CINA

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Israel's war against Hamas/Gaza. The 21st day:

Israel said today its 'Gaza offensive' could be "in the final act" and sent envoys to discuss truce terms after Hamas made a ceasefire offer to end three weeks of fighting that has killed more than 1,130 Palestinians and wounded at least 5,200 (according to Gaza medics).

However, Israel rejected at least two major elements of the ceasefire terms outlined by the Islamist movement, and fighting continued, albeit with less intensity than yesterday.

Meanwhile Haaretz and y.net (IL) are reporting that Hamas will not accept the Israeli conditions for a cease-fire in Gaza and would continue the "armed resistance until the end", Khaled Meshal, the political leader of the Palestinian Islamist group, said today afternoon (*).

His comments came following a report in the Arab daily as-Sharq al-Awsat earlier today, claiming Hamas is prepared to accept a conditional cease-fire with Israel starting on Saturday.

Simultaneously the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said today, at the Arab Summit in Doha/Qatar, that "The Arab peace initiative (with Israel) is dead… we must respond to Israel on the basis of an eye of an eye."

* Related:
☞ The road of "negotiations" is closed.. (P.F.L.P.)

So it seems that - unfortunately (especially for the 'ordinary' people in Gaza) - "the show must go on"! (at least for the next 48 hours!)

► German (bourgeois) newspapers today look at the prospect for a cease-fire wonder if Hamas won't come out of the violence with a stronger image on the Arab street:

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"It doesn't take a prophet to predict that Israel's attack on Gaza is in its final stages. There are reasons for this: Hamas is decisively weakened, which has reinstated the deterrent effect of the Israeli military in the Middle East. In a few days a new American president will take office; Israel will hardly want to do him the injustice of making him cut through the oldest and thorniest knot in the Middle East conflict. The public pressure on Israel is getting stronger because the destruction in the Gaza Strip is growing, including so-called collateral damage. (German) Foreign Minister Steinmeier, on his second trip to the Middle East in a few days, warned that Israel was losing international support. He didn't need to go to the conflict zone to make this assertion, he could have voiced it to Ms. Livni over the telephone -- never mind that the Israelis know it already. Otherwise the journey was unnecessary. It won't bring results, only images for the (German) election campaign."

The center-'left' Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"The Islamists are continuing to fight. They think they can defy the overwhelming power of the Israeli army for a while longer -- even if this is borne by (Gaza's) civilian population. Hamas is waiting for a halfway acceptable offer to end the war."

 "The Israelis don't want to give up the economic blockade of Gaza. They want the border with Egypt used by weapons smugglers to be overseen by international monitors. And any reconstruction funds for the destroyed Gaza Strip should be distributed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. ... Apparently new elections in Gaza are also being considered. Hamas won a clear election victory over Abbas' Fatah party in 2006. On the other hand, Abbas' mandate as president ran out five days ago."

"In short: Part of the cease-fire agreement is obviously intended to deprive Hamas of power. Is the intention to bring Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah back into Gaza? Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has often said that the war cannot result in a 'return to the status quo.' However, this kind of cease-fire model is hardly going to push Hamas toward a speedy capitulation."

The (former) 'left-alternative' daily Die Tageszeitung writes:

"Hamas' strength is still not broken. If it survives - and there is every indication that it will - then it will celebrate its strategy of digging in as a heroic victory over Israel. And on 'Arab street' it will enjoy a revival. It has held out for three weeks against the overwhelming Israeli firepower … The political compromises that they will have to make for a cease-fire will only damage them marginally if the reward for an effective border control and the halt to rocket fire into Israel is the opening of Gaza's borders."

"Fatah and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been wrong-footed. Both have been marginalized in this conflict. Abbas was too quick to blame Hamas for the outbreak of the war and so was suspected of collaboration with Israel. Even if this is ridiculous, the accusations of deserting their own people could cost Abbas and Fatah dearly."

