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Where's the protest against Hamas?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123154855613269959.html
* REVIEW & OUTLOOK
* JANUARY 10, 2009
Muslims Against Hamas
Israel isn't the only side to blame.
The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip has sparked a predictable wave of protest throughout the Muslim world. (Somebody please call us the day a similar protest is held against al Qaeda's mass murder of Muslims in Iraq or Pakistan.) But theirs aren't the only voices making themselves heard on the subject of Gaza.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported this week that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had told a visiting delegation of European foreign ministers that Hamas "must not be allowed to emerge from the fighting with the upper hand." The comment was later relayed by the Europeans to Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni.
We called the Egyptian embassy in Washington to confirm Mr. Mubarak's comments and never heard back. But the remark squares with the way Egypt has acted toward Hamas since the war began. It has sealed its border with the Strip to prevent an exodus of Gazans and barred all but a trickle of humanitarian aid to enter. Little wonder that Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah has called on Egyptian army officers to topple Mr. Mubarak's regime.
Mr. Mubarak has good reason to want to see Hamas humbled: As the Palestinian franchise of his own suppressed Muslim Brotherhood, it poses a direct threat to his rule. The same goes for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Sunni regimes like Saudi Arabia, which see Hamas as another Iranian proxy in the Sunni heartland. Their views, too, are being expressed sotto voce.
The Opinion Journal Widget
More impressively, an Iranian student group is pointing the finger at its own government. "Those who have armed and encouraged groups like Hamas . . . have innocent blood on their hands," read a communiqué published December 30 in an Iranian newspaper and translated by the invaluable Middle East Media Research Institute. "Israel's current crimes in Gaza are strongly to be condemned -- but it is equally [important] to condemn the terror organizations that use kindergartens and hospitals as a shield against [Israeli] attacks."
The Iranian government shut down the newspaper that published these remarks the next day. We can only hope for the safety of the authors. They have shown a great deal more clarity, and courage, than the protestors on the other side.
Copyright ©2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
WSJ.com International
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter R. Munoz" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Saturday, January 10, 2009 10:28 am
Subject: Re: New Information re: GAZA
To: [log in to unmask]
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> RENEW YOUR AAM MEMBERSHIP FOR $25!!!!
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> Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 18:48:49 -0600From: [log in to unmask]:
> [log in to unmask]: New Information re: GAZACC:
> [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
>
>
> Here are some newsworthy items out of Gaza that are unlikely to be
> making it to the Western presses. I received this information directly
> from one of the staff of the Mezan Center for Human Rights about
> twenty minutes ago.
> 1. Israel has begun a new policy in Gaza in the past two days called
> the "roof knock". This is when a "small" rocket is fired from Israeli
> military aircraft that is strong enough to blast open the roof of a
> targeted building. It is sent as a "warning message" to the building's
> inhabitants giving them between 2 and 3 minutes to evacuate before the
> building is completely destroyed. A number of cases of this new
> technique have been reported recently.
> 2. While the UN continues to claim that "only" 25% of the casualties
> from the attacks on Gaza are civilian, the Mezan Center for Human
> Rights (known for the care it takes not to overstate the numbers and
> for its strict verification policies) estimates that the number of
> civilian casualties is approximately 85%. In particular, the number of
> children has increased to over 200, and the number of women has
> surpassed 75. One reason for the lower civilian casualty figures used
> by the UN has to do with the reluctance to consider men -other than
> the elderly and sick- as non-combatants. In fact the overwhelming
> majority of men killed in "Operation Cast Lead" up to now have been
> non-combatants, including fathers, teachers, shopkeepers, construction
> workers, laborers, students, as well as the civil policemen. The vast
> majority are not "Hamas militants." Note that the civil police are
> considered 'non-combatants' under international law and are therefore
> not 'legitimate' targets in any military confrontation any more than
> traffic cops or firemen.
> 3. The UN announced this evening that "almost everyone in the Gaza
> Strip" is now in need of humanitarian aid. Indeed, even those with
> adequate food supplies are a) handing out what they have to people in
> "shelters" (which have been targeted consistently by Israeli war
> machines in the past); Even those with adequate food supplies are b)
> unable to obtain bread anywhere. Many are using rice or spaghetti to
> substitute for carbohydrates -- when these are availabe and when there
> is water and electricity to allow for cooking these items.
> 4. There are widespread reports now of forced evacuations of entire
> neighborhoods of people who go mainly to nearby schools or other
> public buildings not yet destroyed. These are considered no more
> secure than their homes but remain the only other places to go (other
> than to move into crowded dwellings with relatives; or places no more
> secure than their own homes). The congregation of so many people in
> these enclosed spaces increases the likelihood of major civilian
> casualties when airstrikes target the area.
> PLEASE PROTEST THESE AND OTHER ACTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES AND
> ISRAEL, TWO COUNTRIES THAT CLAIM THE WHOLESALE DESTRUCTION OF A PEOPLE
> IS A MATTER OF 'SELF DEFENSE'.
> -Jennifer Loewenstein; Beirut, Hamra; 1.10.09. 2:30am
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