EU warns Israel on Gaza attacks

The EU has accused Israel of using "disproportionate" force and making a humanitarian crisis worse during operations in the Gaza Strip.

On Friday Israel consolidated its hold on northern Gaza, as air strikes killed at least three Palestinian militants.

It followed the worst day of violence since Israeli forces entered Gaza over a captured Israeli soldier - 22 Palestinians and an Israeli died.

Israel's operations are the biggest since it withdrew from Gaza last year.

"The EU condemns the loss of lives caused by disproportionate use of force by the Israeli Defence Forces and the humanitarian crisis it has aggravated," Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said in a statement.

The EU is Israel's largest trading partner and rarely criticises the country in such terms military or security matters.

'Goodwill gesture'

Meanwhile an Israeli minister suggested that if Corporal Gilad Shalit, captured 12 days ago, was released, Israel may be prepared to consider future prisoner releases.

A spokesman quoted Interior Minister Avi Dichter as saying that Israel "knows how to carry out a release of prisoners as a goodwill gesture".

Until now Israel has said it will not negotiate a prisoner swap, originally suggested by Islamic militants Hamas as a solution to the crisis.

Focus on the Gaza Strip In pictures: Gaza offensive

Earlier Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya called for international intervention to stop the Israeli offensive.

Mr Haniya, who belongs to Hamas, called it a "crime against humanity".

He said the Israeli push was "a desperate effort to undermine the Palestinian government under the pretext of a search for the missing soldier".

The interior minister in the Hamas-led government, Said Siyam, has urged all the administration's security forces to fight Israeli troops.

In a statement read out by his spokesman, Khalid Abu Hilal, he called on them to do their duty by "resisting this treacherous invasion and aggression of the cowardly Zionists".

In other developments:

• A Palestinian militant was shot dead in clashes with Israeli troops in a refugee camp near the West Bank town of Nablus

• At least one Palestinian teenager died as a result of Israeli fire following an incursion in Jenin, reports say

• In the last few days Israeli police have arrested 749 Palestinians they say were living in Israel illegally, as well as several Israelis said to be employing them

Many of those killed in the air strikes and heavy fighting in northern Gaza are militants but there are also civilian victims.

The Israeli military says more than 40 militants have died since the offensive started last week.

Friday morning's air strikes targeted armed Palestinians, it said.

One Hamas militant was killed and three others were wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on them from an aircraft in the early morning, Hamas and hospital officials said.

Later two militants were killed in a missile strike.

Captured soldier

The Israeli offensive began largely in southern Gaza in an attempt to free Cpl Gilad Shalit, after he was captured by militants on 25 June.

But troops moved deeper into the north of the territory after rocket attacks on the nearby Israeli city of Ashkelon.

In New York, the UN Security Council has debated a draft resolution demanding an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of detained Palestinian officials.

The draft was presented by Qatar on behalf of the UN's Arab Group, but appears doomed in view of opposition from the US, which has the power of veto.

The draft does not mention the Palestinian rocket attacks or Cpl Shalit's capture, and the US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said the document was "not balanced".

Source: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5159050.stm

'It is never anti-Semitic to oppose injustice'

The Israeli narrative adopted and cobbled from Bush's war on terrorism states that Israel is heroically engaged in its own war on terror. This is utterly misleading.

by Ted Schmidt
July 6, 2006

There is a splendid Talmudic saying that a single life is a universe. How absolutely wonderful in its insistence on the dignity of each human being, a reminder that no child of God should be forgotten, abused or die unmourned. The 20th century, however, of all centuries in history, seemingly forgot this crucial legacy of the Abrahamic religions.

As I write, the awesome military might of the world's fourth largest army is mobilized to secure the release of a young Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by a rogue element of Hamas. On the one hand we can applaud the primacy of a human life, its inherent dignity. Yet we should be appalled at the ongoing collective punishment of an entire civilian population, the contravention of Article 33 of the Geneva Convention.

Over the last month, at least 30 Palestinian civilians in Gaza have lost their lives due to Israeli bombardment in retaliation to the launching of the notoriously inefficient Qassam rockets and the death of two soldiers.

Instead of calming the situation, these bombardments led to its deterioration and to further complications and confrontations. To exacerbate the situation, Gaza's borders have been slammed shut denying the population vital food and medicine. This is a recipe for a human catastrophe.

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert displayed shocking chauvinism when he stated, “I am sorry with all my heart for the residents of Gaza but the lives and well being of Sderot's residents [the targets of the homemade Qassam rockets] are more important than those of Gaza residents.” Apparently, one human life may be a universe — only if that life is Israeli.

Then we saw the arrest of 30 Hamas leaders which led the Haaretz editorial of June 30 to state the obvious: “Olmert should know that arresting leaders only strengthens them and their supporters. This is not merely faulty reasoning; arresting people to use as bargaining chips is the act of a gang not a state.”

