Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet.Theft/Destruction/Obstruction of Land & Resources
Jewish settlers uproot Palestinian grape trees
Armed Jewish settlers have attacked and uprooted grape trees in Al-Baqa area east of Al-Khalil city under the protection of Israeli occupation forces (IOF), local sources said.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Right jubilant over Beit Yehonatan order blunder
After Jerusalem Municipality announced cancellation of evacuation and sealing orders to Silwan neighborhood's Beit Yehonatan, many supporters arrive at building, including city council members who take opportunity to speak out against municipal legal advisor.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Stop the Wall offices hit in late night raid
February 8th, 2010-- Late last night Occupation forces raided the Stop the Wall offices in Ramallah. Part of the mounting repression of the anti-Wall movement, this attack on the Campaign offices comes after arrests of Stop the Wall staff and an dramatically increasing number of grassroots activists struggling against the Wall.
http://stopthewall.org/
Mohammad Khatib released as 3 more arrested in Bil’in night raids
Mohammed Khatib of the Bil’in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements was released from jail on Wednesday night Feb. 3rd, 2010. The military had taken Khatib from his home in Bilin on January 28th for allegedly not complying with legal conditions from a arrest in 2009. He was released on a bail of 10,000 Israeli shekels, with the condition of not participating in any of the weekly protests. He must appear at the nearest Israeli police station every Friday between 12:00- 5:00pm.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
al-Ma'sara marches through the cold
February 6th, 2010-- Despite the freezing temperatures and rainy weather, villagers and international supporters marched through the village toward their threatened lands yesterday. At the entrance of the village, protestors found soldiers had not only blocked the path with barbed wire, but also were stationed on the roofs of homes. Over the past weeks, the military has increased its presence in al-Ma’sara, sending additional patrols and threatening popular committee organizers with arrest.
http://stopthewall.org/
Israel admits detention of international activists illegal
A state prosecutor admitted before the Supreme Court today that the Immigration Police illegally detained the two international activists arrested yesterday in a pre-dawn raid on the International Solidarity Movement’s Ramallah offices. The two will be released on bail.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Volunteers detained planting trees in Bethlehem
February 5th, 2010-- Early this month, Occupation forces stopped a group of volunteers southeast of Bethlehem, where they had gone to plant almond trees on land threatened with confiscation. The lands are near the settlements Teqoa and Noqedim, where Foreign Minister Lieberman lives.
http://stopthewall.org/
Proposed California measure calls for state divestment in Israel
A group calling itself the Israel Divestiture Forum has filed an initiative with the attorney general that would require state pension funds to sever ties with Israeli companies or the Israeli government. The measure was submitted by Sacramento resident Chris Yatooma, who works as the head of fiscal policy for the California Community Colleges chancellor’s office.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.
Protest against ayalon at london school economics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Video: Pro-Palestine protest held in Paris to pressure Israel
http://palestinianpundit.
OPEN LETTER TO ELTON JOHN
http://intifada-palestine.com/
Touring Israeli ballet company has no Palestinian dancers
Several BDS groups, including Adalah-NY here, have called for boycott of the Israel Ballet’s tour to Florida and the Northeast this month. The groups say that the ballet is part of the government’s rebranding campaign...
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Israeli peace activist celebrates birthday in Bethlehem
Bethlehem – Ma'an – Israeli activists travelled to Bethlehem to celebrate the birthday of Israeli peace activist Amit Lechem on Sunday, in spite of the separation wall. "I came to Bethlehem to tell the residents that this wall will not withstand, neither will it prevent peace activists from defending freedom. This is the least we can do to tell the leaders that walls won't foil our efforts to make peace," Lechem said as she celebrated her birthday in a Palestinian home in the city.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Join the second Global BDS Day of Action!
