Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet.
Land theft and destruction / Settlements
Israeli bulldozers demolish storehouses near Nablus
Israeli military bulldozers began demolishing 12 agricultural storehouses in the Tana neighborhood east of Nablus in the West Bank on Sunday ... The owners of the storehouses had appealed to the Israeli High Court of Justice in May 2005 after they received the demolition notices, but were turned down by the courts, asserted Atif Hanini, mayor of the nearby town of Beit Furki. Hanini explained that the Tana neighborhood is approximately two kilometers away from an Israeli outpost. Twenty-five Palestinian families were evicted from the area in 2005 when the military post was positioned in the area.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
David Shulman on Walaja and Sheikh Jarrah
...The Jerusalem municipality has announced that it is planting another hornet’s nest in yet another Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem. This time it is Et-Tur, on the top of the Mount of Olives; twenty-four housing units are scheduled to be built there for fanatical settlers, in addition to the several hundred recently announced for Shu’afat, the creeping annexations in Silwan and Ras al-’Amud, the plans for a huge housing complex at Jabal Mukabbar, and the wave of evictions we have been witnessing in Sheikh Jarrah. At this rate we’ll be marching from protest to protest around the clock (to what effect?) ... As if all this were not enough, we had the routine kinds of state terror to deal with, for example in Twaneh, where on Thursday one of our friends, Mus’ad, out grazing his goats on the hills, was assaulted by a Jewish settler. When the soldiers eventually turned up, they did what they always do, that is, they arrested Mus’ad and hijacked him in their jeep.
http://josephdana.com/2010/01/
Army harassment at peaceful tree-planting in Qaryut
8 Jan - An overwhelming force of Israeli military soldiers converged on farmlands outside Qaryut today as villagers attempted to replenish their endangered lands with water and new olive trees. Despite the overbearing army presence, residents’ convictions were strong enough for them to stand their ground and finish work for the day ... As residents worked the land, others began clearing the large earth mound that had been constructed across the small dirt road serving as Qaryut’s sole link to Road 60. Residents reported Israeli bulldozers shifting the earth mound in to place on January 6th, a repeated attempt of the military to block farmers from their land.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Illegal settlers and Israeli military attack Palestinian nonviolent demonstration against settlement expansion
International Women’s Peace Service On January 8, villagers from the Palestinian village of An Nabi Saleh (population approx 500), located in the north of the Ramallah district, held its third demonstration in three weeks against creeping settlement expansion and land confiscation by the illegal Israeli settlement of Hallamish (also known as Neve Tzuf). According to the residents of the village, since the settlement was established illegally on land belonging to An Nabi Saleh in 1977, there have been repeated attempts to expand the settlement. In 2009, the village successfully challenged, in the Israeli courts, the expansion of the settlement fence to land immediately alongside settler highway 465. In the past month, however, illegal settlers residing in Hallamish colony have attempted to re-annex the land alongside the highway, which now divides An Nabi Saleh’s land.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Photoessay: Diaries from East Jerusalem
As some residents face evictions to make way for Jewish settlers, a solidarity movement originally consisting of a handful of Israeli and international activists has grown into a weekly protest where participants march from West Jerusalem to East Jerusalem, spreading the message of "free Sheikh Jarrah." Here are some images from the development of this story. All photographs are by Brady Ng.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
Ripples in cement: the moratorium and Palestinians' salaries
By Larry Derfner. At a muddy construction site on the edge of the haredi settlement of Modi'in Illit, Taher, a Palestinian subcontractor from the Hebron area, is asked what he thinks of the settlement freeze. "I'm against it. It's bad for me. I need 50 workers for this job, but because the freeze is supposedly going to shut down so much construction, they didn't get work permits," he says. About 40 years old, wearing a hard hat, he goes on: "If I thought the land [on which the settlements were built] was going to be given back to the Palestinians, I'd be in favor of the freeze. But if anything, the [security] fence is going to be moved forward, not backward."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Testimony: Take me back to my homeland, even as a rose
By Alice Rothchild. And so the story begins. These men, all Israeli citizens, work with groups including the Arab Association for Human Rights in Nazareth and the Association for Defense of the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in Israel and I am here to document some of their story. As we drive through the area, they point out various Jewish towns and cities, such as Shelomi and Shlumit, as well as Palestinian villages that were destroyed in 1948. They point to a crumbling mosque and palm tree, formerly the Arab village of Zeeb.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
Can tax-free donations fund settlements?