All of this must be seen not as an isolated barbaric issue of kidnapping a soldier or even of the nihilistic suicide bombers but of 40 years of a debilitating and shameful Occupation. The Israeli narrative adopted and cobbled from Bush's war on terrorism states that Israel is heroically engaged in its own war on terror. This is utterly misleading. The primary violence is the decades old Occupation. The shocking asymmetry of fire power can be summed up thusly: A terrorist is one with a bomb — but not an air force.

As usual, the Israeli government has moved against a clearly defenseless population without any regard to international norms or human decency. Acting with little interest in diplomacy and wielding its overwhelmingly huge stick, Operation Summer Rains is simply the latest attempt to destroy any hope for a resolution of Middle East hostilities.

The Israeli planes have cut off electricity for nearly half the population of Gaza — no refrigeration, fans or air conditioners in a scorching climate. “Unacceptable and barbaric punishment of civilians — women, children and the old,” stated the office of Mahmoud Abbas as the Palestinian leader worked to secure the release of young Shalit. Add to this the sonic booms used to further terrorize the population.

Now we see hysterical reactions from pundits when concerned agencies such as CUPE, the United Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. join their voices to much of the United Nations (save the United States and the increasingly muted Canada) in trying to get Israel to come to its senses.

How long can silence reign in light of illegal house demolitions, extrajudicial murders, the destruction of thousands of olive groves, the consistent refusal to honour UN resolutions 446, 452, 465 and 471 — the return of land captured in war. Israel and its wealthy patron the Bush administration refuse.

The asymmetrical suffering of the Palestinian people (B'Tselem, the Israeli centre for Human Rights, counts 3,482 Palestinians killed vs. 688 Israelis from October 28, 2000-June 15, 2006) and the overwhelming firepower of Israel correctly frames this one-sided conflict.

The Oslo Accords (1993) were a major Palestinian concession. Here, the Palestinians would accept the West Bank and Gaza, lands seized by Israel in the 1967 war. This would be about 22 per cent of historic Palestine. Prime Minister Olmert's plan backed by the U.S. in May would cut the percentage to 15 per cent.

The cynical Sharon unilateral disengagement designed for Western consumption, simply removed 8,000 settlers from Gaza leaving 400,000 ensconced in the West Bank. Add to this the Separation Barrier or Wall which steals 10 per cent more of Palestinian land and you have a pathetic rump of non-contiguous poor cantons as the sorry basis of a viable state. Hence the notorious “A” word — apartheid-like. Just as Israel and its supporters do not like to be compared to the former South African regime, so the Palestinians could never accept such a demeaning offer.

The unilateral plan of Ariel Sharon was nothing but an exercise in political manipulation. This was admitted by his principal advisor, Dov Weinglass, in an October 2004 interview in Haaretz. The latter openly stated that the unilateral disengagement policy was designed to freeze the peace process and deny the Palestinians a viable state.

Where does this leave people of conscience in the West?

At the Catholic New Times, we have consistently insisted on a double solidarity: The absolute right for Israel to exist with safe and secure borders but also a solidarity with the long suffering Palestinian people, whose 40 years in the wilderness is akin to the Jews of the Exodus.

We have repeatedly condemned all acts of terror and killing of innocents. Unlike most of the mainstream media, we have insisted that the present conflict must absolutely be contextualized in a historical framework.

Boycotts like CUPE, the United and Presbyterian Church are honourable ways of nonviolent protest. My own Roman Catholic Church should be the next to exert such pressure. This would be an act of love akin to fraternal and sororal correction. In no way does it delegitimize Israel.

The sad absence of any prophetic voices coming from the Canadian synagogue is to be lamented as simply the rightward turn of most religious bodies today. The prophetic spirit of Rabbis Abraham Joshua Heschel and Reuben Slonim, not to mention Isaiah, Jeremiah and Micah need to be recaptured at this moment. They are a constant reminder that no state is beyond criticism.

One can take hope in the brave voices emanating from Israel today which support CUPE, the United and Presbyterian Churches. They remind all of us that, “It is never anti-Semitic to oppose injustice, destruction, gross inequity, and inequality... Israel, having the fourth most powerful military in the world, is in no existential danger.”

Ted Schmidt is on the editorial board of Catholic New Times.

Source: Rabble Podcast Network
http://www.rabble.ca/news_full_story.shtml?x=51122

Ex-Soldier Steven D. Green Enters Not-Guilty Plea in Iraq Rape, Killings Charges

07-06-2006 7:05 PM
By ELIZABETH DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A former Army private charged with raping an Iraqi woman and killing her and her family entered a plea of not guilty through his public defenders Thursday.

Steven D. Green also waived a detention hearing and a preliminary hearing, and agreed that his case would be prosecuted in the Western District of Kentucky.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James Moyer set an arraignment date of Aug. 8 in Paducah for Green, who was arrested Friday by FBI agents in Marion, N.C. Green appeared in baggy shorts and flip-flops, and was wearing the same Johnny Cash T-shirt he wore to a hearing Monday in Charlotte, N.C.

Green answered Moyer's questions about his inability to pay for an attorney, saying he has about $6,000 in a checking account and owns a 1995 Lincoln Town Car.

