Q: Bush is at the end of his term, Obama has been very quiet. Do you see a leadership deficit during this crisis?
A: I think everybody’s working hard to bring it to a solution. But the problem is””the problem remains the problem. The problem is that the Palestinian side is divided. The only way out of this, in the end, is to provide that viable way forward for a Palestinian state. It can be done. Whether it’s the present administration or the next administration, that’s what it takes.
5. GLOBAL CONCERNS
a. As a result of a presentation of a mission survey in the Sudan we were humbled by the remarkable faith of the bishops, clergy and congregations in a country that has been devastated by war for more than two decades. We embraced the Primate’s call for a continuing Sudan Mission Initiative and as initial steps appointed the Dean, Archbishop Maxwell Anikwenwa, as the interim Sudan Mission Coordinator to work with the leadership of the Church of the Sudan so that we might discern together the next steps for this partnership. We resolved to continue the work of the Church of Nigeria Mission Society locally and in the francophone countries of West Africa including Benin Republic, Cote d’Ivore, Chad, Niger, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Mali and Togo and individual dioceses are urged to take an active role in specific projects.
b. Following the Primate’ report on the meeting of the GAFCON Primates Council with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the House of Bishops, while expressing support for this effort to build bridges, stressed that in any effort to bring restoration to the Communion there can be no compromise on the need for genuine repentance by those who have walked away from the ”˜faith once delivered to the saints’. We are, however, delighted by the continuing fruit of GAFCON, the developing Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans around the world, the work of the GAFCON Primates Council and the emerging Anglican Church in North America.
Israel and Hamas showed little interest over the weekend in moving toward an internationally brokered cease-fire, as both sides vowed to keep fighting.
As the rockets and missiles fill the skies over Gaza and southern Israel, it sharpens the question: What are the goals ”“ and exit strategies, if any ”“ of each side?
Within the Israeli public, there is a debate about whether the intent of the Israeli military ”“ having already sent large numbers of tanks and ground troops into the Gaza Strip for the first time ”“ is to occupy southern Gaza to prevent smuggling or “go all the way” and topple the Hamas government. Rule of the Gaza Strip might then be turned over to Fatah, the Palestinian party that was ousted in a Hamas military coup some 18 months ago and supports a two-state solution to the conflict.
For Hamas, there appears to be an ideal by which ”“ as part of a cease-fire ”“ the Palestinian militant group will be able to declare itself victorious in reaching all of its demands, including an opening of all crossings into Gaza and an end to the economic blockade enforced by Israel and others in the international community.
Israeli troops pushed into a heavily populated area of Gaza City from the south early on Sunday in what the army and locals described as fierce fighting. In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the nation that Israel is “getting close to achieving the goals it set for itself,” but that “more patience, determination and effort is still demanded.”
Mr. Olmert was speaking in the public part of the regular Sunday cabinet meeting, and his words were broadcast to an Israeli public that supports the war against Hamas in Gaza but is unquiet about how and when it will end.
In his remarks, Mr. Olmert gave no time frame for the conflict, but said that Israel “must not miss out, at the last moment, on what has been achieved through an unprecedented national effort.”
Israeli forces pounded rocket-launching sites and smuggling tunnels in Gaza Saturday and planes dropped leaflets warning of an escalation in attacks, as Palestinian militants fired at least 10 more rockets at Israel.
Egypt hosted talks aimed at ending the violence.
Flames and smoke rose over Gaza City amid the heavy fighting. The Israeli threat to launch a “new phase” in its two-week-old offensive that has already killed more than 800 Palestinians came in defiance of international calls for a cease-fire.
“The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) will escalate the operation in the Gaza Strip,” the leaflets said in Arabic. “The IDF is not working against the people of Gaza but against Hamas and the terrorists only. Stay safe by following our orders.”
Israel and Hamas rebuffed a United Nations call for a cease-fire in the 14-day Gaza war on Friday, with Israel saying continued barrages of rocket fire from its adversaries made the United Nations resolution “unworkable.”
In a statement after a cabinet meeting as the two sides traded fire, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said the Israeli military would “continue acting to protect Israeli citizens and will carry out the missions it was given,” according to news reports.
Officials from Hamas also dismissed the United Nations resolution, according to news reports, although one official said it was being studied.
