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Thread: Today's Top Islamic News (DAILY)

  1. #101
    2008 and the Palestinian cause
    Ahmad Sabri & Hidayah Abbas | Arab News


    The year 2008 started with an Israeli-Egyptian cooperation that stopped the people of Gaza traveling to Makkah to perform the pilgrimage. It was a year that began with the killing of a 40-year-old woman, who had just come back from Haj, at an Israeli checkpoint in Gaza and ended with killing of more than 400 innocent people.

    If we remember, 2008 also started with the promise of a Palestinian state — a promise described by well-known thinker and columnist Fahmi Howaidi as “the New Year’s lie.” The year ended with the same promise/lie but in a much bloodier way.

    The biggest tragedy of 2008 was Gaza. Half of last year was spent in cease-fire, and in the 180 days of this so-called truce, Israel broke the terms roughly more than 180 times, killing and injuring many civilians. Gaza was and still is under a siege that caused the death of approximately 200 patients who suffered from lack of medicines and the absence of electricity that run the machines that keep them alive. Although it was described by the UN humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes as “unwarranted” and as a “collective punishment of the people of Gaza,” the siege remains. Holmes also talked about the Israeli attacks clearly as “action(s) against the people in Gaza (that) cannot be justified, even by those (Palestinian) rocket attacks.” Holmes and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Israel to end its closure of Gaza Strip, but Israel, as usual, defied the international will. Holmes declared in January that Gaza “is a (humanitarian) crisis already” even though he said this when the situation was much better. From that time things got much worse in the world’s most crowded area (1.5 million in 360 km square area) and the deputy head of Israel’s mission to the UN, Daniel Carmon, had no shame to confess at the time that he and his government are “very much aware of the humanitarian situation in Gaza.” By the end of the year, the UN’s Human Rights Council monitor Richard Falk said the UN must “implement the agreed norm of a responsibility to protect a civilian population being collectively punished by policies that amount to a crime against humanity.” He added: “The consequences of this blockade are felt by the ordinary population, not by those who are deciding to fire rockets, or allowing rockets to be fired, or actually firing them.”

    Although Falk also said that it would seem “mandatory” that the UN’s International Criminal Court investigate Israel’s policies in regard to the Palestinians, nothing of the sort happened or is likely to happen anytime soon, and the criminals are very likely to walk freely and happily for a long time. The Israeli government has faced a level of criticism by “normally cautious UN officials not seen since the heyday of South African apartheid,” Falk said, but we wonder if the world will move against the Israeli regime and save lives and stop the aggression. Actually Falk was the one that got stopped and expelled by the Israeli government at the end of last year.

    Collective punishment is a well-known tool of global terrorism. It aims basically to harm people who are not responsible in order to change their political views and to push them toward putting pressure on those who are. Holmes recognized this Israeli attempt when he said: “The idea that somehow it’s going to turn the people of Gaza against Hamas or at least stimulate them to rise up against Hamas and throw them out I think is not well founded.” If these last days of 2008 carried a massacre, we should not forget that it is an offspring of several terrorist threats and acts. A highlight of this year’s terrorist campaign against Gaza was Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai’s statement threatening the people of Gaza with something bigger than the “holocaust” of Hitler.

    2008 had a symbolic importance as well. It was the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel.

    2008 held unpleasant surprises too. Despite the fact that the UN resolutions dealt with the refugee crisis and their right to return, Israel’s top officials said in a crystal clear tone that they will not allow “one single refugee” to return home, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that there will be no place for Arabs in Israel after a Palestinian state is established.

    That was shortly after a campaign against Arab citizens in Acre who — unlike the majority of Israelis — didn’t stay at their homes on a Jewish religious day. All of this came few months after the chief rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu, called for a massive revenge, declaring, “It’s time to call the child by its name: Revenge, revenge, revenge. We mustn’t forget. We have to take horrible revenge for the terrorist attack at Mercaz Harav yeshiva” referring to the incident in which eight Israelis were killed, and — as always — calling for “hanging the children of the terrorist who carried out the attack in the Mercaz Harav yeshiva from a tree.”

    Back to Livni who made another criminal statement in 2008 by calling the Israeli judicial system to order the confiscation of Palestinian government money to give it to the Israelis who were harmed in Palestinian attacks.

