ROMNEY PUTS ALL THE BLAME ON PALESTINIANS - HAS HE BEEN FOLLOWING THE ISRAELI CRUELTIES ON THE NEWS?

Ewen Mac Askill writes in The Guardian online about Mitt Romney's comments blaming the Palestinians for not wanting peace with Israel.  Writes Mac Askill:

"The latest clip shows Romney dismissing the chances of peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not an unusual view, but he then goes on to firmly put the blame solely on the Palestinians.

"He contentiously described the the Palestinians as "committed to the destruction and elimination" of Israel and indicated he was unlikely to pursue, as president, the creation of a Palestinian state, warning that Iran would use it as a base for attacks on Israel."

I guess that Romney, in putting the blame on the Palestinians, has never heard of Israeli soldiers firing tank shells at Palestinian civilians, or Israeli warplanes wantonly destroying essential infrastructure in Gaza, or Israeli hardliners cruelly forcing Palestinian families off their land, so that Jewish settlers can illegally and immorally move in.

ASSOCIATE OF PALESTINIAN PRES. ABBAS CRITICIZES HIM FOR YIELDING ON GOLDSTONE REPORT

Even a high-ranking associate of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is criticizing Abbas' decision to withdraw support for letting the UN General Assembly consider the Goldstone Report on Israel's conduct during the three-week war last January against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Rory McCarthy reports in the guardian.co.uk:

"A senior Palestinian official admitted today it was a "mistake" to drop support for a UN human rights council resolution that called for investigations into Israel's conduct in the Gaza war.

"Frustration and anger has been mounting against Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, for his surprise decision not to endorse a highly critical UN inquiry into the January war. The inquiry, by the South African judge Richard Goldstone, accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity."

South African Judge Goldstone has a reputation for fairness and lack of bias. His report put most of the onus on the IDF for its indiscriminate shelling and shooting of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Since the report was published several weeks ago, Israel and the Israeli government under PM Netanyahu have been putting pressure on countries to ask the U.N. to postpone dealing with the explosive report. For some reason, Abbas went along.

Palestinian groups and human rights organizations have condemned the postponement and Abbas' involvement in it.

Writes McCarthy:

"There have been several demonstrations against the decision in the West Bank, as well as protests from human rights organisations. Syria cancelled an official visit by Abbas, criticising the Palestinians for backing down.

"In a joint statement, 17 Palestinian human rights groups "strongly condemned" the decision, saying the justification for delaying the vote was "inappropriate" and that accountability was needed as part of a peace process. "Justice delayed is justice denied. All victims have a legitimate right to an effective judicial remedy, and the equal protection of the law," it said.

"Mustafa Barghouti, an independent Palestinian MP, said the decision was a "grave and horrible mistake" that had damaged the Palestinian Authority's credibility. "The only beneficiary of this postponement was Israel and it happened at a time when there was an opening to hold Israel accountable." He added that it left the Palestinians in a weaker position in peace talks with the Israelis."

ISRAEL TURNS AWAYS PHYSICIANS FROM AIDING GAZA

Why must Israel continue to inflict pain and harm on the Palestinians in Gaza? Yesterday, Israel refused to allow a team of physicians organized by the French government entry into Gaza for medical and humanitarian purposes.

Vikram Dodd writes in today's The Guardian webpage:

"Israel was yesterday criticised after it refused to allow a group of doctors on a humanitarian mission organised by the French government to enter Gaza.

"The team, including three British medics, was turned back by Israeli border guards on Sunday and Monday. They say their mission is purely humanitarian, aimed to helping those in medical need, and some of whom were left injured and in need of surgery after Israel's attack on Gaza earlier this year."

The whole Israeli blockade of Gaza is itself a war crime, and specifically, when the Israeli government turns away medics looking to provide medical help and relief to Gaza's population. Israel refuses to allow in basic necessities of life, like medical assistance, as well as needed construction materials so that Gazans can rebuild their homes and apartments, destroyed by Israel in its incessant bombing this past January.

"One of the Britons refused entry to Gaza, Sonia Robbins, who is a reconstructive plastic surgeon, said: "I don't know why we are being refused permission to enter.

""The consequences are that patients will not be operated on, children will have to wait until next time for surgery, and that won't happen until six months time.

""I think it is unacceptable to refuse a humanitarian mission.""

