Davutoglu told reporters on Friday that Israel should apologize, pay compensation to families of the Turkish citizens killed during the boarding of the aid ship and end the embargo on Gaza. Otherwise, the minister stated, relations between Turkey and Israel will not be normalized.

Additionally Davutoglu extended Turkey’s criticism of the apartheid land-thieving entity:

“Israel should decide to be a part of either the problem or the solution,” Davutoglu told reporters. The minister also spoke out against other aspects of Israeli policy, criticizing Israel to for continuing its settlement policy. The minister concluded by emphasizing that Turkey would react positively if Israel pursued a less hawkish foreign policy.

From @leventbasturk: If it doesn’t remain firm on this issue, the new course of Turkish Frgn Pol in ME will be under great suspicion. #

In the US press, Davutoglu’s comments were under-reported, omitting the need for Israel to end its embargo on Gaza.

Palestine / Israel Links

Nutanyahoo newspeak reveals his narcissist delusional extremism – his blitherings are straight out of Animal Farm
Pinkwashing, 2008-2011: Obituary for a hasbara strategy
Palestinian freed in prisoner swap is persecuted by Israel’s maniacal illegal settlers in Hebron
Haaretz publisher and owner Schocken identifies Israel’s ‘strategy of territorial seizure and apartheid’
Old Palestinian man in front of his house demolished by Israel

Occupy

Occupy Everywhere: Michael Moore, Naomi Klein on Next Steps for the Movement Against Corporate Power

As Israel strengthens its anti-Turkish hasbara, it is useful to be aware that some political interests in Turkey are either in concert with Israel and or use Israel for their own political ends against Erdogan and his party, the AKP. Turkey’s leaders have been explicit about the regional plan – the ‘zero problems with neighbours‘ policy – they are implementing. Maturely, the Turkish leadership is setting up strategic economic cooperation in order to harmonise and stabilise the region. These moves seem calculated to integrate with US hegemony and security concerns. Some of Turkey’s critics trivialise these initiatives as ‘neo-ottomanism’.

Turkey has a strategic interest in minimising Israeli belligerence which runs counter to regional security. Yet also, present Turkish leaders have displayed in common with the populace generally, an undeniably visceral reaction to Israeli crimes, notably on the international public stage from Erdogan’s walk-out at Davos following Israel’s Operation Cast Lead massacre.

Political analyst, Levent Basturk, explains the ethno-political context of PKK moves against the AKP-led Turkish government.

“This ethnicity issue in Turkey is definitely a “regime” issue. Unfortunately, the years of violence between the Kemalist regime and the PKK, which actually helped the cause of the status quo more than the Kurds, have created some sort of discontent among different groups, but seeing this conflict in terms of Turks vs Kurds is totally wrong.

First of all, the two populations are extremely mixed with each other. I am originally one of Eastern towns which is mixed with Kurds and Turks. If you look at the AKP leadership today, Erdogan is NOT ethnically Turkish; he is a Georgian. His wife is an Arab and he says this openly and publicly in demonstrations in mostly Turkish populated towns. And he is not losing votes, he’s gaining votes. The ministry of treasury, what could be the most valuable to a country other than this, is Kurdish, who addresses people in the local TV sometimes in Kurdish. I would say, at least one third of Erdogan’s cabinet are Kurdish. Don’t get me wrong. Turkey have always had Kurdish cabinet members. But here is the difference: these are the Kurds who don’t deny their Kurdishness, they even declare it proudly. AND the AKP party hierarchy includes many Kurds who don’t deny their Kurdishness. Let me add Erdogan’s advisors too. At least half of them are Kurdish. And one more note: outside Turkey, everyone is calling the Mavi Marmara victims Turkish, yet half of them were anti-PKK Kurds (pro-PKK Kurds in Israel celebrated the Mavi marmara massacre in front of the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv, youtube has the video).

Today, the city with most Kurdish population is NOT Diyarbakir or Erbil. It’s Istanbul. In Istanbul, the AKP is the most popular party among the Kurds. In the area which the PKK map shows as Kurdistan, in many cities the PKK-supported party doesn’t have even a serious presence. The area where they are popular is mostly the southeast. Even there, AKP is ahead of BDP in popular votes.
What has happened with minorities in Turkey has nothing to do with the Kurdish-Turkish divide. The problem was the nation-building project of the Young Turks in the last decade of the Ottomans and Mustafa Kemal following them. This is a complicated matter, which requires a book to explain. Amazingly, the ethnic Turkishness of some of the people who put this project into practice is a matter of dispute too! But they had a view of the world and wanted to design their society in accordance with it.

During the Mustafa Kemal era, after 1923, this project had two major components: secularism and being a Turk. Still, being a Turk was not again an ethnic category. It was actually being a good citizen and living in conformity of the norms of the new republic. If you were an ethnic Turk and didn’t fit those two categories, you were doomed too. Of course they denied the practice of any language other than Turkish. BUT they destroyed Turkish too. Today, a young person cannot understand books written 25 years ago properly. And don’t even mention the books written in the 60s, 50s and before. The idea, they said, was that the Persian and Arabic words must be eliminated from the Turkish language to create a national language. In fact, the main goal was to create a secular nation devoid of its historical Islamic roots and devoid of ties with the Islamic world because, otherwise, Turkey would not be able to catch up with contemporary western civilization. They were influenced by the French idea of “citizens of republic” not any sort of ethnic nationalism. This French idea of citizenship accepts every citizen as equal but denies the difference because you don’t need to be different if you are equal.

The issue is deep, so it’s impossible to explore it in every detail here. Let me mention the PKK version of the story: the PKK actually is an almost identical Kurdish imitation of the Kemalist model. That’s why it’s not very attractive to many Kurds as Kemalism has not been very attractive to many Turks. Those who call the PKK’s fight “Kurdish cause” are unfortunately looking at it from a certain ideological angle without looking at the reality on the ground.

Erdogan has done many things for the Kurdish issue; he says that they were not enough. BUt he says this clearly: the time of negation and assimilation is over. And he’s planning to have more reforms. There is criticism of him that he has been in power for almost a decade, yet he has done so little. This argument is missing a lot of things. Without depreciating the power of civilian and military bureaucracy he could not be able to do anything. There have been 7-8 coup attempts against him! Moreover, due to the violence since 1984, there is a discontent in the public. That must be handled carefully too. Today, the aim of the leadership of the BDP that refuses to take the oath in parliament is NOT really Kurdish rights! Their goal is to get the PKK leader, Ocalan, out of jail and they are playing with the Kurds for this purpose. Erdogan has mentioned many times: ‘I will have a new constitution and I want to negotiate with you’. But like the kemalists had Ataturk, the BDP has an atakurd, who is Ocalan. For them, the Kurdish matter is associated with getting him out of jail. Well, sorry foxes, this may happen perhaps 4-5 years later, but now, it’s almost impossible for the 90 percent of the people including more Kurds than the ones supporting Ocalan. There’s a lot to say, time is limited, space is not enough. These are my instant thoughts without giving much though about what I would say. So, if you don’t like them, don’t be quick in your judgement.

