Erdogan storms out of WEF over Gaza

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out of a Davos forum after a heated debate with Israel's President Shimon Peres and slamming moderator David Ignatius.

Erdogan walked off in front of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other panel members complaining that his comments on the conflict were cut short by the Washington Post's moderator David Ignatius.

The Turkish premier noted to reporters following the incident that he was treated unfairly by the moderator who allowed him only 12 minutes to make his points while giving Peres a full 25 minutes to deliver an impassioned defense of Israel's 22-day offensive that devastated Gaza. Arab League chief, Egypt's Amr Moussa rose to shake his hand as the prime minister made his exit.

"I do not think I will be coming back to Davos after this because you do not let me speak," the prime minister shouted as he left, though he said later he could reconsider.

Erdogan criticized the audience of international officials and corporate chiefs for applauding Peres' emotional defense of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead.

Erdogan, who leads one of the few Muslim countries to have diplomatic ties with Israel and who has sought a peacemaker's role in the Middle East conflict, said Israel had carried out "barbaric" actions in Gaza.

"I find it very sad that people applaud what you have said because many people have been killed," he shouted at Peres before being cut off by Ignatius.

Erdogan and Peres spoke by telephone after the debate and the 85-year-old Israeli president apologized for the events, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported.

Dad kills wife, five kids in California

A father who had recently been sacked has committed suicide after he shot dead his wife and five young children in California. According to a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) spokeswoman, the father killed his eight-year-old daughter, five-year-old twin daughters and two-year-old twin sons, shot and killed his wife, then himself in the suburb of Wilmington south of Los Angeles on Tuesday. "Right now we're investigating as if the father killed his wife and five kids and then turned the revolver on himself and killed himself," LAPD Deputy Chief Ken Garner told KFWB radio. The murderer faxed a local TV station and also called 911 before killing his family. "He was despondent over his job situation," explained Chief Garner. "He was going through some critical situation at the job ... and that's what prompted him to take his own life and his family, from what was said in the fax letter." "It was a grisly scene," Garner continued. "I've been on the police department for 32 years and I've never seen anything like this ... it's horrific. It's a tragedy," he said.

Sky News joins BBC against Gaza appeal

Britain's Sky News is refusing to broadcast a humanitarian fundraising appeal for Gaza, following in the footsteps of the BBC.
The 24-hour television news channel said Monday that airing the appeal would put the network's objectivity at risks. "We have to, as an international channel, focus on our primary role and that is to report the story and not become the story", Adrian Wells, Sky News's head of foreign news, said. Sky News domestic rival the BBC had earlier announced it would not broadcast a charity appeal on behalf of the war-hit people of Gaza, saying it would conflict with its policy of "impartiality" as well as reservations about the possibility of efficient aid delivery. The BBC decision sparked widespread criticism. British lawmakers, celebrities and religious leaders have also condemned BBC's move calling it a "wrong decision". A group of anti-war activists occupied the Glasgow offices of the BBC for two hours on Monday to protest the broadcaster's anti-Gaza decision. The appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a group comprised of respected aid charities like the British Red Cross and Oxfam, has emphasized that it has no political agendas and only aims to ease the humanitarian crisis in the impoverished strip. Relief workers say the humanitarian situation in Gaza is at its worst with over 1.1 million people -- about 80 percent of the residents of Gaza -- dependent on food aid. At least 1,330 Palestinians were killed and 5,450 others injured during the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

Source: PressTv

ISRAEL USES ILLEGAL WEAPONS ON GAZANS - cluster & phosphoric bombs....

Live recording from Gaza and commentary (part-1)First night of Gaza ground invasion and Israeli soldiers are using illegal weapons on Gazans,such as cluster and phosphoric bombs...

Toll on Gaza's children

Louis-Georges Arsenault of UNICEF's Emergency Programmes tells CNN Gaza children are facing an unbearable situation.

'Unknown group' in Lebanon launches rockets at Israel

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Four rockets struck northern Israel from Lebanon on Thursday, wounding two people, Israeli police and emergency medical services said.
The Lebanese Army issued a statement, saying the rockets were launched by "an unknown group" and that the Israeli retaliatory fire inflicted no casualties.
The rockets hit near the city of Nahariya, located about six miles from the Lebanese border, police said. The Israeli military said it returned fire toward the source of the rockets after the attack.
Schools and kindergartens were closed in Nahariya and the nearby town of Shlomi, the Israel Defense Forces reported.
The Israeli military warned civilians in the western Galilee region to stay close to shelters in the aftermath of Thursday's attack. Watch CNN's Christiane Amanpour discuss rocket attack »
The report comes as Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, aimed at halting rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory to the south, entered a 13th day.
Israel fought a similar campaign against the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah in 2006, during which Hezbollah rained rockets on cities in Israeli's north for a month before a cease-fire was reached.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday's attack.
The Lebanese Army's statement also said its troops and the U.N. peacekeeping mission that patrols the border "have taken all necessary measures to protect the population and control the situation."
Hezbollah has kept a tight rein on its forces in southern Lebanon since the cease-fire, however, and a number of Palestinian factions operate in southern Lebanon as well.