"I don't have anything else," he told the judge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Butler said the case would be presented before a grand jury sometime in mid-July, probably in Paducah. Butler and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa Ford declined to comment on where Green would be held before his arraignment.

Green, who served 11 months with the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., received an honorable discharge and left the army in mid-May. He was discharged because of an "anti-social personality disorder," according to military officials and court documents.

A psychiatric condition, anti-social personality disorder is defined as chronic behavior that manipulates, exploits or violates the rights of others. Someone with the disorder may break the law repeatedly, lie, get in fights and show a lack of remorse.

According to a federal affidavit, Green and other soldiers targeted the Iraqi young woman after spotting her at a traffic checkpoint near Mahmoudiya. Green is being tried in federal rather than military court because he no longer is in the Army.

Army Criminal Investigation Command agents have turned over the evidence that they had obtained against Green to federal law enforcement officials for their use.

Military officials concluded Thursday that since Green had received his final discharge papers, he was no longer under the control of the Army and would not be subject to a court martial.

No other soldiers have been charged yet in the case.

On Thursday, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey, and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, said the investigation would be pursued in a "vigorous and open process."

"Coalition forces came to Iraq to protect the rights and freedoms of the Iraqi people, to defend democratic values, and to uphold human dignity. As such, we will face every situation honestly and openly, and we will leave no stone unturned in pursuit of the facts," the statement said.

"We will hold our service members accountable if they are found guilty of misconduct in a court of law," it added.

Source: AP via Cox.net
http://connecticut.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8IMPER80

A Love For Humanity

July 1, 2006
By FRANCES GRANDY TAYLOR, Courant Staff Writer

Muslims in America deal with many of the same issues that affect other American families, but also contend with racial and ethnic profiling in an atmosphere of fear.

Finding ways to cope with the challenges of being Muslim in the United States brought hundreds of Muslim families to the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford on Friday. The weekend conference, a national event sponsored by two of largest Islamic organizations in the country, is intended to help Muslims meet challenges and celebrate their faith.

The recent news of terror suspects arrested in Florida is an example of media and government scrutiny of Muslims, said Naeem Baig, secretary general of Islamic Circle of North America, one of two groups hosting the conference. The other sponsor is the Muslim American Society.

"Take this Miami terror plot - when our government investigates, the first thing that comes out is that they are a Muslim group," Baig said, referring to the seven men in Florida accused of having links with al-Qaida and planning an attack on the Sears Tower in Chicago.

"The next thing that happens is windows being broken at mosques and harassment," he said. "Muslims feel as if they are constantly being watched, as if our Islamic centers are somehow secretive places when in fact most are very open places that anyone can come into. The media promotes Muslims as if they are to be feared."

"Living Islam, Loving Humanity" - the theme of the convention - is important for the larger society to know about Islam, said Imam Qasim Khan, director of outreach for Islamic Circle.

"The emphasis is that you cannot live Islam unless you are showing love for humanity," Khan said. "All of the turmoil you see ... - the Patriot Act, the hurricane, the tsunami - ICNA has been in the forefront of responding to the needs of humanity. And that is part of Islam - it's a complete way of life. We show our love for humanity, because we are all connected."

Among the guests this weekend is James Yee, a former U.S. Army Muslim chaplain, who will speak about civil rights. Yee was chaplain to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until he was arrested on espionage charges. He was jailed for three months and then released; the charges were dismissed.

In his book, "For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire," Yee says that prisoners were being subject to cruel and inhumane treatment. While recent suicides of three detainees made headlines several weeks ago, Yee said he believed there had been as many as 100 suicides there, and many more attempts.

"What that means is that some people, many of whom had been held there years without charges, felt it was better to die than to wait on American justice," Yee said.

Yee called Thursday's Supreme Court ruling that challenged the Bush administration's policies on Guantanamo a landmark decision.

"It means that human rights extend even to those being held in captivity and that, no matter where they are being held, international law still applies," Yee said.

In addition to sessions on civil rights, the conference features workshops on women's issues, parenting and youth issues.

On Friday, the conference held an interfaith session that included Bishop Peter Rosazza of the Hartford Archdiocese, the Rev. Stephen J. Sidorak of the Christian Conference of Connecticut, Bishop Andrew Smith of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut and Heidi Hadsell, president of Hartford Seminary. Hadsell suggested the group work together to develop an interfaith response to the violence among youth in Hartford.

Zahid Bukhari, who directs the Center for Muslim and Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, said that while there has been significant progress in interfaith connections between Muslims and Jews, Catholics and mainline Protestants, there has been little contact between Muslims and evangelical Christians.

"That is definitely a connection that has been missing. I think it is unfortunate that there has been so little dialogue," Bukhari said. "This is a group [evangelicals] that has a done important work in the inner city and has significant influence on foreign policy at the national level. I think it would be important for Muslims and evangelicals to begin talking to one another, because we share many of the same kinds of family and social values."

The conference continues today and Sunday at the Connecticut Convention Center. For more information, visit icna.org.

Contact Frances Grandy Taylor at ftaylor@courant.com.

Source: Hartford Courant
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctislamconvention0701.artjul01,0,6626343.story