Shadi Fadda brings us the latest headlines from around the internet as it relates to Palestine as well as other news.
Land theft / Evictions / Settlements
Israel votes new funds for settlements
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet voted more funds for Jewish settlements on Sunday after a wave of violence over a temporary building freeze in the West Bank enclaves. Defense Minister Ehud Barak voted against the plan saying it would reward settlers living in parts of the West Bank where Palestinians have lately come under attack, such as a village where the inside of a mosque was torched at the weekend.
http://www.reuters.com/
Erekat: Israel passed a blueprint for expansion
The Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) top negotiator, Saeb Erekat, condemned on Sunday an Israeli cabinet vote to pump millions of shekels into illegal West Bank settlements. The cabinet passed a new “national priority map” on Sunday evening that sets a hierarchy of government attention and funding. The list of priority areas included for the first time are six West Bank settlements with a total population of about 110,000 ... [Erekat] said the map “reveals the extent to which Israel’s ‘settlement moratorium’ is a sham. Rather than make peace its number one priority, Israel continues to prioritize settlements and the relentless colonization of occupied Palestinian land, rendering the two-state solution politically and economically unviable.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Netanyahu: Only peace deal will determine future of settlements
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the cabinet's approval of a plan to change Israel's map of national priority areas to include more West Bank settlements did not signify a permanent stance on the future of these areas. "We will determine the future of settlements only within the framework of a permanent agreement [with Palestinians]," Netanyahu said, according to Army Radio. "This map is intended to close rifts and this time, also to bring in our security concerns." The cabinet approved on Sunday the controversial plan - which will pump millions of shekels into West Bank settlements - after Netanyahu decided to review the list of communities for which funds were earmarked.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Meretz chair: Netanyahu itching for a fight with the US
The cabinet's approval Sunday of a plan to pump millions of shekels into West Bank settlements stirred fierce anger among members of the opposition and the left-wing parties, who accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of shirking his declared commitment to a Middle East peace process. "The cabinet decision teaches us that the political process is not on the national list of priorities, and that Netanyahu and his cronies are itching for a fight with the American government and the international community," said Meretz Chairman Haim Oron.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The map of national folly / Zvi Bar'el
...The new map creates an illusion that there is a national consensus regarding which settlements would remain Israeli and which would be dismantled. It thus finishes the job of the separation fence and the wasteful bypass roads in marking Israel's future border. The new map seems to create more waste that only compounds the wrong. After all, the national priority map includes many settlements that should never have been included on any map of Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israel has made settlers of all its citizens / Amira Hass
Would any of the settlers who opposed the Civil Administration inspectors this week be living in the territories had the governments of Israel not established and encouraged them? Would the Gush Katif evacuees have moved to mobile homes in Ariel in the expectation of spacious permanent housing had the government clearly declared that this was forbidden - because the settlements will be evacuated in the near future for a peace agreement - and that evacuation-compensation money would not be paid to anyone who moves to the West Bank? ... The freeze orders will not change what exists now: an elite state for Jews and a sub-space for Palestinians - truncated, cut up, asphyxiated.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Report on E. J'lem arrests: 150 stand in the courtyard of the stolen house, double what we had last week
The writer David Shulman on the beating and arrests of 24 activists in Sheikh Jarrah, opposing the evictions of Palestinians. Beautiful writing is important. Just read it and try not to weep ... In the middle of it all—perhaps you won’t believe me—an elderly Palestinian gentleman from one of the evicted families materializes with a round bronze plate loaded with dozens of tiny white plastic cups of Turkish coffee. He moves, dreamlike, among us, an imperturbable, humane host worried about how his guests are faring. He calmly offers us coffee. Vicious bursts of staccato blows and intimate violent follies spin madly around him.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
Protests go on in Bil'in despite arrest of media coordinator
Despite the middle-of-the-night arrest earlier this week of a leader of the Bilin protest movement, scores joined the protest yesterday [Friday] at the separation wall amid a hail of teargas canisters. Friends of Freedom and Justice-Bilin has a video of the protest at that link, and reports: "Today, activists managed to pull open the yellow gate next to the fence, after cutting through the surrounding barbed wire. This gate is regularly used by the army to invade and harass the people of Bilin. Beyond the gate you can see the Israeli army’s current encampment as well as fields and olive trees belonging to Palestinian families from Bilin. The apartheid wall usurps 60% of the village’s land...."