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It seems that, only few days before B. Obama's inauguration, the rulers in Pyeongyang - i.e. "His Royal Highness", resp. "His Holiness"(H.H.) Kim Jong-il himself - want to challenge, or at least test, the incoming U.S. administration (and its resilience).. (*)

 
KCNA before y'day (1.13) published following statement:

DPRK Foreign Ministry's Spokesman

Dismisses U.S. Wrong Assertion

 
Wrong views and assertions were floated in the United States recently to create the impression that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the issue to be settled only when the DPRK shows nuclear weapons.

A spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tuesday issued a statement turning down this assertion intended to mislead the public opinion.

The statement recalled that at the six party talks held on September 19, 2005, the six parties agreed to denuclearize not only the northern half of the Korean Peninsula but the whole of it and, to this end, the United States committed itself to terminate its hostile relations with the DPRK, assure it of non-use of nuclear weapons and clear south Korea of nukes, etc.

It continued:

We consented to the September 19 Joint Statement, not prompted by the desire to improve the relations through denuclearization, but proceeding from the principled stand to realize the denuclearization through the normalization of the relations. Our aim to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula is, above all, to remove the U.S. nuclear threat to the DPRK that has lasted for the past half century.

The nuclear issue surfaced on the Korean Peninsula because of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and its nuclear threat resulting from it, and the hostile relations are not attributable to the nuclear issue.

It is a twisted logic to assert that the bilateral relations can be improved only when we show nukes before anything else, and this is a distortion of the spirit of the September 19 Joint Statement.

As clarified in the joint statement, the denuclearization of the whole Korean Peninsula should be strictly realized in a verifiable manner.

Free field access should be ensured to verify the introduction and deployment of U.S. nukes in south Korea and details about their withdrawal and there should be verification procedures to inspect on a regular basis the possible reintroduction or passage of nukes.

As proven in practice, the basic way of implementing the September 19 Joint Statement under the situation where there is no mutual confidence is to observe the principle of "action for action".

This principle can never be an exception as far as the issue of verification is concerned.

It is necessary to simultaneously verify the whole Korean Peninsula at the phase where the denuclearization is ultimately realized according to the said principle.

When the U.S. nuclear threat is removed and south Korea is cleared of its nuclear umbrella, we will also feel no need to keep its nuclear weapons.

This precisely means the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and it is our invariable stand.

We will never do such a thing as showing our nuclear weapons first even in 100 years unless the U.S. hostile policy and nuclear threat to the DPRK are fundamentally terminated.

If the nuclear issue is to be settled, leaving the hostile relations as they are, all nuclear weapons states should meet and realize the simultaneous nuclear disarmament. This is the only option.

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2009/200901/news13/20090113-13ee.html

* But - possibly - "H.H." misinterprets something.. (?!!!)

Related articles:
☞ North Korea maintains its tough stance (IHT, 1.15)
☞ N.Korea Misreads Obama (Chosun Ilbo, 1.15)
☞ Clinton 'aggressive' on N Korea (al-Jazeera, 1.14)
☞ Obama will be ‘aggressive’ in denuclearizing the North (JoongAng Ilbo, 1.15)
☞ U.S. to apply ‘smart power’ tactics to N.K. policy (Hankyoreh, 1.15)

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Israel's war against Hamas/Gaza. The 19th day:

While the number of killed Palestinians in Gaza is increasing almost hourly, the war, since yesterday, is slowly disappearing from the list of "the top stories" in the int'l media (at least in the "West").

The death toll on the Palestinian side now stands at nearly 1,000, among them at least 300 children and 100 women, according to the Palestinian health ministry. More than 4,500 have been injured, of whom around a half are women and children (hundreds are in very serious conditions).

Since the start of its offensive on December 27, IAF has bombed more than 2,000 targets in Gaza, an Israeli security source said.

Israel's fierce assault on Gaza has destroyed at least $1.4 billion worth of buildings, roads, pipes, power lines and other infrastructure in already impoverished territory, Palestinian surveyors estimate, y.net reported today.

More and more Gazans were fleeing their homes to seek shelter wherever they could. At least 29,000 are now holed up in UN schools operating as emergency shelters - more than 2,000 of them fled on last Sunday alone, in Gaza City and Khan Yunis, to the south. Thousands more are staying with relatives or friends (*).

Meanwhile a growing number of political and military analysts are asking about the real objectives of Israel's war in Gaza.

