Today in Palestine! ~February 18, 2010 ~

Shadi Fadda brings us todays headlines and other news from around the internet. 

Land theft/Settlers
Nine more demolition orders bring village total to 26
Jenin - Ma'an - Bringing the number of homes and agricultural structures to be demolished in Barta'a Ash-Sharqiya to 26, Israeli forces invaded the village at noon on Thursday to deliver eight orders for home destructions and one for a chicken coup, residents said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262437

Gaza family: Israeli bulldozers demolished our homes
Gaza – Ma'an – Israeli military vehicles breached the Gaza border on Thursday morning, reaching 200 meters inside the central region near the Deir Al-Balah neighborhood. By early afternoon, families near the Al-Musaddar area northeast of Deir Al-Balah said the bulldozers had demolished two homes and large swaths of olive groves.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262309

IOA to confiscate Arab land to build parking lot
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) controlled municipality of Jerusalem is planning to confiscate Arab land in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to build a parking lot.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7sKWQbJ4f4ILWcVIUY%2biNEubIyWJ8fMiPUzk4SUyv1eEYq4hUHfR2lfUKFf4QYYCjY%2fzS0KvmTFWNI6HAJT9cm2FdHDDc%2b3zekk23PDwPajk%3d

Settlements become cities
Rather than meeting the Palestinian negotiating demand for a freeze on settlements, Israel is grabbing yet more land for Jewish-only urban expansion, writes Saleh Al-Naami.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/986/re5.htm

Jerusalem's Battle of the Graves
I carried a handful of ashes from my father's cremates into the occupied Palestinian territories a few years ago, hoping to take them to his hometown, Nablus. At the border, the only available taxi was driven by an Israeli Moroccan Jew. Delighted I was an Arab, he immediately plunged into conversation and pointed out various landmarks along the way to Jerusalem.
http://www.counterpunch.com/hijab02182010.html

Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Invitation to Mass Demonstration in Bil`in
Iyad Burnat - Friends of Freedom and Justice - Bilin - On Friday, February 19th 2010, we shall join the weekly demonstration in Bil`in and convey a simple message to the Israeli army: you will not be able to kill the popular resistance! The wall must and will fall!
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=38367

Bil'in: 5 years of anti-Wall struggle
This Friday, Palestinians, Israelis and internationals will together celebrate five years of anti-Wall protest in Bil'in. The anniversary takes place only one week after court ordered work to reroute the Wall began. Last week, 2.5 years after an Israeli Supreme Court decision deeming the path of the Wall on the lands of Bil'in illegal, preliminary infrastructure work to reroute the barrier in accordance with the ruling has finally began. Since the ruling, the state has twice been found in contempt of the court, for not implementing the decision.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1273

PACBI: Intellectual responsibility and the voice of the colonized
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has recently encountered a number of projects that while intending to empower the colonized Palestinians, in essence end up undermining their will and choice of method of struggle for freedom, justice and self-determination. The publication of a new book entitled The Power of Inclusive Exclusion: Anatomy of Israeli Rule in the Occupied Palestinian Territories belongs to this category.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11083.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29

Israeli Ambassador Booed Off Stage
Demonstration of peaceful and vocal protest at Michael Orens speech to UCI.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRsS7jAWoGQ

The UCI Protests were Clearly Civil Disobedience
There has been much ink spilled on the protesters who disrupted the Israeli Ambassador to America (or is the American ambassador to Israel given the nearly perfect overlap in their duties and dual loyalties). His talk at the University of California, Irvine on February 8th was at the invitation of the university. During his talk eleven students stood up and shouted such ideas that propaganda for murder is not free speech. Now the university is considering expelling the students who were arrested.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2010/02/the-uci-protests-were-clearly-civil-disobedience.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kabobfest%2FGrillMe+%28KABOBfest%29

PA minister urges Italy to boycott settlement goods
Ramallah – Ma'an – Palestinian Authority Economy Minister Dr Hassan Abu Libda on Wednesday brainstormed ways to educate the Italian pubic about Israeli settlement products and strategies to boycott them in the country. A delegation, visiting the Ramallah Ministry of the National Economy headquarters, was lead by a deputy from the Italian foreign minister's office, a statement said Wednesday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262350

Pro-Apartheid
Poland tightens military alliance with Israel, from Electronic Intifada
Poland's military has embarked on a "Polonization of Israeli technology" drive, coupling Israeli weapons-manufacturing technology with Polish manpower and raw materials. Poland's Bumar Group has a 10-year offset deal worth $400 million with Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to produce Spike missiles for drones and helicopter gunships. Ewa Jasiewicz comments.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11081.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29

