Wednesday, January 28

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines Saturday, 24 January 2009 ~

Palestinian child in coma after IOF sniper shot him Thursday


GAZA, (PIC)-- A Palestinian child was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper east of Gaza city and he is currently in deep coma and in a very critical condition, medical sources reported. They told the PIC that the child Mahmoud Hasanein was admitted to Shifa hospital on Thursday in a very serious condition and was in the intensive care unit. Israeli gunboats on that same day fired at Palestinian homes near the Gaza coasts wounding a number of them.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s77wV0Fg2qr0lYlD28voyQFBdHK4MZ%2fXncB%2f3ARcbMCAFE6CYAYG1suaXbVbw6EZxGBIoIuZVkHXeQKrVzqGlPMkP1uje3pkPBASlKQ0lAjW8%3d



Two Gazans die in Egyptian hospitals; two bodies found in rubble

Two Palestinians died in Egyptian hospitals on Friday of wounds resulting from Israel's three-week assault on the Gaza Strip, a senior Palestinian medical official said. He also said that two more corpses had been recovered from the rubble of buildings that were destroyed by Israel's bombing. Medical workers found the bodies in the Al-Muntada area west of Gaza City and brought them to Ash-Shifa Hospital. The bodies have not yet been identified.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35226


Gaza: Public and UN schools reopen after one-month suspension

Thousands of students were seen heading to class throughout the Strip. Some of the schools have been repaired by the de facto Education Ministry and UNRWA, the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees. Schools in the northern Gaza Strip were targeted by Israeli forces more than other area. In the north, 24 schools were completely destroyed and only 10 of these schools have been repaired. Students who used to study at the destroyed schools were distributed to other schools which will operate two or three shifts. Because of the reduced amount of classroom space, schools will have to merge two or three classes together, raising class sizes to 120 students in some cases, the Education Ministry says. As students sit down for class, many of them discovered that their classmates have been killed, injured, or disabled.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35243


A play about shells for Gazan children

Saturday was the first day of school since before the war, and 1,000 homeless people had been removed from the building so that classes could begin. Even then, normal schoolwork had to wait. A team trained in trauma and group activities was running the assembly, and after the singing and clapping, there was a play devoted to how to handle dangerous materials, like shell parts, still in or near homes. Later, each pupil described what had happened to him and to his friends and family in Israel's 23-day war aimed at stopping Hamas's rockets. "They are not ready to learn yet," said Asem Bajah, an English teacher, as he watched the singing. "And I am not ready to teach."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/world/middleeast/25mideast.html?hp


Gaza's schools open, but young minds closed to peace

GAZA, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Schools reopened in Gaza on Saturday after Israel's devastating three-week war, and peaceful coexistence seemed further than ever from the traumatised minds of young Palestinians. "Good morning! Still alive?" excited teenage girls asked each other as their class, all in white headscarves, lined up in the yard shortly after dawn at Beach Preparatory School ... The girls seemed delighted to be back in class together, although the stories they had to swap were grim tales of dead cousins, wounded neighbours, close escapes, days without power or water, camping in the homes of relatives.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/RMOI-7NLLKS?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P


Gaza's weary faithful gather in mosque turned to rubble

AFP - Only the soaring white minaret survived the Israeli airstrike that levelled the Taha mosque in Gaza City, and on Friday its speakers belted out a message of defiance.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090123/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaislam


Aid agencies: Continued Gaza blockade will cause crisis to double

A coalition of international aid agencies urged the Israeli government on Saturday to open the Gaza Strip's border to allow vital goods into the territory. After 19 months of blockade and 23 days war, Gazans continue to suffer a lack of food, water, healthcare, fuel and shelter. Currently, Israel only allows 125 trucks into Gaza per day. Aid agencies say the number of trucks must increase in order to prevent another crisis.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35251


UNICEF: Displaced families in Gaza face public health crisis

While the fighting in Gaza has stopped, tens of thousands of Palestinians remain in United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRAW) emergency shelters. Thousands of others who fled their homes remain with friends or relatives ... UNRWA provides basic commodities – including drinking water, bread and tinned meat. – to people seeking refuge. However, conditions in the emergency shelters are dire and humanitarian aid officials warn of a growing public health crisis.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/UNICEF/dd9c7ad204c59f46da5ce8b6691ec4d6.htm


France says Israel continues to block aid, diplomats from Gaza

France said on Thursday that Israel was still blocking certain humanitarian goods and diplomats from entering Gaza and it reiterated a call on the Israeli authorities to open all crossing points to the Palestinian Territory.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/fatah-fears-gaza-conflict-has-put-hamas-in-the-ascendancy-1513430.html


De facto gov't: Rafah remains closed for Gazans wishing to get out

24 Jan 14:43 Denying claims that the crossing was opened for those with residency visas for foreign countries and students with study permits for abroad, Zu'rub announced the crossing is only open for travel to those who carry foreign passports, Egyptians or patients. "Egypt had refused to allow through [Rafah crossing] those with residency and student visas," Zu'rub said. So far the only people to leave the Strip have been the injured and 50 foreign journalists. The crossing is operating at full capacity for goods traveling to Gaza, however, and is ushering through trucks loaded with medications.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35249


Egypt allows Palestinians to leave Gaza

24 Jan 10:31 Egypt allowed dozens of Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing on Friday, an Egyptian border official said. According to the official, 116 Palestinians who work and study in Egypt were allowed to cross, along with 23 who are citizens of other countries. He also said that 93 Palestinians stranded on the Egyptian side were allowed to return to the Gaza Strip. Egyptian authorities also allowed about a dozen wounded Palestinians through Rafah for treatment in Egyptian hospitals. They arrived in Egypt at 3pm on Friday, the official said. He added that 44 wounded Palestinians and 38 companions arrived in Egypt on Thursday. In addition 26 doctors from the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) were allowed to assist in the treatment of the injured Palestinians.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35240