I don't understand why Israelis are not demonstrating in the streets against this cruel and inhumane policy. Each time that Israel tries to tighten the screws by some unthought out policy like turning away physicians and surgeons, the whole world sees how mean and cruel it is towards its one million plus captives in Gaza.

U.N. REPORT HARSHLY CRITICIZES ISRAEL'S AGGRESSION AGAINST PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

The BBC reports that the United Nations examination of Israel's actions during its three week attack on Palestinians in Gaza shows that Israel and its IDF used disproportionate force against a civilian population.

The BBC gives the U.N.'s major findings:

1. Israeli army responsible in six cases in which UN property was damaged and UN staff and other civilians hurt or killed
2. No military activity was carried out from within UN premises in any of the incidents
3. Israeli military's actions "involved varying degrees of negligence or recklessness"
4. Israeli military took "inadequate" precautions to protect UN premises and civilians inside.

STOP RUSH TO WAR AGAINST IRAN

There were several troubling developments regarding prejudice against Iran and its nuclear development program.

One was a letter published in today's The New York Times by Abraham Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, calling Iran the "greatest evil in the modern world." Foxman seems to be one of those many (not all) rabid Zionists here in the U.S. who would like nothing better than provoke the U.S. attack Iran, bomb its nuclear facilities, and in the process, kill tens of thousands of Iranians.

And what caused Foxman's latest demonization of Iran? Ahmadinejad called Israel "cruel and racist" for its actions in the three-week attack on Palestinians in Gaza this past January. Is there any doubt that Israel and its IDF shot and bombed civilians, closed borders to prevent civilians fleeing the fighting, bombed homes, mosques, schools, and yes, even the United Nations food storage center? Even today, Israel will not permit Palestinians to obtain construction materials to re-build, with the result that hundreds if not thousands of Palestinian families are still without proper shelter.

Second. Hillary Clinton, testifying before a House Committee, said that the U.S. would impose "crippling" sanctions on Iran unless it came to some acceptable agreement about its nuclear program. Viola Gienger writes for Bloomberg on Clinton's statements:

"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. effort to reach out to Iran will be coupled with the threat of “crippling” sanctions should the regime in Tehran rebuff diplomacy to curb its nuclear program."

Remember this is the same Hillary Clinton who said during the campaign that she as president would "obliterate" Iran if it attacked Israel. We need Barack Obama to put an end to Clinton's intemperate and bellicose language. In truth, the danger comes not from Iran attacking Israel, but just the other way around. The U.S. cannot permit or allow Israel to attack Iran.

Americans need to stop thinking of other countries having different languages and cultures and religions as "enemies." The U.S. should maintain friendly relations with all countries, including Iran, North Korea and Venezuela, to name but a few. Obama needs to make sure all his officers and cabinet members put this principle of foreign policy into place and observe it.

WASHPO: ISRAEL MAY HAVE COMMITTED WAR CRIMES BUT HAMAS IS WORSE

When in the cross hairs of very negative public opinion and condemnation for war crimes, as Israel now finds itself, have your shills try to place blame on the other guy. This is what Richard Cohen tries to do in his pro-Israeli piece in today's The Washington Post. "Israel may have killed Palestinians in its unjustified three-week bombardment of Gaza, but Hamas is worse." What the world needs is a full United Nations investigation of Israel's actions, not the whitewash conducted by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) of its own conduct, as if all the charges about killing defenseless civilians, men women, children, were mere "hearsay."

ISRAEL'S ACTIONS IN GAZA RAISE CHARGE OF WAR CRIMES

George Bisharat writes in Saturday's The New York Times that Israel's three-week attack on the Palestinians in Gaza show signs of serious war crimes.

Bisharat describes six areas where Israel violated the laws of war and precepts of international law in invading, bombing, killing and destroying Gazan infrastructure.

Writes Bisharat:

"Chilling testimony by Israeli soldiers substantiates charges that Israel’s Gaza Strip assault entailed grave violations of international law. The emergence of a predominantly right-wing, nationalist government in Israel suggests that there may be more violations to come. Hamas’s indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli civilians also constituted war crimes, but do not excuse Israel’s transgressions."

Bisharat enumerates six areas where evidence shows Israel and its Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) committed war crimes.

"Violating its duty to protect the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. Despite Israel’s 2005 “disengagement” from Gaza, the territory remains occupied. Israel unleashed military firepower against a people it is legally bound to protect.

