UN-Truth

“No other country in the world does what Israel does”, say some of my Israeli friends. “We tell the people to evacuate when we are going to bomb”.

Yes, but where do they think the evacuees are going to go?

There is really nowhere to go.

Nowhere in Gaza is prepared to handle thousands and thousands of large families.

And, one might ask, what provisions has the IDF made to help these fleeing families?

There were no preparations for this on the Hamas side, because it was hoped the ground invasion could be frightened off, with slogans like, “We have prepared a grave for you”, etc … It was actually hoped this would not happen.

Al-Jazeera aired a report of families walking almost aimlessly in downtown Gaza City. There is nowhere to go, those interviewed complained.

Some went to UNRWA schools. This morning, an UNRWA school, apparently full of displaced refugees, was hit.

Apparently not just one, but two, UNRWA schools were attacked on Tuesday, according to AP: “It was the second deadly Israeli attack to strike a UN school in the past few hours”, AP reported here .

One was in Jabaliya, the other one was in Gaza City. In one of them — it now appears to be the one in Jabaliya — the death toll is now given as 40, and rising.

The IDF later said that an “initial inquiry” into this “incident” — apparently meaning the school that was attacked in Jabaliya — “indicates that a number of mortar shells were fired at IDF forces from within the Jabalya school. In response to the incoming enemy fire, the forces returned mortar fire to the source. “This is not the first time that Hamas has fired mortars and rockets from schools, in such a way deliberately using civilians as human shields in their acts of terror against Israel”.

The IDF even offered old footage of another incident, as illustrative proof: “This was already proven several months ago by footage from an unmanned plane depicting rockets and mortars being fired from the yard of an UNRWA school. This footage has been released in the past, and is now being re-released, and is available via JCS – Jerusalem & Tel Aviv: 02-6701771 or 03-6238840″.

UPDATE: The Israeli Foreign Ministry has just called this “incident” a “heartrending tragedy”, and added that “initial investigations indicate that Hamas terrorists fired mortar bombs from the area of the school towards Israeli forces, who returned fire towards the source of the shooting. The Israeli return fire landed outside the school, yet a series of explosions followed, indicating the probable presence of munitions and explosives in the building. Intelligence indicates that among those killed were Immad Abu Iskar and Hassan Abu Iskar, two known Hamas mortar crewmen”.

In any case, you can’t find any of this out from the UNRWA website — if you land on the UNRWA website there is no information, just a Flash Appeal, as this catastrophe is yet another good occasion to ask for more donations, by credit card or wire transfer … and the death toll in one of the schools is now given as 40, and rising.

AP reported from inside the Gaza Strip that “Israeli forces edged closer to Gaza’s major population centers on Tuesday and attacked new sites, including a U.N. school, claiming more civilian lives after ignoring mounting international calls for an immediate cease-fire…where hundreds of people from a Gaza City refugee camp had sought shelter from Israel’s blistering 11-day offensive against the Hamas militant group … U.N. officials say they provided their location coordinates to Israel’s army to ensure that their buildings in Gaza are not targeted. The Israeli army had no comment on the latest strikes, but in the past has accused militants of using schools, mosques and residential neighborhoods to store weapons or launch attacks … ‘The battle is bitter but unavoidable. We set out on this operation in order to deal Hamas a heavy blow and to alter living conditions in the south of the country and to block smuggling into the Gaza Strip’, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. … In Geneva, the international Red Cross said Gaza was in a ‘full-blown’ humanitarian crisis. Its head of operations, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, said the few remaining power supplies could collapse at any moment … ” The AP report can be read in full here

There have been over 630 Palestinian deaths over the past 11 days, and at least 3,000 wounded. “There are so many amputations”, one doctor said. “Israel must be using some new kind of weapon”.

Some 525 “projectiles” have been fired from Gaza onto nearby Israeli areas, during the same period.

Many Israelis in the communities bordering Israel have been suffering from constant fear and anxiety — and many have been treated for hysteria. Four have been killed in the last 11 days.

Palestinians in Gaza have also been terrorized.

Nobody knows really what is happening, except from IDF sources, IDF footage, IDF photos — and a bit of footage also from Gaza-based Ramattan News Agency. Even Israel television buys their footage…

The Foreign Press Association (FPA), very frustrated, send this statement out: “The FPA strongly protests the Israeli government’s decision to continue the ban on international journalists entering Gaza despite the Supreme Court ruling requiring it to allow access. The unprecedented denial of access to Gaza for the world’s media amounts to a severe violation of press freedom and puts the state of Israel in the company of a handful of regimes around the world which regularly keep journalists from doing their jobs. We call on the Israeli authorities to lift this ban immediately in line with the decision of their own country’s Supreme Court and the basic principles of democratic statehood”.

