Thursday, January 01, 2009

Palestine News Update: UN Security Council Fails to Pass Resolution; World Protests Israeli Bombardments; Obama's Silence Condemned

UN divided on Gaza resolution

Aid agencies say Israel's continuing assault threatens to bring humanitarian catastrophe to Gaza

With Israeli jets continuing to pound the Gaza Strip, members of the UN Security Council have ended an emergency meeting on the crisis after failing to agree on the wording of a draft resolution.

The meeting at UN headquarters in New York late on Wednesday came as Israel's assault on Gaza entered a sixth day, with the death toll nearing 400 and much of the territory in ruins.

The latest targets included three government buildings in Gaza City, struck by Israeli missiles in the early hours of Thursday local time.

Palestinian officials said the attacks left at least 25 people injured.

The special session of the security council followed calls from Arab countries for an urgent resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, and warnings from aid agencies that the people of Gaza are facing a humanitarian catastrophe.

But diplomats said the meeting was unlikely to produce any vote in the near future, with deep divisions among council members over the wording of any resolution.

Negotiations are expected to continue in the coming days.

But despite mounting international pressure, Israel has so far rejected calls for a ceasefire and has continued to build up its forces along the border in preparation for a possible ground invasion.

It says the assault is aimed at the Hamas leadership in Gaza and intended to destroy the ability of its fighters to launch rocket attacks on Israeli towns and cities.

During Wednesday's Security Council meeting, Libya, the only Arab country on the council, presented an Arab-drafted resolution calling for "an immediate ceasefire and for its full respect by both sides."

But diplomats said the wording of the draft was unlikely to be acceptable to the veto-holding United States and other Western countries.

"It's going to need a lot of work," one Western diplomat told Reuters.

The draft resolution, a copy of which was obtained by Al Jazeera, denounced "the excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by Israel" but made only vague reference to Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.

The US has said any lasting ceasefire is dependent on concrete assurances from Hamas – in terms that are acceptable to Israel – that the rocket attacks will stop.

With food and fuel supplies running dangerously low, the situation for thousands of Gaza residents is becoming increasingly desperate.

According to John Holmes, the United Nation's chief humanitarian official, more than 20,000 people have gone without food since the beginning of the Israeli assault, with many more resorting to begging or picking through rubbish dumps.

During Wednesday's UN meeting Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian permanent observer, called on the Security Council to take strong and urgent action.

"Our children in the Gaza Strip today and their mothers are looking up to you to stop this barbarian aggression and to protect them from this criminality, this forced hunger and this deliberate killing," he said.

"We hope that you will not let them down."

'Barbaric'

Earlier on Wednesday in a strongly-worded statement, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, threatened to abandon peace talks in response to what he called Israel's "criminal aggression".

"The most important obligation is to rally the forces, nationally and regionally, to end the barbaric and criminal Israeli aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip," he said in a televised address.

At least 393 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, have been killed and about 1,600 injured as Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships have dropped hundreds of bombs and missiles on the densely-populated strip.

Abbas, who had been criticised for blaming rival faction Hamas for provoking the Israeli attacks, and accused of colluding with Israel over the operations on Gaza, said he "would not hesitate to put negotiations to an end if they come into conflict with our interests".

"Peace does not mean humiliation or surrender," he said. "Our people are still equipped with more options."

His statement followed comments from Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, who said: "If conditions ripen and we think there will be a diplomatic solution that will ensure a better security reality in the south, we will consider it.

"But at the moment, it's not there."

'Durable' solution

Olmert was speaking after Israel's security cabinet rejected a French proposal for a 48-hour truce to allow for the passage of humanitarian aid into the besieged territory.

Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, said a "durable" solution was needed rather than the "band-aid" that would be provided by a 48-hour truce.

"What we need is a solution that will create real quiet ... the only people who really wanted this were Hamas, because we have been hitting them hard and they'd like time to regroup and rearm," he told Al Jazeera.

Israel has targeted many of the underground tunnels leading out of Gaza into Egypt, which have been a lifeline to Palestinians for food, fuel and medical supplies since Israel closed Gaza's border crossings 18 months ago.

In addition Israel's military has been moving soldiers, tanks and armoured personnel carriers to Gaza's edge amid ongoing concerns that the aerial assault will be followed by a ground offensive.

Hamas said on Wednesday that it would fight "until the last breath" if Israel sent ground forces into Gaza.

"Israel will embark on a veritable adventure if it decides to invade Gaza. We have prepared surprises for them," Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas official, said.

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said that in the event of a ground incursion, Palestinian factions felt that they had the advantage, due to the preparations they have made over the past six months of the truce.

"They say they have acquired new weapons, new munitions, new explosive devices and this is where they feel they enjoy more of an advantage in terms of the ability to face an Israeli incursion," he said.

"They certainly know they can't compete with Israel's air superiority and that is why Israel has been warned against launching a [ground] operation here in Gaza."

