f_shadi provides us with many headlines from across the web.
Land Theft and Destruction
Rightists suspected of torching Palestinian property
Police believe extreme right-wing activists set house, two vehicles on fire in West Bank village of Ain Abous. 'We are 12 people in this house. What are we supposed to do now?' asks resident who lost his home.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Report: Settlers suspected of torching Palestinian home to avenge freeze
Defense officials believe settlers were behind the torching of a Palestinian home and two vehicles in the West Bank early Sunday, Army Radio reported, in an apparent attempt to avenge a construction freeze in settlements. According to the report, Israeli security forces subsequently searched the area near the home, near Nablus. The incident came shortly before police on Sunday forcibly evacuated about 100 right-wing activists who had blocked roads near the West Bank settlement of Kedumin, in a bid to prevent inspectors from handing out orders to implement a construction freeze.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/
Israel approves plan to construct extra buildings in Buraq plaza
Quds Press reported that the Israeli committee for planning and building in occupied Jerusalem approved last week a plan to build extra buildings in Al-Buraq plaza.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Report on Israeli settlement in the occupied territories Nov - Dec 2009
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has adopted what he describes as "a policy of restraint regarding settlements which will include a suspension of new permits and new construction in Judea and Samaria for a period of ten months," along with "a promise to enable normal life to continue for three hundred thousand Israeli citizens, our brothers and sisters, who live in Judea and Samaria." During this period, construction continues without limitation in East Jerusalem settlements, where 200,000 Israelis now reside (see map, page 3). Construction will continue as well on at least 3,000 West Bank settlement housing units, along with unlimited construction of public facilities, meaning that the rate of settlement expansion will at best be only marginally effected during 2010 by the new policy. "When the suspension ends," continued Netanyahu in his November 25, 2009, announcement, "my government will revert to the policies of previous governments in relation to construction."
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Settler leader: We will violate building freeze order
The settlers' fight against a 10-month settlement construction freeze declared by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government last month is gaining momentum. Some 200 people, led by Yesha Council chairman Danny Dayan and MKs Tzipi Hotovely and Uri Ariel, convened an emergency meet in the West Bank settlement of Ofra yesterday to raise practical tactics to thwart the freeze.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israeli settlers step up protest against freeze (Reuters)
Reuters - Jewish settlers widened their protests on Sunday against a temporary construction freeze by shooting at a Palestinian home, torching and stoning vehicles, and assaulting Israeli officers in separate West Bank incidents.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Fact sheet: Repression allowed, resistance denied
December 5th, 2009-- This fact sheet is a concise summary of the much longer report, Repression Allowed, Resistance Denied and explains the violent tactics used by Occupation forces against Palestinians who engage in protest against the Wall. This fact sheet covers in brief the main sections of the report, including the history of the popular resistance against the Wall, violent repression of anti-Wall protestors, arrests and detentions, and recommendations for action.
http://stopthewall.org/
One beaten and threatened with arrest; al-Ma'sara defies soldiers
December 5th, 2009-- Today, the weekly demonstration against the illegal Apartheid Wall and settlements in al-Ma’sara and the surrounding villages in the south of Bethlehem was met by an unusually high number of soldiers, who had arrived in a military bus and additional jeeps. Minutes after the protestors reached the barbed wire, soldiers grabbed a Palestinian and detained him in a military vehicle, where he was reportedly beaten in the face and chest.
http://stopthewall.org/
Youth shot in Ni’lin with live ammunition
December 5th, 2009-- A young man from Ni’lin was shot during yesterday’s demonstration with live ammunition in the groin when soldiers invaded the village. Occupation forces had warned demonstrators that they would use live ammunition if they continued protesting near the Wall, and followed through on their threats again this week.
