Land Theft and Destruction
Biden condemns new E. Jerusalem settlements (AP)
AP - Vice President Joe Biden is condemning Israel's approval of 1,600 new settlement homes in disputed East Jerusalem and says the timing undermines the peace process the United States is attempting to revive.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Biden, WH condemn E. Jerusalem housing plan
Vice President Joseph Biden condemned the decision today by Israel's Interior Ministry to build another 1,600 housing units in East Jerusalem, saying it "undermines the trust" and "runs counter" to hard-fought U.S. efforts to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. "I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem," Biden, currently in Israel, said in a statement. "The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel."
http://www.politico.com/blogs/
UN joins Biden in condemning Israel settlement plan
UNITED NATIONS, March 9 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday condemned Israeli plans to build 1,600 more homes on occupied land where Palestinians seek their own state, echoing comments made earlier by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
http://www.alertnet.org/
EU's Ashton slams Israeli settlement move (AFP)
AFP - European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on Wednesday condemned Israel's plan to build 1,600 new homes in occupied east Jerusalem, following on from stern US and UN criticism.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
MJ Rosenberg: Netanyahu Disses Biden Who Praises Him As Peacemaker
What a surprise. Vice President Biden is in Israel and, right in front of him, the Israeli government announces 1,600 new settler housing units. Biden is in Israel to kick off indirect negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Of course, as the Washington Post pointed out in an editorial today, this could be seen as "a step backward...since the two sides have been talking directly to each other, off and on since 1991."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Palestinians: East Jerusalem build plan ends Mideast peace talks
Israel's decision to approve new East Jerusalem houses effectively prevents any peace negotiations from taking place, the Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday, following an Interior Ministry statement released earlier authorizing 1,600 new housing units.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israel backs East Jerusalem build
Israel announces 1,600 new homes for east Jerusalem, threatening to overshadow the US vice-president's visit.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-
Abbas: Israel creating provocation
Decision to construct 1,600 housing units in east Jerusalem liable to undermine negotiations, destroy efforts to renew talks, PA president says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Abbas asks AL to respond to new settlement project
RAMALLAH, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday urged the Arab League (AL) to respond to Israel's decision to construct more houses in an East Jerusalem settlement. Abbas made his request during an urgent phone call with the AL Secretary General Amr Moussa following Israel's approval to construct 1,600 new houses in a Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem, said the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)'s Wafa news agency.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Jewish housing plan illegal, ill-timed -France
PARIS, March 10 (Reuters) - Israeli plans to build 1,600 Jewish homes in the occupied West Bank are illegal and their announcement ill-timed just after Palestinian-Israeli agreement on indirect peace talks, France's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
http://www.alertnet.org/
The Hebronisation of Jerusalem | Mick Dumper
The recent escalation of tensions in Jerusalem with clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police in and around the Old City appear to signify the emergence of a disturbing new trend: the Hebronisation of Jerusalem. This presages not only the triumph of the radical settler groups in taking over culturally sensitive parts of the city, but also further violence and turmoil. More importantly it also interrupts the delicate moves towards the resumption of negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority/PLO.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Settlers destroy natural spring used by Palestinians for farming near Salfit
A group of Israeli settlers today destroyed a spring by the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan in the Salfit district. The settlers poured sand and cement into the spring, guarded by five armed members of the Israeli military. Palestinians from the village were forced to watch helplessly as events unfolded, prevented by the soldiers from moving close to the spring or from filming what was happening. International Solidarity Movement volunteers were able to secretly film for a short time before the soldiers noticed, and made both Palestinians and Internationals leave, saying that the area was now designated as a Closed Military Zone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Israel policy allows settlers to rampage unchecked
In everything connected to the settlers and settlements, the government has a "ya'ani" policy. Enforcement of the law in the territories is "ya'ani," except when it comes to transforming the West Bank into a Garden of Eden for settler law-breakers. The hilltop youth can set fire to mosques, fields, homes and cars, beat up Palestinian farmers and damage property and people, all thanks to the "ya'ani" policy of the Israeli government.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott,
Boycott Israeli Apartheid: Global Action!
