Israel to raze 8 family homes near Hebron
Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli soldiers handed over house demolition orders to eight families in the West Bank village of Beit Ar-Rush Al-Fauqa, southeast of Hebron, on Thursday, onlookers said. Palestinians in the town said the orders were issued on the grounds that the structures were built without Israeli permission in Area C, a part of the West Bank under full Israeli military control.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Tearing the Heart out of Beit Jala
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott,
Clashes at Jerusalem's Aqsa mosque
Israeli forces fire tear gas to disperse Palestinian protesters at holy site.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Five Youths Injured at Ni'lin Protest Including 11 Year Old Boy
After midday prayers villagers of the village of Ni’lin, near Ramallah, were joined by Israeli and international protestors in their weekly protest of the separation wall built on land confiscated from the villagers. During the March, protestors carried miniature models of the Ibrahimi and Bilal mosques, that have recently been added to Israel’s list of national heritage, despite being in the West Bank. Additionally, farmers brought their donkeys, and once they reached their land approaching the wall, they began to plough it. The remaining protesters continued towards the wall where clashes were reported. Five youths were reported to be injured, including one 11 year old boy that was struck in the head by a rubber coated steel bullet.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Protests: Troops fire tear-gas at journalists, 'Ghandi'
Ma'an - Delegations from the Popular front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Freedom Theater in Jenin joined over one hundred anti-wall ralyers in Bil'in on Friday, to mark the Global Week against racism. As the group finished Friday prayers and marched toward the cite of the separation barrier, which cuts villagers off from their agricultural and village lands, the group was met with tear-gas canisters, organizers said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Eleven Injured As Troops Attack Anti Wall Protest At Al Nabi Saleh Village, Northern West Bank
Eleven people, amongst them two internationals, were injured, on Friday, by Israeli military fire when troops suppressed an anti wall protest at the al-Nabi Saleh village, northern West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Protest Continues in al-Ma'sara
Following midday prayers, the villagers of al-Ma’sara marched, in their weekly tradition, towards the construction site of the separation wall, that annexes them from their farmlands.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Weekly Protest in Bi'lin Marks International Week Against Racism
This week’s protest in Bi’lin was joined by international and Israeli peace activists, and groups representing the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine political party and the Freedom Theatre in Jenin.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
COSATU supports the International week against apartheid Israel
It compels one to share in the pains and humiliation daily experienced by our people under the weight of zionist imperialism. It is a call to all people of nobility and dignity to do something now in defence of humanity. Participating in the just struggles of the Palestinian people is not anti-semitism, but a call for justice and freedom. The attempt to blackmail all who call for freedom in Palestine, anti-semites is a desperate attempt by Zionist bullies to silence all who stand up against their savage attacks on humanity and freedom.
http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.
Daniel Drennan, "Israeli Apartheid Week: Beirut"
IAW: Beirut is happening this week on AUB's campus. In collaboration with this event, some students worked with me under the aegis of the collective that received official recognition in December: Jamaa al-Yad. We started work on a series of posters that documented the reality of apartheid Palestine, while also listing the criminal corporations that are currently profiting off of occupation. We combined the images with Lebanese proverbs to show solidarity with the Palestinian people.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.
Palestinian Boycott Leader Challenges SF Jewish Federation
It has recently come to my attention that pending the advice of a working group of which you were a member, the Jewish Community Federation has chosen to itself boycott groups advocating a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) program targeting Israel. As one of the founding members of the global BDS campaign, I cannot but note the irony of your use of boycott as a tool to suppress views that support the boycott against Israel. I can only conclude that you do approve of the efficacy and appropriateness of boycotts, as a non-violent form of activism and a catalyst for change, but condemn them when the change they set out to achieve is related to ending Israel’s occupation as well as its grave violations of international law and Palestinian rights.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2010/
How do you aim BDS at the Israel lobby?, Philip Weiss
Amy Goodman had a good debate of BDS today, between Omar Barghouti of Palestinian civil society and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, the longtime peace activist, who admits he was all for BDS when it was South African apartheid, but not this time around. One distinction he makes is that maybe we should be boycotting the Israel lobby, not Israel?