BUT LET ME SAY THIS CLEARLY: if anyone thinks Erdogan is acting as a Turkish nationalist or an ethnic Turk, they are wrong. He’s not an ethnic Turk and he has never been a Turkish nationalist in his life. Turkey is acting now this way under his leadership because Turkey has had a great social transformation within the last 3-4 decades. The old codes of society and state have changed. If you use the same parameters to judge Erdogan’s Turkey with old Turkey, you are wrong. He still has not entirely won his battle. That’s why you will see sometimes backward and forward steps. He may fail too. The fight is not over and the others want to return to power. Look at the criticism of the main opposition party CHP/RPP regarding developments after the Palmer report. They want to come back and their choice is Israel. I don’t think the PKK stands on the side of change in Turkey. It’s using the international public’s lack of information about what’s going on Turkey by giving an image that it’s same old turkey. No, the PKK is actually is part of the old Turkey with the Kemalist model it imitates and is on the side of Israel like the Kemalist party RPP/CHP.”

Related Links

Right-wing Israelis and the Kurds

These Israelis, Zionists and their friends only remember Kurds when their relations with Turkey are strained and when they are criticized by Turks. In other times, they are busy applauding Turkey, enjoying strong relations with and engaging in military co-operation with Turkey.

What is more, instead of supporting Turkish democracy in one way or another, these right-wing Zionists have always preferred to work with the anti-democratic Turkish generals and bombarded them with medals. These Israelis do not have any moral right to remind us of the Kurdish problem. Not because it does not exist, but because we are the ones who keep writing about it and criticizing what Israel’s good old friends in Turkey, the Kemalists, have done to the Kurds.

Netanyahu’s office distances itself from Foreign Minister’s planned measures against Turkey
Here comes the hasbaristic whining to divert from Israel’s crimes against humanity. Israel: Turkey threat of warships to Gaza ‘grave’ – and soon enough, the source of this hasbara is revealed by Today’s Zaman – this time it’s Al Jazeera and Reuters who have cobbled together Erdogan’s quotes out of context.
Palestinian civil society welcomes Turkey’s Decision to Suspend All Military Ties with Israel and Lower Diplomatic Relations
Why Turkey is bombing the PKK
Israel already arms the PKK according to this report
Palmer Report Release : Turkey Still Adamant
Waiting for the Palmer Report : Turkey Remains Firm
Good job IHH … Among possible suspects for flotilla criminal prosecutions: Peres, Netanyahu and Ashkenazi – Report: Turkey obtains names of flotilla raid soldiers

Palestine / Israel Links

Not content with exiling and impoverishing Palestinians, Jewish pro-Israel organisations want to prohibit their children’s art. h/t @Shunracat

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Olmert, again demonstrating his war criminality, booms:

“We’ve said that if there is rocket fire against the south of the country, there will be a severe and disproportionate Israeli response to the fire on the citizens of Israel and its security forces.”

The monstrous Olmert, lusting for more innocent blood, is promising further criminal responses:

“The response will come at the time, the place and the manner that we choose.”

…

Palestinian witnesses reported huge explosions on Sunday and the Israeli military confirmed strikes on half a dozen locations, including an abandoned police station in northern Gaza and suspected smuggling tunnels in the south near the Egypt-Gaza border.

Disproportionate responses are forbidden by the Geneva Conventions. This has never stopped Israel before from collectively punishing citizens of Gaza, whose lives are treated as expendable by the Zionist entity.

As highlighted by Sherri Muzher in the Detroit News:

The Israeli Defense Force’s revelation in a Haaretz article that it overestimated Gaza’s rocket severity went unnoticed by our media. The bombing continued, as did the self-righteousness.

Perhaps, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe put it best in a recent article on Gaza. He wrote: “The self-righteousness is a powerful act of self-denial and justification. It explains why the Israeli Jewish society would not be moved by words of wisdom, logical persuasion or diplomatic dialogue.”

Though we live in the 21st century, it seems that maybe our Western world (specifically the United States) has been caught in a time warp. Some actually think it can atone for the crimes of World War II by giving Israel the green light to commit more crimes against humanity. But ignoring Israel’s embargo and the killing of Palestinians dishonors the memories of those who were murdered for who they were during World War II.

Just because there are no ovens or gassing in the conflict doesn’t mean that it’s less genocidal. And when Israel intentionally blocks humanitarian goods and aims to make life so miserable that Palestinians will want to leave all the while dehumanizing them in the process, Israel is committing genocide.

Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide doesn’t make exceptions for motive. In other words, using Hamas as an excuse is unacceptable.

The convention discusses “Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy a group includes the deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the group’s physical survival, such as clean water, food, clothing, shelter or medical services. Deprivation of the means to sustain life can be imposed through confiscation of harvests, blockade of foodstuffs, detention in camps, forcible relocation or expulsion into deserts.”

As to Israel’s 2005 pullout from Gaza? Israel’s B’Tselem, a human rights group, notes that Israel has maintained complete control over the airspace, waterways, the movement of goods and most elements of the taxation system. Israeli Palestinian citizens continue to be denied entry into Gaza even to visit family.

Israel, a victim? Not even close.

WND follows up, finding that Hamas has demanded Fatah, America’s ‘partner for peace’ cease firing rockets.

Contacted by WND, the leadership of Islamic Jihad in both Gaza and the West Bank were not aware their group launched any rockets.

The claimed results of an immediate investigation launched by both Hamas and Islamic Jihad were shared with WND. The probe found the Islamic Jihad rockets were actually fired by Fatah.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad sources explained that when Hamas took over Gaza from its Fatah rivals in 2007, about 100 members of Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades joined Islamic Jihad, and it was those members who launched today’s attacks.

Hamas has demanded Islamic Jihad immediately clamp down on the Fatah members within its ranks, prompting some tension between the two allies.

A top member of Hamas’ so-called military wing told WND today the Fatah members who shot today’s rockets will be dealt with harshly, hinting they may even be killed.

“If we catch them, I think they will not live to see the light of day,” he said.

Earlier today, the Al-Arabiya television network quoted Hamas sources stating the group has accepted an Egyptian proposal for a year-long truce with Israel in Gaza starting on Thursday. The report said Hamas agreed to an international mechanism along the Egypt-Gaza border that includes members of Fatah, as long as those Fatah members coordinate their activities with Hamas.

One of Israel’s main goals for its offensive was to halt Hamas’ ability to smuggle weapons across the Egypt-Gaza border. Previous international monitors stationed along the Egypt-Gaza border fled their duty and repeatedly failed to stem Hamas’ weapons smuggling. The monitors were stationed at the border following Israel’s 2005 evacuation of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas in 2007 seized control of Gaza from Fatah, taking over all U.S.-backed security compounds in the territory. Top diplomatic sources in Jerusalem told WND last month Abbas and his top representatives had waged a quiet campaign for months asking the Israeli government to target Hamas in Gaza just before the PA president’s term in office expired Jan. 9.

Hamas leaders repeatedly had warned they would not recognize Abbas after Jan. 9 and that they would launch a major campaign to delegitimize the PA president and install their own figures to lead the Palestinian government. Abbas used the violence to declare an emergency government that will keep him in office at last another year.