http://www.tadamon.ca/post/
Palestinians Protest The Israeli Buffer Zone In Northern Gaza Strip
Palestinians along with international supporters organized on Tuesday a protest at the Eriz crossing at the northern Gaza Strip borders protesting the Israeli army attempts to create a buffer zone.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Pro-Palestinians protest outside Israeli film festival in Paris
Pro-Palestinian activists began protesting outside of the Israeli film festival being held in Paris. Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat decided to participate in the festival's opening ceremony despite the French security guards' suggestion to cancel the event.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Sheikh Jarrah Mass Rally
Thousands of Israeli and Palestinian activists joined the rally last Saturday in Est Jerusalem to protest the eviction of Arab families from Sheikh Jarrah, where Jewish settlers continue to occupy Palestinian homes. The photos were taken by Brady Ng, FLV, Julian.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
In NY, silent protest greets architect of Gaza onslaught
Alex Kane at the Indypendent has a report on the silent march tonight by hundreds outside the Waldorf, where an IDF fundraiser featured the Israeli military’s chief of general staff, Gabi Ashkenazi.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Israel’s existential crisis comes to New York, Philip Weiss
Often these days I hear people talk about how much progress the left has made in breaking open the Israel/Palestine issue in the U.S., and yes I make this claim myself, but last night offered clear evidence that we are doing so. At the behest of 20-odd peace groups, several hundred people marched around the Waldorf Astoria silently as the Israeli military held a million-dollar fundraiser inside. Now and then donors in black tie got out of cabs, but here we were in single file, most of us wearing black, stretching all the way round the hotel and holding signs naming 5-year-olds who were slaughtered in Gaza.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
In Nabi Saleh, Women Stand Up
Last year, six housewives from the village launched “Budhur”. The women group is active on social, political and women's issues. Budhur, meaning “before blooming”, is an initiative that claims to be innovative. Written and photographed by Valentine Van Vyve.
Being a woman in Nebi Saleh might be different from being a woman in any other Palestinian village. Creating Budhur can be considered as a civic act: “Because we, women, are a part of the society, we want to play a role in our own community”, told Nareman Tamimi, the president of Budhur. “Through our actions, we are a strength for the community too and we should be considered as such”, she added.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
Palestinians along with international supporters organized on Tuesday a protest at the Eriz crossing at the northern Gaza Strip borders protesting the Israeli army attempts to create a buffer zone.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Pro-Palestinians protest outside Israeli film festival in Paris
Pro-Palestinian activists began protesting outside of the Israeli film festival being held in Paris. Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat decided to participate in the festival's opening ceremony despite the French security guards' suggestion to cancel the event.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Sheikh Jarrah Mass Rally
Thousands of Israeli and Palestinian activists joined the rally last Saturday in Est Jerusalem to protest the eviction of Arab families from Sheikh Jarrah, where Jewish settlers continue to occupy Palestinian homes. The photos were taken by Brady Ng, FLV, Julian.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
In NY, silent protest greets architect of Gaza onslaught
Alex Kane at the Indypendent has a report on the silent march tonight by hundreds outside the Waldorf, where an IDF fundraiser featured the Israeli military’s chief of general staff, Gabi Ashkenazi.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Israel’s existential crisis comes to New York, Philip Weiss
Often these days I hear people talk about how much progress the left has made in breaking open the Israel/Palestine issue in the U.S., and yes I make this claim myself, but last night offered clear evidence that we are doing so. At the behest of 20-odd peace groups, several hundred people marched around the Waldorf Astoria silently as the Israeli military held a million-dollar fundraiser inside. Now and then donors in black tie got out of cabs, but here we were in single file, most of us wearing black, stretching all the way round the hotel and holding signs naming 5-year-olds who were slaughtered in Gaza.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
In Nabi Saleh, Women Stand Up
Last year, six housewives from the village launched “Budhur”. The women group is active on social, political and women's issues. Budhur, meaning “before blooming”, is an initiative that claims to be innovative. Written and photographed by Valentine Van Vyve.
