Israel has launched a major military operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. Over the coming days and beyond, Israel will come under intense pressure both in the mainstream media and in online forums and the blogosphere.

HonestReporting presents a guide to the important talking points to enable you to answer the questions and issues that will appear.

Defending Israeli citizens from terrorist fire

A quarter of a million Israeli citizens have been living under incessant terror attacks from the Gaza Strip with thousands of missiles fired over the past eight years.

These missiles have been described as "home made" by the media. They are, in fact, deadly. Hamas has in its possession longer range Katyushas and Grad-type missiles which can cause devastation such as that on Monday 29 December as one Israeli was killed and 14 injured in a Grad attack on Ashkelon.


Israel left Gaza in 2005, giving Palestinians the chance to run their own lives. Despite this, more than 6300 rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel since then.

During the past year alone, more than 3000 rockets and mortars have been launched into Israel.

Since the end of a formal ceasefire (during which terror attacks continued) with Hamas came to an end on Dec. 19, more than 170 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israeli civilians including a barrage of some 80 missiles on Dec. 24 alone.

As US President-elect Obama stated during a visit to Sderot five months ago, "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing."

No other country in the world would have exercised the amount of restraint that Israel has shown for the past several years without responding.

Hamas bears responsibility

The deterioration in the situation is the direct result of Hamas policy. It violated the calm, is firing against and attacking Israeli citizens, and is investing all its resources in arming itself and gathering power.

If Hamas would renounce the path of terror, there would be no need for the Israeli action. Quiet will be answered with quiet, but terror will elicit a response.

"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." - US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice

"We talked to them [Hamas] and we told them 'please, we ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop' so that we could have avoided what happened." - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

"For quite some time, Egypt has been warning. Whoever tried to confuse the understand of [ignore] this warning, must bear the responsibility. The Prime Minister of Israel warned the Hamas and said: "You must stop, otherwise we will take measures in response." In response to what? To not renewing the calm, to the rocket fire. Just before the arrival of [Israeli Foreign Minister] Livni to Egypt, 60 rockets were fired from Gaza!" - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit

Israel targets Hamas and the terrorist infrastructure

The goal of the Israeli military action is to strike the growing infrastructure of terror and ability of Hamas and its allied organizations to launch missiles and mortars at Israeli citizens and carry out terror attacks.

Hamas has used the ceasefire to massively arm itself with increasingly sophisticated weapons to expand the range of the threat against Israeli civilians.

Hamas has demonstrated its increased threat as the Ashdod area was hit by rockets, marking the northernmost point where Hamas rockets have reached, more than 40km north of Gaza.

Israel does not target Palestinian civilians

The terrorist organizations work out of the Palestinian population centers and cynically exploit them, so the responsibility for Palestinian civilians getting hurt rests on their shoulders. Israel, for its part directs its activity at terrorist elements and does its utmost to refrain from harming the innocent.

Those homes and buildings which are used for storing weapons caches and manufacturing weaponry are legitimate military targets.

The high casualty figures being fed to the media from (unreliable) Palestinian medical sources do not differentiate between terrorists and civilians. The vast majority of those killed in IDF actions have been terrorists. Hamas terrorists do not always wear uniforms to distinguish themselves from the general population.

As The Times of London reports: "Radio stations ordered all members of the security forces, who have borne the brunt of the attack, to slip into civilian clothes, stay away from their bases and avoid congregating in groups to escape death from above."

At the time of writing, even the United Nations is citing some 50 civilian deaths out of more than 300 Palestinian casualties.

Hamas TV has acknowledged this morning that the vast majority of those killed are from the Hamas military. A news ticker running repeatedly from 10:00 AM announced:

"More than 180 Palestinian policemen were killed including the [Police] Commander, General Tawfik Jaber."