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Moment of truth: time to boycott Israel's entire range of injustice
Words always matter, and names always have a life of their own. But perhaps Palestine and Israel form a context in which words become positions more dramatically than in many others. The authors of the "Moment of Truth" Kairos document, which is the Christian Palestinians' statement to the world about the occupation of Palestine and a call for support in opposing it, have repeatedly been asked about the use of the word "boycott." What exactly does this mean? How far exactly does it go? And what exactly does it call for? Rifat Kassis comments for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/
How Much Military Aid to Israel...
Between 2009-2018, the United States is scheduled to give Israel--the largest recipient of U.S. aid--$30 billion in military aid. Through its illegal 42-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, Israel misuses U.S. weapons in violation of U.S. law to kill and injure Palestinian civilians, destroy Palestinian civilian infrastructure, blockade the Gaza Strip, and build illegal settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem. How much of this total will your community provide? Is this a good use of your tax dollars? What else could your taxes be used for in your community? Find out on the interactive map below.
http://www.aidtoisrael.org/
Palestinians Destroy Plastic Made in the Jordan Valley
(IsraelNN.com) The "Wafa" agency reports that Palestinian customs workers seized and destroyed 20 tons of plastic produced in Judea and Samaria this week.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
For Palestine and the Palestinians
I really don't like flags, and I don't like nationalism, but...for Palestine and the Palestinians, anything and everything.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Violence and Aggression
Israeli Tanks Open Fire At Residents' Homes And Farmlands In Northern Gaza
Israeli tanks stationed at the boarder of Israeli and the Gaza Strip shelled, on Thursday at midday, residents homes and farm lands at the Beit Hannon town in northern Gaza Strip. Residents said that they had to leave their farms during the attack. They reported damage to property but no injuries. In other news in Gaza, a Palestinian teen was reported killed, on Wednesday night, when a tunnel collapsed on him at the southern Gaza boarders with Egypt. Ahmad al-Najjar, 18 years old, was buried alive under the ruble, local sources reported. According to the Gaza based human right group, al-Mizan, 141 Palestinians have died inside tunnels at the borders with Egypt since 2007. Since Israel placed the Gaza Strip under Siege on June of 2006, the tunnels at the boarders with Egypt became the main sources of much needed supplies for the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the costal enclave.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Detainees
Hamas: PA continues political arrest campaign
Hamas officials released a statement accusing Palestinian Authority forces of detaining three of the party's affiliates from locations across the West Bank overnight Thursday. The three were reportedly from Nablus and Hebron, although the arrests could not be independently verified by Ma'an.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli intelligence detain Gaza businessman
Israeli intelligence agents detained a Palestinian businessman at the Erez border crossing into Israel on on Thursday night, Palestinian security sources said. The man, a Gaza resident with a rare permit to travel in and out of the Strip via the crossing, was detained leaving Gaza and taken to an investigation center at the facility. An Israeli spokeswoman at Erez said an arrest was made by the Shabbak (intelligence services) but could provide no further details. Palestinian sources identified the man as Ahmad Salim Abu Eida, who, according to his family, was moved to the Migdal detention center.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Union: 3 fishermen detained by Israeli navy
Israeli navy guards detained three Gazan fishermen just off the shores of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Friday, the head of the local Fishermen's Union said. Nizar Ayyash identified the three fishermen as Nafeth Al-Aqra, Muhammad Nabil and Muhammad Al-Aqra, all from central Gaza. He said they were taken, along with their vessel, to an unknown location.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Former prisoners reveal torture in Palestinian prisons
In broadcast dealing with one of most sensitive issues in Palestinian society, former prisoners in Gaza, West Bank provide painful testimonies of interrogation methods. Fatah admits phenomenon exists, while Hamas denies it, says 'prisons open to human rights groups'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Retaliation
Gaza fighters claim cross-border shooting
Gaza – Ma'an – Fighters affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said they fired on Israeli farmers north of the Gaza Strip on Thursday. In a statement, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades said their snipers fired on "a group of settler farmers north of Beit Hanoun."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Humanitarian Issues/Siege/Human Rights
UN chief: Gaza blockade must end
Ramallah – Ma’an – The UN's top humanitarian relief coordinator and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad jointly urged an end to the Israeli siege of Gaza during a meeting on Thursday with high-level UN officials in Ramallah. Following his visit to Gaza, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem where UN coordinator John Holmes spoke pointedly about the effects of the siege on the coastal enclave, Fayyad asked the official to encourage more pressure to ensure Israel obliges by international law.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
UN official: Israel siege on Gaza encourages Hamas smuggling
