THE US IS STUPID ENOUGH TO GIVE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO ARAB NATIONS WHO WANT TO DESTROY THE U.S AND ISRAEL. DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?????
Thousands protest against Gaza blockade JAN 25,08
AMMAN (AFP) - More than 3,000 people held an anti-Israeli and anti-US protest in the centre of the Jordanian capital on Friday against Israel's more than week-long blockade of the Gaza Strip. God is the greatest, and America is the enemy of God, chanted the demonstrators, in a protest called by Jordan's opposition parties, including the Islamic Action Front, and trade unions.God is the greatest, and Israel is the enemy of God, rang out from the protesters, who carried Jordanian and Palestinian flags, and burnt those of Israel and its ally, the United States.Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have poured into Egypt to stock up on desperately needed supplies since the Palestinian territory's border with Egypt was blasted open on Tuesday night.US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called on Egypt to control its border as Israel defended its week-old Gaza lockdown that has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished Hamas-ruled territory.
In Doha, thousands of Qataris and expatriates demonstrated after the weekly Friday prayer in mosques against the Israeli army's raids, with participants chanting slogans in support of Hamas.Oh (Ismail) Haniya, Oh (Mahmud) Zahar... You are the sword, we are the fire, chanted the protestors in support of the Hamas leadership besieged in Gaza. We are ready to fuel the lanterns of Gaza with our blood.
Hamas challenges Egypt's bid to close Gaza border By Nidal al-Mughrabi JAN 25,08
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Egypt started to close its breached border with the Gaza Strip on Friday but Palestinian militants bulldozed a new opening in a challenge to Cairo and Israel's blockade of the Hamas-run territory. Palestinian crowds cheered as Hamas militants used a bulldozer to flatten sections of the chain and concrete fence. In a scene broadcast live on television around the world, Egyptian riot police watched from a distance as hundreds of people poured into Egypt.Tens of thousands of Gaza Palestinians have been pouring into Egypt stock up on food and fuel in short supply because of an Israeli blockade since militants blew up a border wall on Wednesday.The fall of the Rafah wall punched a new hole in a U.S.-backed campaign to curb the clout of Hamas and strengthen Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, nearly eight months after the Islamist group routed Abbas's Fatah forces in Gaza.
Pressed by the United States and Israel to take control of the situation, Egyptian forces in riot gear lined the border and began placing barbed wire and chain-link fences to prevent more Gazans from entering Egyptian soil.Egyptian security forces told the crowd over loudspeakers that the border would close at 3 p.m. (8 a.m. EST), but a security source said orders had yet to be given to fully seal the area.Tensions flared as some Palestinians threw stones at the police, who responded with batons and water cannon.
I have two brothers still inside Egypt. They should not close the border until everyone returns, said one Palestinian stone thrower, 20-year-old Mohammed al-Masri.The Egyptian government faces a difficult balancing act. It does not want to be seen as aiding Israel in its blockade of Gaza, but it fears the spread of Islamist influence and the effects of becoming home to so many undocumented Palestinians.Israel said it had tightened its Gaza blockade last week to counter cross-border rocket fire, but after an international outcry, fuel and aid supplies were partially restored.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in an interview to be published on Saturday, urged Hamas and Fatah to end their differences and invited both sides to meet for talks in Cairo.Abbas, who is also leader of Fatah, has been seeking U.S. and Israeli support to take over control of all of the border crossings, a move Hamas hopes to prevent.