How bizarre is it then that Israel, the US and EU are hell bent in maintaining Abbas as a peace partner by maintaining a new, even more virulent siege on the people of Gaza, a siege that prevents the reconstruction of society, that causes further hatred and contempt? Because they know Abbas doesn’t have the support of the people and thus will fit the dictatorial puppet role which has been the usual historical method these big swinging dickheads have chosen to control the middle east? Yep, without a doubt.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and other Western leaders had proposed creating a temporary international committee to oversee the funding and organisation of the reconstruction effort. However, Abbas and his supporters rejected such a mechanism on the grounds that “it presumes that the separation between Gaza and the West Bank will continue,” as acting PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad put it, adding that international donors who are eager to reconstruct Gaza “will risk deepening the Palestinian division by ignoring the role of the PA”.

The PA’s stance, if followed, would condemn Arab pledges made in Kuwait — as well as any pledges made in a possible international conference on the reconstruction of Gaza called for by Egypt, the PA and the EU president — to remain pending until such time as a “viable peace partner” secures a steady seat in Gaza.

Although the participants at the Kuwaiti summit stressed the need for the reconstruction of Gaza in principle, they failed to reach an agreement over the mechanism. Differences between leaders obstructed a proposal to create a reconstruction fund and the most participants managed to agree upon was to make reconstruction contingent upon Palestinian reconciliation, a task they designated to Arab foreign ministers without setting a date or place for a ministerial meeting for this purpose, leaving us with the question as to when and how Arab ministers are to succeed where their heads of state failed.

Of course this procrastination through delegating makes the pledge to reconstruct Gaza barely worth the paper it was written on and will probably consign it to the same oblivion fated for so many other Arab summit resolutions. One of those forgotten resolutions was that adopted by the emergency Arab summit in Cairo in October 2000 calling for the creation of an Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem Fund for the purpose of reconstructing Palestinian infrastructure, especially in the sectors of healthcare, education, agriculture and housing. Apparently Arab leaders in Kuwait did not wish to recall that that resolution did not restrict the distribution of funds through the channel of the PA but also provided for other channels such as UNWRA, the Egyptian and Qatari Red Crescents, the Jordanian Royal Philanthropic Organisation, the UN Arab Gulf Programme and other such regional and international humanitarian agencies. Perhaps, too, they did not want to remind anyone that when that earlier resolution was passed there was no “Hamas problem” behind which are hiding those who do not really want to reconstruct the occupied territories, whether in Gaza or in the West Bank.

…

There is nothing to debate about humanitarian relief. The Israeli offensive destroyed all the civil infrastructure of the government in Gaza on the grounds that it served as bases for Hamas whereas in fact it was PA infrastructure paid for by taxpayers in donor countries. Whole residential quarters were flattened, totally destroying 4,000 homes and severely damaging around 16,000 more. There are now some 100,000 civilians in urgent need of shelter, temporarily accommodated in some 12 refuges opened by UNWRA in schools that were also targeted by Israeli guns and therefore need to be repaired as well. In addition, agricultural land ruined by bombardment has to be reclaimed, potable water needs to be supplied to half a million Palestinians, electricity has to be restored to about the same number of people, and about 80 per cent of the inhabitants of Gaza are in urgent need of food relief (these are all UN estimates). Any political argument for postponing such urgent aid is morally outrageous.

The Israeli list of “prohibited materials” even before its offensive includes such items as iron, steel and cement, which are now absolutely vital to reconstruction. UN Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes pointed out this self-evident truth in a statement last Tuesday saying that if Israel refuses to allow in construction materials reconstruction cannot begin.

Abbas is therefore holding the people of Gaza in siege as surely as does the Israeli – both are occupiers, abusers and criminals.

Gideon Levy comments that the Israeli threats and attacks are still linked to the forthcoming elections – who can prove the bloodiest war criminal will win the vote from a hypnotised Israeli public.

“There is a domestic struggle between candidates and who will be more extreme and who will take a hardline stance towards the rocket fire coming from Gaza. The main lesson is that the Palestinians and Israelis did not learn any lessons from the war – it will bring more agony and destruction. Both parties are in a game of fools.”

…

Ron Kampeas, an Israeli political analyst, said the underlying motive of the strikes was that the ruling Kadima party wanted “to show it is as hawkish as the Likud”.

He told Al Jazeera that Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Likud, appeared likely to win the February 10 election and Livni was now trying to keep her job as foreign minister in a coalition government.

Kampeas added that it remained to be seen whether Netanyahu, if he won, would form a coalition with Avigdor Lieberman, who is seen as further right than Netanyahu, and “could mean an even more hardline stance towards Hamas”.

Conveniently, whilst not recognising Hamas, Israel holds it responsible for all attacks against the Zionist state.

A Hamas spokesman responded to Olmert’s bellicose threats:

“We condemn the statements by Olmert and others today threatening the Gaza Strip,” Taher al-Nunu, a Hamas spokesman, said in a statement on Sunday.

“This is an attempt to find a false excuse to escalate the aggression against the Palestinians, to destroy the Egyptian efforts to improve the calm and to use pressure against the Palestinian people to accept Israeli conditions in those talks.”

Egyptian mediators have been attempting to secure a longer-term ceasefire addressing Israel’s concerns over rocket attacks and weapons smuggling into Gaza, as well Palestinian demands for the Israeli siege of the territory to be lifted.

The non-involvement of Hamas in the latest rocket attacks is confirmed by Israeli intelligence:

Israel’s military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin said that Sunday’s attacks were not waged by Hamas but other militant groups that “are challenging Hamas and carrying out attacks for a renewed escalation.”

“Hamas, for its part, has been deterred and is honoring the ceasefire, but is not deterring the others enough,” added Yadlin.

Meanwhile Hamas and Palestinian Authority officials are in Cairo for cease fire talks mediated by Egypt.

An adviser to Ismail Haniya, who heads the Hamas government in Gaza, told AFP news agency the militant group was waiting for Israel’s response to a truce offer, transmitted by Egypt, adding that things were “moving in a positive direction”.

The Egyptians have been leading efforts to broker a permanent ceasefire by holding separate talks with officials from Israel and Hamas.

Abbas is seeking to destabilise talks again:

But Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told journalists in Cairo that talks were impossible with anyone who rejected the supremacy of the Palestine Liberation Organisation – in an apparent reference to Hamas’s leadership.

He also accused Hamas of having “taken risks with the blood of Palestinians, with their fate, and dreams and aspirations for an independent Palestinian state”.

Abbas miraculously also appears to be in Paris today for talks with Sarkozy and the prime minister of Qatar. Mitchell is having talks with Sarkozy’s chief of staff and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

Israeli opinion is divided as to the success of their slaughter of Gazan people.

A poll conducted for Haaretz newspaper at the weekend predicted that Likud and its allies would win 65 seats in the elections, giving it a 12-seat advantage over the centre-left parties, which are expected to capture just 53 of the 120 parliamentary seats up for grabs.