According to Netanyahu, "there are two options [in Gaza]. The eradication of the Hamas regime - and there will be no escaping this in the long run - and putting an end to its armament."

But more and more of analysts/observer/journalists, even in Israel, have no real idea about an answer!

As "proof" just check out following:
☞ A dangerous victory

☞ Israel doesn’t want to win  

☞ State officials: Barak encouraging Hamas  

☞ Israel must wait as Hamas seeks way out of Gaza mess

☞ Israel defense officials back immediate Gaza truce

Also very interesting is following approach (of an analysys):

☞ Can Israel Survive Its Assault on Gaza? (Time, 01.08)

* Some of the latest developments:

Israeli troops are fighting on the outskirts of Gaza City today after another night of heavy bombing and shelling.

There was heavy fighting in northern Gaza and around the edges of Gaza City, from where Israeli troops have mounted raids to within one kilometer of the city centre. Early today, the old Gaza city hall, a former court building, was destroyed in an air strike which damaged many shops in the nearby market.

Israel's military said it hit 60 sites overnight, including the police headquarters in Gaza City that had been hit on the first day of the operation, as well as rocket launching sites, weapons stores and 35 smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt. Six Israeli soldiers were injured.

Three rockets fired from Lebanon landed in northern Israel in the second such attack since Israeli forces launched their Gaza offensive...

Related reports:

☞ Gaza death toll nears 1,000 (al-Jazeera, 1.14)

☞ 'They've killed us. Me, Amal and... They've gone to heaven' (Guardian, 1.14)

☞ Israeli troops reveal ruthless tactics against Hamas (The Times, 1.14)

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Well, it seems that the reality in Nepal is "swimming against the stream" (Mao Zedong)!

While the former so-called "communist" parties in the West, especially in Europe, lost their power (mainly completely!!), in Nepal a "hardcore" communist organization - the CPN (M) - almost won a guerilla war and later won the democratic parliamentarian election.

While the so-called "communist" parties in the West were/are (at the best!!) perishing or splitting (*) in various small (often simply psycho)sects, the Nepalese communists are trying "alternative ways"...

The diversity of the Nepalese political parties is well-known! Particularly on the left/progressive side! Especially the variety of the communist organisations is very "sensational": CPN (Maoist), CPN (Unified Marxist-Leninist), CPN (Unity Centre-Masal), CPN (United Marxist), CPN (Marxist-Leninist), CPN (Masal), CPN (United), CPN (Unified), Nepal Workers Peasants Party etc...

But y'day the Nepalese communists reduced (sucessfully) their "diversity"!

Today's NepalNews reported following: 

CPN (M) to become Unified CPN (M)

The CPN (Maoist) and CPN-Unity Centre have decided to unify the two parties on Monday.

The joint meeting of the central committees of the two parties decided to name the new party as Unified CPN (Maoist).

The unified party has also decided to drop Prachandapath as its guiding principle.

A public function is to be organized in Khula Manch, Tuesday, to formally announce the unification.

They have decided to form a national general convention preparation committee, which will have maximum 175 members.

Earlier, the CPN (M) had decided to enlarge the 35-member central committee to 106 members. Over two dozen more members are likely to be nominated by Maoists.

Central leaders of the two parties were busy in discussion throughout the day on Monday, trying to settle issues before the formal announcement of unification.

CPN-Maoist, Masal unite; PM Dahal renews revolt rhetoric

The formal announcement of unification between CPN (Maoist) and Unity Centre (Masal) was made in Kathmandu amid a mass gathering Tuesday.
 

Party workers took out rallies from different parts of the capital prior to the mass gathering at Khula Manch, which was attended by senior leaders from the Maoist party and the now-dissolved Unity Centre (Masal).

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Prime Minister and chairman of CPN (Maoist), heads the united party which has been named as Unified CPN (Maoist). The party will have a 175-member central committee that includes 38 members from Unity Centre (Masal).

Addressing the mass meeting, party chairman Dahal warned of 'people's revolt' if the current Maoist-led government is forced to quit.