http://stopthewall.org/
Melbourne: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators crash MK Shalom's hotel
Protestors calling for 'liberation of Palestine' and 'end to apartheid Israeli regime burst into Israeli delegation's hotel, contained by local police. Minister tells conference Palestinians delaying peace talks despite Israeli financial assistance.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Billboards calling for end to military aid back up in Albequerque
Back in April, after gaining approval for text and design, anti-occupation activists in New Mexico signed a contract with Lamar Advertising to display 10 billboards (pictured at left) for 8 weeks. But after only 3 weeks, and a pressure campaign on Lamar that included personal threats, the billboards all came down. Billboard critics did not like the call for no military aid, and some said that the “Stop Killing Children” message, which referred to the death of some 300 children in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, was evocative of anti-Semitic blood libel myths. Yet, repeated efforts to alter the text and design to meet the changing standards of Lamar were unsuccessful.
http://www.muzzlewatch.com/
If You Support Palestinian Human Rights, Drop Motorola
The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation just released a parody of a Motorola ad that calls attention to the company's profiting from Israel violent repression of the Palestinians. Find out more about their campaign!
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/
Medea Benjamin: Int’l Participation in Gaza Freedom March Tops 1,000
Over 1,000 delegates from 42 countries have signed up to participate in the December 31 Gaza Freedom March that will mark the one-year anniversary of the Israeli invasion and call for an end to the siege that has brought 1.5 million people to the edge of disaster.
http://bikyamasr.com/?p=6369
Lift the blockade of Gaza
1.5 million Palestinians, the entire population of Gaza, is trapped and being punished for the actions of armed Palestinian groups responsible for rocket fire into southern Israel; this is collective punishment and prohibited under international law. Over 80% depend on food aid. The severity of the situation has increased dramatically since Israel imposed extreme restrictions on the … (read more)
http://apps.facebook.com/
Will Harper criminalize criticism of Israel?
Ever since the Israeli invasion of the Gaza strip last December the global debate surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified with both sides upping the ante, and the stakes of the framing battle increasing almost daily. One of the most recent — but almost totally unreported — developments in Canada is something called the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism (CPCCA). It is not an official parliamentary body but is a multi-party, voluntary association of 13 MPs. It is currently holding an inquiry into anti-semitism because, it says, “The extent and severity of anti-semitism is widely regarded as at its worst level since the end of the Second World War.”
http://www.tadamon.ca/post/
Refugees
Lebanon's Palestinians: refugees for life (AFP)
AFP - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's visit to Beirut on Monday casts the spotlight on the plight of nearly 300,000 Palestinians in Lebanon who fear they are doomed to be refugees for life.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Lebanon's 'non-ID Palestinians': no legal status, no hope
BEIRUT, Dec 6, 2009 (AFP) - Saeed Mohamed Hammo technically does not exist as far as the world is concerned. But as he recounts his life as a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, his story is very much real. Hammo, 61, is among an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 so-called "non-ID Palestinians" in Lebanon who are considered illegal aliens and who have lived in legal limbo, many of them for decades.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Abbas in Beirut: Palestinians are guests in Lebanon
Bethlehem – Ma’an – President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his rejection of resettling Palestinian refugees in Lebanon on Sunday on the first day of a visit to the Arab nation. “The Palestinians are guests in Lebanon until our question is resolved. We will not accept an any homeland other than Palestine,” Abbas said in an interview with the Lebanese daily Al-Liwa that is to be published on Monday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Humanitarian
Egyptian security forces raid tunnel and storehouses in Rafah
Al-Arish – Ma’an – Egyptian security services raided a tunnel and two storehouses holding goods to be smuggled through tunnels into the Gaza Strip, following a security operation on the Egyptian border with Rafah on Saturday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
UNRWA Gaza Summer Games 2009
Sporting and cultural activities organized for the traumatized children of the Gaza Strip, by the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) - video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
A Palestinian Detainee Has No Clothes
West Bank, December 6, 2009 (Pal Telegraph) - A new fact about the Israeli torture in their prisons, the Prisoner's Center for Studies urged the international society to help Somood Karaga, 21, and end her suffering which has been continuing since the last October.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Gaza: Sharp Shortage in Cooking Gas
