Rewind, please!

The sumary below is the analysis of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC), an israeli NGO. It's analyis is no doubt ot unbiased, but it says a lot that it tells what the MainStream Media will not tell or will not dwell upon, namely the role of the IDF in ending the 'truce. It seems clear the IICC can not be accused of favouring Hamas...,

Summary
1. On June 17, 2008, after several months of indirect contacts between Israel and Hamas through Egyptian mediators, Egypt and Hamas individually announced that a lull arrangement(tahadiya1) had been reached between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and it would go into effect at 0600 hours on the morning of June 19. Israel’s position was that the lull had no time limit. The position of Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist organizations was that it would remain in force for six months and they then expected it to be extended to Judea and Samaria. Spokesmen of Hamas and other terrorist organizations later stated that it would end on Friday morning, December 19; in the field it had been seriously eroded since November 4.
(...)
4. An analysis of the situation on the ground indicates two distinct periods:
i)A period of relative quiet between June 19 and November 4 : As of June 19,there was a marked reduction in the extent of attacks on the western Negev population. The lull was sporadically violated by rocket and mortar shell fire, carried out by rogue terrorist organizations, in some instance in defiance of Hamas (especially by Fatah and Al-Qaeda supporters). Hamas was careful to maintain the ceasefire. The IDF refrained from undertaking counterterrorism activities in the Gaza Strip, taking only routine defensive security measures along the border fence. Between June 19 and November 4, 20 rockets (three of which fell inside the Gaza Strip) and 18 mortar shells (five of which fell inside the Gaza Strip) were fired at Israel.
ii) The escalation and erosion of the lull arrangement, November 4 to the
time of this writing, December 17
On November 4 the IDF carried out a military
action close to the border security fence on the Gazan side to prevent an abduction
planned by Hamas, which had dug a tunnel under the fence to that purpose. Seven
Hamas terrorist operatives were killed during the action. In retaliation, Hamas and the other terrorist organizations attacked Israel with a massive barrage of rockets. Since then, 191 rockets and 138 mortar shells have been fired. The attacks have been
continuous and some were carried out by weapons not previously used, such as
122mm standard Grad rockets and 120mm mortar shells. Hamas has been directly
involved in the attacks in cooperation with the other terrorist organizations.

September: Haniyeh accepts two-state solution

Haaretz

The Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Saturday his government was willing to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

It's always worth (and apparently neccessary) to go back in time for a little reminder.

The Instant Wadi Well

Permaculture Reflections

Rainfall in arid regions occurs in large and infrequent events throughout the year. Because the desert environment is a brittle one and because there is so much rain at one time, tremendous erosion occurs. This leads to the creation of scarps and wadis.

Wadi is simply the Arabic word for a riverbed. In an arid region, it's water flow is likely to be ephemeral, particularly in headwaters (where permaculturists are most likely to be working). They are also places where a lot of erosion takes place. Looked at from another perspective, wadis are places where a lot of erosion can be stopped.

One dead in Ni'lin

ISM

Israeli forces kill resident of Ni’lin and leave another in critical condition during demonstration of solidarity with Gaza

Two Israelis in Palestine one Briton in Beirut

Amira Hass

Abu Muhammad was 200 meters from the hospital, when an awful sound was heard: Three large police centers which were bombed, were located close to the hospital. "Within seconds, this was a little Baghdad, bombs everywhere, smoke, fire, people not knowing where to hide. Fear everywhere, and rage and hatred," he said.

Gideon Levy

Two and a half years later, these words repeat themselves, to our horror, with chilling precision. Within the span of a few hours on a Saturday afternoon, the IDF sowed death and destruction on a scale that the Qassam rockets never approached in all their years, and Operation "Cast Lead" is only in its infancy.

Robert Fisk

Not that our brave peace envoy, Lord Blair, would have much to say about it. He's the man, remember, whose only proposed trip to Gaza was called off when yet more "Israeli experts" advised him that his life might be in danger. Anyway, he'd still rather be president of Europe, something Sarko wants to award him. That, I suppose, is why Blair wrote such a fawning article in the same issue of Time which made Obama "person" of the year. "There are times when Nicolas Sarkozy resembles a force of nature," Blair grovels. It's all first names, of course. "Nicolas has the hallmark of any true leader"; "Nicolas has adopted..."; "Nicolas recognises"; "Nicolas reaching out...". In all, 15 "Nicolases". Is that the price of the Euro presidency? Or will Blair now tell us he's going to be involved in those "conversations" with Obama to "build on some of the progress" in the Middle East?

'Israeli' Palestinians react to the massacre in Gaza

Haaretz

Violent clashes erupted on Sunday between Israel Police officers and Israeli Arabs in the town of Umm al-Fahm, where protesters have been staging a mass demonstration against the Israeli campaign in Gaza, which has so far killed more than 280 Palestinians and wounded scores more.

We can be sure 'Israeli Jews' will be protesting against this massacre, even if their reaction is of less interest to the media.

Background: who broke the ceasefire?

Maan News Agency

Date: 05 / 11 / 2008 Time: 01:27 Gaza – Ma’an – The death toll in the Gaza Strip rose to six on Wednesday morning after another Al-Qassam Brigades fighter died of wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike near Khan Younis.

Massacre in Gaza

Maan News Agency

Only if Egypt sent helicopters would the majority of serious cases be able to accept the offer, said Head of Emergency and Ambulance Services in the Ministry of Health Muawiya Hassanain.

Hassanain appealed to Arab states to send medical supplies so cases could be treated without being moved, and Saturday night Egypt made a second promise to send four loads of medical supplies to Gaza hospitals.

Greek police issues appeal for solidarity to Germany and Israel

Source

Greece 'runs out of tear gas' during violent protests

Greece has issued an international appeal for more tear gas after supplies ran low because police fired so much of it during a week of violent protests across the country

You'd think this was the title of an article in a satyrical media, like The Onion.
But no! It's the Telegraph...ok some people might say that is a satyrical paper, but that's another debate.

The greek government is urgently seeking fresh supplies of tear gas from Israel and Germany, the police said.

This is all too grotesque to be true...surely. No? Please!

Reports from Free Gaza and Jordan Times

Source: www.freegaza.org

PCAS: Libyan ship sailed to Gaza carrying 3 thousand aid tons

Popular Committee Against the Siege Date : 11-25-2008
(Update: Also see

http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/africa-news/libya-sends-3,000-tons-of-aid-to-gaza-2008112516728.html
http://www.libyaonline.com/news/details.php?id=6838
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4073&Itemid=1)

Gaza Strip, 25, November, 2008-PCAS- In a prompt press release issued a few hours ago, Chairman of Popular Committee Against Siege PCAS, Jamal El Khoudary announced that a Libyan ship (officially) sailed this evening shipped with 3 thousand tons of humanitarian and medical aids.

Upon a call with Libyan officials Tuesday evening, El Khoudary said the ship is presented from the Libyan State and its people in coordination with the Libyan foreign affairs ministry.

He added that this ship is number one and it would be followed by tens of other ships in case of getting today's trip succeeded.

This work came out after considerable coordination exerted by PCAS in the past days. It would be considered the first practical Arabian stance to end the inhuman siege imposed on Gaza.

The recent situation in Gaza is gloomy as Israel fools the mainstream with its closed crossings saying she has reopened them yesterday. Around 70% of Gaza still plunges into deep darkness while fears arose the water is being contaminated across Gaza.

Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak said that Gaza crossings will remain closed.


Jordan Times

The government decision to dispatch aid to the besieged Gaza Strip was a very welcome move and the right thing to do to support Palestinians who are suffering from the inhumane and illegal Israeli closure of Gaza.

This is the kind of action needed. Reports that Libya is sending a shipment of aid by sea signify that the Arab world may finally be stirring.

Nothing will send a clearer signal to Israel than Arab countries uniting with determination and solidarity to help out Gazans who are currently bearing the brunt of Israeli aggression.

There is no suggestion here that Arab countries should engage in anything that could be construed as illegal under international law.

The 1.5 million Palestinians of Gaza Strip are in dire need not only of humanitarian supplies, including food, medicine and fuel, but also of an opening to their Arab brothers and a signal that, as far as it can, the Arab world stands ready to help Gazans reestablish a semblance of normal life.

That is why, whether through agreement with Israel, as in Jordan’s case, or without agreement but in a peaceful and legitimate manner, as in Libya’s case, and with all those activists who have braved the high seas and Israeli navy to break the siege, concerted and determined action by Arab countries will be effective.

It will be effective in Gaza, where a beleaguered and impoverished population will receive the signal that it is not forgotten. It will be effective in Israel, which will be faced with the prospect of defiance by the Arab world in a way that it cannot respond to in the manner it usually does: with force.

Aid shipments to the poor cannot be condemned. At the end of the day, they cannot be resisted. Now it remains for Arab governments to follow up these initial actions with more. If one keeps on knocking, the door will eventually open.

Prayer time in Husan, Palestine

Occupation of house and village, Husan, Palestine

Bypassing Iran and Russia

Democracy Now!

The Taliban have arrived in Britain

Cop 'reported' for having a sense of humour.

LONDON (AFP) — A police officer apologised Thursday for wearing an Osama bin Laden costume to a village carnival in Cornwall, days before the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Chief Superintendent Colin Terry -- currently on secondment to Afghanistan -- admitted to "an error of judgment" after dressing up as the Al-Qaeda chief at the Grampound Carnival last week.

"The carnival is a community event and I am extremely disappointed if it has caused offence and I am most apologetic for that," he told the BBC. "I should have been a bit more careful because of my job."

Terry, who lives in Grampound -- population 650 -- with his family, said he had picked the costume to hide his face because local residents thought he was still away in Afghanistan.

He is on secondment from Devon and Cornwall Constabulary to the Foreign Office, which sent him to Afghanistan as part of a European Union mission helping Afghan police.

Two years ago Terry attended a memorial at Ground Zero in New York for the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and on the Pentagon in Washington.

Journalist heroes in a fascist state

Gazan fishermen shot at and arrested for fishing in gazan waters

Xinhua

The fishermen were taken by the Israeli soldiers and forced to eat which breaks their fasting on the second day of Muslim holy month of Ramadan, said the witnesses.

On Monday, two other fishermen were also injured when the Israeli gunboats targeted their fishing boats.

The shooting and the detention of the fishermen violates a fragile ceasefire started from June between Israel and the Islamic Hamas movement which rules the Gaza Strip.

And, above all violates their basic human rights.

According to IMEMC, two wounded.

As for the Jerusalem Post, it accepts the official version of events:

The IDF spokesperson confirmed that warning shots had been fired in the direction of the fishing boats to prevent them from entering Israel's territorial waters.

Eye-witness accounts:

Free Gaza

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ISRAELI NAVAL VESSELS FIRING ON UNARMED FISHING BOATS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
WORKERS

For more information, please contact:
(at sea, off Gaza coast) Vittorio Arrigoni, +972 598 826 516
(at sea, off Gaza coast) Donna Wallach, +972598 836 420
(Cyprus) Greta Berlin, +357 99 081 767 / iristulip@gmail.com
(Cyprus) Osama Qashoo, +357 97 793 595

(OFF THE COAST OF GAZA) 1 September 2008 - Israeli Naval vessels are
currently firing on unamrmed Palestinian fishing boats and international
human rights workers off the coast of the Gaza Strip. The fishing boats
are several miles off the coast of Gaza City, in Palestinian territorial
waters. As of 11am (4am EST) no one had been injured, but live ammunition
is still being fired in the direction of the civilian boats.

The unarmed boats went to sea at dawn this morning, in an attempt to fish
in their own water. Six international human rights workers from five
different countries accompanied the fishermen in the hopes that their
presence would deter the Israeli military from firing on the fishermen. In
the past the Israeli military has shot and killed unarmed Palestinian
fishermen for trying to fish in their own waters.

Accompanying the fishermen are:

Vittorio Arrigoni, Italy
Georgios Karatzas, Greece
Adam Qvist, Denmark
Andrew Muncie, Scotland
Donna Wallach, USA
Darlene Wallach, USA

PLEASE INFORM THE MEDIA IMMEDIATELY, CALL YOUR EMBASSIES IN TEL AVIV, AND
CALL THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT. TELL THEM TO STOP FIRING UPON UNARMED
FISHERMEN AND UNARMED HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORS.

CALL:

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Tel. +972 2 530 3111

The British Embassy in Tel Aviv
+972 3 725 1222

The US Embassy in Tel Aviv
+972 2 625 5755
###

Another Account:

Vittorio Arrigoni's Account of the Israeli Shooting
Date : 09-01-2008

"When at a distance, estimated by our fishing boat’s captain, of 7 nautical miles from the coast, we dropped our fishing nets and started fishing the Israeli warships rushed to reach our position.
One of the warships positioned at a distance less than 200 metres alongside of our fishing boat, opened fire in our direction at least 4 times during the day. It was intimidating fire directed into the water, but some bursts almost touched the hull of our boat. A cannon shot almost reached us. Making attempt of obtaining a radio contact was useless. Soldiers on the Israeli warship ordered, with the use of megaphones, the area evacuation. And after that they were shooting. Sometimes they were shooting before having ordered. Once they shooted to our fishing nets and tried to damaged it sailing directly on them.
Unfortunetely our big mistake was not having with us neither cameras nor video cameras that, together with megaphones to be used exactly like they do, I consider essential for our next fishing missions.

