| # | Name | Comments | Country | ZIP code |
|---|
| 101 | Priscilla Inkpen | | US | 80301 |
| 102 | Anonymous | | US | 28625 |
| 103 | Carrie Haber | | CA | H3K1S9 |
| 104 | Paola Canarutto | | IT | |
| 105 | George M. Hudes | | US | 96822 |
| 106 | Minnietta Millard | | US | 46208 |
| 107 | Sara Jaka | | US | |
| 108 | Tsiporah Grignon | The world watches. The violent cycles continue. The west IS involved through America's support of Israel...the United States is complicit in this horrible suffering.
And so it is left to the international community to demand an END to the violence. We must act together. | CA | V0R 1X7 |
| 109 | Angus Geddes | Petition fully supported. Stop the slaughter. Firing rockets by both sides is entirely counterproductive, whether they kill many or terrorise many or both. | GB | PO9 1BD |
| 110 | Salomon Anne | | CA | H2V 2S8 |
| 111 | rhoda rosenfeld | | CA | v6a 1w1 |
| 112 | Lawrence Wray | A meaningful and just resolution to conflict in Israel/Palestine cannot happen under the threat of armed force. Peace and justice begin with the recognition of mutual dignity. | US | |
| 113 | Ted Shohfi | | US | 92649 |
| 114 | Anonymous | | | |
| 115 | Abraham Entin | | US | 91344 |
| 116 | Joseph Parko | There can be no peace for Israel until there is justice for the Palestinian people. | US | 38572 |
| 117 | Jerilyn tabor | | US | 10010 |
| 118 | Paul | Collective punishment is illegal under international law. | US | 90065 |
| 119 | Julie Rufo | The Israelis have become the same as those who persecuted them in Europe. They are behaving and talking in very similar ways to how the Nazis spoke of and treated the Jews before the Holocaust. Is that next? | US | 94501 |
| 120 | CJ Goldman | | CA | h2t3b2 |
| 121 | J Paul Devlin | Its a mistake not to talk with Hamas. Too bad that Obama now says he would not. Very disappointing. | US | 74075 |
| 122 | M. Danin | Stop shooting and start talking | US | 90291 |
| 123 | Angelika Brosig | Ceasefire NOW! | DE | |
| 124 | Imad Elias | | US | |
| 125 | Nils Eriksson | | SE | 30237 |
| 126 | Dr. Soeren Widmann | | DE | 73084 |
| 127 | Harry Lefever | | US | 30307 |
| 128 | annemarie heineman | | US | 94705 |
| 129 | Anonymous | Israel should be encouraged to talk to Hamas and make real commitments for peace that they do not undermine as they have done in the past. Israel is the regional power and does not need to react to every provocation, or use excessive force that creates more anger and desire for revenge for a frustrated, captive population | US | 77066 |
| 130 | Evelyn Haas | | US | 19152 |
| 131 | Anonymous | | CA | H2G 2P5 |
| 132 | Cynthia Merkey | The situation in Gaza has become one of genocide, but, perhaps, that is what Israel wants to take care of its problem. As an American, I am ashamed of the U.S. for continuing to support Israel every step of the way, and not insisting on humanitarian measures to help those innocents who are suffering. Where oh where is our humanity??? Both Israel and the United States have become their own worst enemies and both are guilty of war crimes. | US | 34476-7459 |
| 133 | Gary R. Goldstein | | US | 02138 |
| 134 | R. Cloutier | De tout mon coeur, j'espère que la justice soit mise en oeuvre. | CA | |
| 135 | Geoffrey Cook | Geoffrey Cook
P.O. Box 4233
Berkeley, California 94704-0233
(510) 654-9251
geoffrey.cook@sbcglobal.net
GCook69833
Gaza
An OpEd
Last month the Gaza’s border with Egypt (i.e., the Israeli wall) to Gaza was breached! Up to 700,000 individuals had escaped their mock country -- cramped between the Sea and the Israeli Army -- that, instead, has become a prison. Despite the attempt of Tel Aviv to bulldoze the wall back into place, and Cairo’s paramilitary police to halt the streaming exodus, their efforts failed! The Arabs of the Levant were stunned at the lack of sympathy shown by their brothers on the Nile while Alexandria was shocked by the abuse that their soldiers received from their Arabic neighbors! The Egyptians suffered a humiliating defeat! (There was a skirmishes in and around Rafah where a considerable number of Gazans and Egyptians were wounded on both sides.) Forming human shields, the paramilitary police were overwhelmed; they retreated in disarray. As the Palestinians threw their stones, Hamas and the Egyptians shot their guns into the air, the huge opening in the fence remained opened for several days! At the moment, the Egyptians had resealed the wall, but Hamas has re-opened it, but the Egyptian Army resealed the border crossing refusing to allow the Palestinians trapped on their side of the frontier to go home.
