http://rt.com/news/israel-ultimatum-hamas-offensive-028/

Israel gives Hamas 36-hours ultimatum before starting major offensive

Published: 19 November, 2012, 11:27
Edited: 19 November, 2012, 23:43

Israeli tanks maneuver at the Israeli-Gaza Strip border (AFP Photo/Menahem Kahana)

Israel warned Hamas it will step up its offensive in the Gaza Strip in 36 hours if they do not cease rocket fire. UN chief Ban Ki-moon arrived in Cairo in a bid to broker a peace deal between the two sides as the threat of a ground invasion looms.

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told IDF radio the time left before Israel escalates its attacks can be measured in“hours, not days.”

"We are at a junction," Steinitz said. "Either we go toward a calm or toward a meaningful widening of the operation… including a possible move to achieve complete military decision."

Israel has demanded that Hamas cease firing rockets into Israel for a period of “several years” and that they stop the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. The conditions are part of a six-part proposal put forward by the Israeli government at negotiations with Hamas in Cairo.

In addition, the proposal asked that Israel be allowed to hunt down terrorists in the event of an attack or if it obtains information on an imminent attack. An Israel official told AP on condition of anonymity that a diplomatic solution was preferable, though they would “escalate” if diplomacy did not “bear fruit.”

The official maintained Israel was not looking for a “quick fix” which would result in renewed militant activity in the near-distant future. He also said the Israeli’s wanted “international guarantees” Hamas would not rearm or use Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula as a staging ground for future attacks.

On Monday Hamas’ official Moussa Abu Marzuk said Hamas would not accept the creation of an Israeli "security belt"in eastern Gaza.

Later in the day Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told a media conference in Egypt "we don't accept Israel's conditions because it is the aggressor." Instead, Meshaal said Israel should lift the blockade of Gaza before the two sides can move forward. Hamas has also called for a cessation of IDF targeted killings.

Hamas Leader Khaled Meshaal gives a press conference at the Journalist Syndicate building.(AFP Photo / Gianluigi Guercia)

Meshaal reiterated the Islamic resistance movement has no interest in an escalation of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, though Israel must be the party to stop the war since they started it. He says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had initially called for a ceasefire, a claim which Israel denied.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Cairo on Monday in a bid to aid Egyptian efforts to mediate a ceasefire between the two sides. Ki-Moon is set to meet with both Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday.

Eighty four percent of Israelis support the ongoing Operation Pillar of Defense, and only 12 percent are opposed to it, according to a poll published in Haaretz daily on Monday. However, only 30 percent of those surveyed support a ground invasion of Gaza.

Nathan Thrall from the International Crisis Group told RT said there was still a chance for a ceasefire, as “we are still in a window where both sides can claim their victory and stop.” He believes that under the terms being presented by both sides, another confrontation over the next several years remains “extremely likely.”

Despite this caveat,Thrall said strategically it would be better for Israel to hold off on a ground invasion for several reasons apart from international public opinion.

“Israel does want to avoid ground operation simply because it knows little good is going to come out of this. The main purpose of an incursion is going to be to eliminate the Hamas stock pile and they are going to need Egypt if they are going to prevent this stock pile from being rebuilt. And their ability to get anything from Egypt is going to be lessened by a ground incursion.”

Fears of an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza have heightened following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement on Sunday that the IDF was “prepared for a significant expansion of the operation.”

Additionally, the Israeli cabinet has doubled the troop reserve quota for the Gaza offensive and called up a total of 16,000 reservists.

Meanwhile the conflict shows no signs of letting up, with the targeted airstrikes within Gaza continuing unabated.

On Monday an Israeli airstrike targeted a high-rise complex which houses many foreign and local media offices in Gaza for the second day straight. Islamic Jihad told journalists via text message that Ramez Harb, a senior figure in Islamic Jihad's military wing, the Al Quds Brigades, was killed in the attack.

The IDF provoked international ire and accusations of a massacre following the bombing of a civilian household which which absolutey decimated the building on Sunday night. Eleven civilians, four of them children, perished in the military blunder. Israel says it is investigating the incident and that the misfire was due to a technical hitch in their targeting equipment.

The death toll on Monday evening stood at 101 Palestinians, while three Israelis were killed in rocket fire on Thursday, a day after the IDF assassinated the head of the Hamas military wing, Ahmed Jabari.

