Artist’s rendering of Madina Mosque being built in Cardiff, Wales.

Deciding to change religion can be a daunting and confusing process; luckily for those in Wales that decide to convert to Islam there is something called the New Muslim Project Wales (NMPW)–an initiative set up to help new Muslims make the transition.

Whether it is dealing with negative family reactions or finding the nearest Halal meat shop, the project aims to welcome people to the faith and offers educational classes, social activities and a buddy system.

Abdul Rahman, a 57-year old previously called Richard Fairclough, set up the initiative with fellow “reverts” as they are known, basing it on the U.K.-wide New Muslim Project.

The group said it is compiling a register of new Muslims across Wales, and noted the number of people converting to Islam had rapidly grown in a short time frame.
“I don’t want to play the numbers game…but I was surprised when I was updating the database that we had such a large number in such a short time,” Abdul Rahman was quoted on the Welsh website, WalesOnline, as saying.

The report said Abdul Rahman was an active Christian for most of his life until he moved to South Africa, where he was intrigued by the call to prayer and felt compelled to learn more about the Prophet Muhammad (s).

“I went there [Capetown] in 1992, just post apartheid, when Muslims were put on a par with the main black group…I noticed that every Friday [Islam’s holy day] many of the shops that were run by Muslims shut and that there was something spiritual going on,” the website quoted him as saying.

“And in my neighborhood there were three or four mosques. I heard the call to prayer and it was lovely…Then I heard about the Prophet Muhammad (s) and wanted to find out more,” he added.

“I had belief and understanding as a Christian, but what I have found with Islam is so much more straightforward,” said Abdul Rahman.

Abdul Rahman—who converted to Islam in 2002 when he returned to Wales—said he was well equipped to help deal with the negative reactions some converts face from family and said most new Muslims may have to give up some of their old ways of life.

This includes drinking alcohol, which can mean changing social habits and even finding new friends.

“As a Muslim I don’t drink because Allah doesn’t want us to drink, it says so in the Quran, so that meant I had to part company with all the friends I used to go drinking with,” he said.

“As a revert to Islam, people may have to cope with negative reactions because of the way the media often portrays Muslims as terrorists [but] as with all belief systems, you will get fanatics who interpret things badly and perhaps use religion as justification for their actions, but that is simply not true with the vast majority of Muslims,” Abdul Rahman said.

Abdul Rahman stressed that the initiative was only for adults that had made the decision to convert by themselves and said the only purpose was to help people come to terms with Islam.

Members can gain access to a variety of services ranging from a pack that includes a copy of the Quran, a prayer mat and a biography of Prophet Muhammad (s). Although the website is still bare boned there is also a mailing list on offer that promises to connect converts to other members of the community.

“We are not converting people. These are adults who have already made that decision and just want to know where their nearest mosque is, where they can buy halal meat or if they have to wear funny clothes – which they don’t.” he said, adding “we don’t go around banging on doors. The only time a Muslim will knock on your door is to offer hospitality.”

According to Abdul Rahman many of the NMPW members are converts, but the organization is open to born Muslims who want to learn more about their religion or those who have strayed but have decided to return to the fold.

11-6

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said missile strikes in Pakistan will continue in an effort to root out al Qaeda members.

Gates spoke to the Senate Armed Services Committee in his first comments to Congress as President Obama’s defense secretary.

In response to a question from committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Michigan, Gates said the strikes will continue to target terrorists who have based themselves across the border from Afghanistan.

“Let me just say, both President Bush and President Obama have made clear that we will go after al Qaeda wherever al Qaeda is. And we will continue to pursue this,” Gates said.

Asked by Levin whether Pakistan is aware of this continued pursuit, Gates replied simply, “Yes, sir.”

Seventeen people were killed Friday in two missile strikes in the ungoverned tribal area of Pakistan. A government official and two military officials said they were U.S. attacks. They were the first such strikes since Obama took office Tuesday.

