Israel's blonde bombshells and real bombs in Gaza

Israel's oiled propaganda-machine was further lubricated by its self-acknowledged decision to select women as their masbirim (misinformation spokespersons) so as "to project a feminine and softer image." To add some cool glamour to Israel's hot lies, Tzipi Livni, the state's foreign minister and a natural blonde, announced, in response to calls for truce: "There is no humanitarian crisis in the [Gaza] Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce." Yosefa Loshitzky comments for The Electronic Intifada. [MORE]

The Gaza Ghetto Uprising

The crushing of the Gaza Ghetto Uprising and the slaughter of its defenseless population will be relatively an easy task for the giant Israeli military machine and Israel's sadistic political leadership. It is dealing with the aftermath of a strengthened Palestinian determination to continue to resist Israel that will prove much more difficult for Israel and its Arab allies to deal with. While the thousands of dead and injured Palestinians are the main victims of this latest Israeli terrorist war, the major political loser in all this will be Abbas and his clique of collaborators. Joseph Massad comments for The Electronic Intifada. [MORE]

Resisting to protect our own

All Palestinian factions have united and are out facing the enemy, using all of their military capabilities that they collectively have. Although these capabilities are incomparable to the military strength exerted by Israel, yet it has made us more certain than ever that Palestinians will fight to the very end to protect their own. Safa Joudeh writes from the Gaza Strip. [MORE]

Scared but steadfast in Gaza

My family is from Karatiya village a few kilometers away from the Gaza Strip in what is now called Israel. Karatiya is one of the 450 towns in historical Palestine that were cleansed by Zionist militias in 1948, displacing my family along with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians. I now live in Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, which is currently being bombarded by Israel from tanks along the border, American-manufactured F-16s in the sky, and from the sea. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the besieged Gaza Strip. [MORE]

Eighty-nine children and 30 women amongst Gaza's confirmed dead

On the 10th day of its aggression on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has seriously escalated its military operations, targeting mostly civilian targets, particularly homes. Air strikes and artillery shells hit tens of homes. IOF also targeted medical facilities and ambulances. A Civil Defense team was hit as it tried to fight a fire following the bombardment of a clinic. [MORE]

Water, sewage system "collapsing" in Gaza, says official

GENEVA (IRIN) - The UN has warned that power networks were down in large parts of the Gaza Strip on 4 January, with hospitals relying on generators. Without power for pumps, 70 percent of Gazans are estimated to be without tap water. Israel has been blocking fuel supplies, and stocks are dwindling, the latest (4 January) report by the UN's humanitarian coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territories said. [MORE]

Israel invades Gaza, blocks ceasefire

RAMALLAH (IPS) - Israel launched a ground incursion into Gaza late Saturday night, ending a week of speculation whether a ground assault would follow a week's intensive bombardment of Gaza from the air and coast. Simultaneously, Israeli officials in Jerusalem expressed satisfaction at a United States veto of a draft United Nations Security Council resolution, put together by Libya, which outlined a proposed ceasefire. [MORE]

Media banned from Gaza as humanitarian crisis escalates

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Israel is again preventing journalists from entering Gaza to report first-hand on the escalating crisis there as its military operation, code named "Operation Cast Lead," enters its fifth day. Israel imposed an unprecedented news blackout in November and banned foreign journalists from the Gaza Strip for an entire month. This followed an Israeli cross-border military incursion into the coastal territory which broke the fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, and set off the current cycle of violence. [MORE]

Jewish "refugee" lobby seeks to eclipse Palestinian losses

A broad coalition of Jewish lobby groups has made a series of breakthroughs this year in its campaign to link the question of justice for millions of Palestinian refugees with justice for Jews who left Arab states in the wake of Israel's establishment 60 years ago. Referring to these Jews as the "forgotten refugees" and claiming that their plight is worse than that of exiled Palestinians, the campaign has scored political successes in recent months in Washington, London and Brussels. Jonathan Cook reports. [MORE]

Obama adviser Dennis Ross's dodgy record

GENEVA (IPS) - With the 2008 presidential campaign at its end, pundits have begun to discuss in earnest what expected winner Barack Obama's administration might look like. An important piece of evidence is Obama's campaign team, which largely escaped the harsh scrutiny that his opponent's lobbyist-laden team received. [MORE]

Institute for Palestine Studies commemorates Nakba on the Web

The Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) has created a special on-line resource to commemorate the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948. "1948: Sixty Years On ..." draws on the Institute's rich archives and its flagship Journal of Palestine Studies to provide wide public access to incisive articles, analyses, memoirs, detailed maps, and chronologies. These materials illuminate the events leading up to and culminating in the establishment of the state of Israel and the beginning of the Palestinian tragedy. [MORE]

Israel besieges Gaza's fishing industry

RAMALLAH, West Bank (IPS) - Israeli naval commandos recently hauled off three international peace activists off Palestinian fishing boats seven nautical miles off Gaza's coast. They were accompanying 15 Palestinian fishermen attempting to complete a day's fishing without being shot at or arrested by the Israeli navy [MORE]