A very good example of thinking outside the square has just been demonstrated by the government of Venezuela. Instead of mouthing all of the objections and arguments that have gone before, it simply called in the Israeli ambassador, expressed its concerns, and then expelled him. At last report, after delivering a verbal hit presumably aimed at the groin of the Venezuelan government, the Israeli government was reportedly "mulling" over its response which probably means its considering what it might lose if it responds as it usually does.

To the Israelis,its international image is everything...which also explains why it angrily rejected a claom by the Vatican's cardinal Martino today that the Gaza Strip resembled one big concentration camp....a claim that's been around for quite some time now but has only just emerged from the mouth of a top Vatican prelate assigned to the portfolio of justice and peace! It shows the Israeli Foreign Ministry nerves aren't too far below the surface.

Imagine if the papal nuncios around the world took up the chorus and echoed the cardinal's comments to their local Israeli envoys!One can dream.

On the wider front, imagine if the world expelled all of Mugabe's envoys and also recalled all of its ambassadors from Harare.

Venezuela's gesture might be the sort of good oil needed by the international community in its response to the latest Middle East horror.

Others might consider a great hyperthetical...staging a televised war crimes tribunal to consider Israel's onslaught on Gaza.

It could be staged at Cambridge!

Regards to you all,

Brian Haill
bhaill@bigpond.net.au

The psychology of the Right would be fascinating if it weren't so appalling. The Right is completely unable to assess the potency of any given threat, and instead labels it "harmless" or "apocalyptic".

On September 10th, 2001, the Arab world was just another one of those quaint masses of brown people who provide us with things we need, like oil. Two days later, Muslims were being treated like unstoppable Martian invaders from a 1950s B-movie. The Palestinians are a proxy for the world's Muslims, and the Right wants them to take a beating to prove that the Muslim menace can be harmed. It's like watching a circus tent-fight, with the audience screaming "kill the n----r!

The grand irony is that, for all its talk of realism, the Right is utterly terrorised. Just read the posters on OLO who sincerely believe that a scattered, disorganised bunch of countries that constantly war with each other can overrun the west with 60-year-old rifles and fertiliser bombs.

Hopefully Obama can, unlike his predecessor, act of reason and not fear to put Israel back in its box.

Israel Army Members admit there was no firing from school

"The Israeli army has admitted privately to the UN that no firing came from a Gaza school where 42 people died on Tuesday after being hit by Israeli mortars, officials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) disclosed last night. Publicly, the Israeli army claims that the school, which was providing shelter for around 350 people, was being used by Hamas fighters to carry out attacks. Unrwa officials said they were fully confident this was not the case. More than 20,000 mourners attended the funerals of the victims yesterday. The attack was the single biggest loss of civilian life since the Israeli onslaught began. Mourners chanted slogans against "aggressors" and "murderers" and called for Israeli government leaders to be tried for war crimes. The procession went from the Kamal Adwan Hospital, where the casualties were taken, to the Al-Fakhora school."

Let us hope these Israel army persons are not hushed or punished by their own government as 'Bombs rain down as peace deal accepted 'in principle'

'Residents in southern Gaza told to leave homes as Israel prepares to widen offensive'.....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/bombs-rain-down-as-peace-deal-accepted-in-principle-1232055.html

More than 20,000 mourners attended the funerals of the victims yesterday. Find truth on UN school Bombing at the foot of linked page. Notice it is a fact still unheard or not being flushed by Western media sources. A crime yet still it goes on.

Keep writing Binoy Kampmark. Thank You for bothering.

http://www.miacat.com/
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I am hoping for what Tom Clancy calls the Ryan Doctrine to kick in some time soon w/r to the Holy Land, just like NATO acted over the Balkans.
Will Obama order B2 Spirit stealth bombers to take out the Tel Aviv Ministry of Aggression and the PM residence, then move on to other occupier infrastructure, and every single settlement for starters then subsequently deploy Raptors over Gaza, the West Bank ...

In the meantime, rockets out of Lebanon are now falling on the occupied Holy Land. About time ... why are Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia not ...
http://news.google.com.au/news/url?sa=t&ct=au/0-0-0&fp=49655d3042adb617&ei=0K1lSaSEC4jYgQP_wK28BA&url=http%3A//www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0%2C25197%2C24888156-601%2C00.html&cid=1286705204&usg=AFQjCNF_Fj99011fQ35Gy9cCQhDls0acSg

Weird eh... when I see all that is happening in Gaza... my mind goes immediately to children being taught how to use guns...told to hate Jewish pigs.... that's what I think of each time I see an image of a 'poor innocent child' as the bleeding heart elements in the West so love to describe them.

These childrens innocence was stolen from them when they were brutalized by HAMAS into becoming child soldiers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hToxAai9uME

Show me one documented example of Jewish/Israeli children being taught to hate like these arab children are?

The "left" seems to see these things and then in the next breath totally forget that they exist...then roll merrily along their deluded way and continue to blame Israel for all things bad in the Middle East.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgwM_4VfzRc&feature=related

I can imagine some of you cheering as the Jews were forced into the huge 'showers'...and then clapping as the tangled bodies were dragged out.. to be burned in the ovens.... I'ts just a different time and place..but the mentality is the same.

I suppose some of you would say the same of your opponents here? but replacing Jews with Arabs.......

To me the best thing is for us to let them sort it out themselves.

No matter which side we might support.. there will be a large number of people victimized by the outcome. Doesn't anyone else find it a bit strange that we who are totally unconnected with the events, should consider ourselves sudden experts on who is right and who is wrong?

I tend to place my support with Israel and blame the Arabs...but my views won't change anything there. I can only show my reasons.. from history.

I fail to see how anyone can suggest the 'immediate' considerations should overide bigpicture ideological ones. The ideological are what cause the immediate. If the ideas cannot be altered, then the people should be removed. That's how we treat people who rob banks.
As for who should remove who? aaah :) That is for history to decide, as always.

This from the Times of India:

"Gaza is a small strip of land on the Mediterranean Sea. Its territorial waters extend to about 35km off the coast. In 1999, the oil firm BG International discovered a huge deposit of natural gas 32km from the Gaza coast. The Gaza Marine gas field contains 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas valued at over $4 billion. As per the Oslo peace accords, which created Gaza, Israel has security control over air and water around Gaza. So, it wrangled a deal with BG to get access to Gaza Marine gas at cheap rates.

But before the deal could go through, Hamas won the elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006. This sparked off a bitter power struggle between Hamas and the pro-west Fatah. Ultimately, the Palestinian Authority split in 2007, with Hamas taking control of Gaza and Fatah taking control of West Bank. One of the first things that Hamas did after getting elected was to declare that the natural gas deal would have to be renegotiated."

----

Energy is everything. That gas is worth more than mere money. Energy security is Israel's Achilles' heel.

More here:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Gas_deal_coming_polls_behind_military_operations_in_Gaza/articleshow/3935036.cms