NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.
PSALMS 97:3
3 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.
REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)
ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.
ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).
ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).
MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
MUSLIM NATIONS
EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Israeli troops mobilize as Gaza assault widens By IBRAHIM BARZAK and KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writers DEC 28,08
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel widened its deadliest-ever air offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers Sunday, pounding smuggling tunnels and government strongholds, sending more tanks and artillery toward the Gaza border and activating thousands of reservists for a possible ground invasion.Israeli leaders said they would press ahead with the Gaza campaign, despite enraged protests across the Arab world and Syria's decision to break off indirect peace talks with the Jewish state. Israel's foreign minister said the goal was to halt Gaza rocket fire on Israel for good, but not to reoccupy the territory.With the two-day death toll nearing 300 Sunday, crowds of Gazans breached the border wall with Egypt to escape the chaos. Egyptian forces, some firing in the air, tried to push them back into Gaza and an official said one border guard was killed.Hamas, in turn, fired rockets deeper than ever into Israel, near the Israeli port city of Ashdod.Yet Hamas leaders were forced into hiding, most of the dead were from the Hamas security forces, and Israel's military intelligence chief said Hamas' ability to fire rockets had been reduced by 50 percent. Indeed, Hamas rockets fire dropped off sharply, from more than 130 on Saturday to just over 20 on Sunday. Still, Hamas continues to command some 20,000 fighters.Israel's intense bombings — some 300 air strikes since midday Saturday — wreaked unprecedented destruction in Gaza, reducing entire buildings to rubble.After nightfall, Israeli aircraft attacked a building in the Jebaliya refugee camp next to Gaza City, killing a 14-month-old baby, a man and two women, Gaza Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said. In the southern town of Rafah, Palestinian residents said a toddler and his two teenage brothers were killed in an airstrike aimed at a Hamas commander.Israeli aircraft also bombed the Islamic University and government compound in Gaza City, centers of Hamas power, and the house next to the residence of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in a Gaza City refugee camp. Haniyeh, in hiding, was not home.Shlomo Brom, a former senior Israeli military official, said it was the deadliest force ever used in decades of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Since Hamas took over Gaza (in June 2007), it has become a war between two states, and in war between states, more force is used, he said.
European leaders called on both Israel and Hamas to end the bloodshed.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke Sunday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads a rival government to Hamas in the West Bank, and condemned the provocations that led to this situation as well as the disproportionate use of force.
The White House was mum about the situation in Gaza on Sunday after speaking out expansively on Saturday, blaming Hamas for provoking Israel's retaliatory strikes.In the most dramatic attacks Sunday, warplanes struck dozens of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, cutting off a lifeline that had supplied Hamas with weapons and Gaza with commercial goods. The influx of goods had helped Hamas defy an 18-month blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt, and was key to propping up its rule.
Sunday's blasts shook the ground several miles away and sent black smoke high into the sky. Earlier, warplanes dropped three bombs on one of Hamas' main security compounds in Gaza City, including a prison. Moments after the blasts, frantic inmates, their faces dusty and bloodied, scrambled down the rubble. One man, still half buried, raised a hand to alert rescuers.Gaza's nine hospitals were overwhelmed. Hassanain, who keeps a record for the Gaza Health Ministry, said more than 290 people were killed over two days and more than 800 wounded.The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which keeps researchers at all hospitals, said it had counted 251 dead by midday Sunday, and that among them were 20 children under the age of 16 and nine women.Across Gaza, families pitched traditional mourning tents of green tarp outside homes. Yet the rows of chairs inside these tents remained largely empty, as residents cowered indoors for fear of new Israeli strikes.Israeli leaders gave interviews to foreign television networks to try win international support. Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, speaking Arabic, spoke on Arab satellite TV stations, denouncing Hamas rule in Gaza. And Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told NBC that the assault came because Hamas, an Islamic group backed by Syria and Iran, is smuggling weapons and building a small army.In Jerusalem, Israel's Cabinet approved a callup of 6,500 reserve soldiers, raising fears of an impending ground offensive. Israel has doubled the number of troops on the Gaza border since Saturday and also deployed an artillery battery. It was not clear, though, whether the deployment was meant to pressure Hamas or whether Israel is determined to send ground troops. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said it was unclear when the operation would end but told his Cabinet was liable to last longer than we are able to foresee at this time.Since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, after 38 years of full military occupation, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to the territory to hunt militants. However, Israel has shied away from retaking the entire strip, for fear of getting bogged down in urban warfare. The diplomatic fallout, meanwhile, was swift. Syria decided to suspend indirect peace talks with Israel, begun earlier this year, and the U.N. Security Council called on both sides to halt the fighting and asked Israel to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza; 30 trucks were let in Sunday. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel to open its crossings for the continuous provision of humanitarian supplies. In a statement, he said one Palestinian U.N. employee, and eight trainees, were among the dead.
