Hamas: Border must be controlled exclusively by Palestinians, Egypt

By News Agencies
Tags: Hamas, Israel, Gaza Strip

The United States expressed concern Wednesday after some 200,000 Palestinians swarmed across the border into Egypt from Gaza after the border fence was blasted away by militants overnight.

The fence was breached days after Israel imposed a total closure on crossings into Gaza, allowing only a small amount of aid and fuel to get through.

"We are concerned about that situation and frankly I know the Egyptians are as well," U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said.
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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced Wednesday that he had ordered his troops to allow Gazans to cross into Egypt because they were starving.

David Welch, the assistant to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Middle East issues, has talked to Egyptian authorities about the situation, Casey said, but he didn't offer details. He said the Egyptians take border security seriously and that he has no indication the situation has affected Israeli-Palestinian relations for now.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians on foot and on donkey carts poured into Egypt from Gaza Wednesday after masked gunmen used land mines to blast down a seven-mile (12-kilometer) barrier dividing the border town of Rafah.

The border breach was a dramatic protest against the closure of the impoverished Palestinian territory, imposed last week by Israel. The Palestinians were stocking up on goods made scarce by the Israeli blockade. The border fence had divided the Rafah area into two halves, one on the Egyptian side and one in southern Gaza.

Earlier Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered a muted response, saying that the U.S. wants to see stability in the region, but that most importantly both the security concerns of Israel and the humanitarian concerns of Gazans must be met.

Also Wednesday, shortly after the border was breached, Hamas' Damascus-based political leader Khaled Meshal said that his organization would be willing to work to resolve the chaotic situation on the Gaza-Egypt border, but only if the border were placed under exclusive Palestinian and Egyptian control

mora at Jerusalem Post

Wow - 200,000 - in a really hurry to leave. Hamas may look like heroes for knocking down the fence. But look at the flood of people anxious to get out of there.

is that they wanted to cross the border to buy food and supplies..and they did. They didn't riot or loot, what animals they are ;)

Israel, U.S. to boycott UN rights council meet on Gaza blockade

By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: PLO, Gaza, Israel

Israel and the United States are expected to boycott a special United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip, in the wake of Jerusalem's decision to close Gaza crossings.

This would be the first time that Israel has boycotted a session of the Human Rights Council, in a sign of rising tensions between Israel and UN institutions.

The council will meet Wednesday at the request of Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, to discuss the closure of the crossings as well as Israel's recent military strikes in Gaza.

The draft proposal submitted to the council angered Jerusalem, which views it as one-sided due to the fact that it fails to mention the massive Qassam rocket fire on Sderot and other western Negev communities.

Israel urged other countries to follow suit, although only the U.S. agreed to do so.

Israel urging Security Council to soften statement on Gaza crisis
Meanwhile, Israel is lobbying the UN Security Council to soften the language of a presidential statement denouncing the Gaza closure, which is expected to be issued Wednesday.

more at Haaretz

Wednesday, 23 January 2008, 19:12 GMT

Egypt 'won't force Gazans back'

Gaza's people have been short of supplies for months

Egypt has said it will not use force to send back Palestinians who crossed from the Gaza Strip in large numbers after parts of the border were breached.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said the border would be closed again when all the Palestinians had returned.

Tens of thousands have surged in to buy food and other supplies made scarce by an Israeli blockade - aimed at stopping rocket attacks from Gaza.

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert said he would not let a humanitarian crisis develop.

"We will not hit food supplies for children or medicines for the needy," he said.

"But there is no justification for demanding we allow residents of Gaza to live normal lives while shells and rockets are fired from their streets and courtyards at Sderot and other communities in the south."

Meanwhile about 15 Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles were seen in northern Gaza.

more at BBC

don't spread this around until the dumber money is long again.

World Economic Forum opens in Davos amid economic turmoil
Posted: 23 January 2008 1846 hrs

DAVOS, Switzerland : The annual Davos gathering of the world's political and business elite opened Wednesday, dominated by the deep cut in US interest rates aimed at preventing recession and supporting world stock markets.

