Isolate Hamas and you will get ... what?
Officials from the [nonviolent] Islamist movement Hizb Ut-Tahrir said Palestinian security services set up checkpoints on Friday to harass party supporters en route to an annual conference in Ramallah, which itself was quashed ... By evening, members of the movement said PA security had "shut down the gates of the school, confiscated equipment and arrested hundreds," in addition to what a statement said was hundreds of others detained at the PA checkpoints ... Events organized by Hizb Ut-Tahrir to mark the 89th anniversary of the fall of the last caliphate have been repressed in areas of the West Bank and Gaza, with 17 said to have been arrested near Hebron, and limited violence erupting north of Gaza City last week.
Gunmen attacked a wedding party in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, a rights group said, calling on the attorney general to investigate the incident which "constitutes part of the state of security chaos and the misuse of weapons currently prevailing" in the occupied territories. Eight masked gunmen allegedly attacked the party in a village east of Khan Yunis, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported ... Four juveniles who "adhere to radical ideas" were arrested for attacking the party.
Gaza's Hamas rulers are banning women from smoking water pipes (nargilas) in cafes, claiming it violates tradition and leads to divorce ... Police spokesman Ayman Batneiji said Sunday that officers are enforcing Gazan traditions. He said husbands often divorce women seen smoking in public but offered no evidence to support that claim. The pipes are popular with both men and women in Gaza ... Some analysts in Gaza have said Hamas is introducing such laws in order to compete with other more extreme Islamist groups in the coastal enclave.
Political developments / Diplomacy
The High Court of Justice agreed Sunday to hear a lawsuit filed against the Palestinian Authority cabinet over its deferral of local elections that were scheduled to take place this month. The lawsuit was filed by a group of lawyers representing left-wing, democratic, and independent parties seeking to overturn the decision.
The Israeli and Palestinian leaders were due in Cairo on Sunday for separate meetings with the Egyptian president, to be joined by the US Middle East peace envoy in his persisting quest to get the two men to relaunch direct talks. No direct encounter between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was foreseen, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's office stressed, despite months of efforts by US envoy George Mitchell to end an 18-month hiatus in face-to-face negotiations. Mitchell met Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday morning ahead of their departure for Cairo
PM meets with Egyptian president; Egyptian officials tell Haaretz there is anger in Cairo over Lieberman's recent call to sever ties with Gaza.
US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell said his meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Saturday was "constructive and fruitful," and said he was "looking forward to continuing discussions."
Fatah official says U.S. special envoy George Mitchell did not give adequate answers on the issues of borders and security for the Palestinians to agree to direct negotiations.
The next session of the UN General Assembly, which opens in September, will "almost certainly be unpleasant for Israel," a senior UN diplomat tells Haaretz. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced on Friday that Meiron Reuven, Israel's ambassador to Columbia, will replace Israel's current representative at the UN Gabriela Shalev on September 1. The senior UN diplomat questioned the wisdom of having a relatively unknown diplomat represent Israel at the UN.
Other news
Egypt released two Islamic Jihad supporters from Gaza on Friday night, Palestinian officials told Ma'an. Representatives from Gaza's border and crossings department said Ahmad Hajjaj and Talal Abdul Al were released from Egyptian custody after serving two months in prison. Islamic Jihad announced last week that two other supporters were released out of nine that remain in Egyptian custody.
Prime minister reiterates opposition to draft on conversion reform, which has sparked outrage among Reform and Conservative communities in Israel and abroad ... Minister of Minority Affairs Avishay Braverman slammed the bill during the cabinet meeting and said "it is not possible that this topic will be raised for the Knesset's approval." "It is inconceivable that more than 85 percent of U.S. Jewry would become second rate Jews," he added.
The weekly cabinet meeting was cut short because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to leave for Cairo for a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak. Cabinet did not reach a decision on the conversion bill and Israel's immigration policy. [End]
Votes by Yisrael Beiteinu ministers against the state budget this weekend, the battle over the conversion bill, the foreign minister's appointment Friday of an acting UN ambassador without Netanyahu's consent and Lieberman's call for a "disengagement" from Gaza on the eve of the premier's Egypt visit - all have only exacerbated an already strained working relationship.
First of its kind female reconnaissance unit hunts terrorists, drug dealers on border ... Nahshol fighters pride themselves on their exceptional camouflage capabilities, which enable them to blend in with the mountainous, arid landscape in southern Israel and surprise the enemy when the moment of truth arrived. In fact, these highly skilled soldiers managed to surprise us too while preparing this news story – our news team's effort to spot a combat squad hiding right under our noses failed miserably.