Iran vows to pay for Gaza aid as children return to UN schools

The Gaza Reconstruction Headquarters, newly established in the Iranian capital Tehran, will "build 1,000 houses, 10 schools and five mosques, and reconstruct 500 shops, a hospital and a university," said the country's vice president Ali Saeedlou. Following its war in Lebanon in 2006, Israel was powerless to stop Iran funding a rebuilding programme that entrenched the power of the Shia militant group Hizbollah
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4330561/Iran-vows-to-pay-for-Gaza-aid-as-children-return-to-UN-schools.html


Jordan donates 38 tons of aid to Gaza

A Jordanian plane carrying 38 tons of medical supplies and other humanitarian aid for Gaza landed in Al-Arish, Egypt on Friday night. Some of thr aid is expected to be delivered through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing. Another portion will go through the Al-Uja crossing into Israel and then on to the Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35237


AmeriCares medical aid arrives in Gaza

AmeriCares delivery of more than $2.6 million in lifesaving aid to our partner, American New East Refugee Aid (ANERA), has arrived safely in Gaza. Local hospitals and health care clinics are receiving the current shipment of medical aid, including antibiotics, surgical supplies, pain medicines, and other emergency assistance. AmeriCares humanitarian medical aid was arranged with the Israeli Ministry of Defense and coordinated with the United Nations. The local health care providers receiving the medicines and supplies provide charitable care to civilian [?] families.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-7NL4JK?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P


War Crimes

Amnesty International: Israel must disclose weapons it used in Gaza attacks

"We now know that white phosphorous munitions were used in built-up civilian areas, although the Israeli authorities previously denied this," said Donatella Rovera, who is heading an Amnesty International investigation team in Gaza. "Now we have irrefutable evidence of the use of this weapon, but the doctors who treated the first casualties did not know what had caused their injuries." Other victims of the conflict have wounds which doctors say they are finding hard to treat because of uncertainty about the nature of the munitions which caused them. "Doctors tell us they are encountering new and unexplained patterns of injury among some of the Palestinians injured in Israeli military attacks," said Rovera. "Some victims of Israeli air strikes were brought in with charred and sharply severed limbs and doctors treating them need to know what weapons were used."
http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGPRE200901229112&lang=e&rss=recentnews


Worse than an earthquake - report from Rafah

By Kathy Kelly. In 15 years of practice, Dr. Abuhassan says he never saw burns like those he saw here. The burns, blackish in color, reached deep into the muscles and bones. Even after treatment was begun, the blackish color returned. Two of the patients were sent to Egypt because they were in such critical condition. They died in Egypt. But when autopsies were done, reports showed that the cause of death was poisoning from elements of white phosphorous that had entered their systems, causing cardiac arrests.
http://www.counterpunch.org/kelly01222009.html


Al-Jazeera video: Doctors struggle to treat Gaza victims

23 Jan - "Promiment human rights groups have been blaming Israeli army tactics for the difficulty that doctors in Gaza are having in treating their patients. Al Jazeera's Todd Baer reports from Khan Younis where doctors believe that illegal chemical weapons were behind some injuries."
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2009/01/al-jazeera-video-doctors-struggle-to.html


Israel admits using white phosphorus in attacks on Gaza

After weeks of denying that it used white phosphorus in the heavily populated Gaza Strip, Israel finally admitted yesterday that the weapon was deployed in its offensive. [Article contains interesting timeline of Israeli denials and gradual admissions, Jan 5-23]
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5575070.ece


Aid workers shocked by post-war Gaza

Twelve representatives of the Physicians for Human Rights-Israel organization also toured Gaza on Friday. Dr. Mahmid Mahmoud told Ynet he had been shocked by the sights to which he was exposed at the hospital. "I've never felt such pain. There are children without arms and legs at the hospitals. I couldn't have imagined the occurrences here in my worst nightmares, when you see it you start to cry. It's the worst thing I've ever seen in my life," he said, adding that he hoped a Jewish delegation would tour Gaza to witness the destruction.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3660993,00.html


Doctors: Many Palestinians in Gaza hospitals in danger of dying from their wounds

A large number of Palestinians listed in serious condition in Gaza hospitals are in danger of dying from their wounds, a group of 12 Arab-Israeli doctors said Friday. Dr. Agbariah, the manager of a hospital in the Arab-Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm, said Friday that "each hospital is full of wounded. There are wounded in serious condition and the treatment they are given is very basic because of the lack of medical supplies."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1058230.html


Israel to approve aid for IDF officers accused of Gaza war crimes

The government is set to approve a bill Sunday to grant aid and support to Israel Defense Forces officers in cases where they face suits for alleged war crimes from Operation Cast Lead. The bill, titled "strengthening the IDF's hand after Operation Cast Lead", was put forward by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and coordinated by the Ministry or Defense, Ministry of Justice and State Prosecutor. There is growing concern at the Defense Ministry and the Ministry of Justice that Israeli officers will be singled out in a wave of suits for alleged human rights violations.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1058215.html


Eyewitness accounts/Testimonials

Sophie's Choice, Gaza style

By Phil Weiss. Lubin is the head of Middle East Children's Alliance,
and she's in Gaza now, trying to help. She sent out this story to friends: Out of all the devastation I have seen so far, there is one story in particular that I think the world needs to hear. I met a mother who was at home with her ten children when Israeli soldiers entered the house. The soldiers told her she had to choose five of her children to "give as a gift to Israel." As she screamed in horror they repeated the demand and told her she could choose or they would choose for her. Then these soldiers murdered five of her children in front of her. The concept of "Jewish morality" is truly dead. We can be fascists, terrorists, and Nazis just like everybody else. [In the book and film 'Sophie's Choice, a Nazi concentration camp guard forces a Jewish woman to choose which of her two children will die]
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/01/sophies-choice-gaza-style.html


