Desertpeace

Refugees Are The Key

Israel should admit its historical responsibility to the Palestinian people and recognize the rights of the refugees.

by SAM BAHOUR

Palestine, November 27, 2006–The Bush Administration’s insistence that the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority recognize Israel’s existence may seek to achieve a moderate Palestinian leadership to enable a peaceful political process between the sides, but what about Israeli leadership and moderation?

For five months Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip have been subjected to an incessant Israeli military campaign that has left over 500 Palestinians dead. While the provocation of Palestinian crude rocket attacks from Gaza into Israeli towns is well cited in US media, much less emphasized is the fact that most residents of Gaza are refugees from inside what is now Israel. These refugees, along with their brethren in other parts of the region, have been denied their basic human rights solely on the grounds of their ethnicity since their displacement nearly 60 years ago. If American officials really want to advance the peace process, they should apply equal pressure to Israel to recognize Palestinian rights, starting with the refugees.

The Palestinian refugees symbolize the long-standing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The refugee problem has its roots in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which ended in the mass displacement of over 750,000 Palestinian Arabs (approximately half of the Arab population). According to historical accounts of the War, including from recent Israeli historians, Jewish Zionist forces precipitated the flight of the Palestinian Arabs as part of a campaign of population transfer. The nascent State of Israel subsequently enacted laws to expropriate the refugees’ property and bar their return. The refugees were left homeless and destitute, mostly dependent on foreign aid for survival. The subsequent Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip resulted in the further displacement of around 200,000 Palestinians.

Today there are over 5.5 million Palestinian refugees and displaced persons who have never been allowed the choice to return to their homes or given redress for their losses. The continued denial of their rights encapsulates the decades-long strife, disenfranchisement and dispossession the Palestinians have suffered.

With the advent of the peace process in the early 1990s, hopes were ignited that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip would end and the plight of the refugees would be resolved. These hopes were dashed as the negotiations reached an eventual deadlock, leading to a stalemate and Israeli military onslaught on Palestinian areas that continues to plague the region.

Following the breakdown of the talks, there was much debate about who was to blame for the failure. But this debate obscures the larger problem stoking the flames of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians: Israel’s unwillingness to comply with rules of international laws, including the rights of the Palestinian refugees, and third party failure to enforce them.

Taking the Palestinian refugee issue as a case in point, the State of Israel, who controls the key to solving their problem, has refused to recognize the right of the refugees to choose whether to return to their homes and denied any responsibility for the problem since 1948. Israel has adopted this position in violation of international law, including UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which affirmed the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes or receive compensation. The General Assembly has affirmed this most basic human right of the Palestinian refugees every year since 1948. Additionally, admission of Israel to membership in the United Nations (General Assembly Resolution 273 of May 11, 1949) requires Israel to comply with General Assembly Resolution 194 of December 11, 1948. At the time, Israel stated it agreed to comply with this resolution.

Israel has defended its refusal to concede the right of return on the grounds that the massive return of Palestinian refugees would spell the death of the Jewish state. But admitting its historical responsibility to the Palestinian people and recognizing the rights of the refugees could in fact deliver security and prosperity to Israel. Indeed, Israeli recognition of these basic principles would improve the atmosphere on the ground, help create more parity between the parties, and provide a fair framework for working out the details of a peace plan for resolving the conflict.

Israel’s first Prime Minister said that “the old [refugees] will die, and the young will forget.” A few days ago, Israel’s current Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, explicitly stated that Palestinians must “relinquish your demand for the realization of the right of return.” Following these ill- fated desires, Israel has sought to deny or delay addressing the refugee issue. However, the amount of bloodshed since 1948 proves the fallacy and the immorality of the Israeli position. Adhering to it will only lead to more bloodshed.

The rights of the Palestinian people, and in particular the refugees, should be recognized alongside any legitimate rights of the Israeli people. Ultimately, it is through the evenhanded application of international legitimacy that we may be able to get out of the current stalemate and reach real grounds for peace. Otherwise, the failed Israeli practice of “might is right” will prevail and prolong needless death and destruction on all sides.

The writer is a Palestinian-American businessman living in the besieged Palestinian City of El-Bireh in the West Bank. He co-edited with Staughton and Alice Lynd HOMELAND: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians (1994) and can be reached at sbahour@palnet.com.

Copyright © 2006 The Baltimore Chronicle. All rights reserved.

The new Museum of Tolerance currently being built in Jerusalem has become one of the greatest examples of intolerance. Early in the excavation stage it was discovered that the site slated for construction was at one time used as the Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem. The Islamic movement appealed to the Supreme court requesting that an alternative site be found on the religious grounds that it was forbidden by Islamic Law to move the graves in question….
But, we are talking about Muslim graves, not Jewish ones… we are talking about the building of a Tolerance Museum…. in reality we are talking about just another example of why zionism is a racist ideology.
The following article from HaAretz talks about the case in question…

Islamic Movement rejects J’lem museum’s plan to transfer Muslim graves By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
The Islamic Movement on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it has rejected recommendations to move Muslim graves from the Jerusalem construction site slated to hold the new Museum of Tolerance.

The museum is to be constructed in the Mamila neighborhood of Jerusalem, where a number of Muslim graves were recently found. The museum’s management recommended to the organization that it move the graves to a nearby cemetery, and volunteered to finance the renovations.

An Islamic Movement statement said the options presented are “against Islamic law” and constitute a “continuation of the violation of the sanctity of the graves.”

The Supreme Court must rule on the petition presented by the movement against further excavations carried out at the site.

The site chosen for the museum, in central Jerusalem, served for decades as a public parking lot.

In recent years it was allocated to the city of Jerusalem for the construction of the Museum of Tolerance, and excavations have recently begun.

The graves were discovered after the upper layer of asphalt was removed, indicating that the area was once used as the Muslim cemetery of Mamila.

The Islamic Movement’s Northern Branch and family members of those buried in the area, appealed to the High Court of Justice to stop the excavations. The court subsequently issued an interim order to stop the digging.

The museum management claims that it followed all of the legal processes demanded of it, and as such there is no reason to suspend the excavations.

Instead, it offered the Islamic Movement a number of alternatives, including transferring the graves to a nearby cemetery.

An additional recommendation included a change in the museum structure, and lowering the graves into underground cavities.

Sources close to the museum administration have said in the past that in similar situations throughout history, Muslim clerics have authorized the transfer of graves.

Beit Hanoun was attacked by the Israelis. Beit Hanoun buried over 80 of its redidents in the past two weeks. where does Israel get the impression that they are prepared to let this happen again without putting up a fight? In the real world, things just don’t work that way..

So…. Beit Hanoun is fighting back. Israel has to realise that when it attacks a village and kills so many people in such a short period of time… then kills an entire family two days later that this is a declaration of war. In war there are retaliations. In war there are casualties. There are ways to avoid these issues… one would be for Israel to withdraw it forces immediately from Gaza.

ISRAEL MUST END THE SIEGE NOW!

ISRAEL MUST ALLOW PALESTINIANS TO BUILD THEIR NATION NOW!

