Meanwhile , the top UN rights body has approved a resolution condemning Israel's military offensive in Gaza, saying it has "resulted in massive violations of human rights of the Palestinian people".
The Human Rights Council's 47 members voted 33 in favour and 1 against the resolution that also accuses Israel of systematically destroying Palestinian infrastructure and of targeting civilians and medical facilities.
Canada voted againt this (?!!) The European Union abstained.
It is not the first time the Israelis have been accused of this, and maybe this account by an Israeli ex-soldier who in has refused to serve in the IDF might go some way to explaining why it isn't the first time. Though he is talking about the West Bank, this experience has been felt by all Palestinians, regardless of location.
We are getting very limited coverage of this, but those in the Arab world are not as it is streamed through Al Jazeera. A friend stays up until 4a.m. every night watching it, though he won't let his children see it. The onslaught of images of many, but especially children, burnt by white phosphorous, bombs, limbs missing, heads blown off and so on, may not be seared into our mind's eye, but that does not mean it is the same for the world over. I assume that Bush, Rice,Brown, Blair, and our own Kevin Rudd (though he is a small-time player) get a good night's sleep. Maybe this is why they can sleep (Gaza 'testing lab for new weapons', SBS news, Australia, 13 January, 2009).
920 Palestinians dead, 350 children, 160 women. For all intents and purposes, men are not usually counted as civilians during a war, even if they are, so you might want to factor that into the figures as well. These figures can be verified in the 'mainstream' press, also, and in fact, the journalist who writes that blog is often quoted and referred to. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed in combat or in rocket attacks since the operation began. SBS news, Australia.
From an aid worker blogger in Gaza. What the tv crews cannot possibly tell you, especially as foreign journalists and Israeli journalists are not allowed into Gaza.
Amira Hass from the Israeli paper, Haaretz. January 12, 2009 and, in full, the following I have just added to the post (hence the date discrepancy):
Boycotts may achieve what bombs and guns can't (from The Age , 13 January, 2009)
Randa Abdel-Fattah January 13, 2009 - 12:01AM
As the occupying power, Israel must be the one to make concessions. AS THE Israeli offensive in Gaza enters its third week, people around the world feel a growing desperation at the failure of the UN and of Western and Middle Eastern governments to secure an end to the violence and slaughter. When the international system fails, what can be done? The global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is rapidly garnering support for Palestinian rights from academic institutions, church groups and other grassroots bodies worldwide. Such sanctions were a vital tool in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa and rehabilitate that state as part of the family of nations.
The furore provoked by a 2007 proposal that Britain's University and Colleges Union should discuss a boycott of Israeli academic institutions demonstrated the immense store Israel sets by its access to civil society around the world. Recently, British telecommunications company FreedomCall terminated its co-operation with Israel's MobileMax in response to the Gaza offensive. And in 2004, the Presbyterian Church (US) voted to divest from companies operating in Israel.
In light of the European Union's moves to upgrade existing trade arrangements with Israel, pressure is being applied on the EU to revoke such ties until Israel honours an "essential element" of the earlier agreement, requiring that state to respect human rights and democratic principles.
As the EU is the largest importer of Israeli goods and the second-largest exporter to Israel, the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement would send a clear message that reflected public feeling.
Boycott and divestment are powerful forms of non-violent resistance to violence and occupation, mobilising people around the world in solidarity with Palestinians and the brave Israelis who work for peace with them. Yet without US support, the movement can only go so far. It remains to be seen whether Barack Obama's election really means a change from the failed policies of the past.
Without effective sanctions, the main value of the boycott movement is to remind Israel that its actions bring it into global disrepute. This is worthwhile as sanctions are not an end in themselves but a means to the end of Palestinian self-determination.
We often hear politicians and commentators proclaim the complexity of this conflict and ask why Palestinians and Israelis can't just get along. The problems of an illegal occupation, the Palestinian refugees and the ever-shrinking territory on which Palestinians are expected to build their state are swept under the carpet. Illegal settlements continue to be built and the ubiquitous "security barrier" snakes its way through the towns and villages of the occupied West Bank, making a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.
Either Israel and the international community act to make an independent Palestinian state a possibility or they accept a solution in which the Jewish and Arab inhabitants of the land live side by side as equal citizens. If Israel insists on being a Jewish state, it cannot also continue to obstruct the birth of a sovereign Palestine with the collusion of its allies and the supine Arab dictatorships.
One tires of hearing this debate framed in terms of two equal parties stubbornly refusing to compromise, as though occupier and occupied are equally culpable. The Israeli PR machine has told us that peace is unattainable because of Hamas. Yet when Hamas accepted a ceasefire, Israel maintained its blockade of the Gaza Strip. Was this not a clear violation of its responsibilities under the agreement and an act of collective punishment?
Before the rockets were launched into Israel, there was an illegal and brutal occupation. Before Hamas existed, that occupation existed. Hamas' charter and its philosophy may well trouble us, but the right of every people to take up arms against occupation is enshrined in international law. Israel seeks to force regime change in Gaza, claiming Hamas cannot be negotiated with. Yet in March 2007, Hamas and Fatah formed a national unity government and stated their readiness to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with Israel. It was Israel that refused to negotiate with a government that included Hamas because the latter refused to recognise Israel's "right to exist".
Which Israel is Hamas supposed to recognise? The state has no declared borders and its settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem continues unabated. Do we really expect an indigenous population to simply accept dispossession and exile?
Once upon a time, the PLO was the enemy that could not be talked to. Now it is Hamas' turn, because the alternative is to engage with its proposal for a long-term ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal to its borders before the Six-Day War of 1967, subject to a democratic referendum of the Palestinian people.
In Australia, the major political parties seem content to mouth formulas about the right of Israel to self-defence. No one asks who will defend the stateless Palestinians. For many years, Indonesia's occupation of East Timor enjoyed similar bipartisan support. Who knows how many lives might have been saved had Australia dared to stand up sooner for a people struggling to be free?
Randa Abdel-Fattah is an Australian lawyer and novelist of Palestinian and Egyptian parentage. Her latest book is Where the Streets Had a Name.
23-Head of Emergency and Ambulances: Death toll 880 and injured 3620.
8-A rocket targeted an orphanage and Al Fadila mosque in Rafah City.
34-Amnestey claimed that Israeli army is perpetrating War Crimes in Gaza.
59-Israeli army spokesman, Avehay adra'I denied the use of banned weapons while Many International Ngo's confirmed that Israel is using them. Human Rights Watah confirmed that and consider what's going in Gaza as war crimes!