The prime minister of Turkey, one of the few Muslim countries to have relations with Israel, called the air assault a crime against humanity.The carnage inflamed Arab and Muslim public opinion, setting off street protests across the West Bank, in an Arab community in Israel, in several Middle Eastern cities and in Paris. Some of the protests turned violent. Israeli troops quelling a West Bank march killed one Palestinian and seriously wounded another. A crowd of anti-Israel protesters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul became a target for a suicide bomber on a bicycle. In Lebanon, police fired tear gas to stop demonstrators from reaching the Egyptian Embassy. Egypt, which has served as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians as well as between Hamas and its rival Fatah, has been criticized for joining Israel in closing its borders with Gaza. The blockade was imposed after the Hamas takeover in June 2007. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit called on Hamas to renew its truce with Israel. The cease-fire began unraveling last month, and formally ended more than a week ago. Since then, Gaza militants had stepped up rocket fire on Israel. A Hamas leader in exile, Osama Hamdan, said the movement would not relent. We have one alternative, which is to be steadfast and resist and then we will be victorious, Hamdan said in Beirut. Also in Beirut, Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah militia, said he would not abandon Hamas, but did not threaten to attack Israel. During the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006, the militia fired thousands of rockets into Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in cities and towns in Gaza rocket range, and life slowed in some of the communities. Schools in communities in a 12-mile radius from Gaza were ordered to remain closed beyond the weeklong Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which ends Monday. In the southern city of Ashkelon, home to some 120,000 people, streets were relatively busy, despite the military's recommendations against being out in the open. Several times throughout the day, however, that routine was briefly interrupted by the sounds of wailing sirens warning of an imminent attack. Pedestrians scurried for cover in buildings. After a number of rocket landed in the distance, a woman taking cover nearby briefly fainted. She refused water and food from bystanders, instead shivering in a corner, apparently in shock. Additional reporting by Aron Heller in Ashkelon, Israel. Karin Laub reported from Jerusalem.
China urges Israel to end deadly strikes in Gaza DEC 28,08
BEIJING (AFP) – China urged Israel on Monday to immediately stop military operations in the Gaza Strip that have killed more than 300 people, while calling for the Israelis and Hamas to work towards peace.The Chinese side is shocked and seriously concerned over the current military operations in Gaza that have caused a large number of deaths and injuries, Vice Premier Li Keqiang said in a statement.The world is concerned with the Mideast peace process. To use armed force to resolve differences, especially to kill and wound ordinary citizens, runs counter to these efforts.The Chinese side strongly calls on the concerned parties to immediately cease military operations and adopt realistic measures aimed at easing the tense situation in Gaza.In the statement posted on the foreign ministry's website, Li urged Israel and the Palestinians to end their dispute through negotiations, and not violence.(Both sides) need to resolve differences through dialogue, and push forward the realisation of peace and stability in the Mideast area at an early date, he said.
Although he did not specifically name Hamas, Chinese state press said Li was referring mainly to the Islamist movement when speaking about the Palestinian side.
Israeli tanks massed at the Gaza border on Monday as warplanes continued pounding Hamas targets in the densely populated enclave where raids have killed more than 300 people in two days.Hamas responded to the continuing bombardment by firing rockets the farthest yet into Israel, with one striking not far from Ashdod, Israel's second-largest port. It caused no casualties, medics said.Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said the movement reserves the right to hit back at this aggression with martyr operations, meaning suicide bombings of the sort Hamas has not carried out inside Israel since January 2005.
Israel mounts third day of Gaza raids By Nidal al-Mughrabi DEC 28,08
GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli warplanes pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for a third consecutive day on Monday and prepared for a possible invasion after killing 307 Palestinians in the air raids.Israel, which stepped up the air strikes after dark on Sunday, said it launched the campaign on Saturday in response to almost daily rocket and mortar fire that intensified after the Islamist Hamas group ended a six-month ceasefire a week ago.Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the military action would go on until the population in southern Israel no longer live in terror and in fear of constant rocket barrages.(The operation could) take many days, said military spokesman Avi Benayahu.Israeli tanks were deployed on the edge of the Gaza Strip, poised to enter the densely populated coastal enclave of 1.5 million Palestinians. Olmert's cabinet approved a call-up of 6,500 reservists, a government official said.Hamas remained defiant and the group's spokesman Fawzi Barhoum urged Palestinian groups to use all available means, including martyrdom operations -- a reference to suicide bombings in Israel.World oil prices rose as much as $2 to nearly $40 a barrel on Monday as analysts said the conflict between Israel and Hamas had reminded traders of the geopolitical risk to crude supplies from the Middle East.The U.N. Security Council called for a halt to the violence, but President George W. Bush's administration, in its final weeks in office, has put the onus on Hamas to renew the truce.The Israeli offensive enraged Arabs across the Middle East, where protesters burned Israeli and U.S. flags to press for a stronger response from their leaders to the attack on Gaza. Israel, whose politicians have been under pressure to act over the rocket and mortar attacks ahead of a February 10 election, was feeling little international pressure to halt its offensive, said an Israeli official, who declined to be named.
ISRAELI STANCE ON GAZA
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who hopes to become prime minister after the February election, appeared to rule out a large-scale invasion to restore Israeli control of the blockaded territory, once dotted with Jewish settlements.Our goal is not to reoccupy Gaza Strip, she said on NBC's Meet the Press program. Asked on Fox News if Israel was out to topple Gaza's Hamas rulers, Livni said: Not now.Palestinian medical workers said among those killed on Sunday were five young sisters in northern Gaza and three young children in a house near the abandoned home of a senior Hamas militant in Rafah.Hamas said 180 of its members had been killed and that the rest of the more than 300 dead included civilians, among them 16 women and some children.Livni said Israel was targeting militants but unfortunately in a war ... sometimes also civilians pay the price.The International Red Cross said hospitals in the Gaza Strip were overwhelmed and unable to cope with the casualties.
