Israeli commander: "We rewrote the rules of war for Gaza"

The Independent gives reports of Israeli soldiers speaking of Operation Cast Lead..

"any movement must entail gunfire. No one's supposed to be there." He added that at a meeting with his brigade commander and others it was made clear that "if you see any signs of movement at all you shoot. This is essentially the rules of engagement."

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Blair: Gaza's great betrayer

It's more than a year since Israel launched its immoral attack on Gaza and Palestinians are still living on the verge of a humanitarian disaster. So what has Tony Blair done to further peace in the region? Virtually nothing, argues the historian Avi Shlaim

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Egypt's Two-Faced Gaza Policy

Egypt’s actions in Gaza have been a source of confusion for some time. Far from bureaucracy or misinformation this is part of a purposeful campaign of a two-faced regime.

Four factors uphold the Egypt authorities’ central role in the Gaza Strip.

First, the Egyptian regime aims to present Hamas as an example of the ineptitude of the Muslim Brotherhood to govern. Second, the regime’s acquiescence to American policies in the region entails a central emphasis on Israel’s “security.” Third, the importance of portraying Egypt as a principle mediator in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and thus a significant political player in the region. And finally, an attempt to maintain Egypt’s image of supporting the Palestinian cause.

Two days following the one-year anniversary of the beginning of Operation Cast Lead- the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Cairo for a closed meeting with Egyptian president Husni Mubarak. The visit acted as a confirmation of Egypt’s role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and especially in the siege of the Gaza Strip.

Egypt’s 80 million strong population is a force to be reckoned with and the Mubarak regime has no interest in having the masses up in arms about turmoil in the neighboring Gaza Strip. The timing of the Israeli premier’s visit means the regime is confident in where it stands vis-à-vis the Egyptian public. Revealing the methods of Egypt’s actions in the Palestinian enclave and its ensuing propaganda machine will help shed some light on its position in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In January 2006, the Egyptian regime was one of many governments not to recognize Hamas’s parliamentary election victory. While the supplanted Fateh government did accede to Hamas forming a new cabinet, president Mahmoud Abbas and his ring of confidants held on to their control over all PA security forces. Due to this condition of undefined authority, widespread violence prevailed in the following months between Palestinian factions and clans. In the Gaza Strip lawlessness started spiraling out of control.

During this period of internal struggle the Mubarak regime opened Egypt’s borders to weapon shipments from the USA intended for Muhammed Dahlan, the Palestinian president’s National Security Advisor. The controversial Fateh strongman was the mastermind behind much of the unrest on Gaza’s streets, funding and supplying with weapons dissidents willing to oppose the new Hamas authorities.

When the Gaza-based cabinet sensed an impending Dahlan-lead coup it reacted with force, taking control of PA police stations, intelligence and security forces headquarters. Though all these security apparatuses by Palestinian law fall under the jurisdiction of the PA Ministry of Interior, up until that moment Fateh had denied its rival authority over them. On the final day of Hamas’s four-day sweep of the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian military sent a ship off the coast of Gaza City for select Fateh escapees. The Egyptian authorities sheltered the Fateh members in Egypt while providing others safe passage to the West Bank.

Since that time the Egyptian regime has treated the Gaza Strip as a hostile entity. Following Hamas’s “takeover,” Israel intensified an already existent siege on the Palestinian enclave. What is often obscured is the fact that Egypt has full legal sovereignty over Gaza’s southern border and thus plays a part in the Israeli-lead blockade. All exports are prohibited via both Israeli and Egyptian controlled border crossings. Moreover, Israel has slowed the inflow of goods into Gaza to- Israeli- determined essentials- largely entailing limited international aid and select Israeli goods dumped onto Gaza’s captive market. The Mubarak regime, for its part, has opened its border to Gaza for international aid only under extreme external- never internal- pressure. During Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, with aid convoys amassing on its border, goods entered at a trickle.

