They'd all sat down to have lunch at home: The mother Fatma, her daughter Farah, 2; her son Khaled, 1; Fatma's brother, Dr. Zakariya Ahmed; his daughter-in-law Shayma, who was nine months pregnant; and the 78-year-old grandmother. A family gathering in Khan Yunis in honor of the uncle, who'd arrived home six days earlier from Saudi Arabia.

A big boom is heard outside. Fatma hurriedly scoops up the littlest one and tries to escape into an inner room. But another boom follows immediately. This time it's a direct hit by the second missile fired by the excellent Israel Air Force pilot, and it comes right into the dining room through the ceiling. Fatma, three months pregnant, is killed on the spot by the shrapnel that hits her spine. Her brother, Dr. Ahmed, is also killed. His daughter-in-law miscarries her child, the little girl Farah is moderately injured and the baby of the family, Khaled, is critically injured in the head. A puddle of blood collects on the floor. Only the grandmother is unhurt. It will be many minutes before the ambulance arrives. This was the last meal of the Wahba family.

In neighboring Rafah, taxi driver Mohammed Wahba is transporting a family of vacationers to the beach. He hears about the disaster on the radio. His cell phone rings and on the line is his brother Nidal, the father of the family that was hit. "Come quick to get me," the father shouts. The two brothers rush to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where they see the horror.

Before he became a cab driver, Mohammed worked for nine years at Tel Aviv University as the maintenance man for the Faculty of the Arts, and later for the Faculty of Law. He lived on Einstein Street in Ramat Aviv, and knew many professors by name. It's been 10 years now since he was permitted to enter his second city, Tel Aviv. Now he's here, having sat for 10 days in a row at the bedside of his toddler nephew, who is in grave condition in the intensive care unit at Dana Children's Hospital next to Ichilov.

Little Khaled is unconscious, paralyzed and on a respirator, wounded in the head by shrapnel from the missile. "I don't know who to blame. If it's the pilot, or whoever gave the order to attack. Who bears the responsibility?," he asks in his excellent Hebrew. The targeted assassination, which was aimed at a vehicle carrying members of the Popular Resistance Committees that was driving down the street, and fell instead right on the family in the middle of its lunch, he calls "an accident."

His brother Nidal, now a widower, calls all the time from Khan Yunis to ask how his unconscious son is doing. The Coordination and Liaison Office has already called to say the child will have to be brought back to Gaza, due to lack of funds to keep him hospitalized in Israel. The father and uncle are terribly worried about what that would mean. This week, Ibrahim Habib of Physicians for Human Rights tried to prevent the child from being returned to Gaza.

The Wahbas tried for years to have a child. They underwent fertility treatment in Gaza and finally, two and a half years ago, their daughter Farah was born. Khaled was born a year later. Nidal is a metallurgical engineer who studied in Germany and works as a supervisor in the professional schools in Gaza, and Fatma was a teacher. He is 40, she was 36. Their house is located under the "Welcome to Khan Yunis" sign at the northern entrance to the city, on the highway between Gaza and Rafah. Israeli tanks will probably be rolling down the road before long, but two weeks ago Wednesday, all was quiet in the city as the family sat down to a special lunch to celebrate the uncle's return from Saudi Arabia.

Mohammed was driving his cab through the streets of Rafah. Thirty-five years old, he was born in Rafah's Yavneh refugee camp and at the age of 14 came to Tel Aviv University, where he worked in the Student Association cafeteria. When he grew up, he became the maintenance man for the Faculty of the Arts. He lived in a rented room in the apartment of an elderly man named Yaakov Kleiner, on Einstein Street. He remembers the cigars favored by faculty dean Arnon Zuckerman and the times of the classes given by guest lecturers Haim Yavin (Thursday afternoon) and Rafik Halabi; he remembers student Zvika Hadar and theater professors David Zinder, Tom Levy and Hana Taragan. He especially enjoyed the international student film festival the department held every year. "It was so nice there," he says. He remembers the security people there, too, though not their names. And Livio Carmeli and his film archive.