Hamas said one Israeli air strike destroyed a laboratory building at the Islamic University in Gaza, a major cultural symbol. The Israeli army said the laboratory had been used by Hamas to develop weapons and explosives.Keeping up pressure on Hamas after bombing runs that turned Saturday into one of the bloodiest days for Palestinians in 60 years of conflict, Israeli aircraft flattened the group's main security compound in Gaza, killing at least four security men. Israel said during the first two days of the offensive Palestinian militants fired about 150 rockets and mortar bombs at the Jewish state. An Israeli man was killed on Saturday. Dozens of Gazans crossed into Egypt through holes opened in the border wall by bulldozers and explosives. An Egyptian border guard and a Palestinian youth died in a clash as Egyptian police tried to stop the influx, medics and Egyptian security said. Violence also spread to the occupied West Bank, where Israeli soldiers opened fire at stone-throwing Palestinian protesters. Palestinian medical officials said two Palestinians were killed. Forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose security units were routed in Gaza when Hamas seized control of the enclave in June 2007, shot and wounded three people at a protest. Arab citizens of Israel also held protests. (Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Dan Williams, Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Douglas Hamilton, Adam Entous and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem, Wafa Amr and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Ralph Gowling)
Gaza complicates Obama's policy in Mideast By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer DEC 28,08
CRAWFORD, Texas – The deaths of hundreds of Palestinians in Israel's deadliest-ever air assault on Hamas further complicate President-elect Barack Obama's challenge to achieve a Middle East peace — something that eluded both the Bush and Clinton administrations.The Bush administration has blamed the renewed violence on the militant Islamic group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, saying it broke a cease-fire by firing rockets and mortars deep into Israeli territory. The Arab world, however, has reacted with rage to the aggressive Israeli counterattacks, which have left at least 290 Palestinians dead and more than 600 wounded.It's unclear whether Obama will be as supportive of Israel as President George W. Bush has been.David Axelrod, senior adviser to Obama, chose his words carefully Sunday, saying the president-elect would honor the important bond between the United States and Israel.
He wants to be a constructive force in helping to bring about the peace and security that both the Israelis and the Palestinians want and deserve, Axelrod said on CBS' Face the Nation. Obviously, this situation has become even more complicated in the last couple of days and weeks. As Hamas began its shelling, Israel responded. But it's something that he's committed to.Pressed about how much support Obama will offer Israel, Axelrod said: He's going to work closely with the Israelis. They're a great ally of ours, the most important ally in the region. ... But he will do so in a way that will promote the cause of peace, and work closely with the Israelis and the Palestinians on that — toward that objective.Israel had been carrying out its attack exclusively from the air, but the Israeli Cabinet has authorized the military to call up 6,500 reserve soldiers for a possible ground invasion.I'm not sure it's a good idea, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Sunday on ABC's This Week.I mean, Israel certainly has the right to self-defense, of course. Hamas has not recognized Israel's right to exist. ... But I'm hopeful that as this transition comes, as we look to January, that strong presidential leadership can make a difference here.Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, speculated that Israeli leaders synchronized their retaliatory attacks to political calendars in both Israel and the U.S. More moderate politicians running in the Feb. 10 national election needed to appear strong against Hamas, and it was perhaps better to strike before Bush left office on Jan. 20 because they weren't as sure what Obama's reaction would be.
I think Obama will be supportive of Israel, but will bring a little more skepticism to it, Alterman said. I think Obama will start from premise that Israel is an ally, but that we have to look at this fresh.The White House was mum about the situation in Gaza on Sunday after speaking out strongly on Saturday. The Bush administration condemned the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and said it held Hamas responsible for breaking a cease-fire. The U.S. implored Israel to avoid civilian casualties and asked all concerned to address the urgent humanitarian needs of innocent people in Gaza.Bush, who is staying at his Texas ranch, spoke on the phone with national security adviser Stephen Hadley to receive an update on the situation and was being kept abreast of developments throughout the day, said Gordon Johndroe, a presidential spokesman. He said Bush would receive an intelligence briefing via a secured video hookup at the ranch early Monday morning and would be briefed then on any overnight developments.According to an aide on Obama's transition team, the president-elect, who is in Hawaii, continues to closely monitor global events, including the situation in Gaza. He had an intelligence briefing Sunday and plans to talk with his incoming national security adviser, Gen. James Jones, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his nominee for secretary of state.The aide said Obama appreciates the information the Bush administration is sharing with him. The aide requested anonymity because the Obama team is refraining from comment, saying the U.S. has only one president at a time.When Hamas took control of Gaza in June 2007, it fractured governance of the Palestinian territory. The other part, the West Bank, is controlled by moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The renewed violence increases the volatility of an already unstable area.It undoubtedly will have a very severe impact on wherever the next administration would like to go, Ed Abington, a former American diplomat who advises Abbas, said in an interview. You can't kill almost 300 Palestinians and wound 600 to 700 and not have repercussions in the region.I don't quite know where the Israelis want to end up, he added, saying that trying to bomb Hamas into submission only rekindles radicalization. Abington said Israel's retaliatory attacks weaken, not strengthen, the stature of Abbas, who is backed by the West.Alterman said, however, that if Hamas is weakened by the bombings in Gaza, Abbas' position could be emboldened. It's possible to imagine that he could emerge as some sort of broker who saves Gaza from an Israeli onslaught, Alterman said. Associated Press writers Ibrahim Barzak and Amy Teibel in Gaza City and Philip Elliott in Honolulu contributed to this report.
Israel air strikes spark protests worldwide DEC 28,08
LONDON, (AFP) – Demonstrators in cities around the world marched in protest against the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip that have killed nearly 300 people in the Palestinian territory.British police made 10 arrests as a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy in London turned violent. Riot police moved in after people tore down the barriers keeping them back from the embassy.Earlier Sunday, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called for an urgent ceasefire and immediate halt to all violence in Gaza .A call to urgently halt the military action also came from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who spoke to his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni.The top diplomats in Italy and Spain, Franco Frattini and Miguel Angel Moratinos, also spoke by telephone with Livni who said Israel would try to limit the suffering of the people of Gaza, the Italian foreign ministry said.French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the European Union presidency, told Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas by telephone of his grave concerns about the escalating violence in the region and the need for both sides to stop their aggressions.Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday denounced the violence between Israel and Hamas-controlled Gaza, and urged everyone involved in the tragic situation in the Middle East to strive for humanity and wisdom.The UN chief added his voice to the UN Security Council's call for an immediate end to hostilities and urged Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the poverty-stricken territory.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplores that violence is continuing today, and he strongly urges once again an immediate stop to all acts of violence, his spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement.
