Israel

By Ann Wright, retired US Army Reserve Colonel

In a tent in front of Shifa hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza, a sign on the photo of a young child bleeding from wounds from the Israeli attack on Gaza read “Gaza Will Not Die.”

Shifa hospital received hundreds of bodies of those killed and thousands of those wounded during the December 27, 2008-January 18, 2009 22 day attack, invasion and occupation of Gaza by the Israeli military.

Rep. Delahunt has taken a constructive step by introducing a resolution in support of former Senator Mitchell's diplomacy for peace. Supporting this resolution should be a no-brainer - even your Representative can do it. [You can ask your Representative to sign on here; the list of co-sponsors, 50 at this writing, is here.]

NO MORE BLANK CHECK FOR ISRAEL!
Declaration and Signatures Being Sent to President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, and Middle East Envoy Mitchell

By Kathy Kelly

People have asked me, since I returned from Gaza, how people manage? How do they keep going after being traumatized by bombing and punished by a comprehensive state of siege? I wonder myself. I know that whether the loss of life is on the Gazan or the Israeli side of the border, bereaved survivors feel the same pain and misery. On both sides of the border, I think children pull people through horrendous and horrifying nightmares. Adults squelch their panic, cry in private, and strive to regain semblances of normal life, wanting to carry their children through a precarious ordeal.

Day 2 in Gaza: Ann’s diary
Posted by Ann Wright

Medea Benjamin, Tighe Barry and I (retired Col. Ann Wright) arrived Jan. 29 in Cairo for a 10-day trip to Gaza, but only spent two days there before Egyptian authorities ordered all foreigners to leave by Feb. 5. But we called for an opening of the borders, were shown the Egyptian-Gazan underground tunnels, met with women’s aid groups to organize a fundraising effort for the women of Gaza for March 8, International Women’s Day. Here’s my account of Day 2 in Gaza:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Addresses European Parliament

In a speech to the European Parliament, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told members that Israel needed to be "held responsible for their war crimes." The speech focused entirely on the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza and humanitarian efforts to residents in the area.

26:30 mins.

A Short History of the Israeli - Palestinian Conflict: Past Is Prologue
by Stephen Lendman

Its roots are from the late 19th century when Theodor Herzl founded modern Zionism at the First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland in 1897.

In his book "Overcoming Zionism," Joel Kovel writes:

Zionism seeks "the restoration of tribalism in the guise of a modern, highly militaralized and aggressive state. (It) cut Jews off from (their) history and led to a fateful identity of interests with antisemitism (becoming) the only thing that united them. (It) fell into the ways of imperialist expansion and militarism, and showed signs of the fascist malignancy."

The Other Brother: Hybrid Vigor and Reconciliation
By Gary Corseri

I had the good fortune to be born a hybrid: half Sicilian Catholic and half Ukrainian Jew. Beyond that, I was blessed with parents who let me evolve my own identity in my relationships with the Divine and the human.

On both sides of my family tree there were fools and sages, cynics and dreamers, the myopic and the far seeing, the generous and the greedy. I grew up in a middle class Jewish neighborhood in Queens. On weekends we were far more likely to spend time with my father's rather large extended Sicilian family than with my mother's rather small Jewish family. My friends went to shul and studied for their bar mitzvahs. I went to my best friend's bar mitzvah, and once I went to a Christmas Mass with one of my Italian aunts. I liked the bar mitzvah because I got to drink a little wine. I didn't like the Mass so much because I didn't understand the words and I soon got tired of all the sitting and standing. But I liked my Aunt Sadie's face when she prayed.

A shoe was thrown at Israel s ambassador to Sweden, Benny Dagan, when
he was giving a speech at Stockholm University . The shoe hit its
target. It was followed by two books and a note pad, all hitting the the severely embarrassed ambassador.

WE MUST NOT BE SILENT! WE WILL NOT BE SILENT!

In solidarity with the people of Gaza, who are being forced by the Israeli government to live in inhuman conditions under a brutal occupation, please join us for a 24-hour street protest in front of the offices of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency, which promote and defend Israeli policies.