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies


World condemns murderous Israeli offensive

AFP-Herald Reporter.

JERUSALEM. DESPITE widespread condemnation of its onslaught on Gaza, Israel yesterday rejected calls for a truce and pressed on with its deadly offensive that has killed 400 Palestinians, mostly defenceless men, women and children.

Since it was launched on Saturday, the Israeli offensive has killed at least 393 people, including 42 children, and wounded more than 1 900 others, according to Gaza medics.

The UN said, at least 25 percent of casualties were unarmed civilians.

Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza for a fifth day, reducing much of the administrative infrastructure in the territory to rubble, with the Islamists retaliating with rocket fire.

"The cabinet decided to continue with the military operation," a senior Israeli government official was quoted as saying by AFP following a six-hour meeting of the country’s security cabinet that debated international truce proposals.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the meeting that conditions were not yet ripe to halt the bombardment launched in response to persistent rocket fire from the enclave that Hamas has run for a year and a half.

"We did not launch the Gaza operation only to end it with the same rocket firing that we had at its start," the official quoted Olmert as saying.

"If the conditions are ripe and we think that they might offer a solution that will guarantee a better security reality in the south, then we would weigh the issue. We are not there yet."

Amid mushrooming protests around the globe, world diplomats have been scrambling to find a way to stop one of Israel’s deadliest ever offensives on the Gaza Strip that has so far killed at least 393 Palestinians.

There was no let-up in the violence yesterday, with Israel conducting nearly 60 air strikes and Hamas firing more than 50 rockets.

The Islamist rulers of Gaza said they had not been given any concrete truce proposal but would consider one under certain conditions.

"If such a proposition is made to us, we will examine it as we are favourable to any initiative that will put an end to the aggression and

totally lift the blockade," senior Hamas official Ayman Taha said in Gaza.

The exiled head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, echoed the sentiment in a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, voicing "readiness to cease armed confrontation but on condition of the lifting of the blockade of Gaza", the Russian ministry said in a statement.

The US-backed Israel has warned that its "all-out war" on Hamas could last for weeks, has massed tanks on the border of the territory and authorised the call-up of 9 000 reservists, warning of a ground incursion.

"Our ground forces are still deployed around the Gaza Strip and are ready to go in, if given the order," an army spokeswoman told AFP yesterday.

Since the start of the Israeli onslaught, Gaza militants have fired more than 250 rockets, killing three civilians and one soldier and wounding several dozen people.

Five of the rockets fired since late on Tuesday slammed into the desert town of Beersheba some 40km from the Gaza border — the deepest yet that its projectiles have reached inside Israel.

Hamas has also threatened to carry out suicide attacks inside Israel for the first time since January 2005.

As protests were held in countries from the United States to Iran, diplomatic efforts gathered pace to stop the violence.

Yesterday, the prime minister of Israel’s top Muslim ally Turkey condemned the offensive as "ruthless" and again called for a halt before the "dangerous developments" lead to "irreversible developments in the region".

"The attacks on Gaza should stop immediately and a permanent ceasefire should be urgently secured to prevent irreversible developments in the region," Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters.

The bombardment has raised concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a tiny, aid-dependent territory of 1,5 million people which Israel has virtually sealed off since Hamas came to power in June 2007.

"Gaza’s hospitals are facing their largest ever trauma caseloads under some of the most adverse conditions imaginable," UN humanitarian coordinator Maxwell Gaylard said.

Israel opened one of its border crossings with Gaza again yesterday, bringing to 179 the number of lorryloads of supplies delivered since the Gaza bombardment began, the army said.

Several Arab countries meanwhile cancelled New Year’s Eve festivities in solidarity with Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, celebrations, which are low-key at the best of times, were expected to be particularly subdued, while civil defence officials urged residents in southern Israel to stay indoors. — AFP-Herald Reporter.


Obama's Gaza silence condemned

Hundreds have been killed after days of Israeli bombardment of Gaza

Despite growing pressure on Barack Obama to speak out on the crisis in Gaza, the US president-elect has remained silent on the issue.

Obama, holidaying in Hawaii, has made no public remarks on Israel's unrelenting military assault on the Palestinian territory, which has left more than 380 people there dead.

The former Illinois senator spoke out after last month's attacks in Mumbai and has made detailed statements on the US economic crisis.

But some fear that the US president-elect's reluctance to speak out on the Gaza raids could be sending its own message.

"Silence sounds like complicity," Mark Perry, the Washington Director of the Conflicts Forum group, told Al Jazeera.

"Obama has said that Israel has the right to defend itself from rocket attacks but my question to him is 'does he believe that Palestinians also have the right of self-defence?'"

Support for Israel

Israel says the operation is necessary to prevent Palestinian rocket attacks on the south of the country.