There are 70 points on that list including:
30-Local radios: A Palestinian woman who was going to deliver a baby and two of her relatives killed in Bait Lahia City. Many wounded in the place as an artillery shell targeted them.
The deaths of militants are recorded too, and Israeli deaths, and the firing of rockets, when they occur. It is not one-sided. Though the deaths of civilians are far, far, higher. And my government supports this.
From here: Day 16 of Israeli War On Gaza Informative Report on Gaza War: Death toll 880, wounded 3620 By: Sameh A. Habeeb Mob: 00972599306096 Landline: 0097282802825 E-mail: Sam_hab@hotmail.com Sameh.habeeb@gmail.com Skype: Gazatoday, Facebook: Sameh A. habeeb Web: www.gazatoday.blogspot.com Daily Photos:http://picasaweb.google.com/sameh.habeeb
An Australian politician speaks out , finally. From the Sydney Morning Herald, January 11.
Getting away with murder Julia Irwin January 11, 2009
YOU'VE got to hand it to the Israeli public relations flacks: only they could convince you that killing children was an act of self-defence.
As the recent bombing of Gaza began, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni gave instructions for the Foreign Ministry to take "emergency measures to adapt Israel's public relations to the ongoing escalation in the Gaza Strip". Livni went on to call for foreign language speakers to put Israel's case to the world.
In Australia, the ABC relies for "independent" comment on the smooth Mark Regev, an official spokesman for the Israeli Government, and Martin Indyk, a former official of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
It's the oldest trick in the book: if they look and sound like us, we are more likely to be sympathetic towards them. Anyone putting an alternative view is immediately cast as anti-Semitic. Our media glibly accept the excuses of the Israeli public relations machine and ignore the horrific realities of Israel's barbaric behaviour in Gaza.
It's the same in most Western countries - the groundwork has been laid and the responses of world leaders are predictable. When the Israeli attacks began, right on cue Western leaders regretted the killing of children but in the same breath condemned Palestinians for firing rockets from their walled ghetto into Israel.
While French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an immediate ceasefire by both sides, US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called only for Hamas to halt rockets fired from Gaza. They did not call for Israel to halt its bombing.
There was a lot of handwringing by world leaders but no tough talk when it came to the bombing of the Islamic University of Gaza or the killing of 40 civilians in a United Nations school. We saw the same during the 2006 Israeli war against Lebanon.
It all reminds me of an old story from the days of the Roman Empire. The Emperor Nero was upset that his prized lions were being distressed by Christians who ran away from them in the Colosseum. Nero ordered that at the next circus a Christian was to be buried up to his neck in the sand to make things easier for the lions. When the lions entered the ring, the biggest and meanest saw the hapless condemned, swaggered over and stood astride the Christian's head, roaring for approval from the crowd. At that moment, the Christian craned his neck and bit off the lion's testicles. The crowd was shocked. "Fight fair! Fight fair!" they yelled.
It seems that no matter what injustice Palestinians have suffered in the past 60 years, they should be grateful for the privilege of being able to live under the jackboot of Israeli occupation.
For three years since daring to democratically elect a government not favoured by Israel or the US, the people of Gaza have been subjected to a starvation blockade. Yet the civilised world has barely raised a note of concern. Is this the standard by which we judge the behaviour of nations? We talk about Darfur and Zimbabwe but say little of the gross abuse of human rights that occurs daily in the illegally occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Our double standards have made a mockery of the doctrine of humanitarian intervention.
Our failure to condemn the totally disproportionate, not to say illegal, attacks by the Israeli Defence Force has changed the way conflict is regarded around the world. Last August, Russia employed the same tactics in its attack on Georgia as Israel did against Lebanon.
Neither Russia nor China sought UN Security Council emergency meetings in response to the Israeli attacks on Gaza. What happens in the Middle East today sets the standard for the world. And that applies to weapons as well as tactics.
Using cluster bombs or phosphorus bombs against civilian targets is perfectly legal if you can believe the Israeli Defence Force.
Assassinating Hamas leaders during a ceasefire does not constitute a breach. Collective punishments against communities, obstructing medical and humanitarian relief - all part of Israel's tactics - could now be considered acceptable behaviour in national and international conflict.
How can we criticise brutal regimes elsewhere in the world when we condone worse atrocities when they are committed by Israel? The Security Council has become a laughing stock. The Secretary-General is a pathetic figure reduced to faint pleas for a ceasefire while UN personnel are murdered on the ground in Gaza. And who will pick up the pieces when the bloodshed has finally stopped? The rest of the world will, of course. Through the world's contributions to the UN, its largest budget item is the UN Relief and Works Agency. With an annual $700 million budget going to support Palestinian refugees, the biggest component is being spent on Gaza.
Even before the Israeli bombing and invasion of Gaza, the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur responsible for reporting on conditions in the occupied territories, Richard Falk, was denied entry to Gaza.
Last month, Falk called for an International Criminal Court investigation to determine whether the Israeli civilian leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza siege should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law.
To that long list of war crimes and crimes against humanity we can now add the atrocities committed in this recent invasion. But, with its superior public relations forces, Israel can easily deflect concern about its barbaric assault.
And will the world call Israel's leaders to account for their crimes? Not likely. Western leaders - including Australia's - will merely call on Palestinians to fight fair.
Julia Irwin is Federal MP for the NSW seat of Fowler and a member of the Parliament's Palestinian Friendship Group.
I think he says a lot of what many people think. I am indebted to Antony Lowenstein's blog on the blog roll there for constantly keeping us updated and sharing.
Logic. Oh, and if you are against the War, and actually comment that keeping people behind borders and starving them since 2006, and then bombing them, with the likely outcome that they will die, is not dissimilar to a concentration camp, the old religious arguments wade in. Remember, this is not really a new situation, though neither is it centuries old. The Vatican made that comparison. "...More and more it resembles a big concentration camp" was said. It is true that the Vatican played a despicable role in WWII, and that the Christians have committed many crimes against the Jewish people throughout time, and that failure to prevent the Holocaust is one of the most appalling tragedies of the 20th century, and the atrocities of the Holocaust should never be condoned. However, comparing the conditions in Gaza as outlined above to a concentration camp does not make one a Holocaust denier, which is the accusation levelled against the Vatican in that article. In fact, does not making the statement enforce the fact that the Holocaust occurred? Just what logic is being operated here? Why is this argument always used to stifle discussion, opinion and criticsim? Using it to counter all and every comment which is negative to Israel surely cheapens and devalues the terrible suffering of the Jews in WWII.