But, McClatchy bureau chief here, Dion Nissenbaum, reports on his Checkpoint: Jerusalem Blog that, as more and more journalists continue to arrive every day in hopes of getting into Gaza, the IDF seems to have hardened its position: ” ‘The ruling was issued not in the time of a full-blown military operation that is taking place now’, said Maj. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for Israel’s defense ministry”.

Dion also reported that, on Monday, “the first eight reporters selected in a surreal and secretive process by the local Foreign Press Association once again packed their bags today and camped out at the border crossing in hopes of getting in. They were supposed to go in last Friday, but Israeli officials at the time said they were too busy letting about 300 foreigners who live in Gaza get out before they launched the ground offensive. Today, Israel let in convoys from the UN and the Red Cross who passed into Gaza while the journalists cooled their heels and waited. Eventually, the Israelis said there were ’security alerts’ and warnings of an attack on Erez, so they sent the reporters home”.

Ramattan has on its website a letter sent to Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which makes complaints about other mistreatment of the press, particularly the local Palestinian press in Gaza: “The Committee to Protect Journalists urgently demands an explanation for the bombing of Al-Aqsa TV headquarter in Gaza City by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday. We are also dismayed by the army’s decision to declare Gaza’s northern boundary with Israel and other parts of the territory ‘closed military zones’. This latest move, along with previously stated restrictions, prevents journalists from effectively reporting from the Gaza Strip. On December 27, Israeli authorities officially denied a request by Gaza-based Ramattan news agency to transport cameras and other equipment from Ramallah to Gaza in an effort to cover unfolding events in Gaza, according to the news agency’s Web site. Members of the news media must be allowed to report on the situation in Gaza while retaining the protections guaranteed by Security Council Resolution 1738, as well as other universally accepted instruments of international law….” This can be viewed on the Ramattan website here.

Haaretz’ Yaakov Katz reported on Sunday on the beginning of the ground invasion on Saturday — which was not reported, apparently by censorship rules, until almost 8:30p.m — that: “The explosions started to escalate at around 4 p.m. as the IDF let loose its artillery cannons along the Gaza border, with the aim of ’softening’ open areas in the Strip that are believed to be filled with booby traps and land mines. At the same time, thousands of troops from a wide range of infantry, armored and engineering units began taking up positions along the border before the invasion … Meanwhile, all along the border, an electrical blackout was imposed on communities to hide the IDF preparations and deployment. At several points - near Erez, Kfar Aza, Nizmit and Kerem Shalom - large contingents of journalists gathered to see the gunfights in the Gaza Strip. Bullets could be seen flying in both directions as well as into the air, likely attempts by Hamas to shoot down IAF attack helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles”. Katz’s report is posted here.

Yet other journalistic sources reported that the IDF attacks began to grow in intensity around 6p.m. on Saturday night — two and a half hours before the first reports were allowed to be published.

One journalist — who did not have a press card, and who therefore would not have been asked to sign the obligatory form accepting IDF censorship — was reportedly arrested on Monday for having violated the censorship regulations by reporting too early that the ground invasion had begun. According to a report in Haaretz: “A reporter for Iranian television [n.b., it was not official Iranian television - Press TV says the report was working for Al-Alam] was arrested by Israeli authorities on Monday for a dispatch which broadcast news of the Israel Defense Forces’ entry into the Gaza Strip. The journalist is alleged to have violated military censorship laws which forbade the news media from releasing information during the initial stages of the ground incursion. The reporter, a resident of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al Amud, was questioned by the police international investigations unit. He turned himself into authorities via his attorney”. This report can be read in full here.

Another story in Haaretz reported that “According to Danny Seaman, the director of the Israel Government Press Office, the reporter had been refused a press card for security reasons. The approach is stricter in general, Seaman explained, because ‘too many times we have spoken in too many voices. This time it’s clear that the system is unified and serious. That was also one of the Winograd Committee’s conclusions, but this time there won’t be censorship violations that won’t be dealt with’.” This Haaretz story also said that “Israel says it does not want the foreign press in Gaza due to concerns that something might happen to them that will hamper Israel’s operations. ” ‘What if one of these media stars gets hurt? Even if it isn’t Israel’s fault, it will be perceived as fundamental for the Palestinians’, an Israeli source said. That is apparently only part of the reason. Keeping the foreign journalists in Israel, sources say, is good for Israel’s image because the media is experiencing the war from the Israeli side. As soon as the IDF gets a hold in the Strip, it is expected that the IDF Spokesman will let Israeli and foreign journalists in with the army. For the time being, the only presence documenting events is the spokesman’s office”. This Haaretz report can be found here.