From the Gilman Building, he remembers Prof. Israel Gershoni, and from the Faculty of Law, he remembers professors Eliezer Lederman, the late Menashe Shava, Kenneth Mann and Shlomo Shoham. All were very friendly to him. It was the best time of his life. In 1994, when entry to Israel was limited to married men with families, and he was still single, this nice period of his life came to an end. There was just one more time that he was able to enter Israel, and then he went directly to the Ramat Aviv campus. It was in 1997, right after his marriage, and he enjoyed a day full of memories. He hadn't been back since, until now, when he finds himself waiting by the door of the pediatric intensive care unit. Prof. Lederman has promised to come visit him.

It was the longest day of the year, June 21. At about 4:30 in the afternoon Mohammed Wahba was driving a family to the Rafah beach, not far from the ruins of Rafiah Yam, when a report came on the radio about another targeted assassination attempt. At first, the announcer said it was the "Barbawi family" that was hurt, and Mohammed was somewhat relieved. He didn't know them. But later, on his way back from the sea, the report was that a pregnant 36-year-old teacher named Fatma had been killed.

His heart skipped a beat. There was only one pregnant teacher named Fatma in Khan Yunis he thought - his sister-in-law. And then his brother Nidal called: "Did you listen to the news?" "No, I didn't hear it," he lied, to avoid scaring his brother. A brother-in-law who works at Nasser Hospital also called and confirmed Mohammed's worst fears. It was his brother's family that had been hurt by the missile. He picked up Nidal from the center of Rafah and together they drove to the hospital in Khan Yunis. Khaled was in critical condition, with extensive bleeding in the brain. Fatma and Dr. Ahmed were already dead. Farah was wounded in the back by shrapnel. Khaled was immediately taken to Shifa Hospital in Gaza, where surgeons operated on his head. The grandmother told them afterward that she'd tried to lift Khaled off the floor, and that's when she'd seen that her daughter and son had been killed.

The intervention of a family friend, an American who lived for years in the Shabura camp in Rafah and called from America, led to Khaled being transferred to the hospital in Tel Aviv. The Light to the Nations organization, an American foundation, promised to pay for the treatment. Not the IDF, not the air force, not the Defense Ministry.

On Sunday, three days after the event, Khaled was transferred to hospital in Israel, accompanied by his uncle Mohammed. This week his condition was described as close to hopeless and the family was told he'd have to be taken back to Gaza. The doctors told Mohammed that "the situation is out of our hands." A spokeswoman for Ichilov Hospital said his condition is critical as a result of the injury to his head. At the beginning of the week, the defense minister's adviser had not replied to the request from Physicians for Human Rights that Khaled not be returned to Gaza. The boy's uncle, Mohammed, is convinced that bringing the child back to Gaza will seal his fate.

The IDF Spokesman, this week: "The IDF attack on June 21 was directed against a terror cell that was on its way to perpetrate a terror attack. The attack was carried out shortly after two previous aerial assaults in which, for various reasons, uninvolved Palestinian civilians were hurt. In this assault, lessons learned from previous assaults were already implemented, as far as going to greater lengths to ensure that no civilians are within the risk area.

However, for reasons that are not yet entirely clear, one of the two missiles that were fired deviated from the target at which it was directed. The result of this deviation was a strike on a residential building located dozens of meters from the target, a building occupied by the Palestinian civilians who were harmed.

"It should be noted that the method used by the IDF in performing such missions has been proven over the years as accurate and cautious, and in the majority of cases enables the IDF to act against terror organizations and activists who deliberately take shelter among and act from within a civilian population, under the cover of a population that is not involved in its activities.

"It should be emphasized that in a situation in which it is clearly seen that there is a risk to the population that is located near the target, the planned assault is then canceled, even when it is clearly known that the object of the attack constitutes a serious threat. Unfortunately, in ongoing combat of this sort, accidents happen and innocent civilians are harmed. We regret this, yet the responsibility lies entirely with the terror organizations and the leadership of the Palestinian Authority which does nothing to stop them.

"When the investigation of the incident is completed, the findings will be presented to the chief of staff."

