A week in photos: Assault on Gaza intensifies http://972mag.com/a-week-in-photos-assault-on-gaza-intensifies/59955/ ---------------------------------------------------
West Bank protesters show solidarity with Gazans http://972mag.com/west-bank-demonstrations-protest-in-solidarity-with-gazans/60067/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.juancole.com/2012/11/top-ten-myths-about-israeli-attack-on-gaza.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+juancole%2Fymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29 Top Ten Myths about Israeli Attack on Gaza<http://www.juancole.com/2012/11/top-ten-myths-about-israeli-attack-on-gaza.html> Posted on 11/17/2012 by Juan 1. Israeli hawks represent themselves as engaged in a peace process with the Palestinians in which Hamas refuses to join. In fact, Israel has refused to cease colonizing and stealing Palestinian land long enough to engage in fruitful negotiations with them. Tel Aviv routinely announces new, unilateral house-building on the Palestinian West Bank<http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/06/us-palestinians-israel-settlements-idUSBRE8A50I820121106?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews>. There is no peace process. It is an Israeli and American sham. Talking about a peace process is giving cover to Israeli nationalists who are determined to grab everything the Palestinians have and reduce them to penniless refugees (again). 2. Actions such as the assault on Gaza can achieve no genuine long-term strategic purpose. They are being launched to ensure that Jewish-Israelis are the first to exploit key resources. Rattling sabers at the Palestinians creates a pretext for further land-grabs and colonies on Palestinian land. That is, the military action against the people of Gaza is a diversion tactic; the real goal is Great Israeli, an assertion of Israeli sovereignty<http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2012/11/16/john-mearsheimer/a-pillar-built-on-sand/> over all the territory once held by the British Mandate of Palestine. 3. Israeli hawks represent their war of aggression as in self-defense. But Israels chief rabbi admitted on camera that that the Gaza attack actually had something to do with Iran.<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/16/bbc-apologises-chief-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-gaza> 4. Israeli hawks demonize the Palestinians of Gaza as bad neighbors who dont accept Israel. But 40% of the people in Gaza are refugees, mostly living in refugee camps, from families in pre-1948 Palestine that had lived there for millennia. They were expelled from what is now Israel in the 1948 Zionist ethnic cleansing campaign<http://suite101.com/article/gaza-refugee-camps-1948-present-a211374>. Israelis are now living in their homes and farming their land, and they were never paid any reparations for the crimes done to them. [pdf] Israels failure to provide reparations to Palestinian refugees over the past six decades is in blatant violation<http://www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR26/FMR2624.pdf>of international law. Israel does not accept Palestines right to exist, even though it is constantly demanding that everyone, including the displaced and occupied Palestinians, recognize Israels right to exist. 5. Israeli hawks and their American clones depict Gaza as a foreign, hostile state with which Israel is at war. In fact, the Gaza strip is a small territory of 1.7 million people militarily occupied by Israel<https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CG8QFjAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fopenaccess.leidenuniv.nl%2Fbitstream%2F1887%2F13159%2F2%2FWhat%2BConstitutes%2BOccupation.pdf&ei=KDenUNOoMM6EygHbwYHYAQ&usg=AFQjCNFEJ_8IvIn6alResmt0iVO6Q-hFrg&sig2=IaQzbH1IV5V3KlnaR9F5Jw&cad=rja> (something in which the UN and other international bodies concur). Israelis do not allow it to have a port or airport, nor to export most of what it produces. Palestinians cannot work about a third of its land, which is reserved by Israel as a security buffer. As an occupied territory, it is covered by the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 on the treatment of occupied populations by their military occupier. Indiscriminate bombing of occupied territories by the occupier is clearly illegal in international law. 6. Israeli hawks see themselves as innocent victims of bewildering Palestinian rage from Gaza. But Israel not only has kept Palestinians of Gaza in the worlds largest outdoor penitentiary, they have them under an illegal blockade<http://www.juancole.com/2012/10/creepy-israeli-planning-for-palestinian-food-insecurity-in-gaza-revealed.html> that for some years aimed at limiting their nutrition without altogether starving them to death. I wrote earlier: The food blockade had real effects. About ten percent of Palestinian children in Gaza under 5<http://www.ibtimes.com/israels-blockade-gaza-puts-palestinian-childrens-health-risk-report-702821> have had their growth stunted by malnutrition. A recent report [pdf] by Save the Children and Medical Aid for Palestinians found that<http://www.map-uk.org/files/1052_gaza_health_report_web_version.pdf>, in addition, anemia is widespread, affecting over two-thirds of infants, 58.6 percent of schoolchildren, and over a third of pregnant mothers. If any foreign power surrounded Israel, destroyed Haifa port and Tel Aviv airport, and prevented Israeli exports from being exported, what do you think Israelis would do? Oh, thats right, it is rude to see both Palestinians and Israelis as equal human beings. 