Gaza deaths mount as Israel intensifies military attacks

A wounded man is transported to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City following an Israeli air strike targeting the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, killing an infant, 27 February 2008.

“The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) intensified their indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets in the Gaza Strip. Yesterday night and this morning saw intensive air strikes, six of which targeted government buildings and industrial and commercial facilities. As a result, eight persons were killed, including a four-month-old infant, and numerous homes were damaged…”

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9344.shtml

Ali Abunimah: Kosovo and the question of Palestine

No peace with partition. (Nidal El-Khairy)

“Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence has produced a range of reactions among Israeli and Palestinian observers that reveal their anxieties about their respective situations.

An editorial in the Israeli daily Haaretz called on the Israeli government to immediately recognize Kosovo, arguing that “the struggle of the persecuted Kosovar people for independence is reminiscent of the struggles by other nations for the right of self-determination.” Of course Haaretz was not talking about the Palestinians, but about the “State of Israel, which was established in the wake of the Jewish people’s struggle for self-determination” (“Recognize Kosovo,” Haaretz, 18 February 2008).

By identifying Israel with the supposed underdog, ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Haaretz implicitly recognizes that there are indeed some striking similarities though not ones it would acknowledge…”

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9328.shtml

Gaza Diary: Sewage on our doorstep

” …Sewage water is filling the streets surrounding the station and flooding nearby houses.The stench is unbearable.

Tenants in ground floor flats were forced to move in with neighbours on higher floors. People are now using sand bags to absorb the sewage water which continues to seep into their houses.

The amount of children who have been taken ill has increased considerably. Cases of diarrhea are mounting by the day. Even now, children continue to play outside amongst the raw sewage – where else can they go?

And we are now facing a public health crisis.

What disgusts me is that this could all have been prevented had the Israelis opened one checkpoint to allow the spare parts and fuel through… ”

–By Manal, a humanitarian worker working in partnership with Oxfam.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/411A0179-2AFD-4038-9C40-D2280FCCA800.htmA800.htmA800.htm

Book Review: Jonathan Cook’s “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations”

“…Introducing his topic, Cook begins with Iraq and states upfront that “civil war and partition were the intended outcomes of invasion.” Separation and conflict were planned, they serve America’s interests, they’re not haphazard post-invasion events, and they originated far from Washington.

From the early 1980s, it was Israeli policy to subdue the Palestinians, fragment Arab rivals, and foster ethnic and religious discord to maintain unchallengeable regional dominance. Bush administration neocons chose the same strategy. Like Israel, they want to neutralize the region through division and separation and make it work even though prior to invading Iraq, Sunni and Shia neighborhoods were indistinguishable, and the country had the highest intermarriage rate in the region…”

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2008/020408Lendman.shtml

Haaretz: The specter of renewed Israel-Hezbollah fighting

Haaretz: “Tensions are growing in Lebanon over the possibility of renewed fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in the wake of the assassination of terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyah in Damascus last week…”

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/955583.html 

JERUSALEM ON THE MONOPOLY BOARD

“You can, if you wish, have your say over Jerusalem.

Monopoly boards traditionally show properties within a single city

The manufacturers of Monopoly (which, they claim, is the best-selling board game in the world) are holding an online poll to decide which cities should be in their forthcoming ‘World Edition’ of the game.

As of 18 February, ‘Jerusalem, Israel’ was fifth on the leader board, sandwiched between ‘Riga, Latvia’ and ‘Paris, France’…”

–The BBC’s Tim Franks in Jerusalem Diary, Monday 18 February:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7250326.stm

David Morrison of The Electronic Intifada: How the EU helps Israel to strangle Gaza

“How is Israel able to strangle the Gaza Strip when there is supposed to be an international crossing between Gaza and Egypt not controlled by Israelis?

Certainly, free movement was the promise held out in the comprehensive Agreement on Movement and Access, signed more than two years ago by Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). The first of the six components of this agreement was that there would be a crossing between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah, controlled by the PA and Egypt. At the time, this was hailed as an historic step on the road to a Palestinian state — for the first time, it was said, Palestinians would have access to the outside world free from Israeli control.

So, how was Israel still able to impose a suffocating blockade on the Strip, home to almost 1.5 million Palestinians, eighty percent of them refugees?… ”

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9303.shtml

Saree Makdisi: Starving Gaza

“According to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, these rockets have killed thirteen Israelis in the past four years, while Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the occupied territories in the past two years alone, almost half of them civilians, including some 200 children… “

–Saree Makdisi writing in The Nation on the allegation that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is justified by Palestinian rocket attacks.

Click here to read the article…

Gaza Petition

“Please sign this petition to show your solidarity in opposition to the collective punishment of the civilians in Gaza during the ongoing siege. Your petition will be sent to California Senators Barbara Boxer & Dianne Feinstein to urge them to take action against this violation of international law… ”

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/appeal-for-human-rights-in-gaza.html

The Candidates on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Predictably conservative analysis from the Council on Foreign Relations, but still valuable information for voters.

“With some notable exceptions, candidates of both major U.S. parties put forth similar views on the conflict, stressing their commitment to defending Israel’s right to exist and calling on the Palestinian leadership and extragovernmental factions to renounce terrorism. But beyond rhetoric, each candidate faces a similar challenge: crafting a position which balances the historic U.S. alliance with Israel against the widely recognized need to press Israel to agree an equitable peace with the Palestinians. Most—though not all—accept the notion that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict animates other conflicts far from the Holy Land…”

http://www.cfr.org/publication/14756/candidates_on_the_israelipalestinian_conflict.html#238