Remember the wall that environmentalists (like the 1972 “Limits to Growth” authors) have long been saying that industrial society would eventually hit? Permit me to make the formal introduction: Industrial society, meet wall; wall, meet industrial society.

It’s understandably taking a while for the recognition to seep in. We are not accustomed to seeing every indicator of economic well-being, in virtually every country in the world, slam into reverse over the course of a few short months. I still have random conversations with businesspeople and bankers who say we’ve hit bottom and recovery is at hand; in their view, this is just another business cycle. I see things a bit differently: to my eyes the world situation looks like a slow-motion film of a train wreck, and the sheet metal at the front of the locomotive has only just begun to crumple.

Everything we thought we knew about the economy is suddenly wrong. Regarding China, we are accustomed to hearing of a new power plant being constructed each week, of energy consumption growing at a rate of 10 percent per year or more, of hordes of farmers from the western provinces rushing to the coastal cities to get manufacturing jobs so they can buy refrigerators and cars. The current reality: Chinese factories are now closing by the thousands, workers are rioting and leaving the coastal cities to return to their farms, energy consumption is actually declining.

In the US, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) are falling dramatically for the first time since records have been kept. During past recessions or gas price spikes, people bought smaller cars or drove slower; now they’re just not driving. Explanation? The use of public transit is up, but so is unemployment: people without jobs don’t commute to work. And deliveries of raw materials and finished goods are way down, so trucks are driving less, too. Gasoline and diesel consumption is down. Nobody’s buying cars—large OR small—and as a result GM, Ford, and Chrysler are on deathwatch (even the Japanese automakers are reeling). Retail businesses are closing so fast that it’s tough to keep track of who’s still open and who isn’t.

Globalization was the one trend we could all count on in perpetuity (the world is flat, remember?), but now every metric of global trade is plummeting, and national leaders are worrying much less about lowering trade barriers than they are about how to protect their domestic economies from the cross-border plagues of currency collapse and banking failure.

Within a year or two we may even begin to see world population growth go into reverse—though not because of policy shifts.

We are in a new era. Welcome to the conclusion and consequences of the industrial growth bubble.

It’s not the end of the world—yet. There is still opportunity to manage economic collapse in such a way as to lay the groundwork for a recovery to low-flow sustainability. But not if we concentrate our efforts on denial, blame, or the propping up of old institutions and industries that have no chance of survival—all of which are the obsessions of our current leadership.

A new economic world requires new institutions and new thinking. These will take a while to emerge. We can lay the conceptual groundwork now (as the ecological economists and localists have been doing for some time), but implementation will require cool heads and collective effort.

Meanwhile, individuals will need to protect themselves as best they can by developing social and practical coping skills: know your neighbors, garden, repair, make, and make do.

It would be nice to be able to offer a cheerier New Year’s message, but here we are. It’s more important to have a realistic view of our situation and prospects. It is nevertheless possible to hope for the best within those constraints, and I certainly do: 2009 is going to be a challenging year, but may you weather it well!

by Michel Chossudovsky, at globalresearch.ca

The aerial bombings and the ongoing ground invasion of Gaza by Israeli ground forces must be analysed in a historical context. Operation “Cast Lead” is a carefully planned undertaking, which is part of a broader military-intelligence agenda first formulated by the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001:

“Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.”(Barak Ravid, Operation “Cast Lead”: Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning, Haaretz, December 27, 2008)

It was Israel which broke the truce on the day of the US presidential elections, November 4:

“Israel used this distraction to break the ceasefire between itself and Hamas by bombing the Gaza strip. Israel claimed this violation of the ceasefire was to prevent Hamas from digging tunnels into Israeli territory.

The very next day, Israel launched a terrorizing siege of Gaza, cutting off food, fuel, medical supplies and other necessities in an attempt to “subdue” the Palestinians while at the same time engaging in armed incursions.

In response, Hamas and others in Gaza again resorted to firing crude, homemade, and mainly inaccurate rockets into Israel. During the past seven years, these rockets have been responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis. Over the same time span, Israeli Blitzkrieg assaults have killed thousands of Palestinians, drawing worldwide protest but falling on deaf ears at the UN.” (Shamus Cooke, The Massacre in Palestine and the Threat of a Wider War, Global Research, December 2008)

Planned Humanitarian Disaster

On December 8, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was in Tel Aviv for discussions with his Israeli counterparts including the director of Mossad, Meir Dagan.

“Operation Cast Lead” was initiated two days day after Christmas. It was coupled with a carefully designed international Public Relations campaign under the auspices of Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

Hamas’ military targets are not the main objective. Operation “Cast Lead” is intended, quite deliberately, to trigger civilian casualities.

What we are dealing with is a “planned humanitarian disaster” in Gaza in a densly populated urban area. (See map below)

The longer term objective of this plan, as formulated by Israeli policy makers, is the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestinian lands:

“Terrorize the civilian population, assuring maximal destruction of property and cultural resources… The daily life of the Palestinians must be rendered unbearable: They should be locked up in cities and towns, prevented from exercising normal economic life, cut off from workplaces, schools and hospitals, This will encourage emigration and weaken the resistance to future expulsions” Ur Shlonsky, quoted by Ghali Hassan, Gaza: The World’s Largest Prison, Global Research, 2005)

“Operation Justified Vengeance”

A turning point has been reached. Operation “Cast Lead” is part of the broader military-intelligence operation initiated at the outset of the Ariel Sharon government in 2001. It was under Sharon’s “Operation Justified Vengeance” that F-16 fighter planes were initially used to bomb Palestinian cities.

