ISRAEL - IRAN - SYRIA - HAMAS - HEZBOLLAH - WWWIII?

The Hamas-run government in the fenced-off Gaza Strip said on Saturday that it will use mud bricks to rebuild houses destroyed during a massive Israeli offensive at the turn of the year.
[...]
Since Hamas took power Israel has sealed off the narrow coastal strip and its 1.4 million Palestinian residents from all but basic humanitarian aid and has allowed in virtually no construction materials, saying they might be used for making explosives and weapons.

Small quantities of concrete and steel have nevertheless been brought in through a network of smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, which Israeli warplanes repeatedly bombed both during and after the deadly war.

Zaza said the government would use blueprints approved by local municipalities and the union of Gaza engineers for three-storey houses that it said would last for decades.

The programme will begin with the building of a three-storey "model home" on 250 square metres (around 2,700 square feet) of land, he added.

The cost of rebuilding would be borne by the government and by "Arab and local aid groups," Zaza said, adding that the project would provide employment for construction workers and allow some factories to reopen.

In recent days Gaza residents have started building mud brick houses on their own in some of the hardest-hit areas of the territory in Gaza City and the southern towns of Khan Yunis and Rafah.

In Rafah Jihad al-Shaer, 36, recently completed an 80 square-metre (860 square-foot) mud brick house and has moved in with his wife and six children, the youngest of which was born last week.

"I got tired of waiting, because I need to live in a house with my family," he said.

The new dwelling has no electricity or running water, but Shaer says it only cost him 3,000 dollars to build. He estimates he would have spent 25,000 dollars if he had used cement.

Nearby another man, Ismail, who declined to give his last name, has also built a small house out of mud.

"It looked like it was going to be a long wait," the 29-year-old said. "Maybe it is only a temporary solution."

But not everyone is happy about the plan.

Mohammed al-Samuni, the member of a large clan whose neighbourhood on the edge of Gaza City was flattened during the offensive, said he would prefer to wait for cement.

"We want to rebuild our houses the way they were before," he said. "This is our natural right."

According to official Palestinian statistics around 4,100 dwelling places were destroyed during the offensive as well as 48 government offices and buildings, 31 police stations and 20 mosques.

International donors pledged 4.5 billion dollars in aid at a reconstruction conference in Egypt in March but little has made its way to Gaza amid the continuing blockade and bitter Palestinian political divisions.

More than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the Gaza offensive, which came to an end on January 18 when Israel and Hamas each declared unilateral ceasefires.

You miss two very important points; 1) they have no building materials so they make their buildings from mud/bricks, and 2) they do not have the freedom to move outside of Gaza to purchase materials.

Do you still think Palestinians have the same equal rights?

Pope's address disappoints Muslim leaders
May 9 09:58 AM US/Eastern

Jordanian clerics expressed disappointment that Pope Benedict XVI in an address to Muslim leaders on Saturday failed to offer a new apology for remarks seen as targeting Islam.
"We wanted him to clearly apologise," Sheikh Yusef Abu Hussein, mufti of the southern city of Karak, told AFP after the pope's address in Amman's huge Al-Hussein Mosque.

"What the pope said (in 2006) about the Prophet Mohammed is untrue. Islam did not spread through the power of sword. It's a religion of tolerance and faith," Hussein said.


The pope had in 2006 quoted a medieval Christian emperor who criticised some teachings of the Prophet Mohammed as "evil and inhuman."

The pontiff apologised at the time for the "unfortunate misunderstanding" but ahead of his visit to Jordan the kingdom's main opposition party, the Islamic Action Front, said the pope was not welcome unless he again apologised.

"What the pope said was not an apology," said Hammam Said, the overall leader of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood and University of Jordan professor.

"We want the apology to be clear just like the insults to Islam were clear. He should acknowledge his mistakes. That's our position and the position of all Jordanians."

The Brotherhood is represented in the lower house of parliament by its powerful political arm, the Islamic Action Front.

"We had hoped the pope would take into consideration the feelings of Muslims," said Sheikh Jamal Jumaah of the city of Madaba after the pope's speech in which he urged reconciliation between Christians and Muslims.

"He is a guest of the Muslims and we expected him to say one word. It's not too late. He can still apologise."

Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed, Jordanian King Abdullah II's advisor on religious affairs who hosted the pontiff during his visit to the mosque, was more conciliatory.

"I would like to thank you for expressing regret over the lecture in 2006, which hurt the feelings of Muslims," Ghazi told the pope.

"We realise that the visit (to Jordan) comes as a goodwill gesture and a sign of mutual respect between Muslims and Christians."

The visit to Jordan is Benedict's first to an Arab state as pontiff and marks the first leg of an eight-day tour of the Holy Land that will also take him to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.2bd8acd3958f3504b0e198ea61d1c3d0.4d1&show_article=1

You are a sad Jew; no humanity for others.

Cicerone Imposter presumes to be can expert on peoples of the world. He says "foofie is a sad Jew". Does Cicerone know about the tortures applied by the Japs on the Battan Death March? Does that make them sad Japs?

Cicerone is clearly an idiot.

All that the savage and murderous FRINGE Islamiss have to do to show their HUMANITY for others is to formally announce their acceptance of Israel as a state.

I believe a poster should prove his/her position based on facts, not on comments about another poster.