Wampum

The continuation of the authoritarian Regime's Afghan and Pakistan War is a poor alternative to a program of development, of the standard of living, and the standard of autonomous policing.

The photo is in from a refugee camp at Jalozai, near Peshawar, the administrative center for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

Domestically, in our Tribally Administered Federal Areas, we'll be looking for "Homeland Security" monies for tribal police and courts, and "Economic Recovery" monies for tribal members, tribal governments and tribal businesses.

Posted by EBW at 04:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Helena Cobbam's got a very good piece out, Obama Taking Hands-On Approach to Mideast.

Posted by EBW at 07:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by EBW at 08:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It is really worth 12 minutes of one's time. Anyone's time.

Posted by EBW at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sam Gardner writes Russia and Iran Get Strategic in Foreign Policy In Focus.

Posted by EBW at 08:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The contract Blackwater enjoyed with the Iraqi Oil Ministry, a Paul Bremer and his boots artifact, is, according to the spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior, "finished".

Posted by EBW at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ya Ta Hey!

Posted by EBW at 06:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

There is an interesting post and comments thread at European Tribune on the new administration and disabilities.

MB was looking at the "needs based" scholarships available under the UC system for law school students and my guess (subject to test) is that having two kids with autism, from the gluten-free diet to the diet of stims and scratched dvds and constant adult supervision ... are invisible costs, and not "needs". My guess is, again, subject to test, is that California discriminates against PoAs attempting to attend law school when determining eligibility for needs-based tuition reduction.

Something to sue the state for when she's admitted to the California Bar.

Posted by EBW at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As fun as it is to read that anything like a "boycott" is infra dig or doomed to fail in addition to being infra dig, whether by Mohamed ElBaradei who is willing to hold off on being a beebe babe until the beebe airs an appeal for Gaza Aid by the Disasters Emergency Committee (Action Aid, British Red Cross, Cafod, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund, World Vision), which the beebe won't because ... well, asking for aid to Gazans is inherently unbalanced or infra dig or something, or a handful of academics not looking to be picked up by Yale any time soon (that's a reference to the AIPAC hit on Juan Cole) ...

... well, there are boycotts. Via Ynet:

Prominent Arab cuisine restaurants, which are usually very popular with Israeli Jews, suffered a devastating blow in the past month after costumers stopped visiting in light of the [Tsahal]'s offensive in Gaza and rising tensions between Jews and Arabs within the country.

"During the war we recorded a 80-90% drop in the number of Jews who came here to dine," said Dokhol Safadi, chef and owner of the mythical [and now closed] Diana restaurant in Nazareth.

Another well-liked spot for Mideastern gourmet, Elbabor, located at the entrance to Umm al-Fahm in Wadi Ara, has also felt the war's painful effect on business. In the first 10 days of the war the situation was very bad – nearly a complete boycott, said owner Husam Abbas.

Arab-owned shops and restaurants in Jaffa have been standing virtually empty since the fighting in Gaza began, Ayini Kathtat, a waiter at the famous hummus hub Ali Caravan, said that many regular customers have simply stopped coming, and that some passersby taut and even curse the workers.

"Is it my fault that there are wars? I live here like everyone else. We all just want to earn a decent living. People need to understand that living together is the only option, force will get us nowhere. "For some reason, whenever there are security problems Jaffa is being boycotted… I don't get it, what did we do to hurt you? It's a shame because at the end we all lose," he added.

I think I'll have some shwarma today.

Posted by EBW at 08:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As I pointed out earlier, we have tenured torturers like Yoo and Dershowitz at HLS and Bolt, respectively, and in the { Zionist Entity | Jewish State | Israel } (pick one according to taste) they have Sharvit-Baruch at Tel Aviv U's law school. Everyone gets a clown. Sometimes two.

We had Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, the deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, who behind some gems of "religion" as a cult that cares to kill. Tsahal has managed to find their own praying clown, Shlomo Aviner, and according to Tsahal, its chief rabbi, Brig. Gen. Avichay Rontzki, hasn't reviewed or approved Shlomo's pamphlets.

Some gems, via Ha'aretz:

"[There is] a biblical ban on surrendering a single millimeter of it [the Land of Israel] to gentiles, though all sorts of impure distortions and foolishness of autonomy, enclaves and other national weaknesses. We will not abandon it to the hands of another nation, not a finger, not a nail of it." This is an excerpt from a publication entitled "Daily Torah studies for the soldier and the commander in Operation Cast Lead," issued by the IDF rabbinate. The text is from "Books of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner," who heads the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in the Muslim quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem.

Recycling the Book as a comic book is always in good taste, and who could pass up the Samson vs David fable?

The following questions are posed in one publication: "Is it possible to compare today's Palestinians to the Philistines of the past? And if so, is it possible to apply lessons today from the military tactics of Samson and David?" Rabbi Aviner is again quoted as saying: "A comparison is possible because the Philistines of the past were not natives and had invaded from a foreign land ... They invaded the Land of Israel, a land that did not belong to them and claimed political ownership over our country ... Today the problem is the same. The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, when in reality there was never a Palestinian or Arab state within the borders of our country. Moreover, most of them are new and came here close to the time of the War of Independence."

Then Tsahal comes to the question of mercy ... towards the opfors.

The IDF rabbinate, also quoting Rabbi Aviner, describes the appropriate code of conduct in the field: "When you show mercy to a cruel enemy, you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. This is terribly immoral. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers. 'A la guerre comme a la guerre.'"

This view is also echoed in publications signed by Rabbis Chen Halamish and Yuval Freund on Jewish consciousness. Freund argues that "our enemies took advantage of the broad and merciful Israeli heart" and warns that "we will show no mercy on the cruel."

Finally, for extra credit, Tsahal comes to the question of mercy ... towards non-combatants.

In addition to the official publications, extreme right-wing groups managed to bring pamphlets with racist messages into IDF bases. One such flyer is attributed to "the pupils of Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg" - the former rabbi at Joseph's Tomb and author of the article "Baruch the Man," which praises Baruch Goldstein, who massacred unarmed Palestinians in Hebron. It calls on "soldiers of Israel to spare your lives and the lives of your friends and not to show concern for a population that surrounds us and harms us. We call on you ... to function according to the law 'kill the one who comes to kill you.' As for the population, it is not innocent ... We call on you to ignore any strange doctrines and orders that confuse the logical way of fighting the enemy."

Posted by EBW at 08:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Special Envoy Mitchell and his staff, NSC and DoD also staff the Envoy's visit, have landed in Cairo, Tsahal hasn't opened the seige, and Tsahal's "week long unilateral cease-fire" has timed out, and Tsahal conducted a perimeter operation placing four soldiers in an unarmored vehicle proximal to a defensive mine with the obvious outcome ... 1 NCO KIA, one CO severely wounded, two enlisted wounded, near the Kissufim, Palestine crossing and of course Tsahal is conducting "retaliatory" offensive air operations right now.

Bumped, and updates as they come in.

Tsahal armor is reported to have entered Gaza.

Posted by EBW at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As expected, Bush-appointee Larry Hicks refused to order an injunction against gold mining giant, Barrick Gold. From Indianz:

A federal judge on Monday refused to grant a preliminary injunction against a gold mine in Nevada that would impact sacred Western Shoshone sites.

A group of tribal and environmental plaintiffs sued the Interior Department to block construction of one of the largest gold mines in the U.S. They want to protect Mount Tenabo, a sacred site.

But Judge Larry Hicks said tribal members will be able to access the site even if Barrick Gold Corporation of Canada proceeds with construction. He said his decision was based on precedent set by 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in the San Francisco Peaks case, which tribes are taking to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Posted by MB Williams at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The rules of the Maine House of Representatives (for which my co-author and partner-in-life ran in 2004) were just revised, and in particular, a sentence was added to Rule 525

Rule 525. Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe. The member of the Penobscot Nation and the member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe elected to represent their people at the biennial session of the Legislature must be granted seats on the floor of the House of Representatives; be granted, by consent of the Speaker, the privilege of speaking on pending legislation; must be appointed to sit with joint standing committees as nonvoting members during the committees' deliberations; and be granted such other rights and privileges as may from time to time be voted by the House of Representatives. In reports from committees on which a tribal member serves, the position of the member must be noted and included. The names of the member of the Penobscot Nation and the member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe elected to represent their people at the biennial session of the Legislature must be included on the roll call board for purposes of electronically recording their attendance only.

This only affects the parties to the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980, the Passamaquoddy Tribe (Pleasent Point and Indian Island) and the Penobscot Nation, not the parties to the Supplementary Claims Settlement Act of 1986, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, or the Aroostook Band of Micmacs Settlement Act of 1991, or Maine's Abenakis, and it is symbolic, as neither Donald Soctomah (PT) nor Wayne Mitchell (PN) can vote outside of committee or chair any committee of the Maine House or ...

But it is something, and for those of you who know that federal recognition is not a static, unchanging thing, and that some tribes want the assets of others, that increases the latent heat on the Houlton and Aroostook and Western Abenaki of Maine Bands to resist political colonization by the Penobscots, and to a lesser degree, by the Passamaquoddies.

The longer piece I wrote for the Maine People Alliance on Maine Indians and the Maine Legislature is here.

Posted by EBW at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by EBW at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I started looking at the Palestine Mandate's 1947 Partition boundaries, and the time series demographics of the settlements within range of the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, but the conclusion, that the rockets were impacting within the Arab portion of the UN's 1947 partition, is not the most disturbing conclusion.

It was Labor and Kadima's election war against Likud, but where was the war fought? Who paid for the party, even the personal, rivalries between "Barak" and "Tzipi" vs "Bibi"? I skipped over the daily noise in Ha'aretz, Ynet, and the JPost, the daily photo of someone cowering or in tears in Ashdod or Sderot, compared to what was happening within Gaza, the daily ritual story of "shock" was macabre.

But ... is it just the Palestinians in Gaza who are expendable assets in the Labor and Kadima election war on Likud, or are the Israelis of the Negev, whether living in illegal settlements within the Arab portion of the 1947 partition, or legal settlements within the Israeli portion of the 1947 partition, are they also, expendable assets of the Israeli political elites, people for whom "no harm" comes from running wars in their back yards, for whom terror is preferable to the peaceful enjoyment of tranquility?

Nine out of 10 Israeli voters live outside the range of the best munitions of the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, and the similar units -- Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the PFLP's Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's Quds Brigades, and others. On February 10th they will have a choice between keeping the inhabitants of the Negev, Israeli and Palestinian, worse off than the rest of Israel, or the same thing.

We should be looking at the victims of the Gaza War as not just the Palestinians targeted for munitions by Tsahal in Gaza, and under-development, poverty, insecurity, and recurring fear, by the Israeli political elites, but also the Israelis targeted for under-development, poverty, insecurity, and recurring fear, by Israelis who view "the South" as the expendable other, and sustain the Israeli political elites.

Posted by EBW at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Long-time readers of Wampum know of my obsession, er, interest in the number 2 position at Interior, essentially the department's COO. So it's no surprise that the naming of David Hayes as Deputy Secretary will be a topic of interest to me in the coming weeks. I'm just getting my thoughts together, and will be posting them soon. But let's just say as a teaser that I'm not impressed.

Posted by MB Williams at 09:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From the AP:

A federal judge intends to rule Monday on a complicated legal battle that pits religious and environmental concerns against the economic interests of hundreds of Nevada miners and the world's biggest gold mining company.

Conservationists and Western Shoshone tribal members are seeking a preliminary injunction to halt part of a huge gold mine project they claim would desecrate a sacred landmark where many have worshipped for centuries on Mount Tenabo in northeast Nevada.

The case appears to be pitting the religious rights of the Western Shoshone (under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act) against local miners in already economically-devastated northern Nevada. However, a number of other issues face federal judge Larry Hicks, a 2001 Bush appointee, primarily whether the Bureau of Land Management, under the leadership of pro-mining Directors Kathleen Clarke and Lynn Scarlett, used flawed environmental studies when it approved the project, "including failing to adequately assess the extent to which removal of water from the open pit will cause seeps and streams to dry up and the groundwater table to drop — a phenomenon known as "dewatering.""

In addition, industry advocates argue that the Mount Tenabo area is not at all pristine, having experienced over 100 years of gold mining. We spent a month in the gold mining region just south of the Great Basin, and these assertions are frankly absurd - comparing the massive open pit mining operation Barrick proposes to previous operations, most of which are the kind of wooden gold mine building reminiscent of 1940s-era Hollywood Westerns, is akin to comparing open heart surgery with removing a mole.

Whatever the decision today, expect the case to be appealed. However, it will be an interesting test of the Obama Administration's commitment to rolling back the corruption and anti-environmentalism rampant in the DoI under Bush.

Posted by MB Williams at 07:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Some good news coming out of the top court (for once). From Indianz:

The administration of President Barack Obama received some good news on Wednesday with the end of a potentially troublesome land-into-trust case.

The U.S. Supreme Court, without comment, declined to hear MichGo v. Kempthorne, a lawsuit that tested the ability of the federal government to acquire land for tribes. The order from the high court came only a few minutes after Ken Salazar, a former senator from Colorado, started his job as the Secretary of the Interior Department.