Being a woman in Nebi Saleh might be different from being a woman in any other Palestinian village. Creating Budhur can be considered as a civic act: “Because we, women, are a part of the society, we want to play a role in our own community”, told Nareman Tamimi, the president of Budhur. “Through our actions, we are a strength for the community too and we should be considered as such”, she added.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
Interview with Gaza rights defender: "Siege began in 1967"
BRUSSELS (IPS) - For the first time since September 2006, Mahmoud Abu Rahma, a leading figure in the Palestinian human rights group Al Mezan, has been granted permission to travel outside Gaza. More than 30 applications to leave the Strip had previously been turned down by the Israeli authorities and it was not until German diplomats made representations on his behalf that he was finally allowed to visit Europe.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Why Israel jailed me for ‘talking too much’
The Palestinian elected leadership is weak. And even with Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan this week, the renewed Middle East peace process appears to be little more than a charade. Israel has taken this opportunity to crack down on Palestinians who advocate nonviolent protests against the Israeli West Bank segregation barrier and charged them based on questionable or false evidence. I know: I was arrested for talking too much. All we Palestinians want is a life free from racial discrimination. During 2009, 89 peaceful apartheid wall protesters were arrested; since January, more than 40 have been arrested.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
Amy Goodman: Rachel Corrie's (posthumous) Day in Court, Amy Goodman
An unusual trial begins in Israel this week that people around the world will be watching closely. It involves the tragic death of a 23-year-old American student named Rachel Corrie. On March 16, 2003, she was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer. Corrie was volunteering with the group International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which formed after Israel and the United States rejected a proposal by then-United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson to place international human-rights monitors in the occupied territories. The ISM defines itself as "a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles." Israel was building a large steel wall to separate Rafah from Egypt, and was bulldozing homes and gardens to create a "buffer zone." Corrie and seven other ISM activists responded to a call on that March day to protect the home of the Nasrallah family, which was being threatened with demolition by two of the armored Israeli military bulldozers made by the U.S. company Caterpillar.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
7 Years After Killing, Family of Slain US Peace Activist Rachel Corrie Heads to Israel for Wrongful Death Suit Against Israeli Gov't
Rachel Corrie, a twenty-three-year-old student from Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza seven years ago as she stood before a Palestinian home facing demolition. Today, a trial opens in Israel in a lawsuit brought by Corrie’s family against the Israeli government. The eyewitness testimony is expected to challenge Israel’s version of events with evidence that she was clearly visible to the soldiers, standing before the bulldozer in her florescent orange jacket. We spend the hour with Rachel Corrie’s family: her father Craig, her mother Cindy, and her sister Sarah.
http://www.democracynow.org/
Pro-Apartheid (Also see Israel's Arab Helpers)
Leaked anti-BDS document?
I have been sent this lengthy document titled Delegitimization of Israel: "Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions". I'm posting the whole thing here but, be warned, I said it's lengthy and it has been suggested that it could be a double bluff intended more for the eyes of BDS advocates than BDS opponents. One of my correspondents also thought it read like a "protocols" type forgery. This isn't to say that it is a forgery or that it isn't to be taken seriously.
http://jewssansfrontieres.
Violence and Aggression
The Israeli Army Shells Residents’ Homes In Eastern Gaza Strip
Israeli tanks opened fire on Wednesday afternoon at residents’ homes and farm lands located close to the eastern Gaza Strip boarders. Residents reported damage to their homes and groves but no injuries. Local sources said that the shelling was concentrated near the evacuated Israeli settlement of Nahal OZ. The bombardment was accompanied with fake air raids by Israeli jet fighters in the area, witnesses told local media.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
PA official: Israeli settlers set fire to car near Nablus
Nablus – Ma'an – Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian car in the northern West Bank on Wednesday, a Palestinian Authority official said. Ghassan Daghlas, who holds the PA's northern settlements portfolio, said Civil Defense forces were investigating an arson in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, allegedly set by residents of the illegal Yitzhar settlement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Detainees
Israel kidnaps Palestinian in Jenin
March 10, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - Israeli occupation force detained today a Palestinian citizen from Rumana village west of Jenin. Security sources said to WAFA news agency that Israeli occupation force detained Mohammed Kamel Igbarieh, 25 years, at a military checkpoint at the entrance of the village. They added that Israeli occupation forces have stepped up today their patrols in Sanur, Maithaloun, and Seres towns south of Jenin, while no detentions were reported.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Israeli group: Police improperly arresting kids
JERUSALEM — Israeli police are improperly arresting Palestinian boys in nighttime raids in Jerusalem that involve assault rifle wielding security forces handcuffing minors and interrogating them without lawyers or parents, an Israeli rights group charged Tuesday.
