Few quotes:

"The violence in Gaza is the result of Hamas' decision to launch rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and Israel has a right to defend itself."
- Obama

"I deplore and condemn the Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, including the city of Ashkelon. Israel has the right to defend its citizens."
- Clinton

"Better to die on one's feet than live on one's knees"
- Dolores Ibárruri

seized = democratically elected

Don't forget the US coup attempt that began it all.

Oh, Condi didn't tell them?

Crap! People are starving in Gaza and this wretched nonentity Rice is maundering about starting road-to-nowhere "peace" talks. Actually, it's "piece" talks, designed to keep the world distracted as Israel finished its absorption of Palestine.

The Jewish occupiers of Gaza were killing Palestinean children for two decades before Hamas was even formed. Didn't the Bush/Clinton Iraqi child killing sanctions copy Israel? A million dead here, a million dead there and soon it's a real Holocaust.

Alas, what goes around comes around: (Aljazeera)

"At least eight people have been killed and 35 more wounded in a shootout at a Jewish school in west Jerusalem.

Agencies quoted witnesses as saying that two armed men entered the yeshiva, or religious school, and opened fire on Thursday.

The seminary is located in the Kyriat Moshe neighbourhood.

According to witnesses, the armed men entered a dining hall where about 80 people were gathered, and opened fire.

The school is a well-known centre of Jewish studies linked with those leading the Jewish settler movement in the occupied West Bank."

I am disgusted with the Palestinian reaction to the murder of the Jewish Seminary students. Mass celebrations and handing out candy to children is just plain sick. It is counterproductive to what they are trying to do, and I am thinking of washing my hands of the whole business.

This American Girl spoke with Gus in Gaza on Superbowl Sunday

This civilian journalist phonesd Gus, a civil engineer in Gaza every week to hear what the people in the street are saying.

I spoke to him the first time Super Bowl weekend.

I am in Florida and Gus speaks to me on his cell phone in Gaza by candlelight.

"The Israelis tell the media they are letting electricity in, but it's not true. Although, today was a big day, we had electricity for six hours; it's been only two or three hours a day that we have been having electric. It's hardest on the children, and they are all afraid in the dark. All they have is candle lights and they all worry if the Israelis are going to start the bombing again."

Gus has worked as a Civil Engineer in Gaza for the last ten years, but since Hamas was democratically elected in 2006, he has been forced to not report to his job if he wants to feed his family.

"The Abbas government in Ramallah pays us to stay home. If we go into work, they will cut our salary and prices keep going up, the black market is taking over. Flour, sugar and beans have gone up 35% and there is never enough petrol. It's been freezing last five days and all we have is charcoal and we burn old shoes for warmth.

"The only ones who are going into work are in the Ministries of Health and education. Hamas pays them with assistance from charities and individual support. Doctors make less than $1,000.00 a month and teachers around $300.00. Minimum wage is $200.00 and there is not much work anyway; just clerks and low level positions. Our infrastructure is hell and everyone is upset and angry, but not at Hamas.

"We have been living under siege for two years now. We live like primitives in third world conditions, like in Africa. The International world needs to understand we are human beings under siege and all we want is what every human being wants; we want to have dreams, but Gaza is a nightmare."

I phoned Gus back on Super Bowl Sunday and he told me, "Today was our lucky day; we had electric for twelve hours! But a five minute walk away and they only had it for four hours today.

"The Ministry of Power is paid by Hamas, but Israel never allows enough gas and supplies in to keep up the maintenance. Our infrastructures are bankrupt and Israel allows barely a trickle of gas into Gaza a day."

The Palestine Chronicle ran an article today By Ola Attallah

GAZA CITY - The Israeli lethal attacks against Gaza – described as a "Holocaust" by a top Israeli army official - killed as many as toddlers and innocent civilians, and turned the tiny territory into a moonscape with destroyed homes and scorched earth; but it breathed life into long-dormant unity between the rival brothers Hamas and Fatah.