"They always said the helicopters were the smartest weapons. Suddenly, it's the dumbest weapon," says Mohammed, bleary-eyed. "It's happened to other families, too. I don't know when it will stop. If it keeps on like this, I don't know how it will end. Who can put a stop to it? Only the two peoples. They're the ones with the pain and the suffering. Not the governments or the leaders. Only the peoples can put an end to this business. The Israelis and the Palestinians. Olmert's son doesn't serve in the army and Haniyeh's son doesn't go around with a rifle opposing the occupation."

How does it feel to be back in Tel Aviv?

"It feels quiet and safe here. Not like in Gaza. There, you feel unsafe all the time. Don't forget I'm a cab driver. Maybe they'll attack the car in front of me or behind me? It's like how I heard it was for you during the time of all the terror attacks."

His brother Nidal is in a bad state. He lives on coffee and cigarettes and suffers attacks of fury and anxiety. "What happened, happened, and who's gone is gone, but what about this boy?" he said to his brother this week on the phone. Every half-hour Mohammed enters the intensive care room to check on his nephew's condition. Khaled lies there unconscious, stitches criss-crossing his tiny head and tubes sticking out of his mouth and body. Mohammed says Khaled has actually moved a little bit in the past couple of days.

Israeli forces began attacking Gaza after Palestinians captured Corporal Gilad Shalit in a raid on June 25. They have bombed a power station and roads, and killed more than 40 people, including civilians, in an attempt to secure his release and suppress rocket fire at Israel.

Yesterday Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, rejected criticism and said the operation would continue indefinitely. "We're talking about a war that will continue for a long time and it is complicated," he was quoted as saying during a cabinet meeting. "This is a war for which we cannot set down a timetable and we can't say how long it will continue."

An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at militants in Rafah yesterday but missed, killing a bystander and injuring four others.

Meanwhile, Ayman Hajaj buried his mother, brother and sister after they were killed by an Israeli missile that hit their garden as they drank tea outside on Saturday. Mr Hajaj, 28, said he had walked into the garden to see a flash of light and hear a deafening bang. He looked down and saw his mother and sister lying dead, then caught sight of his brother, whose arms were almost hanging off his body. "I was in a daze and my ears were ringing. I walked through the bodies for 10 metres before I realised what had happened. Four of my brothers were lying injured. I lifted one and carried him outside and an ambulance was already there."

Mr Hajaj's family live close to Karni crossing, where goods enter and leave Gaza. Israeli forces entered the area on Saturday and there has been sporadic fighting. Mr Hajaj said the family had stayed inside when it seemed dangerous but went to the walled garden at around 7.30pm to roast corn and drink tea. Witnesses believe that an Israeli unmanned aircraft fired the missile.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said the air force had fired a missile at a group of gunmen and it had hit them.

The senior Palestinian official also urged international aid organizations to beef up their activities in Gaza.

"We have to work on all levels (to solve the crisis)," said Erekat, adding that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had flown to Jordan on late Monday for talks with Jordanian King Abdullah IIon Tuesday.

Abbas will urge Jordan to exercise its influence on Israel to end the military operation in Gaza, said Erekat.

"The president is making contacts with Arab and foreign countries in a bid to solve Gaza's plight in peaceful and diplomatic ways," he added.

Israel has shut down crossings on the Gaza borders as its forces pressed ahead a massive ground and air offensive in the Gaza Strip to free an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants and prevent Palestinian militants from firing rockets onto Israel.

Israeli airstrikes have damaged the only power plant in Gaza and key infrastructure including roads, bridges and main water and electricity supply lines.

Aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza if the Israeli offensive and sealing of Gaza continue.

Jfjfp spokesman Dan Judelson said the prominent Jews "simply do not see how Israel can defend attacking civilian targets such as water works and power supply."

"There are those in the community who say that Jews should not criticize Israel. But Israel is damaging itself through this kind of action," Judelson said.

He told the BBC that many people believed the attacks on Palestinian infrastructure "were less about liberating Cpl Shalit and more about seeking a pretext to over-throw Hamas."