A Palestinian man looks at the destruction after Israeli air strikes in Gaza City.(AFP Photo / Mohammed Abed)

and in Afghanistan , Karzai getting set to kick out the US ?

http://www.businessinsider.com/karzai-may-be-kicking-obama-out-of-afghanistan-soon-2012-11

Karzai May Be Kicking Obama Out Of Afghanistan Soon

Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian | 29 minutes ago | 3 |

For several decades, the US government - in annual "human rights" reports issued by the State Department (reports mandated by the US Congress) - has formally condemned nations around the globe for the practice of indefinite detention: imprisoning people without charges or any fixed sentence. These reports, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her preface to last year's report, are grounded in the principle that "respect for human rights is not a western construct or a uniquely American ideal; it is the foundation for peace and stability everywhere." That 2011 report condemned numerous nations for indefinite detention, including Libya ("abuse and lack of review in detention"), Uzbekistan ("arbitrary arrest and detention"), Syria ("arbitrary arrest and detention"), and Iran ("Authorities held detainees, at times incommunicado, often for weeks or months without charge or trial").

In Afghanistan and Iraq, the US government is engaged in a fierce and protracted battle over the fundamental right to be free of indefinite detention. Specifically, the US is demanding that the governments of those two nations cease according this right to their citizens. As a Washington Post article this morning details, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is insisting that the US fulfill its commitment to turn over all prisons, including the notorious facility at Bagram, to Afghan control, but here is one major impediment [emphasis added]:

"Afghan and U.S. officials have also disagreed on the issue of detention without trial. Washington wants the Afghan government to continue holding certain prisoners it views as dangerous, even if there is not enough evidence to try them.

"Aimal Faizi, the chief spokesman for Karzai, told reporters Monday that detention without trial is illegal in Afghanistan and that more than 50 Afghans are still being held in U.S. custody at Bagram, 35 miles northeast of Kabul, even though they have been ordered released by Afghan courts."

The US has long been demanding that the Afghan government continue the American practice of indefinite detention without charges, and still presses this demand even after the top Afghan court in September ruled that such detentions violate Afghan law. Human rights workers in Afghanistan have long pointed out that America's practice of imprisoning Afghans without charges is a major source of anti-American sentiment in the country. In a 2009 interview, Jonathan Horowitz of the Open Society Institute told me: "The majority of the people who I have spoken to cite the way that the US captures and detains people as their main complaint against the US, second only to civilian casualties."

This US-Afghan battle over basic due process has extended beyond detention policies. In 2009, the Obama administration's plan to assassinate certain Afghan citizens it suspected of being "drug kingpins" - with no charges, trial or any other due process - sparked intense objections from Afghan officials. Those officials tried to teach Obama officials such precepts as: "There is a constitutional problem here. A person is innocent unless proven guilty," and: "if you go off to kill or capture them, how do you prove that they are really guilty in terms of legal process?", and: "[The Americans] should respect our law, our constitution and our legal codes. We have a commitment to arrest these people on our own."

Meanwhile, in Iraq, the government's release last week of Ali Musa Daqduq, a Hezbollah operative accused of killing five US troops in 2007, has infuriated Americans from across the ideological spectrum, including conservative senators and progressive writers. Let's leave aside the bizarre spectacle of Americans, of all people, righteously demanding that other people be held accountable for violence committed in Iraq when not a single American political or military official has been (i.e, those who initiated one of the worst aggressive wars of this generation), and when even private contractors from Blackwater were fully immunized for their wanton acts of violence against Iraqi civilians. Let's further leave aside the equally warped American belief that those who kill US soldiers who are part of an invading and occupying army are "terrorists". Consider the reason that Daqduq was released:

"In a phone call on Tuesday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. told the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, that the United States believed that Mr. Daqduq should be held accountable for his actions and that Iraq should explore all legal options toward this end, an American official said. . . .

"But Mr. Maliki told Mr. Biden that Iraq had run out of legal options to hold Mr. Daqduq, who this year had been ordered released by an Iraqi court. . . . Iraqi officials have said that they thought delaying Mr. Daqduq's release until after the American presidential election would mollify the Obama administration. American officials have repeatedly insisted that they did not want him released at all . . . .

"After Mr. Daqduq was transferred to Iraqi custody, an Iraqi court ruled that there was not enough evidence to hold him."

US efforts to persuade the Iraqi government to transfer him to US custody for "trial" in a US "military commission" - where he would likely be detained either at Guantanamo or a specially created military brig in South Carolina - were previously rejected by the Iraqis on the ground that they have sovereignty over acts committed in Iraq and would honor the decisions of their courts. US claims that the release of Daqduq is the by-product of Iraqi closeness to the Iranians (rather than respect for due process) may well be accurate, but that does not make ongoing imprisonment in defiance of a court finding any more justified.