    But during 2008, probably not a single statement stood against international law, as did Olmert’s. The Israeli prime minister announced that he will not accept any peace initiative that forces Israel to withdraw to the borders of June 5, 1967 — a withdrawal that according to the UN decisions must have started and finished 41 years ago. This is a main condition in the Arab peace initiative which Israel gave signs of accepting last year.

    2008 for the Palestinians was a year of terrorist threats and attacks, a year of collective punishment, settlement expansion, Israel challenging and contradicting international laws, rising hate crimes and international silence.

    To our eternal shame, 2008 was the year of Arab indifference to the plight of the people of Gaza.

    — Ahmad Sabri and Hidayah Abbas are Saudi students based in Jeddah.

  2. #102
    WASHINGTON — An American airline has apologized for a Muslim family who were booted off a domestic flight to Florida over a chat about the "safest" seats in the plane. "We regret that the issue escalated to the heightened security level it did," AirTran Airways said in the statement.

    "But we trust everyone understands that the security and the safety of our passengers is paramount."

    A nine-member Muslim family were removed from a domestic flight to Orlando, Florida, as they chatted about their seats in the plane.

    Two passengers overheard the talk and reported as "suspicious" to the pilot, who ordered the flight postponed and the plane evacuated.

    "I read in an article that the best place to sit in an airplane is in the back," Inayet Shahin told IslamOnline, recalling the chat while walking through the aisles to get their seats.

    "No, I heard that the best place to sit is in the wing," her brother-in-law replied.

    As they settled in their seats, they noticed two other passengers walking back and forth.

    "They were looking at us funny," Shahin said.

    Just a few minutes later, two federal air marshals walked up to the family and other Muslim passengers and asked them to get off.

    They were later surrounded by police officers.

    "We were put on display," recalled Shahin.

    "They lined us up outside and put us in a spot so that everyone would see us."

    Ordeal

    The Muslim family were detained and taken for interrogation for two hours.

    "We were surrounded by dogs and my children two, four, and seven started crying," said Shahin.

    "They wouldn't even let us get food."

    After interrogation, federal authorities cleared the Muslim family of wrongdoing.

    The FBI and AirTrans characterized the incident as a "misunderstanding".

    However, the American airline refused to rebook the Muslim passengers, who paid for seats on another carrier.

    America's main Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the incident would not have occurred had the Muslim passengers not had beards and hijabs.

    "This is what sparked the incident," Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR communications director told IOL.

    "They were Muslim and had a darker skin complexion."

    In 2006, six imams were removed from a domestic flight for what passengers considered suspicious behavior.

    They were removed from the flight, handcuffed and detained in the airport for questioning for over five hours.

    Since 9/11, American Muslims, estimated between six to seven million, have become sensitized to an erosion of their civil rights, with a prevailing belief that America was targeting their faith.

    Source: IslamOnline

  3. #103
    UNSC fails to halt Israeli raids on Gaza
    Sun, 04 Jan 2009 04:34:20 GMT
    The UN Security Council has again failed to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to due to the intervention of the US.

    The Council ended its meeting late Saturday without reaching the agreement, an agreement on a statement about Gaza crisis, the French ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said according to AFP.

    "There was no formal agreement between member states but I have noted strong convergences about our concern at the escalation of violence and the deterioration of the situation and strong convergences on our call for an immediate, durable and respected ceasefire," Ripert told reporters after the meeting.

    The previous UN resolution draft seeking an end to the violence in the region was blocked by Washington.

    Last Sunday, the US rejected a resolution calling for an end to the massive Israeli air raids against the Gaza Strip.

    The development comes as the Israeli army broadened its military campaign by launching a ground offensive into the impoverished region last night.

    The US, a staunch ally to Israel, has so far vetoed over 40 anti-Israeli resolutions sought by the council since 1972.

    Since 2004, Washington has prevented the adoption of four other resolutions that called for Tel Aviv to halt its operations in the Gaza Strip.

  4. #104
    Civilians bear brunt of attack
    Arab News



    CHILDREN IN ISRAEL’S CROSSHAIRS: A Palestinian child wounded in Israeli shelling is wheeled into a hospital in Gaza City on Sunday. (AFP)


    GAZA CITY: Dozens of civilians were killed yesterday as the Israeli war machine rolled on in the Gaza Strip. The invading Israeli forces bisected the heavily populated strip and surrounded the main city.

