A few articles of note today…

- Rationalizing Gaza - Justin Raimondo
- Bringing The Arab-Israeli War Home - Michael Scheuer
- Israel’s ‘Fait Accompli’ in Gaza - Eric Margolis
- Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus shells - Times Online
- Keeping out the cameras and reporters simply doesn’t work - Robert Fisk
- Thousands join march to protest against Israeli action - The Guardian

If anyone has anything more to share, please post links in the comments.

I was in the middle of updating an entry from yesterday when the power went out. It didn’t come back on until this morning, so.

It’s stopped snowing, so hopefully I can get downtown today. Stu and Blake were stranded in Calgary overnight because of the weather here in town. Supposedly a plane skidded off the runway at YVR last night too, but I couldn’t find anything on the local CBC website about it, so it might just be a rumor.

My old neighbour has said that he’ll let me jump on his internet connection when I’m staying at my old place this month, so I might be able to update the site more in the mornings. We’ll see how it goes.

Earlier today reports began springing up that the IDF had cut Gaza in half. Now, according to the BBC, the IDF is in the process of moving 40 tanks south towards Khan Younis. Aerial bombardments in the area have also picked up. Meanwhile, European diplomats are engaging in an emergency effort to get both sides to agree to a 48 hour humanitarian truce after the United States blocked a second UN ceasefire resolution.

In an interview today, Israeli President Shimon Peres claimed that Israel’s goal is not to occupy Gaza nor “crush Hamas”, but to “crush terror”. He went on to say that “Hamas needs a real and serious lesson and they are now getting it” – which is interesting because the Israelis, among many others, consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Thus, wouldn’t “crushing Hamas” be the same thing as “crushing terror” given that view?

Rather odd.

From Antiwar…

“For the second time in four days, the United States has quashed an attempted United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate end to the war in the Gaza Strip. After the latest rejection, US envoy Alejandro Wolff declared that there was “no point” in the statement, because Hamas (who has previously suggested openness to a ceasefire) would never abide by it. Wolff added that it was unacceptable for the council to equate the killing of civilians by the Israeli government with the killing of civilians by Hamas, and that “Israel’s self-defense is not negotiable.”

The previous draft resolution also called for “an immediate ceasefire and for its full respect by both sides,” which the United States condemned as “one-sided.” The new draft seemed aimed at answering those concerns, as the British government suggested everyone was open to a resolution if the terms were right.

Yet this seems not to have been the case, and the US rejection this time appears to have nothing to do with the terms of the draft, and everything to do with the fact that it would call on Israel to stop its invasion. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the United States can veto any resolution, and has traditionally done so when the resolution would stand in the way of Israeli military action. As the toll continues to rise (passing 500 today) the UN will remain completely unable to act, barring a sudden and miraculous change of American foreign policy priorities.”

Four Israelis have died as a result of Hamas rocket attacks since the invasion began, with a handful of others injured, most of them only slightly. On the other hand, hundreds of Gazan civilians have been killed and perhaps a thousand injured, many seriously. The situation is so dire, in fact, that hospitals in Gaza are unable to cope with the influx of the wounded, lack supplies, and have to deal with intermittent power. Hamas or no, how that doesn’t spell humanitarian crisis is quite beyond me.

There was a time when journalists were afforded the right to cover foreign wars without their work being massively censored. That’s not to say that the media hasn’t been censored or bias since its corporate inception, but at least individuals such as Peter Arnett, who was in Vietnam from 1962 to 1975 for the AP, during which he would win the Pulitzer in 1966 for his coverage, prove that independent coverage of conflicts is vital with regards to informing the public. Edward Murrow’s coverage of The Blitz is another example, as was his use of his television program ‘See It Now’ in 1954 which led to the downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Covering modern conflicts is a very dangerous business. To do so without bias is even more so, as major news media tends not to publish stories that aren’t at least somewhat tamed to ensure that they do not offend readers and thus imperil their consumer bases. There are exceptions to this rule, though they tend to primarily apply to veteran journalists that have significant reputations, such as Seymour Hersh, Robert Fisk, and so forth. The rest, especially in this day and age, are pushed to the periphery, many published only online or sparsely in the odd daily or periodical. And even then, their work is accused of being ‘liberally biased’.

