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"Peace process" blown to bits

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani 31 December 2008


CAIRO (IPS) - Formally, the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process” appears set to continue, in line with the last United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution. But the chances of finding a resolution are virtually nil in light of Israel’s new campaign against the Gaza Strip. “Even before Israel’s latest bombardment of Gaza, the so-called peace process was dead,” Magdi Hussein, secretary-general of Egypt’s Islamist-leaning Labor Party (officially frozen since 2000), told IPS. On Saturday, 27 December, Israel began a series of punishing air strikes throughout the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, whose interior is controlled by Hamas. 

Where peace is a problem

Haim Bresheeth 31 December 2008


As the death toll in Gaza rises by the hour, and the few civic buildings still left are collapsing under the combined firepower of the Israeli air force, with its up-to-the-minute bombers and destructive armaments, we are again facing an incredible political phenomenon — the foretold disaster which surprises all political leaders as if they, unlike the rest of us, never see a newspaper or watch the television news channels. Haim Bresheeth comments for The Electronic Intifada. 

Gaza's main hospital struggling to cope

30 December 2008


GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Gaza’s main hospital, al-Shifa, is struggling to cope with the influx of people injured in the Israeli air strikes which started on 27 December, according to medical sources. Staff and patients are also fearful Israel might target it, as the leaders of Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the enclave, have held press conferences there. The hospital has already moved some medical facilities below ground. 

Bloodied in Gaza as the world silently watches

Laila El-Haddad Durham, United States 30 December 2008


“There is a complete blackout in Gaza now. The streets are as still as death.” I am speaking to my father, Moussa el-Haddad, a retired physician who lives in Gaza City, on Skype, from Durham, North Carolina in the United States, where I have been since mid 2006 — the month Gaza’s borders were hermetically sealed by Israel, and the blockade of the occupied territory further enforced. Laila El-Haddad writes from the US. 

Deserted streets and fear as Israel demolishes Gaza

Rami Almeghari Gaza Strip 30 December 2008


I am in al-Maghazi refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip. This afternoon Israeli drones targeted a house in al-Maghazi with three missiles. Fortunately there were no casualties. But unfortunately there have been many casualties elsewhere in Gaza where they have targeted houses and mosques. I went out of the house to deal with some urgent matters today. But movement is really risky right now. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the besieged Gaza Strip. 

Union urges immediate boycott following Gaza university bombing

30 December 2008


The Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees condemns in the strongest possible terms the bombing of the campus of the Islamic University in Gaza. This wanton destruction of an academic institution is only the latest in the ongoing lethal campaign launched by the Israeli government and army against Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip. 

Israeli electioneering with bombs

Jonathan Cook 30 December 2008


Of the three politicians who announced the military assault on Gaza to the world on Saturday, perhaps only the outgoing Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has little to lose — or gain — from its outcome. Flanking the Israeli prime minister were two of the main contenders for his job: Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister and the new leader of Olmert’s centrist party, Kadima, and Ehud Barak, the defense minister and leader of the left-wing Labor Party. The attack on Gaza may make or break this pair’s political fortunes as they jostle for position against Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing party, Likud, before a general election little more than a month away. Jonathan Cook analyzes. 

Falling into the moral abyss

Titus North 30 December 2008


It does Israelis no more good to control Palestinian land, exploit its resources, and inflict misery on its people than it did the US any good to do the same to Iraqis. Most of us know that the crimes our country committed in Iraq were detrimental to our future, so why would we support the Israeli government when it engages in the same self-destructive behavior. My question to Israel’s “friends” in US Congress would be, “is that what friends are for?” Titus North comments for The Electronic Intifada. 

Israeli shelling badly damages human rights offices

30 December 2008


At about 1:50am Tuesday, 30 December 2008, Israeli F-16 fighter jets shelled a Palestinian police site in Gaza, which is 70 meters away from the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme’s (GCMHP) main building in Sheikh Ejleen on Gaza Beach. The shelling was part of the vicious military attacks that the Israeli army launched on Gaza starting 27 December 2008.