    Hamas activists fought the advancing Israeli troops with mortars and rockets and said they had captured two soldiers. The Israeli military did not confirm that but said one soldier had been killed and 32 wounded in the ground offensive.

    At least 45 Palestinians, almost all civilians, were killed by tank shells or missiles fired from warplanes since the ground offensive began Saturday night.

    Over 500 Palestinians have died in Israel’s nine-day war on Gaza. “The number of martyrs has reached at least 500, including 87 children, and more than 2,450 have been wounded,” Moawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza medical emergency services, said.

    “The number of the dead can be much higher, since there are many martyrs and wounded in the streets, but we have not been able to get to them,” he said.

    Thousands of soldiers in three brigade-size formations pushed into Gaza on Saturday night, beginning a long-awaited ground offensive after a week of intense aerial bombardment. Black smoke billowed over Gaza City at first light as bursts of machine-gun fire rang out.

    The invasion and live images of the fighting in Gaza drew international condemnations, but Israel won US backing and moves for an immediate cease-fire foundered at the United Nations.

    British Prime Minister Gordon Brown echoed grave European concerns when he said the ground offensive was a “very dangerous moment” in the conflict, and he called for increased efforts to rapidly secure a cease-fire.

    The offensive was condemned across the Middle East, with Egypt saying the UN Security Council’s silence on Israel’s eight-day campaign had effectively given Israel “a green light” for the ground assault.

    Asian nations expressed alarm, too, with Pakistan and China calling for an immediate end to the assault and Muslims in Indonesia urging war against the Jewish state.

    An Iranian military commander called on Muslim countries to cut oil exports to Israel’s supporters. The official IRNA news agency quoted Commander Bagherzadeh describing oil as a commodity that could put pressure on Israel’s European and American backers in the “unequal war” faced by the Palestinians.

    But in New York, the Security Council failed to agree on a statement calling for a cease-fire after the United States argued that a return to the situation that existed before Israel’s ground invasion was unacceptable.

    US Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said after the four-hour sitting that Washington believed it was important that the region “not return to the status quo” that had allowed Hamas to fire rockets into Israel.

    Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres, who is also Israel’s president, ruled out a cease-fire and said: “We don’t intend either to occupy Gaza or to crush Hamas, but to crush terror. And Hamas needs a real and serious lesson. They are now getting it.”

    — With input from agencies

  5. #105
    UNITED NATIONS — The US thwarted on Sunday, January 4, a UN Security Council statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, insisting a return to the situation that existed before Israel's ground invasion was unacceptable. "The efforts we are making internationally are designed to establish a sustainable, durable ceasefire that's respected by all," US deputy envoy Alejandro Wolff told reporters after the consultations.

    "And that means no more rocket attacks. It means no more smuggling of arms."

    After nearly four hours of closed-door consultations, members of the council emerged without reaching agreement that would have asked Israel and Hamas to end eight-day hostilities.

    A draft statement submitted by Libya on behalf of the Arab League had expressed "serious concern" about the ground invasion and called on the parties "to observe an immediate ceasefire and for its full respect".

    It made no mention of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, angering Washington.

    Wolff said his country believes it was important that the region "not return to the status quo" that had allowed Hamas to fire rockets into Israel.

    Israeli infantry backed up by Merkava tanks and Apache helicopters poured into Gaza late on Saturday, January 3, after eight days of massive strikes that have claimed the lives of at least 460 Palestinians, including more than 100 women and children.

    The Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian resistance fighters and fierce battles raged in four spots in the north, around Gaza City, Beit Hanun, Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya.

    The Israeli army has admitted that thirty soldiers have been wounded, including two severely, in the fighting.

    Sad Day

    Libyan Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi said the impasse had produced "a sad day for the Security Council" as it failed once again "to voice its outrage at the escalation of the situation in Gaza."

    Permanent Palestinian observer at the UN Riyad Mansour warned that if the Israeli assault is not stopped immediately, thousands more Palestinian civilians will be killed and injured.

    "This is immoral, this is illegal, this is unacceptable, and the Security Council cannot continue to sit on its hands and not force Israel to comply with its position, the position that it adopted on Sunday morning."

    UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto of Nicaragua called the Israeli incursion "a monstrosity."

    "And once again, the world is watching in dismay the dysfunctionality of the Security Council."

    As Israel's closest ally, Washington has regularly vetoed Security Council resolutions it sees as too critical of Israel.

    On Thursday, January 1, it blocked a legally binding resolution that would have condemned Israel's massive airstrikes against Gaza, a coastal enclave of nearly 1.6 million.

    In Cairo, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa criticized the Security Council, saying the delay in agreeing on a resolution was proof of failure to handle the conflict.

    "The continuation of…the international community and the Security Council ignoring this situation is a very dangerous thing."

    French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the UN Security Council presidency this month, had condemned the Israeli ground operation.

    "This dangerous military escalation complicates the efforts undertaken by the international community, in particular the EU and France, the members of the Quartet, and the states in the region to stop the fighting, bring immediate aid to civilians and find a permanent ceasefire."

    Source: IslamOnline

  6. #106
    White phosphorus added to Israeli fire
    Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:06:05 GMT
    White phosphorus is classified as 'chemical weapon' by the US intelligence. Tel Aviv had previously used white phosphorus during the 2006 war with Lebanon.
    Israel is using controversial white phosphorus shells to push forward with a ground offensive against the densely-populated Gaza Strip.

    White phosphorus, classified as 'chemical weapon' by the US intelligence, can cause horrific burns and severe injuries in anyone exposed to the element released from artillery shells.

    "The explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in," an Israeli security expert was quoted by the Times Online.

    The shells were used by the artillery on Gaza City on Sunday, as Israeli tanks and ground forces pushed further into the region, tightening military grip on the city.

    At least 555 Palestinians have been killed and some 2,790 have been wounded since December 27, when Tel Aviv began its military campaign on Gaza.

    Earlier Sunday, Dr. Mads Gilbert, a member of a Norwegian triage medical team in Gaza, told Press TV that the medics have found depleted uranium in some Gaza residents.

    The Gaza Strip, one of the world's densely-populated areas, has been under an Israeli blockade since the Hamas movement won a majority in the 2006 Palestinian election and took control of the area in mid-June 2007.

    According to Times Online, the use of unconventional weapons in Gaza is likely to ignite more controversy over the methods the Israeli army uses.

    Tel Aviv had previously used white phosphorus during the 2006 war with Lebanon.

    Israel says its latest military campaign aims to force Hamas to stop its rocket attacks on southern Israel.

    Hamas has reportedly said it would stop retaliatory attacks if Tel Aviv lifts the 18-month blockade of the coastal sliver.

    The Bush administration has expressed its support for the ongoing military campaign, saying Israel was provoked by Hamas.

    Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that the Hamas movement has held hostage the Palestinians who live in Gaza and have had "a very bad daily life."

    Congressman Ron Paul has, however, decried the Israeli raids, rejecting the idea that Hamas is threatening Tel Aviv's security; "Palestinian missiles are so minor compared to the fire power of Israel, who has nuclear weapons."

    World leaders, meanwhile, have called for an immediate halt in the attacks on Gaza.

    MD/HGH

  7. #107
    Israeli fighters penetrate into Lebanon
    Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:37:14 GMT
    Israeli warplanes have reportedly overflown southern Lebanon amid speculation that Tel Aviv may be seeking to provoke Hezbollah.

    The warplanes overflew the Lebanese port city of Sidon on Tuesday morning, a Press TV correspondent reported.

    Tel Aviv has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of making preparations to attack Israel to avenge the murder of its commander Imad Mughniyeh.

    Mughniyeh was killed in a car bomb attack in Damascus last year.

    This comes as Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Hoballah has affirmed that the Lebanese movement has no intention to go to war despite "the recent propaganda against it".

    He warned, however, that Hezbollah would defend Lebanon if Israel were to invade his country.

    Tel Aviv launched a massive onslaught against the Gaza Strip on December 27 and put its army personnel stationed along the Lebanese border on high alert earlier this week.

    Israeli forces crossed the border into the Gaza Strip late Saturday night and launched a ground incursion into the densely populated region. The offensive has so far left over 584 Palestinians killed and 3000 others wounded.