Violence/Aggression
Bedouin Youth Killed During Scuffle With Russian Jews In The Negev
A Bedouin youth was killed on Wednesday at night and another youth was seriously wounded during a scuffle that took place between Bedouins and a group of Russian Jews in Be’er Sheva, south of the country.
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=57998

Palestinian Child Wounded By Settlers in Hebron
A group of fundamentalist settlers attacked on Wednesday a Palestinian child in the southern West Bank city of Hebron causing concussions and bruises that required hospitalization.
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=57993

Mayor: Israeli forces raid municipality building
Salfit – Ma'an – Israeli forces raided a village municipality building near the northern West Bank town of Salfit on Wednesday, an official said, searching for part of an iron gate erected by the army that had gone missing. In a statement, the mayor of the Salfit-area village of Kafr Ad-Dik said soldiers personally threatened him over the iron structure, which was set up at a military checkpoint between his village and Deir Ballout.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262221

Detentions
IOF troops round up West Bankers, IOA sentences Gazan to life in jail
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Thursday rounded up 11 Palestinians in the districts of Nablus, Ramallah and Jenin at the pretext they were wanted for interrogation, local sources reported.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7imTW00LuLbsH9d09evgJcuyRJhW4plZ3KQ%2bY1WGy37G9nU767qWSJ2eIFCjw4Ew7NfVU9qEibTDideLtzueZQTYDiT65TUgszRRVjenp1sE%3d

IPA threatens liberated prisoners with liquidation
The Israeli prisons authority (IPA) threatened the liquidation of released Palestinian prisoners if they engage in anti-occupation activity after their release from prison.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7cADLpXUR8d4DcBi5WrIpPeX5HWQ8c6xePfBvQ3g3e%2b%2bx6HR49oSLHsqIX1Bes1Z9rIaKK9na0q8DyHnfxNRyhQ26tdo%2f9LvPGXYOBzFif2c%3d

Siege/Blockade/Humanitarian Issues
Israel tightens vice on Gaza Strip, UN reports
17 February 2010 – The ability to bring essential commodities into Gaza, already under an Israeli blockade that is undermining health care, the economy and rehabilitation after last year's devastating Israeli offensive, was further cut in January by more crossing closures, according to the latest United Nations update.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-82RSM9?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Awad: We didn’t receive a penny of Arab and international donations to Gaza
Dr. Mohammed Awad asserted on Wednesday that not a single penny of the international and Arab donations allocated to rebuild Gaza Strip had reached the Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s72A4tI%2fXpDf6oOVtzugTiUUBCQpVrUVyDZ5AfonCI6%2bnY8uFcB8Dh5FuhGGRK%2feNP0p79ua6wb4L8aqloAVK62tX6%2fiKVjkoE4bwfwyn5j90%3d

All Nablus checkpoints closed
Nablus – Ma'an – Israeli forces closed all checkpoints into Nablus on Wednesday evening, onlookers said, as the army held exercises. An Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an that forces "are conducting exercises throughout the Samaria [northern West Bank] region."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262248

"At least there's food in prison!"
"This morning," my neighbor Mona explained to me, "I told my husband that since the kids are out of school and he didn't need to go into town, I would cook something special and we would have a party." Mona has a wry sense of humor and I started to wonder what the punch line would be. Joy Ellison writes from al-Tuwani, occupied West Bank.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11077.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29

Fishing Under Fire
Ten years ago, Gaza's approximately 3,600 fishermen were hauling approximately 3,000 tons of fresh fish a year, supporting an even larger 30,000 people in Gaza. Since then, violent clashes with — and ever-tightening restrictions by — the Israeli army have virtually destroyed the once booming business. Today, just 20 percent of Gaza fishermen are still able to make a living in the industry most of them grew up with, and their total catch is 3-5 percent of what it used to be. And those who stick it out are putting their lives on the line.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1272

Out of Favors in Finding Gaza Party Favors
Summer in Gaza is the season of wedding and engagement parties. Just like the rest of the world, Palestinians enjoy celebrating the happy occasions with flowers, music, dancing, food and gifts. During my summer in Gaza, while I was stuck there for more than four months, I noticed that wedding parties provide the only venue where Palestinians could celebrate free of politics and free of sorrow, allowing themselves to escape a dim reality of a life under siege. I know especially well because while there I planned my own engagement party -- booking a party hall on the sandy Gaza beach, hiring a DJ, a photographer and caterer as well as ordering a cake. In it all I had to deal with the reality of Gaza where many services have been affected by the siege and where limited goods are allowed into the narrow strip of land.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hani-almadhoun/out-of-favors-in-finding_b_464427.html

Refugees
No peace without solution for Palestinian refugees: UN (AFP)
AFP - Finding a solution to the plight of millions of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East is key to peace in the region, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said in an interview on Thursday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100218/wl_mideast_afp/mideastlebanonpalestinianrefugeepolitics

War Criminals
Israel must learn the international language of human rights
The time has come to change our behavior. In the contest to see who is more unfortunate, and which children are suffering more, those in Sderot or those in Gaza, we will always be the losers. Instead, we have to try to adopt the Western discourse on rights and back up what we say with deeds. The boycott of the Goldstone Commission was a mistake. Now we have to see how it can be mended.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1150699.html

Gaza: A dark comedy
At first the Goldstone Report seemed a breakthrough. Now most hopes for justice have been dissipated, writes Curtis Doebbler.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/986/op33.htm

Political Developments/Diplomacy
Egyptian paper: Cairo opposes inviting Hamas to the Arab summit
An Egyptian newspaper has said that Cairo informed the Libyan authorities its objection to the presence of a delegation of the Hamas Movement in the upcoming Arab summit in Tripoli.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s72eS0wuTyi5flddN8JRzIv0yUqnEchvkFNagLyDe%2bloB4FAKVoasaRuBnasRsigF%2bdJ4%2bLzQtuPp5%2bPL1Wa5BIbYXh%2bOLdjbhUsP5IR%2ber1w%3d

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, "PFLP Hosts National Unity Meeting of All Factions in Gaza"
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hosted a meeting of all national and Islamic forces, including representatives of Fateh and Hamas, in its office in Gaza City, on February 14, 2010. This meeting was the first of its kind to take place in Gaza since the internal division. . . . Comrade Jamil Mizher, member of the Central Committee of the PFLP, said that this meeting is a positive step toward ending the division and will be the first of a series of meetings that will take place in order to develop firm plans for ending the division and restoring national unity.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/pflp170210.html

Scandals, Assassination Plan Rock Palestinian Authority, Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH — The Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah is fighting a tidal wave of fresh allegations, including sexual harassment, an internal power struggle and embezzlement. But the arrest of a cell of Fatah members, including officials working for the PA’s security forces, by their PA colleagues on the grounds that they planned to assassinate members of the PA leadership has sent shock waves through this central West Bank city.
http://original.antiwar.com/frykberg/2010/02/17/scandals-assassination-plan-rock-palestinian-authority/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+antiwar-original+%28Antiwar.com+Original+Articles%29

Hedonism in Ramallah
On top of political failure, the regime of Abbas and Fayyad has now to contend with charges of moral degeneracy and criminality, writes Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/986/re6.htm

US congressmen say Israeli minister snubbed them (AFP)
AFP - A visiting delegation of US congressmen expressed "surprise and disappointment" on Wednesday after accusing Israel's controversial deputy foreign minister of trying to block their access to top officials.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100217/pl_afp/mideastisraelusdiplomacy

Congressmen to Ayalon: No way to treat ally
Deputy foreign minister refuses to meet US visitors to Israel, apparently due to their link to Jewish left-wing lobby J-Street. Delegation seeks explanation from Jerusalem.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3850759,00.html

Far-right Israeli gov't cracks down-- on members of US Congress!
Well, they do say that those whom the Gods want to destroy, first they make crazy... And here is the evidence that it this is indeed happening in today's Israel. The ultra-right in Israel has always attacked many members of the ethnic-Palestinian leadership in Israel for being "anti-patriotic", "traitorous", or a "fifth column". But in recent weeks, a really vile proto-fascist organization called Im Tirzu has come out with a campaign of unprecedented vituperativeness against such pillars of the left-Zionist establishment as Naomi Chazan, a former deputy Speaker of the Knessset who is the chair of New Israel Fund.
http://justworldnews.org/archives/003880.html

Extra-Judicial Assassination
Hamas vows revenge for killing
Thousands of Hamas supporters have attended a rally in Gaza to honour assassinated commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. The group has blamed his death last month in a luxury hotel in Dubai on an Israeli hit squad. "The decision to avenge the martyr Mahmoud al-Mabhouh has been taken, and it will be equal to the crime," Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, told the crowd at Wednesday evening's rally in Gaza. "All you killers can do now is wait," he said.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2010/02/201021812555400281.html

