Madison Rafah Journal

Blood-stained Gaza street — AP / Khalil Hamra. Water mixes with blood in a street of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun in this Nov. 8 file photo. Israeli tank shells landed in a residential neighborhood, killing at least 18 people in their sleep, including eight children, according to witnesses and hospital officials.

Chris Hedges, Truthdig, Dec 18, 2006

Israel has spent the last five months unleashing missiles, attack helicopters and jet fighters over the densely packed concrete hovels in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army has made numerous deadly incursions, and some 500 people, nearly all civilians, have been killed and 1,600 more wounded. Israel has rounded up hundreds of Palestinians, destroyed Gaza’s infrastructure, including its electrical power system and key roads and bridges, carried out huge land confiscations, demolished homes and plunged families into a crisis that has caused widespread poverty and malnutrition.

Civil society itself—and this appears to be part of the Israeli plan—is unraveling. Hamas and Fatah factions battle in the streets, despite a tenuous cease-fire, threatening civil war. And the governing Palestinian movement, Hamas, has said it will boycott early elections called by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, done with the blessing of the West in a bid to toss Hamas out of power. (Remember that Hamas, despite its repugnant politics, was democratically elected.) In recent days armed groups loyal to Abbas have seized Hamas-run ministries in what looks like a coup.

(Read on …)

Michel Moutot, Agence France Presse (AFP), December 30, 2006

GAZA CITY: For the children of Gaza, prisoners of the narrow coastal strip surrounded by the Israeli Army, the outside world is nothing but fury, violence and tragedy — a menacing universe that they fear. Most of Gaza's minors — 840,000 out of a population of 1.4 million — have never left their narrow piece of land stretched out on the Mediterranean coast, access to which is strictly controlled by Israel.

They grow up in frustration, anguish, anger and poverty.

Bassam Nasser, 37, director of the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, was one of the rare Palestinians in Gaza allowed to study at a university in Tel Aviv.

"My generation knows Israel because we used to work in Israel, so we are ready to make peace," he said. "We know Israelis are human beings." "I remember Israelis visiting Gaza in the 1970s to have their cars fixed, or to buy furniture because it's cheaper here. And I remember my friends working summer jobs in Israel."

(Read on …)

Khaled Almayreh, Al-Ahram Weekly, Dec. 21-27, 2006

Some observers believe that Abbas will be prompted to suspend or postpone the elections indefinitely while others hope that the bloody clashes will pressure both sides to work more sincerely toward political reconciliation, probably in the form of a national unity government. If not, both sides stand to alienate the public, who are unlikely to forgive or forget scenes of Palestinians killing one another. [More]

Erica Silverman, Al Ahram Weekly, Dec. 21-27, 2006

The outbreak in violence is connected to the tremendous pressure currently bearing down on the Gaza population. Poverty and desperation have gripped Palestinians as their economy has been devastated by international sanctions against the Hamas-led government, though the root of the economic crisis remains Israel's decision to withhold, in violation of the Paris Protocol signed in conjunction with the Oslo Accords, $55 million in monthly tax revenue owed to the PA. [More]

James Brooks, The Electronic Intifada, 29 December 2006

The recent "peace" overtures between Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Abbas do not promise significantly improved conditions for Palestinians or an end to the Israeli occupation. More likely results include intensified efforts to split the Palestinian public and undermine their legally elected government. [More]

Two nation survey: America vs Bethlehem

Zogby International, December 19, 2006

Most Americans believe Bethlehem is an Israeli town inhabited by a mixture of Jews and Muslims, a pre-Christmas survey of US perceptions of the town has shown.

Only 15 per cent of Americans realise that it is a mixed Christian-Muslim Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank.

The Zogby International survey commissioned by the campaign organisation Open Bethlehem coincides with a separate poll carried out for the same organisation in Bethlehem itself.

The surveys have put the spotlight on the plight of the town, which has been fast losing its indigenous Christian population since the construction of the Israeli wall plunged Bethlehem into economic crisis.

The two surveys show that American perceptions of the town are wildly at odds with the perceptions of those who live there.

(Read on …)

Philip Weiss, The New York Observer, December 26, 2006
FILE UNDER: U.S. Policy in the Mideast

A few weeks back at Columbia, I watched with amazement as the former Israeli soldier Yehuda Shaul, who started the group Breaking the Silence, gave his presentation on the horrors of the occupation to about 75 students in a darkened hall. My amazement had to do with the fact that Shaul's visit was sponsored by a largely-Jewish group at Columbia — Pro-Israel Progressives — and was attended by members of the Hillel chapter at the school. Kudos to them.

After Shaul's speech, representing "my comrades and not just myself," he was bombarded by hostile questions from Israel supporters in the audience. Shaul handled them with strength and ease. (Q. "Do you know of a counterpart organization where Palestinians question their moral decisions?" A. "I really don't care — I am an Israeli who has to raise his children in Israel…")

Just as gripping to me was the discussion that took place after the event between Rachel Glaser, the campus coordinator of the rightwing Zionist Organization of America, and the students who had organized the event.

(Read on …)