February 7th, 2010-- The BDS National Committee (BNC) is calling on you to unite in your different capacities and struggles for a Global BDS Day of Action on 30 March 2010 in solidarity with the Palestinian people and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
http://stopthewall.org/
Violence and Aggression
6 Palestinians wounded in IOF shooting at civilians
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) barred farmers from heading to tend to their farms in Beit Ummar village, Al-Khalil district, on Saturday and fired at them sound and gas bombs.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Sheikh Jarrah settlers threaten Palestinians with M-16 for the second time in 8 days
Today at around 3PM, a settler named Yoni was caught spray painting a swastika on the Ghawi tent by an Palestinian who was driving by in his truck. The truck driver yelled at the settler, Yoni and called the police. When the police arrived they ignored the settler and accused neighborhood Palestinians of having painted the swastika. Palestinians painted over the swastika to prevent further accusations.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Israeli invasion into Qalqilyah and Al-Bira
West Bank, February 8, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - Israeli occupation forces on Monday dawn detained six Palestinians in raid into the villages of Azzun and Haja in Qalqilya governorate in the West Bank. Local sources said that a large force of Israeli army invaded the villages at dawn and raided several houses. After searching them, they kidnapped six Palestinians and took them to an unknown place.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Unidentified gunmen open fire at Hamas official
Qalqiliya – Ma'an – Assailants opened fire on Sunday night at the offices of Hamas-affiliated Palestinian lawmaker Imad Nofal in Qalqiliya, northern West Bank. Unidentified gunmen opened fire from a car, locals said. The gunshots were heard in Qalqiliya's town centre, where Nofal's office is, they said, adding that they fled the scene. Nofal described the attack as "unacceptable" and "unpatriotic," and harming Palestinian interests.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Detainees
Israeli forces raid West Bank camp
Israeli forces have raided a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, arresting at least 40 people. The arrests on Monday at the Shuafat camp in annexed east Jerusalem were part of an operation that Israeli police said was aimed at "putting order" in the area.
Al Jazeera's Elias Karram, reporting from the camp, said: "The raid was divided into two parts: the first of which ended on Monday when Israeli army and intelligence forces invaded the came and detained around 40 poeple based on their political affliation - either to Hamas or Fatah.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Israel kidnaps 70 Palestinian workers
West Bank, February 7, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - Israeli occupation forces kidnapped 70 Palestinian workers overnight in the west bank near Bait Aor Al-Tahta village, in west of Ramallah. The workers were hidden in a van as they were not given permissions to work inside 1948 occupied lands. The workers were hiding in a van launched from Jerusalem towards the1948 occupied lands.
Shaher Sad, the secretary general of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions, condemned the performance of the Israeli occupation forces of pursuit and kidnapping the Palestinian workers overnight.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Israeli forces detain wife of mayor in Ramallah
Jerusalem - Ma'an - Israeli forces detained Muntaha Tawil, wife of Al-Bireh Mayor Jamal Tawil, on Monday, after searching their home in Ramallah. "Heavily armed soldiers and large numbers of military vehicles raided the mayor’s home on Monday early morning breaking the doors and damaging the house’ interior before they detained Muntaha Tawil, the mayor’s wife," an Al-Birreh Municipal Council statement said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Palestinians deny arresting al-Qaida-linked group in West Bank
Palestinian authorities on Saturday denied reports that a group affiliated with al-Qaida was arrested in the West Bank. "We haven't arrested anybody with such background," Adnan al- Demiri, spokesman for the Palestinian security forces, told Xinhua. Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported Sunday that the Israeli army and the Palestinian troops took part in a raid and arrested six people who planned to carry out attacks stimulating the ideology of al-Qaida.
http://english.people.com.cn/
Human Rights/Humanitarian Issues/Siege
Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the issue of Palestinian pregnant women giving birth at Israeli checkpoints
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
OPT: Building back in Gaza - with mud bricks
Source: IRIN Hassan al-Err, aged 67, and his seven-member family are moving into a mud house built by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, because other building materials are not available.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Grandi: Conditions in Gaza worsening
Filippo Grandi has warned that the humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip were worsening day by day and the people there were suffering as a result of the siege on them.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Gaza in Plain Language
The article "Gaza in Plain Language", by Joe Mowrey, first published by Dissident Voice (http://dissidentvoice.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
For sale: Gaza zoo where the zebras were not all they seemed
An emaciated lion, a hyperactive camel, and the only "zebra" in Palestine – this unusual assortment of animals could soon be yours. Mahra Land, a ramshackle zoo in Gaza, is now on the market.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
War Criminals
HRW says Israel 'failed' to probe Gaza war crimes
JERUSALEM — Human Rights Watch said on Sunday that Israel has failed to properly investigate alleged crimes committed during last winter's devastating Gaza war as demanded by the United Nations. "Israel claims it is conducting credible and impartial investigations, but it has so far failed to make that case," said Joe Stork, HRW's New York-based group's deputy director for the Middle East. "An independent investigation is crucial to understand why so many civilians died and to bring justice for the victims of unlawful attacks," Stork said in a statement.