STANDOFF AT BORDER
By challenging Egyptian efforts to re-close the Gaza border, Hamas hoped to win assurances from Cairo that it would have a say in any future agreement to oversee the border crossings, including the one with Egypt at Rafah, Hamas sources say.Israeli officials said Abbas, whose authority is largely limited to the West Bank, planned to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday, seeking support for controlling the crossings and for renewed peace talks despite the setbacks.Citing the breach in Gaza's southern border, some top Israeli officials have advocated cutting Israel's remaining links with the coastal territory and putting the onus on Egypt.Hamas sources said the group decided to open a new section in the border fence to increase pressure on Egypt.We insist and urge our Egyptian brothers that there must be a mechanism to allow the passage of people and goods through the Rafah crossing in a legal and organized manner, Hamas government spokesman Taher al-Nono said. Israel, which occupied Gaza in 1967, pulled troops and settlers out in 2005, but it still controls the strip's northern and eastern borders, airspace and coastal waters. Earlier on Friday, Israel killed four Palestinian militants in an overnight air strike on Rafah. Violence has also flared in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian teenager one day after militants killed an Israeli border policeman and infiltrated a Jewish settlement near Bethlehem. Hamas's armed wing claimed responsibility for the infiltration in which the two Palestinian attackers were killed. (Additional reporting by Mohamed Yusuf in Rafah, Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia, Egypt, and Cynthia Johnston in Cairo; and Avida Landau and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Writing by Adam Entous in Jerusalem; Editing by Sami Aboudi)
IF THIS WAS AGAINST ISRAEL THE USELESS UN WOULD BE CALLING FOR SANCTIONS AND SCOLDING, BUT FOR THE MURDEROUS ARABS THE USELESS UN CAN'T DECIDE A STATEMENT.........SICKOS
Security Council fails yet again to agree Gaza statement Fri Jan 25, 12:17 AM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council failed yet again on Thursday to agree a compromise statement urging an end to Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip and to the rocket attacks on the Jewish state. After day-long talks by experts and ambassadors, it was agreed that a new attempt would be made Friday to overcome US objections to a text accepted by the council's 14 other members.
We still do not have an agreement and the way it's going it's not hopeful, said South Africa's UN envoy Dumisani Kumalo. But the president (of the council) has asked us to try again tomorrow (Friday).The United States, a staunch ally of Israel, insists that the crippling Israeli blockade of Gaza is a self-defense move in the face of rockets fired from the impoverished territory controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas.After consulting with Washington, the US delegation here on Thursday put forward a series of oral amendments, including a call for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza militants in 2006 and a condemnation of terrorism under all its forms.But most of these amendments were deemed irrelevant and unacceptable by Arab countries which feel strongly that the council has to react to what they view as the collective punishment of Gaza's 1.5 million residents by Israel in reprisals for the rocket attacks.Our view is that getting a product will be difficult, US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff told reporters after the consultations.He added that his delegation would be prepared to accept a balanced, credible, constructive statement that looks at this issue realistically, including condemning the rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.
Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman for his part dismissed the whole debate as a futile waste of time that only serves to reward Hamas.
Israel should take note that 14 members of the Security Council, a significant number of them friends of Israel, are saying that this humanitarian situation in Gaza cannot be tolerated, the Palestinian observer to the UN, Ryad Mansour, retorted.And Syrian Ambassador Bashar Jaafari accused the United States of trying to politicize a humanitarian issue and of trying to turn the victims into victimizers and the victimizers into victims.He warned that if Washington manages to block a consensus on the non-binding statement, Arab countries were likely to turn the text into a resolution and dare the United States to veto it.The latest version of the draft expresses deep concern about the steep deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza due to the Israeli blockade.
It calls on all parties to immediately cease all acts of violence, including the firing of rockets into Israeli territory and all activities which are contrary to international law and endanger civilians, a reference to the Israeli siege.And it takes note of Israel's decision to suspend the closure of the crossing points (into Gaza) and calls for it to be fully implemented.Thursday, Arab League chief Amr Mussa described the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip as a campaign to starve the people there.Speaking on the sidelines of the Davos meeting in Switzerland, he also said that the Gaza blockade undermined the already struggling peace process revived after the Middle East peace conference in Annapolis in the United States.Thursday, desperate Palestinians swarmed out of Gaza into Egypt for a second consecutive day to stock up on supplies after militants blew open the border of the Hamas-run territory.
In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council criticized Israel for its blockade in a resolution that EU member states on the council abstained from voting on, citing a lack of balance. The resolution, passed by a vote of 30 to one, called for urgent international action to put an immediate end to the grave violations committed by the occupying power, Israel, in the occupied Palestinian territory.
On Tuesday Israel allowed in shipments of cooking gas and fuel to power Gaza's sole power station, which had ground to a halt on Sunday night.