“Operation Justified Vengeance” was presented in July 2001 to the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon by IDF chief of staff Shaul Mofaz, under the title “The Destruction of the Palestinian Authority and Disarmament of All Armed Forces”.

“A contingency plan, codenamed Operation Justified Vengeance, was drawn up last June [2001] to reoccupy all of the West Bank and possibly the Gaza Strip at a likely cost of “hundreds” of Israeli casualties.” (Washington Times, 19 March 2002).

According to Jane’s ‘Foreign Report’ (July 12, 2001) the Israeli army under Sharon had updated its plans for an “all-out assault to smash the Palestinian authority, force out leader Yasser Arafat and kill or detain its army”.

“Bloodshed Justification”

The “Bloodshed Justification” was an essential component of the military-intelligence agenda. The killing of Palestinian civilians was justified on “humanitarian grounds.” Israeli military operations were carefully timed to coincide with the suicide attacks:

The assault would be launched, at the government’s discretion, after a big suicide bomb attack in Israel, causing widespread deaths and injuries, citing the bloodshed as justification. (Tanya Reinhart, Evil Unleashed, Israel’s move to destroy the Palestinian Authority is a calculated plan, long in the making, Global Research, December 2001, emphasis added)

The Dagan Plan

“Operation Justified Vengeance” was also referred to as the “Dagan Plan”, named after General (ret.) Meir Dagan, who currently heads Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.

Reserve General Meir Dagan was Sharon’s national security adviser during the 2000 election campaign. The plan was apparently drawn up prior to Sharon’s election as Prime Minister in February 2001. “According to Alex Fishman writing in Yediot Aharonot, the Dagan Plan consisted in destroying the Palestinian authority and putting Yasser Arafat ‘out of the game’.” (Ellis Shulman, “Operation Justified Vengeance”: a Secret Plan to Destroy the Palestinian Authority, March 2001):

“As reported in the Foreign Report [Jane] and disclosed locally by Maariv, Israel’s invasion plan — reportedly dubbed Justified Vengeance — would be launched immediately following the next high-casualty suicide bombing, would last about a month and is expected to result in the death of hundreds of Israelis and thousands of Palestinians. (Ibid, emphasis added)

The “Dagan Plan” envisaged the so-called “cantonization” of the Palestinian territories whereby the West Bank and Gaza would be totally cut off from one other, with separate “governments” in each of the territories. Under this scenario, already envisaged in 2001, Israel would:

“negotiate separately with Palestinian forces that are dominant in each territory-Palestinian forces responsible for security, intelligence, and even for the Tanzim (Fatah).” The plan thus closely resembles the idea of “cantonization” of Palestinian territories, put forth by a number of ministers.” Sylvain Cypel, The infamous ‘Dagan Plan’ Sharon’s plan for getting rid of Arafat, Le Monde, December 17, 2001)

The Dagan Plan has established continuity in the military-intelligence agenda. In the wake of the 2000 elections, Meir Dagan was assigned a key role. “He became Sharon’s “go-between” in security issues with President’s Bush’s special envoys Zinni and Mitchell.” He was subsequently appointed Director of the Mossad by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in August 2002. In the post-Sharon period, he remained head of Mossad. He was reconfirmed in his position as Director of Israeli Intelligence by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in June 2008.

Meir Dagan, in coordination with his US counterparts, has been in charge of various military-intelligence operations. It is worth noting that Meir Dagan as a young Colonel had worked closely with defense minister Ariel Sharon in the raids on Palestinian settlements in Beirut in 1982. The 2009 ground invasion of Gaza, in many regards, bear a canny resemblance to the 1982 military operation led by Sharon and Dagan.

Continuity: From Sharon to Olmert

It is important to focus on a number of key events which have led up to the killings in Gaza under “Operation Cast Lead”:

1. The assassination in November 2004 of Yaser Arafat. This assassination had been on the drawing board since 1996 under “Operation Fields of Thorns”. According to an October 2000 document “prepared by the security services, at the request of then Prime Minister Ehud Barak, stated that ‘Arafat, the person, is a severe threat to the security of the state [of Israel] and the damage which will result from his disappearance is less than the damage caused by his existence’”. (Tanya Reinhart, Evil Unleashed, Israel’s move to destroy the Palestinian Authority is a calculated plan, long in the making, Global Research, December 2001. Details of the document were published in Ma’ariv, July 6, 2001.).

Arafat’s assassination was ordered in 2003 by the Israeli cabinet. It was approved by the US which vetoed a United Nations Security Resolution condemning the 2003 Israeli Cabinet decision. Reacting to increased Palestinian attacks, in August 2003, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz declared “all out war” on the militants whom he vowed “marked for death.”

“In mid September, Israel’s government passed a law to get rid of Arafat. Israel’s cabinet for political security affairs declared it “a decision to remove Arafat as an obstacle to peace.” Mofaz threatened; “we will choose the right way and the right time to kill Arafat.” Palestinian Minister Saeb Erekat told CNN he thought Arafat was the next target. CNN asked Sharon spokesman Ra’anan Gissan if the vote meant expulsion of Arafat. Gissan clarified; “It doesn’t mean that. The Cabinet has today resolved to remove this obstacle. The time, the method, the ways by which this will take place will be decided separately, and the security services will monitor the situation and make the recommendation about proper action.” (See Trish Shuh, Road Map for a Decease Plan, www.mehrnews.com November 9 2005

The assassination of Arafat was part of the 2001 Dagan Plan. In all likelihood, it was carried out by Israeli Intelligence. It was intended to destroy the Palestinian Authority, foment divisions within Fatah as well as between Fatah and Hamas. Mahmoud Abbas is a Palestinian quisling. He was installed as leader of Fatah, with the approval of Israel and the US, which finance the Palestinian Authority’s paramilitary and security forces.

