Breaches of Gazan Ceasefire - Siege Tightens

The Gaza cease fire is fragile, and this report is just in from Breaking News.ie.

Is it a "balanced" report or is it biased?

Quote :

27/01/2009 - 14:25:58
Gaza’s fragile ceasefire was broken today when an Israeli soldier was killed by a bomb.

Israeli soldiers briefly crossed the border in search of the attackers, and defence minister Ehud Barak said the country “cannot accept” the attack, the first serious clash since a ceasefire was declared more than a week ago.

“We will respond, but there is no point in elaborating,” Barak said in comments released by his office.

Shortly afterwards Israeli planes struck in the south of the Gaza strip, injuring one member of Hamas.

The Israeli military said the bomb targeted an Israeli patrol near the border community of Kissufim.

Israel also closed its crossings into Gaza to humanitarian aid traffic after briefly opening them today in retaliation for the bombing.

Israel and Hamas have been holding their fire since Israel ended its offensive, which was aimed at halting rocket fire from the territory. Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire on January 17, and that was followed by a similar announcement from Hamas.

In the days immediately following the ceasefire there was shelling by Israeli gunboats and some gunfire along the border – including the killing of two men Palestinian officials identified as farmers – but there were no serious clashes until today.

Although there was no claim of responsibility, Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas leader, said Israel was to blame for continuing to fire into Gaza. Al-Masri said his group had not agreed to a full ceasefire but only to a “lull” in fighting.

“The Zionists are responsible for any aggression,” he said.

Egypt is currently trying to negotiate a longer-term arrangement to allow quiet in the coastal territory of 1.4 million people, which has been ruled by the Islamic militants of Hamas since June 2007.

Israel wants an end to Hamas rocket attacks and guarantees that Hamas will be prevented from smuggling weapons into Gaza from Egypt. Hamas has demanded that Israel and Egypt reopen Gaza’s border crossings, which have been largely closed since Hamas took power. The crossings are Gaza’s economic lifeline.

The Israeli offensive killed 1,285 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were also killed during the fighting.

Unconcious or subtle bias -

The killing of two Palestinians was just not serious and doesn't count as a break in the ceasefire, but the killing of one Israeli was.
Barak is the Israeli Defence Minister, but al-Masru is an "Islamic militant ruler"

Concious balance: both sides are quoted, and the facts on the numbers killed on both sides are provided.

Some spectacular fact fixing about the reported breach of the ceasefire:-


http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/194275/diff/6/7

Notice how this is missing from version 8 of the story:

There has been Israeli artillery and naval fire against Gaza targets since the ceasefires were announced earlier this month.

http://www.scoopit.co.nz/story.php?title=Gaza_Ceasefire_Broken_From_Day_One-1

Watch how the Isreali breaches of the ceasefire are ignored by the media. These things were being reported widely at the time but the facts have vanished - none of the current reports are mentioning them.

Israel has kicked off again...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7853803.stm

There are some posts on this on the BBC thread to - shall I make a thread ?

cactus flower wrote:

There are some posts on this on the BBC thread to - shall I make a thread ?

It's up to yourself, perhaps there is merit in one...

Well, that is interesting. The BBC story has completely dropped all reference to the Israeli breaches of the ceasefire. What a surprise.

There's currently heavy fighting at Khan Younis, where the Israelis have been using bulldozers and tanks to wreck before them, an airstrike wounding two Palestinians.

Louis Michel, Belgian EU Aid official, says Hamas is to blame for the assault on Gaza, and that the EU won't speak to Hamas. He says the EU is tired of putting money into Gaza to see everthing bombed flat.

Quote :

Humanitarian aid chief Louis Michel called the destruction left by Israel's offensive "abominable", but said Hamas bore "overwhelming responsibility".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7851545.stm

Since when does the EU have a Foreign Policy that takes sides in this conflict?

toxic avenger wrote:

There's currently heavy fighting at Khan Younis, where the Israelis have been using bulldozers and tanks to wreck before them, an airstrike wounding two Palestinians.