Hamas Defectors official accused of helping Mossad hit squad
• Palestinian 'defectors' suspected of involvement in murder
• Police hunt six new suspects as more details of plot emerge
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/17/hamas-official-accused-mossad-murder

Hamas sources allege Fatah link to Dubai killing (Reuters)
Reuters - Hamas sources have accused men they say were members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement of helping Israel to kill a Hamas commander in Dubai, a link that would inflame hostility between the rival factions.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100218/ts_nm/us_emirates_israel_palestinians

Dubai 99 percent sure Mossad behind Hamas killing: paper
DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai's police chief said he is almost certain Israel's Mossad spy agency was behind the murder of a Hamas militant at a Dubai hotel, a newspaper reported, raising the stakes in an escalating international row over the killing. Hamas military official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in his luxury hotel room in January, and the Palestinian Islamist militant group has accused Israel of being behind the killing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/18/AR2010021801160.html

Interpol releases 'wanted' notices for Israeli secret agents
Faces of alleged hit squad appear on Interpol website in connection with killing of Hamas operative.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/18/interpol-wanted-notices-israel-mossad

New clip shows 2nd woman in Dubai hit team
Dubai investigation team releases footage showing new details regarding murder of Hamas' al-Mabhouh.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3850842,00.html

Israeli envoy summoned over Dubai passports row: FCO (AFP)
AFP - Britain has invited Israel's ambassador to the Foreign Office to discuss the use of fake British passports by suspected killers of a top Hamas figure in Dubai, a spokesman said Wednesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100217/wl_uk_afp/mideastconflictpalestinianhamasuaebritainambassador

UK, Ireland summon Israeli envoys
Senior Hamas figure's Dubai killing turns into international diplomatic affair: Israeli ambassadors to London, Dublin to be asked to 'share information' about assassins' use of identities stolen from British, Irish citizens.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3850803,00.html

France demands Israel explain Dubai passport affair (Reuters)
Reuters - France demanded on Thursday that Israel explain how a forged French passport came to be used by assassins suspected of killing a Hamas commander in Dubai last month.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100218/wl_nm/us_emirates_israel_france

Gideon Levy / Mossad is supposed to gather intelligence, not sow death
Let's suppose the Dubai assassination project had worked out well. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh would have received his kiss of death, the assassins would have returned safe and sound to their bases, and no Israeli would have run into identity complications. And then? Mahmoud's place would have been taken by Mohammed, who also would have tried to kill Israeli soldiers and smuggle Iranian arms into Gaza. Perhaps the heir would even outperform his predecessor, as has happened in several previous liquidations.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1150683.html

Robert Fisk: Britain's explanation is riddled with inconsistencies. It's time to come clean
Collusion. That's what it's all about. The United Arab Emirates suspect – only suspect, mark you – that Europe's "security collaboration" with Israel has crossed a line into illegality, where British passports (and those of other other EU nations) can now be used to send Israeli agents into the Gulf to kill Israel's enemies. At 3.49pm yesterday afternoon (Beirut time, 1.49pm in London), my Lebanese phone rang. It was a source – impeccable, I know him, he spoke with the authority I know he has in Abu Dhabi – to say that "the British passports are real. They are hologram pictures with the biometric stamp. They are not forged or fake. The names were really there. If you can fake a hologram or biometric stamp, what does this mean?"
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-britains-explanation-is-riddled-with-inconsistencies-its-time-to-come-clean-1902994.html

Israeli assassinations: passports to kill
Our government seems to be fine with letting the Israeli secret service wage its war with Hamas under a British flag.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/18/british-government-dubai-mossad

Al-Sharq al-Awsat lauds Mossad's 'outstanding' professionalism
On the other hand, the London daily al-Sharq al-Awsat actually reported its satisfaction with Israel from the operation, calling it "victory intoxication."
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2010/02/al-sharq-al-awsat-lauds-mossads.html

Were those Mossad assassins wearing tennis outfits in Dubai?
The team of assassins who killed Hamas arms dealer Mahmoud al Mabhuoh wore tennis outfits in order to avoid detection. The Dubai police who just released video, photographs and the names of the alleged team of killers consider the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad a leading suspect in the murder plot.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/where-those-mossad-assassins-wearing-tennis-outfits-in-dubai.html

