Israel Unhappy as UK Correctly Fails to Oppose Resolution

The UN is on the point of getting tough on Israel over the Gaza offensive against Hamas earlier in the year, but Israel are threatening to pull out of the Middle East peace plan as a result.

The UN Human Rights Council are on the point of endorsing a report which condemns Israel of war crimes over its Palestinian neighbours in Gaza in January. The vote on the Goldstone Report is to take place in Geneva today, condemns both Hamas and Israel but the latter most for targeting civilians in the conflict in which 1000 Palestinians died compared to 13 Israelis. It calls for both sides to hold its own investigations within six months or face referral to the International Criminal Court.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, is not happy either with the UKs decision to abstain on the vote or with the possibility of their soldiers facing charges of war crimes. He has made it clear that in his opinion no Israeli soldier or official will be prosecuted for war crimes over the offensive Speaking the Knesset he said:

"Israel will not take risks for peace if it can't defend itself."

The wording of the resolution had still to be resolved last night but barring the inclusion of Israel's right to self defence the UK and other EU countries are poised to abstain.

Netanyahu has been on the phone to Gordon Brown urging his UK opposite number to oppose the motion. In the "robust exchange" Netanyahu pleaded for the UK to oppose the motion or else it would derail the peace process. But Brown has returned back that if the authorities in Israel carry out their own investigation as laid out they can avoid censure.

As I blogged at the time action needs to be taken in this situation, Robert Frost may well have written "good walls make good neighbours" the problem with the Israeli walls is that they are bad walls and encroaching into their neighbours territory stealthily trying to grab back what was once theirs. I'm glad that the UN appear to be finally ding something about it and are recognising that Israel aren't entirely blameless, while they do have a right to self-defence they should not be the aggressor, act over proportionately, target civilians and crush/choke the life out of their opponent beyond the point of submission. It really is time for Netanyahu to face up to the facts that in January his commanders overstepped the mark.

Yigal Palmor, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that adoption of the resolution would wreck the peace process: "It will make it impossible for us to take any risks for the sake of peace. What sort of peace process will there be?"

To be honest I think Israel really needs to reach forward a hand of friendship and settlement with its Arab neighbours to maintain a long term peace rather than reach for the sabre at every opportunity. The best first line of self-defence is not to have to in the first place. So to answer Mr Palmor I'd think there would be a far more constructive and sustainable peace.

Civil War in the BBC Newsroom

Subtly and very carefully bits of the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) Gaza Appeal have been slipping out from the BBC Newsroom even if the Director General Mark Thompson and the senior editors have taken the stance that is shouldn't.

The following clip from Tuesday Morning shows the newspapers add plus the phone and website address from the video itself over coverage of the story.



The fact that the newsroom are doing what they can to get the message out there is surely doing more to flaunt the impartiality of the BBC's reporting than if the appeal had been shown in the first place, separate and distinct from the news bulletin itself. It is making an absolute ridicule of the empty platitudes that the top levels of the BBC have churned out on air, in emails or interviews.

I applaud whichever members of the BBC family are doing what they can to get the humanitarian message across despite the shockingly biased and far from impartial decision taken by whatever level decided to ban the appeal.

BBC's Response Re: DEC Gaza Appeal

For the sake of balance after posting Sky's response here is the one I received from the BBC this morning at 5:36.

Thank you for your e-mail.

We note your disappointment at our decision
not to broadcast an appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee to raise funds
for Gaza.

We decided not to broadcast the DEC's public appeal because we
wished to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC's
impartiality in the context of covering a continuing news story where issues of
responsibility for civilian suffering and distress are intrinsic to the story
and remain highly contentious. We also could not be confident that the aid
resulting from audience donations could reach those it was intended for at a
time of a fragile ceasefire and sporadic border access. We will of course
continue to report the humanitarian story in Gaza.

The BBC's
director-general Mark Thompson has therefore explained the decision in more
detail in a number of television and radio broadcasts and online at our Editors'
blog. Please follow the link to read his explanation in full:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/01/bbc_and_the_gaza_appeal.html

Please be assured that we have registered your comments on our audience
log. This is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily for
all programme makers and commissioning executives within the BBC, and also their
senior management. It ensures that your points, and all other comments we
receive, are circulated and considered across the BBC.

Once again, thank
you for taking the time to contact us.

Regards

BBC Complaints

So nothing really new or exciting to add there then. They still are less confident than the DEC members that aid will get where it is intended and the continuing mask of responsibility.

One thing that does stand out was the line "We will of course continue to report the humanitarian story in Gaza" so that while the BBC admits there is a humanitarian story in Gaza it isn't prepared to give its viewers a chance to act on that in the most convenient way.

Also saying that "issues of responsibility for civilian suffering and distress" which remain highly contentious. I'm sure we can all see that 1,300 deaths many civilian against 13 death all military would be a hight contentious issue, only if you were wanted to be impartial about it in favour of the side with the least casualties.

Sky's Standard Response

I have heard back from Sky regarding my complaint about their stance on the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Gaza Appeal. Working as I do in the customer services industry I can spot that this is a standard response. However, it is more than the BBC have managed so far.

Dear Stephen

Thank you for your message. John Ryley, Head of Sky News made the
following statement explaining our position on Monday 26 January 2009.

"The conflict in Gaza forms part of one of the most challenging and
contentious stories for any news organisation to cover.

"Our commitment as journalists is to cover all sides of that story with
uncompromising objectivity. We have provided, and we will continue to provide,
extensive coverage from Gaza and from the wider region on the conflict and its
human consequences for people on both sides. Our team is on the ground in the
region and will continue to cover the story in the coming days and weeks.

"The absolute impartiality of our output is fundamental to Sky News and
its journalism. That is why, after very careful consideration, we have concluded
that broadcasting an appeal for Gaza at this time is incompatible with our role
in providing balanced and objective reporting of this continuing situation to
our audiences in the UK and around the world.

"It is important to state that this decision is not a judgement on the
good intentions of the appeal. No one could fail to be touched by the human
suffering on both sides of the conflict, which has been the focus of much of our
own reporting in the region.

"However, the nature of an appeal is that it sets out to provoke a
specific response from the viewer. We don’t believe that broadcasting such an
appeal on Sky News can be combined with the balance and context that impartial
journalism aims to bring to the highly charged and continuing conflict in
Gaza.

"Unlike some other UK broadcasters, Sky News is widely viewed across
the Middle East. In order to continue to serve all our audiences, we must ensure
that our journalists can continue to operate effectively in difficult
conditions. This must remain the first priority for any news
organisation."

I appreciate that this is not the conclusion you would have liked us to
come to, but nevertheless I hope you will understand why we came to this
decision.

Kind regards

Viewer Relations

Three points I have to raise.

Sky say they are against showing the "appeal at this time" but the whole point of the DEC is to respond in prompt time to real emergencies as they occur. There is not later time that the DEC would be acting together to raise money for funds at this time.

Second as with the BBC they hide behind "incompatible with our role in providing balanced and objective reporting of this continuing situation". The situation with Israel and Palestine has been ongoing for years, centuries, even millennia if we want to be accurate about it. The fact that they deem the situation to be continuing also means that things could very easily still get worse for those who are suffering.

Finally "the nature of an appeal is that it sets out to provoke a specific response from the viewer" yeah it is there to play at people heartstrings to dig into their pockets and donate to alleviate suffering. If we pussy foot around people who cause that suffering because they may be offended to see just what collateral damage they have caused how is that helping anyone.

So at least Sky have responded even if with indefensible platitudes. But nothing yet from "MY" (as they like to remind me) BBC.

The DEC Appeal : The Video

This is the call for help that the BBC and Sky decided it was in "their" best intersts not to show.

For the best interests of those in Gaza may I encourage you to watch and consider what action you could take. Thank you.

Sky Falls in Over Gaza

Sky have joined the BBC is refusing to show the DEC Appeal for Gaza.

Adrian Wells, Sky's director of foreign news, said the station understood the good intentions of the charities seeking to publicize the situation in Gaza. He said:

"Let me say to those people who might be angry, people who might be passionate
about this, there is no question about Sky's commitment to reporting the region.
We've had our reporters there since the gates of Gaza opened. There is
absolutely no question of Sky viewers not being aware of the humanitarian
crisis."

That may be the case but unless you provide an alternative way for people to hear about how to donate to the appeal Britain's largest satellite TV provider has fallen in line with the one UK citizens all pay their licence fee for in stated that impartiality will be compromised.

As I stated earlier on today the DEC were going to distribute Aid impartially however the greater share would obvious got to the greater affected region, which in this case is Gaza.

What Partiality are the BBC Really Showing?

Just what are the BBC doing with regard to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Appeal?

Well reports in the Times say that the DEC had told the BBC that aid from the appeal was to be made available to Israeli victims of Hamas rocket attacks. So the claims of impartiality have no grounds for the BBC to uphold its decision to not show the appeal. Of course as agreed by the DEC two weeks ago little of the aid raised in this instance would go to Israel not from any sense of partisanship but based on the actual need and the proportional spilt between the two affected nations in this case.

So that only leaves the other excuse that the BBC have cobbled together in their brief statements of why they refuse to show this. That other point was that aid would not reach the intended victims. From utterances you hear from the BBC anchor to Tony Benn yesterday you can hear a line of questioning blaming this on Hamas.

On the other half of the two page spread in the Times and something I cannot at present find in the online section, is a report about just why aid and relief workers are not getting through. It is not Hamas that is the problem but the Israeli control on the border crossings that are still delaying essential supplies and workers from getting into areas where there are civilian suffering. By branding vast swathes of Gaza to be Hamas strongholds, which seeing as they won the last elections may well account for the whole of Gaza, they are stopping aid getting to the innocent. Before the conflict at least 500 Aid trucks were allowed into Gaza daily now it is 100.

Well the BBC if so much on its high horse it can shows some impartiality. What is must do is report the reason aid is not getting to those in need. It has nothing to do with Hamas and those that rule Palestine but has a lot to do with the continued control and restrictions placed on them by the siege now being carried out after the illegal occupation by Israel.

Tony Benn on the BBC

I know I am currently not linking to BBC related stuff, but for this I make an exception.



Hat tip to Caron

Dear Auntie...Yours Disgusted of Bathgate

I've just sent this off the following to the BBC complaints department.

I am disgusted to learn that the BBC has chosen not to show the DEC appeal.

If such charities as British Red Cross, Christian Aid, Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Oxfam, and Save the Children cannot be trusted to make an impartial appeal I doubt that the BBC is truly as impartial as it wishes to appear.

I use the BBC sources as one of the top party political bloggers and often link through to news on you site. I will be refusing to do RSS feeds and various Twitter updates. I shall be obtaining my news for use on my blog from other sources until the DEC appeal is shown on the channel my taxes help fund.

I urge you do a number of things.

Write and complain to the BBC, this can be done via their website.

Sign the online petition.

I encourage you to join the Facebook Group The BBC has refused to run the Gaza appeal on TV - help change its mind

If you are a fellow blogger, don't use BBC sources in you blogging until this is overturned. Advise the BBC of this in you complaint.

If you use Twitter and Follow any of the BBC News Tweeters unfollow from them. At the time of my unfollowing there were 10,022 followers of @bbcbreaking. This is a visable number to us and the BBC of just how widespread the feelings against this decision.

Last week the web lobby managed to apply pressure on Gordon Brown over MPs expenses. This week we appear to be asking the BBC to be humane.

Impartiality or BBC Ineptitude

Well it will be Sky News, ITV or Channel 4 for me from now on as well as watching snippets of Al Jazeera on You Tube because the BBC is refusing to show a TV appeal for the victims of the war in Gaza. I will also stop using BBC links from this blog after this post which will make things little harder but a price I'm willing to pay.

I've also stopped following @bbcbreaking and @bbcscotland on Twitter. If Twitter can spread the word on #MPexpences let's see if we can send the BBC a direct message by unfollowing them en masse.

In the BBC story of why they have refused Michael Johnson says it it so that they do not want to appear to be partial in their coverage of the conflict. For starters the conflict is currently in ceasefire and the majority of the victims, and all of the civilian victims in the war are from the Palestinian side by a ratio of 100:1. When you add on the buildings, health and education facilities that have been affected it greater heightens the case for a human response to help.

Mr Johnson's statement says:

"Inevitably an appeal would use pictures which are the same or similar to those we would be using in our news programmes but would do so with the objective of encouraging public donations.

"The danger for the BBC is that this could be interpreted as taking a political stance on an ongoing story."

So the BBC is telling orphaned and injured children, bereaved parents, doctors and nurses fighting to help the injured in damaged facilities that appearing to be impartial is more important than there lives. That because they covered the war impartially and showed the major extent of bombardments in Gaza and minimal impact in Israel, that impartiality and heavy weighting of coverage to Palestine is no longer impartial.

The BBC do not seem to be playing from a level playing field as they have shown appeals for war victims in the past. The fact that there is, or has been a sizable Jewish presence in running of the BBC does throw the current decision, which is contrary to the approach of ITV, Channel 4 and Five, into some sort of favouritism towards Israel (or possibly indirectly to the USA).

In my personal opinion the BBC should get off this particular high horse and join the human race for a change.

For the record various Blue Peter appeals on the BBC have been for victims of wars that are part of ongoing stories, others have been to war torn or embattled areas. The distribution of the things bought with these appeals must have been very carefully balanced to avoid favouritism. However, if the children's programming department can be trusted to remain impartial, you expect whoever would have t liaise with the appeal makers can be also.

• 1976 Lifeline Lebanon Appeal for victims of the civil war.
• 1979 Bring and Buy Sale for Cambodia which was still a contested country at the time.
• 2004 The Welcome Home Appeal to reunite families ripped apart by the Angolan civil war

Devastation of Gaza Unveiled

With the ceasefire in place the full extent of the 3 week bombardment on Gaza has now emerged.

• Half a millon people have been without water for 3 weeks.
• Huge numbers also without power
• 4,000 homes in ruins.
• Tens of thousands homeless.
• 16 health facilities and 16 ambulances damaged.
• 60 Schools damaged (including 4 used by the UN as shelters for the homeless)
• More than 1,300 Palestinains dead (that's a 100:1 ratio with the Israelis)
• Over 20,000 injured

The Palestinians are now pulling dead from the rubble of buildings. Something they couldn't start to do under the constant bombardment. But something that even after the ceasefire was subject to Israel army movements. The Israels who took hows to enter are taking days to withdraw but promise to be be done by 19:00 local time (17:00 GMT) tomororrow when Barack Obama is to be inaugurated.

There have been 20 rockets fired from Palestine into Israel since the announcement of the unilateral Israeli ceasefire. However, it is not clear by the wording from Israeli authorities whether these were before or after the actually start of the ceasefire which was some hours after the announcement. Israel responded with an air strike.

Sad Palestinian Loss Heard Live on Israeli TV

Sometimes it is the small incidents in the midst of mass destruction that really get to people. It may be worse if someone who you were hearing and seeing throughout that conflcit becomes the sad victim at the end, even the very last day before that conflict ends.

Such as case is Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Ashi. His is Palestinian but he works in an Israeli hospital and over the course of the last three weeks he has been reporting to Israel's channel 10 about what is going on in Gaza. Yesterday Israel was present as this Doctor lost three of his four daughters live on air.

"No one can get to us," he screamed in Arabic on a live phone call with a
channel 10 anchor. "My God ... My God ..."

Dr. Ashi told the anchor his family had just been killed, and that he was
"overwhelmed."

"My God ... My girls ..." he cried. "Shiomi ... Can't anybody help us
please?"

The news anchor asked Dr. Ashi where his house is, and cameras followed as
the journalist frantically tried to employ his network of contacts to send help
to the doctor. Shortly thereafter, the Israeli Army allowed a Palestinian
ambulance to speed to his location. Only one of al-Ashi's daughters survived.

"Everybody in Israel knows that I was talking on television and on the
radio," said Dr. Ashi. "That we are home, that we are innocent people.

"Suddenly, today, when there was hope for ceasefire, on the last day I was
talking to my children ... Suddenly, they bombed us; a doctor who takes care of
Israeli patients. Is that what's done? Is that peace?"

It is out of the little things that connect to people. Individuals far more than the masses have that impact. I hope that this sad loss will burn into the hearts of those who saw it. And make some inroads to make people wake up to make this ceasefire a permanent peace.



Hat tip to Paul Walter

Half an Hour Til Peace?

In less than half a hour there will be a ceasefire over Gaza; we hope.

However, with Israel saying that any rocket fired after the 02:00 Local Time 24:00 GMT deadline will be met with a surgical strike (we've seen how inaccurate some of these have been over the last 3 weeks) and Hamas saying it will not accept one Israeli soldier still being present in Gaza. It looks like a very uneasy peace and we will only be able to tell just what happens after it takes effect.

Israel to Vote on Gaza Ceasefire

The UN failed to force them to do it, but after over a further week of death and destruction the Israelis are prepared after talks with Egypt to vote on whether to declare a unilateral ceasefire on Gaza later today.

It is all very much like the talks in Northern Ireland as while both parties are in Cairo they appear not to have been in talks with each other but with Egypt acting as a intermediary. These were the talks that America wanted to see how they progressed when they abstained on the UN security councils resolution. As with Northern Ireland there are conditions from both sides. Hamas obviously want the Israelis to stop their occupation of Gaza and the end of the blockade. Israel insist that any further rockets being fired will bring an immediate end to their agreement of a ceasefire. Of course it doesn't say what Palestine should be expected to do should the Israelis launch an attack themselves without any rockets being fired.

There is talk from Hamas that they will not currently accept the Israeli conditions due to the maintained suppression through control of their boundaries. Even with all the destruction of their homes the Palestinians do not want to give up and hand over too much to Israel who have been extremely heavy handed and aggressive in their treatment of this situation over the weeks.

So far 1,155 Palestinians have been killed and 5,015 injured against 13 Israelis dead, and 223 wounded in the three weeks of this latest conflict.

Facebook Join Censorship Over Gaza

Overnight I recieved the following message on Facebook from Abbas Goya creator of the Group A note from Jerusalem -- We need to STOP Israeli assualt NOW!! It looks as if along with the MSM Facebook is trying to hide the world from the facts of what is going on in Gaza at the behest of Israel.

Warning if you follow on the link below you may find it disturbing. However I make no apology for that, this is the reality of what is going on. This is why the assault on Gaza must stop now and not be allowed to escalate further.

"Facebook has issued a warning to me relevant to our cause. You might be
interested to know.

"I uploaded and posted a news video clip on my wall, a clip produced by
Reuters - found @ http://www.rowzane.com/0000_2008/e_m12/gaza-1.wmv - displaying the hospital crew taking care of injured children in Gaza. The length of
video was 45 seconds and I appropriately called it "Gaza in 45 seconds".
Facebook considers it a " hateful, threatening, graphic, or that attack an
individual or group", has sent me the following warning asking me to approve
the warning. I request to either provide specific proof as to Facebook
accusing warning OR remove the warning and reinstate the video clip.

"If you too agree that the warning is unjust object it by
sending an email to "Facebook" warning+yf64oz=c@facebookmail.com

"Facebook warning:

"You uploaded a video that was reported for violating Facebook's Terms of
Use. After reviewing the video, we have decided to remove it. Facebook removes
reported videos that are hateful, threatening, graphic, or that attack an
individual or group. We also remove videos that are not of a personal nature,
meaning they were not created by and do not feature either you or your friends.
Continued misuse of Facebook's features could result in your account being
disabled.

"If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page at http://www.facebook.com/help.php?topic=wvideoI acknowledge I
have read this information."

In Pictures Gaza Demonstration, Edinburgh: 10 January 2009

People arrived from all over Scotland on Saturday to take part in a demonstration to the US Consulate on Royal Crescent before returning down Princes Street for a rally at the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens. My good friend and fellow Lib Dem blogger Caron has written up a very good account of the events so I will be merely adding the pictures.









The Assembly point of East Market Street is just behind Waverley Station, but the number of attendees was so great that the street wall filled before the off.

Sadly as part of our ever increasing surveillance society the crowd was being watched, photographed and videoed at ever point by the police force. At every junction and many points along the way you knew that you'd been snapped again even though the march in Edinburgh did pass off peacefully.

As the march moved off it stretched from Waterloo Place the whole way back to the end of Waverley Bridge. The police estimate was of 5,000 protesters. The organisers said 10,000. Judging on my experience of football crowds and Caron's husband's experience of these things we'd say 7-8k is definitely about right.




Outside the US consulate the March ground to an almost absolute standstill as many people took their opportunity to throw shoes at images of George W. Bush. By the time those of us in the middle of the column of marchers arrived at the Consulate we were being persuaded to just carry on walking back towards the City Centre or else we may well still all have been there waiting to throw a shoe. Some of the kids came up with their own chant:

George Bush who are you?
I want to throw my shoe at you.

Caron had a meeting in Clifton Terrace yesterday but as soon as that was over she contacted us as we were up at the Consulate. When she finally got into the the Princes Street I missed her call but called her back only about 5 metres away from her almost at the top of Waverley Steps. So she joined the rest of us as we headed along Princes Street.







Malc last night asked me what was the point of us marching in Edinburgh. Well the number of different reports from around the world including Israel. Where a 'commendable' crowd were juxtaposed with thrown shoes outside a Georgian Mansion which house the American consulate shows just why this march was important. It also shows why the exemplary behaviour of the crowd in the cold wind and later the rain as well made this protest in Edinburgh's capital worthwhile.

The crowd of different races, ages, political allegiances, social background, Muslims, Jews, Christians, those of other faiths and none all marched on to the Ross Bandstand. To hear speeches from trade unionists, Muslim leaders, MSPs, John Barrett MP as well as two phone calls direct from Gaza itself one from a doctor who dealt with the injured and dead, a third of the dead being children. The other Gaza call was from a community leader who said that three schools had been bombed in Gaza.

Gaza Demo: A Multi-Media Presentation

I'm still on the train but am asking you to come back here later. I'm be Tweeting, Tweetpicing and taking a few vids of proceedings at the Scotland Gaza Demo starting at 12:30 from East Market Street Edinburgh.



No doubt I'll be spending all afternoon up to my neck with technologies with YouTube, Flikr and whatnot getting you everything. In the meantime follow the tweets.



Ciao for now.

Update: I've reveiwing all the media I have taken through the day and really want to do it justice. However, I have plans for this evening In the meantime Caron has posted a very thorough story of the afternoon's events here. Some of my pictures are available though the Twitter updates on the right. More plus some video will be with you in the morning.

Off Demonstrating Today - Come Along or Follow

I'm off into Edinburgh later this morning to join the Scotland Wide Demonstration against the atrocities in Gaza.

If you are able to get along assemble in East Market Street, that is the one behind Waverley, towards the old town, at 12:30 and join the march through the city centre to the US Consulate.

I'll will be tweeting and twitpicing the event on Twitter. Click on the link to follow me.

A Lib Dem Looking at the Israeli Point of View

I notice that Iain Dale Tory vers 1.0 is whizzing around the Lib Dem Blogosphere saying to any of us with an opinion on the subject of Gaza/Israel that we're not seeing it from a Israeli perspective. Well being up for that sort of challenge here goes.

The Israeli state since its inception has bee back against the wall, or should that be the Mediterranean, with Lebanon to the North, Syria to the North East and Egypt to the South West, plus the threats of Iraq and Iran as well they are on a constant state of military readiness. To use playground parlance (which I will carry on in) they are the odd kid out, who has joined midway through the year, and indeed as many of Israeli's citizens have returned the the land of Abraham from exile, they are the outsider tyring to fit in.

So in a sense they have been bullied for year. Whether it be Syria raking through their stash of conkers in the Golan Heights or the constant bickering with Egypt over just how many Top Trump cards need to be placed and on which bits of the Sinai Peninsula.

But when the new kid came along he was automatically teacher's pet. Teacher in infant school was English and saw the youngster mature and gain its own independence. Then it moved on to the big school where the American headmaster realised that the bullying hadn't ceased and did all it could to help Israel fend off the bullies, and even engaged both sides in discussions in his office or while on camping trips.

However, behind all this support for the bullied one kid in the class did get somewhat overlooked. He used to sit in the seat that Israel was put in on his first day in class. And no matter how much he tried to get the teachers attention he was told to accept his new place and shut up. There where the times that that other kid was put out of the room, and left on the naughty step, teacher despaired of ever trying to get the two kids to get along.

However, as they matured they did attempt to get together to sort things out. The head was greatly relieved and did all he could to help both parties. Of course many of Israel's cousins lived near the head so he may have shown a little partiality that way. An agreement was made where Israel and Palestine would share the same desk peacefully. Palestine was given one corner and a chunk in the middle. But the bulk of the desk was given to Israel. Things started out fine under the new arrangement. But Israel started to but up his pencil case, books and other items to mark just where Palestine part of the desk should be. For some projects Israel needed Palestine to help out on his part of the desk, but Israel controlled when and where these trips took place.

Palestine wasn't too happy. But knew that Israel had many thing he could hurt Palestine with ruler, compass point catapults, paper darts, but Israel didn't want Israel to have any of these. Palestine snuck some of these things of the desk of Egypt who sat next door. But Israel didn't like this and took action. Israel started to inflict a lot of pain on Palestine for a couple of weeks and only suffered a few scratched himself in the process. Finally teacher saw what was going on and called all the other staff together. They agreed to ask Israel to stop it, so they could sit down and talk about it. They knew that Palestine wasn't entirely blameless and that would be something they would talk about but Israel really was going too far. Taken parts of Palestine's space, destroying bits of his work and not letting he do anything in peace.

It was like the kid who once was getting bullied had found a tinier kid in the playground to pick upon. They both wanted to sit at the same desk and they were going to have to sort out how to do that peacefully. It would require give and take on both sides. But Israel should really go the the teachers first and not always take things into its own hands.

Gaza: UN Calls Halt While America Procrastinates

The UN Security Council has passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

The resolution is also looking for unimpeded humanitarian access and intense diplomatic efforts for peace. The UN Aid agency Unwra has already had to withdraw its aid to the Palestinians during the 13 day conflict because although the Israeli army know of the locations of their operations and co-ordinates with their movements Unwra installations have been hit. One of their workers was killed yesterday and two injured yesterday when their fork lift truck was fired on by an Israeli tank at the Erez border crossing in the north of the Gaza strip. The International Red Cross is also accusing Israel of not assisting wounded civilians affected by their attacks and incursions.

With 770 Palestinians dead (independent observers saying upwards of 300 being women and children) to 14 Israelis the UN has recognised Israel as the aggressor in breaking the 3rd ceasefire since the turn of the millennium Egypt is trying to broker a long term and permanent ceasefire.

America were the lone abstention on the vote in the Security Council with Condoleezza Rice saying they wanted to see the outcome of those Egyptian efforts. So why the reluctance to call for a ceasefire, withdrawal and sitting on the fence? It isn't so much a positive abstention as a continuation of America's cowardly hand in this situation. America want to be the world's peacemakers, peacekeepers, but when it is one of their allies that breaks the peace they do not want to appear to be coming down too hard. The Bush Administration history in the region is liable to end with this chapter, this abstention. With the humanitarian crisis plain to all to see it was cowardly of the US not to back this end to hostilities.

Why is it important to wait and see the outcome of mediation efforts in the words of Rice when innocent civilians and even aid workers are suffering. The diplomatic terms she used to explain her do not hide the fact that the US were prepared to do nothing, just yet. Didn't feel an urgency to call a halt.

The resolution does say there is a need to look at the smuggling of weapons into Palestine, the border crossings controls of Israel into Gaza and humanitarian aid. There was acknowledgement that both sides need to make efforts. It wasn't a one sided totally anti-Israel as some have said but realised the immediate goal and necessity whilst setting out the longer term goals.