The move effectively settles a debate that has haunted Interior as far back as the Clinton administration. For years, tribal foes have argued that the land-into-trust provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act are unconstitutional.

Every court that has taken up that question has rejected it. So the action yesterday indicates the justices aren't interested in overturning the 1st, 2nd, 8th, 9th, 10th and the D.C. circuits, whose combined jurisdictions cover nearly every tribe in the country.

The decision can be found here.

Of course, that doesn't settle the issue, with a decision by the Supremes on Carcieri v. Kempthorne still outstanding.

Posted by MB Williams at 07:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the US of course we have John Yoo and Alan Dershowitz, but at the Faculty of Law of Tel Aviv University there is Col. Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, who legitimized strikes involving Gaza civilians, including the bombardment of the Gaza police course closing ceremony. She's the author of the big kill in the first few minutes of the Gaza War, when Tsahal could claim they killed hundreds of "Hamas terrorists", because they had in fact wiped out the graduating class of the Gaza civil police academy.

Professor Hanoch Dagan, the dean of the law faculty, is defending the appointment of Sharvit-Baruch, stating that "the Faculty of Law makes every effort to expose its students to a variety of opinions and encourages discussion, even about questions that provoke disagreement."

Teaching law is an alternative to "exposing students to a variety of opinions", which is the usual justification for Intelligent Design or the Biological Inferiority of Women and Darker Peoples here in the United Snakes, but Dagan may have a gun to his head.

Posted by EBW at 06:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Click on the image to read more. It is interesting. I shared a ride from the airport with a co-worker of the post's author.

Posted by EBW at 06:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The 45th meeting of the North American Network Operators Group starts later today in San Domingo, Dominican Republic. This is the first NANOG held outside of North America, which may seem reasonable from the name of the group, but this is the community of operators, big and small, which documented the destruction, independently, of the Iraqi network infrastructure in 2003, the scope is really global, minus the non-routing issues of other operational lists.

I've far too much to do, from letters to the USG re: the ICANN Problem to secure routing and DNSSEC ...

Posted by EBW at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The press in Israel and the US have announced that George Mitchell's schedulers have given Ehud, "Tzipi" and "Bibi" meet and greet time, while "Barak" has managed to get on SecDef Gates' schedule.

Those meetings, "taking the temperature" of the first elected government in the United States in eight years, serve the purposes of the Kadima and Likud leaders, each of whom wants to emerge from the meeting wrapped in two flags, and the Labor leader looking for another bite at the Defense job, or anthing to stay in government and not out in the ten-seats-or-less wilderness of failed political parties.

I don't think they serve US interests. There's not a lot to be learned from anyone in US foreign and/or military policy by meeting one, or all, of the Likud, Kadima, or post-Labor-Labor politicians. There's a lot to be learned by meeting other people.

Why is Meretz in on the bloodbath? What happened to the Israeli left?

What help can Americans give to Magen David Adom (MDA) to aid both Gaza, and the utterly ruined reputation of Israel?

What would the surviving leaders of Hamas, the political party that won the first honest democratic election in the modern Middle East, like the US to know now that the US didn't know on January 19th?

What would the surviving leaders of the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, the militia of the political party that won the first honest democratic election in the modern Middle East, like the US to know now that the US didn't know on January 19th?

There's an awful lot of wicked dumb rhetoric around the co-option of the Israeli left by the Likudniks, and worse around the actual state of affairs in Gaza, and even more so around Hamas.

That's stuff we don't know as well as we know what Ehud, "Tzipi", "Bibi" and "Barak" have to say at any time of day or night.

Finally, there are a lot of hospitals to visit in Gaza, a lot of doctors to talk to, about basics, and about exotic targeteer erotica -- DIME effect, WP effect, and so on.

Who Senator Mitchell meets is worth watching.

Posted by EBW at 07:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This was written the day Tsahal ceased military operations, days before the selection of Senator Mitchell was announced, so the penultimate paragraph is not as valuable as the rest of the piece, but it is worth reading. Via Juan Cole is Israel’s Lies by Henry Siegman, from the London Review of Books.

Posted by EBW at 06:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Not everything looks the same from every direction. This was Bassem Naim this morning, the Minister of Health, Youth and Sports of the elected government of Gaza:

En 1956, il a fallu deux heures à Israël pour occuper la bande de Gaza. Il y a eu 5 500 morts. En 1967, ça a duré à peine deux jours et encore plus de victimes. Aujourd'hui, en trois semaines, notre territoire n'a pas été occupé et nous avons perdu 48 combattants.

Whether the 48 is the best figure or not, what is important is that Gaza, unsupported by military operations by any other force, conducted an autonomous defense, and retained most of Gaza's terrain and population by the time Tsahal's forces ran out of pre-election time.

That's fairly historic. There's a lot of Tsahal triumphalism in the Israeli and American press, "IDF won, Lebanon behind us" kind of writing, but the central question of how long it takes the Israeli political elite to project force uniformly throughout Gaza has a very different answer now compared to the answers obtained in 1967 and 1956.

Posted by EBW at 07:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Twenty one people died in Gaza on the 21st, five days after Tsahal suspended offensive operations in Gaza, of wounds inflicted by Tsahal. The death count is incrementing for two causes: the deaths of the wounded, and the discovery of corpses in collapsed structures. It is possible that the "final death count" will be hundred(s) more than the tally on the 17th.

Raji Sourani, who directs the Gaza Human Rights Center, gave an interview with Iran's new agency in Berlin this morning. He said that they're targeting 87 people in six countries for with arrest warrants, under universal jurisdiction.

The BBC (and private broadcasters in the UK market) refused to air an appeal for Gaza Aid by the Disasters Emergency Committee (Action Aid, British Red Cross, Cafod, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund, World Vision). That's a big win for the aggressor state, which has already knocked out the US media market and is struggling to dominate the European media market for message control.

Posted by EBW at 07:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yediot Aharonot commissioned a poll by Dahaf has Likud with 29 seats, Kadima 25, Labor 17 and Yisrael Beiteinu 14. A second poll commissioned by Ma'ariv and conducted by Teleseker has predicted 28 seats for Likud, 24 for Kadima and 16 for both Labor and Yisrael Beiteinu.

For prior polling data, see Preliminary measurement of the Labor War on Likud.

Posted by EBW at 03:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We started with scores of manatees. Big, medium, and little, along with giganormous gars. Jonah seemed interested in the manatees and spelled out the word while watching them several times, but ultimately, the swings and all the kids from the schools here were the better attraction. Then we'd a roadside pond alligator, followed by a pair of sandhill cranes. We watched the for several minutes and when Jonah finally saw them he let out a surprising shriek.

A good fauna day, though Jonah wanted to return to the playground and the swings and the kids. He's really ready to go back to school.

Posted by EBW at 08:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The selection of Senator George Mitchell for special envoy is a big win. Not because he's from Waterville, but because he is, like Leon Panetta of Carmel, one of the wicked good people in public life.

Posted by EBW at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tsahal has extracted its ground forces from Gaza. According to Tsahal's press person, the "last soldier" has left Gaza.

Tsahal radio announced this morning that in anticipation of prosecutions in jurisdictions beyond its control, has started to obscure the identities of the officers who carried out offensive operations. Tsahal is setting up a war crimes criminal defense operation to review the photographic record compiled by targeteers and cameras carried by individuals. Le Monde has a long piece this morning on white phosphorus munition use in the Gaza War. This piece in Ha'aretz is required reading.

The killed count now stands at 1,284 Palestinian dead in Gaza War. The wounded count update is coming, it is well over five thousand, and then there are the displaced, an enormous number of apartment blocks were destroyed or damaged.

Taleb Al-Sana, a member of the current Knesset (United Arab List), is seeking Tsahal's permission to enter Gaza and investigate Tsahal's use of white phosphorous munitions. All the Arab political parties are now banned from competing for seats with the Zionist political parties for the next Knesset, in 30 days, and now the religious extremists who sought, and got that ban are demanding that Taleb Al-Sana be made a "non-citizen" of the { Zionist Entity | Jewish State | Israel } (pick one according to taste). Democracy a la Bush is still the rule in Tel Aviv.

A new site popped up, it may be "taken down" rather quickly, its www.wanted.org.il, and it contains "arrest orders", complete with pictures and personal details, for Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and his two predecessors, Dan Halutz and Moshe Ya'alon, former air force commander Eliezer Shkedy and others. It also explains how to inform the International Criminal Court in The Hague of when the "suspects" are outside Israel, and hence vulnerable to arrest.

The Israeli press (Ha'aretz, Ynet, JPost) are confident that Israel has done no wrong, and Obama is no different from Bush.

Posted by EBW at 07:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Lt. General Tom McInerney, now working for Fox entertainment, shared his thoughts with the JPost.

I think you achieved what one Israeli general called 'changing the reality' in which Hamas operates, but I think you were too restrained and could have gone deeper into Gaza.

The Israeli public's support for this war mutes global opinion. When a nation is united in its right to defend itself, it makes it more difficult for Europeans, the Left or the Arab media to counter that.

Even so, your leadership is too sensitive about world opinion. I know why Israel didn't [drive deeper into Gaza] - you have an election coming up and a new [US] president taking office, but you need to gain the freedom of operation in Gaza that you have in the West Bank.

Israel did not want to destroy Hamas. I believe you should have.

Posted by EBW at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of my ICANN projects is an application for the City of Barcelona, and I spent my last day walking through the popular quarter of the city, and visiting the Médecins Sans Frontières office.

At noon, eastern, I'll be over the North Atlantic, between Greenland and Newfoundland, over the Laurentian Abyss, produced by the deglaciation of what became Wabanaki -- Dawn Land.

Then again, the first Tuesday in November I was in Cairo, Egypt, watching the pyramids in darkness and illumination, and catching the early decision, Vermont of all places, before going to bed to wake to Al Jazeera (Arabic) showing Senators Obama and Biden, and their wives, without subtitles, obviously accepting a victorious electoral campaign outcome to a very, very happy gathering of their, and Senator Clinton's, and other candidates such as Senator Edwards' and Representative Kucinich's supporters.

I hope everyone has a good day. As William Carlos Williams wrote,

so much depends upon a red wheel barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

Posted by EBW at 01:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

MB and I, and most people who work, or write about elections, do GOTV. The several days at the end of a campaign when weeks of prep -- the voter ID canvases, the persuasion of the 2s and 3s, the last lit drop and robo call and executing the walking lists, updated from the poll watchers, when the work-load is very demanding.

War isn't part of our GOTV tool kit.

However, the Gaza War, now three days without "earned media" operations by Tsahal or the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades (but especially Tsahal, as th IaDQB aren't trying to determine the relative outcomes of Zionist political parties, unless one subscribes to the belief that (a) it is, or (b) it is unaware there are contests between Zionist political parties and one is now 20 days away), and the Max Stern Academic College Of Emek Yezreel put a poll in the field on Sunday to measure likelihood of voting.

Of those questioned, 82 percent said they plan to vote in the February 10 Knesset election; by comparison, the voter turnout in the last national election, in March 2006, only reached 63 percent.

Among those age 44 and younger, 76 percent said they planned to vote. A small majority, 54 percent, said the Gaza operation increased their level of confidence in the government and its institutions, while only 15 percent said it reduced their confidence. Nineteen percent said there had been no change in their confidence in the government.

Lots of election outcomes are determined by small variations in the turn-out from the pool of voters, and an increase from 3 in 5 to 4 in 5 is big. Wicked big. The "confidence in government" question is usually "is the country heading in the right direction" question in the US, for which the 54% vs 34% split in favor of the Kadima/Labor coalition vs the aggregation of the dissatisfied Likud and the anti-war voters (there are a few, not all Arabs) means that the GOTV planner who exercised this tool is "getting out" the "right vote", that is, the activated voters are more likely to vote in favor of the campaign which conducted the exercise. So that's a win.

There's a lot of "analysis" of the War as policy, "who won what" stuff. I'm glad to see someone at the Stern Academy is looking at the War as an electoral contest device, containing "voter activation" message, as well as the inter-party message that Kadima and others have commissioned commercial tracking polls to determine their own numbers. From the above, as of Sunday, Labor has been more effective in demolishing Likud's lead than Likud has been at maintaining its lead over Labor, and Kadima has been uneffected by the Labor vs Likud political campaign conducted in Gaza.

Posted by EBW at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Col. "John Wayne" McGoo (Tsahal) draws white phosphorus munitions from a forward deployed US munitions dump under the command of Adm. "Blind Eye" Peachfuzz (USN), and uses some of the munitions intentionally in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (against human targets, e.g., the Beit Lahiya UN school).

Adm. Peachfuzz (USN) is appraised "after the fact" that the CWC has been violated with munitions provided by his command, and does not attempt to cause Col. McGoo (Tsahal) to return the remaining white phosphorus munitions to Adm. Peachfuzz's (USN) command.

Does Adm. "Blind Eye" Peachfuzz (USN) share the liability of Col. "John Wayne" McGoo (Tsahal) for the prior fire missions that intentionally violated the Chemical Weapons Convention?

Does Adm. "Blind Eye" Peachfuzz (USN) acquire liability for any subsequent fire missions which violate the Chemical Weapons Convention?