Media Restrictions
Continued Harassment of Journalists in the West Bank
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns continued harassment of journalists in the West Bank, which constitutes an assault on the freedom of opinion and expression and press freedoms. PCHR is particularly concerned over an imprisonment sentence issued by a military court in Nablus against journalist Tariq Abu Zaid, a civilian person, for charges of "undermining the status of the authority and resisting the public policy of the Palestinian Authority." PCHR repeats its calls for not pushing journalists into the ongoing conflict between Fatah and Hamas movements, for releasing all detained journalists and for respecting the constitutional mandate of the Palestinian judiciary.
http://www.alternativenews.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2455:continued-harassment-of-journalists-in-the-west-bank&catid=119:english&Itemid=878

Other news
Demographics: Arabs are majority in north
Fifty-three percent of northern residents are Arabs. Arab families are bigger, but number of children has decreased over years. Jews live on average four years longer than Arabs. Some 54% of Arab men smoke.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3850924,00.html

Netanyahu vows never to free Ze'evi killer
Prime minister tells International Jerusalem Conference he will not release former minister's murderers, including Ahmad Sa'adat. 'Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people. It has never been the capital of another people,' Netanyahu adds. He also reiterates his call for sanctions against Iran.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3850772,00.html

IDF commander: Settler leaders 'losing control' to rioting youths
A senior army commander on Thursday accused settler leaders of losing control of West Bank areas under their control after 30 youths attacked soldiers and border guards, injuring three.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1150764.html

Settlers lightly injure 2 soldiers in Yitzhar
Group of youngsters hurl stones, paint-filled light bulbs at soldiers, torch, puncture tires of two military vehicles. Defense establishment: Proof of inadequacy for local residents.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3850787,00.html

Zionist Women at War: How Roles are Changing
It's a very, very, very cool experience, to shoot a gun - I love it!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8518649.stm

Analysis/Opinion
The New York Times and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Bronner Affair
The New York Times has now confirmed recent internet rumors that the son of Ethan Bronner, for the past two years its chief correspondent in Israel, has enlisted in the Israeli army. As the website Electronic Intifada pointed out, the internal policies of the Times state that journalists might have to be reassigned if the activities of family members created real or even "apparent" conflicts of interest.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerome-slater/the-inew-york-timesi-and_b_461263.html?ref=email_share

Oslo made us strangers in our native land, Ahmed Moor
The farcical downward slide continues. In hierarchical order: Mahmoud Abbas attempts to bury the Goldstone report on the Gaza massacre; Salam Fayyad speaks at the Herzliya Conference, truly earning Akiva Eldar’s munificent praise; and a Fatah underling tries to make sleazy love in a sleazy video. I could have made this all up, and you would have believed me, but no need to. The party of Clinton and the clique of Obama never fails to hopelessly humiliate itself.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/oslo-made-us-strangers-in-our-native-land.html

MJ Rosenberg: J Street Creates Fear and Trembling In Israel
Just what is it with the Israeli government and J Street? Hardly a week passes without either an Israeli government official -- or one of their allies in the United States -- blasting it, sometimes incoherently. It's strange. J Street is not the first Jewish organization to criticize Israeli government policies for being both inflexible and counterproductive, far from it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/j-street-creates-fear-and_b_467112.html

Review: A (happily) partial memoir of the second intifada
Emma Williams is a doctor who worked in Britain, Pakistan, Afghanistan, New York and South Africa before accompanying her husband, a UN official, to Jerusalem in October 2000. This account of their three years in Palestine, It's easier to reach heaven than the end of the street - a Jerusalem memoir, was originally published in the UK in 2006 and now appears in a revised and updated US edition. Raymond Deane reviews for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11082.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29

Israel not enlightened by work of art
Spanish artist Eugenio Merino won't get the support of the Israeli foreign ministry. That support is for artists who know who holds their leash, how not to bite the hand that feeds them, and many other commonplaces. See why? The Israeli embassy issued a statement saying that this is "offensive towards Israelis, Jews, and certainly others".
http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2010/02/israel-not-enlightened-by-work-of-art.html

Iraq
Car bomb wounds 22 in Iraq's Mosul (AFP)
AFP - A car bomb near a police station in the centre of Iraq's main northern city of Mosul wounded 22 people including 15 police, security and medical officials told AFP on Thursday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100218/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestmosul

Bomber hits Iraq checkpoint
At least 10 killed, including police and a young girl, in city of Ramadi.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/02/201021810496996936.html

Suicide bomb killing 12 rattles Anbar ahead of Iraq elections
The suicide bombing that killed 12 Thursday in the capital of Iraq's Anbar province was intended to discourage Iraqis from voting in the March elections.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2010/0218/Suicide-bomb-killing-12-rattles-Anbar-ahead-of-Iraq-elections