(ACNS) Jerusalem, January 7th, 2009 – At a time when great tragedy is occurring in the Holy Land in Gaza, I want to share some insight into what we are experiencing on a moment to moment basis. Our Diocese has one of 11 hospitals serving a population of 1.5 million residents in the Gaza Strip. The Al Ahli Arab (Anglican) Hospital has been in operation for over 100 years and has a very dedicated medical staff of doctors, nurses, technicians and general services personnel.
During the best of times they are stretched to their maximum meeting the medical needs of this populous community. Now, during the current military conflict with its heavy toll on human life and material, the hospital faces even greater responsibilities and challenges. The result is growing strain on the hospital’s resources. Every day since the beginning of military operations, the hospital has received 20-40 injured or wounded patients. A large proportion of them require hospitalization and surgery. These patients are in addition to those with non-conflict-related illnesses. About one-fourth of the patients are children.
In addition, the conflict has brought new type of medical and surgical conditions. For example, patients with burns and acute, crippling psychological trauma, are being seen more frequently. Because it is not possible for aid workers to enter Gaza at this time, the hospital’s staff is working around the clock, struggling with the effects of exhaustion and against limited resources in a conflicted area of ongoing military operations.
The United Nations has accused Israeli troops of evacuating scores of Palestinians ”“ including children ”“ into a house in Gaza and then shelling the property 24 hours later, killing some 30 people.
In a report published today on what it called “one of the gravest incidents” of the 14-day conflict, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) complained that the Israeli Defence Force then prevented medical teams from entering the area to evacuate the wounded.
Citing “several testimonies”, OCHA said that Israeli foot soldiers evacuated around 110 Palestinians into a house in Zeitun, south of Gaza City, on Sunday. Half of them were children.
A group of prominent Muslims has written to the prime minister to express concern about the impact of events in Gaza on Muslim opinion in the UK. Jewish groups in France say there has been an increase in anti-Semitic attacks because of the conflict in the Middle East. Parvin Ali, of the Fatima Women’s Network, and Rabbi Gabriel Farhi, discuss the impact of the conflict in Western countries.
Can The Jews Have a Room Here? Hamas rejects any recognition of Israel. By contrast, the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank, has recognized Israel – and vice versa. If you believe, as I do, that the only stable solution is a two-state one, with the Palestinians getting all of the West Bank, Gaza and Arab sectors of East Jerusalem, then you have to hope for the weakening of Hamas.
Why? Because nothing has damaged Palestinians more than the Hamas death-cult strategy of turning Palestinian youths into suicide bombers. Because nothing would set back a peace deal more than if Hamas’ call to replace Israel with an Islamic state became the Palestinian negotiating position. And because Hamas’ attacks on towns in southern Israel is destroying a two-state solution, even more than Israel’s disastrous and reckless West Bank settlements.
Israel has proved that it can and will uproot settlements, as it did in Gaza. Hamas’ rocket attacks pose an irreversible threat. They say to Israel: “From Gaza, we can hit southern Israel. If we get the West Bank, we can rocket, and thereby close, Israel’s international airport – anytime, any day, from now to eternity.” How many Israelis will risk relinquishing the West Bank, given this new threat?
Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza threatened to broaden on Thursday as at least three rockets were fired into the north of Israel from Lebanon.
The rockets, presumably launched in support of Hamas, could presage the opening of a second front. The Israeli Army, in a brief statement, said it “responded with fire against the source of the rockets,” which landed near the town of Nahariya. Two Israelis were slightly wounded, the police said.
So far there has been no claim of responsibility. A spokeswoman for the militant group Hezbollah, which triggered a war with Israel in 2006 by firing rockets into northern Israel from Lebanon, said an investigation was underway. “We are still looking for information about it,” she said.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora immediately condemned the attack.
The Anglican Bishops of Winchester, Exeter and Bath and Wells have lent their support to a campaign to punish Israel for its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza. On Jan 5 the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, the Rt Rev Michael Langrish and the Rt Rev Peter Price joined over 200 public figures in calling upon Prime Minister Gordon Brown to block plans to lower trade barriers between the EU and Israel for being in what they claim is the Jewish state’s breach of international law.
The Jan 5 petition published in the Guardian newspaper comes amidst growing unease from Anglican leaders over the battle for Gaza. Church leaders have criticized Israel’s “disproportionate” response of invading Gaza to put an end to rocket attacks launched by the extremist group Hamas.