Overcome with grief, UNRWA schoolteacher is absent

Issa Al-Batran was a teacher at the UN school in the Al-Bureij refugee camp; he was a father of six, a husband and a homeowner. His wife Manal, three daughters and two sons were killed in the room next to Issa. The family was living in the salon, but he had excused himself to pray in the silence of the adjacent room for a few moments. His infant son, Abd Al-Hadi, crawled after him, which is the only reason he is still alive.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35250


'I Will Never Walk Again'

Guns might have gone silent, bodies buried, rubbles lifted, but Israel's 22-day onslaught is leaving many Gazans with life-long scars, both physical and psychological. "I will never walk again," Ruba Hamid, 8, said from her bed in Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14732


Children of Gaza: stories of those who died and the trauma for those who survived

Rory McCarthy reports from Gaza City on the individual stories of some victims and the physical and psychological toll on an estimated 350,000 youngsters - Only now, after most of the dead have been buried, is the first properly researched reckoning of the toll emerging. What already stands out is the striking cost borne by the children
of Gaza
, who make up more than half of the 1.5 million people living in this overcrowded strip of land.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/23/gaza-children-killed-israel


Al Jazeera: Jazeera correspondent in Gaza interviews Palestinian child at a refugee school and he talks about his suffering during the Israeli war against Gaza

Transcript Translation: "I would tell him to come see our condition, our children, how they are left in classrooms, on the tile floor, no carpet, no food, no water, no electricity. Is this life? This is siege; this is the biggest siege, the greatest siege by Israel. I would tell him look and see how we are living; we're left here, we don't get to play, we don't get to laugh, we don't get to learn, we don't get to see kids' shows. I turn the TV on; all I see is funerals, shooting, death, war, tanks, and invasion. I don't find kid's show that I can pass time, learn from. I don't find cartoons to play (sic), watch and pass time. Everything is funerals and carrying martyrs and shooting. We here, we don't have food, no water, no drinks, nothing. We are left here like beggars. Look at the other people, how they play, have fun, and laugh. We are under siege, nearly two years under siege. We don't get food or water; they have done nothing for us. They did not even open the border crossings so food and other things can get in."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H39i5tYTxaI


Turkish families sponsor Palestinian orphans

About 1,200 Palestinian orphans who lost their parents during the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip are going to be sponsored by Turkish families, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Friday. The Human Rights and Freedoms (IHH) Humanitarian Aid Foundation has found Turkish families to sponsor these Palestinian orphans, said the report. "We are still searching for families to support those children by sending nearly 42 U.S. dollars each month for a period of at least six months," said Tepeli.
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/6580671.html


Family survives Gaza war, returns to destruction
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mohammed Zayid returned to his northern Gaza neighborhood after the war to find nothing as it was. Tank blasts had blown the front off the local bakery, bullet holes riddled the hall where his son was married and airstrikes had collapsed into rubble the store where he bought tea and Coca-Cola for guests. His home with its view of the Mediterranean was gone except for a pile of concrete and the reek of a rotting donkey nearby with two bullet holes in its back. "I lost my head when I saw it," the 55-year-old fisherman recalled. "My whole house was gone. I felt dead right there."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i0YfCUniCeB9bCtfVTSy8Bt9FeLQD95TD9VG0

Zeitoun becomes a symbol

By Elliot D. Woods. ...When he peers through the shards, Al-Arkan, 31, sees the post-apocalyptic wreckage of his neighbors' homes, reduced to tangled heaps of concrete and re-bar. And he realizes that his neighbors lost even more than he did. They lost everything. Twenty-nine members of the Samouni family were killed during the three-week Israeli offensive.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PULITZER/9761ebdb83555918fbb41126cfa14db2.htm


Amnesty International: Israeli soldiers leave Gaza homes in devastated condition

Despite the ceasefire declared on Sunday, each morning since Israeli gunboats have fired towards Gaza's coastline. Nine people were injured as a result of such shelling from an Israeli gunboat, Amnesty International's fact-finding team in Gaza was told on Wednesday ... Every one of these houses we visited was in a shocking state. All the rooms had been ransacked, with furniture overturned and/or smashed. The families' clothing, documents and other personal items were strewn all over the floors and soiled and, in one case, urinated on. In one house in the Sayafa area in north Gaza, several cardboard boxes full of excrement were left in the house – although there was a functioning toilet which the soldiers could have used. Walls were defaced with crude threats written in Hebrew, such as "next time it will hurt more" and, in one house, a drawing of a naked woman.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/YSAR-7NKS56?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P


UNICEF: 'Everything is destroyed' siblings describe destruction of their school in Gaza

NEW YORK, USA, 22 January 2009 – When Gaza's schools reopen in the coming days, Maram, 12, does not know where she'll go. "I want to see what happened to my school," she said in a telephone interview with UNICEF Radio. "I saw pictures of it – It was very, very destroyed." AUDIO: Listen now

ttp://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EGUA-7NKTV8?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P


Al-Atratreh residents find Israeli underwear and munitions boxes beneath rubble

The Al-Attar family from Al-Atatreh represents a story told many times over; a father dead, a home ruined, young children and nowhere to go. There were 95 bodies uncovered in the small village. For the families who survived the war, the real battles are still to come. The destruction was hard to believe for many. Raja' Faysal Deeb Al-Attar swore she found Israeli women's underwear in her half destroyed bedroom. In the kitchen there were Cornflakes, chocolate syrup, juices, and canned foods with labels in Hebrew that the family says have not been available in Gaza for years.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35248