Turkish hackers have obtained the passwords and credit card details of 32,561 Israeli users, the Israeli We-CMS blog says. According to the blog, a Turkish message board has uploaded a list containing credit card details, PayPal and bank usernames and passwords. The list is also said to contain more than 140 passwords to Israeli government websites and over 300 passwords for Israeli academic web pages ... Wolf added that a debate is currently raging on the Turkish board regarding what should be done with the stolen data. Some surfers claimed that the accounts must not be used or compromised, as the ultimate goal was to target Israel on the political level.
Israeli doctors working in Congo learn locals turned out to be good hosts - but working with Western volunteers is more complicated ... “This is the reality today: Doctors from international aid organizations treat a delegation of volunteer Israeli doctors to Congo as though we were occupiers”, Winkler told Nati Harush, the foreign ministries deputy chief security officer who accompanied the delegation.
A haredi riot broke out on Sunday in a postal branch in Jerusalem's Bukharim neighborhood over Ynet news updates. A group of 25 ultra-Orthodox protested at the site over plasma screens showing Ynet news updates which they referred to as "abomination." Several rioters even attacked security guards standing outside the branch.
Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said during the cabinet meeting on Sunday that 1,200 African infiltrators enter Israel every month and that the police is unable to handle them under the current state. "It means a new prison needs to be built every month," Aharonovitch noted and added that by the end of 2010 some 13,000 infiltrators are expected to enter the country.
In the early 1990s, Noam Federman published a pamphlet called "Know Your Rights," which is something of a guidebook for those undergoing police or Shin Bet questioning ... The Shin Bet, however, has been forced to change its ways. The agency now prefers to gather as much evidence as possible prior to making an arrest, assuming that suspects will not cooperate.
Analysis / Opinion / Human interest
This piece is not meant for the false patriots, the brutes and the brainwashed, for those who want a Jewish, Arab-free Knesset; a Jewish, foreigner-free society; and a state without B'Tselem or the High Court of Justice ... There are many people here who know the history, who understand democracy, who should be terrified by what is going on. Terrified? That's exactly the point: They're not ... The time has come to tell them, the ones who have withdrawn and who care only about their own lives, that it's coming. Soon, soon, it will happen to you. It won't stop at the Arab MKs or at the NGOs, not at the universities and not at the demonstrators. It won't even stop at your doorstep. It will enter your daily life.
Years ago I was close to relatives in the religious settler camp. They were generally warm, generous and honest toward members of their families and communities, but unapologetically racist toward Arabs. I remember one woman who walked miles in the summer heat every Sabbath to visit elderly synagogue members in the hospital, but frowned with distaste when she saw Arab women there. One man explained to me matter-of-factly that here in (Greater) Israel, Arabs are guests who may stay only if they behave themselves. Another referred to them off-handedly as stinking Arabs, "aravim masrichim." A third expressed hope that in the next war, we could drive all the Arabs out, because the Arabs are the modern incarnation of Amalek, the enemy of God and the Jews.
I got an answer re: my inquiry about the Takamol people who put up the pro-one-state ads in the West Bank. Quote: Takamol are a think tank/advocacy group and not a political party or NGO. The coordinator for Takamol is Yasser al-Masri. I have seen an introductory text about the group, and it's important to point out that [contrary to what I thought was a possibility] it is not related to the PA.
Talking to Hamas makes sense for Israel if there are good reasons to believe that in the long run the organization will take the course of the ANC and IRA and move from terror tactics to becoming a legitimate player in the political arena.
If the next generations fear that "enemies from within" (as MK Carmel Shama of Likud called those who want peace with Syria ) will bring about a withdrawal from the Golan Heights, the referendum law has removed the threat.
There are Jewish terrorists. They are no different from other terrorists in terms of the danger they present, except in one aspect: They are more dangerous. They are part of the society against which they are plotting, they know how to get close to the centers of power and are familiar with democracy's weak points by dint of their civil rights. They are also up to date with the most modern legal and media-related means of combat.
The Israeli army finally decided to open an investigation into the 2009 killing of an unarmed, peaceful Palestinian protester in the West Bank village of Bil’in ... What lies behind Israel’s new-found responsiveness to criticism of its Palestinian policies? I went to Bil’in to discover how a small village forced the hand of the Israeli military ... While the video evidence is key to the military’s decision to launch the investigation, the strategy of non-violent resistance is the underlying cause.
A newly revealed tape of Netanyahu in 2001, being interviewed while he thinks the cameras are off, shows him in a radically different light. In it, Netanyahu dismisses American foreign policy as easy to maneuver, boasts of having derailed the Oslo accords with political trickery, and suggests that the only way to deal with the Palestinians is to “beat them up, not once but repeatedly, beat them up so it hurts so badly, until it’s unbearable” (all translations are mine).