The Jerusalem Post reported that “GPO [n.b., the Israeli Government Press Office] head Danny Seaman said Monday that a crater caused by an Israeli shell on the Palestinian side of the road near the crossing was the reason the foreign press had not been let in Monday. ‘The eight aren’t going in today because of a technical problem on the Palestinian side - a crater caused by a shell overnight that disabled the road’, Seaman explained. He added that efforts would be made to repair the area so that reporters could go in on Tuesday. Lerner said he knew nothing about a crater in the road. Meanwhile, the FPA, which represents foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, expressed growing exasperation Monday with the ongoing press ban, and suggested that Israel was mixing genuine security concerns and games. ‘We are waiting day by day, hour by hour’, said Glenys Sugarman, executive secretary of the FPA. ‘We just don’t know when we will get in’. Sugarman said that she had been told Monday that there was a suicide bomber on the Palestinian side of the border, which was why the border was quickly closed as a group of foreign nationals were leaving the Palestinian territory. ‘There are security issues, but there is playing around as well’, she said”. This JPost report can be found here .

The National, an English-language newspaper published in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., reported that “The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) regards the Israeli ban as a dangerous violation of press freedom that adds to ‘ignorance, uncertainty and fear’ in the region. ‘The Israeli ban on foreign news media from Gaza since Dec 27 raises concerns that there is a systematic attempt to prevent scrutiny of actions by the Israeli military’, said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. ‘The eyes of the world are on Gaza, but Israel is trying to censor the news by keeping the media at bay’. Human Rights Watch urged the Israeli government to abide by the Israeli high court ruling and allow foreign media into Gaza. The presence of journalists and human rights monitors in conflict areas provides an essential check on human rights abuses and laws-of-war violations, Human Rights Watch said”. This report is posted here .

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department Spokesperson, Sean McCormack, has told journalists that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is going to New York today to attend a UN Security Council meeting on Gaza: “There is a UN Security Council meeting, and this is previously scheduled. It was called by the chair [President] of the Security Council for this month, and that is France. I think Foreign Minister Kouchner expects to be there. So she will participate in that discussion. She will also have a series of meetings, bilateral as well as other configurations, that are intended to try to move forward on the pathway that we talked a little bit about yesterday – these three elements. And just to review, the three elements being an end to rocket fire coming out of Gaza, a – steps to address smuggling, as well as steps to open up the crossings going into Gaza using the 2005 Movement and Access Agreement, elements thereof perhaps, as a model or basis for opening up those access points and having those be secure as well … We would like an immediate ceasefire, absolutely, an immediate ceasefire that is durable and sustainable and non-time-limited. So you know, we can sort of go round and round with these – with the semantics. But of course, we – look, nobody wants to see violence. We would like to see the violence end today. But we also want to see it end in a way that is sustainable and durable, so that we aren’t – you know, you don’t have my successor up here three months, four months, six months from now, talking about the same thing … I fully understand the situation in Gaza. It is – the humanitarian situation there is dire, and we are working to try to address that in terms of getting goods in – into Gaza, as well as once they are into Gaza, to the people who need them. And we’re working with the Israelis as well as others on those questions … I would expect today that there would be a discussion, perhaps tomorrow there would be a follow-up session.”

Asked by a journalist if this was being viewed as a way to get the Palestinian Authority back [in contzrol] in Gaza, the spokesman replied: “No, it’s a side effect, perhaps, of having an agreement that’s consistent with the 2005 agreement, but it’s not the – that’s not the main objective. The main objective is to actually encourage legitimate trade across those borders in a secure fashion, so that on one side the Israelis can feel confident in the fact that those are secure crossing areas; and for the Palestinian people, they can actually engage in legitimate commerce and thereby improve in some form or fashion the situation on the ground”.

McCormack also said that “the schedule is still coming together at the moment, but I would expect that she [Secretary Rice] would meet with some of her Arab foreign minister counterparts. She will try to meet with [Palestinian] President [Mahmoud] Abbas, who will be up in New York, as well as to have other side meetings”.

