MIDDLE EAST: Gaza strikes reverberate beyond Israel

Throughout the region, anger born of death germinates.

In front of the United Nations office in Tehran this morning, the women in all-covering black chadors and the young bearded men arrived.

They waved the flags of the Palestinian group Hamas, which is under an Israeli assault in the Gaza Strip, along with black banners marking the beginning of the holy month of Muharram and the martyrdom of the Imam Hussein, whose brutal death at the hands of Islam’s rulers some 1,300 years ago remains the Shiite sect's rallying cry against injustice.

Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, cast the Palestinians of Gaza in the role of Shiite Islam’s most revered figures.

“Palestinians have chosen the epochal path of Imam Hussein,” Larijani told fellow lawmakers.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared Monday a day of mourning for the nearly 300 Palestinians killed in Gaza so far and issued a decree calling on all Muslims to defend Palestinians.

"All Palestinian combatants and all the Islamic world's pious people are obliged to defend the defenseless women, children and people in Gaza in any way possible," he was quoted as saying on state television, according to Reuters.

Television stations broadcast nonstop, instantaneous footage of blood, death and destruction, of weeping children with bandaged heads in overcrowded hospitals and bloodied corpses lying on rubble-filled streets.

All throughout the region those sympathetic to the Palestinian cause described the fighting in Gaza in the most dire terms.

"Words are not enough here to describe the magnitude of the crimes committed by Israel against peaceful Palestinians namely Gazans,” one commentator wrote on the website of the television news channel Al Jazeera.

An announcer on the Iranian-backed Shiite Lebanese group Hezbollah’s Al Manar television station accused Israeli politicians of sacrificing Palestinian lives in order to benefit in hotly contested upcoming elections.

And Arabs heaped scorn on their own leaders as well as Israel.

“We have had enough with your silence,” another commentator wrote on the bulletin board of an Arab news website. “You are a bunch of agents. You think you will live forever. We warn you of a revolution that wont stop.”

Among those hoping for peace in the region, the attacks left a gloomy sense of foreboding.

The “IDF strikes will deepen the cycle of violence in the region,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street, a Washington-based Jewish lobbying group supportive of peace talks, said in a statement.

“Retaliation is inevitable," the statement continued, "though we don’t know how far the violence will spread or how many more Israelis and Palestinians will die and suffer in the days and weeks to come.”

— Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran, Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo and Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photo: Sudanese demonstrators shout and wave a Palestinian flag during a protest in Khartoum on Dec. 28 against the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Credit: Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty Images

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Comments

[Daniel]

Hamas deserve all they get as they strike jews time and time again they are also following instructions by the iranian leader to cause harm to all jews. i think now is the time to strike thse muslim fanatics all over the world now is the time to take control of our FREE world as these people want to put us in a trance and brainwashing tactics so that we then serve them. they are not good people they are cold bloodied killers and i for one think that we should stand and fight we should walk staight into IRAN and crush there pitifull army and show them the might of america and the UK we should take there great leader and parade him through the whole arab world to let them no that hitler did this to the jews and any other force that trys it again will be delt with swiftly

[rah]

Israel had been violating the cease fire every day. To those who think hamas submitting before Israels would have saved lives you need to think again. Israel wanted war and confrontation and no matter what hamas did Israel would have generated some excuse or the other.

Most Arab/Muslim leaders and elites are into luxery and stealing the wealth of the country. With the exceptions of Sudan, Turkey, Iran and Malaysia.

The rest of the muslim/arab leaders and elites need to hang from the lightpoles outside their regal houses and palaces. The Russian Bolsheviks were correct. Real change could not happen as long as the czar and the rest of the Russian aristocracy was still around. It was only when the Russian ruling elites were systematically killed or exiled that the Soviet Union could go from a poor agrarian nation to the major world power defeating an unbeaten Germany.

Historically Egyptian rulers have always been a thorn on the side of the Muslims. Salahuddin Ayyubi (AS) had to make a truce with crusaders just to remove the leaders in Egypt who were actually in cahoots with the crusaders.

The muslim arab ruling elite needs to hang even their wives. In every state and every culture treachery during war, especially while being attacked from outside, is considered a high crime. Treachery during war has only one penalty namel execution.

In the US the Jews DR. Rosenberg and his wife were electrocuted for betraying US atomic secrets to Russia. The same needs to happen across the Muslim/Arab World.
rh

[Ebrahim]

You cannot suppress somebody and still expect him to act reasonably and peaceful! Israel and USA shall understand this.

[John Smith]

It's interesting how some people want to present this massacre of 300 human beings as just "air strikes."

Tell that to the mothers of the children who were murdered.

The Palestine Review
http://palestinereview.com

[Arthur S]

For years, Israel has shown restraint in the face of continuous Arabic agression. Despite giving Hamas 6 months of a cease-fire, the jihadists began firing rockets into Israel and killing and injuring civilian folks & destroying property. Obviously, the time is way past due for the Israelis to give Hamas what it richly deserves. . a major kick in the seat of their pants. I hope Israel does not stop the attack on Hamas until the Palestinians decide enough is enough and they boot out Hamas. If the PA agrees to be peaceful, they will have a peaceful neighbor in Israel.

[Alan MacDonald]

All people and organizations of good will and intent on peaceful resolution are calling for immediate cease-fire, and diplomatic talk and action --- just as Obama had committed to in his campaign discussions.

This includes many within Israel and the J Street organization in the US, which counter balances the voices of militarism of neocons in the US and Israel:

J Street's statement comes just days after the annoucement that its executive director, Jerry Ben-Ami, will be a speaker at JCPA's upcoming convention:

December 27, 2008

STATEMENT BY Jeremy Ben-Ami, Executive Director, on Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza

"While this morning's air strikes by Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza can be understood and even justified in the wake of recent rocket attacks, we believe that real friends of Israel recognize that escalating the conflict will prove counterproductive, igniting further anger in the region and damaging long-term prospects for peace and stability.

Respecting Israel's right to defend itself, we urge leaders there to recognize that there is no military solution to what is fundamentally a political conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.

Today's IDF strikes will deepen the cycle of violence in the region."

All rational and peace seeking people of all countries, races and religions 'hope' that 'yes, we can change' this insanity of militarism and empire.

Thus the J-Street statement continues:

"We urge the incoming Obama administration to lead an early and serious effort to achieve a comprehensive diplomatic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts.

This is a fundamental American interest as we too stand to suffer as the situation spirals, rage in the region is directed at the United States, and our regional allies are further undermined. Our goals must be a Middle East that moves beyond bloody conflicts, an Israel that is secure and accepted in the region, and an America secured by reducing extremism and enhancing stability. None of these goals are achieved by further escalation."

http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/article/2008/12/28/1001842/j-street-criticizes-israeli-strikes