Below is an excerp about the attack on Israeli troops… the entire story can be read here…

Soldier moderately hurt by antitank missile

Palestinian fire missile at building in Beit Hanoun. Residents in Gaza Strip town tell Ynet exchanges of fire taking place in area; several Palestinians wounded

Hanan Greenberg Published: 11.22.06, 10:41

A Givati fighter was moderately inured Wednesday morning in the Beit Hanoun area after Palestinians fired an antitank missile at a building where the soldiers were staying. The soldier was rushed to the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva.

Several incidents took place throughout the morning in which terrorists fired antitank missiles at building where soldiers were staying. Shots were also fired at the forces from small-arms.

THIS AP report on CNN is also worth reading… Heaven only knows why the Israelis think Gazans will just sit by waiting for another onslaught… What gives Israel the right to attack in ‘self-defense’… and why don’t Palestinians have that same right?

As what could only be seen as a positive move for the forces of peace in this region, Olmert’s visit to the States has created a gap between American and Israeli Jewery. Hopefully this will be expressed by less donations coming in for Israel’s war efforts. AIPAC has been the constant supporter of Israel’s ‘blood letting industry’… without which Israel just might have to rethink it’s policies. One always has to please those who ‘put the butter on your bread’. With Bush obviously losing favour among the American voter and Olmert losing favour among the Amercan Jews, perhaps the tide will change and JUST CAUSES will be the recipients and benefactors… we can hope….
Below are two articles from the Forward, America’s ‘sorta’ left Jewish newspaper. They seem pretty objective and offer some hope..
The first is an editorial… the second is just an excerp.
Both can be seen HERE.

A Surreal Visit
Fri. Nov 17, 2006
A visit by Israel’s leader is traditionally a festive time for American Jews. Going back to the days of David Ben-Gurion, such visits are a chance for members of the community to turn out en masse, show their solidarity with the world’s only Jewish state and applaud its elected chief. Topping it off, the prime minister’s visit to the White House, with its obligatory declarations of eternal friendship between the two nations, lets ordinary Jews bask in the reflected glow, secure in the knowledge that their two loyalties truly are one. For all those reasons, we salute Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, welcome him to our home and wish him a safe return journey.

It can’t go unremarked, however, that this week’s encounter was not like past visits. It came at a time of extraordinary turmoil — for Olmert and President Bush, both wounded politicians on their home fronts, and for their nations in the global arena. Olmert has led Israel into a series of military blunders in the past half-year that have left his country weakened, its military humiliated and its citizenry despondent. As for Bush, his isolation on the world stage became complete last week when his own citizens decisively repudiated his leadership. Their chat in the Oval Office might as well have taken place over beers in a saloon.
What they hoped to accomplish by meeting was no secret. Olmert was aiming to boost his abysmal standing at home by appearing alongside the world’s most powerful man. Bush was looking to escape his political misery, if only for a moment, by standing in the Rose Garden with a popular foreign leader who would show him the respect befitting the leader of the Free World. What they got was the opposite. Standing together, each highlighted the other’s weakness.

For American Jews, this was one visit by an Israeli prime minister that drove home the distance between the two great Jewish communities, not their closeness. Watching the leader of the Jewish state shower affection on our president just days after Bush’s decisive “thumping” from his voters — and no group “thumped” him more decisively than Jewish voters — was painful to all but the most militant hawks among us.

Olmert’s bizarre Rose Garden comment about America’s “great operation” in Iraq and the “stability” it brought to the Middle East was merely the icing on the cake, moving the sorry event into the realm of the surreal.

Olmert Hugs Bush, Praises Iraq War
Nathan Guttman | Fri. Nov 17, 2006

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert raised eyebrows this week when he praised America’s war in Iraq as a “great operation” that brought stability to the Middle East.

Olmert made his remarks Monday during a White House press conference with President Bush, before heading to Los Angeles to speak at a major gathering of thousands of Jewish communal activists.
“We are very much impressed and encouraged by the stability which the great operation of America in Iraq brought to the Middle East,” Olmert said as he sat next to Bush in the Oval Office.

The comments surprised some Democrats, and angered a few others.

Hadar Susskind, Washington director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, argued that Olmert’s remarks reflect a misreading of American politics. “There are not many people in the Jewish community that share the feeling that the Iraq War led to stability,” Susskind said.

The issue was not raised in Olmert’s 10-minute-long meeting with Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi, or in his longer sit-down with the Senate leadership. Yet on the sidelines of a meeting with a group of Jewish lawmakers from both houses, Olmert was asked if he really meant that the Iraq War promoted stability in the region. He replied, “I really believe that.”

Israeli officials stressed that the remarks reflect Jerusalem’s concern over the future of the Gulf region after the United States pulls out of Iraq, and the realization that a new American policy toward Iraq might lead to a weakening of the international front against Syria and Iran.

Carlos Latuff

In an unprovoked attack, Palestinian militants fired a Qassam rocket into an Israeli town yesterday. This incident occurred almost a week after the Israelis had one of their bloodiest pogroms on a Palestinian town…. BUT… that was a week ago… and Olmert DID apologise.
C’mon guys… you are not being fair!
This AP article describes the events… read for yourself.
And yes… in case anyone has any doubts… I am being sarcastic!

By AMY TEIBEL
JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel promised a punishing response to a deadly Palestinian rocket attack Wednesday near the home of the country’s defense minister.

The rocket – one of at least eight that struck Israel during the day – killed a 57-year-old woman walking to the grocery store in the Israeli town of Sderot near the Gaza border and raised the specter of a large-scale offensive against militant rocket squads.

Militants affiliated with the Palestinians’ ruling Hamas group and Islamic Jihad both claimed responsibility for the fatal Sderot attack, calling it retaliation for 19 civilians killed by Israeli shelling last week in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

“The occupation hasn’t stopped attacking Palestinians before or after Beit Hanoun, so we say resistance is a right of Palestinians,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

The deadly homemade rocket exploded 150 yards from the home of Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz in Sderot. The town of 20,000 is a favorite target of the militants because it is less than a mile from the Gaza fence. But Wednesday’s attack was the first deadly strike there since the Gaza Strip evacuation last year.

The rocket badly wounded a member of the minister’s security detail. Another rocket fired later at Sderot seriously wounded a teenager, the rescue service said.

Peretz promised a harsh response and convened an emergency meeting of senior security officials. He said Israel will act against anyone involved in firing rockets.

“The terror organizations will pay a heavy price,” he said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is at a meeting of Jewish leaders in Los Angeles, talked to Peretz and generals before the meeting, said his spokeswoman Miri Eisin.

“The operations in Gaza will continue without letup,” Olmert told reporters.

Another senior member of the Cabinet, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, said Israel must expand its operations to bring halt rocket fire, “whether that means a ground operation, an air operation or other special operations.”

The area military commander, Maj. Gen. Yoav Gallant, said the army “will get those responsible for the attacks in the way we know how.”

Israel’s latest military offensive against rocket squads in Beit Hanoun ended last week without major achievements.

For more than a week, troops backed by attack helicopters and tanks went after the squads, killing about 50 militants and at least seven civilians. One Israeli soldier died. The offensive left badly damaged buildings, uprooted trees and streets chewed up by tank treads.

