www.bilin-ffj.org
16 January 2009

Reserve Colonel Yoav Gal, an Israeli Air Force pilot, told Army Radio during “Operation Cast Lead” (11 January 2009):

I believe that it should have been even stronger! Dresden! Dresden! The extermination of a city! After all, we’re told that the face of war has changed. No longer is it the advancing of tanks or an organized military. […] It is a whole nation, from the old lady to the child, this is the military. It is a nation fighting a war. I am calling them a nation, even though I don’t see them as one. It is a nation fighting a nation. Civilians fighting civilians. I’m telling you that we […] must know […] that stones will not be thrown at us! I am not talking about rockets – not even a stone will be thrown at us. Because we’re Jews.[…] I want the Arabs of Gaza to flee to Egypt. This is what I want. I want to destroy the city, not necessarily the people living within it.

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16 January 2009

Avi Shlaim is a leading member of the Israeli “new historians” school. His interview with Amy Goodman is very clear about the current situation in Gaza and on most matters relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1967. But his comments on Israel’s defensive stance towards its Arab neighbors from 1949 to 1967 are sharply contradicted by his own writing and evidence in his excellent book, The Iron Wall (and also in Benny Morris, Israel’s Border Wars).

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By Nu’man Abd al-Wahid

“We insist on the right to bomb n*gg**s.”
British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

With the George W. Bush era now finally drawing to a close and as the Barack Obama presidential era begins to gravitate upon us we need to remind ourselves of a moment when George W. Bush spoke a truth about the Iraq War, which is rarely, if ever, acknowledged.

George W. Bush will be rightly remembered for launching the invasion of Iraq 2003 which led to that nation’s almost complete destruction. He was joined by the British state in this criminal and illegal endeavour. Both the American and British governments launched a propaganda campaign to justify war on Iraq. The most imaginative British contribution to this campaign was to authorise the intelligence about Iraq purchasing uranium from Niger. When the CIA refused to endorse this intelligence, Bush had no option but to credit these fraudulent findings to the British government in his State of the Union speech in 2003.

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Israeli snipers shooting at families seeking refuge in Al-Quds hospital
International Solidarity Movement
15 January 2009

Israeli snipers are shooting at families who are attempting to seek refuge in Al-Quds hospital, Gaza City. Palestinian and international volunteers are now on the streets outside the hospital to try and get the families inside the hospital.

Israel bombs UN agency headquarters in Gaza City
Electronic Intifada
15 January 2009

EI: Today’s bombing of the UNRWA office was the third time a UN institution was hit in two weeks. What is your response to this bombing?

SM: This is not the first, second, or even third time. In fact there have been about six or seven bombings of UNRWA sites and the latest is the bombing of the UNRWA headquarters. This is our main site which has our main offices and warehouses.

It was targeted when there were about 750 women, children and men — all civilians [taking shelter there]. There is no safe place, not for UNRWA or for those who use its services.

The Spirit of Humanity set sail for Gaza this morning.

Track the boat’s location here. (via FreeGaza.org)

Updated @ 1513 on 15 January 2009:
Israel Threatens to Shoot Unarmed Civilians aboard Mercy Ship