Minister: War caused $170 million in damage to Gaza farms

Agriculture Minister Muhammad Al-Agha explained that losses in the livestock sector alone amount to 110 million dollars. He said 1,000 irrigation wells were destroyed along with vast areas of vegetable and fruits farms, egg incubators and greenhouses. He pointed out that each animal farm cost more than three million dollars, highlighting that his ministry received financial support from several Arab and European countries. However, Al-Agha asserts that the ministry needs special European and international teams to investigate the possible use of depleted uranium, phosphorus, and other substances that could harm agriculture in the long term.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35246


In Gaza, a family wonders how to rebuild

Hamas, which says it is ready to take charge of reconstruction, plans to begin distributing $35 million to $40 million in assistance this Sunday to Gazans affected by the war, a spokesman said. But Israel argues that international assistance must go through aid agencies and that the local partner in this effort should be the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority (PA), which Hamas overthrew 1-1/2 years ago. Ashraf Ziad, who fled his home in Bet Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, counts himself as one of the early recipients of Hamas aid.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090124/wl_csm/ogazastory


Gaza needs many years to heal

By Dr. Mona El-Farra. I am still in Cairo. With a sad heart I am watching home from a distance. The hardest days were when I went to the Rafah Crossing point. I was only one kilometer away from Gaza, but could not enter. I was told that as a Palestinian with dual nationality, I can get in but not out. While at the border I was greatly touched by the expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people. I met doctors from Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Greece, Turkey and many other countries who came to help the people of Gaza in defiance of Israel's savage attacks on children, women, and men. We must all work on continuing and expanding these solidarity efforts on different levels.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14736


UNRWA chief: Israeli offensive in Gaza boosted extremists

Israel's invasion of Gaza has strengthened the hand of extremists and only a credible independent investigation into alleged wrongdoing can quiet growing Palestinian anger, a United Nations aid official said on Friday. John Ging, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, called for new U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell to talk to ordinary people in Gaza as part of a "new track" in diplomacy.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1058217.html


Israel refuses to release Gaza man who served six-year sentence

Muhammad Abu Aun, from Jabaliya Refugee Camp in the northern Gaza Strip, was instead remanded to Israel's Negev Prison camp under a 2007 law that allows detainees to be held without trial as "illegal combatants." The law was passed in September 2007, when Israel also pronounced Gaza an "enemy entity."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35247


Political power situation

Hamas says it's back in control of the Gaza Strip

AP - Bearded Hamas leaders on Friday delivered an envelope with five crisp $100 bills to a veiled woman whose house was damaged during Israel's invasion of Gaza, the first of promised relief payments by the militant group.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090123/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_hamas_back_in_control


Local Hamas volunteers clean up the streets of Khan Younis

The local Hamas movement in Khan Younis conducted on Friday a campaign of clearing the streets of Khan Younis from the rubble that littered the streets as a result of the Israeli war on Gaza.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s789MyxSi3k4H0lg%2fOLfHykOAAQ8xMJTQhMCRp7b29hpTiFC9kZmCewfzlVsYH6Fn5oB76%2fGfSrIidbD9%2bsaCSFUl6ZXPBTMh7%2b0tL21yjdfM%3d


Hamas leaders continue to lie low

On the first Friday since Israel ended its 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip, some Palestinians gathered for weekly mass devotions by spreading prayer rugs on the streets outside the wreckage of mosques devastated by missile strikes. Among those not making a public appearance, however, was the top local political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh. Rumors had been rife that Haniyeh, an Islamic religious scholar, would emerge from weeks of hiding to deliver a sermon. Despite the unilateral cease-fire declared by Israel that took effect Sunday, the militant group is still wary of assassination strikes, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-gaza24-2009jan24,0,2721525.story?track=rss


Eight Palestinian factions form relief committee under Haneyya's government
GAZA, (PIC)-- The PA government in Gaza announced Friday that eight Palestinian factions have agreed to join the supreme national relief committee under PA premier Ismael Haneyya, adding that the committee will be the only authorized party to handle the rebuilding program in Gaza Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7yYnBcbz589MeU2VRbdUFRB2lLEyT5n3Y3y%2blMv14x2ndwis4vZiv94AQvnWRhtNX4lDaUmriefok%2fmehyEIOaFdOTnujunoi%2ftiTyEefMMU%3d


Hamas agrees to allow Fatah forces to patrol Rafah crossing

The London-based Asharq al-Awsat reported Saturday that Hamas has suggested representatives of the Palestinian Authority be stationed at the Rafah crossing, but that they be residents of Gaza, not the West Bank. Also on Saturday, Hamas officials laid out some of their conditions for a continuation of the Gaza truce and for the release of captured Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit. A Hamas delegation comprising representatives from Gaza and Damascus traveled to Cairo is to meet with Egyptian officials on Sunday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1058242.html


Fatah and Hamas trade accusations of political arrests, torture

The Palestinian Authority's official news agency Wafa published a report accusing Hamas of pursuing Fatah supporters, shooting them and abducting them. Meanwhile, the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Information Center (PIC) said that PA security in the West Bank arrested Hamas members.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35235


The Collaborators


Egypt's intelligence blackmails wounded Palestinians to tell about Hamas

Palestinians citizens wounded in the Israeli war on Gaza and treated in Egyptian hospitals affirmed Friday that elements of the Egyptian intelligence questioned them.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7KIOJx%2b7qgHfcmynWDYwBJFJfM9lum0mabxFcIe1erxd8B3i42oOUdyO70ZaPFoITdr%2fwDA1BPD4e493EyHBdXLx51LlyVxkIsm%2f%2bzntE%2fbY%3d


Israel approves additional Egyptian forces on Gaza border

Israel has given a green light to an Egyptian requent to deploy up to 1,500 new security personnel along its border with Gaza, Israeli media reported on Friday. The additional forces are charged with shutting down smuggling routes into the Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35221