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Filed under: Gaza, International Law, Israel, Journalism and Journalists, Palestine & Palestinians

Relying on the Associated Press’ indefatigueable Edith Lederer at UNHQ/NY, we learn that “French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the council president, said the 15 council members could not agree on a statement in closed discussions held after Israel launched a ground invasion into the Gaza Strip on Saturday. But he said there were ’strong convergences’ among the members to express concern about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the need for ‘an immediate, permanent and fully respected cease-fire’. Libyan Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi said the United States during the discussions objected to ‘any outcome’ on the proposed statement. He said efforts were made to compromise on a weaker press statement but there was no consensus. Several other council members, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations were closed, also said the U.S. was responsible for the council’s failure to issue a statement … U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the United States saw no prospect of Hamas abiding by last week’s council call for an immediate end to the violence. Therefore, he said, a new statement ‘would not be adhered to and would have no underpinning for success, (and) would not do credit to the council’ … Asked what kind of resolution would be acceptable to the United States, Wolff said: ‘The important point to focus on here is establishing the understanding of what type of cease-fire we’re talking about and to ensure that it’s lasting, and to ensure that we don’t return to a situation that led to the current situation’ … If it had been approved, the statement would have become part of the council’s official record but would not have the weight of a Security Council resolution, which is legally binding. Though the Security Council took no action on Saturday night, an Arab draft resolution circulated by Libya on Wednesday night that would condemn Israel and halt its military attacks on Gaza remains on the table … [though] the United States has already called it ‘unacceptable’ and “unbalanced” because it doesn’t call for an end to the Hamas rocketing of Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected in New York on Tuesday, along with half a dozen Arab foreign ministers who will be at the UN on Monday, to press for a cease-fire resolution”. The full AP report can be viewed here .

UPDATE: Ma’an News Agency reported this morning that Abbas, who was in Amman on Saturday on his way to New York, has postponed his trip to the United Nations and will return to Ramallah today for a meeting with visiting French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, who was with Abbas in Amman, is being sent to New York to attend the UN Security Council deliberations…

Separately, the U.S. State Department issued a statement in Washington, through spokesperson Sean McCormack, saying: “We are working toward a cease-fire that would not allow a reestablishment of the status quo ante, where Hamas can continue to launch rockets out of Gaza and to condemn the people of Gaza to a life of misery. It is obvious that that cease-fire should take place as soon as possible, but we need a cease-fire that is durable, sustainable, and not time limited. Hamas has held the people of Gaza hostage ever since their illegal coup against the forces of President Mahmoud Abbas, the legitimate President of the Palestinian people. They have used Gaza as a launching pad for rockets against Israeli cities, and have contributed deeply to a very bad daily life for the Palestinian people in Gaza and to a humanitarian situation that we have all been trying to address. Hamas has made it very difficult for the people of Gaza to have a reasonable life. The United States is deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation and the protection of innocents. In this vein, we have expressed our concerns to the Israeli government that any military action needs to be mindful of the potential consequences to civilians”.

Israeli media are prominently reporting that these delays are just maneuvers to allow Israel time to do what it wants to do in Gaza. Haaretz, for example, is reporting that “The international community, headed by the U.S. and Egypt, is giving Israel time to carry out the ground offensive in Gaza, so it will severely damage Hamas’ regime. The rationale behind such a move is that a weakened Hamas would improve the chances of achieving a stable agreement in Gaza once the fighting subsides. And so there is a degree of foot-dragging in the diplomatic efforts to reach a cease-fire. The most visible sign of this was the decision to postpone the United Nations Security Council discussion on Gaza planned for Monday. France postponed the discussion to Wednesday, to ensure that it would be held after French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to the region … During her visit to France on Thursday, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had requested that the discussion be postponed”.

The same Haaretz report adds that “In its efforts to formulate a draft for an agreement with Hamas in the wake of Operation Cast Lead, the designated team of Israeli officials is aiming to bring about the restoration of the cease-fire with Hamas, which expired on December 19, in addition to steps to curb Hamas’ arms-smuggling through the border with Egypt. The officials, all of them from the Prime Minister’s Office, the defense establishment and the Foreign Ministry, are not seeking to introduce international enforcement bodies, but rather the introduction of an upgraded border control system on the Egyptian side of the border. The U.S. administration supports such a move, and is expected to assist the Egyptians in stepping up their efforts to control the border. Currently, Israeli officials are trying to find a work program that would not infringe on Egyptian sovereignty, which is why Israeli diplomats are pessimistic about the prospect of stationing an international force in the Sinai Peninsula.
According to sources in the U.S., President George W. Bush has intercepted an initiative by his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart, Secretary of State David Miliband, to formulate a cease-fire draft. One source said Bush instructed the State Department to refrain from action in the matter. To date, the U.S. has refrained from sending any envoys or delegates to the region. According to officials, the U.S. and Israel are cooperating diplomatically on the issue
Egypt’s unexpected support for Israel in the conflict with Hamas has, according to Israeli diplomats, been a pleasant surprise for Jerusalem”. This report can be read in full here .