The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, which has censured only one country – Israel – during its six-month existence, voted Wednesday to send a fact-finding mission to Beit Hanoun and to condemn the Israeli artillery barrage and other “human rights violations” in the Palestinian territories.

Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Levanon said the special session was another example of the council’s lack of objectivity. The United States is an observer of the council, without voting rights.

Rocket attacks resumed from Beit Hanoun immediately after Israeli troops pulled out. On Wednesday, militants fired 13 rockets, eight of which landed in Israel, the military said. Four hit the coastal city of Ashkelon, the northernmost point that Palestinian rockets have reached, although nobody was hurt there.

Although the homemade projectiles are primitive and rarely cause casualties, they have killed eight other people since 2001. Last March a father and son were killed by a rocket blast at Nahal Oz, a village just outside Gaza.

Despite the deaths in Beit Hanoun, which Israel said were unintended, Palestinian talks aimed at forming a more moderate government and ending crippling Western aid sanctions continued.

A coalition agreement would be closely linked to a Hamas-Israel prisoner swap and a promise by Gaza militants to halt rocket attacks on Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the talks and the potential for peacemaking. Mubarak told Abbas that Palestinians should “speak in one voice” and express “positions that advance the peace process and end Palestinian suffering.”

Envoys of the “Quartet” of Mideast mediators – the U.S., the U.N., the European Union and Russia – also met Wednesday in Cairo to discuss peace prospects. It was their first gathering since Hamas took power in March.

The Islamic militant group insists it will not recognize Israel even after a new government takes power. The moderate Abbas hopes to skirt that problem by a division of labor that would put him in charge of peace talks with Israel, while a government of experts would run daily life in the West Bank and Gaza.

Abbas hopes Israel and the West will accept the premise that Hamas is largely ceding power by making room for a 24-member Cabinet of independent professionals.

The ‘remaining’ residents of Beit Hanoun believe there will be more violence aimed at them by the zionists. How can they not have these feelings when Olmert seems to have literally gotten away with murder so far on his trip to the States.
His ‘apology’ was more or less accepted as sincere by Bush, his game of shifting the issues to Iran seems to be working… all this seemingly being the ‘green light’ to continue the policy of genocide in this village.

Amira Hass writes about the preparations being made for the next impending invasion. There is no reason to believe that the zionists will just leave things as they are… ‘If they still breathe our work is undone’… the new mantra of zionism.
MAY THEY BE DAMNED!

Carlos Latuff

Here is Amira’s latest materpiece from this afternoon’s HaAretz…

Preparing for the next invasion

By Amira Hass

The management of the Beit Hanun hospital decided to dig a well in the hospital’s yard. By Saturday, laborers and bulldozers were already on the job. That is how the hospital is readying itself for the next invasion by the Israeli army.

The hospital, like the rest of Beit Hanun, has faced serious water supply difficulties due to the week-long military assault on the city and its 43,000 inhabitants. On the third night of the invasion, the army removed about 300 people from their homes in anticipation of the planned explosion of a nearby building. Everyone went to the hospital, joining the many injured individuals who were already there. Women and children who had gone out to the street Friday morning were also sent to the small hospital by soldiers.

Hundreds of people gathered there, exhausted and frightened by two sleepless nights, by the unending weapons fire from the positions taken up by the Israel Defense Forces in the houses it had occupied, by the sound of explosions and roar of dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers that advanced through the streets shredding the roads, knocking down electricity poles, breaking water and sewage pipes, and destroying walls and fences.

Normally, the hospital uses 50,000 liters of water a day. During the entire week of the invasion, the hospital received only 15,000 liters. Children cried from thirst, their parents helpless to ease their suffering. Even in the neighborhood of the Athamna family, which IDF soldiers shelled with a series of deadly artillery shells, people recalled the thirst with a shudder.

The hospital learned other lessons as well. The refrigerator in its morgue had room for three bodies. Another refrigerator has been added, with room for six additional corpses. The hospital will also purchase an underground diesel fuel tank. The western part of the hospital was hit during last week’s invasion, a precedent whose lesson is that in the future, flammable materials must be kept out of the range of IDF bullets. The hospital also asked for a budget for ambulances with front-wheel drive, since the current ones could not easily navigate the streets torn up by the tank treads.

The assumption is that the Israeli army will continue to invade, destroy and damage infrastructure – either intentionally, or because that is the nature of tanks – impeding water and electricity supplies and shooting at civilian institutions. The army will not change, and no one will restrain it. Therefore, appropriate preparations must be made.

But how can one prepare for the complicated and prolonged to the level of life-endangering coordination involved in evacuating the sick and wounded? Hospital director Dr. Jamil Suleiman tells the story of a man, about 50 years old, who suffered a heart attack. The medical team waited for about two hours before receiving permission from the army to rescue him. The man died. In the case of a woman who was about to give birth, the coordination took five hours and eventually she gave birth in the ambulance. It took about 10 hours to bring a man with leg injuries to the hospital by ambulance. The ambulance kept running into tanks that blocked its progress.

The sterile, deceptive expression “IDF operation” commonly used in the Israeli media, conceals thousands of details of killing, destruction and terror carried out by the Israeli war machine and the commanders and soldiers that operate it – in Beit Hanun last week and in other assaults and invasions over the past six years that were termed “operations.”

One of those who disappeared in this manner is Bara Fayyad, aged four. Soldiers burst into the Fayyads’ home, made of tin, plaster and asbestos, through the wall they destroyed using explosives. The meager house and its contents were badly damaged by the explosion. Throughout Beit Hanun, frightened children clung to their parents everywhere they went. Bara and his brothers were clinging to their parents at dawn Friday when the latter went outside to wash their hands in a sink in the yard prior to morning prayers. A missile fired from a helicopter or an unmanned aerial vehicle – the neighbors do not know which – hit the yard and created a deep hole. Bara was killed.

Also among those who disappeared are Abu Bassam, 52, and his two sons. All three were injured when an Israeli missile landed on, and badly damaged, their house. Abu Bassam was wounded again, in the leg, by sniper fire when he went to the outhouse in the yard of relatives he was staying with after suffering his original injury.

At least four civilians were shot and injured twice by soldiers. They disappeared from Israeli public awareness, like Mazen Kafrana, one of thousands of men rounded up from their homes, arrested, briefly interrogated and released. Mazen was released at the Erez crossing and walked home. The area was under curfew, and soldiers shot him to death.

Twenty-five houses also disappeared from the media. They were destroyed completely, while another 400 were damaged, some of them so badly they have to be demolished. All told, about one-tenth of the 4,500 residential buildings in the town were damaged. The Beit Hanun municipality estimates the cost of the damage at about $14.5 million, in addition to the $6 million in damages from July’s attack.

The lack of desire by the Israeli public to know is reinforced and completed by the “lack of space” in the media and the hierarchy of editing that deletes critical information about the Israeli army and, in effect, about Israeli society – a society that is constantly manufacturing destructive capabilities, and sending its twenty something-year-olds to destroy lives, cities and futures.

The mourning periods are over… life goes on. Life will be difficult, but as a testemony to those martyred, it must go on. Those that remain must be strong…. they must not give into the beast that wants them gone..