"Grief has united us all," Kamal, a Fatah member, told IslamOnline.net Wednesday, March 5.

"Aren't we brothers? It is a duty not a favor to solace one another in such hard times. My heart breaks for my (Hamas) neighbor," said Kamal, his eyes red and brimming with pain.

__________________________________

excerpt WAWA blog March 7, 2008:

119 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians and 982 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis since September 29, 2000.

1,031 Israelis and at least 4,528 Palestinians have been killed since September 29, 2000.

6,845 Israelis and 31,815 Palestinians have been injured since September 29, 2000.

During Fiscal Year 2007, the U.S. gave more than $6.8 million per day to Israel and $0.3 million per day to the Palestinians.

Israel has been targeted by at least 65 UN resolutions and the Palestinians have been targeted by none.

1 Israeli is being held prisoner by Palestinians, while 10,756 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel.

0 Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians and 18,147 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967

The Israeli unemployment rate is 9%, while the Palestinian unemployment is estimated at 40%.

Israel currently has 223 Jewish-only settlements and 'outposts' built on confiscated Palestinian land. Palestinians do not have any settlements on Israeli land. [3]

On June 20, 2007, the AP in Dublin reported on Ireland's eighth annual Forum on Human Rights where Nobel Peace Prize laureate President Jimmy Carter stated, "The Bush administration's refusal to accept the 2006 election victory of Hamas was "criminal" and that Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate should have been entitled to lead the Palestinian government.

When Hamas fighters routed Fatah in a violent takeover of the Gaza Strip that preceding week, the split prompted Abbas to dissolve the power-sharing government with his rivals in Hamasand set up a Fatah-led administration to govern the West Bank. Carter comprehended that the American-Israeli-European consensus to reopen direct aid to the new government in the West Bank, but to deny the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, represented an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples."

Empires throughout history have always used the very same tactic.

Carter also observed the 2006 election in which Hamas won 42 percent of the popular vote and a majority of parliamentary seats and affirmed that the election was "orderly and fair" and that Hamas triumphed, because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas Fatah was divided and corrupt and ran multiple candidates for single seats.

Carter also said the US and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas in order to assist Abbas in keeping the reins of political and military power and, "That action was criminal. The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah."

Carter also said, that the United States and others supplied the Fatah-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would "conquer Hamas in Gaza… [and that] this effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples was a step in the wrong direction. All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there was no effort from the outside to bring the two together.

On June 20, 2007, Omar Barghouti wrote: "When I saw some of the images coming out of the infighting in Gaza last week, I suppressed my anguish and steaming anger, recalling the wise, almost prophetic, words of the great Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, who wrote, 'The central problem is this: How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation?...The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization.'

"There is no doubt that a faction within Fatah -- overtly funded, trained and steered by the US and Israel -- is the primary suspect behind the flare-up of this bloody internecine strife, which many observers view as a thinly veiled attempt to destabilize Hamas's democratically-elected government, coercing it into accepting Israeli dictates that it had so far balked from.

"While the corruption, lawlessness, profiteering and even betrayal of sections of Fatah have been known and well documented for some time now, the brutal, reckless and in some cases criminal tactics used by armed groups within Hamas were fresh reminders to neutral bystanders who were willing to give the group the benefit of the doubt that it, too, contains a strong, power-hungry faction that is eager to sacrifice principles and human rights to reach its political objectives. Hamas cannot be exonerated from the accusation that, by participating in the legislative and municipal elections according to laws and parameters set by the Oslo agreements, it has already contributed to legitimizing the products of those agreements and forsaken its claim to being a resistance movement that is primarily dedicated to realizing the main tenets of the Palestinian national program of liberation and self-determination...