http://www.google.com/
GOLDSTONE FACTS: The real story behind Israel's invasion of Gaza
http://goldstonefacts.org/
Gaza villages Wiped off the map
Another excellent report by Jonathan Miller. Telling the story of destruction and killing in Gaza.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Justice denied in Gaza
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Gazans hoping for a modicum of justice following Israel's indiscriminate military assault on the coastal territory during December 2008 and January 2009 -- which left 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, dead -- could be waiting in vain. The Israeli government has taken the offensive in the propaganda battle and attacked United Nations-appointed Justice Richard Goldstone's report into war crimes committed during the war.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Arab Collaborators
PA Chief Puppet addresses the right of refugees
"I'm not saying that they all have to return." The only one that I would not want to return, is Abu Mazen and his fellow PA puppets.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Ma'roof: I was tortured in Egyptian jails
A Palestinian police officer from Gaza, who was recently released from an Egyptian jail, said that he was tortured during his week-long detention in Egypt.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
The Saudi-Israeli alliance in pictures
Prince Turki shakes hands with Danny Ayalon. A reader in Saudi Arabis tells me that this youtube channel has been blocked in Saudi Arabia. But it is clear that this Ayalon is the official liason with the House of Saud. Remember that he was invited to the address the Arab peoples in Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat (the mouthpiece of Prince Salman and his kids)
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Saudi AND Qatari contacts with Israel, As`ad Abukhalil
Publisher of Al-Quds Al-`Arabi, `Abdul-Bari `Atwan, has an editorial in which he rightly condemns the hand shake between Prince Turki Al-Faysal (the midwife of the creation of Al-Qa`idah) and an Israeli minister. But `Atwan should also condemn handshakes and hugs between Qatari princes and Israeli officials. He surely should know about them. [end]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Political Developments/Diplomacy
Palestinians give into U.S. pressure for indirect Mideast talks
Following heavy international pressure, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to the U.S. proposal to hold talks with Israel - in the format of indirect negotiations conducted by U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Abbas: Obama hurt Mideast talks by dropping settlement demands
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday blamed U.S. President Barack Obama for delaying the resumption of Middle East peace talks by not standing firm on his demand to see a complete freeze in West Bank settlements.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Jordan's king: US credibility under question
In CNN interview, King Abdullah says Obama's 'undivided attention desperately needed' in order to set right tone for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. He warns against crossing 'invisible line', missing out on two-state option.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Fadlallah holds Obama responsible for Middle East tensions
Senior Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah blamed US President Barak Obama on Sunday for the political tension in Lebanon and the Middle East.Fadlallah said the "Zionists" were not the only ones responsible for political and security tensions in the region because they were supported by the United States.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
'Iran may give up nukes if Mideast conflict resolved'
Jordan's King Abdullah said on Sunday that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could lead to Iran giving up its nuclear weapons program.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hamas leader Meshaal meets with Russian FM in Moscow
Russia views Hamas as an integral part of the Middle East peace process.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Kabaha: Fatah leadership should have visited Gaza Strip after war
Palestinian lawmaker MP Wasfi Kabaha has hailed the visit of Fatah official Nabil Sha'ath to Gaza Strip, stressing that Fatah leadership should have visited the Strip immediately after the war.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Other News
Gaza's Hamas rulers fail to make salary payments
GAZA, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Hamas has failed to pay the January salaries of many of the 34,000 Palestinian civil servants and security men in the Gaza Strip, raising concern among them that the globally isolated Islamist group is facing a cash crisis. "They paid some minor employees whose salaries were under 1,000 shekels ($260)," one police officer, who identified himself only as Abu Anas, said on Monday. "I am worried there is a financial problem."