Seeking to amplify mainline Protestant influence on Middle East affairs during the Obama administration, more than half of the nation’s Lutheran bishops will launch an unprecedented tour of the war-torn Holy Land on Tuesday.
The pilgrimage, planned for more than two years, comes amid calls for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas after a week of airstrikes and a ground assault in the Gaza Strip this past weekend. Lutheran leaders said they hope their trip shows their commitment to brokering a peaceful resolution in the hallowed land.
“We who are global religious leaders right now have to continue to win the day from extremists,” said Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, leader of the 4.7 million-member, Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or ELCA, the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination and fourth largest Protestant church. “We will try to do that by meeting with Jewish and Muslim, Israeli and Palestinian leaders to hear and to listen and to commit to being partners in the struggle for a lasting peace, which we continue to believe is a two-state solution.”
In recent days, as European Union and UN officials have called urgently for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, the Bush administration has squarely blamed the rocket attacks of the Palestinian militant group Hamas for Israel’s assault, maintaining to the end its eight-year record of stalwart support for Israel.
President George W. Bush said in his weekly radio address over the weekend that the United States did not want a “one-way cease-fire” that allowed Hamas to keep up its rocket fire, and Vice President Dick Cheney echoed the point, declaring that only a “sustainable, durable” peace would be acceptable.
Many Middle East experts say that Israel timed its move against Hamas, which began with airstrikes on Dec. 27, 24 days before Bush leaves office, with the expectation of such backing in Washington. Israeli officials cannot be certain that Barack Obama, despite past statements of sympathy for Israel’s right of self-defense, will match the Bush administration’s unconditional endorsement when he becomes president Jan. 20.
MS. [Andrea] MITCHELL: In fact, this “belief in Democracy,” quote/unquote, is what led to supporting the election that led to Hamas having its victory. That has been a misplaced belief, many critics would say, in terms of Bush strategy; and in fact, that there hasn’t been intensive enough day by day, on the ground diplomacy. That’s what the Obama team was planning to bring to the table. It’s clear that Israel did this now, the timing of it now. They’ve been planning for a year. The–Hamas has been defending against it and planning its counteraction for at least a year. They did it now because they wanted to clean the slate before the new administration came in. Despite Obama’s, you know, statements about his support for Israel, he’s still an unknown entity to them, and they knew that they had unrelenting support from the Bush administration. That said, with the ground action now, most people do not believe it’s not going to be done by January 20th.
MR. [DAVID] GREGORY: Mm-hmm.
MS. MITCHELL: And it won’t be a clean slate, and it does complicate what Obama and Hillary Clinton have to do.
MR. [HISHAM] MELHEM: The problem with deterrence is that it is easier to be used against states. States can be easily deterred, because the states are responsible for people, for institutions. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to turn–to deter nonstate actors, as we’ve seen with Hezbollah and as we’ve seen with Hamas. If those groups survive politically, to them they succeeded. And they will always go underground and, and, and fight, fight, fight, fight for another day.
The images from the fighting in Gaza are harrowing but ultimately deceptive. They portray a mighty invading army, one equipped with F-16 jets that have bombed a civilian population defended by a few thousand fighters armed with primitive rockets. But widen the lens and the true nature of this conflict emerges. Hamas, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, is a proxy for the real enemy Israel is confronting: Iran. And Israel’s current operation against Hamas represents a unique chance to deal a strategic blow to Iranian expansionism.
Until now, the Iranian revolution has appeared unstoppable. The Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s ended with Iranian troops occupying Iraqi territory. Iranian influence then spread to Saudi Arabia’s heavily Shiite and oil-rich Eastern province, and to Lebanon through Hezbollah. Since the fall of their long-standing enemy, Saddam Hussein, Iranians have deeply infiltrated Iraq. Syria has been drawn into Iran’s sphere, and even the Sunni sheikdoms of the gulf now defer to Iran, dispatching foreign ministers to Tehran and defying international sanctions against it. Iran has co-opted Hamas, a Sunni organization closely linked to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, transforming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a jihad against the Jewish state. But Iran’s boldest achievement has been to thwart world pressure and approach the nuclear threshold. Once fortified with nuclear weapons, Iranian hegemony in the Middle East would be complete.