France orders navy to patrol waters near Gaza

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday ordered a frigate carrying helicopters to patrol international waters off the coast of Gaza in an effort to combat smuggling and consolidate a fragile ceasefire. A statement by Sarkozy's office said he is ordering the deployment "in full cooperation with Egypt and Israel."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35238


Abbas's preventive security arrest 9 Hamas supporters

Abbas's security men kidnapped on Thursday night and Friday morning nine Hamas supporters in the district of Tulkarem, including imams, teachers, lawyers and freed captives.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s79TFZ7Z5nNWP%2f7gFDG7t2zQW4WzGS8QQrk18Idm%2bZLNqWYEDgxggwIWz6tRRs5Se68KOMeiL50QZk9jwjpuHXbgepWNfkh%2fam7Peognil%2fgk%3d


Media/Media Bias/Propaganda

BBC rebuked over refusal to air Gaza appeal

By Nicholas Watt. Douglas Alexander
, the international development secretary, yesterday rebuked Britain's broadcasters for refusing to air an emergency appeal for Gaza
by Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee. The BBC refused to broadcast the humanitarian appeal for Gaza on the grounds that it did not want to risk public confidence in its impartiality. The decision meant that other broadcasters also refused to air the appeal by the committee, the umbrella group for 13 aid charities.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jan/24/bbc-gaza-appeal


BBC under fire for blocking Gaza charity appeal

LONDON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The British government urged the BBC on Saturday to drop its refusal to broadcast a humanitarian appeal for victims of the war in Gaza. The BBC said the appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a coalition of 13 aid agencies, would compromise the impartiality of its coverage. "The most important thing we can do for the people who are suffering is carrying on reporting it and we've done exemplary work in reporting the suffering of the people of Gaza," Chief Operating Officer Caroline Thomson said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LO546252.htm


Rivals break with BBC in Gaza row

ITV, Channel 4 and Five are to show a charity appeal for Gaza amid a row over the BBC's decision not to run the film. Ministers urged the BBC to recognise "immense human suffering" and show the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal. The BBC and other channels previously agreed not to show the appeal. Five now said the issue "transcends politics".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7848673.stm


Clashes?

Al-Arabiyya TV (the station of the brother-in-law of King Fahd) aired a report about Israeli shooting at unarmed demonstrators in the West Bank. It called the shooting of Palestinian demonstrators "clashes" between Israelis and Palestinians. Basically, they are following the standards of US Zionist media.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/clashes.html


Justifying War Crimes

Jon Snow, channel 4 interviews Mr Mark Regev, the Israeli government spokesperson. This about weapons used in civilian areas that contravene Customary International Humanitarian Law.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3uYXWtd684


Lebanon's Daily Star shut down

(AP) Beirut: The publisher of Lebanon's only English-language daily says a court order forced the newspaper to shut down over financial troubles.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/01/23/news/ML-Lebanon-Newspaper-Closure.php


Social media and the Gaza conflict

By Will Ward. Israel's assault on Gaza in response to Hamas rocket fire has returned social media to the forefront of Middle East politics. More than any previous round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Israel is using its military might to control media on the battlefield, while partisans of both sides strive to influence public opinion using social media.
http://www.arabmediasociety.com/?article=701


Look at this article

Do I have to train New York Times reporters on the basics of elementary journalism? Where are the standards. Look at this article: it has front page coverage and it is widely circulating around the world. But the claim is based only on the account of an anonymous American intelligence source. No need for verification or substantiation. This is like when Syrian officials used to "anonymous" feed stuff to the columns of Lebanese columnist (in An-Nahar: the right-wing, sectarian Christian, anti-Syrian (people), anti-Palestinian (people) newspaper), Sarkis Na`um, who now supports March 14.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/look-at-this-article.html


Arab regimes and the Palestinian problem

Take this article by Michael Slackman. It contains the oft-repeated cliche that Arab regimes use and misuse the Palestinian question. Let us dispel this cliche once and for all. This was true back in the 1960s and early 1970s but not anymore. It is no more true that Arab regimes use the Palestinian question to divert the attention of the population. It is now the reverse: the Arab people insist on keeping the flame of the Palestinian problem alive, and the Arab regimes all want the issue to go away because any reference to the issue exposes Arab regimes' incompetence, defeats, weakness, and duplicities. Arab regimes now focus in their media on sleaze, sports, and Danish cartoons. In other words, anything except Palestine. Get that? Secondly, the article which deals with Arab politics interviews two Arab intellectuals: both of whom are conservative right-wingers who staunchly support the royal family of Kuwait. Fair and balanced? You bet.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/arab-regimes-and-palestinian-problem.html


New York Times standards

You really get to examine the standards of the New York Times when the Middle East is in the news. Yesterday, there was an article about the tensions between Hamas and Fatah and the prospects of the next Palestinian puppet elections, and the reporter interviewed the spokesperson of the Israeli terrorist military. Imagine if there was an article in the New York Times about an Israeli election, would they then interview an official of Qassam Brigades to speculate on election results? One thing is clear: the New York Times has one set of standards for the colonialists, and another set for the sand niggers.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-york-times-standards.html


Zionist Propaganda Machine

As in past Mideast conflicts, both the media story line and political commentary in the US have closely followed Israel's talking points on the war. This has been an essential component in Israel's early success and in its ability to prolong fighting without US pushback. Because it recognises the importance of the propaganda war, Israel fights on this front as vigorously and disproportionately as it engages on the battlefield.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14731


Unseen Gaza, Channel 4 Video Report
Is what has been presented on our screens and in our papers a true reflection of events on the ground in Gaza? And how do these reports differ to those aired in other countries? Featuring images that haven't before been aired on mainstream television, Jon also examines the difference between the coverage at home and that in the US, Europe and the Middle East.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeezoWRu1FU