Tox - do you have a link to a report or two about that?

Aragon wrote:

toxic avenger wrote:

There's currently heavy fighting at Khan Younis, where the Israelis have been using bulldozers and tanks to wreck before them, an airstrike wounding two Palestinians.

Tox - do you have a link to a report or two about that?

I can't access some of the links at the moment for some reason, damn Eircom. There's one here though: http://www.imemc.org/article/58656

This is slightly off topic, but it does go towards illustrating the siege and what drives it.

CBS 60 Minutes - Exposing Israeli Apartheid 1


CBS 60 Minutes - Exposing Israeli Apartheid 2

Air strikes, reported by Reuters, against tunnels along the Egyptian border. So says Sky News anyway...

This isn't over so. If you want to do something maybe complain to your MEP about this:

(EU)

Quote :

Humanitarian aid chief Louis Michel called the destruction left by Israel's offensive "abominable", but said Hamas bore "overwhelming responsibility".

cactus flower wrote:

Louis Michel, Belgian EU Aid official, says Hamas is to blame for the assault on Gaza, and that the EU won't speak to Hamas. He says the EU is tired of putting money into Gaza to see everthing bombed flat.

Quote :

Humanitarian aid chief Louis Michel called the destruction left by Israel's offensive "abominable", but said Hamas bore "overwhelming responsibility".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7851545.stm

Since when does the EU have a Foreign Policy that takes sides in this conflict?

This is interesting, I was going to post about this yestserday. According to the Irish Times, the EU is getting sick of Israel bombing everything we Europeans pay for and they're thinking of talking to Hamas. Ignoring them has caused nothing but harm.
Irish Times - Humanitarian crisis in Gaza may trigger rethink on EU policy

The article quotes young Michel too, but leaves out all the anti-Hamas stuff. In the end they admit that nothing will change in the short term, but the issue of funding in Gaza Strip comes up, with many groups arguing that effective rebuilding will require dialogue of some sort with Hamas, such as already happens. Israel was adamant that Hamas must be left out of the process. Does anyone know if that story went any further?

Very interesting. There is a whole raft of questions here. Does the EU have a formal "foreign policy" on a matter like the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians? How is it arrived at do you know?

There was already an EU rift at the beginning of this with the Czech Prime Minister coming out clearly on the side of Israel in terms of its "right to self defence". I wonder was the BBC's version of Michel's remarks an iffy translation? Sarkhozy seemed to see things differently.

It is easy to envisage ongoing disputes between EU States that may well reflect how politically close they are, or otherwise, to the US.

Well the IT article mentioned that the Czech Rep. and Germany were the most pro-Israeli EU countries. These are the next countries in line for the EU presidency. But I would have thought that policy was decided by the commission or the council of ministers.

I'm sure the BBC had a perfectly good translation of Michel's remarks, it's what they chose to highlight that's interesting. One could say the same about Jamie Smith's article.

Not even the animals were safe:

Did anyone notice this mind-boggling article in the Irish Times today?

There are non so blind as those who will not see. The IT give frequent column inches to the likes of Davy Adams too and at least they a flagging it as 'Opinion'. If it's all about balance they should give Nasrallah or Haniyeh a slot too.

Israel is a disgrace. At least the IT column allows us to see them in all their depravity.

soubresauts wrote:

Did anyone notice this mind-boggling article in the Irish Times today?

It is an indication of how some, but not all of the Israelis see things. It's also the usual smear about antisemitism thrown at anyone who opposes anything the Israeli government do. I think it is true that extreme anti-semites sometimes do play the Palestinian card but they are always pretty obvious about it. There are also plenty of Jewish people, including Israelis, who strongly oppose Israeli actions with regard to the Palestinians.

