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Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internetLand theft / Wall / Settlers
Israel deploys forces at Jeruslaem anti-eviction rally
Some 100 Israeli and Palestinian protesters amassed in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem on Friday, calling for an end to settlement activity and forced eviction of Palestinians from their homes. Amidst a heavy police and border guard presence, protesters and evicted families gathered to denounce both Israeli policy in Sheikh Jarrah and the separation wall's route in Bil'in, which marked five years of anti-wall demonstrations on Friday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Over a thousand demonstrators marked five years of struggle in Bil`in by dismantling the wall (ISM)
(with video) One week following the victory forcing Israel to begin rerouting the path of the Wall, and under the shadow of an unprecedented wave of repression against the popular struggle, over a thousand protesters took part in a demonstration at the west Bank village of Bil`in, marking five years of struggle there. At the height of the demonstration dozens of protesters stormed the Barrier, toppled some 40 meters of it and crossed to village’s lands. Protesters also managed to take over a military post adjacent to the path of the Wall for a short time ... Demonstrations against the Wall and settlement expansion also took place today in the villages of al Ma`sara, south of Bethlehem, Ni`lin and Nabi Saleh, where 10 protesters were hit by rubber-coated bullets, including a Swedish national who was struck in the mouth.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Peaceful Al Ma`sara demonstration faces continued aggression (ISM)
(with video) The peaceful demonstration in the Occupied West Bank village of Al Ma`sara by Palestinians and Internationals was aggressively dispersed using tear gas & sound bombs, today, by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) ... Sound grenades were used at very close range by the IOF to displace the press and international activists, and physical aggression was used against both an ISM member and a Palestinian man. An ISM member also filmed a soldier firing tear-gas canisters directly into the crowd at head level, which included young children.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Bil`in protesters dismantle section of West Bank separation barrier
Demonstrators participating in rally protesting the Israel's West Bank separation fence dismantled a section of the barrier on Friday, during a rally marking five years since the beginning of the Bil'in protests. About a thousand people took part in the rally, which was also attended by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Palestinian parliament member Mustafa Barghouti as well as Fatah strongman Nabil Shaath. During the rally several protesters managed to cross the barrier, placing a Palestinian flag on top of an Israel Defense Forces outpost, while others dismantled a 30-meter section of the fence itself. IDF sources claimed that the fence's repair could cost several hundred thousand NIS.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Beit Ummad sit-in tear-gassed by Israeli forces
After two weeks of denying the use of riot dispersal mechanisms against protesters in Beit Ummar, an Israeli army spokesman confirmed the use of tear gas and sound bombs on Palestinian and Israeli protesters Friday. A group of farmers, Beit Ummar residents and solidarity activists staged a sit-in outside the illegal Israeli settlement of Karmi Zur, north of Hebron, and were asked to leave by Israeli troops, the military confirmed. Spokesman for the Palestinian Solidarity Project Mohammad Awad said the group was quietly voicing dissent against "the Israeli policy that supports the settlers by allowing them to confiscate more of the town’s land.” The Israeli spokesman said the army considered the sit-in a "provocation" and asked the group to leave. When they refused, he said, forces were "afraid the situation would develop" into violent actions against the settlers, and used "riot dispersal" methods against the group.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli soldiers stop Palestinian farmers from reaching their land
West Bank, February 20, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - Israeli occupation authorities Saturday afternoon prevented Palestinian farmers from reaching their land in Khirbat Safa, north of Hebron in the West Bank near the Bait Ayin settlement ... According to Awad, Israeli soldiers fired gas and sound bombs on the roofs of the houses, breaking the windows. The Israeli attack resulted in the injury of many citizens, including a sick child with asthma. The occupation forces prevented medical team from reaching the child. Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers tried to attack a boy, Ahmed Ali, and put their guns to his head.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Al Jazeera video: Barrier imprisons West Bank village
Israel's separation barrier has generated anger and protests all over the Palestinian territories ... Al-Nu'man village was cut off from Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank in 2003 and it is walled-in on three sides by the West Bank separation barrier, which was illegally constructed beyond the Green Line drawn after the 1949 Arab-Israeli war. A permanent checkpoint is now the only entrance to and from the village. Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh reports.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Fayyad promises support to villages beyond the wall
One of the villages benefiting from Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's $58 million in development projects, officially opened in Jenin Thursday, was served with nine demolition warnings as the Palestinian official delivered congratulatory speeches. "We will not stop work on the homes," head of the Barta`a Sharqiya village council Ghassan Qabbaha said Friday, "in fact, we have hired lawyers to make sure the homes have permits, and we are filing a petition to have more of the village land included in 'Area B.'"
