Across Mideast, Thousands Protest Israel

From Lebanon To Iran, Thousands Denounce Assault On Hamas Targets In Gaza

(CBS/AP)  Crowds of thousands swept into the streets of cities around the Middle East on Sunday to denounce Israel's air assault on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

From Lebanon to Iran, Israel's adversaries used the weekend assault to marshal crowds into the streets for noisy demonstrations. And among regional allies there was also discontent: The prime minister of Turkey, one of the few Muslim countries to have relations with Israel, called the air assault a "crime against humanity."

The Syrian government, meanwhile, announced the suspension of its indirect peace talks with Israel because the attacks.

A government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said "Israel's aggression closes all the doors" to a settlement in the region.

Israel and Syria held four rounds of indirect negotiations in Turkey after the peace talks were launched in May. The talks have not been convened since Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced he would step down earlier this year.

Several of Sunday's protests turned violent. A crowd of anti-Israel protesters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul became a target for a suicide bomber on a bicycle.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni says there are no plans to occupy Gaza. Speaking Sunday on "Meet the Press," Livni said the Israeli assault came because Gaza's Hamas rulers were smuggling weapons and building up "a small army." But, she said, "Our goal is not to reoccupy" the Gaza Strip.

In Lebanon, police fired tear gas to stop dozens of demonstrators from reaching the Egyptian Embassy. Some in the crowd hurled stones at the embassy compound. It was unclear if anyone was hurt.

Egypt, which has served as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians as well as between Hamas and its rival Fatah, has been criticized for joining Israel in closing its borders with Gaza. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit called on Hamas to renew its truce with Israel: "There has been a calm and we should work to restore it."

France also called for the truce to be renewed and rallied European nations to use "all their weight" to stop the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

"We have entered a new spiral of despair," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told the Journal du Dimanche in an interview published Sunday. "The truce must be restored."

Kouchner noted that the attacks come "in a context of vacancy of power in Israel and the U.S." as both countries are undergoing leadership transitions.

"Europe has a role to play," Kouchner said.

In Beirut, Hamas representative Osama Hamdan told the crowd that the militant group had no choice but to fight. Gaza militants have been lobbing dozens of rockets and mortars into southern Israel since a six-month truce expired over a week ago, prompting Israel's fierce retaliation.

"We have one alternative which is to be steadfast and resist and then we will be victorious," Hamdan said.

In the capital of neighboring Syria, more than 5,000 people marched toward the central Youssef al-Azmeh square, where they burned an Israeli and an American flag.

One demonstrator carried a banner reading, "The aggression against Gaza is an aggression against the whole Arab nation."

"Down with America, the mother of terrorism," read another.

In Amman, Jordan, about 5,000 lawyers marched toward parliament to demand the Israeli ambassador's expulsion and the closure of the embassy. "No for peace, yes to the rifle," they chanted.

In Jordan's squalid Baqaa camp for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, protester Yassin Abu Taha, 32, blamed America and Israel for the Middle East's problems.

"The Israelis kill our people in Gaza and the West Bank. The Americans kill our people in Iraq. We're refugees, kicked out of our home in Tulkarem in 1967 and we're still displaced," he said, bemoaning his family's flight in the 1967 Mideast war.

The U.S. Embassy in Jordan warned Americans to avoid areas of demonstrations.

Thousands of Egyptians - many of them students - demonstrated at campuses in Cairo, Alexandria and elsewhere and accused President Hosni Mubarak and other Arab leaders of not doing enough to support the Palestinians.

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said Israel should be "wiped off the map," denounced the Israeli strikes.

And in the normally politically placid streets of glitzy Dubai, hundreds of demonstrators - some draped in Palestinian flags - gathered at the Palestinian consulate.

"This is a time for the Palestinians and Arabs to unite to fight against a common enemy," said Majdei Mansour, a 30-year-old Palestinian resident of Dubai. Mansour said he has been unable to contact his family in Gaza since the latest fighting.

In Iraq, where the government has also condemned the Gaza airstrikes, a suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up amid a crowd of about 1,300 demonstrators in Mosul who were protesting against Israel, killing one demonstrator and wounding 16, Iraqi police said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack on the demonstration, which was organized by a Sunni party in sympathy for Palestinians in Gaza, who are largely fellow Sunnis.

