Opinion: Terrorism vs. Heroism
By Mohammad Azeemullah
11/01/2009
Howsoever the Jewish State patronized by the United States of America, tries to paint the tormented and terrorized face of helpless Palestinians with the black tinge of terrorism, howsoever it continues to degrade and humiliate the believers with its unprecedented and unmatched technological prowess and howsoever it remains indulged in unethical and unscrupulous propaganda of killing the innocent in the name of national security of which victims are mostly women and children, the Palestinian movements for freedom continue to dominate the psyche of the modern world with its formidable message against barbarism, butchery and savagery.
The tussle between the west headed by USA with Israel as their illegitimate child and various resisting organizations in Palestine is not between the two opposite poles of power but between the oppressed against the oppressor and the deprived against the privileged.
The rest of the world has resigned to the colossal strength of the USA and its allies and is a helpless spectator against the brute and brutality inflicted upon the starving and homeless Palestinians except some daring freedom fighters who, despite lacking modern artillery, stand against the tormenter.
The hollowness and superficiality of harmony among fellow Arab countries to project a united front to deal with the crisis and to pronounce even a single statement against the gruesome drama of carnage, which is still in progress, articulate the uppermost degree of abnormality Arab world possesses in its moral health of political order and system.
Their mere watchfulness to the on-going massacre is a witness to their party in the crime against humanity.
The Al Jazeera television channel which boasts of its neutral reporting and perhaps the only voice of the Arab world to the public at large even fails to live up to the expectation as it constantly carries the news caption WAR ON GAZA instead of MASSACRE IN GAZA.
War is waged between the two equal and opposite forces and not between a powerful, beleaguered state as Israel and the hapless refugees in bondage who rely for water to drink upon others.
Humanity at large must cry and shed tears how the reckless murder in broad day light is carried out with clusters of bombs over schools, hospitals and residential areas with only one goal to achieve i.e. frustrating the moral of any resistance group towards freedom.
The United States of America which leads the world with fake mask of symbolic civilization seeks its sadistic pleasure into the bloodshed of innocent Muslims and sponsors its allies to strangulate the very voice of freedom for which it has stood firmly so far. What hypocrisy!
One must acknowledge that Islam does not promote inequality and is absolutely against barbarity, brutality and injustice of any kind. The Holy Quran speaks: "...and fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and justice and faith in Allah prevail. But if they cease, let there be no hostility except to those who practice oppression"(2:193).
The USA and its allies must understand the undercurrents in order to avoid a long-drawn-never-ending battle between the two antithetical camps.
It is also time to look broader beyond a certain line and redefine the word 'terrorism' as those resisting the Israeli aggression and putting a brave front to the genocide is not terrorism, it is heroism.
(The tripoli Post)
Senin, 26 Januari 2009
OPINI: THE TRIPOLI POST TENTANG SIKAP MESIR ATAS SERANGAN ISRAEL KE JALUR GAZA
Opinion: Egypt Too Powerless and Corrupt to Act
By Robert Fisk
11/01/2009
There was a day when we worried about the "Arab masses" - the millions of "ordinary" Arabs on the streets of Cairo, Kuwait, Amman, Beirut - and their reaction to the constant bloodbaths in the Middle East. Could Anwar Sadat restrain the anger of his people?
And now - after three decades of Hosni Mubarak - can Mubarak (or "La Vache Qui Rit", as he is still called in Cairo) restrain the anger of his people? The answer, of course, is that Egyptians and Kuwaitis and Jordanians will be allowed to shout in the streets of their capitals - but then they will be shut down, with the help of the tens of thousands of secret policemen and government militiamen who serve the princes and kings and elderly rulers of the Arab world.
Egyptians demand that Mubarak open the Rafah crossing-point into Gaza, break off diplomatic relations with Israel, even send weapons to Hamas. And there is a kind of perverse beauty in listening to the response of the Egyptian government: why not complain about the three gates which the Israelis refuse to open? And anyway, the Rafah crossing-point is politically controlled by the four powers that produced the "road map" for peace, including Britain and the US.
Why blame Mubarak? To admit that Egypt can't even open its sovereign border without permission from Washington tells you all you need to know about the powerlessness of the satraps that run the Middle East for us.
Open the Rafah gate - or break off relations with Israel - and Egypt's economic foundations crumble.
Any Arab leader who took that kind of step will find that the West's economic and military support is withdrawn.
Without subventions, Egypt is bankrupt. Of course, it works both ways. Individual Arab leaders are no longer going to make emotional gestures for anyone. When Sadat flew to Jerusalem - "I am tired of the dwarves," he said of his fellow Arab leaders - he paid the price with his own blood at the Cairo reviewing-stand where one of his own soldiers called him a "Pharaoh" before shooting him dead.