A United Nations official on Thursday expressed concern that Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip was encouraging a "smuggler-gangster" economy which was financially beneficial for Hamas.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
UN official: Israel 'nourishing despair' in Gaza
The combination of diplomatic caution and British understatement threatened to turn my interview with John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, into a trap of boredom. However, perhaps due to his approaching retirement, Holmes came out with several incisive, even scathing remarks.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Irish FM urges EU to pressure Israel to end Gaza blockade
Ireland's foreign minister on Friday called the Israeli blockade of Palestinian-ruled Gaza inhumane and unacceptable and he urged the European Union and other countries to increase pressure on Israel to end it.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
PA sends medicine to Gaza
Ramallah – Ma'an – The Palestinian Authority (PA) Health Ministry in Ramallah successfully arranged a delivery of badly-needed medicine to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, a Thursday report said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Exile in Rome: Waiting to feel alive again
Rome – Ma'an – Former Palestinian intelligence officer Khalid Abu Nijmeh lives in exile following his deportation after the Nativity Church standoff in 2002, he sat with Ma'an Chief Editor Nasser Lahham in Rome on Thursday, to discuss as a deportee.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
War Criminals
Change in UK arrest warrant law far off
Guardian says amendment to law which allowed for issuing of arrest warrant against Livni postponed until after general election. Israeli ambassador to London: Change needed to solidify Britain's role in Mideast peace process.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Tzipi Livni won’t be visiting the UK any time soon, Paul Woodward
To hear it from the Israeli press you’d think that the British government can now makes changes to the law simply by having the prime minister write an op-ed. Last December an arrest warrant was issued for former Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, when she was expected to arrive in Britain. According to Haaretz, she no longer needs to fear getting hand-cuffed for alleged war crimes — at least not on trips to the UK.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Israel's Arab Helpers
Two Israeli Missile Ships Pass Through Suez Canal
(IsraelNN.com) Two missile ships belonging to the Israeli Navy passed through the Suez Canal sometime during the last few weeks, according to reports on several internet sites. In the past, the passage of Israeli warships southward through the canal, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, has been interpreted as preparation for a possible attack against Iran.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
Political Developments and Diplomacy
Hamas: Abbas selling Palestinians illusions of peace with Israel
Hamas on Thursday called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resign, accusing him of selling the Palestinians "illusions" by moving to resume peace talks with Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hamas: Abbas has no mandate for talks with Israel
Senior Hamas figure: Resuming talks is selling illusions to Palestinians, legitimizes settlement; 18 years of talks achieved nothing.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Dahlan: Talks will waste time while settlements expand
Bethlehem – Ma'an – Fatah Central Committee member Muhammad Dahlan cast doubt on the benefits of resuming peace talks between the PLO and Israel after reports that US-mediated "proximity talks" could start on Sunday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Egyptian FM adds voice against restart of peace talks
Ma'an - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said he believed Palestinians should not enter into direct talks with Israel in light of the current controversy over heritage sites. Speaking from Cairo after a meeting of the Committee for the Arab Peace Initiative, Abul Gheit said delegates shared his sentiments, a stark contrast to the announcement of the Arab Foreign Ministers meeting, which gave its blessing for talks to continue.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Can the Islamist tide be turned?
The PA’s effort to control the mosques is a big part of its bid to stamp its authority on the West Bank, muzzle its Islamist foes, and convince friendly and cash-providing Arab and Western governments that it can be trusted to run a would-be state. The PA’s religious-affairs minister, Mahmoud Habbash, has dispatched 200 new imams, armed with security clearance, to manage mosques hitherto run by their pro-Hamas rivals. He issues scripted weekly sermons and instructs censors to monitor mosques and verify compliance. “A Muslim must respect the sultan,” says the minister. “There is no place for politics in the mosque.” All the West Bank’s 1,700 mosques, including nearly 300 in conservative Hebron, are now, he says, in government hands...The PA’s burgeoning security forces add a helping hand. They recently shot their way into a Hebron mosque during a search for a Hamas man wanted by both Israel and the PA. They fired on the Mercedes of the irrepressible spokesman for the Liberation Party (Hizb ut-Tahrir), an up-and-coming Islamist group that wants to replace the parliamentary system with a caliphate, and beat him up. When worshippers interrupted a PA-endorsed preacher in Hebron’s Ibrahimi mosque, the fabled resting place of Abraham, and told him to speak out against Israel’s continuing siege of Gaza, the PA’s local religious-affairs official summoned heavies to boot them out. Not everything has gone the PA’s way. Worshippers in two of the West Bank’s main towns, Nablus and Ramallah, have ejected imams who condemned the Islamists in Friday sermons. Elsewhere official imams have had shoes* thrown at them.
http://www.economist.com/
Extra-Judicial Assassination
Dubai police chief: You think Peace Now killed Mabhouh?