All of that said, a very simple question has to be asked. Why do nations, such as Israel and the United States, disallow independent media coverage of aggressive military operations? During the invasion of Iraq the media was embedded with the military. In the case of Israel’s current operations, why has the Israeli government denied international journalists entry into Gaza?

The answer is quite simple. Information is power, and the ability to control it for the sake of ensuring that your actions are seen as justified to the world is paramount. The last thing that the Israeli government wants is members of the international media reporting uncensored from within Gaza, from witnessing the affects of collateral damage, the abhorrent conditions, and the humanitarian crisis that, despite Israeli claims, is very real. When it comes to modern warfare, information is power, and controlling it is quintessential.

As of today it’s being reported that 500 Gazans have been killed since the Israelis began operations. And while various agencies and groups have attempted to collect information as to how many of those killed have been civilians, the truth is that, at this point, it remains a guessing game. Scores more could be buried beneath rubble, still unaccounted for, and given the chaos reigning in Gaza, who has the time to properly conduct a thorough inquiry? For all anyone knows the death toll could be double that figure and the percentage of civilians killed much higher.

The IDF certainly can’t be counted on for accurate information, nor can the information provided by the UN or other groups be taken as gospel given the fact that they have had to frantically conduct such calculations in the midst of a bombing campaign. Were members of the international media present, reports of collateral damage, for example, would no doubt receive greater attention, thus aiding in filling in the broader picture. Unfortunately, most of them are being denied entry and therefore must rely on information provided them by sources in Gaza, or those few journalists that have either snuck in or were in Gaza prior to the commencement of Operation Cast Lead.

Every so often it happens in an Israeli publication, so when the likes of Haaretz publishes Gideon Levy’s recent article - The IAF, bullies of the clear blue skies, it’s of note…

“Our finest young men are attacking Gaza now. Good boys from good homes are doing bad things. Most of them are eloquent, impressive, self-confident, often even highly principled in their own eyes, and on Black Saturday dozens of them set out to bomb some of the targets in our “target bank” for the Gaza Strip.

They set out to bomb the graduation ceremony for young police officers who had found that rare Gaza commodity, a job, massacring them by the dozen. They bombed a mosque, killing five sisters of the Balousha family, the youngest of whom was 4. They bombed a police station, hitting a doctor nearby; she lies in a vegetative state in Shifa Hospital, which is bursting with wounded and dead. They bombed a university that we in Israel call the Palestinian Rafael, the equivalent of Israel’s weapons developer, and destroyed student dormitories. They dropped hundreds of bombs out of blue skies free of all resistance.

In four days they killed 375 people. They did not, and could not, distinguish between a Hamas official and his children, between a traffic cop and a Qassam launch operator, between a weapons cache and a health clinic, between the first and second floors of a densely populated apartment building with dozens of children inside. According to reports, about half of the people killed were innocent civilians. We’re not complaining about the pilots’ accuracy, it cannot be otherwise when the weapon is a plane and the objective is a tiny, crowded strip of land. Our excellent pilots are effectively bullies now. As in training flights, they bomb undisturbed, facing neither an air force nor defense system.

It is hard to judge what they are thinking, how they feel. It’s unlikely to be relevant, anyway. They are measured by their actions. In any event, from an altitude of thousands of feet the picture looks as sterile as a Rorschach inkblot. Lock onto the target, press the button and then a black column of smoke. Another “successful hit.” None see the effects on the ground of their actions. Their heads must surely be filled with Gaza horror stories - they themselves have never been there - as if there aren’t a million and a half people living there who only want to live with a minimum of honor, some of them young like themselves, with dreams of studying, working, raising a family but who have no chance to fulfill their dreams with or without the bombing.

Do the pilots think about them, the children of refugees whose parents and grandparents have already been driven from their lives? Do they think about the thousands of people they have left permanently disabled in a place without a single hospital worthy of the name and no rehabilitation centers at all? Do they think about the burning hatred they are planting not only in Gaza but in other corners of the world amid the horrific images on television?

