I hate these New Year retrospectives! Yet, staring at a blank space where links should be, I would like to point out a rare Inner City Press report from the UN - today! Matthew, I almost de-listed ICP from YouTube! More ICP! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5V3FHGN2ZA

"Global warming" is one of the causes of falling food production? There has not been a 'natural' famine in over a century; all famines are now man-made. Guess the Chicken Little ideology of environmentalism has a happy home at UN Dispatch.

Typical of the media elite to ignore, whenever possible, the plight of the tortured people of Gaza. They are subjected to an air, sea and land blockade by US funded Israel. When they dare to fight back they are slaughtered by the IDF and faulted by the US political and media elite. Does this view of Gaza hold any sway on the UN security council? I would like to know. -Steve

Please note that Gaza is not a UN member.

gaza is on fire. & you guys do top-ten-ish kaffeeklatsch. ts ts ts. where 're your teeth? ß

You're right DenvilleSteve that Gaza, or what the Security Council calls "the situation in the Middle East including the question of Palestine," should have made the list. (And it's the competition of conflicts and not cooption that kept corruption, Lockheed Martin etc, off the list, Ebeneezer.) On Gaza, the last week at the UN has been nothing but (although the US last night blocked even a press statement on the topic, http://www.innercitypress.com/gaza1sctanks010309.html Oh, and Simon -- although Gaza is not a UN member, Palestine has a "Permanent Observer," Fatah pol Riyad Mansour. This week I asked him about Fatah's relations with Hamas and he called it "a distraction," http://www.innercitypress.com/uncro2gaza122708.html A Gaza question that's good debate fodder is why Egypt (mostly) keeps its Rafah cross to Gaza closed. Discuss... Unrelated high-brow plug: Inner City Press just put online a review of an article in this week's New Yorker about Chad -- and about Fox's 24, http://www.innercitypress.com/un1harrfox010409.html

Quoting InnerCityPress: [...][/url]

Great to have you check in in the forums, Matthew. Thanks to you and Mark for a good wrap-up of the year. I found it helpful. I was not bothered by your omission of the latest doings in Gaza from this week's discussion. I would say the coverage of that has been sufficient elsewhere.

A Gaza question that's good debate fodder is why Egypt (mostly) keeps its Rafah cross to Gaza closed. Discuss...

Slippery slope. Egypt would then only get blamed for rearming Hamas and providing sanctuary for "terrorists." Also, Egypt does not want Gaza dumped in its lap. The Israeli right dreams of a final resolution of the conflict in which Gaza is part of Egypt, or at least some semi-autonomous and defanged Gazastan of an Egyptian federation. Then Egyptian tanks could roll in when Hamas acts up. Not a winner for the Egyptians. When the humanitarian crisis gets to true starvation levels, Egypt may have to play a greater role.

Quoting Wonderment: Slippery slope. Egypt would then only get blamed for rearming Hamas and providing sanctuary for "terrorists."

Also, Egypt does not want Gaza dumped in its lap. The Israeli right dreams of a final resolution of the conflict in which Gaza is part of Egypt, or at least some semi-autonomous and defanged Gazastan of an Egyptian federation. Then Egyptian tanks could roll in when Hamas acts up. Not a winner for the Egyptians.

When the humanitarian crisis gets to true starvation levels, Egypt may have to play a greater role.

Why the scare quotes on "terrorists?"

Why the scare quotes on "terrorists?"

I don't think it's productive to label one side of the conflict "terrorists." It suggests that the IDF, raining terror and collective punishment of all sorts on the population, doesn't meet the criteria. Either both sides are terrorists or neither. The distinction between a pile of children's corpses that are "collateral damage" and a random busload of people who are deliberately targeted is morally dubious. It's too facile an excuse for the kind of mass murder being carried out by Israel.

Quoting Wonderment: I don't think it's productive to label one side of the conflict "terrorists." It suggests that the IDF, raining terror and collective punishment of all sorts on the population, doesn't meet the criteria.

Either both sides are terrorists or neither.

The distinction between a pile of children's corpses that are "collateral damage" and a random busload of people who are deliberately targeted is morally dubious. It's too facile an excuse for the kind of mass murder being carried out by Israel.

I have to say, I have a completely different view. "Terrorist" has a definition, the current administration's abuse of the notion notwithstanding. Israel does not have clean hands. But the moral distinction between directly, deliberately targeting civilians and not doing so seems pretty clear to me. In fact Hamas' tactic of hiding among the population seems to me to shift the blame for Palestinian civilian deaths significantly toward Hamas.

Quoting InnerCityPress: A Gaza question that's good debate fodder is why Egypt (mostly) keeps its Rafah cross to Gaza closed. Discuss...

I think the Egyptian lockout of the Palestinians is partly due to the long standing policy of all neighboring Arab states to prevent the Israelis from using/encouraging an outward migration of the Palestinians as a way to rid themselves of those peoples. Israel wants/needs the land. But with the land comes Palestinians who have nowhere else to go. An effective deterent. All in all, it is not right for the US government to side with Israel against the Palestinians. -Steve

Quoting Simon Willard: Please note that Gaza is not a UN member.

It should be.

This episode was recorded the day before the Israel-Gaza conflict began.

Quoting DenvilleSteve: Typical of the media elite to ignore, whenever possible, the plight of the tortured people of Gaza. They are subjected to an air, sea and land blockade by US funded Israel. When they dare to fight back they are slaughtered by the IDF and faulted by the US political and media elite.

Steve- We recorded this a day or two before the Israeli bombardment of Gaza began. I've never considered myself a member of the media elite, though. Thanks for the compliment.

Quoting Mark Leon Goldberg: Steve- We recorded this a day or two before the Israeli bombardment of Gaza began. I've never considered myself a member of the media elite, though. Thanks for the compliment.

Will the UN have any say in a negotiated peace in Gaza? Perhaps, getting Israel and the US government to agree to lift the air, sea and land blockade of the territory.

Quoting DenvilleSteve: Will the UN have any say in a negotiated peace in Gaza? Perhaps, getting Israel and the US government to agree to lift the air, sea and land blockade of the territory.

This is a good question. I answer it at length on UN Dispatch http://www.undispatch.com/archives/2...the_un_hav.php