UNRWA is the UN organization responsible for distributing life-saving medicine and aid to hundreds of thousands of refugees in Gaza. The shells destroyed their entire stock of food and medicine.

Israel has been very successful in inflicting "heavy pain on the Gaza population" as Friedman noted. This latest shelling is another achievement that the brave Israeli soldiers can add to their impressive list of atrocities in the past 20 days.

[John Ging, the head of UN operations in Gaza] said the phosphorus fires were hard to extinguish "because if you put water on it, it will just generate toxic fumes and do nothing to stop the burning". Phosphorous munitions are banned under international law as a weapon but permitted if used to create a smokescreen.

....

The AFP news agency quoted witnesses as saying that a fire had broken out after an Israeli strike in a wing of al-Quds hospital in south-west Gaza City, where hundreds more people took shelter early today from advancing Israeli tanks.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/15/israel-gaza-offensive-truce-talks

I think the entire world is sick and tired of pro-Israel apologists abusing the charge of anti-semitism to silence critics of Israel's war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The issue here is the genocide (Yes, this is the right term when life-saving UN-supplied food and medicine intended for hundreds of thousands of refugees are destroyed using white phosphorus shells) taking place in the concentration camp of Gaza.

Here is the voice of moral courage for all the Israel apologists on this thread.

"The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt from Gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians,"

"My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town.... A German soldier shot her dead in her bed, he said. My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza,"

-- Gerald Kaufman, a Labour Party MP in the UK http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055922.html

God Almighty, creator of love and goodness in the world

Help the children of Gaza, the mothers and fathers

as they go through the rubble searching for their loved ones

Help the injured heal and cope

Help those whose homes were destroyed find a place to sleep, food to eat and clean water to drink.

And in time, help them heal

Help them live free with dignify and humanity

Make them safe in their homes

And lift the darkness of occupation and the evil of the killers who gloat in the destruction they caused

The fact that white folks still voted for Obama when they were alone in the booth - contrary to the expectations of many - shows that America has come a long way. There is no country in the world that has the resilience and courage to embrace change like this great nation.

the author's arguments and the need for a new paradigm that de-links America from Israel's criminal policies. The problem though is the power of the Israel Lobby who will do their best to maintain the status quo. I wasted a few minutes of my life yesterday listening to Aaron David Miller argue in favor of having Obama "manage the conflict" rather than attempt to resolve it (code words for allowing Israel to continue to create facts on the ground while maintaining the illusion of a peace process)!

Will Obama have the guts to stand up to the destructive power of the Lobby? I hope he does!

Zionist Action: Murder Palestinian civilians. Ethnically cleanse Palestinians to create a Jewish state. Preach to world about terrorism and democracy.

Zionist Reaction to World Horrified by pictures of Palestinian children burned with white phosphorous: Dismiss. Deny. Smear. Accuse of anti-Semitism. Blame on foe.

All life is equally precious. I do have a problem with Hamas firing missiles that could randomly hit civilians. The firing of missiles is not justified by the fact that these missiles are primitive and ineffective (20 Israelis killed in 8 years) or even by the fact that Palestinians in Gaza have been under an inhumane siege for years.

On the other hand, the problem I have with Zionists like yourself is that you have no problem with justifying the murder and maiming of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including children.

How can you support a one-sided assault that involved the use of white phosphorous on civilians? Do you realize that some of the Palestinian victims had burns that kept on re-igniting for days? Can you imagine their pain and the cruelty of the people who used these type of weapons to teach the Palestinians a lesson? You are either completely blind to all this or are some kind of a sick psychopath!

or, more likely, you are simply resorting to the Zionists' favorite tactic; smear and distortion.

So even if I were to accept the information from right wing Zionist sites you provided as truth, I don't get how Hamas' actions justify having Israel murder and maim thousands of Palestinian CIVILIANS including hundreds of CHILDREN killed and thousands maimed.

Even the claim that Hamas hides amongst civilians doesn't justify this. If there were a gunman hidden in a mall, would you justify blowing up the mall and killing hundreds of civilians to get the gunman?!!!!

Face it @Evil MinPin, you are mindlessly defending a terrorist state.

After all what other country murders and maims thousands of civilians including children using white phosphorous, destroys an entire city, and still receives US aid?

If you research it, Baruch Goldstein, the hate-filled Jewish colonist, was the first suicide attacker in the region. Prior to it, suicide attacks were unknown.

As always, the Zionists' version of history is highly selective.