House Of Representatives Overwhelmingly Condemns The Goldstone Report

The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to condemn the Goldstone report.

The vote urged the Obama administration to keep the report accusing Israel and Hamas of war crimes in last winter’s Gaza war from advancing through the United Nations system, passed 344 to 36 with 22 voting “present.”

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which lobbied hard for the non-binding resolution, said it “strongy applauds” its passing.

“Congress is sending a strong message that the United States will not agree to turn the victim into the perpetrator,” AIPAC said.

The vote comes on the eve of debate on the report in the U.N. General Assembly; the report has already been endorsed by the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The resolution “calls on the President and the Secretary of State to continue to strongly and unequivocally oppose any endorsement of the `Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’ in multilateral fora, including through leading opposition to any United Nations General Assembly resolution and through vetoing, if necessary, any United Nations Security Council resolution that endorses the contents of this report.” 

The resolution was introduced by U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), its chairman.

Zoo Draws Crowds With Zebra-Colored Donkeys

Gaza City zookeepers have found a creative way of drawing crowds to their dilapidated zoo — by painting their donkeys.

The Marah Land Zoo’s only two zebras died of hunger earlier this year when they were neglected during the Israel-Hamas war.

The popular animals were too expensive to replace, so the keepers decided to design a pair of donkeys with black and white patterns instead.

Ahmad Barghouti says a professional painter used French-manufactured hair coloring to make the donkeys look like zebras.

Hasan Yaseen said since his three children have never seen a real zebra, they enjoy the Gaza version.

Aside from the two ‘zebras,’ the zoo also flaunts an aging tigress, two monkeys, and a selection of birds, rabbits and cats.

Sky News Joins The BBC In Not Airing Controversial Ad

The British Sky News channel joined the BBC  in refusing to broadcast  an emergency fundraising appeal designed to raise money for people living in the Gaza Strip.

The Associated Press reports that executives at the international satellite broadcaster said they made the decision to protect the impartiality of the station’s news report.

“The conflict in Gaza forms part of one of the most challenging and contentious stories for any news organization to cover,” said Sky News director John Ryley. “Our commitment as journalists is to cover all sides of that story with uncompromising objectivity.”

Other British broadcasters – including Channel 4, ITV, and Five – have said they will show the advertisement.

Sky News is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which also owns and operates the Fox News Channel.

Barcelona Calls Off Holocaust Memorial Ceremony

The Spanish city of Barcelona called off the ceremony marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was scheduled to take place on January 27, citing the Israeli action in Gaza as the reason.  This was to be the only public event marking the day, and was scheduled to take place in Barcelona’s central piazza.

“Marking the Jewish Holocaust while a Palestinian Holocaust is taking place is not right,” a local City official told Barcelona’s La Vanguardia newspaper.

Rafael Shutz, the Israeli ambassador to Spain, sent a letter to the President of the Government of Catalunya José Montilla Aguilera, expressing his concern over the flaring anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic sentiments sweeping through his region.

Need an option – Lisbon, Portugal is a beautiful friendly city. 

Three Cheers For The BBC … Finally

British government ministers on Saturday criticized the BBC for refusing to show a charity fundraising appeal for Palestinians in the war-hit Gaza strip. The British broadcaster said it had rejected the ad because showing it might harm the BBC’s reputation for impartiality and because it could not be sure humanitarian aid would reach the needy in the chaotic territory.

BBC director-general Mark Thompson said the Gaza crisis was “an ongoing and highly controversial news story.”  He added ”that to broadcast a free-standing appeal, no matter how carefully couched, ran the risk of calling into question the public’s confidence in the BBC’s impartiality in its coverage of the story as a whole.”

Good quote by Thompson, but since when has the BBC been impartial in its coverage?  One can only hope that this is the start of a new policy.

Words That Ring True Today

“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children.  We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.  We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more then they hate us.”

Golda Meir, 1898-1978

War Correspondent Joe The Plumber

Joe ‘The Plumber” Wurzelbacher is in Israel reporting on the Gaza War for PJTV. Check out his reports – they’re not half bad: http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=page&page-id=158

Never heard of PJTV – here’s the homepage: http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=home

A Special Ambassador – Reda Mansour

Noticed that the Israeli Consul General to the southeast has been a regular on CNN this weekend. 

His name is Reda Mansour and he’s an Israeli Arab,  only 43 years old, a renowned poet and the first Arab to serve as an Israeli Ambassador.

Here’s are some links about him:

http://atlanta.mfa.gov.il/mfm/web/main/document.asp?SubjectID=69651&MissionID=69&LanguageID=0&StatusID=0&DocumentID=-1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reda_Mansour

A facinating story about a very special ambassador.

Imagine The Following

Imagine any of the following scenerios:

Mexico bombing San Diego from Tijuana

Mexico bombing El Paso from Juarez

Canada bombing Detroit from Windsor

Canada bombing Seattle from Vancouver

Any of the above might be hard to imagine but that’s exactly what’s been happening in southern Israel as bombs rained down on civilian communities from Gaza.  Remember that Israel is not in Gaza, they left in 2005.

Now ask yoursellf – what would you want the US to do in any of the above situations.  Also remember what the US rightfully did in response to 9/11.