As is true in Afghanistan, this battle over basic due process rights has a long history over the course of the US occupation of Iraq. In 2008, the US refused to release imprisoned Reuters photojournalist Ibrahim Jassam despite a ruling from an Iraqi court many months earlier that there was no evidence to justify his detention and that his release was therefore compelled. For two years, the US imprisoned AP journalist Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, without charges of any kind until a four-judge Iraqi judicial panel found his detention in violation of the law and ordered him immediately released.

It is ironic indeed that the US is demanding that the practice of due-process-free indefinite detention be continued in Afghanistan and Iraq, two countries it invaded and then occupied while claiming it wanted to bring freedom and democracy there. But on one level, this is the only outcome that makes sense, as a denial of basic due process is now a core, defining US policy in general.

The Obama administration not only continues to imprison people without charges of any kind, but intended from the start to do so even if their plan to relocate Guantanamo onto US soil had not been thwarted by Congress. At the end of 2011, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act which codifies the power of indefinite detention even for US citizens, and - after an Obama-appointed federal judge struck it down as unconstitutional - continues vigorously to fight for that law. And, of course, the power to assassinate even its own citizens without a whiff of due process or transparency - the policy that so upset Afghan officials when it was proposed for their country - is a crowning achievement of the Obama legacy.

It's hardly unusual, of course, for the US government self-righteously to impose principles on the world which it so flamboyantly violates. Indeed, such behavior is so common as to barely be worth noting.

Just this week, President Obama managed with a straight face to defend Israel's attacks on Gaza with this decree: "there's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders." As Liliana Segura, Jemima Khan and Reason's Mike Riggs all quickly noted, this pronouncement came from the same man who has continuously rained down missiles on the citizens of Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other countries. Meanwhile, UN Ambassador Susan Rice took to Twitter last night to denounce changes to a draft UN resolution that condemns "extrajudicial killing" - even as her own nation and its closest Middle East ally continue as the global leaders of this practice.

Still, there's something particularly revealing about the US demanding that the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq abandon any commitment they are attempting to develop (albeit quite selectively) to basic due process rights and instead imprison anyone the US wants imprisoned - even in the absence of evidence of their guilt and even in the face of judicial findings that their detention is without evidence and unlawful. As it turns out after all, the US is indeed spreading its core values to those two nations, though those values have nothing to do with freedom and democracy except to the extent that they are the primary impediments to achieving it.

Civil liberties

A transcript has been posted of the keynote speech I gave on Saturday night - on civil liberties, the Constitution and Islamophobia - to CAIR's annual event in the Bay Area. Those interested can find that here.

Also, there is what appears to be a happy ending to the case I wrote about two weeks of the US Muslim and Air Force veteran living in Qatar, Saddiq Long, who was barred by the US government - for unstated reasons and with no due process - from flying into his own country to visit his extremely sick mother. As his CAIR lawyers announced, Long, on Sunday night, was permitted to board a Delta Airlines flight to the US and is now in Oklahoma with his mother. Let us hope that he has no difficulty when he attempts to fly back to Qatar, where his family and job await.

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/11/19/karzai-orders-afghan-takeover-of-bagram-prison/

Karzai Orders Afghan Takeover of Bagram Prison

Accuses US of Violating Transfer Deal

by Jason Ditz, November 19, 2012

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai today ordered a full takeover of the Bagram Prison from the United States, saying that the agreement President Obama signed to keep troops through 2024 obliges the US to complete the handover.

The US began the handover in early September, but paused the move days later, claiming that they were “concerned” Karzai might give some of the detainees trials, something which the US claims the agreement forbids.

Karzai has conceded as much in the past, saying that he doesn’t have absolute control over the Afghan court system and can’t forbid them from trying detainees if they’ve a mind to. With many of the detainees held on little to no evidence, this is absolutely unacceptable to the US.

But the US was mum on today’s announcement,issuing a statement simply reiterating that they “support Afghan sovereignty” but not mentioning the prison. Analysts say Karzai’s comment is an attempt to convince the US to finally take a public stance on the matter instead of just the indefinite pause.

and Syria.....

http://rt.com/news/islamists-syrian-establish-own-112/

Syrian insurgents reject West-imposed coalition, declare own Islamic state

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Published: 20 November, 2012, 05:06
Edited: 20 November, 2012, 11:26

TAGS:
Arms, Conflict, Military, Opposition, War,Syria, Army

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Syria unrest

Rebel fighters retreat from the frontline with Syrian army troops in the town of Maarat al-Numan, on November 17, 2012.(AFP Photo / John Cantlie)

As international recognition grows for the Syrian National Coalition as the ‘legitimate representative’ of the Syrian people, Islamist groups in Syria have rejected the coalition, unilaterally declaring the city of Aleppo an Islamic state.