http://www.google.com/
Humanitarian Issues/Human Rights/Siege
Soldiers Attempt to Strip-Search Five Palestinian Women
Five Palestinians women preferred to go home rather than heading to an Israeli prison to visit their detailed family members after Israeli soldiers stationed at a Roadblock near the central West Bank city of Ramallah demanded to strip-search them.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
OPT: Uphill battle to supply prosthetics to Gaza war injured
GAZA CITY, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - A half-finished two-story building in central Gaza City is one of the few places providing support to amputees, most of them civilian victims of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, as they try and come to terms with their injuries. Ten patients were waiting to see Dr Hazem al-Shawwa, the director of the Artificial Limb and Polio Centre, when IRIN visited. Mostly young, they had been caught in the violence of Israel’s 23-day assault on Gaza at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009, and were still learning to use their new prosthetic limbs.
http://www.irinnews.org/
War Crimes
European Parliament endorses Goldstone report
The European Parliament on Wednesday supported the implementation of the Goldstone report and said it was "concerned" about "pressure placed on NGOs involved in the document's preparation." Jewish leaders said they were "deeply disappointed" and puzzled by the motion.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
A Tale of Two Richards, NADIA HIJAB
They hail from opposite parts of the globe, but they have much in common: Jewish; experts on and passionate defenders of international law; and pummeling bags for Israel and the Palestinian Authority. And the future of the law of war lies at the heart of the campaigns against them. Richard Goldstone, whose international stature was cemented as chief prosecutor in the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals, has been excoriated by Israel and its allies ever since his team submitted the report on the Gaza war requested by the United Nations Human Rights Council in September 2009. The steady stream of invective (the report is "full of lies," and he has "used his Jewishness to jeopardize the safety and security of Israel" are just two of the milder attacks) has also targeted his family and taken a toll on the publicly stoic judge.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
Israel's Arab Helpers
Is PA Guilty of Undermining BDS Campaign?
In 2008 Netanyahu announced during his election campaign that he plans to 'weave an economic peace alongside the political process which will give a stake in peace for the moderate elements in the Palestinian society'. (1) Since its election, the Netanyahu government has made “economic peace” central to its policies in the West Bank. This is not a coincidence. At a time when Palestinian civil society and grass roots solidarity groups are calling for an economic war on Israel, the Apartheid State has waged economic peace in order to undermine its efforts by seeking normalization with Palestinian and Arab businesses as well as Palestinian and Arab leaders. In order to understand what Israel is offering and the kind of trapping that has been laid out for Arab and Palestinian investors, we must first take a look at Israel’s history of economic manipulation.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Politics and Diplomacy
Barghouthi: “Indirect Talks Should Stop”
Palestinian Legislator, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, called on the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to void its approval for holding talks with the Israeli government on Benjamin Netanyahu.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Badawil: US attempts to start peace talks aimed to abort the reconciliation
Senior Hamas official Salah Al-Bardawil said on Tuesday that the US efforts to launch indirect Palestinian-Israeli peace talks are frivolous attempts aimed to undermine the national reconciliation.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Netanyahu Gives Private Talks For The Right Amount
Directly after finishing his first term as a Prime Minister (1999-2002), Benjamin Netanyahu turned into “an independent figure” who became accustomed to giving lectures and is paid millions of US dollars that are directly deposited in his private bank account.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Haniyeh to appoint female minister
Gaza – Ma’an – De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced Tuesday that his government intends to appoint a female minister to head a Women’s Affairs Ministry in the Gaza Strip. “The government is planning to appoint a number of female ministers to better include them in the decision-making process,” Haniyeh told attendees at an event honoring women in the workforce in Gaza City.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
MK Tibi ejected from Olei Hagardom plenum
Knesset holds session in memory of 12 Jewish underground members hung by British. Tibi: They fired at civilian bus, killed minister; are they heroes or terrorists?
http://www.ynetnews.com/
European group may probe Israel decision to indict Arab MK
The Inter-Parliamentary Union is considering sending representatives to oversee the legal proceedings against Hadash chairman Mohammed Barakeh, charged with assaulting a police officer during an anti-separation fence rally in the West Bank.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Communist Party of Israel, "Tel Aviv Court to Hold First Hearing in Political Case against MK Mohammed Barakeh Tomorrow"
The Attorney General indicted MK Barakeh in November 2009 in relation to four separate incidents that occurred at demonstrations over the course of the last three years. These protests were staged against the Separation Wall, the War on Lebanon, and the lack of accountability of those responsible for the October 2000 killings. . . . The indictment is not based on any evidence that would convict MK Barakeh; it simply criminalizes his legitimate political activities and attempts to harm his reputation and the status of a Communist and Arab leader. A demonstration will be held near the Tel-Aviv Court, tomorrow, at 9:30 a.m.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.