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wod2ycln0AQ

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix3bpbNXJSo

Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRhgQESUhmo

Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSiymcMlHgc

Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sd4TMw9wEE


IFJ arrives in Gaza for fact-finding mission on Israeli violations of the rights of journalists

A delegation from the International Federation of Journalists arrived in Gaza Thursday evening, entering through the Erez crossing in the northern Strip. The goal of the visit, said the IFJ, is to support local Gazan journalists and probe the complaints of dozens of local and international media workers regarding the abuses of rights during the Israeli war on Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35234


Meanwhile in the West Bank and Israel


Israeli forces arrest seven children in West Bank

Seven children from Toura al-Gharbeiah village were arrested on Tuesday by the Israeli authorities; they are currently detained in Salim detention and interrogation center, in the northern West Bank. A DCI-Palestine lawyer yesterday visited the children. According to information collected by the lawyer, between midnight and 4:00am on Tuesday 20 January, the Israeli intelligence, police and army entered Toura al-Gharbeiah village and arrested the seven children from their respective homes.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10239.shtml


IDF soldier suspected of seriously wounding Palestinian at West Bank checkpoint

An IDF soldier is suspected of seriously wounding a Palestinian man at the West Bank checkpoint of Hawara, after he allegedly struck him in the head with the butt of his rifle. The IDF has pledged to open an investigation, adding that they suspect the soldier felt threatened.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1058220.html


Teenager detained as Israeli forces raid Nablus

Witnesses told Ma'an that Israeli troops raided houses on Jerusalem Road, south of Nablus, arresting 18-year-old Tarek Diab Al-Hourani.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35224


Political motives feared in attack on Nablus professor's car

Assailants set fire to a car belonging to a Hamas-linked political science professor in Nablus in what was feared to be a politically motivated attack. Dr Abdul-Sattar Qasim, a leading academic at An-Najah National University, told Ma'an that the attackers hurled a Molotov Cocktail at his Mitsubishi while it was parked in front of his home in the Al-Jadida neighborhood in Nablus. Qasim, a leading academic and a member of Hamas, was arrested along with 50 others by the Palestinian Authority last July. He and the other arrestees were charged with "illegal factional activities."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35239


A bomb goes off underneath the car of a university professor

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- A bomb exploded, Friday evening, under the car of Abdel-Sattar Qasem, a professor of political science at the Najah University in Nablus, in the northern West Bank. No one was injured in the explosion. Qassem had earlier in the day participated in a panel at al-Quds satellite channel during which he severely criticised the Ramallah Palestinian Authority and the incident took place minutes after his return home from this engagement, making Fatah vandals, or Abbas's security agencies, the prime suspects of being behind the attack.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7Og6OmXMjsxisUPRVpGkJXPrKcYHuVMtdEE1d%2fPF5yRwvmzDoLbwxYc%2bPOciu0TLeRduLWeuiTdUEcm3MWo5K0OzeyHO4ihqwSkAzqoWKx2I%3d


Israeli troops attack the Nil'in weekly protest

Scores of Palestinians from the village of Nil'in, located near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, On Friday, conducted a protest against the illegal Israeli wall being built on the village land by the Israeli settlement and annexation project.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58605


Al Ma'ssara village protest the Israeli wall near Bethlehem

On Friday scores of villagers from Al Ma'ssara, located near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem sported by international peace activists protest the Israeli illegal wall being built on the village land.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58606


Demonstrator hospitalized after Israeli forces fire on Bil'in demonstrators

Hundreds of Palestinians joined a peaceful march for Palestinian unity and against the Israeli attacks on Gaza in the West Bank village of Bil'in on Friday. Three people were injured. One person, Khames Fathi Aburahma, was hospitalized after being shot in the head. Aburahma was shot with a new type of Israeli ammunition that sprays small metal pellets.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35229


Palestine from the Inside

Nassri Bishara Lada is a normal 19-year-old. He goes to university and plays for a local football team. He hopes to turn professional one day. Nassri is a Christian in a Muslim world, but none of his friends care- they believe it is his choice. Sixty years ago Nassri would have lived a normal life and had the opportunity to follow his dreams, but then sixty years ago Nassri wouldn't have been a Palestinian refugee living in Ramallah after Israeli settlers forced his family out of their home. He is painfully aware that wherever he goes people think he is a terrorist, and he knows there is nothing he can do about it. Nassri knows who the real terrorists are, what follows is his own account of Israeli terror.
http://www.nouse.co.uk/2009/01/23/palestine-from-the-inside/


Eight Bethlehem basketball teams stage all-star match to support Gaza

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35245


Jaffa residents bemoan relatives killed in Gaza

Operation Cast Lead emphasizes Arab residents of central city's conflict between Israeli citizenship and pain over losing loved ones in Gaza. 'Expression of solidarity should not be reason to attack us,' says principal of school erecting mourners tent for victims
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3660849,00.html


Israeli right set to win elections on back of Gaza war

AFP - Rightwing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu looks set to profit from Israel's military assault on the Gaza Strip, stretching his lead in the polls for the February 10 elections.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090123/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaisraelvote


Op-ed/Analysis

Gideon Levy / The next step

The vast majority cheered loudly, the negligible minority shouted in silence, like a whistler in the dark. The overwhelming majority only wanted more and more, the inconsequential minority wanted only to stop. The absolute majority gorged, ordering pizzas and scenes of the bombing by VOD, and some stood on the rooftops opposite Gaza with their children to watch the massacre with their own eyes. The trifling minority tried to protest, cringing with shame and feelings of guilt at every image that arrived from Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057836.html


