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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines ~ |
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Land theft / Settlements
Netanyahu: Settlement blocs forever Israeli
"The
message is clear – we are here and will remain here. We are planting
and building; this is an inseparable part of the State of
Israel," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday
during a tree-planting tour of the West Bank settlement blocs. Netanyahu
made the comments shortly after meeting
the visiting US Mideast envoy George Mitchell. Mitchell has been
pressing Israel to halt settlement construction in the West Bank.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838827,00.html
Dream location, legal nightmare as Jaffa gentrifies
...The prickly problem is the fate of Ajami's 20,000 Arab residents, 80
percent of whom live below the poverty line. About a quarter of them
live in state-run "Absentee Ownership" properties, which the Israeli
government now wants to sell. Israel says these homes were abandoned by
their Arab owners during the 1948 war that established the Jewish
state. When the war ended, the state took them over as public housing
for both Jewish and Arab families. Refugees, many of whom ended up in
camps in the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip, down the coast, say
their families were driven out of Jaffa and still lay claim to homes
there. BORN SQUATTERS Most Arab residents of Ajami say they are living
in homes that were once owned by their families, and should be treated
as rightful heirs. Instead, they are "protected tenants" whose right to
the homes expired after two post-1948 generations.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60C1P920100113
National Union MKs for unified Ghajar under Israeli
rule
MKs Yaakov Katz,
Michael Ben Ari tour Golan Heights, northern village, which may be
divided; say they will fight against division in Knesset
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838845,00.html
Video: Leftists videotape settler stone-throwing near
Hebron
Peace activists
attacked by hooded settlers while documenting what they say is illegal
Jewish construction in south Mount Hebron; leftist, activist injured in
altercation. 'This was a lynch attempt,' leftist says
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838541,00.html
Video:
Palestinians build Israeli homes
some Palestinian
workers have no other way to make ends meet
other than to work for Israeli construction companies building the
illegal settlements. Al Jazeera's Jackie Rowland reports from the West
Bank.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WqdJm3qjOM
Urgent aid needed for opening of Massafer Yatta
school in the second semester
Last month, the new elementary
school located in the middle of the
cave dwellers area of south Mt. Hebron, lost its transportation car as
a result of the Israeli army interference. Now, the opening of the
school second semester is uncertain as a donation of 10,000 Shekels
(2,700$) is needed for the purchase of another transportation car.
Please read Hamed Qawasmeh report on this issue enclosed in the
following link: http://ocha.unog.ch/ochafileupload/upload.aspx?publicID=u23011010434J7itusygXg
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=37948
Activism / Solidarity
"Thieves go home - Sheikh Jarrah is Palestine!"
[includes photo gallery] This was the largest demonstration yet in
Sheikh Jarakh, were for some
time now a demo is taking place every Friday, much like the demos in
Bil’in, Nilin and other places ... almost a thousand protesters gathered
today (Friday, 22.1.10) in an
empty plot opposite Sheikh Jarakh, a few dozen yards away from the
houses from which Palestinian families had been thrown out in order to
allow settlers to move in. Side by side with the old battle horses one
could see people for whom this was the first time. Among those who came
was former minister Yossi Sarid. Also present were the painter Uri
Lifshitz and several professors from the Hebrew University, whose
buildings could be seen on a nearby hill. More or less young people
stood besides more or less old ones, with the young shouting slogans,
whistling with whistles specially donated for this purpose, singing and
drumming. Almost all were Jewish.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1264295157
Video:
Sheikh Jarrah protest -22 January 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBnFBkhpgBE
Jerusalem
is starting to resemble Tehran / Yossi Sarid
After I heard the version of the police I concluded
that the police and we, "the anarchists," were at two different
demonstrations. For more than three hours we stood at the outskirts of
Sheikh Jarrah - not a stone was thrown, not an arm raised, not a
worshiper attacked, not a settler's home broken into. But for the
police's disproportionate use of force and its false arrests, as a
means of punishment and score-settling, one could say the demonstration
was calm and orderly.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144646.html
Video: 'This is our village' - a report from Nabi
Saleh 22.01.10
[Note
the difference from the above Sheikh Jarrah video - in the way
Palestinian protesters are treated as opposed to Jewish ones.]