But, the AP report cited above said that “Egypt’s U.N. Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said it was regrettable that one permanent council member — a clear reference to the U.S. — refused to accept any statement at a time when ‘the aggression is escalating and more people are dying and the military attack on the ground is at its full scale’.”

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Filed under: Gaza, Israel, Libya, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet, UN Security Council

The announcement was made on Israeli television shortly after 8:30p.m. in Jerusalem — and Gaza. The TV showed soldiers, through a night-vision lense, walking in single file, wearing olive green uniforms and carrying backpacks. One soldier had a dog on a leash. They were walking on a dirt road — but it showed no signs of recent battle, no tank tread marks, and it had not been dug up. There were trees beside the road.

No special protective devices were visible. No tanks, either.

The announcer said he could not say where the soldiers were, but he indicated they were still at the Gaza periphery, or perimeter. Israel’s Channel Two Television was using some footage from Gaza supplied by the Gaza-based and Palestinian-owned-and-run Ramattan News Agency.

Leaflets had been dropped earlier, advising Gaza City residents — particularly those in the western part of the city — to leave their homes. But it was not clear where they should go. It is winter. There are almost no support services available. Gazans have large families with many young children and elderly parents.

AP reported that “Heavy gun battles were reported as Israeli tanks and infantry soldiers entered Gaza after dark. The forces stayed close to the border area, witnesses said. Heavy artillery fire hit east of Gaza City in areas where Hamas fighters were deployed. ‘We have many, many targets’, Israeli military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich told CNN, adding that Hamas has been digging smuggling tunnels and other facilities. ‘To my estimation, it will be a lengthy operation’, she said. She said the goal of the operation was to take over the areas used by militants to launch rockets against Israel … Defense officials have said around 10,000 soldiers massed along the border in recent days. Heavy artillery fire in the early evening was intended to detonate Hamas explosive devices and mines planted along the border area before troops marched in. It was not immediately clear how deep into Gaza the Israeli forces would go”.  This AP dispatch can be viewed here .

UPDATE: The IDF Spokesperson later sent around a message explaining that “The goal of the operation is to continue advancing the goals that the Government has set for the operation as a whole, including striking hard at Hamas’s terrorism infrastructure and changing the security reality for residents of the south.  IDF forces plan – inter alia – to take control of the launch areas from which most of the missiles that have hit Sderot, Ashkelon and Ashdod in recent weeks and months have been fired from.  The Committee decided that the timing of the plan’s implementation would be determined by the security establishment in accordance with its operational judgment; this was determined for this evening (Saturday), 3.1.09.  The Ministerial Committee further instructed the IDF to prepare for additional stages of the operation and to maintain alert in other areas, and, to these ends, to mobilize the necessary reserve forces – tens of thousands of soldiers”.

Israeli officials argue non-stop — and the Israeli public is convinced — that Iran is behind everything in Gaza. It is difficult to explain, however, how Iranian missiles — even disassembled, and in parts — could come into Gaza through tunnels in the Egyptian Sinai that the Egyptian government is aware of, while at the same time President Mubarak and his government are among the more anti-Iranian countries in the Arab Middle East.

In any case, a wire service reported after Friday prayers yesterday in Tehran that: “[Former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of Iran’s most powerful politician-clerics, said in a sermon to several thousand worshippers that an Israeli military defeat in Gaza would be a scandal for its government and that, even if the Hamas government there collapses, Palestinian resistance will only expand. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned Israel that entering Gaza by land will be the biggest mistake of the Zionist regime. He vowed Israel would be defeated in a ground attack. Iran is a major backer of Hamas, giving it millions of dollars. Israel and the U.S. accuse Iran of providing the Palestinian militant group with newer, more sophisticated rockets, but Tehran denies arming the group. In his prayer sermon, Rafsanjani said Hamas had a new anti-tank weapon that it had not used before but would unleash if Israel ground troops move in, but he did not elaborate“.

There are early reports of dozens of Palestinians killed in clashes with the IDF ground forces.

Nevertheless, Juan Cole wrote tonight on his blog, Informed Comment, that he cannot see anything of lasting advantage for Israel in this venture: “The Israelis used to assassinate and attack Hamas when they controlled Gaza, with no success in destroying the movement. So how can they destroy it now when they don’t control Gaza and are just making a temporary incursion into a heavily populated, complex territory?” See Juan Cole’s blog here.

In a statement to the media on Sunday night, Israel’s Defense Minister said ” ‘It won’t be easy and it won’t be brief … We’re continuing to expand the operation while being well aware that this move will include challenges, difficulties, and also victims. We are doing it because of the faith that at this time this is our duty to citizens of the country.” His remarks were reported on YNet. Barak said in the statement that : “Several hours ago, IDF troops entered the Gaza Strip … So far in the operation, the IDF, the Air Force, and the Intelligence Corps delivered a harsh blow against Hamas”.

