I guess the Catholics just don't like them

The president of the U.N. General Assembly calls a genocide a genocide (January 14, 2009).

"The number of victims in Gaza is increasing by the day... The situation is untenable. It's genocide," d'Escoto said at the UN in New York.

About 970 Palestinians have been killed and 4,300 injured since Israel began its Gaza offensive on December 27, which it says is to stop Palestinian fighters attacking Israel with rockets. Other sources say 971 dead including 400 women and children. That's 41% of deaths. Israel says only 300 civilians have died (see article below) and have repeatedly used the human shield argument despite reports to the contrary (read some of the blogs of the volunteers in Gaza at present, or the Human Rights reports from the Israeli agencies. The links are in the blog roll), but repeating this argument seems to be a habit of theirs.

From the article: D'Escoto, a former Roman Catholic priest and Nicaragua foreign minister, is known for his outspoken criticism of Israel and last year likened Israel's treatment of the Palestinians to the racist apartheid system previously used in South Africa.

He is not popular with Israel and will be routinely ignored.

Unfortunately, this guy now has something to say, too, (Bin Laden Urges Jihad on Israel, Sky news, 14 Jan, 2009).

Anyone who had the power to protest could have seen it coming. Nice present you left Obama, George, though he seems only too happy to ignore it as much as his predecessor. Aaron David Miller, a former state department adviser on the Middle East said about Barack Obama in this article, (9 January, 2009): "Unless he [Obama] is prepared to adopt a policy that is tougher, fairer and smarter than both of his predecessors you might as well hang a closed-for-the-season sign on any chance of America playing an effective role in defusing the current crisis or the broader crisis." And well, Hillary's views were always known before, but just to make sure, she stated them again. Though, who knows, maybe there will be backdoor dealings and negotiations going on, but not before at least another 500 die, I predict. I hope I eat my words.

In the meantime, from Haaretz (14/01/2009): The Foreign Ministry [of Israel] considers the "Durban 2" World Conference against Racism, scheduled for April in Geneva, as the point when they can determine the extent to which Israel's standing as a democratic country that respects human rights has been damaged. Israel has rallied many countries against the conference on the grounds that it will become a platform for anti-Semitism, and has also announced, along with the United States and Canada, that it will boycott the conference.

The conference is organised by the United Nations Human Rights Council. I guess along with the Vatican, (who said that Gaza more and more resembled a big concentration camp, 9 Jan, 2001), and d'Escoto above, they must have it in for Israel, the U.S. and Canada. The world should be wary.

*Note: It looks like the reporter from Palestine who updates daily has updated his blog, but I cannot get the information at present. It looks as if it has been blocked, or maybe I just can't read it. Anyway, the post from 2 hours ago is Israeli troops attack Gaza City. It is the top blog on my blogroll. I hope others have more luck in accessing it, and that he survives to post another day. *Later: He seems to be back. Posting times have changed though. Updating, I guess.