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
Mosque arson
Rabbis prohibited entry to Yasuf
The IDF prevented a delegation of religious-Zionist rabbis and social activists from entering the West Bank village of Yasuf Sunday, where a mosque was torched on Friday. The rabbis had arrived in order to donate Koran books to the mosque, but these had to be taken into the village by a Muslim representative due to IDF fears that a conflict would break out if rabbis were allowed to enter the village.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Rabbis turned away from Yasuf as villagers protest
Israeli authorities said the rabbis' visit was banned out of fear for their safety after local residents demonstrated in the village protesting the arson. Hundreds of students took to the streets chanting slogans and railing against the rabbis' visit. The governor of Salfit, Munir Abboushi told Ma’an that tensions were high in the village as angry villagers took to the streets, and thus it would be very difficult to keep things under control had the rabbis arrived. He explained that villagers believed the rabbinical delegation included settlers, which he said would only inflame the situation further.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Rabbis visit Yasuf mosque: We came to expel darkness
Dozens of rabbis and activists from the Religious Zionist camp will visit Sunday the West Bank Palestinian village of Yasuf to protest against the torching of the village's main mosque and to send a message of reconciliation to the Muslim population, Ynet has learned. During their visit, they will lend a hand in the clean-up and refurbishing efforts at the mosque. They will also donate a number of Korans in place of those that were burned in the fire ... Rabbi Froman said that at the conclusion of the event, his son, who speaks Arabic, will sing an Arabic version of the Hannukah song "We Have Come to Expel Darkness" (Banu Hoshech Legaresh).
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Salfit governor denies Israel offered to rebuild mosque
In addition to denying that the offer was ever made by an Israeli military spokesperson, [Salfit Governor Munir] Abboushi said that he would refuse any assistance from Israel in rebuilding the village mosque. Abboushi further said that all engineers from various ministries, particularly the Ministry of Local Government, Endowments and Religious Affairs, and Finance will work on rebuilding the mosque promptly in accordance with the instructions of caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Peres: Entire nation must condemn mosque arson
President Shimon Peres said Sunday that the entire Israeli nation must condemn Thursday night's arson at a mosque in the West Bank village of Yasuf. "If we don't respect other people's religions, no one will respect our own religion," Peres said during a Hanukkah candle lighting event with outstanding police officers at the President's Residence in Jerusalem.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
ADL 'horrified and outraged' by vandalism of West Bank mosque
The [American] Anti-Defamation League on Sunday condemned vandalism of a West Bank mosque which took place over the weekend, apparently by extremist settlers. "We are horrified and outraged by the acts of vandalism early this morning at a mosque in the West Bank that are believed to have been perpetrated by Jewish extremists. As Jews, we know all too well what it is like to have our houses of worship targeted by violence and hate," read a statement from the group's Israel office.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Israel fears Palestinian reprisals in wake of mosque attack
Security officials say they fear that the torching of a mosque near Nablus on Friday could lead to reprisal attacks by Palestinians on Jews. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israel's security services to find the people behind the arson, which Jewish extremists are suspected of perpetrating ... Attacks like the arson have provoked similar attacks by Palestinians, which the Shin Bet security service calls "popular attacks." These include acts that require little planning like stabbings, stone throwing and the hurling of Molotov cocktails.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hamas urges West Bank people to defend mosques against settlers' attacks
KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC) ... Hamas spokesman Hammad Al-Ruqub said that Israel’s arson attack on a mosque in the village of Yasuf, south of Nablus, reflected its enmity towards Islam and Muslims. Spokesman Ruqub said that this crime comes in the context of Israel’s war on holy places and houses of worship as it did during its war on Gaza, accusing it of violating all international conventions and norms on the protection of holy shrines.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Retaliation / Violence
Reports: Israeli stabbed near settlement bloc