Just as this young man seems to be ‘picking up’ the pieces of his life, the entire Palestinian nation must do the same. This photo breaks my heart whenever I look at it… just look at the determination in this beautiful young mans face…

Islam and Judaism are so linked closely together that it is hard to see the differences at times. Just one example are the customs of the mourning periods. The Islamic and Judaic customs and rituals are almost identical. Click on the words to see…

Adding insult to injury, Olmert seems to be doing his darndest to avoid speaking about the Beit Hanoun massacre and events leading up to it. He thinks his ‘apology’ will suffice. Maybe it will in the eyes of the Bush Administration and in the eyes of the AIPAC Clan… but it does not carry any weight whatsover in the eyes or hearts of the people that were targeted… the people that died and those that are still suffering. No, apologies are not what are called for at this time and Olmerts ‘game’ will not work.

Below is an excerp of what he has been saying in the States… using all his efforts to sway the real issue of who the enemy really is to a created issue regarding Iran.

Zionism is the enemy… zionism is what is killing hundreds of people today… It’s time for the world to ‘reach the pivotal moment of truth regarding zionism’.

Read the excerp fom HaAretz below and then replace the word Iran with Israel…

Olmert: World has reached the pivotal moment of truth on Iran
By Haaretz Service
The world has “reached the pivotal moment of truth regarding Iran,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday during his speech at the annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly in Los Angeles.

Olmert implored the international community to act swiftly and decisively to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.

“No longer can the international community afford to hesitate, contemplate or waiver in its dealing with this defiant state,” said Olmert. “No longer can we allow Iran to defer the demands of the international community without consequence.”

PM Haniyeh: If we have to choose between lifting the siege and me, I will step down as prime minister

The United States, among others, has said on numerous occassions that it will not recognise Hamas as the elected government of the Palestinian people. They further stated that as long as Ismail Hanieh is the Prime Minister, a blockade around Palestine will remain.
Today Haniyeh stated that he would be prepared to step down from leadership if it meant the blockade be lifted.
His exact words were…”He who takes a step of this kind for the sake of his people considers it an ascent, and not a concession”. He also announced that if the choice was “either the siege or Haniyeh”, he would choose the lifting of the siege.
He added, “We will not abandon the love of the homeland or the love of Jerusalem… We are not the lovers of the throne and the position”.

Not many world leaders would put the interests of their nation above their own selfish interests. Neither will many world leaders stick to their words of lifting the blockade if Haniyeh steps down…. in reality he is calling their bluff because they are now and always have been liars.
Ultimately, it’s up to the Palestinian people to decide which road to take…. but as things stand at the moment, they lose no matter what they decide.

Here is a report from Ma’an News Agency regarding this matter.

Gaza – Ma’an – If the Palestinians must choose between Ismail Haniyeh as their prime minister, or ensuring that the current blockade on the Palestinians will be lifted, then Haniyeh will step down. This was the central point of Prime Minister Haniyeh’s speech given after the Friday prayer in Gaza today.

The current Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, assured in a press conference held after the Friday prayers: “My meeting with President Abbas was fruitful. We laid down the basis of the formation of a national unity government, and we will resume the dialogue between the national factions and forces next week, with a deadline to end it [i.e. the dialogue] within 2 to 3 weeks. The government will be built on the basis of the document of National Accord.”

Haniyeh was referring to the National Accord Document, or Prisoners’ Document, which was agreed on and signed by Palestinian political leaders representing Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, currently imprisoned in Israeli jails. The document was signed in May 2006 and an English translation can be read at here .

Haniyeh assured that the aim of establishing a new government is to end the current international siege on the Palestinian people and government, and ease the Palestinians’ suffering.

He also denied the correctness of the names that were mentioned in the media as candidates in the running for the post of incoming prime minister. He denied submitting a list of four names for candidates for the premiership. Rather, he assured that the dialogue is still ongoing regarding who will next fill his post.

Haniyeh said there was a “mutual language with President Abbas”. He said that their dialogue focused on the issues of discord. He stated that they reached “a mutual understanding to lift the siege and the suffering of the Palestinian people”. He added that “this was not a concession, but a sacrifice for the sake of the Palestinian people”. He said, “He who takes a step of this kind for the sake of his people considers it an ascent, and not a concession”.

He also announced that if the choice was “either the siege or Haniyeh”, he would choose the lifting of the siege.

He added, “We will not abandon the love of the homeland or the love of Jerusalem… We are not the lovers of the throne and the position”.

History is again repeating itself… in an ugly way.

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

The above is a well known poem written by Pastor Martin Niemöller.

The same ideologies live on today, with a Star of David replacing the swastika… the same mentalities, the same evil.

The Judeo-nazis celebrate the murders of the week and now go after the gay community… same old, same old.

Unlike the man in the above poem, I WILL NOT BE SILENT!

These animals have to share the guilt of the actual murderers, they must be charged with treason against humanity and sent away for eternity.

Don’t be silent on this… JOIN ME!

The following is from the Ynet site…not from a German newspaper in the 40’s

Kahane supporters praise Gaza killings as ‘holy’

Supporters of assassinated rabbi Meir Kahane hold ceremony to commemorate killed rabbi, say ‘holy canon’ fired shells at family in Beit Hanoun in which 18 Palestinians died on Wednesday

Efrat Weiss Published: 11.09.06, 23:00

Kahane supporters take credit for compromise on gay pride parade: Some 200 right-wing activists gathered in Jerusalem on Thursday evening for a commemoration of rabbi Meir Kahane who was killed 16 years ago.

Activists linked his memorial to the gay pride parade and praised Yishai Schlissel, who stabbed a man at the gay pride parade in Jerusalem last year and was sentenced to 12 years in jail.

“Thanks to him today large protests exist today and we saw how they (gay groups) are retreating more and more. That’s what rabbi Kahane taught us – self-sacrifice,” right-wing activist Noam Federman said.

Federman said: “The abomination parade, that’s not the first time it is taking place, suddenly this year there is a wave of protest that
wasn’t. The public is awakening. I asked myself what happened this year. The answer: Self-sacrifice. A year ago, one Jew, Yishai Schlissel of Kiryat Sefer stood up. No one heard of him. He stabbed the homosexuals.”

Right-wing activist Baruch Marzel spoke of the killings in Beit Hanun: “After so many cannons, we see today that one cannon managed to hit, the holly cannon, and all rush to apologize.”

He continued: “If you would have listened to rabbi Kahane this wouldn’t have happened to you, leave!”

Speaking of the gay pride parade he said: “Thank God we scored big wins …Sometimes people wonder what’s happening, how they have power to protest. The story of this parade is the story of rabbi Kahane. For years we were alone against this abomination which entered Jerusalem. This year, thank God, the whole country went noisy and stormy.”

He vowed to protest against holding the gay pride parade in Tel Aviv, saying the city is also “part of the Land of Israel.”

“We need to expel them completely out of Jerusalem, what do fags have to do with Jerusalem? These left-wingers, these proxies, to hell with them. This is a group which decided that any trace of Judaism should be eliminated, and therefore our biggest fight is against the High Court of Justice.”