December 6, 2009 (Pal Telegraph) - Sawasiya ,human rights center in Gaza, has warned of Gazans difficult living conditions that would be aggravated if the Israeli occupation continued to block pumping cooking gas. The center said, in a statement on Saturday, that the Israeli occupation prohibits pumping sufficient quantities of cooking gas into Gaza Strip had led many bakeries, factories and greenhouses to close down.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Prisoner Release
Report: French doctors examined Gilad Shalit
BBC network in Arabic, London-based al-Hayat newspaper say four physicians entered Gaza Strip last week together with German mediator, examined kidnapped Israeli soldier. Hamas has so far refused to allow any foreign elements to visit captive.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Political Developments
Netanyahu makes final push to foil Swedish plan to divide Jerusalem
Israel and the Palestinian Authority are each lobbying European Union foreign ministers to adopt its respective position on Sweden's initiative to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of both Israel and Palestine. The proposal is to be discussed Sunday in Brussels at the meeting of foreign ministers of EU member states. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has phoned several European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, asking them to oppose the plan and to pressure the PA to renew negotiations with Israel.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/
Jordan hails Sweden proposal to divide Jerusalem
Jordan's King Abdullah on Sunday praised the European Union's endeavor to recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Former minister asked to convey message to Abbas
Ynet learns Defense Minister Barak sent Saleh Tarif to urge Palestinian president to resume peace talks with Israel. Meanwhile, efforts to convince Palestinian to restart negotiations continue via US and European countries.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Jordan: Israeli peace moves insufficient
Jordanian foreign minister says steps taken by Israel are illegal, violate international law
http://www.ynetnews.com/
PPP: No constitutional void after Abbas' term ends
Gaza – Ma’an – The PLO will not have to extend President Mahmoud Abbas’ mandate as president when his term ends 24 January 2010, Palestinian People’s Party Secretary-General Bassam As-Salehi said Saturday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Other News
Kedumim: Settlers pelt civil administration cars with eggs
Kedumim residents pelted civil administration inspectors' cars with eggs on Sunday morning, after the officials successfully distributed construction-halt edicts in the West Bank settlement. The inspectors managed to enter the settlement via a neighboring Palestinian village, having been blocked by settlers on previous attempts to enter via Kedumim's main gate last week. The officials left the settlement without further incident, and no arrests were made, Israel Radio reported.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
First five swine flu cases hit Gaza, two people said dead
Five people in the Gaza Strip have been diagnosed with swine flu, the health ministry announced on Sunday, worrying Palestinians who had credited Israel's blockade of the territory with keeping the virus at bay.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Abbas outdoes Obama in number of presidential visits
Bethlehem – Ma’an – President Mahmoud Abbas has outdone US President Barak Obama in the number of international presidential visits in 2009, according to Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Saturday. Since he was sworn in on January 20 2009, Obama has made 23 international visits whereas Abbas has made 55 since the beginning of 2009.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Sheikh Salah in court today because of Friday sermon in 2007
Sheikh Ra’ed Salah is expected to stand trial Sunday morning in the Israeli magistrates court on allegations of inciting violence and racism during a Friday Khutba (sermon) he delivered in 2007.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Patriarch of the Syrian Catholic Church heads mass in Bethlehem
Bethlehem – Ma’an – MarMar Ighnatios Youssef III Younan , the Patriarch of the Syrian Catholic Church, headed mass during his visit to the Saint Joseph's Syrian Catholic Church in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on Saturday. His visit was marked by a parade of Palestinian Scouts and Girl Guides' Organization on the streets of Bethlehem. The Holy Mass was presided by His Beatitude Mar Ighnatios Youssef III Younan at the Syrian Catholic church in Manger Street.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Explaining a vote
"But she raised the ire of some Jewish leaders with just one vote -- her decision to vote "present" on a resolution last January during the Gaza war which backed Israel's right to defend itself and reaffirmed U.S. support for the Jewish state, while also encouraging a "sustainable" cease-fire in Gaza. (Edwards said she voted present because she didn't feel it was appropriate for the U.S. Congress to weigh in on the issue the morning after the United States had voted to abstain on a U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire, but that she “did not want to send a signal to anyone that it was appropriate to send rockets into Israel.”)"