The tribal region of Pakistan has seen a sharp spike in the number of aerial attacks carried out by unmanned drones.

The United States has the only military with drones operating in the area.

In 2008, there were 30 suspected U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan, based on a count by CNN in Islamabad.

Gates opened his comments with a clear message that Afghanistan is at the top of his to-do list.

In one of the clearest indications of the military planning for adding troops, Gates outlined a deployment of two brigades by spring and the third by late summer.

Additional troops, even if available to deploy, could not be added until later this year because it would take that much time to build out the required infrastructure in Afghanistan to support the troops, Gates explained.

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who was instrumental in pushing for a troop surge in Iraq, warned that a troop increase in Afghanistan may not achieve the same results.

Gates himself noted that increased military presence must be accompanied by non-military solutions if progress is to be made in the war.

When Gates arrived for his testimony Tuesday, he wore bandages on his left arm and had his suit jacket draped over his left shoulder. He had surgery Friday after tearing his biceps tendon while trying to attach a snow plow blade to his tractor.

Regarding withdrawal from Iraq, Gates said the military is planning various options, with the quickest withdrawal being the 16-month period — ending in May 2010 — outlined by Obama when he was running for president.

“We are working on a range of options for the president,” he said. Among them is “essentially a completion of the work of the brigade combat teams and a transition to an assist-and-advisory role beginning at 16 months and proceeding further forward.”

Under a recently approved agreement with Iraq, the United States is required to have all troops out by the end of 2011. Even after that, however, Gates indicated that a continued role of some kind is likely.

“As our military presence decreases over time, we should still expect to be involved in Iraq on some level for many years to come, assuming a sovereign Iraq continues to seek our partnership,” he said. “The stability of Iraq remains critical to the future of the Middle East, a region that multiple presidents of both political parties have considered vital to the national security of the United States.”

Gates also acknowledged that some decisions he had decided to put off when he was Bush’s defense secretary are now back on his plate, especially the budget.
“As I focused on the wars these past two years, I ended up punting a number of procurement decisions that I believed would be more appropriately handled by my successor and a new administration. Well, as luck would have it, I am now the receiver of those punts, and in this game there are no fair catches,” Gates noted.

“While this will undoubtedly be a long and difficult fight, we can attain what I believe should be among our strategic objectives: an Afghan people who do not provide a safe haven for al Qaeda, reject the rule of the Taliban, and support the legitimate government that they elected and in which they have a stake,” Gates said.

11-6

By Nargis Hakim Rahman, MMNS

Detroit – – A community fundraising dinner was held by a Wayne State University student organization to help raise funds for Gaza victims, in Hamtramck last Saturday.

Sixty people sat around the elegantly dressed red and golden tables. Candles illuminated the room, giving a serious tone to the event.

Bangladesh Students Association held the fundraiser to raise awareness about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After fresh air strikes in early January, the recent conflict ended in a cease-fire prior to President Obama’s swearing-in.

As of January 18, Islamic Relief reported 1,300 deaths and 5,300 injured. Nearly 33 percent of those are children. BBC reported 4,000 homes were destroyed.

BSA planned to have their annual formal dinner until the air strikes began, said BSA President Ismam Ahmed, senior and accounting major at Wayne State.

“We’re trying a different approach, a fundraiser that is fun but it helps victims,” he said.

Ahmed first learned about the 1948 Israeli-Palestinian Conflict when writing a research paper in a Near Eastern class, last semester.

“It is unfair for people to take their land,” Ahmed said, referring to Palestine’s deteriorating territories.

BSA Vice President, Nadia Chowdhury said she got her Gaza news from Facebook, a social networking website.

Both sides have stopped fighting for now, Chowdhury said. “There have been 10 times as many casualties in Gaza.”

Event Coordinator Nooshrath Farook-Chy, senior and management major at Wayne State, said knowing the event was for Gaza pushed BSA to do a better job. People are busy with school but we watch the news, Farook-Chy said.