Of course accusations of denying the Holocaust lead to accusations of one being anti-Semitic. Egypt should open its borders too, and is also culpable of turning the area into something very close to a concentration camp. Though it isn't firing the bullets. Even so, where can people flee? By observing that, does it also mean that I am anti-Islam? I guess it must, though I am not, and neither am I anti-Semitic.
Of course this is going to get played out as a religious war, and the longer it goes on the more fanatics it will attract to either side, and the more anti-Semitism and anti-Islam will actually rise, as Israel positions itself as representing all Jewish people, and many extreme Muslim groups will, as they have done before, use the plight of the Palestinian people to justify their platform . Innocent people of either religion will be affected.
People who may not be sympathetic to extremists on one side will see that very little is done to prevent the bloodshed of civilians, and they will see that that the majority of the international community, including the Arab heads of state, once again seem to endorse the use of phosphorous bombs in civilian areas, the bombings of schools, the shelling of houses with people inside, the targeting of aid workers, the killing of women and children; they will see that only some people are allowed to have democratic elections, and they will see negotiation is not valued, nor is keeping an agreement, and so they will look for alternative ways which might be the equivalent of the above, and therefore, these ways probably won't be pretty.
As our governments do not condemn Israel or hold it accountable for its actions, or have been very slow in doing so, and as our governments are inexplicably tied to the US government which gave Israel most of its foreign aid budget from 1976-2004(surpassed now by Iraq) to do with it what she will (no ties and with special benefits not extended to other recipients), and which gives a green light to the majority of Israeli action, we will be seen as complicit in not only turning our backs while slaughter occurs, but in encouraging it. Globally this will have a huge effect. We keep denying moderates their voice, encourage extremists, and then get surprised when carnage occurs. If Israel had acknowledged Fatah when Fatah was in power and popular with the Palestinian public, and had not encouraged the rise of Hamas, would this situation be happening now? If Israel had acknowledged that Hamas was an elected government, and negotiated with them rather than placing sanctions on Gaza and outlawing them, would this situation be happening now? If the occupation of Palestine was seen in the wider world as what it is, an illegal occupation (Resolution 242), and if our press actually reminded us of this, how might things be different? Would we be as complacent in our acceptance of the "facts" of the matter?
However, I think that people feel on a humanitarian basis, which seems to have very little to do with mainstream religion nowadays, that this war and these actions, this collective punishment is wrong, as detailed by the Geneva Convention (article 33). I think that many people do not stand behind their governments' seemingly official full endorsement of such atrocities, which have occurred before the start of this incursion, and have occurred throughout Israel's history. Remember, Israeli journalists are not allowed into Gaza, and foreign journalists are expelled as well, apart from tiny windows. Israel has a right to exist and she has enough guns to make sure she always will. Maybe if she recognised the right for others to exist as well, some progress might get made.
Robert Fisk: Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask Wednesday, 7 January 2009
So once again, Israel has opened the gates of hell to the Palestinians. Forty civilian refugees dead in a United Nations school, three more in another. Not bad for a night's work in Gaza by the army that believes in "purity of arms". But why should we be surprised? Have we forgotten the 17,500 dead – almost all civilians, most of them children and women – in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon; the 1,700 Palestinian civilian dead in the Sabra-Chatila massacre; the 1996 Qana massacre of 106 Lebanese civilian refugees, more than half of them children, at a UN base; the massacre of the Marwahin refugees who were ordered from their homes by the Israelis in 2006 then slaughtered by an Israeli helicopter crew; the 1,000 dead of that same 2006 bombardment and Lebanese invasion, almost all of them civilians? What is amazing is that so many Western leaders, so many presidents and prime ministers and, I fear, so many editors and journalists, bought the old lie; that Israelis take such great care to avoid civilian casualties. "Israel makes every possible effort to avoid civilian casualties," yet another Israeli ambassador said only hours before the Gaza massacre. And every president and prime minister who repeated this mendacity as an excuse to avoid a ceasefire has the blood of last night's butchery on their hands. Had George Bush had the courage to demand an immediate ceasefire 48 hours earlier, those 40 civilians, the old and the women and children, would be alive.
What happened was not just shameful. It was a disgrace. Would war crime be too strong a description? For that is what we would call this atrocity if it had been committed by Hamas. So a war crime, I'm afraid, it was. After covering so many mass murders by the armies of the Middle East – by Syrian troops, by Iraqi troops, by Iranian troops, by Israeli troops – I suppose cynicism should be my reaction. But Israel claims it is fighting our war against "international terror". The Israelis claim they are fighting in Gaza for us, for our Western ideals, for our security, for our safety, by our standards. And so we are also complicit in the savagery now being visited upon Gaza.
I've reported the excuses the Israeli army has served up in the past for these outrages. Since they may well be reheated in the coming hours, here are some of them: that the Palestinians killed their own refugees, that the Palestinians dug up bodies from cemeteries and planted them in the ruins, that ultimately the Palestinians are to blame because they supported an armed faction, or because armed Palestinians deliberately used the innocent refugees as cover.
The Sabra and Chatila massacre was committed by Israel's right-wing Lebanese Phalangist allies while Israeli troops, as Israel's own commission of inquiry revealed, watched for 48 hours and did nothing. When Israel was blamed, Menachem Begin's government accused the world of a blood libel. After Israeli artillery had fired shells into the UN base at Qana in 1996, the Israelis claimed that Hizbollah gunmen were also sheltering in the base. It was a lie. The more than 1,000 dead of 2006 – a war started when Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on the border – were simply dismissed as the responsibility of the Hizbollah. Israel claimed the bodies of children killed in a second Qana massacre may have been taken from a graveyard. It was another lie. The Marwahin massacre was never excused. The people of the village were ordered to flee, obeyed Israeli orders and were then attacked by an Israeli gunship. The refugees took their children and stood them around the truck in which they were travelling so that Israeli pilots would see they were innocents. Then the Israeli helicopter mowed them down at close range. Only two survived, by playing dead. Israel didn't even apologise. Twelve years earlier, another Israeli helicopter attacked an ambulance carrying civilians from a neighbouring village – again after they were ordered to leave by Israel – and killed three children and two women. The Israelis claimed that a Hizbollah fighter was in the ambulance. It was untrue. I covered all these atrocities, I investigated them all, talked to the survivors. So did a number of my colleagues. Our fate, of course, was that most slanderous of libels: we were accused of being anti-Semitic.
