Ariel Sharon - Tag Search

"We have proven to Hamas that we have changed the equation ... [Operation Cast Lead] has restored Israel's deterrence ... Israel is not a country upon which you fire missiles and it does not respond. It is a country that when you fire on its citizens it responds by going wild - and this is a good thing." - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Jan. 12, 2009

"I began to see Gaza as, I suspect, many Gazans do: a floating island, a dystopian Atlantis, drifting farther away from contact with any other society." - Lawrence Wright

I finally got around to reading Wright's big New Yorker take out on the situation in the Gaza Strip and highly recommend it. Though Wright's story is subtitled "What really happened during the Israeli attacks?", the piece is more of a tour de misère of what ails Gaza than an investigation into the veracity of the Goldstone report. The unavoidable conclusion one draws is that Israel is building its own worst enemy.

Around 150 Palestinians clashed with a group of people - likely Israeli Jews - who entered the Temple Mount this morning, leaving some 35 lightly injured, several news outlets reported (Video from Sky News here).

The fighting came just hours before Yom Kippur, the holiest Jewish holiday, which begins at sundown.

The altercation began after Muslim worshipers at Islam's third-holiest site, home to the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, "started gathering around [the group] and calling out towards them," Ynet News reports. Ynet says the visiting group were tourists, while the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) says they were Jews.

According to Reuters, Israeli police say the Palestinians were angered by the group's immodest dress, while Palestinians put the blame on "religious Israeli Jews" trying to enter what Muslims call Al-Haram Al-Sharif - "The Noble Sanctuary" - where the faithful believe Muhammad once ascended to God.

Mir Hossein Mousavi will start his own political party in Iran. Reformist groups didn't offer details about the new party, but hinted that it will continue to challenge Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's legitimacy as president.

Mousavi also met yesterday with the family of a man killed in the post-election protests. A reformist Web site said Mousavi told the family he would not let the blood of the protesters "go in vain."