Meanwhile the real freezing is happening in Gaza as the people sleep in tents amongst the rubble. This is an appeal from the Gaza Freedom March, symbolic as it is a year since the shoah was launched upon the people of Gaza.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
We will announce the Gaza Freedom March in the special December issue of The Nation, a magazine with a readership of over 200,000 and, funding permitted, in several regional and Jewish newspapers. Please join Alice Walker, Oliver Stone, Howard Zinn, Gore Vidal, John Berger, Ali Abunimah, Christopher Hedges, George Galloway, Arun Gandhi, Naomi Klein, Tariq Ali, Mairead Maguire, and many others as supporters of The Gaza Freedom March. If you can send a tax-deductible contribution of $100 or more by Sunday, Nov. 29, we will list you as a signer on the ads (see text below). Click here to donate as generously as you can.

Thank you so much for your generosity and support.
The Gaza Freedom March Organizing Committee
http://www.gazafreedommarch.org

The Ad itself will read:
On December 27, just one year after Israel launched its brutal attack on Gaza, one thousand people from all over the world will meet in Cairo on their way to Gaza for The Gaza Freedom March.

On December 31 they will walk arm-in-arm with tens of thousands of Palestinians in a non-violent march demanding an end to the siege of Gaza.

A year since the attack and no homes have been rebuilt…
A year since the attack and no schools have been rebuilt…
A year since the attack and most children have no textbooks, no school supplies…
A year since the attack and the water and sewage systems have not been repaired…
A year since the attack and people are still dying for lack of medical care…

How long must 1.5 million people wait before they can begin to reconstruct their lives? The time is now. The siege must end. The borders must be opened.