And I write the following without the slightest doubt: we'll hear all these scandalous fabrications again. We'll have the Hamas-to-blame lie – heaven knows, there is enough to blame them for without adding this crime – and we may well have the bodies-from-the-cemetery lie and we'll almost certainly have the Hamas-was-in-the-UN-school lie and we will very definitely have the anti-Semitism lie. And our leaders will huff and puff and remind the world that Hamas originally broke the ceasefire. It didn't. Israel broke it, first on 4 November when its bombardment killed six Palestinians in Gaza and again on 17 November when another bombardment killed four more Palestinians.
Yes, Israelis deserve security. Twenty Israelis dead in 10 years around Gaza is a grim figure indeed. But 600 Palestinians dead in just over a week, thousands over the years since 1948 – when the Israeli massacre at Deir Yassin helped to kick-start the flight of Palestinians from that part of Palestine that was to become Israel – is on a quite different scale. This recalls not a normal Middle East bloodletting but an atrocity on the level of the Balkan wars of the 1990s. And of course, when an Arab bestirs himself with unrestrained fury and takes out his incendiary, blind anger on the West, we will say it has nothing to do with us. Why do they hate us, we will ask? But let us not say we do not know the answer.
Propaganda 2.0 Very much worth thinking about. That's where all those rabid comments come from, hey? The Internet will be a very interesting playing field in the future.
Day 14 of Israeli War On Gaza More civilians killed: Death toll 810, wounded 3400
Breaking News: Step 3 of Israeli Military operation starts in Gaza. It aims at invading the densely populated areas.
Breaking News: One of the Journalists buildings hit by drones. Journalists evacuate their offices now!
Breaking News: In Gaza: No water, No beans, No fruits, No chicken, No rice, No bread, No Markets, No shops, No Medicines, No medical Machines, No enough Doctors, No enough ambulances, No fuel, No gas, no beans, no candlelight, No power, No Internet, No commutation, No aspects of …What's available is few amounts for domestic use inside houses.
Reported here and also here . Journalists around the world are using the reports and images from the first journalist's blog.
Since early on Friday, Israel staged around 100 strikes on Gaza, which Gaza medics said had killed over 30 people, nearly half of them civilians. The army had arrested some 300 Palestinians in the north of the strip, witnesses said.
Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza's emergency services, said at least 800 people are now known to have been killed since December 27 and another 3,330 wounded. The dead include at least 230 children and 92 women.
Hamas and its allies fired more than 30 rockets into southern Israel, injuring one person, the military said. At least four Grad rockets hit Beersheva, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Gaza.
The UN says it wants answers about reports that Israeli soldiers evacuated more than 100 Palestinians into a house which they then bombed.
The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cited reports of "extensive destruction and many deaths" in the area. It said: "According to several testimonies, on January 4 Israeli foot soldiers evacuated approximately 110 Palestinians into a single residence house in Zeitoun (half of whom were children) warning them to stay indoors. Twenty-four hours later, Israeli forces shelled the home repeatedly, killing approximately 30."
Half of whom were children?!What justification could there ever be? Sounds like mass-murder to me. I guess this is how Israel "protects itself with wisdom and restraint" (and if you read that article, you might want to bear in mind a few of these statistics covering the times mentioned, and here again from the BBC, and remember Gaza is still an occupied area as recognised by the United Nations, with closed borders and crippling sanctions levelled against it, no matter what the article says). If you still can't quite understand, I am sure that the minister for foreign affairs, Stephen Smith, might be able to explain it to you along with Rudd's uncritical (that's the key word) support of Israel's right to self-defence: stephen.smith.mp@aph.gov.au
The full story is told here . A blog from a volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement. You can find her blog (Tales to Tell) in the blog roll.
Why condemnationshould have come a whole lot sooner. Though maybe it would have made no difference. After all, "Israel has never agreed for any outside influence to decide on its right to defend its citizens" (a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert). But, at least people would not have felt they had been forgotten. I am sure this is going to escalate greatly, and internationally it is going to be even less pretty if it continues for too much longer. It was a humanitarian mess from day one, and the human rights abuses should never be condoned, and it is too late for almost 800 people. Even if it ends any time soon, what is left of the infrastructure of the place? Maybe this offer should have been taken up? (Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told AFP news agency that his group was open to any ceasefire propositions as long as they meant an end to the air strikes and a lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza. BBC, 31st December, 2008. Israel Rejects Truce Calls).
Today AmiraHass at the Israeli paper Haaretzsays :
Between 600,000 and 700,000 Gazans have no water, some of them going on a week.
About one million have no electricity, raw sewage is running in the streets in some places and various localities, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, face the threat of sewer backups. and later in the article:
Gaza's water and sewage pumps run on electricity. When there is not enough electricity, they run on standby generators, which are powered by diesel fuel. If the supply of fuel is not renewed to these generators within two days, the remaining 25 operating fresh-water pumps in Gaza City and the rest of the Strip will stop pumping. In Rafah, for example, 70 percent of residents could be without water within two days.
Spare parts, such as tubing, pipes, and air and water filters, are in short supply because Israel has prohibited their entry into the Strip since during the cease-fire.
The Red Cross yesterday was negotiating with the Israel Defense Forces over the transfer of about 20,000 liters of diesel fuel that arrived at the Erez border terminal yesterday. The drivers are afraid of being hit by IDF fire, in addition to the dangers of negotiating Gaza's poor roads.
I wonder in Australia when we became a nation that endorsed the jailer going into a jail to shoot the inmates, targeted and indiscriminately? Remember, it is Occupied Palestine and it has closed borders. Who is the occupier? Additionally, we are talking about a vast majority of civilians, more than fifty percent children. Civilian inmates.
In addition: UN halts Gaza aid operations . The international community is going to be wearing the fallout from this one for a long time to come. 770 dead.
For those in Western Australia:
From Students Without a Border, if you are from Western Australia and want to attend a rally:
January 2009 Newsletter
Events: Gaza Rally – Saturday 10 January. Friends of Palestine WA is holding a rally in Fremantle and is calling for everyone who wants to express their anger and sorrow over Israel's continuing assault on the citizens of Gaza to join them. Friends of Palestine WA is calling for an immediate end to the Israeli military assault, the lifting of the siege of Gaza, and an end to the occupation of Palestine.