Their petition criticized the response by the US and its allies in calling for restraint as "desperately inadequate."
It was a situation that requires "determined action by the international community," it warned.

"We watch with horror the collective punishment of the people of Gaza. Everything reasonable must be done to secure Corporal Gilad Shalit's safe release but nothing Israel is doing contributes to that aim," it warned.

The Jewish leaders called on the British public to write to their MPs to demand that the UK government breaks its silence and acts "to achieve an immediate ceasefire."
Their community leaders were also urged to write to the Israeli Embassy to "make them understand their actions are wrong, their explanations unconvincing."

Approval was granted during consultations late on Monday between Olmert and defense minister Amir Peretz.

Troops are still massed on the eastern and northern borders of the densely-populated Gaza Strip, as well as stationed east of Gaza City and in the south near a defunct airport.

Olmert was on Tuesday to confer again with military commanders to discuss the offensive, the largest operation since Israel pulled out of Gaza last September.

The prime minister has refused to negotiate with Hamas or free Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 19-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit, vowing that the assault will continue "in places, in time, in measures" at Israel's convenience.

Khaled Meshaal, the exiled political chief of Hamas, which formed a Palestinian government last March, insists that the captured soldier at the heart of the crisis will not be freed without a swap for prisoners jailed in Israel.

"I think that once the Qassam [rocket] shooting will be stopped and the terrorist actions against innocent civilians will be halted altogether, there will be no need for any Israeli action in Gaza," Olmert said.

Aid groups have expressed concern about the difficulties of providing assistance to 1.4 million people living in Gaza following months of financial crisis and the suspension of direct Western aid to the Hamas-led government.

The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it was sending emergency fuel supplies to Gaza through an international mechanism set up to meet basic Palestinian needs after the West cut direct aid to the Hamas-led government.

The fuel, the first aid to flow through the mechanism, was sent to public hospitals for use in generators after the Israeli air force last week destroyed electricity transformers at the only power plant in the territory.

Israel has said that its troops are likely to be in for the long haul, but denied that the offensive aimed to topple the Hamas-led government, boycotted by the West and whose offices have been directly targeted in the operation.

Hamas' armed wing claims to be holding the soldier, along with two other militant groups, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Army of Islam, since the conscript was abducted during an attack on an army post on June 25.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was due to arrive in the region on Tuesday for separate talks with Olmert and Abbas on a trip that he hopes will help calm tensions.

Israel has launched several attacks on Gaza, bombing its main university and firing missiles that have killed Palestinian bystanders.

This follows the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinians.

"We see no justification for this attack," said Palestinian ambassador to South Africa Ali Hamileh.

He said while the whole world was talking about one Israeli soldier, more than 10 000 Palestinians were being kept in Israeli jails.

"My leadership made it clear ... the soldier can be released immediately if Israel responds to mediation. The demand for exchange of prisoners is justified by international law. We are not demanding something unacceptable," he said.

Professor of political science Virginia Tilley said South Africa was one of the only places where a vision had been brought forward to address collective punishment of perceived inferiority.

"I can't imagine a better beacon in that struggle than this country and it has stood back. If there is any moral authority in South Africa, it must come into play now," she said.

Madisha said Israel should be seen as an apartheid state and the same sanctions must be applied that were established against South Africa.

In the last week, these three leading US papers all also published editorials strongly supporting Israel's right to "retaliate" after the capture of an Israeli soldier. Their editorials never mentioned a single element of Israel's brutal 10 month siege on Gaza. In a reminder of The Washington Post's editorial advocacy of the Iraq war, The Post took the most belligerent position, applauding Israeli "restraint" and approving an Israeli overthrow of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. Although the major newspapers have published some good articles reporting Palestinians' views in the last days, their overall bias towards Israel has been glaring.

