Aid groups fear Gaza food situation after crossing closed

Israel’s official permanent closure of the Karni crossing on the Israel-Gaza border, announced March 2, will make the delivery of food aid to Gaza more difficult, according to U.N. agencies assisting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

More than half the population in the Gaza Strip is estimated to be “food insecure,” a term used by aid and development agencies to refer to households that often experience undernourishment and lack access to regular food supplies.

The closure of Karni will also add 20 percent to the cost of aid delivery, said Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, in Jerusalem. The UNRWA is currently facing a budget deficit of more than $50 million, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA’s, news service IRIN reported.

Some 750,000 Palestinians receive UNRWA food assistance in Gaza, out of about 1 million refugees living in the territory.

Karni, controlled by Israel, is the only commercial crossing with the facilities to allow large numbers of trucks to enter Gaza. Closed to truck traffic since June 2007, the conveyor belt had been operating to transfer grain until Israeli authorities announced its complete closure March 2.

Kerem Shalom, a smaller commercial crossing at the southernmost point on the Gaza-Israel border, lacks the facilities to allow large numbers of trucks to enter Gaza, according to OCHA. It is now the only point where humanitarian and commercial supplies can enter Gaza.

“Kerem Shalom crossing does not have the capacity to meet Gaza’s needs, and there must be more than one operational crossing to import humanitarian and commercial supplies for Gaza’s 1.5 million people,” UNRWA spokesman Gunness told IRIN. “Forcing humanitarian organizations through the bottleneck of Kerem Shalom will do little to relieve the humanitarian suffering of the people of Gaza.”

Source http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=aid-groups-fear-gaza-food-situation-after-crossing-closed-2011-03-09

'Massive protests loom in Saudi Arabia'

Massive anti-government protests are impending in Saudi Arabia following the arrest of a senior cleric who called for political reform in the country, an analyst says.

The recent "crackdown” in the city of Qatif on a protest for the release of political prisoners will have dire repercussions for the government in Saudi Arabia, political analyst Mohamed al-Massari told Press TV on Saturday.

“They made a stupid mistake by attacking women and so on because they think Shia women do not have ... the honor protection like the rest of the women in the country. But attacking women in Saudi Arabia, in an Islamic country is very severe, very negative and catastrophic ... and this will have dire repercussions,” al-Massari said.

On Thursday, hundreds of protesters in the cities of Qatif and Awamiyya took to the streets and called for the release of Shia prisoners, who they say are being held unjustly, some as long as 16 years.

"We want the prisoners free but we also have other demands. We want equality," a protester in Qatif said.

Saudi authorities arrested 22 people for taking part in the protest in Qatif.

After Friday prayers in Riyadh, protesters gathered in front of Al-Rajhi Mosque in the east of the capital and chanted anti-government and anti-corruption slogans.

Witnesses say Saudi security forces detained at least three people in Riyadh after repeating slogans against the Saudi monarchy.

On Friday, a peaceful protest rally was also held in al-Hufuf district in the Eastern Province after the Friday prayers to condemn the Saudi government's detention of Sheikh Tawfiq al-Amer who had called for a constitutional monarchy in the kingdom.

Al-Massari predicted that the government's latest clampdown would bring “thousands more” into the streets on “the eleventh of March” against the government move.

He further noted that the authorities will face a catch-22 in the situation should they resort to force.

“If they use force there will be counter-force,” said the political analyst, adding, “We still have people who are willing to defend their honor with arms.”

Saudi youths have named March 11 the Day of Rage on the social networking website, Facebook.

On February 23, Saudi King Abdullah suddenly promised a $36 billion-package of extra benefits for his people, upon his return from a long medical trip to the US.

Analysts believe the huge hike in benefits introduced by the Saudi king is actually intended to avert an uprising in the Arab country.

