Yisrael Beitnu in government (Isra'eel Baituna- Arabic)

Ali Abunimah wrote this article that is essential to read at this time because it has the basic information about Avigdor Liberman...His party that just got in the government of Olmert. Would this work? Cant we look at least the same in Extremism.??..or there is still no need to even have a look on injustice?

World silent as fascists join Israel government
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 24 October 2006
In a frightening but long expected move, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has brought the Yisrael Beitenu party into his coalition government. The party's leader, Avigdor Lieberman, is to be vice prime minister and, as "Minister for Strategic Threats," a key member of Israel's "security cabinet" in charge of the Iran portfolio.Yisrael Beitenu is a dangerous extremist party with fascist tendencies that has openly advocated the "transfer" of Palestinians, including the transfer of Arab towns within Israel to a Bantustan-like future Palestinian entity. It has made clear that a Jewish supremacist state is more important than a democratic one. ...Continue Here.

another incursion and another ...

another five were killed yesterday....in Gaza
This evening, Shelling and rockets bombing Beit Hanoun...again but from a different direction...
Today, Gaza Skies had some interesting ...traffic..Some from God...which were thunder and rain..some from israel..with F16s and Apache planes...and the palestinian smaller bullets in the air or beterrn families and parties...
I cant really keep up with news..but just the a quick note about the disturbing event that took place earlier today..the kiddnapping of the Spanish photographer of the Associated Press..What a Mess!
by the way...this is not a Hamas thing...

Another note...interesting report that can be really critical if true and will cause to further escalation..maybe to the good or maybe to the bad..either way..i m not hopefull. Abbas ordered the deployment of 20,000 security men to take care of the situation in the Gaza Strip. So far, Abbas has denied this order..but several security commandors confirmed. According to the Haaretz Report of today.

Later...

the Eid of misery..

Yesterday early morning an incursion started in the northern areas of Beit Hanoun, North of Gaza Strip....about 7 Palestinians were killed and 40 Palestinians were injured and 0 Israelis. "Revenge" expressed afterwards by Palestinian resistence movements after the killing of one of their leaders (Islamic Jihad)

Thousands of Palestinians (Gazans) are spending the Eid on the border, Stuck- between Gaza and Egypt.....Sleeping on the sand and sometimes some carton boxes...

Today...minor mess

One cant describe the high noise and air pollution in Gaza these days.....
regarding noise, today, for some reason, it was so disturbing...and on the way..from an office to my house i wittnessed about 3 accidents in the streets..."People are going crazy today" the driver said...

Almost every public employee and all registered unemployed got a small amount of money to be able to survive and get some "candies" for the Eid - el fitr feast- i m sure not many could even think of candies. The security forces were the only ones who didnt recieve any money...so, for the second time...tjose were the ones demonstrating in the streets by closing some streets with trees and burning tyres. Gaza didnt need more black dust to cover the left windows or the so far white walls...but this is not the case anyway..they have the right to be angry! and many know that they are being used for pressure.
Abbas was in Gaza refused to meet with the PM Hanyyeh...(so maybe not-talking not-meeting will result in something!?) The Eid is on monday- the day after tomorrow..if those didnt get money..i would assume its a smart enough plan..no? Is this how Fatah kicking out the gov. ? well..the gov isnt doing anything to help itself..but also with getting 42 million from the US state department and encouraging security forces when using them to turn gaza into a new version of chaos...would this be the option!?

i wonder...and i may not understand much of what is going on around me..