Other News
David Kimche, As`ad Abukhalil
Look at this obituary of a former leader of Mossad by Kershner in the Times. 1) She did not say that he obtained his wigs from the same place that the dumb 27 Mossad killers in Dubai obtain their wigs. 2) Notice this: "Employing a combination of cunning and charm..." Yes, an Israeli killer is charming, although she never met him, I assume, although I am sure she met his successors. Charming? Imagine if Nazila Fathi describes the head of the intelligence section of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as "charming." If that happens, Fathi would be forced to locate from Toronto, Iran to Cyberia, Iran. The New York Times would find any Israeli "charming." 3) She said: "He led Israel’s delegations in negotiations with Egypt and Lebanon..." Yes, after Israel invaded Lebanon and killed more than 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians mostly civilians in 1982, it forced a peace treaty on Lebanon which Kimche imposed on the country, before Israel was forced to humiliatingly get out of most of Lebanon. 4) Kershner said: "Often holding unorthodox views, Mr. Kimche encouraged Israeli relations with Christians in Lebanon..." No, his views were unorthodox. He encouraged Israeli relations NOT WITH CHRISTIANS in Lebanon but with Christian right-wing, fascist militias in Lebanon, like the Lebanese Forces. There is a difference between right-wing, fascistic militias and "Christians in Lebanon." So the arming of the South Lebanon Army and Lebanese Forces appears in the script by Kershner like a humanitarian mission. 5) She said: "He wrote or helped write several books on the region." Yes, he wrote books along with his brother but those books no one read (probably except me), and they had nothing to offer except ink.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Young Israeli Arab leader: Like Ajami director, I don't represent Israel
"Where does it not represent you?
In the occupation policy, in the settlement policy, in the policy of racism and discrimination. Eighty-percent unemployment among women; the many employers who do not hire Arabs. The development budget - hardly 4 percent of it reaches the Arab local authorities. Upper Nazareth is almost swallowing up Nazareth because it is expanding so much, and Nazareth has no lands to expand onto. Nazareth does not have an industrial zone. Education - I don't study my past, my identity - I study the history of the Jewish people. I also see the teachers' fear of teaching our history, the fear that the Education Ministry will dismiss them."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Ice cream truck serves as bedroom
Netanya police discover 14 Palestinians illegally residing in Israel who use truck as sleeping quarters, including youths of 13, 14-years-old.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
Border Control / Biden and the bulldozer, Akiva Eldar
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who arrived in Israel yesterday, didn't look for camels among the cars on the road from Ben-Gurion International Airport to Jerusalem. In a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing held two years ago for the United States Ambassador to Israel, James Cunningham, Biden heard that the Israelis even know how to ride bulldozers.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
When Israelis degrade Israel by humiliating Joe Biden
Why would Israeli officials degrade Israel by humiliating the vice-president of the United States? What conceivable advantage is there in the Interior Ministry choosing the occasion of a high-profile visit by Joseph R. Biden, Jr., a mission aimed at soothing strained relations between Israel and the Obama administration, to announce the approval of 1,600 new homes for Israelis in East Jerusalem?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israelis and Palestinians: Agreeing to Talk, and to Fail, Tony Karon
Even as Senator Mitchell shuttles between them, both sides appear set to escalate their confrontation on the ground, in growing battles over expanded Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and elsewhere and over the status of various sites considered holy by both Jews and Muslims. Last Friday’s confrontations between Israeli police and stone-throwing Palestinian youths in Jerusalem may be a portent that the latest round of peace talks could, in fact, be starting under the cloud of a looming intifadeh.