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Don't deny peaceful protests in West Bank / Bill Fletcher, Jr. (CNN)
New York (CNN) 17 Feb -- Every year, beginning with the January birthday celebrations for the Rev. Martin Luther King and moving through Black History Month in February, Americans and others revisit the history, role and significance of the black freedom movement in the United States. But there is a frequent tendency to misrepresent the lessons of that movement and apply them to other social movements overseas in a way that misses the mark. This has been happening increasingly with the historical lessons that are being misapplied to the Palestinian freedom movement. It has become almost a cliché, yet people, including Irish rocker Bono, continue to wield King's name when they bemoan the alleged absence of his like among the Palestinians. It seems no matter what Palestinian activists do, they are condemned as terrorists.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/
Palestinians of Yaffa face settlers as neighbors
Yaffa - Graffiti scrawled on walls around the mixed Jewish and Arab town of Yaffa in central Israel last week exclaimed: "Settlers, keep out" and "Yaffa is not Hebron." Yaffa is home to what remains of a Palestinian community near what is now the bustling coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv. Palestinian residents say their neighborhood has become the latest battleground for an attempted takeover by extremist Jews, a dynamic familiar from West Bank cities like Hebron, where Zionist Israelis move into Palestinian homes under the cover of armed soldiers.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Christian monitoring group tracks rise in settler violence
Bethlehem - A "rise in violence against Palestinian shepherds shows settler-military collaboration," the a report from the Hebron-based Christian Peacemaker Teams alleged Friday. The group, with the motto of "getting in the way" of Israeli human rights abuses in target areas in the southern West Bank, has members stationed in Hebron and the village of At-Tuwani, 25 kilometers south of the city. The observers said they had been notified of attacks against Palestinians by setters 19 times in the last 19 days. "In my experience, its typical for there to be one major incident every week," one field worker said, noting the recent attacks were a "distinct increase in activity."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
IDF colonel has harsh words for settlement leadership
The commander of the Israel Defense Forces in the northern West Bank, Col. Itzik Bar, had harsh words for the settlement leadership following stone-throwing attacks Wednesday by settler youth on IDF soldiers conducting an anti-terror exercise in the settlement of Yitzhar ... According to Yitzhar's spokesman, "under cover of an exercise simulating terrorist incursion" the army tried to destroy a building and a piece of construction equipment.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Violence / Aggression
Israel launches air attack on central Gaza; clashes reported
Three Palestinians were injured when Israeli helicopters fired on a group of resistance fighters near the central Gaza military base Kissufim following reports of clashes in the area early Saturday morning. Security sources said armored Israeli vehicles at Kissufim had fired shells at areas in the south-central border region, following an attack on the base by resistance fighters. Witnesses said the fighters were less than 100 meters away from the military post.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli soldiers shoot and injure alleged car thieves in Yatta
Officials in Yatta denied Israeli allegations that two men injured by soldiers in the southernmost region of the West Bank on Saturday were attempting to steal cars from an Israeli settlement police impound lot. Yatta leaders said the two men were attempting to enter Israel for work. They were driving in an Israeli-plated car towards the borders of the West Bank, officials said, when soldiers tried to stop the the vehicle.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
3 minors tortured by IOF in Jerusalem
Jerusalem, February 20, 2010 (Pal Telegraph)- B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, revealed that members of Israeli police and intelligence, accompanied by gunmen from Israeli border guards, arrested minors aged between 12 and 15 years, residents of Silwan neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem. It said that the minors were forced out of their homes for interrogation in the police station 'Compound' on suspicion of throwing stones. Fathers of the minors were prevented from accompanying their children. The children stated that interrogators had beaten and threatened them