Dahi Khalfan Tamim explains how he reached conclusion that Mossad agents were responsible for Hamas commander's assassination.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Dubai police chief: I'll resign if DNA doesn't match
Dhahi Khalfan Tamim challenges Israel to test DNA of suspected assassins of Hamas man Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, says: 'You can lie about anything, but not about DNA'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Hamas murder: Who is Yuval Tal?
The MasterCards used by some of the assassins were branded by US-based Meta Bank, but issued by another small company called Payoneer. The company specializes in prepaid debit cards that can be used as credit card alternatives for online shoppers. Information that Tal and his company may have could prove vital in the assassination investigation. While Dubai Police has said that the Central Bank is in contact with "the issuers of the cards" it has refrained from commenting on Tal's involvement. He could be the link, or could know the link, that authorities need to prove a Mossad connection in the assassination of Al Mabhouh.
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/
How 'unwitting' were the British Israelis?
Melvyn Adam Mildiner, who immigrated to Israel on September 11, 2001, and who says he feels more at home there than anywhere else. Jonathan Lewis Graham, who immigrated to Israel with his parents and family three years ago; all said to be "devoutly religious and community-minded". The message I'm getting is that all six are Zionist and/or religious ideologues. Moreover, a named Australian dual-national, Joshua Daniel Bruce, is in Israel to study Judaism while Michael Bodenheimer, whose name appears on a forged German passport, lives in the ultra-orthodox city of Bnei Brak and studies in a yeshiva (Jewish seminary). None of them, as far as I can divine, has lashed out at the Israeli government or at the Mossad for placing them in peril. ‘Coincidentally', none of the 12 Britons named was outside Israel at the time of the hit.
http://gulfnews.com/opinions/
As'ad AbuKhalil, the Mossad, and Israel's KoolAid
As'ad AbuKhalil has an excellent piece on the Al-Jazeera English website, in which he examines all the hasbara-fueled myth-making around the alleged prowess of Israel's Mossad. As I noted in this reflection on the recent Dubai affair, Israel's spymasters and policymakers made the two fatal mistakes therein of underestimating both the capabilities and the intentions/commitment of the leadership of Dubai's police authorities. It seems to me that this under-estimation could well have resulted from the Israeli leaders having drunk too much of their own KoolAid about the alleged "invincibility" of the Mossad.
http://justworldnews.org/
Spies
Respected Danish journalist admits 'I was a Mossad agent'
"I traveled all over Africa under the cover of [being] a journalist," said Pundik.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hamas official slams spy-claim book: Watch the complete interview with Mosab Yousef on our podcast.
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
Jerome Slater: More on the New York Times and Israel: Does the World's Greatest Newspaper Have Any Standards?
The New York Times' Week in Review recently contained a long oped column by Efraim Karsh, a British academic well-known for his rightwing opinions about the Middle East in general and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. Most of the column focuses on historical and contemporary divisions in the Muslim world, or on what Karsh calls "incessant infighting within the House of Islam, which has never ceased."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Ethan Bronner: who serves the Israeli army more? Ethan Bronner or his son--who is an Israeli soldier?
The answer is easy. Ethan, of course. Why do you ask? This is now a classic and dumb Zionist poly. When Israel is about to bomb a Middle East country, or to invade a Middle East country, they supply their network of propagandists, like Ethan Bronner, with pictures of Israelis wearing gas masks. Gas masks? Israel, of course, has a massive arsenal not only of nuclear weapons, but also of biological and chemical weapons. But notice the Zionist logical: Israel actual nuclear weapons are less harmful than Iraqi and or Iranian non-existent weapons. So there is a huge picture of an Israeli wearing a gas mask, for no apparent reason, in the New York Times today. And then this: "Preparations for a strike against Iran’s nuclear program are as evident as ever: the introduction of an attack drone capable of flying hundreds of miles, the frequent open talk of a possible attack, the distribution of new gas masks to the public." I mean, this is a clear Mossad leak that obedient propagandists of Israel are more than happy to circulate. What do you expect, really?