"This government is not a repetition of past ones. If it is overthrown our party will spearhead a people's revolt from the next day and capture power," he thundered, "Nothing in the world will stop us." To try to topple the government, he said, is to push the country into disarray.

Dahal also indirectly warned the coalition partners, saying "We are in the same boat. Other parties will sink along with the boat if they make holes in it." "We are revolutionaries and we will manage to sail through."

The Maoist strongman, however, admitted his cabinet has not been able to meet the aspirations of the people.

"People want the government to deliver, but it has not been able to deliver fully. We communists are in majority, but we are plagued by lopsided attitude [towards of each other]."

Related article:

☞ PM warns against bid to topple govt (The Himalayan Times, 1.13)

* Latest example: Rifondazione Comunista, Italy's strongest party of the "radical left", is nearing its division - and consequently its end as political party with any influence.. 

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From today's (bourgeois) newspaper Korea Times:

DLP Leader Apologizes for Violent Acts

 
Democratic Labor Party (DLP) Chairman Rep. Kang Ki-kap offered a public apology Monday for swearing at National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyong-o and destroying equipment in Kim's office on Jan. 5. (*)

"I sincerely apologize to the people for causing grave concern,'' Kang said in a press conference. "I should have been more patient, but I couldn't. It is heartbreaking that I made a deep scar on the hearts of people wishing for a mature democracy.''

Kang's apology came after the governing Grand National Party (GNP) and the Secretariat of the National Assembly sued the lawmaker for his violent acts...

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/01/116_37735.html

Reformist dweeb!!

* Korea Herald (01.07): Swearing while kicking doors and furniture, Kang, 55, created a violent commotion Monday at the offices of the Assembly speaker and secretary-general after security officials moved to disperse his party members at the hall in front of the Assembly's main chamber.

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IMC South Korea Reactivated!!

Since late 2004 we - a (really!!) small group of activists - Koreans, migrant workers and "foreigners" -  were discussing about the possibility (necessity!!) to establish a South Korean section of the int'l IMC (Independent Media Center) network. In spring 2005, after several weeks of discussions we created the - for the time being provisional - blog "imc korea". But - unfortunatelly - just a short while later our efforts fizzled out..

Now, since recently, a group of activists want to "reanimate" the idea for a South Korean IMC... (well, great..!!)
Last Thursday (01.08) they had their first open meeting.
Here you can read the..
☞ ..Minutes of the Session

Related stuff:
☞ The Ongoing History of IMC Korea

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Israel's war against Hamas/Gaza. The 14th day (for updates, see below):

1. Latest news and related articles

..by Al-Jazeera:
☞ Israel resumes deadly Gaza attacks

..by Guardian (UK):

☞ Medical teams find 'unbelievable' horror amid rubble

☞ Israel and the west will pay a price for Gaza's bloodbath

☞ Israel criticised over 'shocking incidents'

..by y.net (IL):

☞ Olmert: Gaza op goals yet to be obtained

☞ IDF: Don't stop op now!

☞ UN: IDF shelled evacuated civilians

..by Haaretz (IL):

☞ Israel's three alternatives for the future of the Gaza war

☞ IDF sources: Conditions not yet optimal for Gaza exit

2. Hamas vs. the Palestinians in Gaza

PIC (Hamas' propaganda site) wrote y'day in an "editorial": "For years, we have been warning that Israel is psychologically and morally  capable of carrying out a holocaust or a genocide against the Palestinian people."

My question: Why the Palestinian "ordinary" citizens got no shelters? While the leadership of Hamas and the other "resistance" organisations (IJ, PRC..) can hide out since almost two weeks in save places (a well-fortified tunnel system digged across the entire Gaza Strip)..

Last Thursday the IAF killed in an attack Nizar Rayyan, one of Hamas' "key leaders".. Only few hours later Hamas has already threatened to avenge Rayyan's death. Because Hamas described the assassination as a "the crossing of red lines"

My question: Why wasn't Dec. 27, the first night of the IAF attacks (in the following few hours almost 200 Palestinians were killed..), "the crossing of the red lines"

Well, I think the answer is (or should be) clear...