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Detention
3 Jerusalemites detained in Old City
Israeli forces detained three Palestinians and assaulted a woman following a brawl between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the Old City of Jerusalem. Locals said confrontations began when troops approached the Palestinians and beat two brothers, Fadi and Shadi Muhammad Al-Khatib. Amir Al-Bary was detained and his mother was assaulted when trying to intervene, and was taken to the closest hospital, they said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Islamic Jihad detainee marks 33rd year in Israeli jail
...Ahmad Abdel Rahman Abu Hasirah, 58, from Gaza, was detained and accused of hurling explosives at Israeli military jeeps in the 1970s, according to the centre. Additionally, Ahrar reported that Israeli authorities released the director of the Detainees Support Association in Hebron on Thursday afternoon, following a lengthy administrative detention sentence. Ahmad Za'atari, 34, served 30 consecutive months in administrative detention, and was detained on 28 August 2007 from his Hebron home
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
An-Najah physics prof 'slowly dying' in Israeli prison
Tulkarem - Ma'an - The Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights called attention to the urgent case of a 52-year-old Physics Professor in an Israeli prison suffering from a bevy of untreated medical problems, including kidney disease and high blood pressure, a report said. Director of the center, Fuad Al-Khufesh, described the failure of Israeli prison officials to treat the man as "medical negligence," and said Israel would be held accountable for his health and well being.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Wife of Al-Birreh mayor released by Israeli authorities
An Israeli military court released the wife of the mayor of Al-Birreh, Ramallah, on bail Friday. Muntaha At-Tawil was detained two weeks earlier and taken to Telmond prison. According to At-Tawil's lawyer, the court had denied her release a week ago.
At-Tawil was detained in an early morning raid, after Israeli forces searched her home, the Al-Birreh Municipal Council said. Upon her detention, an Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an that At-Tawil was detained because of her involvement in activities "in the Hamas terrorist organization."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Blockade / Siege / Humanitarian issues
Gaza City in darkness
(with photos) Middle East Monitor 19 Feb - Last night the children of the beleaguered Gaza strip held a candlelit protest on the streets of a Gaza City plunged into darkness as a result of the devastating and continued Israeli-imposed and Egyptian-maintained siege of the area.
http://www.uruknet.de/index.
EU: Funds for Gaza fuel reached PA
BRUSSELS, (PIC)-- The European Union (EU) has denied slashing funds allocated for financing the fuel purchases necessary to operate the Gaza power station, affirming that the funds were paid to the PA in Ramallah in full ... official messages clearly stated that the EU did not reduce the amount of funds or halt them but rather the PA in Ramallah last November asked that the money be deposited with it and asked the EU to leave it to Ramallah to decide where to spend those funds according to priorities.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Egyptian security destroys two Gaza tunnels
Explosions, believed to be the sound of Egyptian security forces imploding smuggling tunnels, were heard along the Rafah border on Friday evening. The blasts were heard by residents of the Egyptian side of the As-Salam neighborhood of the city of Rafah, which straddles the sensitive border with the Gaza Strip. Ma’an learned that Egyptian security forces detonated explosives in two such tunnels.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Smuggling tunnel business on severe decline
Gaza markets saturated with goods smuggled in through underground tunnels from Egypt have caused retailers to slash prices, often to below cost, tunnel operators said Wednesday. As a result in the margin shrinkage, dozens of tunnels have ceased operations and hundreds of young men in Gaza have lost their only source of income, they said. Owners of some smuggling tunnels in the south of the Strip said the subterranean steel wall Egypt continues to build along the border has little to do with the tunnel closures, but rather said the business became less lucrative.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
In Gaza video: from the farmers themselves
testimonies of farmers’ losses under Israeli aggressions and Zionist policies of land and water annexation.
