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January 2009

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IDF advance into Gaza City - using white phophorous missiles to attack hospitals, UNRWA headquarters and a media compound

Thu, 01/15/2009 - 15:50 — McJ

I've been tied up with life's demand these past couple of days so I haven't I had a lot of time to post or comment but wanted to add a quick post on the latest events in Gaza.

Al Jazeera and Maan news agency are reporting that IDF forces are advancing into Gaza city. In some of the heaviest attacks since the war began Israel targeted, hospitals, news stations, Mosques, stores, schools, apartment buildings and homes. People are said to be fleeing into the streets, many in their night clothes, ahead of the advancing force. The IDF forces were reported to be shooting at everyone and using white phosphorus laced missiles on the residential areas. Ambulance services and hospitals are overwhelmed with the dead and injured.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m50863


"Dr Bashar Murad, the head of emergency services at Al-Quds Hospital, told Ma’an that three Israeli missiles hit the hospital, two of them containing white phosphorus. Shrapnel from the bombs was scattered in the hospital but no one was injured. Fire has engulfed the hospital’s administration building, a storehouse, and a pharmacy.

Murad said that up to 600 people had fled Tel Al-Hawa and areas around the hospital.

Meanwhile, UN's relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says Israeli shells struck their headquarters in Gaza City, injuring three workers. The compound includes the UNRWA offices, warehouses and a school. As many as 700 Palestinians had taken refuge in the compound, which is still on fire.

The United Nations is claiming that shells were laced with the controversial chemical weapon, white phosphorus.

Separately, Israeli forces attacked a media compound home to the Reuters news agency, NBC, and a number of Arab networks in Gaza City late on Thursday morning. Two journalists working for Abu Dhabi television were injured when at least one Israeli shell struck the building."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/2009115153549143408...

"Three hospitals and a UN compound have been bombed by Israel as troops continue to advance into the densely-populated Gaza City.

Around 500 people were sheltering in the Al-Quds hospital in the city's southwestern Tal Al-Hawa district when it was bombed by Israeli jets and set ablaze on Thursday morning.

Hospital officials said the fire was sparked by a "phosphorus shell".
...
The Israelis also bombed a UN compound in Gaza City, setting fire to warehouses of badly-needed food and medical aid and prompting international outrage.

Around 700 Palestinians were sheltering in the UN complex at the time of the strikes which left two civilians and three staff members injured.
...
John Ging, the director of Unrwa operations in the Strip, also accused the Israelis of using phosphorus shells.

"They are phosphorus fires so they are extremely difficult to put out because, if you put water on, it will just generate toxic fumes and do nothing to stop the burning," he said.

You can watch Al Jazeera English (as well as many other stations) live for free from Livestation at the link below.
http://www.livestation.com/downloads

From GRITtv:
Israel violates US Law
with Cynthia McKinney and Chris Hedges

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Joe Whatshisname braves the flying pipes in Sderot and schools international reporters on patriotism

Mon, 01/12/2009 - 00:19 — McJ
Joe Whatshisname braves the flying pipes in Sderot and schools international reporters on patriotism

With camera in hand, Joe Whatshisname, the tax dodging, unlicensed plumber's helper from Toledo Ohio, arrived in Sderot, Israel on Sunday on his first assignment as a correspondent for PJTV and Pajamas Media. He got to experience a red alert for an incoming flying pipe first hand and reported from a house where one landed on Sunday. According to the Jerusalem post, Joe wondered why Israel had waited so long to act. "I know if I were a citizen here, I'd be damned upset. The people of Sderot can't do normal things day to day, like get soap in their eyes in the shower...". "I'm sure they're taking quick showers," he said, "I know I would." Haaretz.com reported that the rookie war correspondent said, "I have a thousand questions, but I can't think of one right now."

Joe is scheduled to be in Sderot for ten days to 'get out Israel's side of the story'. It was not clear from the reports if Israel's massive, one sided propoganda campaign was in need of his help.

There is no doubt Joe will be joining the ever growing crowd of tourists and local 'looky loos' (according to Al Jazeera- TV News Now) lining the hilltops of the town. Empire Burlesque's, Chris Floyd reported on a gang of them that drove down from Jerusalem to catch a birds eye view of the action.

The Jerusalem post's, Shelley Paz says that Joe is angry with the foreign reporters' coverage of the conflict and accused them of giving information to the enemy. He told the journalists that gathered around him, "You should be ashamed of yourselves". "It makes me sick to see the way you behave - you should be patriotic, protect your family and children, not report like you have been doing for the past two weeks since this war has started," he said. Joe didn't mention to which country the foreign reporters should direct their patriotic feelings or how their reporting on the story was stopping them from protecting their families.