"In the short term, the political vacuum that will inevitably result from the growing rift between Ramallah and Gaza and the steady collapse of the PA structures and remaining authority on the ground is most likely to be filled by an all-out Israeli reoccupation of the entire West Bank and Gaza. This would announce the official death of the so-called Oslo peace process, which actually collapsed long ago under the weight of Israel's incessantly expanding colonies, apartheid wall -- declared illegal by the International Court of Justice -- and intricate apparatus of oppression and humiliation of the Palestinians under its control." [4]

Whether Rose is guilty of any "bad bad journalism" [Bill O'Reilly] and Dahlan is just trying to cover his ass, Carter's and Barghouti's voice were not the only ones raised before the leaked "End of Mission Report" by UN Middle East envoy, Alvaro de Soto came out.

After 25 years at the UN, Alvaro de Soto, stepped down after he exposed American pressure that he argued damaged the impartiality of the UN's peace making efforts. In Mr de Soto's "End of Mission Report", he delivered a devastating criticism of both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the international community.

"The Quartet of Middle East negotiators - the UN, the US, the EU and Russia - has often failed to hold Israel to its obligations under the Road Map, the current framework for peace talks, he argues. Over the past two years, the Quartet has gradually lost its impartiality. "The fact is that even-handedness has been pummeled into submission in an unprecedented way since the beginning of 2007," he writes. [5]

He blamed overwhelming influence exerted by the US and an "ensuing tendency toward self-censorship" within the UN when it came to criticism of Israel.

"At almost every juncture a premium is put on good relations with the US and improving the UN's relationship with Israel. I have no problem with either goal but I do have a problem with self-delusion," he writes. "Forgetting our ability to influence the Palestinian scene in the hope that it keeps open doors to Israel is to trade our Ace for a Joker."[IBID]

De Soto revealed that after Hamas was democratically elected in 2006, it sought to form a broad coalition government with moderate rivals, including Fatah. But the US discouraged this.

De Soto wrote, "We were told that the US was against any 'blurring' of the line dividing Hamas from those Palestinian political forces committed to the two-state solution…There is a seeming reflex, in any given situation where the UN is to take a position, to ask first how Israel or Washington will react rather than what is the right position to take."[IBID]

De Soto opposed the international boycott placed on the Palestinian government after Hamas was democratically elected and argued that it was wrong to use pressure and isolation alone, and proposed an open dialogue with Hamas as equals in the process towards peace which requires justice; equal human rights for all and that all states and nations would uphold international law.

But, what he came up against was a "heavy barrage" from US officials.

The boycott of Hamas and the siege and blockade of Gaza resulted in gravely serious damage to the Palestinian economy and has resulted in promoting militant radicalism, for hopeless people will vent their frustrations and violence is the way chosen by of the most hopeless.

Clear thinking people condemn all violence as they also comprehend that USA and Israeli policies have fueled the flames of Palestinian militancy. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth violent retaliation only begets more violence and the USA and Israeli politicians need to wake up and realize that, season after season, they are reaping what they indeed sow, for they are the ones arrogantly and systematically perpetuating the violence and repression cycle to the point of self-propel.

ONLY by seeing the other as a human being who desires what every human being has a RIGHT to; for it is self evident to right thinking people "That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it." -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence

Gaza is less than 6 percent of the occupied territories, and 94 percent of the Palestinian territories are under the boot of the Israeli Occupying Forces and the ethnocracy of Israel is aided and abetted by America's blind allegiance and tax dollars.

This civilian journalist wonders what's it going to take to wake up the international community to the facts on the ground that the corruption in the PA government and hot tempers from those under occupation are a powder keg that's getting ready to blow up.

This civilian journalist wonders what it is going to take to wake the world up to the fact that most of our problems with radical Islamist fundamentalist militants lead us back to the conflict in Israel and Palestine and all Americans should be inflamed at the silence of the presidential candidates and corporate media on this topic!

All roads do indeed lead to Jerusalem and as a woman of hope [-but not in my USA elected officials-] I contend that the International Community [-if only they get their act together!] and insist in unity to the upholding of the gold standard of international law as the rule of law all we the people of the world honor and uphold; will we ever change the world as we now know it; into a world of sister and brotherhood.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Law [and the Sermon on the Mount!] are the way to lead our dysfunctional world to the reconciliation of all nations and states.