http://ingaza.wordpress.com/
Gaza's youngest generation to see to the moon
A Palestinian astronomer who returned to Gaza after Israel's Operation Cast Lead killed his son and demolished his home, brought with him the means to show children there is a world outside the Strip. Dozens of children will soon be stargazing under the supervision of Gaza-born astrophysicist Suleiman Baraka, a former employee of the US space agency NASA. Baraka's group will have the help of a telescope imported to Gaza with the help of the French Consulate General in Jerusalem and the French Cultural Center.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Refugees
Palestinian refugees in Cyprus say situation dire
Palestinian refugees who fled Iraq following the war for Cyprus spoke of their "worsening" situation to a delegation from Ramallah taking part in an international karate tournament in the country's capital, Limasol ... "After we arrived in Larnaka, Cyprus agreed to grant us temporary asylum for humanitarian reasons, without giving us citizenship. However, our situation worsened gradually as we weren’t allowed to work at all. The absence of any Palestinian support, even moral, added to our suffering and we were left alone to face our fate."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Extra-judicial killings
Israel believes Dubai passport row won't cause major crisis
"At this stage, there is no evidence linking Israel to the incident, and if that continues, the affair will subside quickly," one senior Israeli official predicted. Nevertheless, he added, Israeli diplomats and intelligence personnel will hold additional conversations about the case with their British counterparts over the next few days.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
French PM condemns Dubai assassination of Hamas man (Reuters)
DAMASCUS, Feb 20 (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Saturday condemned the assassination of a Hamas militant in Dubai and called for the truth about the killing to be established. Dubai's police chief has said he believes Mossad, the Israeli secret service, was involved in last month's killing.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Ex-Fatah members 'may have led Mossad assassins to their victim'
Two Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel could provide the first concrete evidence linking Tel Aviv to the assassination of a senior Hamas leader ... Extra officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which is leading the British investigation, arrived in Dubai yesterday to work with an established team already posted there ... The FBI also said that it was prepared to get involved in the investigation after the revelation that some of the suspects used credit cards fraudulently obtained in the US. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv, meanwhile, said that it had contacted the six British-Israelis whose identities were stolen to offer them new biometric passports.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
Hamas defends Fatah over Mabhouh assassination charge
he Israeli intelligence agency Mossad is entirely responsible for the assassination of Hamas Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month, party officials announced Saturday ... [Hamas spokesman Salah] Al-Bardawil said that while members of the alleged Israeli hit-squad, traveling on European passports, were reportedly affiliated to Fatah, "the fact that members of the PA security services were involved, is not proof enough to directly accuse Fatah or the PA of complicity."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Hamas: Operative slain in Dubai put himself at risk
A Hamas legislator on Saturday said Hamas strongman Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was assassinated in a Dubai hotel last month, put himself at risk by booking his trip through the Internet. The Hamas legislator, Salah Bardawil, also told a news conference Saturday that Mabhouh took additional risk by informing his Gaza family by telephone at which hotel he would be staying.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Death knell for targeted killings? / Yossi Melman
Despite regional hostility and suspicion, for over four decades agents from Israel?s intelligence community − special units and the Mossad − have had no trouble penetrating Arab capitals. There have been dozens of assassination missions, from the 1979 killing of Ali Hassan Salameh in Beirut to Imad Mughniyeh's assassination in 2008 (which Israel never claimed responsibility for) and other successful intelligence operations attributed to Israel ... The most important lesson to be learned from the assassination in Dubai is that it was possibly one of the last operations of its kind. The use of sophisticated security cameras and the introduction of biometric measures of identification are changing the rules of the game in the world of spooks.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Will biometric passports limit the reach of Israel's intelligence? / Jonathan Lis
The affair of the forged foreign passports used by the hit team in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh has raised difficult questions regarding the expected implementation of a biometric passport system in Israel. Opponents of the database's establishment fear, among other things, that it might affect Israel's ability to run intelligence agents abroad. Thus, for example, the opponents say if protected biometric information leaks to foreign countries, no wigs, disguises or even surgery to change identities will help. Every Israeli agent who gives his fingerprint at a biometric border control station is liable to be in danger of exposure.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
This is no ripping yarn, but a murder to fan more conflict / Seumas Milne
Imagine for a moment what the reaction would be if Iranian intelligence was almost universally believed to have assassinated a leader of one of the organisations fighting the Tehran government in a western-friendly state. Then consider how Britain, let alone the US, might respond if the killers had carried out the operation using forged or stolen passports of citizens of four European states, including Britain, with dual Iranian nationality. You can be sure it would have triggered a major international storm, stentorian declarations about the threat of state-sponsored terrorism, and perhaps a debate at the UN security council, with demands for harsher sanctions against an increasingly dangerous Islamic republic.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The war underground / Aluf Benn
Israelis enjoy a love-hate relationship with the intelligence service, Mossad. When they succeed in another James Bond-style operation, we sing their praises as an example of all good things Israeli: innovation, daring, outsmarting the competition. But when they screw up, we are quick to identify all of our social maladies: arrogance, carelessness, disregarding the rules.The assassination of the Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai serves as a rare example of both attitudes ... The reaction at home was swift. Dagan, yesterday's hero, is now portrayed as a schlemiel. Even under the wraps of censorship, commentators called for Dagan's ouster and blamed the government for stealing the identities of civilians and putting sensitive foreign relations at risk.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Cartoonists in Israel take aim at Mossad
Political cartoonists working for Israeli newspapers this week turned their attention away from Rafiq Husseini, the Palestinian Authority official who disgraced by a sex tape. The new target of the cartoonists is a subject that is usually off-limits: Mossad. The shift in focus took place as suspicion mounted that the spy agency was involved in the assassination in January of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai. The details of the plot itself provided ample fare for satire
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Political developments / Diplomacy
Blockade should be circumvented by the US: Congressman Brian Baird
The following is a statement from the office of US Congressman Brian Baird, a Democrat elected in Washington State. ...Here is what I propose: Special envoy Mitchell should visit Gaza to determine first-hand what the humanitarian needs there are. The blockade should be circumvented by the United States; much like we did when we circumvented the Berlin Blockade. We would accomplish this using roll-on/off ships supplying the needed material for Palestinians to rebuild their society. We must find a just and lasting peace not with only words but actions.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Barghouti meets with US congressman, mayor of Geneva
Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative party Mustafa Barghouti held meetings with a member of the US congress and the mayor of Geneva on Saturday, to discuss Palestinian current events. During a meeting with Congressman Rick Berg, Barghouti spoke of Israeli settlement expansion and apartheid policy in the occupied Palestinian territories, calling for the adoption of a national strategy combining popular resistance and national steadfastness.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Abbas to meet Gadaffi Sunday, Sarkozy Monday, Al-Assad next week
The visits are likely to gain regional support for Palestinian positions demanding a recognition of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, and the total halt of Israeli settlement construction before the Palestinian leadership returns to peace talks with Israel. Gaddafi is the head of the 53-member African Union of States, and top Libyan diplomat Ali Treki is currently the head of the UN General Assembly in New York.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
French FM sees 'Palestinian state without borders'
France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he could envision the recognition of a Palestinian state even before its borders are demarcated, in a an interview to appear Saturday, AFP reported. Kouchner said that economic and institutional development in the West Bank constitutes "the building of a reality."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Top UN offical: Abbas must negotiate
A senior UN official placed onus on President Mahmoud Abbas to enter US-brokered negotiations with Israel on Thursday. "We remain deeply concerned at the current stalemate," said B Lynn Pascoe, the UN's undersecretary-general for political affairs, in a briefing to the Security Council on Thursday morning.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Other news
BBC Video: West Bank oligarch supporting Palestinian economy
