Scores die in Israeli air strikes
BBC News, December 27, 2008
Israeli F-16 bombers have launched a series of air strikes against key targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 155 people, medical chiefs say.
Gaza officials and the Hamas militant group said about 200 others were hurt as missiles hit security compounds and militant bases across the territory.
The strikes, the most intense Israeli attacks on Gaza for decades, come days after a truce with Hamas expired. [continued…]
— What will Obama have to say? I expect that as a matter of political convenience he’ll rattle off the “Israel has the right to defend itself” line — yet again — and beyond that, it’ll be back to the one-president-at-a-time barricade.
At the same time, one message will go out for the millionth time across the Middle East: the political leadership across the region is impotent and their Western allies largely indifferent when it comes to the misery inflicted on Palestinians. Europeans will frown and say that the Israeli response is disproporationate, while Americans won’t even go that far. Another few thousand young men will be radicalized and the foundation of their conviction will be that institutionalized political power is indifferent to their plight.
Abbas in ‘urgent contact’ with other states over Gaza strikes
AFP, December 27, 2008
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Saturday that he was in “urgent contact” with numerous countries over the deadly Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.
“We have carried out urgent contacts with numerous Arab countries and other nations to stop the cowardly aggressions and massacres in the Gaza Strip,” Abbas told AFP from Saudi Arabia which he is currently visiting. [continued…]
Hezbollah calls for urgent steps on Gaza among Arab leaders
Xinhua, December 27, 2008
Hezbollah’s head of international relations Nawaf Mousawi said Saturday that Arab leaders should take urgent steps against Israel’s attack on Gaza.
Mousawi criticized the Arab “suspicious silence” which will have its impact on the whole Arab nations by losing Jerusalem and Palestine.
He urged Arab people to resent the collaboration of their leaders, and go to the streets to pressure their leaders for urgent steps. [continued…]
Protests call for Palestinian unity
Al Jazeera, December 27, 2008
Palestinians in the West Bank have demonstrated for unity between the rival factions, Fatah and Hamas, after Israeli air attacks on the Gaza Strip killed more than 155 people and wounded 200 others.
Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the centre of Ramallah in the West Bank on Saturday, some carrying banners reading: “We will not forget you, Gaza.”
The Israeli bombardment also sparked rallies across the Arab world, including in Amman, the capital of Jordan, and Damascus in Syria. [continued…]
How can anyone believe there is ‘progress’ in the Middle East?
By Robert Fisk, The Independent, December 27, 2008
If reporting is, as I suspect, a record of mankind’s folly, then the end of 2008 is proving my point.
Let’s kick off with the man who is not going to change the Middle East, Barack Obama, who last week, with infinite predictability, became Time’s “person of the year”. But buried in a long and immensely tedious interview inside the magazine, Obama devotes just one sentence to the Arab-Israeli conflict: “And seeing if we can build on some of the progress, at least in conversation, that’s been made around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be a priority.”
What is this man talking about? “Building on progress?” What progress? On the verge of another civil war between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, with Benjamin Netanyahu a contender for Israeli prime minister, with Israel’s monstrous wall and its Jewish colonies still taking more Arab land, and Palestinians still firing rockets at Sderot, and Obama thinks there’s “progress” to build on? [continued…]
Peace for the Mideast
By Turki al-Faisal, Washington Post, December 26, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama is about to inherit not just a nation entrenched in two wars but a world of instability and an entire Middle East that is sick with discord. While disputes in this region may seem eternal, there are reasons to be optimistic. If Obama joins with forces for peace and stability and acts boldly, his presidency could have a marked impact on world affairs.
The best medicine yet formulated for the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is the Arab peace initiative of 2002. One must consider the prospect of “peace” in context.
In May, Israel celebrated the 60th anniversary of its creation. For Palestinians and their Arab and Muslim brethren, Israel’s founding is “al-Naqba,” or “the Catastrophe.” It is the day the dream of an independent, Arab-Palestinian state was shattered; a day when the idea of a world built on equality, freedom and self-determination died. [continued…]
Pakistan moves troops amid tension with India
By Richard A Oppel Jr and Salman Masood, New York Times, December 27, 2008
Pakistan has begun moving some troops away from its western border with Afghanistan and has stopped soldiers from going on leave amid rising tensions with India, Pakistani officials said Friday.
Two of the officials said the troops were headed to the border with India in the east.
The move is likely to frustrate the United States, which has been pressing Pakistan to battle militants in its lawless northwest territories and working hard to cool tempers in the two nuclear-armed countries, following terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, last month. Indian officials have blamed a Pakistani militant group for the attacks.
By late Friday there was little to indicate that the troop movements constituted a major redeployment. [continued…]
— It’s a bit early for the planners of the Mumbai attacks to start unfurling banners that say “Mission Accomplished”, but events are clearly moving in the direction that they wanted.
Every time a government engages in a military response to terrorism, the message rings out across the world: terrorism works. It accomplishes its intended strategic goals — ironically, with much greater frequency than armies do!
‘Little blue pills among the ways CIA wins friends in Afghanistan
By Joby Warrick, Washington Post, December 26, 2008
The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.
Four blue pills. Viagra.
“Take one of these. You’ll love it,” the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.
The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes — followed by a request for more pills. [continued…]
The shoe-thrower becomes an issue in Iraq election
By Abigail Hauslohner, Time, December 26, 2008
Iraqis go to the polls next month in provincial elections that promise to be the most fiercely contested thus far, as the post-Saddam era moves to open a post-U.S. chapter. And one major issue will undoubtedly be case of shoe-tossing journalist Muntader al-Zaidi, who became a hero on the streets of Iraq and much of the Arab world after his failed attempt to bean President Bush at a press conference. Zaidi is to stand trial on New Year’s Eve, Abdul Satar Birqadr, the spokesman for Iraq’s High Judicial Council said Monday, on charges of “assaulting a foreign head of state visiting Iraq.” Even if putting Zaidi on trial appears to risk igniting public hostility, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki may yet seek to make the case work to his a political advantage ahead of next month’s poll, for which some 17.5 million are registered to vote. [continued…]