While the outgoing Bush administration has blamed Hamas thugs for provoking the Israeli offensive by firing rockets into the Jewish state from Gaza, a top aide to Barack Obama was more measured, saying the president-elect is committed to achieving peace in the Middle East.Recognising the special relationship between the United States and Israel, Obama will work closely with the Israelis, David Axelrod said in an interview on CBS television.But he will do so in a way that will promote the cause of peace, and work closely with the Israelis and the Palestinians on that -- toward that objective, said Axelrod.Around European capitals, Danish police arrested a man on the fringes of a protest march in Copenhagen after he threw a petrol bomb at officers. Police said the rally drew about 700 people, though organisers put the number closer to 2,000.In Paris, about 200 people gathered on the Champs Elysees, while across the city in the northern district of Barbes, an area with a high concentration of north Africans, police said 1,300 others had joined an anti-Israel protest.In Madrid, hundreds of people demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy, brandishing placards reading Israel terrorist, Stop state terrorism and No to the Palestinian holocaust.The largest single protest of about 8,000 people took place in Egypt on the streets of the southern city of Assiut. Some 4,000 protesters rallied in the capital Cairo, while a demonstration in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria drew a similar number, a security official said.
Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah urged Egyptians in their millions to take to the streets to force their government to open the country's border with Gaza, to help save Palestinians from the Israeli bombardments.Another major showing of anti-Israeli sentiment was seen in Turkey where thousands of people joined demonstrations in about a dozen Turkish cities. In Syria, protesters burned Israeli and American flags as thousands demonstrated in central Damascus. Security was tight around the US embassy, which lies some two kilometres (just over a mile) from the scene of the protest in the Syrian capital. Demonstrators also burned Israeli flags in the Jordanian capital Amman, where hundreds of people led by Islamist lawmakers gathered to demand the closure of the Israeli embassy. With Egypt, Jordan is one of only two Arab governments to have signed peace treaties with Israel. The Israeli bombardment of Hamas targets in Gaza has killed more than 280 people since Saturday, the Jewish state's biggest offensive against the Palestinian territory since its capture in the 1967 Middle East war. British aid agency Oxfam warned of a looming humanitarian crisis in Gaza if the Israeli bombardments do not cease. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement: The influx of war wounded has put a tremendous strain on Gaza's already overburdened hospitals, which are in dire need of medical equipment.
Israel tanks mass near Gaza as jets again pound Hamas by Mai Yaghi DEC 28,08
GAZA CITY, (AFP) – Israeli tanks massed at the Gaza border on Monday as warplanes continued pounding Hamas targets in the densely populated enclave where raids have killed more than 300 people in two days.Dozens of tanks and personnel carriers idled at several points near the border after Israel warned it could launch a ground offensive in addition to its massive air blitz.Hamas responded to the continuing bombardment by firing rockets the farthest yet into Israel, with one striking not far from Ashdod, Israel's second-largest port, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Gaza . It caused no casualties, medics said.The Islamist movement accused Israel of committing a holocaust as the whole world watches and doesn't lift a finger to stop it.Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said the movement reserves the right to hit back at this aggression with martyr operations, meaning suicide bombings of the sort Hamas has not carried out inside Israel since January 2005.Britain, France and Russia joined the growing international chorus for a halt to the violence.Pope Benedict XVI implored the international community to do all it can to help the Israelis and Palestinians on this dead-end road... and not to give in to the perverse logic of confrontation and violence.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon added his voice to the UN Security Council's call for an immediate end to hostilities, with his spokeswoman saying he strongly urges once again an immediate stop to all acts of violence.But Israeli Defence Minster Ehud Barak vowed to expand and deepen the bombing blitz, which was unleashed in retaliation for persistent rocket fire by militant groups.
If it's necessary to deploy ground forces to defend our citizens, we will do so, his spokesman quoted him as saying.The cabinet gave the green light to call up 6,500 reserve soldiers, a senior official told reporters after the meeting.Warplanes continued to pound the impoverished and overcrowded territory of 1.5 million people, where many streets were deserted, and schools and shops stayed shut as hundreds of funerals were held.Jets bombed a series of tunnels on Gaza's border with Egypt -- a lifeline used by Hamas to smuggle goods and weapons into the enclave, which has been virtually sealed off by Israel since the Islamists seized power in June 2007.Later on Sunday, jets targeted several metal workshops, which the Israeli army said were being used to manufacture makeshift rockets.Another strike on a mosque in the Jabaliya refugee camp north of Gaza City left four dead, including a four-year-old girl, according to the head of Gaza's emergency services Moawiya Hassanein.One woman and a man were also killed when a missile hit a family home in the neighbourhood of Zeitoun in eastern Gaza City, medics said.Aircraft also bombed Gaza City's Islamic University early on Monday, a stronghold symbol of Hamas. Fire and smoke billowed from the building which was hit by at least five missiles, according to witnesses.