The purpose of blowing out the wall was merely to obtain basic supplies in Egypt that were being denied to the Gazans. (Although more escaped than not, there were 600,000 who could not. The boundaries have to be opened for trade and to travel to work. That they are not, lies at the feet of the Israelis!)
A leading Gazan medical doctor declared that “The people are losing hope!” The Israeli Army (IDF) is fencing the populace into a narrow strip of land, and turning off their access to electricity and other basic supplies. (the 3rd again), the Strip went dark, for the government in Gaza City ran out of fuel to generate electricity at all. Although Gaza will be out of food by the time you read this, the Egyptian Administration has pledged the aid immediately needed to avoid an humanitarian catastrophe despite the bad relations between the two governments.) From a strategic point of view, the support for the Hamas Army has increased amongst the civilian residents, too, due to the battle. Also, Egypt has been exposed as a lackey for the Israelis in the eyes of the Palestinians and to the Arab nations as a whole!
(Former President) Jimmy Carter exclaimed that the Gazan election, which established the Hamas rule, was one of the freest and fairest he and his group had ever observed, and that Islamic Party had fairly won! “We cannot complain when we demand democracy and we get democracy!’
The Palestinian goal along the Strip is for their national rights as inhabitants. Yet they are completely sealed off from their neighbors! The population we are talking about is 1.4 Million. A large collection of those is children.
After the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) left, the Arabs had to fend for themselves. It became evident that the occupation had been an ugly occurrence for both the occupier and the occupied. For one thing, the Israeli Army, who employed the American bulldozers built by Caterpillar, demolished over 5,000 houses in the territory. This was a gross human rights violation against the Gazans, for this was collective punishment, a grossly illegal principle -- since the Second World War -- under International law!
Women and children are taking the brunt of the aggression! Children were dying while the Israeli Army held up Palestinian ambulances in their military roadblocks as well by the Israeli Air Force!
Tel Aviv’ Air Force has bomb out Gazan power plants; recently, electricity has been totally cut off from Jewish Jerusalem, besides. It is impossible for laborers to get out from their mini-state to work on the West Bank or even Israel itself. Thus, it has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the world! There is no place beyond their miniscule republic to sell their produce or to buy needed groceries. Besides, it is one of the most packed and confined national collection of individuals in the world with no way out! As one well educated Gazans repeated, “We are constantly working under a fiery siege. It is a difficult situation” – especially with the lack of power!
The Egyptians were quite aware that to apply excessive force would be a public relations disaster within the Arab World. Overall, the situation has helped Hamas, to the point that Mubarak has invited Hamas -- and Fatah, the rulers of the WestBank) for talks to heal their differences! At the same time, it was announced that Israel’s Olmert invited Fatah’s Abbas, leader of Palestine (excluding the Southern Costal Strip) to talk. Mubarak’s initiative sounds much more promising, for no peace agreement can succeed without Hamas.
Hamas, in effect, had broken the siege of Gaza if only for a week! Tel Aviv, Ramallah and the District of Columbia must come to terms that this miniscule Republic is no longer isolated! This means that we must negotiate with this cornered Strip of land if there is ever to be peace in our Holy Land! | | 94704-0233 |
| 136 | Anonymous | | HR | 42 000 |
| 137 | Anne Gardner Remley | Accept Hamas's offer of a cease fire. They long abided by one last year. They ask for a Palestinian state to be recognized -- just as Israel asks to be recognized. Negotiations are the way forward. | US | 48103-3043 |
| 138 | jeff fellinger | Time for some old habits to end | US | 05410 |
| 139 | Bert Skellie | We need peace with justice - a cease fire is a good start. | US | 30032 |
| 140 | Caroline & Mike Butkiewicz | Stop the destruction in Palestine. Bring Israel to the negotiation table with the Palestinians. | US | 48314 |
| 141 | Esther B. Wolf | Collective punishment should never be an option. It is morally unacceptable as well as counter productive and can not lead to peace. | US | 98199 |
| 142 | Nabil Rachid | | DE | 10585 |
| 143 | Jane Courant | | | |
| 144 | Therese Ballet Lynn, Ph.D. | | US | 92647 |
| 145 | Lawrence Boxall | Shame on humanity for sitting idly by while crimes against humanity are perpetrated with impunity and with the help of foreign arms and money. Shame on Canada for becoming a party to these injustices. | CA | V6K 1S3 |
| 146 | Donna Nager | | US | 33487 |
| 147 | Diane Schaffer | | US | 87505 |
| 148 | Alice Brody | There is no way one can justify the wanton killing of innocent women and children. None. Israel's use of its powerful airforce and weaponry against civiilians is no different than what we are seeing in Darfur. | US | 12208 |
| 149 | Constance Trowbridge | Attacking and killing people inside an open air prison is barbaric beyond imagination, let alond morality. | US | 98118 |
| 150 | ruth gottlieb | the people of GAZA are humans for their sake
and the sake of all humanity please start talking.
end the carnage now!! | US | 92637 |