The UN’s plan for making white people feel better

By Kath Noble

Last week I felt like I had been transported back in time. We were back in those awful first six months of 2009, when I was by turns horrified at the plight of the people caught up in the fighting in the Vanni and disgusted with the way in which the international community was responding.

Of course, we all wanted to stop the war. I hate violence. But as I argued then and continue to believe, at that point, the only way the war was going to stop was with the defeat of the LTTE. Prabhakaran would not give up on Eelam. He was going to continue his vicious campaign against the Sri Lankan state and all its communities until he was caught or killed. Our task, therefore, was to minimise the damage. We had to try to ensure that it was done with as little death and destruction as possible.


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Israel ready to widen Gaza operations, says Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the country's military is prepared to extend its operation against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

His comments came after the head of the military wing of Hamas, Ahmed Said Khalil al-Jabari, was killed during Israeli air strikes on the territory.

These followed a wave of rocket attacks against Israel from Gaza.

Three Palestinian militants were killed fresh Israeli strikes on Thursday.

More rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel overnight, but Jon Donnison in Gaza City says so far the violence does not appear on the same scale as the last Gaza War almost four years ago when hundreds of Palestinians were killed on the first day of Israel's operation.

"We've sent a clear message to Hamas and to other terrorist organisations," Mr Netanyahu said in a televised address on Wednesday evening.

"And if there is a need, the Israeli Defence Forces are prepared to widen the operation. We will continue to do everything to defend our citizens.

"We encourage Israel to continue to take every effort to avoid civilian casualties”Mark TonerUS state department spokesman Jabari and another Hamas official who died alongside him were among at least 10 people killed in Gaza on Wednesday by the Israeli strikes and that number would probably rise, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, told reporters in New York.

Jabari, who was 46, is the most senior Hamas official to be killed in the Gaza Strip since the major Israeli offensive four years ago.

Outside the hospital to which Jabari's body was taken, angry Gaza residents chanted "retaliation" and "We want you to hit Tel Aviv tonight"

Courtesy : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20334575