On July 2 Ehud Olmert told his cabinet that, "I want nobody to sleep at night in Gaza. I want them to know what it's like" in Israel's communities near Gaza that have been hit by Palestinian Qassam rockets. His statement referred directly to Israel's practices of waking Palestinians in the middle of the night by repeatedly flying jets overhead that create sonic booms, and of shelling Gaza at night. Additionally, Israel keeps Gazans awake at night with worry about poverty, siege, imminent attack, and lack of electricity, water, fuel and food. Olmert's statement was widely reported in the Israeli media, and by the Associated Press, The Chicago Tribune, The International Herald Tribune, and the UK's Guardian, among others. A google news search for his quote yields 279 articles, mostly from newspaper websites around the US. Some of these papers undoubtedly printed this story.

Yet there was no hint of Olmert's words in LA Times or Washington Post. The New York Times' coverage is more interesting. New York Times' correspondents Steven Erlanger and Ian Fisher reported the quote in an on-line article that was also published in the International Herald Tribune. However, the quote never appeared in the Times' print edition. The Times' editors seem to have decided that Olmert's words were not "fit to print," and deleted them from their journalists' report. The conspicuous absence of such a widely reported and telling quote raises the possibility that the leading US papers actively avoid printing information that makes Israel look too obviously bad.

What is certain is that the leading US papers generally omit the frameworks of human rights and international law as well as related concepts like collective punishment, and proportionality, all of which have been consistently violated by Israel. On July 3, the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem specifically criticized Olmert's statement, saying that, "The use of sonic booms flagrantly breaches a number of provisions of international humanitarian law. The most significant provision is the prohibition on collective punishment. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention... categorically states that "Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited." In addition to criticizing sonic booms, Human Rights Watch noted on June 29 that "The laws of war prohibit attacks on "objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population." Israel's attack on Gaza's only power plant is in violation of its obligation to safeguard such objects from attack."

Though collective punishment of Palestinians has historically been a cornerstone of Israeli policy, and characterizes Israel's siege of Gaza, the US' three leading papers have used the phrase "collective punishment" just four times since heightened crisis began on June 25. Each paper cited the same statement by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas once, and The New York Times also quoted a Palestinian grocery store owner. These same newspapers printed the phrase "collective punishment" a combined total of only six other times this year in their reporting on Israel/Palestine. Since June 25 those papers used the words "terrorism" or "terrorist" 28 times to describe Palestinians, while using "occupation" only six times to describe Israeli actions. Citations of the illegality of Israeli settlements, the Wall, home demolitions, detention of Palestinians, and many other measures are similarly rare. While these newspapers do document the humanitarian crises that Palestinians endure, they generally avoid suggesting that Palestinians have rights like Israelis, or that there is an accepted body of law that should be applied not just to Palestinian attacks, but also to Israeli actions.

Similarly, in taking positions on the current crisis, these newspapers' editorial boards completely erased Israel's most recent human rights violations. All three papers blamed only Hamas. The New York Times June 29 editorial noted "reckless Hamas provocations," and The Washington Post's July 1 editorial "Hamas's War" highlighted Hamas' "acts of terrorism and war." Writing as if history began with the June 25 capture of the Israeli soldier and the Palestinian attack materialized from thin air, none of their editorials even hints at Israel's disproportionate violence - Israel's 39 year military occupation; the 176 Palestinians killed in 2006, many of them civilians and children, compared to 16 Israelis killed; 8300 Israeli shells launched into Gaza this year compared with 840 Palestinian rockets launched towards Israel; on-going Israeli land seizure; or Israel's tightening siege of Gaza. Only The New York Times mentioned that Hamas was now breaking a unilateral 16 month truce. Israeli newspaper editorials have been more nuanced and balanced than these US editorials.

None of the editorials noted that Palestinians killed and captured Israeli soldiers implementing a siege of Gaza. None noted the irony that Palestinians were holding a single Israeli soldier prisoner, while Israel is holding 9,000 Palestinian prisoners, many civilians held without due process, and some enduring torture. In a sentence that could have been drafted by an Israeli government PR firm, The Post's editors wrote that "the militants' demand that Israel release Palestinian prisoners it has legally arrested in exchange for a soldier who was attacked while guarding Israeli territory."

