HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ACCUSES ISRAEL OF SHOOTING PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS HOLDING WHITE FLAGS

Peter Beaumont writes in today's The Guardian that Human Rights Watch accuses the Israeli Defense Forces of shooting 11 Palestinian civilians carrying white flags in Gaza during last January's offensive.

Reports Beaumont:

"The deaths – including those of five women and four children – took place in seven separate incidents across Gaza in areas controlled by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), where there was no fighting and no Palestinian fighters were nearby."

In the meantime, the IDF has issued a voluminous report that finds no violations of the rights of the Palestinians and no basis for charging Israel and its IDF with any war crimes.

Beaumont reports on some of the cases brought up by Human Rights Watch:

"In one case, the civilians were walking in a group on a street. In another, they were driving slowly on tractors and in cars, trying to leave the area with the wounded, according to the report.

""On the way we saw tanks and soldiers," said Omar Abu Halima, 18. "When we saw them [the Israeli soldiers] they told us to stop. After we stopped they fired at us. They killed my cousin Mattar. My cousin Muhammad was wounded and later died."

"In another case – also in al-Atatra – two women holding white flags stepped out of a house that the IDF was demolishing to tell the soldiers that civilians were inside. "We opened the door and a sniper fired at us from a house," said Zakiya al-Qanu, 55. "Ibtisam was hit and I turned to go back inside and another bullet grazed my back. Ibtisam died in the doorway.""

Israel's reaction has been something like, "the Palestinian terrorists were using white flags to deceive IDF soldiers and then shoot them."

But Beaumont reports:

"Human Rights Watch said it could find no evidence of misuse of white flags or the use of civilians as human shields in the cases detailed. "These casualties comprise a fraction of the Palestinian civilians wounded and killed," the report says.

""But they stand out because, in each case, the victims were standing, walking or in slowly moving vehicles with other unarmed civilians, and were trying to convey their non-combatant status by waving a white flag.""

Of course, there will be no formal charges against the IDF or any of its soldiers because the IDF said it could find no evidence of abuse or maltreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza.

The only way that the world can condemn these Israeli war crimes is to publicize them and let the public know what really happened in Israel's three-week incursion into Gaza this past January.

WHY SOME ISRAELIS WANT TO BOMB IRAN

What is the mindset of the Israeli leaders currently warning that the Israeli government may order an attack on Iran?

Greg Jaffe writes in today's website of The Washington Post:

"Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Monday stressed engagement and economic sanctions to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, prompting his Israeli counterpart to insist that "no options" should be ruled out if diplomacy fails.

"Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in a short news conference with Gates, who was visiting here, twice raised the possibility that military action might be needed to stop Iran's nuclear program.

""We clearly believe that no options should be removed from the table," Barak said. "This is our policy. We mean it. We recommend others to take the same position, but we do not dictate to anyone.""

Israel seems intent on bombing Iranian nuclear sites and thus starting a war with Iran. Why not attack Saudi Arabia or Iraq? The majority of Arabs in those countries have nothing but hatred for Israel's policies.

Is it because of Iranian president Ahmadinejad and his foolish comments about the non-existence of the Holocaust? But how can Israel start a war that would kill tens of thousands of people over mere words?

It must be because Iran supports financially Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. The connection between the Iranian government and Hezbollah is easy to explain: Hezbollah's members are Shiites as are a majority of Iranians. Iran's donations to Hezbollah are prompted by sharing a common view of Islam. As far as Hamas, every time Israel attacks Hamas as it did egregiously in the three-week bombardment this past January, Israel prompts its detractors including Iran to pony up more contributions for the suffering Palestinians.

The Israeli government has termed Iran the major support for "terrorists organizations," meaning Iran contributes to Hamas and Hezbollah. But suppose those groups are not "terrorists," but merely insurgents fighting Israel's harsh policies and its refusal to stop building settlements on Palestinian land captured in the 1967 War. What then? Israel would then have to confront its miserable and counterproductive strategy towards repressing Palestinian rights.

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.

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.

AMNESTY INTL. CONDEMNS BOTH ISRAEL & HAMAS FOR WAR CRIMES

The BBC reports that Amnesty International has condemned both the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas for targeting civilians, in flagrant violations of the humanitarian laws of war.

Writes the BBC:

"The human rights group said it had evidence both Israel and Hamas had used weapons sourced from overseas to carry out attacks on civilians.

"It called for the UN Security Council to impose the embargo on all parties.

"Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the conclusions of the report, in which Amnesty accuses each of war crimes."

Amnesty specifically cites Israel's use of shells containing white phosphorous which causes severe and deep burns once it attaches to human flesh. And Amnesty condemns Hamas for allowing rockets to be fired indiscriminately at Israeli towns and villages, thereby causing civilian deaths and casualties.

Reports the BBC:

"Donatella Rovera, the head of an Amnesty fact-finding mission to southern Israel and Gaza, said: "Israeli forces used white phosphorus and other weapons supplied by the USA to carry out serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes.

""Their attacks resulted in the death of hundreds of children and other civilians and massive destruction of homes and infrastructure.

""At the same time, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups fired hundreds of rockets that had been smuggled in or made of components from abroad at civilian areas in Israel.

""Though far less lethal than the weaponry used by Israel, such rocket firing also constitutes a war crime and caused several civilian deaths.""

Many politicians in Israel as well as AIPAC here in the U.S. are always blaming Iran for supporting Hamas as well as Hezbollah. But almost all of the weapons used by Israel and the IDF come from the United States. And when they are used with such devastating effect against people, especially children, in Gaza, the Palestinians must believe that America and Americans hate them and stand with Israel in trying to eradicate them from the homeland.

The BBC reports:

"The [Amnesty] report said fragments and components of artillery, tank shells, fins from mortar rounds and aircraft-launched missiles and bombs were found in school playgrounds, hospitals and homes in Gaza.

"Israel's weaponry predominantly came from the US, the report said.

"About 1,300 Gazans and 13 Israelis died in 22 days of fighting last month."

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.

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.

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.

THE NEWS HOUR AVOIDS ALL MENTION OF PLIGHT OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

I was disappointed in The NewsHour tonight. It had not one story on the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza after the devastating destruction wreaked by the Israelis. People have no homes, no place to sleep, no way to cook food. Children go without school or proper food. Yet The NewsHour spent its time on making automobiles more fuel efficient, or on creating jobs, or on the change from analog to digital.

No wonder I have a low opinion of Jim Lehrer and the other "reporters" on The NewsHour.

MONETARY REWARDS MEAN NOTHING TO ISRAELIS OR PALESTINIANS

I want to call attention to an interesting op-ed in today's The New York Times on the Israeli/Palestinian problem.

Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges write on how little monetary rewards or hopes for economic improvement mean to either the Palestinians or Israelis who believe that their sacred values trump everything else even if means at the cost of their lives.

Write Atran and Ginges:

"Many of the respondents insisted that the values involved were sacred to them. For example, nearly half the Israeli settlers we surveyed said they would not consider trading any land in the West Bank — territory they believe was granted them by God — in exchange for peace. More than half the Palestinians considered full sovereignty over Jerusalem in the same light, and more than four-fifths felt that the “right of return” was a sacred value, too.

"As for sweetening the pot, in general the greater the monetary incentive involved in the deal, the greater the disgust from respondents. Israelis and Palestinians alike often reacted as though we had asked them to sell their children. This strongly implies that using the standard approaches of “business-like negotiations” favored by Western diplomats will only backfire.

"Many Westerners seem to ignore these clearly expressed “irrational” preferences, because in a sensible world they ought not to exist. Diplomats hope that peace and concrete progress on material and quality-of-life matters (electricity, water, agriculture, the economy and so on) will eventually make people forget the more heartfelt issues. But this is only a recipe for another Hundred Years’ War — progress on everyday material matters will simply heighten attention on value-laden issues of “who we are and want to be.”"

So Atran and Ginges come up with a compromise that they opine might very well work:

"Absolutists who violently rejected offers of money or peace for sacred land were considerably more inclined to accept deals that involved their enemies making symbolic but difficult gestures. For example, Palestinian hard-liners were more willing to consider recognizing the right of Israel to exist if the Israelis simply offered an official apology for Palestinian suffering in the 1948 war. Similarly, Israeli respondents said they could live with a partition of Jerusalem and borders very close to those that existed before the 1967 war if Hamas and the other major Palestinian groups explicitly recognized Israel’s right to exist."

Frankly I have always looked with befuddlement on the Israeli demand that the Palestinians recognize "Israel's right to exist." For me, these are just words. If I were an Israeli, I cannot see caring at all about whether some Palestinian admits my country has a right to exist. In fact, Israel does exist, and Israel's existence is not conditioned upon making sure that Israel's neighbors confess to its existence right.

And similarly with the Palestinians. More than anything else, according to Atran and Ginges, the Palestinians want respect and contrition. They want Israelis to apologize for taking their land in 1948. They want Israelis to stop humiliating them.

So why can't Israel formally apologize? And why can't the Palestinians make a solemn acknowledgement of Israel's right to exist? The cost on both sides seems so small, so worthwhile, so cost-effective.

Write Atran and Ginges:

"Remarkably, our survey results were mirrored by our discussions with political leaders from both sides. For example, Mousa Abu Marzook (the deputy chairman of Hamas) said no when we proposed a trade-off for peace without granting a right of return. He became angry when we added in the idea of substantial American aid for rebuilding: “No, we do not sell ourselves for any amount.”

"But when we mentioned a potential Israeli apology for 1948, he brightened: “Yes, an apology is important, as a beginning. It’s not enough because our houses and land were taken away from us and something has to be done about that.” His response suggested that progress on sacred values might open the way for negotiations on material issues, rather than the reverse.

"We got a similar reaction from Benjamin Netanyahu, the hard-line former Israeli prime minister. We asked him whether he would seriously consider accepting a two-state solution following the 1967 borders if all major Palestinian factions, including Hamas, were to recognize the right of the Jewish people to an independent state in the region. He answered, “O.K., but the Palestinians would have to show that they sincerely mean it, change their textbooks and anti-Semitic characterizations.”

"Making these sorts of wholly intangible “symbolic” concessions, like an apology or recognition of a right to exist, simply doesn’t compute on any utilitarian calculus. And yet the science says they may be the best way to start cutting the knot."

OLMERT SAYS GOVERNMENT STANDS BEHIND SOLDIERS ACCUSED OF WAR CRIMES IN GAZA

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert declares that Israel will protect any of its soldiers against international war crimes indictments. Given Olmert's assertion, there can hardly be any doubt that Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) engaged in horrible and cruel war crimes in their attacks against the Palestinians in Gaza

The BBC reports:

"Any Israeli soldiers accused of war crimes in the Gaza Strip will be given state protection from prosecution overseas, the country's PM has said.

"Ehud Olmert said troops should know Israel would keep them safe after they acted to protect their country.

"Palestinians say 1,300 people died during the offensive, and UN officials want independent probes into whether war crimes were committed."

This response by Olmert reminds me of Bush and Cheney claiming that no one in the U.S. government engaged in torture, but if they did, the Congress should pass a law granting immunity.

Consider the use by the IDF of shells that disburse white phosphorous. When it falls on flesh, it is near impossible to get off and its burning goes right through the bone. Or how about the shooting of three Palestinian sisters who were with their grandmother in the street? Or the shelling of the U.N. school sheltering several hundred Palestinians whose homes were targeted by Israeli war planes?

The IDF and every member of the Israeli government has a lot to fear from world opinion and from having to face and defend charges of committing war crimes.

ISRAEL'S USE OF WHITE PHOSPHOROUS IN TANK SHELLS FIRED IN GAZA

Who in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) decided to use white phosphorous in shelling the crowded streets of Gaza? White phosphorous is attached to pieces of felt that burn without end, at least if they fall on flesh. The only way to stop the burning is through digging them out in surgery.

Ethan Bronner reports for The New York Times today from Gaza:

"In early January, a week into Israel’s war in Gaza, the home of Sabah Abu Halima was hit by an Israeli shell. Ms. Abu Halima, the matriarch of a farming family in the northern Gaza area of Beit Lahiya, was caught in an inferno that burned her husband and four of their nine children to death.

"But as she lay in a bed on the third floor of an annex to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Wednesday, bandaged all over and in terrible pain, it was less the magnitude of her loss than the source of the fire that was drawing attention, not only from her doctors but also from human rights organizations and even the Israeli military.

Though there has been no independent confirmation, Palestinian officials say her family was hit by white phosphorus, a weapon that militaries use widely to obscure the battlefield but that is also limited under an international convention that bans targeting civilians with it."

The IDF promised an investigation, but that is too little, too late for the Abu Halima family and their children.

Writes Bronner:

"In Gaza, Ms. Abu Halima said that when her family was hit, “fire came from the bodies of my husband and my children.”

“"The children were screaming, ‘Fire! Fire!’ and there was smoke everywhere and a horrible, suffocating smell,” she said. “My 14-year-old cried out, ‘I’m going to die. I want to pray.’ I saw my daughter-in-law melt away.”

"Dr. Nafez Abu Shaban, head of Shifa’s burn unit, said the family’s burns, which he and an assisting doctor from Egypt had treated, were of a kind he had never encountered, reaching to the muscle and bone.

"“They were deeper and wider than anything I had seen; a bad odor came from the wounds and smoke continued to come out of them for many hours,” he said in his office around the corner from Ms. Abu Halima’s sickbed.

"He added, “We took out a piece of foreign matter that a colleague identified as white phosphorous.”"

ISRAEL'S CHOKE HOLD ON PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

Israel has apparently withdrawn all of its troops from Gaza. However, it has positioned them all around the Gaza border, ready to re-initiate the attack upon notice. Furthermore, Israel continues to fly drones across Gaza, looking for Hamas officials, or Palestinians set to fire rockets into Israel. The borders remain closed: that means no commerce, no building materials, only the barest amount of food, medicine, fuel.

Israel needs to allow Palestinians some chance to live. It should immediately re-open all of the Gaza borders. It should cease the drones over Gaza. It should allow in an unlimited amount of food, medicine and fuel. The U.N. bans collective punishment of civilian populations. This applies to Israel's actions against Palestinian society.

On their part, Palestinians in Gaza need to prevent and renounce the random firing of rockets aimed at Israeli towns and villages.

As it now stands, Israel has reduced Gaza to rubble. Not only Hamas civic offices but over 4,000 homes. More than 50,000 Palestinians are living in United Nations shelters mostly in schools. Over 1200 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's bombardment, many of them children under 16.

The BBC reports:

"Rebuilding the Gaza Strip after Israel's three-week offensive will cost billions of dollars, the UN has warned.

"Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been left homeless and 400,000 people still have no running water, it says."