The true disgrace of Egypt, however, is not in its response to the slaughter in Gaza. It is the corruption that has become embedded in an Egyptian society where the idea of service - health, education, genuine security for ordinary people - has simply ceased to exist.
It's a land where the first duty of the police is to protect the regime, where protesters are beaten up by the security police, where young women objecting to Mubarak's endless regime - likely to be passed on caliph-like to his son Gamal, whatever we may be told - are molested by agents.
There has developed in Egypt a kind of religious facade in which the meaning of Islam has become effaced by its physical representation.
Egyptian civil "servants" and government officials are often scrupulous in their religious observances - yet they tolerate and connive in rigged elections, violations of the law and prison torture.
A young American doctor described to me recently how in a Cairo hospital busy doctors merely blocked doors with plastic chairs to prevent access to patients. In November, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm reported how doctors abandoned their patients to attend prayers during Ramadan.
And amid all this, Egyptians have to live amid daily slaughter by their own shabby infrastructure.
Alaa al-Aswani wrote eloquently in the Cairo paper Al-Dastour that the regime's "martyrs" outnumber all the dead of Egypt's wars against Israel - victims of railway accidents, ferry sinkings, the collapse of city buildings, sickness, cancers and pesticide poisonings - all victims, as Aswani says, "of the corruption and abuse of power".
Opening the Rafah border-crossing for wounded Palestinians - the Palestinian medical staff being pushed back into their Gaza prison once the bloodied survivors of air raids have been dumped on Egyptian territory - is not going to change the midden in which Egyptians themselves live. Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbollah secretary general in Lebanon, felt able to call on Egyptians to "rise in their millions" to open the border with Gaza, but they will not do so.
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the feeble Egyptian Foreign Minister, could only taunt the Hizbollah leaders by accusing them of trying to provoke "an anarchy similar to the one they created in their own country."
But he is well-protected. So is President Mubarak.
Egypt's malaise is in many ways as dark as that of the Palestinians. Its impotence in the face of Gaza's suffering is a symbol of its own political sickness.
(The tripoli Post)
By Robert Fisk
11/01/2009
There was a day when we worried about the "Arab masses" - the millions of "ordinary" Arabs on the streets of Cairo, Kuwait, Amman, Beirut - and their reaction to the constant bloodbaths in the Middle East. Could Anwar Sadat restrain the anger of his people?
And now - after three decades of Hosni Mubarak - can Mubarak (or "La Vache Qui Rit", as he is still called in Cairo) restrain the anger of his people? The answer, of course, is that Egyptians and Kuwaitis and Jordanians will be allowed to shout in the streets of their capitals - but then they will be shut down, with the help of the tens of thousands of secret policemen and government militiamen who serve the princes and kings and elderly rulers of the Arab world.
Egyptians demand that Mubarak open the Rafah crossing-point into Gaza, break off diplomatic relations with Israel, even send weapons to Hamas. And there is a kind of perverse beauty in listening to the response of the Egyptian government: why not complain about the three gates which the Israelis refuse to open? And anyway, the Rafah crossing-point is politically controlled by the four powers that produced the "road map" for peace, including Britain and the US.
Why blame Mubarak? To admit that Egypt can't even open its sovereign border without permission from Washington tells you all you need to know about the powerlessness of the satraps that run the Middle East for us.
Open the Rafah gate - or break off relations with Israel - and Egypt's economic foundations crumble.
Any Arab leader who took that kind of step will find that the West's economic and military support is withdrawn.
Without subventions, Egypt is bankrupt. Of course, it works both ways. Individual Arab leaders are no longer going to make emotional gestures for anyone. When Sadat flew to Jerusalem - "I am tired of the dwarves," he said of his fellow Arab leaders - he paid the price with his own blood at the Cairo reviewing-stand where one of his own soldiers called him a "Pharaoh" before shooting him dead.
The true disgrace of Egypt, however, is not in its response to the slaughter in Gaza. It is the corruption that has become embedded in an Egyptian society where the idea of service - health, education, genuine security for ordinary people - has simply ceased to exist.
It's a land where the first duty of the police is to protect the regime, where protesters are beaten up by the security police, where young women objecting to Mubarak's endless regime - likely to be passed on caliph-like to his son Gamal, whatever we may be told - are molested by agents.
There has developed in Egypt a kind of religious facade in which the meaning of Islam has become effaced by its physical representation.
Egyptian civil "servants" and government officials are often scrupulous in their religious observances - yet they tolerate and connive in rigged elections, violations of the law and prison torture.