Members from 13 Islamist rebel groups, some wearing military uniform, have released a video message rejecting the coalition as a Western tool. Sitting in front of the Quran and proclaiming, “Allah Akbar” the group includes a prominent militant al-Qaeda affiliate the Jabhat al-Nusra. This cell has made headlines for suicide bombing campaigns and as a leader of the fighting in Aleppo.

A key part of the message released online read: "We reached a consensus on the establishment of a just Islamic state and the rejection of any foreign plan from coalitions or councils imposed on those of us inside [Syria] no matter which side it [intervention] comes from," as quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

The release of the message coincides with growing international recognition of the US-European backed Syrian National Coalition which was formed as an umbrella organization to unite and represent all the rebel fractions fighting on the ground.

But despite the new coalition gaining international recognition, there are doubts about it’s legitimacy on the ground.“We do not know who this coalition is, they don’t control anything on the ground and yet the West wants them to be the sole representative of us,” Dr Ali Mohamad, Editor in Chief of the Syria Tribune told RT.

The apparent split in the Syrian rebel camp, between the moderate fractions and Islamist cells, has raised doubts that unified action among the rebels is possible, “I do not think that they will be able to control the rebels on the ground and therefore we cannot talk about the rebels marching under one flag,” Mohamad says.

Washington, meanwhile, says it is inevitable that extremist elements would attack the moderate coalition aimed to bring democracy to Syria.

“It's not surprising to us that those who want an extremist state, or a heavily Islamist state in Syria have taken issue with this,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

The lack of unity among the rebels appears to be causing the US pause for thought, with Washington yet to fully recognize the coalition.

President Obama has said the US needed more time to know if the coalition “is committed to a democratic Syria, an inclusive Syria, a moderate Syria.” The US leader also added that US will not yet arm the opposition because of concerns extremists might get hold of the weapons.

Some experts believe those fears are likely to be realised.

“The radicals are the ones receiving weapons, money and methods of communication and other logistic support,” Dr Mohamad says, adding that some groups are playing both sides of the game. “The Muslim brotherhood is an important member of the coalition and at the same time the Muslim brotherhood is the main backer and supporter of the unity brigade that fights in Aleppo, which is the same brigade that rejected the coalition.”

Meanwhile, the leader of the Syrian National Coalition, Mouaz Khatib announced from his headquarters in Cairo that he would still negotiate with the Islamists. “We will keep in contact with them for greater cooperation in the interests of the Syrian people.”

Syria Rebels Clash with Kurds in Effort to Expand Territory

Kurdish Militias Resist Rebel Raids in Hasaka Province

by Jason Ditz, November 19, 2012

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The economically vital Hasaka Province of Syria is seeing major clashes today, as the rebel-held town of Ras al-Ayn was the site of battles between the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Kurdish group with PKK ties.

Rebels have sought to expand their holdings in Hasaka, which is both lightly defended by the Syrian military and mostly cut off from supply lines. The province is a major oil producing region in Syria.

But that expansion is coming not so much at the expense of the Assad regime, whose control of the territory is tenuous to begin with. Rather they are moving against ethnic Kurdish towns in an area where Kurds have tried to stay out of the civil war and have expressed hope for their own secessionist ambitions.

The rebels have repeatedly run afoul of PKK fighters and their affiliates in recent weeks, with the FSA’s brand of Sunni Arab nationalism running afoul of the separatist group’s home to carve out an independent Kurdistan in the region. Only yesterday FSA officials were expressing hope that the Kurds would simply withdraw their forces and cede the towns to them, instead they may be bringing the Kurdish factions into the war against them.

additional Gaza related items... cyber attacks on Israel - is Iran's hand in this ?

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/2012111973111746137.html

Mass cyber-war on Israel over Gaza raids

Officials say there have been more than 44 million hacking attempts on government websites since Gaza airstrikes began.

Last Modified: 19 Nov 2012 12:13

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The image appeared on numerous Israeli websites that were reportedly hacked by Anonymous

More than 44 million hacking attempts have been made on Israeli government websites since Israel began its air raids on the Gaza Strip almost a week ago.