“Why aren’t we preventing it when we’re so educated and modern,” she said.

Accountant for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Jiba Reza, said she attended the dinner to help out and for the sake of Allah.

“I’m obligated to my religion. As Muslims we’re obligated to help out whoever we can,” Reza said.

According to www.irg.org, IR has been established in Gaza since 1998. IR has responded to the crisis with $3 million in food, medical supplies and orphan care. IR provides aid with the United Nation’s World Health Organization, during designated times as humanitarian aid.

IR is one of the few humanitarian aids allowed into the Gaza Strip by the United Nations Security Council and Israeli government.

Ahmed said people can donate using IR’s website, on their own time.

BBC online diary writer and IR aid worker, Hatem Shurrab said kids in the Gaza Strip are returning to school but they remember the bombings.

IR will provide psychological support in the next two months. “It is only now that we can assess the real damage to Gaza, as all areas are now accessible. The UN has said it will cost billions to rebuild Gaza,” Shurrab said.

“When you know our own Muslim sisters and brothers are suffering, it hurts me,” Chowdhury said.

Guest speaker Hadil Katato, Wayne State alumnus said the more people know about the crisis, they are more inclined to help.

“Palestinians have been making a severe cry and plea for justice and freedom,” Katato said. “This is not an issue of religion, but an issue of humanity.”

As former president for the Muslim Students Association and Students for Justice in Palestine, she said there is a severe lack of basic needs and it is the “largest open-air prison,” with more than half the population under poverty.

The dinner was not only to raise money, but also to give people a basic understanding of the pressing issues, Ahmed said.

“If people’s minds can change by exposure, Inshallah they can raise a hand to help,” he said. “A lot of people want to donate but don’t know how.”

Wayne State junior Shehzeen Ahmed, psychology major, said BSA showed a good gesture by changing their plans for Gaza.

President Obama recently said he wants to create peace in the conflicting area and recognize the lives lost, Katato said.

“Let’s hope Obama brings the change he promises for the US and world, in international affairs,” she said.

BSA will have a boys’ basketball tournament this weekend to raise more money for the same cause. Farook-Chy said more people come when the tournament is for a fundraiser.

In the past, BSA has donated to Masjid Al-Falah when they bought the church complex across the street, in Detroit.

To donate to Islamic Relief, visit www.irw.org.

11-6

Mohammed Grimeh appointed Standard Chartered Bank’s head of trading

NEW YORK, NY–Standard Chartered Bank appointed Mohammed Grimeh to the newly created position of head of trading and deputy head of global markets, America. He will be responsible for managing foreign exchange, interest rate, credit, and commodities trading across G10 countries and emerging markets.

Grimeh was most recently with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc where he had been global head of emerging markets.

He started his career in 1990 as a Commodity Options trader at Societe Generale based in Paris. Mr. Grimeh graduated from Ecole Centrale de Paris with an Engineering Degree in Applied Mathematics.

Chicago street named after Benazir Bhutto

CHICAGO, IL–  portion of the famous Clark Street in Chicago’s Roger’s Park district has been named as “Benazir Bhutto Way” in recognition of her long struggle and services for promotion of democracy in Pakistan. The Pakistani-American community initiated the proposal and got it approved from the city through the support of Joe Moore, the local area alderman.

The unveiling ceremony of the plaque was jointly performed by Pakistan’s Consul-General in Chicago, Aman Rashid, Alderman Joe Moore and Senior Vice- President of Pakistan People’s Party (US) Ijaz Farrukh. A portion of the Devon Avenue, a major east-west thoroughfare in the Chicago metropolitan area, is named after Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

San Joaquin Board approves Muslim prisoner settlement

The San Joaquin County Board approved  a $500 settlement to a state prison inmate who claimed that county jail personnel deprived him of his rights as a Muslim . Kifa Muhammad had claimed that Muslims at San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp were not allowed to keep a sack lunch in their cell during the holy Ramadan holiday in November 2001. Muslims fast during daylight hours during Ramadan.