Protests and public displays of dissent are forbidden in Saudi Arabia. The government has become increasingly nervous about the protests that have taken the Arab world by storm, toppling the Egyptian and Tunisian presidents, and which recently reached Oman, Bahrain, Yeman and Libya.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/168262.html

4.5 Million Orphans in Iraq: Protests Over Food and Shelter

Orphans join Iraq protests over food, shelter. Orphans join protests in Iraq to call for a better standard of living. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

BAGHDAD — Fadel Mohammad Ra'ad, 10, is one of thousands of children who have lost their parents to the endless violence that has been gripping Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.

"My parents were killed in an explosion at the center of Baghdad last year, leaving me and my sister to no one," the child told IslamOnline.net in a Baghdad orphanage. "I have relatives but all of them have refused to take us in," he added choking at the memory. "We were forced to work to survive."

Children, like many other civilians, are the silent victims of violence in war-torn Iraq. "Violence in Iraq has vast characteristics. Sectarian violence, resistance against US troops, traditional behaviors and the fight against the hungry," explains Haydar Hassan Kareem, a sociologist.

Sources - http://brutalconvictions.blogspot.com/2011/03/45-million-orphans-in-iraq-protests.html

The Secular Systems of The Dajjal

This New series will attempt to uncover and explain the world of GOG AND MAGOG like no series has done before. It is a very well researched series, that will explain the Big Picture to the viewer, in order to reach a clearer understanding of the world we live in today.

Many have attempted to shed light on the subject of GOG AND MAGOG in the past, whether from the historical, the Christian, Jewish or Muslim perspective, but always failed to fill in the gaps. This series will do this subject justice once and for all.

Edited and Produced by Bushwack
Bushwack Productions presents Gog and Magog

Listening Post - The Tunisian effect

Coverage of the revolution in Tunisia was lapped up by Arab audiences and in Yemen, Algeria and Egypt demonstrators took to the streets. State-controlled media tried desperately to spin the coverage of the unrest, but no amount of spinning could hide the reality of the events in Egypt. On this episode of Listening Post, we look at how the events in Tunisia have had a knock-on effect that has rocked the Arab world.

Protesters flood Egypt streets

About 1,000,000 people have gathered for the planned “march of a million” in the Egyptian capital, calling for Hosni Mubarak, the embattled Egyptian president, to step down.

Meanwhile, one of Egypt’s oldest parties, Wafd, announced on Tuesday that a number of opposition groups have agreed to form “a national front” to deal with the volatile situation there. In a statement, Wafd said that president Mubarak “has lost legitimacy”.

Also on Tuesday, the Muslim Brotherhood, an officially banned but tolerated movement, said it will not negotiate with president Mubarak or his government.

Earlier, some opposition parties have called for Mubarak to delegate responsibilities to newly appointed vice-president Omar Suleiman, who they are prepared to negotiate with.

Throngs protest

Thousands of demonstrators began gathering from early on Tuesday morning in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, which has been the focal point of protests in the capital and served as the meeting area for the march to begin on the eighth day of an uprising that has so far claimed more than 125 lives.

Another protest in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria attracted tens of thousands of protesters, as national train services were cancelled in an apparent bid to stymie protests. Protests were also reported in the city of Suez.

Protest organisers have also called for an indefinite strike to be observed across the country.

Soldiers at Tahrir Square have formed a human chain around protesters, and are checking people as they enter for weapons. Tanks have been positioned near the square, and officers have been checking identity papers.

The army has also blocked all major roads in the city, and tens of thousands of protesters are being held at the Kasr al-Nile bridge. They were on their way to the main protest at Tahrir Square.

‘Gaining momentum’

Al Jazeera correspondents have described a “festival-like” and “communal” atmosphere at the protest, with protesters from all walks of life represented.

“It is peaceful, people power that has united here in the heart of Egypt’s historic square,” reported one correspondent.

An Al Jazeera correspondent in Cairo said that there were reports that “thugs in certain parts of the city have been trying to stop people from driving into Cairo”.

She said that “increasingly large pockets of pro-government protests” are also taking place at various locations in the city. There are fears that if the two sets of protesters meet, a violent clash could erupt.

Gigi Ibrahim, a political activist who planned to attend the rally, told Al Jazeera the protesters will not be satisfied until Mubarak steps down.

“I think today there will be great numbers on the street … every day there are more numbers on the street than the day before. I think the protests are gaining momentum. The people … will literally not leave until Mubarak steps down,” she said.

In an attempt to discourage people from the protests, Egyptian state television has asked people to stay at home, warning of possible violence.

An Al Jazeera online producer in Cairo said that if today’s protest does not go as planned, similar protests could be planned for Friday.

Protests are also taking place in the cities of Mansoura, Damnhour, Arish, Tanta and El-Mahalla El-Kubra.

The new protests come as the police have returned to the streets.

But while the police’s posture to be adopted in the face of the strike and marches remains unknown, the Egyptian army stated clearly on Monday that it would not stop protests

Faced with the prospect of massive numbers trying to converge on the capital, Egyptian authorities stopped all train traffic with immediate effect on Monday afternoon, and the state-owned national carrier EgyptAir said it was cancelling all international and domestic flights during curfew hours (3.00pm to 8.00am local time).

Army promise

In a statement on Monday, the army said “freedom of expression” was

guaranteed to all citizens using peaceful means.

“To the great people of Egypt, your armed forces, acknowledging the legitimate rights of the people,” stress that “they have not and will not use force against the Egyptian people,” said the statement.

It was the first such explicit confirmation by the army that it would not fire at demonstrators who have taken to the streets of Egypt and comes a day before Tuesday’s “march of millions”.

It urged people not to resort to acts of sabotage that violate security and destroy public and private property. It warned that it would not allow outlaws to loot, attack and “terrorise citizens”.

The call for the “million-man-march” from the so-called April 6 movement has come as Mubarak swore in a new cabinet on Monday, in an attempt to defuse ongoing demonstrations across the country.

Panic and chaos

On Tuesday, even as Egypt continued to face economic turmoil as a result of protests, the International Monetary Fund said it was ready to put in a place an economic rebuilding policy for the country.

“The IMF is ready to help in defining the kind of economic policy that could be put in place,” IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

Meanwhile, chaos has been reported at Cairo’s international airport, where thousands of foreigners are attempting to be evacuated by their home countries.

Our correspondent reported on Tuesday that about 1,000 US citizens have been evacuated to Cyprus or Turkey, from where they are expected to make their own way home.

She also said that China is sending two additional planes to evacuate its citizens.

Sources :http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/2011215827193882.html

http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2011/02/protesters-flood-egypt-streets/

Egypt severs internet connection amid growing unrest

Internet connections across Egypt have been cut, as authorities geared up for a day of mass protest.

Net analysis firms and web watchers have reported that the vast majority of the country's internet has become unreachable.

The unprecedented crack down has left millions of Egyptians without internet access.

There has been unprecedented protest in the country over the past few days - much of it co-ordinated via the web.

According to internet monitoring firm Renesys, shortly before 2300 GMT on 27 January virtually all routes to Egyptian networks were simultaneously withdrawn from the internet's global routing table.

That meant that virtually all of Egypt's internet addresses were unreachable.

Egyptian authorities seem to have managed this by shutting down official Domain Name Servers (DNS) in Egypt. These act as address books and are consulted by web browsing software to find out the location of a site a user wants to visit.

Messages circulating in Egypt pointed people towards unofficial DNS servers so they can get back online.

Mobile services are also affected.

A statement issued by Vodafone Egypt said it had been instructed to suspend services in some areas.

"Under Egyptian legislation the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it," it said.
Unprecedented action

That sudden drop off has been confirmed by other web traffic watchers, including Arbor Networks and BGP Mon.
Egyptian protesters clash with police Riot police have clashed with the anti-government protesters in Egypt

"The government seems to be taking a shotgun approach by ordering ISP's to stop routing all networks," said Andree Toonk, a researcher at BGP Mon.