http://www.time.com/time/
The price tag for Israeli intransigence, Paul Woodward
The day before Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Israel — supposedly on a mission to help kick-start peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians — the Netanyahu government made its contempt for the Obama administration clear by approving new settlement construction. They were quick to take offense — they being the Israelis! "While we welcome Vice President Biden, a longtime friend and supporter of Israel,” Danny Danon, the deputy speaker of the Knesset, told the Washington Post, “we see it as nothing short of an insult that President Obama himself is not coming.” Washington on the other hand had no interest in creating a fuss about settlement growth — its impotence on that particular issue has already been amply demonstrated. Pushing for a real settlement freeze is passé. The new game is proximity talks and shuttle diplomacy.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Biden takes one on the chin
Having spent most of the day stressing "his personal love for the Jewish state as well as the ‘unshakable’ commitment of the United States to Israel’s security," Vice President Biden in return was granted a special surprise by Israel’s right-wing religious Interior Minister, Eli Yishai – the announcement of 1,600 more housing units to be built at the Ultra-Orthodox settlement of Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem. Having recently been dragged into negotiations with Israel kicking and screaming, the Palestinians were naturally apoplectic.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Netanyahu and Pastor Hagee’s Lovefest on Eve of Biden’s Arrival in Israel
On the evening after two daysof talks between US Special Envoy for the Middle East George Mitchell and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu appeared onstage with the far-right Texas-based Pastor John Hagee in Jerusalem. The occasion was Hagee’s Night To Honor Israel, an event the preacher typically organizes as a forum to tout his ministry’s millions in donations to Israeli organizations and to level bellicose rhetoric against Israel’s perceived enemies. On this evening, Hagee called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “the Hitler of the Middle East” and denounced the Goldstone Report as “character assassination by an unbiased and uninformed committee.”
http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/
Lobby’s purchase of Republican Campbell recalls its purchase of Obama, Philip Weiss
Alison Weir of If Americans Knew has published a piece on Tom Campbell’s back pages–the former California congressman who is now running for Senate. Note that Campbell obviously had realist bona fides back in the day, but has utterly abandoned his pro-Palestinian position. Campbell’s collapse is remarkably similar to Obama’s progress during the same period. Obama threw Khalidi and Abunimah under the bus; Campbell is throwing Weir under the bus. This is a story quite simply about corruption by the Israel lobby, of both parties.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
No article that deals with the Middle East in the New York Times is innocent: no article
Look at this one. Basically, Middle East coverage in the Times is a combination of ignorance and prejudice sprinkled with Israeli propaganda disinformation and leaks. Look at this review of this Middle East restaurant in the Times. First, they give Fayruz a title that she never had. Secondly, they say this: "But sahlab, a sweet custard that nods to France’s occupation of Lebanon between the world wars. When there is absolutely no connection between the French and this dish, when a variation of this existed in various parts with no connection to the French. Thirdly, it said: "Ms. Bishara is a Brooklynite, though also a Palestinian raised in Israel, where her brother served in the Knesset." No mention that this Palestinian brother is Azmi Bisharah who has been chased out of his own country by Zionist occupiers.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Ethan Bronner: propagandizing
Matt sent me this (I cite with his permission): "The middle east studies center on my campus receives all sorts of publications which the staff leaves out in the lounge area. One of these is the bulletin of the "Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies", a Zionist think tank churning out all sorts of propaganda (sample title: "Is Gaza occupied? Redefining the Legal Status of Gaza") - it is after all where Netanyahu delivered his speech "accepting" a Palestinian state last June 14. This think tank seems to think the two-state solution is passe, preferring the no-state solution of land swaps with Jordan and Egypt. One of the guest speakers at their May 2009 "Debating US Leadership in Checking Iran" forum was Ethan Bronner - along with Danny Ayalon, Major General Yitzhak Ben-Israel, Abe Foxman, and other such characters. The lone dissenting opinion in that particular forum, that Israel could deter a nuclear Iran, was that of Josef Joffe, a fellow at the Hoover Institution and contributor to Commentary. Now, one might say that Ethan Bronner's participation in the forum of an extremist pro-Israel organization is innocent, but imagine if Taghreed el-Khodary participated in a forum sponsored by Hamas. And why would the organizers - who only sponsor the most extreme sorts of Zionist thought and thinkers - invite Bronner in the first place, unless they knew him to be part of the club?.... As'ad, yes, you can post it - the bulletin is here: (see page 9 of the print copy, the right side of page 5 of the pdf) I just realized I spoke or wrote too quickly - there was a token Palestinian at the conference, Elias Zananiri of the Standing Cooperation Committee: (see the list of other speakers on the far right of the same page with Bronner)
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Chris is west and Palestine is east, and never the twain shall meet
In this Hardball clip, at around 2:25, Chris Matthews says George Mitchell has to cross the Allenby bridge to get to Ramallah! Hello!! And Ethan Bronner doesn’t bother correcting him either.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Khalid Amayreh interviewed by Silvia Cattori
Khalid Amayreh (*) is a journalist who lives in Hebron, a city brutalized and bloodied daily by armed Jewish settlers who are driving the authentic inhabitants by force. He is what might be called a true Palestinian; a man of integrity who was never seduced by financial rewards and prestige; a man standing who has remained with his martyred people in order to witness every day the atrocities he suffers at the hands of the Israeli army, but also, and this is the most painful, at the hands of the authorities of Ramallah. He himself has been imprisoned, savagely beaten without knowing why, by this Palestinian police to the training of which Bernard Kouchner is so pleased to have participated.