Governments have failed to act. We must act instead.
Please go to this link to endorse the march, to support actions on December 31 around the world, and to donate to bringing school supplies for the children of Gaza.

~~~~~~~

It is also a year since the Israeli navy tried to kill my brother in the Free Gaza boat, Dignity. David has just spoken to a meeting of medical students in the SW of England who belong to Medsin. His notes and slides are here. Man Made Disease in Gaza http://tiny.cc/UXooE

http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/07/the-new-york-times-making-nuclear-extermination-respectable/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benny-morris

Obama’s nuclear spring
24 Nov 2009: Benny Morris: An Israeli attack on Iran’s atomic weapons plants rests on one thing – the US president’s approval

STOP LYING AT THIS SITE. NO ONE BUYS YOUR FAKE HISTORY.

DON’T INVITE THESE LIARS BACK. WHEN YOU ENGAGE THEM, THEY COME BACK AGAIN TO POST MORE LIES WHERE NO ONE BUYS.

http://www.redress.cc/palestine/gatzmon20091123

SYNOPSIS – As a senior NATO official visits Israel to learn tricks of the
killing trade to employ in Afghanistan, Gilad Atzmon warns that all the
Israelis can offer NATO is the art of murdering civilians, and all NATO can look forward to in consequence is the prospect of war crimes charges.

It would seem that Syria suffered a major defeat last week with the formation of a Lebanese national unity government.

Syria has for years fought long and hard to keep Lebanon under its thumb, but in 2004, with the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, its influence took a big hit. At the time, the murder was attributed to pro-Syrian elements, and subsequent universal condemnation from Western and Arab powers alike forced Damascus to pull its troops from Lebanese soil.

Five years later, on June 7, 2009, Saad Hariri, the son of the slain prime minister, won a clear victory in the Lebanese elections.

And now, five months after that success, Hariri was finally able to form a “national unity government,” albeit only after intense international pressure and lengthy negotiations succeeded in bringing together representatives of the majority and opposition parties.

Is Beirut slipping away from Damascus? The truth is not that simple and not that rosy.

Opposition parties will have 10 ministers in the new government, or a third of the total. Two of these ministers belong to Hizbullah, an organization taking its orders from Iran. Though the organization is legal, per se, its militia is not, and should have been disbanded long ago as demanded by the Taef agreements which put an end to the Lebanese civil war…

Dismemberment of any land or region wrought by any or many evil empires world cannot ever accept.
USSR, eastern and western european lands and empires are once again guilty of crimes against darkies, mostly.
In add’n, as befits evil empires, more than 60% of world pop had been excluded in the decision making.
And now, it is even worse. Now, at least 80% of world pop is excluded from helping pal’s obtain their freedoms and land.
tnx

If these things were happening to you or your loved ones, what would you do? Sit there and be killed or injured?

Latest news
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Israeli soldiers beat up 9-year-old boy and 2 women at annexation-Wall protest
Israeli gunboats open fire on Palestinian fishing boats
Settler road rage: 9-year-old girl admitted to hospital
Annexation Wall protesters overcome by Israeli tear gas
Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in refugee camp and 16 towns and villages
6 attacks – 52 raids – 3 beaten – 5 injured
9 taken prisoner – 31 detained – 80 restrictions of movement
International law and Israeli propaganda

“Another winter is now approaching, and neither the Israelis nor the international community has taken steps to alleviate the Gazans’ plight.”

“The cries of homeless and freezing people demand relief.”

- Jimmy Carter
From Berlin to Bil’in: “Ich bin ein Bil’iner”
Goldstone: Why I Investigated Israel’s Conduct in Gaza
Obama’s Chicago Zionist connections
Dividing war spoils (Israel’s robbery of Palestinian land and property)

Why the Goldstone report matters
“As Uri Avnery observes, however much Israel may attack the commission report as one-sided and unfair, the only plausible explanation of its refusal to co-operate with fact-finding and taking the opportunity to tell its side of the story was that it had nothing to tell that could hope to overcome the overwhelming evidence of the Israeli failure to carry out its attacks on Gaza last winter in accordance with the international law of war.” – Richard A. Falk

and so on ad infinitum on

http://palestine.org.nz/phrc/index.php

After reacting with little enthusiasm to reports Saturday that Hamas had reached an agreement with other Gaza terror groups to stop firing rockets at the western Negev, Israel bombed targets belonging to the Islamist organization overnight Saturday in response to a Kassam attack.

Masked Palestinian terrorists from Islamic Jihad place Kassam rockets before later firing them towards Israel on the outskirts of Gaza City.

Two weapons-manufacturing facilities in the northern and central Gaza, and one smuggling tunnel in the Rafah border area, were hit in the IAF raid, the army said.

Palestinian sources said six people were wounded in the attack.

According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Office, the attack was in response to a Kassam launched at an Israeli civilian area earlier Saturday. The rocket hit the Sha’ar Hanegev region, causing no casualties or damage.

The IDF said it would not tolerate any attacks by terror organizations against Israel and its citizens, adding that nearly 270 rockets and mortar shells had been fired at the South since the end of Operation Cast Lead on January 18, in comparison to over 3300 rockets and mortars fired in the year before the operation. The last month had seen approximately 15 rockets and mortar shells fired at Israel from Gaza, said the army.

Hamas’s interior minister, Fathi Hamad, had told reporters Saturday that the agreement to stop attacks from Gaza had been made to avoid IDF reactions, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Hamad added, however, that if Israel sent soldiers into the Strip, the armed groups would be given “free rein to respond.”

In response, an official in the Prime Minister’s Office said Hamas would “be judged by its actions, not its words.”

Under the agreement, rockets will only be fired in retaliation for Israeli aggression, Hamad said.

The Hamas official also told reporters that the aim of the agreement was to “enable people to rebuild” after Operation Cast Lead last winter.

Nevertheless, as if to validate Israel’s pessimism regarding the reported deal, the Islamic Jihad denied such an agreement had been reached, saying Sunday that it reserved the right to continue its “legitimate resistance.”

http://www.bilin-village.org/francais/xmedia/affiches/montreal_bilin_20091127_en.jpg

From the dark side of another planet and supported to the hilt by our fascist junta.

*Breaking News from **Gaza (via Greta Berlin of Free Gaza) (No word on ZBC)

(1:20 am) Sunday 22 Nov 2009*

TWO Palestinians have been injured in the north of the Gaza Strip, Jabalia camp. The Israeli F16 warplane has targeted a factory with one rocket, this attack has created great fear on the people of north of the Gaza.

FOUR Palestinians have been injured due to the attack on the tunnel area between Rafah City and Egypt. This addition to the clear voice of the F16 warplane in different districts of the Gaza Strip.

Another Israeli air raid in middle of the Gaza Strip, near Deir Al Balah causing no wounded people.

A tiger doesn’t change its stripes, nor a leopard its spots.

So you agree with my father, isn’t ist?

Poor deluded bullshy, I fear you are not credible as interlocutor, let alone as peace partner if you are a Arab Palestinian, you are simply a hidden warmonger and of course an incorrigible anti-Semite with anti-Zionist camouflage. Don’t be too much consumed by your rage …

You are of course bullshitting on the Protocols crap – who cares about that? You occupy Palestine so Israel can be larger – not because Jew-haters invented the protocols. You do realize I would think that the flag of Herut DID indicate an Egypt from the Nile to the Euphrates – and Herut was part of Likud.

The hudnas are a way of saving face. They are a cave-in to the reality of Israel. A ten year truce or 50 year truce is a way to get by the impasse. It an be extended indefinately or abandoned as the situation evolves. The trouble with the hudna is that Israel does not a truce, but wants more land instead. No one gives a shit if Israel trusts Hamas – Israel’s legal duty is to remove itself from occupied Palestine.

There can be no recognition of an Israeli state – let alone a Jewish state – only a recognition that Israel exists. No self-respecting people will lick the feet of those who cleansed them of their country.
Egypt reached a peace agreement with Israel based on Israel leaving its ill-gotten gains. It is not a peace the people of Egypt are happy with – and Israel will never enjoy normal relations in the region until they make amends to the people they abused. Same applies to Jordan. In both instances, it is only the government – the blackmailed and bribed governments of these countries that have made peace. This will change.

Rightwing governments are the only governments Israelis elect – it is only the degree of fascism that differs. It is under Labor governments that all Arab lands have been attacked and conquered.

You have 22 states plus Fatah and Hamas offering peace. You reject it. You ask for war instead – and you only have to lose one war. That time will come.

As for your many quotes of Hamas’ statements which should demonstrate the alleged goodwill toward Israel, it appears firtly clear that Hamas is not interested in a durable pace with Israel but in “hudnas”, periots of calm. Actually Islam commandes that at the most a “hudna” (but never a lasting peace) are possible if the armies of Allah can momentarily not defeat the enemy. The period of the hudna that last at most ten years is needed years is needed to ream on a new and peahaps decisive battle. This is what has happened repeatedly between Hamas and Israel until the outbreak of the war in Gaza. And this is the reason why Israel doesn’t trust Hamas and is not willing to accept this false period of calm.
Secondly, I can bring you some other quotes by Hamas leaders that say exactly the opposite of your messages:
Hamas “must lay the foundation for a tomorrow without Zionists.” (Hamas leader Mahmoud a-Zahar, Al-Aqsa TV, January 4, 2009)
“This is the time for the third uprising… Resistance will continue through suicide missions.”
(Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Mashaal, Damascus, Syria, December 27, 2008)
“This is Islam, that was ahead of its time with regards to human rights in the treatment of prisoners, but our nation was tested by the cancerous lump, that is the Jews, in the heart of the Arab nation… Be certain that America is on its way to utter destruction, America is wallowing [in blood] today in Iraq and Afghanistan, America is defeated and Israel is defeated, and was defeated in Lebanon and Palestine… Make us victorious over the community of infidels… Allah, take the Jews and their allies, Allah, take the Americans and their allies… Allah, annihilate them completely and do not leave anyone of them.”
(Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Bahar, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, April 20, 2007).
“We do not recognize the Israeli enemy, nor his right to be our neighbor, nor to stay (on the land), nor his ownership of any inch of land…. We are interested in restoring our full rights to return all the people of Palestine to the land of Palestine. Our principles are clear: Palestine is a land of Waqf (Islamic trust), which can not be given up.”
(Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas leader and candidate to the Palestinian legislative council, Palestinian TV, January 17, 2006, Newsday)

I think Palestinians should finally understand that the only way to reach indipendence and freedom is the recognition of Jewish Israel as their fully legitimate neighbor, that means they should choose the path of peace. That was possible for Egypt and for Jordan, why not for Palestinians too? There is in Israel still a majority of peaople for the end of the occupation, yet what is lacking is on the other side the guarantee that the end of the occupation will be also the end of the war against Israel. To convince this majority must be the interest and the aim of any honest and courageous Palestinian leader, before the majority above will not effectively become a minority (the right-wing Netanyahu government should in this sense be considered the direct consequence of the Gaza war and the dangerous appeasement policies of the previous Kadima government; but Netanyahu himself isn’t a fool, he knows well that a lasting peace with the Palestinians and the Arab world is in Israel’s own interest).

Or shall I believe what my father, who fought for Israel’s survival in 1952-53, told me this evening; regrettably there will be no peace between Israelis and Palestinians even when both you and me are already dead, too different the two peoples, too big the gap between them …