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Netanyahu embraces settlers as 'brothers'
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embraced West Bank settlers as “brothers” while explaining his decision to slow the expansion of settlements. “The decision was certainly not easy, either for them or for us. It has to do with the heart of the homeland of the Jewish people,” Netanyhu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
IDF chief's guard now suspected of 'attempted sodomy'
Court extends Captain A.'s remand by four days at consent of his lawyers, while suspicions against him reduced due to additional findings received over past few days.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Jewish boxer 'Star of David' knocked out after 76 seconds
Unbeaten American Jewish boxer Dmitriy Salita was knocked out on Saturday by Muslim boxer Amir Khan, the former WBA light-welterweight champion, after only 76 seconds in the ring.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
"If nothing changes-Jerusalem will burn"-Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman
Since December 1, 2009, the explosive settler situation in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied east Jerusalem, has been filled with violent outbreaks and confrontations; between settlers and police and this morning, Israeli police and secret service forces arrested three Palestinians from the neighborhood.
http://www.opednews.com/
My return to Gaza, and the fears of another intifada
Kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who was freed in July 2007 after nearly four months in captivity, reports from Nablus on the brittle peace in the city and the threat of renewed violence if no progress is made towards a Palestinian state
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Israel should give up Jerusalem as its capital
Forty-two years of Israeli rule over a united city have not been good to it. It has become one of the poorest, dirtiest and most failed cities in Israel, a city abandoned by the secular and the young. Even if the proposed hiatus does not advance peace, it may bring healing to the dying city. And when Jerusalem goes back to being Israel's capital it will also be a city worthy of such standing, a city in which life is good.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/
'The Freeze' is just another scene in Israel's masquerade, Gideon Levy
Like every production, be it a flop or a hit, the future of this show will also be decided by the audience. In the meantime, as the first act shifts into high gear, the viewers are yawning. The government and the settlers are proud to introduce "The Freeze," a show in which both sides play - in quite unconvincing fashion - already scripted parts. During the first act, no real, historic edict has been issued. Rather, these decrees are just props. Thus, nobody will evacuate one balcony in the final scene. The audience is skeptical. It does not believe the prime minister, who speaks of two states and in the same breath vows that the freeze will soon end, as if it were just a temporary shortage of construction materials that caused it.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/
Revealed: The secret war over IDF officers' exorbitant salaries
The Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, has a monthly salary of NIS 68,060; a major general makes NIS 48,265 a month; and a brigadier general makes NIS 39,340 a month. The average monthly salary in Israel is close to NIS 8,000. While questions are occasionally raised as to the disparity between these sums, it appears that there are other potentially highly inflammatory data about military wages that the army is hiding.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The State of Yesha heads to battle
The winter festivities are starting. Junctions will be closed, orders will be torn up and scattered to the winds, building inspectors will get beaten up and children's choirs will appear at community centers and belt out "we are here." Thus, the heads of the Yesha settlement government will excoriate the evil rulers. On the other side of the border, in the State of Israel, the defense minister will declare, "we will not allow," and the prime minister will bang on the table and announce that he does not intend to meet with law-breakers.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Palestinian Cyber Warfare for a Post Imperial America
Like a moat filled with waters populated by alligators, reptiles and Pro-Israeli lobbyist so are American political leaders separated from following the heart and will of the people. Death of the American soul requires Palestine and the rest of the world to challenge itself, to dig deeply within its own heart and find the courage to formulate new visions in the national paradigms. Ignoring the ever present and looming truths of this day’s realities will not serve us well; rather let us accept the sobering scenario and eventuality, “We Must Save Ourselves!” The mind of the global must evolve from despairing over how bad is the Zionist specter and rather formulate ways to mobilize our collective assets in the advancement of our own agendas.