Since the start of the War on Gaza two weeks ago, 4 Israeli citizens have been killed by Qassam rockets fired from inside Gaza. Eight IDF soldiers have been killed, four due to friendly fire. 876 Palestinians have been killed, roughly half of them civilians including many children. More than 3600 have been injured and there are reports of victims with severe burn injuries consistent with the use of white phosphorus. The IDF is now advancing into Gaza's most densely populated areas. Al Jazeera reported that the advance into the cities was phase three of the Israeli campaign and there is a phase four planned but no one seems to know what that is.

"According to Israeli news reports, Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak disagree over how the war should end, and the three have argued in recent days over whether Israel should seek a cease-fire with Hamas or unilaterally declare victory. http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/01/12/israel_a...

In a Dec 31, 2008 report, Haretz TV reported that Hamas had 3000 rockets at the beginning of the conflict but was down to 2000 rockets. They didn't report on how they obtained these figures. Al Jazeera TV News Now has shown live coverage of rockets being launched from IDF held territory. It is not clear to me how Hamas was able to accomplish this. I have tried to find a link for this but I can't seem to find any archived footage of Al Jazeera coverage.

UPDATE: As of Jan 12, 2009
13 Israeli's killed
895 Palestinians killed, 4100 injured

If you subtract the 4 Israelis killed due to friendly fire that is roughly a 100 to 1 kill ratio.

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If I Had A Rocket Launcher

Sat, 01/10/2009 - 02:15 — McJ

Thanks to Bob for reminding me of this awesome song by Canadian musician Bruce Cockburn.
This song was written after his 1983 visit to Guatemalan refugee camps in Mexico following the military torture campaign of dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. It is eerily appropriate to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza - not much has changed. How sad, how very, very sad.

This is a live version from the Montreal Jazz Festival.

If I Had A Rocket Launcher
Here comes the helicopter -- second time today
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered only God can say
If I had a rocket launcher...I'd make somebody pay

I don't believe in guarded borders and I don't believe in hate
I don't believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would retaliate

On the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand wait
To fall down from starvation -- or some less humane fate
Cry for guatemala, with a corpse in every gate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would not hesitate

I want to raise every voice -- at least I've got to try
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry
If I had a rocket launcher...
If I had a rocket launcher...
If I had a rocket launcher...Some son of a bitch would die

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Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi speaks with Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and Eliot Engel

Thu, 01/08/2009 - 14:38 — McJ

I wish we had journalists in NA that would conduct interviews like this! Make sure you watch the second half when he questions Engel about his support of Israel's actions in Gaza. Engel doesn't know what disproportionate force means (??!!) and Rattansi presses him for a definition.

Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi speaks to two congressman with very different views on the Gaza crisis.

Dennis Kucinich, Democratic member of the US House of Representatives and former presidential hopeful on why he feels Israel is violating international law with its invasion of Gaza. And secondly Eliot Engel, US congressman from New York, on why he supports the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

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Mayor Bloomberg Flying to Israel In Show of Support, US In No Hurry For Ceasefire, Obama Has No Advice

Sat, 01/03/2009 - 22:37 — McJ

I caught my first mainstream coverage of the Gaza assault just now. It was on CNN and I watched it because they had a telephone interview with a doctor from Gaza. I turned it off at the point when they were about to interview some military expert about how long we could expect this to last. The whole segment was a split screen with looped video of the 'fireworks' going on in Gaza on one side. The headline they were hawking was not about the interview with the Gazan doctor, nor was it about a report from Israel by Christian Amanpour which also aired during the segment. It was that New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is flying to Israel in a show of support for the state. I felt like vomiting. They also reported that the US is in no hurry for a ceasefire (these things take time to be done right ya know), they had a clip of Bush blaming Hamas for the carnage and a bit on Obama's reaction to recent events in Gaza (he apparently doesn't have one and he also doesn't have any advice).

I have been wondering over these past few days about the reasons for the scale and horror of this attack. Are they simply bloodthirsty psychopaths driven by a radical ideology or a need for power and control? I have learned through reading excerpts from Political Ponerology that psychopaths will keep doing the same things over and over again as long as they have worked in the past. They are not really capable of predicting the complicated outcomes their actions may have. So, could this be just more of the same old, same old to them, just a bigger and better version? Is this, as has been suggested by many on the left, all about which politician can prove to the Israeli voters they are the biggest bad ass on the block? I don't have any good answers to those question but my suspicions are that they are doing this to provoke an attack from other Arab countries (ie. Iran or Syria). If you think about it, how awful must this be for Arabs in neighbouring countries to watch this. And they don't get the sanitized, rah rah Israel version of events that we in North America do. How can they sit back and allow this to happen? They are seeing the video below which is of the bombing of a Gaza street market. I believe the Israeli's said they were targeting a truck they suspected of carrying Hamas rockets. Turns out, it was just some guy who owns a welding shop moving some oxygen tanks that he was afraid would be looted from his business after his building was damaged when they bombed the Mosque next door. His son was killed in the attack.