7. Israeli hawks demonize the Palestinian residents of Gaza as followers of Hamas, a party-militia of the Muslim religious right. But half of Palestinians in Gaza are minors, who never voted for Hamas and cannot be held collectively responsible for that party. 8. Israeli hawks justify their aggression on the Palestinians on grounds of self-defense. But Israel is a country of 7.5 million people with tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, helicopter gunships and F-16s and F-18s, plus 400 nuclear warheads. Gaza is a small occupied territory of 1.7 million which has no heavy weaponry, just some old guns and some largely ineffectual rockets. (Israelis cite hundreds of rockets fired into Israel from Gaza in 2012; but until Israels recent attack they had killed not a single Israeli, though they did wound a few last March when fighting between Palestinians and Israelis escalated.) Gaza is a threat to Israel the way the Transkei Bantustan was a threat to Apartheid South Africa. As for genuine asymmetrical threats from Gaza to Israel, they could be dealt with by giving the Palestinians a state and ceasing the blockade imposed on them, or in the worst case scenario counter-terrorism targeted at terrorists rather than indiscriminate bombing campaigns. 9. Israeli hawks maintain that they were provoked into the attack. But actually Ahmad Jabari, the Hamas leader the Israelis assassinated earlier this week, had been engaged in talks with the Israelis about a truce<http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-peace-activist-hamas-leader-jabari-killed-amid-talks-on-long-term-truce.premium-1.478085>. Assassinations achieved by the ruse of openness to peace talks are guarantees of no further peace talks. 10. Although most American media is a cheering section for the Likud Party,in fact the world is increasingly done out with Israels aggressiveness<http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2012/11/16/john-mearsheimer/a-pillar-built-on-sand/>. Boycotts and sanctions will likely grow over time, leaving Israeli hawks with a deficit ------------------ http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538422 Gaza live report: Day 4 Published today (updated) 17/11/2012 14:51 Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a fire after an Israeli air strike on the building of Hamas' Ministry of Interior in Gaza City Nov. 16, 2012. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem) *14:49* The military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine says <http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538618> that it will continue to launch rockets to counter Israel's aggression. *14:40* Huwwara checkpoint near Nablus closed as clashes escalate. *14:20* Witness says <https://twitter.com/angrywhitekid/status/269776900883349505>Israeli forces are firing at protesters outside Ofer prison in the West Bank. *14:16* Airstrikes reported in Gaza City. *13:45* Muhammad Yasin dies of wounds sustained Saturday in Gaza City's Zaytoun neighborhood, raising the death toll<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538489> to 40 since Wednesday. *13:33* Israeli army says<https://twitter.com/IDFSpokesperson/status/269765287266639873> four 4 rockets fired from Gaza strike Ashdod, hitting a house, school, car and open area. *13:34* Protests continue around the world for the third day. Click here<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Iq4XZx9Vj0BDIiWzlHi2mUS0VUOn_t-prgtGGCzatQw/edit?pli=1> to see if one is happening near you. *13:15* Clashes at Huwwara checkpoint south of Nablus, 7 detained. *12:52* The Israeli military is rushing a fifth Iron Dome anti-missile battery into service and deploying it in the Tel Aviv area, underscoring concerns over the range of Palestinian rockets. *12:44* A Ma'an correspondent identifies <http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538580>the three Palestinians killed in al-Maghazi refugee camp as members of Hamas' armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades. *11:57* Missile hits home in Rafah, injuring five Palestinians. *11:55* Six names added to Ma'an's list<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538489> of confirmed deaths in Gaza, raising the total to 39. *11:45* Channel 2: Israeli forces begin artillery strikes on Gaza. *11:21* Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem, in Gaza, denounces Israel's attacks <http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538544> on the Palestinian enclave as unacceptable and against international law: "Israel should understand that many things have changed and that lots of water has run in the Arab river," Abdesslem says in Gaza City. *11:13* Palestinian resistance factions confirm <http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538538>that their fighters continue to launch missiles toward Israeli towns and military sites bordering