http://www.alertnet.org/
'To Israel I am stained with blood'
Approximately 10 months ago, Al Jazeera Arabic interviewed a man in Damascus, Syria who was believed to be part of a cell that had kidnapped and killed two Israeli soldiers, Avi Sasportas and Ilan Sa'adon, in 1989. Al Jazeera has since learned that the man - who kept his face covered for the interview - was Mahmoud Abdul Raouf al-Mabhouh, a Hamas military commander who was killed in Dubai on January 20.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Palestinian leader visits Hiroshima (AFP)
AFP - Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas kicked off his Asian tour on Sunday in the Japanese city of Hiroshima ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
The New York Times' coverage of Israel-Palestine was Biased Before Bureau Chief's Son Joined the IDF
"Let's get somethings straight. Ethan Bronner is not and never has been a "superb reporter" and there are plenty of reasons why he should not be allowed to run the Times' biggest Middle Eastern bureau, let alone commit blatant anti-journalistic acts on behalf of the "paper of record"--the last of which is his son's military service. No other reporter has turned the paper of record into a mouthpiece for the Israeli occupation more than Ethan Bronner and that is quite an accomplishment for a publication that so consistently represents one party's agenda...He proceeds to quote at least seven different Israeli sources and not a single Palestinian or independent human rights group about the details of a document he presumable has not read. The sources refute a few of the specific findings related to infrastructure damage detailed by the commission, but mentions the gravest alleged breaches at the heart of the report, only in passing. For instance, Bronner makes no mention of the mortar attack on a mosque during prayer service that killed 15 people, but allows an anonymous source to defend itself against the report's minor charges, such as the destruction of a flour mill and chicken coops. "The mission finds that the conduct of Israeli armed forces constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of wilful killings and wilfully causing great suffering to protected persons and as such give rise to individual criminal responsibility," the executive summary of the Goldstone report said."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
One question for the New York Times, As`ad Abukhalil
If only one reporter for the New York Times would, for purposes of an experiment, announces that he/she has a son who has joined Hamas or Hizbullah forces, we would like then to see if Bill Keller would make the arguments that he has made regarding Ethan Bronner's son. I mean, Mr. Keller. Who are you kidding? Do you really think that one believes that that you are invoking some abstract (non-political) principle here? [end]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Israel Coming Unhinged? A Loose Cannon in a Volatile Region
So instead of self-examination, Israel's conflicted, and increasingly right-wing political body unleashed a belligerent tone -- angry, defiant, threatening, unfocused like a petulant and wounded child. Diversionary tactics came into play to focus domestic and international attention elsewhere and fill the frustrating void -- Hamas in Gaza, the potential nuclear aspirations of Iran, Palestinian intransigence on peace talks, Hezbollah's weapons, Syria, Turkey, anti-Semitism, the Goldstone Report.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Israel’s Apartheid Without Consequences, Tony Karon
The former US president Jimmy Carter set off a firestorm in 2006 when he said that Israel would have to choose between maintaining an apartheid occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and a two-state peace agreement with the Palestinians. That Mr Carter brokered Israel’s most important peace treaty with an Arab country was immaterial; he was branded an enemy of Israel, an anti-Semite and even a Holocaust-denier.
http://tonykaron.com/2010/02/
'Palestinians have no control over their lives'
Q: What is it to be a Palestinian? A: It's a very tough life. None of us can leave Palestine without crossing some 500 checkposts. If one wants to meet a friend for lunch in Gaza, there is no guarantee when one would reach. The whole concept of time and space has been lost. And there is no control over one's life. We are not even allowed to use our own airport. We need all kinds of permissions from the Israelis. Even as we speak, there is an occupation of our land taking place. The world knows so little about how this occupation is affecting our lives.
http://timesofindia.