This civilian journalist hopes and prays that the misery inflicted upon our sisters and brothers in Israel and Palestine- the so called Holy Land- the cradle of civilization will indeed begat the birth pangs of a new Middle East; a new America, and a new world, and Common Sense tells us that "the world is [our] country, all mankind are [our] brethren, and to do good [should be our] religion."-Tom Paine

Blind allegiance to the Israeli government has allowed America's 'best friend' in the world to become a big bully and if we truly love our friend we will rise up and tell our friend they have crossed the line of common sense and the time is now to WAKE UP and reconcile with the 'enemy' for only then do we 'have it in our power to begin the world again."-Tom Paine

This civilian journalist reiterates and persists to contends in a slight paraphrase of Mahatma Gandhi, what difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, the refugees, the homeless, the voiceless the occupied and oppressed whether the mad violent destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism, Islam, Zionism, Christianity or the holy name of security and democracy?

e/WAWA
http://www.wearewideawake.org/

bligh2: So many Palestinians have been killed lately that the Palestinian reaction was perfectly natural. With 8 dead here, plus 1 in a rocket attack and 2 in the IDF, the recent kill ratio is merely reduced to about 10, instead of 30 or 40. Many Israelis cheer on the deliberate killing of Palestinian civilians, too.

As best I can tell at this point, all the victims were suspected militants, even if they were not on active duty at the time.

Some claim Israel kills to defend itself. That does not explain why Egypt and Jordan have killed so many Israelis in the years since the peace treaty.

What I don't get about this is Egypt. Egypt borders Gaza on the south. Yet somehow, I guess they acquiesced to Isreal, it's a sealed border too. When Hamas blew a hole in the barrier, Egypt jumped to do Isreal's bidding and reseal the border. People should think about what kind of leader this makes Mubarak.

"That does not explain why Egypt and Jordan have killed so many Israelis in the years since the peace treaty."

To translate to geography, history and sarcasm-challenged US readers. GDE is saying that Arabs really do respect treaties if negotiated in good faith. So, the best "self defense" would be for Israel would to cut an honest deal with the Palestinians.

I'm inclined to agree with this assessment. But then again, Israel never built permanent settlements full of Zionist zealots on other peoples land in Egypt or Jordan. So being honest would be more costly this time So, for now, Israel prefers the current state of affairs to negotiating - after all, it is the Palestinians who are doing 90% of the dying, and no one is coming to their aid.

Maybe it's my Irish ancestry, but never have I seen more morally compelling struggle for liberation than that of the Palestinians. With St. Patrick's day coming up, when everyone in the US becomes Irish for a day, I remind everyone that the Irish Republicans in the 1919-21 used many the same "terrorist" tactics the Palestinians use.

Has anyone else ever wondered how it came to pass that Israel controls what, and who, goes into and out of Gaza? Meanwhile, if all those rockets Israel claims are being fired at it, Israel must be suppling them. How could truck loads of rockets be smuggled through check points, or, over the fence/wall that are being monitored 24/7?

Maybe Cowardly Terrorists Should Not Hide In Seminaries.

Khiam.

What I've read in theses comments:
1. The unarmed Jewish seminary students were cowardly terrorists.
2. Egypt and Jordan, both of whom broadcast plenty of anti-Jew and anti-Israel speech, are wonderful partners in peace who can be totally trusted.
3. Israel gives Hamas rockets to fire at Israel.
4. Palestinians cheering in the streets at the deaths of civilians is totally understandable.

Why is it that, when Israel withdraws and makes steps towards peace, the Palestinians push for more war? We saw it in Lebanon. We're seeing it in Gaza.

The Middle Road

Lebanon? In one month the Nazi "jewish state" murdered 18,000 human beings. 18,000. Butchers. Machine gunning children. 600 murders a day for 30 days for one month alone.