In the background Hamas TV is repeatedly broadcasting the same scenes of dozens of bodies of the uniformed Hamas soldiers who were killed in Israel's first attack Saturday when Israel hit a Hamas officer's course graduation ceremony. (Source: Palestinian Media Watch)


In stark contrast to Israel, Hamas actively celebrates targeting Israeli civilians. A video on Hamas TV Sunday morning blended pictures of Hamas fighters shooting at Israel with pictures of injured Israelis and medical evacuation scenes. In addition, the visuals include pictures of skulls dripping with blood, captioned: "Let them taste violent death". Other narrations and texts include:
"Send them to Hell! Tear them to pieces!"
"Send them to Hell, Qassam missile!" (Source: Palestinian Media Watch)



Israel has collected intelligence on specific targets for the past year and has not indiscriminately attacked the Gaza Strip. For example, during the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas took control over many facilities in Gaza, including this building and the "Palestinian Prisoner Tower" located in southern Gaza City. The facility was being used as a central operational facility for Hamas security operations and as a weapons arsenal. Hamas offices were also located inside this building and and additionally, large amounts of weapons are also stored inside. The building was used only by Hamas and was not a residential building by any means.


Preventing a humanitarian crisis

Israel has continued to allow humanitarian aid to pass through Gaza's border crossings despite Hamas's rocket and mortar attacks, including upon the crossings themselves.

23 trucks bearing medical supplies, basic food commodities and other humanitarian goods passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza beginning at 10.30am on Sunday morning (28 Dec).

"As the prime minister said yesterday, we are not at war with the Palestinian people, but with the Hamas terrorists, and therefore we are bringing in the goods for the Palestinian people," said IDF Major Peter Lerner, Defense Ministry Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories.

Three humanitarian aid agencies are sending goods into the Gaza Strip: UNWRA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency), WFA (World Food Agency) and the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross). All three agencies were notified Saturday evening that they would be allowed to send as many truckloads of supplies into the region as they could muster. "We didn't place any limit on the number of trucks," Lerner said. "There are only 30 truckloads because that was what they were able to get ready for today."  More >

UPDATE: Iran-backed Palestinian terrorists in Gaza launched two rockets at the Israeli city of Beersheba Tuesday (Dec. 30). One of the rockets struck a kindergarten. Beersheba - which lies 26 miles (42 km) from Gaza - is the easternmost Israeli city ever hit by Gaza rockets. [1]

As Israel carries out "Operation Cast Lead" to stop Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza from continuing to attack Israeli civilians with thousands of rockets, missiles and mortars, Arab leaders such as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have blamed Hamas for the violence in Gaza.

Abbas and Mubarak, among others, said maintaining the truce could have helped the Palestinians avoid the Israeli raids and that Hamas is fully responsible for the situation.

Palestinian Authority Leaders and Gaza Civilians

On Dec. 28, 2008, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Iran-backed Hamas could have avoided the Israeli attacks on Gaza and blamed the group for Israel taking action to stop the attacks by Hamas in Gaza: “We talked to them and we told them ‘please, we ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop’ so that we could have avoided what happened.” [2] Abbas further stated that the priority was to restore the truce. [3]

• A Palestinian girl in Gaza whose family members died in Gaza Dec. 28 in an Israeli air attack held Hamas responsible. "I say Hamas is the cause, in the first place, of all wars,” the girl told Palestinian TV. [4]

• A Palestinian journalist in Gaza said members of the Palestinian media are ‘directing’ civilians to cry and telling them what to say in interviews: "A mother of one of the martyrs stood by the door of the intensive care unit while crying... relatives and those around her were telling her what she should say to the television cameras: 'Say your son [before he died] prayed and went out.' Another tells her: 'Curse the Arab leaders'... The journalists [in the hospitals] are going overboard in their insensitivity and taking advantage of the [difficult] moments, with the explanation that they are showing this to the world. One cameraman told a mourning mother: 'Hit your face, cry, do some action.'" [5]


•Abbas also blamed Hamas for disrupting national unity talks that could have paved the way for general and presidential elections. While visiting Cairo to discuss Egyptian and Arab League efforts to put an end to the violence in Gaza, Abbas said: “We have warned of this grave danger.” [6]

