Palestinian mourners on Monday (December 29)

McKinney relief boat hit by Israeli ship

Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, standing beside a damaged yacht, Tuesday accused the Israeli navy of ramming the vessel to halt the delivery of medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip.

“Our mission was a peaceful mission,” McKinney told CNN after she and 15 others aboard the boat made it safely to the harbor in the Lebanese seaport of Tyre.

McKinney, the recent Green Party candidate for U.S. president and frequent center of controversy, is the most prominent political figure to join the relief voyages sponsored by the Free Gaza Movement.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Americans Should Act to End Violence Against Gaza

Israel's crimes against the Palestinians simply could not take place on such a massive scale were it not for US support. The American people, therefore, have a responsibility to act and pressure their government to end its financial, military, and diplomatic support for Israeli violations of international law -- a necessary first step towards any viable and sustainable peace.

By Jeremy R. Hammond

Israel's onslaught on Gaza is a crime that cannot succeed

The US-backed attempt to bring Hamas to heel by overwhelming force is in fact more likely to boost the movement's appeal

As Israeli journalist Amos Harel wrote in Ha'aretz at the weekend, "little or no weight was apparently devoted to the question of harming innocent civilians", as in US operations in Iraq. Among those killed in the first wave of strikes were eight teenage students waiting for a bus and four girls from the same family in Jabaliya, aged one to 12 years old.

www.guardian.co.uk

Israel’s warped self-justification for murder

Paul J. Balles exposes Israel’s warped definition of self-defence, which it uses as a cover for its murder of innocent Palestinians, including women and children, and its destruction of universities, mosques and other civilian infrastructure in the occupied Gaza Strip.

Israel brazenly lies, saying that Hamas broke the cease-fire when it was Israel that broke the cease-fire in November.

In Haaretz, Zvi Barel writes: "Six months ago Israel asked and received a cease-fire from Hamas. It unilaterally violated it when it blew up a tunnel, while still asking Egypt to get the Islamic group to hold its fire."

Israel continues its propaganda, claiming that its attack on Gaza is in self-defence.

The Huffington Post reports, "A mother whose three school-age children were killed, and are piled one on top of the other in the morgue, screams and then cries, screams again and then is silent."

Self-defence?

redress.cc

Can there be any doubt who the real terrorists are?

US definition fits perfectly

Stuart Littlewood calls on Western leaders to pull the plug on Israel until it conforms to international law and the will of the United Nations, pulls back behind the 1967 border and strictly observes the principles of universal human rights. Otherwise, they “risk a mighty moral backlash from ordinary people, who are beginning to learn the awful truth”.

The patience of all decent men must surely be exhausted.

Today’s [27 December] slaughter of innocents in Gaza, with at least 230 reported killed in raids on “Hamas terror operatives” (as the Israeli military put it), amounted to “a mass execution”, said Hamas.

The killing spree couldn’t have happened without the tacit approval of America, Britain and the European Union. The political pea-brains that direct the pro-Israel Western alliance were partying, gorging themselves on Christmas fare or binge-shopping while this massacre of hungry women and children and their despairing menfolk in Gaza was being planned and executed.

According to the US's own definition of terrorism Israel is squarely in the frame. Under Section 3 of Executive Order 13224 "Blocking Property and prohibiting Transactions with Persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support Terrorism", the term “terrorism” means an activity that:

(i) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; and
(ii) appears to be intended

• to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
• to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
• to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, kidnapping, or hostage-taking.

Redress.com

Kucinich Calls for UN Investigation into Israeli Attacks on Gaza

Cleveland congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is now calling for a United Nations investigation to attacks on Gaza by Israel. Kucinich also criticized Israel for what he deems a disproportionate response to Hamas rocket attacks, standing in stark contrast to other House Democrats that have offered nearly unanimous support for Israel.

Leading Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California), have blamed Hamas for the most recent violence in the Middle East that has left more than 300 dead in Gaza. Meanwhile, just one individual in Israel has been killed by a Hamas rocket.

The Cleveland Leader

The National Lawyers Guild Condemns Illegal Israeli Massacre

The National Lawyers Guild Condemns Illegal Israeli Massacre of over 300 Gazans, Calls for Ceasefire and Urges Participation in Protests
New York. The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) condemns Israel's massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip which has left over 300 dead and 1,400 wounded, with the tolls mounting. The Israeli Air Force dropped more than 100 bombs in dozens of locations throughout the Gaza Strip as children left school on Saturday. The dead include men, women and children in school uniforms.

National Lawyers Guild

If Americans Knew

Arabs rally against Israeli raids

Thousands of people in the Arab world have attended rallies to express anger at Israel's air raids on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Protesters burned Israeli and American flags in a string of Arab cities and demanded a stronger response from their leaders to Israel's "aggression".

BBC

Violent protests at Israeli Embassy in London

Violent confrontations broke out at the Israeli Embassy in London today as up to 1,500 protesters against Israel's Gaza campaign gathered in a vociferous demonstration.

Campaign supporters, Palestinians and British Muslims stood on the pavement of High Street Kensington, west London, and chanted in unison: “Five, six, seven, eight - Israel is a terror state.”

Timesonline UK

Gaza's hospitals struggle with casualties - 28 Dec 08

Hamas press conference after Israeli Gaza strikes - 27 Dec 08

Palestinians agree to 24-hour lull

Hamas and other factions have agreed to halt the firing of rockets into Israel for 24 hours to allow aid to be delivered to Gaza, a Hamas official has said.

An Egyptian convoy carrying food and medical supplies worth $1m is expected to be let into the Gaza Strip, after Hamas agreed to the unilateral temporary Egypt-mediated truce on Monday.

by Aljazeera