The figures, released by the Israeli government, indicated that attempts on defence-related sites had been the highest, while 10 million attempts had been made on the site of Israel's president, seven million on the country's foreign ministry and three million on the site of the prime minister.
Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said just one hacking attempt was successful on a site he did not want to name, but it was up and running after 10 minutes of downtime.
Anonymous, an international group of cyberactivists, has posted online a list of nearly 700 Israeli websites it claims it has targeted, defaced and disrupted in response to the latest airstrikes on Gaza.

One of the most major targets of the "OpIsrael" campaign was the foreign ministry’s international development programme, Mashav.
In an announcement on twitter, Anonymous claimed to have tampered with the website’s internal database.
On Thursday morning, Anonymous issued a statement that called on other hackers to help disable and deface websites associated or belonging to the Israeli government or military.
Kadima Party site hacked
Among the group's other high-profile targets were the websites of Israel's Kadima Party, which was taken offline shortly after being hacked, and Bank of Jerusalem.
Most of the sites that were hacked appeared to be unavailable, but others displayed pro-Palestinian images and messages.

Follow the latest developments in the ongoing conflict

An Israeli ministry spokesman says that while the attacks have come from around the world, most have been from Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"The ministry's computer division will continue to block the millions of cyber attacks," Steinitz said. "We are enjoying the fruits of our investment in recent years in developing computerised defence systems."

Steinitz has instructed his ministry to operate in emergency mode to counter attempts to undermine government sites.
Both sides in the Gaza conflict, but particularly Israel, are embracing the social media as one of their tools of warfare.
The Israeli army has established a presence on nearly every platform available, while Palestinian fighters are active on twitter.
"The war is taking place on three fronts. The first is physical, the second is on the world of social networks and the third is cyber," said Carmela Avner, Israel's chief information officer.

Terrorist attacks Tel Aviv US embassy guard

DEBKAfile Special Report November 20, 2012, 11:33 AM (GMT+02:00)

Tags: US warships

Israel-Hamas clash

Gaza war

USS Iwo Jima

The Palestinian assailant injured the embassy guard with an axe and knife Tuesday, Nov. 20. The assailant was captured.

The US has ordered three amphibious warships with 2,500 Marines aboard back to the eastern Mediterranean to remain on standby off Israel’s shore in case they are needed to evacuate American citizens. The USS Iwo Jima, the USS New York and the USS Gunston Hall, were sailing west of Gibraltar on their way to back to Norfolk, Virginia, when they were turned around.

DEBKAfile: The United States have never before evacuated American citizens from Israel. The US notice does not say whether a possible evacuation would include the US forces posted in American bases in Israel. A mass evacuation would entail a Marine shore landing in order to lead the evacuees to the amphibious craft.
The Iwo Jima is a helicopter carrier, while the New York, one of the newest vessels of its kind in the US Navy, is a primary class of amphibious transport dock.
Although a decision to evacuate nationals was defined in the CNN report as a “remote contingency,” our sources stress that it is extreme enough to be taken only when a war situation is envisaged capable of endangering Americans.
This step negates the expectation articulated widely in Israel Monday, Nov. 19, that a ceasefire with the Hamas is within reach. It rather indicates that Washington sees the situation surrounding the Gaza Strip in a far different light, more like a situation holding the threat of a general conflagration beyond the confines of the Israel-Hamas contest in Gaza.
According to the same report, the US military also maintains three to four ships off the coast of Israel that are capable of shooting down ballistic missiles. That deployment has stretched for some months in the face of a potential ballistic threat from Iran.

and.....

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Nov-19/195527-turkeys-erdogan-israel-carrying-out-terrorist-acts.ashx#axzz2CktDKwEF

Turkey's Erdogan: Israel carrying out 'terrorist acts'November 19, 2012 02:07 PM (Last updated: November 19, 2012 06:24 PM)

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of the parliament in Ankara on November 13, 2012. AFP PHOTO/ADEM ALTAN

ISTANBUL: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan described Israel on Monday as a "terrorist state" in carrying out its bombardment of Gaza, underlining hostility for Ankara's former ally since relations between them collapsed in 2010.