In recent years the annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort has been against a backdrop of bumper corporate profits, strong economic growth and tame inflation.

But as the 38th World Economic Forum opened the global economy is now faced with huge slides in stock markets, slowing growth, the sub-prime crisis and increasing oil, food and other commodity prices.

"I don't know whether there will be a recession in the United States, but I do know that one year ago, at this time, things were very rosy," Rahul Bajaj, chairman of Indian industrial group Bajaj Auto told AFP in Davos.

On Tuesday the US Federal Reserve announced an aggressive 75 basis point cut in borrowing costs after a slew of data pointed to a slowdown in the world's biggest economy.

This was the first time the Fed had changed interest rates outside its regular rate-setting meetings since 2001, days after the September 11 attacks. It was also its deepest cut since 1984.

The rate cut came after US President George W. Bush announced on Friday stimulus package, valued at between 140 and 150 billion dollars, that showed how real the danger of a recession is.

"The Fed cannot prevent the (US) economy going into recession," economics professor Nouriel Roubini said at a session on the world economy at Davos. "My view is that world economy cannot decouple from a US hard landing."

After a wildly volatile day for markets on Tuesday, Asian and European markets rebounded, but traders and analysts warned the fix could turn out to be only temporary -- and that fears of a US recession were far from over.

"Europe is not going to get a special dispensation from the global slowdown," Stephen Roach, star economist and US bank Morgan Stanley, said in Davos.

In the run-up to the event, WEF founder Klaus Schwab hoped that the meeting would avoid "excessive pessimism."

more

"star economist?" what, he's like a rock star? /eyeroll/
sorry, i find that kind of writing pathetic. "accomplished," or even "feted" but spare me the celebrity speak.

Rice Says US Economy Resilient

Wednesday January 23, 2008 6:01 PM

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a nod to the anxiety that has enveloped the World Economic Forum, said Wednesday that the U.S. economy was resilient and would remain an ``engine of growth.''

Speaking to an audience of chief executives and world leaders, Rice said a $150 billion stimulus package proposed by President Bush would ``boost consumer spending and support business investment this year.

about the economy or anything else that doesn't involve shoe shopping?

Rice to Iran, do as we demand and we can be BFF

"Resliency" is a code word for "Americans are stupid spend a holics who have no pricing power."

It is possible we will dodge recession, that this will be the second hard landing in this recovery, and we can look forward to two more years of lackluster growth, real wage contraction, energy inflation and asset depletion.

or possibly the decade?

well spotted, well quoted, worth blogging! YEAH!

He's concentrating on the economy, not the markets......

European Bank Chief Is Cool to a Rate Cut
Speaking to the European Parliament in Brussels, the bank president, Jean-Claude Trichet, said euro-zone monetary authorities remain focused on inflationary pressures in the 15-nation bloc.

“In demanding times of significant market correction and turbulence,” he said, “it is the responsibility of the central bank to solidly anchor inflation expectations to avoid additional volatility in already highly volatile markets.” ...

Eric Chaney, chief economist for Europe at Morgan Stanley in London, noted that Mr. Trichet had spoken of “downside risks,” and that he discussed the possibility that economic weakness would have an impact on inflation.

European investors are unlikely to get any short-term relief from the bank, Mr. Chaney said, as “the news from the real economy in Europe is very good.”

“We would have to see some bad news from the real economy rather than the markets,” before policy makers, whose main mandate is to fight inflation, cut rates, he said.

_{1."George Washington did not cross the Delaware for Capitalism," -Shmuley Boteach.
2.The Dems haven't punished the GOP enough, so you're going to reward the Republicans?}

from last week here
_{1."George Washington did not cross the Delaware for Capitalism," -Shmuley Boteach.
2.The Dems haven't punished the GOP enough, so you're going to reward the Republicans?}