It's my first coverage since the recent Israeli aggression ended and the alleged truce began, and seeing as Egypt is right next door:
Hamas Won Gaza War
Rebuilding Gaza
Let's get started:
"Blair criticizes Hamas and Israel, says world has abandoned Gaza Strip" Associated Press February 16, 2015
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — International Mideast envoy Tony Blair said Sunday the world has forsaken the Gaza Strip and called for a new approach to lifting up the war-battered territory.
On a trip to Gaza, the former British prime minister visited Palestinian families still taking shelter in a United Nations-run school.
Reconstruction efforts have been slow since last summer’s war with Israel, and Blair said some donor countries have not followed through on their funding commitments. Blair said the stagnation in reconstruction was a “crime” and took aim at the international community, the Palestinians, and Israel.
He said the current state of Gaza was a result of “those of us in the international community who over the years have made promises” that were not fulfilled, “those who offered leadership and failed to provide,” and Israeli and Palestinian politics that have failed to bring “peace and prosperity” to Gaza.
“Gaza should not be separated from the rest of the world or from the rest of Palestinian territories,” he said.
Here, here!
Blair called for the Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, to clarify whether it is part of a “broader Islamist movement with regional designs” or whether it would accept a long-term peace alongside Israel.
They have said they would abide by an agreement negotiated by the PA and ratified by the Palestinian people in a vote. What more do you want?
He also called for a “radical change of approach” from Israel to lift trade restrictions “so that Gaza can truly be opened up to the outside world and so that the Gaza people have the freedom of movement and goods and services that Gaza and its economy require.”
Has Tony been drinking? Dementia setting in? Or did he wake up with a conscience today?
Blair also called on Gaza’s neighbor Egypt to facilitate movement in and out of Gaza and lead negotiations about Gaza’s long-term future.
Related: Missile, fire from Egypt wounds 2 Israeli troops
So much for that idea.
“If we allow Gaza to remain as it is, we are making a fundamental mistake,” Blair said.
Not only that, it's a cruelty no one should suffer.
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Have you noticed that ever since the European nations have decided to recognize a Palestinian state and took Hamas and Hezbollah off the sponsor of terror list they have been hit with a wave of false flag fakes or staged and scripted propaganda productions?
"Project begins to remove war rubble in Gaza" by Fares Akram, Associated Press December 04, 2014
About time!
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The first large-scale project to remove tons of rubble in the Gaza Strip left over from this summer’s fighting between the Islamic militant group Hamas and Israel began Wednesday, a significant step forward in rebuilding the war-torn area.
The project is taking place in Gaza City’s Shijaiyah neighborhood, an area that was devastated during the fighting. Workers manning bulldozers and other heavy machinery began gathering and crushing the rubble. Others, wearing fluorescent vests, were busy extracting twisted rebar for recycling. People used horse-drawn carts to carry bags of cement to repair damaged dwellings.
The Palestinian minister of public works, Mufeed al-Hasayneh, said the 50-day war in July and August left 2.5 million tons of rubble in Gaza.
Sweden is paying $3.2 million for the project through the United Nations, where officials hope to crush and clear 140,000 tons of rubble in Shijaiyah over the course of a year.
About 100,000 buildings or structures were damaged in the fighting. The UN says this includes more than 18,000 housing units that were destroyed.
More than three months after the end of the war, delivery of building materials is slow.
Because Israel controls all access and the U.N. has to ask "please, please, can we bring supplies in today?"
A UN-sponsored mechanism allows some people to obtain cement and steel based on vouchers from the ministry. The vouchers are issued after Israel is briefed on the amounts of the materials each family would get, to make sure that supplies are not diverted to Hamas to build attack tunnels or other militant infrastructure.
‘‘This is a painful way because there is still a long course and we have not started real rebuilding until now,’’ Hasayneh said.
Sweden’s consul general in Jerusalem, Ann-Sofie Nilsson, announced the $3.4 million fund for the more than 1,500 families.
Nabil al-Deeb, 51, who lost his house in the fighting, said he wants the removal of rubble to be completed as soon as possible. ‘‘So far, we are still suffering in accommodation. We live in rentals and no one is taking care of us,’’ he said.