Thursday, February 12, 9 a.m. - Friday, February 13, 9 a.m.

633 Third Ave (40/41st Sts, east side of Third Ave)

NEW YORK CITY

IT'S NOT THE ROCKETS, IT'S THE OCCUPATION!

JEWS SAY NO TO THE MASSACRE

JEWS SAY NO TO THE BLOCKADE

JEWS SAY NO TO THE OCCUPATION

JEWS SAY YES TO JUSTICE FOR THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

Please come for an hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, or more -- during

the day or night! Allies are encouraged to join us.

Signs and visuals will be available.

NEVER AGAIN: NOT IN GAZA, NOT ANYWHERE

Tomgram: Airport to Nowhere, Waltz with Bashir, Part 2

A pack of ravenous dogs, a nightmare, a visit from a war-haunted friend, this was how film director Ari Folman's period as an Israeli "grunt" in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon first returned to him. But when he began to search for his own memories of that war, what he found instead was a puzzling, disturbing blank.

Tentatively setting off in pursuit of those missing memories, horrors buried for almost a quarter of a century, he launched himself on a path that would lead to his award-winning, Oscar-nominated animated film, Waltz with Bashir, and to a stunning accompanying graphic memoir that will soon be in bookstores.

Its publisher, Metropolitan Books, has given TomDispatch the exclusive right to post two long excerpts just before official publication. The first of these appeared last Saturday (and can be viewed here).

Now, in part 2 of Waltz with Bashir, we pick up Folman's story just after he has managed to reconstruct his first days at war. In the stunning, unnerving 24 pages that follow, he begins to restore to memory his arrival in Beirut and the events that will ultimately lead him to the dark, shattering center of what he has forgotten: the horror of the massacre of Palestinians in Beirut's Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

Like the film, this is a book that simply must be experienced. Unfortunately, given recent events, it also couldn't be more of the moment. When asked by a Washington Post reporter, how it feels to have his film released in the U.S. "just as Israel is at war again, this time in Gaza," Folman responded: "There is a constant conflict, you know, so it's always happening again. This film is always being updated. It is always relevant to current events."

He's right. It couldn't be more relevant or more thoughtful and penetrating on war trauma and memory.

Read it here.

NBC's Andrea Mitchell is reporting that Dennis Ross "will be coming back to the State Department as a "strategic advisor" on the near east and gulf region":

He will not be described as an envoy negotiating agreements and will not be involved in Middle East talks. That job will be up to former Sen. George Mitchell, who returns tonight from his first "listening tour" of the region.

But before the papers are signed for Ross' new employment with the US government, he should be asked a few questions about his relationship with the "Jewish People Policy Planning Institute," that group's relationship to the Government of Israel, and whether he has had any relationships which he should have disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Valentines for Palestine

4:52 mins.

Is Peace Out of Reach? - After watching video, please click "Read more" for action you can take. Bob Simon needs to hear from you!

Watch CBS Videos Online

13:09 mins.

Ceasefires, Israeli-Style
by Stephen Lendman

Waging war while talking peace is customary Israeli practice. On January 19, Haaretz headlined: "Israel declares unilateral cease-fire. The security cabinet last night authorized a unilateral cease-fire (to take effect) at 2AM (Sunday morning), ending three weeks of intense fighting."

Declaration notwithstanding, nothing changed. Gaza remains occupied, under siege, and totally isolated. Borders are still closed. On January 28, The New York Times said "truckloads of humanitarian aid" are stuck in Egypt because of Israeli and Cairo restrictions. Little can get in, and attacks merely downshifted to a lower gear.

Gaza farmers devastated by war

2:26 mins.

Obama Authorizes $20 Million in Aid to Gaza Palestinians | VOA News

A U.S. official says President Barack Obama has authorized more aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to help them recover from damage caused during a recent Israeli offensive.

U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell said Friday in Jerusalem that Mr. Obama has approved $20 million in emergency food and medical assistance for Gaza.

