Yeah, the headline says:
"Israeli officials: Gaza troops out by inauguration" and I would bet that almost no one is surprised. The bombing starting after Christmas, and the invasion and devastation of Gaza is due to be wrapped up in time for the world to be absorbed in the Obama inauguration.
All planned out so well..... geared to accommodate the American election cycle, with the rest of the world (and their opinions) not really of much significance.
Here is a quote from the article:
Israeli officials say their troops will leave the Gaza Strip before President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated on Tuesday.
This is the first official indication that Israel plans a rapid withdrawal of its forces after announcing a unilateral cease-fire Saturday in its devastating three-week offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers.
Thousands of Israeli troops have begun leaving Gaza.
Yet again, we have anonymous 'officials' speaking to the media, and the excuse this time is that the plans have not been publicly announced yet. I wonder if they think that no one will notice that all the troops have left Gaza, or maybe they think we will forget they were ever there?
Latest reports say that over 1,300 Palestinians were killed, with over 400 of them children. There were 13 Israeli killed, with 4 of them civilians and 4 of them killed by 'friendly fire'. None were children.
I don't see where this war accomplished anything at all. There have been protests against Israel and the USA from around the world. The ones in Pakistan and Syria were huge. Several Arab countries are disowning both Israel and Abbas.
The scenes coming out of Gaza are horrific. You can watch al Jazeera English at this link.
And here is a link to an excellent diary on how you can help the people of Gaza.
I told a friend in early January that this would end in time for the inauguration. I suppose someone thinks they are clever for having run this war - I think they are monstrously evil and massively stupid.