Gaza hospital overflowing

CNN's Christiane Amanpour reports on a Gaza hospital overflowing with casualties, many of them civilians.

Source: CNN
Added January 5, 2009

Making Money

( Neturei Karta ) Jews against Israel

Emergency Protest Demonstration Against the Zionist Massacre in Gaza
December 28, 2008

1500 people, including a group of Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews, in New York City marched from Rockefeller Center to the Israeli Consulate on 2nd Avenue to protest the Israeli government's bombings in Gaza.

A similar protest occurred in London, England the following day...

Neturei Karta

Neturei Karta (Aramaic: נטורי קרתא, "Guardians of the City"), also self-identifying by the English name Jews United Against Zionism, is a small Haredi Jewish group formally created in 1935, that opposes Zionism and calls for a dismantling of the State of Israel, in the belief that Jews are forbidden to have their own state until the coming of the Messiah. They are mostly concentrated in Jerusalem, but also in and around Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet (or B) near Jerusalem, and Bnei Brak. Most others associated with Neturei Karta can be found in London, New York City, and other parts of New York, with smaller communities in various cities around North America.

According to Neturei Karta:

"The name Neturei Karta is a name usually given to those people who regularly pray in the Neturei Karta synagogues (Torah Ve'Yirah Jerusalem, Torah U'Tefillah London, Torah U'Tefillah NY, Beis Yehudi Upstate NY, etc.), study in or send their children to educational institutions run by Neturei Karta, or actively participate in activities, assemblies or demonstrations called by the Neturei Karta".

In Israel some members also pray at affiliated beis midrash, in Jerusalem's Meah Shearim, neighborhood and in Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet. Neturei Karta states no official statistics exist about numbers. The Jewish Virtual Library, published by the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), puts their numbers at 5,000. READ MORE 

Gaza violence goes into sixth day

Israel says it is fighting Hamas, not the people of Gaza
Violence has continued in the Gaza Strip for a sixth day, after calls for a UN-backed ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants foundered.

Israeli air strikes targeted the parliament building and the justice ministry. There are also reports of damage to a children's hospital.

Rockets fired by Hamas militants have again landed in Beersheba, some 40km (24 miles) inside Israel.

Israel on Wednesday rejected calls for a 48-hour truce to allow aid into Gaza.

A draft UN resolution put forward by Egypt and Libya failed after the US and UK complained that it called on Israel to ends its air assaults but made no mention of Hamas rocket attacks against Israel, which they say started the latest hostilities.

Since the Israeli air offensive began on Saturday, jets and attack helicopters have targeted Hamas security compounds, government buildings, smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt and homes belonging to militant leaders.

Palestinian officials say 391 Palestinians have died in the Israeli air strikes; four Israelis have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza, which is under Hamas control.
Aid distribution
The UN's relief agency, Unwra, says Gaza is facing a dire humanitarian situation and is on the brink of catastrophe.

It says it will resume the distribution of food and medical supplies in Gaza on Thursday.
The agency's Commissioner-General, Karen AbuZayd, said 20,000 people a day had been without food aid for two weeks.
"People are doing pretty badly," she told the BBC.
"We do see for the very first time people going through the rubbish dumps looking for things, people begging, which is quite a new phenomenon."
However, Capt Benjamin Rutland of the Israeli Defence Force told the BBC that enough food and medical supplies were getting through.
Despite the failure of the initial UN talks, diplomatic efforts continue to bring an end to the fighting.
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he would visit the region on Monday, although he is not scheduled to travel to Gaza.
Israel and Hamas say they may consider a ceasefire in the future, but their terms are very different.
Israel wants a permanent end to Hamas rocket attacks, while Hamas wants the Israeli air strikes to stop and the blockade on Gaza to be lifted.
Opinion polls in Israel indicate strong public backing for the air campaign, but support for risky action on the ground is much lower.
However, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has spoken of "widening and deepening the operation".
The Haaretz newspaper reported on Thursday that the Israeli army had recommended a major but short-term ground offensive.
Israel has massed forces along the boundary with Gaza and has declared the area around it a "closed military zone", leading to speculation a ground offensive into the tiny coastal strip could be imminent.
International reporters have been barred from entering Gaza.