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Help wa$ on the way:
"$5.4b pledged to Gaza Strip after Israel-Hamas war" by Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press October 13, 2014
CAIRO — A donor conference in Cairo to raise money for Gaza after this year’s war between Hamas and Israel ended with pledges of $5.4 billion, half of which will be ‘‘dedicated’’ to the reconstruction of the coastal strip, Norway’s foreign minister said Sunday.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende offered the figure at the end of Sunday’s one-day conference, far beyond the $4 billion initially sought by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Brende did not say what the other half of the funds would be spent on, but other delegates have spoken of boosting economic activity, emergency relief, and other projects needed in the war-ravaged territory.
“The message was clear to the international community that the Palestinian brothers are not alone,’’ Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri said.
Qatar pledged $1 billion toward the reconstruction, once again using its vast wealth to reinforce its role as a regional player as Gulf Arab rival the United Arab Emirates promised $200 million.
Secretary of State John Kerry earlier announced immediate American assistance of $212 million.
For once I'm not complaining, and they can give more. Take it out of the Israeli aid account.
The European Union pledged $568 million. Turkey, which has been playing a growing role in the Middle East in recent years, said it was donating $200 million.
Delegates representing some 50 nations and 20 regional and international groups applauded the pledge by Qatar, a tiny but energy-rich nation at odds with its larger neighbors, including the Emirates.
The Emirates, along with regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, alleges that Qatar uses its massive wealth to undermine regional stability, primarily through meddling in other nations’ affairs and aiding such militant groups as Gaza’s Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world’s oldest Islamist group with branches across much of the region.
Who do they bethink they are, AmeriKa?
Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, in announcing his country’s pledge, denounced the ‘‘international silence’’ that surrounded Gaza’s destruction.
‘‘While the Palestinian people need financial support, they need more political support from the international community,’’ he said. ‘‘A just peace is the only real guarantee for not destroying what we are about to rebuild and reconstruct.’’
Organizers of the Cairo conference hope the pledges will be paid over the period of three years to aid reconstruction in the Gaza Strip, which borders Israel and Egypt.
Then what is with Bliar's bluster?
Both countries have blockaded Gaza since Hamas took power there in 2007, causing the territory of 1.8 million people economic hardships and high unemployment.
Israel had nothing to do with it.
Donors plan to funnel the aid through Abbas’s Palestinian Authority and bypass Hamas. Abbas and Hamas recently formed a national unity government that held its first Cabinet meeting in Gaza last week.
And every time they do some terror incident or event happens.
The Western-backed Abbas, speaking to delegates, said the latest Gaza war caused ‘‘tragedies that are difficult to be described by words. . . . Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.’’ The 50-day war was the third between Hamas and Israel since 2008.
‘‘The [Palestinian] government will carry out the reconstruction plan with full responsibility and transparency in coordination with the UN, the donors, international financial institutions, civil society, and the private sector,’’ he said.
Leading participants said the reconstruction of Gaza cannot be carried out in isolation from efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks in search of a comprehensive and lasting settlement.
‘‘We must not lose sight of the root causes of the recent hostilities: A restrictive occupation that has lasted almost half a century, the continued denial of Palestinian rights and the lack of tangible progress in peace negotiations,’’ said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who later announced in a news conference that he planned to visit Gaza on Tuesday.
‘‘Going back to the status quo is not an option,’’ Ban said.
Even the UN is pissed!
The latest conflict in Gaza was the most ruinous of three wars, killing more than 2,000 Palestinians — mostly civilians, the United Nations says. Another 11,000 were wounded, and some 100,000 remain homeless.
Kerry said Gazans ‘‘need our help desperately — not tomorrow, not next week, but they need it now.’’
Then suit talking and get moving!
He said the new US money, which nearly doubles American aid to the Palestinians this year, would go to security, economic development, food and medicine, and shelter.
Is it there yet?
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"UN chief implores Israel, Hamas to avoid another war" by William Booth, Washington Post October 15, 2014
JABALIYAH, Gaza Strip — The first truckload of cement to rebuild the Gaza Strip arrived Tuesday as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon toured bombed-out neighborhoods nearly two months after the end of a punishing war.
That's before the rubble was taken away.
Ban, who spent the morning in some of the areas hit hardest during the 50-day conflict between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas, implored Israel to end the blockade of the coastal enclave and the Palestinians to guarantee security for Israel — before another war breaks out.
Still haven't.
‘‘I am here with a very heavy heart. The destruction which I have seen coming here is beyond description,’’ said Ban, who appeared moved by what he saw in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.
‘‘I saw entire neighborhoods completely destroyed,’’ he told reporters. ‘‘I met so many of the beautiful children of Gaza. More than 500 were killed in the fighting. Many more were wounded. What did they do wrong? Being born in Gaza is not a crime.’’
