You, too, can send a white rose to Obama to urge him to call for a cease fire for only $5.00. Seems like a good investment to me. Especially since the AP is reporting that 257 children have been killed by the Israeli attacks, and 1080 wounded, or one third of all Palestinian casualties in Gaza since the attacks by the IDF began.
You can also call the Obama transition team to ask Obama to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza:
202-540-3000
And tell them to take a long look at this picture, too, after they give you whatever is the excuse du jour for Obama not immediately calling for a cease fire.
More pictures of dead and wounded Gazans can be seen here: Link (Caution: May not be safe for work due to the gruesome nature of the images.) By the way, Israeli deaths since the war on Gaza commenced on December 27, 2008, totals 8 people per this report. Six of those were Israeli soldiers and two were civilians. Of the six soldiers killed, four were killed by “friendly fire” for the Israeli military. The two Israeli civilians were reportedly killed by rocket attacks launched by Palestinian groups.
Palestinian casualties since the war began? No one can be certain, but Hamas claims 783 deaths of Gazan residents killed by IDF forces during the last 2 weeks. One Norwegian doctor in Gaza interviewed by the BBC on January 6th stated that most of the casualties are of civilians.
(cont.)
Update [2009-1-9 7:32:34 by Steven D]: Let’s hope this report in the Guardian is accurate. It would be a small step in the right direction. Nonetheless, it won’t do much to stop the ongoing slaughter in Gaza now.
Dr. Mads Gilbert: “The statistics are clear. Among the 2,400-2,500 injured, 45 percent are women and children. And then there are also all the civilian men. So the large majority of the injured, the victims, are women, men and children civilian.
Compare that with the 22 Israelis who have been killed by rocket attacks by Hamas since 2000, i.e., 22 Israeli deaths over the last nine years versus 783 Palestinian deaths in just under two weeks. No one supports Hamas’ actions in launching those attacks, but Palestinian deaths caused by the Israelis since the December 27th start of the current conflict dwarfs that number. And with Israel’s Air Force launching 50 new bomb and missile attacks yesterday against targets in Gaza, the death toll there is no doubt already considerably higher than the last reported figures. And, of course, there are no reliable figures for deaths attributable the Israeli blockade of Gaza over the last 18 months, a blockade that has prevented the delivery of needed supplies of medicine, food and potable water to Gaza’s 1.5 million residents.
I have to ask the question: What is Israel’s real purpose for this war? Stopping rocket attacks from Hmamas which, despite the danger they pose, have killed only a relatively few Israelis over the last nine years, or a chance to exterminate significant numbers of Palestinians in Gaza before George Bush leaves office on January 20th? I have to conclude the latter is the real reason for Israel’s decision to commence this war now.
As Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, notes in his op-ed piece in the New York Times today, Israel could have chosen to negotiate with Hamas, but instead chose the path of oppression and war when the Palestinian elections did not provide the the result ( a Fatah victory) which they would have preferred:
THE BLOCKADE Israel’s blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation.
The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment — with the tacit support of the United States — of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights.
THE CEASE-FIRE Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed.
WAR CRIMES The targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel, is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip.
This war on the people of Gaza isn’t really about rockets. Nor is it about “restoring Israel’s deterrence,” as the Israeli press might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.”
Read that last quote again by Moshe Yaalon again, please. The sheer monstrosity of it sends chills down my spine. It makes clear that this war in Gaza (much like the war Israel fought in Lebanon against Hezbollah) is all about making the Palestinians suffer so much loss, incur so many deaths, that they lose the will to ever rise up against their Israeli overlords and demand independence. It will not work. Military actions rarely deliver the solutions that the political leaders who order them expect. Just ask George Bush.
But until Israel is forced to change its approach, these crimes against humanity will go on and on and on, into an indefinite future, a future in which Israel becomes ever more isolated from the rest of the world. A future of ever more wars and terrorist attacks. A future of ever more bitterness and animosity and hatred and death and destruction and gross inhumanity where the lives of all the people living in the Middle East are ever more at risk.
It’s almost as if Israel wants to create the conditions in which to bring about an Armageddon in which it can finally unleash all of its military power, perhaps even its nuclear arsenal, against its Muslim neighbors. This is the type of peace that Hitler sought to impose on the Jews with his Final Solution. The only difference? Israel is stumbling toward such an end result, one murderous conflict at a time. I don’t think that will be any consolation to all the people who may die in the future because of the criminal policies Israel’s leaders have recklessly chosen to pursue.
The Rose Campaign was organized by Code Pink, but in concert with other activist groups, they are also conducting a vigil. It is easy to contribute a rose at the link Steven provided.
OFFICIAL RELEASE: Candlelight vigil protesting massacre in Gaza outside Obama’s DC hotel begins TONIGHT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan. 4, 2009
CONTACT Jean Stevens, CODEPINK national media coordinator, 646-723-1781
Candlelight vigil protesting massacre in Gaza outside Obama’s DC hotel begins TONIGHT
WHAT: Nightly candlelight vigil to urge President-Elect Obama to speak out, call for ceasefire and stop killing of innocent Palestinians
WHEN: 5:30 p.m. every evening beginning Sunday, Jan. 4
WHERE: Begin at 16th and H Streets NW (across from the Hay-Adams Hotel where Obama will be staying), Washington, DC
WASHINGTON — CODEPINK, other organizations and concerned Americans will gather TODAY outside the Hay-Adams hotel here, where President-Elect Barack Obama is staying before the inauguration, to protest the illegal and brutal Israeli assault on Gaza and demand that he speak out against it and call for a ceasefire. They will vigil outside the hotel each night, while Obama stays there, until he takes a stand.
