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NewsPapers
- -05-16-08 Israelis Celebrate 60 Years While Palestinians Mourn (Time.com)
"Many [Palestinians] have given up hope of returning to the homes they lost in 1948; instead, they watch with bitterness and sadness the celebrations for Israel's 60 years of statehood, which they feel came at their expense." 05-08
- -02-10-08 Electricity Key Weapon in War With Hamas (Time.com)
"The electricity flow has been temperamental for years, but rolling power cuts of at least eight hours a day are the norm since Israel began reducing fuel shipments in October to pressure Gaza's Hamas rulers to halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns. Last week it went further, starting to trim the supply it delivers from its own power station across the border." 02-08
- -03-03-08 Gaza Fighting Intensifies (Time.com)
"The brunt of the fighting occurred on Saturday when Israelis, in an operation named 'Warm Winter' stormed into northern Gaza with over a thousand troops backed by 30 tanks and helicopter gunships. They advanced to the edge of Jabaliya, a crowded refugee camp, and there took fire from gunmen hiding inside the buildings. After two Israeli soldiers were shot, eyewitnesses say, the Israelis retaliated with withering fire in all directions as they struggled to evacuate the wounded soldiers, who eventually died."
"On the Palestinian side, medicial sources say that 25 of those killed were militants, the rest civilians, including women and children. Despite the fierce Israeli assault, militants kept firing a barrage of mortars and longer-range Katyusha rockets into southern Israel." 02-08
- -11-21-20 Mideast Conflict and Obama (U.S. News)
"It would be hard to blame incoming President Barack Obama if he took one look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and decided it wasn't for him. After all, the main thing President George W. Bush has to show for eight years of on-and-off Mideast peacemaking is Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip—the result of the administration's insistence on Gazan elections and subsequent instigation of a failed coup attempt against the elected Islamist rulers."
"The most urgent front is Gaza, where a five-month cease-fire between Israel and the Strip's Islamic militant groups broke down on U.S. Election Day as the two sides resumed fire—with Gaza, as usual, getting much the worse of the exchange. The Egyptian-brokered cease-fire runs out December 19, and it's not clear whether there will be anything left by then to renew." 11-08
- -12-28-08 U.N.: Gaza Plight Disastrous (CNN News)
"Israeli airstrikes pounding Gaza are deepening the humanitarian crisis in an area that was already in deep distress, according to a United Nations aid official."
" 'People are suffering and dying because of shortages of medical equipment,' said Dr. Mahmoud el-Khazndar, who works at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital. 'The hospital is not accustomed to accept mass casualties like this.' "
"Gunness, a spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), said the agency has been unable to get needed medical supplies into Gaza for more than a year, because of Israel's blockade of border crossings." 12-08
- -Former British Prime Minister Focuses on Faith (Time.com)
"In two long conversations with Blair recently, I explored his conviction that religion matters—that it shapes what people believe and how they behave, that it is vital to understanding our world, that it can be used to improve the lot of humankind. But if not engaged seriously, Blair thinks, faith can be used to induce ignorance, fear and a withdrawal of communities into mutually antagonistic spheres at just the time that globalization is breaking down barriers between peoples and nations. 'Faith is part of our future,' Blair says, 'and faith and the values it brings with it are an essential part of making globalization work.' For Blair, the goal is to rescue faith from the twin challenges of irrelevance—the idea that religion is no more than an interesting aspect of history—and extremism. Blair and those working with him think religion is key to the global agenda. 'You can't hope to understand what's happening in the world if you don't know that religion is a very important force in people's lives,' says Ruth Turner, 37, formerly a top aide to Blair in 10 Downing Street, who will head the foundation. 'You can't make the world work properly unless you understand that, while not everyone will believe in God or have a spiritual life, a lot of people will.' Blair, she says, has been thinking about these issues 'for decades and decades and decades.' Over time, says Blair of the foundation's work, 'this is how I want to spend the rest of my life.' " 05-08
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