“Forty-one per cent said that the war was a success and 41% said it wasn’t,” said Tel Aviv University professor Camil Fuchs, who conducts a poll for Haaretz newspaper and Channel 10.

The war has served to boost the importance of Netanyahu’s key campaign issue – national security – and the debate about its aftermath has strengthened his hand.

“Of those who said it wasn’t a success, 37% said it was because they didn’t finish Hamas off while 31% said it wasn’t a success because they didn’t bring home [the captured Israeli soldier] Gilad Shalit,” Fuchs said. Some 11% said the government failed because of the high number of Palestinian casualties.

The Turkish public is showing solid support for Erdogan’s courageous stance at Davos against Olmert’s war criminality.

A recent public survey conducted among Turks immediately after the incident in Davos revealed that 78.3 percent of the Turks polled said they welcomed Erdo?an’s protest, while 13.7 percent said it was a negative act, 5.6 percent said they had no idea and 2.4 percent responded they knew nothing about the incident.

The survey was carried out Friday by the Metropoll Strategic and Social Studies Center by telephone with 1,002 respondents from 30 cities in order to measure how Erdo?an’s public spat and protest were perceived. According to the poll, 81.7 percent welcomed the Turkish government’s policy throughout the Gaza crisis, 10.2 percent expressed disapproval and 8.1 percent said they had no idea.

The Davos incident was the peak of a month of strong rhetoric from the prime minister against Israel since its military operation into Gaza Strip began Dec. 27. Erdo?an said the offensive was “savagery” and a “crime against humanity” and said Israel should be barred from the United Nations. There had also been huge anger among the populace toward Israel’s operation in Gaza.

Erdogan pragmatically recognises Israel’s war crimes agaisnt Gaza are aligned with the Israeli elections.

On Saturday, Erdogan said once again that Israel did not act fairly and expressing his disappointment. He warned, “We have serious relations (with Israel) and they should not be sacrificed for the elections,” referring to the general elections in Israel this month.

Yet, it appears Israel is vindictively seeking to sabotage Turkey’s chances of joining the EU.

The Foreign Ministry has learned that senior European Union diplomats were highly critical of the vociferous criticism Erdogan had leveled at Israel over the operation in Gaza and for his support of Hamas.

According to one report, senior European officials said, “Erdogan wants to be part of the European Union, but now he can forget about it.”

In other war crimes news, an Israeli IDF officer has been severely reprimanded for handing out a propaganda booklet encouraging IDF to show no mercy to enemies.

The unnamed officer distributed the booklet to troops during the Israeli offensive in Gaza. It said the soldiers were fighting “murderers”.

The military said its chief rabbi, Gen Avichai Rontzki, did not know of the booklet before it was given out.

A rights group said the booklet bordered on “incitement to racism”.

The army described the case as an isolated incident.

The booklet cites an ultra-nationalist civilian rabbi who supports the Jewish settler movement in the West Bank.

The rights group, Yesh Din, said the booklet’s contents could be “interpreted as a call to act outside the confines of international laws of war”.

The Times is running a story on the ICC looking at ways to prosecute Israelis for war crimes committed in Gaza.

The alleged crimes include the use of deadly white phosphorus in densely populated civilian areas, as revealed in an investigation by The Times last month. Israel initially denied using the controversial weapon, which causes horrific burns, but was forced later, in the face of mounting evidence, to admit to having deployed it.

When Palestinian groups petitioned the ICC this month, its prosecutor said that it was unable to take the case because it had no jurisdiction over Israel, a nonsignatory to the court. Now, however, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor, has told The Times that he is examining the case for Palestinian jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in Gaza.

Palestinian groups have submitted arguments asserting that the Palestinian Authority is the de facto state in the territory where the crimes were allegedly committed.

“It is the territorial state that has to make a reference to the court. They are making an argument that the Palestinian Authority is, in reality, that state,” Mr Moreno-Ocampo told The Times at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Part of the Palestinian argument rests on the Israeli insistence that it has no responsibility for Gaza under international law since it withdrew from the territory in 2006. “They are quoting jurisprudence,” Mr Moreno-Ocampo said. “It’s very complicated. It’s a different kind of analysis I am doing. It may take a long time but I will make a decision according to law.”

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said that his examination of the case did not necessarily reflect a belief that war crimes had been committed in Gaza. Determining jurisdiction was a first step, he said, and only after it had been decided could he launch an investigation.

The prosecutor’s office has already received several files on alleged crimes from Palestinian groups and is awaiting further reports from the Arab League and Amnesty International containing evidence gathered in Gaza.

…

The case has wide-reaching ramifications for the Palestinian case for statehood. If the court rejects the case, it will highlight the legal black hole that Palestinians find themselves in while they remain stateless. However, it also underlines some of Israel’s worst fears about a Palestinian state on its borders. A Palestinian state that ratified the Rome treaty would then be able to refer alleged Israeli war crimes to the court without the current legal wrangling. The case could also lead to snowballing international recognition of a Palestinian state by countries eager to see Israel prosecuted.

One avenue would be for Israel to agree to investigate its commanders and prosecute any crimes discovered. That would remove any case from the orbit of the international court. So far that appears unlikely, given Israel’s repeated denials of war crimes in Gaza.

The Israeli army has, however, launched an internal inquiry into whether white phosphorus was used in some cases in built-up areas, having eventually admitted that it did use the incendiary substance, which is not illegal as a battlefield smokescreen but is banned from being used in civilian areas. Camera footage from one such attack shows what appears to be white phosphorous raining down on a UN school in Beit Lahiya, where Red Crescent ambulances and their crews were stationed.

A coalition of Israeli human rights groups has urged the country’s attorney-general to open an independent investigation into allegations of war crimes by troops, urging that to do so could head off international court cases. The groups, including the antisettlement organisation B’Tselem, said that there had been reports of Israeli forces firing into civilian areas, denying medical aid to the wounded and preventing Palestinian ambulances from reaching them, and of firing at people carrying white flags.

Meanwhile, the UN is preparing an inquiry into the bombardment of a UN school in Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip. Israeli forces fired artillery shells outside the school, which had been converted into a refugee shelter for Gazans fleeing their homes. At least 43 people were killed. Israel said that Palestinian militants had fired from the compound, which was denied by the UN.

It appears the US supplied the white phosphorus shells which Israel used on civilians in Gaza.

The United States sold phosphorus artillery shells made at the Pine Bluff Arsenal to Israel — the same kind of rounds allegedly used against civilians during the recent fighting in Gaza.

A State Department official told The Associated Press that the rounds — typically used to light up darkened battlefields or provide smoke cover for combat troops — were most recently shipped to Israel in 2007. International human rights groups accuse the Israeli military of firing the chemical rounds into civilian homes, causing severe burns to those inside and killing at least one woman.

…

The State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity over the sensitivity of the issue, stressed that the white phosphorus rounds should only be used to “obscure, and thereby protect, troops and their movements.” The official said the United States would take any unauthorized use of the rounds seriously and “would take appropriate, corrective action.”