Israel armored vehicles maneuver inside the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli tanks and infantry took up positions on the Egyptian-Gaza border (AP)
At a Funeral..(AP)

One of the respected at the Hamas Gov't

Ghazi Hamad
If you have been following the news and what is being written about the Palestinian latest crisis, and you see this name, I would recommend you read ...
Ghazi Hamad, we are discovering this person recently with a great deal of respect. Simply because he respects himself and his people. He admits the mistakes and is strong enough to fight the traditional perspective and cross the .."lines!" Finally...
Take a look at what he wrote in Al Ayyam Newspaper (Palestinian Local Newspaper) that piece was mentioned in the article "Abbas considering technocratic gov't" of the Jerusalem Post,

.....In a related development, the spokesman for the Hamas-led government on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on armed Palestinian groups, holding them responsible for the continued state of anarchy and lawlessness.
"Has violence become a culture implanted in our bodies and our flesh?" he asked in an article published in the PA-funded daily Al-Ayyam newspaper.
"We have surrendered to it until it has become the master and is obeyed everywhere, in the house, the neighborhood, the family, the clan, the faction and the university. We want to get rid of this lethal disease - cancer - that has destroyed our brains and paralyzed our hearts."
Hamad pointed out that 175 Palestinians have been killed in internal fighting since the beginning of this year. Addressing the armed groups, he wrote: "Please have mercy on us. We want to get rid of this monster that is living amongst us. Please don't kill the hope that's left in us."

22 Palestinians killed in Gaza in the past Two days

I haven't been able to write to update you on the situation in Gaza. Simply because everything is continuing as is. Israel has been intensifying the attacks, also, Amir Peretz the minister of defense has ordered the army to go on and execute more attacks.
In the past two days, and according to Aljazeera, Reuters and others there has been several incursions taking place in the North of the strip , in Beit Hanoun, in the south of the strip, in Khan younis, and some random targets in the city of Gaza.
I cant tell you that i have been personally affected by any of this, because of the confusion we are living in without realizing the extent of this confusion. I hear everyday hundreds of bullets shooted in the air, between fatah and hamas, between families and so on. I hear several explosions that I don't know whether it is internal or from Israel. But, I heard the planes being active in the skies of Gaza city, as it is active anyway in the rest of the strip. Yesterday and the day before, we were worried just from the sounds of the plane. Although we are so used to it.
Now. With another round of rumors and talking about re-invading the Gaza strip, sometimes I react as, "maybe this will save us" but there are always the really bad things that I don't want to think of.
I remember theses days in Ramallah in 2002, when people were so done with rumors saying: "why don't they invade the city and get this over with, we are done with the waiting" but ....Those moments ended and the invasion was ....A war.

that is it for now..
* the picture is from Reuters on Oct 14th, Rafah, Gaza.

Italian TV: Israel used new weapon prototype in Gaza Strip
By Meron Rapoport, Haaretz Correspondent
An investigative report to be aired on Italian television Wednesday raises the possibility that Israel has used an experimental weapon in the Gaza Strip ........ The weapon is similar to one developed by the U.S. military, known as DIME, which causes a powerful and lethal blast.. More

Not an internal Palestinian matter - By Amira Hass

"what happens when you imprison 1.3 million human beings in an enclosed space like battery hens."

Gaza. A proper desciption of what is it like ..now

Sami Abdel-Shafi: The strife of a people stripped of dignity
The conflict in Gaza is led by ordinary people, sickened by the indignity they are made to suffer
Published: 03 October 2006

.....Israel has brought a new phenomenon to life in Gaza: "The strife of the undignified." This conflict is led by ordinary people who, whatever their convictions and professions, have been sickened by the severe indignity they have been made to suffer in their daily lives.
.....
.....The strife of the undignified is neither about the imposed financial bankruptcy of the Hamas government, nor about big hopes that a Palestinian national unity government would substantially alleviate the current financial strain....

The Independent Newspaper: online edition click here

Attention to the coming obstacles..to face Palestinians

The Sad Stroy of My friend Sam

By: GERSHON BASKIN
THE JERUSALEM POST
Sep. 25, 2006

I have been spending hours during the past couple of weeks trying to help a friend. Well, he's not really a friend, we hardly know each other. more...

Internal Clashes..

