Israel continued their assault on Gaza for the 5th day of the current conflict as Israeli officials say they rejected a 48-hour cease-fire and will continue the devastating air offensive against Hamas. Israel continued to send jets and assault helicopters to pound targets in the Gaza Strip.

There have been 374 Palestinians killed so far during the 5 days, of which 64 of those are civilians. Those numbers are sure to rise as the conflict continues.

Watch the Associated Press (AP) Video (Dec. 31):

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon stated today that, “Both Israel and Hamas must halt the acts of violence and take all necessary measures to avoid civilian casualties.” The United Nations Secretary General also called for Israel to address the humanitarian crisis and allow aid into the Gaza strip.

Watch the Associated Press (AP) Video (Dec.29, 2008):

I don’t think Israel will take Ban Ki Moon’s words to heart as Israel obliterated symbols of Hamas power on the third day of what Israeli defense minister described Monday as a “war to the bitter end,” striking next to the Hamas premier’s home, and devastating a security compound and a university building.

Watch the Associated Press (AP) Video (Dec.29, 2008):

What does the Bush Administration have to say?

White House Spokeman Gordan Johndroe speaks on behalf of the Bush administration which has once again called for a “sustainable cease-fire” between Isreal and Hamas and demands that Hamas stop its attacks on Israel. It’s no surprise that the White House has taken a Pro-Israel stance on this current Israel/Palestinian conflict.

Watch the Associated Press (AP) Video (Dec.29, 2008):

We’ll see how long it takes for this current conflict to stop as I watch live video right now as I type this of more strikes going on in Gaza, and then how long before it starts up again.

Israeli warplanes, apparently retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of air strikes that started just after noon today (Saturday, Dec.27, 2008). Hamas reports dozens of Palestinians were killed.

Watch the Associated Press Video (Dec. 27):

Watch the AP Raw Video (Dec. 27):

Press TV
Wednesday, March 5, 2008

New Israeli attacks have killed a month-old infant in the Gaza Strip after the latest incursion that killed more than 125 Palestinians.

Israeli forces backed by helicopters have clashed with Hamas activists after several tanks rolled into a region east of Khan Yunis.

Casualties included a month-old infant, a medical official said.

The renewed operation in Gaza comes as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice failed to win a public commitment from Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas to resume peace talks with the Zionist regime.

“The latest events have created a dangerous escalation… The suffocating siege on the Gaza Strip has stopped any progress in the negotiations,” Abbas said in a joint news conference with Rice in Ramallah.

On Sunday, Abbas suspended negotiations to protest an exceptionally high death toll from recent Israeli military operations in Gaza.

Media who became obsessed with “wipe Israel off the map” misquote scurry to defend Vilnai after disgraceful comments

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Friday, February 29th, 2008

Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai has provoked outrage after threatening Palestinians with a “holocaust,” but the same media who obsessed about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s “wipe Israel off the map” misquote are scurrying to defend Vilnai’s disgraceful comments.

“The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves,” Vilnai told the Army Radio on Friday.

However, in a Reuters report, despite the fact that the rest of the statement was translated into English, the incendiary word “holocaust” remained in its original Hebrew version – “shoah”.

Why Reuters would choose to print the rest of the statement in English yet cherry-pick one word to remain in Hebrew is obvious – they don’t want to draw any attention to the fact that Vilnai is threatening the Palestinians with a holocaust.

Vilnai’s spokesman has attempted to diffuse the controversy by claiming Vilnai was speaking in terms of a “disaster” and not a holocaust.

But you can’t have your cake and eat it.

When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad allegedly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” the media blindly repeated the quote ad infinitum, and it became second nature for them to carelessly drop it into any propaganda piece intended to hype Iran’s supposed threat to Israel and the world.

Barely a day goes by that Israeli, American and British warhawks don’t spew the phrase like a broken record in an attempt to create a catchy cliché and brand market the next jaunt of imperial blood-letting.

No matter that, according to numerous different translations, Ahmadinejad never used the word “map,” instead his statement was in the context of time and applied to the Zionist regime occupying Jerusalem. Ahmadinejad was expressing his future hope that the Zionist regime in Israel would fall, not that Iran was going to physically annex the country and its population.

To claim Ahmadinejad has issued a rallying cry to ethnically cleanse Israel is akin to saying that Churchill wanted to murder all Germans when he stated his desire to crush the Nazis. This is about the demise of a corrupt occupying power, not the deaths of millions of innocent people.

On the other hand, even as Reuters is forced to admit, Vilnai’s use of the word “shoah” is intrinsically allied to the context of “Discussions of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews,” adding, “Many Israelis are loath to countenance its use to describe other contemporary events.”

So will the media make reference to one of Israel’s top minister’s expressing his wish to inflict a Palestinian “holocaust” in all future reports about Israel’s geopolitical motives, just as they do with Ahmadinejad’s supposed call to wipe Israel off the map?

There’s more chance of Yasser Arafat and Menachem Begin coming back from the dead to broker a peace settlement.

FLASHBACK: The “Wipe Israel Off The Map” Hoax