An Israeli woman was stabbed at the illegal Gush Etzion settlement bloc late Saturday night, according to an Israeli military representative. Witnesses reportedly identified the attacker as a Palestinian who fled the scene. Israeli media, meanwhile, reported that the woman, 22, was waiting at a bus stop when she was stabbed in her lower back.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
2 rockets fired from Gaza; none injured
Two Qassam rockets were fired at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip in the early hours of Sunday morning. One rocket exploded in an open area in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council. There were no reports of damage or injury. The other rocket fell within the Strip's territory. Sunday's attack may have been in response to the incident in which 50-year-old Palestinian farmer Sami Abu-Hossa was reportedly killed by IDF fire near the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
IDF nabs 2 Palestinians carrying bomb, stun grenade near Nablus
IDF soldiers on Sunday evening arrested two Palestinian men the Beit Furik checkpoint near Nablus, after discovering an improvised explosive device and a stun grenade on their persons. Army sappers detonated the explosives and the grenade in a supervised explosion. No one was hurt in the incident.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Molotov cocktail hurled at Israeli car in 'Samaria'; none hurt
A Molotov cocktail was hurled at an Israeli car near the Yakir Junction in Samaria on Sunday evening. No one was hurt in the incident and no damage was reported.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Detention
Israeli forces detain 65-year-old Nablus woman
Israeli forces detained a 65-year-old Palestinian woman, Rabi‘a Bilal, from the northern West Bank city of Nablus after ransacking her home on Sunday morning, a rights group said ... Fuad Al-Khafash, director of Ahrar Center, said Rabi‘a is the oldest Palestinian prisoner and that six members of the Sa‘id Bilal family were detained at the Petah Tequa and Beer Sheva detention centers.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
More than 500 Palestinians detained inside Israel
Israeli Border Guard police detained 515 Palestinian workers over the weekend for working inside Israel without permission, Israeli sources reported.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israel withholding bodies of 300 Palestinian fighters
RAMALLAH: Palestinian Minister of Detainees and Ex-detainees Issa Qaraqi’ said Saturday that Israeli authorities have been withholding for years the remains of some 300 Palestinians killed in combat in secret cemeteries known as the “Cemeteries of Numbers”. During a visit to a Palestinian family in the West Bank village of Arourah, north of Ramallah, Qaraqi’ said Israel was in violation of basic international laws by denying Palestinian families the right to claim their dead. Israel has agreed to release the body of a Palestinian from Arourah killed by its forces in 1976 after keeping it for nearly 33 years for unexplained reasons ... Qaraqi’ said the “forced burial of the martyrs is a punishment to their families.” He also said that the practice of withholding the men’s remains for years sparked speculation Israel assassinated them after detention or harvested their organs.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=
Lt. Malul convicted of assaulting Palestinians
A military court has convicted Lieutenant Adam Malul, a former deputy company commander in the Kfir Brigade, of aggravated assault. Malul was charged with assaulting a number of Palestinian detainees along with Staff Sergeant A of the Shimshon Battalion. His sentence will be determined at a later stage.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Blockade
Powerless in Gaza
[with diagram, photos] By Sharon Weinberger. The Palestinian power plant has endured bombings, embargoes and blockades: Can it ever fully power Gaza's grid? ... Conceived in 1994 during a short-lived interlude of relative tranquility that began after the Oslo Accords, the Gaza power plant ... was part of a larger blueprint to lessen Palestinian dependence on Israel for such basic municipal services as electricity, education, and security. But today, with the other parts of the blueprint long abandoned, the plant's 100 or so engineers are reduced to operating the 140-megawatt plant in ways its designers never anticipated. Some days, notes Maliha, the power plant doesn't even have the fuel needed to provide transportation for its employees, a nightmare for a facility that requires 24-hour support.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
Gaza power cuts up to 32 hours per week
Electricity is to be distributed in Gaza on just four days a week, for eight hours a day, a spokesman for the local power company said on Sunday. “Gaza is suffering a 25% shortage of electricity. It is expected that the shortage will increase to 35% because of winter and low temperatures which lead to an increase in [electricity] use during winter, as residents use electric heating appliances,” said Gaza Electricity Distribution Company (GEDCO) spokesman Jamal Ad-Dardasawi during a telephone interview with Ma’an. Palestinians living in Gaza are to expect between 18 to 32 hours without electricity per week, he said,