Each and every person, each and every State, should have the right to natural justice, the right to liberty, peace and security. For sixty years the Palestinian people have had their rights denied while the mainstream international media has distorted their rights and arguments with an almost fanatical prejudice. Fair and equitable mutually agreed territories with agreed international borders seem the only path to any real solution.
RALLY & MARCH FOR THE PEOPLE OF GAZA - LIFT THE SIEGE, STOP THE MASSACRE, HUMANITARIAN AID NOW THE ESPLANADE PARK, FREMANTLE 12.00PM
There is further information about the current conflict in Gaza, provided by the FOPWA, on the SWB website news page. Read it here.
The above is from a conservative news sources so that people are comfortable with its form. The eyewitness accounts which can be found in the side blog, and news excerpts from the Loewestein blog tell a far more harrowing story. Yes, it is possible.
The thing is that people are going to die terribly one way or the other. Whether it is through the illegal use of phosphorous bombs on a civilian population, or schools set up as civilian refuges being targeted, or incidental and directed fire, or by the inevitable lack of food, resources and sickness. When people are told to leave their homes because they are going to be bombed, where do they go? And if they go to a U.N. run school, set up as a place that the Israeli army knows houses civilians, they are likely to get bombed anyway. In addition, medics and ambulances are often targeted and many medics have died. The ambulances are not always allowed to get through, and with hardly any power left, who will be able to call them anyway?
*Note, as of 12 January, 2009 SBS Australia has removed video footage of the phosphorous bombs from its site, as well as the interview with Benjamin Rutland, as detailed below. Therefore the video above is from January, 11 from Al Jazeera English. Al Jazeera have a good reputation for balanced reporting, and have reporters in Gaza. And here is news story from the day I wrote this story regarding the phosphorous.
By the way, the official explanations given by the Israeli forces on its use of phosphorous bombs in that SBS Australia video above (no longer available*), ring hollow. You might want to watch the video following the one posted above (no longer available*). It seems that the IDF still thinks that the United Nations are liars regarding their bombing of civilians in schools set up as refuges from the bombing. It seems Australian-Israeli, Captain Benjamin Rutland, is reading from an auto-cue. I think the expression on the journalist's face says it all.
* Note, SBS no longer has this video on their news site as of January 12, 2009. It's original address was http://player.sbs.com.au/naca/#/naca/wna/Latest/playlist/Benjamin-Rutland-speaks/ In fact a lot of its videos do not seem to be availabale any more.Whether that is due to time passed or some other reason I do not know.
People were already starving, medical sources were already scarce as detailed many times over. Hamas keeps saying that a condition of any agreement is that the sanctions should be lifted. Actually, it was agreed that they would be with the last negotiations, but they never were. I wonder, if you and your children were eating grass whether you would not try to fight for your life. Now the tunnels are to be bombed, or have been bombed. Weapons do get smuggled through them, but obviously not in the numbers that Israel has painted, or we would surely be seeing the death of more Israeli forces. They are also the only way that many Gazans can actually get food and vital resources. The Vatican, who have been very conservative on this issue, have said that Gaza has been turned into a big concentration camp.
I believe it to be true. From this blog from a Palestinian journalist who is doing his best to get news out to the world. Remember, foreign journalists have been expelled from Gaza:
He has a list of 34 events which he reported on yesterday. Here are a few of them.
14-Around 80 trucks and vans of medical and food areas allowed by Israel into Gaza. The trucks not enough at all as Gaza needs thousands of trucks to respond for Humanitarian crisis. In the normal day Gaza was having 6-7 hundreds of all commodities!
15-Around 450 thousand liters of Solar get into Gaza though Gaza crossings. Gaza needs. Gaza needs over a million liter a day for the key power planet!
27-Medical sector is completely paralyzed.
29-All Gaza strip with 90% percent in deep darkness now.
Did you see 27 and 29? The medical sector is completely paralyzed and 90% of the Gaza strip is without electricity. The tunnels are being and have been blown up. I guess once people like Sameh cannot post any more, once doctors cannot operate any more (not that they seem to be able to effectively at all anyway, through no fault of their own), well, you can draw your own conclusions. On Tuesday, only five of 75 people killed were confirmed militants. The death toll as of my Thursday stands at more than 700, and a large percentage are civilians. And under international law, policemen do not count as militants (one of the first targets was a police graduation ceremony. Hamas run - but civilian nonetheless, and the building in place a long time before Hamas was elected. Hamas is the elected government, after all).
I think if someone looks at the death toll on either side of the equation, they really must have to do some serious thinking. Amongst the Israelis, four people have died from Hamas missiles, and "dozens have been wounded", apparently six Israeli soldiers have also been killed in combat. Most of the soldier's deaths have been from "friendly fire ".
Oh, and this little snippet by the way from Sameh's blog:
26- Funeral of 45 victims of United Nations massacre perpetrated by Israel exposed to Israeli fire during time of ceasefire and many people wounded.
I recently read of a Labor minister in Australia, Julia Irwin and a Liberal minister, Sussan Ley, both who have spoken out against Israeli actions at other times, both going against their own parties' official lines. Currently, there has also been a group of Australian Jews who held a counter demonstration to the official Australian line. There is this petition also, and there are outraged voices out there, which means there are people who can recognise injustice when they see it. Is it really so hard for more of us to speak? Or do we feel that even if we speak, we probably will not be heard. Our governments and mainstream media are certainly silent.
a blog from a volunteer from the international solidarity movement and here (their link is in the blog roll). It links directly to the article as I can't seem to link the blog, but if you click on the heading of the blog once you get there (Tales to Tell) you will get the whole blog.
Well there are 660 dead now, and I guess that the United Nations is guilty of harbouring Hamas as well as their schools have been targeted resulting in at least 30 fatalities and 55 injuries of which 15 are in critical condition.( Knight, Ben. ABC News ).
From the same story: "The United Nations has demanded an investigation into Israeli attacks that killed more than 30 Palestinians at UN-run schools in the Gaza Strip overnight." The U.N. had given the Israel forces the G.P.S. co-ordinates so that they would not be targeted. There are 14 similar buildings in the Strip, all with the G.P.S. coordinates known to the Israeli army, because the U.N. gave them to them so that the Israeli army did not have too many civilian deaths on their record. Sitting ducks, I guess. It was a girl's school by the way, though many people were sheltering there, and the United Nations spokesperson disagrees with the Israeli account of events. They won't get the probe. I wonder when the world stopped listening to the U.N. I guess when it agreed that International Law and United Nations' decrees stood for nothing. I do not think it is Hamas who are killing the children in Palestine, which is a popular argument for justifyingy Israel's incursion into the area (the human shield argument).