Jail personnel at the time gave Muhammad and other Muslim inmates breakfast before dawn and dinner after sunset, according to Kristen Hegge, the county’s chief deputy county counsel.

Pakistani Americans ask Obama for an even handed policy

WASHINGTON D.C–The Pakistan American National Alliance (PANA), a US-wide coalition of Pakistani-American organizations,  held a press conference at National Press Club in DC on Monday, Jan 26 to urge the Obama Administration and the US Congress to shun the anti-Pakistan campaign  launched by Indian Task Force on Tuesday, Jan 27 to “demand” the US should “confront” Pakistan.

“We want to inform the Obama Administration that they should pursue US interest in the context of world peace and stability instead of lending credence to interests of any one community,” says PANA Chair Dr Muhammad Ashraf Toor.

By introducing an amendment to the Biden-Lugar Bill (S. 3263), the Indian Task Force is trying to acquire the capacity to micromanage Pakistan’s internal affairs.

PANA leadership contends that this anti-Pakistan campaign by the Indian Task Force will revive old hostilities, re-polarize Indian and Pakistani communities, jeopardize US interests, undermine prospects for peace in South Asia and weaken the centrist force while strengthening the extremists.

PANA has proposed a partnership for peace to eradicate violence and extremism by seeking to address their root causes.

11-6

Courtesy Nouvel Observateur

The Muslim members of the French Jewish-Muslim Friendship (AJMF) resigned this body, accusing their Jewish counterparts of the AJMF for their silence dealing with the Israeli ‘war crimes’ in Gaza,the co-president of the association, Djelloul Seddiki, announced Friday.

“All the Muslims left Thursday,” Djelloul Seddiki told AFP. Seddiki is also director of the Theological Institute of the Great Mosque of Paris, said that the honorary president of the AJMF, Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Great Mosque of Paris and ex-president of the CFCM, also resigned.

“We couldn’t stay,” he explained, deploring the silence of his Jewish partners in the AJMF, despite the very heavy human toll of the Israeli operation among the population of Gaza.

“We don’t speak any more, They didn’t call me anymore after the start of the war,” he confirms, having received a call from the co-president of the AJMF, rabbi Michel Sefrati after the announcement of the resignation. “It’s too late,” Djelloul Seddiki says.

In a statement explaining the reasons for his decision, he said he was “shocked and dismayed at the magnitude of the unspeakable massacre, whose victims are the inhabitants of Gaza, for more than twenty days, by the Israeli occupation army.”

He deplored on behalf of the Jewish representatives of the AJMF “the total lack of condemnation which would imply the objectives of living together and the reconciliation between the communities which set by the founders of the AJMF close to five years ago.”

According to him, “this silence can be justified only by complicity regarding these war crimes and makes the ABCs of dialog and friendship counted as obsolete” and “lacking any credibility”.

Djelloul Seddiki’s letter is on the CFCM site (In French)

Israel, not Hamas, violated the truce: Hamas undertook to stop firing rockets into Israel; in return, Israel was to ease its throttlehold on Gaza. In fact, during the truce, it tightened it further

Courtesy Henry Siegman

[Henry Siegman, director of the US Middle East Project in New York, is a visiting research professor at SOAS, University of London. He is a former national director of the American Jewish Congress and of the Synagogue Council of America.]

Western governments and most of the Western media have accepted a number of Israeli claims justifying the military assault on Gaza: that Hamas consistently violated the six-month truce that Israel observed and then refused to extend it; that Israel therefore had no choice but to destroy Hamas capacity to launch missiles into Israeli towns; that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, part of a global jihadi network; and that Israel has acted not only in its own defence but on behalf of an international struggle by Western democracies against this network.