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
One Gaza crossing opened as five remain sealed
Israeli authorities opened the Kerem Shalom border crossing into Gaza on Sunday, while the Karni and Nahal Oz crossings remained closed, an official said. Palestinian crossings official Raed Fattouh said between 105-115 trucks of commercial products and humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing in addition to limited amounts of cooking gas and industrial diesel to the power plant.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
US Army installs Gaza monitoring system
Egypt's plan to build an underground wall along its border with Gaza, first exposed by the Israeli daily Haaretz, is the second of two initiatives backed by the US military, Ma'an has learned ... The first stage of the initiative includes the installation of below-ground, state-of-the-art sensors capable of detecting sound or movement nearby. US experts began the process about one year ago, and it is nearing completion ... In all cases, US forces have kept the Israeli side informed about any detected movement, despite that the entire operation is conducted on Egyptian soil.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Activism / Solidarity
One Holocaust survivor is going to Gaza, another isn't
Hedy Epstein, Holocaust survivor, along with a Palestinian woman, Sandra Mansour, and a peace activist, called on Elie Wiesel to come with them to Gaza on Dec. 1. "I heard you," Wiesel says curtly, and turns his head. This after a lot of bromides he issued about questioning and human equality, during his appearance at St. Louis University two weeks ago. Thanks to Anna Baltzer, Witness in Palestine. [See this 2001 article on Wiesel: http://www.thenation.com/doc/
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
MDM: Specialist in orthopedic surgery to conduct training in Gaza
(WAFA)- Dr. Christopher Bulstrode, a senior surgeon specialist has arrived in Gaza in order to give a one-week training with Medecins du Monde (MDM)– France in the field of war and trauma surgery. The training will benefit surgeons and patients from Gaza and will take place at Nasser hospital in Khan Younes for one week, starting from the 14th of December 2009 .
http://english.wafa.ps/?
Gaza Freedom March set to bring 1300 from 42 countries to blockaded border
Medea Benjamin of Code Pink writes: Over 1,300 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. Organizers cut off registration on November 30 to give the Egyptian officials enough time to clear the group for entry into Gaza, but also because the numbers were becoming unwieldy. “No one has ever taken a group this size into Gaza,” said coordinator Ann Wright, whose skills as a retired U.S. army colonel are coming in handy organizing the logistics for such a massive group.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
Convoy may not be allowed to cross into Egypt from Jordan
Seven days have passed since the Viva Palestina convoy departed from London for Gaza. The convoy, now in Greece, is heading for Thessaloniki, where the mayor of the city will receive the convoy ... The final leg of the convoy will be from Syria to Rafah in Egypt via Jordan. The convoy expects to arrive in Rafah on Dec 27. Juana [Jaafar] said there was a possibility the convoy would not be allowed to cross into Egypt from Jordan. "There will be about 200 vehicles by the time we reach the Jordan-Egypt border, and we are even preparing to be stranded on a boat in the Red Sea." [See www.vivapalestina.org/ for updates on the convoy]
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_
Hamas vs. Fatah
Hamas: PA forces detain over 250 supporters
Hamas on Sunday accused the Palestinian Authority of stepping up detentions of its affiliates, lawmakers, and senior leaders in the West Bank as the Islamic movement's 22nd anniversary approaches. PA security forces detained 193 supporters in November and 99 in December, and has summoned hundreds of affiliates with threats against the planned commemorations, Hamas said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
PA bans celebrations of Hamas anniversary in W. Bank
Hundreds of Hamas activists and supporters in the West Bank have been summoned to various branches of the Palestinian Authority security forces where they were requested to sign a document in which they pledge to refrain from publicly celebrating the 22nd anniversary of the founding of the Islamic movement. A PA security official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that the decision to ban the Hamas celebrations was taken by the PA leadership. He noted that such celebrations were also banned over the past four years.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Al-Qassam: We'll regroup in West Bank