http://intifada-palestine.com/
The IDF can lie and cheat (and most Israelis won’t care)
One of the finest new blogs on the block is Coteret from Israel, news and views rarely heard anywhere else. A recent post highlights comments by Ofer Shelah, Maariv’s defense analyst, on the culture at the IDF. The most moral army in the world? Hardly: Would the IDF chief of staff lie?…It is unlikely that anyone here would feel the need to lie, and it is more unlikely that he would have to pay any price for being caught in a lie. The Israeli public accepted the results of Kafr Kana, the Shehade assassination and Operation Cast Lead with a shrug of the shoulders. The other side is always more vicious, it shoots at civilians deliberately, it hides inside a civilian population. We’ve long since stopped judging ourselves by a moral yardstick, and consider this a demand of a hypocritical and hostile world. Had he lied, nobody would have been outraged. Just as no one was outraged by the speed with which the IDF closed the investigations into wrongful acts in Operation Cast Lead—and today Israel is wracking its brain over the serious ramifications of the Goldstone report. In society’s whining self-perception as victims, a lie by the army is considered justified self defense against the criticism of an anti-Semitic world. [In the IDF] you won’t have to lie, and if you do lie, nobody will demand that you go.
http://antonyloewenstein.com/
PALESTINE: Israel and the U.S. Empire
“Becker gives us the most sharply focused and penetrating analysis we have of the real dynamics at work in the continuing persecution of the Palestinian people. The ‘sacred covenant’ of the League of Nations to create a Palestinian state long ago succumbed to the imperial interests of the few who have determined U.S. and Zionist policies toward the domination and exploitation of the larger Middle East and beyond. A consequence has been decades of intolerable violence, cruelty, suffering and falsehood inflicted on Palestine, all failing to crush the indomitable spirit of its people. Becker calls for international unity among all people to end this tragic injustice and the threat of imperialist power it poses to the world at large. Hear his call and join the struggle.”
http://intifada-palestine.com/
Making art in a world without justice
Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman discusses the politics in and around ‘The Time that Remains’.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
The Choice for Israel – Civil war for peace or the end of Zionism?, Alan Hart
I have been writing about what must happen in America if there is to be more than a snowball's chance in hell of peace on the basis of an acceptable amount of justice for the Palestinians. (The main point I've been making is that unless and until enough Americans are made aware of the truth of history, no American president will have the space to break the Zionist lobby's stranglehold on Congress). In this article, with thanks to an analysis by Israeli historian Zeev Sternhell, I'm looking at what must happen in Israel if the countdown to catastrophe is to be stopped.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
The Height of Kitsch, Uri Avnery
QUESTION 1: While the German friendship with us is a moral imperative, does it have to include support for immoral actions?
I have heard more than once the argument: “After the terrible things done by the German people to the Jews, we Germans have no right to criticize the Jewish State. The descendants of the perpetrators cannot criticize the descendants of the victims!” I have said it before: there is something in these sentences that disturbs me very much. Somehow they remind me of the German word Sonderbehandlung (“special treatment”), which has terrible associations. In the concentration camps, it was the code-word for execution. The attitude of the German government towards Israel is a Sonderbehandlung. It, too, says: the Jews are something special. The “Jewish State” must be treated differently than all other states. That is to say, the Jews are different from all other peoples, their state is different from all other states, their morals are different from those of others.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/
Iraq
Saturday: 6 Iraqis Killed, 13 Wounded
Updated at 9:45 p.m. EST, Dec. 5, 2009 At least six Iraqis were killed and 13 more were wounded in attacks across Iraq. Meanwhile, lawmakers have apparently reversed an elections law amendment that had delighted Kurd citizens but enraged their Sunni counterparts; however, a conflicting report notes that a quorum was not reached in parliament, imperiling the passage of the law.