A young American doctor described to me recently how in a Cairo hospital busy doctors merely blocked doors with plastic chairs to prevent access to patients. In November, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm reported how doctors abandoned their patients to attend prayers during Ramadan.
And amid all this, Egyptians have to live amid daily slaughter by their own shabby infrastructure.
Alaa al-Aswani wrote eloquently in the Cairo paper Al-Dastour that the regime's "martyrs" outnumber all the dead of Egypt's wars against Israel - victims of railway accidents, ferry sinkings, the collapse of city buildings, sickness, cancers and pesticide poisonings - all victims, as Aswani says, "of the corruption and abuse of power".
Opening the Rafah border-crossing for wounded Palestinians - the Palestinian medical staff being pushed back into their Gaza prison once the bloodied survivors of air raids have been dumped on Egyptian territory - is not going to change the midden in which Egyptians themselves live. Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbollah secretary general in Lebanon, felt able to call on Egyptians to "rise in their millions" to open the border with Gaza, but they will not do so.
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the feeble Egyptian Foreign Minister, could only taunt the Hizbollah leaders by accusing them of trying to provoke "an anarchy similar to the one they created in their own country."
But he is well-protected. So is President Mubarak.
Egypt's malaise is in many ways as dark as that of the Palestinians. Its impotence in the face of Gaza's suffering is a symbol of its own political sickness.
(The tripoli Post)
OPINI: THE TRIPOLI POST
Opinion:Israel is No Friend of Obama
By Akbar Muhammad
08/01/2009
Why should the Israelis expect any sane and rational human being to believe that their barbaric attack on Gaza and the indiscriminate slaughter of defenseless and helpless civilians including men, women, the elderly, and children can be justified? Why have not the Israelis wait until a new president is about to take office on a platform of change? It has been reported over and over again that Israelis have planned this attack for over one year. Did they plan it in order to make sure that the number one issue that Barack had to deal with is the problem of Israel and the Palestinians? Again, why did they plan the attack in the middle of the western world's celebration of their Christmas and New Year holidays?
It is obvious to all who are looking that the Zionist entity wants to be center stage regardless of circumstances. Israel wants to see if they can play the new president like they played Bush for the last eight years.
In President Bush's radio show on Saturday January 3, he tried to justify, in words, Israel's attack on the Palestinians in Gaza. Gaza is an area of 150 square miles and home to a population of 1.5 million. It is the most densely populated area in the world as the Palestinian people were forced into this small area in 1948 when Israel usurped their land.
President-elect Barack Obama has been quiet on this issue because he knows that this is the most highly explosive challenge that he will face as soon as he steps foot in the White House. The question is; why didn't the Israelis give Barack Obama the chance to implement a new policy that may bring about a lasting peace.
Barack Obama is very knowledgeable and has fresh ideas of how to move the peace process and has behind him the history of the mistakes of the presidents who came before him. Israel, not knowing what direction he may be headed, has already put him in an awkward position before he walks into the White House.
President Bush has shown complete weakness in the face of the Israelis savage slaughter of the Palestinian people. Pat Buchanan asked the right question in one of his articles: should the Israelis have this much control over American foreign policy toward the Middle East?
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said when she emerged from the White House to speak to the press, "we would like to see a cease-fire, but a cease-fire that is durable and sustainable." Is she saying that the Israelis should keep killing until we have a durable and sustainable cease-fire? The Israelis can look at this as a green light to continue their slaughter.
How can Barack Obama not hear the world that has said loud and clear that the savage and barbaric attack against the people of Gaza is immoral and not keeping with civilized behavior even in warfare. What justifies the massacre of an entire family, including nine children, just to kill one man?
Barack has to ask, are these Israelis who commit these crimes his friends, as they claim? During the presidential campaign, President-elect Barack Obama said that he would convene a conference of Muslim leaders from around the world within his first year in office and it was later reported that he would make a speech from a Muslim capital within the first 100 days. Is this attack on Gaza a plot by the Israelis to thaw these plans? It would be almost impossible now, with the current atmosphere, to carry this out because the world is not only upset with the Israelis but they are upset with the United States government that supplies them with money and weapons to carry out their carnage against the Palestinian people. Now that the Israelis are for the last eight days have started a ground offensive, where will this slaughter go?
President-elect Barack Obama is now put in a position to see if he can make changes we believe in. One change must be the foreign policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians and the Israelis. He must have the strength and courage to make a mid-course correction that will stop the Israelis from having an inordinate amount of influence and control when it comes to American foreign policy toward the Middle East. They are testing whether Barack Obama has the strength to stand up and refuse to say "we back Israel right or wrong."