I am not aware of a single major American newspaper, radio station or TV channel whose coverage of the assault on Gaza questions this version of events. Criticism of Israels actions, if any (and there has been none from the Bush administration), has focused instead on whether the IDFs carnage is proportional to the threat it sought to counter, and whether it is taking adequate measures to prevent civilian casualties.

Middle East peacemaking has been smothered in deceptive euphemisms, so let me state bluntly that each of these claims is a lie. Israel, not Hamas, violated the truce: Hamas undertook to stop firing rockets into Israel; in return, Israel was to ease its throttlehold on Gaza. In fact, during the truce, it tightened it further. This was confirmed not only by every neutral international observer and NGO on the scene but by Brigadier General (Res.) Shmuel Zakai, a former commander of the IDFs Gaza Division. In an interview in Haaretz on 22 December, he accused Israels government of having made a central error during the tahdiyeh, the six-month period of relative truce, by failing to take advantage of the calm to improve, rather than markedly worsen, the economic plight of the Palestinians of the Strip .?.?. When you create a tahdiyeh, and the economic pressure on the Strip continues, General Zakai said, it is obvious that Hamas will try to reach an improved tahdiyeh, and that their way to achieve this is resumed Qassam fire .?.?. You cannot just land blows, leave the Palestinians in Gaza in the economic distress theyre in, and expect that Hamas will just sit around and do nothing.

The truce, which began in June last year and was due for renewal in December, required both parties to refrain from violent action against the other. Hamas had to cease its rocket assaults and prevent the firing of rockets by other groups such as Islamic Jihad (even Israels intelligence agencies acknowledged this had been implemented with surprising effectiveness), and Israel had to put a stop to its targeted assassinations and military incursions. This understanding was seriously violated on 4 November, when the IDF entered Gaza and killed six members of Hamas. Hamas responded by launching Qassam rockets and Grad missiles. Even so, it offered to extend the truce, but only on condition that Israel ended its blockade. Israel refused. It could have met its obligation to protect its citizens by agreeing to ease the blockade, but it didnt even try. It cannot be said that Israel launched its assault to protect its citizens from rockets. It did so to protect its right to continue the strangulation of Gaza’s population.

Everyone seems to have forgotten that Hamas declared an end to suicide bombings and rocket fire when it decided to join the Palestinian political process, and largely stuck to it for more than a year. Bush publicly welcomed that decision, citing it as an example of the success of his campaign for democracy in the Middle East. (He had no other success to point to.) When Hamas unexpectedly won the election, Israel and the US immediately sought to delegitimise the result and embraced Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Fatah, who until then had been dismissed by Israels leaders as a plucked chicken. They armed and trained his security forces to overthrow Hamas; and when Hamas brutally, to be sure pre-empted this violent attempt to reverse the result of the first honest democratic election in the modern Middle East, Israel and the Bush administration imposed the blockade.

Israel seeks to counter these indisputable facts by maintaining that in withdrawing Israeli settlements from Gaza in 2005, Ariel Sharon gave Hamas the chance to set out on the path to statehood, a chance it refused to take; instead, it transformed Gaza into a launching-pad for firing missiles at Israels civilian population. The charge is a lie twice over. First, for all its failings, Hamas brought to Gaza a level of law and order unknown in recent years, and did so without the large sums of money that donors showered on the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority. It eliminated the violent gangs and warlords who terrorised Gaza under Fatahs rule. Non-observant Muslims, Christians and other minorities have more religious freedom under Hamas rule than they would have in Saudi Arabia, for example, or under many other Arab regimes.

The greater lie is that Sharon’s withdrawal from Gaza was intended as a prelude to further withdrawals and a peace agreement. This is how Sharons senior adviser Dov Weisglass, who was also his chief negotiator with the Americans, described the withdrawal from Gaza, in an interview with Haaretz in August 2004:

What I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements [i.e. the major settlement blocks on the West Bank] would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns .?.?. The significance [of the agreement with the US] is the freezing of the political process. And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and you prevent a discussion about the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package that is called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed from our agenda indefinitely. And all this with [President Bushs] authority and permission .?.?. and the ratification of both houses of Congress.