Eventually, Egyptian authorities re-routed aid through the Karem Abu Salim crossing, where Israeli “inspection” implied the Israeli military determined every item that would and would not enter. Counter to Egyptian government claims, the regime has complete sovereignty over its border crossing with the Gaza Strip, yet coordinates closely with Israeli authorities.

Thus, the Mubarak regime allowed for the opening of the Rafah border crossing when it sent arms shipments to Fateh- with Israeli approval. Furthermore, the Egyptian authorities opened the border under particular international pressure created by the likes of the Viva Palestina convoys, which provided the Egyptian government with fodder to claim their professed pro-Palestinian stance. During Operation Cast Lead, the Egyptian regime likewise opened its border crossing with the primary purpose of portraying itself in line with a claimed historic tradition of standing by the Palestinians in times of crisis.

The recent construction of a steel wall 30 meters under the ground along the Egypt-Gaza border is a further stage of the Egyptian authorities conceding to collective punishment on Gaza’s population. Initially Egyptian government sources responded to reports of the wall’s existence as “baseless,” claiming that the regime “is dealing with smuggling seriously and is capable of stopping it without this wall.” Eventually the Egyptian president conceded to the barrier’s construction as a prevention of "threats to national security." The wall, built by the Egyptian firm Arab Contractors with foreign funding, includes pipes that delve deep into the earth with the assumed purpose of flooding existent tunnels.

The steel wall is likely to have devastating environmental effects on agricultural land on either side of the barrier. If successful at preventing tunnels, the wall could cut Gaza’s final economic lifeline. The tunnels are used primarily to import everything from clothes, household items like tea glasses, coffee and spices to car spare parts, gas and medicine.

If the Egyptian government succeeds in preventing such vital inflows, the wall will be a case in point of the Egyptian regime’s political efforts. By joining the Israeli authorities in collectively punishing the Gaza Strip’s entire population the Egyptian authorities reveal themselves to be a key component of an Israeli undertaking to choke Hamas’s opposition to Israeli colonial expansion. The Egyptian regime is complying with its American ally’s demands, as well as trying to position itself as a political heavyweight in a region. With growing opposition- not from Israel- but from the likes of Syria, Iran and Qatar, Egypt’s regime wants to hold on to its historic regional hegemony.

Cynically, Egypt’s Foreign Minister reported that in Netanyahu and Mubarak’s meeting on January 29th, the Egyptians had requested Israel, to “take many internal steps to lift the pressure off of Palestinians.”

The Egyptians for their part have no interest in doing so.

Gazans Cheer On Egyptians; Egypt Locks Up Gazans

Friday night Egypt beat Algeria 4:0.

Walking past Talat Harb square in downtown Cairo I saw a circle of policemen standing idly by as the masses took over the streets.

In Le Comte bar later that night, Waheed the bartender tells me, all is well in Egypt.. never mind the excessive economic gap between rich and poor, never mind that the only time the Egyptian public can let out any emotions is over football, any other form outcry or uprising results in police brutality and torture.

Meanwhile in Gaza, despite the Egyptian regime further caging in its neighbors and selling subsidized natural gas to the Zionist occupation, Gazans cheer on their neighbors.

This from a friend in Gaza City..

enjoyed watching the football game between Algeria vs Egypt ,GAZANs WAY: that's mean all gaza were watching the game -suppurating the Egyptian team- using generators bcz they DON'T HAVE ELECTRICITY,but the funny thing the generator-at the coffee shop where i was watching-was over from the fuel 3 minutes before the end o...f the game:(yes its sad,but despite that gazans went in the dark celebrating the Egyptian victory!

Shame on the criminal Egyptian regime.

Israeli Female Soldiers..

Breaking the Silence.

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Joseph Massad: Oslo: Imploding the Palestinian State

Despite its surface appearance as a political compromise, this formula [Oslo] is in fact a reflection of the racial views characterizing (European Jewish) Israelis and Palestinian and other Arabs.

...

