http://www.sott.net Signs of the Times, featuring news and commentary on world events. Never wavering in our unending search for the light of truth in a pathocracy driven world! en-us Original content Copyright 2009 by Signs of the Times. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:38:12 -0500 http://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net http://www.sott.net http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172539-Israel-fires-five-rockets-into-Lebanon-in-retaliation-for-Lebanon-s-defense-of-its-airspace Tel Aviv has fired five rockets into Lebanon, claiming that the assault was in retaliation for rocket attacks on its northern towns. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172539-Israel-fires-five-rockets-into-Lebanon-in-retaliation-for-Lebanon-s-defense-of-its-airspace Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:13:55 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172535-Israeli-Occupied-Senate-to-Consider-AIPAC-Resolution-Endorsing-War-against-Gaza The Senate could consider as early as today a resolution promoted by AIPAC intended to effectively endorse the continuation of the Israeli military assault in Gaza. (You can find the text of the draft resolution on AIPAC's web page.) http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172535-Israeli-Occupied-Senate-to-Consider-AIPAC-Resolution-Endorsing-War-against-Gaza Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:02:38 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172518-Israel-Created-Hamas-to-Split-Palestine Israel's False Flag Operations Know No Bounds One thing that truly made me ill while perusing the photos of the world-wide anti-Israel protests in the last few days is the repeated use of Hamas flags/posters, as if Hamas is somehow fighting for the freedom of the Palestinians. Give me a god damn break... For those unaware, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority were the government of Palestine until the Israelis invaded, only leaving in 2005, when Hamas had been secured in power. And hey presto! they are still the ruling party in Palestine! Not only that, but all the Hamas fighters have (wisely) holed up and hidden themselves in anticipation of the Israeli massacre. Gee, how very convenient for them that the Israelis are content with killing 1.3 million civilians (the population of Gaza)... The Israeli Mossad (their CIA) created Hamas in 1987, with the frontmen Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, because, as Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says: "Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172518-Israel-Created-Hamas-to-Split-Palestine Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:21:44 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172514-War-and-Natural-Gas-The-Israeli-Invasion-and-Gaza-s-Offshore-Gas-Fields The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves. This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline. British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon's Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority. The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). (Haaretz, October 21, 2007). http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172514-War-and-Natural-Gas-The-Israeli-Invasion-and-Gaza-s-Offshore-Gas-Fields Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:52:46 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172513-Israel-s-Monopoly-on-Psychological-Suffering Hello, brave Israeli airman. What's it like, firing missiles at people you can't see? Does it help to keep saying that you are not deliberately targeting civilians? Does this enable you to sleep well at night or do you have nightmares of the women and children you killed, in their homes, in their beds, in their kitchens and living rooms, in their schools and markets and mosques? What do you feel when the mission is over? That you did a good job? Would you still think that you had done a good job if you were made to look at the dead and dismembered bodies that are your particular contribution to the Middle East 'peace process'? http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172513-Israel-s-Monopoly-on-Psychological-Suffering Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:50:54 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172510-The-Real-Estate-War-in-Gaza The History and "Morals" of Ethnic Cleansing I arrived in Israel 40 years ago. It took me many years to understand that the very existence of my country, as it is today, is based on an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The project started many years ago. Its seed can be traced to the basic fallacy of the Zionist movement, which set out to establish a Jewish-national state in a location already inhabited by another nation. Under these conditions, one has, at most, a moral right to strive for a bi-national state; establishing a national state implies, more or less by definition, ethnic cleansing of the previous inhabitants. Albert Einstein grasped this fallacy a long time ago. A short time after WWI "Einstein complained that the Zionists were not doing enough to reach agreement with the Palestinian Arabs...He favored a binational solution in Palestine and warned Chaim Weizmann against ' 'Prussian style' nationalism"[1] http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172510-The-Real-Estate-War-in-Gaza Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:03:42 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172370-Robert-Fisk-Why-do-they-hate-the-West-so-much-we-will-ask So once again, Israel has opened the gates of hell to the Palestinians. Forty civilian refugees dead in a United Nations school, three more in another. Not bad for a night's work in Gaza by the army that believes in "purity of arms". But why should we be surprised? Have we forgotten the 17,500 dead - almost all civilians, most of them children and women - in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon; the 1,700 Palestinian civilian dead in the Sabra-Chatila massacre; the 1996 Qana massacre of 106 Lebanese civilian refugees, more than half of them children, at a UN base; the massacre of the Marwahin refugees who were ordered from their homes by the Israelis in 2006 then slaughtered by an Israeli helicopter crew; the 1,000 dead of that same 2006 bombardment and Lebanese invasion, almost all of them civilians? What is amazing is that so many Western leaders, so many presidents and prime ministers and, I fear, so many editors and journalists, bought the old lie; that Israelis take such great care to avoid civilian casualties. "Israel makes every possible effort to avoid civilian casualties," yet another Israeli ambassador said only hours before the Gaza massacre. And every president and prime minister who repeated this mendacity as an excuse to avoid a ceasefire has the blood of last night's butchery on their hands. Had George Bush had the courage to demand an immediate ceasefire 48 hours earlier, those 40 civilians, the old and the women and children, would be alive. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172370-Robert-Fisk-Why-do-they-hate-the-West-so-much-we-will-ask Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:54:21 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172500-Brainwashing-the-masses-Israeli-media-focus-on-Hamas-rockets-keep-gore-to-a-minimum Coverage is also heavy on soldiers and their families, emotional issues in a country with mandatory military service and thousands of reservists in combat. Reporting from Jerusalem -- There's no visceral wartime imagery; details on injured Israeli soldiers are handled delicately. Bloody scenes such as the carnage after Tuesday's shelling of a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip appear only in snippets, and often in the context of analysis as to how the world will react. There is, however, round-the-clock coverage of the Israeli south, where rockets fired by Gazan militants have killed three Israeli civilians and injured dozens since the conflict began Dec. 27. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172500-Brainwashing-the-masses-Israeli-media-focus-on-Hamas-rockets-keep-gore-to-a-minimum Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:46:39 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172496-A-Satanic-Genocidal-Israel For years, I have been warning that Israel is psychologically and morally capable of carrying out a holocaust or a genocide against the Palestinian people. Needless to say, the horrible events of the past two weeks in Gaza seem to have enforced and vindicated my convictions in this regard. Israel, government and people, seem to possess the psychological propensity that would make her embark on such a monstrosity. Yes, there is a minority of Israeli Jews and non-Israeli Jews who say "No" to all the evils and crimes Israel is doing in the name of their name. However, let us be honest and realistic. These people are a small minority and have very little influence if any on the Israeli government and army. Today, what many people had thought would be unthinkable or far-fetched in terms of the extent to which Israel would be willing to go in savaging the Palestinian people seems quite possible in light of the Jewish state's Nazi-like behavior in the Gaza Strip. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172496-A-Satanic-Genocidal-Israel Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:14:23 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172487-US-responsible-for-war-on-Gaza- US Congressman Dennis Kucinich lashes out at Washington's arm support for Tel Aviv and Israel's violation of the Arms Export Control Act. Kucinich in a statement on Wednesday lambasted Israel's disproportionate use of force against defenseless people of Gaza with US weapons, paid for by American taxpayers. The disproportionate and collective punishment nature of the attacks on Gaza assure an escalation of conflict in violation of the AECA, the Ohio senator said. In a letter to the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday Kucinich informed the US administration of a violation of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) of 1976. The breach, under AECA law, should result in a Presidential report on the violation. According to the AECA any defense articles sold or leased by the United States must not be used to escalate conflict. "We can not truly celebrate a New Year, a new Congress and a new administration if all we see is the same old destruction in the Middle East with US weapons being illegally used to kill children," Kucinich said in his statement. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172487-US-responsible-for-war-on-Gaza- Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:42:24 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172484-Digging-For-The-Dead-Israeli-terror-attack-on-4-storey-building-in-Gaza-kills-25 Israeli F-16 planes hit a 4-storey apartment building belonging to civilians in Gaza on Tuesday. While the building was razed to the ground, 25 people were killed in the building. Added to LiveLeak January 06, 2009 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172484-Digging-For-The-Dead-Israeli-terror-attack-on-4-storey-building-in-Gaza-kills-25 Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:25:28 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172481-Ban-Ki-moon-avoids-condemning-Israel-over-UN-school-massacre-Mubarak-calls-on-Palestinians-to-stop-defending-themselves Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations has deliberately avoided issuing a condemnation of the Israeli army bombing of an UNRWA school in Gaza city that killed and wounded hundreds of civilians. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172481-Ban-Ki-moon-avoids-condemning-Israel-over-UN-school-massacre-Mubarak-calls-on-Palestinians-to-stop-defending-themselves Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:07:24 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172478-European-diplomacy-in-Gaza-crisis-prepares-trap-for-Palestinians ... [N]o European government has condemned the Israeli aggression and called it by its real name - a war crime. Instead, they have justified the actions carried out by Israel - its 18-month blockade of the population of Gaza, its targeted assassinations of Hamas leaders and its bombardment of the densely populated and virtually defenseless territory - as legitimate acts of self-defense. In appealing for a cease-fire, the European governments are first and foremost pursuing their own geo-political interests. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172478-European-diplomacy-in-Gaza-crisis-prepares-trap-for-Palestinians Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:32:32 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172465-Israeli-Militants-Poised-to-Resettle-Gaza-After-Assault As Israeli troops fight their way into Gaza, scores of determined settlers are prepared to enter in their wake. Israel's "Operation Cast Lead" is reported to have overwhelming support among the Israeli public, but few are as enthusiastic as the former residents of the Israeli settlements in Gaza. As tens of thousands of Israeli troops descend on Gaza in an apocalyptic frenzy, scores of determined settlers are prepared to enter in their wake. Settler activists are counting on their historically strong ties to the Israeli military, with some units composed entirely of settlers, to help in their fight. Indeed, some soldiers and reservists currently in Gaza were there three years ago living in cherished settlement communities. On Monday, an article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz described the bittersweet reactions of soldiers who had lived in Gaza settlements and are now back in uniform, noting, "Some see it as a first step toward returning to their former homes." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172465-Israeli-Militants-Poised-to-Resettle-Gaza-After-Assault Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:12:07 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172463-Claiming-Impartiality-Europe-Leans-Towards-Israel BRUSSELS - In carefully crafted official statements, diplomats have portrayed the European Union as something of an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet even though almost all of the people killed over the past fortnight have been Palestinians, some top-ranking leaders in the 27-country bloc have tacitly offered their support for Israel's bombing and invasion of Gaza. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, the Union's largest country, has stated that Hamas "clearly and exclusively" bore responsibility for the fighting because it had fired Qassam rockets on Israel. The Czech Republic, which took over the EU's rotating presidency Jan. 1, described Israel's actions in Gaza as "more defensive than offensive." Prague subsequently retracted that remark after it emerged that France, the previous holder of the presidency, had a more nuanced position. But while Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has spent much of this week seeking to secure a truce between Hamas and Israel, he too has been eager to develop closer political and economic ties with the Israeli government. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172463-Claiming-Impartiality-Europe-Leans-Towards-Israel Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:02:15 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172454-KBR-Knowingly-Expose-Troops-To-Toxin-in-Iraq The military contractor Kellogg Brown and Root, known as KBR, has won more than $28 billion in U.S. military contracts since the beginning of the Iraq war. KBR may be facing a new scandal. First, accusations its then-parent company Halliburton was given the lucrative contract. And later, allegations of shoddy construction oversight that resulted in Americans getting electrocuted. Now, some other American soldiers say the company knowingly put their lives at risk, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian exclusively reports. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172454-KBR-Knowingly-Expose-Troops-To-Toxin-in-Iraq Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:41:35 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172453-Lawyers-who-advised-torture-should-be-investigated-for-war-crimes-too John Yoo and other lawyers who were involved in developing the Bush administration's interrogation policies have been roundly criticized for the shoddy and controversial nature of their legal advice. And yet even some of the critics have rejected the notion that Yoo and his former colleagues should be investigated for their role in the commission of torture and other war crimes. Writing recently in the Washington Post, Jack Goldsmith, the lawyer (and now law professor) who repudiated much of Yoo's work at the Office of the Legal Counsel, dismissed calls for further probes for fear that government lawyers would become excessively cautious in offering legal advice. The country is better served by moving on, Goldsmith suggested. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172453-Lawyers-who-advised-torture-should-be-investigated-for-war-crimes-too Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:41:12 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172436-Gideon-Levy-And-there-lie-the-bodies The legend, lest it be a true story, tells of how the late mathematician, Professor Haim Hanani, asked his students at the Technion to draw up a plan for constructing a pipe to transport blood from Haifa to Eilat. The obedient students did as they were told. Using logarithmic rulers, they sketched the design for a sophisticated pipeline. They meticulously planned its route, taking into account the landscape's topography, the possibility of corrosion, the pipe's diameter and the flow calibration. When they presented their final product, the professor rendered his judgment: You failed. None of you asked why we need such a pipe, whose blood will fill it, and why it is flowing in the first place. Regardless of whether this story is legend or true, Israel is now failing its own blood pipeline test. As Israel has been preoccupied with Gaza throughout the entire week, nobody has asked whose blood is being spilled and why. Everything is permitted, legitimate and just. The moral voice of restraint, if it ever existed, has been left behind. Even if Israel wiped Gaza off the face of the earth, killing tens of thousands in the process, as a Chechnyan laborer working in Sderot proposed to me, one can assume that there would be no protest. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172436-Gideon-Levy-And-there-lie-the-bodies Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:29:30 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172435-Gazing-at-Gaza-s-Destruction-Israelis-Sip-Pepsi-US-Progressives-See-Silver-Lining- Here we see Israelis in Sderot - the chief target of the homemade bombs which we are told are the cause of the current ravaging of Gaza. These Hamas "terror bombs" are so frighteningly powerful and destructive that no response against them can be "disproportionate," we are told by Israeli and American leaders; everything is justified in "retaliation," including the complete destruction of the social, civic and physical infrastructure of an entire human community, and the killing and terrorizing of innocent people. It's those homemade bombs falling on Sderot, you see; they are such an overwhelming, ever-present, inescapable threat. So threatening, in fact, that some of the Israelis in this picture drove down to Sderot from Jerusalem to sit out in the open air - on a hilltop - in plain sight of the Gaza village from which