Ban spoke in the courtyard of an elementary school for girls, run by the UN Relief and Works Agency, that was the scene of deadly shelling by Israeli forces on July 30. The school was filled at the time with evacuees seeking shelter, and 19 people, mostly women and children, were killed by explosions, shrapnel, and debris.
‘‘They sought sanctuary under the UN flag,’’ Ban said, referring to the shelling as ‘‘absolutely unacceptable.
He added, ‘‘All of the details related to the location of this facility were shared with Israeli authorities again and again. Yet the shells fell.’’
The UN chief said he is considering establishing his own board of inquiry to investigate the shelling of UN facilities and the killing of UN staff members. The UN Human Rights Council has established a commission of inquiry, which Israeli leaders have called a witch hunt.
There are witches! There are!
At the time of the attack on the Jabaliyah school, Israeli military spokesmen said their tanks fired after Gaza militants lobbed mortar rounds from the site. Israeli officials argue that if anyone is guilty of war crimes, it is Hamas, which indiscriminately fired rockets at Israeli civilians.
I'm sour on all the whining, sorry.
Ban’s trip to Gaza came one day after he visited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who complained to the UN leader that Hamas had not only fired from UN schools but used its facilities to store rockets.
‘‘When they found rockets in UN schools, UN officials returned them to Hamas, the same Hamas that fired the same rockets on Israeli cities and Israeli citizens,’’ Netanyahu said.
‘‘The main reason for the violence over the summer was Hamas rockets on Israeli cities,’’ Netanyahu told reporters.
In their exchange, Ban criticized Israel’s continued construction of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, settlements that the United Nations and many nations consider illegal. Ban also challenged Netanyahu to show ‘‘leadership’’ and make peace with the Palestinians.
In Gaza on Tuesday, Ban said that his visit reinforced his conviction that ‘‘there can be no peace in the Middle East, no security for Israel, while the crisis in Gaza festers.’’ But Ban, whom Israel has criticized for not placing the blame where Israel says it belongs, added, ‘‘I repeat here in Gaza: The rockets fired by Hamas and other armed groups must end. They have brought nothing but suffering.’’
Ban told people in Gaza that the first trucks filled with gravel and cement were arriving in the strip on Tuesday through Israeli checkpoints. He also said ‘‘humanitarian payments’’ will be made to some of the tens of thousands of Gaza civil servants hired by Hamas. According to Palestinian officials, 24,000 civil employees who worked for Hamas, which is now broke, will receive $1,000 each from the monarchy in the oil-rich Persian Gulf state of Qatar.
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Meanwhile, over on the West Bank:
"Israel’s West Bank population grows, drawing Palestinian ire" by Josef Federman | Associated Press September 17, 2014
JERUSALEM — Israel’s settler population in the West Bank increased by 2 percent in the first half of the year, an advocacy group announced Tuesday, signaling robust growth in the settlements even while Israel was conducting peace talks with the Palestinians.
It's not status quo as Israel steals more land.
The new figures drew criticism from the Palestinians, who seek the West Bank as part of a future state. The Palestinians and most of the international community consider Israeli construction there to be illegal or illegitimate.
And yet no sanctions, nothing.
Gaza militants meanwhile fired a mortar round at southern Israel for the first time since a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas ended with a cease-fire last month. The attack did not wound anyone or cause any damage, the military said. It was not immediately clear whether Israel would respond.
Then it was a false flag attack -- if it occurred at all.
Just because my pre$$ says so doesn't make it true.
A Hamas security official said the group was not behind the attack. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
The Gaza war — the third in just over five years — left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead, the majority of them civilians, according to Palestinian and UN officials. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and six civilians were killed.
The numbers speak for themselves.
The Yesha Council, the official umbrella group representing the more than 100 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, said the settler population grew to 382,031 as of June 30, up 2 percent from 374,469 on Dec. 31. The projected 4 percent annual growth rate would be more than double Israel’s nationwide growth rate, according to official figures.
‘‘It is clear that it is a thriving community that is here to stay,’’ said Dani Dayan, the chief foreign envoy of the Yesha Council.
Dayan said the increase was driven by a combination of natural population growth as well as an influx of Israelis drawn to the West Bank for ideological, lifestyle, or economic reasons. Many settlers are Orthodox Jews, who tend to have larger families. Housing in the settlements is generally cheaper than inside Israel, where even a modest apartment in major urban areas can cost more than $500,000, making the settlements an attractive destination for younger families.