People and businesses within the country that relied on the four main ISPs have been cut off, Renesys' chief technology officer, James Cowie wrote on the company's blog.

"Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt, Etisalat Misr, and all their customers and partners are, for the moment, off the air," he wrote.

Severing the majority of a country's internet connections represents "is unprecedented in internet history", said Rik Ferguson, a security researcher at Trend Micro.
Domino effect

Earlier this week, Egyptians had reported being unable to access social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. At the time the Egyptian government denied it was behind the block, saying it supported free speech.

Many of the protesters were able to get round those restrictions by using smartphone apps - which had not been blocked - to access those sites.

Others used proxy servers - which divert web traffic to its destination via sites that haven't been blocked.

Those initial restrictions now appear to have been a precursor to a much more stringent communication clamp down.

Elsewhere, unconfirmed reports suggest that mobile users have been blocked from receiving text messages.

But protesters continue to circumvent the net blockade. One Twitter user, @EgyptFreedomNow claimed it is still possible for Egyptians to access the internet using dial up connections.

Source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12306041

Australia fears Israeli military strike on Iran: cables

SYDNEY — Australian intelligence agencies fear Israel may launch a military strike on Iran to knock out its nuclear facilities, which they said could lead to nuclear war, leaked US diplomatic cables showed on Monday.

Secret cables from the US embassy in Canberra, provided exclusively to The Sydney Morning Herald by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, reveal that Australian officials raised the issue with their allies on several occasions.

“The AIC’s (Australian intelligence community’s) leading concerns with respect to Iran’s nuclear ambitions centre on understanding the timeframe of a possible weapons capability, and working with the United States to prevent Israel from independently launching uncoordinated military strikes against Iran,” an embassy official wrote to Washington in March 2009.

“They are immediately concerned that Iran’s pursuit of nuclear capabilities would lead to a conventional war — or even nuclear exchange — in the Middle East involving the United States that would draw Australia into a conflict.”

Another cable sent four months earlier reported on Australian concerns about a unilateral Israeli military strike against Iran and “the likelihood of an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities”.

The leaked letters also reveal that Australian intelligence agencies see Iran’s nuclear ambitions as a strategy to deter foreign attacks and argue it would be wrong to view Iran as a “rogue state”, the newspaper said.

The cables were prompted by a US initiative to solicit responses to Washington possibly engaging Tehran in a security dialogue, and concluded that Australia would likely not object to the United States if it chose to do so.

The correspondence shows that the Australian government, under both former prime minister Kevin Rudd and his successor Julia Gillard, is generally supportive of Israel.

Source : http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/December/international_December490.xml§ion=international&col=

In our modern societies, preemptive war acts cannot be accepted and any attacks done by Israel should be condemned by the world. Israel cannot bully it's neighbors over allegations and illegitimate factual evidence. It's clear Iran is following what they are asked in regards to the inspections, yet they still get accused of ill doing.

Israel must not take such a bold step, the world can change and peace can be achieved through other means then war.

War is never the answer unless in defense, defending against occupiers.

Defending Palestinian solidarity - Aljazeera News

The Electronic Intifada, the online publication about Palestine that I co-founded in 2001, finds itself at the centre of a storm as a pro-Israel group applies pressure to have a grant from a Dutch foundation withdrawn.

This assault on our freedom of conscience is about much more than our website. It is part of a well-coordinated, escalating Israeli government-endorsed effort to vilify individuals and cripple organisations that criticise Israel's human rights record and call for it to respect Palestinian rights and international law.

The latest salvo came in a scurrilous article in The Jerusalem Post based on allegations from a group called NGO Monitor, accusing The Electronic Intifada of "anti-Semitism" - without citing a single example from the almost 12,000 articles we have published. The Electronic Intifada has responded to NGO Monitor's accusations. Of course the charge of "anti-Semitism" has long been a weapon in the hands of Israel's apologists when they cannot find a factual basis to challenge the site's reporting and analysis.

