Dearest readers;
I’m going to try a new way to do this. Instead of posting 4 or 5 separate posts I’ll try to consolidate what I find in my inbox that I think is of relevance or timeliness.
I did some reformatting and beautification to my blog. 
Thank you sooooo much sister Roqqy! She sent me to the place for the buttons and I kept fiddling with them until they worked. How can I get that full banner up top? It only puts the pic on the left side 
I want it stretched or tiled across the top. I’m really bad at stuff like that.
Like I keep saying, please comment! Good, bad or ugly – or even just say “HI, I was here!”. I’m amazed to see where people are reading this from. Bahrain, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, South American countries, ALL over! I can’t believe you want to read what I think!
On to what I think … I’m outraged at the way Israel is getting away with the treatment of the Palestinians. The US pushed Gazans to elect a government and they did. THEN they didn’t like that government so they’ve labeled it “terrorists”. Just as they continue to call them combatants or militants. They’re the ELECTED GOVERNMENT of Gaza! They have every right to protect their citizens from incursions by their occupier, Israel. Israel broke this truce with their incursions into Gaza, kidnapping of farmers and fishermen and attacks within the borders of the strip. This is unpopular opinion. Oh well. Deal with it! Better yet, STOP IT! This is what power I have for this situation. Blogging, spreading the word, and showing my angst over such situations. Some of you can actually make change happen. You have connections that can get a boat of aid on it’s way, vote in the UN to repeal Israel’s membership or enforce the OVER 100 resolutions against them. Aid those in the West Bank who are being contually attacked by violent settlers who are armed better than most armies! What is this to you? entertaining? If it is you’re a very sick person! This is LIVES. Precious lives that are being lost. May Allah grant them high places in Jannah. ameen
You should be outraged too! Use this power, money, ability you may have. This is all I got people. The computer and this blog with my big mouth and quick typing fingers. Many of you have much more; some less. I thank Allah every day for what I have and show little regret for what I don’t. If I truly need it Allah will provide.
Thank you for taking time to read my blog and again, please post a comment and where you’re from.
May Allah’s Blessings be on all of you. ameen
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Ban Ki-moon regrets Israel did not heed his calls on Gaza crossings
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon on Friday renewed his call for an end to the Israeli blockade of the impoverished Gaza Strip, regretting that his earlier pleas had gone unheeded.
“The secretary-general continues to express his concern at the humanitarian situation in Gaza,” a statement from his office said.
“He has underscored the importance of having Israel urgently permit the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the civilian population of Gaza, and regrets that his calls have not yet been heeded.”
Ban Ki-moon renewed his condemnation of Palestinian resistance”s firing of home made missiles on “Israeli civilian targets”, and called on both parties to respect the calm agreement that was signed on 19th June 2008.
Israel said Saturday it would maintain its closure of the Gaza Strip for the 18th consecutive day despite international concern over a deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the aid-dependent Palestinian territory.
The Hebrew radio said that the decision was taken following consultations between war minister Ehud Barak and government officials.
For his part, Javier Solana, the EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, said that the EU could not do anything more regarding lifting the siege on Gaza.
Solana, in a press conference after meeting Ban Ki-moon, said that the EU exerted whatever it could in this regard and would continue to send humanitarian assistance to the Strip. However, he did not say how the assistance would enter the besieged Strip.
The UN and affiliated agencies had warned of an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in the Strip as a result of the tightened Israeli siege that could lead to the death of hundreds of Palestinians en masse especially the patients.
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Jordan’s activists delay aid ship voyage to Gaza
www.chinaview.cn 
2008-12-22
AMMAN, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) — Jordan’s activists announced Sunday that its aid boat trip to Gaza has been postponed until next month due to logistical hurdles, local daily The Jordan Times reported on Monday.
Activists had previously said a ship carrying nearly two tons of medicine destined for Gaza would set sail from the Red Sea port city of Aqaba on Dec. 25.
But the organizers could not find a suitable maritime company to carry out the voyage in time, forcing them to postpone the journey, according to Ali Abul Sukkar, a member of the expedition committee formed by the Islamic Action Front.
“We are determined to continue with the trip and are currently in talks with the company over fuelling and refueling logistics,” Abul Sukkar said, adding that official procedures regarding government approval are in place.
It is reported that a boat carrying Qatari, Lebanese and Israeli activists and journalists will dock at Gaza on Monday in defiance of an Israeli-imposed naval blockade.
Editor: Deng Shasha*****************************************************
Gaza near to collapse as Israel tightens grip, says bank
Toni O’Loughlin in Jerusalem The Guardian, Monday 22 December 2008Israel’s blockade of Gaza is pushing the territory to the brink of collapse and fuelling the growth of a black money market controlled by Hamas, the World Bank warned yesterday.