the Gaza Strip. *10:33* Israel says <https://twitter.com/IDFSpokesperson/status/269719811943178240>three soldiers were injured by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip. *10:23* Islamic Jihad says <http://saraya.ps/index.php?act=Show&id=25029>Ayman Salim, who succumbed to previous injuries early Saturday, was a prominent member of its armed wing. *10:03* The foreign minister of Tunisia arrives at Rafah. *09:24* Here is a continuously updated list<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538489> of confirmed Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip since Wednesday. Death toll is now 31. *09:17* A Palestinian woman and her child are injured <http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538486>in an airstrike in Deir al-Balah. *08:31* Israeli army says overnight attacks targeted "several rocket launching squads", government buildings, the prime minister's headquarters, the ministry of interior and a police compound as well as a "Hamas training facility" in northern Gaza. *08:09* Medics say the death toll since Wednesday is 38 after Israel's overnight airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. *08:06* National and Islamic factions and workers unions say they are planning to hold a demonstration at noon in Yasser Arafats square in Ramallah. *07:30* Medics say three Palestinians injured in airstrike on Rafah. *06:50* Thirty people are injured after an Israeli airstrike on a house in Jabaliya. *06:34* Video shows the aftermath of the attack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xad7IPUXcyg *06:20* Israeli warplanes attack<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538454> the headquarters of the government in Gaza. *06:17* *In a New York Times op-ed, Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin ** argues<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/opinion/israels-shortsighted-assassination.html> that Israel's assassination of Ahmad al-Jaabari removed one of the more practical actors on the Hamas side. * *05:55* Two injured Palestinians have been moved<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538446> to a hospital in the Sinai. *05:10* An Israeli army spokesman confirms reports of air attacks and says operations are ongoing in the north and south of Gaza. *04:35* Reports <https://twitter.com/Ojouda/status/269624273038090240> of airstrikes in the Rafah tunnel area between Egypt and Gaza. MASSIVE EXPLOSIONS SHAKES MY HOUS IN #Rafah<https://twitter.com/search/%23Rafah> now #GazaUnderAttack <https://twitter.com/search/%23GazaUnderAttack> omar jouda (@Ojouda) November 17, 2012<https://twitter.com/Ojouda/status/269624273038090240> *04:01:* A US-based Palestinian non-profit group posted a collection of first-person accounts <http://imeu.net/news/article0023240.shtml> about the situation on the ground in the Gaza Strip. *04:00* Massive explosion reported<https://twitter.com/imNadZ/status/269621556056043520> in Gaza City. A huge earth shaking explosion is being reported in #Gaza<https://twitter.com/search/%23Gaza> right NOW Nader Elkhuzundar (@imNadZ) November 17, 2012<https://twitter.com/imNadZ/status/269621556056043520> *03:34* More details about the killing<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538439> of a suspected spy in Gaza City. *03:26* Israeli officials are preparing the ground<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538444> for a possible Gaza invasion after rockets hit major Israeli cities for the first time in decades. *2:39* More on the call with Mursi: Obama commended Egypt's efforts<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538442> to help calm the situation in Israel and Gaza and underscored his hope of restoring stability. *02:17* More reports <https://twitter.com/jncatron/status/269595052383285248>of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. A large explosion just shook windows and rattled doors at the southern end of the #Gaza <https://twitter.com/search/%23Gaza>Seaport. #GazaUnderAttack<https://twitter.com/search/%23GazaUnderAttack> Joe Catron (@jncatron) November 17, 2012<https://twitter.com/jncatron/status/269595052383285248> *02:15* Desmond Tutu<http://www.theelders.org/article/elders-call-immediate-halt-gaza-violence>: "This new outbreak of violence is heartbreaking and all too familiar. Once again the people are paying an unacceptable price and innocent civilians in Gaza and Israel, including children, are losing their lives. There will be no peace for Israelis and Palestinians if the cycle of violence continues." *02:03* White House: Obama also spoke to Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi and the two agreed to stay in close contact during the coming days. *01:55* US President Barack Obama has reiterated his support for Israel's right to defend itself in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House says<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=538441>: Obama "reiterated US support for Israel's right to defend itself, and expressed regret over the loss of Israeli and Palestinian civilian lives". *01:54* Reports <https://twitter.com/RichardEngel/status/269589355281137664>of heavy drone activity over Gaza City. 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