Right-wing activist and president of the “State of Judea”, Michael Benhorin said: “We vowed to bring justice to Jerusalem and to save its good name. Those who supported the abomination parade are Durit Beinish and Meni Mazuz, who are preventing Jews from praying on the Temple Mount.”

It took over a day, but the zionazis came up with an ‘excuse’ to cover up the massacre in Beit Hanoun. I doubt if it will be ‘bought’ by many, although I’m sure AIPAC will do a splendid ‘selling job’. They have been covering up and lying about Israel’s crimes for years… why stop at this one?
Two reports are presented below.. one from CNN, the other from the Guardian.

Olmert blames ‘technical error’ for deadly shelling
JERUSALEM (CNN) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday blamed a “technical error” for the military’s tank shelling of Beit Hanoun that killed 19 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, according to a spokeswoman with the minister’s office.
The bloodshed happened early Wednesday, hours after Israel announced it had pulled out of the northern Gaza town where it was targeting militants firing Qassam rockets into Israel.

Israeli tanks, poised on the outskirts of Beit Hanoun, fired 10 artillery rounds into the town’s center and killed 19 people, Palestinian medical sources said. Among the dead was a 13-member family that included seven children, the sources said.

Israelis, Palestinians alike outraged
The deaths have been labeled a massacre by moderate and hard-line Palestinian leaders, and have prompted outrage among Israelis, Palestinians and the international community.

The Associated Press reported that 18 were killed, members of an extended family. Hours after the incident, which is under investigation, Olmert and Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz expressed their regret over the civilian deaths.

Israel Defense Forces said units “fired preventative artillery” at rocket launch sites in Beit Hanoun to “disrupt and thwart the launching of Qassam rockets.”

In a statement, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed shock at the attack, and renewed a call to the Israeli government to stop its military operations in Gaza, without delay, and the Palestinians to halt attacks against Israelis.

An accurate account of the massacre is found here… thanks to Umkahlil for posting this. The event was definitely not a technical error… it was PREMEDITATED MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE.

A Palestinian mother and her two babies, killed when Israeli shells struck their Beit Hanoun home, lay Wednesday in the morgue (AFP photo by Mahmoud Hams)
http://jordantimes.com/thu/index.htm

Jameela al-Shanti in Beit Hanoun
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Guardian

Yesterday at dawn, the Israeli air force bombed and destroyed my home. I was the target, but instead the attack killed my sister-in-law, Nahla, a widow with eight children in her care. In the same raid Israel’s artillery shelled a residential district in the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, leaving 19 dead and 40 injured, many killed in their beds. One family, the Athamnas, lost 16 members in the massacre: the oldest who died, Fatima, was 70; the youngest, Dima, was one; seven were children. The death toll in Beit Hanoun has passed 90 in one week.

This is Israel’s tenth incursion into Beit Hanoun since it announced its withdrawal from Gaza. It has turned the town into a closed military zone, collectively punishing its 28,000 residents. For days, the town has been encircled by Israeli tanks and troops and shelled. All water and electricity supplies were cut off and, as the death toll continued to mount, no ambulances were allowed in. Israeli soldiers raided houses, shut up the families and positioned their snipers on roofs, shooting at everything that moved. We still do not know what has become of our sons, husbands and brothers since all males over 15 years old were taken away last Thursday. They were ordered to strip to their underwear, handcuffed and led away.

It is not easy as a mother, sister or wife to watch those you love disappear before your eyes. Perhaps that was what helped me, and 1,500 other women, to overcome our fear and defy the Israeli curfew last Friday – and set about freeing some of our young men who were besieged in a mosque while defending us and our city against the Israeli military machine.

We faced the most powerful army in our region unarmed. The soldiers were loaded up with the latest weaponry, and we had nothing, except each other and our yearning for freedom. As we broke through the first barrier, we grew more confident, more determined to break the suffocating siege. The soldiers of Israel’s so-called defence force did not hesitate to open fire on unarmed women. The sight of my close friends Ibtissam Yusuf abu Nada and Rajaa Ouda taking their last breaths, bathed in blood, will live with me for ever.

Later an Israeli plane shelled a bus taking children to a kindergarten. Two children were killed, along with their teacher. In the last week 30 children have died. As I go round the crowded hospital, it is deeply poignant to see the large number of small bodies with their scars and amputated limbs. We clutch our children tightly when we go to sleep, vainly hoping that we can shield them from Israel’s tanks and warplanes.

But as though this occupation and collective punishment were not enough, we Palestinians find ourselves the targets of a systematic siege imposed by the so-called free world. We are being starved and suffocated as a punishment for daring to exercise our democratic right to choose who rules and represents us. Nothing undermines the west’s claims to defend freedom and democracy more than what is happening in Palestine. Shortly after announcing his project to democratise the Middle East, President Bush did all he could to strangle our nascent democracy, arresting our ministers and MPs. I have yet to hear western condemnation that I, an elected MP, have had my home demolished and relatives killed by Israel’s bombs. When the bodies of my friends and colleagues were torn apart there was not one word from those who claim to be defenders of women’s rights on Capitol Hill and in 10 Downing Street.

Why should we Palestinians have to accept the theft of our land, the ethnic cleansing of our people, incarcerated in forsaken refugee camps, and the denial of our most basic human rights, without protesting and resisting?

The lesson the world should learn from Beit Hanoun last week is that Palestinians will never relinquish our land, towns and villages. We will not surrender our legitimate rights for a piece of bread or handful of rice. The women of Palestine will resist this monstrous occupation imposed on us at gunpoint, siege and starvation. Our rights and those of future generations are not open for negotiation.

Whoever wants peace in Palestine and the region must direct their words and sanctions to the occupier, not the occupied, the aggressor not the victim. The truth is that the solution lies with Israel, its army and allies – not with Palestine’s women and children.

· Jameela al-Shanti is an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for Hamas. She led a women’s protest against the siege of Beit Hanoun last Friday
jameela.shanti@gmail.com

Image by Carlos Latuff
Whenever the atrocities of the present day zionists are compared to those committed by the nazis, nerves are hit. Screams of anti-Semitism are heard. BUT… in actuality, the screams of the Palestinian people are louder. Their screams are in protest of brutal murders and destruction being committed against them on a daily basis by the zionist beast.
On the other hand… the beast and its supporters protest the condemnations waged against them… but to date I have not seen or heard one denial.
Instead of this new brand of zionaziism being supported blindly, it would be in their best interests to get the bastards to change their policies before they are judged and condemned by an International Court. It’s too late to make amends for the crimes already committed, but they must not be allowed to continue.
The cries of anti-Semitism just don’t carry any weight today… the bluff has been called and the deeds have been exposed.

IF YOU DO NOT SEE SIMILARITIES HERE IT’S BECAUSE YOU DON’T WANT TO

Coincidence or planned? Same mentality… same results. Death and destruction. Again, a picture display of similarities… then and now… did we learn from history? It seems that all that was learnt was how to repeat the mistakes….
These photos speak volumes… for themselves. Mouse over the image to see description.
From the holocaust to the ziocaust… new dates..same philosophy…kill and destroy.

Palestinian men gathered next to water stained with blood after Israeli tanks fired on homes in Beit Hanoun, Gaza.

Slowly the world is rubbing its eyes in disbelief… suddenly it is dawning upon many that perhaps the zionist beast has finally gone too far. Even Olmert expressed regret. In his case it’s merely words of a man that might be seeing the writing on the wall finally…. writing that says the very words we heard in Baghdad earlier in the week…“WE FIND YOU GUILTY OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND SENTENCE YOU TO DEATH BY HANGING!”
Even that would be too good a punishment for a man with so much blood on his hands….

Below is an AP report on the incidents, followed by excerps of reactions from various sources.
Story from Associated Press (via New York Times)

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli tank shells crashed into a residential neighborhood, killing at least 18 people, including eight children, in their sleep early Wednesday, Palestinian witnesses and officials said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said efforts to form a national unity government were suspended because of the attack. Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the army to halt artillery attacks in Gaza.

But a government spokesman said Israel will continue its operations in Gaza aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks.

Spokeswoman Miri Eisin said the army is still investigating Wednesday morning’s deadly incident, and that Israel will take full responsibility if mistakes were made.

But, she said: ”The Israeli operation throughout the Gaza Strip will continue as long as Qassam rockets land in Israel, as long as the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip continues, as long as the Hamas government chooses for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to continuously provoke Israel.”

Palestinian security officials said that five tank shells landed in the area near the town of Beit Hanoun within 15 minutes. Most the casualties were in a row of homes belonging to members of the Alathamna extended family, officials said.

Khaled Radi, a health ministry official, said 13 of the 18 dead belonged to the family. He said at least 40 more people, all civilians, were wounded.

Four Gaza hospitals were treating the casualties.

The attack came after Israeli forces ended a weeklong offensive Tuesday aimed at halting rocket attacks from this northern Gaza town, leaving behind wrecked homes, uprooted trees and sewage-covered streets. But hours after the pullback, the Palestinian rocket fire resumed.

Israel kept up its onslaught from outside Beit Hanoun, killing at least 15 Palestinians in airstrikes, gunfire and tank shelling before the tank attack killed 18, Palestinian officials said.

Haniyeh’s Hamas movement had been in talks with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to form a coalition government in a bid to get international economic sanctions lifted.

Haniyeh made the announcement that they had been called off at an emergency meeting of his Cabinet.

”In a protest of this awful massacre, the prime minister’s office is announcing the suspension of discussions to form a national unity government,” Haniyeh said.

Abbas strongly condemned the attack.

”This is a horrible, ugly massacre committed by the occupation against our children, our women and elderly in Beit Hanoun,” he said in a statement. ”We urge and call the security council to convene immediately to stop the massacres committed against our people and to uphold their responsibility to stop these massacres.”

The Israeli army said its preliminary investigation indicated it had fired from a far away toward the area that was struck. The army said it was targeting areas where rockets had been fired in recent days at the Israeli cities of Sderot and Ashkelon.

However, the army would not yet confirm or deny whether it had struck the civilians, saying further investigation was necessary.

The Hamas-led Palestinian cabinet convened for an emergency meeting. Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad called for Israel to be expelled from the United Nations, saying it was an ”animal, brutal state.”

In a huge demonstration outside the morgue at the Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, thousands called for revenge.

”We are going to fight against the so-called Israel. We are going to launch our rockets, our martyrs are going to sacrifice their lives in the depths of our occupied land,” said Nizar Rayan, a Hamas leader in northern Gaza. ”They will strike in Jaffa, in Haifa, inside Ashdod. The battle will continue. The rifle is not going to be set down. All of us are martyrs in waiting. Revenge is coming.”

The militant group Islamic Jihad also called for revenge.

”Martyrdom is coming,” it said in a statement, referring to suicide bombings. ”The response will not take long, because the time is ready for punishment, and the time is ready for revenge.”

Thousands gathered outside hospitals weeping as the bodies arrived. Witnesses said that many of the dead arrived in their sleeping clothes. Schoolchildren swept out to the street to protest the attack as mosques broadcast angry speeches on the street.

Dozens of schoolchildren threw stones and bottles and tried to storm an empty European Union mission building in Gaza City, according to witnesses. Palestinian security is trying to prevent them from entering the building.

Rahwi Hamad, 75, said he was awoken by the sound of explosions at about 5:15 a.m. and emerged from his home to find body parts and pools of blood in the streets.

”I saw people coming out of the house, bleeding and screaming. I carried a girl covered with blood,” he said. ”Inside the houses, we evacuated dismembered bodies … Everything was disgusting. this is the worst, bloody scene I have ever scene.”

From HaAretz…
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Wednesday expressed regret over the deaths of 19 Palestinians in shelling on a northern Gaza town, and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz appointed a general to investigate the incident.

At least 50 people were wounded when artillery fire struck a residential area in the town of Beit Hanun. Eight children and four women were among the dead.

Olmert and Peretz also offered emergency humanitarian assistance and medical care for those wounded in the attack.

From Reuters…

Europe: Gaza shelling shocking

EU’s external relations chief says, ‘Killing so many civilians in Gaza, including many children, is a profoundly shocking event.’ Italy’s foreign minister brands killing a ‘massacre,’ calls for urgent international initiative to stop violence. Khaled Mashaal: We’ll respond with deeds, not words

Reuters Published: 11.08.06, 14:26

Israel drew fire from the European Union on Wednesday for the deaths of 18 civilians in its shelling of a northern Gaza town, with the EU’s external relations chief saying the attack was “profoundly shocking”.

“The killing this morning of so many civilians in Gaza, including many children, is a profoundly shocking event. Israel has a right to defend itself, but not at the price of the lives of the innocent,” Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement.

“It is very important for all parties to exercise utmost restraint and limit themselves to actions which are proportionate and in accordance with international humanitarian law,” she added.

From AlJazeera…

Ismail Haniya speaks to Al Jazeera

Wednesday 08 November 2006, 16:29 Makka Time, 13:29 GMT

Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, has spoken exclusively to Al Jazeera about the Israeli attack that killed at least 18 civilians in Beit Hanoun in Gaza on Wednesday.

In the interview, Haniya accused Avigdor Lieberman, the new Israeli vice prime minister, over the recent deaths.

“Lieberman [is responsible for these] strategies of killings and massacres, [of] killing children and women sleeping safely in their houses.

“The [Palestinian] government is currently holding an urgent session to follow up on the developments of this horrible massacre.

“More than 100 people have been killed during the past days in Beit Hanoun and other various areas in the West Bank and Jenin.

“They want the Palestinian people to abandon their rights of resistance and self-defence.

“On behalf of the Palestinian people, [I say that] these people will not abandon their rights, will not bow in front of the Israeli killing and destruction machine and will not abandon their rights to defend themselves and resist the occupation.

“I assure all Palestinians that these killers and occupiers will be eliminated.

“The government has announced general national mourning for three days in all Palestinian territories.

Israeli Destructive Forces(IDF) have guaranteed that another generation of Palestinians will despise them. Hate is not the answer and will lead to nothing positive, but what does a child feel when he sees his father or mother lowered into the cold ground, murdered by Israelis… or seeing his younger brother or sister being prepared for burial? What can he feel?
What can a father or mother say to this child to ease the pain?
No words can describe the feelings and thoughts in the minds of those living in Beit Hanoun… those that survived the slaughter.
All must be done to prevent this from happenng again… the world must not allow it.
ARE WE NOT PEOPLE? DO WE NOT BLEED WHEN WOUNDED? DO WE NOT DIE WHEN SHOT AT? DOESN’T ANYONE GIVE A DAMN?
ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

Below are 6 photographs taken today by the AlJazeera staff…

One minaret is all that was left of the al-Nasser mosque, one of the oldest in Gaza.

Palestinians left their homes to bury their dead after the Israeli army withdrew.

Israel launched a massive offensive into Beit Hanoun claiming it was a haven for Palestinian fighters launching rocket attacks.

Water, electricity and telephone networks have all been badly damaged by the Israel action.

Palestinians tried to salvage some of their belonging from the destroyed homes.

One resident of the two described the destruction as “the tsunami of Beit Hanoun.”

MAKE PEACE A REALITY!
MAKE JUSTICE A REALITY!!
DEFEAT THE REPUBLICANS!!!
THE WORLD IS COUNTING ON YOU.

Some of you might have been thinking over the past week or so that DesertPeace exaggerates a bit, might even stretch the truth a bit… might even lie…
Well, in all fairness to myself and to show anyone with doubts… here are two articles from two Israeli sources about the agenda of the man I call Herr Lieberman.
It is a frightening agenda that could throw Israel back to the dark ages, an age where this particular Neanderthal seems very comfortable… but not the rest of us. Perhaps a corner of the Israel Museum would serve as a more appropriate spot for him then the Knesset.
Here is a man whose party did not receive a majority of votes, a man who technically should not be in the government. His placement there is as undemocratic as his programme itself.
He is just one of the reasons Israel is at war today in Gaza… just one, but one that can be removed.
Here are the two articles I mentioned… see for yourself that DesertPeace speaks the truth.

From HaAretz…

Lieberman: Israeli Arabs are ‘problem,’ require ‘separation’

By `Haaretz Service

Cabinet minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a U.K. newspaper interview published on Sunday that Israel’s Arab minority was a “problem” which required “separation” from the Jewish state.

“We established Israel as a Jewish country,” the Sunday Telegraph quoted Lieberman as saying. “I want to provide an Israel that is a Jewish, Zionist country. It’s about what kind of country we want to see in the future. Either it will be an [ethnically mixed] country like any other, or it will continue as a Jewish country.”

Lieberman has often made remarks condemned as racist toward Israel’s Arab minority, which numbers some one and a quarter million people.

In June, he was widely quoted as saying that Arab MKs who held contacts with Hamas should be executed.

“Minorities are the biggest problem in the world,” the Sunday Telegraph quoted Lieberman as saying. Asked by the newspaper if citizens of Arab descent should be forced out through territorial redistribution, he said:

“I think separation between two nations is the best solution. Cyprus is the best model. Before 1974, the Greeks and Turks lived together and there were frictions and bloodshed and terror.

“After 1974, they constituted all Turks on one part of the island, all Greeks on the other part of the island and there is stability and security.”

Told that in Cyprus thousands were forcibly driven from their homes, he replied: “Yes, but the final result was better.”

The newspaper said that an aide to Lieberman later sought to expand on his remarks.

“Israeli Arabs don’t have to go,” the unnamed aide was quoted as saying. “But if they stay they have to take an oath of allegiance to Israel as a Jewish Zionist state.”

Fom Ynet…

Lieberman: Jews, Arabs can never live together

In first interview to foreign press, new deputy PM tells British Telegraph Arab minority in Israel is problem which can best be resolved by separation; offers Cyprus, where Turks and Greeks live separately, as desired model for Jewish state

Ynetnews Published: 11.05.06, 07:34

In his first interview to the foreign press, the newly-appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman told the British Telegraph Sunday that the best means of achieving peace in the Middle East would be for Jews and Arabs to live apart, including those Arabs who now live inside Israel.

Israel Our Home Chairman Lieberman stated that the Arab minority in Israel was a “problem” which required separation from the Jewish state.

“We established Israel as a Jewish country,” he told the Telegraph. “I want to provide an Israel that is a Jewish, Zionist country.

It’s about what kind of country we want to see in the future. Either it will be an (ethnically mixed) country like any other, or it will continue as a Jewish country.”

Lieberman said he believes that minorities are the biggest problem in the world, and asserted that in his opinion, Israel should follow Cyprus’ model of national separation: “I think separation between two nations is the best solution. Cyprus is the best model. Before 1974, the Greeks and Turks lived together and there were frictions and bloodshed and terror.

“After 1974, they constituted all Turks on one part of the island, all Greeks on the other part of the island and there is stability and security,” he explained.

When the interviewer pointed out that in Cyprus thousands were forcibly driven from their homes, he replied: “Yes, but the final result was better.”

Lieberman also referred to the threat posed to Israel and the world by the Iranian nuclear program, and said that the world must unite against “an axis of evil led by Iran. Iran is the biggest threat. It’s a problem for the whole world, but Israel really has a bad location. We are on the front line between the clash of civilizations between the free world and the extremist Islamic world.”

In June, he was widely quoted as saying that Arab MKs who held contacts with Hamas should be executed.

“Minorities are the biggest problem in the world,” the Sunday Telegraph quoted Lieberman as saying. Asked by the newspaper if citizens of Arab descent should be forced out through territorial redistribution, he said:

“I think separation between two nations is the best solution. Cyprus is the best model. Before 1974, the Greeks and Turks lived together and there were frictions and bloodshed and terror.
“After 1974, they constituted all Turks on one part of the island, all Greeks on the other part of the island and there is stability and security.”

Told that in Cyprus thousands were forcibly driven from their homes, he replied: “Yes, but the final result was better.”

The newspaper said that an aide to Lieberman later sought to expand on his remarks.

“Israeli Arabs don’t have to go,” the unnamed aide was quoted as saying. “But if they stay they have to take an oath of allegiance to Israel as a Jewish Zionist state.”

After reading these two articles, can anyone honestly say that they think DesertPeace is prematurely ‘pressing an alarm button’? I think not.
Jews and Arabs can get along. They do not require separation as stated by these forces of darkness, they require mutual respect and recognition of each other as human beings. They require PEACE and JUSTICE. They require the establishment of a Palestinian State to achieve both.
They require an end to the hostilities presently going on. They require the acceptance of the international community as an integral part of the Family of Man.
That’s how DesertPeace sees it…. and it’s not a lie!

If you are not convinced yet… read THIS… just in on Ynet.
And THIS

‘Cold and worry’ by the late Ismael Shammout

Palestine is not on another planet… it is an integral part of this mess we call Earth… BUT.. it is treated as the unwanted ‘foster child’ of the United Nations. It never asked humanity for the status it has of non-nation… nor for the acts of genocide it has experienced. All it wants is it’s place in the sun… all it wants is independence… a land to call its own and a Right of Return for its citizens scattered throughout the world.
But NO… the world says NO! AIPAC says they are bad, the racist government of Israel says they are bad….. nobody gives a damn!
To end the cries, to end the struggle, Israel has decided to end the Palestinian people. That is what it has been doing for close to 60 years, but efforts have been intensified over the past week.
Again… no one gives a damn.

This, from a Ynet report…

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the UN Security Council for urgent intervention to stop the Israeli offensive, his spokesman said.

“He asks the members of the council to move quickly and discuss the tragic situation in the Palestinian territories caused by the Israeli aggression,” Abbas’ office said in a statement.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said her country is concerned over the mounting death toll and urged restrained.

“We are concerned by increased violence in Gaza, in particular by reports of civilian deaths. We deeply regret the deaths of civilians on both sides of the conflict, and would like to remind all parties of their obligation under international humanitarian law to avoid civilian casualties,” she said in a statement. “Israel has a right to defend itself but any action should be proportionate and in accordance with international humanitarian law.”

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammad Abul Gheit condemned the operation of called for an immediate ceasefire. A statement issued by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said “Israel is using excessive force in Beit Hanoun and is not taking civilians into consideration.”

Is that asking too much? Is it asking too much to be treated with dignity, with decency, with respect? What must be done to wake the world up at this point?? WHAT?

Is this what Israel and the rest of the world wants? I think not… it’s not too late to prevent it from happening… (from a Jerusalem Post report)

The armed wings of Fatah and Islamic Jihad have threatened to renew suicide attacks in Israel if the IDF did not halt operations in the Gaza Strip within 48 hours.

At a press conference Saturday, the Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades, Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Brigades and the Popular Resistance Committees promised to “act with all [their] strength” to curb the IDF’s incursions.

ALLOUT WAR CAN BE PREVENTED..IT MUST BE PREVENTED!

Numbers..Numbers..Numbers!!! I remember looking at the news to see the sports scores, the weather, the local gossip… today it’s different, today is to see how many innocent civilians were killed by Israel. It’s sickening! Not just that it’s happening… but the fact that it seems nobody gives a damn!
Where are the protests from world leaders? Koffi Annan mumbled some incoherent statement yesterday..but no action forthcoming.
The US won’t dare criticise or condemn Israel’s actions or AIPAC will label them anti Semitic… can’t have that just days away from an election.
In the meantime, as a result of world apathy the killing goes on. Israel knows at this point that it can literally get away with murder, so it continues.
Below are just a few press clippings from overnight…

DON’T BE SILENT ON THIS!

PROTEST!!!
APATHY IS GUILT!
COMPLICITY IS GUILT!

From Al Jazeera…Eight Palestinians have died in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight on Friday, as an Israeli offensive into the territory continues.

From CNN…
U.N. officials, including Secretary-General Kofi Annan, called the “already-grave situation” a result of “the continuing escalation of violence and rising death toll caused by the Israeli military operation in northern Gaza.”

“Military operations in populated areas inevitably cause civilian casualties, and in this operation several civilians have already been killed and wounded, including women and at least one Palestinian child,” Annan said in a prepared statement.

Annan urged Israel “to exercise maximum restraint” and do its “utmost to protect civilians.”

He also urged “Palestinian militants to stop firing rockets against Israeli civilian targets.”

From the New York Times…

Tolls of the dead and wounded were provided by Palestinian hospitals. The two women killed were Ibtisam Masoud, 45, and Rawda Khelah, 48, according to Kamal Adwan Hospital. Video shot by Western news organizations showed women walking close together, then fleeing in several directions after the shooting began. The footage also showed at least two men, not visibly armed, among the women.

From HaAretz…21 Palestinians killed in IDF raids in West Bank, Gaza over the weekend

From the Jerusalem Post…As the IDF’s Operation Autumn Clouds entered its fourth day, at least 22 Palestinians were killed since Friday in clashes with the IDF in various locations in the Gaza Strip.

From Ynet…During the overnight and morning operations, at least ten terrorists were hit, some of them fatally. Up until now, the number of casualties from the Gaza operation since Wednesday stands at over 40 killed and some 200 wounded.

This just in…. from HaAretz…

Peace groups to use Rabin memorial to highlight plight of Gaza Palestinians By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent, Itim and Haaretz Service

Peace organizations are preparing to protest the plight of Palestinians in Gaza during a memorial rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening to mark the 11th anniversary of the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

During the rally, set to begin at 7.30 P.M. in Rabin Square, groups are planning to distribute 2,000 black balloons with the statement “S.O.S Gaza” written on them.

A statement released by the peace organizations calls recent events in Gaza a “security situation,” explaining that “the provision of water and electricity is deficient,” and that “there is a lack in the provision of medicine and basic products.”

The rest can be read HERE.

It is no longer an occupation, it is no longer ‘simply’ an invasion… it’s openly the beginning of ‘the final solution’.
The very existence of the Palestinian nation hangs on a thread as I write this. One by one, regardless of age or gender, the state of Israel is killing them. No one is safe in their homes, in their mosques, at work, on the street… nowhere.
Gaza has become a warzone. There is no other way to describe it. Accoding to a report in HaAretz, ‘Newly appointed minister Avigdor Lieberman, attending his first meeting of the forum, said that Israel should act “like the Russians in Chechnya” and cultivate a friendly local leadership in Gaza. He argued that there was no point in toppling the Hamas government until there was something to put in its place.’
The world cannot sit by silently. Israel has to be stopped NOW. Silence is complicity… COMPLICITY IS MURDER!
PALESTINE MUST BE GIVEN FREEDOM…NOT DEATH!

The following report just appeared on Ynet… a Palestinian Knesset member’s views on Lieberman…

MK Barakeh: Lieberman in gov’t is war

Hadash chairman protests Israel Our Home joining cabinet: ‘Avigdor Lieberman will have the honor of cutting the ribbon on this dangerous regional adventure’

Roee Nahmias Published: 11.03.06, 23:55

Hadash Chairman MK Mohammad Barakeh slammed the State, the government, and its prime minister on Friday night regarding the entry of Israel Our Home into the government coalition and the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as a minister.

In a convention in Sakhnin in protest of Israel Our Home joining the government, Barakeh said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was going to Washington “apparently to sum up this whole dangerous regional adventure, and it looks like Avigdor Lieberman will have the honor of cutting the ribbon on this adventure.”

According to Barakeh, “Lieberman’s entry into the government serves three purposes: One – the regional war issue. Such a dangerous war, everyone knows how it starts but it’s hard to know how it will end. It will endanger all the nations in the area, including Israel.”

“The second aim,” Barakeh continued, “is the continued oppression of the Arab population and the legitimization of transfer policy. The third – financial forces are interested in planting Lieberman into the government to accelerate economic issues and serve financial elements that can’t be seen on the political map.”

MK Barakeh harshly attacked Attorney General Menahem Mazuz’s decision not to open an investigation into Lieberman for allegedly calling for the execution of Arab MKs.

Barakeh further addressed the issue of the loyalty of Arab citizens to the State of Israel. He noted that Israeli Arabs do not endanger the country – but rather the opposite: “The State endangers the Arabs and their future in their homeland. This isn’t a matter of civilian loyalty but of the State’s loyalty to its citizens. Only a fascist nation would ask its citizens to worship it morning, noon and night,” he said.”

During the summit, Barakeh called on all democratic forces on the Israeli street to come together and battle what he defined the “fascism” rising in the country.