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You Want to Deal With a Humanitarian Crisis, Mr Obama?
“Right now Israel, with full support from the U.S. is denying 1.5 million people in Gaza ALL the necessities of life.” Read Kathleen and Bill Christison’s searing emergency bulletin to Obama. “This is a U.S.-created, U.S.-supported disaster…Put meat on the bones of your talk about compassion…” Also in the new issue of our subscriber-only newsletter, Barbara Rose Johnston brings us a detailed report on the drive for justice in Guatemala after another catastrophe sponsored by the U.S. – the building of the Chixoy Dam. Finally, Alexander Cockburn sets out the record of assaults on freedom in the Bush years. Get your Legacy Edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.Order CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year !
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Today's Stories December 30, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts December 29, 2008 Jennifer Loewenstein Neve Gordon Joshua Frank George Salzman / Norman Solomon Ewa Jasiewicz Rob Larson Kenneth Libby Robert Weissman Elsa Johnson Nicola Nasser Belén Fernández Worthy Group of the Day December 26-28, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Dr Eyad Al Serraj Jeffrey St. Clair Bradley Simpson Ralph Nader Gary Leupp Ellen Cantarow Matt Landon David Macaray Patrick Bond Norm Kent Brian T. Ketcham Rannie Amiri Larry Portis Richard Rhames Stephen Lendman James L. Secor Ramzy Baroud Harold Pinter Cpt. Paul Watson Howard Lisnoff Michael Dee Steve Conn Poets' Basement Worthy Group of the Weekend December 25, 2008 Judy Gumbo Albert Rev. William E. Alberts Hannah Mermelstein Worthy Group of the Day December 24, 2008 Bill Quigley Saul Landau Sam Smith Brian Cloughley John Ross Eric Walberg Norm Kent Stephen Martin Worthy Group of the Day December 23, 2008 Michael Hudson Michael Yates Chuck Spinney Vijay Prashad Brian Horejsi David Macaray Neil Watkins / David Michael Green Worthy Group of the Day December 22, 2008 Pam Martens Gary Leupp Mike Whitney Karl Grossman Niall Meehan Steve Conn Uri Avnery Corey D. B. Walker David Swanson Worthy Group of the Day December 19 - 21, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Felice Pace Diane Farsetta George Ciccariello-Maher Eric Bergoust Marjorie Cohn Stan Cox Michael Donnelly Robert Weissman Ralph Nader Alan Farago Sam Smith Timothy G. Hermach Seth Sandronsky Rannie Amiri David Yearsley Martha Rosenberg Dave Lindorff Christopher Brauchli Missy Beattie Richard Rhames Stephen Martin Paul Krassner Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Worthy Group of the Weekend December 18, 2008 Phillip Doe Ronnie Cummins Jesse Sharkey Saul Landau Peter Morici Dave Lindorff Panos Petrou Jeff Cohen / Worthy Group of the Day December 17, 2008 Peter Lee Conn Hallinan Mike Whitney Jeff Halper Alan Farago Peter Morici Norm Kent Col. Douglas MacGregor Margaret Kimberley Ron Jacobs Worthy Group of the Day December 16, 2008 Vicente Navarro Patrick Cockburn Thomas Michael Power Jason Hribal Farzana Versey Wajahat Ali / Mats Svensson Paul Fitzgerald / David Macaray Howard Lisnoff Worthy Group of the Day December 15, 2008 Andy Worthington Franklin Lamb Karl Grossman Brian Cloughley Mary Lynn Cramer Steve Early Thomas Christie Ken Paff Niranjan Ramakrishnan Dave Lindorff Alan Farago Worthy Group of the Day December 12 / 14, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Michael Hudson / David Price Jeffrey St. Clair Frank Barat John Ross Binoy Kampmark David Macaray Ralph Nader Eamonn Fingleton Lawrence Velvel Behzad Yaghmaian Sam Husseini Tom Barry Howard Lisnoff Laura Carlsen Raj Patel Ron Jacobs Paul Watson David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Susie Day Poets' Basement Worthy Group of the Weekend December 11, 2008 Patrick Cockburn P. Sainath Vicken Cheterian Ray McGovern Dedrick Muhammad Lee Sustar Peter Morici Ayesha Ijaz Khan George Wuerthner Christopher Brauchli Worthy Group of the Day December 10, 2008 Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Mary Lynn Cramer Manuel Garcia, Jr. Joshua Frank Steve Conn Lee Sustar Glen Ford Stephen Lendman Nadia Hijab Dave Lindorff Website of the Day December 9, 2008 Mike Whitney Fawzia Afzal-Khan Ghada Karmi Dave Lindorff Steve Breyman Lee Sustar / Rev. William E. Alberts Martha Rosenberg Sam Husseini David Macaray Website of the Day December 8, 2008 Steve Early Michael Hudson Patrick Cockburn Diane Farsetta Paul Craig Roberts Daniel Gross Saul Landau Harvey Wasserman Mike Ferner Norman Solomon David Michael Green Website of the Day