Despite these intimidations the fishing was rich and profitable, we brought ashore quantity of fish ten times bigger than the usual Palestinians fishers standard."

01/09/2008

Vittorio Arrigoni

'This is an apartheid dictatorship' says Israeli government spokesman

Jerusalem Post

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel is allowing out only students studying in the West because it believes that "exposing Palestinians to a pluralistic and democratic academic environment can only have a positive impact upon the students, who could help bring such values back to Palestinian society."

"If someone is studying chemistry at the University of Teheran or advanced religious texts at an extremist madrassah in south Asia, these are not the kind of things we want to facilitate," he said.

Watch Gaza (and the media)

Ha'aretz

Israel is not currently planning to stop or inspect two boats full of left-wing activists when they leave Gaza, because there is no intelligence indicating that the activists plan to smuggle wanted terrorists out of the Strip.

I was unaware humanitarian aid and fighting for a freedom of movement were exclusively 'left-wing' activities. Now, thanks to Ha'aretz (a 'left wing' paper?), I know.

Watch Gaza (and Palestine), to see if non-violent, non-threatening palestinian citizens are able to go about their daily lives in the future, unharmed, unimpeded, unthreatened; or if it was just a case of letting potential diplomatic WMDs through the blockade.

Update from the Free Gaza list:

I sat at the front of the fishing boat, one of six that went out this morning. They are old wooden boats, outfitted with bits and pieces of mechanical parts, rope twisted together and fishing nets. Israel has refused to let Palestinians fish in their own waters for the past 15 months. Even before that, they restricted Palestinian fishermen to around 6 miles. Now, they shoot holes in the boats and in the fishermen if they are caught farther out than about a kilometer.

So today, 19 of us were going along to break a different kind of siege... the denial of Palestinian rights to fish, something every other country bordering the Mediterranean has. Only Palestinians are told they can't fish for their livelihood, provide for their families and contribute to their own economy. We decided that, since we sailed into Gaza (one fisherman told us we were the first boats to come into the port in 35 years; they have been forced to buy everything from Israel, who charges them exhorbitant fees to buy their own fish back).

Twenty of us arrived at the port about 4:30, sleepy and stumbling about amid the dozens of security men standing there guarding us. We were told we'd have to wait, because the fishermen were afraid to go out to sea with us, uncertain whether they would be shot at or worse. Finally, four hours later, six boats showed up, and we boarded, two or three to a boat. The port is small but perfectly adequate for these boats plus our own two that were on the dock front to back. The media climbed into one of them, escorting us out.

All the Palestinians said they wanted to go our past the six mile limit. They were as eager as we were to test the noose hanging around their necks. At 8 miles, three Israeli patrol boats showed up, buzzing up and down in front of us, a man on a machine gun at the back of each one. The boat I was accompanying was owned by six cousins, the youngest 15, and they were, at first, nervous when the patrol boats showed up. I'm sure the Israelis were having a coronary wondering what to do with us, but they left us alone. I'm sure their media will now say they 'escorted us' out to sea, but that would be a lie.

Six hours later, the men had caught more fish in their nets than they had in four years. They were ecstatic, and I got to watch them haul the tons of fish up and over the back of the boat, sort them, water them down, they pick out the best 8 inch shrimp to cook for my friend, Moussa, and me. By the time we pulled back into port twelve hours later, my skin was bright pink from the sun, they were overjoyed with their catch, and the boats that went out would provide an income for over 16 families for a month.

"Will you come tomorrow? Will you come and fish again?" And, of course, we can't. They had challenged Israel's horrible siege on them, and, today, they won. But without us, will the Israeli come back tomorrow and get even?

We can hope that these men will be able to go out once more and do what generations of men have done... go fishing.

Watching Gaza

Reuters India

"We hope we will be able to go that far every day because it is our right, and it should not be a one-time event because of the presence of the foreigners," said 27-year-old fisherman Fawzi al-Hessi.

Israel said it initially allowed the seafaring activists to sail from Cyprus into the coastal territory to avoid a public confrontation.

IDF (Israel?) manufactures consent

Ha'aretz

The decision to allow the boats reach Gaza was kept secret at first, and only on Friday did official spokespersons begin answering questions, saying that Israel will not be dragged into a provocative stunt staged by leftists. On Friday evening, it was officially announced that Israel would not prevent the boats from reaching their destination.