[with video of rally welcoming new immigrants at Ben Gurion International Airport] Readers of this website know that we have been covering the actions of the American based group Nefesh bNefesh. Our argument is that Nefesh bNefesh is encouraging settlement activity through financial incentives while enjoying the benefits of nonprofit status in the United States. Nefesh bNefesh and other organizations have been gaining political clout in Israel over the past years.
http://josephdana.com/2010/01/
Jerusalem legal counsel: Request to delay Beit Yonatan eviction illegal
Attorney Yossi Havilio tells Knesset committee court order calling for evacuation of illegal Jewish structure in east Jerusalem 'should have been implemented a while ago'. Rightist MKs: Elements within municipality favoring city's Arabs
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Violence / Aggression
Medics: Two killed by Israeli fire in north Gaza
Two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli artillery in the northern Gaza Strip Sunday morning, a medical official said. Mu’awiya Hassanein, Gaza Health Ministry director of ambulance and emergency services, said they were shot by tank fire near an excavation site at the former Dugnit settlement. An Israeli military spokesman said the army was not familiar with the incident. Witnesses reported hearing artillery shelling, expecting those killed to be workers in the area.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Report: IDF strikes in Gaza; three dead
Almost three hours after four mortar shells were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, Palestinians reported that three Gazans were killed and four others injured in an IDF strike east of Deir al-Balah in the central Strip ... The Palestinians confirmed that a cell belonging to the Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades was in the area struck by the IDF and that some of its members were hit.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Four mortars launched from Gaza, none reach Israel
Armed Palestinians fired four mortar shells at the western Negev from the Gaza Strip on Sunday. All the shells landed in Palestinian territory. No one was injured and no damage was sustained in the attacks.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Palestinian shot in Hebron by Israeli forces
Israeli forces shot and injured a Palestinian man near the southern entrance to Hebron in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers prevented Palestinians from assisting him, and then took him to an unknown location, sources told Ma'an. The official Israeli police spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Police shoot at Palestinian thief near Hebron
Man shot after driving car suspected to be stolen and making U-turn that, according to police, endangered officers' lives. Driver sustains wound to midsection, transferred to hospital in moderate condition; passenger arrested
http://www.ynetnews.com/
'Cops urinated on me, placed excrement on my head'
Palestinian thief's complaint against police abuse suggests policemen beat him, placed banana peels behind his ears while capturing all on cell phone. Five officers released after questioning, rest to face remand hearings -- Investigators of the Justice Ministry's police investigations unit raided the Yarkon District Police station in Tel Aviv on Sunday and detained 10 policemen, including Israel Police special patrol unit officers and detectives, on suspicion of abusing Abu Najma. He was arrested at the end of December for stealing an expensive motorcycle and trying to blackmail its owner.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
US immigrant gets expulsion order for supporting 'Jewish terrorist'
A young American immigrant was recently expelled from the West Bank for allegedly supporting "Jewish terrorist" Yaakov Teitel. Teitel was charged in November with two murders, three attempted murders and other acts of violence. The indictment also lists Teitel's efforts for more than a decade to harm Arabs, gays and lesbians, leftists, police officers and messianic Jews.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Detention
Bil‘in organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah remanded until end of legal proceedings
Abdallah Abu Rahmah, coordinator of the Bil‘in Popular Committee Against the Wall, was remanded until the end of legal proceedings today in an Israeli military court. Abu Rahmah is charged with incitement, stone-throwing and a ridiculous arms possession charge for collecting and displaying used tear gas canisters shot at demonstrators in Bil‘in by the army.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Border Police arrest 482 illegal aliens, 13 employers
Border Police forces over the weekend arrested 482 Palestinians who were 'illegal aliens' in Israel, Channel 10 reported on Sunday. Eight people were reportedly arrested for employing the illegal workers and 13 people were nabbed for assisting in smuggling the Palestinians into Israel.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Minister of Prisoners' Affairs demands release of pre-Oslo detainees
Palestinian Minister of Detainees' and Prisoners' Affairs Issa Qaraqe demanded the release of 320 prisoners detained before ratifying the Oslo Accords in 1993, which consecutive Israeli governments have refused to release, according to a statement issued on Saturday ... Many of the 320 prisoners are serving long-term sentences, some of whom had spent over 20 years in Israeli prisoners prior to the Oslo Accords in 1993
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Siege
Egypt resumes border wall, proposes Jerusalem as open capital
Egyptian authorities have resumed building a steel wall on the Sinai-Gaza border yesterday, after work was put on hold for three days as Palestinian snipers targeted construction equipment. In a related development, Egypt has proposed making Jerusalem an "open capital."
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/
Israel opens Gaza crossing, permits limited export
Between 93 and 103 truckloads of humanitarian aid will be permitted through the Kerem Shalom crossing, said the crossings official, Raed Fattouh. Only one truckload of flowers and three of strawberries will be allowed out via Kerem Shalom, to be exported to Israel and abroad, he added. The Karni crossing in northern Gaza will remain closed, Fattouh added. The Kerem Shalom crossing was suddenly closed on Thursday after mortar shells fired by the militant wing of the Popular Resistance Committees hit near the crossing site.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Pro-Gaza activists leave Egypt
A group of several hundred international activists from an aid convoy to the blockaded Gaza Strip have been allowed to leave Egypt Saturday, despite earlier threats to have some arrested because they scuffled with police, an airport official said. The official said six of the activists, who were wanted by the prosecutor general for their role in violence at El-Arish port where the convoy was delayed, were allowed to leave along with the rest.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Al Jazeera video: Inside Story - the politics behind the Viva Palestina convoy - 7 Jan
"George Galloway''s Viva Palestina convoy finally arrived in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday with a cargo of activists and humanitarian aid. Their month-long journey was marked by diplomatic tensions, enforced changes of route, and in the final hours, violent clashes with Egyptian security forces. So was it worth it and could it have been handled differently?"
http://palestinianpundit.
Galloway: Britain, Egypt need leaders like Erdogan
"I wish that Egypt and Britain had leaders like [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan," Turkey's Yenisafak quoted Galloway as saying on Saturday. He hailed the Turkish government's support for the humanitarian convoy ... Galloway said that he is discussing a new plan with Turkish officials to carry humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip directly from Turkey via the Mediterranean Sea. He said that such a move is expected to take place in March.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
Haniyah signs relief deal with Libya to support 1,000 Gazan families
De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah and a Libyan relief delegation signed on Thursday an agreement whereby 1,000 Libyan families will support 1,000 Palestinian families affected by Israel's war last winter, sponsored by the Gaza Ministry of Social Affairs.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Gaza one year after the assault
IDF to seek legal advice during future conflicts
IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi has issued an order requiring the Israel Defense Forces to consult with the army's legal advisers while military operations are underway and not just when they are being planned ... Meanwhile, greater emphasis has been placed on training officers in the rules of war and international law, as part of officer training courses at the level of company, battalion and brigade commanders.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The case of Mahmoud Abd Rabbo Al-Ajrami
At midnight on 10 January 2009, one year ago today, soldiers violently entered the home of Mahmoud Al-Ajrami, where he and his wife were sheltering on the ground floor, underneath the stairs ... Israeli forces threw a grenade into the entrance on the west side of the building and entered the house shooting. What Al-Ajrami says transpired in the next two days left him with two fractured vertebrae as a result of the beating by Israeli soldiers, one of four cases investigated by Richard Goldstone's UN inquiry into the Gaza war in which civilians were used as human shields.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Political developments
Yom Tov Samia: Another war with Hamas is inevitable
Just over a year after IDF Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip, former OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yom Tov Samia on Sunday predicted that another war with Hamas was practically inevitable and would take place in the near future.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Israelis reject US loan 'threat'
Israeli officials have shrugged off a suggestion that the US could withhold loan guarantees to pressure Israel over the Middle East peace process. US envoy George Mitchell said this week the US could withhold loan guarantees to extract concessions from Israel. The guarantees allow Israel to raise money cheaply overseas ... Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz reacted by saying the Israeli economy was doing well ."We are doing just fine. But several months ago we agreed with the American treasury on guarantees for 2010 and 2011, and there were no conditions."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
Senators McCain, Lieberman downplay Mitchell's threat