Restated, do civilians, officers and enlisted personnel in the armed forces of the United States with command or control or oversight over pre-positioned US material, of any sort, not merely a munition which is used unlawfully, share the liability of Tsahal officers for second and subsequent uses of white phosphorus munitions in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention?

Just what is the transitive closure of a WP fire mission on a school?

Posted by EBW at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's who taking a three-day Jack-Abramoff-visits-Scotland junket to get cozy and comfortable with Tsahal's war planners:

1. Lt. General Tom McInerney, now working for Fox entertainment
   
2. Tony Cordesman, Center for Strategic & International Studies
   
3. Lt. Colonel Rick Francona, now working for NBC entertainment
   
4. Max Boot, Council on Foreign Relations
   
5. Noah Shachtman, WIRED Magazine
   
6. and John Does 6 through 9 described as having "expertise in defense and strategic affairs"
   

Who's the new Jack Abramoff setting up quality time with war criminals? Sam Witkin, Executive Director of "Project Interchange", formerly at AIPAC, now at the AJC's playground called Connecting leaders to Israel.

So, look for more ... expertise at the shock and awe broadcast and print media outlets near you. And proofs that no war crimes were ever committed, unless by Palestinians, who ended the war by hitting a chicken coop with a rocket.

Posted by EBW at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Tsahal's JAG has advised officers to contact the JAG prior to leaving Israeli jurisdiction. The risk the Tsahal JAG is attempting to mitigate is the loss of Tsahal officers to arrest in foreign jurisdictions for international criminal warrants arising from charges filed with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague and in European courts.

From the JAG's mouth to God's ear.

Posted by EBW at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From Reuters Barak gains in polls during Gaza offensive

DATE POLLSTER KAD LIK LAB SHAS HAD/R/B YIS
Jan 9 Maariv/Teleseker 27 29 17 9 10 13
Jan 2 Maariv/Teleseker 28 28 16 11 10 12
Jan 1 Haaretz/Dialog 27 32 16 9 8 11
Dec 25 Haaretz/Dialog 26 30 11 13 8 11
Dec 19 Maariv/Teleseker 30 30 12 9 10 12
Dec 11 Maariv/Teleseker 28 31 12 9 10 11
Dec 10 Yedioth/Dahaf 24 31 11 11 10 10
Dec 10 Haaretz/Dialog 27 36 12 9 11 9
Dec 1 Israel Hayom/New Wave 26 35 8 10 10 10
Nov 25 Channel 1/Geocartography 25 37 7 11 N/A 8
Nov 20 Haaretz/Dialog 28 34 10 10 11 10
Nov 20 Yedioth/Dahaf 26 32 8 11 11 9
Oct 31 Jerusalem Post/Smith 27 27 14 11 10 11
Oct 30 Haaretz/Dialog 31 31 10 10 11 11
Oct 28 Geocartography/Channel 1 32 28 10 9 10 9
Oct 27 Yedioth/Dahaf 29 26 11 11 10 9
Oct 27 Maariv/TNS Teleseker 31 29 11 8 11 11
Aug 1 Haaretz/Dialog 26 25 14 11 11 11
Aug 1 Yedioth/Dahaf 29 30 14 10 10 8
Aug 1 Maariv/TNS Teleseker 20 33 17 9 10 12

In the 2006 election the respective numbers were 29 12 19 12 10 11. When the order to violate the six month cease-fire violation in November was given, Labor was polling in single digits. That act was the first act of the Labor War on Likud, and the War has put Labor's numbers close to the 2006 results which produced the Kadima/Labor coalition. Don't forget that the Arab parties are now "banned", to they won't have any seats in the next Knesset

NOTES: Table shows number of parliamentary seats, which are assigned in proportion to the number of votes. Parties listed in table: Kadima (KAD), Likud (LIK), Labour (LAB), Shas (SHAS), Hadash/United Arab List/Balad (HAD/R/B), Yisrael Beitenu (YIS).

Posted by EBW at 04:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Midway through the football game (Barcelona vs someone else in blue stripes), at the half, there was news. It was what I'd hoped for. The Kadima/Labor war against Likud will be over in two hours.

Posted by EBW at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The photo is from six months ago, but these are the ones who are deciding, to kill more, or not.

How many foreign bodies, how many days of exuberant munitions earned media ad impressions, how many names of hostile peers, and most importantly, how many Tsahal conscript faces in black borders, are the right numbers to keep Bibi from winning the middle seat on February 10th.

Posted by EBW at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mark Regev told Jeremy Bowen late last night that they had what they needed for a ceasefire. Regev is the spokesperson for Ehud Olmert. Bowen is an editor for the BBC.

Chris Gunness is using the term of art "war crimes". Gunnes is the spokesperson for UNRWA.

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The full text is in the extended area.

Recalling the steadfast commitment of the United States to Israel's security, including secure, defensible borders, and to preserve and strengthen Israel's capability to deter and defend itself, by itself, against any threat or possible combination of threats;

Reaffirming that such commitment is reflected in the security, military and intelligence cooperation between the United States and Israel, the Strategic Dialogue between them, and the level and kind of assistance provided by the United States to Israel;

Taking note of the efforts of Egyptian President Mubarak, particularly the recognition that securing Gaza's border is indispensable to realizing a durable and sustainable end to fighting in Gaza;

Unequivocally condemning all acts, methods, and practices of terrorism as unjustifiable, wherever and by whomever committed and whatever the motivation, in particular, the recent rocket and mortar attacks and other hostile activity perpetrated against Israel from Gaza by terrorist organizations;

Recognizing that suppression of acts of international terrorism, including denying the provision of arms and related materiel to terrorist organizations, is an essential element for the maintenance of international peace and security;

Recognizing that the acquisition and use of arms and related materiel by terrorists against Israel were the direct causes of recent hostilities;

Recognizing the threat to Israel of hostile and terrorist activity from Gaza, including weapons smuggling and the build-up of terrorist capabilities, weapons and infrastructure; and understanding that Israel, like all nations, enjoys the inherent right of self defense, including the right to defend itself against terrorism through appropriate action;

Desiring to improve bilateral, regional and multilateral efforts to prevent the provision of arms and related materiel to terrorist organizations, particularly those currently operating in the Gaza Strip, such as Hamas;

Recognizing that achieving and maintaining a durable and sustainable cessation of hostilities is dependent upon prevention of smuggling and re-supply of weapons into Gaza for Hamas, a terrorist organization, and other terrorist groups, and affirming that Gaza should not be used as a base from which Israel may be attacked;

Recognizing also that combating weapons and explosives supply to Gaza is a multi-dimensional, results-oriented effort with a regional focus and international components working in parallel, and that this is a priority of the United States? and Israel?s efforts, independently and with each other, to ensure a durable and sustainable end to hostilities;

Recognizing further the crucial need for the unimpeded, safe and secure provision of humanitarian assistance to the residents of Gaza;

Intending to work with international partners to ensure the enforcement of relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions on counterterrorism in relation to terrorist activity in Gaza;

Have reached the following understandings:

1. The Parties will work cooperatively with neighbors and in parallel with others in the international community to prevent the supply of arms and related materiel to terrorist organizations that threaten either party, with a particular focus on the supply of arms, related materiel and explosives into Gaza to Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

2. The United States will work with regional and NATO partners to address the problem of the supply of arms and related materiel and weapons transfers and shipments to Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza, including through the Mediterranean, Gulf of Aden, Red Sea and eastern Africa, through improvements in existing arrangements or the launching of new initiatives to increase the effectiveness of those arrangements as they relate to the prevention of weapons smuggling to Gaza. Among the tools that will be pursued are:

· Enhanced U.S. security and intelligence cooperation with regional governments on actions to prevent weapons and explosives flows to Gaza that originate in or transit their territories; including through the involvement of relevant components of the U.S. Government, such as U.S. Central Command, U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command, and U.S. Special Operations Command.

· Enhanced intelligence fusion with key international and coalition naval forces and other appropriate entities to address weapons supply to Gaza;

· Enhancement of the existing international sanctions and enforcement mechanisms against provision of material support to Hamas and other terrorist organizations, including through an international response to those states, such as Iran, who are determined to be sources of weapons and explosives supply to Gaza.

3. The United States and Israel will assist each other in these efforts through enhanced sharing of information and intelligence that would assist in identifying the origin and routing of weapons being supplied to terrorist organizations in Gaza.

4. The United States will accelerate its efforts to provide logistical and technical assistance and to train and equip regional security forces in counter-smuggling tactics, working towards augmenting its existing assistance programs.

5. The United States will consult and work with its regional partners on expanding international assistance programs to affected communities in order to provide an alternative income/employment to those formerly involved in smuggling.

6. The Parties will establish mechanisms as appropriate for military and intelligence cooperation to share intelligence information and to monitor implementation of the steps undertaken in the context of this Memorandum of Understanding and to recommend additional measures to advance the goals of this Memorandum of Understanding. In so far as military cooperation is concerned, the relevant mechanism will be the United States-Israel Joint Counterterrorism Group, the annual Military to Military discussion, and the Joint Political Military Group.

7. This Memorandum of Understanding of ongoing political commitments between the Parties will be subject to the laws and regulations of the respective parties, as applicable, including those governing the availability of funds and the sharing of information and intelligence

Posted by EBW at 04:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The targeted building is the Beit Lahiya UN school. The legal test for white phosphorus munition use is (a) screening fire or (b) illumination, neither of which is lawful in (c) built up areas or (d) where humans are present, opposing forces or civilians. Two boys, ages 5 and 7, were killed and their mother wounded, along with thirteen others.

Last night was relatively calm, but Tsahal has begun air and artillery fire missions and offensive ground operations before dawn. The photo is from this morning.

Posted by EBW at 03:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

That is a quote from Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, a gynecologist from Gaza. Three of his children were killed and two seriously wounded last night.

Posted by EBW at 03:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel did a major media buy -- a full-page ad in Ha'aretz -- consisting of children's obituaries, and featuring the word "Stop" (in Hebrew) in bright red in its middle.

Posted by EBW at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

At least 1,113 Palestians killed, 355 infants and 100 women, and 65% of the total civilian, and at least 5,130 wounded (minor wounds ignored).

Posted by EBW at 02:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Writing for the Sudbury Star, Peter Worthington's got Israel can learn from Iroquois: Savagery of their warfare won the Indian federation peace, security. I'm too tired to even think about how many mistakes he's made summarizing the political dynamics of the Beaver Wars Period. He seems to think Tsahal hasn't killed enough non-combatants to make an impression on the political dynamics of the Nuclear States Period.

Posted by EBW at 07:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Al-Quds (Jerusalem) hospital in Gaza City is engulfed in flames.

Posted by EBW at 06:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

UNRWA spokesman Johan Eriksson told the British Broadcasting Corp. via phone from Jerusalem that he had just spoken to the agency's boss in Gaza City, who confirmed to him that at least three shells containing white phosphorus hit their sprawling compound.

"Fire is raging inside our compound. It is inside a mechanical workshop," Eriksson told the BBC, adding that shipping pallets loaded with humanitarian aid were also on fire inside the compound.

"Firefighters cannot do anything. White phosphorus has landed and these fires cannot be put out," said Eriksson. "Three people inside the compound are injured so far."

Update: When that report was published the fire was near, but had not spread to, the compound's fuel depot. As the photo below shows, the compound's fuel depot is now burning also.

The Al-Shurouq Tower in the city centre, which has the offices of Reuters and two television companies on the 12th, 13th and 14th floors, was also struck with a missile.

Posted by EBW at 05:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Landing at dawn. Wicked beautiful. Southern California. Working meeting.

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It may happen today. The deity of election politics in Israel willing.

Posted by EBW at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Experiences of a medical student studying at Be’er-sheva, Israel
January 13th, 2009

Rachel Pope, a medical student studying in Be’er-sheva, Israel, shares here views and experiences. (For our previous reports on the health situation in Gaza see here and here)

This seems like an endless war. Our administration has tried to remain optimistic and we are allegedly going to begin classes for the semester two days from now after a week-long delay, but the sirens that indicate a fast-approaching rocket keep sounding. We have always been assured that the Hamas rockets from Gaza could not reach our town, Beersheba, about 30 miles away, but suddenly they can. The conflict between Israel and Hamas has a long history, though they had most recently concluded a harried six month cease-fire arranged by Egypt. Each side accused the other of breaking the truce; Hamas citing different events both in Gaza and the West Bank and Israel citing the rockets that had terrorized their bordering towns. A few weeks ago, while practicing taking patient histories in Hebrew, I met a woman living in one of those towns. She told me about her health problems that had brought her to the hospital, but talked more extensively about the stress of living under constant attack. My heart went out to her. Little did I know that my life would soon resonate with the same sounds and stress of sirens and alarms.

