Violence in Israel and Palestine After Disturbing Statement

I am not sure about the sequence of events, since this Reuters article is not written in chronological order.

Here's what I think has happened:

• Israel killed a leader of Islamic Jihad in the West Bank on Monday.
  
• A suicide bomber killed five in an outdoor market in Hadera on Thursday. (The area is many hours ahead of CST.)
  
• Later on Thursday, Israel fired missiles into Gaza. No injuries have been reported (so far, according to Reuters.)
  
• From the article: "Israeli officials noted the attack followed remarks in Tehran by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be "wiped off the map.""
  
• From the article: "Israel and the United States said the Palestinian Authority needed to rein in militants to push forward stalled peace talks. Abbas has so far preferred to negotiate with armed groups."
  
• Let's think for a second about this Israeli / US position. It would be like the UK and the US telling the Northern Irish to reign in the IRA during their terrorist phase and not accepting the fact that the Northern Irish refused to be used as pawns against their countrymen. It is simply too convenient to label people "terrorists" and write off ever living peacefully with them. Let me be clear: violence and murder are horrible things. People who kill should be brought to justice. But I do not believe an outside government should determine how the Palestinian Authority deals with para-military / political groups.
  

Personally, I find both the suicide bombing and the Israeli missile response abhorrent. As a Woman Challenging U.S. Policy on Israel / Palestine, I believe the U.S. should allow the PA to determine how to diffuse the power and violence associated with paramilitary political groups.

More info: "Israeli warplanes pound Gaza after suicide attack," by Nidal al-Mughrabi with reporting from Wafa Amr and Corinne Heller, from Reuters on Yahoo News

Much more information available at IMEMC, International Middle East Media Center.

Welcome a Swedish Sister to the Blogosphere!

Birgitta Hambraeus, a Swedish member of WILPF, recently began a blog at http://blogg.passagen.se/birgitta.hambraeus

She is new to the blogging community, so please leave a comment on her blog to welcome her to this form of activism!

A reminder of US WILPF blogs / websites:
Cape Cod, Massachusett branch blog
Corporations v. Democracy Issue Committee blog
DISARM! Dismantle the War Economy Committee site
Issue Committees and Our Two National Campaigns also have information available on wilpf.org.
Peace Rave, the US WILPF staffs' blog

also check out International WILPF's website, with links to information about our sections around the world and our international program.