The military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, says it is attempting to regroup in the West Bank and resume its resistance of the Israeli occupation.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Political news
Hamas delegation led by Mashaal arrives in Tehran
A high-ranking delegation of Hamas officials led by Khalid Mash’al arrived in Tehran on Sunday on an official visit that will include talks with senior leaders, according to news reports. The officials, mainly from Hamas’ political bureau in Damascus, are scheduled to meet with Iran’s supreme spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Foreign Minister Manochehr Mottaki.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Thousands in Gaza mark PFLP founding
Over 70,000 members and supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) converged on Gaza City to mark the secular-nationalist movement's 42nd anniversary on Saturday. The second-largest PLO faction was founded in 1967 after the Six-Day War by the late George Habash, a physician and refugee from Lydda, Palestine, known as Lod in present-day Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Sirraj: Cairo agreed to host instant talks between Hamas and Fatah
GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Eyad Al-Sirraj, the secretary-general of the national reconciliation committee, stated Saturday that Egypt agreed to host immediate talks between Hamas and Fatah factions before signing the Egyptian paper. Quds Press on Saturday quoted Dr. Sirraj as saying that this understanding was reached during his committee’s meeting with Egyptian officials headed by intelligence director Omar Suleiman.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Backing Abbas, PLO to call for full Israeli settlement freeze
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is expected to extend Mahmoud
Abbas's term as president this week and back his call for a halt to Israeli settlement building before more peace talks. The meeting of the PLO Central Council on Tuesday will remove any doubt over the fate of the presidency when Abbas's term expires on Jan. 25 and back his opposition to U.S. calls for an immediate resumption of peace talks, according to an early draft of resolutions expected to emerge from the meeting.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Other news
PA considers banning work in Israeli settlements
Ramallah's political echelon is considering a decision to ban work in settlements and to find alternative jobs for Palestinians who already work in them, sources told Ma’an. The Palestinian Authority leadership wants to recruit international support for an end to settlement building in order to protect Palestinian land being confiscated for that purpose. "It is unacceptable to ask the whole world to support us and stop settlement activities while we can’t take a decision to prevent Palestinian labor in settlements," an official said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
More than 300 tons of Palestinian herbs exported to US, EU
Over 300 tons of medicinal herbs are planted in the north of the West Bank and exported to markets in the US and EU, but are not bought by Palestinians because of high prices ... The project is located 18 kilometers from the West Bank city of Nablus, in Fra’a, on 100 dunums which provides the basis for agricultural greenhouses. Seventeen kinds of medicinal herbs are grown there, including sage, Persian thyme, rosemary, regular mint, peppermint, thin leaves of onion, oregano and basil, in addition to many more.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Attack on Gaza-based NGOs condemned
Rights activists are gravely concerned over increasing attacks and robberies against NGOs in Gaza, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) said on Sunday. In a statement, PCHR strongly condemned the assault and robbery of the headquarters of two Gaza-based NGOs early on Sunday by unidentified assailants.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Fifth of Israelis say violent protest okay
War and Peace Index for November reveals vast majority of Jewish Israeli public opposes soldiers' insubordination, but 17.5% say forceful resistance acceptable if citizens feel government's policies harm national interest
http://www.ynetnews.com/
'Sanhedrin': Kill prisoners if Shalit doesn't return
"If Gilad Shalit, Heaven forbid, is executed or not returned in peace, prisoners will be executed immediately," ruled the court of the reestablished "Sandhedrin" organization, in a ruling published last week on the backdrop of the negotiations to release the captured Israeli soldier. The rabbis even recommended that Israel capture senior Palestinian figures – "including ministers, prime ministers, and anyone associated with the enemy's leadership" – as part of the effort to bring Gilad home.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Negev group: Israel misinformed UN about woes of Bedouin