December 5 / 7, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Brian Cloughley Paul Craig Roberts Liaquat Ali Khan Farzana Versey Peter Lee Peter Morici Ralph Nader / Yinon Cohen / Wajahat Ali Johnny Barber Alan Farago Jeremy Scahill Mike Whitney Ranjit Hoskote Carl Finamore Marjorie Cohn Norm Kent Missy Beattie Binoy Kampmark David Macaray Nancy Stohlman Ron Jacobs David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend December 4, 2008 Ece Temelkuran Ralph Nader Harry Browne Eamonn Fingleton Conn Hallinan Mike Whitney Stewart J. Lawrence Paul Fitzgerald / Karyn Strickler Jennifer Matsui Website of the Day December 3, 2008 Andrew Cockburn Sheldon Rampton Robert Weissman Yifat Susskind William Blum Alan Singer David Macaray Martha Rosenberg Mats Svensson Website of the Day December 2, 2008 Jeremy Scahill Paul Craig Roberts Ayesha Ijaz Khan Sarah Anderson / William Blum John Ross Dave Lindorff Nicola Nasser Steve Conn Robert Bryce Website of the Day December 1, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Damien Millet / Vijay Prashad Deepak Tripathi Joshua Frank P. Sainath Alan Farago Binoy Kampmark Chris Genovali David Michael Green Stephen Martin Website of the Day November 28-30, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Mike Whitney Ted Honderich Tom Kerr Mike Ely David Yearsley Deepak Tripathi Sonja Karkar Ramzy Baroud Robert Weitzel Robert Roth Carlos Fierro David Macaray David Rosen James Cockcroft Stan Cox Steve Conn Stephen Martin Richard Rhames Kim Nicolini Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement
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December 30, 2008 Will Things Ever Change?Gaza and the WorldBy RAMZY BAROUD In times of crisis, most Arabs tune in to Aljazeera television. Sometimes it’s comforting for the truth to be stated the way it is, with all of its gory and unsettling details, without blemishes and without censorship. When Israel carried out massive air strikes against Gaza on Saturday, December 27, terrorizing an already hostage and malnourished population, I too tuned in to Aljazeera. Within seconds I learned of the tally: 290 deaths and climbing, with 700 more wounded, all in one day. But as dramatic as this event may have seemed – the highest Israeli inflicted death toll in one day in Palestine since Israel’s establishment in 1948 – there was nothing new to learn. Tragedies anywhere - natural or manmade – tend to lead to social, cultural, economic and political upheavals, revolutions even, that somehow alter the social, cultural, economic and ultimately political landscapes in the affected regions, save in Palestine. I gazed pointlessly at the screen. Learning of the aftermath of such tragedies seems more of a ritual than a purposeful habit. The Arab and international responses to the killings can only serve as a reminder of how ineffectual and irrelevant, if not complacent their timid mutterings are. Once again the US blamed Palestinians, and the Hamas “thugs” using words that defy logic, such as “Israel has the right to defend itself.” The statement remains as ludicrous as ever, for a country like Israel with an army that possesses the world’s most lethal weapons, including nuclear arms, cannot possibly feel threatened by an imprisoned population whose only defense mechanism are fertilizer-based homemade rockets. While Israel has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians in Gaza (one thousand on Saturday alone) a handful of Israelis have reportedly died as a direct result of the Palestinian rockets in years. Do numbers matter at all? European governments chose their words carefully, “expressing concern”, “calling on Israel to use restraint” and so on. Arab governments were, as usual, distracted with trivialities, protocols and easily lost sight of the crisis at hand. Then, the same, ever predictable outbursts began. Passionate callers from all over the world called various TV and radio stations