Do the Israelis and Americans think that Palestinians dont read the Israeli papers, or that when they saw what was happening on the West Bank they couldnt figure out for themselves what Sharon was up to?

Israels government would like the world to believe that Hamas launched its Qassam rockets because that is what terrorists do and Hamas is a generic terrorist group. In fact, Hamas is no more a terror organisation (Israels preferred term) than the Zionist movement was during its struggle for a Jewish homeland. In the late 1930s and 1940s, parties within the Zionist movement resorted to terrorist activities for strategic reasons. According to Benny Morris, it was the Irgun that first targeted civilians. He writes in Righteous Victims that an upsurge of Arab terrorism in 1937 triggered a wave of Irgun bombings against Arab crowds and buses, introducing a new dimension to the conflict. He also documents atrocities committed during the 1948-49 war by the IDF, admitting in a 2004 interview, published in Haaretz, that material released by Israels Ministry of Defence showed that there were far more Israeli acts of massacre than I had previously thought .?.?. In the months of April-May 1948, units of the Haganah were given operational orders that stated explicitly that they were to uproot the villagers, expel them, and destroy the villages themselves. In a number of Palestinian villages and towns the IDF carried out organised executions of civilians. Asked by Haaretz whether he condemned the ethnic cleansing, Morris replied that he did not:

A Jewish state would not have come into being without the uprooting of 700,000 Palestinians. Therefore it was necessary to uproot them. There was no choice but to expel that population. It was necessary to cleanse the hinterland and cleanse the border areas and cleanse the main roads. It was necessary to cleanse the villages from which our convoys and our settlements were fired on.

In other words, when Jews target and kill innocent civilians to advance their national struggle, they are patriots. When their adversaries do so, they are terrorists.

It is too easy to describe Hamas simply as a terror organisation. It is a religious nationalist movement that resorts to terrorism, as the Zionist movement did during its struggle for statehood, in the mistaken belief that it is the only way to end an oppressive occupation and bring about a Palestinian state. While Hamass ideology formally calls for that state to be established on the ruins of the state of Israel, this doesnt determine Hamass actual policies today any more than the same declaration in the PLO charter determined Fatahs actions.

These are not the conclusions of an apologist for Hamas but the opinions of the former head of Mossad and Sharons national security adviser, Ephraim Halevy. The Hamas leadership has undergone a change right under our very noses, Halevy wrote recently in Yedioth Ahronoth, by recognising that its ideological goal is not attainable and will not be in the foreseeable future. It is now ready and willing to see the establishment of a Palestinian state within the temporary borders of 1967. Halevy noted that while Hamas has not said how temporary those borders would be, they know that the moment a Palestinian state is established with their co-operation, they will be obligated to change the rules of the game: they will have to adopt a path that could lead them far from their original ideological goals. In an earlier article, Halevy also pointed out the absurdity of linking Hamas to al-Qaida.

In the eyes of al-Qaida, the members of Hamas are perceived as heretics due to their stated desire to participate, even indirectly, in processes of any understandings or agreements with Israel. [The Hamas political bureau chief, Khaled] Mashals declaration diametrically contradicts al-Qaidas approach, and provides Israel with an opportunity, perhaps a historic one, to leverage it for the better.

Why then are Israels leaders so determined to destroy Hamas? Because they believe that its leadership, unlike that of Fatah, cannot be intimidated into accepting a peace accord that establishes a Palestinian state made up of territorially disconnected entities over which Israel would be able to retain permanent control. Control of the West Bank has been the unwavering objective of Israels military, intelligence and political elites since the end of the Six-Day War.[*] They believe that Hamas would not permit such a cantonisation of Palestinian territory, no matter how long the occupation continues. They may be wrong about Abbas and his superannuated cohorts, but they are entirely right about Hamas.

