US Blocks UN Security Council Vote Calling for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

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Democracy Now!
1.5.09

US Blocks UN Security Council Vote Calling for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

On the diplomatic front, the Security Council is meeting again today to discuss the crisis, after Sunday’s emergency session did not produce a ceasefire resolution. On Saturday, the United States blocked a UN Security Council statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Egypt, meanwhile, is hosting meetings for a European-backed ceasefire today. [includes rush transcript]

guests: Phyllis Bennis and Neve Gordon

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via Democracy Now! | US Blocks UN Security Council Vote Calling for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza.

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US blocks UN vote for Gaza ceasefire

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Bill Richardson – Kissinger-American by Greg Palast + Out before the show starts

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Updated: added Bruce Gagnon’s piece on this topic; see below

by Greg Palast
January 5, 2009
excerpted from Armed Madhouse

Bill Richardson is out: Caught with his hand, if not exactly in the cookie jar, at least you could say his sticky finger were near it. I’m not surprised.

For years I’ve been investigating the second-most corrupt state in the USA (after Alaska). I like to check in on the enchanted state with my bud Santiago Juárez.

I knew it was not a polite question, but it was really bugging me, so I asked HIM, “Exactly how does a Mexican get the name William Richardson?”

Governor Richardson’s dad, Santiago explained, was a Citibank executive assigned to Mexico City. There he met Governor Bill’s mom, and—milagro!—a Mexican-American was born. Richardson gets big mileage out of his mother’s heritage, and that makes him, legitimately, a Mexican-American, a politically useful designation. But it’s just as legitimate to say that Richardson is a Citibank-American.

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Israels ground offensive set to last + Gaza hospital struggles to cope with casualties

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RussiaToday

1.3.09

Israel has launched a ground offensive in Gaza, aimed at curbing militant rocket attacks into Israeli territory. It follows more than a week of intensive air strikes which have targeted Hamas safehouses in the area.

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Aftermath of night air raids over Gaza + Israeli ground offensive continues in Gaza

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nocommenttv

1.4.09

Aftermath of night air raids over Gaza and food given by UN

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Israeli ground offensive continues in Gaza

AlJazeeraEnglish

1.4.09

Gaza is being pounded from the air, from the sea, from the ground, and now also from within.

James Bays reports on the start of the new phase of the War on Gaza.

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Gaza demo London solidarity + Turkish protest against Israeli airstrike in Gaza

Trafalgar Square overflows with Palestine supporters + Israel’s Righteous Fury and its Victims in Gaza by Ilan Pappe

Depleted uranium found in Gaza victims + Israel is Guilty of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity

Racism Against Jews Is Not Acceptable

Jewish Peace News: Ashkelon, Gaza, and Being Afar

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Gaza demo London solidarity + Turkish protest against Israeli airstrike in Gaza

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norwegiancoast

London, Saturday 3rd January 2009. Demo in opposition to Israeli attacks on Gaza. The WSWS interviews demonstrators.

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h/t: WSWS

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Turkish protest against Israeli airstrike in Gaza

nocommenttv

http://www.euronews.net/ Several thousand people gathered in one of Istanbul’s main squares to protest against the Israeli ground offensive in Gaza on Sunday (Jan 4, 2009).

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Trafalgar Square overflows with Palestine supporters + Israel’s Righteous Fury and its Victims in Gaza by Ilan Pappe

Depleted uranium found in Gaza victims + Israel is Guilty of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity

Racism Against Jews Is Not Acceptable

Jewish Peace News: Ashkelon, Gaza, and Being Afar

The Invasion of Gaza: “Operation Cast Lead”, Part of a Broader Israeli Military-Intelligence Agenda by Michel Chossudovsky

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Trafalgar Square overflows with Palestine supporters + Israel’s Righteous Fury and its Victims in Gaza by Ilan Pappe

compiled by Cem Ertür
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
5 January, 2009

Trafalgar Square overflows with Palestine supporters

kriptick | 04.01.2009 22:11

The wicked injustice inflicted by the Israeli regime on the long suffering Gazans over the past 60 years and especially during the last week brought 50,000 angry protesters to Trafalgar Square today. Despite the cold, the crowd still had the energy to then march on the Israeli embassy a further 3 miles away despite frequent police obstruction over the whole route.

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via UK Indymedia – Trafalgar Square overflows with Palestine supporters. + photos

More info: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/topics/palestine/

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Picture of Neturei Karta members from last week’s London demo:

israeli embassy_london_28 dec 08

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Israel’s Righteous Fury and its Victims in Gaza

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Depleted uranium found in Gaza victims + Israel is Guilty of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity

compiled by Cem Ertür
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
5 January, 2009

Press TV
Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:16:21 GMT

Medics tell Press TV they have found traces of depleted uranium in some Gaza residents wounded in Israel’s ground offensive on the strip.

Norwegian medics told Press TV correspondent Akram al-Sattari that some of the victims who have been wounded since Israel began its attacks on the Gaza Strip on December 27 have traces of depleted uranium in their bodies.

The report comes after Israeli tanks and troops swept across the border into Gaza on Saturday night, opening a ground operation after eight days of intensive attacks by Israeli air and naval forces on the impoverished region.

[…]

via Press TV – Depleted uranium found in Gaza victims.

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Israel is Guilty of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity

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Racism Against Jews Is Not Acceptable

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Posted with permission from Palestine Solidarity Committee – Seattle

A statement by Palestine Solidarity Committee

Palestine Solidarity Committee’s mission is support independence, security and self-determination for all the peoples of Israel/Palestine, and to change U.S. policy in the Middle East by educating Americans in ways that American funds and foreign policy are used to maintain the Israeli military occupation which violates Palestinian human rights and generates violence from both sides. We object to the Israeli government’s policies of occupation, apartheid, and dispossession of Palestinians. In opposing these policies and US support for them, our objections are directed at the unjust practices of a political regime, not against the Jewish people of the world. Continue reading

Jewish Peace News: Ashkelon, Gaza, and Being Afar

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Crossposted with permission from Jewish Peace News

Jewish Peace News
Jan. 5, 2008

1) Ashkelon, Past and Present. Article by Robert Fisk and Blog post by Benny Tzffer

2) Ali Abunimah: “Inheriting Bush’s Blinkers”

3) Safa Jouudeh, in Gaza, has published her third piece

4) Ghada Ageel: “I can’t hug my mother in Gaza”

5) Starhawk: “On Gaza”

Ashkelon, past and present:

Below are two pieces that address the Palestinian history of Ashkelon, a city in the news lately for the qassams falling there, causing the death of at least one person. One of the backstories of this historic town is that it was home to tens of thousands of Palestinians who were expelled to Gaza by Israeli forces in 1948 and the early years of Israeli statehood. 80% of Gazans come from refugee families with roots inside of Israel proper. This history does not justify the rocket attacks. The people under threat of rockets from Gaza aren’t responsible for designing or executing Israeli policy in Gaza; they are innocent civilians. What the history does give us, though, is yet another angle from which to look at this conflict and more layers of human life to sift through as we try to understand its meaning and implications for the many generations of people whose lives it effects.

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The Invasion of Gaza: “Operation Cast Lead”, Part of a Broader Israeli Military-Intelligence Agenda by Michel Chossudovsky

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by Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, January 4, 2009

The aerial bombings and the ongoing ground invasion of Gaza by Israeli ground forces must be analysed in a historical context. Operation “Cast Lead” is a carefully planned undertaking, which is part of a broader military-intelligence agenda first formulated by the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001:

“Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.”(Barak Ravid, Operation “Cast Lead”: Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning, Haaretz, December 27, 2008)

It was Israel which broke the truce on the day of the US presidential elections, November 4:

“Israel used this distraction to break the ceasefire between itself and Hamas by bombing the Gaza strip.  Israel claimed this violation of the ceasefire was to prevent Hamas from digging tunnels into Israeli territory.

The very next day, Israel launched a terrorizing siege of Gaza, cutting off food, fuel, medical supplies and other necessities in an attempt to “subdue” the Palestinians while at the same time engaging in armed incursions.

In response, Hamas and others in Gaza again resorted to firing crude, homemade, and mainly inaccurate rockets into Israel.  During the past seven years, these rockets have been responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis.  Over the same time span, Israeli Blitzkrieg assaults have killed thousands of Palestinians, drawing worldwide protest but falling on deaf ears at the UN.” (Shamus Cooke, The Massacre in Palestine and the Threat of a Wider War, Global Research, December 2008)

Planned Humanitarian Disaster

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The Politics of An Israeli Extermination Campaign: Backers, Apologists and Arms Suppliers by Prof. James Petras

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by Prof. James Petras
Global Research, January 2, 2009

Introduction

Because of the unconditional support of the entire political class in the US, from the White House to Congress, including both Parties, incoming and outgoing elected officials and all the principle print and electronic mass media, the Israeli Government feels no compunction in publicly proclaiming a detailed and graphic account of its policy of mass extermination of the population of Gaza.

Israel’s sustained and comprehensive bombing campaign of every aspect of governance, civic institutions and society is directed toward destroying civilized life in Gaza. Israel’s totalitarian vision is driven by the practice of a permanent purge of Arab Palestine informed by Zionism, an ethno-racist ideology, promulgated by the Jewish state and justified, enforced and pursued by its organized backers in the United States.

The facts of Israeli extermination have become known: In the first six days of round the clock terror bombing of major and minor populations centers, the Jewish State has murdered and seriously maimed over 2,500 people, mostly dismembered and burned in the open ovens of missile fire. Scores of children and women have been slaughtered as well as defenseless civilians and officials.

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