http://original.antiwar.com/
4 policemen shot dead in west of Baghdad
RAMADI, Iraq, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in west of Baghdad on Sunday, killing four policemen, a provincial police source said. Unidentified gunmen stormed a police checkpoint early in the morning in Abu Ghraib area, some 25 km west of Baghdad and killed four policemen before they fled the scene, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Five people killed in attacks by gunmen in northern Iraq
Five people were killed in three separate attacks carried out by unknown assailants in Iraq's northern Mosul district on Saturday, police said.
http://www.monstersandcritics.
Ex-UN weapons inspector: Iraq war 'illegal
'George W. Bush and Tony Blair's conviction that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a threat blinded them to the lack of evidence justifying a war to depose him, an ex-UN weapons inspector said Saturday.
http://www.middle-east-online.
Iraq tribes threaten to boycott vote - 6 Dec 09
As the debate over Iraq's election law continues, tribal leaders in the province of Tikrit, the mainly Sunni hometown of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's former president, say they will boycott the vote if they are not fairly represented. The tribes are powerful, and many say their leaders' engagement in the political process is crucial for stability in Iraq. Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from Tikrit, where many Sunnis fear they are being marginalised.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmWC8F1DRpQ&feature=youtube_gdata
Iraq parliament to debate poll law
Discussion takes place amid fears vice-president may use veto to delay legislation.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2009/12/20091264736855678.html
Baghdad's night life falls foul of religious right
Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki accused of colluding with fundamentalists to shut down night clubs. The raids came just before midnight a week ago. At the start of Eid al-Adha, the four holiest days on the Islamic calendar, hundreds of Iraqi police and soldiers stormed each of Baghdad's 300 or so nightclubs. Officers from the most elite units stood outside as soldiers slapped owners' faces, scattered their patrons and dancing girls, ripped down posters advertising upcoming acts, and ordered alcohol removed from the shelves.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq parliament to debate poll law
Discussion takes place amid fears vice-president may use veto to delay legislation.
http://english.aljazeera.net//
Baghdad's night life falls foul of religious right
Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki accused of colluding with fundamentalists to shut down night clubs. The raids came just before midnight a week ago. At the start of Eid al-Adha, the four holiest days on the Islamic calendar, hundreds of Iraqi police and soldiers stormed each of Baghdad's 300 or so nightclubs. Officers from the most elite units stood outside as soldiers slapped owners' faces, scattered their patrons and dancing girls, ripped down posters advertising upcoming acts, and ordered alcohol removed from the shelves.
Arrest campaign by U.S. and Iraqi troops in two predominantly Sunni areas
A joint U.S. and Iraqi force made numerous arrests in a fresh campaign of Abu Ghraib, West of Baghdad, and the northern city of Mosul. Both areas are predominantly Sunni Arabs where opposition to U.S. occupation troops and the current government is strong.
http://www.azzaman.com/
Ali's odyssey: Escaping death as baby, adopted in Iran and tearful reunion in Iraq
HALABJA, Iraq (AP) — Six families nervously awaited the DNA tests on the young man who returned from Iran. They wondered: Could this be their son who was just an infant in 1988 and somehow lived through a deadly chemical attack by Saddam Hussein's regime? There was absolute silence as the judge announced the lab results. The man, who called himself Ali, was deemed to be the sole surviving child of 58-year-old Fatima Mohammed Salih, who had lost her husband and all her other six children in the poison gas clouds that covered the mostly Kurdish city of Halabja.
http://www.courant.com/news/
Lebanon
US Lawmakers Urge Clinton to Work toward Disarming Hezbollah
05/12/2009 Thirty-one members of the US House of Representatives have urged the Obama administration to work toward disarming Hezbollah and preventing Iran from using the Lebanese group in any confrontation with Israel. In a letter sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the lawmakers claimed the US government should ensure greater accountability from the United Nations in enforcing Resolution 1701.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/
Hezbollah Slams US Attempts to Oppose Lebanese Consensus
05/12/2009 Hezbollah condemned on Saturday the American interference in the Lebanese internal affairs and denounced the US attempts to oppose the national consensus in Lebanon. In this context, member of Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc MP Hasan Fadlallah accused some parties of being against understanding among Lebanese although he stressed that there has been consensus on the policy statement among strong parliamentary blocs.