Most of my classmates were in the states for winter break when it began, but unfortunately, I was still in Israel. I was in the north with friends when I found out, so I decided to stay there until things calmed. Walking through the port in Tel Aviv, a popular place for locals to spend their weekends for brunch, shopping, and acrobatic shows on the water, I would never know I was in a country at war. Although the atmosphere was relaxing, I began to feel sick about the discrepancy with my life there and what I saw every time we turned on the news. I went to another family’s house who are life-long social activists and are part of an intentionally co-existent village; demonstrating that Jews and Arabs can live peacefully together. The first night there, we went to a massive protest together. It felt so good to finally raise a voice for peace, but I soon realized that no one heard us as I could not find anywhere in any local or international news that there had been so many of us within Israel protesting the war. What is even more devastating was that Israel had begun the land invasion practically at the same time we were on the streets demonstrating.

After over a week of living in the north, I decided it was time to return to Beersheba and arranged to stay with friends who had a bomb shelter in their apartment. I am supposed to keep the location of rocket landings undisclosed, but let’s just say they were a little too close for my comfort to stay in my house without it’s own shelter. Thus far, few have physically injured anyone, however, these rockets do not discriminate. They have hit Bedouin villages and even Arab neighborhoods, which I am sure was not intentional.

Both sides have committed blunt acts against the lives of civilians. However, regardless of the inordinate amount of stress the warning sirens cause and the damage to any attempt at a normal life to the civilians in Israel, we have many more options in terms of evacuation and shelter than the civilians in Gaza. I read a newspaper article about Israeli military dropping paper notices to civilians informing them that they live in a targeted area and that they should evacuate, but where are they supposed to go? Often in times of war, civilians at risk flee, but with the borders shut in the south to Egypt, and the sea blocked by Israeli forces, the people of Gaza have no where to seek refuge.

We are all caught in this senseless mess, but unfortunately, some are caught more than others.

As a medical student hoping to go into a career of international health caring for the underserved, this is a distressing situation. There is nothing I can do for those who need help and as a pre-clinical student, I have no real skills, yet anyway. My purpose for being in Israel is for a quality education that focuses on international health in the company of other like-minded students. Although learning how to concentrate in times of stress and keeping our minds on our own goals even when we feel like we have no control might be a valuable skill, I would never want that at the expense of so many lives. However, this experience is making me realize something important about living through the difficult realities of our world. My own country, the US, has engaged in several wars such as the one Israel is in now, and though I also attended protests for those, I never actually lived through the reality of any of them. I was always removed enough to intermittently forget about the suffering. I do not mean to say that it is good to be near the suffering per se, but for once, it is good to not be in denial. Not being in denial about human suffering, means that I can be a better advocate for people and for peace. I may not be able to cross the border and help the way I would like to now, but studying this year and getting a step closer to my medical degree is all the more significant.

Rachel Pope
Medical student
Medical School for International Health
Be’er-sheva
Israel

Posted by EBW at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An interview with a doctor at Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza
January 12th 2009

Hatem Shurrab, an aid worker with Islamic Relief interviews Dr Haytham Dababish, head of the emergency department at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza. See here for Hatem’s first report from Gaza

I sat with 35-year-old Doctor Haytham Dababish in one of the corridors of the Al Shifa hospital, as chaos ensued around us. Outside sat the wrecks of two ambulances, crowds of people many of them crying filled the entrance and the hallways, and doctors and nurses constantly hurried back and forth. As we began to talk a new patient came in with serious gun-shot injuries to his head.

“Today I can say it is calm,” Dr Dababish told me. “We don’t have that many injured people coming in compared to yesterday. Then every minute a new patient would arrive, a lot of them critical.”

I am shocked by his assessment of what is ‘calm.’ But Dr Dababish is the Head of the Emergency Department at Al Shifa, the main hospital in Gaza where many of those injured in the conflict are being taken, so I guess he has grown accustomed to the scenes that surround us. He has been working at the hospital non-stop since the fighting started 17 days ago, and told me that he only leaves it for two hours every two days to check on his family.

“Yesterday, our staff worked for 24 hours without stopping,” he said. “We didn’t have time for even a few minutes break.”

Since the conflict started more than 4,050 people in Gaza have been injured, including 1,400 children. The hospitals simply aren’t equipped to deal with this level of demand for their services and throughout Gaza hospital corridors, wards and morgues are full of the dead and dying. “The emergency department at Al Shifa has 11 beds and two stand-by beds,” Dr Dababish explained, “On a normal day before this started, we received around ten cases a day. Now we receive 50 patients all at once. Unfortunately this means we have no choice but to treat the injured on the floor.”

“Treating patients under such conditions is very risky,” Dr Dababish told me. “Much of the equipment here is old and in urgent need of repair. For example, the ventilator for one of the intensive care beds is not working so a nurse has to use an ambo bag instead. Unfortunately it has happened many times that people have died because the hospital did not have the capacity to treat them properly.”

Thankfully some medical aid has now entered Gaza through the border crossings including equipment and ambulances brought in by Islamic Relief. The challenge now is to get it to the hospitals that need it.

As well as being under immense strain to provide treatment to all those who need it, Dr Dababish and his team are also struggling with the severity and brutality of the injuries people have sustained. “The first day of the assault was the hardest day in the history of Palestine,” said Dr Dababish. “Hundreds of casualties arrived at the emergency department. Bodies were put on the floor right here where we are sitting, some were dead and some were still alive. Their injuries were horrific.”

“Many people are arriving with amputations and it is difficult to stop their bleeding. The weapons that are being used are causing so much damage, especially to the internal organs and the chest. I would say that half of those who come to the hospital have critical injuries.”

“Our main priority is to ensure the person is breathing, then we have a chance of saving their life,” Dr Dababish told me. “We are treating children, women, old people and young men. All of them are very heavily injured.”

While the demand for emergency services has increased, other services are severely disrupted. According to the World Health Organisation there has been a 90 per cent reduction in the number of visits to primary health centres and around 70 per cent of chronically ill patients have stopped receiving their treatment, largely because it is too dangerous to venture outside. This means that the death toll could rise even further in the coming days and weeks.

Gaza’s paediatric hospital is reporting that parents are unable to take their sick children in for treatment. There are also grave concerns for pregnant women who are unable to travel to hospital for ante-natal appointments or to give birth. But the sad truth is, even if they did make it to a hospital there would be no beds available for them.

After 17 days of constant violence and fear, the whole population of Gaza, myself included, is exhausted and traumatised. Listening to and watching the tragic scenes at Al Shifa I cannot imagine what it must be like for Dr Dababish and his colleagues. “We are prepared to work under these conditions for two or three days,” he explained, “but this has been going on day after day for over two weeks. We are all shocked and tired and all I want to do is see my children.”

Hatem Shurrab
Islamic Relief

Posted by EBW at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A report on the health situation in Gaza
January 9th

Hatem Shurrab-an aid worker with Islamic Relief -reports on the health situation in Gaza

As I am writing this diary I keep thinking back to the scenes I saw when I last visited the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City. During the short time I was there a stream of injured people were coming in, seemingly without pause. It was chaos. Many of those arriving at the hospital were being carried by friends or relatives. Only half of Gaza’s ambulances are working now. Some have been damaged in attacks while others are languishing in a state of disrepair because there are no spare parts available.

As the injured kept pouring in, I wondered if the doctors are having any rest at all. Many told me that they were working 24-hour shifts. But only around one quarter of Gaza’s health staff are able to work, as it is now too dangerous for them to leave their homes.
Al Shifa is the main hospital in Gaza and is where most of those injured in the attacks have been taken. But like other health centres in Gaza, Al Shifa is seriously lacking in equipment and staff and as the bombing continues, it is at breaking point. Because of the blockade hospitals were already low on supplies before this crisis - now they can barely cope. Speaking with health staff they told me that supplies of essential medication are so low there is real risk that some operations may have to take place without anaesthetic.

With each passing day and night, the dangers in Gaza increase and so does the humanitarian crisis. It is very dangerous now to be out in the streets and it is becoming more difficult to deliver our aid. However the needs just keep on growing.

Islamic Relief’s aid team has been delivering essential medical aid such as surgical sets, hypodermic needles, bandages and scissors to hospitals including Al Shifa and the paediatric hospital, since this crisis began. We have also purchased medical equipment such as anaesthesia machines, operating trolleys, defibrillators and oxygen cylinders that are being brought into Gaza in coordination with the World Health Organisation.

A couple of days ago Islamic Relief also provided four trucks of blankets and food aid to various hospitals including flour, rice, beans, tinned meat and fish. It was desperately needed. The supplies are enough for the Gaza Strip hospitals for more than a month.

When I was at Al Shifa two days ago, doctors told me how shortages of beds meant that they were sending seriously ill people home before they were ready. People who should be in hospital for weeks were leaving after only a few hours. They had no choice as there aren’t enough beds and every hour more severely injured people keep coming in requiring urgent medical attention.

The situation is so bad that a doctor will be operating on a patient as another two are brought in requiring emergency attention. These are impossible conditions and I don’t know how much longer they can go on for.

Gazans have only been receiving water once a week for the last six months. This situation has deteriorated further over the last two weeks. With no electricity in Gaza water cannot be pumped up, and more than 70 per cent of homes no longer have running water. This is very dangerous. As well as the obvious danger of being without water, there are added health issues and the possibility of the spread of disease. To exacerbate this risk further, all vaccination programmes in Gaza have stopped.

There are 56 primary health centres in Gaza. But according to the World Health Organisation, only 29 are these are functioning. None of the hospitals in Gaza City have electricity, all are dependent on their back up generators. These generators are now close to collapse and there is an urgent need for more fuel to keep them running. If these fail then life saving machines will no longer be able to run, and then there will be nothing the doctors can do.

Hatem Shurrab
Islamic Relief

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L'offensive à Gaza a fait "au moins 1 000 morts palestiniens"
Les services d'urgence palestiniens ont annoncé, mercredi 14 janvier, que l'offensive israélienne avait fait au moins 1 000 morts et 4 580 blessés dans la bande de Gaza depuis le 27 décembre. (AFP)

If that was someone's bogey to show they are tough, say, Ehud and Tzipi, vis a vis Bibi, then they've made their bones.

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Ynet has unnamed "top Jerusalem officials" measuring hemp for Ehud Barak for his comments (favorable) on the Egyptian peace plan, while Ha'aretz has "Senior defense establishment officials" in broad agreement with Ehud Barak for the same comments on the same issue.

The Ha'aretz headline "Top Israel defense officials back immediate Gaza truce" is nice, but obviously there are people in power in the Kadima/Labor and Tsahal coalition who back immediate Gaza offensive.

Posted by EBW at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Safa Joudeh is the girl behind the Gaza Diary. She just "friended" me on Facebook which I'm interpreting as permission to post her latest diary entry:

Last night the intense bombardment of nearby areas caused one of our windows to Break. Usually the windows are left open day and night despite the bitter cold for fear of them blowing in from a nearby explosion. But last night, the young children staying in the house were sick and we decided to close some of the windows to stop the air draft. We were glad that the window only cracked and wasn’t shattered, or it could have harmed the little 2 year old boy sleeping on the bed beneath it.

The heavy bombardment came as Israeli tanks pushed farther into Gaza. They’re not very far off now, only about a five minute drive away. We’re afraid, because the Israel military has been warning that it will implement phase 3 of the assault: a full scale invasion that entails bringing their tanks into the streets of Gaza, backed of course, by the Israeli Air force: destruction at a point blank range. In such an event, the over 900 people already dead will constitute only a portion of the civilian losses, and the already disfigured streets of our city will be turned to dust.

Furthermore, Israel has employed some unnerving and terror-spreading tactics in the Gaza Strip that have caused Gazans to break down with helplessness.

The IDF have infiltrated the air waves of local radio stations and TV channels. As we watch the news all of a sudden the screen goes black and an IDF message appears: “You will witness the unleashing of our wrath!!’. We turn off the TV and turn to the radio, moments later the broadcasting is interrupted and a harsh voice comes through the speakers: “Leave your area and gather in the center of your town! We are warning you for your own safety! This is the IDF”.

Where are people supposed to go? Those in the center of the city such as my family are already being bombarded, and each home is already accommodating at least 1 or 2 families that have fled their areas. UNRWA shelters are already full and the streets aren’t safe. So we are people are being forewarned when in reality, they have no option but to stay put. Many people feel that it would be more merciful not to be warned of the imminent deaths.

In other areas, Israel is throwing thousands of flyers from planes in the residential areas, threatening that more attack methods will be practiced against the population, and asking the residents to come forth with information about Hamas fighters, information which, obviously, civilians don’t have.

In my home we are taking in as many of our relatives, who live in more dangerous areas, as we can. At mealtime, several people gather in a couple of circles at 2 tables to eat, as others wait their turn. We eat in 3 shifts. When its time to sleep, some people sleep on couches, others in chairs and others on blankets on the floor.

During the last 16 days, along with the entire people of Gaza we have learned how to live with the most minimal aspect of comfort, and have experienced the hardships of an impoverished life to their fullest. When the power lines were fixed 2 days ago, electricity and running water were restored to our homes for 6 hours a day. The moment the power came on in our neighborhood, you could hear the cry’s of happiness and celebration coming from every apartment and house within hearing, despite the ongoing bombardment.

Posted by EBW at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Gabi Ashkenazi, the Israel Defence Forces chief of staff, denied that Israel was using illegal weaponry. “The IDF acts only in accordance with what is permitted by international law and does not use white phosphorous.” Source: Times Online.

The magic number of 1,000 is going to be reached tomorrow, 971 Palestinains plus 13 Israelis leaves only 16 people to kill tomorrow in the Ehud vs Bibi feud.

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Kadir Shahin, a reporter and Muhammad Sarhan, a producer, have indicted in the Jerusalem District Court for allegedly reporting that Tsahal units entered Gaza.

According to the indictment Shahin and Sarhan were reporting from the Israeli side of the Gaza border when they spotted Tsahal forces gearing up and began a live broadcast enumerating the forces and their vehicles.

The theory advanced by the prosecution is that Shahin and Sarhan knew that the information was subject to clearance by military censors prior to publication, and that the information "could easily find its way to viewers in Gaza, including Hamas members".

The two are represented by Attorney David Deri.

Posted by EBW at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ynet reports that in 10 days of operations within the Gaza defensive perimeter, and more than 200 Palestinians captured, fewer than 30 have been identified as Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades militia members, or even Hamas party members.

Tsahal has decided to forgo the establishment of a prisoner of war facility that had been planned for Ketziot Prison.

With a one in eight ratio for its take via live capture, the take via kill by direct fire is unlikely to be significantly greater, and may even be less, considering the all-risk-to-other profile of Tsahal's ground combat operations.

On the plus side, Tsahal is taking prisoners.

Posted by EBW at 04:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Genachowski has worked at the FCC before as part of the Clinton administration. TeleGeography has "He has helped Obama formulate a technology strategy which favors affordable broadband internet access and net neutrality."

The points I made on Larry Lessig's blog back when Dr. Howard Dean was (a) the leading candidate in the previous cycle's pre-primary contest (the invisible primary), and (b) the first candidate to use blogs for message, was that "broadband", whether ip/cdn (internet over cable data network) or xdsl (any form of digital subscriber loop over ILEC copper, optionally with CLEC switching), is that economics and physics limit the $50/mo, 10,000' from a CO distribution of asymmetric data paths and constrain "affordable broadband internet access" to the social doughnut -- urban core excluded (price) and rural periphery excluded (distance).

In effect, it is simply a guarantee that public social dollars will subsidize existing private commercial video pay-per-view distribution channels (ip/cdn) and the existing private commercial voice pay-per-call distribution channels (ip/xdsl/xlec), chasing the "convergence" theory of video/voice/data all riding one monopoly owned fiber or short segment of copper to the customer premises, where the magic of billing takes place, at $50/mo or more, or the cost of a laptop every two years from every household to the media and access conglomerates.

Then there's the "neutrality" bit. A contest between access network providers eager to exploit tiered pricing, and content providers eager to exploit flat pricing. A whole lot of the blogosphere bought Google's narrative and have marched off to war against the evil telcos and cable data networks, leaving every other issue in the hands of ... those who profit best in the absence of public scrutiny.

In a universe far away there are things like internet exchange points, so that competitive access network providers don't slip down the peering cost curve to be devoured by monopoly carriers, one monthly backhaul statement at a time, and things like municipal wifi, so that existing physical plant limitations, both active (ownership) and abandoned (not ever built out) are irrelevant to service delivery, exist.

I know that for most of the blogosphere it is necessary and sufficient that "affordable broadband internet access" and "network neutrality" are the policies of the administration. Just not me. I don't think that Appalachia deserves more "benign neglect" when it comes to the digital divide, nor does Indian Country, nor the ME-02 or other rural congressional districts, and as hungry for porn, pop and games as the economically privileged are, I don't think they come first when it comes to public policy and network planning.

The photo above is a detail from "La Descente de croix" by Roger van der Weyden. It is Saint John who's eye is tearing up. The painting is held by the Prado, and now available in very high resolution via Google Earth. See if you can find anywhere in "affordable broadband internet access and net neutrality" anything resembling making art available as an act of American public policy, under Clinton, Bush or whatever comes next.

Posted by EBW at 07:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Air Force Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder today said that the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command tender of Dec. 31 for a ship to deliver 325 standard 20-foot containers of ammunition on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January has been canceled due to safety concerns at the final destination related to the conflict in Gaza.

The trans-shipment ... via the Greek port of Astakos will not take place. I can confirm that the U.S. munition shipment has been delayed and that EUCOM (U.S. European Command) is developing an appropriate course of action to deliver the items to the U.S. stockpile in Israel. I have no information to provide on timelines or possible routes for obvious reasons of operations security.

Prior art: Military Sealift Command tenders for 325 TEU's of ammo transport to Israel, ASAP

Posted by EBW at 08:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On the "Principalist" side there are Ali Akbar Velayati and Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, both of whom contested the 2005 election. Ironically, in 2005 Velayati withdrew from the race in favour of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who pointedly went to the polls together with former President Mohammad Khatami to vote for the 8th Majlis. If that isn't enough to give one pause, is Tehran Mayor and former Chief of Police Qalibaf really a "Principalist" or a "pragmatist conservative", the usual term given to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani?

On the "Reform" side there are former President Mohammad Khatami, former Speaker of the Majlis Mehdi Karrubi (Etemad Melli Party) and even former Primer Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, all of whom have indicated that there will be only one reform candidate in the 2009 election, unlike the 2005 election when the reform vote was split across several candidates.

I will tell all the reformists and those who may not belong to the reformist (camp) but would like to see a change in the current situation, and with respect for all who have announced or will announce their candidacies, that, God willing, (either I) or Mr. Mousavi will be the reformist candidate.

Mir-Hossein Mousavi was prime minister from 1981 to 1989 when Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei was president. He was the last prime minister of Iran before the change in the constitution which eliminated the post of prime minister. He's been out of public life for two decades.

This is why crap by people like Geneive Abdo is dangerous. Waiting until after the election to try and work constructively with the Islamic Republic (a) mistakes the President for the state, and (b) misses the current, and continuous opportunity to frame US interests, and petroleum importer interests, in constructive comparisons with the "Principalist" and "Pragmatic" and "Reform" frames of Iranian interests, and petroleum exporter interests.

WINEP’s Dennis Ross has been an economic hawk on Iran, spouting nonsense like "cutting [Iran's] economic lifeline" over the nuclear fuel cycle issue, as if (a) Japan, China and India might pass on the oil and gas to make the Bush/Cheney/AIPAC gang look good, and (b) this was a useful way to think about the Islamic Republic in the first place. If Obama selects him to be the uber-stupid for US-Iran policy, then Abdo's literary fiction will take on human form.

Posted by EBW at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The expectation is that few Israeli Arabs will vote in the February 10th election, and so no Arab political party will have enough votes to elect a single member of the Knesset. How to turn this electoral lemon into Key Lime Pie? Wave the magic wand of "does not accept the Israeli State" and ban the Arab parties which have been tracking at 9 and 10 seats in the next Knesset. From Arab Israeli initiated boycott to European Israeli controlled invalidation. Not a lot different from the removal of reform candidates from the ballots for the 8th Maljlis in Iran.

A poll by Maagar Mochot just released by Channel 2 has the prospective tally of seats with Likud getting 32 seats in the Knesset in next month’s ballot, up two since late December. The ruling Kadima party is second with 25 seats, followed by Labour with 17 seats, the International Organization of Torah-observant Sephardic Jews (Shas) with 10 seats, and Israel Our Home also with 10 seats.

Posted by EBW at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I don't expect the "legitimate self defense" theory of the Gaza War to ever die a natural death, unlike the Bush/Cheney theory of Iraqi WMDs, up to and including the glorious fiction of an inventory of weaponized fissiles. Nearly every media outlet is the NYTimes, nearly every journamlist is Judy Miller, and nearly every elected representative to the Congress of the United States is a member of Likud. However, simply because a theory can't be disproved, even though all of its supporting "facts" are proved to be false, that doesn't mean it is above suspicion.

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is not self-defence – it’s a war crime, original at the Times Online.
ISRAEL has sought to justify its military attacks on Gaza by stating that it amounts to an act of “self-defence” as recognised by Article 51, United Nations Charter. We categorically reject this contention.

Ian Brownlie QC, Blackstone Chambers, Mark Muller QC, Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, Michael Mansfield QC and Joel Bennathan QC, Tooks Chambers, Sir Geoffrey Bindman, University College, London, Professor Richard Falk, Princeton University, Professor M Cherif Bassiouni, DePaul University, Chicago, Professor Christine Chinkin, LSE, Professor John B Quigley, Ohio State University, Professor Iain Scobbie and Victor Kattan, School of Oriental and African Studies, Professor Vera Gowlland-Debbas, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Professor Said Mahmoudi, Stockholm University, Professor Max du Plessis, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, Professor Bill Bowring, Birkbeck College, Professor Joshua Castellino, Middlesex University, Professor Thomas Skouteris and Professor Michael Kagan, American University of Cairo, Professor Javaid Rehman, Brunel University, Daniel Machover, Chairman, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, Dr Phoebe Okawa, Queen Mary University, John Strawson, University of East London, Dr Nisrine Abiad, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, Dr Michael Kearney, University of York, Dr Shane Darcy, National University of Ireland, Galway, Dr Michelle Burgis, University of St Andrews, Dr Niaz Shah, University of Hull, Liz Davies, Chair, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyer, Prof Michael Lynk, The University of Western Ontario, Steve Kamlish QC and Michael Topolski QC, Tooks Chambers

Note: The argument, stated at para 2, opens with "The rocket attacks on Israel ..." assumes the reader, as well as the writers, reject the 1947 UN Mandate partition, and accept the 1949 Armistice Line, or subsequent enlagements of the "Occupied Palestinian Territories" controlled by the Tel Aviv government. Otherwise it would read "The rocket attacks on belligerents holding by force and not law positions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories ..." or words to that effect.

Posted by EBW at 07:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dr. Mouawiya Hassanein reported this morning that with the killing of 15 Palestinians this morning the known death toll in Gaza is 905. Among the dead are 277 infants, 95 women, and 92 elderly persons. More than 3,950 Palestianians are known to have been wounded, minor cases excluded.

Anesthesiologist Mads Gilbert and surgeon Erik Foss from the Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC) shown above, with 15 critical care patients, have just crossed into Egypt, a trip that took three days and the interventions of the several diplomats.

Mahmoud Khalil Mashharawi, a 12-year-old boy, wounded in the head by shrapnel from a missile fired by a drone while playing on a rooftop, was treated by Drs. Gilbert and Foss. His treatment and death were filmed by his brother, Ashraf Mashharawi. That video is here.

Previous reports of DIME effect on humans in Gaza are confirmed by Drs. Gilbert and Foss. They report (my translation from the French):

At the Shifa Hospital in Gaza, we did not see burn cases consistent with phosphorous, nor wounds consistent with submunitions. However, we saw victims of what we all have reason to believe are caused by a new type of weapon, experimented by the Americans, known by the acronym DIME for Dense Intert Metal Explosive.

[DIME weapons consist of a carbon fiber casing filled with mixture of explosive and a very dense powder of a heavy metal tungsten alloy (HMTA) composed of tungsten and other metals such as cobalt and nickel or iron. Upon detonation of the explosive, the casing disintegrates into extremely small particles (vs. the shrapnel which results from the fragmentation of a metal shell casing). The HMTA powder acts as micro-shrapnel.]

At 2 meters, the body is cut in two, at 8 meters, the limbs are amputated, burned, as if by thousands of needles. We haven't seen bodies disected, but we've seen many amputations. There were similar cases in South Lebanon in 2006 and we have seen these in Gaza previously, during the Israeli "Summer Rains" operation [June to August 2006]. The experiments on rats have shown that the [tungsten] particles that remain in the body are carcinogens.

A Palestinian doctor interviewed by Al Jazeera on Sunday spoke of his hoplessness in treating DIME casualties.

There is no trace of metal in the body, but strange internal hemorrhages. A material burns the vessels and causes death, we can do nothing.

Oddly, Ha'aretz, the JPost, Ynet, and the US media aren't joyfully shilling the "no collateral message". You'd think a new way to clear a 20m x 20m x 20m volume of terrorist infants, women, the aged, and men, independent of their confession, profession, avocation or momentary situational participation in collective defense, with micro-shrapnel, causing no damage to property -- the unfulfilled but wicked sexy promise of the Neutron Bomb -- would be a top-of-the-page triumph.

Posted by EBW at 07:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

02:57, Tel Aviv. Haaretz is reporting "Hamas leaders hiding in Israel-built Shifa Hospital basement", so my guess is that by dawn tomorrow (Eastern) the Shifa will be rubble. I suppose the "Israel-built" means something in the likudklatura of the Israeli far-right, but given the total amount of US funding to Israel, I suspect that every other cubic yard of cement was paid for by the United States.

I've written about public health in Palestine and the Gaza District here, a circa 2003 report by Faisal M Ali Abu Shahla, Consultant Nephrologist and Internist, Director General of Hospitals, MOH, Shifa Hospital, 26 Mustafa Hafiz Street, Palestine.

One thing I find politically perplexing -- the lack of polling data. Here we have a mature (many cycles of experience) multi-party electoral system only weeks away from its February 10th test, with significant issues in the air, talk of postponing the vote, talk of banning a political party -- the Israeli-Arab Balad party, and the grand gamble -- as obvious as the sun at noon in Israel -- that Tzipora Malka "Tzipi" Livni and Ehud "Barak" née Brog are bombing the electoral snot out of Binyamin "Bibi" Netanyahu.

News1 reported today that Kadima commissioned an internal poll on Day 2 of the Gaza War to assess how the attack affected its numbers.

The NYTimes has the numbers, buried in para 17 of an 19 para story:

At that time [before the Gaza War], Labor was polling about 8 seats in the 120-seat Parliament, with the opposition Likud, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, at 30 and the centrist Kadima, led by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in the mid-20s. Today polls show Labor around 16 to 18; some are fantasizing about squeezing past Kadima for second place.

Newsweek is oddly sane. With more than 800 dead in Gaza, including many civilians, there's something vaguely Orwellian about referring to Barak and Livni as "doves."

Posted by EBW at 07:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Starting tomorrow Tsahal is self-authorized to use .22 caliber munitions "to break up demonstrations", that is, to engage unarmed civilians with lethal force. Tsahal hasn't indicated if the initial groups of unarmed civilians to be targeted for shooting with .22 caliber rounds will be the Israeli Peace Movement (Jews) or Israeli Arabs or West Bank Palestinians.

Will full-metal jacketed rounds be used, or is that a non-issue when used against civilians? There's a Laws of War question.

From the Laws of War at the Avedon Project (Yale) : Declaration on the Use of Bullets Which Expand or Flatten Easily in the Human Body; July 29, 1899

The Contracting Parties agree to abstain from the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope which does not entirely cover the core, or is pierced with incisions.

The present Declaration is only binding for the Contracting Powers in the case of a war between two or more of them.

Prior art: the Ruger 10/22 Suppressed Sniper Rifle used by Tsahal during the 1987 Intifada, initially categorized as "non-lethal", and after several lethal uses and extensive tests, categorized as "lethal".

Update: The weapons were used yesterday, with 8 persons wounded "below the waist" at or near demonstrations at the fence in the Occupied West Bank.

Posted by EBW at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The five who voted like human beings, not AIPAC robots, are Ron Paul (R-TX), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Nick Rahal (D-WVA), and Maxine Waters (D-CA).

Anyone who wants to run a clucter-bombs-are-not-effective-in-combat-or-in-diplomacy primary challenge in the off-cycle need only avoid those five the following 30 or so seats.

Update: Answering "Present" only on the AIPAC robot loyalty test vote were:
Neill Abercrombie (D-HI)
Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Peter DeFazio (D-OR)
John Dingell (D-MI)
Donna Edwards (D-MD)
Keith Ellison (D-MN)
Sam Farr (D-CA)
Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
Maurice Hinchey (D-NY)
Hank Johnson (D-GA)
Ann Kilpatrick (D-AZ) (this may be incorrect)
Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Betty McCollum (D-MN) (correction supplied by commenter Rayne)
Jim McDermott (D-WA)
George Miller (D-CA)
Jim Moran (D-VA)
John Olver (D-MA)
Donald Payne (D-NJ)
Loretta Sanchez (D-CA)
Pete Stark (D-CA)
Diane Watson (D-CA)
Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)

Not bothering to show up for the AIPAC robot loyalty test vote were:
Brian Baird (D-WA)
Marion Berry (D-AR)
Rick Boucher (D-VA), but busy with Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet
Henry Brown (R-SC)
William Delahunt (D-MA), but busy working to establish a bipartisan commission to examine potential abuses of war powers by the Bush administration, including the torture of detainees and warrantless wiretaps.
Elton Gallegly (R-CA), but "Hamas is a terrorist organization"
Kay Granger (R-TX)
Sam Graves (R-MO)
Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD), Zachary born Dec. 15th, far too busy to vote on garbage
Walter Jones (R-NC), busy pushing "in the name of Jesus Christ" on service men and women stuck with sectarian bigots as "chaplins"
Dr. Steve Kagen (D-WI)
John Shadegg (R-AZ)
Dr. Vic Snyder (D-AR), triplets born Dec. 9th, far too busy to vote on garbage
Hilda Solis (D-CA), nominee for Sec. Labor
Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), however, he's a "Hamas and radical Islam must be defeated" guy

Posted by EBW at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Hamas won 76 and Fatah won 43 of the 132 seats contested in the January 2006 parlimentary election. In late May the Christian Science Monitor reported:

Senior US officials in Washington on Wednesday promised ongoing military support for secular Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas amid his power struggle with Islamist Hamas as part of an $84 million aid package largely aimed at improving the fighting ability of an elite corps of loyalists from his Fatah Party.

Israel, too, is making overtures to Mr. Abbas, reported the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Wednesday, allowing light arms to flow to members of his Presidential Guard and saying that it would allow some of the US training of his forces to take place in the West Bank.

That policy puts the US and Israel on a highly unusual course in the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: Four-square support for Fatah to contain, if not defeat, the growing power of Hamas, which won the Palestinian Authority's (PA) last election.

In May Tsahal arrested 30 senior Hamas party members, including the PA Minister of Education, a Hamas party politician, in a campaign to reduce Hamas in the West Bank. The events leading up to the Battle for Gaza, June 7 through June 15, 2007 is described today by Ha'aretz as:

Fatah had ruled Gaza until a Hamas-led coup ousted the secular faction, which has long dominated the Palestine Liberation Organization, in June 2007.

At least during Viet Nam we didn't fabricate the PLA as some kind of Moscow or Beijing plant, for all the lies told at home and in theater during the Five O'Clock Follies, no one pretended that the Saigon Governments, Ngo Dinh Diem, Big Minh, Nguyen Khanh, Nguyen Cao Ky, and Nguyen Van Thieu, were "elected", dripping with popular support.

Posted by EBW at 08:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The standard line is that its not for the current conflict, but to preposition munitions for US forces at some point in the future. Except that Israel is allowed to draw down on US forces prepositioned munitions.

Required: Request US or foreign flag container vessel (coaster) to move approximately 168 TEU's [standard twenty-foot containers] in each of two consecutive voyages (from Greece to Israel) both containing ammunition.

As Tsahal's bombing of tunnels continues, it is worth recalling that last September the DoD sold Israel 1,000 GBU-39 munitions for $77 million, along with 28,000 LAW (Light Anti-Tank Weapon) tube launchers for Tsahal's infantry.

Posted by EBW at 09:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

This is the aftermath, the tidied up aftermath, of the shelling of a house in the Zeitun district, by Tsahal, into which Tsahal had moved 100 refugees the day prior to engaging the structure with two HE rounds. But the battlefield error does not end at the moment of fire, but in the following three days in which Tsahal prevented evacuation of the wounded, dying, and dead from the structure. There are two more frames of shrouded dead.

This is a war crime.

Posted by EBW at 03:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Tsahal main battle tank engaged a UN transport with its primary weapon, killing the UN worker.

Posted by EBW at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Israeli Cabinet meets at 8am, about now. Will they start the third phase of the war, or will they agree to a cease fire?

The girl was at the UN school. Now she is not.

Posted by EBW at 02:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by EBW at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tsahal tank fire killed up to 40 Palestinians at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medical sources at two hospitals said.

Several hundred Palestinians had sought refuge from fighting at the UN school.

Posted by EBW at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

Former Congressman, Leon Panetta, Tapped by Obama to Head CIA, ABC News Has Learned [2:47 p.m. ET]

I'm profoundly surprised by this. It is so much better than I expected after the Gates and 3rd deck, E-Wing rehire.

Leon Panetta is one of the seriously good people in public life.

Posted by EBW at 03:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Gray Lady now sell's part of page 1. Sic transit gloria.

Posted by EBW at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I recognized the rounds, and from the trajectories I infer that the munitions were 122mm morter rounds.

The military necessity for "screening" seems absent, given that Gaza has no accurate tube artillery and the Grad inventory is not being deployed as MLRS with area denial targeting of terrain proximal to Gaza occupied by visible Tsahal units. This was the motivation ascribed to the use by Sheera Frenkel, a Jerusalem-based reporter, and Michael Evans, Defence Editor, for The Times (of London). I don't think they gave it much thought, as the primary movement to close on the defense positions took place during the night.

Other motivations are photogenic, every war planner wants favorable political appreciation of the use of force, restated, to boost moral of troops with movement orders to enter within range of the defending forces actual weapons (here, light infantry weapons only).

This is contrary the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons of 1980, that bans the use of incendiary weapons in densely inhabited civilian areas.

For the moment Tsahal is on record as dening any use of WP munitions for any purpose in the Gaza War.

Personally, I think the use of WP rounds on the perimeter during daylight hours is a multi-targeted psy-op. The primary targets of the op are Tsahal troops who are consuming the "shock and awk" narrative of massed artillery fire to remove barriers and minefields (not known to exist, but what do the grunts know?). The secondary targets of the op are Gazans and the international media, with the implicit message to the Gazans that the WP fire can move from the perimeter to the interior at any time Tsahal chooses, surrender or burn, and the message to the IM being Tsahal's pyrotechnic power. There's a lot of arty rounds just moving dirt before any infantry are ordered closer to where arty, armor and air cease to be unhindered, which is where any militarily significant engagements will occur -- the fight into the tunnels to capture and kill tunnel combatants, and the fight from tunnels to kill and capture surface combatants.

Another purpose for WP use now is to test IM tolerance of gas, non-lethal or lethal, in the tunnel phase of the Tsahal size-and-clear terrain operations.

Posted by EBW at 07:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dear George W. Bush---

Cong. Barney Frank said recently that Barack Obama’s declaration that “there is only one president at a time” over-estimated the number. He was referring to the economic crisis. But where are you on the Gaza crisis where the civilian population of Gaza, its civil servants and public facilities are being massacred and destroyed respectively by U.S built F-16s and U.S. built helicopter gunships.

The deliberate suspension of your power to stop this terrorizing of 1.5 million people, mostly refugees, blockaded for months by air, sea and land in their tiny slice of land, is in cowardly contrast to the position taken by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. That year he single handedly stopped the British, French and Israeli aircraft attack against Egypt during the Suez Canal dispute.

Fatalities in Gaza are already over 400 and injuries close to 2000 so far as is known. Total Palestinian civilian casualties are 400 times greater then the casualties incurred by Israelis. But why should anyone be surprised at your blanket support for Israel’s attack given what you have done to a far greater number of civilians in Iraq and now in Afghanistan?

Confirmed visual reports show that Israeli warplanes and warships have destroyed or severely damaged police stations, homes, hospitals, pharmacies, mosques, fishing boats, and a range of public facilities providing electricity and other necessities.

Why should this trouble you at all? It violates international law, including the Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter. You too have repeatedly violated international law and committed serious constitutional transgressions.

Then there is the matter of the Israeli government blocking imports of critical medicines, equipment such as dialysis machines, fuel, food, water, spare parts and electricity at varying intensities for almost two years. The depleted UN aid mission there has called this illegal blockade a humanitarian crisis especially devastating to children, the aged and the infirm. Chronic malnutrition among children is rising rapidly. UN rations support eighty percent of this impoverished population.

How do these incontrovertible facts affect you? Do you have any empathy or what you have called Christian charity?

What would a vastly shrunken Texas turned in an encircled Gulag do up against the 4th most powerful military in the world? Would these embattled Texans be spending their time chopping wood?

Gideon Levy, the veteran Israeli columnist for Ha’aretz, called the Israeli attack a “brutal and violent operation” far beyond what was needed for protecting the people in its south. He added: “The diplomatic efforts were just in the beginning, and I believe we could have got to a new truce without this bloodshed…..to send dozens of jets to bomb a total helpless civilian society with hundreds of bombs—just today, they were burying five sisters. I mean, this is unheard of. This cannot go on like this. And this has nothing to do with self-defense or with retaliation even. It went out of proportion, exactly like two-and-a-half years ago in Lebanon.”

Apparently, thousands of Israelis, including some army reservists, who have demonstrated against this destruction of Gaza agree with Mr. Levy. However, their courageous stands have not reached the mass media in the U.S. whose own reporters cannot even get into Gaza due to Israeli prohibitions on the international press.

Your spokespeople are making much ado about the breaking of the six month truce. Who is the occupier? Who is the most powerful military force? Who controls and blocks the necessities of life? Who has sent raiding missions across the border most often? Who has sent artillery shells and missiles at close range into populated areas? Who has refused the repeated comprehensive peace offerings of the Arab countries issued in 2002 if Israel would agree to return to the 1967 borders and agree to the creation of a small independent Palestinian state possessing just twenty two percent of the original Palestine?

The “wildly inaccurate rockets”, as reporters describe them, coming from Hamas and other groups cannot compare with the modern precision armaments and human damage generated from the Israeli side.

There are no rockets coming from the West Bank into Israel. Yet the Israeli government is still sending raiders into that essentially occupied territory, still further entrenching its colonial outposts, still taking water and land and increasing the checkpoints This is going on despite a most amenable West Bank leader, Mahmoud Abbas, whom you have met with at the White House and praised repeatedly. Is it all vague words and no real initiatives with you and your emissary Condoleezza Rice?

Peace was possible, but you provided no leadership, preferring instead to comply with all wishes and demands by the Israeli government—even resupplying it with the still active cluster bombs in south Lebanon during the invasion of that country in 2006.