…

Amnesty International has issued a report about a shelling in a residential area of Gaza City, concluding that Israel used white phosphorus rounds improperly. Amnesty also said Israel used white phosphorus shells in an attack on U.N. warehouses in Gaza City on Jan. 15, an incident that infuriated U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Amnesty has accused Israel of committing a war crime by firing the munitions into densely populated areas.

More from Amnesty, this time on Israel’s attacks on ambulances and paramedics.

Emergency medical rescue workers, including doctors, paramedics and ambulance drivers, repeatedly came under fire from Israeli forces while they were carrying out their duties. At least seven were killed and more than 20 were injured while they were transporting or attempting to collect the wounded and the dead.

In one case Arafa Hani Abd-al-Dayam, a paramedic, was killed by flechettes, tiny metal darts packed 5-8,000 to a shell, which should never be used in civilian areas (see yesterday’s post).

On 4 January 2009, an ambulance arrived about 15 minutes after a missile strike in Beit Lahiya that apparently targeted five unarmed young men. It was hit a few minutes later by a tank shell filled with flechettes.

Two paramedics were seriously wounded in the incident. One of them, Arafa Hani Abd-al-Dayam, later died. Examining the wall of the shop beside where the ambulance had been, we found it pierced by hundreds of these darts.

In another case, three paramedics in their mid 20s – Anas Fadhel Na’im, Yaser Kamal Shbeir, and Raf’at Abd al-‘Al – were killed in the early afternoon of 4 January in Gaza City as they walked through a small field on their way to rescue two wounded men in a nearby orchard. A 12-year-old boy, Omar Ahmad al-Barade’e, who was standing near his home indicating to the paramedic the place where the wounded were, was also killed in the same strike.

Artintifada has a chilling first hand account of life during Israel’s attack from Gazan Rehaf Alagha.

Doctors say that some of these bombs -that were used on us – are made in the U.S.A. and they have caused instant cancer. These will die within 6-7 months. More than 1,300 are already dead, more than 5500 are injured. How many more will be dead in 6-7 months…. you do the math!! Oh but then I guess Israel will not count them as “civilians” that are killed as a result of what they have done, they’re “human shields,” right?
Who would use their own children as human shields??!! The Israeli army does it all the time, but of course to our children. But who would do that to their own children, it’s just ridiculous. The Israeli army they handcuff Palestinian kids to their cars so protesters wont throw rocks at them. They have children and even adults walk in front of the army as it goes around the town going into houses. How dare they say we use human shields, how dare they say the red cross or the UN schools or the shelters or where they store the food that has come for us, or the ambulances, or where reporters are staying (all places that are clearly marked and they have the coordinates for) are carrying weapons or resistance fighters… They only try to justify what cannot be justified. As for the resistance fighters they do not go near any such area. Even the homes they justify bombing them and say there were weapons inside, come look, come have an independent organization to come look… there is nothing of the sort.

George Mitchell meets with King Abdullah in Saudia:

… any Middle East solution should ensure the establishment of an independent state for the Palestinians where they can live, the agency said. Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal attended the talks at the king’s palace in Riyadh.

…

King Abdullah, who is the main architect of the Arab peace initiative, held talks with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa before meeting Mitchell. During the meeting Abdullah and Moussa discussed “the Arab League’s efforts to tackle Arab issues, most importantly the Palestinian issue,” the SPA said.

Several years on, the Arab League is still waiting a formal response from Israel to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. This point was reiterated at Davos by Amr Moussa. It is likely that Bibi will continue to ignore the initiative, which guarantees recognition of Israel by Arab states in return for the establishment of a Palestinian state and and an Israeli withdrawal on the Syrian front.

Enjoy Flashpoint’s BEST OF FLASHPOINT Gaza War Crimes Special – Part One compiled by Dennis Bernstein and Nora Barrows-Friedman.

Ali Abunimah comments on the situation Mitchell faces in Israel and Palestine:

Like Irish nationalists, Palestinians will never recognize the “right” of another group to discriminate against them. Like Protestant unionists, Israeli Jews insist on their own state. Israel’s solution is to cage Palestinians into ghettos — like Gaza — and periodically bomb them into submission.

If Mitchell is allowed to apply Northern Ireland’s lessons, there may be a way out, but he’ll face obstacles he didn’t encounter in Belfast. The Obama administration remains committed to the failed partition formula of a Jewish state and a Palestinian state and maintains a misguided boycott of Hamas, which won Palestinian elections in 2006. And the Israel lobby — much more powerful than Irish-American groups — warps U.S. policy to favor the stronger side, an intransigent Israel. If these policies don’t change, the hope Mitchell brings will be wasted, and escalating violence will fill the political vacuum.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos informed Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Friday of Spain’s plan to amend legislation that granted a Spanish judge the authority to launch a much-publicized war crimes investigation against senior Israeli officials.

….

“I just heard from the Spanish Foreign Minister Moratinos, that Spain has decided to change its legislation in connection with universal jurisdiction and this can prevent the abuse of the Spanish legal system,” Livni told the Associated Press. “I think this is very important news and I hope that other states in Europe will do the same.”

This of course won’t help said Israeli war criminals if the US decides to support the ICJ.

Regardless of any alleged moves by the Spanish government to amend legislation, Israel is supplying documentation to the Spanish court.

Israel on Friday said it would provide “relevant material” for a Spanish crimes against humanity probe over a 2002 Israeli bombing in Gaza, after vowing to quash the investigation.

“The Israeli justice ministry will provide the Spanish government with the relevant material,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Israel’s embassy in Madrid on Friday sent judge Fernando Andreu of the National Audience documents which are still unofficial, in Hebrew and English, over the bombing in which a Hamas leader and 14 civilians were killed, a Spanish judicial source said.

The judge will decide whether to go ahead with the inquiry or shelve it once the documents have been translated into Spanish.

The changes in legislation, if any are indeed made, apparently will not affect cases currently before the Spanish courts.

Spain’s Foreign Ministry did not reply to repeated telephone requests for confirmation.

Spanish state television TVE quoted government sources as saying the possibility of a legal “adjustment or modification” may have been mentioned, but it would not be retroactive and would not affect the case before the courts.

…

Any government-initiated changes to Spanish law would have to be approved by congress. TVE said Spain would not renounce universal jursidiction, which has been on its statute books since 1870.

Looks like Livni’s remonstrations are just electoral bluster and the disgraceful Israeli war criminals will receive justice in Spain after all.

In parallel moves in Turkey, Mazlumbder, a human rights group has approached the Turkish courts with a suit against Israeli war criminals for their part on the more recent attack by Israel on the Gazan people.

Mazlumder Istanbul Branch chairman Ayhan Küçük and other members and volunteers went to Sultanahmet Court in ?stanbul “to ask investigation for Israel’s war crimes against humanity” for their involvement in Gaza massacre.

The written application demands “20 Israelis, whose names and involments in the killings of 160 Gazans are known”, to be put on trial and punished for “their crimes against humanity according to the Turkish Criminal Law and International agreements.”
After submitting the petition calling for the Israeli officials of the massacre in Gaza, Küçük said they went to Gaza to probe violations during Israeli bombings and assaults, and this petition is “the result of their findings that shows Israel committed serious crimes during the attacks.”