A 'friend' would never do that to his benefactor. Israel is no friend to Barack Obama. No friend to the American people! Some political analysts believe that Israeli arrogance and disrespect to human life show without any doubt that Israel is an enemy of Israel.
About The Author
To make comments or contact Akbar Muhammad you may email him at Africandtheworld@msn.com
(The Tripoli Post)
By Akbar Muhammad
08/01/2009
Why should the Israelis expect any sane and rational human being to believe that their barbaric attack on Gaza and the indiscriminate slaughter of defenseless and helpless civilians including men, women, the elderly, and children can be justified? Why have not the Israelis wait until a new president is about to take office on a platform of change? It has been reported over and over again that Israelis have planned this attack for over one year. Did they plan it in order to make sure that the number one issue that Barack had to deal with is the problem of Israel and the Palestinians? Again, why did they plan the attack in the middle of the western world's celebration of their Christmas and New Year holidays?
It is obvious to all who are looking that the Zionist entity wants to be center stage regardless of circumstances. Israel wants to see if they can play the new president like they played Bush for the last eight years.
In President Bush's radio show on Saturday January 3, he tried to justify, in words, Israel's attack on the Palestinians in Gaza. Gaza is an area of 150 square miles and home to a population of 1.5 million. It is the most densely populated area in the world as the Palestinian people were forced into this small area in 1948 when Israel usurped their land.
President-elect Barack Obama has been quiet on this issue because he knows that this is the most highly explosive challenge that he will face as soon as he steps foot in the White House. The question is; why didn't the Israelis give Barack Obama the chance to implement a new policy that may bring about a lasting peace.
Barack Obama is very knowledgeable and has fresh ideas of how to move the peace process and has behind him the history of the mistakes of the presidents who came before him. Israel, not knowing what direction he may be headed, has already put him in an awkward position before he walks into the White House.
President Bush has shown complete weakness in the face of the Israelis savage slaughter of the Palestinian people. Pat Buchanan asked the right question in one of his articles: should the Israelis have this much control over American foreign policy toward the Middle East?
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said when she emerged from the White House to speak to the press, "we would like to see a cease-fire, but a cease-fire that is durable and sustainable." Is she saying that the Israelis should keep killing until we have a durable and sustainable cease-fire? The Israelis can look at this as a green light to continue their slaughter.
How can Barack Obama not hear the world that has said loud and clear that the savage and barbaric attack against the people of Gaza is immoral and not keeping with civilized behavior even in warfare. What justifies the massacre of an entire family, including nine children, just to kill one man?
Barack has to ask, are these Israelis who commit these crimes his friends, as they claim? During the presidential campaign, President-elect Barack Obama said that he would convene a conference of Muslim leaders from around the world within his first year in office and it was later reported that he would make a speech from a Muslim capital within the first 100 days. Is this attack on Gaza a plot by the Israelis to thaw these plans? It would be almost impossible now, with the current atmosphere, to carry this out because the world is not only upset with the Israelis but they are upset with the United States government that supplies them with money and weapons to carry out their carnage against the Palestinian people. Now that the Israelis are for the last eight days have started a ground offensive, where will this slaughter go?
President-elect Barack Obama is now put in a position to see if he can make changes we believe in. One change must be the foreign policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians and the Israelis. He must have the strength and courage to make a mid-course correction that will stop the Israelis from having an inordinate amount of influence and control when it comes to American foreign policy toward the Middle East. They are testing whether Barack Obama has the strength to stand up and refuse to say "we back Israel right or wrong."
A 'friend' would never do that to his benefactor. Israel is no friend to Barack Obama. No friend to the American people! Some political analysts believe that Israeli arrogance and disrespect to human life show without any doubt that Israel is an enemy of Israel.
About The Author
To make comments or contact Akbar Muhammad you may email him at Africandtheworld@msn.com
(The Tripoli Post)
PERNYATAAN PM TURKI ATAS SERANGAN ISRAEL KE JALUR GAZA
Turkey PM Defends His Condemnation of Israel, Says His Words Not Tougher than Phosphorus Bombs Used by Israel Against Children
16/01/2009
The Prime Minister of Turkey Tayyip Erdogan defended his outspoken criticism of Israel's Gaza offensive and said it did not mean he was anti-Semitic.
Erdogan has described Israel's military offensive against Gaza as "a crime against humanity" and defended those remarks on Tuesday in a speech to his ruling AK Party in parliament, broadcast live on television in Turkey.
"There are people who are disturbed by me speaking of my discomfort over the killing of civilians, (including) children. . . If we do not state what is just and lawful, then we will lose our self-respect," he said.
"I am (also) a leader who has said that anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity," he said.
Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using white-phosphorus munitions during its offensive. The Israeli army has said it will not give details of its munitions.
"There are people who say that the prime minister's statements are too tough (on Israel), but my words are not tougher than phosphorus bombs," Erdogan said.
Erdogan said Israeli media were spreading false information about the Gaza offensive.
"Excuses are found for mass killings of children at schools, hospitals and mosques, especially by Jewish-backed media," he said. "News stories saying that terrorists hide among children or (describing bombings) as technical errors or accidents are aimed at making fun of the world (public opinion)."
Erdogan on Tuesday visited 10 Palestinians evacuated to Turkey after being injured in the Israeli offensive on Gaza.
Speaking outside a private hospital in Ankara afterwards, Erdogan said Turkey was ready to treat more Palestinians if needed.
The ten Palestinians and accompanying relatives arrived earlier on Tuesday at Ankara's Esenboga airport by an ambulance plane which took off from Egypt, the Anadolu news agency reported.
They were treated on board by Turkish doctors and were transferred to a private hospital on arrival.
More than 1100 Palestinians have been killed including 400 children and over 5200 others wounded since the launch of the Israeli raid on Gaza on December 27, 2008.
(The Tripoli Post)
16/01/2009
The Prime Minister of Turkey Tayyip Erdogan defended his outspoken criticism of Israel's Gaza offensive and said it did not mean he was anti-Semitic.
Erdogan has described Israel's military offensive against Gaza as "a crime against humanity" and defended those remarks on Tuesday in a speech to his ruling AK Party in parliament, broadcast live on television in Turkey.
"There are people who are disturbed by me speaking of my discomfort over the killing of civilians, (including) children. . . If we do not state what is just and lawful, then we will lose our self-respect," he said.
"I am (also) a leader who has said that anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity," he said.
Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using white-phosphorus munitions during its offensive. The Israeli army has said it will not give details of its munitions.
"There are people who say that the prime minister's statements are too tough (on Israel), but my words are not tougher than phosphorus bombs," Erdogan said.
Erdogan said Israeli media were spreading false information about the Gaza offensive.
"Excuses are found for mass killings of children at schools, hospitals and mosques, especially by Jewish-backed media," he said. "News stories saying that terrorists hide among children or (describing bombings) as technical errors or accidents are aimed at making fun of the world (public opinion)."
Erdogan on Tuesday visited 10 Palestinians evacuated to Turkey after being injured in the Israeli offensive on Gaza.
Speaking outside a private hospital in Ankara afterwards, Erdogan said Turkey was ready to treat more Palestinians if needed.
The ten Palestinians and accompanying relatives arrived earlier on Tuesday at Ankara's Esenboga airport by an ambulance plane which took off from Egypt, the Anadolu news agency reported.
They were treated on board by Turkish doctors and were transferred to a private hospital on arrival.
More than 1100 Palestinians have been killed including 400 children and over 5200 others wounded since the launch of the Israeli raid on Gaza on December 27, 2008.
(The Tripoli Post)
PEMBANTAIAN ISRAEL TERHADAP WARGA SIPIL PALESTINA DI JALUR GAZA
Coward Israeli Army Keeps on Massacring Gaza Children, Killing 1085 Wounding Over 5000
16/01/2009 (hari ke-21)
Hamas Remains Defiant, Promising Victory over Zionist Terrorists
The coward Israeli military has continued to massacre Palestinian civilians in Gaza Strip for 22 days now killing hundreds of children, women and the elderly.
During the three-week aggression on Gaza, the Israeli military has failed to win against the Palestinian resistance which, despite its lack of weapons, lack of air defenses against US-made F-16s was able to stop the Israelis from reaching their declared goals.
The Israeli terrorist army has killed so far more than 1100 people including 370 children, 100 women and 120 elders. This is in addition to over 5000 people wounded including 450 seriously which indicates that the death toll will be rising.
Israeli jets targeted the northern town of Jebaliya early Thursday, dropping white phosphorous bombs on the residents, a Press TV corresponded reported.
White phosphorus, classified as a 'chemical weapon' by the US intelligence, is an incendiary material that causes horrific burns, severe injuries or death when it comes in contact with skin.
Israeli strikes set UN and media buildings and a hospital ablaze Thursday as tanks rolled deep into Gaza City.
Hundreds of terrified civilians, many gripping wailing children, fled the advancing Israeli troops inside Gaza's main city as warplanes pounded the impoverished Hamas-ruled enclave in a bid to stem Palestinian rocket fire.
Despite the fierce offensive, Hamas remained in control of the cities and succeeded to stop all incursions for that matter. Hamas also continued to launch projectiles Thursday, sending 30 more missiles including two long-range Grad missiles crashing into the southern Israeli city of Beersheva and wounding five people.