    SB/AA

  8. #108
    New Israeli strike kills 48 in UN school
    Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:51:02 GMT
    At least 48 people have been killed in a new Israeli attack on a school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip.

    Palestinian medics said most of the victims were people who had taken refuge inside the school, in the northern town of Jabaliya, on Tuesday.

    More than 100 people were also wounded in the strike.

    Earlier in the day, Israeli forces hit two UN-run schools, one of which was crowded with refugees, in the Gaza Strip.

    Israel has launched a massive military campaign on Gaza, one of the most densely-populated areas in the world, to stop the rocket attacks on southern Israel.

    As the result of ten days of uninterrupted fighting, the situation of Gaza civilians is "extreme and traumatic", said head of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Pierre Kraehenbuehl.

    In retaliation, Hamas, the democratically-elected government of Gaza, has continued its attacks on Israeli cities and towns, killing 13 Israeli and wounding dozens.

    The fighting has created a chaos in Gaza, where hospitals are under-equipped as the result of an 18-month Israeli blockade on the impoverished region.

    A senior UN official said, after visiting a Gaza hospital on Tuesday, the "horrific tragedy" in the region is getting "worse moment after moment".

    I'm shocked by what I've seen and heard, this is the point where the inhumanity is visible and shocking in terms of the nature of injuries, the brutality of the injuries the scale of the injuries," said John Ging, who heads the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA.

    The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since the Hamas movement won a majority in the 2006 Palestinian election and took control of the area in mid-June 2007.

  9. #109
    US, Israeli leaders must be tried at ICC: Chavez
    Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:02:18 GMT
    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said US and Israeli leaders must be tried at the International Criminal Court so the world's collective conscience can rest in peace.

    Israel is carrying out a holocaust in Gaza, Chavez added.

    According to Prensa Latina, Chavez told reporters that the international community needs to take US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to court for killing civilians.

    The Venezuelan president denounced Washington and accused the US and some of its allies of hypocrisy for criticizing Hamas for defending the Palestinians suffering under the relentless Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

    Chavez said the United States wants to eliminate Hamas, "but not the Israeli prime minister. He is defending his people. How cynical!"

    At least 660 people have been killed and 2,950 wounded during the current Israeli attack in Gaza.

    ARQN/HGL

  10. #110
    Israel to expel Venezuelan ambassador
    Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:35:56 GMT
    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
    Israel has warned that it will expel the Venezuelan charge d'affaires in response to the expulsion of its ambassador to Caracas.

    "We obviously will take retaliatory measures and will expel the Venezuelan charge d'affaires in Tel Aviv" foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP on Wednesday.

    The top Venezuelan diplomat in Israel is its charge d'affaires.

    On Tuesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled the Israeli ambassador in a show of solidarity with the besieged Gazans who endure deadly Israeli strikes on a daily basis.

    "How far will the Israeli barbarism go?" Chavez asked in a televised speech on Tuesday.

    "The president of Israel should be taken before an international court together with the president of the United States, if the world had any conscience," he added.

    Chavez also urged the people of Israel to "stand up" against the government, saying Israel has brought about the "new holocaust".

    On Tuesday, Israeli strikes hit three UN-run school in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, killing at least 48 civilians there who had been given shelter inside the schools.

    So far the Israeli aggression has killed over 660 Palestinians, half of whom are women and children. More than 2,950 others have been wounded and many are feared to be under the rubble.

    The recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the latest of a series which began when world powers created Israel in 1948 under the Zionist slogan of a 'land without a people and a people without a land'.

    The establishment of Israel in the Middle East was carried out in compensation for the hardships and suffering imposed on the Jews of Europe due to anti-Semitism in the continent.

    Zionists benefited by gaining power over the native land of the Palestinians, but the establishment and the subsequent terror attacks against the Palestinian population gave rise to the philosophy of resistance and in recent years armed retaliation.

    According to Tel Aviv, however, the war on Gaza is aimed at ending rocket attacks against Israeli settlers, toppling Hamas and preventing the resistance group from rearming.

    Hamas, on the other hand, demands a cessation of Israeli attacks and the opening of the Gaza border -- which has been closed due to the 18-month blockade imposed on the strip by Tel Aviv.

    MSH/AA

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