The investments of one very wealthy man in the West Bank is responsible for a third of the Palestinian economy. Munib al-Masri keeps an eye on his holdings in oil, gas, telecommunications and hotels from a mock renaissance palace in the city of Nablus. Jon Donnison reports from Nablus.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
PWA obtains Israeli approval for suspended water projects
Ramallah – Ma'an – Dozens of wells in West Bank areas under full Israeli military and civilian control can be dug and rehabilitated following the release of a suspension order Wednesday, that had stalled the projects for years. Head of of the Bilateral Joint Technical Committee Jihad Bashir said the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) said all the suspended projects were in "Area C."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israel offers Egypt to build solar power stations in Sinai
Egypt would provide the land for solar power plants in the Sinai, while Israel would provide the technology and operate the facilities. This would be similar to the Desertech initiative to provide 15% of Europe's energy needs by 2050 by building solar power plants in North Africa.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hebron: Firm plans pink women-only taxis
A Palestinian company is planning to bring women-only taxis – a phenomenon already popular in Beirut and elsewhere – to the conservative West Bank city of Hebron. Hazem At-Takrawi, the director of the Ishraqat training and development firm, said on Monday that his company is already training women to drive the female-only cabs ... Asked whether Hebron and Palestinians in general would accept the idea, At-Takrawi said the company already commissioned a survey that found that 95% of Palestinians would accept the new cabs.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Analysis / Opinion / Testimony
The lives of others / Ilana Hammerman
...Over and over, I hear the words: "Like animals, like sheep they push us into fences, we're treated worse than dogs." Their eyes are not always bleary, not even always angry. Just eyes of tired people resigned to their fate - and now I can no longer move back and disengage my eyes from theirs. I know that at this very hour, today and every day, hundreds and thousands of other people are crammed between fences and within revolving gates at the Qalandiyah checkpoint, north of Jerusalem, and at the checkpoint near Tul Karm, called "Ephraim Gate." ... Why am I telling all this? In order to document and bear witness. Because time and again I encounter [Israeli] people who are totally ignorant of these things, which take place day in and day out a few kilometers from their homes and sometimes under their very noses.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Haaretz editorial: The Ministry for Isolating Israel
The stupidity that has overtaken the Foreign Ministry under the leadership of Avigdor Lieberman and Danny Ayalon sank to a new low this week. When a delegation of American congressmen, who came to Israel at the initiative of the leftist Jewish lobby J Street, asked to meet with senior Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem they encountered obstacles and delays ... It is hard to imagine a more harmful and unnecessary blow to Israel's foreign relations than boycotting U.S. congressmen and their escorts from a Jewish organization.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
After Dubai, I envy the people who hate Israel / Bradley Burston
At times like these, I envy the people who passionately, frankly, with all their hearts, despise Israel. Hate Israel enough, and the Jewish state's failings and blunders, its self-satisfied blindness and its resultant self-destructive policies, cause not pain, but delight. Hate Israel enough, and you're spared all inclination to try to fix what's wrong, to work to set it right. On the contrary, hate Israel enough, and you may come to believe not only that that the country deserves to be punished to the point of replacement by a different state - Israel may well do the job all by itself. This is one of those times.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Western media, not Israeli hasbara / Ramzy Baroud
With the dreadful threat of yet another Israeli war in the Middle East looming, Israeli propaganda machine is likely to go into full gear. In fact, trial balloons have already been sent out bearing supposedly unrehearsed comments by former Israeli Army general and current Minister Yossi Peled, suggesting that another war is on its way ... Historically, Israel has, with one understandable exception, determined the time and place of all of its wars with the Arabs. The only time Israeli forces were attacked in 1973 involved an Arab attempt to regain territories that were captured by Israel in 1967.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Beyond the Mabhuh affair / Khalid Amayreh
...First, the resistance movements should re-assert their deterrence vis-Ã -vis the Zionist regime ... This effort shouldn’t be confined to military resistance. Political and diplomatic efforts can be as effective in deterring the Zionists. For example, the failure of the Mossad to murder Khalid Mashal in Amman nearly 12 years ago made the Israeli government refrain from carrying out assassinations within Jordanian territory. I am not suggesting that Israel is not deploying Mossad agents in Jordan, obviously there are many. However, ever since that botched attempt, the Mossad has more or less behaved itself, very much thanks to the exemplary manner in which the late King Hussein reacted to the failed murderous terrorist act.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Dubai hit - another move in the Israel-Iran cold war / Aluf Benn