Wednesday: 8 Iraqis Killed, 5 Wounded
Memories of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib have resurfaced as a military appeals court reviews whether the judge in one case conducted the trial properly. Meanwhile, Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani encouraged voters to participate in next month's national elections. At least eight Iraqis were killed and five more were wounded in light violence. Also, there are rumors that the Mahdi Army may be resurfacing as sectarian violence appears to be re-igniting.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/02/17/wednesday-8-iraqis-killed-5-wounded/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+antiwar-original+%28Antiwar.com+Original+Articles%29

Unknown gunmen kidnap Iraqi reporter
Unknown gunmen kidnapped on Wednesday Iraqi reporter Hussam Daoud Lazem in front of his house in Al Naser District. Lazem works in Al Ahed Radio Station and Television related to the Sadrist Front. Four gunmen in a green civilian car drove Lazem by force of arm to an unknown destination.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-45062-Unknown-gunmen-kidnap-Iraqi-reporter.html

Al Maliki: Most barred candidates are ex-intelligence officers
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki affirmed that most candidates barred from Parliamentary elections were intelligence officers at the time of the former regime. They wanted to infiltrate into the Parliament to disable its legislative power, Al Maliki said during a visit to Qadissiya Province.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-45049-Al-Maliki%3A-Most-barred-candidates-are-ex-intelligence-officers.html

Iraq to seize security contractors' heavy weapons (Reuters)
Reuters - Iraq will seize heavy weapons from foreign security firms and expel within days ex-Blackwater contractors still in the country, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said on Wednesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100217/wl_nm/us_iraq_security_contractors

Slogans on Baghdad checkpoints offer a dream Iraq (AP)
AP - The slogans express the country's dream of unity: "Iraq is for everyone." But the reality lies in where they are plastered and spraypainted — on the hundreds of checkpoints that carve up the capital.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_election_dream

Lebanon
France urges Israel to exercise 'great restraint' (AFP)
AFP - A senior French politician urged Israel to exercise "great restraint" during a visit to Beirut on Wednesday, amid a war of words between the Jewish state and Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100217/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictlebanonisraelfrance

All of Israel's Gush Dan in Hezbollah Rocket Range; No Comments on Sayyed Speech
18/02/2010 Two days have passed on Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s speech and Israel has made only shy comments. In his speech on Tuesday marking Hezbollah Martyr Leaders’ Day in Dahiyeh, Sayyed Nasrallah set a new equation that would shape the next round of confrontation with Israel. The Hezbollah leader vowed to strike the Ben Gurion airport if martyr Rafiq Hariri’s International airport was hit by Israel. Sayyed Nasrallah also signaled that Hezbollah now possesses destructive power that would be used in Israel’s economic and populous center extending from Haifa to the south of Tel Aviv in case Israel used destructive power against buildings, factories, oil refineries, and the country’s infrastructure.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=125079&language=en

U.S. and other world news
Is Barack Obama More AIPAC Than J Street?
The U.S. president is showing that he's hardly a leftist ideologue when it comes to Middle East peace -- and Israelis are starting to notice.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/02/16/is_barack_obama_more_aipac_than_j_street

Arab Despise Thyself ...
On my flight back from Philadelphia to Detroit, after having participated in the 122nd MLA Annual Convention, I sat next to a young man whom I overheard speaking Arabic in his cell phone. I said “salaam” in Arabic, and the young man was surprised and astonished: “how did you know I am Arab?” he impatiently asked, clearly disappointed to be found but viscerally eager to put me to task for it. I said I just overheard you speaking Arabic in your cell phone. Well, then, he said, “for your information, I am not Arab, I am American.” “That’s fine,” I said, “but you speak Arabic, no?” I deliberately asked the question in Arabic with an accent that is neither Tunisian (as mine normally is) nor fluently Palestinian (however I have tried to sound like one), and I followed it up with an English translation.
http://www.counterpunch.org/gana02172010.html

Inside Story - Russia's Iran dilemma
Will Moscow yield to Israeli demands to impose sanctions on Iran?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-NWQvqVLEA&feature=youtube_gdata

Brazil Resists Push for Tougher Sanctions on Iran, Envoy Says
Brazil has told the U.S. and France that it doesn’t support tougher United Nations sanctions on Iran and will continue, over the objections of the Obama administration, to seek more trade with the Islamic government.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=ae2kPZnKgkaY

www.TheHeadlines.org