[URBANTH-L]Fwd: Gaza: Enough is Enough

Thu Jan 8 09:59:39 EST 2009

For those of you wondering how you can contribute to ceasefire and
peace efforts in Gaza. This is an initiative launched by Avaaz
(avaaz.org), "an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning
organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the
world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in
many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or
corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London,
Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva."

Millaray Villalobos
Costa Rica

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Paul Hilder - Avaaz.org <avaaz at avaaz.org>
Date: 2009/1/8
Subject: Gaza: Enough is Enough
To: "nubenubenube at gmail.com" <nubenubenube at gmail.com>

 Dear friends,

With over 700 dead in Gaza, it's time to stop this war. This week,
Avaaz is launching a major media campaign urging an immediate end to
the violence. Help get the ads published!
View the Ad and
donate to get it published!

The awful bloodshed in Gaza is escalating as diplomats argue -- over
700 are now killed, almost half of them civilians, and well over 100
children dead.[1] As Israeli tanks, airplanes and artillery bombard
targets in thickly populated urban areas, thousands more have been
injured and 1.5 million terrified civilians have no escape from this
prison-like enclave -- the borders are sealed. Hamas too continues to
fight and fire rockets at Israel, killing 5 Israeli civilians.

We can make a difference -- even Israel's own foreign minister admits
that intense international pressure could force a ceasefire. To that
end, we've delivered our 300,000-strong petition to top officials of
the UN, EU and Arab League. But at the UN, US President Bush is
outrageously blocking a serious international resolution -- trying
instead to impose a skewed alternative that would legitimize the
suffocating blockade of Gaza, which Hamas cite as reason for their
rocket attacks.[2] With leaders deadlocked and issuing toothless
statements, the violence only worsens.

Enough is enough. We're launching a targeted ad campaign in
influential US political papers, including Roll Call, the paper of the
US Congress, and The Washington Post -- the Post ad costs $32,057, so
if just 1000 of us donate $32 (€24) each, we can fund it together and
if we raise more, we can expand these efforts. It's amazing how some
of the most sensible arguments and basic facts about this crisis are
not carried by US media. Follow the link below now to view the ad, and
let's chip in together to get a decent voice for peace into the US
debate:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/gaza_peace_ads

Proposals for an immediate ceasefire are now coming from many states
in Europe and the Middle East. But blocking a UN resolution, Bush's
behind-the-scenes "ceasefire" proposals reportedly seek to exclude
Hamas from any ceasefire deal and leave Israel a free hand, a
disastrous approach that would fan the flames of hatred and guarantee
that the violence continues.[3] Bush faces relatively little
opposition to his outrageous position at home, mainly because US
voices for peace have not been active enough. In a poll, a majority of
US Democrats opposed this war at its outset -- but even if Barack
Obama does want to change America's approach, it will be difficult
unless peace advocates speak up loudly and clearly first. Such voices
are emerging, including new progressive groups within the American
Jewish community. Our ad campaign will strengthen their call for a
sane approach to this conflict that ensures the security of civilians
in both Israel and Palestine.[4]

To be lasting, a ceasefire must protect civilians and end all attacks
-- Israeli bombings and incursions as well as the rockets Palestinian
factions fire into southern Israel. International supervision is
desperately needed at the borders, to reopen Gaza's borders and
crossings for food, fuel, medicine and goods, to prevent
weapons-smuggling (which has only grown under the blockade), and to
monitor and enforce the ceasefire on both sides.[5]

Sources say Israel could agree to such a ceasefire, and Hamas, which
won elections in 2006 and now runs Gaza, has suggested it could do so
too.[6] Both should be challenged to abide by a fair deal. There is no
military solution for either side -- it's time for world powers to
step up and broker a ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides and
let them live their lives in peace and security, and it's time for the
world to engage with the US in a real dialogue about what it means to
be part of the solution in the Middle East, instead of part of the
problem. Follow the link to see our first ad for the Washington Post,
donate to the campaign, and together let's raise an unstoppable
worldwide voice for peace:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/gaza_peace_ads

With hope and determination,

Paul, Graziela, Alice, Ricken, Luis, Brett, Ben, Iain, Paula,
Veronique, Milena and the whole Avaaz team

P.S. We wrote to European, US and Arab leaders last week about our
campaign, and received responses -- now we need to escalate the
pressure. For a report on many of Avaaz's other campaigns so far, see:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/report_back_2

Sources:

1. Daily Telegraph (UK): "Gaza medics describe horror of strike which
killed 70":
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4162193/Gaza-medics-describe-horror-of-strike-which-killed-70.html

Associated Press: "Israel Shells Near UN School, killing at least 30"
(5 January 2009)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95HTJE00

Yediot Aharonot, "Cabinet: Gaza op to continue, Israel has not yet
accepted the Egyptian-French ceasefire initiative", 7 January 2009:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3652371,00.html

2. The Guardian: "Gaza diplomatic efforts near deadlock" (8 January 2009):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/08/gaza-israel-hamas

Reuters: "US haggles with Arabs over UN action in Gaza" (8 January 2009):
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSN08482098

Yediot Aharonot: "Israel examining international treaty to isolate
Hamas" (5 January 2009)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3650522,00.html

3. E.g. see Yediot Aharonot article above, and this from the Israeli site DEBKA:
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5830

4. Rasmussen Reports poll, 31 December 2008: Only 31% of Democrats
support offensive, most prefer a diplomatic solution:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/americans_closely_divided_over_israel_s_gaza_attacks

Major Jewish lobby groups such as the Israel Policy Forum and JStreet
are supporting a pro-peace line -- e.g. see this JStreet action for a
ceasefire and end to the blockade:
http://action.jstreet.org/t/3251/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=508

5. These parameters are advocated by a broad range of experts and
policymakers. See for example International Crisis Group's Ending the
War in Gaza report (5 January 2009):
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5838&l=1

6. "Gaza: outlines of an endgame", Ghassan Khatib (6 January 2009)
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/gaza-outlines-of-an-endgame

Jerusalem Post: "Israel must get out of Gaza now", 8 January 2009:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231167305710&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

Reuters: "Hamas seeks truce but says lifting siege a must" (5 January
2009) http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L5111105.htm

Strikingly, the US Army War College has just released a substantial
report supporting the view that Hamas can and must be brought into
negotiations and is capable of sustaining a long-term truce, or even
peace with Israel. Linked via:
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/node/10703

The inside story of the civil strife between Fatah and Hamas and the
Bush administration's involvement in this debacle is best-told in The
Gaza Bombshell, an investigative article published in the leading US
magazine Vanity Fair in April 2008:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804

"Reigniting Violence: How Do Ceasefires End?" (6 January 2009) is a
statistical analysis by an MIT professor, based on Israel's own data
for rocket fire and on which side struck first. It provides useful
factual background for how the Israel-Hamas truce collapsed, poorly
reflected in some news reporting:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-kanwisher/reigniting-violence-how-d_b_155611.html
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