"Imposing collective punishment in the form of a blockade, in violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. In June 2007, after Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip, Israel imposed suffocating restrictions on trade and movement. The blockade — an act of war in customary international law — has helped plunge families into poverty, children into malnutrition, and patients denied access to medical treatment into their graves. People in Gaza thus faced Israel’s winter onslaught in particularly weakened conditions.

"Deliberately attacking civilian targets. The laws of war permit attacking a civilian object only when it is making an effective contribution to military action and a definite military advantage is gained by its destruction. Yet an Israeli general, Dan Harel, said, “We are hitting not only terrorists and launchers, but also the whole Hamas government and all its wings.” An Israeli military spokeswoman, Maj. Avital Leibovich, avowed that “anything affiliated with Hamas is a legitimate target.”

"Israeli fire destroyed or damaged mosques, hospitals, factories, schools, a key sewage plant, institutions like the parliament, the main ministries, the central prison and police stations, and thousands of houses.

"Willfully killing civilians without military justification. When civilian institutions are struck, civilians — persons who are not members of the armed forces of a warring party, and are not taking direct part in hostilities — are killed. . . .

"Deliberately employing disproportionate force. Last year, Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, head of Israel’s northern command, speaking on possible future conflicts with neighbors, stated, “We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction.” Such a frank admission of illegal intent can constitute evidence in a criminal prosecution.

"Illegal use of weapons, including white phosphorus. Israel was finally forced to admit, after initial denials, that it employed white phosphorous in the Gaza Strip, though Israel defended its use as legal. White phosphorous may be legally used as an obscurant, not as a weapon, as it burns deeply and is extremely difficult to extinguish."

U..N. WANTS INVESTIGATION OF ISRAEL FOR POSSIBLE WAR CRIMES

The BBC reports that UN investigators have harshly criticized Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for cruelty and war crimes committed during the IDF's invasion and bombardment of Gaza this past January.

Writes the BBC:

"UN human rights investigators have questioned the legality of Israel's Gaza offensive in a wide-ranging report to the UN Human Rights Council.

"One investigator, Richard Falk, asked how a military assault with modern weapons could have been made "against an essentially defenceless society".

"The report found civilians appeared to "have taken the brunt of the attacks" with schools and clinics also hit."

Gaza and the Palestinians living there were not only defenseless, they were not allowed to flee or escape the fighting. Israel had sealed all of its borders with Gaza so that civilians and families and children could not run away from the death and destruction.

Reports the BBC:

"Mr Falk argued that in order to determine if the war was legal, it was necessary to assess whether Israeli forces could differentiate between civilian and military targets in Gaza.

""If it is not possible to do so, then launching the attacks is inherently unlawful, and would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law," he said in Geneva.

""The overall ratio of deaths, 1,434 on the Palestinian side, 13 on the Israeli side, is suggestive of the one-sidedness of the military encounter," he added.

"Gaza's borders were closed, he stressed, so civilians were unable to flee the fighting.

"Mr Falk called for an independent inquiry to examine possible war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas."

Some other UN investigators cited specific instances of Israeli soldiers firing and killing civilians and children.

The BBC writes:

"Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN secretary general's special representative for children and armed conflict, cited a long series of incidents to back her charges, in her report to the UN Human Rights Council.

"In one, she said, Israeli soldiers shot a father after ordering him out of his house and then opened fire into the room where the rest of the family was sheltering, wounding the mother and three brothers and killing a fourth."

Yes, the world needs to hold Israel and its IDF accountable for the unnecessary and cruel death and destruction they wrought upon the Palestinians in Gaza. The trouble is that it is almost impossible to hold a party like Israel responsible when its allies like the United States and many members of Congress give an imprimatur to Israel no matter what it does or no matter what war crimes it commits.

BBC REPORTS ON ISRAEL'S "WANTON DESTRUCTION" OF HOMES IN GAZA

The BBC has a report today on "wanton destruction" of Palestinian homes by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during the three-week bombardment of Gaza this past January.

The BBC reports that Amnesty International found evidence that IDF intentionally destroyed apartment buildings and homes:

Human rights investigators say Israeli forces engaged in "wanton destruction" of Palestinian homes during the recent conflict in Gaza.

"Amnesty International has told the BBC News website the methods used raised concerns about war crimes.

"Israel's military said buildings were destroyed because of military "operational needs".