In Israel, Detachment From Reality is the Norm

By Patrick Cockburn. Israeli society was always introverted but these days it reminds me more than ever of the Unionists in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s or the Lebanese Christians in the 1970s. Like Israel, both were communities with a highly developed siege mentality which led them always to see themselves as victims even when they were killing other people.
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick01232009.html


The struggle of an un-people

By Dina Jadallah-Taschler. Watching and reading the Western mainstream media coverage of the war in Gaza as well as the Palestinian question is frequently a source of never-ending frustration. One must continuously suppress one's outrage at the deceptive and convoluted framing of what is essentially the struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom and independence, but which has become transmogrified into an inherent and almost genetic Arab / Muslim irrational hatred and violence towards Jews / Israel.
http://www.counterpunch.org/taschler01232009.html


'The incendiary IDF'

By Kenneth Roth.
Now that Human Rights Watch and other observers have been let in, it has become clear that hundreds of Palestinian civilians were not the only casualties of the fighting. So was the credibility of the IDF. Part of the problem was the IDF's expansive definition of a military target. It attacked a range of civilian facilities, from government offices to police stations, on the theory that they all provided at least indirect support to Hamas militants. But by that theory, Hamas would have been entitled to target virtually any government building in Israel on the ground that its office workers indirectly supported the IDF.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14737


Israel must stop fanning the flames that will consume us

By David Grossman.
To talk to the Palestinians. That must be the central conclusion we reach from this last, bloody round of war. To talk even with those who do not recognize our right to exist here. Instead of ignoring Hamas now, we must take advantage of the new situation and enter into a dialogue to enable an accommodation with the Palestinian people as a whole. To talk, in order to understand that reality is not just the hermetically sealed story that we and the Palestinians have been telling ourselves for generations, the story that we are imprisoned within, no small part of which consists of fantasies, wishes and nightmares.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR2009012302312.html


Israelis' slow, tenacious genocide spans decades

By UmKhalil.
When I saw the photos of the slaughtered Palestinian children in the Guardian's photo gallery
and when I read Rory McCarthy's story,
I thought of Samia Halaby's MEMORIAL
on the 50th Anniversary of the Kafr Qasem Massacre.
http://umkahlil.blogspot.com/2009/01/israelis-slow-tenacious-genocide-spans.html


Winning and Losing in Gaza

Now that there is a cease-fire in Gaza, questions are emerging about what Israel has achieved. Of course, the lopsided casualty figures and Israel's military dominance certainly make it the battlefield winner. But such a "mission accomplished" assessment is as misleading in occupied Palestine as it was in Iraq. Although Hamas could not come close to matching Israel's armed might, it may have won a major battle for Palestinian hearts and minds. Reports from the West Bank, Gaza and the Palestinian diaspora suggest widespread anger at the Palestinian Authority for its passivity and a rise in support for Hamas, even among secular Palestinians, in appreciation of its determined resistance to the brutality of the Israeli occupation and military operations. If Hamas becomes the dominant political force in all of occupied Palestine when the next elections are held, Israel will be the loser.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090209/falk


'We won'?

By Gideon Spiro.
The bloodbath that Israel carried out in Gaza from the air, land and sea did not prevent Olmert from declaring that the Israeli army is 'moral' -- an Israeli contribution to Orwellian language. The mass slaughter was by no means instructive about the true strength of the army or its rehabilitation after the Second Lebanon War. All we have seen is that American F-16 aircraft can drop thousands of tons of bombs and cause massive destruction and mass killing of women, children and old people. We knew that before.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=31546


The aftermath of the war on Gaza

By Mohammed Ali Shabani. Five thousand homes destroyed, more than 1300 killed, and thousands of injured – yet, Hamas is still in charge of the Gaza strip. It is becoming ever clearer that the goal of the Gaza operation was never regime change. Rather than preventing the firing of home-made rockets by Hamas, the war in Gaza was fought to coax segments of Hamas into the mainstream, re-establish the deterrence of the Israeli Army, and send a signal to Washington and Tehran alike that things have, and will not change.
http://www.counterpunch.org/shabani01232009.html


Boycotting Israeli is bound to fail

By Seth Freedman.
If you're really serious about boycotting Israel, you shouldn't have read this sentence. In fact, you shouldn't even have the Cif website open at all, since the Guardian quite openly employs Israelis
and remunerates them for the products they provide. And in doing so, the Guardian is hardly alone: thanks in part to globalisation, and in part to the seemingly inextricable ties Israel has to the US and Europe (for starters), there is little to no chance of a complete boycott of Israel ever coming to pass and bringing the country's economy to its knees. However, that doesn't mean that boycotting Israel is wrong in principle.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/24/israelandthepalestinians-internationaltrade


Interview with Adam Shapiro, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement

... How is it possible to boycott and isolate the terrorist regime in the international stage? There is a call from Palestinian civil society to boycott Israel, and it is for this reason that we are compelled to adhere to this call. That said, sanctions will most likely be symbolic at best, given the penetration of businesses in Israel and the difficulty to render such an impact. Symbolically, however the boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS) campaign is very useful, particularly in the west, where it enables us to alter the debate away from spurious charges of anti-Semitism towards pointing out specifically why such measures are necessary.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/01/24/interview-with-adam-shapiro-co-founder-of-the-ism/


Solidarity

Press release: Veolia loses 3,5 billion EUR contract in Sweden

The tramway connecting the Israeli west Jerusalem with illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory has triggered discussions about Veolia's ethical policy. Public protests in Sweden against Veolia has brought the attention to the dilemma of operating public services when you at he same time are involved in politically controversial activities. As late as the day before the decision the Stockholm community council received lists with thousands of signatories from people demanding the council to choose an operator who was associated with violations against international humanitarian law.
http://www.diakonia.se/sa/node.asp?node=2807