I urge you to inform yourself on this situation. I do not think we should expect a people to stand by and watch themselves get wiped out. I know it is our track record. Look at Rwanda where nearly a million people were killed. However, our support in these actions in Palestine is cynical and overt. Humanism and fair go be damned, hey? It seems we could not give a rat's arse.
From this site , updated 4 hours ago: Day 11 of Israeli War On Gaza Death toll 620, injured 3000 and most of them Civilians By Sameh A. Habeeb, A Photojournalist, Humanitarian & Peace Activist in Gaza Strip. *Numbers and Figures of Israeli War on Gaza: *Total death toll: 620 while Wounded: 3000. *Civilians: 220 children and 130 women killed since the start of this War. Many old men and young people were killed and the number is estimated of 80 and this is all according to the Medical sources. *Thus, we could say so far: Around 430 civilians killed and 190 are policemen and militants.
* More than 1 thousand child among the wounded!
Well over half of the population of Gaza is children. It is a crowded area packed with 1.5million people, hemmed in behind closed borders. People are not allowed to leave. How are the Israelis going to avoid women and children? Well you know that they don't and they obviously can't, and I do not see why a male civilian's life is any less than anyone else's either.
I'll leave it to the big boys, now. I probably am under-informed. So, a piece of whimsy, possibly. I saw this while in Echigo-Yuzawa recently. Someone seemed to have left it there like a forgotten love letter.
Just one more word on the debate. Or, two arguments, from either side.
From a journalist stationed in England who has just lost his father. His father was tending to his cows. From The Australian , but posted worldwide.
"As a grieving son, I am finding it hard to distinguish between what the Israelis call terrorists and the Israeli pilots and tank crews who are invading Gaza. "What is the difference between the pilot who blew my father to pieces and the militant who fires a small rocket? I have no answers but, just as I am to become a father, I have lost my father.''
Later: Our prime minister has finally spoken. He had this to say:
"Australia recognises Israel's right to self-defence," Mr Rudd said on Monday. But obviously not Palestine's. Seems he has some trouble distinguishing between offence and defence, as well, and notions of reciprocality. The queen is dead, long live the queen. I didn't vote for Rudd to get a Howard carbon copy in the driving seat. What does Australia get from maintaining this position? I guess only those spouting it will ever know.
This is from the Middle East Reality Check Blog, which in turn draws upon this article in The Australian.
"The Israelis have prevented foreign journalists from entering and reporting from Gaza, thereby limiting the scope of the coverage from the Palestinian side. The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem, which represents about 400 journalists, has taken to the Supreme Court its petition for access to Gaza, whose borders are sealed both by Israel and, by treaty, by Egypt... While restricting foreign media access to the battle zone, Israel has launched a vigorous propaganda offensive to put its point of view across to the world, with its army unveiling its own YouTube footage of air strikes on Hamas militants loading rockets on a truck to fire at Israel." (Officials afraid of getting blogged down, Lucy Bannerman (Gaza border), The Times/The Australian, 1/1/08).
I urge you to read the rest of the article, here and as said before, if you want a humanitarian perspective from a western doctor who has travelled to the area, read the Chestdoctor blog . Though writing about the West Bank, I think it illustrates well the daily conditions of a Palestinian's life. The link is also in this blog's sidebar. It is beautifully written, humane account, and it is a contained blog. Or hunt out some United Nations reports and so on.
Actually, just read through the lines, or pretty straight out on the Australian article. It seems to speak for itself. Though the commentary from the Middle East Reality Check blog is very incisive.
500 dead, more than 2000 injured, a city and a people literally Cut in Half . "The Israelis have prevented foreign journalists from entering and reporting from Gaza, thereby limiting the scope of the coverage from the Palestinian side." ( Bannerman, L., 2009, Jan 1, Officials afraid of getting blogged down in Gaza. The Australian). To put it mildly.
By the way, Gordon Brown from the U.K. seems to be the only Western politician who is actually concerned about the plight of the people in Gaza with this latest comment: Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for an immediate ceasefire, saying the "blame game" could come later
It seems he has the novel concept that the more bombing that goes on the more people will die.
I guess everyone else hums and haas, because they know that inevitably the States will take so long to approve anything, if they approve anything at all, that it will be all over and far, far, too late. From the (Australian) ABC news online site:
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for an immediate ceasefire, saying the "blame game" could come later, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy is due to arrive in Jerusalem today with another peace proposal.
But it is the US that will make the difference, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has reportedly cancelled a trip to China, although it is not known if she will be making a detour to the Middle East (Ben Knight, 2009, January 5).
In the same article, our own deputy prime minister says hardly anything at all. I expected more from this government. It seems it is a carbon copy of the last one on international affairs.
This is well worth reading. Or in fact, the whole blog is. It is about the West Bank, but it illustrates life under occupation. From a doctor in England. If you don't feel like reading, just open the link and look at the first picture.
Since then, at least 420 Palestinians have been killed and at least 2,180 wounded, according to medics. At least 25 per cent of those killed are civilians, according to a UN count.
The civilian population in Gaza and stability throughout the Middle East "are trapped between the irresponsibility displayed in the indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas militants and the disproportionality of the continuing Israeli military operation", Ban said.
Sorry. I went for a nice walk in the before-snow today. I'll write about the walk later (see below :) blogs let you play with time. Well, I never said I was a journo).
There are many reasons why I like Barack Obama, from what I have read of him and heard from him. One personal reason is that he recognises and acknowledges his mother for her guidance in rearing him. Within my own family, and within my own observances, it seems that a mother's input, even or especially if she was the one who did the majority of the child-rearing, is negated and dismissed, or not thought worthy of acknowledgment, by many sons. In fact, mothers wear a lot of bitterness, and obviously not all are saints, but the bitterness is often misguided. I have a post in the works on that concept.
However, the quote below has nothing directly to do with his mother. It is from his Audacity of hope:
...When [the United States seeks] to impose democracy with the barrel of a gun, funnel money to parties whose economic policies are deemed friendlier to Washington, or fall under the sway of exiles like Chalabi whose ambitions aren't matched by any discernible local support, we aren't just setting ourselves up for failure. We are helping oppressive regimes paint democratic activists as tools of foreign powers and retarding the possibility that genuine, homegrown democracy will ever emerge (2006, p. 317).