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
The sounds of piano in Gaza
GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - At 14, Nour plays the piano, and she knows the facts around her. That the average age for marriage is 18, likely to a man found by parents, her place would be within that home, and a woman has on average 6.5 children. She goes to a United Nations agency for Palestine refugees school in Gaza City, and loves journalism, inspired by her older sister, who works at a radio station.
http://electronicintifada.net/
The new American Jew on Israel
WHETHER IT was a major diplomatic slight or a minor one overblown by media coverage, what happened to Representative William Delahunt in a congressional trip to Israel last month was telling. Because the trip was sponsored by J Street, a “pro-Israel, pro-peace’’ organization that has criticized the Israeli government, Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, and his deputy, Danny Ayalon, refused to meet with the five congressmen as long as J Street and another pro-peace sponsor was present. The message was clear: Your traveling companions have criticized us, so we won’t sit with you unless you keep them away from the table.
http://www.boston.com/
It's Not about Islam & Judaism, It's About Anti-Colonialism, Territory, Liberation, and Lives
On Sunday, February 28th the New York Times published an outrageous oped by Efraim Karsh full of lies, distortions and mistakes. Karsh describes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an urgent foreign policy matter for the United States. It doesn't appear to be urgent. One more American administration has prostrated itself before Israeli arrogance and expansionism. Karsh mentions some sort of "100-year war between Arabs and Jews." There is no 100 year war between Arabs and Jews. There is a 100 year colonial struggle between Zionist Jews and the Palestinian people (and briefly the Lebanese as well). He hopes that the "Islamic nation can make peace with the idea of Jewish statehood in the House of Islam." Its not about Jewish statehood in the house of Islam. Its about Zionist Jewish settlers dispossessing the Palestinians and occupying Palestinian land. And killing Palestinians. Its not a religious conflict. Its a territorial one, an anti-colonial one, a national liberation struggle, even if the discourse used these days to describe it is often religious.
http://www.thewashingtonnote.
Palestinians painted as animals while Israel goes scot-free
As the son of a Palestinian refugee expelled from his native homeland, there are few things I cherish more than my gift of freedom. However, being born and bred in Australia has not shielded me from being tagged with a label that is the unfortunate lot of all first-generation Palestinians. To some, we simply do not exist, and when we do, we are terrorists, animals or sub-human.
Such deliberate misrepresentations and stereotypes are constantly propagated, but to read unsubstantiated claims about Palestinians in a serious newspaper (Julie Szego, Comment, 3/3) was highly offensive.
http://www.theage.com.au/
Palestine's Economic Pieces, Sam Bahour - Ramallah
A serious misconception is being propagated by the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. Media, international organizations, foreign governments and Palestinians- at-large are being coaxed into believing that the flurry of economic activity in the West Bank is economic development towards statehood. The facts on the ground rip this argument to pieces, just as Israel continues to micromanage the economic pieces of the intended future state of Palestine toward systemic stagnation.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Gaza Graffiti: Of love and politics
In her latest work, "Graffiti in Gaza: Messages of Love and Politics," Swedish journalist and photographer Mia Grondahl documents the plethora of graffiti adorning the streets of the Gaza Strip. The book was published by the American University in Cairo Press last December. Grondahl, who spent five years in Jerusalem, was also the author of "In Hope and Despair: Life in the Palestinian Refugee Camps" (2003).
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/
Sleepless in Gaza … and Jerusalem (Episode Three) [Video]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Iraq
Bombers Batter Baquba on Eve of Election
Residents of volatile city fear for poll turnout will be affected after bloody attacks. By Ali Mohammed in Baquba (ICR No. 326, 5-Mar-10)
http://www.iwpr.net/EN-icr-f-
17 killed in Iraq as blasts target voters
A string of blasts ripped through Baghdad targeting early voters and killing 17 people Thursday, authorities said, raising tensions in an already nervous city as early ballots are cast for Sunday's parliamentary elections.
http://www.washingtontimes.