3. Tomorrow's (Sat., 1.10) "Palestine Solidarity Demonstration":

4. Updates

4.1. UN Resolution 1860

The resolution adopted Thursday night by the United Nations Security Council calls to cease fire immediately..

Here are the nine clauses of Resolution 1860 calling for a ceasefire in Gaza:

 
1. The Security Council stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

2. The Security Council calls for the unimpeded provision and distribution throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including of food, fuel and medical treatment.

3. The Security Council welcomes the initiatives aimed at creating and opening humanitarian corridors and other mechanisms for the sustained delivery of humanitarian aid.

4. The Security Council calls on member states to support international efforts to alleviate the humanitarian and economic situation in Gaza, including through urgently needed additional contributions to UNWRA and through the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee.

5. The Security Council condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorist.

6. The Security Council calls upon member states to intensify efforts to provide arrangements and guarantees in Gaza in order to sustain a durable ceasefire and calm, including to prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition and to ensure the sustained reopening of crossing points on the basis of the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access between the Palestinian Authority; and in this regard, welcomes the Egyptian initative, and other regional and international efforts that are underway.

7. The Security Council encourages tangible steps towards intra-Palestinian reconciliation including in support of mediation efforts of Egypt and the League of Arab States as expressed in the 26 November 2008 resolution, and consistent with Security Council Resolution 1850 (2008) and other relevant resolutions.

8. The Security Council calls for renewed and urgent efforts by the parties and the international community to achieve a comprehensive peace based on the vision of a region where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace with secure and recognized borders, as envisaged in Security Council Resolution 1850 (2008), and recalls also the important of the Arab Peace Initiative.

9. The Security Council welcomes the Quartet's consideration, in consultation with the parties, of an international meeting in Moscow in 2009.

4.2. Israel's first reaction..

..by Foreign Minister T. Livni: "Israel has acted, is acting, and will continue to act only according to its calculations, in the interest of the security of its citizens and its right to self defense."

..by Vice Premier Minister Eli Yishai: "The world has turned into Haniyeh and Hamas' lobbyist. It's no matter for concern if this resolution stays on paper, our interest is all that matters."

.. by PM E. Olmert: "Israel has never allowed any outside source to determine its right to defend its citizens. The IDF will continue to act to defend the citizens of Israel and carry out the missions laid before it in the operation."
☞ UNSC’s resolution meaningless: Military push needed (y.net)

4.3. Hamas' first reaction..

..by Musa Abu Marzouq, the deputy head of its political bureau: "We have three conditions for any peace initiative coming from any state.
First, the aggression of the Israelis should stop. All of the gates should be opened, including the gate of Rafah between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Finally, Israel has to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
But we are not saying we will stop firing rockets from the Gaza Strip to Israel (!!) - we are only talking about stopping the aggression from the Israelis against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip."

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Asia Times (HK) y'day published following highly speculative/theoretical - but nonetheless interesting and readable - article (written by D. Kirk):

North Korea sees an opening

As the United States focuses on the new Israeli war, and president-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office, North Korea is revving up its rhetoric against South Korea and ailing leader Kim Jong-il has visited military units in a worrying display of intimidation.

For the first time in 14 years, Kim chose to visit a military unit on New Year's Day, as noted by South Korea's Unification Ministry, rather than go to a factory or pay homage at the memorial bearing his father Kim Il-sung's remains. The emphasis on the North's military-first policy was accompanied by a particularly ferocious attack on the South's conservative government as "the fascist rule of the sycophantic and treacherous conservative authorities".

While the US and South Korea negotiate a timetable for withdrawal of the US military headquarters in Seoul to a base south of the capital, the US fixation on the Middle East has provided an opening for North Korea to exploit. The North's aim, as seen in Pyongyang's avoidance of anti-American rhetoric, is to drive a wedge between the US and South Korea and ultimately achieve its goal of destroying the alliance.

In that context, the Israeli invasion of Gaza carries grave implications for Korea that are easy to overlook in the frenzy of "breaking news" from the region and the worldwide response to the Israeli pummeling of Palestinians.

