The Ever-Evolving World Through Her Eyes

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As I sit in upstate New York, Palestinians in Gaza are being murdered. What do the world governments do? People from all over the world are calling for a ceasefire in Indonesia, UK, France, Australia, Canada, and the United States just to name a few. But what are our leaders doing

The US is holding Hamas accountable for the continued violence, as current Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice issued a statement about the situation.

“The United States is deeply concerned about the escalating violence in Gaza. We strongly condemn the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and hold Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence there. The ceasefire must be restored immediately and fully respected. The United States calls on all concerned to protect innocent lives and to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza.”

For more information on US statements about the crisis click here.

Although governments are calling for a ceasefire, Israel has rejected any pleas. The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, representing the European Union said, “We, Europe, want a ceasefire as soon as possible. Time is working against peace. The weapons must be silenced and there must be a temporary humanitarian truce.”

But the response from Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that they are not done, “We have hit Hamas hard, but we have not yet reached all the goals that we have set for ourselves and the operation continues,” he told a parliamentary committee.

Now what are Israel’s goals? When we campaign on the environment or social justice, we have our internal goals and our external goals. So for example, when planning Power Shift 2007 our external goal for attendance was 2000-4000 but our internal goal was 5000 – 6000. This allows us room, to surpass our external goals and possibly our internal goals. What are Israel’s internal goals, if they have already killed nearly 700 people? When does it end, Israel?

We are all responsible. We all have a part to play in this. If you live in the US contact your congressional office and senatorial office today . Contact Obama’s transitional office as well. He needs to hear from us, we elected him on the platform of change and if he does not show us that he is different from his predecessor, than he is not fulfilling his rhetoric. http://change.gov/page/content/contact

We must take lead from Israeli Youth, who are building a movement called Shminitism. They are high school seniors refusing to join the army and are going to prison instead.

There is an Avaaz petition that has over 200,000 signatures calling for a ceasefire, if you have not done this already please do so.

And finally but most importantly, click here to donate to Gaza. They are in need of food and medical supplies. More than 80 percent of Palestinians living in Gaza depend on food aid. Please donate to the United Palestinian Appeal.

Other organizations in the states that are doing good work on the issue in particular are Arab American Institute and American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

To read more about the issue visit Robert Fisk’s page at http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/