[shirajordan]

To all the people who sleep safely in their beds at night and have the audacity to criticize the Israeli government, this is for you:
None of you spoke in the past 8 years when rockets and bombs fell in southern Israeli cities, causing death and damage without any provocation on our part.
What you need to understand are two things-
First of all, there is no functioning government in Gaza. The Hamas took over (in a military coup!) and they are running the show. The Hamas, in case you didn''t know, is a terror organization. Just like Al-kaida and Hezbollah. Israel is dealing with terror organizations all through its borders. Not with governments. And not with civilians. We have nothing against the Palestinians. Only the terrorists.
The second thing you need to know is that the Hamas is a very cynical organization which uses innocent women and children to fight Israel. They launch their missals from civilian''s houses, not from open fields or military camps, and when the Israeli army wants to destroy those missals launchers- sometimes innocent people die.
They stash weapons; bombs etc. in hospitals, mosques, civil houses and schools exactly for this reason- they know that the Israeli army will not bomb those places. Over the years, they have dig tunnels between Egypt and Gaza to smuggle everything, including weapons which is being used against us.

[shirajordan]

The Israeli army has such advanced technologies they can surgically hit those places. And that is exactly what we are doing. The manipulations in the media, done by the Arabs are ridicules, at best.
Ask yourself- what would you do if your life was constantly under threat? Look at the map. Maybe that will help you grasp our geographic situation. The purpose of the Israeli army is to defend. Not attack.
So next time you think about how miserable and poor the Palestinians are, and how powerful and evil the Israelis are- think again. (Written by a left-wing Israeli who thinks terror should not win anywhere in the world)

[lordsuntzu]

good morning israel !

how many new terrorists have you created today ?

your reckless policies are putting my people in even more danger - give back the stolen lands so we can sleep at night and avoid another 9-11 !!



Posted by neoconRcrazy at 05:26 AM : Dec 29, 2008
+ report abuse

*****

guess no reason for israel to stop now

[lordsuntzu]

mideast ALWAYS PROTEST israel in a daily basis..why is this news??

[kopana]

Then we want to know...why do the middle eastern people hate us so much...why are there Terrorists who wnat to kill Americans????? This is not rocket science....

[rushman71]

neoconRcrazy: After reading your last post, I finally came to understand what you truly are--An Idiot!!!

[rushman71]

JT_Lancer: Seems to me that you have the mind of a shrub!!! Israel is not to blame for this attack. Hamas started the fight, and all that Israel is trying to do is to break Hamas apart. Yes, innocent lives are killed, but if Hamas don''t shut up and put up with what they got, then to h3ll with them!!! What Israel needs to do is to take back Gaza because it is part of Israel. And the same for West Bank!!!

[jediservant]

The Palestinians are nothing but cowards! They hide behind women and children and teach their own kind to wear suicide bombs just so they can blow up women and children in Israel. Then they think there will be virgins waiting on them in heaven.

I have news for them; the only thing waiting on them is the fires of HELL! The God of Israel is the true and only God and He stands with the people in the place where He put His name.

Praise be to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[neoconrcrazy]

good morning israel !

how many new terrorists have you created today ?

your reckless policies are putting my people in even more danger - give back the stolen lands so we can sleep at night and avoid another 9-11 !!

[louisiananya]

you are all funny with your post today, thanks for the laugh!

[lordsuntzu]

at play in the fields of the lords

[lordsuntzu]

of course here comes the begging and the demanding..absent when they were doing the bombing..

[jt_lancer]

Israel bombing its way to peace. Good luck with that.

[allmymarbles]

Bush - the gutless wonder. He did not even condemn the attackon Gaza. He is no Eisenhower.

[intheshade-2009]

Bush steals the oil in Iraq and Israel steals the land in the Palestine. What a double act.

[jt_lancer]

DebinOK - ''Seems to me the bully(Hamas) should have thought of what would happen BEFORE they started.''

Israel is just as muich to blame for bloodshed in the Middle East as Hamas or anyone else. And your tax dollars are subsidizing this bloodshed.

[renonv5]

Across U.S., millions protest the very existance of Mideast.

[debinok1]

Where were the protests when Hamas was sending bombs into Israel? Doesn''t it count for anything that Israel is only reacting to what Hamas has been doing since the ceasefire ended? Seems to me the bully(Hamas) should have thought of what would happen BEFORE they started.

[birdyard1]

how stupid can you get , fool with the bull , you get the horn

[secundus2]

Hamas officially ends cease-fire with Israel.
Militants fire rockets into Israel from Gaza.
Israel responds by bombing Hamas targets in Gaza.

What other sequence of events could Hamas or anyone in the entire Arab world have expected?

Where were the Arab demonstrations when this latest round of hostile acts got started?