It would be absurd to try to compare conflict in the Middle East to the Korean War or the confrontation of forces that has prevailed on the Korean Peninsula since the signing of the armistice in July 1953. They are totally different, but they do have one common denominator - the military and diplomatic role of the United States.

Like it or not, the United States is completely committed to Israel to an extent that far exceeds American bonds with South Korea.

The planes, the tanks and virtually all the modern weaponry deployed by Israeli forces are either American-made or purchased with American funds. Israel is by far the largest recipient of American aid. The American passion for Israel reflects the belief in the right of Jews to their own homeland after the killing of more than 6 million in Nazi Germany's concentration camps as well as complicated US interests in the Middle East and the power of American Jews, whose political and economic influence far outweighs their numbers.

Now the question is whether the United States, while supporting Israel to the hilt and waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will have the means or the stomach for a potentially far worse conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

Would American leaders, and the American people, ever muster the same passion for the defense of South Korea as they do for Israel? For that matter, would the US stand up in a second Korean War as it did in 1950 when a severely depleted American military establishment built up quickly enough to drive out the North Korean invaders and then, after the Chinese entered the war and drove the Americans and South Koreans from the North, finally drove the Chinese from the South.

The United States today has about 28,500 troops in South Korea, far more than the 500 or so advisers in the country when the Korean War broke out in June 1950, and South Korean forces are vastly better equipped now than they were in June 1950. The bottom line, though, is does the US have the will for a Far Eastern war while involved in unpopular flare-ups from Israel to Pakistan?

In the outburst of publicity over the Middle East, few if any Americans are aware that war on the Korean Peninsula would be far costlier, and bloodier, than anything seen so far in the Middle East, including Iraq. A second Korean war, moreover, would carry the risk of a regional holocaust, with the Chinese and Russians rushing to the aid of North Korea and Japan, the one-time colonial occupier, joining the fray against historical foes. That scenario, far-fetched though it may seem, lingers in the minds of those with memories of the horrors that engulfed the peninsula from mid-1950 to mid-1953.

The United States, as it enters the Obama administration, is not capable of fighting on two broadly separated fronts without reverting to the draft of young men, and possibly women, which was abandoned after popular revulsion over the Vietnam war. If Americans are not nearly so hostile to their military establishment today as they were at the height of the Vietnam War, the reason is the absence of fear among young people of having to join the army whether they like it or not.

Americans, moreover, are far more concerned about problems on their own home front than anywhere else. No American units are going to accompany the Israelis in Gaza. Israeli forces, fully equipped with American weaponry, have no problem roaring over Palestinians, whose rockets attacks are like bee stings in comparison with the shelling, strafing and bombing of Israeli tanks. Hamas, which is responsible for instigating attacks against Israel, is basically a terrorist organization that does not have the support of the majority of Palestinians, including probably the 1.5 million living in Gaza.

The North Koreans would be a far more formidable foe. Quite aside from their nuclear warheads, which they may not know how to deploy, they have a great many artillery pieces and infantry weapons, a product that the North's decrepit industrial base still manages to manufacture.

The North also has biological and chemical weapons, a navy that includes submarines and lesser submersibles, and an air force whose old-model MiGs can still fly. On paper, South Korea is far stronger in all but one important aspect. North Korea has twice as many men under arms, well over 1 million compared to 600,000 in the South, and the North Korean troops by and large have served far longer, under more severe circumstances, than those in the South.

The real imponderable, though, is whether the US, in the crunch, would rush to defend the South with all the arms it needed, as well as an infusion of troops, if North Korea were to take advantage of America's relationship with Israel and the Middle East to stage a surprise attack. Would Obama as president respond as stubbornly as did Harry Truman, the American president when the Korean war broke out?

And how would the crucial American Jewish community feel about a war in which Jewish interests were not at stake as in Israel? The views of Jewish neo-conservatives and liberals on Israel may vary widely, but they all support the Jewish state's right to exist. What about if the Republic of Korea were imperiled? For Americans, modern Korea is just about as easy to forget, in time of crisis elsewhere, as the "forgotten" Korean war.

The best hope is that all such questions will remain abstract and theoretical, raised for discussion but never put to the test. Still, headlines, news alerts and bulletins on the war for Gaza force everyone to ask, Can it happen here - and what if it does?