http://palestinethinktank.com/
On the day Yafa`s refugees return - zochrot 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Iraq
Tuesday: 10 Iraqis Killed, 4 Wounded
Light violence left at least 10 Iraqis dead and four wounded today. More casualties were reported in an attack in Duluiya. Two U.S. soldiers were killed in a vehicular accident aw well. Also, British authorities opened an inquiry into allegations that British troops tortured and killed Iraqi civilians. Meanwhile, the two largest Iraqi parties are both claiming to lead in vote counts.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Nouri al-Maliki and Ayad Allawi both claim victory in Iraq elections
The two front-runners in Iraq’s national election both claimed victory yesterday after the authorities postponed announcing the result. The electoral alliances led by the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his predecessor Ayad Allawi are neck and neck according to estimates by observers. Both are seeking to bolster their claims in case the result is inconclusive and they find themselves in a dispute later this week over who gets to form a new government.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
Riz Khan - US withdrawal from Iraq
We look at the impact of the country's recent parliamentary elections on the nation's stability and US withdrawal plans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Iraqi refugee saved from deportation at last minute
BEIRUT: An attempt on Monday by General Security to forcibly deport an Iraqi refugee was called off at the very last minute, according to human rights workers. Saad Muhammad Ismail, 54, was seen being dragged by two General Security officials across Beirut's International Airport. Ismail, who is a refugee registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
U.S. and Other World News
Manhattan vigil for Muslim held prisoner for three years
NEW YORK // Far from Guantanamo Bay or anywhere else the United States might hold prisoners, a Muslim-American man has been held for almost three years in solitary confinement in a Manhattan jail. But he is not forgotten. About 100 supporters gathered on Monday night outside the federal facility where Syed Fahad Hashmi awaits trial. They were marking the 1,371st day since he was incarcerated and the 871st day since the implementation of the Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) under which he has been held in pretrial, 23-hour lockdown.
http://www.thenational.ae/
Waterboarding sessions brought detainees ‘close to death’: report
The waterboarding sessions that terrorist suspects were subjected to during the Bush administration were "administered with meticulous cruelty" and were in part designed so that detainees acted as "guinea pigs" for future interrogation sessions, says an exhaustive new report.
http://rawstory.com/2010/03/
Special forces probed after children killed in Afghanistan
The men could be charged with murder, manslaughter or negligence and, if convicted, could face jail terms in a military prison.
http://www.theaustralian.com.
New Afghan leader was jailed for attempted murder in Germany
Abdul Zahir, the Afghan tribal leader chosen to bring law and order to the area cleared by the joint US and British troop surge, has previously been jailed for attempted murder.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Peres calls for Iran’s expulsion from UN
Israeli President Shimon Peres has called for the expulsion of Iran from the United Nations for its earlier calls to wipe out the Jewish state from the world map.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/
In case you missed it: Does Iran's President Want Israel Wiped Off The Map?
Let's take a closer look at what Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. The 'New York Times' placed the complete speech at our disposal. Here's an excerpt from the publication dated 2005-10-30.
http://www.
Israel Intends to Build Civilian Nuclear Plants
STEVEN ERLANGER - IHT - "Israel has never admitted that it has nuclear weapons, and it has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty."
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
Former Israeli officials in the U.S. government
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Israel, Syria pursue nuclear-powered Mideast
PARIS – Is the Middle East about to go officially nuclear? Bitter rivals Israel and Syria both announced Tuesday that they want to pursue atomic power plants, potentially complicating the diplomatic storm over Iran's nuclear program and fueling a widening web of suspicion across the Middle East.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
Egypt to finance renovation of synagogues, Jewish sites
Egypt will shoulder the costs of restoring the country's Jewish houses of worship said the culture minister Tuesday, two days after a historic synagogue in Cairo's ancient Jewish quarter was rededicated in a private ceremony.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
www.TheHeadlines.org
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