Mitchell can threaten Jerusalem, but there will be others ready to defend Israel in Washington: Four senior US senators visiting Israel said Sunday that they oppose attempts to apply pressure on Israel by freezing aid. The senators, including former Republican presidential candidate John McCain, emphasized that they would not allow the US government to authorize such a proposal.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Israeli TV: Abbas, Fayyad mean to provoke Israel
Israel called on the US to heed their complaints against President Mahmoud Abbas and caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad,who were berated for allegedly glorifying martyrdom on Israel's Channel Two on Saturday. The complaint was broadcast following the naming of a street after Dalal Al-Mughrabi, who led a group of Palestinian combatants and hijacked an Israeli bus in Tel Aviv in 1978 ... Additionally, the Israeli channel broadcast pictures of the prime minister's recent burning of produce and goods manufactured on illegal Israeli settlements and calling on a Palestinian boycott of such items. Such actions, Channel Two reported, were aimed at provoking Israel and the US must respond to these "dangerous acts."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Awaiting response, Hamas pessimistic on Shalit deal
Hamas does not anticipate a prisoner exchange deal to take place soon, an official said, as they await Israel's response to their terms in the next two days through their German mediator ... Unprecedented progress was made recently but Israel retreated suddenly, halting the swap deal in its tracks, Abu Marzouq added, asserting that the German mediator was partially responsible for the failure of Israel and Hamas to come to an agreement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israel vows not to release 'terror icons' for Shalit
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday declared that Israel would not free "terrorist icons" as part of a prisoner exchange deal now being discussed with Hamas to see the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. He added that Israel would stand firm on its pledge to see some of the terrorists set for released exiled away from the West Bank.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Other news
Israeli firm blasted for letting would-be plane bomber slip through
The Israeli firm, ICTS, and two of its subsidiaries are at the crux of an international investigation in recent days, as experts try to pinpoint the reasons for the security failure that enabled Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board Northwest flight 253 and attempt to set alight explosives hidden in his underwear. A Haaretz investigation has learned that the security officers and their supervisor should have suspected the passenger, even without having early intelligence available to them ... ICTS was established in 1982 by former members of the Shin Bet and El Al security.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
US consulate being sued by former employee
The plaintiff is Azam Qiq, who worked at the diplomatic mission until 2006 as a mechanic. His father was Hassan Qiq, the former head of Hamas in Jerusalem, who died in 2006. Azam Qiq was hired by the consulate in 2003 and underwent a background check by its security teams. According to court documents obtained by The Jerusalem Post, during his hiring interview, Qiq said he had never been arrested or interrogated by the Israeli police. For the next three years, Qiq worked in the consulate motor pool and was a good employee
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Officials: Highway 1 will collapse because of Route 443 cars
Opening Route 443 for Palestinian traffic could lead to the "total collapse" of Highway 1 connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, a Transportation Ministry representative said at a meeting of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense sub committee on Sunday.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Deals finalized with Gaza evacuees
The Prime Minister's office and the Tnufa Directorate announced that they have finalized the community relocation agreements of Gush Katif evacuees. According to the announcement, authorities have also drafted an agreement regarding compensation for business owners and set measures aimed at accelerating construction of permanent homes for the evacuees.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Perhaps Arabs can save Hebrew from demise
By Neri Livneh. ...The core of the Hebrew language, on every level, is dwindling; this is what concerns the government ... Hebrew's main problem stems from a need to uproot prevalent linguistic distortions and enrich the tongue by reading - a skill which about a third of the Jewish school students fail to master ... According to the forecasts, future Israeli generations will consist mostly of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arabs, i.e. people for whom Hebrew is a foreign tongue. If we leave the preservation of Hebrew - "a fundamental, essential component of Israel's national and cultural identity" - to the future generations of teachers and students, it may yet transpire that this, too, is "Arab work" (a derogatory Hebrew expression used to describe inferior work).
