Saudi Arabia to donate $1 billion to rebuild Gaza

President Hosni Mubarak, of Egypt, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Sabah Al Sabah, Amir of Kuwait and Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Amir of Qatar, from left, walk in to the Arab Economic Summit at the Bayan Palace in Kuwait, Monday, Jan. 19, 2009. The Saudi king said an Arab initiative offering peace with Israel will not remain on the table forever. King Abdullah says Israel has to understand that the choice between war and peace will not always stay open.

The Saudi king said Monday his country will donate $1 billion to help rebuild the Gaza Strip after the devastating Israeli offensive and told Israel that an Arab initiative offering peace will not remain on the table forever.

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Another War, Another Defeat

The Gaza offensive has succeeded in punishing the Palestinians but not in making Israel more secure

Israelis and their American supporters claim that Israel learned its lessons well from the disastrous 2006 Lebanon war and has devised a winning strategy for the present war against Hamas. Of course, when a ceasefire comes, Israel will declare victory. Don’t believe it. Israel has foolishly started another war it cannot win.

Comparison of military strength of Israel and the Palestinians

As the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has once again flared up following Israel's ongoing air and ground assault on the Gaza Strip, the IMEU presents a comparison of Israeli and Palestinian military capabilities.

And, the Zionists thump their collective chests with pride.... This is not "war," this is a well armed modern army murdering basically defenseless civilians who would rather die than remain under a brutal occupation.

America’s Shame

Why does Israel have a right to exist, but Palestine doesn’t? This is the question of our time. For sixty years Israelis have been stealing Palestine from Palestinians. There are maps available on the Internet and in Israeli publications showing the shrinkage over time of what was once Palestine into what Palestine is today--a small number of unconnected ghettos or bantustans.

What You Don’t Know About Gaza

NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.

Gaza Resolution One-Sided and Unwise

The following is Rep. Ron Paul's statement on H. Res. 34, "Recognizing Israel's right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza, reaffirming the United States' strong support for Israel, and supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process."

The time of the righteous

Anyone who justifies this war also justifies all its crimes. Anyone who sees it as a defensive war must bear the moral responsibility for its consequences. Anyone who now encourages the politicians and the army to continue will also have to bear the mark of Cain that will be branded on his forehead after the war. All those who support the war also support the horror.

The West Bank: We're all Hamas now - supporters of Fatah unite behind enemy

A Palestinian child carries a mock baby's body as people from the West Bank village of Billin demonstrate near the separation barrier

Even if Israel wins on the battlefield or in the diplomatic corridors it is already paying the price of its Gaza onslaught in intensified hatred in the hearts of its Palestinian neighbours in the West Bank. The campaign also appears to be increasing public scepticism about the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's chosen path of negotiations as the way to establish an independent state alongside Israel.

Desperately Seeking Obama

Palestinian children stand near the remains of an Israeli missile that landed in a building in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009

"That Obama chooses to remain silent" on Israeli savaging of Gaza "is nothing short of cowardice." Even before he is sworn into office, Obama's stature is diminished; he has been "pushed into a corner" by the Israelis. What has been lost may not be regained. "The hope that a Black man will stand up to the racial calculations that turn the ‘native' into a ‘thing', as Frantz Fanon put it, is palpable among many Muslims." There is "no greater cause for social justice than that of the Palestinian people," but "Obama is missing in action in this first challenge to his Presidency."

UNHRC to debate 'violations' in Gaza

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was due to hold Friday a special session on the conflict in Gaza Strip to examine a motion by Egypt, Pakistan and Cuba seeking condemnation of the Israeli offensive and of "grave" violations. The three countries, backed by members of the Arab League, Organization of Islamic Conference, non-aligned and African states, gained the support of 32 of the 47 Council members for the special debate, twice as much as required.

The strategy is starting to clarify - this is the first step in holding the Zionist state responsible for it's war crimes and crimes against humanity. This time it will be the United Nations Human Rights Council and the International Committee for the Red Cross making the case at the Hague, not just a "bunch of Arabs who hate Israel."

What is Really Happening

• Mentions of Hamas Rockets as reason for war - 37
• Mentions of illegal Israeli settlements - 0
• Mentions of Palestinians killed by Israel during "ceasefire" - 2
• Mentions of Sderot - 12
• Mentions Sderot used to be Palestinian - 0

Holocaust Denied

In Gaza, the enforced starvation and denial of humanitarian aid, the piracy of life-giving resources such as fuel and water, the denial of medicines and treatment, the systematic destruction of infrastructure and the killing and maiming of the civilian population, 50 per cent of whom are children, meet the international standard of the Genocide Convention. "Is it an irresponsible overstatement," asked Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and international law authority at Princeton University, "to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not."

ICRC: Israel delayed access to wounded for days

A Palestinian boy, who also holds Russian citizenship, sits atop a Red cross vehicle as he waits with his family to leave the Gaza Strip January 8, 2009

The International Red Cross accused Israel Thursday of "unacceptable" delays in letting rescue workers reach three Gaza City homes hit by shelling where they eventually found 15 dead and 18 wounded, including young children too weak to stand.

First, it was the United Nations, now the International Red Cross has accused Israel of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. I ask again, what kind of people are these Zionists? And, what kind of people would support these Zionists murderers??

Palestinians find 35 bodies in Gaza battle zone

A Palestinian woman reacts over relatives moments after they were killed in an Israeli missile strike outside their home in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip,Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009

A Palestinian health official says the bodies of 35 people have been found in the rubble of a Gaza Strip battle zone. Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry says the bodies were discovered Thursday during a three-hour pause in fighting. Israel agreed to the lull to allow aid shipments into Gaza.

But, of course, Israel doesn't target civilians...

Army general: Israel seeking a way out

A senior Israeli army official has admitted that Tel Aviv may not be able to topple Hamas through a military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

Israel and the west will pay a price for Gaza's bloodbath

...despite this gruesome demonstration of its overwhelming power, Israel once again faces the threat of political and military failure, just as it did in Lebanon in 2006. After its most pulverising assault ever on the blockaded territory, Hamas remains standing, its administration intact, its rockets reaching ever further into Israel proper. Far from turning the Gazan population against the Islamist movement, the signs are that Israel's onslaught is cementing its support.

The Gaza War and International Law

The Israeli government has defended its attacks on ostensibly civilian targets in Gaza, such as UN schools and a TV station, because the sites allegedly were being used by Hamas fighters or were part of the Hamas infrastructure, even as the international community recoils at the carnage.

Babies cling to life in stricken hospital

Even with the glimmer of hope that a ceasefire may finally be under negotiation, the situation at Gaza's biggest hospital remains desperate, with more than 70 life-support patients now precariously dependent on generators because the main power supply has been down for five days.

The inconvenient truth about the Zionist state

Last week, the US used its Security Council veto to block the international community from ending the carnage in Gaza. This means our government is officially supporting Israel's genocidal attacks upon a civilian population. Let us be clear. The people of Gaza are essentially unarmed and for this reason it is not a war – but a slaughter. The Palestinians are almost defenseless against the advanced weaponry being used against them, much of it supplied by the US. There have even been reports that Israel is using depleted uranium and white phosphorus weapons. What we are witnessing is the beginning of the end of the world. If we do not act then we are also guilty.

Robert Fisk: Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask

A child injured in the Israeli bombardment of a UN school yesterday is taken to Shifa hospital in Gaza City

So once again, Israel has opened the gates of hell to the Palestinians. Forty civilian refugees dead in a United Nations school, three more in another. Not bad for a night's work in Gaza by the army that believes in "purity of arms". But why should we be surprised?