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The chaotic and desperate situation in Gaza the media won't show you


Comment: Powerful video showing the ferocity of Israeli air-strikes and use of white phosphorus on the Gazan population. (Larger video at source)


Heart - Black

Alan Dershowitz - analyzing the devil's advocate

 Alan Dershowitz
Ethnic cleansing advocate Alan Dershowitz is not at all happy. He is devastated by the media and international community's failure to distinguish between the Israeli military and 'Hamas terrorists' (this is how he refers to Palestinian freedom fighters). Last week, Haaretz lent its pages to the Talmudic spin-meister - and I was delighted because Dershowitz' arguments throw new light on the depths of Jewish ideological and political morbidity.

"As Hamas continues to target Israeli civilians in their homes, Israel continues to target terrorist leaders and other legitimate military targets." It seems that Dershowitz has found the magic formula that distinguishes between the 'Jew' and the 'Goy' in this conflict. The Jew is always a 'civilian' who happens to be a 'victim', while the dozens of babies, children and women murdered in the last week by Israel, they must have been 'terrorist leaders'.

Dershowitz argues that the Hamas policy is "designed to sow terror among the Israeli population." This is a peculiar argument. Due to its limited means, Hamas is confined to the use of primitive rockets. If Hamas had cruise missiles at its disposal and still used them to target civilians, then I would be the first to agree with Dershowitz and even support his argument. But the contrary is true: It is the IDF that possesses the most sophisticated weaponry and is capable of targeting military targets with precise, even astonishing accuracy. So, with that in mind, every Palestinian civilian casualty caused by the Jewish state must be counted as an Israeli attempt at massacre and therefore, nothing short of a vile war crime.

Star of David

"Most" killed in Gaza "deserved it" even though they were children and civilians, says Israel's Danny Ayalon

Palestinian medic carries the body
© Majdi Fathi / APA imagesA Palestinian medic carries the body of Abdel Rahman Majdi Naim, 2, who was killed in an Israeli strike on a building housing media offices in Gaza City on 21 November 2012.

In a clear indication of Israel's shocking callousness and disregard for civilian lives, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon today told PRI's The Takeaway that most of those killed and injured in Israel's eight day long bombardment of the Gaza Strip "deserved it."

"If you compare the situation in Gaza to the situation in Syria today," Ayalon said, "where the Assad regime just mercilessly butchers people and children there is a big difference and I would say that most of the people that were hit in Gaza deserved it as they were just armed terrorists."


Vast majority killed and injured are civilians and children

But in fact, the vast majority of those killed and injured were unarmed civilians. Up to 20 November, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 91 of the 136 Palestinians killed were civilians, including 28 children and 13 women, and 922 of the 941 wounded were civilians, including 258 children.

So 66 percent of those killed, and 97 percent of those injured were civilians. Almost one third of the dead are children.

Star of David

Best of the Web: Israeli Chief of Staff: "We will continue to pound Gaza despite truce mediation"

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© sabbah.bizChild killed in Gaza by Israeli rockets
Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Benni Gantz, stated Wednesday that the Israeli army will continue its offensive against the Gaza Strip "as if mediation efforts are not ongoing", and added that the army is following an agenda that will be implemented despite of what happens on the political spectrum.


Gantz held a session with senior Israeli military and security officials to evaluate the current operations against Gaza, and said that the army is bombarding "high value" targets, including Hamas's institutions such as banks, security centers and weapons storage warehouses, in addition to bombarding infrastructure such, as roads and bridges.

He also said that the army fired missiles at fuel pipes that provide Gaza with fuel by running from the Egyptian side into Gaza through the siege-busting tunnels across the border.

Light Sabers

Israel and Hamas agree Gaza ceasefire

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What good is a truce for this terrified population when Israel will just turn around and terrorise them anew with more bombings in a few months or years' time?
Egyptian foreign minister say truce will begin at 19:00 GMT on Wednesday, after eight days of attacks.

The Egyptian foreign minister has announced that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will come into effect at 19:00 GMT on Wednesday.

Mohamed Kamel Amr thanked all parties involved in brokering the truce as he made the announcement in a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Israeli sources said Israel had agreed to the truce but would not lift its blockade on the Palestinian territory.

Meanwhile, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip continued for an eighth day, as diplomatic efforts were under way to secure a ceasefire.

At least a dozen people were killed in Gaza on Wednesday, according to medical officials, bringing the death toll to a total of 149 since Israel's military operation was launched. A two-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl were among those killed.

Israel said it struck more than 100 targets, including a cluster of Hamas government buildings.

Propaganda

The propaganda machine in action: Israel presses Internet PR campaign over Gaza

Israel propaganda machine
© Latuff
The Israeli government is trying to pre-empt a publicity pounding over its Gaza offensive by aggressively pushing out its version of events, furiously tweeting and Facebook posting updates from a "media bunker."