“What Israel did in Gaza is a genocide, war and crimes against humanity. In our first investigation, we witnessed that all infustracture of Gaza had been destroyed, people`s bodies were burned by phosporus bombs, Gaza Islam University building and its most important laboratory, stores in the city center, UN schools, mosques, ambulances, and official buildings were bombed, he added.

” Additionally, we have seen flatten out buildings, orange fields, animal farms, small manifacturing facilities, and public buildings in Jabaliya. We want all Israeli officials who are responsible for this attack to be put on trial in International Criminal Court and in Turkey,” he said.

Gazans have demonstrated in the streets in support of Hamas, waving Palestinian and Turkish flags in appreciation of Erdogan’s strong stand against Peres.

Across the Gaza Strip, thousands took to the streets in support of Hamas and its leader Khalid Mashaal who called for the creation of an alternative representative authority to replace the Fatah-run Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Press TV’s correspondent Tarek al-Farra reported from Khan Younis on Saturday.

…

“The Israeli cowards failed in this war they thought that they would destroy the resistance and Hamas, but we must tell them that the popularity of Hamas has grown more than before,” said one of the demonstrators.

“The resistance will continue to work toward achieving its goals, which are liberating all Palestinian prisoners, repatriating all Palestinian refugees and completely ending the siege,” he added.

Hamas Spokesman Hamid al-Rakeb, who took part in the rally, also said that Israel’s offensive had increased Palestinians’ confidence.

“The message coming out of Gaza after the war is a cry of rage against the Israeli occupation. Gazans are holding on more to their rights and the resistance is more confident of its ability to achieve bigger victories in the future,” al-Rakeb said in the southern city.

Hamas announced that it no longer recognized Mahmoud Abbas as the Palestinian Authority Chief after his term expired on January 8.

More Israeli war crimes are coming to light -

Two Gazans killed ‘in cold blood’, say witnesses

The idea to bombard the closing ceremony of the Gaza police course was internally criticized in the Israel Defense Forces months before the attack.

Listen to Cameron Reilly’s podcast with guest Antony Loewenstein from Independent Australian Jewish Voices. Cameron conducts a very professional in depth interview eliciting superbly comprehensive content from Antony – this podcast provides an essential overview of the politics surrounding current events in Israel and Palestine.

Erdogan’s rejoinder to Peres’ pack of lies is at about 1hr1min into the video.

Some of my notes on the above vid (now superceded by a full transcript available here):

Erdogan -

Erdogan in his first address comments on the June 2008 ceasefire end in November – there were no rocket attacks at that point. He points out that Gaza is an open air isolated sealed prison. Erdogan was told by Israel that the rockets are used by Palestinians but they don’t kill anyone – in the meantime there were more than 24 Palestinians killed by Israel during the cease fire, electricity cuts to hospitals in Gaza, food was restricted and Turkey was already sending food to Gaza.

Erdogan says “If we would like to see democracy take root then we must respect the people who have received the vote of the people of the country – we might not like them but we must respect the process”. He said before the war to Olmert that Israel was holding members of parliament and suggested these could be released, but Olmert said this would make things difficult for Abbas. He then suggested that perhaps some of the women and children prisoners could be released, Olmert didn’t respond. Instead Israel’s war on Gaza ensued.

Erdogan mentions the attack by Israel on UN, school and hospitals and that the world did not react in comparison with say, Georgia.

Erdogan suggests the democratic rights of the Palestinians have not been recognised. Ending isolation of Palestinian people – will the crossings be opened? How will the people survive – Israel needs to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the crossings must be opened. With arms smuggling and tunnels, Egypt responsible at its side of the border.

He highlights the division in Palestine, reconciling differences between Hamas and Fatah – to bridge the gap, we need to consider all the parties – it is only Fatah present, not sufficient to project needs of Palestinian people – Hamas has won the election and must be considered as part of the equation. He hopes the UN puts its weight along with the US into these efforts for a solution, and not do this within previous administration’s agreements, but in a new opening, Hamas must be considered in this process and Turkey would be willing to be involved.

There needs to be elections and whoever is elected by the Palestinian people needs to be respected.

Amr Moussa -

Commended role of Turkey. Future – things can’t be swept under the carpet – situation in Gaza was not just a reaction for some rockets against Southern Israel – we are against anything affecting children, women and children, Palestinians and Israels. The situation in Gaza and Palestine is a situation of foreign military occupation, in siege and blockage. Barriers, settlements, colonies – Palestinians are trying to find a future.

You cannot ask Gazans who live under starvation and blockage and ask them to stay calm – you cannot starve them and ask them to be quiet. You strangle them with not a single window of opportunity and then ask them about illicit trade, you have to give them food, water and medicine – it is a miserable life because of the blockade imposed by Israel for 3 years.

The Palestinians believed in the call for democracy, ran elections, Hamas won and 25 minutes after, Hamas was served notice that aid would be suspended and blockade imposed, Hamas was put on teh defensive. But people in Gaza are not Hamas, women, children and civilians paid the price for the game going on imposed by the military occupation by Israel. Abbas brought nothing to negotiations, Hamas would accept pre-67 borders. Points out that the action of blockade brought a reaction of resistance, then Israel assaults Gaza. Needs opening of crossings, and conciliation.

Moussa does not absolve Arabs from blame, but will not exonerate Israel from its destruction of Gaza.

Moussa sees hope in Obama and Mitchell and sees chance of US returning to role of honest broker, a key point which we haven’t seen for the last several years. The Arab nations are ready at the highest level to establish peace, recognise Israel and carry on commitments with Israel. But we have not received any answer from Israel for the last 7 years. There is no authorised decision or answer taken by Israel to respond to Arab message of 2002. We call on Israel now for a formal position to the formal Arab initiative to recognise Israel. If there is real intention from honest broker, then a response from Israel is required. If there is no result this year, there are other alternatives. Israel cannot reach any of its goals through military means, a political solution only is viable.

Shimon Peres -

Cries about the difficulties of confronting ‘an illegal terroristic group’. Whimpers about the rockets. Democracy – who was elected? Abu Mazen. Ignores election of Hamas. Slanders Hamas as democracy. Quotes from Hamas charter calling for destruction of Israel which was renounced in 2004, but Peres propaganderises.

Lies about Israeli restraint. Wanks about rockets and sleepless nights. Lies about lack of Israeli incursions. Bullshits that Israel didn’t start it. Lies about Gaza withdrawal, lies that the occupation ended. Lies about blockade. Lies that there was no starvation. Lies that the only thing that got in were rockets. Goes to pathetic Oslo agreement. No mention of illegal settlements. Wanks about 7 wars, boycotts. Sucks up to Abbas “who accuses Hamas not Israel”.

Fails to mention occupation. Accuses Iran. Accuses Meshaal – incoherent about rockets. “What we did is not what we wanted to do, our choice is peace, we acted because of a lack of a choice”. Calls PLO a terroristic organisation.