His comments came after nearly a week of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. An Israeli missile killed at least 11 Palestinian civilians including four children in Gaza on Sunday.
"Those who associate Islam with terrorism close their eyes in the face of mass killing of Muslims, turn their heads from the massacre of children in Gaza," Erdogan told a conference of the Eurasian Islamic Council in Istanbul.
"For this reason, I say that Israel is a terrorist state, and its acts are terrorist acts," he said.
Ties between Israel and Turkey, once Israel's only Muslim ally, crumbled after Israeli marines stormed an aid ship in 2010 to enforce a naval blockade of the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip. Nine Turks were killed in clashes with activists on board.
Ankara expelled Israel's ambassador and froze military cooperation after a U.N. report into the incident released in September last year largely exonerated the Jewish state.
Earlier this month Turkey opened the trial in absentia of four former Israeli military commanders over the 2010 raid.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is to travel to Gaza on Tuesday with a group of foreign ministers from the Arab League.

and......

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Nov-20/195598-nasrallah-lashed-out-at-arabs-over-gaza-inertia.ashx#axzz2CktDKwEF

Nasrallah lashed out at Arabs over Gaza inertiaNovember 20, 2012 01:12 AM

The Daily Star

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah speaks on a TV screen during a ceremony in Beirut's southern suburbs, Monday, Nov. 12, 2012. (The Daily Star/Hasan Shaaban)

BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah lashed out at Arab governments Monday for their “inaction” over the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.
Nasrallah said Arab countries should be working on sending arms to Gaza to support the resistance rather than just being concerned about humanitarian and medical aid.

“Arab countries are acting as if they were the Red Crescent and not political entities,” he said.
“Israel is betting that the resistance in Gaza will use all the rockets in its possession ... Arab countries should send arms to Gaza to enhance the resistance’s chances in resisting the aggression rather than just act as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians,” he added.
“Where are the Arabs who are sending arms to the opposition in Syria? They do not have the courage to send one bullet to Gaza,” Nasrallah said, referring to calls by some Arab countries to arm rebels fighting against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Nasrallah also criticized Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, without naming him, over his recent statement in which he said “most Arabs have become like sheep.”
“If you think you are a sheep, then say that about yourself only without including others ... some Arabs are acting like sheep indeed, but they do not represent the majority ... there are lions who are fighting like heroes in Gaza and Lebanon,” Nasrallah said.
He added that the Qatari premier had admitted in his recent speech before Arab foreign ministers in Cairo that some Arab countries had participated in the siege on Gaza in the past few years.
“An important question that comes to everybody’s minds after hearing such a statement is: How were all these rockets smuggled to Gaza? Who enabled the resistance to endure and confront the aggression through supplying it with arms?” Nasrallah said rhetorically, adding that Iran, Syria and Hezbollah had never abandoned the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.

Former Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss also responded to the Qatari PM’s comment and said “Arabs will only become sheep when they abandon the resistance and surrender.”

Separately, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt said Monday that changes in the region could work in favor of Palestinians to end the fight with Israel and achieve a two-state solution.
“If the rightful [Palestinian] goals mean that they should continue with their struggle, that does not eliminate the need for all parties to understand the emerging regional reality, especially that what has been called ‘the conducive environment’ has largely changed,” Jumblatt said in a statement.
Jumblatt was referring to the uprisings in the Arab world whose people, he said, are “committed to the Palestinian cause.” He added that Egypt is now under a new government that sympathizes with the Palestinians, saying that the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood could “create a new status quo” even if it keeps its agreement with Israel.
Jumblatt said that Cairo’s 1978 Camp David peace treaty with the Jewish state aimed at “separating Egypt from its strategic relevance in Gaza.”
The head of the Progressive Socialist Party voiced his confidence in the victory of the Syrian opposition over Assad which could also impose “a new reality that changes the status quo and is conducive to ending Syria’s 1973 truce agreement with Israel.”
Jumblatt said that Palestinian goals include putting an end to Israeli settlement activity, the creation of an independent state, and a return of refugees to their homeland.

Meanwhile, Syria’s Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel-Karim Ali said Syria stands in solidarity with Gaza and supports all Palestinian factions.
“We defend Palestine, which is the core cause of the whole nation ... Syria is with Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, Fatah and The Popular Front [for the Liberation of Palestine],” he said following a meeting with Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.
Mansour will be part of a delegation of Arab foreign ministers who will visit the Gaza Strip for solidarity Tuesday.
Ali said that Syria is currently being targeted due to the stances it has taken in support of the Palestinian cause.
“The Israeli enemy, with U.S. protection and European support, is enhancing the aggression against Syria and now, it is seeking to do the same against the Palestinian people,” he added.

Catharsis Ours

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

War watch - Syria , Gaza and Afghanistan in the news.....