And as pressure mounted within the impoverished territory, dozens of Gazans tried to break through the border into Egypt on Sunday, only to be stopped by Egyptian police firing into the air. An Egyptian policeman was killed and another wounded by shots from across the border in the divided town of Rafah, a security official and medics said, adding that the source of the fire was unclear. A Palestinian human rights group branded the Israeli pounding of Gaza one of the bloodiest days in Israel's 40-year occupation. As well as more than 300 dead, more than 600 people have been wounded, medics said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the campaign was launched in order to regain a normal life for the citizens in the south who have suffered for many years from incessant rocket, mortar and terror attacks.Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni urged the international community to put the blame squarely on Hamas. I expect the international community, including the entire Arab world, to send a clear message to Hamas: It is your fault. It's your responsibility. You're the one who's being condemned,she told US television network NBC.
The Israeli bombardment has sparked widespread international concern.
Egypt, which brokered a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas that expired on December 19, said it was trying to negotiate a new ceasefire. And the UN envoy to the Middle East Robert Serry called for a new truce with international backing, telling AFP in an interview that there was no military solution to the conflict. But a senior Israeli official insisted: We have our goals and our timetable, and we don't seek mediation.Israel in the meanwhile announced it would allow 100 truck-loads of humanitarian aid into Gaza on Monday but said it would maintain its crippling blockade on the impoverished territory. Israel's main ally Washington blamed Hamas thugs for provoking the offensive by firing rockets into the Jewish state from Gaza, and urged Israel to avoid causing civilian casualties. The Israeli offensive sparked protests across the world. In the occupied West Bank, two demonstrators were killed in clashes with police. Israel unleashed Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in the middle of Saturday morning, with some 60 warplanes hitting more than 50 targets in just a few minutes. By Sunday, some 230 targets had been hit, the military said. Hamas has responded by firing more than 90 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel, killing one man and wounding some 20 people. The Israeli blitz came after days of spiralling violence since the expiry of the Gaza truce. It comes less than two months before snap parliamentary elections in Israel called for February 10.
A chronology of Israel's relationship with Gaza By The Associated Press The Associated Press – Sun Dec 28, 6:48 pm
June 1967: Israel captures the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip during six-day Mideast war. An Israeli census put the population at 380,000, at least half of whom were refugees from Israel. Today the population stands at about 1.5 million. The U.N. lists just over 1 million as refugees and their descendants.
• December 1987: A clash in the Jebaliya refugee camp sets off Palestinian uprising, which lasted until 1993 and claimed the lives of more than 2,000 Palestinians and 192 Israelis. The militant Islamic Hamas is formed early in the uprising.
• September 2005: Israel withdraws its troops and all of its 8,500 Jewish settlers. It retains control of Gaza's airspace, coastal waters and border crossings.
• June 2007: Hamas violently seizes control of Gaza after routing forces loyal to rival Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas.
• June 2008: Hamas and Israel reach truce to halt the cross-border rocket attacks and end Israeli offensives in Gaza.
• November 2008: Palestinians resume rocket and mortar fire into Israel after Israeli incursion.
• Dec. 19, 2008: Hamas formally declares the truce over, rocket fire on Israel intensifies.
• Dec. 27, 2008: Israel launches a fierce air offensive, killing more than 200 Palestinians in the first day.
GCC summit to go ahead as planned Sun Dec 28, 4:25 pm ET
MUSCAT (AFP) – The Gulf Cooperation Council's annual summit in Oman will go ahead and focus on the global economic crisis, although Israel's attacks on Gaza will also be discussed, the host country said on Sunday.The most appropriate reply to the events under way in the Palestinian situation would be for the Palestinian brothers to close ranks by reaching understanding and national unity, Omani Information Minister Hamad al-Rashidi said.He added: It is up to the UN Security Council to apply pressure for Israel to stop the attacks which have left nearly 290 Palestinians dead over the past two days.The GCC summit had seemed under threat when Israel launched its aerial onslaught on the Islamic Hamas movement which has controlled the Gaza Strip since ousting forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in June last year.An emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers had been called for Sunday in Cairo but was eventually put off until Wednesday.Omani Foreign Minister Yussef bin Alawi told reporters that after a five-hour meeting GCC foreign ministers put the finishing touches to the agenda of the summit which is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.Ministers discussed the deplorable situation in the Gaza Strip and adopted a common position to put to Wednesday's Arab League meeting in Cairo, he said.The GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which together sit on 25 percent of the world's natural gas reserves and 45 percent of global oil reserves.
EVERYBODY COMPLAINS ABOUT ISRAEL BUT WERE WERE THE COMPLAINTS WHEN 10,1200 ROCKETS AND MORTERS WERE FALLING ON ISRAEL FROM THE ARABS....GO ISRAEL ENEMIES WHO DESTROY GODS PEOPLE ISRAEL MUST BE DESTROYED FOREVER....OUT OF COMMISSION.
Gaza faces humanitarian crisis unless world stops Israel: Oxfam Sun Dec 28, 4:12 pm ET
LONDON (AFP) – Aid agency Oxfam on Sunday urged world leaders to stop Israel from launching further attacks on the Gaza Strip, saying the military action risked triggering a humanitarian crisis.The international charity said it had been forced to suspend most of its humanitarian work in the territory and said a programme that would feed 25,000 people had also been put on hold.Gazans face a humanitarian crisis unless the bombardment stops and Israel allows immediate access for aid shipments, Oxfam said.Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza depend on Oxfam and other international aid agencies for the basics of life -- clean water, food and sanitation, said John Prideaux-Brune, Oxfam Great Britain's country programme manager in Jerusalem.Gaza has been shut off from the outside world for 19 months and people there are already on the edge. There's a real risk of a humanitarian crisis unless the bombing stops now.The international community must not stand aside and allow Israeli leaders to commit massive and disproportionate violence against Gazan civilians in violation of international law.Oxfam condemns outright Hamas's rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. However they cannot justify this overwhelming military response which is killing innocent civilians.World leaders must take all necessary actions to stop attacks by all parties and must push the Israelis to continuously open all crossing points into Gaza.
Canada urges ceasefire between Israel and Hamas Sun Dec 28, 3:33 pm ET
OTTAWA (AFP) – Canada on Sunday appealed for a halt to violence in the Gaza Strip where Israel has launched a deadly air strike campaign, and urged both sides to resume efforts toward a truce.Canada is deeply concerned by the escalation of violence in Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip and by the loss of life and the suffering sustained by all sides, said Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon.Israel has a clear right to defend itself against the continued rocket attacks by Palestinian militant groups which have deliberately targeted civilians. First and foremost, those rocket attacks must stop, Cannon said.At the same time, we urge both sides to use all efforts to avoid civilian casualties and to create the conditions to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access to those in need in Gaza.In addition to calling for immediate calm, we urge renewed efforts to reach a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel and for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to remain committed to finding a comprehensive peace settlement.Since Israel launched a series of air strikes early Saturday, at least 289 people have been killed and more than 600 wounded, Palestinian medics said.Hamas has responded by firing more than 90 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel, killing one man and wounding a handful of other people.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the campaign was launched in order to regain a normal life for the citizens in the south who have suffered for many years from incessant rocket, mortar and terror attacks.
UN Mideast envoy calls for internationally-backed Gaza truce – Sun Dec 28, 3:26 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The UN special envoy to the Middle East on Sunday called for an internationally-backed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying there is no military solution to the conflict.The international community, the United Nations, the Arab League, the Security Council and also the Quartet need to promote a way forward to come back to a renewed ceasefire," Robert Serry told AFP in an interview.The Israeli air force on Sunday continued pounding the Hamas-ruled territory following one of the bloodiest single days of violence in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has left nearly 300 Palestinians dead.The spiralling violence came less than 10 days after an Egyptian-brokered six-month old truce between Israel and the Islamist rulers of Gaza ended with militants renewing rocket fire against Israel, which in turn tightened a punishing blockade on the Gaza Strip.We want the violence to stop immediately, we don't believe there is a military solution to the situation in Gaza, the United Nations envoy told AFP.I myself am in contact with my counterparts in the region and other envoys in order to coordinate the efforts to support the calls to end the violence and the renewal of a ceasefire that could lead to a more durable improvement of the situation in Gaza.He said that any future ceasefire would have to guarantee a halt to Palestinian rocket fire and the sustainable reopening of Israel's crossings with Gaza, the territory's main gateway for badly-needed supplies.It would also need to include a solution to the underlying issue of the growing internal Palestinian tension between moderate president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement and Hamas, which ousted Fatah forces from Gaza in June 2007.We also have to help the Palestinian Authority play a bigger role in the solutions for Gaza... The need for Palestinian reunification in my view is bigger than ever, but from what we are seeing it is not going at the moment in that direction.
Egypt said on Sunday it was trying to negotiate a new ceasefire, but a senior Israeli official told AFP that we have our goals and our timetable and we don't seek mediation.Serry also lamented the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where some 50 percent of the 1.5 million inhabitants depend on UN and international aid, warning of an enormous shortage in wheat and medical equipment.We have been warning the Israeli authorities of the consequences of military action in terms of our capacity to distribute aide... The situation of continued Israeli air raids and bombings is scary, he said.He nevertheless said that Israel was allowing aid into Gaza in recent days, and that on Monday 21 trucks were allowed to deliver medical supplies and wheat through the Kerem Shalom crossing.He warned that the acute shortage of medical supplies and fuel in the Gaza Strip could affect the functioning of Gaza's hospitals.The bloody Israeli offensive has sparked a wave of international calls to end the violence.The UN Security Council called for an immediate halt to all violence and urged all sides to stop immediately all military activities.In Rome, the pope said that the terrestrial homeland of Jesus cannot continue to be the witness of such bloodshed which is repeated ad infinitum.Israel's main ally Washington has blamed Hamas thugs for provoking the offensive by firing rockets into the Jewish state from Gaza, and urged Israel to avoid causing civilian casualties.
Israel's Gaza aggression has halted peace talks: Syria Sun Dec 28, 3:07 pm ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria have been halted due to the Jewish state's aggression in Gaza, a senior Syrian official said on Sunday.
It's the Israeli aggression in Gaza which has closed the door on all activity in the political process between Syria and Israel, the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.In May, Syria and Israel -- technically still at war since the first Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948 -- began Turkish-mediated indirect talks after direct negotiations halted eight years ago over the thorny Golan Heights issue.
Israeli tanks were massed at the Gaza border on Sunday as warplanes again pounded Hamas targets in the densely populated enclave.Since early Saturday, at least 287 people have been killed and more than 600 wounded, medics said.The peace talks had in any case been on hold since Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert first announced in July he would step down over corruption allegations.In exchange for peace Syria is demanding the return of the entire Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community.But Israel has baulked at this, since it would mean returning land right down to the shores of the Sea of Galilee -- its main source of fresh water.Israel for its part is calling on Damascus to sever its ties with the current regime in Iran and stop its support for militants, namely the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas movements.Earlier this month, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that his country would eventually embark on direct peace talks with Israel, but they must be based on UN Security Council resolutions.Peace cannot be achieved through indirect negotiations alone. But if indirect talks succeed then direct negotiations will also, and peace will come naturally, Assad told reporters on December 22.Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 call on Israel to withdraw from Arab territory it captured in the 1967 war.