It was not the pilots who decided to go to war, but they are the subcontractors. The real accounting must be with the decision makers, but the pilots are their partners. When they return home they will be welcomed with all the respect and honor we reserve for them. It appears that not only will no one try to provoke moral questioning among them, but that they are considered the real heroes of this cursed war. The Israel Defense Forces spokesman is already going over the top with praise in his daily briefings for the “wonderful work” they are doing. He too, of course, completely ignores the images from Gaza. After all, these are not sadistic Border Police officers beating up Arabs in the alleys of Nablus and the center of Hebron, or cruel undercover soldiers who shoot their targets point-blank in cold blood. These, as we have said, are our finest young men.

Maybe if they were to confront the results of their “wonderful work” even once they would regret their decisions, they would reconsider the effects of their actions. If they were to go just once to Jerusalem’s Alyn Hospital Pediatric and Adolescent Rehabilitation Center, where for nearly three years Marya Aman, 7, has been hospitalized - she is a quadriplegic who runs her wheelchair, and her life, with her chin - they would be shocked. This adorable little girl was hit by a missile in Gaza that killed almost her entire family, the handiwork of our pilots.

But all of this is well hidden from the pilots’ eyes. They are only doing their job, as the saying goes, only following orders like bombing machines. In the past few days they have excelled at this, and the results are there for the entire world to see. Gaza is licking its wounds, just like Lebanon before it, and almost no one pauses for a moment to ask whether all this is necessary, or unavoidable, or whether it contributes to Israel’s security and moral image. Is it really the case that our pilots return safely to base, or are they in fact returning to them as callous, cruel and blind people?”

Very, very well put.

“Area resident, as result of the acts undertaken by terror activists in your area against Israel, the IDF is forced to respond immediately and operate in this area. For your own safety, you are asked to leave the area immediately.” - IDF Leaflets being dropped on areas in Northern Gaza.

Of course, ‘Northern Gaza’ can refer to as far south as the Karni border crossing, so Gaza City, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya may all be affected. That leaves the road south towards Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, both of which have been targeted by the Israeli air force. And, being that they were intelligent enough to fire at a welder loading a truck with tanks thinking them missiles, who knows what they might deem target-worthy as people flee.

The reality of Gaza, as far as any ground resistance that Hamas might attempt to throw up, is that it is entirely surrounded. Therefore, as far as engaging in a prolonged confrontation against the IDF, Hamas has no chance of a sustained action in my opinion. All they can do is undertake hit and runs, which ultimately will endanger the lives of innocent civilians. Likewise, given what has occurred, I am sure that their ranks are being bolstered by angry youths that don’t fully understand the magnitude of what they’re committing to. As some idiot once opined – if hate’s in your heart, you’ll take what you’re given. As far as I’m concerned, to prey upon such hopelessness and anger in an attempt to confront a far superior military force, which is basically nothing short of suicide, is disgusting.

The leadership of Hamas can talk tough all they’d like, but they haven’t a chance against a determined Israeli military ground invasion of Gaza. The only thing that they can hope to achieve is a horrible PR victory through the death of civilians, which, if we’re to cut the shit, they will have placed in harms way for their own ends. And that is simply unforgivable when children are losing their lives for a ‘cause’ that they are too young to even comprehend, let alone support.

Personally, at this point, I’d be all for a third-party invading both locations and planting their flag. Maybe the Mongols. They’ve got a bit of a track record in that department.

The UN has the civilian death toll in Gaza at 25%. A leading Palestinian Human Rights group has placed the figure at as high as 40%. The International Red Cross and Crescent is just running around pulling their collective hair out.

Of course, those figures are based on actual corpses and do not include those that may still be buried beneath tons of rubble.

Nothing goes in – no humanitarian aid, no foreign journalists. It’s just 139 square miles of blackout and blood. And to be quite honest with you, both sides, Israeli hardliners and Hamas’ jackass leadership, can go and collectively fuck themselves.