Syria congratulates Hamas on Gaza 'victory'
DAMASCUS (AFP) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad congratulated Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on the Islamist movement's "victory" over Israel in Gaza at a meeting in Damascus on Saturday, official media said. "Israel's inability to achieve its objectives despite using the deadliest of weaponry is proof of the devotion of the Palestinian people to its territorial rights and its deep belief in victory against occupation and aggression," the official SANA news agency quoted Assad as saying.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gwHnUeDnsHm6Vm_M0-Y7f6Kea4vA

Thousands march in Paris to support Gaza

(AP) The protest aimed in part at pressuring France's government is the fourth of its kind in as many weeks. The marchers in Saturday's demonstration carried Palestinian flags, chanted "resistance! resistance!" and waved banners like one reading "Shame on Israel" in English.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/01/24/europe/EU-France-Gaza-Protests.php


Naples fountains turn blood red in pro-Gaza stunt

Far-right Italian activists poured dye in six fountains in Naples on Friday, turning the water a bright blood red to protest against the killing of civilians in Gaza during Israel's offensive.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLN426368


Demonstrate against the BBC

http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2009/01/demonstrate-against-bbc.html


Storm of student protest over Gaza gathers force

Sit-ins at 16 UK universities spell return to radicalism, fuelled by social networking and blogs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/23/student-protests-gaza


Students' sit-in protest over Gaza

Saturday - More than 100 students are staging a sit-in at Cambridge University in protest at the actions of the Israeli military in Gaza. Members of Cambridge Gaza Solidarity say they intend to spend the weekend inside the university's law faculty.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/7848583.stm


Cartoons

http://latuff2.deviantart.com/art/Gaza-war-crimes-2-110298164


American Involvement

James Baker: Obama Has to Get Hamas Involved Peace Process

"...you cannot negotiate peace with only half the Palestinian polity at the table. I would suggest an approach like we used leading up to the Madrid Conference in 1991. Baker further advised new president to engage Syria. "Syria's marriage with Iran is one of convenience, and if we assured them they would get back the Golan and normalized relations with the U.S., we might wean them from Iran.."
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/63529/james-baker-obama-has-to-get-hamas-involved-peace-process.html


Mitchell wrong for Middle East referee?

"George Mitchell has a reputation on his previous work in the Middle East as being evenhanded between Israel and the Palestinian extremists. And for me that means the appointment is bad because I don't believe we should be evenhanded between Israel and the Palestinians,"
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=392908


Obama discusses Gaza with Saudi ruler

WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) ...The call to Abdullah coincided with the publication of an article by Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to the United States, warning Obama the United States was putting Saudi ties at risk with its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23493589.htm


Saudi patience is running out

By Prince Turki al-Faisal.
Unless the new US administration takes forceful steps to prevent any further suffering and slaughter of Palestinians, the peace process, the US-Saudi relationship and the stability of the region are at risk ... Let us all pray that Mr Obama possesses the foresight, fairness, and resolve to rein in the murderous Israeli regime and open a new chapter in this most intractable of conflicts.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/65b122b6-e8c0-11dd-a4d0-0000779fd2ac.html


Obama: We will aggressively seek lasting Middle East peace

President Barack Obama's newly minted Mideast envoy George Mitchell will arrive in Israel even before the Knesset elections on February 10, a senior government source said. According to Obama, it "will be the policy of my administration to actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians as well as Israel and its Arab neighbors," he said Thursday. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and told her Israel would not open the Gaza crossings without progress toward the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057919.html


Obama's signals on Middle East scrutinized by all sides

Thus far, Obama appears to have hewed closely to the line held by the Bush administration, among the most pro-Israel presidencies in U.S. history. But he appeared to show greater empathy for the plight of the Palestinians and offered an unusually detailed outline for securing the recent Gaza cease-fire. He also named as his envoy former Senate majority leader George J. Mitchell (D-Maine), who was seen as evenhanded by both sides when he headed a fact-finding commission in 2000-2001.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR2009012303840.html


Iraq

Friday: 1 US soldier, 11 Iraqis killed; 3 Iraqis wounded

http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=14125


Saturday: 1 US soldier, 9 Iraqis killed; 25 Iraqis wounded

http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=14131


US forces in Iraq kill three brothers in a house raid

US forces stormed the house in the village of Youssifia, south of the northern city of Mosul, a police source told the Voices of Iraq news agency (VOI) without giving further details.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1455132.php/US_forces_in_Iraq_kill_three_brothers_in_a_house_raid_


US troops kill Iraqi couple, wound child

KIRKUK, Iraq (AFP) – US soldiers killed an Iraqi couple and wounded their eight-year-old daughter during a raid against Al-Qaeda suspects near the northern city of Kirkuk on Saturday, police and the US military said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090124/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestusarmy


Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison to reopen - with new name

BAGHDAD, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Iraq will reopen its notorious Abu Ghraib prison next month, but will change the name which became synonomous with abuse under both Saddam Hussein's rule and U.S. occupation, a senior official said on Saturday. He told Reuters that the prison -- which earned global notoriety after U.S. jailkeepers filmed themselves tormenting and sexually humiliating inmates -- had been renovated to international standards.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LO522191.htm


Other

Dispute over deadly Afghan raid

A claim by US forces in Afghanistan that they killed 15 Taliban fighters in the eastern province of Laghman, has been disputed by village elders. A US statement said on Saturday that soldiers killed the fighters after coming under fire from opposition fighters. But the elders say all those who died were civilians.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/01/20091248128328968.html


American fear halts plane

In a headline that claimed 'Racism on flight', Milliyet newspaper reported that police were called after United States national Daniel Sussman Pincus started to shout complaints about "Arab- types" on board Monday's Istanbul to New York flight. After escorting Pincus off the plane, all other passengers were forced off the flight to undergo security checks in accordance with international practice.
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=287431


www.TheHeadlines.org
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