 20 women and children who lost their lives in the same attack. There was a massacre of dozens of officers during their graduation ceremony from the police academy? Acceptable. Five little sisters? Allowed. Palestinians are dying in hospitals that lack medical equipment? Peanuts. Whatever happened to the not-so-good old days of Salah Shahadeh? When we liquidated him in July 2002, we also killed 15 women and children. At least back then, moral qualms were raised for a moment. Here lie their bodies, row upon row, some of them tiny. Our hearts have turned hard and our eyes have become dull. All of Israel has worn military fatigues, uniforms that are opaque and stained with blood and which enable us to carry out any crime. Even our leading intellectuals fail to speak out on what havoc we have wreaked. Amos Oz urges: "Cease-fire now." David Grossman writes: "Hold your fire. Stop." Meir Shalev wants "a punitive operation." And not one word about our moral image, which has been horribly distorted. The suffering in the south renders everything kosher, as if the horrible suffering in Gaza pales in comparison. Everyone is hungry for revenge, and that hunger is excused by the need for "deterrence," after it was already proved that the killing and the destruction in Lebanon did not achieve it. Yes, I know, war is war. After all, they brought this on themselves. They are a terrorist organization and we are not. They want to destroy us and we seek peace. Still, is there nothing here that will stop this blood pipeline? Even those whose hearts are hardened by "moral righteousness" will have to momentarily halt the bombing machine and ask: Which Israel do we have before us? What will become of its standing in the world, which is now watching the events in Gaza? What are we inflicting on the moderate Arab regimes? And what of the simmering popular hatred we are sowing throughout the world? What good will emerge from this killing and destruction? It is doubtful whether Hamas will be cut down to size as a result of this wretched war. Yet, the face of the state has been cut down to size, as have civilian elites who are apathetic and scared. The "peace camp," if it ever existed, has been cut down to size. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz authorized the Ghayan killing, regardless of the cost. Haim Oron, the leader of the "new left-wing movement," supported the launch of this foolish war. Nobody is coming to the rescue - of Gaza or even of the remnants of humanity and Israeli democracy. The statesmen, the jurists, the poets, the authors, academe, and the news media - pitch black over the abyss. When the time comes for reckoning, we will need to remember the damage this war did to Israel: The blood pipeline it laid has been completed.
Venezuela has ordered the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to Caracas in protest at Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.
A number of diplomatic staff have been expelled along with Shlomo Cohen.
President Hugo Chavez has strongly condemned Israel for its actions and called on Israelis to stand up against their government.
Venezuela is the first country to take such a diplomatic step in protest at the violence in Gaza.
"The Israeli army is cowardly attacking worn-out, innocent people, while they claim that they are defending their people," Mr Chavez said during a visit to a children's hospital in Caracas.
"I call on the people of Israel to stand up against that government, to demand, to put a hand on their hearts and look at their children, and I call on the world to stop this madness."
Shortly after, the foreign ministry released a statement ordering the expulsion of Mr Cohen and some of his staff, in what they said was a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.
The BBC's Will Grant in Caracas says Mr Chavez often uses strong language to criticise Israel and is a close ally of Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, one of Israel's main enemies.
Venezuela also has a large Arab community who have welcomed the government's move, our correspondent adds.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate end to fighting in the Gaza Strip during a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York.
The US and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have backed a French-Egyptian ceasefire proposal.
Israel says it has agreed to set up a humanitarian corridor to allow aid into the Gaza Strip.
On the ground in Gaza, explosions were heard through the night. Israel says it carried out more than 30 air strikes.
Mr Ban criticised both Israel for its bombardment of Gaza and Hamas for firing rockets into Israel and urged Security Council members in New York to act "swiftly and decisively to put this crisis to an end".
"We need urgently to achieve Palestinian unity and the reunification of Gaza with the West Bank within the framework of the legitimate Palestinian Authority," he added.
More than 600 Palestinians are now believed to have been killed since Israel began its offensive 11 days ago. Palestinian health ministry officials say at least 195 children are among those killed.
