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Shadi Fadda
Blair won't have power to mediate on peace
Tony Blair's ambitions for his new role as a Middle East envoy were brought down to earth yesterday after America made it clear that he will have no power to mediate peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Instead, the State Department said that Mr Blair will be confined to improving the institutions of the Palestinian Authority.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/30/wblair130.xml
The Peace Envoy – Tony Blair on work release – by Gilad Atzmon
What a great day for peace enthusiasts! A new envoy to the Middle East has been appointed for the Quartet, and it's no other than the former British PM, Tony Blair. Blair, the man who gave the Israelis the green light to flatten Beirut. Blair, the man who started an illegal war in Iraq. Blair, a man who, according to the Geneva Conventions, is to be held personally responsible for more than 700,000 dead in Iraq for failing to 'protect civilian populations against certain consequences of war.
http://www.counterpunch.org/atzmon06292007.html
Hamas-affiliated Executive Force storms hideouts of drug dealers in Gaza Strip
They arrested four suspects in addition to confiscating a great deal of Bango (a type of marijuana). In a separate incident, the EF said that two of their members were injured whilst attempting to seize weapons in the Sha'af neighbourhood of Gaza City . Armed men launched a rocket-propelled grenade shell at the EF members who besieged a home in which arms traders were present.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23498
Executive Force foils forgery gang
The Executive Force have announced that they have arrested a network of currency forgers in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. Following thorough investigations, the gang's address was surrounded and invaded, resulting in their arrest, as well as the confiscation of over 50,000 dollars of counterfeit cash.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23477
2,000 employees in Gaza receive the remainder of last December's salary
Municipal workers in Gaza have demanded immediate actions to provide the rest of their overdue salaries. The call came as they received last December's paycheque on Saturday, with the assistance of the Arab League and the European Union. The employees also asked for assurance to be given for their salaries, and for the payments to be made a priority. Salaries have not been paid in full since December, and are stalling the government's budget.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23470
Seven Palestinians killed in two IAF strikes in Gaza
Seven Palestinians, including at least four militants, were killed Saturday in two separate Israel Air Force strikes on the Gaza strip. Later Saturday, A third IAF strike on the strip left four Palestinians wounded, officials said. Witnesses said the explosion took place at a weapons factory targeted several hours earlier by the IAF. The previous strike on the site killed four people.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/876632.html
Mohammed al-Agha calls for help for Palestinians stuck at Rafah crossing
he minister of agriculture in the former unity government, Mohammad Al Agha, has confirmed that his movement "is doing its best in order to end the suffering of the Palestinians at the Rafah crossing, especially since the crisis worsened with many trapped for over two weeks at the crossing." He stated that contact has been made with the Egyptian authorities, in order to allow the Palestinians to cross into the Gaza Strip, or to leave to Egypt. Sami Abu Zuhri also stated that the Hamas movement "is doing its utmost to end the suffering of Palestinians at the crossing," urging all concerned parties to help the 6,000 people stuck between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, with no food, water or shelter in temperatures way over 40°C [104° F.].
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23462
Israeli soldier has legs amputated following Israeli invasion of Nablus
Sergeant Aity Arlineav, a major figure in Israeli special forces, has had his legs amputated following treatment for severe injuries after a bomb detonated next to him on Thursday, during a large Israeli military incursion into the Balata refugee camp in Nablus,
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23459
More beards, less talk about politics
GAZA CITY: Men are growing beards to show devotion to Islam, coffee shop debates about politics have fallen silent, a flag shop has removed the yellow banners of the defeated Fatah movement — signs of Gazans trying to adjust to life under Hamas rule. The changes are largely pre-emptive since Hamas has avoided a heavy-handed religious crackdown and assured Gazans it's not setting up a harsh Islamic regime, akin to Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Not making enemies is a preferred survival tactic.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/29/africa/ME-GEN-Gaza-Living-With-Hamas.php
Hebron shops reopen after six-year closure
A number of shops in the municipality square opened on Saturday for the first time after six years of closure enforced by the Israeli authorities. Ma'an's correspondent in Hebron said that local citizens are appreciative of the initiative launched by the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), which is expected to restore commercial activity in the city. However, Hebron municipality issued a statement which read, "Despite this initiative, there are still several impediments which prevent goods and customers reaching the old city of Hebron. Among these impediments are the Israeli checkpoints and closures, which remain the major cause of instability in the area."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23493
Hamas accuses security forces in the West Bank of torturing Hamas-affiliated detainees
The Palestinian Authority has denied the allegations. Hamas issued a statement claiming that "the Palestinian security services were obliged to take Amin Abu 'Ubayya to Al Arabi Hospital in Nablus after he was severely tortured at the hands of the security services."