YNet reported here that the decison to launch the ground invasion was taken on Friday night at a meeting of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Defense Minister Barak.

The UN Security Council was set to meet again on Monday, as ministers of Arab countries were trying to find a way to stop Israel’s Operation Cast Lead (or Operation Solid Lead) attacks on Gaza. It may now meet even sooner. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is on his way to New York, according to the Palestinian media, for the UN Security Council discussions. Many — but not all — Palestinians would find it completely unacceptable for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority to ride into Gaza “on Israeli tanks”. But, this ground invasion may deflect an inter-Palestinian crisis looming over the 9 January date that Hamas has said it believes is the end of President Abbas’ term of office.

Helena Cobban wrote in a posting yesterday here yesterday on her blog, Just World News, that: “The ’strategy’ of the Israeli government, if it can even be called that, now seems to have shifted from ‘taming’ Hamas to decapitating or even completely dismantling Hamas. As I noted last Monday, a dismantling/decapitating war, which was then being advocated by Ehud Barak, implies a very different approach to both operations and diplomacy than a ‘taming’ war … Many of the heavily populated areas of Gaza City, Rafah, and Jabaliya now look, from the photos, very similar to Beirut’s southern ‘Dahiyeh’ suburbs after the US-supplied Israeli warplanes started blasting into it in July 2006. But at least the residents of the Dahiyeh had places elsewhere in Beirut and Lebanon that they were able to flee to (and they found that Lebanese of all stripes including previous critics of Hzibullah, were very eager to help give them emergency shelter and emergency aid.) Now, where can the residents of blasted areas inside Gaza flee to? And remember: the winters can get very cold in that corner of the Mediterranean”.

Helena added: “I note there is a key difference between the situation of Hamas under Israel’s assault in Gaza today and the PLO when it came under a very similar Israeli assault in Lebanon, in 1982. On that earlier occasion, the Palestinians received considerable help from a portion of Lebanon’s population. But as the assault — and particularly the seven-week siege of West Beirut — dragged on, many of the PLO’s Lebanese allies became very depressed because of the continued battering their city was taking. (In Lebanon, too, there was always a large chunk of the populace that hated the Palestinians and was working very actively indeed to support Israel’s attacks against them.) Finally, after eight weeks of that war, Lebanese PM Shafiq Wazzan, who had been a long-time, if never very enthusiastic, supporter of the PLO presence in Lebanon, persuaded Yasser Arafat to negotiate a ceasefire that saved some of his forces but sent them sailing off to some very distant Arab countries. (Sharon’s massacres of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila ensued.) This time Gaza’s defenders are fighting to defend a small portion of their own country. Adding to their current determination are these other facts about them:
(1) The status quo ante they had to live in prior to this war was itself quite unacceptable– as were, too, the lengthy preceding years of direct Israeli occupation. So the Gazawis don’t even have as much ’stake’ as, for example, Hizbullah’s people did in 2006 in seeing a ceasefire that would give them a return to the status-quo-ante;
(2) Though Gaza is a part of Palestine, some 80% of its people are refugees from other parts of Palestine. So though many Gazans do have a deep concern for the physical infrastructure of the Strip, still, many of them also harbor very long-held and deep claims against Israel, including very large property claims, along with a correspondingly deep sense of resentment that these claims have never been seriously addressed in the many rounds of alleged ‘peace diplomacy’ that have occurred over recent decades.
But all these socioeconomic facts about Gaza’s population would count for nothing if Hamas and its antecedent movements had not been working hard for the past 25-30 years to organize their supporters in such a way as to build and rebuild the resilience of their constituency. In the west, too many people think that Hamas is ‘only’ the ‘terrorist organization’ that it’s designated to be by the US State Department. They imagine it is made up of wild-eyed, implacable Islamist radicals who have much more in common with the Afghan Taliban than with any movement that is considered ‘civilized’ in the west. Not so. Hamas’s founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, always placed a lot of emphasis on the need for education, self-restraint, and the need to rebuild the social fabric of Palestinian constituencies torn apart by years of Israeli attacks, occupation (including the heinous divide-and-rule tactics of the Shin Bet), and physical and social dispersal. Gaza Islamic University (badly bombed by Israel earlier this week) was just one of an entire network of educational and social-welfare institutions with which Hamas sought to rebuild Gazan society. Those institutions preceded the creation of Hamas as an armed political movement, which happened in 1987; and they have continued to operate alongside Hamas ever since … Another indicator of the resilience of Hamas is that the movement has suffered numerous rounds of extremely serious decapitating attacks in the past 15 years– including the assassinations of Ahmed Yassin and numerous other top leaders in 2004– but still, its systems for educating successive generations of youth and for cultivating leadership skills in a broad array of skill-sets, not just the military, means that those leaders were replaced by others of considerable experience. Those assassinations never resulted in the breaking up of the movement. Indeed, the leaders who have survived– and their followers– now have an even flintier sense of dedication to their nationalist/Islamist cause because of the fires they’ve lived through and the colleagues and former mentors whom they’ve lost”.