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Court: Palestinian persecuted for homosexuality can stay in Israel
In an unusual ruling, the High Court of Justice ordered the state late last week to evaluate the degree to which the life of a young Palestinian is at risk, in part because of his sexual orientation. The Palestinian is asking for permission to remain in Israel because he fears for his life if he is expelled to the Palestinian Authority.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Rally: Not authorizing Falashmura aliyah crime against Zionism
Hundreds of Ethiopian-Israelis gather in Jerusalem to protest delay in issuing of immigration permits to thousands of Falashmura waiting in Ethiopian transit camp. Minister Steinitz: This isn't about skin color
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Are the Taliban descended from ancient Israelites?
Gov't to fund scientist researching DNA link with remote Afghani tribe... now, for the first time, the government has shown official interest, with the Foreign Ministry providing a scholarship to an Indian scientist to come to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and determine whether or not the tribe [Pashtuns] that provides the hard core of today's Taliban has a blood link to any of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and specifically to the tribe of Efraim. [If it does, they can undoubtedly immigrate and displace still more Palestinians...]
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Analysis / Opinion
Only psychiatrists can explain Israeli behavior / Gideon Levy
...The psychiatric specialists might be so kind as to try to explain how a country with leaders committed to a two-state solution continues to direct huge budgets toward building more settlements in territories it intends to vacate in the future. ... How can a nation that has so desperately fought for its international image and standing, and which is so dependent on the world's benevolence, appoint such a thuggish and violent figure as Avigdor Lieberman as its No. 1 diplomat? Half the world is closed to the foreign minister and we suffer the consequences.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Border Control: Highway to nowhere / Akiva Eldar
When people from the Association of Civil Rights in Israel informed the leaders of the Palestinian villages near Route 443 of the High Court of Justice decision to open the road to Palestinian traffic, they advised the village chiefs not to run off and celebrate. The experience in countless petitions has taught them that the five months the judges gave the military authorities to find ways other than restricting traffic to secure the road can turn into years.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The best way to help Palestine / Seth Freedman
Combatants for Peace's joint Israeli-Palestinian protests value constructive bond-forging over antagonistic posturing -- Shifting Israeli public opinion is, arguably, the most important challenge faced by both Palestinian and Israeli peace activists today. Sticks and stones have failed miserably to convince Israelis that they have a willing partner for peace on the Palestinian side, whereas groups such as CFP, ICAHD and RHR have had a far more positive effect in convincing the average Israeli that there is a chance of making progress towards a resolution.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
In West Bank, conditions 'not ripe' for Palestinian uprising
By Edmund Sanders. Israelis and Palestinians point to a weak, fractured Palestinian leadership that has disavowed violence, the tight Israeli control and a budding West Bank economy that discourages a new intifada.
http://www.latimes.com/news/
The new leader / Zvi Bar'el
There is no new peace plan, no new proposals and no pressure at all. Thus Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas began an interview to Al Jazeera Thursday night. One might also add that there is no new Abbas. He is the same leader and his conditions for peace have not changed since he came to power: a divided Jerusalem, a "just and agreed-upon" resolution of the refugee problem, and minor territorial concessions in the form of an "exchange of territories of equal size and quality." This is the entire doctrine.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Abbas: Don't make the same blunders again / Khalid Amayreh
There are increasing signs that Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas might agree to resume the so-called “peace talks” with Israel fairly soon ...According to informed sources in Cairo and Ramallah, Egypt has been of late under American pressure to press, or more correctly pressure, the weak PA leadership to return to the negotiating table with Israel effectively without any pre-conditions. Needless to say, this would be tantamount to a nearly total surrender to the Israeli policy of imposing the fait accompli on the Palestinians.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
S-word rattles Israel
By Levi. I shouldn't get excited by this because it is probably all down to choreography but Reuters is reporting that the mere mention of sanctions by US "peace envoy", George Mitchell, has caused a "stir" in Israel: ... Let's take another look? Mitchell made clear in the U.S. public television interview that no sanctions against Israel were being considered. And that's a bombshell? Is this how Israel exists? On the verge of a nervous breakdown.
http://jewssansfrontieres.