Shortly after United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon arrived in Israel, a shell hit the main UN compound in Gaza, wounding three employees, setting fire to a warehouse filled with tonnes of aid and leading the UNRWA agency to partly suspend operations.
An UNRWA spokesman said tens of millions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid had been destroyed in the blaze and the attack was condemned by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and a European Union commissioner.
Ban said he had conveyed his "strong protest and outrage" and demanded an explanation in talks with Israeli officials as part of a regional truce tour.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israeli troops had shelled the compound in Gaza in response to fire coming from the building.
UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness denied the claim."There were no militants or militant activity in our compound," he said.
In southwestern Gaza, an Israeli strike hit the Al-Quds Hospital in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, where dozens of Israeli tanks rumbled into the streets after dawn, sparking fierce clashes with Palestinian gunmen.
A French doctor said staff and patients at the hospital were trapped by Israeli fire in the neighbourhood and part of the building was destroyed.
"The Israelis are bombing and attacking all around the hospital. We can't get out. There's fire, and we're trapped inside. The water has been cut off," Regis Garrigue told AFP by telephone from the building.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said about 100 patients and medical staff were put at risk when the hospital suffered a "direct hit."
An Israeli raid also hit a building housing several media outlets in central Gaza City, wounding two cameramen.
In all, at least over fifty people were killed in Gaza on Thursday, medics said, but the exact number of casualties was likely to be much higher as the ongoing clashes blocked ambulances from reaching the wounded.
Israel launched its aggression on 27 December with aim purpose to stop these missiles fired by Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza.
(The tripoli Post)
16/01/2009 (hari ke-21)
Hamas Remains Defiant, Promising Victory over Zionist Terrorists
The coward Israeli military has continued to massacre Palestinian civilians in Gaza Strip for 22 days now killing hundreds of children, women and the elderly.
During the three-week aggression on Gaza, the Israeli military has failed to win against the Palestinian resistance which, despite its lack of weapons, lack of air defenses against US-made F-16s was able to stop the Israelis from reaching their declared goals.
The Israeli terrorist army has killed so far more than 1100 people including 370 children, 100 women and 120 elders. This is in addition to over 5000 people wounded including 450 seriously which indicates that the death toll will be rising.
Israeli jets targeted the northern town of Jebaliya early Thursday, dropping white phosphorous bombs on the residents, a Press TV corresponded reported.
White phosphorus, classified as a 'chemical weapon' by the US intelligence, is an incendiary material that causes horrific burns, severe injuries or death when it comes in contact with skin.
Israeli strikes set UN and media buildings and a hospital ablaze Thursday as tanks rolled deep into Gaza City.
Hundreds of terrified civilians, many gripping wailing children, fled the advancing Israeli troops inside Gaza's main city as warplanes pounded the impoverished Hamas-ruled enclave in a bid to stem Palestinian rocket fire.
Despite the fierce offensive, Hamas remained in control of the cities and succeeded to stop all incursions for that matter. Hamas also continued to launch projectiles Thursday, sending 30 more missiles including two long-range Grad missiles crashing into the southern Israeli city of Beersheva and wounding five people.
Shortly after United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon arrived in Israel, a shell hit the main UN compound in Gaza, wounding three employees, setting fire to a warehouse filled with tonnes of aid and leading the UNRWA agency to partly suspend operations.
An UNRWA spokesman said tens of millions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid had been destroyed in the blaze and the attack was condemned by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and a European Union commissioner.
Ban said he had conveyed his "strong protest and outrage" and demanded an explanation in talks with Israeli officials as part of a regional truce tour.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israeli troops had shelled the compound in Gaza in response to fire coming from the building.
UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness denied the claim."There were no militants or militant activity in our compound," he said.
In southwestern Gaza, an Israeli strike hit the Al-Quds Hospital in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, where dozens of Israeli tanks rumbled into the streets after dawn, sparking fierce clashes with Palestinian gunmen.
A French doctor said staff and patients at the hospital were trapped by Israeli fire in the neighbourhood and part of the building was destroyed.
"The Israelis are bombing and attacking all around the hospital. We can't get out. There's fire, and we're trapped inside. The water has been cut off," Regis Garrigue told AFP by telephone from the building.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said about 100 patients and medical staff were put at risk when the hospital suffered a "direct hit."
An Israeli raid also hit a building housing several media outlets in central Gaza City, wounding two cameramen.
In all, at least over fifty people were killed in Gaza on Thursday, medics said, but the exact number of casualties was likely to be much higher as the ongoing clashes blocked ambulances from reaching the wounded.