in the Middle East and shouted, yelled, cried, vented, called on God, called on Arab leaders, called on all of those with “living conscience” to do something. In turn, audiences too cried at home as they listened to the heated commentary and watched footage of heaps of Palestinian bodies throughout the Gaza Strip. The passion soon spilled to the streets of Arab capitals, of course under the ever-vigilant eyes of Arab police and secret services. Flags of US and Israel, and in some cases Egypt were sat ablaze along with effigies of Bush and Israeli leaders. ‘Rising up to the occasion’ some Arab governments declared, with much hype their intention to send an airplane or two of medicine and food to Gaza, a few boxes clad with the donor country’s flag, flashed endlessly on local media. Meanwhile, news reports spoke of Palestinians attempting to flee the Gaza prison into the Sinai desert. They were met with decisive Egyptian security presence at the border. Strangely enough, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas remained faithful to the script, despite Gaza’s unprecedented tragedy. On Sunday, he blamed Hamas for the bloodbath. "We talked to them (Hamas) and we told them, 'please, we ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop", so that we could have avoided what happened." Was Mr. Abbas informed of the fact that Hamas hasn’t carried out one suicide bombing since 2005? Or that the ‘truce’ never compelled Israel to allow Palestinians in Gaza access to basic necessities and medicine? Or that it was Israel that attacked Gaza in early December, killing several people, claiming that it ‘obtained’ information of a secret Hamas plot? Even stranger that while Abbas has chosen such a position, many Israelis are not convinced that the war on Gaza was at all related to the Hamas’ rockets, and is in fact an election ploy for desperate politicians vying for Israel’s dominating right wing vote in the upcoming February elections. In fact, the Israeli design against Gaza had little to do with the ‘escalation’ of the rocket attacks of mid December. "Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces "Cast Lead" operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip," wrote the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz on December 28, which also revealed that the plan had been in effect for six months. "Like the US assault on Iraq and the Israeli response to the abduction of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser at the outset of the Second Lebanon War, little to no weight was apparently devoted to the question of harming innocent civilians," said Haaretz. And why should Israel devote a moment to the question of harming civilians or violating international law or any such seemingly irrelevant notions – as far as Israel is concerned - as long as their “Palestinian partners”, the Arab League, or the international community continue to teeter between silence, complacency, rhetoric and inaction? A doctor from a Khan Yunis clinic in Gaza told me on the phone, “scores of the wounded are clinically dead. Others are so badly disfigured; I felt that death is of greater mercy for them than living. We had no more room at the Qarara Clinic. Body parts cluttered the hallways. People screamed in endless agony and we had not enough medicine or pain killers. So we had to choose which ones to treat and which not to. In that moment I genuinely wished I was killed in the Israeli strikes myself, but I kept running trying to do something, anything.” Until Arab countries and nations translate their chants and condemnations into a practical and meaningful political action that can bring an end to the Israeli onslaughts against Palestinians, all that is likely to change are the numbers of dead and wounded. But still, one has to wonder if Israel kills a thousand more, ten thousand, or half of Gaza, will the US still blame Palestinians? Will Egypt open its Gaza border? Will Europe express the same “deep concern”? Will the Arabs issue the same redundant statements? Will things ever change? Ever? Ramzy Baroud is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers and journals worldwide. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London).
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