Iraq and other Mideast
Saturday: 5 Iraqis killed, 8 wounded
Excerpt: At least five Iraqis were killed and eight more were wounded in light violence. Meanwhile, Iraq began disarming private contractors in what appears to be a response to the dismissal of U.S. court case against Blackwater.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Sunday: 2 Iraqis killed, 20 wounded
Excerpt: A civil suit thought to be settled may not be over for Blackwater Worldwide. Some Iraqi families want more compensation for deaths and injuries caused by the companies contractors. Meanwhile, at least two Iraqis were killed and 20 more were wounded in new attacks.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Most Iraqi families 'accept Blackwater compensation'
BAGHDAD (AFP) – All but one of the families of 17 Iraqis killed in a 2007 shooting by US security guards have accepted compensation from the Blackwater firm, a lawyer wounded in the attack said on Sunday. Confirmation of the payouts comes less than two weeks after a US federal judge dismissed charges against five guards of the American private security firm accused of killing the civilians in an unprovoked attack.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
IRAQ: Squatters moved out of nearly two-thirds of returnees' homes
BAGHDAD, 10 January 2010 (IRIN) - Nearly two thirds of homes belonging to Iraqi internally displaced persons (IDPs) or refugees that were occupied by squatters have been evacuated since mid-2008, a government official said on 9 January.
http://www.irinnews.org/
The United States of Jordan?
Al-Manar - “Forget a two-state solution, the way to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to create a United States of Jordan that would include three states governed by a federal government in Amman [reporting directly to the CIA director, of course]: the East Bank, West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” former Israeli National Security Adviser Giora Eiland said in a study called "Regional Alternatives to the Two-State Solution," released Thursday by Bar-Ilan University's BESA Center.
http://palestinianpundit.
The Quiet American / Uri Avnery
THE QUIET AMERICAN was the hero of Graham Greene’s novel about the first Vietnam War, the one fought by the French. ... Since this book was written, 54 years have passed, but it seems that the Quiet American has not changed a bit. He is still an idealist (at least, in his own view of himself), still wants to bring redemption to foreign and far-away peoples about whom he knows nothing, still causes terrible disasters: in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now, it seems, in Yemen.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/
Clashes amid southern Yemen strike
Residents in the south of Yemen have staged a general strike to protest government policy and claims of oppression. A security official on Sunday said three policemen had been wounded in clashes related to the strike. In the provinces of Dhale, Lahaj, Shabwa and Abyan, all shops were shut and transportation halted for six hours.
http://english.aljazeera.net//
Israel and Iran: The gathering storm
As Israel pushes for sanctions against Iran, it also mulls options for war -- For Mr Raz, Israeli air power could, at most, set the Iranian nuclear programme back by a year or two—not enough to be worth the inevitable Iranian retaliation, which might include rockets fired at Israeli cities by Iran and its allies, Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. A more thorough action would require ground troops in Iran, but nobody is contemplating that.
http://www.economist.com/
US general: We have contingency plan for Iran
General David Petraeus tells CNN US military ready for day diplomatic efforts against Iranian nuclear program fail, says Iranian facilities 'certainly can be bombed'
http://www.ynetnews.com/
UAE sheikh acquitted of torture
Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, the brother of UAE president and Abu Dhabi emir Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, has been acquitted of charges of torture, his lawyer has said. An Emirati court on Sunday acquitted Shiekh Issa despite a video tape of the 2004 incident showing him torturing an Afghan man with whips, electric cattle prods and wooden planks with protruding nails ... "The court accepted our defence that the Sheikh was under the influence of drugs [medicine] that left him unaware of his actions," al-Mulla said.
http://english.aljazeera.net//
U.S.
US-Arab arms deals undermine IDF superiority
The Bush administration violated security related agreements with Israel in which the U.S. promised to preserve the IDF's qualitative edge over Arab armies, according to senior officials in the Obama administration and Israel. Defense Minister Ehud Barak traveled to the U.S. in September for a rushed meeting in which it was agreed that the two allies would discuss how to resolve the problems regarding this issue.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
--
www.TheHeadlines.org
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