Accuses Hamas of rebelling against Fatah – fails to mention Dahlan and backing by US & Israel. Lies that Hamas has turned mosques, schools and universities into interrogation centres (must have faulty xray vision). Lies that Hamas only distributes food to Hamas supporters, not Fatah. Lies that “Israel does not want to shoot anybody”.

Lies that Hamas puts bombs in kindergartens. Claims Israel has no choice. Claims Israel didn’t start it again, lies that Israel isn’t about killing people.

Jerusalem – “we are trying to find a way”. Bullshit. Lies that most of the West Bank is left to the Palestinian people.

Unbelievable compendium of lies. “There was not a day we didn’t supply water and oil in Gaza”. Peres lies upon lies upon lies. Lies that Hamas created dictatorship. Claims that tunnels are created to bring in missiles.

Lies that Israel would like to see Gaza flourishing. Says Gaza and West Bank is 9 times larger than Singapore. Says the problem is education. Wants to restore life in Gaza without dictatorship. Wants to work with Quartet, doesn’t want to waste time, aim is peace not war. Victory is peace not war. Lies again that Israel only uses power when it has no other choice.

Lies that he hopes Hamas will start talking not shooting (of course Israel refuses to talk with them).

Erdogan -

1 minute … President Peres, you are older than I am, and you have a very strong voice, I feel that you perhaps feel a bit guilty and that is why you have been so loud. Well you kill people, I remember the children who died on beaches and I remember two former prime ministers from your country who said they felt very happy that they were able to enter Palestine in tanks. That they have been very happy with themselves for this and I feel very sad when people applaud what you have said because there have been many people who have been killed and it is very wrong and not humanitarian for people to applaud such actions.

I will just say two things. Please let me finish. Sixth commandment – thou shall not kill, but we are talking about killing. And second point, Gilad Atzomi says Israeli barbarity is way beyond what it should be and Professor from Oxford University Avi Schlom has said this … thank you very much, thank you very much thank you very much .. I don’t think I will come back to Davos after this, thank you, because you don’t let me speak, the President spoke for 25 minutes, I only spoke for half that. [Erdogan walks out]

I was impressed by the number of people in the audience who left when Erdogan stormed out.

Significantly, Peres met with Putin on Thursday asking for assistance to prevent arms trafficking from Iran to Gaza and is quoted in YnetNews saying:

“Israel has learned from Russia that there are some measures a country must resort to when it has no other choice. This was the case in Gaza; it was not out of choice that we launched (the offensive), but out of necessity.”

That lesson would be from Grozny and the siege of Leningrad, or both, one could imagine.

Al Jazeera wraps the story:

Peres told Erdogan during the heated panel discussion that he would have acted in the same manner if rockets had been falling on Istanbul.

Moderator David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist, then told Erdogan that he had “only a minute” to respond to a lengthy monologue by Peres.

Erdogan said: “I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. There have been many people killed. And I think that it is very wrong and it is not humanitarian.”

Ignatius twice attempted to finish the debate, saying, “We really do need to get people to dinner.”

Erdogan then said: “Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I don’t think I will come back to Davos after this.”

…

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League and former Egyptian foreign minister, said Erdogan’s action was understandable.

He said: “Mr Erdogan said what he wanted to say and then he left. That’s all. He was right,” adding that Israel “doesn’t listen”.

…

Asked about achieving peace in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Israel’s Likud party who was attending the forum, swiftly turned his answer to Iran, which he said was in a “100-yard dash” to get nuclear weapons.

While he did not specify any planned military action, Netanyahu said if Iranian rulers were “neutralised”, the danger posed to Israel and others by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in south Lebanon would be reduced.

Netanyahu said the global financial meltdown was reversible but “what is not reversible is the acquisition of nuclear weapons by a fanatic radical regime”.

And that would have to be a PKB of the highest order considering that it is Israel which is the fanatic radical regime with undeclared nuclear weapons and a Samson option. Israel has ignored repeated requests by every other nation in the Middle East for many years in the UN that the whole Middle East region be declared a nuke free zone. Thus it is Israel which is primarily responsible for any proliferation which may ensue in the region to counter-balance its nukes.

Peres has apparently apologised for his behaviour to Erdogan.

It appears Ignatius’s inconsistent, slanted moderation has not gone unnoticed by Davos organisers.

Sources told A.A on Friday that moderators in the further sessions, which would be attended especially by heads of state & government, would be chosen after a tight selection.

WEF officials said that panel moderators would be comprised of experts from now on.

Syd Walker presents some more comment about David Ignatius in his latest post about Davos. it appears Ignatius is of Armenian descent.

Paul Woodward points out the main story has been missed in the kerfuffle over Erdogan’s walkout.

The real story — the story that an obsequious press corps has chosen to under-report — was a tirade from Shimon Peres that should rank on a par with Nikita Kruschev’s outburst at the United Nations in 1960 when he pounded his shoe in protest.

…

If Hugo Chavez, or Muammar al-Gaddafi, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or any other non-Western leader had spoken with the vulgarity, deceitfulness and rage that Shimon Peres displayed, the universal response would have been that this was unbecoming and unacceptable behavior for a political leader on a world stage.

In a further story, Al Jazeera quotes Australian Gareth Evans, head of the International Crisis Group who commented on Erdogan’s walkout and Peres speech.

Noticeably, no Australian media source bothers to publish Evans’ observations.

Gareth Evans, the president of the International Crisis Group think-tank, told Al Jazeera that Erdogan’s walk-out was “deeply depressing”.

“I thought the tone of the debate had been reasonably moderate up until Shimon Peres laid some heavy-duty stuff on the line, in a very uncompromising and rather un-Peres like fashion,” he said.

“In particular, what was depressing was Peres’ utter unwillingness to acknowledge the real significance of the Arab peace initiative and to respond to Erdogan and Amr Moussa, saying how important it is that Israel formally say that the plan is a major step towards peace.

“Turkey was Israel’s best friend in the Muslim world. I think Israel has to come to grips with the fact that it has alienated a very large proportion of the world’s population.”

Erdogan is interviewed after Davos by Newsweek-The Post’s Lally Weymouth. Erdogan makes some interesting comments on previous negotiations with Israel in which he’s participated:

In order to release the Israeli soldier, did you ask the Israelis to do something for Hamas?

I said to Prime Minister Olmert that if you want us to mediate in order to get the Israeli soldier freed, we can do this and we believe we can achieve something. But . . . once the soldier is free, Israel should [release from jail] Hamas’s speaker of parliament and its members of parliament.

Why do you have such a close relationship with Hamas, which is an arm of Iran and is run by Khaled Meshal, who lives in Damascus?

First of all, Hamas is not an arm of Iran. Hamas entered the elections as a political party. If the whole world had given them the chance of becoming a political player, maybe they would not be in a situation like this after the elections that they won. The world has not respected the political will of the Palestinian people. On the one hand, we defend democracy and we try our best to keep democracy in the Middle East, but on the other hand we do not respect the outcome of . . . the ballot box. Palestine today is an open-air prison. Hamas, as much as they tried, could not change the situation. Just imagine, you imprison the speaker of a country as well as some ministers of its government and members of its parliament. And then you expect them to sit obediently?

