Assholes

A sign put up by Israeli West Bank settlers, photo was taken by my West Bank Palestinian friend Handool



Check out Dohiyimir, the blogger NTodd is a member of Code Pink, and is part of a peace delegation over in Israel and Palestine at the moment, to bring humanitarian supplies and children toys, which are apparently 'dangerous'. He is doing amazing work over there and I can only admire him.

Palestine

UN 'shocked' by Gaza destruction

The UN's humanitarian chief has told the BBC the situation in Gaza after a three-week Israeli offensive against Hamas was worse than he anticipated.

Sir John Holmes, who visited Gaza on Thursday, said he was shocked by "the systematic nature of the destruction".

He said that the territory's economic activity had been set back by years.

UN workers have been given access to Gaza. On Friday, Israel lifted a ban on international aid agencies entering the Palestinian territory.

The ban had been in place since early November when tensions mounted between Israel and Hamas.

Staff from a number of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were allowed to cross into Gaza on Friday morning.

Michael Bailey from Oxfam said: "We are extremely relieved to be able to join our local colleagues inside Gaza and to be able to provide them with some support and relief from the relentless work they have been doing."

What I don't get its how in trying to kill one lone Hamas guy who is hidden amongst a civilian population is working out

Because you drop a missile or white phosphorous, which not only kills the Hamas person but those around him

I mean would it not be better to be more focused, like proper searches and so on, but i guess the IDF don't want heavy causalities on their side and so are prepared to cause more deaths on the opposite side to prevent this

What did they really achieve? beside a lot of death that is

I just could not see what the IDF's invasion really wanted to achieve, perhaps it was mainly about the upcoming Israeli election.

Further links

The facts are insufficiently impartial

Thus Sprach Barack: Pouring Acid on Gaza's Wounds by Chris Floyd

Children of Gaza: stories of those who died and the trauma for those who survived

Rory McCarthy reports from Gaza City on the individual stories of some victims and the physical and psychological toll on an estimated 350,000 youngsters

Here We Go Again


Photo from the BBC

Gaza death toll tops 300 as Israel vows to fight to bitter end

• Warplanes target Hamas interior ministry and university
• Hospitals at breaking point, as Egypt ferries injured across border

Israel stepped up its bombing campaign in Gaza today, hitting an interior ministry building, a major university and a house next to the home of the former Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh.

Witnesses in Gaza City reported six separate air strikes overnight at the Islamic University, the leading university in the Gaza Strip which has links to the Islamist movement Hamas. Israeli jets hit a guest house used by the Hamas government. All Hamas leaders, including Haniyeh, have left their homes and gone into hiding.

The Israeli military said it struck dozens more targets including buildings used for storing and manufacturing weapons, and that naval vessels had also bombarded targets from the sea.

The current hardliners on both sides have no interest in peace

Israel could probably stop the rockets being supplied to Hamas but they don't, as this gives them an excuse to attack the Gaza Strip and for Hamas they can act the tough guy and shore up their power

its MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction, and those that really suffer are ordinary Palestinians and Israelis

Plus if Hamas did not have any rockets and Israel did not respond to said rockets they might gosh actually have to talk, but as we know, its easier to wage war than talk peace

If both sides talk they will have to compromise, talking means giving something up, which the fanatics on both sides just don't like.

From the blogosphere

The myth of Hamas rejectionism , The Qassam rockets myths

Israel: how to lose friends and alienate people

Shock, Awe and Lies: The Truth Behind the Israeli Attack on Gaza

Shot by both sides

Sunday Thoughts *updated*

I really do believe that so many issues which plague the Middle East could be resolved if the Israel/Palestine question was properly sorted out.

It is a small percentage of hardliners on both sides which are holding it back, and i think that Hamas firing rockets into Israel is a major mistake on their part, because it just gives, pardon the pun, more ammo to the hardliners on the Israeli side. The hardliners in Israel are the reason Hamas is so powerful, hence why I sometimes think they want the violence to contiue on both sides to keep them in power.

The way the peace process should be handled is that it needs to be done in stages, have targets which everyone should meet

If you look at the history of the conflict between the UK and terrorists in most cases its been brought to an end by early communication by the parties who should in theory shouldn't be talking to each other

Saturday Photo Blogging

A long time Palestinian friend of mine, Handool, send me a couple of photos he took in and around Bethlehem and asked that I blog them.






St George Slaying the Dragon


Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre


Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre


Where Jesus was born




Outside the Church (with the Mosque of Omar in the background)


The Mosque of Omar, this was build by Saladin's son to commemorate Caliph Omar's visit to Jerusalem in 638, when Omar prayed on the steps of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre instead of inside so that it could remain a Christian holy place.

Photos of 1920s Bethlehem

Palestine - The Gaza Strip and Hamas

Inside Gaza - calm returns at end of a gun

In the spacious, top-floor office of Gaza's former police chief, the television was tuned to al-Aqsa TV, the Hamas channel, and at lunchtime half a dozen well-armed, bearded Hamas commanders rose in unison and knelt in prayer.

On the streets there were no policemen to be seen. Instead, across the city stood small groups of Hamas gunmen, some in uniform, others not.

Directing the traffic were Hamas "volunteers", unarmed and wearing green baseball caps and fluorescent yellow jackets, each marked the Islamic Resistance Movement - Hamas.

Hamas might be a bunch of idiots but it is not surprising they would start sorting out the criminal gangs.

Now if Hamas don't start firing rockets into Israel and play along ruling the Gaza Strip then ok, but as soon as they start up again Israel will be in there as fast as possible and this time they will know that anyone with a gun is Hamas.

The quartet are wasting their time backing Fatah, who are discredited in many Palestinian eyes.