The United Nations requested in October an official Israeli response to a report claiming the state was inaccurate in describing the status of Bedouin living in the Negev ... This is the first time the UN has made such a request with regard to Israeli citizens. "In the area of political and civil rights, Israel represents the standards of a Third World country," forum coordinator Noam Tirosh said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The unholy battle for Ethiopia's remaining Jews
ADDIS ABABA AND GONDAR - Funding for one group comes from evangelists, who cast no doubt on Judaism of the Falashmura -- Above the entrance to the synagogue in Gondar hangs a sign in Hebrew: "God the builder of Jerusalem will gather the far-flung of Israel." But no one enters the synagogue gates, at least not without authorization from Getu Zemene. His job is to ensure that no one he suspects of being a missionary goes in to influence the Falashmura community.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Druze MK to be indicted over 2007 trip to Syria
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Sunday said he intends to file an indictment against Druze MK Said Naffaa (Balad) stemming from a 2007 trip to Syria. The charges against Naffaa will include contacting a foreign agent, unlawful travel to an enemy state and aiding others in unlawful travel to an enemy state. While in Syria, Naffaa allegedly met with Talal Naji, deputy head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and visited the offices of Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal, although he was not present at the time.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Analysis / Opinion / Testimony
An honourable exit / Azmi Bishara
The consequences of Netanyahu's election have gradually hit home, as has the nature of US-Israeli relations for the thousandth time, even in the Obama era. Palestinian political forces have been thrown in a spin, treading circles and wringing their hands. A succession of grave and important statements and stances reflects their deep consternation.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
Spot the difference / Uri Avnery
A SHORT historical quiz: Which state: (1) Arose after a holocaust in which a third of its people were destroyed? (2) Drew from that holocaust the conclusion that only superior military forces could ensure its survival? (3) Accorded the army a central role in its life, making it “an army that had a state, rather than a state that had an army”? (4) Began by buying the land it took, and continued to expand by conquest and annexation? (5) Endeavored by all possible means to attract new immigrants? (6) Conducted a systematic policy of settlement in the occupied territories? (7) Strove to push out the national minority by creeping ethnic cleansing? For anyone who has not yet found the answer: it’s the state of Prussia. But if some readers were tempted to believe that it all applies to the State of Israel – well, they are right, too ... IT IS impossible to exaggerate the influence of the Prussian model on the Zionist movement in almost all spheres of life.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/
Netanyahu should admit Israel doesn't want peace / Gideon Levy
Tomorrow will mark six months since the prime minister's foreign policy speech at Bar-Ilan University. It's now time for another historic speech. In the near future, the prime minister needs to convene the right audience, find a fitting site and deliver the speech of a lifetime. We don't want peace, he should say, going down in history as the first Israeli leader to tell the truth, the whole truth ... After we are freed of the burden of fraud, we can consider without hindrance what we really want to do: to build and build in the territories, to remain forever on every hilltop and in every valley, in the Golan Heights, and of course, in the "holy sites." And everything is a holy site. And we want to deepen the occupation and be even more cruel to the Palestinians. Maybe they will finally fulfill our dreams and disappear.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
A test we cannot fail / Ziv Lenchner
Israel must curb lawbreaking settlers or it may find itself facing Jewish intifada -- The act of tearing up the construction freeze orders, which was the opening shot in the horror show we saw in the territories in recent days, was a much more symbolic act than its perpetrators dreamed it would be. It marked the detachment of these local council heads and their impassioned followers from the State of Israel and its laws.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Who cares about Gaza? / Brian Cloughley
Where the crimes go unpunished -- Gaza? Where’s that? Have you heard about it recently? It doesn’t figure on the list of important matters for consideration by the world’s presidents and prime ministers. It has vanished from the media. Most people couldn’t care less about a generation of Palestinians who are subjected to viciously inflicted privation by an imperialist nation that has lost touch with humanity.