2. The removal, under the orders of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2005, of all Jewish settlements in Gaza. A Jewish population of over 7,000 was relocated.

“It is my intention [Sharon] to carry out an evacuation – sorry, a relocation – of settlements that cause us problems and of places that we will not hold onto anyway in a final settlement, like the Gaza settlements…. I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza,” Sharon said.” (CBC, March 2004)

The issue of the settlements in Gaza was presented as part of Washington’s “road map to peace”. Celebrated by the Palestinians as a “victory”, this measure was not directed against the Jewish settlers. Quite the opposite: It was part of the overall covert operation, which consisted in transforming Gaza into a concentration camp. As long as Jewish settlers were living inside Gaza, the objective of sustaining a large barricaded prison territory could not be achieved. The Implementation of “Operation Cast Lead” required “no Jews in Gaza”.

3. The building of the infamous Apartheid Wall was decided upon at the beginning of the Sharon government. (See Map below).

4. The next phase was the Hamas election victory in January 2006. Without Arafat, the Israeli military-intelligence architects knew that Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas would loose the elections. This was part of the scenario, which had been envisaged and analyzed well in advance.

With Hamas in charge of the Palestinian authority, using the pretext that Hamas is a terrorist organization, Israel would carry out the process of “cantonization” as formulated under the Dagan plan. Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas would remain formally in charge of the West Bank. The duly elected Hamas government would be confined to the Gaza strip.

Ground Attack

On January 3, Israeli tanks and infantry entered Gaza in an all out ground offensive:

“The ground operation was preceded by several hours of heavy artillery fire after dark, igniting targets in flames that burst into the night sky. Machine gun fire rattled as bright tracer rounds flashed through the darkness and the crash of hundreds of shells sent up streaks of fire. (AP, January 3, 2009)

Israeli sources have pointed to a lengthy drawn out military operation. It “won’t be easy and it won’t be short,” said Defense Minister Ehud Barak in a TV address.

Israel is not seeking to oblige Hamas “to cooperate”. What we are dealing with is the implementation of the “Dagan Plan” as initially formulated in 2001, which called for:

“an invasion of Palestinian-controlled territory by some 30,000 Israeli soldiers, with the clearly defined mission of destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian leadership and collecting weaponry currently possessed by the various Palestinian forces, and expelling or killing its military leadership. (Ellis Shulman, op cit, emphasis added)

The broader question is whether Israel in consultation with Washington is intent upon triggering a wider war.

Mass expulsion could occur at some later stage of the ground invasion, were the Israelis to open up Gaza’s borders to allow for an exodus of population. Expulsion was referred to by Ariel Sharon as the “a 1948 style solution”. For Sharon “it is only necessary to find another state for the Palestinians. -’Jordan is Palestine’ - was the phrase that Sharon coined.” (Tanya Reinhart, op cit)

On December 6th, 2008, conflict broke out across Athens as youths responded to the killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos by the Greek police. Over the following four weeks, protests spread nationwide and the protesters continue to promise further activities, including the announcement of a nationwide day of action on January 9th. The Real News spoke to a freelance journalist in Greece’s second-largest city of Thessaloniki and a resident of Athens’ Exarcheia neighborhood, where many of the clashes between protesters and police have taken place. They provide a glimpse into the various factors that have created such a volatile situation.

Thanks to peakmoment.tv for this.

Heating your home during winter – how do you do it in a way that is sustainable and least harmful to the environment? I was faced with this dilemma a couple of years ago. Okay, I’ll admit upfront, I live on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia. It never snows here, although we do get a night or two of frost each year. By many people’s standards, it’s not cold at all. But it’s all relative.

At home

Our homes in Queensland are built very much for our sub tropical climate and lose heat quickly – which isn’t good during winter when it is cold. This winter we had a visitor from the UK staying here and she found it very cold so I did feel justified! We needed to stay warm in winter, but I didn’t want to contribute to carbon emissions, climate change and be reliant on declining supplies of fossil fuels – what to do?

I did like the idea of a wood fired heater, but thought that would be out of the question – that was until I read an article by David Holmgren in 2005. David Holmgren is the co-originator of permaculture together with Bill Mollison.

Permaculture is based on ethics and principles that if applied, provide efficiencies, energy savings, responsible resources management and care of the planet.

The article (which is available on an interactive e-book of David’s collected writings and presentations 1978-2006) was supported by research from the CSIRO (Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation - impact and use of firewood in Australia – CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems 2000).

Here Holmgren discusses the most effective way to use firewood for heating in Australia. He highlighted that about half of all Australia’s firewood is harvested from private land by private individuals (in contrast to the misconception that old growth forests are being used). He admits that harvesting this timber can range from being very beneficial to very destructive but emphasises responsibility and common sense in the process.