After rationalizing Israel's arrest of 60 Hamas leaders, many of them Palestinian Authority Ministers and elected members of the Palestinian parliament, The Post's editors then downplayed Israel's destruction of an electric plant that provides half of Gaza's power. In a final outrage that combined both blindness towards Israeli violence and complete disregard for international law, The Post's July 1 editorial recommended that the Arab States and the UN stop "fulminating about supposed Israeli war crimes."

Once again, Israeli government spin overpowers the Palestinian narrative, and human rights and international law are belittled. These examples illustrate how the US corporate media is actively shaping the information reported to the US public to Israel's advantage, and promoting the view that Hamas and Palestinian terrorism are the sole problem in Israel/Palestine. Without more balanced reporting from establishment media outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post and LA Times, US policy and public opinion on Israel/Palestine are also unlikely to become much more balanced. The need for media activism on Israel/Palestine is more vital than ever.

On early Tuesday, the Israel Air Force targeted a group of Palestinian militants near the Karni crossing between Israel and northern Gaza, seriously wounding two militants in farmland close to the town of Beit Hanun.

Meanwhile, Israeli warplane fired a missile at a bridge near Beit Hanun in a bid to prevent Palestinian militants from transporting rockets into areas where they are launched at Israel.

Over 50 Palestinians including civilians have been killed since the start of the offensive on June 28 in a bid to free an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants and halt Palestinian rocket attacks.

He also rejected international criticism, especially from the European Union, of Israel's offensive in Gaza.

Ehud Olmert said: "I don't know any democratic government in the world- one, one-those who support us and those who preach to us, that would have sat and done nothing when a thousand missiles are shot at their innocent civilians in the heart of the country."

Israeli forces launched their offensive after Palestinian gunmen abducted Corporal Gilad Shalit in a raid into Israel on June 25.

Israel has rejected calls for a prisoners swap for the release of the captured soldier.

On Sunday, Olmert also rebuffed the possibility of a truce raised by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

A Fatah official said the military attacks undermine efforts to end the standoff peacefully, and civilians are paying the price.

Saeb Erekat, Fatah Official & Chief Negotiator said: "Gaza is without food, without fuel, without water, without electricity-Gaza is going down the drain with 1.3 million people towards a human catastrophe that may include the spread of diseases."

The latest violence in the Gaza Strip has so far killed about 50 people, including 20 Palestinian civilians.

Referring to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority (PA) administration, Olmert added, "This is the first time in modern history that there is a whole government that is a terrorist government."

The prime minister made it very clear - Israel will not negotiate with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority (PA) administration. Olmert's position enjoys the support of his cabinet, rejecting critics who are demanding he enter into talks towards obtaining the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit. Olmert explained to his ministers at the Sunday morning weekly cabinet meeting that entering into talks with Hamas will only serve to encourage additional kidnappings in the future. He announced that the ongoing military operation will stop after Shalit is released, without precondition, and after the Kassam rocket fire into southern Israel is halted, rejecting any attempt to justify the unprovoked attacks against Israeli population centers.

Regarding strong anti-Israel statements released by the European Union (EU), the prime minister questioned how one can measure fear and trepidation, anxiety and panic, referring to Sderot and area residents who live with the constant fear of rocket attacks.

"When was the last time that the European community condemned this shooting, the rockets, and suggested effective measures to stop it?" he questioned, also rejecting United Nations accusations that Israel is trampling the human rights of Palestinian Authority (PA) residents.

Senior IDF officials stated earlier in the week that Gazan-based terrorists are intentionally operating from within civilian areas, well-aware Israeli retaliatory actions will result in civilian casualties.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz earlier in the week stated Israel's military operation is a moral one; one that followed Israel's exhausting all other possibilities to bring an end to rocket attacks. Peretz too rejected accusations of human rights violations, declaring the IDF operates on a standard of morality that is unique, one that is higher than other armies of the world.

Olmert continues to release statements that his administration will not negotiate with terrorists, calling on Hamas leaders in Syria to order the immediate and unconditional release of the captive soldier, and the halt of rocket attacks or face the consequences.

In northern Gaza, the IDF operation continues, with daily air force strikes against terror cells and infrastructure, as efforts continue to create a buffer zone in the area, seeking to place southern Israeli communities out of range of the Kassam rockets.