Could Rahm Emanuel Help Barak Unseat Netanyahu?, Ira Glunts
Is it possible that Rahm Emanuel will lead a team of high octane Democratic party pro-Israel political operatives to run the campaign for the former Prime Minister and current Defense Minister Ehud Barak in the next Israeli election? This scenario may not be as far-fetched as many may assume.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Israel/Sri Lanka comparison is important, Philip Weiss
I don’t have time to do the math here, but you should read Bill Weinberg’s smart post comparing Israel’s conduct in Gaza with Sri Lanka’s government’s massacring of 20-30,000 Tamils last year. Makes Israel look abstemious. Judge Goldstone scored the failure of the int’l community to do jack about Sri Lanka at Yale 2 weeks back. Of course we single Israel out. Yes we do. The reasons are obvious. Don’t have time to spell them out here. It is justifiable but it does mean that when we remove the beam from our eye, we need to get on the beam in others’.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
On Why Zionism Dehumanizes Its Enemies, Lawrence of Cyberia
This is all a bit ironic, in view of Israel's insistence that Hamas doesn't play fair because it hides weapons in mosques, forcing Israel to bomb them.
http://uruknet.info/index.php?
Please, Mr. President, Stop Talking Nonsense, Alan Hart
There are no more concessions the Palestinians can make for peace. President Obama’s statement that they must is absurd and obscene. Unclear is whether he was speaking out of ignorance of real history or from Zionism’s script.
http://www.
Follow up on Oslo and ethnic relations in Israel
The video of Israelis hailing Hitler posted here on JSF some times ago is making the rounds of the blogs, but usually without attention to the historical context. Yet without this context it helps misunderstanding the reasons for the fateful historical bankruptcy of the Israeli "peace movement." When it was published on JSF, I was challenged by Emmanuel Shiff, apparently a student from the Hebrew (colonial) University, about my criticism of the Israeli peace movement. I thought this discussion is worth a second look, so I reproduce it below in full.
http://jewssansfrontieres.
Iraq
Female Iraq election candidate shot dead in Mosul
MOSUL, Iraq, Feb - A woman planning to stand in Iraq’s March 7 general election was gunned down Sunday in the restive northern city of Mosul, police said, just days before campaigning is officially due to start. Suha Abdul Jarallah, a candidate on the list of pro-Western former prime minister Iyad Allawi, was shot dead as she left a house in the Ras al-Jadda neighbourhood in central Mosul, 350 kilometres (218 miles) north of Baghdad. “She was getting out of a relatives’ home when she was shot dead by an unidentified gunman who then fled in a car carrying two other men,” the officer said. It was not immediately clear if the killing was politically motivated. Campaigning for the delayed election, the second since the US-led ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein, is set to begin on February 12.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/
Exiles turn their backs on ‘sectarian’ Iraq elections
AMMAN // The March legislative elections in Iraq are supposed to be a watershed, but for many Iraqi exiles, there is little hope that they will enable Iraqi politicians to rise above the sectarian rivalry tearing their country apart. That is one of the main reasons why Adam, a 26-year-old Iraqi living in Jordan, says he will not cast a ballot. “The elections are all a lie,” he explainded as he mixed fat with raw meat at the tiny kebab restaurant in Amman where he works.
http://www.thenational.ae/
Is One Iraqi's Self-Hatred Newsworthy?
An Arab-American of Lebanese descent, fluent in Arabic, Anthony Shadid was one of a handful of unembedded Western journalists reporting from Iraq during the US invasion in 2003. At the time, he was The Washington Post's correspondent for Islamic Affairs in the Middle East. His dispatches from Iraq were about Iraqis, about the destruction visited upon them by a war whose architects claimed that they were bringing democracy to that country. He reported the destruction and mayhem caused by this war by letting the Iraqis speak for themselves: and they spoke of their pain, their anguish, their perplexity and their anger.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Part 1: Will there be a coup d’état in Iraq?
http://www.azzaman.com/
Will there be a coup d’état in Iraq? (2)
http://www.azzaman.com/
Will there be a coup d’état in Iraq? (3)
http://www.azzaman.com/
Will there be a coup d’état in Iraq? (4)
http://www.azzaman.com/
Bleak outlook for Iraq's lonely hearts
BAGHDAD — Zina Nabil, a pretty 28-year-old Sunni Arab, thought she had found her man. But like many other Iraqi women, she was forced to abandon her marriage plans three years ago because of sectarian hostilities. "I fell in love with a very nice, well-educated man. But my parents rejected him when they learnt that he was a Shiite." Nabil was then 25, an age that is considered old for a woman in Iraq to be getting married, and she thinks her chance of happiness has passed.