Dayan said the growth ‘‘was across the board,’’ including ultra-Orthodox communities, more mainstream settlements that function as suburbs of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, and isolated, ideologically driven settlements deep in the West Bank.
The four largest settlements, for instance, posted growth of 1.9 percent during the six-month period, while the ‘‘Shomron’’ region in the northern West Bank, home to some smaller, more isolated communities, grew by 3.8 percent, according to the figures. Yesha said the numbers came from Israel’s Interior Ministry, which maintains population records. A ministry spokeswoman had no immediate comment.
Settlement construction remained a source of tension in the latest round of US-mediated peace talks, which broke down in April after nine months with no sign of progress.
Israel refused Palestinian demands to stop settlement construction — prompting Palestinian accusations that Israel wasn’t serious about peace. Secretary of State John F. Kerry also complained that the construction raised questions about Israel’s commitment to peace.
They are committed to PIECE!
‘‘These numbers released by the settlers council are an indication of Israel’s policy of lawlessness, policy of colonization and land theft, policy of destroying the two-state solution and the chances of peace,’’ said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official.
‘‘This did not happen by chance,” she said. ‘‘This is a matter of Israeli support, Israeli government and official support.’’
It is. I mean, they are not exactly extending the olive branch, are they?
Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for their state. After two decades of failed on-again, off-again negotiations, the Palestinians now plan on asking the UN Security Council this month to recognize a Palestinian state in these areas, and to give Israel a deadline to withdraw.
‘‘The world has seen enough and it needs to move now. We are going to the UN Security Council soon requesting the end of the Israeli occupation on the state of Palestine along the 1967 borders,’’ said Hanna Amereh, another Palestinian official.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel says his country must retain parts of the West Bank and will never withdraw from East Jerusalem — home to key Jewish, Muslim, and Christian holy sites. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem, and some 200,000 Israelis live there, even though the annexation is not internationally recognized.
I'm surprised to see the word in this context and not the false accusation regarding Russia and Crimea. Word is they are going to ban Arabs based on age.
Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, though it maintains control over the area’s airspace, seacoast, and much of its land borders.
And thus Gaza is the largest open-air prison in history.
Yariv Oppenheimer, director of the anti-settlement group Peace Now, said the rapid growth rate proves that settlements are not just experiencing natural growth, but that Israel is ‘‘exporting new settlers from Israel.’’ But he said that most settlers continue to live in blocs that are expected to remain under Israeli control under any future peace deal.
It's policy to preclude peace, and everyone knows it by now.
‘‘Although it’s becoming more difficult and more complicated to separate for a two-state solution, we are not in a point of no return,’’ he said.
Time to look to the future then.
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Related: Israeli forces kill Palestinian man in West Bank rally
He had a gun, I'm told, and "Naftali Bennett, a senior minister and the leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party, said in a statement: “A crazed Arab terrorist attacked our policemen’s vehicle with a knife in an attempt to murder them. A policeman shot him. That is what is expected from our security forces.”
Now I understand a lot of what is happening in AmeriKa!
Also see: Israeli Arabs protest fatal police shooting
Time to disperse.
So much for unity:
"Palestinian president outlaws labor union, orders arrests" Associted Press November 10, 2014
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The arrests have been seen as a sign of a growing intolerance for dissent by President Mahmoud Abbas [and] of increasing heavy-handedness by the Palestinian leader..
In the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Hamas militant group forced the cancellation of a memorial on the 10th anniversary of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s death. The move underscored the lingering tensions with the rival Fatah movement despite the formation of a unity government meant to end years of hostilities.
Tuesday’s event was meant to have been the first time that Fatah, the Palestinian movement founded by Arafat, held a memorial rally for the longtime leader in Gaza since 2007, the year that Hamas seized power in the coastal strip.
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Yeah, that Hamas, they won't even let children go to Israel and hear their side of the story. I'm sure it has been cleared for publication -- even if there is more rubble then (and now). Maybe that is why Israel is trying to clean up some of it before more terrorists arrive.
Time to take Stockman of the coverage:
Jerusalem, divided
Refusing to be enemies in Jerusalem
Keeping the dream of a Palestinian state alive?
That dream has been spoiled; I think we can both agree on that strategy going forward.
CAMERA: Boston Globe's Farah Stockman: Israel to Blame
I actually feel kinda sorry for her now.