We mused, though in less depth, on the same issues in a posting on 1 January, “A New Year’s message from Gaza here .

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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians

Despite an interim decision by the Israeli Supreme Court (or High Court of Justice) on Thursday morning that — when the Erez crossing to and from Gaza is open for passage of humanitarian cases — the IDF should allow small numbers of foreign (not Israeli) journalists, organized into reporting “pools” to distribute their reports to members of the Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel, no journalists were allowed into Gaza again on Friday.

The FPA expressed dismay.

Since early November, foreign journalists who were previously given nearly unconditional access to the Gaza Strip, have found themselves barred from entry much more often than not — and the FPA petitioned the Supreme Court to restore press access.

Now, the conditions demanded by the IDF — and largely granted by the Israeli High Court which generally does tend to align itself with the country’s military and security decisions — would appear to some degree to make the journalists “embedded” in the on-going Israeli military operation [see our post from yesterday here .

In an UPDATE TO MEMBERS sent on Friday, the FPA reported that:
1. The court has ordered the state to allow entry for 8 (eight) foreign journalists per time with the proviso that if its possibie at any given time, they will allow in 12.
2. Since the original petition is to allow in the "foreign media", the State now insists they will take 6 from the FPA list and let in TWO of their choosing of the "foreigners who have come from abroad" - i.e. not FPA members.
3. The FPA will submit lists of 8 and 12 people every time, those who do not get in will be carried over to the next time.
4. If the army choses to let in other journalists from outside the FPA list, the FPA will not be responsible for pooling their material, which, following the court order, should be distributed to everyone. We see this as the responsablity of the State.
5. Members who have reigstered to go in should please send their passport numbers, GPO cards and mobile phone numbers by return mail.
6. YOU WILL BE INFORMED BY PHONE AT SHORT NOTICE WHEN IT IS YOUR TURN TO GO IN.
7 . THE FPA PHONE HAS TO BE CLEAR FOR COORDINATION WITH THE AUTHORITIES - CONTACT ON e-mail ONLY.

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Separately, the FPA issued several statements on Friday:
1.) The Foreign Press Association while pleased with the decision of the Israeli High Court to allow limited access to Gaza for foreign journalists, expresses its serious concern about the requirements to use the mechanism of pools which themselves have now been scaled back. We believe the Israeli Government should ensure unfettered access for the world's media to Gaza during this crisis. The FPA declares that it will be responsible exclusively for pool material of its members as submitted on the FPA list.

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2.) The FPA expresses its dismay over the Israeli government's refusal to allow entry to the Gaza strip for foreign media on Friday, despite the Supreme Court decision requiring it to do so and despite the fact that the Erez crossing was open for humanitarian traffic for most of the day. The authorities' position that there was not enough time to coordinate and allow the journalists to enter does not seem reasonable. We call on the Israeli government to immediately honor the will of the court and allow foreign journalists access to Gaza.

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3.) The FPA is appalled by the IDF attack on a Reuters photographer today in Hebron and by the PA police arresting journalists and cameramen covering a Hamas demonstration in Ramallah. The FPA insists that journalists be allowed free and unfettered access to cover newsworthy events at all times and under all circumstances.

The Foreign Press Association
www.fpa.org.il

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Meanwhile, the IDF is apparently quite pleased with the press coverage of Israel's unprecedented attacks on Gaza over the past week by air and sea -- a ground invasions may or may not be imminent.

The Jerusalem Post reported Friday that IDF officials "feel the coverage has been mostly fair".

Maj. Avital Leibovich, head of the foreign press department in the IDF Spokesman's Unit, told the JPost: "I'm surprised for the better. The coverage has been balanced on most channels, even on some outlets not known for being pro-Israel ... The world understands Israel has a right to defend itself, and has to respond to the rocket fire," she said.

Apparently, the IDF now regards blogs, the internet, and new media as important in their battle for public opinion, and, the JPost reports, "the IDF has been in regular contact with over 50 major American blogs covering the fighting".