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/KA07Dg01.html

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Israel's war against Hamas/Gaza. The 12th day:

More than 660 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel's attack on Gaza, with nearly 3,000 wounded, according to int'l media reports.

Only few days ago (Jan. 01) E. Olmert 'promised': "We will treat the Palestinian civilians with kid gloves.." And yesterday we saw the reality: The Israeli army bombed an UNRWA school in Jabalya and at least 40 civilians were killed, seeking there shelter from IDF/IAF bombardment. PS: By doing so, they fully followed the instructions of the IDF, which for a week now has been urging Palestinian citizens – via leaflets, text messages, and public announcements – to evacuate their homes located in trouble-prone areas.

Following a selection of latest news and related articles:

..by Guardian (UK)
☞ Gaza's day of carnage - 40 dead as Israelis bomb two UN schools
☞ Shell-shocked children who are drawn into the cult of the martyr
☞ Gaza after a Hamas rout will be an even greater threat to Israel
☞ How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe

☞ Interactive guide: Israeli attacks on Gaza

..by Al-Jazeera
☞ School hit piles pressure on Israel

..by Haaretz (IL)

☞ Israel postpones vote on expanding Gaza ground op as truce efforts grow

..by Asia Times (HK)

☞ Suicide by Israel
☞ Al-Qaeda sniffs opportunity in Gaza

Meanwhile (according to AP) Moussa Abou Marzouk, the deputy head of Hamas's political bureau today said his group is studying peace initiatives to end the violence in Gaza Strip but rejects any permanent truce with Israel.
Already on Monday night the "prominent spriritual leader" (according to Palestinian sources) Waeel al-Zarad 'promised' in Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas' TV in Gaza) that "the Muslim blood vengeance against the Jews will only end with the complete extermination of the Jews"...

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On November 11th 2008, French "Anti-Terrorism Police" arrested around twenty people in connection with five incidents in the preceding weeks in which electric train lines were shut down, causing delays.

Nine of these were subsequently accused of “criminal association for the purposes of terrorist activity” (*), four of them were released on bail and five remain in custody. Because many of the accused were arrested in Tarnac, a small village in the Corrèze region of central France, they have become know in the press as the “Tarnac 9".

They have been associated with certain political texts, including the journal Tiqqun and the bestselling book The Coming Insurrection, texts which the press has dubbed ”anarcho-autonomous” following the Ministry of "Justice" which has been conducting a crusade against this supposed movement for some time.

The Guardian (UK) published last Saturday (01.03)  a feature on the arrests of the Tarnac 9. It's sister paper The Observer followed this up with a pretty awful story titled 'France braced for 'rebirth of violent left'. Interesting in the story is the supposed thesis that the State reckons (or pretends to reckon) that a new wave of militant struggles is about to sweep Europe.

Well, here's the feature, published in last Saturday's Guardian:

Rural idyll or terrorist hub? The village that

police say is a threat to the state

High on a bleak mountain plateau in central France, the tiny village of Tarnac is fiercely proud of its grocer's shop. A smiling lady with a perm stands behind the old-fashioned till amid shelves stocked with everything from fly-swats and fairy lights to socks and soya milk. Elderly villagers boast that thanks to the shop, they don't have to leave their cottages to travel miles for bread in this vast, depopulated rural wilderness of central France known as "the desert". Posters advertise tea dances and cinema club screenings of Billy the Kid.

But the French government claims that Tarnac and its small shop are the headquarters of a dangerous cell of anarchist terrorists plotting to overthrow the state. Images of balaclava-clad police swooping to arrest suspects in Tarnac were compared by bewildered villagers to a strange, rural action movie. The government hinted that locals were too gormless to have noticed the terrorist activity in their midst. But after weeks of controversy, supporters are rising up to defend the young people of the village.

Known as the Tarnac Nine, four men and five women aged 22 to 34 are being investigated over far-left terrorism following dawn raids by police in November that targeted several addresses, including a farm with a few goats, chickens and vegetables. Those arrested include a Swiss sitcom actor, a distinguished clarinettist, a student nurse and Benjamin Rosoux, an Edinburgh University graduate who runs the grocer's shop and its adjoining bar-restaurant.

