More than 624 Palestinians dead

Cartoon from Brazil – the world cartoonists are speaking the truth

PALESTINE : OPINION/EDITORIAL: BOMBING TO MAKE THE GAZA PRISON EVEN MORE SECURE FOR ISRAEL

By Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada

It is a gross misunderstanding of what is unfolding in Gaza to believe Israel’s motives are capricious. The politicians and generals have been preparing for this attack for many months, possibly years — a fact alone that suggests they have bigger objectives than commonly assumed. Israel seized this particular moment — with western politicians dozing through the holidays and a changeover of administrations in Washington — because it ensured the longest period to implement its plan without diplomatic interference. Jonathan Cook comments. There are two persistent myths about the aim of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza: the first that it is an entirely defensive move, a way to end the rocket fire of Hamas; and the second that it is designed to restore the army’s credibility after its failure to cow Hizballah in 2006. No doubt the Israeli army has been itching to repair its battered image, and for sure the rocket attacks from Gaza create domestic pressures that are only too clear to an Israeli government about to face an election.

Jonathan Shapiro, Israeli ex-pilot speaks against the war: BBC TV

Watch this video! The BBC reporter calls him a traitor…

A dad, a refugee and a reporter in Gaza: Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine

I was outside trying to fix my car radio on a calm, sunny day around 11:30am. It was 27 December 2008. Suddenly there were loud booms overhead. Pillars of smoke began rising up in the sky. The main thing I cared about at that moment were my four children, particularly, my two-year-old son Muhammad who always follows me around when I am off work on weekends.

Peace strike, now: By Daphna Golan Ha’aretz

Because of the rocket fire, all the academic institutions in the south of Israel are shut, and because of the war, thousands of students have been called up. But outside the line of fire, college and university studies are continuing as usual, as though there were no war.

A lone voice in the Israeli academia, suggesting an academic strike for peace. Maybe Engage can help?

IDF: Hamas militants fired shells from inside UN school: Ha’aetz

The Israel Defense Forces bombed an UNRWA school in Gaza yesterday after militants fired mortars at troops from inside the school, the IDF Spokesman’s Office said last night. The bodies of militants were found inside, it added. Yesterday afternoon, three shells hit Fakhura, a girls elementary school near the Jabalya refugee camp, according to UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness. At least 30 people were killed and 55 wounded, 15 of them seriously, and UNRWA fears the death toll will rise.

The usual, standard Israeli lie, decried as such by the UN. Israel has never killed any civilian by design – there is alwaysa good reason for it, even if they have to repeat the same lie again and again. The IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) only kill for the best of motives.

Anti-Semitic acts up in U.K. due to Gaza crisis: Ha’aretz

There has been a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Britain since the upsurge of hostilities in Gaza, a group that protects Jewish institutions said yesterday. The Community Security Trust (CST) said it recorded 24 incidents since December 29, including 19 in London. They included an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in northwest London on Sunday night.

Antisemitism has always served the needs and expectations of Zionism, so for that reason alone, it would be important to resist it, even if there were not so many good reasons to fight racism and antisemitism everywhere. It seems however, that this new wave of antisemitism is very different – it is not based on racist traditions, but is the result of revulsion with Israel’s criminal behaviour, a kind of political reaction of the poorly-educated and misguided, confusing Jews and Judaism with Israel. To fight this new antisemitism, Jeswish communities face a stark choice – they will have to weigh seriously their typical knee-jerk total and unqualified support for Israeli atrocities, and take a separate, moral line. At the moment, there is little evidence of such change.