Israel launched its aggression on 27 December with aim purpose to stop these missiles fired by Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza.
(The tripoli Post)
PERALATAN KUNA ARAB LIBYA
Disappearing Tools, Vanishing Vocabulary: The Kitchen
09/08/2008
From early hearths to today’s appliance-equipped wonderlands, kitchens have always been at the heart of any home. However, before blenders and supermarkets, and before kitchens were equipped with microwaves and refrigerators, food preparation was a time-consuming process, requiring tools that today are unlikely to be seen outside of a museum.
The rha or mill, for example, is something not often seen these days, although one feature of the rha has lingered on tenaciously in some places in the form of songs and chants originally sung by women while working the mill.
One intriguing aspect of these songs is the relationship between the rhythm of the song, the mood of the singer, and what she wants to produce. Fast energetic songs are generally happy, and are sung while making crushed wheat for example, while slower, sad songs were sung while grinding rice-flour which would be used to make mahalabia (a milk pudding) and baby food, among other things.
While spices would be ground in a much smaller mill, the rha could be so big that it would take two women to work it, each swinging the wooden handle a half-circle, before handing it over to the other.
Another one-time essential part of any Libyan household was the shakwa, which is typically made out of a whole lambskin, which is cleaned, cured and then rubbed and disinfected once a month with salt and juniper.
The shakwa is used to churn milk to butter by shaking it from side to side with the help of a rope. Part of the butter produced in this way would then set aside for use, while the rest of it was stored in the soufa, where it is left to clarify and turn into samn or ghee.
The soufa, like the shakwa, is also made out of whole lambskin, however with the soufa the lamb’s wool is left intact. This explains the soufa’s name, which comes from the word souf or wool.
The soufa and shakwa can still be found and are still used in some parts of Libya today, however they are nowhere near as common as the ubiquitous gufa, a large basket that has long been used for a vast variety of purposes, and is still widely used throughout the country.
On the other hand, while tanur bread is still made, these days it is more likely to be baked inside an ordinary oven than in the traditional way, using the clay oven or the tanur.
The tanur is made up of clay hoops which are fixed on top of each other to form a cylinder about 1 meter in diameter, and the dough is then placed against the inside of the tanur, which is heated to a degree that bakes the bread.
These types of ovens have been made out of metal and other materials that have the advantage of being much easier to move than the very heavy clay ovens.
However, it is said the bread baked in the metal tanur does not have distinctive taste of original tanur bread, and so as with so many other things that have made food preparation easier, more practical, and less time-consuming its advantages are not without drawbacks.
SONDOS ELGATIT
(The tripoli Post)
09/08/2008
From early hearths to today’s appliance-equipped wonderlands, kitchens have always been at the heart of any home. However, before blenders and supermarkets, and before kitchens were equipped with microwaves and refrigerators, food preparation was a time-consuming process, requiring tools that today are unlikely to be seen outside of a museum.
The rha or mill, for example, is something not often seen these days, although one feature of the rha has lingered on tenaciously in some places in the form of songs and chants originally sung by women while working the mill.
One intriguing aspect of these songs is the relationship between the rhythm of the song, the mood of the singer, and what she wants to produce. Fast energetic songs are generally happy, and are sung while making crushed wheat for example, while slower, sad songs were sung while grinding rice-flour which would be used to make mahalabia (a milk pudding) and baby food, among other things.
While spices would be ground in a much smaller mill, the rha could be so big that it would take two women to work it, each swinging the wooden handle a half-circle, before handing it over to the other.
Another one-time essential part of any Libyan household was the shakwa, which is typically made out of a whole lambskin, which is cleaned, cured and then rubbed and disinfected once a month with salt and juniper.
The shakwa is used to churn milk to butter by shaking it from side to side with the help of a rope. Part of the butter produced in this way would then set aside for use, while the rest of it was stored in the soufa, where it is left to clarify and turn into samn or ghee.
The soufa, like the shakwa, is also made out of whole lambskin, however with the soufa the lamb’s wool is left intact. This explains the soufa’s name, which comes from the word souf or wool.
The soufa and shakwa can still be found and are still used in some parts of Libya today, however they are nowhere near as common as the ubiquitous gufa, a large basket that has long been used for a vast variety of purposes, and is still widely used throughout the country.
On the other hand, while tanur bread is still made, these days it is more likely to be baked inside an ordinary oven than in the traditional way, using the clay oven or the tanur.
The tanur is made up of clay hoops which are fixed on top of each other to form a cylinder about 1 meter in diameter, and the dough is then placed against the inside of the tanur, which is heated to a degree that bakes the bread.