An Israeli attack on Tuesday on a school building, which Israel says was sheltering militants, left at least 30 people dead and 55 injured, UN officials say.
Israel, which has vowed to reduce rocket attacks from Gaza on its territory, has lost seven soldiers on the ground. Four people within Israel have been killed by rockets.
In another development, Venezuela ordered the expulsion of Israel's ambassador in protest at the Gaza offensive and its "flagrant violations of international law".
Support for truce
The ceasefire plan proposed jointly by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and French President Nicolas Sarkozy would bring together all the main parties and take all measures to end the conflict in Gaza.
The plan envisages the resumption of the delivery of aid to Gaza and talks with Israel on border security, a key issue for Israel as it says Hamas smuggles its rockets into Gaza via the Egyptian border.
Welcoming the proposal, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for a "ceasefire that can endure and that can bring real security".
The contours of a possible diplomatic agreement are in place, the BBC's Laura Trevelyan reports from the UN.
However, if Israel continues to control the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and can choose to stop it at any time this seems unlikely to command the support of Hamas, she notes.
Thus frenetic diplomacy in New York and in the Middle East is likely to continue.
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, did not say whether Israel would accept the proposal but said it would take it "very, very seriously".
Israel has proposed suspending attacks in specified parts of Gaza to allow people to stock up on essential goods.
The military will open up "areas for limited periods of time, during which the population will be able to receive the aid", the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said.
Andrew Whitley of the UN relief agency told the BBC that any relief in the conditions of the people of Gaza could only be a good thing:
"People have been weakened by 18 months of blockade and siege. They've been getting very little food, electricity or heat for a long time, and so they are in a very weakened condition."
School carnage
UN officials have said that the al-Fakhura school in the Jabaliya refugee camp was being used as a refuge for hundreds of people when it was hit by Israeli shell-fire.
The Israeli military said its soldiers had come under mortar fire from Hamas militants inside the school. A spokesman for Hamas denied there had been any hostile fire coming from the school.
In all, at least 70 Palestinians and five Israeli soldiers were killed on Tuesday.
Israel says its offensive is stopping militants firing rockets but at least five hit southern Israel on Tuesday, injuring a baby.
Casualty claims in Gaza cannot be independently verified. Israel is refusing to let international journalists into Gaza, despite a supreme court ruling to allow a limited number of reporters to enter the territory."
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YOUR PICTURE GALLERY IS NOW LOADING...
At least 30 people, including children, were killed in an Israeli air strike on a United Nations-run school in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian medical sources.
Many Palestinian families across Gaza have fled their homes for UN-run schools and shelters, as Israel's military operation in Gaza reached its 11th day.
Israeli forces earlier refocused attacks in the Gaza Strip to include the southern town of Khan Younis.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters had engaged Israeli soldiers with machine-guns and rockets in Gaza City, where residents reported loud explosions and heavy gunfire.
Plumes of smoke rose above the territory as Israeli infantry, supported by helicopters and tanks, clashed with Hamas militants.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed by fire from one of their own tanks in northern Gaza early on Tuesday, while at least 70 Palestinians were reportedly killed.
Relatives of an Israeli soldier killed in the Gaza Strip on Monday mourned his loss at his funeral in Jerusalem.
Elsewhere in Jerusalem, Israelis prayed for the well-being of troops fighting in Gaza.
Later, Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah took part in a candlelit vigil in support of Gaza.
Protests against Israel's military offensive continue in many countries around the world, including Syria, where images of Israeli leaders were burnt.
Palestinian medical officials say at least 110 people have died since the ground assault began on Saturday, while Israel says it has killed 130 Hamas fighters.
Aid agencies in Gaza speak of appalling conditions for treating casualties of the continuing Israeli bombardments.
UN condemns attack on Gaza school
John Ging, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, has said the region is 'on the cusp of catastrophe'.