He promotes instead that home owners firstly buy the most efficient heater they can – in Australia there are now emission ratings for heaters (Australian Standard 4013) and buying a heater that is appropriate to the size of the space it must heat (could you shut an area off to heat thereby reducing energy and increasing efficiency?) – don’t overheat yourself!

And you do have control over how you fuel your heater. Choose environmentally sustainable, gathered timber or consider growing your own woodlot, ensure all the wood is well seasoned and well dried, use it sparingly and burn it efficiently. But even before all of that, ensure you have insulation and heat escape spots covered (windows, gaps around doors etc).

Rugging yourself up or exercising to increase your own bloodflow is one of the simplest and most environmental sound things you can do.

Multi-functionality

When we came to choose our new wood heater we wanted to apply permaculture principles to the purchase. So it had to have multi-functionality. We decided on the Nectre Bakers’ Oven. Made in South Australia it is a robust, strong little (we only have a small house) heater.

It has an oven for baking roasts and vegetables and a cooktop for winter soups and stews. We could have added a water jacket for hot water but we already had a solar hot water system, so we didn’t need that particular feature.

So, now when the heater is on it’s serving many purposes. It heats our house (we move our bed into the main living area to take advantage of the valuable warmth), it cooks our food, makes great wood fired pizzas, roasts our home grown coffee beans and provides a lovely ambiance too.

Design

But probably the best thing you can do to heat your home is to have a home designed to capture and store heat. A house facing the right way is the most fundamental thing – north in the southern hemisphere and south in the northern hemisphere, rather than a house facing the street.

The right sized eaves, ones that take into account your location’s sun angles from summer to winter solstice, the right sized windows that have heavy drapes for winter and pelmets, insulation in the roof, the walls and under the floor if you’re building off the ground.

A very clever idea that can be included in the building process is factoring in the use of thermal mass - creating a heat ‘bank’ within the home – a floor made of concrete or stone that is in full sun during the day in winter or a wall built specifically for the purpose in just the right place. As late afternoon comes around, closing windows and drawing the curtains ensures the heat stored in the floor (or the wall) is slowly released overnight adding to the ambient warmth inside the home.

Capturing heat, storing it effectively and minimising loss of heat are all key in keeping your home warm and comfortable. Be clever and innovative – use design principles and save money in the process.

What ever you choose ensure it is the most efficient, most effective, most environmentally sound choice you can make – then use it only when you absolutely need it!

Some manufacturers in europe:
Rayburn.
Esse.

Americans are losing the ability to feed themselves. Nothing signifies this loss of the golden age in America more than our growing reliance on foreign countries for our food. Yet American’s happily buy their produce from Mexico and their fish from China without giving it a thought. These are the same Americans who bemoan the loss of our manufacturing base saying that we should have done something about it before it was too late. Why can’t they see the similarity to us losing our agricultural base? Buying food from the Chinese is no different than buying a Toyota from the Japanese. Both actions portray an American turning his back on his country.

When you buy food from a foreign country, you enrich the same corporations that have dumped their long time, faithful employees here in America. These are the food conglomerates that have shut down factories in the U.S. and created ghost towns where there were once thriving communities. They are the same corporations that show their contempt for Americans by using toxic chemicals and pesticides in their food production that are not allowed in the U.S. Maybe you say, “I only buy organic so I don’t have to worry.” What does ‘organic’ mean in Mexico or China? Who enforces those standards?

If this scenario isn’t enough, add in government policy to ignore the fuel inefficiency of vehicles in the U.S. and instead to turn its attention and rhetoric to the encouragement of using our food for fuel. You would almost think there was a plot against the American people.

You don’t have to be a dedicated fanatic to see what is going on. Just pick up some newspapers and you will find stories that paint a glaring picture of our fall from grace. Like the one in the New York Times about the death of the catfish industry in the U.S.

Last year, Dillard & Company raised 11 million fish. Next year they will raise none, and 55 more Americans will be unemployed while the rest of us will be getting our catfish from Asia.

With the rising costs of corn and soybeans, feed is now more than half the total cost of raising catfish. The president of Dillard says that for every dollar the company spends raising catfish it gets back only 75 cents when the fish go to market. Along with other producers Dillard’s takes its fish to Consolidated Catfish Producers where they are cut into fillets. With fewer fish coming in, Consolidated is laying off half its workers. Dillard also blames governmental policy resulting in ethanol mandates.

Producer’s Feed Company, across the highway from Dillard’s has already shut down. The ripple effect continues at Peter Bo’s Restaurant, locally known for its catfish dinners but now out of business.

Catfish has always been a delicacy that symbolized the South. The founder of Dillard’s came to the Mississippi delta 50 years ago and put in a catfish pond. The idea caught on and soon the industry was booming, employing more than 10,000 people at its peak. But producers from Vietnam and China flooded the American market, resulting in the loss of pricing power.

Then there’s the Associated Press article about a Mexican named Martinez who used to pay smugglers to sneak him into the U.S. to manage farm crews. Now he is back at home working for U.S. owned VegPacker de Mexico, one of many companies that have turned their backs on their American customers and moved their fields to Mexico to take advantage of hands willing to work for half of the prevailing rate in the U.S.

American companies now farm more than 45,000 acres of Mexican land with about 11,000 employees according to a survey quoted in the AP article. U.S. direct investment in Mexican agriculture, including American companies moving operations to Mexico and establishing Mexican partnerships, has grown seven fold to $60 million since the year 2000.

U.S. agribusinesses are now in the position of overrunning the local growers in Mexico and putting them out of business, much as they have been doing in the U.S. for decades.