These types of ovens have been made out of metal and other materials that have the advantage of being much easier to move than the very heavy clay ovens.
However, it is said the bread baked in the metal tanur does not have distinctive taste of original tanur bread, and so as with so many other things that have made food preparation easier, more practical, and less time-consuming its advantages are not without drawbacks.
SONDOS ELGATIT
(The tripoli Post)
PEMELIHARAAN SITUS ARKEOLOGIS LIBYA
Archaeologist: Libyans Should Make More Effort to Preserve Their Archaeological Wealth
04/05/2008 01:19:00
There is an urgent need to protect Libya's world-class heritage assets by supporting the rapid expansion of the Department of Antiquities, with new resources and manpower to become a more effective custodian and curator of Libyan heritage, the chairman of the Society for Libyan Studies of London and Director of Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Dr. Paul Bennet told a large audience who listened attentively to his lecture on Thursday 24 April which took place at the Academy of Graduate Studies.
"Libya's archaeological heritage is a long term asset and it has the potential to create long term revenue and above all provide meaningful employment to the Libya's burgeoning youth," he added.
"I am here to support the antiquity department at its very difficult time, at a time when it is growing from a point of standstill. Libya has got a fantastic archaeological heritage and therefore it is certainly worth preserving." explained Dr. Bennets to his attentive audience.
Dr. Bennet also made a special appeal to members of the society to be made custodians of their own resources so that they can help in the preservation of the Libya's rich archaeology which is currently under threat from the ongoing economic development that is taking place in the country.
"Much as Libya is experiencing growth in terms of its infrastructure, but we have to adjust to the way we develop and make sure that our development doesn't have a major impact to this wonderful archaeological resource," appealed Dr. Bennet.
Dr. Bennet is a professional archaeologist and a part-time lecturer at the University of Kent who has been working in Libya on a voluntary basis since 1972. For the last nine years he has, with Professor Andrew Wilson of Oxford University and Ahmed Buzaian of the University of Garyounis, Benghazi, been working on the site of Euesperides, the first Benghazi, founded in c.600 BC.
The heritage sites of Libya are precious assets for the nation that have huge potential to provide foreign revenue and long-term, fulfilling jobs for Libya's young graduates and workers. Libya's archaeological heritage is therefore worth preserving.
The presentation was made in support of Libya's archaeological heritage on behalf of Dr. Bennet's friends and colleagues in the Department of Antiquities of Libya.
The lecture was organized in partnership between the British Council and Shell.
It was attended by various invited guests, including diplomats, oil company workers, academicians, environmentalists, students and journalists.
(The Tripoli Post)
04/05/2008 01:19:00
There is an urgent need to protect Libya's world-class heritage assets by supporting the rapid expansion of the Department of Antiquities, with new resources and manpower to become a more effective custodian and curator of Libyan heritage, the chairman of the Society for Libyan Studies of London and Director of Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Dr. Paul Bennet told a large audience who listened attentively to his lecture on Thursday 24 April which took place at the Academy of Graduate Studies.
"Libya's archaeological heritage is a long term asset and it has the potential to create long term revenue and above all provide meaningful employment to the Libya's burgeoning youth," he added.
"I am here to support the antiquity department at its very difficult time, at a time when it is growing from a point of standstill. Libya has got a fantastic archaeological heritage and therefore it is certainly worth preserving." explained Dr. Bennets to his attentive audience.
Dr. Bennet also made a special appeal to members of the society to be made custodians of their own resources so that they can help in the preservation of the Libya's rich archaeology which is currently under threat from the ongoing economic development that is taking place in the country.
"Much as Libya is experiencing growth in terms of its infrastructure, but we have to adjust to the way we develop and make sure that our development doesn't have a major impact to this wonderful archaeological resource," appealed Dr. Bennet.
Dr. Bennet is a professional archaeologist and a part-time lecturer at the University of Kent who has been working in Libya on a voluntary basis since 1972. For the last nine years he has, with Professor Andrew Wilson of Oxford University and Ahmed Buzaian of the University of Garyounis, Benghazi, been working on the site of Euesperides, the first Benghazi, founded in c.600 BC.
The heritage sites of Libya are precious assets for the nation that have huge potential to provide foreign revenue and long-term, fulfilling jobs for Libya's young graduates and workers. Libya's archaeological heritage is therefore worth preserving.
The presentation was made in support of Libya's archaeological heritage on behalf of Dr. Bennet's friends and colleagues in the Department of Antiquities of Libya.
The lecture was organized in partnership between the British Council and Shell.
It was attended by various invited guests, including diplomats, oil company workers, academicians, environmentalists, students and journalists.
(The Tripoli Post)
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