"The Israeli Defense Forces said they operated in accordance with international law during the conflict.

"However, the use of mines to destroy homes contradicted this claim, the head of the Amnesty International fact-finding mission to southern Israel and Gaza, Donatella Rovera, has argued."

This is only one facet of Israel's barbaric destruction of Palestinian infrastructure, including police stations, schools, mosques and hospitals.

"There were also whole neighbourhoods reduced to rubble in areas where the Israeli ground forces were present.

"Ms Rovera said Amnesty International was concerned about "large scale destruction of homes and other civilian properties" during the conflict.

""The destruction was, in our view, and according to our findings, wanton destruction - it could not be justified on military grounds," she said.

"Ms Rovera said her team found fragments of anti-tank mines in and around destroyed properties."

The International Court of Justice needs to pursue its investigation of these IDF actions. Destroying civilian homes as a form of collective punishment is a war crime, not allowed by any country including Israel. Of course Israel will say that there were "terrorists" hiding in the buildings, or that Hamas "terrorists" were hiding behind women and children and using them as "shields." This is just more spin put forth by Israel to attempt to justify the indefensible.

Israel and the IDF have tried to starve the Palestinians in Gaza and thus eliminate all of them. When closing the borders did not have its desired effect, Israel then tried to eliminate the Palestinians by bombs, war planes and tank shells filled with white phosphorous.

HOW COULD HILLARY CLINTON PLEDGE U.S. SUPPORT TO ISRAEL?

How can the United States government and Hillary Clinton pledge eternal support and friendship to Israel after what Israel did to the Palestinian people in Gaza at the beginning of January?

The Israeli Defense Forces bombed mosques, schools, yes even a university, police stations and worst of all homes and apartment buildings. Can anyone come up with a better example of "collective punishment?" Israel responding to rocket fire from Gaza decides to punish and bomb the entire Gazan population.

But this is nothing new for Israel. For the last year and half preceding its attack on Gazan infrastructure and the Palestinian people living there, Israel closed all border crossings, letting in meagre rations of food, fuel and medicine. Again we have a classic example of punishing the population for the sins of a few.

Of course rocket firings into Israeli towns must stop. But that is no excuse for Israel to try to kill the entire Palestinian population.

So how could Clinton commit the U.S. to everlasting support of Israel in view of all the above?

TONY BLAIR FINALLY VISITS GAZA

Finally after several years of being special envoy to the Middle East, Tony Blair has seen fit to actually visit Gaza. The BBC reports that Blair's visit was only brief, and that he did not plan to meet with any members of Hamas.

Last year Blair was to go into Gaza, but, at the last minute, the Israelis scared him by spreading rumors that there would be an attempt to either kidnap or assassinate him. So wimpy Blair called off his trip.

Blair's visit is overdue. It is about time. Blair needs to see with his own eyes the destruction and misery caused by the IDF's disproportionate bombing and shelling of schools, hospitals, mosques and homes in Gaza.

OBAMA CONTINUES POLICY OF SUPPORTING ISRAEL, NOTWITHSTANDING CRUEL ATTACK ON GAZA

The Obama administration is debating whether to attend the human rights symposium and gathering sponsored by the United Nations. The Washington Post reports that Obama still has not come to a final decision. He does not want to be part of a group that will condemn Israel for its actions against the Palestinians in Gaza.

This is another major Obama mistake. Many countries have no qualms in condemning Israel for its disproportionate and cruel war against Gaza, where the majority of inhabitants are children. When the rest of the world sees that the U.S. and Obama still insist in siding with Israel, notwithstanding the damning evidence against the Israel Defense Forces, the result will be antagonism and suspicion and even hatred generated against the United States and Americans.

SEN. JOHN KERRY VISITS GAZA, SEES DESTRUCTION UP CLOSE, RECEIVES LETTER FOR OBAMA FROM HAMAS

I want to commend Sen. John Kerry and his two Democratic congressmen for visiting Gaza today for the purpose of seeing for themselves the destruction caused to Palestinian infrastructure by the Israeli attack and bombardment.

The BBC reports:

"A former presidential candidate, Mr Kerry was visiting Gaza with US congressmen Brian Baird and Keith Ellison in the first such visit to the Hamas-run Strip since 2007. . . .

"UN relief agency chief Karen Abu Zayd told the BBC the letter had been received by the UN and passed on.