Well, that's a start, but there are probably a few more, and there are probably blogs in other countries as well ...

In any case, the JPost report adds that "The IDF has spent the past six months learning to fight a different kind of media war, developing a capacity to take its message to the 'new media,' a general term for a wide variety of on-line social networking, user-generated news and personalized content sites. 'In terms of communicating our message, new media is the future', Brig.-Gen. Avi Benayahu, the IDF's spokesman, told The Jerusalem Post. Benayahu has overseen a new orientation in the spokesman's unit toward these on-line outlets, even taking his unit's senior officers to an intensive new media workshop at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya in mid-2008. This has translated into a profusion of new initiatives across the Internet. A YouTube channel established by the IDF a day after the fighting began has become the second-most popular channel on the popular global video-sharing site, drawing over 386,000 page views in the first half of Thursday alone ... 'The new media lets you present your content at all times on all existing platforms, so it's there when the consumer wants to see it', explains Lt.-Col. Dinor Shavit, commander of the Filming Unit in the IDF Spokesman's Unit [and] coordinator for the dissemination of the 23 videos and 48 still photos the IDF has released to the world so far”.

The JPost adds that “The coordination and dissemination of information to journalists and - through the internet - the wider world, has replaced the traditional wartime press conference held regularly by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit during the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Instead, IDF spokespeople are in direct real-time communication with journalists and offer quiet background briefings to Israeli officials, media and foreign reporters. ‘An army has to fight, not to spend its time in front of television cameras’, insists Benayahu”.

This article on the IDF and the new media can be seen in full here .

UPDATE: Another article in the JPost, written from Washington, reports in the same vein that “American pro-Israel advocacy groups say the Israeli government has done a better job in reaching out and being responsive to the foreign press during the current Gaza fighting than in other recent conflicts. With Israel’s attacks on Hamas featuring prominently on newspaper front pages and the 24-hour news cycle, the Foreign Ministry and its representatives in the US have made officials available for scores of interviews and briefings, as photographs and video clippings from the scene have been distributed. The government has also been trying to use new media to reach out to the American public, including Twitter and Youtube”. This can be read in full here .

UPDATE: Maybe some foreign correspondents will be allowed into Gaza on Sunday, when Erez crossing is due to re-open — and after enough time has passed for all the communication necessary between the IDF and the FPA. The JPost reported that “The Erez crossing to the Gaza Strip will be opened on Sunday for injured Palestinians to enter Israel for medical treatment, IDF spokesman Peter Lerner said Friday … Earlier in the week, a seven-year-old Gaza boy who suffered a serious head wound in IAF air strikes was rushed through the Erez Crossing and taken to Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva. The boy, whose transfer was facilitated by the Peres Peace Center, was in critical condition in the intensive care unit on Wednesday night. Three other wounded children were also transferred via the Erez Crossing, with help from UNRWA. Twenty Gazans suffering from serious illnesses unrelated to the fighting were allowed through on Wednesday for treatment in Israeli hospitals”. This article can be read in full
here .

UPDATE: Yes — there is now a mention of letting some journalists in on Sunday. AP has reported that an Israeli military spokesman said that on Friday, when Erez was open, the IDF was preoccupied with the nearly 300 persons holding foreign passports (many Russian or former Soviet Union nationals, a few Americans) who were allowed to leave Gaza. srael kept the journalists out because authorities at the crossing point were focused on processing the hundreds of Palestinians exiting Gaza. ‘The crossing today was overwhelmed dealing with the emergency evacuation of people’, said army spokesman Peter Lerner. He said journalists might be allowed to cross on Sunday, when Israel plans to open the crossing for injured Palestinians to enter Israel for medical treatment”. This report is posted here.

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Filed under: Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Journalism and Journalists, Palestine & Palestinians

This map was posted on the Gateway Pundit blog here [the original was made by Israel's Homefront Command, and English translation was done on the Muqata blog], and it accompanied a post that worries about a possibility — “Beersheba, a city of 186,000, is 40 kilometers from the Gaza Strip and was thought to be out of reach from rocket fire! [but now] the Islamic radicals have the ability to reach Beersheba and potentially the town of Dimona and the Israeli nuclear facilities” — that we already mentioned two days ago here.

The other map below was also posted at Gateway Pundit blog and was sourced to Dore Gold’s JCPA - Jewish Center for Public Affairs here , where there are also other interesting images, dated March 2008, which suggest that all of the launch sites at that time were in the northern Gaza strip, around the Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya area — and not in the Zeitoun area, near Nahal Oz, in the mid-central area of the Gaza Strip, going east from Gaza City, where much action has taken place.

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Filed under: Gaza, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians