cann4ing writes (as part of an horrific statistical pattern):

“..The youngest victims were 13 newborn infants who died at checkpoints during birth…”

I only wanted to add that this issue with newborns dying (and occasionally the mothers as well)at checkpoints is a DAILY process in the West Bank as well as Gaza, because they won’t let these women through the checkpoints to get to hospital. So I know this to be a near daily occurrence - for DECADES!

As for Howard and the claim that the IDF is NOT in Gaza, keep in mind that Howard has probably never set foot in the area, so he thinks all of those tanks with the IDF snipers are all remotely controlled with superior Israeli technology, so as far as Howard is concerned, they aren’t there, and that blockade that has the Palestinians locked in without access to food, water, and the other of life’s basics, isn’t actually ‘in’ Gaza.

You follow that, right?

From Rick Chertoff of LA Jews for Peace ...

Dear friends, 

“Most of you may already know about this horrible situation, but I’m sending it out to everyone in a) to remind us all so when there is an action we can take, we will realize the urgency, and b) to ask you to forward it and spread the word. 

“Background; There is an ideological campaign going 24/7 to spin the Israeli government’s siege/starvation against the victims who are civilians in Gaza, 1.5 million people in an area roughly the size of the San Fernando Valley. Keep in mind that 80% of these people are refugees from what is now Israel , that is they were expelled from their homes or those of their parents and grandparents by the Israeli army in 1948. 

“Their current crime? They voted for the ‘wrong party’, Hamas, instead of the one that has been bought off by Israel , the ‘Palestinian Authority’, which is the “ Vichy ” government of Occupied Palestine.”

LA Jews for Peace will be staging a protest on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008 at the Federal Building in Westwood, CA.  No doubt the Zionists will now smear LA Jews for Peace as “self-hating Jews.”

Consider the article by Gideon Levy, “Killing Children is No Longer a Big Deal” published in Haaretz in 2004:

“More than 30 Palestinian children two weeks of Operation Days of Penitence in the Gaza Strip….Whereas in the overall count of all victims of the intifada the ratio is three Palestinians killed for every Israeli killed, when it comes to children the ratio is 5:1.  According to B’Tselem…even before the current operation in Gaza, 557 Palestinian minors…were killed, compared to 110 Israeli minors.

“Palestinian human rights groups speak of bigger numbers….According to B’Tselem…42 of the children were 10; 20 were seven; and eight were two years old when they died.  The youngest victims were 13 newborn infants who died at checkpoints during birth.

“With horrific statistics like this, the question of who is a terrorist should have long become very burdensome for every Israeli.  Yet it is not on the public agenda.  Child killers are always the Palestinians, the soldiers always only defend us and themselves, and to hell with the statistics.

“The plain fact…is that the blood of hundreds of Palestinian children is on our hands.  No tortuous explanation by the IDF…about the dangers posed to soldiers by the children, and no dubious excuse by the public relations people…will change that fact.  An army that kills so many children is an army with no restraints, an army that has lost its moral code.”

I would respectfully suggest, Howard, that in ignoring Israeli responsibility for the pending human catastrophe in Gaza, you too have lost your moral compass.

By Howard, December 22 at 2:34 pm #

they are not in Gaza.  Blame the Hamas leaders for their plight.

_________________

Nothing short of astounding!  The current circumstance of the Palestinians in Gaza is strikingly similar to that of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto during the early stages of WW II.  The are surrounded, walled-in and starved by an Israeli blockade.  It would have made as much sense to say the Nazis were not inside the Warsaw Ghetto, so we should blame Jewish leaders for the plight of Warsaw’s inhabitants.

Where is your sense of scale, Howard?  Where is your humanity?

Dear President-Elect Obama,

Last year, you pledged to “take an active role, and make a personal commitment to do all I can to advance the cause of [Israeli-Palestinian] peace from the start of my Administration.” We are eager to work with you to fulfill this goal.

To do so, your Administration should break with past policies of unconditional support for Israel’s illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, and change U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine to support human rights, international law, and equality.

We agree with Aaron David Miller, a 25-year State Department Middle East negotiator and adviser on Arab-Israeli affairs, who wrote that “For far too long, many American officials involved in Arab-Israeli peacemaking, myself included, have acted as Israel’s attorney, catering and coordinating with the Israelis at the expense of successful peace negotiations.”

To become an honest and effective broker, your Administration should:

* Insist that Israel ends its siege of the Gaza Strip. Israel has deliberately impoverished the 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip and caused a humanitarian catastrophe of dire proportions by prohibiting the delivery of food, medicine, fuel, and electricity. Your Administration should insist on the illegality of collective punishment and support the human rights of Palestinians such as freedom of movement as a first step towards ending Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip.

* Demand a freeze in the construction of settlements and Israel’s Wall in the West Bank. Israel’s West Bank settlements, including those in East Jerusalem, are all illegal under international law,and the International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that Israel’s Wall is illegal and must be torn down. Halting this construction should be a first step toward completely dismantling the infrastructure of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and others have labeled “apartheid.”

* Hold Israel accountable for its misuse of U.S. weapons. In 2007, the United States and Israel agreed to increase military aid to Israel by 25% over the next decade, totaling $30 billion. During the Bush Administration, Israel killed more than 2,000 innocent Palestinian civilians who took no part in hostilities, oftentimes with U.S. weapons in violation of the Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts. Your Administration should hold Israel accountable for these violations of U.S. law and cut off military aid as required by law, rather than increase it.

* End the U.S. veto protecting Israel at the United Nations. The United States has used its veto power at the UN more than 40 times since 1972 to shield Israel from the consequences of its violations of human rights, UN resolutions, and international law…

* Base a just peace on human rights, international law, and equality.

The Rest and To sign

http://www.endtheoccupation.org/form.php?modin=137

It’s amazing…you focus on what Hammas has done…but never on what the Israelis have done. 

No mention of illegal settlements…no mention of illegal nuclear weapons…no mention of illegal armaments used on civilians.

What Hammas does is puny compared to what the US and world backed Israel is doing.

Your little “play the victim” crap is coming to an end…and not a day too soon.

they are not in Gaza.  Blame the Hamas leaders for their plight. Or the arab countries which will not help them at all. And wish to keep them there.

Thousands of Gazan people worked in Israel until few years ago when hamas operatives shot up the crossings and would not let their people continue to go to their jobs there. Now the Gazans are still on the UN dole, at even a bigger cost. 

And what is the other item:  oh, gosh, you found out all that hidden stuff about those rich people. Jeez.

Oh please….Israel does not want to go back?

Give us a break with the violin playing.  Go and see how people in Gaza and Palestine are treated.

I’m sure if you were also treated like a dog, you’d stand up for yourself.

The only difference is they do it with conviction and with their own blood. Israel scams off and mooches of the rest of the world…and pretends it’s innocent.

I think people are sick and tired of hearing Israel and jews whine constantly about their problems, their injustice, and how tough things are for them.

All these obstacles you all proclaim to have but it certainly hasn’t put a damper on making Israel and jews probably the richest people in the world with tentacles in everything from banking, to owning the jewelry business, to the movie industry, to the clothing industry.

So…you’re comparing your innocent, poor old selves to a slum-ridden, degraded Palestinians whose water is controlled by Israel?  Whose electricity is controlled by Israel? Whose jobs are controlled by Israel?

Please…let me know…how would YOU act if you had a life like that?

You have two faces…one which cries while the other builds more illegal homes and kills more innocent people…despicable.

Israel does not want to go back.  But what country, including the US would not go back when missles and bombardments continue on unabated.  If missles were lobbed into Detroit and Chicago from Canada do you think we would eventually do ‘sumpin if the gov’t there did not corrall it and stop it.

Not a gov’t around that would not protect its citizens.

No they didn’t leave Gaza completely…and THAT’s WHY you don’t understand what’s going on.

Leaving Gaza doesn’t mean COMING BACK with military raids every other day, bull-dozing innocent people out of existence.

Israel’s actions are no better than the Nazis.  Do you think covering Beirut in ILLEGAL cluster bombs is “kosher?”  It that were happening to you guys over there, you’d be whining like a bunch of little children about how victimized you are.

Go and listen to Norman Finkelstein…learn something.

What occupation ?.  Did they not leave Gaza completely?  Indeed Israel did.  and you see the results.  On the dole from the UN completely, Hamas still instills they young to hate and Hamas leaders (gangster ) which rules with iron fist can stop the bombardment in minutes.  But they do not.

Hamas has no desire to help its people.  Let Egypt take ‘em over.  No, they don’t want them anymore, either.  How about Jordan?  no, they say no also.

How about the Arab countries,all 23 of them taking over the welfare of the Gazans. Who put them in Gaza. Nope , they say no also.

Best friends, only friens got is Israel, if they would ever realize it. And, big AND, stop the missles and give up their charter which states they wish to destroy completely Israel.  hones, not difficult to do.

By Howard, December 21 at 7:44 pm #

Stop the missles and rockets from Gaza and good things will happen. Not only has the bombarment of missles not stopped since the supposed truce months ago; but Hamas refused yesterday to renew it, anyway.

_________________

End the brutal 40+ year, illegal occupation and good things will happen.  I do not condone the rocket attacks from Gaza but I think, Howard, you have chosen to ignore the brutality and devastation wrought upon the Palestinian people by the IDF.

Stop the missles and rockets from Gaza and good things will happen. Not only has the bombarment of missles not stopped since the supposed truce months ago; but Hamas refused yesterday to renew it, anyway.

The trial failed.  Israel left Gaza and in return got rockets, missles and tunnels being built to attack Israel.  Israel has no one to talk to, apparantely.  And how do you negotiate with a gov’t whose chief and only aim is to destroy you?

“Palestinians cannot govern themselves because they ae Syrian, Egytpian or Bedouin Arabs locked -up in refugee camps and given a pseudo-national identity. For only ONE reason. To spearhead destruction of Israel.  As the Arab countries, all 23 of them which surround Israel, have instigated the Pal’s to do for 60 years. And that after they were the ones who attacked Israel in ‘48.  they don’t want another arab country made up of Pal’s near them. Would in time show them up with their autocratic governments.

Actually, the Israeli problem is always high priority, the Palestinian problem is low priority….

One look at the lunatic crackpot Christians in this country and you realize why people like myself, who don’t give a damn about Israel, have to continue to have my hard earned tax dollars go to these murderers who think violating and ignoring UN resolutions and other world convention laws that everyone else has to follow, somehow they believe they are above it all…

The arrogance of the “Chosen” people is showing…and it will be their downfall too.  We can only hope.

The Palestinians are now the peaceniks in this conflict, the Israelis, who are the aggressors in this conflict, do not and will not have peace in the area until complete and total destruction of the Palestinian people are gone and dead.
“For the blockade of the Gaza Strip is not a humanitarian crisis, but a political crisis with dire humanitarian consequences.”
How in the hell does the world expect peace in an area that is undergoing genocide? The Israelis are now an rogue nation without the rule of law, with no moral or political will to have peace with the Palestinians, and furthermore will cause the mass destruction of the nation of Palestine before they will allow any further progress on the idea of peace with an Arab nation.
I am truly ashamed for the people of Israel, they are backing an idea that is without merit and without a moral underpinning. There is no reason that
the Israelis cannot have a sustained and lasting peace with the Palestinians, except for one reason, they are committing the worst genocide of any nation that is now and has been in existence.
Strong words, YES!  But the answer is without doubt that Israel will not listen and cannot listen because of the immoral and illegal leadership of their nation.
The Israelis justify the continued genocide of the Palestinian people by saying they are the aggressors. Yet in the last 6 months, the Israelis are the ones who have broken the truce, continued an illegal and immoral blockade of a whole people who are not involved in this conflict. Should the world,
which is their brother’s keeper, awake and look at this situation in the light of morality and sense, then these illegal and immoral acts would stop in an
instant. For no one, can justify the continued mistreatment and maltreatment of the Palestinian people on the grounds that the Israeli people and leadership have stated.

The times are always a changin’ and

The Times They Are a’Changin’- FREE Vanunu Mordechai! Now!

Began on Face book on November 15, 2008 by an Italian with a vision for a Global V Day with his message to VMJC: Vanunu Mordechai John Crossman:

“For the little I can, [I will] try to move the conscience of the largest number of people possible, to try and break the chain of hatred that choke you and all the people of the area. Keep struggling. One day soon you will come to Rome to wipe away the ghosts of the past…” [1]

Excerpted from the Groups Description introduction by VANUNU MORDECHAI JC:

“…a man of peace, a symbol. KIDNAPPED IN ROME SEP’ 30 th.1986…AFTER 18 YEARS IN ISRAEL PRISON… still a prisoner of fear and revenge. VANUNU…is waiting in East Jerusalem to leave;…be really free-to live…group objective is to help VANUNU… to enjoy in full his human right and to promote confrontation and a new mental approach toward the Palestine tragedy. Open your minds, stop hate.

On June 4, 2008 Vanunu wrote:

  Dear Editors

  I am Mordechai Vanunu, the man who told the truth about Israel’s Nuclear Weapons. Program in 1986 and paid with 18 years of my life in Israel Prison. I was released in April 2004, but Israel denied me, my human rights of free speech and freedom movement. I am not allowed to leave since 1986 until now; 2008.

  On July 8, 2008, I will return to court to appeal a new 6 months prison sentence for speaking to foreign Media, since my release 2004,

  I am asking the Media to report on my case….

So far, i am the only media doing so, and so, i invite you to listen to 2 minutes from Vanunu taped just a few weeks after his FREEDOM OF SPEECH Trial began in the ‘democracy’ of Israel:

Vanunu’s Invite to Senator Clinton and USA Christians re: THE WALL

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=47537156583&h=EtyE0&u=pPp4v

On July 8, 2008, Israel convicted Vanunu on 14 counts-from over a hundred interviews he gave foreign journalists in 2004.

His Supreme Court appeal has been put off until 2009.

Learn More:

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1137&Itemid=213

The Times They Are a’Changin’- FREE Vanunu Mordechai! Now!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52776865024#/group.php?gid=52776865024

It’s almost laughable how the title of this piece has been worded!

As an ironic response to this, I feel like saying that Palestine-Israel will wait for ever! And one reason for that is that Obama will be stuck in Chicago and its corrupted politics for the rest of his first term. And adding to that the state of the economy which will require, with some good luck, another ten years to relatively recover, then Obama, even given that he has good intentions to start with, will have a deficit of time to even pay lip service to this issue.

Besides what I stated above, I have almost become cynical about the chances of American politicians to be true arbiters for peace, since it serves their personal political interests to continue having the political football of loyalty to Israel and Zionism to which they need to pander every four years during the political campaign for power! If the issue of Israel-Palestine is solved before the next election cycle, then the politicians will loose the benefit of the Israeli-Zionist lobby’s money during the next political campaign cycle!

With UN resolutions dating back to 242 having been ignored with impunity by Israel, I can well understand why Palestinians do not put much faith in them.  The key to a resolution lies not merely in the U.N. but in a willingness by the U.S. to finally ignore Zionist pressure, act as a truly honest broker, demand the immediate end to collective punishment embodied in the blockade of Gaza, the removal of Israeli settlements from the West Bank, the dismantling of the apartheid wall and the temporary insertion of an adequately staffed, UN peace keeping force at borders.

I believe the willingness of Palestinians to recognize the right of Israel to peace and security within the pre-1967 borders amounts to a major concession, though no doubt some Palestinians would see that as a betrayal of the right of return, but I also think President Carter is right when he suggests that Hamas and Fatah must find a way to resolve their differences and present a unified Palestinian position in any multilateral negotiations.  Although far greater numbers of Palestinians have died as a result of a more than 40 year brutal occupation than Israelis, Palestinians must come to recognize that violence against their oppressors is counter-productive—that peace, rather than war, is the answer.

Everyone wants Obama to help them, unfortunately, the Palestinian-Israeli problem will be low priority until he solves the internal problems in the US like the economy. I do not know if the US will remain as a world power a couple of years from now with the way things are going.