Stephen Lendman

The blame game - no one plays it better than the dominant media, and they're at it again over Gaza. Expect no comments below in their spaces, yet honest journalism would headline them.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt addressed Congress - with an appropriating updating for Gaza:

December 27 "will live in infamy." The people of Gaza were "suddenly and deliberately attacked by....air forces of the" State of Israel. The "attack was deliberately planned many (months) ago. During the intervening time (Israel) deliberately sought to deceive (Palestinians) by false statements and expressions of hope for" the peace process.

"The (weekend and continued) attack(s) caused severe damage to" property throughout Gaza. In addition, "many (Palestinian) lives have been lost. The facts (on the ground) speak for themselves....this "unprovoked and dastardly attack" must not go unanswered.

Note the contrast. Japan in the 1940s sought accord, not conflict. Not America. FDR goaded them to attack through numerous harassments and provocations - selling arms to Tokyo's enemies, denying Japan strategic resources and port access, as well as imposing a damaging embargo.

For its part, Hamas has been conciliatory and sought peace. It's willing to recognize Israel in return for a sovereign Palestinian state inside pre-1967 borders - just 22% of it original homeland. In 2008 and earlier, it agreed to unilateral ceasefires in spite of repeated Israeli violations and Gaza in duress under siege. It responds only in self-defense when attacked as international law allows, yet Washington, Israel, and the West call it "terrorism."

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Rich Wiles

I am not in Gaza, this article has been put together with two young women I know in Gaza who spent several hours describing the events of the last few days to me on New Years Eve. They want the world to know what is happening…

Amahl and Rana are two sisters, in their early 20’s. Both live in the Gaza Strip - Rana lives in Gaza City where she is married to a surgeon who works at Shifa Hospital, and her sister Amahl is a recently qualified GP who lives with their parents in Deir Alballah. For days now both Rana and Amahl have lived with the constant sound of the Israeli bombing and shelling which has already killed more than 400 people and injured over 2000. Rana lives in one of the most heavily bombarded areas of Gaza City:

“The situation here is the worst ever. I'm from Gaza city, the ‘Al Nasser’ area. Right now I can hear shelling by war boats and tanks. I live in a big house near ‘Al Mashtal’ which was the first target for the Israeli army. The distance between this place and my home is about 400 meters. The Israeli army shelled it with 6 rockets from F-16 fighter planes and you can imagine what happened… All the windows in my house have been blown-out by the recurrent shelling. The house didn’t just shake; every window has been blown-out by the ongoing and repeated shelling!”

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Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery explains how Israel engineered the collapse of the truce in the Gaza Strip in order “to terrorize the civilian population by unremitting attacks from the air, sowing death and destruction”, utterly destroying the entire life-supporting infrastructure in the Strip, creating anarchy and consequently prompting the population to rise up against Hamas.

Just after midnight, Al-Jazeera’s Arabic channel was reporting on events in Gaza. Suddenly the camera was pointing upwards towards the dark sky. The screen was pitch black. Nothing could be seen, but there was a sound to be heard: the noise of airplanes, a frightening, a terrifying droning.

It was impossible not to think about the tens of thousands of Gazan children who were hearing that sound at that moment, cringing with fright, paralyzed by fear, waiting for the bombs to fall.

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Steve Kangas / Len Hart

[Core of Corruption - 2nd Teaser Trailer] Steve Kangas: The Origins of the Overclass.

Excerpt: It turns out the CIA has:

Corrupted democratic elections in Greece, Italy and dozens of other nations;

Been involved to varying degrees in at least 35 assassination plots against foreign heads of state or prominent political leaders.

Successful assassinations include democratically elected leaders like Salvador Allende (Chile) and Patrice Lumumba (Belgian Congo); also CIA-created dictators like Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic) and Ngo Dinh Diem (South Vietnam); and popular political leaders like Che Guevara. Unsuccessful attempts range from Fidel Castro to Charles De Gaulle. Helped launch military coups that toppled democratic governments, replacing them with brutal dictatorships or juntas.

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Kawther Salam

Lama and Haya Hamdan, sisters, aged 4 and 11.

The weakest and most coward army in the world, which considers itself as the strongest one targeted and bombed a donkey on the streets of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. The cowards of the Israeli Air forces fired a missile at the donkey which was pulling a cart while Lama and Haya Hamdan, two sister aged 4 and 11, were searching for some food for their impoverished family.

The poor “terrorist” donkey scared the Israeli soldier who was watching him from outside Gaza, using war equipment received from the “friendly” USA. The great scare of the “innocent” Israeli army obliged them to protect, to defend themselves and their criminal state from the big horror of a “terrorist” donkey, probably from “Hamas”. So they in the air force to drop an intelligent GBU-39 bomb at the donkey cart, immediately killing not only the donkey, but also Lama and Haya, the two young sisters.

In this was another small new catastrophe was added to the current horrors, leaving another poor family of two young girls without bread. The eyewitnesses of this tragic crime said the body and the blood of the donkey was splattered all around the place, mixed with small pieces of the young girls bodies. It was not possible to identify which parts belonged to the donkey, and which parts belonged to the innocent girls.

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chycho

On 29 December 2008, I attended a peace rally in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and was fortunate enough to find two people willing to talk about their perspectives on the Israeli offensive in Gaza that began two days earlier. My thanks to both interviewees.

What follows are their perspectives:

Further information on a peaceful resolution at: Jews for a Just Peace.

Source: http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1959

www.chycho.com

"The implications of one of the largest one-day slaughter of Palestinians in the 60-year conflict with Israel" here: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2008/12/31/the-implications-of-one-of-the-largest-o