Gaza War Ended in Utter Failure for Israel
By Gideon Levy | Haaretz

On the morrow of the return of the last Israeli soldier from Gaza, we can determine with certainty that they had all gone out there in vain. This war ended in utter failure for Israel.

This goes beyond the profound moral failure, which is a grave matter in itself, but pertains to its inability to reach its stated goals. In other words, the grief is not complemented by failure. We have gained nothing in this war save hundreds of graves, some of them very small, thousands of maimed people, much destruction and the besmirching of Israel's image.

What seemed like a predestined loss to only a handful of people at the onset of the war will gradually emerge as such to many others, once the victorious trumpeting subsides.

By PressTV

The Iranian cabinet introduces a bill to take action on individuals accused of war crimes amid a seeming ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

The cabinet of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad laid out details of the bill on Sunday, discussing methods to track down and prosecute individuals accused of committing or issuing the order for war crimes.

Under the newly-introduced bill, launching a military offensive, killing civilians, employment of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), laying a siege to civilians and military personnel and imposing food shortages on them are regarded as war crimes.

Individuals charged with committing or ordering such crimes, depending on the extent of their involvement, would be sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison by an Iranian court or would face execution.

By www.democracynow.org

AMY GOODMAN: President Obama has dispatched George Mitchell on his first trip as Middle East envoy. Mitchell is set to begin in Egypt today, followed by Israel, the occupied West Bank, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Speaking at the White House, Obama said Mitchell will be charged with bringing about “genuine progress.”

Israel: Boycott, Divest, Sanction
By Naomi Klein | The Nation

Note: This article was originally published January 7, 2009 while the Israeli assault on Gaza was still raging. Although the incursion is now over, the tactic to prevent Israeli aggression is noteworthy, so it's republished here despite the dated references in the article.

It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.

In July 2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups laid out plans to do just that. They called on "people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era." The campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions--BDS for short--was born.

Tomgram: Sandy Tolan, Five Questions for George Mitchell | TomDispatch.com

In the latest issue of the Nation magazine, Jonathan Schell has written a piece, "Obama and the Return of the Real", that should stand as a manifesto for sanity in our times. In it, he considers just how self-inflicted our present catastrophic situation, from economic meltdown to foreign policy disaster, actually is. Of Iraq, for instance, he comments, "The invasion... was the American empire's self-inflicted wound -- a disaster of choice, so to speak. All we had to do to escape it was not to do it. Here and elsewhere, the work of our own hands rises up to strike us." He also considers the unnerving way in which we have "been cannibalizing the future to provision the present. Though we are not killing our children directly, we are spending their money, eating their food, cutting down their cherry orchards."

A Window for Israel/Palestine Peace?
By Robert Naiman | Huffington Post

"Jewish Voice for Peace and Just Foreign Policy have launched a campaign asking Americans to urge President Obama to change the direction of U.S. policy towards Israel and the Palestinians. You can add your voice here."

If you want to be discouraged about the prospects for Israel/Palestine peace during the Obama Administration, you don't have any shortage of evidence you can cite; you never do. But if you want to look for openings, the situation already looks much better than it did just over a week ago. Is there a "window" for peace? If so, are Americans ready to push the Obama Administration for the changes needed in U.S. policy to bring peace about?

If you want to be discouraged about the prospects for Israel/Palestine peace during the Obama Administration, you don't have any shortage of evidence you can cite; you never do. But if you want to look for openings, the situation already looks much better than it did just over a week ago. Is there a "window" for peace? If so, are Americans ready to push the Obama Administration for the changes needed in U.S. policy to bring peace about?

Israel had to end its bombardment of Gaza by the January 20 "hope and change deadline," as Jon Stewart had predicted.

President Obama appointed former Senator Mitchell as his envoy for Israel/Palestine diplomacy. It is widely perceived that Mitchell will be fair - you might think that this would be an obvious requirement, but in the recent history of U.S. policy, it would be an innovation.