many of the rockets have been launched, and calmly sip Pepsi as they watch the military action taking place not two miles away. Shouldn't "terror" be made of sterner stuff? Especially terror which merits the widespread slaughter and suffering of innocent people? Could there possibly be some - how to put it? - disconnection between the stated cause of the military action and its true purpose? http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172435-Gazing-at-Gaza-s-Destruction-Israelis-Sip-Pepsi-US-Progressives-See-Silver-Lining- Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:21:27 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172431-Beware-Ceasefires-Israel-Planned-Gaza-Attacks-Six-Months-Ago-While-Negotiating-Ceasefire Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces "Cast Lead" operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, which began Saturday morning. The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172431-Beware-Ceasefires-Israel-Planned-Gaza-Attacks-Six-Months-Ago-While-Negotiating-Ceasefire Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:58:44 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172417-The-Warsaw-Ghetto-Uprising-2009-style-Another-little-girl-in-a-red-coat- Being sick at heart over the slaughter in Gaza, I went to the United States Holocaust Museum's website to see if there was any similarities between the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943 and what is happening in Gaza right now. This is what I found: "Many Jews in ghettos across eastern Europe," stated the website, "tried to organize resistance against the Germans and to arm themselves with smuggled and homemade weapons. Between 1941 and 1943, underground resistance movements formed in about 100 Jewish groups. The most famous attempt by Jews to resist the Germans in armed fighting occurred in the Warsaw ghetto." Does that or does that not sound like what has been happening in Palestine for the last 60 years -- as Palestinians have been continuously and systematically killed, deported and rounded up into camps? I mean seriously. Isn't Gaza today the largest concentration camp in the world? http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172417-The-Warsaw-Ghetto-Uprising-2009-style-Another-little-girl-in-a-red-coat- Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:51:53 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172416-Israel-stocks-gain-8-7-percent-since-Gaza-offensive Investors in Israeli stocks are disregarding a war less than 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from the commercial center in Tel Aviv, helping the TA-25 index rebound from its worst year since 1983, on bets fighting will be limited. The benchmark TA-25 index climbed 8.7 percent since Dec. 27 when Israel began its campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, tracking a global rally. The Standard and Poor's 500 Index gained 6.1 percent in the same period. Israel's index rose 0.9 percent today and 1 percent yesterday even as the government broadened its offensive by sending ground forces into Gaza, and protests in the Muslim world against the invasion spread. Shares also rose in Egypt and the Gulf. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172416-Israel-stocks-gain-8-7-percent-since-Gaza-offensive Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:45:00 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172387-Occupation-101-Voices-of-the-Silenced-Majority The film details life under Israeli military rule, the role of the United States in the conflict, and the major obstacles that stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. The roots of the conflict are explained through first-hand on-the-ground experiences from leading Middle East scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers whose voices have too often been suppressed in American media outlets. The film covers a wide range of topics -- which include -- the first wave of Jewish immigration from Europe in the 1880's, the 1920 tensions, the 1948 war, the 1967 war, the first Intifada of 1987, the Oslo Peace Process, Settlement expansion, the role of the United States Government, the second Intifada of 2000, the separation barrier and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as well as many heart wrenching testimonials from victims of this tragedy. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172387-Occupation-101-Voices-of-the-Silenced-Majority Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:03:25 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172385-Kucinich-Israel-may-be-using-American-weapons-illegally Responding to media reports that Israel had bombed a UN school serving as a refuge for Palestinian civilians, Congressman Dennis Kucinich is calling for a Congressional report on Israel's possibly illegal misuse of US weapons. His letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice follows. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172385-Kucinich-Israel-may-be-using-American-weapons-illegally Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:49:08 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172380-UK-Palestine-For-The-Jews-Official-Sympathy Mr. Balfour has sent the following letter to Lord Rothschild in regard to the establishment of a national home in Palestine for the Jewish people:-- http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172380-UK-Palestine-For-The-Jews-Official-Sympathy Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:25:51 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172375-Trinidad-Where-Are-the-Missing-People- PORT OF SPAIN -Lalman is among a record number of more than 600 people reported missing in this twin-island state last year. Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert insists that there is no evidence "to suggest people are being trafficked". "People just don't disappear into thin air. We know that human trafficking exists, but the police are probably too embarrassed to come out and say so," said MPA chairman Nathifa Mitchell in a statement to the media. "The evidence is there. If there is no human trafficking, as Philbert suggests, then we have a serial killer on our hands. Where have all these missing persons gone?" Mitchell said, insisting that women, children and men were being lured by human traffickers and shipped to foreign countries, where they worked as sex slaves or were forced into pornography. Mitchell, whose 36-year-old niece, Lena Johnson, was last seen on Nov. 8, 1998, said her organisation is determined to help other families deal with the trauma of missing loved ones and has created a web site to sensitise the public on human trafficking. "We are not going to rest until something is done. The world ought to know the truth," Mitchell said, as she and other executive members, including a pastor, embarked on a media blitz here. "Almost all the women who disappeared left behind a pattern. Their cell phones were switched off. We also heard that they were transported from one house to another before being shipped out." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172375-Trinidad-Where-Are-the-Missing-People- Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:57:51 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172374-Ex-Guant-namo-detainee-describes-torture LAHORE, Pakistan: When Muhammad Saad Iqbal arrived home here in August after more than six years in U.S. custody, including five at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, he had difficulty walking, his left ear was severely infected, and he was dependent on a cocktail of antibiotics and antidepressants. But the full stories of individual detainees like Iqbal are only now emerging after years in which they were shuffled around the globe under the Bush administration's system of extraordinary rendition, which used foreign countries to interrogate and detain terrorism suspects in sites beyond the reach of U.S. courts. Iqbal was never convicted of any crime, or even charged with one. He was quietly released from Guantánamo with a routine explanation that he was no longer considered an enemy combatant, part of an effort by the Bush administration to reduce the prison's population. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172374-Ex-Guant-namo-detainee-describes-torture Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:28:27 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172354-EU-sends-mixed-message-as-Gaza-death-toll-mounts The Czech EU presidency this weekend retracted its support for Israel amid the ground attack on Gaza, while France switched its criticism from Israel to Hamas. The Czech Republic on Saturday (3 January) published a statement on behalf of the EU, saying the ground assault was "more defensive than offensive." But it pulled the line on Sunday, blaming it on a youthful mistake by its spokesman, Jiri Potuznik. "Even the undisputable right of the state to defend itself does not allow actions which largely affect civilians," the second communique said. Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who last week complained about Israel's disproportionate use of force, laid the lion's share of blame on Hamas in an interview on Monday. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172354-EU-sends-mixed-message-as-Gaza-death-toll-mounts Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:12:54 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172353-Henry-Kissinger-on-CNBC-calling-for-a-New-World-Order-1-5-09 Kissinger on Economy http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172353-Henry-Kissinger-on-CNBC-calling-for-a-New-World-Order-1-5-09 Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:12:22 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172343-Israel-bars-International-Red-Cross-from-entering-Gaza For a second day running, Israeli authorities have barred a Red Cross medical team from entering Gaza to help treat residents injured in bombings. "The ICRC had notified the authorities of the team's arrival in advance, but they have been awaiting authorization to enter the (Gaza) Strip since Friday morning," the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement on Saturday. The same border crossing has been opened for other aid workers and foreigners seeking to leave Gaza, the Red Cross said, even as its own members -- including a surgeon tasked to help with complex operations at Gaza's Shifa Hospital -- were denied access. "It is absolutely essential that this team get into Gaza now, as this is when they are most needed," said Pierre Wettach, who heads Red Cross operations in Israel and the Palestinian territories. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172343-Israel-bars-International-Red-Cross-from-entering-Gaza Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:14:39 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172324-Norwegian-doctor-Israel-intentionally-targeting-civilians-estimates-2-000-2-500-civilian-casualties Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor working in Gaza, told Sky News on Monday that that he believes Israel is deliberately attacking the Palestinian population, not just targeting Hamas as Israeli authorities have said numerous times. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172324-Norwegian-doctor-Israel-intentionally-targeting-civilians-estimates-2-000-2-500-civilian-casualties Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:14:14 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172319-US-troops-complicit-in-Gaza-massacre-claim-they-are-monitoring-Rafah-crossing US troops are helping Egypt prevent "arms smuggling" from tunnels in the Rafah border-crossing, as Israel continues its attacks on Gaza. NBC anchorwoman and chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell said Sunday that US military officers from the Corps of Engineers had been stationed on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing in order to prevent "arms smuggling from illegal tunnels" by Palestinian fighters. " And there are US Army Corps of Engineer personnel on the ground right now on the Egypt side looking at the tunnels to see how Egypt could be reassured that there won't be continued smuggling through on that," she said on Meet the Press. The US and Israel say the tunnels are used for smuggling arms into the Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes have bombing the Rafah border to destroy the tunnels. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172319-US-troops-complicit-in-Gaza-massacre-claim-they-are-monitoring-Rafah-crossing Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:03:28 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172307-Top-5-Lies-About-Israel-s-Assault-on-Gaza Lie #1) Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians. The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime. Moreover, the people Israel claims are legitimate targets are members of Hamas, which Israel says is a terrorist organization. Hamas has been responsible for firing rockets into Israel. These rockets are extremely inaccurate and thus, even if Hamas intended to hit military targets within Israel, are indiscriminate by nature. When rockets from Gaza kill Israeli civilians, it is a war crime. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172307-Top-5-Lies-About-Israel-s-Assault-on-Gaza Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:36:47 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172302-US-envoy-Ordered-to-Keep-UN-From-Stopping-Israel-s-War-Against-Gaza The United States is determined to thwart any Arab initiative aimed at forcing the UN Security Council to assume a direct role in the Gaza crisis. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172302-US-envoy-Ordered-to-Keep-UN-From-Stopping-Israel-s-War-Against-Gaza Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:17:48 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172300-Civilians-Flee-Homes-in-Encircled-Gaza Civilians are fleeing their homes as Israel continues to blanket-bomb a now encircled Gaza. While Israel has argued that the military operation is intended to stop rocket fire into Israel, it appears that complete annihilation of Hamas as a political movement is the main goal. Abdallah Al-Agha, 30, from Khan Yunis south of Deir Al-Balah said the night was punctuated by heavy explosions and continual artillery fire. "The majority of those killed were civilians but some fighters were killed too. The Israelis targeted the homes of several resistance leaders," Jadely said. "At present there are fighters everywhere in the street and we are scared that the Israelis will bomb us again today and kill us all. We are fleeing the camp to stay with family in another area," Jadely told IPS. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172300-Civilians-Flee-Homes-in-Encircled-Gaza Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:44:42 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172296-Israel-s-blonde-bombshells-and-real-bombs-in-Gaza "I reiterate that we will treat the population [of Gaza] with silk gloves" - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert I am not sure that most people understand the meaning of the name "Operation Cast Lead" chosen by Israel for its murderous and criminal attack on Gaza. The name is borrowed from a Hebrew nursery rhyme which was (and may still be) very popular among Israeli children in the 1950s. In this song, a father promises to his child a special Hannukah gift: "a cast lead sevivon." Sevivon, in Hebrew (A dreidel in Yiddish) is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Somebody, in the Israeli army, who apparently feels nostalgic about his childhood, decided that if Israeli kids would enjoy a sevivon cast from lead there is no reason why Palestinian children would not appreciate it too. After all Operation Cast Lead is not the first (and unfortunately, will not be the last) of Israel's cruel war games. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172296-Israel-s-blonde-bombshells-and-real-bombs-in-Gaza Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:38:45 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172269-Israeli-State-Created-Through-Kidnappings-Assassinations-and-Terrorism Several of my good friends are American, but this does not inhibit me from criticising George W. Bush's catastrophically misguided invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Similarly, I have good friends who are Jewish, but this will not inhibit me from criticising the current 'total war' being waged on Lebanon by the Israeli state. The fact that some of my Jewish friends will read this article only makes me the more sad that I have to say, as a military historian, that this war is grotesquely out of proportion to the level of casualties and damage previously inflicted on Israel by Hezbollah. It is likewise grotesquely out of proportion to the taking hostage of two Israeli soldiers -- as are the ferocious Israeli attacks inside the Gaza strip in response to the taking hostage of just one soldier. Certainly, Israel has the right to defend herself today as she has done successfully in the past. But surely her response to Hamas and Hezbollah should have been limited and precisely targeted rather than a version of the 'shock and awe' bombing which opened the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Israeli government should have learned that 'shock and awe' may only be a prelude to a protracted guerilla war. During the long and bitter struggle against the IRA in Northern Ireland, it never occurred to any British government that the IRA bases and arms dumps within the Irish Republic should be bombed by the Royal Air Force, let alone that whole districts of Irish cities like Drogheda known to harbour IRA terrorists should be destroyed. Equally, it has never occurred to a Spanish government that it would be right and proper to respond to the lethal, indiscriminate attacks by ETA (the Basque terrorist organisation) by savagely bombing and rocketing San Sebastian and other Basque cities. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172269-Israeli-State-Created-Through-Kidnappings-Assassinations-and-Terrorism Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:49:46 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172263-A-Hamas-Coup-d-Etat-in-2007- "Eighteen months ago, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a coup..." droned President Bush in his weekend radio address. "Hamas has held the people of Gaza hostage ever since their illegal coup against the forces of (Palestinian Authority) President Mahmoud Abbas," Condoleezza Rice told reporters outside the White House January 2. The idea is that those who've been governing in Gaza (to the extent that anyone can govern a concentration camp to which entry and exit by land air and sea is controlled by hostile forces, and to which almost all commerce is similarly controlled) are illegitimate, having seized power by force. Bush and Rice, who've themselves seized so much by force in the last eight years (two countries' worth) and sadly, will probably never be held accountable before a court of law for war crimes, have absolutely no shame. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172263-A-Hamas-Coup-d-Etat-in-2007- Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:33:24 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172262-This-kind-of-war The current crisis in Gaza began with Israel's breaking the ceasefire with Hamas on November 4, 2008. The five-month ceasefire was unsustainable for two reasons. First and most importantly, because it condemned the Palestinians of Gaza to a slow and wasting death: part of the ceasefire was the continuation of Israel's blockade of Gaza. As part of this blockade, Palestinians could not leave the territory. This included, in high-profile cases, students who had obtained admission and visas to study abroad, but also people who later died because they could not receive treatment for cancers and other medical problems. Remember that the Gaza strip is 360 square kilometers, with 1.5 million people. The people have skills, strong social cohesion, and traditions of hospitality, but the area is not self-sufficient and the economy cannot function without free movement of people and goods in and out. Leave aside that the moral right and legal right of Palestinians to self-defense was denied by the prevention of arms supplies (to even mention this as a possibility is to break a taboo). Every other aspect of life was also disrupted by the blockade. Education was disrupted as Israel refused to allow paper, ink, books, and other supplies in. Health care was disrupted as Israel refused to allow medical supplies. Nutrition and normal child development was disrupted both by the refusal of Israel to allow food supplies, but also by the use of sonic booms, which the Israeli air force uses to frighten the population, and periodic bombing and assassinations. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172262-This-kind-of-war Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:26:42 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172260-Why-Aren-t-More-Americans-Dancing-To-Israel-s-Tune- Almost as soon as the first Israeli missile struck the Gaza Strip, a veteran cheering squad suited up to support the home team. "Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life," Charles Krauthammer claimed in the Washington Post. Echoing Krauthammer, Alan Dershowitz called the Israeli attack on Gaza, "Perfectly 'Proportionate.'" And in the New York Times, Israeli historian Benny Morris described his country's airstrikes as "highly efficient." While the cheerleaders testified to the superior moral fiber of their team, the Palestinian civilian death toll mounted. Israeli missiles tore at least fifteen Palestinian police cadets to shreds at a graduation ceremony, blew twelve worshipers to pieces (including six children) while they left evening prayers at a mosque, flattened the elite American International School, killed five sisters while they slept in their beds, and liquidated 9 women and children in order to kill a single Hamas leader. So far, Israeli forces have killed at least 500 Gazans and wounded some two thousand, including hundreds of children. Yesterday, the IDF blanketed parts of Gaza with white phosphorus, a chemical weapon Saddam Hussein once deployed against Kurdish rebels. "It was Israel at its best," Yossi Klein Halevi declared in the New Republic. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172260-Why-Aren-t-More-Americans-Dancing-To-Israel-s-Tune- Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:22:51 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172257-White-Phosphorus-Anger-Could-Fallujah-Bombing-Be-Behind-Birth-Defects-in-Fallujah- Families in the Iraqi city of Fallujah are calling for an investigation into their claims of a rise in the number of birth defects. They have raised concerns about the weapons used by American forces in 2004 - when Fallujah suffered one of the heaviest bombardments of the entire war in Iraq. The evidence is anecdotal because there are no records from the era of Saddam Hussein to compare their stories against. But Hikmat Tawfeeq, deputy chairman of the Fallujah-based human rights group Alakhiyar said: "We have around 200 cases of deformities recorded by our society. Most of these cases are birth deformities which have arisen after the bombing of Fallujah." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172257-White-Phosphorus-Anger-Could-Fallujah-Bombing-Be-Behind-Birth-Defects-in-Fallujah- Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:56:55 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172256-Calls-for-Investigations-Into-Reported-Israeli-use-of-White-Phosphorus-on-Gaza The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) today called on the United States Government; including members of Congress, and the international community; including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to investigate Israel's reported use of White Phosphorus in its ongoing attack on Gaza. According to the United Nations Israel's overwhelming attacks on Gaza, now in their tenth day, have thus far killed 540 people, 30% of whom are civilians, and injured over 2,750 people; including over 1,000 children. Among those killed today was a family of seven from Shati refugee camp, who were killed by Israeli navy shelling. Three siblings from one family, as well as a girl and her grandfather, also died in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza during Israeli artillery shelling. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172256-Calls-for-Investigations-Into-Reported-Israeli-use-of-White-Phosphorus-on-Gaza Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:53:24 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172248-Israel-Gaza-op-to-continue-in-spite-of-UN State official expresses satisfaction with results of Security Council meeting after US blocks Libyan proposal for ceasefire in Gaza, says Foreign Minister Livni's weekend efforts to foil anti-Israel resolution fruitful. Source tells Ynet even if such resolution passes, Gaza operation will continue Jerusalem expressed satisfaction Sunday with the fact that the UN Security Council's emergency meeting on the fighting in Gaza ended with no results, after the United States blocked Libya's proposal for an immediate ceasefire. Top diplomatic officials said that even if the Security Council does approve a resolution that conflicts with Israel's interests in its next meeting, "it's no big deal", and certainly will not interfere with the continuation of Israel's operation. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172248-Israel-Gaza-op-to-continue-in-spite-of-UN Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:59:54 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172244-U-S-Blocks-Call-for-Ceasefire-in-Gaza The United States late Saturday blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel and expressing concern at the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas. U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the United States saw no prospect of Hamas abiding by last week's council call for an immediate end to the violence. Therefore, he said, a new statement at this time "would not be adhered to and would have no underpinning for success, would not do credit to the council." France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the current council president, announced that there was no agreement among members on a statement. But he said there were "strong convergences" among the 15 members to express serious concern about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the need for "an immediate, permanent and fully respected cease-fire." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172244-U-S-Blocks-Call-for-Ceasefire-in-Gaza Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:57:41 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172239-Haaretz-confirms-that-Israel-is-using-cluster-bombs Massive artillery, aerial bombardment precedes invasion by IDF ground forces The forces that entered the Gaza Strip last night represented the largest ground operation in the coastal territory since Israel withdrew in the summer of 2005. Palestinian sources reported massive artillery shelling and air force strikes accompanying the advance of the infantry, armored and combat engineering corps. The ground invasion was preceded by large-scale artillery shelling from around 4 P.M., intended to "soften" the targets as artillery batteries deployed along the Strip in recent days began bombarding Hamas targets and open areas near the border. Hundreds of shells were fired, including cluster bombs aimed at open areas. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172239-Haaretz-confirms-that-Israel-is-using-cluster-bombs Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:23:57 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172238-Dozens-killed-in-ground-invasion-Israel-continues-to-reject-a-ceasefire As the destruction of Palestinian society in Gaza continues, with Israeli forces bisecting the territory and encircling Gaza City and Ehud Barak promising that the invasion will "not be easy or short", little remains to be said. All of Israel's justifications for the attack have long since collapsed - Adam Sheets and Chris McGreal provide fairly comprehensive demolitions, and the facts are by now well established (though not, perhaps, well known). Having reluctantly agreed to a ceasefire in June, Israel never adhered to its terms despite remarkable discipline shown by Hamas (one fact reported by McGreal that seems to have been consigned to the memory hole: during the truce, 22 Palestinians were killed by Israel, while no Israelis were killed by Palestinians). It then violated not one but two ceasefires and rejected numerous Hamas offers for a third, instead slaughtering, at last count, at least 514 people, most of them civilians, and injuring more than 2,200. The Guardian reports: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172238-Dozens-killed-in-ground-invasion-Israel-continues-to-reject-a-ceasefire Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:15:47 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172223-Israel-rains-fire-on-Gaza-with-phosphorus-shells Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen. As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops' advance. "These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in," said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon. The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world's mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel's offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172223-Israel-rains-fire-on-Gaza-with-phosphorus-shells Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:24:40 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172221-Israeli-troops-phones-taken-before-assault THE Israeli army confiscated the mobile phones of thousands of its soldiers ahead of the launch of its massive ground offensive in Gaza, an official has said. Six hours before the start of the operation over the weekend, thousands of infantry and armoured forces were ordered to hand over their mobiles in order to keep the impending attack secret. The military censor's office also banned publication by the media of the start of the offensive until two hours after it began, the AFP news agency reported. It kept the identity of the official secret. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172221-Israeli-troops-phones-taken-before-assault Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:08:16 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172201-Israel-Palestine-Becomes-U-S-Iran Ever since the Bush Administration began to make noises about Iran's nuclear development program, the peace movement has been on pins and needles. We've always known that the reason behind the Iraq war was the Neo-Con plan to establish a permanent military presence in the Middle East. One good look at a map of the Middle East discloses that Iran is just too obvious a monkey wrench in the hegemony works for the Neo-Cons to ignore. The invasion of Iraq was the first shoe to drop. Since then, we have waited with fear induced bated breath for the second. Israel's invasion of Lebanon to attack Hezbollah caused us to suck in our breath once more against the possibility that this would be the fuse for expansion into Iran. Many thought the U.S. would attack directly while others expected Israel to do it and then be backed by the U.S. BushCo drew their sabers again, but their rattling was muted by concerted efforts on the part of anti-war activists and other world powers. The world was watching too closely, so the swords were put away, but attention was carefully drawn to what BushCo called the certainty that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172201-Israel-Palestine-Becomes-U-S-Iran Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:23:30 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172181-New-Israeli-airstrikes-bomb-Gaza-Strip Israeli warplane carried out a series of intensive airstrikes on several targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, witnesses said. According to the witnesses, the airstrikes has bombed on targets in towns of Khan Younis and Rafah in the Gaza Strip and many of the targets belong to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) were destroyed. Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian Health Ministry, said that 30 Palestinians were killed and 150 others wounded since the Israeli troops launched the ground operation last night. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172181-New-Israeli-airstrikes-bomb-Gaza-Strip Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:15:53 +0000