U.N. chief condemns Israel after bloody day in Gaza
Sun Mar 2, 2008
Israel intensifies Gaza raids

GAZA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel for using "excessive" force in the Gaza Strip and demanded a halt to its offensive after troops killed 61 people on the bloodiest day for Palestinians since the 1980s.

Addressing an emergency session of the Security Council in New York after four days of fighting in which 96 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians, Ban also called on Gaza's Islamist militants to stop firing rockets.

The 1.5 million Palestinians crammed into the blockaded, 45 km (30-mile) sliver of coast, enjoyed a relative respite early on Sunday from Israeli air strikes and raids. Two Israeli soldiers died in a ground assault on Saturday. An Israeli civilian was killed by a rocket in a border town on Wednesday.

"While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, I condemn the disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children ... I call on Israel to cease such attacks," said Ban.

(If Israel wanted to 'defend itself', it would bring an end to the illegal policies which its own defense staff warned would provoke rocket attacks. It would accept any of Hamas' many offers of a cease-fire, and it would stop obstructing the peace process, and accept both its legal obligations, and negotiate and compromise in the name of peace. It would listen to its citizens, who oppose its long-held plans for war, and support negotiations.)

"I condemn Palestinian rocket attacks and call for the immediate cessation of such acts of terrorism," he said.

But with public anger boiling in Israel, there was no sign the government was ready to call off an offensive that took troops deeper into Gaza on Saturday and in larger numbers than at any time since Israel ended a 38-year occupation in 2005.

(It didn't exactly end its occupation, as it still prevents Gaza from excercising self-determination. Those in power in Israel, whose plan for a war with Gaza this is, are the same Extremists who rejected the pullout from Gaza. Anger might be "boiling", but a strong majority of Israelis oppose this agenda, and want to see a cease fire and negotiations. Its irresponsible reporting to blame the public for what it's Government is doing, which runs contrary to the popular will.)

The Islamist Hamas movement, which seized control of Gaza last June by routing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's forces, vowed to maintain what it says is a self-defense strategy unless Israel agrees to end all military action.

(It didn't 'seize control', and Reuters is a large enough organization that it knows this. The forces that were 'routed', while belonging to Fatah, were working at the behest of Israel, and by extension, the Bush/PNAC Regime. This was a Coup attempt of their making, as this crisis started with their rejection of the elected representative of the Palestinians. They reject Hamas because they know that if they negotiate with the group, they will not be able to manipulate the process, and will be forced to give back much of what it has stolen.)

Areas from which Hamas has launched rockets that have killed three Israelis in the past year saw heavy clashes on the ground on Saturday and air strikes continued to pound buildings and homes that Israel said were used by militants. In some of these attacks, children as young as six months have been killed.

(International scholars have stated that carrying out aistrikes and the like, fully aware of their consistent civilian toll, is no different than targeting these civilians directly, if they haven't.)

Israel says militants use the population as cover by firing from built-up areas and blamed Hamas for the civilian deaths -- at least 30 occurred on Saturday.

(But the high number, as well as the targets chosen, contradicts this claim. Reuters would also know that Israel made similar claims during its attack on Lebanon, which were quickly proven to be deliberate lies, complete with phony 'evidence'.)

Senior Israeli diplomat Daniel Carmon dismissed suggestions Israel was guilty of war crimes. "Hamas bears sole responsibility for the violence," he told the Security Council.

(However, since the crisis started with Israel's rejection of Hamas and the Collective Punishment of Gaza, which itself is a War Crime, this is an absurd statement.)

Palestinian officials said the day's bloodshed was the worst since an "intifada" or uprising against Israeli occupation broke out in 2000, halting an earlier peace process. Not since a first intifada in the 1980s had so many died in a day, they said.

(Note the pattern that whenever a 'peace process' threatens Israel/Zionism's expansionist war, Israel provokes the Palestinians and increases attacks, thus scuttling the talks. Note that everything that is happening now was planned by Israel's ruling Extremists long before, and in reaction to, the Annapolis Conference.)

U.N. RESOLUTION

Diplomats said the Security Council was unlikely to adopt a Libyan resolution that condemns Israel's killing of civilians but makes no mention of the Palestinian rocket fire.

The United States, Israel's closest ally and a veto-wielding member of the Council, made clear its understanding of the Israeli position, while regretting loss of life on both sides.

"There is a clear distinction between terrorist rocket attacks that target civilians and action in self-defense," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

(Proving, once again, its subservience to israel ... Again, prominent legal scholars disagree.)

European diplomats said they believed the world body should at least make some comment on bloodshed which some say jeopardizes the new U.S.-backed peace talks between Israel and Abbas, who holds sway now only in the occupied West Bank.

(Indeed. This is a consistent pattern, which proves that it is the Palestinians, not the Israelis, who have no 'partner for peace'. Israel, so long as it remains ruled by this violent, supremacist Cult, will continue its war to wipe Palestine off the map until they succeed, or somebody makes them stop.)

Abbas's chief peace negotiator Ahmed Qurie called off a meeting scheduled for Monday with his Israeli counterpart, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Israeli officials said.

But Abbas, who echoed widespread Palestinian outrage at Israel's tactics by calling it "more than holocaust", had taken no decision to abandon the peace process, aides said.