•Nimr Hammad, an advisor to Abbas, said: “The one responsible for the massacre is Hamas […].” He called upon Hamas's leaders to stop carrying out “operations, which reflect recklessness, such as the firing of missiles.” [7]

•Hafez Al-Barghouthi, editor of the PLO daily al-Hayat al-Jadida criticized Hamas for not prolonging the 'tahdiah' - Arabic for 'calm': “Prolonging the tahdiah was a supreme national interest. Why hasn’t [Hamas] prevented the aggression and the massacre? How many times have we written and Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) has declared that these missiles [that Hamas is firing at Israel] as ineffective and contrary to the supreme national interest […].” [8]

Egypt and Jordan

•On Dec. 23, 2008, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. Both leaders strongly criticized Hamas and held the movement responsible for the current violence in Gaza. The two leaders agreed that the rocket attacks on Israel were a “mistake” and said Hamas was responsible for the ongoing suffering of the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. [9]

•A PA official quoted Mubarak: “President Mubarak is very angry with Hamas. The Egyptians see Hamas as a threat to stability in the region.” [10]

•Egypt, which has taken on the role of mediator between Israel and the Palestinians as well as between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah faction, has been criticized for coordinating with Israel to close the border between Gaza and Egypt. [11]

On Dec. 27, Egypt opened the Rafah crossing to receive wounded Palestinians but Hamas called on Egypt to open its border with Gaza forever and for all residents, not just the wounded. [12]

•Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu al-Gheit said Egypt has warned Hamas that Israel would initiate operations against Hamas unless Hamas stops its Qassam rocket attacks. He added that those who did not heed the warning “should bear the responsibility." He further said Egypt had predicted Israel's response to the attacks “because Hamas did not stop firing rockets into Israel.” [13]

•Al-Gheit said Hamas was not allowing wounded Palestinians to cross the border into Egypt for treatment: “We are waiting for the wounded Palestinians to cross. They are not being allowed to cross.” Asked who was to blame, he refered to Gaza by saying, “Ask the party in control on the ground in Gaza.” [14]

•Egypt and other Western-allied Sunni Arab states are opposed to the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hizballah, as they see both groups as extensions of Shiite Iran. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the silence of some Arab countries and said: “Worse than this catastrophe is the encouraging silence of some Arab countries who claim to be Muslim,” apparently in a reference to Egypt and Jordan. [15] Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab states recognizing Israel’s independence and which have diplomatic relations with it. [16]

Arab nations’ summit

•Arab foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Cairo on Jan. 2, 2009 under the auspices of the Arab League to “formulate the Arab position to deal with Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip,” Arab League Chairman Amr Moussa said on Dec. 27, 2008. At the upcoming meeting, “some will call on Egypt and Jordan to cut diplomatic relations with Israel,” said Abdel Monem Said Ali of the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies. [17]

_______________________________________________________________________________

Footnotes:

[1] JPost.com staff; Selig, Abe, "Widening range, rockets strike Beersheba kindergarten," The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 30, 2008, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230456524549&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull; "International call for Gaza truce," BBC News

[2] Shahine, Alaa: "Palestinians could have avoided Gaza raids – Abbas,“ Reuters, Dec. 28, 2008, [link]

[3] "Abbas blames Hamas for failing to avert violence,“ Reuters, Dec. 28, 2008, [link]

[4] "A Palestinian girl whose family members were killed yesterday in Gaza," Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, Dec. 2008, [link]

[5] Ibid.

[6] "Abbas blames Hamas for Gaza bloodshed,“ The Nation, Dec. 28, 2008, [link]
[7] "PLO and Fatah Officials: Hamas is Responsible for the Deaths of Its People,“ MEMRI, Dec. 29, 2008, [link]
[8] Ibid.

[9] Abu Toameh, Khaled; Katz, Yaakov, "Abbas: Egypt to push new Gaza truce,“ The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 24, 2008, [link]

[10] Ibid.

[11] "Across Mideast, thousands protest Israeli assault,“ The Associated Press, Dec. 28, 2008, [link]

[12] "Egyptian border under pressure as Israeli raids on Gaza continues,“ Xinhua, Dec. 28, 2008, [link]

[13] "Egypt lays blame on Hamas,“ iReport, Dec. 28, 2008, [link]

[14] Shahine, Alaa, "Egypt: Hamas denying Gaza wounded treatment in Egypt,“ Reuters, Dec. 28, 2008, [link]

[15] El-Khodary, Taghreed; Kershner, Isabel, "Israeli Troops Mass Along Border; Arab Anger Rises,“ The New York Times, Dec. 28, 2008, [link]

[16] Abilov, Shamkhal, "Israel Air Strike Against Gaza and Reaction of Arab World,“ The Journal of Turkish Weekly, Dec. 29, 2008, [link]

[17] Gazzar, Brenda, "Egypt: Hizbullah declared war on us,“ The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 28, 2008, [link]
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from foxnews.com

SDEROT, Israel — This working-class border town has been pounded with several thousand missiles fired out of Gaza since 2001. Now anxiety is mixed with satisfaction that Israel's military is finally getting even with its tormentors.

"It's about time," said Victor Turjeman, a 33-year-old electrician. "We've been waiting for this for eight years."

In that time, rockets have killed eight people here, injured hundreds more and made daily life unbearable.

Turjeman said his four children have been traumatized by the near daily attacks, his home has been damaged and his brother had a heart attack after a rocket exploded nearby. He fears escalation, but said he was pleased that the militant group Hamas was finally being punished.

"We should keep pounding them until they beg for mercy," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, all of Gaza can be erased."

Israeli warplanes have struck furiously at Hamas positions in Gaza since Saturday, killing about 380 people, according to Palestinian health officials.

Rice Presses Mideast Leaders for 'Durable' Solution in Gaza Elsewhere in southern Israel, however, people were increasingly fearful, and many followed army instructions to begin preparing bomb shelters. Four Israelis were killed by rockets since the Israeli offensive began, some in attacks that struck farther into Israel than ever before.

In Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel, streets and malls were alive with movement, even after the Israeli military extended its rocket warning system to include the city Monday.

Ortal Levy, a 30-year-old mother of two, said she had never even entertained the idea that her bustling city could be within rocket range. Now she was preparing her bomb shelter.

Outside the central bus station, Mazal Ivgi, 62, said she couldn't believe their city, 28 miles from Gaza, would be hit.

"When the first 'boom' comes, we'll have to get used to a new situation," she said.

That first attack on Beersheba came Tuesday. One long-range rocket hit it an open area outside the city, and the mayor told Israel television that a second missile struck an empty kindergarten.

Unlike the new targets of Gaza's militants, the residents of Sderot are well versed with life under fire. Sderot Mayor David Buskila said his 24,000 citizens were still scared but mostly overjoyed that something was being done to strike at Hamas.

"We felt abandoned for so long, that our despair was ignored. We felt like we weren't even a part of Israel," he said. "Now we feel like the army is actively protecting us."

Israel Katz, a social psychologist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said the reaction in Sderot was a natural one.

"Fear and rage are often intertwined," he said. "These are people who feel vulnerable and all of a sudden they feel empowered. It's the same kind of satisfaction that a child who has been picked on gets when he hits back."

In Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people 11 miles north of Gaza, the reality that Sderot has faced for years began to sink in after a missile crashed into a construction site Monday, killing one worker and wounding several others.

It was the first rocket death ever in the city.

Looking at the damaged site later, Yitzhak Daboosh shook his head in disbelief. The 58-year-old father of two has spent his entire life in Ashkelon, and he said he now fears for his family's safety.

