Hudson Pilot Averts Disaster While Other Pilots Bomb Media, Hospitals, UN

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• War on Gaza pushing more young Jews to the left

• New wave of progressive Jewish activists challenging AIPAC

• Images of Victims (Strong Stuff)

• Is Israel looking to ignite new war: Lebanon:

• Unprecedented Numbers of Americans Question Israel’s Actions While Israel may be “Winning,” it is also losing influence and sympathy with many Americans.

• ‘War on Terror’ Was a Mistake, says Miliband British Foreign secretary argues west cannot kill its way out of the threats it faces.

• A Message from the Prime Minister of Gaza Ismail Haniyeh: My message to the West - Israel Must Stop the Slaughter:

“Ultimately, the Palestinians are a people struggling for freedom from occupation and the establishment of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees to their villages from which they were expelled. Whatever the cost, the continuation of Israel’s massacres will neither break our will nor our aspiration for freedom and independence.”

GAZA WAR GRINDS ON

Update, Friday Morning: AP - The U.N. chief urged Israel Friday to declare a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza, but Israel rebuffed the idea as its diplomats headed for Egypt and the United States in what appeared to be a final push toward a truce.

Hamas is agreeing to a cease fire, but, undaunted and unsatisfied, Israel kept up its offensive with strikes at a UN warehouse, and media offices:

AP: Gaza Strip — The Israeli military punched deeper into Gaza City on Thursday with a series of strikes that hit the United Nations’ headquarters, a major hospital and the offices of international media groups.

As Israeli leaders weighed an evolving Egyptian initiative that’s considered the best hope for ending the 20-day-old conflict, Israeli forces delivered another blow to the Hamas -led Gaza Strip.

For the first time in the offensive, Israel killed a top Hamas political leader in the Gaza Strip. Late Thursday, an Israeli air strike hit Said Siam, who served as interior minister after Hamas won control of the territory in democratic elections in 2006.

Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency dismissed the Israeli claims as “baseless” and challenged Israeli officials to produce evidence to support their version of events. He said that Israel’s shifting stories raise questions about Israeli officials’ veracity. “With every flip-flop, Israel’s credibility is severely undermined,” he said.

Israeli forces also hit a Red Crescent hospital where more than 100 staff and patients were trapped as a blaze engulfed the administration building. “It is unacceptable that wounded people receiving treatment in hospitals are put at risk,” said Jakob Kellenberger, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross .

Another Israeli strike hit several high-rise buildings, including one that houses the Reuters news service’s office. Reuters had given the Israeli military the location of its office before the fighting broke out last month. On Thursday, as Israeli forces moved in, Reuters staffers said they called the Israeli military to remind them where they were. Two minutes after they made the call, a shell hit their office, the Reuters staff reported. The Associated Press reported that gunfire hit its office in a separate building.

Economist: Israeli Media Policy May be Backfiring

Israel’s campaign has succeeded on the home front, with its own Jewish citizens remaining broadly enthusiastic about a war mostly portrayed in admiring terms. It has conquered the American House of Representatives, too, which voted on January 9th by 390-5 for a bill declaring “unwavering commitment” to Israel. And it has even won over Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, an American everyman who won brief celebrity in the presidential campaign for his forthright views as “Joe the Plumber”. Dispatched by Pajamas TV to report from Israel, he declared that its ban on war coverage was a good thing.

Yet wider support among the American public for Israel in this conflict appears to be less robust than usual. A Rasmussen poll taken on December 31st showed that while 44% of Americans were still for Israel, 41% were against it, a relatively high figure. And that was before the bloody attack on a UN school and other such incidents. Global public opinion has also probably shifted against the Jewish state. Even inside Israel, human-rights groups, concerned that much of the normally outspoken local press has turned largely jingoistic, have launched a website to expose the mounting tragedy inside Gaza.

They suffer no lack of heart-rending material. Here, denying access to Gaza to all Western correspondents might have backfired on Israel.