With ‘actionable’ targets dwindling for the Israeli air force to strike, the IDF started shelling northern Gaza, after which a small contingent of military personnel and vehicles crossed the border intent on capturing areas from which rocket attacks have been emanating. Hamas’ determination to continue firing rockets into Israel has been no less fierce, resulting in the injury of two people in Ashdod today.

Despite the fact that President Bush, who has mere weeks left in his second term, is due to announce that the United States is attempting to lead a diplomatic effort to achieve a ceasefire, the US used its position as a permanent member of The Security Council to block an attempt by the Arab League to push through a legally binding ceasefire resolution claiming that it lacked vital language regarding the cessation of rocket attacks against Israel.

According to The Independent, a recent survey conducted by Haaretz concluded that 71% of Israelis support the continuation of air strikes, with 21% backing a ground invasion. A similar number of Israelis favour supporting a ceasefire.

My personal solution is quite simple. Snow. If only five feet of it could fall throughout the region the entire place would be paralyzed, forcing all of this nonsense to stop. In fact, maybe they could lob snowballs at each other instead. Yes, I know, entirely unrealistic and disturbingly bon mot given the gravity of the situation. But a fellow can dream. And it beats the shit out of seeing images and reading reports about the death of children.

Sir Peter Ustinov said it best - “Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.”

You post about snow, you get comments. You post about a conflict which produces sharp divisions in thought, well, not so much. Maybe it’s because I post less about snow, I’m not sure.

Who gets what? That’s one of life’s great questions. The answer is – those with the biggest and best human meat grinders. Because if you can take it and hold it – it’s yours.

I do know this. If the people of Israel have the right to a land because it’s viewed as their ancestral home then we had better pack up shop and be prepared to move back to wherever it is that all of us came from, because this entire continent rightfully belongs to others. Of course, we took if from them, subjugated or slaughtered them, indoctrinated them and even stripped them of their culture and language at times. The only reason that we’re here is because the aboriginal peoples of North America lacked three things when we showed up – superior arms, complete mistrust, and immune systems completely unaccustomed to foreign illnesses.

By the end of the 19th Century, only 250,000 Native Americans were left in the US – and that only takes into account the US, not Canada or Mexico. Archeologists have discovered artifacts that date the existence of aboriginals along what is now the New England coastline to 3,000 BC. In truth, the peoples indigenous to this continent have Paleolithic origins, which means that they first inhabited the continent between 15,000 and 11,000 BP.

In conclusion – when it comes to land rights with regards to ancestral perpetuity, we’re screwed. Thankfully we took care of those pesky aboriginals long ago, so we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief.

When I went to bed last night it was cloudy. When I woke up this morning I stumbled downstairs to the kitchen to put some coffee on and let the dogs out. Opening the back door there was resistance and, not having my glasses on, didn’t realize how much of a snow drift had accumulated overnight. I pushed the door open and the backyard was covered over, the maze built for the dogs undetectable. I put on my shoes and wandered out into the show in my pajamas and started digging.

For some odd reason, even though he loved the snow when he was younger, Casey can’t abide being neck deep in it. Benji, on the other hand, may very well be part Husky after all, as he’ll jump headlong into a snow bank without any hesitation. But the boys are least of my concerns.

Being that I own a car that can’t be driven in this weather, I am limited to traveling by foot – which means to the local market and back. The streets and my driveway are, once again, completely covered, adding to the already considerable amount of snow present. Somehow I have to find a way into town Sunday night or Monday morning, as I begin recording on Monday. Right now that is my primary concern.

Obviously the freeway and the nearby highway will be cleared, but the forecast is calling for more snow overnight, which will only make matters worse. According to the regional CBC website it isn’t snowing downtown right now, but conditions in the Valley are a different matter altogether. I have gear to get into town as well as myself, so looking to get the problem solved is going to be foremost on my mind today I’d imagine.

If I didn’t have to record, being stuck here would be quite pleasant. I’ve everything I need, plenty of coffee and tea, sandwiches and soup. It would sort of be heaven to be honest.