Further complicating the operation are new improved rockets, with a range of over 10 kilometers (6 miles), with terrorists already succeeding in striking targets as far north as Ashkelon.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt-General Dan Halutz and other members of the General Staff have already announced the operation is open-ended, and it will continue until the objectives are achieved.

Efforts to elicit UN Security Council condemnations against Israel have been foiled, as the US has indicated any such resolution would be vetoed. The UN Human Rights Organization however was less sympathetic, condemning Israel's ongoing counter-terror operation.

In the meantime, there is no new information regarding Shalit, who has been in terrorist captivity since June 25. He was taken hostage during the Kerem Shalom terror attack which claimed the lives of an officer and a soldier. Reports state that Shalit, who was wounded during the terror attack, has received medical treatment. Hamas and other terror organizations involved announced there would be no further statements on the soldier's condition until such time Israel agrees to enter into negotiations towards a prisoner release deal.

Olmert repeated his stance on Monday while speaking to foreign reporters for the first time since Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas-led militants on June 25.

"To negotiate with Hamas today, to surrender to their demands and to trade off prisoners with Cpl. Shalit means that you don't need more moderate guys like Abou Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] who is opposed to terror, because at the end of the day the upper hand will always be that of the terrorists and the killers and those who support violence," said Olmert.

At a press conference in Damascus, Syria, on Monday, Hamas' exiled leader Khaled Mashaal said Shalit would be kept alive and treated as a prisoner of war until Palestinian prisoners currently detained in Israel were freed.

"The solution is simple: swap," Mashaal said. "But Israel rejects this. The mediators in Europe know this, but they are incapable. Israel thinks it will bring the soldier back by escalation, but it is [deluded]."

Abbas, who has condemned the abduction, had sent envoys to meet with Mashaal on the weekend to try to come up with a solution to the crisis.

While the public declarations continued, Israeli air strikes killed four militants and at least three civilians on Monday. The Israeli army said most of the air strikes were aimed at rocket launchers in northern Gaza.

'Absolutely determined'

Olmert said Israel is not interested in toppling the Palestinian government and still plans to withdraw from most of the West Bank by 2010.

"I haven't changed my basic commitment to the realignment plan," he said. "I am absolutely determined to carry out the separation from the Palestinians and establish secure borders."

Since the abduction, Israel has arrested Hamas cabinet ministers and threatened to assassinate top officials.

More than 60 Palestinians have been killed since an Israeli air and ground offensive was launched in response to the abduction.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said in statements made Friday and Saturday that Israel should stop its military operations in Gaza for humanitarian reasons, pointing to air strikes that affected Palestinian hospitals, as well as water and sanitation plants.

Olmert maintained Monday that 70 per cent of people in Gaza still have power and that a power station had been targeted to prevent Shalit's abductors from moving him through the crossing out of Gaza.

Starbucks, through the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah, an international network of Jewish education centres, sponsors Israeli military arms fairs in an effort to strengthen the special connection between the American, European and Israeli defense industries and to showcase the newest Israeli innovations in defense. As my contribution to the fight against the global rise of anti-Semitism, the reason behind the current conflict in the Middle-East, I help Aish HaTorah sponsoring the website "honestreporting.com" and produce material informing of Israel's side of the story.

Without you, my valued customer, I wouldn't be able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars each year to support Israeli citizens from terrorist attacks and keep reminding every Jew in America, to defend Israel at any cost. $5 billion per year from the US government are no way near enough to pay for all the weaponry, bulldozers and security fences needed to protect innocent Israeli citizens from anti-Semitic Muslim terrorism. Corporate sponsorships are essential.

Having the bigger picture in mind, Starbucks have donated a store to the US army to help in the "War on Terror". I cannot emphasise enough, how vital the "War on Terror" is for the continued viability and prospering of the Jewish State.

So next time you feel like chilling out at a Starbucks store, please remember that with every cup you drink at Starbucks you are helping with a noble cause.

Howard Schultz
Chairman & Chief Global Strategist
Starbucks Coffee Stores