"She did not say if Senator John Kerry had accepted it, and there were no details about the letter's contents."

Cong. Baird said the almost complete destruction defied imagination. The Israelis seemed to have taken special interest in targeting Palestinian businesses and farms. But they also destroyed schools, hospitals, mosques and police stations.

Hamas apparently delivered a letter to Barack Obama. This is a good first step. The outdated bizarre notion that the U.S. should not speak or negotiate with Hamas because it is a "terrorist organization" is left over from George W. Bush. Obama should repudiate it and immediately begin to sit down at the table with Palestinian representatives from both Hamas and Fatah. There can be no peace until and unless Obama is willing to do this.

SHORT TAKES ON PRESIDENTS' DAY

Several items of importance:

1. JUAN COLE'S POSTING ON SUFFERING OF GAZA'S CHILDREN. If you have not visited or read Juan Cole's Informed Comment, his post today on the plight of children wounded in the Israeli attack on Gaza is a must read. Here is the link.

Cole writes:

"Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ruled out allowing needed goods into Gaza, which Israel has virtually surrounded from land and sea, until Hamas releases captured Israeli soldier Sgt. Gilad Shalit. Olmert is thereby committing a war crime. You can't collectively punish the general Gaza population if you are the occupying authority. It is not allowed to torture that wailing child in the video above by keeping out painkillers, just because some adult somewhere from the same territory captured an Israeli soldier. But Olmert will get a pass on his war crimes. Apparently you only get punished for them if you are weak or lose; it isn't the crime but the power of the criminal that matters."

2. CRASH OF TWO NUCLEAR SUBMARINES IN ATLANTIC. The crash of a British nuclear submarine with a French nuclear submarine someplace in the Atlantic Ocean illustrates why no country should possess a nuclear submarine. There could have been release of hazardous nuclear material into the ocean. For all we know, there might have been, although both France and the U.K. deny any such nuclear leakage. Furthermore, both crews could have been killed. Neither Britain nor France needs a war weapon like a nuclear submarine. No country should possess a nuclear sub, not even the United States.

3. ANOTHER DRONE MISSILE STRIKE IN PAKISTAN. I don't understand how Barack Obama could allow the continuation of these missile strikes in Pakistan's western tribal areas. If the U.S. and Obama think that killing villagers or destroying someone's home is going to win the war against Taliban insurgents, they are mistaken. All these strikes do is to incite hatred for Americans and foment in the minds and hearts of all Pakistanis the urge to take revenge against the U.S.

WASHINGTON POST CONDEMNS HUGO CHAVEZ FOR CRITICIZING ISRAELI RAID ON PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

The Washington Post had an editorial yesterday entitled "Mr. Chavez vs. the Jews," about the plight of Venezuelan Jews after the attack on a synagogue in Caracas.

The attack on the synagogue was indeed unfortunate and indicative of anti-semitic forces in Caracas. But the WashPo went on to decry the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as a sign of displeasure with Israel's attack upon the Palestinians in Gaza.

Writes the WashPo editorial:

"Then there is the assault on Venezuela's Jewish community -- which seems to have replaced George W. Bush as Mr. Chávez's favorite foil. After Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip last month, the caudillo expelled Israel's ambassador and described Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide." Then Mr. Chávez turned on Venezuela's Jews. "Let's hope that the Venezuelan Jewish community will declare itself against this barbarity," Mr. Chávez bellowed on a government-controlled television channel. "Don't Jews repudiate the Holocaust? And this is precisely what we're witnessing.""

First of all, Chavez is not alone in condemning the barbaric and cruel attack upon Gaza. Israeli war planes and tanks destroyed schools, mosques, police stations, and even shelled safe houses such as those run by the U.N. Many, including myself, think Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) perpetrated serious war crimes for which they should be punished. The constant screaming of war planes overhead day and night surely traumatized Gaza's children who make up more than 50% of the total population. Even homes and apartment buildings were not safe from Israeli bombs and tank shells. It did seem that Israel, not successful in killing off the Palestinians by a food and fuel blockade, decided to do the job with an outright military attack.

So the Washington Post should not blame Chavez for his stern reaction to "this barbarity." It is wrong to attack a synagogue in Caracas but Chavez's government has made timely arrests of those it believed executed the contemptible destruction. But it is equally or more wrong for Israel to attack Gaza, not allow any of its inhabitants to flee the fighting, and kill over 1,400 Palestinians in the process.

