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By Al Kamen
Wednesday, January 23, 2008; A17

J ay Lefkowitz-- President Bush's special envoy on North Korean human rights, or lack thereof -- sure created a fuss last week when he said the Commie regime of Kim Jong Il isn't serious about disarming and probably will still have nukes when a new president takes over, despite four years of six-party talks involving Washington, both Koreas, China, Japan and Russia.

Even worse, Lefkowitz, in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute, called for "a new approach" to North Korea that would link human rights to security matters and, when asked if he was speaking on behalf of the Bush administration, said the policy is "under review right now."

The situation in Gaza is bleak and awful.  John Ging, director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza said two days ago the civilian population was living in "abject misery" and had been stripped of their human dignity (as reported in AKI).

"People here in Gaza have been living in abject misery and hardship now for a long time," Ging told the Arab TV network, Al-Jazeera. "On top of that they are living in darkness. You have to see how miserable the situation is. The civilian population is under occupation. It is collective punishment - they are victims."

In a photo-op of humanitarianism, Israel momentarily relented and allowed in tanks of diesel fuel so that the generating pumps could begin providing electricity to Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants. But this was hardly enough to prevent thousands from massing at the Rafah Gate bordering Egypt in an attempt to get through. At first the Egyptian army stood them off, but today, tens of thousands - the Egyptians are reporting as many as 200,000 - stormed through the Rafah Gate, which had been blasted down by the Palestinians, to purchase food, fuel and other items made scarce by the six-month Israeli siege.