Written December 27, 2008 Israel’s air force launched a major bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip today, killing over two hundred people and injuring many more. Typically, Israel justifies this horrific scale of killing as retaliation against the rocket launching from Gaza. The spate of Israeli bombing continued throughout the day and into the night. While trying to finish this note, I was interrupted several times, by the devastating sound of bombing. At the core of the vicious cycle of violence that has engulfed the region for decades and led to the many wars of the Middle East and beyond, lies the tragedy of the Palestinian uprooting in 1948, the justice denied to their plight and existence under the oppressive Israeli occupation, for over forty years. Instead of acknowledging the real issues of justice, mutual security and peace, the region was drowned in mutual hatred, revenge killing and insecurity. Israeli policies and strategies rested always on the supremacy of its brutal force. Palestinians, in defiance of the Israeli scheme, were drawn into the resistance and some used homemade missiles and suicide missions. Brute force and carnage in Gaza on the scale of today is a dangerous omen. Israel must restrain its military might and face up to the consequences of dragging the region into such a serious and intensified path of violence. Palestinians must stop all forms of violence and unite in the pursuit of peace and justice. We, the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace-International (FFIPP-I) call for an immediate halt of the Israeli military attack on Gaza and ending the siege on the deprived Gaza Strip. The United States of America is the only power that could play a positive role in ending the unending tragedy in the Holy Land. We hope that the new administration of President Obama will make the necessary change and offer a fresh approach, as an honest broker of peace.