"These missiles have no address. Only God is watching over us now," he said. "We've been through a lot of things here, a lot of wars. But something like this? Never."  More >

Shamanism is a belief in or knowledge of unseen powers, knowledge that all things in the universe are dependent on each other. Shamanism has slight variations depending on one's culture, but all shamans share the same basic traits. A Shaman can be of any gender, any color, most any age, any ethnic background, and in any country. Most communities and tribes recognize individuals who are responsible for specialized and sometimes secret knowledge. These individuals help pass on knowledge and sacred practices from generation to generation, storing what they know in their memories. Persons who are responsible for specialized knowledge are most often individuals who live to understand the sacred. Their life and their vocation is devoted to learning about the mysteries of the world and knowing and handling (working with, using) the relationships by which the world operates. These individuals are born with or develop a special sensitivity to and interest in the elements that make up the sacred. Often, these persons are exposed to greater hardships than most people; personal injury, fright, anxiety, and loneliness. If they succeed in their journey or quest for knowledge and in their work as sacred practitioners, they then have greater responsibilities, than most people and are respected for this.

These individuals are most often responsible for maintaining a balance relationship between the people and the nature world of the sacred powers. They know and they teach us that there are some questions that cannot be answered, some mysteries about the world that are to be wondered at, with reverence, but never explained.

Shamans are individuals who, through some inborn sensitivity or need, take as their vocation the quest for knowledge that uses a direct attempt at experiencing the Mysteries. Usually the most powerful shamans are individuals who are forced by illness, a compelling dream or vision, or some other need, to become shamans whether they want to or not. Shamans to be receive training and develop areas of expertise. Often the knowledge they receive is so specialized that it would be too dangerous for other individuals to practice. A shaman learns how to interpret and understand dreams and visions. A shaman also learns basic knowledge about the relationships and balances in the world of humans and the natural world through song, dance, ceremony, stories. The shaman is adept in altered states of consciousness and interdimensional experiences. A shaman is considered an artist of the sacred.

A Native American shaman can be summarized in this way - he/she is a composer of special healing songs; can cause themselves to enter a trance or trance-like condition; travel after souls or to seek other things; can diagnose and cure illness; and has spirit helpers who help and communicate with them.

Shamans also use their knowledge in three main areas: they understand the laws of ecology; the balance established at the time of Creation; and the guidelines given to human beings by the creating deities; Holy People, or animals.

They know the order and structure of things - names of things.

They are servants to the people - they maintain their power and knowledge by using it to help others.

Shamanism is a very personal or private profession and at the same time it affects a great many people.


I had many experiences and teachers who helped me develop my abilities as a Shaman, beginning with a life-threatening illness when I was four years old. I had a stomach virus and was violently ill with high fever - I nearly died. I got sick as my family and I were driving to a vacation spot and they had to get me immediate medical care, and a doctor told them they had to take me back home to my doctor and to be near a hospital. While I could do nothing but lie flat on my back in the flat rear section of our family's station wagon, I had visions and spoke to God and the beings I saw. I told them I was ready to go and die, it was alright. I just didn't want to keep feeling so sick. I told them to take me. They did not feel it was my time to die. I recovered several days later. I never forgot that experience because it was so intense and as a young child I knew there was more to life than just me in my tiny body, and it was not frightening, but welcoming and trusted.

Throughout my youth and teenage years into my adulthood, I had many psychic experiences and channeling experiences began. You can read about them here: [link]

When I met medicine woman, author and teacher, Lynn Andrews in the mid-1980s,(she became a friend) she looked me over, asked me questions, read my energy and said that I already was a Shaman, there was nothing she needed to teach me, I had all that I needed to teach and help others. At that time, I wasn't fully ready to accept it in myself, so I had 15 more years of training with different teachers in different areas of expertise. I didn't use the title Shaman in the past because it might have been confusing for people (since I am a white woman and some people don’t think whites can be Shamans), or come across like I was just full of myself. I am a Shaman and have no more issues about using that title. It isn't an ego trip by any means. It just speaks about my abilities and right to call myself a Shaman. One thing though, I never use drugs or alcohol as a Shaman. I don't like them, or enjoy not being in control of my faculties, and substances easily taint the work and messages from spirit. The only substances I use is smoke and smudge – which cleanses and communicates that which is not said out loud – and water.

One experience in 1987 was a very powerful indicator of my abilities as a Shaman. I had written a letter to a newspaper in response to a legal issue about Native American legalities and rights. My letter spoke about the Native Americans and their rights and the hardships they went through from the U.S. government, since the Europeans came here, and how it relates to the present. A local Lakota medicine man and teacher named Carl Bryant (who operated the American Indian Unity Church in Orange County) read my article in the paper and we connected via two ways – one was in person through a legal adoption forum on Native American babies and because of my letter. He thanked me for my letter and said it was the perfect healing for the whites and Indian people, he loved it. I was interested in what he does as a medicine man and was put on his mailing list and thought to visit his center, and planned for him to do a spiritual reading for me.

In the interim, (this was in the summer) before I had the reading with him, I was floating on a raft in my pool. I looked up and saw a black crow circling above me and I talked out loud to it, surprising myself that I knew who it was, "Aha, what are you doing here, Carl Bryant? I see you!" I spoke with the crow and he told me he was checking me out to see my abilities, spying on me. I laughed and told him to go right ahead, but I knew what he was up to. I then wrote a letter to Carl and told him of my vision and experience with the crow. He wrote me back a very touching letter telling me that my vision of him as the black crow was the indicator he needed to prove that white people could do what the Native medicine people could do. His belief was (one that is shared by some others) that when the whites can do this, then it’s time to come together and be equals. He also said it was the sign he needed to allow him to use his medicine name in public now – (little) Black Crow. He validated my vision and thanked me for it. Since that day, he used his medicine name Black Crow in everything he did. Imagine that – a blond haired, blue-eyed white chick told a Lakota Shaman what his name is and that it's okay for him to come out now! It was funny, and it was sweet, and I respected him. I just found out that he died a few years ago. He did a lot for the community in bringing together all cultures.

I had many teachers in my Shamanic training: anatomy; learning about plants and herbs; healing work (mind/body/spirit/emotions); channeling; interdimensional travel; dreamwork; spiritual counseling; and I am a certified Transpersonal Hypnotherapist. I have a B.A. Degree, was on the Dean's List; and did my M.A. work in American Indian Studies, focusing on ritual theatre. I have many credentials and titles – if you want to know them all, then people go here: [link] , I don't think it's necessary to list them here.

As a Shaman, I focus on healing which is done through rebalancing energies (again, mind/body/spirit/emotions) and changing patterns. I do whatever is necessary for a person to become rebalance and for them to continue to heal themselves and discover their passions and talents and how to use them. That often includes teaching them to meditate, use their intuition, and connect with their own higher self and guides. I also work with what I call Dream Medicine, and that means that I get a lot of messages in my dream state and work in the dream state, I am adept in traveling and working in other dimensions not only for human beings, but for spirit and other interdimensional beings. I bring back the knowledge garnered from my dream state and put them into use in the material world. Sometimes I do spiritual art for people, that which gives them a special message from loved ones, guides, or about their path in life. I am able to help others have better lives through my family's charity. And I also write articles and books.

Yes, I am a Shaman by all definitions of the term and this is my personal path. It is often a hard one because there is so much work to be done, and it is mostly a solo path. I am lucky in that as a Shaman I also have a family – in some societies having a marriage and children is considered to be very important in order to be an effective Shaman. I accept who I am, love who I am, and what I do. I'm always learning something new and love learning, and then sharing what I've learned. So if you come across somebody who is a Shaman, and who may not fit the old idea or picture of what a Shaman is, don't judge them: Think again. Shamanism may not be 100% exactly what it used to be because our world isn't what it used to be. (Change is the only constant in the omniverse.) But it is still Shamanism.

Copyright 2008, E. Nora H. Amrani, All Rights Reserved.