A story in Tulsa World tells us that cattle in feedlots is at its lowest level since last August due to record high feed and fuel costs coupled with massive flooding in the Midwest that took out 5 million acres of farmland earlier in the summer. It looks bleak for the fall when cattle ranchers can no longer rely on the grass in their pastures to cushion high feed prices.

High prices for feed affects every part of the food chain from crop to consumer with higher prices all along the way. Placements of cattle into feedlots to gain weight for slaughter are down over the long term with May’s placements totaling only 40,000 head, the second lowest monthly figure in more than a decade. Cattle inventories are at some of their lowest levels since the early 1960’s as the result of the squeeze between higher feed costs and the ceiling of what feedlot operators will pay.

Again, the government policy to encourage the use of ethanol for fuel is sited as a determining factor. Cattle ranchers see their future as resting in the hands of what consumers are willing to pay, and it doesn’t look good.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street crowd has turned its attention to farming in order to harvest a crop of fat profits. Crop price manipulation has long been a mainstay of speculators but now we’ve got hedge funds and venture capital amassing billions of dollars from global investors wanting to own farmland, and all the commodities involved in food production, transport and storage. They call it ‘owning structure’.

Americans who have left any footprints in foreign countries are being contacted to act as go-betweens as foreign investors need intermediaries to contact real estate brokers of farmland not just in the U.S. but worldwide. Their goal is price control. With big size and deep pockets, these investment groups can almost corner the markets in corn or any targeted commodity, and store it long enough to force prices into huge advances. In the process, any small time operator can be brought to his knees. And since these funds own the mechanisms of transport and fuel, they are also in a position to move the commodity to whatever market is paying the most for it.

What can you do about all this? You can start by increasing your awareness of where your food comes from. This is fairly easy to do since most produce and packaged meat carries identification of the country of origin. Then you can tell your grocer that you are unwilling to spend your hard earned money on advancing the standard of living in another country while it’s declining in your own country. You can go to weekend Farmers Market events and support your local growers. Buying only what is grown in the U.S. can be a cumbersome task but one that leaves you feeling good. You can start a victory garden in your own backyard and encourage your family members and neighbors to take part in it.

On a political level, you can support candidates that are at least willing to acknowledge and debate the issue of food crisis. Unfortunately there appear to be no such candidates in this year’s election at the national level. Both the republicans and the democrats are on the bandwagon in support of the globalist’s agenda and it doesn’t seem to matter to them if Americans lose the ability to produce their own food supply.

Or look at the food section in our links, visit those websites and get order some heirloom and perennial vegetable seeds, and start growing your own food - you know it makes sense.

By Stephen Lendman, at countercurrents.org

The blame game - no one plays it better than the dominant media, and they’re at it again over Gaza. Expect no comments below in their spaces, yet honest journalism would headline them.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt addressed Congress - with an appropriating updating for Gaza:

December 27 “will live in infamy.” The people of Gaza were “suddenly and deliberately attacked by….air forces of the” State of Israel. The “attack was deliberately planned many (months) ago. During the intervening time (Israel) deliberately sought to deceive (Palestinians) by false statements and expressions of hope for” the peace process.

“The (weekend and continued) attack(s) caused severe damage to” property throughout Gaza. In addition, “many (Palestinian) lives have been lost. The facts (on the ground) speak for themselves….this “unprovoked and dastardly attack” must not go unanswered.

Note the contrast. Japan in the 1940s sought accord, not conflict. Not America. FDR goaded them to attack through numerous harassments and provocations - selling arms to Tokyo’s enemies, denying Japan strategic resources and port access, as well as imposing a damaging embargo.

For its part, Hamas has been conciliatory and sought peace. It’s willing to recognize Israel in return for a sovereign Palestinian state inside pre-1967 borders - just 22% of it original homeland. In 2008 and earlier, it agreed to unilateral ceasefires in spite of repeated Israeli violations and Gaza in duress under siege. It responds only in self-defense when attacked as international law allows, yet Washington, Israel, and the West call it “terrorism.”

The dominant media also in their customary role - guarding the powerful and suppressing uncomfortable truths in lieu of full and accurate reporting. They’re in high gear over Gaza. They vilify Hamas, stay silent about Gazan suffering, are mute on the crippling blockade, its devastating human toll, and practically champion Israel’s call for “all-out war” and the slaughter of defenseless men, women, children and infants.

“The more damage to Hamas, the better the chances for peace” says the Wall Street Journal in a lead December 28 editorial headlined “Israel’s Gaza Defense.” The Journal rewrites history this way:

“The chronology of this latest violence is important to understand. Israel withdrew both its soldiers and all of its settlers from Gaza in August 2005. Hamas won its internal power struggle with Mr. Abbas’ Fatah organization to control Gaza in 2006. Since 2005 Hamas has fired some 6300 rockets at Israeli civilians from Gaza, killing 10 and wounding 780.”

“Hamas did agree to a six-month ceasefire earlier this year, during which the rocket attacks declined in number but never stopped. But Hamas refused to extend the truce past December 19, and the group has since resumed attacks….” Israelis in the south “live under constant threat, often in bomb shelters, and the economy has suffered. Yet the world’s media (only pays) attention when Israel responds to that Hamas barrage.”

The Journal’s op-ed page standard fare twists facts into a fabric of misinformation and agitprop, and when vilifying Hamas it’s vicious. A few corrections:

• – Israel never disengaged from Gaza;
• – it relocated its settlers to seized West Bank land to strengthen its hold on the Territory;
• – it redeployed to new positions; re-enters Gaza at will; controls its airspace and coastline; movement within and between Gaza and the West Bank; virtually all other aspects of Palestinians’ lives; and since Hamas’ January 2006 electoral victory, falsely called it a terrorist organization; cut off all outside aid; imposed a crippling economic embargo; imprisoned 1.5 million Gazans in isolation; inflicted devastating human suffering; and stepped up oppression in an all too familiar pattern: repeated incursions, killings, targeted assassinations, mass arrests, incarcerations, torture, and all the rest;
• – then, after mid-June 2007, collaboratively and at the behest of Washington and Israel, president Mahmoud Abbas declared a “state of emergency” (when there was none); he dismissed Hamas’ prime minister; appointed an “emergency” cabinet; split Palestinian authority between Gaza and the West Bank; incited internal conflict to divide and conquer; and acceded to Israel blockading Gaza - closing all border crossings; cutting off most essential to life supplies; creating critical shortages of everything; devastating local production and agriculture; sending poverty and unemployment soaring; and grievously harming the health and welfare of the population;
• – no Journal op-eds condemn this; they call Israel the region’s “only democracy” and a model for others to emulate;
• – no op-eds mention thousands of Palestinians killed, many more wounded, even greater numbers imprisoned, many uncharged, torture as official policy, and no chance for redress in Israeli courts;
• – none mention previous Hamas unilateral ceasefires, one lasting 18 months despite repeated Israeli violations and continued other failures to observe international law;
• – none explain that rocket fire from Gaza during Hamas’ ceasefire came from other elements in the Territory, not its own members;
• – none say that Hamas uses crude, homemade rockets and light arms against the world’s fourth most powerful military, a nuclear power, with the latest home-produced and US supplied technology and weapons;
• – nothing gets reported about over 60 years of Israeli state terror; the unimaginable harm it’s done; the continued theft of Palestinian lands; the destruction of their homes, crops and other property; the ethnic cleansing of its people; and Israel’s slow-motion genocide against a population too isolated and weak to contest it;
• – no op-eds about one-sided media reporting; suppressing uncomfortable truths; defending the indefensible; ignoring Israeli crimes; vilifying Hamas without cause; Palestinians for being Arabs; and Arab Israeli citizens because they’re not Jews;
• – no mention that the ratio of Arabs to Jews killed and harmed is disproportionately one-sided; or
• – that Palestinians have endured a brutal, illegal 41-year occupation in violation of international law; Journal editors find those facts uncomfortable, unimportant so they ignore them.

Instead the Journal supports the Gaza siege, and says “If Hamas wants its people to have freer movement, it can stop sponsoring terror killings.” Even Arab leaders were “urged to demand that Hamas maintain the truce….so we could have avoided what happened.”

In the aftermath, Journal editors hold Hamas responsible as does Washington. Arab leaders “understand that (Hamas’ leaders), like Hezbollah, (are) increasingly allied with Iran and its goals for fomenting regional instability.”

In fact, despite pro-forma criticism and anger on Arab streets, leaders in the region’s capitals offered little support for Gazans for fear of antagonizing Washington and their powerful Israeli neighbor.

The author goes on to illustrate the lies being spewed by western mainstream media.

Angry protests against Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip are continuing with Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, witnessing a noisy demonstration.

More such rallies are to be held on Saturday across the world, including one protest being planned in the United Kingdom.

Protesters in Kabul pumped their fists into the air and shouted slogans against Israel and the US, its staunchest ally.

In Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir, protests continued as activists burned an effigy of Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister.

In Ramallah in the West Bank, Palestinians seeking national unity are marching down the streets, undeterred by clashes with riot police.

A Palestinian solidarity group in Turkey said it is organising a rally in Ankara to speak out against the Gaza assault.

In the UK, about 18 protests across the country are expected to draw up to 20,000 people during the day.

Nadim Baba, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reporting from London, said protest organisers there were expecting a big turnout.

Global outrage

On Friday, riot police clashed with protesters in Jerusalem and in the Jordanian capital Amman, firing teargas to push back hundreds of demonstrators marching towards the Israeli embassy. Several protesters were beaten and arrested by police.

More than 10,000 people marched through Indonesia’s capital carrying banners and Palestinian flags. The demonstrators gathered in the city centre to pray for the safety of Palestinians before marching to the US embassy, which was guarded by hundreds of police.

Protests were also held in other Indonesian cities after Friday prayers.

People shouted anti-Israel slogans during a rally in Moscow [EPA] In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood called for marches nationwide. Hundreds of riot police were deployed around key mosques in Cairo in anticipation of the protests. Egyptian police also detained 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, security officials said.

Thousands of people were out in Istanbul to support the Palestinians and show their outrage at Israel.

In Australia, more than 4,000 people gathered in the Parry Park in Sydney. Five local mosques had closed, asking worshippers to attend the vigil instead of the traditional Friday prayers.

Ibrahim Abu Mohammad, a local imam, led the service, urging Israel to recognise a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and agree to a ceasefire.

“Israel is committing an act of terrorism. It’s the duty of all the free people in the world to stand against it and stop this evil,” he said.

Hundreds took to the streets of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka after the Friday prayers and in the Philippines, dozens of demonstrators gathered in Manila, accusing Israel of war crimes.