The scale and ferocity of the onslaught on Gaza have been shocking, and the television images of civilian suffering wrench the heart. But however deplorable, Israel’s resort to military means to silence the rockets of Hamas should have been no surprise. This war has been a long time in the making.
Since Israel evacuated its soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip three years ago, Palestinian groups in Gaza have fired thousands of rudimentary rockets and mortar bombs across the border, killing very few people but disrupting normal life in a swathe of southern Israel. They fired almost 300 between December 19th, when Hamas ignored Egypt’s entreaties and decided not to renew a six-month truce, and December 27th, when Israel started its bombing campaign….To that extent, Israel is right to say it was provoked.
Israeli tanks and infantry battalions swept up to the very edges of Gaza City today, battling die-hard Hamas fighters and sealing off the bomb-scarred capital city from the rest of the coastal territory.
With the civilian death toll rising by the hour and diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting making no headway, the head of the UN refugee agency called the situation a “catastrophe”.
But Israel made clear it was not about to heed calls for a swift ceasefire to “Operation Cast Lead”. It insisted that it had to smash Hamas and destroy its weapons stockpile in order to ensure a lasting peace not just for its citizens, who have endured years of Palestinian rocket fire, but for the people of Gaza themselves.
Israel moved its troops into Gaza starting a ground offensive eight days after launching an airstrike campaign in efforts to end rocket attacks from Hamas militants.
“We have just a short while ago launched the second stage,” a spokeswoman for Israel Defense Forces Maj. Avital Leibovich, said in an interview broadcast on CNN.
She said that troops are targeting areas responsible for the launching of rockets into Israel, as well as tunnels, bunkers, and training facilities ”” “everything that is affiliated with Hamas is a legitimate target,” Major Leibovich said.
“We have many, many targets, and therefore to my estimate it’s going to be a lengthy operation,” she added, with specifying how long the ground war could last.
As Ahmad al-Shugairi took the stage, dressed in a flowing white gown and headdress, he clutched a microphone and told his audience that he had no religious training or titles: “I am not a sheik.”
But over the next two hours, he worked the crowd as masterfully as any preacher, drawing rounds of uproarious laughter and, as he recalled the Prophet Muhammad’s death, silent tears. He spoke against sectarianism. He made pleas for women to be treated as equals. He talked about his own life ”” his seven wild years in California, his divorce, his children ”” and gently satirized Arab mores.
When he finished, the packed concert hall erupted in a wild standing ovation. Members of his entourage soon bundled him through the thick crowd of admirers to a back door, where they rushed through the darkness to a waiting car.
“Elvis has left the building,” Mr. Shugairi joked, in English, as he relaxed into his seat.
There were growing fears in Israel last night that Hamas missiles could threaten its top-secret nuclear facility at Dimona.
Rocket attacks from Gaza have forced Israelis to flee in ever greater numbers and military chiefs have been shaken by the size and sophistication of the militant group’s arsenal.
In Beersheba, until a few days ago a sleepy desert town in southern Israel, there is little sign of the 186,000 inhabitants. Schools are closed and the streets of shuttered shops echo with the howl of sirens warning of incoming rockets.
3. The fable of the experts: The public is told that they must listen to the experts from the investment houses who know where to invest because they are experienced stock exchange people.
Well, what did IBI CEO Zvi Lubetzky say in April 2008? “There is no bubble in the share market, the bank shares are a fantastic bargain.” And what did Migdal Capital Markets CEO Yaakov Weinstein say in May 2008? “The climax of the crisis is already behind us.” And what did Meitav chairman Zvi Stepak say in January 2008? “The attractiveness of the shares market is increasing.”
Since then, the markets have collapsed and anyone who listened to these experts lost a great deal of money. What is the conclusion?
The conclusion is never trust the experts, as I remember Boston College’s Peter Kreeft saying once in an interview is the one piece of advice he would give to people were he asked, and this goes not only for finances but in all areas of life. Can anyone forget that Ben Bernanke told us relatively early in 2007 that (as one article summarized it) “the subprime mortgage market’s troubles will be contained“? That is a monumental misjudgement worth remembering, and while you do please read the rest of this piece.
The attacks on Israeli citizens have little to do with what Israel does or does not do. They have everything to do with an ideology that despises ”“ and openly seeks to destroy ”“ the Jewish state. Consider that rocket attacks increased substantially after Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, and they accelerated further after Hamas seized control last year.