The arguments about who started the latest hostilities go on and on with Israel always blaming the Palestinians to justify all kinds of violence and harsh treatment against innocent civilians.

From the Palestinian standpoint, you would do well to remember the origins of this conflict which was the dispossession of their lands. To afford you some empathy, recall the oft-quoted comment by the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, who told the Zionist leader, Nahum Goldmann:

“There has been anti-Semitism the Nazis Hitler Auschwitz but was that their [the Palestinians] fault? They only see one thing: We have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?”
Alfred North Whitehead once said: “Duty arises out of the power to alter the course of events.” By that standard, you have shirked mightily your duty over the past eight years to bring peace to both Palestinians and Israelis and more security to a good part of the world.

The least you can do in your remaining days at the White House is adopt a modest profile in courage, and vigorously demand and secure a ceasefire and a solidly based truce. Then your successor, President-elect Obama can inherit something more than the usual self-censoring Washington puppet show that eschews a proper focus on the national interests of the United States.

END.

Source: Nader.Org.

Posted by EBW at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is why we should have a Koufax, so that the real gems like this, where "blog" vastly surpases "journamalism", are read as widely as the every day idiot stuff. Read Ukraine-Russia: some background and context and enjoy!

Posted by EBW at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

AP reports:

The Paltel Group says 90% of Gaza's cellular service is down, as well as many landlines, because of frequent power cuts and the inability of technicians to reach work sites.

Only one of the company's back-up systems is still working. The rest have been damaged in the fighting.

Paltel said three technicians have been killed and several injured in the fighting.

In Turkey Ma'an reports that palestinian communications networks are barely functioning in the Gaza Strip due to cables damaged by several Israeli airstrikes on network infrastructure on Saturday.

Palestinian mobile provider Jawwal’s phone may stop working “at any minute” as shelling severely damaged the provider’s telecommunications network in Gaza.

PalTel, Jawwal’s parent company based in the West Bank, told Ma’an, “The Israeli shelling damaged the electric grid and caused continuous cuts.”

“The lack of fuel will lead to cutting lines with the telecommunications company (in Gaza) and the Hadara internet company, as well as Jawwal’s mobile phones,” the statement added.

The statement warned that “all means of communication with the Gaza Strip will be highly affected and may totally cut off.”

Attempts to contact Ma’an’s correspondents by mobile were unsuccessful early Sunday morning. Landlines appeared to be working properly between homes in Gaza and Ma’an’s headquarters in Bethlehem.

Posted by EBW at 01:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Some of course, are Hamas political leaders and some of course, are Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades militia, but less than one in five. The killing bill is improved if all civil servents and uniformed police killed in the first three minutes of strikes are promoted to political leaders and/or militia, in which case the ratio is two in five. One in six of the dead qualify as infants.

The wounded count is now 2,450, so the total casualty count is 3,000. With significant amounts of debris and collapsed buildings yet to be checked for dead and dying.

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click here.

Among the general population the Olmert/Livni/Barak recourse to force has a +4% margin, with 15% undecided.

Among Dems, the margin is -24%, and among Reps, the margin is +35%.

Now, find an elected Dem who isn't a GOP operative.

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BtL is one of Jonah's favorite shows on PBS. However, that's not the theme of this morning's post. I've been reading the rhetoric Olmert, Livni, Barak, and on my second reading of Yuval Diskin's press conference, which was framed by Ha'aretz as "Shin Bet Chief: Hamas has eased its demands for truce with Israel" by Barak Ravid, I recognized all the key phrases, in re-write. So, ignoring the "Hamaso delenda est" nonsense, here are the correspondences:

Head of the Shin Bet General Security Services Yuval Diskin told a cabinet meeting Sunday that Hamas had eased its demands on a cease-fire with Israel, nine days after a IDF operation in Gaza began.

"There are signs that Hamas has softened their stance towards the conditions of a cease fire," Diskin said.

Head of IDF Military Intelligence General Amos Yadlin also addressed the meeting and gave an assessment of the Gaza operation's progress.

"The organization [Hamas] took a serious blow, we killed hundreds of terrorists and damaged their ability to build weaponry," Yadlin said.

Yadlin also addressed the standing of Hamas in the Palestinian populace and throughout the world, saying that serious criticism of the organization is on the rise.

"Hamas has made itself an object of hatred in the world and the region, casting themselves amongst the lepers of the world, with Iran and Syria," Yadlin said. He also said that while Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus shows himself "smiling in his office in Damascus, the leaders in Gaza are dug into burrows."

Diskin told a cabinet meeting last Wednesday that IAF raids on Gaza had caused unprecedented damage to Hamas' infrastructure and personnel.

Hamas "has been hit like it has never been hit before," Diskin said.
Diskin said the Islamic group's ability to govern the Strip has been seriously damaged, and that senior Hamas officials are hiding out in Gaza's hospitals, where they have "disguised themselves as doctors and nurses."

"Many Hamas officials are hiding in mosques throughout Gaza, out of the assumption that Israel will avoid attacking Muslim houses of worship," Diskin said. Dozens of the mosques have been turned into weapons stockpiles and command centers, he added.

Diskin also said the weapons factories used by Hamas have been wiped out in the offensive and dozens of tunnels used to smuggle arms into the coastal territory have been destroyed.

According to a Military Intelligence assessment released Tuesday, Israel's air offensive on Gaza has thus far destroyed one-third of the Hamas' rocket arsenal.

What struck me was that Diskin and Yadlin were not reporting that "there are still some rockets not yet captured or destroyed" or "there are still some Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades not yet killed or captured" or "there are still some areas of Gaza where Hamas is unable to operate, other than those occupied by Tsahal". Instead they are preparing the ground for the troika to declare victory (over Bibi) and allow the French and "international opinion" to rescue them from a prolonged and militarily meaningful war of attrition with the defense forces until those three conditions were obtained.

I don't mean that I see the Election War ending any time soon, but I do see competent military and intelligence professionals providing the political leadership of the { Zionist Entity | Jewish State | Israel } (pick one according to taste) with "draw or slightly better" exit conditions they can sell to their electoral base, and more importantly, the fluid electoral mass that was signaling "Bibi" up until a week ago.

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The American International School of Gaza is now rubble. The school was built at a cost of $5 million dollars by the Palestinian Investment Fund.

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"The fact is that more rockets were being fired from Gaza before the Hamas takeover, not less, in the era of chaos, than afterwards."

Mr. Pelham is a Senior Analyst with the Middle East Programme of the International Crisis Group

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The claim of the moment is that Tsahal will capture rocket launch sites. So the Gaza defense can choose when, and where the attackers will commit sorties in depth, and become isolated, and dependent upon effective extraction.

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In 1941 Katyushas were very inexpensive and could be manufactured in light industrial installations which didn't have the heavy equipment to build conventional artillery gun barrels. Of course, they're not as accurate as tube weapons, nor do they have the sustained rate of fire.

From September 2005 through May 2007, the IDF fired more than 14,600 155mm artillery shells into Gaza. Source: Human Rights Watch. This particular photo was published today by Reuters, as Tsahal has begun artillery fire on targets in Gaza.

Something to read is George W. Gawrych's SIEGE OF BEIRUT

The siege of west Beirut thus fell squarely on the shoulders of the IDF. All three services—army, air force, and navy—participated in the attempt to pound the Palestinian defenders into submission. Israeli ground forces stood between 35,000 to 50,000 with 400 tanks and over a hundred heavy artillery pieces, including 105mm, 155mm, and 175mm cannons.[20] The navy committed most of its small fleet to a blockade and provided naval gunfire as needed. The air force conducted thousands of sorties. The IDF clearly possessed a marked numerical advantage in men and equipment for the siege of Beirut.

Israeli Doctrine. In undertaking its siege, “the IDF was in uncharted waters, both doctrinally and in terms of what they had planned for before the invasion.”[21] Certainly, the army had had some experience in urban warfare in previous wars. But, in 1982, the Israeli Army faced a seemingly formidable challenge: an Arab capital with a million inhabitants. The IDF’s previous urban battles paled before the siege of Beirut.

At the operational level, IDF doctrine for urban warfare stressed that “cities should be encircled before anything else.”[22] At the tactical level, the IDF had refined its tactical doctrine and stepped up its training program for urban warfare, based in large measure on the battle for Suez City in the 1973 war. Israeli UO doctrine called for armor to lead or to support infantry. The army favored the use of tanks in urban warfare because the tank afforded both firepower and protection, and the IDF placed a premium on minimizing casualties in war. Unfortunately for Israel, the emphasis on armor in the IDF force structure left the army with a shortage of qualified infantry for a major urban operation. Regular infantry received adequate preparation, but reservists generally gained limited training for UO in their refresher courses. As a result, reserve infantry suffered greater casualties in the war. Training exercises prior to operations helped alleviate some deficiencies.

Doctrine emphasized the use of combined arms in city fighting. Tank units were trained to task organize with other combat arms for battle. Thus, Israeli UO doctrine stressed flexibility in force design. Generally, when employed in an attack, tanks fought under infantry command. The infantry commander was expected to be in the lead tank, where he could focus on navigation while the crew fought the battle. Artillery observers accompanied troops to help provide timely fire support. Whenever appropriate, doctrine writers encouraged the use of loudspeakers to convince civilians to leave the targeted area. Moreover, patrols were encouraged to find civilians willing to provide information and help guide troops through the maze of streets to their objectives.[23]

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The polling bump for Barak's Labor (relative to Bibi's Likud) is 5 seats in the next Knesset. So the Election War is having the desired outcome, in Israeli politics, where four out of five voters want lead cast, in abundance.

Yesterday I came across a 2003 report on public health in Palestine by Faisal M Ali Abu Shahla, and as I took care of the children and the daily camp routine, including restarting the children's academics, I kept thinking about how I'd been thinking about the "nuisance" of Tsahal's roadblocks and the delivery of medical care. I'd not realized that for all chronic conditions requiring periodic hospitalization, from hypertension in pregnancy to dialysis to ... the increased difficulty and frequent inability to pass an ambulance crew and the transported person through the daily shifting maze of arbitrary delay, redirection, and arrest imposes a sharply higher mortality and morbidity outcome than I'd previously realized.

I'd not considered that the Israeli public overwhelmingly supports execution, albeit "naturally" and "at random", of Palestinians convicted of hyperemesis or renal deficiency or cardiac insufficiency or ... sort of a push their elders and some women and some children out on the ice for them social gift. Here's the 2003 report, from before the election that swept Fatah out of power and everything that followed from free and open elections in Gaza.

The West Bank, which has an area of 5800 square km, is the homeland for more than two million Palestinians. The GS is a narrow heavily populated piece of land lying on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is heavily populated with total area of 360 sq. km.

The population in GS is mainly concen­trated in the cities. From the administrative point of view, the GS is divided into five Governorates: Gaza North, Gaza Mid-zone, Khan Younis and Rafah in the South.

The Healthcare Delivery System in Palestine:

In Palestine, the healthcare services are delivered at two levels: primary healthcare and secondary healthcare.

The Primary Healthcare:

There are 594 primary health centers (PHCs); 100 in GS and 495 in the West Bank. Sixty percent of the PHCs are owned and operated by the Palestinian ministry of health (MOH), 9% are owned and operated by the UNRWA. The remaining PHCs are owned and operated by NGO's.

In the West Bank, there are 4,247 indivi­duals per PHC, while in the Gaza Strip the ratio is 11,965 per PHC.

The Secondary Healthcare:

In the PNA held territories, there are 65 hospitals; 17 in GS and 48 in the West Bank.

In Palestine, there are 14 beds per 10,000 inhabitants. The Palestinian MOH owns and operates 15 hospitals with a total capacity of 2,303 beds, while the UNRWA has one hospital in the West Bank, which has a capacity of 38 beds. There are 22 hospitals owned and operated by the private sector with a total capacity of 453 beds. Twenty­five hospitals with a total capacity of 1,442 beds are owned and operated by NGO's.

National Health and Economic Indicators:

As per year 2000 Statistics, the crude birth rate in Palestine is 33.2 per 1000 inhabi­tants; 33.6 in the GS and 32.8 in the West Bank. The population growth rate is 3%, which is equal to that in Syria and Lebanon, and the life expectancy is 71.8 years.

The Gross National Product (GNP) in Palestine is highly fluctuant. The GNP per capita has decreased from 1938.6 US $ in 1988 to about 1771.5 in the year 2000. The same fluctuation affected the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, which changed from 4450.8 US $ in 1998 to 4218.3 US $ in the year 2000.

The Renal Services in Palestine

The Problem: The Morbidity of the Condition:

Renal failure is one of the most important problems on the healthcare delivery system in Palestine. As per the year 2000 and 2001 statistics, there were 351 and 400 patients, respectively, who were maintained on hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.

The most common causes for end-stage renal failure in Palestine is glomerulo­nephritis and diabetic nephropathies.

The death rate among patients on dialysis is 7-8%; the cardiac and cerebrovascular complications are the main causes of death.

The MOH Investment in Hemodialysis Services:

The hemodialysis services in Palestine were initiated in 1972 and are recently available in nine centers. Two of those centers provide care for pediatric patients.