A resumption of steady funding continued after Arafat's death conditional upon Mahmoud Abbas's "seriousness" in pointing Palestinian guns at the Palestinians themselves, which he and the PA's thuggish security apparatuses have done. However, they have not been as effective as the US and Israel had wished, which is why US General Keith Dayton is assuming full control of the military situation on the ground in order to "assist" the Palestinians to deliver their peace part of the bargain to Israel.

Read on at Electronic Intifada

Egypt's Police Day

Last night I asked a policeman on my street why he was working, wasn't it national police day?

"This is not a celebration for us, its for the people at the top," he said.

There are two versions to the story, you choose which to believe:

You can either celebrate with torture or with candy.

You pick your illusions.

Ramzy Baroud: My Father Was a Freedom Fighter

Friend and author Ramzy Baroud on the untold story of Gaza...

"Ramzy Baroud has written a deeply moving chronicle of the persisting Palestinian ordeal that manages to interweave and bring to life the heart-wrenching experience of his family, particularly the heroics of his father, with the daily cruelties of the prolonged Israeli occupation of Gaza, the frequent horrors of refugee existence, and the disillusioning futility of seeking an end to a bloody conflict that goes on and on. This book more than any I have read tells me why anyone of conscience must stand in solidarity with the continuing struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination and a just peace."

-- Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University, and Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestinian Territories, UN Human Rights Council

"Ramzy Baroud provides a riveting account of his father's life and a compelling narrative of his people's history. It is the story of Exodus, but told from the view of the Palestinians on shore as the ship arrived. A narrative we have listened to time and again over sweet tea in Gaza, it is available now to those who cannot travel to Palestine. This book should be read by all who struggle to understand the Middle East and to find passage to a just peace in the region."

-- Cindy and Craig Corrie, The Rachel Corrie Foundation

My Father Was A Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story is the latest book by Palestinian-American journalist, author, and former Al-Jazeera producer Ramzy Baroud. Baroud is Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Chronicle, and his work has been published in hundreds of newspapers and journals worldwide. His 2002 book, Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion has received international recognition. His 2006 book, The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle (Pluto Press, London) has won the praise of many scholars worldwide.

But it from Pluto or Amazon

Beirut: Protest Against Egypt's Wall of Shame

A woman holds her shoe to the Egyptian embassy. A poster in the background reads: 'The high one built the high dam, the low one built the low dam.' It refers to former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser building the Aswan Dam and current Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak building the underground wall in the Sinai to stop the tunnel trade with Gaza. (image: matthew cassel)

Jamiel Jam writes on a 500 strong protest in Beirut Saturday against Mubarak's Wall of Shame:

After an hour of loud, energetic anti Mubarak chanting the Lebanese army had heard enough. The response was pre-meditated and brutal. The steel fence separating the hostile soldiers from the protests was drawn away and the batons began to be swung everywhere. There was no consideration to age or gender whilst the soldiers pierced the crowd by smashing anybody in their way.

The crowd retreated 20 meters but were not going to give up on their protest. In fact the casualties only gave more reason to continue. Amoungst the injured I saw one woman had one side of her head saturated with blood, blood which had seeped through her hair. Unable to walk and in a state of shock she was rushed away from the emotionless thugs.

Israel Determining Gaza's "Minimum" Level of Nutritional Subsistence?

On October 28 2009 Israeli Human Rights organization Gisha filed a case at an Israeli District Court calling for Israel to explain its policy on its siege on Gaza.

Gisha required an answer for the sporadic way that Israel runs the siege on Gaza. They demanded what criteria exist for the definition of "humanitarian" goods and how the list is determined on what is and is not permitted into Gaza.

In court again on January 21 the presiding judge was not pleased with the Israeli state spokesman's response who had claimed that a document on "red lines" that defines "minimum" nutritional subsistence levels for Gazans did not exist.

Guy Inbar, the spokesman of the Israeli Coordinator of Activities in the Territories wrote, "the office of the Coordinator of Activities examines the requirements of the Gaza population all the time"- like a prison warden.

The judge gave the occupying state 30 days to provide an explanation on how they are "putting Palestinians on a diet."