The statement also said that three other detainees were taken to hospitals in Ramallah, in the central West Bank, in recent days for similar reasons.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23492
Temporary checkpoint set up at eastern entrance of Salfit, south of Nablus
Israeli military forces have erected a flying checkpoint at the eastern entrance of Salfit on Saturday afternoon, blocking Palestinian cars for hours in the afternoon heat. Soldiers prohibited citizens from entering or leaving the barrier for several hours, causing obstruction and delay to the movement of the citizens, preventing them from reaching their homes and places of work. The reason for the erection of the barrier was not stated, according to local citizens.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23482
Palestinian woman mistakenly killed in Rafah
Palestinian medical sources stated on Saturday that a Palestinian woman, Samah Al-Hor, 24, was killed in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip as a result of the "misuse of arms." She mistakenly received a gunshot to the head. The sources affirmed that the woman died immediately. Her body was sent to the morgue at Abu Yousif An Najjar hospital in Rafah.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23481
Hamas: International force in Gaza will be met with 'shells and rockets'
The armed wing of Hamas rejected Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's call for the deployment of international troops in the Gaza Strip, vowing on Saturday to attack them with shells and rockets as they would any other "occupation forces".
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/876637.html
Haniyeh tours Arafat's Gaza home in effort to disprove claim of raids
Also, he said he phoned the wife of the late Palestinian leader in Tunisia to assure her the property was not damaged during his group's takeover the Gaza Strip two weeks ago. Haniyeh's tour was an attempt to counter allegations by the rival Fatah movement that Hamas gunmen had broken into Arafat's Gaza City home two days after the end of fighting. "The house of Abu Ammar is one of the national symbols in Gaza... and will remain under protection," he said. During Saturday's tour, there was no apparent sign of damage.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/876646.html
Israeli soldiers strip-searching Palestinian women at checkpoint
Khouloud Daibes, the minister of Women's Affairs in the new emergency government, condemned the behaviour of Israeli soldiers in forcing Palestinians to submit to strip searches at a military check point near Beit Safafa, north of Bethlehem. In a statement received by Ma'an, Daibes declared that several Palestinian women had raised complaints with human rights organizations and had petitioned Arab members of the Israeli Knesset over being taken to separate rooms in the checkpoint and being forced to remove all clothes, to become fully naked. The Israeli soldiers claim to be looking for weapons. Some women have refused to comply with the orders to remove all clothing.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23480
Jeff Halper: Steady course to apartheid
Our governments have failed us. Unless we, the people worldwide, can mobilize grassroots opposition to the Israeli-US-European Occupation, a new apartheid regime, in the Holy Land no less, will soon emerge before our very eyes. The Israeli plan for apartheid is as follows:
(1) Creating a truncated Palestinian "state" comprised of four disconnected cantons, three in the West Bank and Gaza. By annexing its major settlement blocs defined by the Wall, Israel thereby expands onto 85% of the country, leaving the Palestinians confined to impoverished enclaves on the remaining 15% of the land. In such a "two-state solution" Israel would control the borders, external and internal Palestinian movement, the "Greater" Jerusalem area, all the water resources, the air space, the communications sphere and even the Palestinian state's foreign policy. Such a Bantustan would have no genuine sovereignty or viable economy – but would have to accept all the traumatized and impoverished Palestinian refugees.
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-06290782734.htm
Ramzy Baroud: Finding lessons in Gaza bloodshed
Palestinian leaders must learn that selling one's political will to foreign polities for the sake of money, power or political substantiation is unforgivable in the eyes of ordinary Palestinians. . . Unfortunately, the US government and Israel remain most relevant in determining the course of action in Palestine, and naturally, they continue to infuse much harm. Even personal money transfers, Western Union and the like, will be halted to ensure the total suffocation of Gaza. The US will pumping tens of millions of dollars into hand Abbas' hands, and Fatah's warlords - rampaging against Hamas institutions in the West Bank - will also receive more than their fair share of money and weapons. It is quite simple to understand the underlying intents of this generosity after a year and a half of embargo, or to picture the horrible scenario that will result from an empowered, corrupt and vengeful regime.