http://almanar.com.lb/
Unexploded mines: Lebanon’s hidden horrors
ABATIYEH, LEBANON // Along the imaginary Blue Line that demarcates the border of south Lebanon, military bases squat on the Israeli side, all but touching the rusty wire fence. On the Lebanese side, teams of workers from the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) are clearing a path for a new road through the area Israel withdrew from in 2000. The road is meant to represent progress, allowing UN peacekeepers to work more easily, and farmers to get to coastal towns.
http://www.tayyar.org/Tayyar/
A bar in the southern suburbs of Beirut
For the first time in decades, Hizbullah allows for an opening of a pub in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
U.S./Other World News
Netanyahu fears encounter with Ahmadinejad In Copenhagen
Prime minister undecided on whether to take part in UN climate conference in Denmark due to Iranian president's participation, high cost of hotel rooms.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Queen Rania of Jordan takes on hardliners over honour killings
Queen Rania of Jordan is challenging Islamic hardliners by supporting tougher sentences for men who commit 'honour killings'.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Shrinking the War on Terrorism
To understand Barack Obama's Afghanistan decision, it's instructive to go back to one history-shifting sentence, uttered by his predecessor more than eight years ago. It was Sept. 20, 2001. The nation was in agony, and George W. Bush stood before a joint session of Congress, telling Americans where to direct their rage. "Americans are asking, 'Who attacked our country?'" Bush declared early in his remarks. "The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al-Qaeda."
http://www.time.com/time/
The Arabs, As`ad Abukhalil
I just ordered Eugene Rogan's The Arabs. I love those sweeping history books on the history of the Arabs. But I am critical, as you know by now. I remember when Albert Hourani was spending time at Dartmouth one semester, and he came down to Georgetown and told us about his plans for an upcoming book on the history of the Arabs. I was most excited: especially that he told us about the failings--in his eyes--of Philip Hitti's History of the Arabs. He was right in pointing out that Hitti merely considered the Ottoman Empire to be the "dark ages", unworthy of investigation for Hitti. But when Hourani's book came out, I was most disappointed. It is probably the least impressive book by Hourani. He has nothing new and it is not as well-written as Hitti's, for sure. [continued]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Afghan rape victim lives in fear - 6 Dec 09
Two-years after she was beaten and raped by eight men, fourteen-year-old Samiya has yet to see justice. Her story stands in contrast to Western claims that the lot of women in Afghanistan has improved since the US-led invasion. Seven of the eight men who attacked Samiya were arrested, but her family believes their daughter's rapists have powerful connections and are looking for revenge. Samiya and he family live in fear and her father, whose story Al Jazeera reported on two years ago, has been imprisoned by a local leader after he sought justice for his daughter. Al Jazeera's Steve Chao has this exclusive report from Afghanistan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Listening Post - Obama and the US media / Iran blogosphere post election
The danger of overheated media debate and rhetoric, the post-election Iran story that is still bubbling over in the blogosphere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=047NyTDwLPo&feature=youtube_gdata
Listening Post - Italian media / Egyptian blogosphere
Silvio Berlusconi, Rupert Murdoch and the media in Italy and an extended interview with renowned blogger Wael Abbas on the Egyptian blogosphere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpqPxxQBpAM&feature=youtube_gdata
For all the news please see:Listening Post - Italian media / Egyptian blogosphere
Silvio Berlusconi, Rupert Murdoch and the media in Italy and an extended interview with renowned blogger Wael Abbas on the Egyptian blogosphere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
www.TheHeadlines.org
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