Thursday: 17 Iraqis Killed, 82 Wounded
Early voting began today, and so election-related attacks heightened. At least 17 Iraqis were killed and 82 more were wounded in poll violence across the country. Those who cannot vote on Sunday were encouraged to take advantage of today's special polling. They include about 850,000 security personnel, prisoners and hospital patients.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Poll Widens Sectarian Schism in Pilgrimage City
Election campaign targeting Shia pilgrims in Sunni-dominated Samarra shows politics still defined by sect. By Mahmud Salih in Samarra ICR No. 326, 4-Mar-10)
http://www.iwpr.net/EN-icr-f-
Army Accused of Campaigning in Mosul
Election commission files complaint over army’s alleged support for prime minister’s coalition. By Jarir Mohammed in Mosul (ICR No. 326, 5-Mar-10)
http://www.iwpr.net/EN-icr-f-
Shia Coalition Accused of Invoking Religion
Iraqi candidates and coalitions are prohibited from using religious references in their campaigns. By Ali Abu Iraq in Basra and Imad al-Khuzaei in Diwaniyah (ICR No. 326, 4-Mar-10)
http://www.iwpr.net/EN-icr-f-
A look at some of the factions in Iraq's election (AP)
AP - A look at some of the major Shiite-led factions and coalitions taking part in Iraq's election.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Campaign styles reflect the choices in Iraq vote (AP)
AP - There were no politicians kissing babies at the campaign rally, but it came close.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Free land, weapons and petrol help buy Iraqi votes
The Arabic word that has delivered land, money, weapons, clothes and numerous other perks for Iraqis in the run-up to Sunday's parliamentary election is "rashwa." The English word is bribe.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Nada's uncles will tell her how to vote in Iraq election
The Iraq elections March 7 are not on Nada Hatem Farhan's mind much because she does not expects them to change any of the difficulties in her life. The 19-year-old high school student dreams of being a lawyer but will probably end up being a teacher - a more acceptable profession for a woman in conservative Fallujah.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
Iraq election: Young war generation yearns for old stability
The 18-to-22-year-old generation will vote for the first time in Iraq elections on March 7.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
One young voter hopes Iraq election will right wrongs
Youssif Mukhtar wants to right the wrongs of the injustice he sees around him. But first he has to get through high school.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
Among the 'best and brightest,' Rami won't vote in Iraq election
Rami Hussein (standing, third from left) probably won't vote in Iraq elections March 7. 'The government lies to us....I love my country, but if I had the chance, I'd leave,' says the theater student who is currently acting in a new adaptation of 'Gilgamesh,' which he wrote.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
Montage of Iraqi election commercials
Millions of Iraqis head to the polls on March 7 for nationwide parliamentary elections. This time - unlike in previous years following the 2003 US-led invasion - campaign advertisements have been plastered across Iraqi cities, and local media have been airing elaborate political commercials constantly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Fallujah birth defects blamed on US weapons
Iraqi doctors reportedly warn women not to have children; Doctors pressured not to 'embarrass the United States': claim. massive, unprecedented number" of congenital health problems. Birth defects in the Iraqi city of Fallujah have soared in recent years, with doctors saying advanced US weaponry such as white phosphorous and depleted uranium shells may have caused a "massive, unprecedented number" of congenital health problems.
http://rawstory.com/2010/03/
2.8 million Iraqis remain internally displaced
Seven years after the March 2003 US-led invasion, Iraq remains deeply divided. There are few prospects of durable solutions for the approximately 15 per cent of the population who are displaced inside and outside Iraq. It is thought that there are almost 2.8 million internally displaced people.
http://snipurl.com/umunu
Lebanon
In Israeli-Lebanese brinkmanship, the US is powerless
According to Roee Nahmias at Y-Net, "US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a message to Beirut that Washington cannot prevent an Israeli strike in Lebanon as long as arms smuggling to Hezbollah continues." Echoing an article in the London-based al-Hayat newspaper, Nahmias writes that "the message was conveyed via US Ambassador to Lebanon Michele Sison to Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri." The al-Hayat report stated that Berri replied with his own message to Clinton, "that finding a solution to the arms smuggling issue is ‘not a problem’, but that the US must also stop arming Israel with weapons and equipment."
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Games consoles at centre of US terror case
Businessman accused of selling Playstations to a shopping centre in Paraguay that US authorities say is a fundraising front for Hizbollah.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/
Israel, Arab nations trade despite ban
Arabs of Lebanese origin in Israel sell counterfeit Lebanese certificates of origin complete with forged government stamps. Some Israeli factories have departments of so-called quality control - where any Hebrew writing or 'Made in Israel' marks are removed from product components. "I saw it with my eyes," he said. There are even ships that sail from the northern Israeli port of Haifa to Beirut, Lebanon - "there is a way to do it," Feiler said, adding that the Beirut Port Authority would denies the practice exists.
http://www.jpost.com/
For First Time in Three Decades… Israeli Existence Threatened!