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-06290782918.htm
Bradley Burston: Hamas as the new Israel
Imagine, if you will, a lightning Middle East war, over in a matter of days. An armed force that is thought to be outnumbered and outgunned rolls with ease over a long-entrenched enemy. The victors, left to administer the newly conquered territory, feel elation at first. Soon, however, it dawns on them that the world sees them very differently. In fact, no sooner do they take control, are they denounced as brutal occupiers. The international community progressively distances itself from them. The brief war and its repercussions split their own people into two irreconcilable political camps. Is this the Israel that emerged in June 1967, or is it the Hamas which conquered Gaza exactly four decades later? The answer, of course, is Yes.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/875272.html
Because we're worth more – by Yoel Marcus
Over time, our strength has become our weakness. A country that quietly accepts the death and injury of thousands in car accidents goes out of its mind when the fate of one soldier remains unknown. With the receipt of a taped message from Gilad Shalit − the first sign of life from him in a year − the whole country went bonkers. . . After the shock of the Jibril deal, an article in Haaretz demanded that all future prisoner swaps be carried out on a one-to-one basis, rather than hundreds of Palestinians in exchange for a single Israeli. This is wishful thinking: It hasn't happened since then, and probably never will. Why? Because we're worth more.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/876398.html
Exiled Palestinian militants sidelined in Ireland
Jihad Jara is among 13 Palestinian militants who were deported to European countries in 2002 as part of a deal to end an Israeli army siege at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity in the occupied West Bank. Rami Eid Kamel, a second Palestinian militant sent to Ireland under the deal, lives close to Jara. Neither is allowed to leave Ireland and they spend much of their time watching news and keeping in touch with relatives in their home town of Bethlehem. They say they lead "low-key lives" and have found it hard to adjust in Ireland despite warm ties with locals. "Our bodies are outside Palestine , but our souls are still there," Kamel, 28, said. Jara said he had not seen his wife and four sons in over five years. "We do nothing all day. We are waiting to go back home," he said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29897847.htm
Divide and rule, Israeli style - by Jonathan Cook
Gideon Levy, like most observers, assumes that the policy was designed to enforce regime change. But what if that was not the point of the sanctions? And if so, what goals were Israel and the US pursuing? [Israel] has no interest in meaningful peace talks with the Palestinians or in a final agreement. It wants only to impose solutions that suit Israel's interests, which are securing the maximum amount of land for an exclusive Jewish state and leaving the Palestinians so weak and divided that they will never be able to mount a serious challenge to Israel's dictates. Just as in Iraq , [ Israel and the US] are causing a permanent and irreversible partition, in this case between the West Bank and Gaza, to create more easily managed territorial ghettoes.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7059.shtml
Jonathan Freedland: Hamastan will not wither away
It sounds logical enough. Nurture a flowering Fatahland while pariah Hamastan withers away. But it is surely a delusion. The first and most obvious danger is that the more generous the West is to Abbas, the more his credibility will be destroyed. Every dollar or euro he takes will confirm him as the lackey of foreign powers, casting him alongside Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq and Fouad Siniora of Lebanon as a mere western proxy. . . The story of the past few decades has been a constant effort to wish the Palestinians were represented by people other than those who actually led them. Each of those attempts has ended in failure. It is time to recognise reality.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/story/0,,2112827,00.html
45% of high school students who immigrated from the USSR see no future in Israel
Some 30 percent of the respondents said Israelis could teach them nothing, while 40 percent saw no need to study Jewish tradition or the Bible. Some 82 percent saw nothing worth learning from in Israeli culture, and 90 percent felt similarly about Israeli behavior. Some 28 percent did not define themselves as Jewish, and 76.1 percent said that Israel systematically violated the rights of non-Jewish immigrants on issues such as marriage and burial.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/876415.html
There's room for hope - by Avraham Burg
Anyone who, like me, believes in the separation of religion and state cannot support the "Jewish-democratic" formula. A state whose algorithm is so heavily weighted with religion can never fully contain democracy as well. Between "Jewish" and "democratic," Jewish theocracy will prevail. The fact is that the "Jewish" is getting stronger and more insular while the "democratic" - encompassing liberty, equality, rights and humanism - is growing very weak and ebbing away. The assertion that, whatever the circumstances, the state will always be "Jewish" no matter what coercion that entails, is the starting point on the road to an Israeli state based on halakha (Jewish law).
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/876296.html
Robert Fisk: Abu Henry and the Mysterious Silence
"Abu Henry" says we may have to remain in Afghanistan for decades to protect Afghans from the Taliban. Our ambassador in Kabul --Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, KCMG, LVO, to be precise--apparently sees no contradiction in this extraordinary prediction. The Taliban are themselves mostly Afghans, and the idea that the British Army is in Afghanistan to protect the locals from each other is a truly colonial proposition. It's what we said about the Northern Irish in 1969.
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