In the Pakistani capital Islamabad, demonstrators called on the Arab and Muslim world to stop what they called the massacre committed against the population of Gaza.

Aljazeera.net reports that world leaders too are condemning Israel’s continuing attack.

As international protests against the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip continue, Israel is facing a fresh round of condemnations from world leaders.

Harsh remarks from across the world followed on the heels of the UN Security Council’s failure to issue a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire despite hours of closed-door talks.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, on Sunday pledged an additional $4.2 million of emergency aid for Gaza and called on Israel to respect international law.

“Blocking access to people who are suffering and dying is also a breach of humanitarian law,” Louis Michel, EU’s humanitarian aid commissioner, said in a statement.

“I call on the Israeli authorities to respect their international obligations and ensure a ‘humanitarian space’ for the delivery of vital relief,” he said.

Protester killed

In the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians rallied for a third day of protests, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a man, Palestinian medical sources said.

Mufid Saleh Walweel, 22, was shot in the head in the West Bank city of Qalqilya during a protest against Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, they said.

There were also protests in Turkey, where organisers claimed 700,000 people had turned out for an anti-Israeli demonstration.

Protesters called on Turkey, Israel’s only Muslim ally, to re-evaluate ties with the Jewish state if it does not halt its incursion in the Gaza Strip.

In Greece, demonstrators set fire to banks, threw rocks and fired flares at police in the capital Athens.

In Morocco, a crowd of 40,000 gathered in Rabat to condemn “the silence of Arab regimes”.

Mustapha Ramid of the Islamist Party of Justice and Development, said “the blood of Gazan martyrs has mobilised the masses in Morocco and throughout the rest of the Arab world”.

Several countries have called on Israel to exercise restraint as the civilian death toll continues to rise.

Russia on Sunday said it was “extremely concerned” by Israel’s land operation in Gaza and said it was sending a special envoy to the region to help bring about a ceasefire by both sides.

Thousands of demonstrators in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, denounced Israel as a “terrorist” force and called on the government to send troops to fight Israeli forces.

“Indonesia’s military must go to war against Israel, not just as peacekeepers. We ask the government to send troops there, not just medicine,” Farid Wadjdi, the local head of the Hizbut Tahrir movement, was quoted as saying by news website Detikcom.

Iranian warning

Iran, which has seen angry protests since the Israeli raids began last week, also added its voice.

Ali Larijani, the parliament speaker, praised Palestinian resistance against the ground invasion.

“Zionists should know that Gaza will become their cemetery,” he said on Sunday.

Even Egypt, which has faced criticism from the Arab and Muslim world, condemned the Israeli incursion, and called on the UN to work to end the violence.

In Britain, where one of the world’s largest demonstrations against the Israeli incursion took place on Saturday, Gordon Brown, the prime minister, took a more measured approach, saying that Israel’s ground offensive had created a “very dangerous moment” before calling for increased efforts on both sides to secure a ceasefire.

“First we need an immediate ceasefire, and that includes a stopping of the rockets into Israel. Secondly, we need some resolution of the problem over arms trafficking into Gaza and, thirdly, we need the borders and the crossings open and that will need some international solution.”

For its part, the US state department said it told the Israeli government that any military action should be “mindful of the potential consequences to civilians”.

It also condemned Hamas, saying the group was holding the people of Gaza “hostage” and contributing to a “very bad daily life” for the coastal territory’s residents.

Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have decried Israel’s continued aerial bombing campaign as unlawful and denounced the killing of more than 300 Palestinians since 27 December, including scores of unarmed civilians not taking part in the hostilities. Israel’s attacks on the densely populated Gaza Strip also elicited condemnation from numerous world politicians and sparked protests in global cities.

Despite international outcry over escalating violence, the U.S. mainstream media continues to privilege a prepackaged narrative in which Israel’s actions are never disproportionate, never counterproductive and certainly never gratuitous. According to the mainstream media, the U.S. must continue uncompromisingly supporting Israel because the allegedly beleaguered democracy is held hostage by monomaniacal Islamofascists who are inherently evil. Promoting a paradigm in which Israel is always David up against Goliath, the U.S. media presents suffering Palestinians as expendable for the greater cause of Israel winning its epic struggle. To justify U.S.’s carte blanche to Israel, the mainstream media restricts American readers to an echo chamber in which the following claims are repeated ad nausem until they are mistaken for fact:

1. Israel has a legal and moral right to bomb Gaza out of defense
   Security concerns are not and never have been a tolerable justification for pre-emptive attacks. Israel’s decision to bomb Gaza represents a major assault on the international rule of law. The law of occupation is one of the oldest and most developed branches of international humanitarian law. An occupying power is obliged to follow the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which protects the civilian population. The United Nations Security Council held in 1979 that the Fourth Convention did apply in the territories seized by Israel in 1967. Article 48 of the additional protocol is clear that Israel, as an occupying power, has obligations: “The Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objective.” The latest Israeli attacks come on top of a brutal siege of the Gaza Strip which has created a humanitarian catastrophe of dire proportions for Gaza’s beleaguered Palestinian residents by restricting the provision of food, fuel, medicine, electricity, and other necessities of life. “International law is not observed with respect to Israeli policies towards the Gaza Strip, Israel continues to reinforce an occupation whose every element violates international humanitarian law, and particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention,” notes Jeff Halper, an Israeli-American Anthropologist, author, lecturer, political activist, and co-founder and Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
2. Israeli citizens live in constant fear of Hamas rockets Since 2005 Hamas has fired some 6,300 rockets from Gaza at Israel, killing 10 people.[1] In just the last four days, Israel has reduced the Gaza Strip to rubble and killed over 300 Palestinians. During the ongoing four-decade-long brutal occupation of historic Palestine and the recent grotesquely inhumane blockade of Gaza,
3. Palestinian deaths have far outnumbered Israeli deaths. Since September 29, 2000, approximately 123 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians whereas 1,050 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis. Since September 29, 2000, a total of 1,062 Israelis and no fewer than 4,876 Palestinians were killed in the conflict.
4. Hamas refuses to recognize the right of Israel to exist and has never made any concessions As Seth Ackerman of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) notes, there is no need to euphemize Hamas’ history of brutal tactics or its bellicose ideology, but Hamas has signaled its potential willingness to accept a two-state settlement and make other concessions to broker peace. Hamas has also made tentative offers of a long-term “hudna,” or truce, albeit with less gusto than Israel demands.
5. Israel is only targeting Hamas headquarters Gaza, one of the most densely populated tracts of land in the world, is home to about 1.3m Palestinians, about 33% of whom live in United Nations-funded refugee camps. Avoiding civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip during aerial raids is comparable to trying to avoid such casualties in Washington DC, New York City or Los Angeles. “Because Gaza is so densely populated, there is no such thing as precision strike - you have glass, brick, shrapnel flying into people’s homes,” notes Ewa Jasiewicz, a volunteer with the Free Gaza Movement.
6. Attacking Hamas will help Israel achieve security There is no doubt that the recent attacks will only embolden and multiply Israel’s detractors. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious decree to Muslims around the world on Sunday, ordering them to defend Palestinians against Israel’s attacks on Gaza. For a second day in Jordan, several thousand protesters gathered in Amman and burned Israeli and American flags. There were similar rallies in Egypt, Syria, Libya and Iraq with many calling for a firm response from their leaders. Hamas’ military is barely dented by the Israeli attacks and, according to a poll by Israel’s Channel 10 television station, only 6% of Israelis believe its governments aerial bombings will end Hamas’ rocket attacks.
   The Bush administration has the implicit support of the international community in blaming Hamas “thugs” and applauding Israel’s show of defense With the exception of the U.S. and her staunchest allies, the international community has largely condemned Israel’s attacks. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on Israel to “urgently halt” its military campaign. Japan’s Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said, “Japan calls on Israel to exercise its utmost self-restraint.” China’s Vice-Premier Li Kequiang joined the voices urging a halt to violence and said, “The Chinese side is shocked and seriously concerned over the current military operations in Gaza that have caused a large number of death and injuries.” Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi similarly stated, “Malaysia deplores the disproportionate use of military power by Israel against the people of Gaza.” French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the European Union presidency, told the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas of his serious concerns about the escalating violence. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon added his voice to the 15-member Security Council’s call for an immediate end to hostilities and urged Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the poverty-stricken territory. Humanitarian organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reiterate their call for an end to reckless and unlawful Israeli attacks against densely populated residential areas.
7. The attacks on Gaza are supported by the entire Jewish community Jewish Voice for Peace joins millions around the world, including the 1,000 Israelis who protested in the streets of Tel Aviv this weekend, in condemning ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza. The organization calls for an immediate end to attacks on all civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli. In the face of mounting deaths, several Israeli and American Jewish peace groups are protesting the recent air raids by demonstrating in the streets, petitioning their elected officials and directly reaching out to Palestinian civilians. Groups that are encouraging peace between Palestinians and Israelis include Rabbis for Human Rights, B’Tselem, Bat Shalom, Ta’ayush, Yesh-Gvul, Peace Gush Shalom Tikkun, and many others. While there is no consensus in the Jewish community on the recent Gaza air raids, the underreported efforts of the Jewish “left” is far from negligible; Jewish Voices of Peace claims more than 10,000 members and has been instrumental in drawing attention to the lopsided media coverage through their “Lights out in Gaza, News Blackout in U.S.” campaign. Many of these Jewish peace activists are deeply religious and draw on the Torah to support their stand against Israel’s attack on Gaza. The media has extensively covered the Israeli settlers who cheer on Israel’s more hawkish actions, but little has been written on dissident Israeli Jews and their American Jewish sympathizers who are advocating a more peaceful, non-violent course.

The mainstream media is culpable for American’s ongoing ignorance and knee-jerk loyalty to Israel. Instead of elucidating motives and contextualizing actions, reporters’ biased diction obscures facts and editors’ cursory commentary muddles logic. By de-historicizing the conflict, the media reduces Palestinians to stock-characters who reject generous olive branches offered by Israel in favor of advocating for the dissolution of the Jewish state. A column by Israeli Gideon Levy in Haaretz, entitled “The neighborhood bully strikes again,” could never appear in a paper in the U.S nor could a single paragraph be uttered by any American politician, in either party, of any national prominence without damning consequences.

While visiting Israel in July, President-elect Barack Obama said, “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing.” The question remains, what would Obama do if his daughters were deprived of food, electricity, medical care, and human dignity? What would Obama do if his daughters were humiliated when they traveled, maimed when they walked away from bomb shelters and robbed of their childhoods? If Obama fails to answer these questions with humanity, we can expect 4 to 8 more years of President Bush’s failed Middle East strategy.