http://www.google.com/
Lebanon
Assad to Berri: Syria Will Back Lebanon in Case of Israeli Attack
Syrian President Bachar Al-Assad told Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Sunday that Syria will support Lebanon in the event of any attack from Israel. According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), Assad told Berri who visited him in Damascus that "Syria will stand alongside the government and people of Lebanon against any possible Israeli aggression launched on Lebanon." Assad and Berri discussed "repeated Israeli threats on countries in the region and Israeli extremism which can kill chances for peace and bring war to the region," SANA said. Both sides also discussed the latest developments in Lebanon and the positive progress in the Syrian-Lebanese relations. They discussed means of enhancing bilateral relations in line with the historical and geographic ties between the two brotherly countries. Discussions also touched upon the Arab and regional situations, particularly in the Palestinian arena.
http://almanar.com.lb/
Sheikh Qassem Rules out War but Says Hezbollah Should be Ready
Hezbollah’s deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said Hezbollah hasn't received any indications of Israeli readiness to launch war on Hezbollah or in the region. "Israel is a real danger; we can't be reassured; we have to be in full preparedness (for war). We don't know when surprises would come or what could happen regionally and internationally," Sheikh Qassem told Syria's Addounia TV. "There is no resistance without arms. Weapons are the result of the resistance's existence and the resistance is there because of the presence of the enemy," Sheikh Qassem said. Turning to relations with Syria, his eminence said Hezbollah encouraged Prime Minister Saad Hariri's visit to Damascus which has shocked the March 14 team. Asked about ties with Egypt, the Hezbollah secretary general said: "The Egyptian regime has its own functioning method. We don't approve such a method."
http://almanar.com.lb/
Nasrallah slams attempts to stoke sectarian strife
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday against attempts to instigate sectarian strife, urging Lebanese not to jump to conclusions before investigations into security incidents are concluded. Addressing supporters via video link to mark the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, Nasrallah said the staged kidnapping of Majdel Anjar Imam Sheikh Mohammad Abdel-Fatah Majzoub.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Wadi Abou Jamil: Stories About the Jews of Beirut
Riveting is an understatement. The beautifully recounted stories about Beirut's Jews are enlightening, but beg for details about community members who decided to leave their Lebanese homes and lives, mostly unannounced, without having been persecuted, tortured, or killed as in the Holocaust.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
U.S. and Other World News
Afghan police kill seven boys collecting firewood
The boys were collecting firewood when police opened fire on them in the border town of Spin Boldak, southern Kandahar province, Abdul Raziq, police commander for the town, said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/
Afghan displaced face harsh winter
Nato and Afghan troops are preparing for a major offensive against Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan. Ahead of the operation, thousands of civilians have fled their homes near the Marjah area of Helmand province. Many will be going to displacement camps near the capital, Kabul. But as Al Jazeera's David Chater reports, conditions there are dismal. Rations of firewood are scarce as temperatures plummet below zero at night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Egypt arrests Brotherhood members
Mahmoud Ezzat, the Brotherhood's newly elected deputy leader, and two other members of the group's guidance council - identified as Essam el-Erian and Abdul-Rahman el-Bir - were arrested in the early hours of Monday. A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the media, said they were arrested for engaging in banned political activity. Sources close to the Brotherhood said the arrests were a crackdown on Egypt's largest opposition group ahead of elections this year. Though banned, the Brotherhood won a fifth of the seats parliament in 2005 when its members ran as independents, but since then authorities have squeezed the group out of mainstream politics.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Why Christians Are Leaving the Middle East
Across the Middle East, where Christianity was born and its followers once made up a sizable portion of the population, Christians are now tiny minorities. Driven by different factors – the search for better opportunities abroad, their status as targets of Iraq's sectarian conflict, a low birth rate, and discrimination – the trend largely holds true across a region where Christians have maintained a presence for two millenniums.
http://abcnews.go.com/
Where is Neda? Coverage of Iran in the Western Press
Mona provided a translation of an article from a German newspaper: " 2 Nedas. One dead, one half-dead.
Remember Neda? Neda Soltani? The icon of resistance in Iran last summer? In fact, she is alive. In Frankfurt/Germany.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
www.TheHeadlines.org
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