As tit-for-tat attacks across the Gaza border began to intensify following the end of a six-month truce on Friday, the World Bank said that an acute cash shortage in Gaza was playing into Hamas’s hands. The militant Islamists, who took control of Gaza in June 2007 following violent street clashes with their more secular rival, Fatah, have large stashes of shekels which they have been selling on the black market at a premium because of the cash shortage.
There is also a worry that Hamas, with its dominant militant and bureaucratic control of Gaza, will begin to replace the shekel with US dollars, which are more easily obtained, to smuggle through the tunnels from Egypt in the south.
The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Quartet – the US, the EU, Russia and the United Nations – warned Israel of the crisis in a letter to the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, more than a week ago, to no avail. Instead, Israel continued to tighten its 18-month blockade of the tiny coastal territory, forcing banks and businesses to shut their doors, water, sanitation and electricity services to cease, medical clinics to turn away patients, and bread queues to form in the streets. Since the end of the truce, daily clashes have resumed, with Israel launching air strikes on Palestinian rocket-launching teams and Palestinian fighters firing makeshift rockets and mortars at neighbouring Israeli towns.
Yesterday, Israel’s air force attacked a rocket-launching site and Palestinians launched 18 Qassam rockets, one of which struck a house and another a factory, while a third exploded near farm labourers, injuring one. Most landed in open fields. In the afternoon gunmen also shot at workers near the perimeter.
The two main rivals in Israel’s February elections both vowed yesterday to remove Hamas from power, using military means if need be. “The state of Israel, and a government under me, will make it a strategic objective to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza,” said Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister who will lead the ruling centrist party, Kadima, in the polls. “The means for doing this should be military, economic and diplomatic.”
Later, Binyamin Netanyahu, who leads the hard-right Likud party and who has been ahead in the polls for months, said: “In the long term, we will have to topple the Hamas regime. In the short term … there are a wide range of possibilities, from doing nothing to doing everything, meaning to conquer Gaza.”
Israel has been unable to find a lasting military solution to years of rocket fire from Gaza, and a series of reports from the World Bank suggests its policy of blockading the coastal area to break Hamas’s control has not only failed but is now jeopardizing the US-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
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Six Months of “Truce”; 23 Palestinians Killed, 62 Injured and 38 Kidnapped
Saturday December 20, 2008 09:33 by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & AgenciesIsraeli violations did not cease during the six-month “truce” which was mediated by Egypt on June 19 with the hope that, six months later, the truce would be extended to include the West Bank. Yet, during this period, the Israeli army killed 22 Palestinians, wounded 62, and kidnapped 38 residents in the Gaza Strip.
The truce deal stated that Palestinian factions would halt the firing of homemade shells into adjacent Israeli areas and that the Israeli Army would halt its military offensives, and lift the siege on Gaza.
Although the truce was met with skepticism, resistance factions in Gaza accepted it, but the situation in Gaza did not improve as the siege was only intensified, and the assaults and military incursions reoccurring.
During six months of declared truce, Israel carried out 193 violations until December 18, 2008. Most of the violations were carried out in recent weeks. The Israeli army killed 22 Palestinians, mainly fighters.
62 Palestinians, including nine fishermen, were wounded in recent Israeli attacks, and the army resumed the shelling of civilian areas and infrastructure. The army also kidnapped 38 Palestinians, all fishermen and famers.
Troops kidnapped 16 fishermen and three peace activists on November 18, wounded at least five fishermen, and shelled a number of fishing boats causing excessive damage.
Soldiers also kidnapped 14 farmers and wounded four others. Most of them are from areas near Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Several homes adjacent to the border were shelled, and farmlands were bulldozed.
Although the truce deal required Israel to open up border terminals, the Israeli Army kept the borders closed, and only opened them intermittently, and, for the most part, barred the entry of basic supplies to the Gaza Strip. Basic goods, gas, and various essential fuels remained in short supply. Several patients died due to the ongoing Israeli siege, increasing the number of patients that have died as a result of the siege to 271.
Only 18 percent of the required fuel was allowed into the Gaza Strip. 46 percent of the needed diesel and 43.6 percent of the needed cooking gas made it into the coastal region.
The closure also barred hundreds of patients from leaving Gaza for medical treatment in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Jordan.
The families of approximately 930 detainees from Gaza were never allowed visitations.
In the West Bank, the army carried out 1260 attacks, killed 21 Palestinians, and wounded 245 residents. Soldiers also kidnapped 1111 Palestinians in several invasions and attacks.
VIDEOS
Israeli Army attacks Palestinian fishing boats in Gaza:
The Gaza Siege:
©2009 Diane Saville
iadiedee@gmail.com