The call for the vigil comes after Israeli ground troops entered Gaza Jan. 3 eight days after launching an offensive against Hamas Jan. 3.
“Obama is not waiting until inauguration to deal with the economic crisis, so why is isn’t he taking a stand on this humanitarian crisis?” said CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin, who has visited Gaza. “He spoke out against the massacre in Mumbai, so why is he silent in the face of this massacre? The suffering Palestinians need him now, not just on January 20.”
The Israeli leaders are criminals and thugs masquerading as people chosen by God; I think their punishment is coming and it will not be light. Indeed, if its a nuclear Armageddon they seek, then, much of the Holy Land will be radioactive. For tens of thousands of years no less. How does anyone win in that scenario?
I’m looking for a shoe to send.
I watched the bombing of Gaza right after the UN SC voted last night. Olmert said the ceasefire is IMPRACTICAL.
I called the number above and reminded them that Obama talked to the Kenyans to arrange for a ceasefire.
Who has his tongue now?
It is worth noting that of the approximately 800 Palestinians murdered by Israel, more than one third are children. The count of wounded is consistent with that, lending more credibility to the numbers. About one third of the wounded Palestinians are children.
So much for Israel taking great care to avoid civilian casualties. Of course, they put that lie to bed immediately by scheduling their first bombing attacks on December 27 at exactly the time that school let out and hundreds of thousands of children were in the streets on their way home.
In fact, they have never wanted to minimize their impact on the civilian population, the civilian population is exactly what they want to impact. Their goals are always to 1) demoralize them, and 2) turn them against their leaders by creating horrific misery. That’s not speculation, you can find it in their own words, confirmed by their actions.
Why does Hamas keep shooting qassam missiles into Israel? Why doesn’t anyone recognize not wanting missiles shot at you to be a legitimate concern?
Is firing rockets into Israel a military tactic?
What is Hamas’ intent? Did they expect that shooting missiles into Israel would cause the Jews to leave Palestine? Did they think that it would cause Israel to end the blockade which Israel started because of the missiles being shot into Israel?
No, Hamas knew that firing rockets into Israel would eventually bring about this kind of response, probably before Obama is sworn in and Israel holds its elections.
Both sides get what they want and neither side gets what they need. I’m tired of blood sports.
Hamas will not concede to any ceasefire terms until Israel stops the siege. The siege has starved Palestinians, caused malnutrition among children, and death among medical patients unable to leave. The electrical, water, and sewage systems are degraded. Disease causing deaths are increasing.
But Israel refuses, and while it agreed to “lessen” the siege as a condition of the Egypt negotiated ceasefire, they never did. I gather they want to continue the pain on Gazans on the basis of some rediculous notion that the people who voted Hamas in will overthrow them now. An unlikely event.
Of course you can also read wiser analysts who attribute the strife on the upcoming election and the fact that the Labor-Kadima is predicted to lose by the polls. As such. the slaughter of “Arabs” makes a great beginning to the next Israeli election.
Unfortunately, the Israeli siege and blockade is the result of Hamas’s violations of international law. Not the other way around. That is simply a matter of historical fact, and cannot be disputed. You’d have to be awfully anti-Semitic to see it any other way. All the Palestinians have to do to end it is to acknowledge their defeat, recognize Israel and accept whatever terms the Israelis offer them. Otherwise they’ll continue to die. And they’ll have no one to blame but themselves.
Thanks Mikep! It’s always good to have you come by to provide a little comic relief. We all need a good laugh right about now.
“they want to continue the pain on Gazans on the basis of some rediculous notion that the people who voted Hamas in will overthrow them now“
Well, why not? It has always worked so well before, after all! (sarcasm alert)
“Why does Hamas keep shooting qassam missiles into Israel? Why doesn’t anyone recognize not wanting missiles shot at you to be a legitimate concern?“
A more relevant question is, why, if Israel really wants the rockets to stop, did it reward Hamas for four months of quiet by launching major air and ground attacks starting November 4 (I am sure they did not choose that date because they knew the world would be riveted on the U.S. elections)? Hamas had not only kept the ceasefire by stopping its own attacks, it did a very creditable job of reining in other groups such as Islamic Jihad, which is anything but an easy task. And yet their reward was an escalating series of major attacks in which they killed around 25 Palestinians, including several children.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting that having rockets (not missiles – these are unguided, mostly homemade rockets using fertilizer as an explosive, and many of them do not even carry explosives) fired at them is not a legitimate concern, Bob. What we ARE saying is very different from that.
As for what Hamas knew or did not know, that is only speculation. Chances are Hamas did knew that no matter how meticulously they kept the ceasefire, and no matter how successful they were in keeping other groups from firing, Israel would be the one to break it as they have broken the overwhelming majority of the ceasefires in the past. And yet they kept the ceasefire very well for about 4.5 months before Israel made a series of major land and air attacks, and killing Palestinian adults and children. Why did Israel break the cease fire as they have nearly every other cease fire?
And then there is the other huge piece of non-compliance by Israel. One of the terms of the cease fire that Israel agreed to was the lifting of the blockade. Israel not only did not lift the blockade, THEY TIGHTENED IT. And yet, Hamas kept the cease fire until Israel broke it repeatedly, making major attacks, and killing around 25 Palestinians.
And by the way, the current blockade, which is collective punishment and therefore a war crime in this case rising to the level of a crime against humanity, was not because of the rockets being shot into Israel, but punishment for the Palestinian people for the crime of electing the wrong people.