NGO Monitor zeroed in on a grant The Electronic Intifada has received from the Dutch foundation ICCO, which is itself subsidised by the Dutch government. Since 2006, this grant has made up about a third of The Electronic Intifada's budget (our total expenses were around $180,000 in 2009 as our public filings show and the majority of our funding comes from donations by our readers).

In published comments, Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said he would investigate the matter personally. MP Geert Wilders, Europe's most prominent Islamophobic politician, who has said he is proud to be compared to Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, also took aim at The Electronic Intifada in an interview with Israel's Haaretz.

It is clear that by attempting to starve us - and other organisations of funds - NGO Monitor is trying to silence us. That The Electronic Intifada, a publication run by a handful of people, finds itself under sustained assault, only demonstrates the impact that independent online media have had by consistently reporting stories and providing analysis that mainstream media have sidelined.

While NGO Monitor poses as an independent watchdog, it is in fact an Israeli organisation with close ties to Israel's radical West Bank settler movement, the government and military, and is supported by notorious purveyors of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim propaganda in the United States such as Daniel Pipes and Rita Emerson (who along with her husband Steven Emerson has been at the forefront of Islamophobic campaigns).

Before attacking The Electronic Intifada, NGO Monitor made its name going after Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and distinguished Palestinian human rights organisations among dozens of others. Notably it has launched a McCarthyite war from within against Israeli human rights groups and foundations such as B'Tselem, HaMoked and the New Israel Fund. Indeed, by its own indiscriminate definition, NGO Monitor could well be considered "anti-Semitic" as it spends so much effort attacking Israelis and Jews around the world, especially Zionist ones, who argue that Israel would be more viable if it had a higher regard for human rights. NGO Monitor, while calling for transparency from others, remains opaque about its own funding sources.

While NGO Monitor has been in business for years, its latest tactics fit into the strategy outlined by the Reut Institute, an influential Israeli think-tank that earlier this year called for Israel and its advocates to wage war against so-called "delegitimizers." Reut defined virtually the entire global Palestine solidarity movement, especially the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions modelled on the South African anti-apartheid struggle, and those who call for a one-state solution, as an "existential threat" which has the potential to rob Israel of its remaining legitimacy and bring about its collapse.

On its website, the Reut Institute called for Israel's intelligence agencies to use possibly criminal "sabotage," and for pro-Israel groups to "attack" activists all over the world in "hubs" such as London, Madrid, Toronto and the San Francisco Bay Area. After The Electronic Intifada raised the alarm, the Reut Institute sanitised its website, although a copy of its original document remains on The Electronic Intifada, along with our report.

Reut's call to "delegitimize the delegitimizers" and "name and shame" human rights activists has now become Israeli government policy. As part of its failed efforts to bribe Israel into renewing a largely fictitious moratorium on West Bank settlement construction, the Obama administration even promised, as Haaretz reported, to lend Israel support in the battle against "delegitimization."

Focusing on "delegitimization" rather than trying to change Israel's atrocious behaviour, has also become the central strategy of Israel lobby groups in the United States. In October the Jewish Federations of North America - an umbrella for 157 major pro-Israel organisations - and the Jewish Council on Public Affairs launched a $6 million initiative called the "Israel Action Network" to fight "delegitimization," especially boycott, divestment and sanctions.

Source ALjazeera : http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2010/12/2010126104756228834.html

My thoughts.
The Palestinians as well thousands others along their side will always fight the oppressive Israeli state. It's not hard to see the complete stress facing Palestinians on daily lives and more people will continue to join the Palestinian solidarity. It does not matter what the NGO monitor does.

People who support Palestine are no different then the people who supported to end the Nazi aggression on the Jews, being a humanitarian will never change regardless of color or nationality.

We saw the world end the apartheid in south Africa and it will be broken in Zionist Israel.