Newspaper reports today are suggesting Israel and Hamas may be edging towards a ceasfire based around an Egyptian truce proposal.
Call me a cynic, but I fully expect a ceasefire will be in place before Jan 27.
Why Jan 27?
January 15, 2009
Gaza – an end in sight?
January 10, 2009
Israel accused of War Crime
The United Nations has called for Israel to be investigated for war crimes over the shelling of a house full of Palestinian civilians which left dozens dead.
Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the attack, on members of the extended Samouni family in the Gazan town of Zeitoun “appears to have all the elements of war crimes.
At dawn on Sunday, Israeli troops supported by tanks went from house to house in Zeitoun detaining men of fighting age and corralling the remaining people, mostly women and children, in a few large houses.
Up to 110 members of the extended Samouni clan were put into one building without water, heating or food.
At dawn on Monday it was shelled repeatedly by Israeli forces. Survivors described seeing bodies with brains oozing out.
January 8, 2009
Suffer the little children . . .
Click on Pics to enlarge
After a 3hr truce yesterday to allow in humanitarian aid, Israeli air attacks on Gaza have continued through the night.
Help try to bring pressure on Governments to intervene and stop this madness.
Sign the online petition here
January 6, 2009
Stoking the fires
Three-year-old Ahmed Samouni, his brothers Mohamed, four, and Issa, five, and their family died when a tank shell hit their home in Gaza City. They were among at least 14 children killed in Gaza on Monday.
Maj Avital Leibovich said: ‘Civilians will probably continue to get killed, unfortunately, because Hamas put them in the first lines of fire.’
Hamas has warned Israel that Jewish children everywhere are now ‘legitimate targets‘.
January 5, 2009
Rabbi Michael Lerner – A Way Forward
‘It breaks my heart to see the terrible suffering in Gaza and in Israel. As a religious Jew I find it all the worse, because it confirms to me how easy it is to pervert the loving message of Judaism into a message of hatred and domination. I remain in mourning for the Jewish people, for Israel and for the world.’
It breaks my heart to see Israel’s stupidity
It has a right to respond to attacks, but will not achieve its ultimate aim – peace – until it stops thinking in military terms.
How do we get out of this destructive spiral? The first step is for the world to demand an immediate ceasefire. That ceasefire should be imposed by the United Nations and backed unequivocally by America. Its terms must include the following: -
January 1, 2009
Where is Blair?
Anyone seen or heard from Tony Blair recently?
No?
Me, neither !!!
Only I did rather think he might have had something to say with regard to the current situation in the Gaza Strip.
Or am I wrong in thinking he was appointed Middle East Envoy in 2007 working on behalf of the US, Russia, the UN and the EU. (http://tinyurl.com/2tn5fx)
December 30, 2008
Proportional response #4
Tahrir, 17, Ikram 15, Samer, 13, Dina, eight and Jawahar, four
Five sisters killed by an Israeli bomb.
December 28, 2008
Proportional response? #3
‘There is no doubt that Hamas has provoked Israel in the last week since the end of the ceasefire with rocket attacks from Gaza onto Israeli territory, but the disproportionate response unleashed yesterday will do Israel nothing but harm . . .
Israel and its supporters cannot possibly argue that [the] attacks on Gaza are in any way proportionate. Nor can they argue that they are not murderous. Warning that Israel would retaliate for the rocket attacks, Olmert himself said that “tens of thousands of children and innocents” would be put at danger by the Hamas’s actions. But Hamas cannot be held responsible for the disproportionate nature of Israel’s response, or for any “children and innocents” killed in the attacks. Israel alone is responsible for that.’
Israel alone is responsible for that.
Read the rest of this article by Mike Smith here . . .