He further expands and qualifies the topic in a chapter outlining his viewpoints on current (as of 2006) American political attitudes to the world beyond the States. The above viewpoint does not seem simplistic as he devotes nine pages in the chapter to the policies of developed countries which are not applied carte blanche to those countries that are not quite so developed. Throughout his writing he constantly refers to how we are all part of a global economy and a global system, and how the pain of one does ultimately affect another, no matter how many oceans divide. He is a politician, too, obviously, and from all indications he will do very little to alleviate any of the tension that has been outlined in the blog post below. He is not naive in the role he is probably expected to play by the American people, and the role that he believes he should play.
However, I like the viewpoint he expresses and I hope he has the strength, support and clear-sightedness in 2009 for some modicum of decency, awareness, and relief to spread through the world, albeit ever so slightly. It is highly unlikely. He is a politicaian, as stated before, but, anwyay, Happy New Year. May some of the generosity of spirit and compassion that humans are capable of manifest itself in opposition to, and in spite of, the horrendous callousness and terror we are equally able to inflict.
Obama, B. (2006). The audacity of hope. Three Rivers Press: New York.
I need to write this. I know that the issues between Palestine and Israel are complex, and I am sure that many of my facts are incorrect, yet I feel there is a story that is not getting told, and I know there is a lot of hypocrisy on this issue, both from the United States, Australia, Israel and the countries of the region. I also know that I have been hypocritical in my life and probably will continue to be so, and that this writing will have as much affect as a languid wind exhaling over the last tailsbreadth of a ripple on a pond. But I need to know that I tried, as ill-informed as I am. I also know that there are many news sources out there which are giving alternate coverage, but these are not the main news sources for people in Australia, at least, and that there are some kind of talks going on at present. I wonder if far fewer than 372 might have died if there had been swifter(or any)condemnation of the attacks, and how many more will indeed perish.
It is about land, not religion, though of course, religion is a good excuse as any, and a good excuse to hold onto or invade a land.
China and Japan : Beijing said it was "shocked and seriously concerned" at the violence, while Japan called on Israel to "exercise its utmost self-restraint" and for Palestinian militants to halt rocket attacks.
The United States : The US has put the onus on Hamas to prevent more violence. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: "The United States ... holds Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza.
Australia : Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard says Hamas is to blame for provoking the Israeli air strikes which have now killed nearly 300 people in the Gaza Strip.
From a popular news site The UN and the European Union have condemned Israel's actions. But the US, the most influential power-broker in the Middle East conflict, has refused to call for an Israeli ceasefire, instead placing the onus on Hamas to end its rocket attacks.
The history of this area is messy with occupation seeming to be a fact of life almost back to the 1500s. Though, of course the occupiers have been different, even within the twentieth century, going from Turkish to British to Jordanian and Egyptian to Israeli. Zionism arrived towards the turn of the start of the last century, and Israeli annexation of Palestinian lands occurred mid to late twentieth century. The annexation was based on ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people. Further lands were taken in 1967 and occupied. Further reading here .This paragraph I have written has not given the history in any of the depth that it deserves.
I am not the first to wonder, though, about the U.S. investment in Israel in the Middle East. I am assuming it has to do with oil and access to oil and future possible access to oil, not only for the States, but for other countries, too. By that, I do not mean equal access to oil for other countries, but U.S. control of access to oil by other countries. In a 1977 interview Chomsky says:
When Kissinger took control of Middle East policy in the Fall of 1970 (according to his testimony), there was an abrupt switch in official American policy, from Rogers plan rhetoric to Kissinger rhetoric. Under Kissinger's initiative, the United States by late 1970 abandoned even a rhetorical commitment to a political settlement and was clearly supporting a very different program, namely, the Israeli program of developing and ultimately annexing substantial parts of the occupied territories, a policy that led directly to the October 1973 war.
This quote is in the 14th question of this interview. The rest deals in a large part with the first question I posed.
It was not until the late sixties that the U.S. began endorsing Israel's expansionism, and indeed, before that time, condemned it. However, by the late sixties:
Israel was closely allied to the U.S. directly. As a result, ... conquest was quite legitimate. U.S. government support of Israel is more or less in accord with the American perception of Israel's strength. The stronger Israel becomes, the more it is able to assist the U.S. in maintaining control of the region, so the more the U.S. will support it. Though the pretense has always been that we're supporting Israel because it is in danger, the opposite would be a much more accurate statement. American support for Israel is contingent upon its strength and ability to aid in maintaining American domination of the Middle East (my emphasis).
The United Nations does not endorse this position, and it seems that only the U.S. officially supports it.
From this website:Since 1972, the US has used its veto power to prevent the adoption of 42 UN resolutions that condemned or severely criticized actions by the State of Israel. In 2006, for example, the US prevented the adoption of UN resolution S/878, which demanded a mutual ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
In 2002, former US Ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, stated that it was US policy to denounce all UN resolutions that criticized Israel without also condemning “terrorist groups.” This statement is now known as the Negroponte-doctrine.
It is of course advantageous for Israel that Hamas got elected, so that they can invoke the "terrorist" clause into any dealings with Palestine, but aggression against Palestine, and expansion into the area has long pre-dated the Hamas government. Also, if Palestine and its governments and its people's rights to its lands had been recognised and respected prior to the rise of Hamas, then there may possibly have been no sharp rise in Hamas' strength and support. The negation of moderates, as implied in the Obama quote in the next post (yes, yes, I edit), leaves vacuums which are easily filled with the zealous. It is true, the nations surrounding Israel are not sympathetic to it, and so it needs to flex its strength if it is going to survive, but it cannot expect people to not retaliate if it goes into their lands. The U.S. backed arming of Fatah against Hamas is another side "benefit", which brings one against the other, discounts the wishes of a people, and encourages a rise in factionalism, reactionalism, fundamentalism and most importantly of all, disunity, manifested at the worst, in violence and suppression. If unity is the hoped for outcome, it will be achieved this way, in the form of a weak people further weakened by civil unrest, an easy target for invasion.
If we look at the election of Hamas from a democratic point of view, shouldn't a democratically elected government govern, whether or not the surrounding countries agree with the outcome? Isn't that one of the cornerstones of democracy? Rule by the people? Hamas were democratically elected. Israel imposed sanctions. Aid and supplies are not allowed into the occupied territories. Access to education and other necessities of life are severely limited. Poverty, naturally enough, increases . In the meantime, Israel receives the most aid from the U.S. of any country in the region. Especially military aid, which the Israeli government decides how best to deploy.