Israel Killed Everything but the Will to Resist
by Stephen Lendman

" 'Freedom or death', is the popular Palestinian mantra," wrote Palestine Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Ramzy Baroud in his January 22 article titled "Breaking Gaza's Will: Israel's Enduring Fantasy."

Three weeks of Israeli terror caused about 1400 deaths, over 5500 injured (many seriously), vast destruction throughout Gaza, and Physicians for Human Rights warning that large numbers of wounded may die because hospitals are overloaded and lack basic supplies. Yet Palestinians endure. Their spirit is unbowed and unbroken. Hamas is more popular than ever, and world outrage sustains them.

Gaza Villages Wiped Off The Map

8:21 mins.

Human Rights Dialogue in the Gaza Debate
By Clare Garvie | Columbia Spectator

The human rights framework has been given a prominent role in what is perhaps today’s most intractable and contentious debate—that which surrounds the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Human rights can be found, explicit or implied, within the foundation and supporting evidence of many arguments on both sides of the debate. Appeals to human rights are passionately and persuasively used to condemn the actions of the opponent and justify the position of the favored side. The appeals are often underscored by heartbreaking narratives and photographs that grace the daily news.

Waltz with Bashir, Part I | TomDispatch.com

As a 19-year-old Israeli soldier, Ari Folman took part in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and was on duty in Beirut during the notorious massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. Just a week ago, Waltz with Bashir, the animated documentary film Folman directed in which he explores his own nightmarish, half-suppressed memories of that period, was given its first underground screening in Lebanon -- not far, in fact, from Hezbollah headquarters in southern Beirut -- though the film is officially banned in that country. It has also been screened in Palestinian Ramallah and is reportedly soon to be shown in the Arab Gulf states. It has already won six Israeli Academy Awards, best foreign film at the Golden Globes, and is now nominated for an Oscar as best foreign film.

At this moment, when the Israeli assault on Gaza has ended in catastrophic destruction and death, director Folman's remarkable voyage -- he calls it a "bad acid trip" -- into the oblivion of war trauma and the horrific recent history of the Middle East is as stunning, moving, and unnerving an experience as anything you'll see this year, or perhaps any year. A no less remarkable graphic memoir, Waltz with Bashir, was developed in tandem with the film. It will be in your bookstores in a couple of weeks, but can be ordered in advance by clicking here. Not surprisingly, the book and film have some of the impact that the first "graphic novel," Art Spiegelman's MAUS, had when it came out in 1986, and that assessment comes from the fellow -- me, to be exact -- who published MAUS back then.

The single best piece on Waltz with Bashir and its relevance to the recent invasion of Gaza was written by Gary Kamiya of Salon.com. He concludes: "Of course, Israel's moral culpability for the 1982 massacre [in Sabra and Shatila] is not the same as its moral responsibility for the civilians killed in the current war. But there are painful similarities. Sooner or later the patriotic war fervor will fade, and Israelis will realize that their leaders sent them to kill hundreds of innocent people for nothing. And perhaps in 2036, some haunted filmmaker will release 'Waltz With Hamas.'"

Given the power and timeliness of this thoughtful, dreamlike memoir from a living hell, it's a particular honor for TomDispatch to be releasing two long excerpts, exclusively, over the next two Saturdays. Thanks go to Metropolitan Books, the book's publisher, for allowing it to happen. I hope what follows stuns and intrigues you. Keep an eye out for part 2 next Saturday. Tom

"We Will Not Go Down" by Michael Heart

3:10 mins.

Breaking Gaza’s Will: Israel’s Enduring Fantasy
By Ramzy Baroud | Middle East Online

Isn't 60 years of suffering and survival enough to convince Olmert that the will of the Palestinians cannot be broken? How many heaps of wreckage and mutilated bodies will be enough to convince the prime minister that those who fight for their freedom will either be free or will die trying? Asks Ramzy Baroud.

My three-year-old son Sammy walked into my room uninvited as I sorted through another batch of fresh photos from Gaza.

I was looking for a specific image, one that would humanise Palestinians as living, breathing human beings, neither masked nor mutilated. But to no avail.