And Obama repeatedly spoke out in support for Israel during his election campaign, describing the country as one of the US' greatest allies and has vowed to ensure its security.

He caused anger in the Arab world when he told a pro-Israel lobby group in June that Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel.

He also visited Sderot, the Israeli town close to Gaza regularly targeted by Palestinian rocket fire, in July, to show his support for residents.

Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, has cited comments Obama made during that visit in his own justification for launching the assault.

"Obama said that if rockets were being fired at his home while his two daughters were sleeping, he would do everything he could to prevent it," Barak was reported as saying on Monday.

Obama's aides have repeatedly said he is monitoring the situation and continues to receive intelligence briefings but that he is not yet US president.

But George Bush, the current US leader, has also remained silent on Israel's attacks although the White House has offered its support to Israel.

Arabs pessimistic

Many Arabs were cautiously optimistic about Obama's election victory in November, in the belief that a fresh face in the White House would be better than Bush, who invaded Iraq and gave strong support to Israel.

But his choice of a foreign policy team, especially Hillary Clinton as US secretary of state and Rahm Emanuel as his White House chief-of-staff, have raised doubts that much will change.

But some see his see his silence as symptomatic of caution over his own position and the power of the Israel lobby.

"He wants to be cautious and I think he will remain cautious because the Arab-Israeli conflict is not one of his priorities," Hassan Nafaa, an Egyptian political scientist and secretary-general of the Arab Thought Forum in Amman, told Reuters.

"Obama's position is very precarious. The Jewish lobby warned against his election, so he has chosen to remain silent (on Gaza)," added Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut.

Protests demand change

However many in the US have called on Obama to speak out personally on events in Gaza.

Protesters gathered at Obama's transition office in Washington DC on Monday, and outside his holiday residence in Hawaii on Tuesday, to demand he do more.

"The Obama administration is working hand in glove with the Bush administration and...there is no reason that they can't work together to get something done," Mike Reitz, a federal government worker, told Al Jazeera at the transition office protest.

At another protest against Israel's actions in Gaza outside the White House on Tuesday, some were sceptical about Barack Obama's commitment to Middle East peace-making.

"Is this the change that you were talking about?," said Reza Aboosaiedi, a computer specialist from Iran.

"If this is the change, you have a very, very deep problem, because if you add them up with the other economic problems and other problems in America, having this kind of problem in the Middle East, I don't think he can manage it."

But others at the protest still saw some hope that the former Illinois senator could make a difference.

"I would like to think that he would be more active than Bush in trying to push an agenda to bring Israel and Palestine together to have peace talks, but I don't know," said Bob Malone, a lawyer.

"But I'm an optimist, so I hope so."

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies


Wednesday, December 31, 2008
19:42 Mecca time, 16:42 GMT

Iran urges Arabs to act on Gaza

Ahmadinejad also criticised the United Nations asking "to which nations does this UN belong"

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, has told the Arab League it should take action "quickly" to end the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Speaking on Wednesday as Arab ministers met in Cairo, Ahmadinejad warned that setting up committees and making speeches would not be an adequate response to the offensive that has killed nearly 400 Palestinians.

"If the Arab League does not want to do anything today, when does it want to act?" he told a rally in Zahedan in southeast Iran, the Reuters news agency reported.

Ahmadinejad did not suggest what action Arab leaders should take.

"Aren't these oppressed Palestinians Arabs? So, when should the capacity of the Arab League be used? The Arab League should act quickly," he said.

The Iranian leader also criticised the United Nations' response to the assault on Gaza.

"To which nations does this UN belong? This security council is for the security of which part of the world?" he said.

Unity urged

At the opening of the Cairo meeting, Amr Moussa, general secretary of the Arab League, called for an immediate meeting of rival Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah.

However, expectations were extremely low that the summit would achieve a major breakthrough in the crisis.

Nisreen Al Shamayleh, reporting from Cairo for Al Jazeera, said that despite widespread protests across the Arab world it was unlikely that the league would agree a concrete response.

"We have seen strong reaction from the Arab street and strong condemnation of the Israeli attacks and Arab inaction and silence," she said.

"Many people believe it shouldn't have taken 390 Palestinian casualties and 2,000 Palestinian injuries for the Arab ministers to get together."

She said the outcome of the meeting could echo the league's emergency summit on the war in Lebanon in 2006, which failed to lead to a concrete response.

Jordan's Prince El Hassan Bin Talal told Al Jazeera he believed that action from league members was "overdue" and that more demonstrations would be held across the Arab world in protest against Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

"I think the need for the organisation of an Islamic conference position is long overdue and one of an Arab League position is also overdue," he said.

Meanwhile, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, arrived in Syria at the start of his diplomatic tour of the region.

Rula Amin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Damascus, said: "It is pretty ironic that more than 22 countries are meeting and expectations are very low that they will do anything to help and now all hopes are pinned on the Turkish prime minister."

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

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