For the first time in three decades, the Zionist entity feels threatened in its mere existence… For the first time since the Israeli enemy ended its hugest wars with the Arabs in 1973, the "existential threat" appeared again in the Israeli discussion battlegrounds at all levels… At least, this "threat" seems to be very well reflected in the Israeli media outlets, mainly concerned with the new balances set by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah and consolidated by the Damascus meeting that joined the Resistance leader with the Syrian and Iranian Presidents Bachar Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad… The stances delivered by Sayyed Nasrallah as well as various Iranian and Syrian leaders without neglecting the other Resistance factions in the region couldn't pass un-noticed especially after being reflected in the latest Damascus summit…
http://almanar.com.lb/
U.S. and other world news
California’s sinking, but GOP Senate race is about Israel
California is broke, its 12.1 percent unemployment rate is among the highest in the nation, housing prices have plunged, home foreclosures have skyrocketed and a drought is threatening the state’s dwindling water supply. There also are plenty of other issues for would-be U.S. senators to debate, including the battered economy and a massive effort to overhaul the nation’s health care system.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/
U.S. House panel votes to recognize Armenian genocide
A U.S. congressional panel voted on Thursday to label as "genocide" the World War One-era massacre of Armenians by Turkish forces, despite pressure from the Obama administration and Turkey to drop the matter.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Turkey recalls ambassador after US resolution on 'Armenian genocide'
Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Washington after a US congressional committee passed a resolution that would require President Obama to use the term "Armenian genocide" to refer to the World War I mass killings of Armenians.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
US-Turkey relations threatened by "genocide" row
Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the United States "for consultations" after a US congressional panel narrowly voted to brand the mass killings of Armenians by Turkish forces in World War One as genocide. The move came despite warnings from both the White House and Turkey that it could harm US-Turkish relations and impede efforts to normalise ties between Ankara and Armenia. The measure now goes before the full House of Representatives, but it is not clear whether it will actually go to a vote there. In Armenia, the country's foreign minister says the vote's a boost for human rights. Rob Reynolds reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Turks pay price for supporting Palestinians
Ankara must have known its new positioning in Middle East politics, which angered Israel, will have some sort of consequences. After all, the Israelis never expected that their supposedly close Turkish allies would lobby international public opinion to condemn Israeli war crimes in Gaza. The highlight of the new Turkish attitude was when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked out of a panel discussion, in Davos World Economic Forum last year, to protest Israeli President Shimon Peres' defence of Israel's devastating offensive on Gaza.
http://gulfnews.com/opinions/
Afghan survivors: Women waved scarves to try to stop NATO air attack
The military helicopters swooped in from behind the three-vehicle convoy as it wound through a remote road in southern Afghanistan, and survivors of last week's deadly attack said they had no idea they were in danger until the lead four-wheel drive vehicle exploded.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/
Admiral Mullen: foreign policy is too dominated by the military
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says US foreign policy is too dependent on military generals and admirals and not enough on the State Department.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/
Syria accuses Israel of planting traces of uranium at site of air strike
VIENNA: Syria suggested on Thursday that Israel dropped uranium particles onto Syrian soil from the air to make it look as if a covert nuclear weapons plant was being built there, officials at an IAEA meeting said.Damascus has strongly denied US intelligence that a complex in the Syrian desert bombed to ruins by Israel in 2007 had been a nascent nuclear reactor.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Robert Fisk: Mubarak's challenger can't rely on a fair race
What keeps old men in power in Egypt? And what keeps middle-aged men wanting power in a country whose crippled society, increasing sectarianism, brutal police force and endemic corruption is only compounded by an electoral system widely regarded as a fraud? Most Egyptians don't think that President Hosni Mubarak is immortal, even though he still reigns supreme at the age of 81. Even the pharaohs believed they would live on only in the next world.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Honor killing and domestic violence
A girl befriends boys. What could be more normal and ordinary? Yet for doing just that a Turkish teenager was reportedly buried alive by her father and grandfather. This recent piece of news has been met with shock and outrage worldwide. Crimes such as this, however, are in no way exceptional.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Saudi's dirty secrets | Irfan al-Alawi
Pollution is despoiling the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The authorities, however, are busy enforcing absurd moral codes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
www.TheHeadlines.org
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