Assaults on Gaza Strip

The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) is assaulting the civilian populations of Rafah with violence remeniscent of the 2002 attacks on Jenin and Nablus. Rafah is situated in the West Bank, near the Egyptian border. Last week an armored vehicle was blown up, killing five soldiers assigned to destroy alledged arms-smuggling tunnels. In response the IDF destroyed about 100 houses, and officials said hundreds more may be torn down. At least 20 Palestenians have been killed in the operation (Ha'aretz). The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has
issued a call to the Israeli military to halt its demolition operations in Rafah in the Gaza Strip where 12,600 people are now homeless. In all, more than 11,000 Palestinians in Rafah — out of a population of 90,000 — have been made homeless by Israeli demolitions since the outbreak of fighting in 2000.
Arab Nations have requested a UN Security Council meeting for Tuesday in hopes of support for a resolution condemning Israel's widespread destruction of Palestinian homes along the Gaza-Egypt border. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has condemned Israel's demolition of Gaza Strip homes as "unacceptable". But its doubtful any condemnation will emerge from the Security Council where the US holds veto power.

Daniel Barenboim, the musician and conductor, upon receiving the Wolf Prize, on May 9, made the following statements in the Israeli Parliment, the Knesset:
"I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel?
Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence? Is there any sense in the independence of one at the expense of the fundamental rights of the other?
Can the Jewish people whose history is a record of continued suffering and relentless persecution, allow themselves to be indifferent to the rights and suffering of a neighboring people?
Can the State of Israel allow itself an unrealistic dream of an ideological end to the conflict instead of pursuing a pragmatic, humanitarian one based on social justice.
I believe that despite all the objective and subjective difficulties, the future of Israel and its position in the family of enlightened nations will depend on our ability to realize the promise of the founding fathers as they canonized it in the Declaration of Independence.