Middle East observers wonder whether Israels assault on Hamas will succeed in destroying the organisation or expelling it from Gaza. This is an irrelevant question. If Israel plans to keep control over any future Palestinian entity, it will never find a Palestinian partner, and even if it succeeds in dismantling Hamas, the movement will in time be replaced by a far more radical Palestinian opposition.

If Barack Obama picks a seasoned Middle East envoy who clings to the idea that outsiders should not present their own proposals for a just and sustainable peace agreement, much less press the parties to accept it, but instead leave them to work out their differences, he will assure a future Palestinian resistance far more extreme than Hamas one likely to be allied with al-Qaida. For the US, Europe and most of the rest of the world, this would be the worst possible outcome. Perhaps some Israelis, including the settler leadership, believe it would serve their purposes, since it would provide the government with a compelling pretext to hold on to all of Palestine. But this is a delusion that would bring about the end of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Anthony Cordesman, one of the most reliable military analysts of the Middle East, and a friend of Israel, argued in a 9 January report for the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the tactical advantages of continuing the operation in Gaza were outweighed by the strategic cost and were probably no greater than any gains Israel may have made early in the war in selective strikes on key Hamas facilities. Has Israel somehow blundered into a steadily escalating war without a clear strategic goal, or at least one it can credibly achieve? he asks. Will Israel end in empowering an enemy in political terms that it defeated in tactical terms? Will Israels actions seriously damage the US position in the region, any hope of peace, as well as moderate Arab regimes and voices in the process? To be blunt, the answer so far seems to be yes. Cordesman concludes that any leader can take a tough stand and claim that tactical gains are a meaningful victory. If this is all that Olmert, Livni and Barak have for an answer, then they have disgraced themselves and damaged their country and their friends.

11-6

By Geoffrey Cook, MMNS

Jerusalem–January 16th–Your correspondent would like to bring his audience up to date on Gaza’s catastrophic episode, her  humanitarian calamity in Gaza.

Israel purposely pushed into highly concentrated centers of Gaza’s cities and towns, while Hamas’ soldiers stuck in the desert outskirts of that territory, which was the reason their rockets could not be stopped, and was the proof that the Israeli object was not to destroy Gaza’s military infrastructure, but  rather to punish civil society and break the will of the citizens they represented. 

At the same time, anti-Semitic violence has broken out all over Europe, from disgust with Zionism rather than Judaism.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations (U.N.s) Ban Ki-moon has told the Arab (League) as a whole to “get it together,” but, after their (partial) meeting in Kuwait, they could not come to a consensus because of the opposition of the conservative Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Militarily, Hamas is a pyrrhic victor even though Israel signed a Security Treaty on the last day of the Bush fasces.  (The Senate and the current President has to agree to it, though.)  Yet, Israel (and Egypt for that matter) has not agreed to breach their boundaries, and the Gazan nationals were unlocked to permit humanitarian help that is one of the bases of their truce agreements, and in sharp violation of Security Council Resolution 1860!  Still, Hamas and Israel fired on each other as Israel retreated.  The ceasefire is fragile indeed!

Ban-Ki Moon, standing on the Gazan rubble called on the International Communities to restore the debris of the modern Philistia!  The human tragedy is inexpressible.  He and Donatella Rover, whom we talked to last week, on the BBC clearly stated that War crimes had been create once they could get into the territory and observe for themselves.

So, we must approach the Humanitarian crisis by enquiring what we can do.

I was on a press conference through the miracles of telephony from Jerusalem with Mercy Corps, which does not seem to be attached to a Christian denomination – or is concerned with conversion in the least, but seems to be influenced by the Christian ethos by the word Mercy.  I should think the Islamic charities could work well across our common beliefs, and I hope we can all do so.

The Director of the Committee, Roger Sherman, admitted the heaviest toll has been the human disaster.