He was speaking after an Israeli air strike killed three Palestinians who were seeking refuge in a school run by the UN just outside Gaza City.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7813762.stm
Parlamento venezolano condena a el estado de Israel por cometer crimines de guerra contra la poblacion de Gaza Palestina
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AP – Palestinian boys inspect the rubble at a building following
Israeli forces' operations in Rafah refugee …
GAZA CITY, Gaza – An Israeli bombardment struck outside a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge on Tuesday, the U.N. and Palestinian medics said, killing at least 30 people — many of them children whose parents wailed in grief at a hospital filled with dead and wounded.
An Israeli official said its soldiers came under fire from militants hiding in the school and that the building stored Palestinian munitions.
Despite international criticism over civilian deaths and calls for a cease-fire, Israeli soldiers edged closer to two major Gaza towns. A total of 58 Palestinians were killed Tuesday — with just two confirmed as militants, health officials in Gaza said.
The explosions marked the second time in hours a U.N. school came under attack. It was the deadliest assault since Israel sent ground forces into Gaza last weekend as part of a larger offensive against the ruling Hamas militant group that has killed nearly 600 Palestinians.
Nearly half of the dead are civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian officials.
"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized," John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza, said after the first strike on the compound of a U.N. school killed three people in a courtyard. The school has served as a shelter for Gaza City refugees fleeing the blistering 11-day offensive.
A Palestinian rocket — one of two dozen fired from Gaza on Tuesday — wounded an Israeli infant.
Dr. Bassam Abu Warda, director of Kamal Radwan Hospital, said 34 people were killed in an Israeli strike outside a second U.N. school in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya. The United Nations confirmed 30 were killed and 55 injured by tank shells.
But an Israeli official said "hostile fire" was directed at the soldiers from within the school. He said soldiers returned fire and multiple explosions went off, presumably emanating from munitions stored there. The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal army announcement.
The attack occurred at midafternoon, at a time when many people in the densely populated Jebaliya refugee camp were out and about. Many of the refugees apparently had stepped outside the shelter to get some air, thinking an area around a school was safe.
Palestinian militants frequently fire from residential areas. However, Mohammed Nassar, a medic who treated the wounded, said he did not see any gunmen among the casualties.
Footage broadcast on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV showed gruesome scenes at the hospital. At first, medics carried in at least five younger boys who were laid out on the hospital floor. It was not clear whether they were still alive.
Other medics then started unloading bodies of older men who had been stacked up in the back of an ambulance, three high, and were dragged without stretchers. One man's legs had been turned into bloody stumps that dragged on the ground as he was pulled from the ambulance.
In later scenes, the emergency room was packed, with all beds occupied and barely a patch of ground where there was not a body or a doctor standing. In other rooms, there were blood stains on the floor and other bodies lying there, with medics running to each of them to take their pulses.
"I saw a lot of women and children wheeled in," said Fares Ghanem, another hospital official. "A lot of the wounded were missing limbs and a lot of the dead were in pieces."
Majed Hamdan, an AP photographer, said he rushed to the scene shortly after the attacks. At the hospital, he said, many children were among the dead.
"I saw women and men — parents — slapping their faces in grief, screaming, some of them collapsed to the floor. They knew their children were dead," he said. "In the morgue, most of the killed appeared to be children. In the hospital, there wasn't enough space for the wounded."
He said there were marks of five separate explosions, all in the same area near the school as the refugees were outside at midday to escape the confines of the crowded building.
U.N. officials say they provided their location coordinates to Israel's army to ensure that their buildings in Gaza are not targeted.
Speaking shortly after the first attack, Maxwell Gaylard, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, demanded an investigation.
"As one of the most densely populated places in the world, it is clear that more civilians will be killed," he said. "These tragic incidents need to be investigated, and if international humanitarian law has been contravened, those responsible must held accountable."
The international Red Cross said an ambulance post was hit as well on Tuesday, injuring one medical worker.
Israel launched its offensive on Dec. 27 to halt repeated Palestinian rocket attacks on its southern towns. After a weeklong air campaign, Israeli ground forces invaded Gaza over the weekend.
Nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed. Ten Israelis have died since the operation began, including a soldier who was shot on Tuesday.
United Nations staff estimate around 15,000 people have fled to 23 U.N.-run schools they have turned into makeshift refuges. U.N. food aid has halted in the northern Gaza Strip because officials fear residents would risk their lives to reach distribution centers.
Tanks rumbled closer to the towns of Khan Younis and Dir el Balah in south and central Gaza but were still several kilometers (miles) outside, witnesses said, adding that the sounds of fighting could be heard from around the new Israeli positions. Israel already has encircled Gaza City, the area's biggest city.
The rising civilian death toll has drawn international condemnations and raised concerns of a looming humanitarian disaster. Many Gazans are without electricity or running water, thousands have been displaced from their homes and residents say that without distribution disrupted, food supplies are running thin.
"This is not a crisis, it's a disaster," said water utility official Munzir Shiblak. "We are not even able to respond to the cry of the people." He said about 800,000 residents in Gaza City and northern parts of the territory had no access to running water from Tuesday. Gaza's overall population is 1.4 million people.
Israel says it won't stop the assault until its southern towns are freed of the threat of Palestinian rocket fire and it receives international guarantees that Hamas, a militant group backed by Iran and Syria, will not restock its weapons stockpile. It blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, saying the group intentionally seeks cover in crowded residential areas.
Visiting southern Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he hoped to stop the offensive soon, but said it would depend on Hamas' willingness to stop attacks and stop its smuggling of weapons into Gaza from neighboring Egypt.
"We have no interest in endlessly continuing the campaign. It will stop when the conditions that are essential for Israel's security are met," he said in the rocket-scarred town of Sderot.
The army says it has dealt a harsh blow to Hamas, killing 130 militants in the past two days and greatly reducing the rocket fire. Hamas is believed to have 20,000 fighters.
Israeli forces have seized the main Gaza highway in several places, cutting the strip into northern, southern and central sectors and preventing movement between them. Israel also has taken over high-rise buildings in Gaza City and destroyed dozens of smuggling tunnels — Hamas' main lifeline — along the Egyptian border.
Late Monday, a paratroop officer and three Israeli infantrymen were killed in two separate friendly fire incidents, the military said. Heavy Israeli casualties could threaten to undermine what so far has been wide public support for the operation.
A high-level European Union delegation met with President Shimon Peres on Tuesday in a futile bid to end the violence. Commissioner Benita Ferraro-Waldner acknowledged Israel's right to self-defense, but said its response was disproportionate.
"We have come to Israel in order to advance the initiative for a humanitarian cease-fire and I will tell you, Mr. President, that you have a serious problem with international advocacy, and that Israel's image is being destroyed," she said, according to a statement from Peres' office.
In Geneva, the international Red Cross said Gaza was in a "full-blown" humanitarian crisis. Its head of operations, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, said the few remaining power supplies could collapse at any moment.
Israeli leaders say there is no humanitarian crisis and that they have allowed the delivery of vital supplies.
The EU delegation was one of a flurry of diplomatic efforts to forge a cease-fire. French President Nicolas Sarkozy left Israel after a day of meetings with leaders.
Europe "wants a cease-fire as quickly as possible," Sarkozy said Monday, urging Israel to halt the offensive, while blaming Hamas for acting "irresponsibly and unpardonably."
International Mideast envoy Tony Blair said ensuring weapons smuggling to Hamas is halted would be a key step to restoring calm.
Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Blair said that stopping Hamas' rocket supply would be a "very significant advance in terms of Israel's security," which would allow Israel to halt its offensive and relieve the suffering of Gaza's civilians.
He would not give details of an international proposal to stop the flow of weapons into Gaza from Egypt.
Israel's operation has angered many across the Arab world and has drawn criticism from countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, which have ties with Israel and have been intimately involved in Mideast peacemaking.
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Barzak reported from Gaza City, Weizman from Jerusalem.