It sounds like you and Prime Minister Olmert were on the eve of an actual breakthrough between Israel and Syria.

I’m sharing my excitement with you.

The Israelis have been frustrated that they couldn’t talk directly to the Syrians.

We were trying to be their hope. Olmert’s last sentence [as he left] was, “As soon as I get back I will consult with my colleagues and get back to you.” As I waited for his response, . . . on December 27, bombs started falling on Gaza. There had not been any casualties in Israel since the cease-fire of June 2008. The Israelis claim that missiles were being sent [from Gaza]. I asked Prime Minister Olmert, how many people died as a result of those missiles? Since December 27 there have been almost 1,300 dead, 6,000 injured, no infrastructure left, no buildings left, everything is damaged, Gaza is a total wreck. It’s all closed, under total siege. The United Nations Security Council makes a decision, and Israel announces it does not recognize the decision. I’m not saying that Hamas is a good organization and makes no mistakes. They have made mistakes. But I am evaluating the end result.

…

Is your relationship with Israel over?

We have a serious relationship. But the current Israeli government should check itself. They should not exploit this issue for the upcoming elections in Israel.

Do you expect President Barack Obama to play a more even-handed role between the Palestinians and the Israelis?

There is no justice right now. We expect justice from now on.

Israel, established with Zionist terrorism and maintained by terrorism and hasbara, with its long and continuing record of land thievery and butchery of civilians, disdain for international humanitarian conventions and UN Security Council Resolutions, is a major threat to world peace and security.

There are promising signals that Obama’s regime may be about to put its weight behind the UN. How will the oily, deceptive Netanyahoo cope with such changes?

Israel must investigate allegations that its army violated international law during its three-week war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, the new U.S. envoy to the United Nations said on Thursday.

“We expect Israel will meet its international obligations to investigate and we also call upon all members of the international community to refrain from politicizing these important issues,” Ambassador Susan Rice said in her debut speech before the UN Security Council.

…

Some 1,300 Palestinians, including at least 700 civilians, were killed during Israel’s Gaza offensive, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the territory. Israel put its losses at 10 soldiers and three civilians.

During the campaign, Israel fired on several UN installations in Gaza, including schools, where hundreds of Palestinians had been seeking shelter from the fighting. Israel rejects allegations that its army was guilty of war crimes.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said there would also be a UN investigation of the deadly attacks on United Nations sites in the Gaza Strip.

Rice made it clear that the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama had a very different view of the role of the United Nations from George W. Bush’s government, whose officials were often suspicious of the world body and occasionally spoke of it with disdain.

She said Obama’s long-term goals included enhancing global peace and security, fighting terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, dealing with climate change, alleviating poverty and improving respect for human rights worldwide.

“The United Nations is indispensable for advancing these goals and making our world a better, safer place,” she said.

She also hinted that Obama had a different attitude towards The Hague-based International Criminal Court, the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal.

President Bill Clinton’s administration had signed the ICC treaty, which was never ratified by Congress. Bush later rejected the idea of ever joining the court.

“The International Criminal Court, which has started its first trial this week, looks to become an important and credible instrument for trying to hold accountable the senior leadership responsible for atrocities committed in the Congo, Uganda and Darfur,” Rice said.

Further comments by Susan Rice are presented in the NYTimes:

In a closed session about the protection of civilians, she noted “the loss of Palestinian and Israeli life in recent weeks and the tragic suffering of Palestinian civilians, who require urgent humanitarian and reconstruction assistance.”

UN staff are insisting they were targeted by Israel in its assault on Gaza. These are serious allegations whose investigation and relevant followup must be supported by the US consistent with Rice’s statements.

In a seminar Tuesday morning, United Nations staff claimed that they were directly targeted by the Israeli army during the 23-day standoff at Gaza.

“I mean what I am saying,” said Dr. Sami Mushasa media director for United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA.)

His agency, he said, “was targeted and a scores settlement was made by Israel to disrupt our work in Gaza and Palestine”.

According to Mushasa, ten UN buildings and numerous UN schools and aid centres were targeted during the Israeli offensive on Gaza.

…

Mushasha said that since January 21, Israelis have blocked a building materials shipment worth $110 million as well as 250,000 school books and medical supplies.

…

As many as 58 mosques and churches were destroyed, 83 hospitals and were razed, 25 schools were levelled and all of Gaza is now communicating through one fibre optic cable with the world.

An estimated 80 percent of its communications infrastructure has been wiped out.

“Currently we have to re-establish the medical, educational, government and banking institutions in Gaza as life has been completely stopped,” he said. “The children are suffering from psychological trauma from the conflict and need serious psychological rehabilitation now.”

There are 450,000 children who are returning to school in Gaza and all of them suffer from psychological trauma, according Ayman Abu Laban, UNICEF representative to the Gulf.

“We need to rehabilitate the children and introduce stability and security to them now as they are suffering from different psychological disturbances such as bed wetting, animosity, aggressiveness and detachment,” he said.
Relief agencies and authorities are also facing the challenge of repatriating the refugees. “Currently, Gaza has 150,000 refugees whose homes have been destroyed,” said Mushasha. “The majority of them are living in the schools, we need 450 million dollars to provide relief and aid to them in the next nine months.”

Let’s hold the senior leadership of Israel since 1948 accountable for their war crimes as well.

Meanwhile, Israel tries to wiggle out of a Spanish trial for war crimes perpetrated by the occupier state in 2002.

Israel will on Friday appeal a decision by a Spanish judge to open a probe against National Infrastructures Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and six other current or former Israeli officials over a 2002 bombing in Gaza that killed one Hamas militant and 14 other people, inluding nine children.

Ben-Eliezer, who was defense minister at the time of the bombing, blasted the decision as “ludicrous” adding that “even more than ludicrous, it is outrageous. Terror organizations use the courts of the free world and the mechanisms of democratic nations to file suit against a country that operates against terror.”

Ben-Eliezer demonstrates that vile disregard for human life outside Israel we have come to know and despise.

9 non Israeli children for him are as nothing – this monster would speak differently if they were Israeli children – how many would he kill in retaliation then?

Netanyahoo makes it clear he wont’ be making illegal settlers leave their illgotten abodes.

Likud Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said he would not be bound by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s commitments to evacuate West Bank settlements and withdraw from the territories.

“I will not keep Olmert’s commitments to withdraw and I won’t evacuate settlements. Those understandings are invalid and unimportant,” Netanyahu said.

No doubt Ms Albright, presently a top advisor to Obama on national security, would have some pertinent insights into the global stock market schmozzle, given her past position on the NYSE Board. Albright resigned in 2005 after the Grasso scandal.

Considering her past opposition toward recognising the Armenian genocide which occurred during the final days of Ottoman rule in World War 1, the importance of Turkey as one of the trusty US land-bound aircraft carrier vassal countries in the Middle East and the concurring predilections of newly appointed Chief Advisor to Obama, Rahm Emmanuel, along with Obama’s grovelling to AIPAC, it would be surprising indeed if the US shifted its current position to the Holocaust suffered by the Armenian people.