How bad is it going to be? Where is this heading?
First, I would like to identify some of the major (obvious) players.
Hamas new force that was established few months ago under the Ministry of Interior.
All others: Fatah (old gov) security forces.
Both have tons of weapons
Both claim that they don't have money

It has been like that since the beginning of the demonstrations in the streets that struck the Palestinian streets after 4 months of not paying the public employees

The Whole structure of the Palestinian government (Ministries, Security forces...Etc.) is based on the majority of Fatah. Fatah was not explicitly known for discriminating when hiring its employees, however, it was very corrupt with whoever is there.
Hamas, since elected, wants to prove its being, and so, started adding to the public employees hundreds of pure Hamas members. Although, there is no money to pay the old or the new ones.

The problem has many factors:
1- Hamas is now taking the bigger positions in the institutions of course because it is elected to govern. Almost everyone down the pyramid is fatah, or got closer to fatah because of the salary issue. When i visited a couple of ministries, one like Ministry of Education, i know several employees there, they haven't been involved in political affiliations, but now it seemed much clearer that they simply "Hate" Hamas. A head of a department there said to me: " Things are getting worse and worse, I used to have several projects at the same time for the schools from donors all over the world. Today, I can barely find a pen and paper to work in the office, and I am in a ministry of education".
2- The concentration of Fatah members in the security forces, and their varying relationships with the "Al Aqsa Brigades" and all the other smaller ones, have been intensifying this tensions. Fatah members became party members in their profession rather than being policemen or security guards or whatever. Thus, the latest interesting turning point here in Gaza, was that the police and the presidential forces and all the others, (they are 17 type, by the way) were the ones who closed the streets the day before yesterday and blocking the traffic because they were demonstrating against the government! So what is this called exactly? Mahmoud Abbas criticized this in Al-Jazeera interview three days ago. even the demonstrations have been so obviously divided among the Fatah(s) and Hamas(s) to the extent that Hamas started arresting those who don't "obey" and who don't go to do their job instead of striking, and Fatah is forcing the employees out. if you go to the people who are not directly affiliated with anyone you would notice that it is not that organized as a real mobilzed movement that comes from within the peoples' beliefs. The other fact is that, right after any big demonstration a partial payment is suddenly paid and people start running at the ATM machines! So, to an extent it is working, even the way it is done, by using people, fighting, and creating just chaos in the streets, it gets the money out of the PA box! So why not then keep doing this again and again?
4- There is a historical hatred, I mean the word Hatred between Hamas and Fatah. I have always wondered about this, but it is true. Since I was in undergraduate in Ramallah, Fatah used to say in the elections " we can deal with the devil but not Hamas" Hamas on the other hand, they dislike everyone. But this dislike grown along with he previous positions that the PA (Fatah) at Arafat's time against Hamas. Many argue that Arafat was keeping things balanced and he used to be "good" to all, it is true but it was a very temporary solution that was just building up towards more tension between the two. On the other had, the small leftist parties, were mostly closer to Hamas politically (Only) because they shared the disagreement with the peace process and the Oslo agreement in particular.
Ok..Back to what is going on here...
Yesterday , I leave the house at 8:30 going to my volunteering missions... And I see a bigger group of armed men at the square near the house. It is a relatively big square that connects 5 streets. I see some in blue and others in black..It was confusing..! I see big beards and ones without. So I ask what is going today? I was told that the Minister of Interior (Hamas) gave orders to the force (3000 executive force from Hamas) to spread around the Gaza strip..Especially the intersections. Normally, the ones who stand at the square are the President's (Abaas) forces, just because the square is very close to the president's office and his house. The image was pleasant as we drove by. The two were talking and smiling...(ones in black and ones in Blue).
At about 13:00 pm. My husband calls, and tells me not et near the house.
Gaza turned into a big confrontation zone with fairly sophisticated kinds of weapons. Especially our square, that is usually the most "peaceful" one had the most intense clashes.
I had to stay at my mom's house, where the Israeli artillery is ! haha...it was safer.
i came back home at night..The area was extremely dark, I had to literarlly get out of the car and let the driver run before we are caught under the fire of ours.....

Now...9 funerals will take place. I hear them on the microphones...I don't know what their cause it anymore...Either for Hamas or Fatah. 100 were injured. 9 were killed. And funerals are usually expected to result in clashes.