...The current Israeli-Iranian hostilities are reminiscent of the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, and Israel's war for influence against Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt in the 1950s and '60s, and against Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization in the '70s and the '80s. They have similar characteristics: profound ideological rejection of the foe, threats against its existence, an arms race, clandestine global activity, supplying arms to allies, diplomatic alliances with regional and global powers, an economic boycott and diplomatic isolation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Study: Occupation, internal violence threatens women's safety
The sacrifices Palestinian women have made for the larger political struggle have gone largely unnoticed, Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces Ronald Fredric said last week. The centre, which recently published a report, titled Palestinian Women and Security: Why Palestinian Women and Girls Do Not Feel Secure shared its findings with a group of women, in Ramallah on Wednesday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Iraq, other Mideast
Friday: 2 Iraqis killed, 1 wounded
Excerpt: The first official boycott of March 7 elections was called when MP Mutlaq took himself and his party out of the running. The prayer day was otherwise fairly quiet with only two Iraqis having been reported killed while a third Iraqi was wounded. Also, Iraq has rejected international calls to end its death penalty.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Yemen arrests 16 separatists in southern provinces (Reuters)
SANAA - Security forces arrested 16 people late on Friday in three provinces in southern Yemen where the government is facing a secessionist movement, accusing them of illegal separatist activities, official sources said ... In a separate incident earlier on Friday, security sources said separatists killed the director of a criminal investigations unit in an ambush on his vehicle. Another person died and three were injured in the shooting.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Syria dismisses IAEA call for more inspector access (Reuters)
FM Moallem rejects recommendation to adopt UN nuclear watchdog's Additional Protocol, which permits unfettered inspections beyond declared nuclear site. 'Unlike Israel, our program is peaceful,' he says
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Syria's Assad: from pariah to power broker / Chris Phillips
It's a remarkable recovery in political and economic fortune that sees Syria and Assad being courted by the west and Arabs alike
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
U.S. and other world news
IMEU: Credit Himes for stance on Gaza / Abbas F. Zuaiter
A thoughtful and measured letter from members of Congress to President Obama calling for easing the siege on Gaza has recently been subjected to unfair and misleading criticism. The letter, signed by Congressman Jim Himes and over 50 other members of the U.S. Congress, has been maligned as pressuring "Israel to loosen security measures implemented to counter the threat from terrorism originating from the Gaza strip." The letter does no such thing.
http://imeu.net/news/
Three men charged with financing Hezbollah in Miami (AP)
Three men were charged in an indictment unsealed Friday with illegally exporting electronics and video games to a South American shopping center that U.S. officials claim funnels money to the Hezbollah militant group.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
High Court to revisit terrorism support law
Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider one of the most consequential cases to arise from the 'global war on terror'. The Supreme Court case, originally brought in 1998, challenges the constitutionality of the law that makes it a crime to provide 'material support' to groups the administration has designated as 'terrorist'. It will test whether a person in the U.S. may be held criminally liable for speech advocating lawful, nonviolent activity that supports an organization on the government’s terrorist list.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Omar Al-Deghayes: My Guantanamo nightmare
London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Omar Al-Deghayes, the Libyan national living in Britain, considers his six-year incarceration in Oscar Block and Fifth Block in Guantanamo as a service to God. He does not harbor any ill will towards his jailers and views those days as a trial and tribulation. In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat in London, Al-Deghayes recounts how he lost sight in his right eye while in detention and says that three of his American guards came to London to apologize to him after they left their military service for their treatment of the prisoners, as he says.
http://www.uruknet.de/index.
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