http://www.counterpunch.org/
'I'm sorry but we had to blow up your laptop'
Lily Sussman works with refugees in Cairo as part of the Resettlement Legal Aid Project. I understand that she’s a student at Northeastern in Boston. She wanted to visit Israel and was grilled at the border about her travel in Arab countries. They took her laptop… Apparently she has saved the hard-drive. Her story here. I wonder where Lily is on the Jewish need for a national homeland.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
The Polish Aliyah Why Didn't You Want Me Blues
By Michael Handelzalts. Apparently in 1958, while Jews from Poland were emigrating en masse to Israel ... then-foreign minister Golda Meir wrote the Israeli ambassador in Warsaw, Katriel Katz, a "top secret" letter, saying: "A proposal was raised in the coordination committee to inform the Polish government that we want to institute selection in aliyah, because we cannot continue accepting sick and handicapped people. Please give your opinion as to whether this can be explained to the Poles without hurting immigration."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The race against Israeli expansionism: Can the two-state solution be saved?
By Omar Baddar. ...While serious analysts disagree on whether the precise "point of no return" has already passed for a viable two-state solution, most agree that Israel's incessant (and illegal) settlement expansion is systematically undermining it. With the US as the only actor capable of rolling back Israel's settlement expansion, saving the prospect for a viable two-state peace agreement is mainly a question of whether the US will act in time.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Book review: Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
After spending three months examining the roots of that hatred, and more than six years getting his graphic thoughts in order, Sacco doubts that peace will break through the scorched earth of the Gaza Strip. "I hold out less hope now than ever," the Portland cartoonist said. Yet as you quietly make your way through "Footnotes in Gaza: A Graphic Novel," and the murderous echoes of the Israeli purges at Khan Younis and Rafah, what hope and optimism remains for journalism and comics.
http://www.oregonlive.com/
Iraq
Saturday: 1 US soldier, 6 Iraqis killed; 10 Iraqs wounded
Excerpt: At least six Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded in the latest violence. Also, a U.S. soldier has died from non-combat injuries at Camp Speicher, and three American soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. Meanwhile, a Turkish court has banned a Kurdish political party for alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Sunday: 1 US soldier, 8 Iraqis killed, 43 Iraqis wounded
Excerpt: At least eight Iraqis were killed and 43 more were wounded as fallout from Bloody Tuesday continues to vex security officials and perhaps perpetrators in Baghdad. In the United Kingdom, sources revealed that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will give his Chilcot Inquiry testimony in secret, perhaps undermining the authority of the inquiry. A separate investigation, this one in the United States, ended in favor of the military defendant. Also, one U.S. soldier died from non-combat injuries.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Iraq says 13 to be executed over Baghdad blasts
BAGHDAD (AFP) – Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said on Sunday that 13 people arrested in connection with deadly bombings in Baghdad in August are to be executed, as Iraq's security chiefs were grilled by MPs. His comments came during a grilling by MPs in parliament in the aftermath of another spate of bombings in Baghdad last Tuesday in which 127 people were killed and 450 wounded.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Other world news
US says has no evidence Iran backs Yemeni rebels
UK: Terror police to monitor nurseries for Islamic radicalisation
Nursery-age children should be monitored for signs of brainwashing by Islamist extremists, according to a leaked police memo obtained by The Times ... The police unit confirmed that counter-terrorist officers specially trained in identifying children and young people vulnerable to radicalisation had visited nursery schools.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
US: Khalidi and Cohen set to win debate on special relationship at NYU next February 9
A year after Yale students held a debate, "Resolved, the U.S. should end the special relationship with Israel," with John Mearsheimer arguing Pro, an outfit at NYU is staging the same debate, for $45 admission: Should the U.S. "step back from" the special relationship, and this time no Mearsheimer. Rashid Khalidi and Roger Cohen will argue the affirmative. Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador, and Stu Eizenstat, former Carter aide, will say No.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
Canada: Steven Harper and the Jewish question
By Gerald Caplan. The Conservatives' blatant wooing of Canadian Jews doesn't add up. What do they want from such a tiny, privileged group anyway?
http://www.theglobeandmail.
www.TheHeadlines.org
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