The alleged ringleader, Julien Coupat, 34, is still being held in prison despite a judge's ruling that he be released. A former business and sociology student from an affluent Parisian suburb, Coupat moved to Tarnac in search of a non-consumerist lifestyle, saying he wanted to live frugally. The poor village of 350 people is home to a growing number of young people who have escaped the city for a simple life and sense of community. Together, the newcomers ran the shop, a mobile delivery service, the restaurant, a cinema club and an informal library.

Police said Coupat and his archaeologist girlfriend had been under surveillance for months. The arrests followed six incidents of vandalism on France's high-speed railway lines, which caused delays for thousands of travellers but no casualties. Coupat and his girlfriend had allegedly been seen by police near a train line that was later vandalised.

The couple had come to the attention of the FBI months earlier when they took part in a protest outside an army recruitment centre in New York. They and acquaintances are said to have often travelled to protests and demonstrations such as a recent protest at a European summit on immigration at Vichy.

French police say Coupat was the author of an anonymous tract against capitalism and modern society, The Coming Insurrection. The Paris prosecutor said the group was intent on armed struggle and used the farm in Tarnac as a "meeting point and place of indoctrination" for "violent action". But France's Human Rights League, opposition politicians and intellectuals criticised the arrests as an attack on civil liberties and an abuse of France's draconian anti-terrorist laws. Defence lawyers say there is no evidence for terrorist charges.

Inspired by the indignant villagers of Tarnac, support committees for the Tarnac Nine have sprung up across France and in the US, Spain and Greece. In Moscow, supporters demonstrated outside the French embassy. A national protest is planned in Paris this month. The interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, has been challenged in parliament over the case but insists there are "concrete elements" to support terrorism charges.

In the bar adjoining Tarnac's grocery store, as farmers tucked into their lunch, Jérôme, 28, who moved from the city seeking an alternative lifestyle in Tarnac, said he knew those who had been arrested and had stayed at their farm. "The portrayal of this place has been absurd. The farm is a very collective place and the village has a convivial atmosphere, doors are always open. They say we lived a secretive existence hidden away in the woods. That's not true - the farm is beside the road. They talk of a 'group' when there is no group. They say there was a ringleader ... but there is no boss here, that's an absurdity. It's against our whole thinking."

He said the government was trying to create an idea of an "enemy within", branding all forms of leftwing demonstrations and activism as terrorism.

The government said those arrested did not have mobile phones in order to avoid being detected. Their supporters said there was poor network coverage in the area and they shunned mobile phones as consumerist.

Tarnac sits on the plateau of Millevaches in the northern corner of Corrèze, in rural Limousin, famous for its cattle, poverty and emigration. The surrounding countryside was used by the resistance during the second world war and the village, which for decades had a communist mayor, has long been leftwing.

Across the hill from the farm where Coupat was arrested, Thierry Letellier, the independent mayor of the neighbouring village, tended his sheep farm. He said: "They were my neighbours, helping me on the farm and selling my meat at the shop. They were kind, intelligent and spoke several languages. They were politicised, on the left and clearly anti-capitalist like lots of people here, but they were people active in community life who wanted to change society at a local level first. To say that they were the descendants of Baader-Meinhof or the Red Brigades with no proof, I'm completely against that."

He dismissed the interior minister's claims that it was easy for "terrorists" to move into a remote village where people were not very bright and wouldn't notice. "It's true that members of Eta [the Basque terrorist group] have been found in the area, but they were hidden, they had no support, no one knew them. These people were a key part of our community."

Coupat's well-connected doctor father said the government was using the case to "intimidate youth".

One man, drinking in Tarnac's bar, said: "Did they do something silly or not? It's on the news every night but we're no closer to the truth. I feel we're being manipulated."

Chopping wood outside his house, André Filippin, 65, said: "It's ridiculous. I see them at the shop every day of the year, I help them with their drains, they help me. They are people who came to Corrèze to change their lives, to help people. We don't view them as terrorists here."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/03/france-terrorism-tarnac-anarchists

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