I noticed this in the Times too
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0202/1232923381114.html

Quote :

BOOK OF THE DAY : The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization By Jonathan Lyons Bloomsbury 248pp, £20

THE TIMING is apt: now that Barack Obama’s America seeks conciliation rather than confrontation in the Middle East, here is a thoughtful book revealing how Islamic culture helped the West to emerge from the Dark Ages into the Renaissance.

Author Jonathan Lyons is well-qualified for the task. He spent many years as a Reuters foreign correspondent in Islam and is affiliated with the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University in Melbourne. As he describes, it was centuries of Arab scholarship that enabled Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein and their successors to develop mathematics and cosmology. Lyons’s history validates the proposition that science transcends rival national ideologies. In consideration of how Iraq has been devastated in the past few years, it is ironic to reflect that Baghdad was founded 1,246 years ago and soon afterwards became a supreme centre of international intellectual enlightenment.

It is striking how Islam now is associated in many peoples' minds with unscientific fundamentalist thinking when historically it was associated with science and innovation. Science has moved ahead of religion in general, but colonialism, impoverishment and the deliberate fostering and exploitation of islamic jihadists by the US imo also has a lot to do with it.

cactus flower wrote:

soubresauts wrote:

Did anyone notice this mind-boggling article in the Irish Times today?

It is an indication of how some, but not all of the Israelis see things. It's also the usual smear about antisemitism thrown at anyone who opposes anything the Israeli government do. I think it is true that extreme anti-semites sometimes do play the Palestinian card but they are always pretty obvious about it. There are also plenty of Jewish people, including Israelis, who strongly oppose Israeli actions with regard to the Palestinians.

It was a rather creepy article, the kind that needs no reply as it defeats itself. But I've complained before about pro-Palestinian people using the term anti-Semitic. There are some who will go on a horrific rant about Israel, real bitter vile stuff, and then pre-empting any response by complaining about being accused of anti-Semitism. The rant might not be anti-Semitic and might never be accused of anti-Semitism, but they take the martyr role anyway. The same thing happens with people launching into rants about immigrants and foreigners and then complaining about being accused of racism, when no such accusation was made.

Anyway, my point is that I'm rather surprised by the amount of accusations of anti-semitism that are out there; it's not just in people's heads. I don't know if this article actually accuses protestors of anti-semitism - I think he kind of dances around the notion - but the implication is clearly there. Whatever about the idea that comparisons between Nazism and Israel are anti-semitic (and I hope we all agree that there is something to be said for that idea), the amount of real accusations based on something so simple as a political stance is quite surprising.

905 wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

soubresauts wrote:

Did anyone notice this mind-boggling article in the Irish Times today?

It is an indication of how some, but not all of the Israelis see things. It's also the usual smear about antisemitism thrown at anyone who opposes anything the Israeli government do. I think it is true that extreme anti-semites sometimes do play the Palestinian card but they are always pretty obvious about it. There are also plenty of Jewish people, including Israelis, who strongly oppose Israeli actions with regard to the Palestinians.

It was a rather creepy article, the kind that needs no reply as it defeats itself. But I've complained before about pro-Palestinian people using the term anti-Semitic. There are some who will go on a horrific rant about Israel, real bitter vile stuff, and then pre-empting any response by complaining about being accused of anti-Semitism. The rant might not be anti-Semitic and might never be accused of anti-Semitism, but they take the martyr role anyway. The same thing happens with people launching into rants about immigrants and foreigners and then complaining about being accused of racism, when no such accusation was made.

Anyway, my point is that I'm rather surprised by the amount of accusations of anti-semitism that are out there; it's not just in people's heads. I don't know if this article actually accuses protestors of anti-semitism - I think he kind of dances around the notion - but the implication is clearly there. Whatever about the idea that comparisons between Nazism and Israel are anti-semitic (and I hope we all agree that there is something to be said for that idea), the amount of real accusations based on something so simple as a political stance is quite surprising.

No, we don't agree on that. George Kaufmann says it far better than I could: