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Venezuela's Chávez: the New Hero in the Arab World
Tweet Share on Facebook January 16, 2009 Comment (10)The new hero of the Arab street is American archenemy Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan president who recently expelled Israel's ambassador. Reports Al Arabiya:
Since Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip began, Venezuela's president has openly and strongly criticized Israel and the United States for what he labeled the "holocaust" of the Palestinian people; his outspoken rhetoric has turned him into a hero for the Arabs resisting occupation. Venezuelan flags and portraits of Hugo Chávez have been flying high during protests across the Middle East, with people in Lebanon, Jordan and across the Palestinian territories showing their support for the left-wing South American leader.
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Bin Laden Allegedly Calls for Jihad Over Gaza
Tweet Share on Facebook January 15, 2009 Comment (22)By Larry Derfner, Mideast Watch
A speech attributed to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and titled, "A Call for Jihad to Stop the Aggression Against Gaza," was distributed on the Internet Wednesday, Al Jazeera reports. The speech castigates Arab leaders for failing to defend the Palestinians.
"Our brothers in Palestine, you have suffered a lot . . . the Muslims sympathize with you in what they see and hear. We, the mujahideen, sympathize with you also," the voice in the recording said.
He called on Muslims to rise in support of Gazans and not to rely on Arab leaders, "the great majority of whom are allied with the Crusader-Zionist coalition".
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Israel Sends Reserves Into Gaza Amid Escalation Fears
Tweet Share on Facebook January 13, 2009 Comment (11)By Larry Derfner, Mideast Watch
The war in Gaza has cost some 900 Palestinian and 13 Israeli lives so far. A U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire (passed 14 to 0, with the United States abstaining) was rejected by both Hamas and Israel. Israel's leadership "troika"—Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni—is divided on what to do next.
Olmert, backed by military leaders, favors a ground invasion of Gaza's urban centers and refugee camps to further cripple Hamas's fighting ability. Barak opposes such an invasion, preferring a cease-fire, while Livni favors an immediate, unilateral withdrawal that would leave Israel free to punish Hamas in the future. The mobilization of Israeli reserve soldiers in Gaza, along with the views of Army leaders and Olmert, seems to point to an invasion of Gaza City and the refugee camps. Al Jazeera reports on the reservists' entry into the fighting:
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Hamas Rejects Cease-Fire With Israel in Gaza
Tweet Share on Facebook January 12, 2009 Comment (12)By Larry Derfner, Mideast Watch
The Palestinian militant group Hamas today turned down a new proposal for a truce with Israel. It came in Cairo from Egyptian leaders who are the chief mediators in the Israeli-Gaza war that began December 27. Quoting the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat, Ha'aretz reports:
The newspaper quoted a senior Hamas source as saying: "There are still many details that need to be discussed before we can say that we have reached an agreement of principles.
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Bush, Obama, U.S. Media Assailed Over Reaction to Gaza War
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2009 Comment (19)By Larry Derfner, Mideast Watch
Aside from Israel and moderate Arab leaders, the other target of popular Muslim resentment over the war in Gaza is the United States. The Jordan Times depicts the war as the Bush administration's last hurrah:
The slow reaction of the international community should not come as a surprise, but is nevertheless appalling.
These, one would hope, are the violent death throes of the neocons, under whose iron-fist ideology the world, in particular this part of the world, has suffered dramatically for the past eight years. That the neocons in Washington should choose to lash out through their proxy in Israel is sad and cowardly, but entirely par for the course.
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Lebanese Officials Deny Responsibility for Rockets Hitting Israel
Tweet Share on Facebook January 8, 2009 Comment (4)By Larry Derfner, Mideast Watch
Amid fears of a second front opening in the Israeli-Gazan war, Lebanese officials pleaded ignorance about this morning's rocket barrage from Lebanon over the border into Israel, which caused a few minor injuries and drew a burst of return mortar fire from Israel, as reported in Lebanon's The Daily Star, Qatar's Aal Jazeera, and Dubai's Aal Arabiya.
Raafat Morra, a Hamas official in Lebanon, said Hamas's "principle is not to use any other Arab soil to respond to the occupation," while blaming Israel for provoking the rockets with its actions in Gaza. Lebanese Information Minister Tarek Mitri said Hezbollah, which fought a ferocious war with Israel in the summer of 2006, was not responsible for the morning salvo, adding that he didn't know who was.
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Jordan Threatens to Reconsider Ties With Israel
Tweet Share on Facebook January 6, 2009 CommentWith large, angry anti-Israeli demonstrations putting pressure on moderate Arab states, Jordan, one of two Arab countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel (Egypt being the other), now says it is "reconsidering" those ties. Al Jazeera reports:
Jordan's prime minister has said his country may review its diplomatic ties with Israel in the wake of the offensive in Gaza.
"Jordan will look into all options, including reconsidering relations with Israel," Nader Dahabi told legislators on Sunday.
"There is no way we would remain silent when this threat affects the security of the entire region."
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As Israel Presses Forward in Gaza, Some Israelis Support a Cease-Fire
Tweet Share on Facebook January 5, 2009 Comment (11)With French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Israel today to press for a cease-fire in the war with Gaza, some influential Israeli voices are calling for the government to heed the call. The country's most influential commentator, Yediot Aharonot's Nahum Barnea, wrote that while the air operation had been necessary to weaken Hamas, the ground war should halt before Israeli soldiers enter the refugee camps and cities, where Hamas guerrillas are waiting for them. "In the coming days, the government ought to heed its early misgivings about the operation and not its recent euphoria," Barnea wrote. The liberal newspaper Ha'aretz added its voice:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to Jerusalem today provides Israel with an exit ramp from the fighting against Hamas in Gaza. Sarkozy proposes declaring a lull in combat, which would test whether Hamas would agree to halt firing rockets. Israel would do well to respond affirmatively to the proposal, which protects its right to respond with force in the event the Palestinians continue firing from the Gaza Strip. The lull would also be a good opportunity to halt the ground operation and pull back the Israel Defense Forces to Israel proper. In its decision to deploy ground troops in the operation, Israel showed that it is not deterred from assuming risks to defend its citizens, and it proved that its army is not afraid of engaging "armed" Palestinians in combat. But it is difficult to understand the purpose of prolonging the ground operation, which is liable to end in a difficult entanglement and casualties.