A David Holbrook reported from the third Holiest City that the Corps has had a presence in the Middle East for some time.  Although up to the last month (January), “Gaza has been isolated from the [rest of] the Middle East, [‘she’] has resonation across the region.”

Our ethos is to help our partners from whatever side of a conflict.  “We have a belief that there will be a Renaissance” here.  Gaza can become a dynamo or can change into reaction.  Yet the situation has only become worse over the last three years.  Today, (I find the Gazans to be well educated — a great many have even gone to a College or a University.)

First, we have a staff in the area of about twenty-three –mostly within Gaza City itself.  They have been able to communicate with their workers through cell and landlines.   “We are ready for the ceasefire… so, we can bring our [loaded] trucks in.”

An unidentified woman stated that their organization would focus on displaced families.  Half of the family units are in U.N. shelters; another half has taken refuge with their kin.  Yet, when conveys are let in, they will not be sufficient to fulfill the requirements.  Twice the tonnage would not touch the requisite basics.  The focus has been on the Western media reports.  We as a relief association are connected to all other Global citizens (and their resources).  This would, especially, include the Red Crescent and other Islamic charities.

Stephen Schwartz, a regional Director of the Foundation, confirmed that trucks were immediately ready to cross the Rafah frontier (this transfer point was closed two weeks before the actual truce(s) to the slightest compassionate aid at all) as soon as the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) would stop firing upon them, and the truce has now commenced, and, hopefully the current peace will hold, allowing the passage(s) to remain an open boundary permanently by the time you read these words.  They look “forward” to traversing the Egyptian perimeter to the south and through Israel to the north having to navigate through intricate Hebrew checkpoints within the Mediterranean enclave.  Careful liaison had to be built with the Israeli Defense Force whom many of their Palestinian workers must hate.  There is an immense need for non-food items – notably being in this deadly winter, it has been exceptionally frigid, and there has been a necessity for blankets and tents, etc.  Consequently, of course, there has been an immense necessity for food and medicine, also.

What makes the situation worse (still) has been the total blockade for months before the attack.  The prerequisite necessities were already particularly low.  Now, there is no place for the inhabitants to flee but into their basements and cellars, for they are surrounded on three sides by the antagonistic Jewish State and by the fourth the hash “Pharaonical” nation. They are prisoners within their own land, and that is why a refugee problem has not developed as yet.  The rest had been relocated to the refugee camps in the dry landscape of Gaza many years ago previously from other parts of Palestine.  There is an overriding commonality of psychological problems children.  It has been the young offspring of the terrain who have borne the brunt of this struggle for freedom.  “We wish you to advocate for the humanitarian Corps” of this world!  In other words, support the charity of your preference who is working for Gaza at this moment.

Within the Gazan government, the Civil Service is still up and operating — most strikingly the Health Services, and the Police although the Administration’s leadership had been forced to hide.  Although the external media has been shrill, it is hard to understand the larger lack of external Arab aid to their ethnic “brothers.”  Before the truce, humanitarian aid has been held under lock and key.  Although a ceasefire has been announced by both sides, it is still no more than a trickle.  “Nor is Tel Aviv interested!”  Further, “We can’t buy aid within Gaza.  We have to truck it in little by little.”  Also, “It is too hard to get professionals [Doctors, etc.] into Gaza.  So, even volunteers [doctors, etc.] can’t get employed within” the Strip.

Your author concludes that Tel Aviv should pay Gaza City the reparations to totally repair the infrastructure of miniscule Republic. Israel is a rich country while Gaza is amongst the poorest due to the Army of West Jerusalem siege!  “Israel has to take its [moral] responsibility!”

There has been no shortage of International investments.  In fact, most of the infrastructure that was destroyed was paid for by Western European nations.  Europa should demand their money back by directly applying lucre to revitalization of the Gaza City nationette, and sending the bill to Tel Aviv!

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