I am Yuval Ophir-Auron (on the right). I am one of the Shministim. I need your help.

President-Elect Barack Obama introduces National Security Team

Libyan ship carrying Gaza supplies ordered back

By IBRAHIM BARZAK Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Israeli navy on Monday turned away a Libyan ship heading to Gaza with 3,000 tons of humanitarian aid, ending the most high-profile effort yet to break a blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.

The Al Marwa was approaching the Gaza coast when it was stopped by an Israeli navy vessel. The navy vessel ordered the Libyan ship via radio to turn back, said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, adding that no force was used.

In Gaza's small port, spectators, journalists and dozens of porters had assembled to await the arrival of the Libyan ship.

Link HERE for the rest of the story via MSNBC.

Additional information indicated that the Al Marwa was going to dock in an Egyptian port and that there would be an attempt to deliver its humanitarian cargo to Gaza through the Rafah crossing, which is controlled by Egypt. By this latest report, it is not clear that that is happening.

Israel's blockade of Gaza has reportedly led to the deaths of 261 medical patients in need of treatment outside of Gaza, but who were prevented from leaving.

That the Israeli navy continues to control the Gaza coast merely shows that the siege of Gaza is just an extension of the military occupation that Israel has exerted in the Palestinian territories for over 40 years.

This Libyan chapter in the Gaza siege is still developing and further information may be available later in the day.

Last week, Arab foreign ministers issued a joint statement in Cairo that their governments would send food and medicine to Gaza. They said they would coordinate with Egypt to ensure the supplies enter Gaza, suggesting they would take the land route, rather than confronting Israelis at sea. Egypt has otherwise kept the Rafah crossing with Gaza closed most of the time.

A newspaper reader displays a copy of an advertisement by the Palestinian Authority published in an Israeli newspaper, at a coffee shop in Jerusalem, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008.

With two senior Obama aides leaking the news (reported at Huffington Post) that President-elect Obama plans to name Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as his secretary of State shortly after Thanksgiving, speculations about the effect of this appointment on the prospects for Middle East peace become increasingly relevant.

An article from Lawrence of Cyberia as well as one from FireDogLake are strangely positive about an early peace deal between the Israeli and Palestinians, which could be seen as the linchpin of Obama's foreign policy toward the entire Muslim and Arab worlds: a reversal of the Islamophobic Neocon disasters the Bush administration subjected the country to in the name of fighting terrorism.

In spite of the Clinton legacy that left much to be desired in the 90s, both authors believe that peace between Israelis and Palestinians "will again be center-stage in U.S. foreign policy," and quickly.

November 13, 2008

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported this story a few days ago, which apparently never made it to the US mainstream media: how a right wing supporter of Israel, Alan Dershowitz, the famous Harvard lawyer, convinced Barak Obama to shun Jimmy Carter at the DNC convention, presumably due to Carter advocacy for the Palestinian people through his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, and his statements about the siege of Gaza, which he called a "human rights abomination." We all witnessed Jimmy Carter's brief humble trek across the stage to applause, then disappear, never to be seen again.

Dershowitz claims he is a liberal Democrat but if a liberal Democrat can support the inhumane treatment and suffering of any people, what is he, really? About Carter, there are no doubts that he is a statesman and humanitarian, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his worldly efforts to bring peace and democracy to foreign peoples. Dershowitz, by contrast, deserves not to be mentioned in the same sentence with Jimmy Carter.

Democrats' aversion for Nader's spoiler role in past presidential elections might compel ignorance of his advise, especially when it was directed at the president elect, Barak Obama, only one day before the election on November 3rd. This open letter to Obama is focused on the Middle East and how Obama has made himself a obsequious darling of AIPAC, the now hard right wing handmaiden of the Likud party of Israel.

Thanks to Mark Elf of Jews sans frontieres for the heads up on this missed advise from a persona non gratis, who should probably be listened to more often.

The Palestinian residents of Al Sheikh Jarrah staging a sit-in in front of the Al Kurd house in Al Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

Obama supporters in Israel (from the Gush Shalom site).

The SS Dignity is shown being prepared for the previous and second voyage to break the Gaza siege.

Ali Abunimah posted this article on The Electronic Intifada on 5 November 2008. This is a Lazy Quote Diary, where I don't have much more to say than the author. Enjoy this exposition of where Obama is likely to go with a hardline Israeli citizen in the White House. There is no question that George Bush, by demanding a halt to the 42 year long military occupation of the Palestinians and the creation of an independent, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian state was way ahead of Obama even before he takes office.

Ramzi Kysia, an Arab-American writer and activist, and one of the organizers of the Free Gaza Movement, wrote this piece on Election Day, and it is belatedly posted here for its relevance for the direction the Obama administration might take in resolving the interminable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

What a strange conclusion: that Obama supports the Palestinians. During the vice presidential debate, in the only opportunity Obama had to express his view through Joe Biden, it was the McCain-Palin camp that unhesitatingly claimed, "two states" as a basis for resolving the conflict, something Bush forcefully did last year after the Annapolis conference. Biden, by contrast, danced around the question, never bothering to mention the occupation, the incessant colonialism (Israel now controls 50% of the Palestinian territories), Israel's violations of international law, or the need to recognize Palestinian rights to freedom and self-determination in their historical lands.

So why would Gaza support Obama and not John McCain? Beats me, but it does give some insight into why right wing Zionist Likudniks are also vocal supporters of Obama.

SS Dignity arriving in Gaza.

Gaza is `an atrocity, a crime, an abomination,'said Jimmy Carter several months ago. Since that time, the Free Gaza Movement has acted to temporarily break the siege of Gaza, which is not only killing medically ill Palestinians, but is traumatizing its population. This letter by Eyad el-Sarraj, a psychiatrist and founder of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and leader of the International Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza, was recently published by the Jewish Voice for Peace. It talks about the dire situation that continues in Gaza, in spite of the ceasefire that Hamas (yes, Hamas), after several attempts, was able to negotiate with Israel.

The psychiatric implications of the siege are well explained.