Further to the above, the U.S. supports those sanctions, which have been in place since 2006, therefore, U.S. allies also support them, well Australia definitely seems to. Aid is also given, but as stated above, Israel still receives the most, and it seems a strange game to play, to give with one hand and take with the other. The United Nations does not support the sanctions. The area is crippled. Land is invaded and annexed , a wall is built and being built, imprisoning people in their own land, and dividing it, and yet, they are meant to accept it? According to Chomsky, both in 1977 and more recent writings, Palestine is weak politically, and has been open to negotiation, to a "two-state" solution, despite rhetoric. Even currently, despite the rhetoric. Do the research. The opening newspaper article above also states this. It is not new news. This from Chomsky from the seventies: For years the oil companies have been pressing for this [two-state] solution, on their own and through the Saudi Arabian government, but the U.S. government has ignored the pressure. My speculation is that the U.S. regards the current situation as extremely favorable to their long-term interests. The tension, the high level of armaments, the military confrontation, are favorable, and the strength of Israel and Iran poses a strong military threat to independent action on the part of the oil-producing powers. It's an extremely dangerous policy, but that's the way it is. Who knows if the attitude still holds true on the part of the oil companies, the dangerous policy part certainly still does. Bush seems to talk about a "two-state" solution as if it is a new idea in need of lengthy negotiations.
Chomsky also put forth the view that perhaps those who have invaded could leave the land, but as with my forefathers (who invaded Australia), and the forefathers of many of the people who might read this blog, that is one solution that never really ever seriously gets considered, and at this stage of my generational occupancy in Australia, would I consider leaving? Probably not. Hamas have said from May 2008 that they would recognise pre-1967 borders, maybe even before that. But Israel, officially, will never negotiate with Hamas. And yes, Israeli settlers left Gaza, but they have not left other parts, and settlement still occurs, despite the 2005 disengagement. And did they really leave? Israel is able to enter Gaza at will, and controls air and maritime space. Additionally, the Gazans, or all Palestinians, are not free move, to enter Israel, or to leave their own land (or to return to it). They are still occupied lands as the politicians keep stating when they do a backflip mentioning that Israel has an obligation to protect people who are under her occupation. In addition, the sanctions are crippling and unjust.
This is from a 2003 United Nations report: In resolution 446 of 22 March 1979, the Security Council determined that the policies and practices of Israel resulting in the establishment of settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 had no legal validity and constituted a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East(2003, p. 8).
Some points listed amongst others:
*Israeli occupation forces frequently carried out punitive and violent demolitions of Palestinian homes for lack of permits as well as forcible evictions of entire villages. Since 1987,16,700 Palestinians (including 7,300 children) had lost their homes in this way.
*Israeli occupation practices also affected the natural environment of the occupied Palestinian territory, including degradation of the infrastructure, land confiscation, water depletion, uprooting of trees, dumping of toxic waste and other pollution
(2003, pp.8-9).
The Palestinian Rights Committee was alarmed by the expansion of the Israeli settlements and road network. In its 2000 report, the Committee reiterated its firm belief that Israel’s settlement policy and actions remained a key factor causing great damage to the peace process. Likewise, the General Assembly in its resolution adopted on 20 October 2000 said that all Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, were illegal and an obstacle to peace. It also called for the prevention of illegal acts of violence by Israeli settlers (2003, p. 9).
All the above has escalated, including the deaths of many, many Palestinians, before this current attack.
I think, maybe it is very hard to be courageous in the face of all that does not get exposed or seen, and even when it is exposed or seen, protests really do not affect the machinations of world-wide policy which seem to operate on profit, and access to ongoing profit. And of course, I have not chosen to live where rockets land on a regular basis, nor is my history based in a land of displacement, or if it is, I am the displacer and not the displacee. This blog is not very courageous of me, and is a safe way for me to blow off some steam, and I will probably back down if anyone contradicts me, and I will admit, as said before, that I cannot know all the facts. Yet, anyone can see the irony in the story of David and Goliath.
If one people annexes another country's land and is continuously aggressive towards the people of that land, then are not the people of the land within its rights to fight for its land and its people? The United Nations has never declared Israel's various occupations as legal and just and has continued to condone its current-day practices.
It is true that the rocks and mortars which have been fired from Palestine have now killed more than the original one Israeli whose death was justification for this onslaught into Gaza. Is it right though that 373 people from Gaza, apparently 62 of them civilians including 39 children, have died and 1,720 have been injured as a consequence. I guess vengeful gods gain vengeance? Yet, either side lays claim to the same God who is equally retributive. Except, one side has more weapons, and more foreign backing.
Friday, 19 December 2008
I've got nothing, but I am still here, and check regularly. Happy something season to you all from the 9th onwards, and even before for the other religions / beliefs I know nothing about. And for those who like sun. And nice pictures. And things. Well then.
As light as the sky to fly it in, a late autumn filigree tweezered from the hues of childhood.
Trees lose leaves, descent absorbed in the hush of the evening fall. Above cicada-legged helicopter blades birr, swans from Russia complete the last circuit of the Indie Trans-migration. Call and response, land precisely where their brethen paddle and forage, water weeds draped on beaks. Mud-streaked snails slide into the pond's belly, a dank shawl around them, a cloak to obscure them. Ducks and fowl vee away across the water, then flurry back to gawk. Swans nicker and spread their wings and ruffle feathers, shaking out the futon and laying it on the surface of the pond. Welcome home. Lie down, lie down. Rest your weary head.
The moon, fingers splayed on the tops of hills, elbows bent, spring-rockets clear into the sky. Is it safe for birds to travel on such a night? Cats patrol. Lightfooted and stumpy-tailed, one steps out, sniffs around, circles, appetite whet. One waits by a ricefield, peers into a crevice, listening to a frog song, the scuffle of a mouse.
A swan stays for Spring and Summer, its feathers grey with the film of the lake. Its mate is lost, its heart is broken, its wings no longer take it to the sky. Is solitude sought, or wrought upon it? Maybe it likes sushi more than borscht, has tired of Russian rhetoric, circles the pond and disseminates with the ducks, who never leave home. Or Does it yearn for kin and kindred for seven months of the year and is elated tonight?
A stone lies in a runlet, interrupting the flow. Water laps and wears it smooth until it is silt or soil, or a stone with a different name. Motifs are traced and ridges noted. Curvature transgresses the grooves of striation. Hurdles are crafted, a challenge to clear, yet ways are found over and around them, through them, without too much exertion. Often. Not with abundance, but with enough regularity to know that some patterns run counter to the grain.