(But he did say that a return to violent resistance may be forced on the Palestinians by this Israeli aggression and rejection of peace talks.)

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to meet Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this week to try to accelerate faltering negotiations which President George W. Bush hopes can forge a peace deal before he leaves office in January.

(The fox is going to visit the chicken coop, to try and persuade the other fox to stop eating the chickens ...)

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said: "If Israeli aggression continues, it will bury the peace process."

(That's the intention.)

At least 30 gunmen were killed on Saturday, medical staff and Hamas said. Among targets was the empty office of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, formerly Abbas's prime minister.

(But more notably, Israel struck the Interior Ministry once again, which the UN referred to as a 'cowardly war crime' when they bombed it only weeks ago. The attack also destroyed the head office of Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) in Gaza, and killed Mohammad Nasser al-Borey, a 6-month-old baby who was in his family home inside a United Nations school compound. The offices the al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights had vacated last month fearing such an attack have also been damaged. Over 30 civilians were injured in this specific attack. Funny Reuters ignores this ...)

The rocket fire has put Olmert under pressure to act. But the government, chastened by a costly war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon in 2006, is wary of an outright invasion.

(And Israelis are asking for him to enter into negotiations and a cease-fire, not engage in this long-planned attack.)

While Abbas would shed few tears if Israel destroyed Hamas, he risks losing already patchy support in the West Bank if he is not seen to be speaking out against the Israeli military action.

(Abbas is not Hamas' enemy. It was not Fatah, but corrupt elements working for Israel and the US who tried to overthrow the group in Gaza.)

He declared Sunday a day of national mourning.

(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Adam Entous, Avida Landau and Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem and Ali Sawafta and Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah)

(Writing by Alastair Macdonald, editing by Ralph Gowling)

 http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2868601720080302?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Olmert: Don't preach morals to Israel

(We know what we're doing is indefensible, but we don't care, and don't listen anyway.)

In cabinet meeting, prime minister slams international criticism leveled at Israel over Gaza operation, saying country has right to defend its citizens against rocket fire; Olmert vows military operation to continue

(Since Israel's drive to "suffocate Hamas" by imposing illegal measures of Collective Punishment on Gaza provoked the rockets, as its own defense staff warned while the legality of these measures was still being debated, the only way to "defend its citizens" is to reverse these policies, enter into a cease-fire - which Hamas has offered since being elected, but Israel has rejected it - and negotiate an end to Israel's expansionist war. Just as the Israeli people want.)

Roni Sofer Published: 03.02.08, 11:26 / Israel News

While Hamas and Palestinian Authority leaders have called on the international community to interfere and stop the escalation in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stressed Sunday that the military operation in the area to curb rocket attacks on Israel will continue.

(This is not an operation to "curb rocket attacks", and it is irresponsible for the press to echo Israel's Propaganda without question. This is about further brutalizing the Palestinians, in the hopes that they will abandon their struggle for justice, and accept any offer the Zionists make.)

"We shall act against the terrorist organizations and against those who launch the attacks, in accordance with the government's decision," Olmert told the cabinet. "If anyone believes that by expanding the rocket range he will be able to reduce the strikes against the terror groups – he is gravely mistaken.

"It should be made clear that the State of Israel has no intention to stop fighting them even for one moment," the prime minister stressed.

(Indeed. That was very clear when Israel began plotting a massive assault on Gaza, before the Annapolis Conference had taken place. Zionist Extremism, currently in power in Israel, is not willing to accept any form of compromise, or even accept its responsibilities regarding the many International Laws and UN Security Council Resolutions it is currently in violation of, in the name of peace.)

Referring to the Palestinian and international criticism against Israel over the killing of civilians in Gaza, Olmert said, "I don’t recall hearing these people this claim that the situation in Israel's south is unbearable when Israeli civilians were hurt.

(Sure they did. But they also know that Israeli policy provoked this violent response. And more attacks on Gaza won't remedy the situation.)

"It needs to be kept in mind that the State of Israel is defending its civilians in the south. No one has the right to preach morals to Israel, which must take the fundamental action of defending its residents against the rocket fire," he stated.

(But in pursuing illegal policies, which it was warned well in advance would provoke violence, in the name of "Regime Change", Israel has done the exact opposite. It has betrayed the citizens of its southern towns, and used them as pawns in a political game.)

As for the negotiations with the Palestinians that have reportedly been frozen by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Olmert said: "Naturally, we are interested in continuing the diplomatic talks… no one can deny that hurting Hamas encourages the peace process with the moderate elements with which we are negotiating."

(Actually, this entire 'crisis' was designed to scuttle this process, since Israel fears any process it feels it cannot manipulate and control. This is what this whole mess is about. But since the media ignores 3/4 of the story, most people don't realize this.)

Earlier Sunday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel needed to prepare for a possible escalation of military action in the Gaza Strip.

(Just as he's been planning for months, possibly since the IDF pulled out of Gaza, creating in it a "Free-Fire Zone', or in other words, the world's largest Concentration Camp.)

"We will continue our action with all our strength and we need to prepare for escalation, because a broad ground operation is real and tangible," Barak told Israel Radio.

(Note who's doing the elcalating. Despite the fact that the Israeli PEOPLE overwhelmingly oppose this policy.)

 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3513585,00.html