Jordan MPs want Israeli ambassador expelled Sun Dec 28, 2:49 pm ET
AMMAN (AFP) – Thirty Jordanian lawmakers have demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador over the Jewish state's deadly air strikes on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, an MP said on Sunday.Thirty deputies signed a memorandum on Saturday condemning the Israeli aggression on Gaza and demanding that the government expel the Israeli ambassador to Jordan, Bassam Haddain, who led the initiative, told AFP.The political atmosphere in Jordan is against Israel's arrogant polices and it is growing. We expect more MPs to sign the memo today, Sunday.In the memo, the MPs in the 110-member lower house also demand that the government summon the ambassador to Israel and end all forms of normalisation in response to the Israeli massacres in Gaza, Haddain said.In an unprecedented move at the lower house, prominent MP Khalil Atiyeh, one of the signatories, stepped on an Israeli flag before burning it at a meeting as other deputies gathered around him.Jordan signed a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, becoming only the second Arab state to do so, after Egypt.King Abdullah II met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Saturday and has been in touch with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to launch an Arab and international initiative aimed at ending the Israeli aggression, according to the royal palace.
Anti-Israeli protests across Europe By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, Associated Press Writer – Sun Dec 28, 2:17 pm ET
LONDON – Protesters turned out across Europe Sunday to demonstrate against Israel's air assault on the Gaza Strip, while European leaders called on Israel and Hamas to end the bloodshed.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said this was a dangerous moment and called for an immediate cease-fire by both Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza.About 700 protesters descended on the Israeli embassy in London's Kensington neighborhood a day after the airstrikes on Gaza began. More than 280 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain.Police said half a dozen protesters outside the embassy in London were arrested Sunday. A scuffle between police and the protesters occurred when police tried to remove people so they could reopen a road that had been blocked off. At one point, protesters threw placards at officers.Protests in Paris were peaceful. About 1,000 demonstrators turned out in the neighborhood of Barbes, which has a large Arab population, and near the landmark Arc de Triomphe.French President Nicolas Sarkozy held telephone talks Sunday with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and condemned the provocations that led to this situation as well as the disproportionate use of force. Abbas urged Hamas to renew a truce with Israel that collapsed last week. However, Abbas has had no influence in Gaza since Hamas seized control there in June 2007.
France's foreign minister said the EU was ready to increase its humanitarian support for Gaza and resume its monitoring role at Gaza border crossings.Bernard Kouchner said in a statement Sunday that he spent the weekend on the phone with Israeli and Palestinian officials, his Egyptian counterpart, the Arab League and European foreign ministers.Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Sunday that Israel launched its strike because Gaza's Hamas rulers were smuggling weapons and building up a small army.The Israeli army says Palestinian militants have fired more than 300 rockets and mortars at Israeli targets over the past week, and 10 times that number over the past year.The unjustified rocket fire by Hamas must stop immediately. For its part, Israel must do everything possible to avoid civilian victims, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement.Pope Benedict XVI called on the international community not to leave anything untried to help the Israelis and Palestinians exit from this dead end of violence. He is expected to visit the region in May.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was outraged by a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the operation is likely to continue.To go and bomb these defenseless people, and to openly say that this operation will be a long-lasting one, that it will be this or that, to me, is a serious crime against humanity, Erdogan said at a meeting of his ruling Islamic-rooted party.Turkey is Israel's closest ally in the Muslim world but Erdogan said he was appalled that the attacks came as his country was helping mediate peace talks between Syria and Israel. He said the attacks were a show of disrespect toward Turkey.Hundreds of protesters demonstrated against the attacks on Gaza outside the Israeli embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul.Associated Press Writers Cecile Roux in Paris, Melissa Eddy in Berlin, Frances D'Emilio in Rome and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
GCC summit eyes common currency By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, AP Business Writer – Sun Dec 28, 10:51 am
CAIRO, Egypt – In a gathering marred by Israeli attacks on Gaza and pressured by the ailing world economy, leaders of the six Gulf Arab nations are gearing up for a summit in which they are expected to tackle head-on a long-elusive monetary union agreement.The two-day meeting, beginning Monday in the Omani capital, Muscat, has been touted as a key step in helping the Gulf Cooperation Council's six member states realize a goal of a common currency and broader economic unity. The push is made all the more relevant by the global economic crisis that has hit hard even these oil rich nations.Officials on Sunday said Israeli air strikes on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which have left over 280 Palestinians dead and sparked outrage throughout the Arab world, would not derail the meeting. But the violence would clearly factor into the summit agenda, as well as in the GCC foreign ministers meeting which precedes the main gathering.Omani Information Minister Hamed al-Rashid said the Palestinian issue is always on the minds of the GCC leaders and without doubt, the events in Gaza will be at the forefront of the upcoming meetings.While the leaders are expected to discuss the current financial meltdown, analysts and economists are watching to see what steps the officials will take to push along a plan for a GCC common currency, which is scheduled to be launched in 2010. Also important are their efforts to finalize details for the precursor to the bloc's new central bank.This meeting is quite important because they will have to outline what they're going to be doing prior to 2010, and they will also have to come out quite concretely about what is to come of that deadline, said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Saudi British Bank.
The GCC, which includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, has been discussing setting up a common currency for years but the issue has been stymied by political bickering and infighting.While progress has been slow in bringing the nations together, the global financial meltdown has injected renewed vigor into efforts to push the oil-rich members toward closer economic cooperation.GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Hamad al-Attiyah told the pan-Arab daily newspaper Al-Hayat that leaders were well aware of the need to reach a joint agreement on how to tackle the financial crisis.In an interview with the English-language Oman Tribune, Bahrain's prime minister, Sheik Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa said the integration of Gulf countries has become unavoidable.At a time when the whole world is moving toward the establishment of economic blocs, it is high time that we accelerated the remaining steps for the economic integration of GCC states, he was quoted as saying.So far, each country has been taking its own steps to tackle the crisis, adopting measure ranging from cutting interest rates, injecting cash into the economy, guaranteeing deposits and lowering cash reserve requirements for banks.At times of economic crisis, you expect that there is great unity, or the attempt to be one voice instead of many voices, said Sfakianakis. The onus is on the GCC to show how they're handling this and that they are one instead of six voices.