Hugo Chavez may be politically wrong for trying to amend the Venezuelan constitution to allow him to overcome term limits, but he is not wrong for condemning Israelis for their bombardment of Gaza.

ISRAEL KEEPS BORDERS SHUT TO PALESTINIANS

Is there any serious observer who does not consider Israel's persistence in locking the borders into and out of Gaza a typical case of collective punishment? This is a classic and long-recognized war crime.

Because Israel blames Hamas democratically elected by the Palestinians in Gaza in January 2006 the "enemy" and "terrorists," it is determined to punish ordinary people who elected Hamas and who now more than ever support Hamas after Israel's disproportionate destruction of infrastructure, schools, police stations, universities, mosques, ordinary apartment buildings and homes.

Thus Israel's locking down the borders, and the consequent blockade of food, medicine, fuel, building materials into Gaza.

After killing over 1400 Palestinians who were unfortunate enough to live in buildings targeted by Israeli war planes and tanks, or whose homes adjoined those buildings, Israelis are now determined to keep the Palestinians in a continuous state of eking out their existence amidst the ruins and rubble of Gaza.

Obama needs to visit Gaza and see for himself. Remember when the Israelis scared Tony Blair on the verge of doing just that thing. They told Blair there was a secret Palestinian plan to kidnap him or even kill him. Blair cancelled his visit spooked by Israeli scares.

ISRAEL'S MILITARY ATTACK ENFLAMES HATRED, DOES NOT STOP ROCKETS

The arguments of Israelis defending their attack upon the Palestinians in Gaza is truly puzzling. We all know that Israel has suffered rocket attacks emanating out of Gaza for many years. But the issue is how most Israelis justify military bombing and shelling as an intelligent response.

Surely Israelis don't think that they can solve a vexing political question by armed military conflict. If the goal is to stop the rocket attacks, then the means has to be something other than killing more Palestinian children. Why? Because that is what caused the rocket attacks in the beginning.

Furthermore, severe military punishment by means of tanks and war planes does not and will not cause a targeted population to stop an insurgency or to begin treating Israelis as friends or brothers. All it does is exacerbate the hatred and blind retaliation that ratchets up the conflict.

So how come most Israelis supported the war crimes against the Palestinians?

ISRAEL USES "DISPORPORTIONATE" MILITARY FORCE AGAINST PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

Israeli leaders can't be serious in thinking that "disproportionate" military force is going to make the Palestinians in Gaza stop their unfortunate rocket attacks aimed at Israeli towns and villages.

If anything, the Israeli Defense Force's (IDF) response is sure to increase Palestinians' hatred for all things Israeli and make them even more determined to keep up their rocket firings.

What Israel needs to do is to open all borders, allow unconditional free flow of food, medicine, building materials and trade. Israel also needs to quit referring to the Palestinians and their democratically elected government Hamas as "terrorists."

After thousands of years of recorded wars and killing the other side, has any country or entity or people ever really "triumphed?" The answer surely comes back in the negative. Wars and killings accomplish nothing but exacerbate the desire and need for retaliation and revenge.

BOGUS ARGUMENT: CRITICIZING ISRAEL FOR GAZA DESTRUCTION MEANS DENYING HOLOCAUST

So Walter Reich writing in The Washington Post would have us believe that anyone who criticizes Israel's war crimes in Gaza is an anti-Semite and a denier of the Holocaust. A good way to silence criticism of Israel's cruelty to civilians and children in Gaza who were shot, bombed, incinerated by the IDF. No, we must resist the charge of being anti-Semitic and continue to decry Israel's inhumanity towards the Palestinians in Gaza.
1/31/2009 10:05:19 AM

WORLD FOCUS GIVES REPORTS ON GAZA, THE NEWS HOUR GIVES HARDLY ANY

Martin Savidge and WorldFocus do a great job in covering the Gaza story. Consider The NewsHour on PBS. Over the last several weeks, The NewsHour has aired hardly any stories or reports on Gaza other than brief mentions during the news portion at the very beginning of the program. If it weren't for WF, where would we Americans get a picture and a report of the human catastrophe caused by the Israeli war cruelty and Israel's attack upon Gazan civilians and their civilian institutions? Other than BBC World TV News, World Focus is the only source of the news that really matters.

Good job, everyone at World Focus.