Lebanon. It got Sharon indicted by the Hague as a war criminal I believe.

Would this be an example of an "israei step for peace" in Lebanon?

How about that Israeli Child Torture Center, Khiam? In Mother Israel (Palestine).

I saw a video yesterday of IDF torturers (soldiers) holding two Palestinian prisoners down and breaking all the bones in their shoulders, calmly, sadists in a field under the sun.

SadistsSadistsSadists. PeligroPuta.

With all respect to all that have been written here defending the Palestinians rights to freedom, and condemning the state terrorism of Israel, then what?

Does it help them in anyway?

Is it just a way to slightly diffuse our anger over what's happening there, and moreover our anger over our inability to do anything to change the situation?

People who comment here are one of two: one who is completely aware of the situation despite all the propaganda of/for Israel, or one who tells lies to anger those who can see the truth and destructively drains their energy. So is there any benefit from us commenting here except assuring each other that we are not alone and that some others are beginning to see the truth?

I'm not trying to be disrespectful or discouraging, but I'm hoping we can do more. I have to admit that internet sites like Commondreams have done a great job to open the eyes of those who were previously bombarded by the lies delivered by mainstream media. But I keep asking what can we as individuals do to help those who are in need of more than our words to each other?

Any suggestions?

Do we need to talk to our children about what's happening? talk to our friends and neighbors? How do we approach them just to let them look or listen and eventually use their own minds to judge?

Do we need to plan community events where we include the Palestinian suffering?

Could we press our governments in any way possible?

I'm still hopeful

Aushwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, and Gaza! The Israelis have instituted the Final Solution.

Hopeful despite,

Good post, yes the children must be told and you must be vigilant about the " education " your children are getting. Most children are brainwashed in any country in this world of ours and the by-product is hostility.

I first went to school in 1934 and in every classroom there was a map of the world with all our colonies and possessions in pink. If a teacher saw you studying it s/he would announce with great pride " we own 2/3 of the world, every country in pink is a member of the British empire. Most of the people of Britain were living in poverty, my family was and so were all my friends, just like many Americans today.

Churchill, was made a hero by WW2 when in fact he was nothing of the sort he was just another warmonger, one of the ruling class who love war because in wartime any democracy we had is taken away " for the war effort ", just like America today.

Keep pounding it into your children's minds, WAR IS FOR YOUR ENIMIES PROFIT, And YOUR DEMISE. If all the worlds children were taught that and every religious establishment was turned into something useful then everybody should be happy except of course for the psychopaths.

Don't believe for a second the Holocaust rubbish, there were no Jews gassed it was a bigger hoax than 9/11. Why is it there are so many survivors, most were children who were kept alive by there elders by giving them their food a consequence of which was malnutrition and death.

Ask any Dutchman how they also starved, or ask me how we managed on a bowl of porridge and a jam sandwich a day. This is the reality of war and conflict, the poor suffer and the rich and famous gain more power.

pistonbroke,

Exactly! (to your 9:38 comment, not your 9:54 comment)

"I don't understand this squeamishness about using poisoned gas on savage Arabs" - Churchill (approx.)

No war but the class-war!

And the struggle of the Palestinians is, most decidedly, a class-war.

There is a horrific rumor circulating on the messageboards, that the gunmen were actually Israeli, and they did this so they would have an excuse to wipe-out Gaza.
This was staged; people are saying.

Hopeful; Hello. There is a simple solution.

A Palestinian home-land. A viable state. Where Palestinians can live unmolested.
Like they did for FIFTY generations before the ZioNazi murderers came.

Then there would be peace. But the shrill Zio-Scum don't really want this. Ergo Gaza, Khiam, Bombin Children, Lebanon, Illegal Settlements, Illegal detentions, Assassinations etc...For 60 years without end.

Viva La Palestine!

Mike Peters

I know there is a simple and just solution, but how can you, me and others make it happen?