The instant they heard about a bus bombing in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, scores of tech-savvy youth in Israel's government media command center in Jerusalem sprang into action.

They began flooding social media with updates and created a graphic exclaiming: "We didn't send in our ground troops, but they sent in theirs! (at)IsraelUnderFire."

In an operation attached to Israel's press office, hundreds of volunteers produce and post instant videos and graphics about the latest twists in the Gaza offensive from Israel's point of view. Its Facebook site, "Israel Under Fire," has gained more than 24,000 "likes" over the last week.

Israel began its campaign of airstrikes in Gaza last week following months of rocket fire from Gaza-based Palestinian militants. More than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed in the violence.

Comment: Speaking of the Elders of Zion, in the Psychopaths' Protocols they write:
12.5 If already now we have contrived to possess ourselves of the minds of the GOY communities to such an extent the they all come near looking upon the events of the world through the colored glasses of those spectacles we are setting astride their noses.



Newspaper

Best of the Web: The 'both-sides-are-awful' dismissal of Gaza ignores the key role of the U.S. government

Netanyahu & Clinton
© Baz Ratner/ReutersBirds of a feather: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton deliver joint statements in Jerusalem. Israel would not be able to commit the murders and human rights violations that it does, if it wasn't for the financial and all-around support from the US government
The temptation to wash one's hands of the whole conflict is understandable, but US support of Israel is a central force driving it all

Everything about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict follows the same pattern over and over, including the reaction of Americans. In the first couple of days after a new round of violence breaks out, there is intense interest and passion, which is quickly replaced by weariness, irritation, and even anger that one has to be bothered by this never-ending, always-ugly and seemingly irresolvable conflict. These sentiments then morph into an attempt to separate oneself from the entire matter by declaring both sides to be equally horrendous and thus washing one's hands from any responsibility for thinking further about it ("I'm sick of both sides"), followed by recriminations against anyone who actually has an opinion that is more supportive of one side than the other.

Esquire's Charles Pierce, one of the nation's best political writers, provided a classic case of this mindset yesterday in his post entitled "There Is No Side Worth Taking In Gaza". The crux: "I would like to have an opinion on this continual bloodletting that didn't sound banal but, goddammit, I'm out of them. I am thoroughly sick of both sides here." One encounters a version of this mentality with increasing frequency each day that the violence escalates.

Pistol

India hangs gunman from 2008 Mumbai attack

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© Sebastian D'souza — APIn this Nov. 26, 2008 file photo, Ajmal Kasab, one of the accused gunmen, walks at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India.
India executed the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai terror attack early Wednesday, four years after Pakistani gunmen blazed through India's financial capital, killing 166 people and throwing relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors into a tailspin.

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani citizen, was hung in secrecy at a jail in Pune, a city near Mumbai, after Indian President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his plea for clemency.

News of the execution was widely cheered in India, with political parties organizing public celebrations and some people setting off firecrackers. But for those more deeply touched by the events of 26/11, as the attack is known here, the hanging offered only a partial catharsis.

"This is an incomplete justice as the masterminds and main handlers of 26/11 are still absconding," said Kavita Karkare, the widow of Hemant Karkare, the chief of Mumbai's anti-terrorism squad who was killed while pursuing Kasab. "They should also be hanged."

Comment: What chance the ringleaders and their handlers will ever meet justice?

Mumbai terror suspect David Headley was 'rogue US secret agent'


Stop

Egypt announces Hamas-Israel ceasefire, Netanyahu office confirms

breaking news
Egypt's foreign minister has announced that a ceasefire in Gaza will begin at 19:00 GMT Wednesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that a deal had been reached.

Earlier, Israeli sources said the siege of Gaza will not be lifted despite the truce, Al Jazeera reported.­

Rumors about an imminent truce have been circulating in the media for a while.

On Tuesday, Hamas official Ayman Taha announced that an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire was to be declared in Gaza at 19:00 GMT and would go into effect at 22:00 GMT the same night. Shortly after the announcement, Israel said a ceasefire deal was yet to be finalized.

Also on Tuesday, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi expressed certainty that Gaza and Israel would shortly reach a ceasefire, but did not elaborate on the matter.

Comment: More than 150 Palestinians have been killed and some 1,200 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza so far. How long will this ceasefire last?


Che Guevara

Al Jazeera Cairo office firebombed by Egyptian protesters

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Egyptian protesters firebombed one of the offices of satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera on Wednesday and attacked a police chief who tried to negotiate an end to three days of violent protests in central Cairo.

The protesters hit the studio overlooking Tahrir Square with Molotov cocktails, engulfing it in flames. In a televised interview from inside the gutted office, reporter Ahmed el-Dassouki said around 300 protesters approached the building before noon, shouting obscenities.

He said they set the place on fire, stormed the building, and looted the studio. "They accuse our network of being biased and not objective," he said. Many protesters had accused the channel of supporting the country's most powerful political force, the Muslim Brotherhood.