The Washington Post, and Glenn Kessler, have picked up the story that Netanyahu said that "America is a thing that can be easily moved," back in 2001. Good to have this knowledge inside the Beltway at last. Below is a transcript of the Second-Intifadah era conversation, supplied by Dena Shunra, a Hebrew<>English translator living and working in the United States.
In his new documentary [My Father from Haifa], Omar Shargawi helps his father, who fled Palestine at the age of 8, to confront the ghosts that have haunted the family ever since ... "The Jews did not forget Palestine for 2,000 years, so they can't expect the Palestinians to forget it after 60 years. All Palestinians wish to return to Palestine, or to at least visit, but not all of them do so - even if they have European passports and technically are able to," Shargawi says. "I think my father represents a generation that in a certain way has dreamt about this all its life, but for many reasons found it hard to get up and do it. I think that at one time, for the Jews and now for the Palestinians, this unrealized dream of returning to Palestine became a way of life. A dream is one thing, but to get up and realize it is another thing."
Iraq
At least four Iraqis were killed and seven more were wounded in lights attacks in the north. Meanwhile, the United States must evaluate policies that could affect Iraq’s relations with Turkey and Iran. Turkish newspaper Hurriyet quoted
outgoing U.S. Ambassador To Turkey James Jeffrey saying that the U.S. would increase support to Turkey in their fight against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), including clearing out airspace for Turkish operations. Meanwhile, eight were wounded in the latest PKK rocket attack in southeastern Turkey. Turkey has so far ignored requests from Iraq to cease operations in the north. Thousands of civilians have been displaced by both Turkish and Iranian operations against rebel groups.
At least 60 Iraqis were killed and 65 more were wounded in attacks that mostly targeted Awakening Council members. Also, former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, who was handed over to Iraqi custody last week, has been hit with new criminal charges. The main attacks today targeted Awakening Council (Sahwa) members. Although many of the Sahwa members had once fought alongside al-Qaeda, these Sunni fighters banded together in 2005 to rid the country of al-Qaeda elements.
BAGHDAD, July 18 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber attacked government-backed Sunni militia on Sunday as they lined up to be paid on Baghdad's southwestern outskirts, killing at least nine and wounding 29, a source in the Iraqi Interior Ministry said. The blast in the Sunni district of Radwaniya occurred as political deadlock continued in the war-damaged country following a March election that produced no outright winner and as yet no new government.
...The multiple disasters inflicted on Iraq since the 2003 Anglo-American invasion have tended to overshadow the lethally effective ‘invisible war’ waged against Iraqi civilians between August 1990 and May 2003 with the full authority of the United Nations and the tireless attention of the US and British governments. As an example of carefully crafted callousness this story offers a close parallel to Britain’s German exercise. In both cases, sanctions were retained after their original purpose – the military defeat of the blockaded nation – had been achieved, and in both cases they targeted civilians while leaving their rulers relatively unscathed.
A religious edict by the Kurdistan Islamic Scholars Union on female genital mutilation (FGM) sends a clear signal that the practice is not prescribed by Islam, Human Rights Watch said today. The edict, however, does not call for an outright ban on this harmful traditional practice ... The fatwa notes that the practice is not prescribed in Islam, but predates it.
Lebanon
Lebanon's Internal Security Forces have informed Hizbullah of the names of three senior party members suspected of collaborating with Israel, Lebanese media reported. According to the Lebanese daily An-Nahar, quoting an anonymous source, Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa was told of the three suspects' involvement. “[Hizbullah] is well aware of this matter,” the source told the daily ... Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah called for the execution of all collaborators with Israel on Friday, and said his party could not be penetrated by Israeli agents, the online news site NOW Lebanon reported.
A new suspect involved in a telecommunication spy network fled Lebanon for Israel on Friday, a day after another suspect was detained, Lebanese media reported Sunday. According to the Lebanese daily An-Nahar, the latest suspect was an employee of Lebanon's Alfa telecommunications, identified only as NRMA.
Abu-Hassan Nasrallah tells Iranian reporter he wanted Hezbollah chief to be engineer or lawyer
U.S. and other world news
..."My father’s dream was to bring the Americans to Afghanistan. I was surprised the Americans took the bait," Omar said. "I was still in Afghanistan when Bush was elected," he continues. "My father was so happy. This is the kind of president he needs – one who will attack and spend money and break the country." "Will there be more attacks? I don’t think so," Omar says. "He doesn’t need to. As soon as America went to Afghanistan, his plan worked. He has already won."
WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court has approved Saturday the transeffering of two Guantanamo Bay prisoners back to Algeria even though they want to remain at the prison camp because of fear they might be tortured at home.
Spanish government to join other European countries debating banning Islamic face veils in public spaces, government buildings
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