How would you react to this if you were them?

Note: You Tube has already removed the video but it is still up on Google video as well as several other places including Blip TV and Muslim TV. I suspect the masters will be working overtime to scrub this footage from the internet. It is exactly the kind of coverage they won't want anyone in America or Israel to see.

UPDATE: From Glenn Greewald at Unclaimed Territory.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/04/terrorism/index.html
There's good reason to believe [this video footage is] not from a [recent]Israeli attack, but it's certainly reflective of the carnage in Gaza. It's much easier to undervalue the suffering imposed on The Other when you don't have to see it.

It may be from this 2005 incident.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/23/world/main881068.shtml

The Israeli's did however use a drone to bomb the truck carrying oxygen tanks (mentioned above) which killed 8 people including the truck owner's son. One can imagine the carnage would be similar.
http://www.btselem.org/English/Gaza_Strip/20081231_Army_bombs_metal_work...

WARNING: This is extremely graphic footage!!!

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Qassam Rockets

Fri, 01/02/2009 - 02:20 — McJ

Over the past few days, I've done a lot of reading on the ongoing massacre in Gaza. I was heartened to read a number of articles that were highly critical of the Israeli actions. (A commenter at Empire Burlesque highlighted a few of them at his blog, Disquiet Reservations.) I haven't been able to bring myself to watch or read any of the mainstream news coverage but after reading hundreds of comments I think I have managed to glean the major talking points. sad It really appears evident there is a small army of propagandists working this story. What I have read over and over (and over and over and over) from the pro Israel crowd is how Hamas has been lobbing rockets at some of the Israeli border towns that are situated near the Gaza strip and that they broke the ceasefire (which isn't true). They never mention these are towns that were built on land that was forcefully and brutally stolen from the Palestinians who are now imprisoned in that embattled hell hole. This is the 'supposed' justification for the Israeli actions. I am aware that everyone that reads this blog knows that is total bullshit however I found myself wondering about these rockets. As I know next to nothing about weapons, and there was so much talk about how Iran or Hezbollah or any other number of 'bad guys' are allegedly supplying Hamas with the material to make these things, I imagined they were a somewhat sophisticated weapon. I don't know what exactly I had in mind but I was astonished when I saw some of the pictures of these things. I read a comment by some Israeli official who admitted the rockets were more of a 'symbolic threat' than anything else and after seeing them I'm inclined to think that may be an understatement. They look like some kind of large fire cracker made out of stovepipes and scrap metal. I realize they have managed to kill or injure a few people with these things but it was interesting for me to note how effective the propaganda is in convincing people they are a major threat that must be countered by this horrific bombardment (using the latest and greatest US weaponry) of the people of Gaza. I imagine when most people hear the meme about the Hamas rocket 'barrages' they picture something much larger and more deadly than this.






More of these pictures are juxtaposed against the damage caused by the firepower of the IDF here. It is a very effective display and I was thinking someone could put this to music and post it on youtube. The public needs to see this because as one commenter noted "they tell the truth better than words".
(Warning: Some pictures are very disturbing.)

On a different note, I watched the documentary Occupation 101 last night. I recommend taking the time to watch it. It does a good job of explaining some of the history of the occupation as well as showing what it has been like for the Palestinians to live under this brutal occupation.
You can watch it on Google Video here or in the comment below.

HMMM...
I embedded the video in the comments because it doesn't like my code for the pictures when I embed the video in this post using Full HTML.

Update:
The Maan News Agency a news agency from Palestine is reporting that thousands of leaflets have been dropped on the Gaza strip by Israeli airplanes asking the Palestinians to inform them of the whereabouts of rocket launchers in return for aid and assistance. I am a little dubious about the content (which I have pasted below) that they are reporting. I don't know anything about this news agency, however AP did report it was a major independent news agency in a 2007 article at Haaretz.com regarding the arrest of one of it's executives. Heres a link to the Wiki entry on it.

The leaflet reads:

Dear people of the Gaza Strip,
Bear the responsibility for your fate!

The projectile launchers and the terrorist elements pose a threat on you and your families.

If you wish to provide help and assistance to your people in the sector, call the number below to provide us with the needed information.

The future of the massacre is in your hands
Don’t hesitate!

We will be glad to receive any information you have and it is not necessary to give us your personal information.

We will keep it as a secret.
Call us at the following number:
02-5839749
Or e-mail us at:
helpgaza2008@gmail.com

To provide us with any information on the terrorist factions.

Note: To protect your safety we ask you to be secretive when you call us.

Head of the Israeli defense forces