The Palestinian MOH owns and operates eight out of the nine centers with one specialized in pediatric hemodialysis.

In the hemodialysis centers, there are 69 hemodialysis machines, manned by 18 qualified nephrologists and 58 nursing staff.

As per the statistics for year 2000, the hemodialysis centers in Palestine performed 37,870 dialysis sessions and 1,572 peritoneal dialysis sessions. In the same year, the bed occupancy rate for hemodialysis treatment was more than 200% and for peritoneal dialysis was 53.8%. Renal transplantation was also active and the number of trans­plants performed until December 2001 was 420 from live donors.

The Impact of the Current Political Situation on the PNA Territories:

The current political situation in the Palestinian territories, which includes the Israeli military occupation since 1967, the settlements on the confiscated Palestinian lands and the continuous unprecedented aggre­ssion on the Palestinian territories since September 28, 2000, has had far reaching implications on the already vulnerable Palesti­nian society.

The continued occupation has affected all aspects of life in the Palestinian territories; healthcare delivery system, education, eco­nomy, social services programs, humanitarian services and even the holy places were not spared.

The continuous aggression on the PNA areas led to demolition of many schools, college premises and other educational institutions. The siege policies adopted by the occupation army prevented many teachers and students from reaching their schools, institutions, colleges and universities. Many people lost their lives or sustained severe injuries, handi­caps and severe social and psychological disturbances.

In the economic sector, nearly 125,000 workers previously working in the green line lost their jobs. Furthermore, almost 200,000 workers joined the long list of the unemployed in the PNA territories.

Due to repeated closure and siege policy, the industry, agriculture and construction sectors were almost ruined. Therefore, over two-thirds of the Palestinians live in poverty (less than two US $ /day).

The humanitarian and social support services for the socially vulnerable groups of the society, the handicapped, the women and children were interrupted and sometimes came to a stand still.

The healthcare delivery system was under triple effect of this situation:

1. The tremendously increased demand for healthcare services, especially at the secondary and tertiary levels. For example, during the last quarter of the year 2000, the healthcare system was confronted with nearly 11,000 casualties including 313 fatalities. The type of injuries and the ammunition used was a real challenge for the Palestinian medical professionals in view of the little resources they had.
   
2. The sharp falls in the revenues and contributions through the health insurance system that topped 50%.
   
3. The direct impact of aggression on the health sector; facilities, staff and systems of work. The Israeli aggression army showed no sign of compliance with the international laws including article 16, 17 and 18 of the IV Geneva Convention. Many wounded patients were prevented from receiving any medical care. On the contrary, they were left to bleed to death. In many occasions, they were slain after being in captivity. On regular basis, the Israeli aggression forces prevented the medical personnel and equipment from reaching the areas where the needy people were waiting. In many occasions, those personnel and equipment were the targets for very intentional Israeli fire inflicting much casualty with considerable number of fatalities. The humanitarian aid vehicles were used as a cover to infiltrate the Palestinian hold territories.
   

The impact of the healthcare services for renal patients:

This issue can be handled in view of the special feature for both the renal patients and the care they need.

The nature of renal failure, whether it is acute, chronic or end-stage, imposes distinctive requirements. The different modalities of renal replacement therapy require well-equipped and properly staffed facilities. The current political situation imposes many hardships that make this task almost impossible.

• The almost continuous siege and imposed curfew prevented the MOH frequently from securing its needs of medical supplies, medications and spare parts. In many instances, the patients either lost their lives or developed complications related to their ailments. The renal transplant recipients suffered a lot from the shortage of anti-rejection drugs and many of them lost their precious grafts.
  
• The policies of repeated closure and siege prevented, on many occasions, the health personnel from reaching their hospitals on time or at all. The same apply to the biomedical engineers and technicians whose presence is essential for the proper operation of the dialysis machines.
  
• The patients themselves were not able to reach regularly their dialysis centers. On many occasions, they arrived late many hours after a journey full of bitter experience from checkpoint to another; some never arrived!
  
• The MOH referral system of patients outside PNA came to a halt due to the adopted polices of siege and financial constrains. Referral is currently limited to the Naser Institution in Egypt. It is the only center that keeps accepting the referred patients despite the volatile financial capabilities of the PNA.
  
• The national plan to set up a facility for kidney transplant within the premises of Al Shifa Hospital was completely aborted due to financial difficulties and conti­nuous siege and closure on the Pales­tinian territories.
  

National Emergency Health Plan (NEHP):

To face the current situation, the Palestinian MOH has adopted a national emergency plan of eight-points:

1. To decentralize the services,
   
2. To encourage the community participation,
   
3. To ensure better telecommunication between the GS and the WB,
   
4. To ensure better cooperation and co­ordination among governmental, UN, NGO's and private health sectors.
   
5. To upgrade the emergency medical services,
   
6. Never to overlook the community-based programs like mental health services, school health program.
   
7. To improve the rehabilitation services for the disabled.
   
8. To expand the horizons for cooperation with the Arab and international arenas.
   

New centers for hemodialysis were estab­lished and operated regularly in far and unreachable areas to overcome the siege. The new centers were equipped through the generous donations made by Arab and foreign countries. The reassignment of the available staff helped to manage those new centers. The non-governmental health sector proved to be very committed and helped in tackling the extra load imposed on the governmental sector.

Correspondence Address:
Faisal M Ali Abu Shahla
Consultant Nephrologist and Internist, Director General of Hospitals, MOH, Shifa Hospital, 26 Mustafa Hafiz Street, Palestine

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Ha'aretz has 55% of US Democrats opposed to the Gaza War, and 27% of US Republicans opposed as well. You'd never know this by sampling the lefty blogosphere however, apparently the Hashemite monarchy (Jordan) and the military dictatorship (Egypt) and the apartheid democracy (Israel) aren't simultaneously attacking Gaza and Palestinians in Gaza, Trans-Jordan and East Jerusalem weren't demonstrating against a mass killing of non-combatants, most of whom are simply uniformed civil servants.

However, Ha'aretz doesn't carry anything on the Palestinian response in Trans-Jordan and East Jerusalem, or what that means to Fatah.

Ynet reports that one of my peers in the DNS trade has been targeted. Here's the link. Yoav and I shared a cab to the Paris ICANN gala event at city hall, and we'd previously worked on putting together a bid for the .net redelegation, an event that unfortunately turned out to be a non-event as ICANN awarded the renewal to (surprise) the incumbent. He and I don't agree at all on Yiddish, but that's a different kind of political difference than today's successful engagement of DomainTheNet's authentication infrastructure. Knowing Yoav, and his service and political background, and his family's, I expect he's one of the overwhelming majority of Israelis who support the Kadima/Labor bombing. I should ask him if he's voting for Bibi.

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It wasn't so very long ago that Fatah contested Hamas in an internationally monitored election, and lost. It wasn't so very long ago either that Fatah, Israel, and the US (Bush/Cheney Regime Period) attempted to smuggle a significant amount of light infantry weapons into Gaza to carry out a coup d'etat and overthrow the elected, Hamas government in Gaza. And it wasn't so very long ago that Israel, Egypt, and the US (Bush/Cheney Regime Period) interdicted land, air, and sea access to Gaza, allowing only some surviving Fatah operatives to transit Israel to the West Bank and humanitarian NGO provisioning. And six months and some days ago, the battery vs counter-battery fire, supplemented by limited objective ground operations was suspended for the six month tahdi'eh (truce) which expired on December 19.

For seven days Tsahal has been targeting police stations, jails, government buildings, schools, mosques, apartment buildings, and some rocket teams, and of course, every target is labeled "terrorist", and every casualty deserving execution or excusable by a one size fits all rational. The dead now number 420, a quarter of whom are women and children, and the majority of whom were traffic police, new police recruits and others having absolutely no operational linkage to the rocket artillery forces and even less political standing in the Hamas political party, only a named few of the dead were operational or political. The wounded now number 2,000, with the same distribution of age, gender, and essentially civil government vs defensive demographics.

There's one other Palestinian casualty of note. Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian National Authority. Bomb Syria and Iran's ally Hamas in Gaza and weaken Jordan's, Egypt's, Israel's and the United States' (Bush/Cheney Regime Period) ally Fatah in the West Bank. Not the intended outcome.

Abbas has nothing to show for a year of negotiating with the Olmert/Livni/Barak government since Annapolis in November, 2007. It is the RW in Israel that Israel has "no one to negotiate with", but here's what Faisal Abushalha, a PNA minister said to Le Monde:

Aujourd'hui, nous sommes le dos au mur. Nous avons été très patients mais il n'y a aucun résultat et les Israéliens se jouent de nous. Pour faire la paix, il faut être deux. Nous avons fait beaucoup de sacrifices. Nous avons accepté de partager la Palestine, mais les Israéliens veulent tout ou presque pour eux."

More to the point, Abbas' term in office ends in seven days, and three years ago he said "I will just complete my remaining three years in office. I will not run again. That is absolute." So will there ever be another election for president of the Palestinian National Authority, and if there is, will the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) continue to consist of two geographically separated areas: the West Bank and Gaza Strip (GS)?

The subordination of Palestinian aspirations to Jordan and Egypt has been Israeli political strategy for decades, but until this week "two states" ment co-existance of a Palestine and an Israel on the 1967 boundaries, not two Arab Palestines, one neither Jordanian nor Egyptian, content to be eradicated over time in the East, and the other neither Egyptian nor Jordanian, defined by its defensive artillery capabilities and recovery of the 1947 partition in the South.

On January 9th there will be no President of the Palestinian National Authority, and no means to legally obtain one. Now that is a problem.

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Marc Lynch is moving, from Abu Aardvark to Foreign Policy. I've asked him to keep his archives available, then I clicked on through to FP and began to read. Why Not to Engage Iran (Yet) by Geneive Abdo caught my eye, so I read.

Para 1 mentions next July's elections and Mehdi Karoubi, who ran against Mahmoud Ahmadi-nejad on a populist platfom in the last cycle, and the sixty academic economists letter, without bothering to mention the 3% VAT crisis (introduced in July, resulting in a Bazarini strike) or the wicked obvious crash in crude oil prices. So that para is misleading.

Para 2 manages to link Hugo Chávez, Hassan Nasrallah, and Moqtada al-Sadr to Mahmoud Ahmadi-nejad, which is a peculiar choice, as Vladimir Putin, Nouri al-Maliki, and Manmohan Singh are rather more important to Iran than three names from the Bush/Cheney list of "rogues", and where is Bashar Assad in the lineup? So another misleading para.

Having framed the narrative -- Dinner Jacket needs friends and his usual posse won't do, the next two paras are a unit. Forget that DJ wrote Shrub a 16 page letter in May of 2006, he wrote a letter to Barak Obama and it is "Barack Obama -- or rather, all the advisors on the U.S. president-elect’s foreign-policy team who keep talking about the need for the United States to talk to Iran" who are the friends that Mahmoud Ahmadi-nejad needs to bolstering his legitimacy. In the one week between the election and the run-off election in July of 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadi-nejad messaged on the economy and managed a landslide win over Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Mr. Ahmadi-nejad is "legit" in Iran, with or without a US President's blessing.

Its a rehash of "Obama’s willingness to hold unconditional talks with hostile regimes, including Iran" from the Republican rhetorical toolkit. The crash of crude oil prices puts a lot of export economies in a bind, including a lot of pro-American monarchies, not just Iran.

Para 5 has this

Under Iranian law, all candidates for the parliament and the presidency must be approved by the Guardian Council, a panel dominated by conservative clerics appointed by the supreme leader. At this point, it is unclear if Khamenei will give the nod to permit the controversial Ahmadinejad to run for a second term.

That had me in stiches. Abolhassan Banisadr (non-cleric, impeached), Mohammad-Ali Rajaei (non-cleric, assassinated), Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei (cleric, promoted to Supreme Leader), Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (cleric, two terms) and Mohammad Khatami (cleric, two terms) and Mohamoud Ahmadi-nejad (engineer, one term then booted for lack of "competency"). That is how Geneive Abdo sees the history of the Presidents of Post-Pahlavi Iran? That Ahmadi-nejad is sent packing like Banisadr? What a hoot!

The piece concludes with this

If the Obama administration does intend to talk to Iran, however, it might be wise to wait until after the Iranian election in June. Otherwise, all the talk over the coming years is likely to be with Ahmadinejad.

Anyway, that's where Marc's taking the Aardvark. Wish he'd stay where he is, but we all make choices.

Anyway, that's one piece of the hit-Obama mosaic being set up by the NeoCons who really wouldn't have much in the way of job prospects if the US and Iran "got over" the "den of spies" "hostage crisis" and just got on with the ordinary banality of co-existance without high drama.

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The fact that Gaza's rocket artillery (Grads) are now impacting in Bir Seb'a is being written up as "deep into Israel". Bir Seb'a was allocated to the Arab state in the 1947 Partition Plan. It probably wouldn't sound as good if it were written up as "deep into the territory allocated in 1947 to Arab Palestine".

The photo is from the Third Battle of Gaza, when Australian mounted infantry captured Bir Seb'a from the Turkish Army, turning the Gaza-Bir Seb'a line and opening up Palestine to the English, in 1917.

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