Tumbling oil prices are also a major stimulus for embracing greater cooperation.
Crude prices have plummeted by more than 60 percent since mid-July highs of nearly $150 per barrel, straining budgets and spending in these nations, some of which rely on oil sales for up to 90 percent of their foreign revenues.Analysts and economists have said the Gulf Arab region's vast oil wealth, and the budget surpluses realized from this past year's surge in crude prices, will help cushion the countries from the worst of the economic downturn that has hammered the rest of the world.The Institute of International Finance, in a recent study, estimated that GCC countries' economic growth would slow from 5.8 percent in 2008 to 4.2 percent in 2009. The figure is markedly higher than the 0.9 percent global economic growth rate forecast by the World Bank earlier this month.Even so, the impact has been pronounced. Stock exchanges in the region have plummeted — in Dubai by as much as over 70 percent since the start the year. Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's economic powerhouse, recently unveiled a budget reflecting projections of its first deficit since 2002. In the last fiscal year, the country realized a surplus of $157 billion, largely on oil revenues. The kingdom, however, has ramped up spending, allocating more funds to infrastructure development, education and health care as it looks to diversify its economy. The summit is also being watched closely as a measure of whether the leaders in these Arab countries will act decisively or, as has happened too often in past Arab summits and gatherings, emerge with little more than an agreement to agree at a later date. Everybody is talking about the deadlines not being met, said Sfakianakis. If they move with the 2010 deadline, they will have to announce what concrete steps they will be taking.
Across Mideast, thousands protest Israeli assault By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer – Sun Dec 28, 9:50 am ET
BEIRUT, Lebanon – Crowds of thousands swept into the streets of cities around the Middle East on Sunday to denounce Israel's air assault on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.From Lebanon to Iran, Israel's adversaries used the weekend assault to marshal crowds into the streets for noisy demonstrations. And among regional allies there was also discontent: The prime minister of Turkey, one of the few Muslim countries to have relations with Israel, called the air assault a crime against humanity.
Several of Sunday's protests turned violent. A crowd of anti-Israel protesters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul became a target for a suicide bomber on a bicycle.
In Lebanon, police fired tear gas to stop dozens of demonstrators from reaching the Egyptian Embassy. Some in the crowd hurled stones at the embassy compound. It was unclear if anyone was hurt.Egypt, which has served as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians as well as between Hamas and its rival Fatah, has been criticized for joining Israel in closing its borders with Gaza. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit called on Hamas to renew its truce with Israel: There has been a calm and we should work to restore it.France also called for the truce to be renewed and rallied European nations to use all their weight to stop the fighting between Israel and Hamas.We have entered a new spiral of despair, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told the Journal du Dimanche in an interview published Sunday. The truce must be restored.Kouchner noted that the attacks come in a context of vacancy of power in Israel and the U.S. as both countries are undergoing leadership transitions.
Europe has a role to play, Kouchner said.
In Beirut, Hamas representative Osama Hamdan told the crowd that the militant group had no choice but to fight. Gaza militants have been lobbing dozens of rockets and mortars into southern Israel since a six-month truce expired over a week ago, prompting Israel's fierce retaliation.We have one alternative which is to be steadfast and resist and then we will be victorious, Hamdan said.In the capital of neighboring Syria, more than 5,000 people marched toward the central Youssef al-Azmeh square, where they burned an Israeli and an American flag.One demonstrator carried a banner reading, The aggression against Gaza is an aggression against the whole Arab nation.Down with America, the mother of terrorism, read another.In Amman, Jordan, about 5,000 lawyers marched toward parliament to demand the Israeli ambassador's expulsion and the closure of the embassy. No for peace, yes to the rifle, they chanted.In Jordan's squalid Baqaa camp for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, protester Yassin Abu Taha, 32, blamed America and Israel for the Middle East's problems.The Israelis kill our people in Gaza and the West Bank. The Americans kill our people in Iraq. We're refugees, kicked out of our home in Tulkarem in 1967 and we're still displaced, he said, bemoaning his family's flight in the 1967 Mideast war.The U.S. Embassy in Jordan warned Americans to avoid areas of demonstrations.
Thousands of Egyptians — many of them students — demonstrated at campuses in Cairo, Alexandria and elsewhere and accused President Hosni Mubarak and other Arab leaders of not doing enough to support the Palestinians. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said Israel should be wiped off the map, denounced the Israeli strikes. And in the normally politically placid streets of glitzy Dubai, hundreds of demonstrators — some draped in Palestinian flags — gathered at the Palestinian consulate. This is a time for the Palestinians and Arabs to unite to fight against a common enemy, said Majdei Mansour, a 30-year-old Palestinian resident of Dubai. Mansour said he has been unable to contact his family in Gaza since the latest fighting. In Iraq, where the government has also condemned the Gaza airstrikes, a suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up amid a crowd of about 1,300 demonstrators in Mosul who were protesting against Israel, killing one demonstrator and wounding 16, Iraqi police said. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack on the demonstration, which was organized by a Sunni party in sympathy for Palestinians in Gaza, who are largely fellow Sunnis. Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria; Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran; Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, and Hamid Ahmed in Baghdad contributed to this report.
