It's all very well listening to Ban Ki Moon(Head of the United Nations)'chastising' Israel for their egregious actions.
BUT,WHAT IS THE U.N. going to do about it?
You can verbally denounce others immoral and inhumane actions but by the UN cowardly refusing to DO(in deed)SOMETHING ABOUT IT by using their wide-ranging powers,they END UP ENDORSING the collective punishment and DISPROPORTIONATE suffering of Palestinian civilian men women AND children!

Right now,the DIFFERENCE in the damage inflicted by Hamas with their hand-launched 'Chinese Firecracker' rockets,as opposed to Israel with their 1 ton incendiary bombs dropped from F-16's or anonymous drones etc can be CLEARLY seen in the numbers of dead and injured.
It's like watching a vietnamese soldier with a machine gun defending himself against an American plane filled with 'AGENT ORANGE'.
For every ONE Israeli killed, you will see at least 10-20 DEAD Palestinians.
For every ONE Israeli injured,you will see at least 30-40 injured Palestinians.
And as vapaday22 states it is shameful to see American and Israeli governments still joined at the immral 'hip' in SUPPORTING the CONTINUANCE of delibarate ethnic cleansing,apartheid,indirect SLAVE-LABOUR and the suffering of elderly,children and sick innocents.
If the UN/EU are such lily-livered chicken-s***s,TOO scared to demand accountability from Israeli,American,Palestinian(Hamas & Fatah)ON BEHALF OF ALL THE INNOCENT CIVILIANS OF THE UNITED NATIONS,then they should resign their seats on the grounds of being impotent!
I love my country America,but I am ashamed of it's largely immoral Government.
I am ashamed of the Israeli government because they seem to PREFER the NAZI GOOSE-STEP,to the humane GOOD-STEP!
And I am so sick of Hamas and Fatah appearing to be at each others throats when they should be UNITED .But I know! Easier said than done!
What is Hamas? A 'puppet'extension of Iran?
What is Fatah? A 'puppet'extension of the USA?
Really! I thought they were ALL just PALESTINIANS together in their own right?

The radical zionists have already shown themselves to be malignant narcissists(another Nazi racist personality trait),in their pernicious treatment of all 'OTHERS'.
But I would expect that the UN AND EU would have had ENOUGH of that already,historically,and NOW have the 'gonads' to stand up for universal human rights! Because by non-action they merely condone insanity.
As Ralph Nader often quotes,"To know and not to do,is NOT to know"(Chinese Proverb)
I would add,that to know and not to do,is NOT to give a S**t!
Peace,Salaam,Shalom!

I was born at the beginning of the Apartheid era in S. Africa and lived under it until my arrival in the USA 30 years ago. During that Nazi styled era, Israel was the biggest sanction buster, funneling arms, and money to S. Africa. It must also be noted, Jack Abrahamoff was an agent for S> Africa. And what we see today in Palestine, no different what we NOT WHITE people were subjugated to..treated like the lowest form of life. And given the USA's support for the Apartheid NAZI Govt., I am not surprised that it turns a blind eye to the murder, slaughter and treatment of the Palestinians. And of-course, when u add the Europeans into the mix, colonialism does begin to rear its ugly head.

I have a couple of comments on this Week's Mosaic Intelligence Report. I am concerned that the last two clips shown are both apparent lies. One is Abbas saying that Al Qaeda has now infiltrated Gaza, and the other has Olmert saying very firmly that Haniya has never suggested or requested a cease fire. I think Abbas is just off the wall. He can't handle the disaster he is an active participant in, and Olmert is just plain distorting the truth. First, he doesn't acknowledge a request for a bi-lateral cease fire. When he says 'cease fire' he means the rockets from Gaza stop, but that doesn't have anything to do with Israel withdrawing their army from Gaza and the West Bank and ending their pogrom of targeted assassinations. Second, his phrasing was clearly framed to give plausible deniability if he is confronted on the statement.

The fact that there are 3 ships in the gulf means that this is a setup and has been planned in advance. The increase in Palestinian rocket fire is reactive, not proactive at this point. Haniya and his government are in hiding because the Israelis have targeted them, meaning that, in essence, there is no one to discuss a cease fire with any more. Then to say that Hamas is engineering this situation to get Israel to commit a massacre is pretty twisted. Israel and the US are engineering this situation to strike one last blow while Bush and Cheney are still in office, and to strike a killing blow at Hamas who are already in a very weak position due to the seige.

Finally, to say that the 3 ships off the Lebanese shore are an attempt to trigger a war with Iran and Syria is just nuts. Iran and Syria do what they can for Hezbollah and Hamas. They are supporting regional initiatives for nationalism and cultural integrity, and they are supporting the underdogs who have a common enemy. At this point they have little to lose. However, neither of them has the resources to go to war with the US and Israel on behalf of Hamas or Hezbollah and they know it. Furthermore, for the US go bring up Israel's rear in Lebanon, it will be necessary for Nasrallah to make the first move. After listening to his recent rhetoric, I suppose it is possible he will, but he has won in the past by picking his battles and this would seem an impractical time and place to choose to go to war with 3 American warships just out of site.

It seems to me that these are the real issues. Yes, Israel and the US are preying that someone will light the match so they can take care of Hezbollah and Hamas once and for all. They have a plan, which they appear to be coordinating as they have coordinated pretty much every Middle east action for nearly half a century. But the people making these decisions, Bush and Olmert and their advisers, have screwed up every plan they have made for 8 years.
This is not true of their adversaries, and I am betting that Iran, Syria and even Hezbollah are going to hunker down and sit this one out. They are going to live to fight another day.
Unfortunately that strategy won't change what is occurring in Gaza.

But this is nothing new. I am reading an excellent biography of Gamel Nasser called "The Last Arab", and apparently Israel and the US have been manipulating the situation behind the scenes since the early 50s. Worse than that, David ben Gurion was sending soldiers into Gaza to slaughter the civilians in response to disruptions caused by rogue fighters at that time as well.
Was it Barak who said that the Palestinians should beware because Israel was ready to create a holocaust in Gaza. A bold statement, don't you think.

Post WW2 I was amongst the millions who were horrified by the Holocaust.
I had masses of sympathy for the Jewish(and other)people who had endured such suffering,humiliation and UNGODLY torture and racist/ethnic cleansing/killing.
Like millions of others I shared in the 'global guilt' that we had not been able to prevent it.We all tasted the bitterness of the gall.
BUT over the last few decades,that horror,sympathy and guilt,whilst NOT forgotten,is FADING fast to the point of NEGATION.
Who caused this depletion in personal sympathy,and growing disinterest?
None other than the previous victims themselves,their rising level of chutzpah,and their unethical and immoral actions within(and WITHOUT)a State called Israel which was given,officially,as a gift to them,to help HEAL the horrors of a holocaust.
The reason my sympathy is wearing thin?
Because,I see NO reason/excuse for,and justice in,the PAST victim becoming the PRESENT ungodly villian.
Personally,the more horrifying and agregious thing,is NOW seeing the past sufferers turning into the new perpetrators of similar HORRORS,similar suffering and similar humiliation upon another people.
Lest we forget,the Jewish people swore NEVER to forget.Yet,as some begin to don their own moral version of the 'brown-shirts' and prepare(again)for their own version of 'krystallnacht',against NON-Jews,it would seem that the memory has become either VERY selective or unconscionably demented.
Perhaps this is why 61% of Israeli citizens polled want a peaceful,mutual,one-state solution. Their consciences of the present,DESPITE horrors of the PAST tell them that what the Israeli Government is doing is WRONG and unforgiveable.
Call it 'Holocaust'.Call it 'Shoah'.Call it mass murder! The result is the same.
UNGODLY! AMORAL! UNETHICAL! DISHONOURABLE!
They have'remembered'so much of what WAS bad,that they have lost touch with what IS,and can be GOOD!
Peace,Salaam,Shalom!

There is no honor in starving and killing civilians and this is what Israel has been doing against Gazans for years. Also let's not play gymnastics with what Vilnai has said, Shoah in Hebrew means Holocaust and disaster and it is mostly used as Holocaust.

Israeli air strikes have killed more than 30 Palestinians, including six children, in the past few days. After one rocket hit an apartment building and another one landed near a school, wounding a 17-year-old girl Israel has activated its early warning system in the town of Ashkelon for the first time. The day before, a college student was killed in a rocket attack on Sderot

"The more [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilnai told Israeli army radio.(Vilnai spokeperson issued a statement saying that the Deputy Defense Minister meant "disaster" by using the termonology "SHOAH" which means Holocaust in Hebrew)

The "holocaust" or "Shoah" is a term rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi genocide during World War II.

In an equally surprising statement, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas accused Hamas of helping Al Qaeda militants enter the Gaza Strip.

"Al Qaeda is present in Gaza, and I'm convinced that they (Hamas) are their allies," Mr. Abbas said in an interview with the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat.

Watch Video http://youtube.com/watch?v=vAGCE-Vln2E