In the past months, a shaky cease-fire, organized by Egypt, was in effect. Hamas agreed to stop the rockets and Israel agreed to stop taking military action against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. The cease-fire itself was morally dubious and legally asymmetrical.
Israel, in effect, was saying to Hamas: If you stop engaging in the war crime of targeting our innocent civilians, we will stop engaging in the entirely lawful military acts of targeting your terrorists. Under the cease-fire, Israel reserved the right to engage in self-defense actions such as attacking terrorists who were in the course of firing rockets at its civilians.
(ACNS) Jerusalem – During recent weeks, the three Abrahamic Faiths have observed their Holy Seasons with a sense of peace and goodwill. Therefore, we are greatly grieved by the severity of the ongoing military operations in Gaza that are occurring in heavily populated areas and impacting the civilian population.
As a Diocese with well over a century of an unbroken commitment to the well being and peace of the community in Gaza City through our Al Ahli Arab Hospital, we are both stunned and saddened by the events unfolding in Gaza.
The heavy loss of Palestinian lives and the serious wounds and injuries to many hundreds of innocent bystanders require the immediate cessation of hostilities for the well being and safety of both the Palestinian and Israeli communities, and especially for Gaza and the nearby Israeli population centers. The gravity of the situation threatens to engulf this entire region and we ask the Palestinians and Israelis to return to active negotiations for the well being and safety of both communities.
Read it carefully and read it all.
Israel was expected on Wednesday to reject a proposal for a 48-hour cease-fire in its military onslaught in Gaza, saying it would keep up pressure on Hamas but was open to ways of increasing humanitarian aid.
With its punishing air attacks on Gaza in their fifth day, and with 10 more rockets fired by Hamas militants landing in southern Israel, including three in the city of Beersheba, Mark Regev, the spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the country’s leaders “view it as important to keep up the pressure on Hamas.”
“We cannot give them a respite to rearm and regroup. We need a real, sustainable solution, not a Band-Aid,” he said.
He and other officials said Israel was continuing to talk to American and European leaders on ways to build a longer-term cease-fire to end the fighting.
Israel continued airstrikes against Gaza Strip targets for a fourth day on Tuesday, destroying civic and other buildings linked to the militant Hamas movement in a campaign Israeli leaders say will continue until the group is crippled.
Diplomatic efforts to calm the situation are expected to accelerate this week, with European foreign ministers scheduled to meet in Paris today and Arab diplomats set to gather in Cairo on Wednesday.
In advance of the Paris session, the European Commission called for “an immediate halt to military hostilities” in order to spare Gaza’s civilian population, while demanding that Hamas also stop firing its rockets into Israel. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday had also called for a ceasefire.
Though the pace of bombing appeared to slow on Tuesday, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit told Israel Radio that at this point “there is no room for a ceasefire,” according to news reports from the region. “The Israeli army must not stop the operation before breaking the will of the Palestinians, of Hamas, to continue to fire at Israel.”
Israel bombed Gaza for a third day Monday in an “all-out war” on Hamas, as tanks massed on the border and the Islamists fired deadly rockets in retaliation for the blitz that has killed at least 318 people.
Anger over the mammoth bombing campaign spiralled in the Muslim world , UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon again deplored the violence, and efforts to hold talks between Syria and Israel were suspended as a result of the bombardment.
With Israeli tanks idling along the border of the battered Palestinian enclave , the army declared the area a closed military zone — a move that in the past has often been followed by ground operations.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who has warned of a possible ground offensive, declared that the Jewish state was in “an all-out war with Hamas and its proxies”.
“We will avoid as much as possible hitting civilians while the people of Hamas and other terrorists deliberately hide and operate within the civilian population,” he told a parliamentary session.
Crowds of thousands swept into the streets of cities around the Middle East on Sunday to denounce Israel’s air assault on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
From Lebanon to Iran, Israel’s adversaries used the weekend assault to marshal crowds into the streets for noisy demonstrations. And among regional allies there was also discontent: The prime minister of Turkey, one of the few Muslim countries to have relations with Israel, called the air assault a ”crime against humanity.”
Several of Sunday’s protests turned violent. A crowd of anti-Israel protesters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul became a target for a suicide bomber on a bicycle.