Posted by Adam Horowitz: The following is a shocking video from Nabi
Saleh, a Palestinian
village of 500 residents located north of Ramallah. The village has
been engaged in growing demonstrations during the past few weeks to
protest the
illegal seizure of valuable agricultural land
by the Hallamish (Neve Tzuf) settlement. Settlers have also recently
uprooted of hundreds of the village’s olive trees.You can find more on
the recent protests in Nabi Saleh at Ibn Ezra.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/this-is-our-village-a-report-from-nabi-saleh.html
Video: Bil`in weekly demo 22.01.10 / Haitham Al
Katib
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBkPep1f1O4&feature=PlayList&
p=CE651BB979DD7D0E&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=47
18-year-old
heroines
All were 18 when they made the hard choice: Say
no to war and occupation, or say yes to prison.
Omer Goldman: My father was deputy head of the Mossad, but I refuse to
enlist in the Israeli military. I shall not be part of an army that
needlessly implements a violent policy and violates the most basic
human rights on a daily basis. Like most of my peers, I too dared not
question the ethics of the Israeli military. But when I visited the
Occupied Territories, I realized there was a completely different
reality, a violent, oppressive, extreme reality that must be ended.
http://www.gilasvirsky.com/shministim.html
An open letter to the Israeli Ministry of the
Interior - from Christian Peacemaker Teams
Things you may not know about internationals working in Palestine --
Dear Ministry Personnel, At church this past Sunday in
Jerusalem, the pastor read the names of church members to whom you had
recently denied entry into Israel. Several worked for organizations
that have been trying to meet human need in this area for decades.
Everyone in that congregation probably felt the same chill I did as I
imagined the interrogation, the airport jail cell, and the police van
parked, blue lights flashing, on the tarmac to prevent us from leaving
on the jet deporting us to our home countries. I will operate on the
assumption that you think Palestinians should
have the same human rights as Israelis, and that you honestly think
internationals working in Palestine represent a threat to Israel’s
security. If that is so, then I would like to enlighten you on a few
points:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=256322
With peace talks frozen, Palestinians back protests
(Reuters)
NABI SALEH, West Bank, Jan 24 (Reuters) - In the West Bank village of
Nabi Saleh, Palestinians frustrated by the failure of peace talks to
protect their land from Jewish settlement growth are on the march, and
ready to face the teargas. It is the latest example of
Palestinians, their faith in the 17-year-old peace process sinking ever
lower, turning to what they call popular resistance; code for protests
that activists say are drawing an increasingly tough Israeli response.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE60H1ZT.htm
Iraqi singer to perform to sold-out Bethlehem crowd
Iraqi singer Elham Medfai arrived in Bethlehem Thursday ahead of a
concert set for the Al-Khader Convention Center at 7pm on Friday. The
1,600 person venue sold out Thursday, and Medfai told Ma'an he felt
privileged to "sing for a people who have suffered so much, like my own
Iraqi nation." The singer noted he has already performed the
Palestinian National Anthem in several Arab states, and said he looked
forward to singing it for the Palestinians themselves.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=255994
Violence
Israeli border police severely beat Palestinian
workers, says family
Israeli Border Police detained and beat 10 Palestinian workers at dawn
on Sunday at the Al-Za’iem crossing into occupied East Jerusalem, for
seeking work without the appropriate permits, relatives told Ma’an. The
workers, from the Al-Khadr village south of Bethlehem, were stopped at
the crossing and, relatives say, were severely beaten with sticks and
rifles. Father of detained Rani, 26, Hussein Salah, said his
son sustained a number of fractures, as well as having his teeth
broken, and is now unable to walk.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=256304
Delegation of officials to meet with Jerusalem clan
rivals
Public meetings will be held in Jerusalem to bring a halt to the ongoing
clan violence that took place on Sunday, said chief of Jerusalem
affairs for Fatah Hatem Abdul Qader ... One Palestinian was killed and
five sustained gunshot wounds, as clan
clashes continue to erupt in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday, near
the Old City, according to medical sources.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=256345
Detention
PLC member: PA forces detained 6 colleagues
Six
staff members of Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member were
arrested by Palestinian Authority (PA) police as they exited the PLC
Headquarters in Ramallah on Sunday, lawmaker Dr Mahmoud Ar-Ramahi
reported ... The official term of the PLC came to an end Sunday, with
sides calling
into question the legitimacy of the PLO move to extend its term. One
PLC member handed over his PA-issued vehicle in the afternoon, saying
he was "no longer a PLC member."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=256512
Israel releases detainee from Negev prison
The Ahrar Center for Prisoners’ Studies and Human Rights announced on
Sunday that Israeli authorities released Fathi Al-Hayek, head of the
Zeita local council in Nablus on Saturday, having served 38 months in
the Negev Prison.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=256323
Draft bill increasing penalty for assisting
infiltrators approved
Migrant labor,
Palestinians, organized networks are target for bill drafted by
internal security minister. Proposed law enables prison terms of three
to five years, replaces temporary orders in place since 1996
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838744,00.html
Guard suspected of smuggling phones to prisoners
A senior guard working in Israel Prison
Service was arrested on suspicions of smuggling cell phones to security
prisoners. The guard, 38-year-old Munir Halabi of the village of Yarka,
served as chief warden of one of the prison wings at Ketziot Prison in
southern Israel, where security prisoners are
imprisoned for relatively short periods.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838106,00.html
Blockade
Egypt defends smuggling barrier with Gaza
Egypt's
President Hosni Mubarak has defended an underground steel wall
along the border with neighboring Gaza as necessary for his nation's
security. Speaking to senior police officers
Sunday, Mubarak said Egypt began the the
barrier after a series of terrorist attacks on tourist resorts in the
Sinai peninsula neighboring Gaza.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838781,00.html
One Gaza crossing open
Israeli authorities opened the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on
Sunday
to allow the transfer of humanitarian goods and the limited export of
strawberries and flowers from the coastal enclave. The official, Raed
Fattouh, said between 55 and 65 truckloads of
humanitarian aid, agricultural and commercial goods, will enter via
Kerem Shalom to the south of Gaza. Additionally, limited quantities of
industrial and domestic gas will be transferred, Fattouh said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=256296
Barak approves social security payments to Gaza
residents
As a goodwill gesture, Defense
Minister Ehud Barak
has authorized the annual transfer of NIS 25 million to Gaza Strip
residents entitled to social security and pension payments from Israel.
Since ties between Israeli banks and Palestinian banks in the Gaza
Strip were severed following the Hamas takeover in the Strip and the
declaration of the area as a "hostile entity," there have been serious
difficulties in transferring funds to approximately 1,000 beneficiaries
who were employed in Israel in the past and currently live in the Gaza
Strip.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144657.html
Press freedom
Foreign Press Association denies journalists pose as
activists to work in PA
The non-governmental body that assists foreign
correspondents in Israel said on Thursday it is not sure how a proposal
to require a US-style journalist visa for reporters will affect its
members, and denied Government Press Office assertions that journalists
based in Israel are faking credentials in order to work for political
NGOs operating in the Palestinian Authority. An FPA
official said the people
it works with are journalists and not activists, and their job is to
report on what they see, not volunteer for foreign advocacy groups.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147951708&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Political/Diplomatic developments
Palestinian parliament's term expires
Legislative
Council
in Ramallah, mainly consisting of Hamas representatives, will
end its official term Sunday night. Fatah already declares it will
consider body as illegal, whereas Hamas elements stress that current
make-up will remain until new elections are held in Palestinian
Authority. Efforts for internal reconciliation to be reinforced in
coming days
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838950,00.html
PA: Peace talks cannot be revived
As PM Netanyahu says he is waiting for Palestinian president to resume
negotiations, Palestinian leadership appears to have lost hope. PA
sources say Palestinians deeply disappointed with the lack of American
pressure on Israel, believe peace deal won't reached during Abbas' term
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838911,00.html
PM's office: Shalit talks require nerves of steel
The
online edition of German weekly magazine Der Spiegel
reported Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had retracted
Israel's latest offer to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in
exchange for captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. According to the
weekly's sources, the entire deal is on the brink of collapse, although
officials in Netanyahu's office said negotiations were ongoing.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838733,00.html
Israel
official reply on Goldstone Gaza report: Probe biased, flawed
Israel was set to submit its rebuttal on Thursday to
a United Nations report accusing it of having committed war crimes in
Gaza last winter. Though the Israeli response has been kept under
wraps, it is expected to list the essential flaws in the report and
explain why the report is biased against Israel and tainted with many
problems.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144596.html
UN appoints new UNRWA head.
Filippo Grandi of Italy is the new Commissioner General of the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency. For the last five years he was the
organization's Deputy Commissioner General. Late last week, however, he
replaced Karen AbuZayd, who has been the head of UNRWA since 2005
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1263147967490
Al Jazeera video: Interview with Osama Hamdan
Reactions
to latest bin Laden tape, views of Hamas
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2010/01/al-jazeera-video-interview-osama-hamdan.html
Assad, Gaddafi say Arab countries must unite against
Israel
Syrian president,
Libyan leader meet ahead of Arab summit to discuss 'oppressing siege
imposed on the Gaza Strip and the Israeli obstacle to peace'
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838931,00.html
Virtually no contact between Netanyahu, Jordan's
Abdullah
By Barak Ravid. A year after Operation Cast
Lead and the beginning of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's second term, Israel-Jordan
relations are in a deep slump. In talks with Haaretz senior officials
in Jerusalem and Amman characterized the situation as a genuine crisis,
adding that there is virtually no contact between Netanyahu and King
Abdullah.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144651.html
Deputy
Defense Minister: Israel making every effort to avoid war
Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said on Sunday
said that while Israel was faced with military threats on all sides, it
has strategically chosen to make every effort to avoid entering armed
conflict with its enemies. Vilnai said that Israel had its eyes on
Hezbollah, who it believes
is rearming in violation of a United Nations resolution, and was ready
to contend with any threat,
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144710.html
Minorities in Israel
Minister pulls injunction against Arab conference
Police say Arab Democratic Party may hold convention in northern
community after canceling distribution of Palestinian Authority
scholarships -- The minister's office told Ynet, "According
to information we received, the PA may be involved in some parts of the
convention. This is illegal, which is why the minister allowed the law
enforcement authorities to prevent it from taking place." ... Arab
Democratic
Party sources stated,
however, that no PA official was scheduled to take part in the ceremony
in the first place and that the PA was still one of the bodies donating
funds for the scholarships. "We are acting in accordance with the law,
and we have no plans to act against the law," said Knesset Member Talab
El-Sana (United Arab List-Ta'al),
the party's chairman,
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838098,00.html
Sa'ar: Arab citizens' search for equality stymied by
conflict with Palestinians
Political leaders gathered on Thursday to take part
in the 5th annual Jaffa Convention on relations between Jewish and Arab
citizens ... The conference, which took place two days
after
Israel received a stinging report from the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development criticizing it for its large social gaps
that disadvantage Arab Israelis and haredim, was once again held under
the slogan "A Call to Action."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147960823&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Ethiopian wife may be deported because husband
suffered stroke
In 19 days Baza Almash will be deported
to Ethiopia,
because her husband has been in a nursing home, immobilized by a
stroke, and the couple is no longer living as man and wife.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144658.html
Israel mulls adoption of Haiti quake orphans
Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog has instructed
the staff Social Affairs Ministry to look into the possibility of
adopting Haitian children, orphaned in the devastating earthquake which
hit the island almost two weeks ago, Israel Radio reported on Saturday
... Israel is a signatory to an international children's
adoption treaty, with about 200 children adopted by Israeli families
worldwide ... The children arrive in Israel and undergo
conversion to Judaism in specialized rabbinical courts.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144507.html
'Non
Jewish' immigrant becomes Jewish after appeal to High Court
A new immigrant from Bulgaria who came to Israel on
the basis of the right of return was informed by the Interior Ministry,
three and a half years after first arriving in Israel, that he was not
Jewish. As this conclusion automatically stripped him of his right to
live
in Israel, he was informed that he had to leave within two weeks. The
immigrant petitioned the Supreme Court and was awarded a stay, which
meant that he could not be expelled. Eighteen months later
- and two days prior to
deliberations before the Supreme Court - his attorney informed him that
following a reevaluation of his case, he is now a Jew.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144656.html
IDF ceremony may be toned down to accommodate
religious
Officials seek solution that will prevent religious youth movement from
shunning IDF ceremony because of female singers
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838465,00.html
Fighting 'Arabization' or solving housing shortage?
On
Tuesday, the National Planning Council
subcommittee responsible for general planning principles recommended
that the National Planning Council authorize the construction of Kasif,
a new haredi city in the Negev, 10 km. west of Arad. The move was met
with criticism from environmental organizations for its effect on open
spaces, but also from local leaders ... "No other
population in Israel is willing to move en
masse to outlying areas such as the Negev and the North where the
Jewish population is dwindling and the Arab population is on the rise,"
said [MK (United Torah Judaism) Moses.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147961774&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
JPost editorial: Haredim in the Negev
...Indeed,
anything which moves any Jews from the
densely packed Coastal Plain to underdeveloped parts of the country
should, in principle, be considered a boon for Israeli society in
general ... Yet there was no audible outrage when heads of
Negev
local authorities warned that "a haredi concentration would deter
higher-quality populations from moving to the region."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147940839&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Other news
Report: Environmental impact of occupation high
The
Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem released a report
documenting the detrimental effects of the Israeli occupation of
Palestine on the environmental systems sustaining both Israelis and
Palestinians. The January report focused on the impact of the military
operating in
the West Bank and Gaza, and collected data on unexploded ordnances
contaminating agricultural ground, and the contamination of drinking
water
in Gaza following the 2008-9 Israeli Operation Cast Lead ... "The
policy of dual planning for Palestinian and Israeli road networks
is incredibly wasteful and flies in the face of responsible and
sustainable development practices," the report said, noting that in the
West Bank "there is 5.2km of road per 1000 people as opposed to 2.6km
in Israel."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=256442
Analysis / Opinion
A meeting of minds / Zvi Bar'el
...The
boycott stems from the fact that a town like
Ariel even exists. It stems from the occupation and from Israel's
insufferable policies in the territories. If the academic community is
- rightly - worried about an international boycott, it would behoove it
to raise its voice against the continued occupation, the inhumane
closure of the Gaza Strip, the denial of the right of Palestinian
students to matriculate. It must do so with the same conviction with
which it is now objecting to university status for the college in Ariel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144668.html
Demography: An Arab/haredi threat? / Rabbi Andrew
Sacks
...we read in the first chapter of Exodus that Pharaoh,
the king of Egypt,
was worried that the "Israelites were too many and too mighty for us."
He feared the rate at which they "multiplied." He saw this group of
seventy (by the way, this counts only the men) that had come into his
land as having grown in number to the point that they now posed a
threat. Pharaoh faced a demographic nightmare. There are
lessons to be learned from this reading - many of them - but until a
Torah study session in one of our Masorti staff meetings, I had never
viewed this reading in the context of today's events ... Israel faces
real demographic challenges. But kowtowing to the haredi
citizens and treating Arab citizens as less than first class members of
society will never be the answer. For the Torah teaches us "Follow
justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land
the Lord your God is giving you."
http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/conservative/entry/demography_an_arab_haredi_threat
Shooting ourselves in the foot
Yair Lapid presents disturbing story about
anti-Israel film funded by government -- Yonatan
Segal was a young actor who later
became a rather marginal film director. About five years ago he turned
to the Israel Film Fund – which is a public institution funded by the
government – and requested support for a film regarding his mother’s
experiences at the concentration camp. The fund approved the production
and granted him one million shekels. Three years later, Segal came back
to the fund with a new idea:
He will take his mother’s story and shift it to Ramallah. Instead of
two girls at a concentration camp, the film will recount the stories of
two young Palestinian females under Israeli occupation.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838697,00.html
alternate reality:
Hamas
is to blame for Israel's failure to aid Gazans / Yom-Tov Samia
After the earthquake in Haiti, some observers say
Israel has traditionally been quick to dispatch aid to natural-disaster
victims in distant lands while ignoring the suffering of people much
closer to its borders, namely the Palestinians in Gaza, for whose
welfare it bears responsibility ... Yet the main culprit
responsible for the Gazans'
condition is Hamas, which maliciously sacrifices the population's
welfare in the Strip because of its war on Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144667.html
Iraq
Saturday: 5 Iraqis killed, 6 wounded
Excerpt:
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met
with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to discuss pre-election
tensions. Elsewhere, al least five Iraqis were killed and six more were
wounded in light violence. Some attacks occurred yesterday but were
left unreported until today. Also, the Iraqi government has found that
three decades of war has left the country contaminated.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/01/23/saturday-5-iraqis-killed-6-wounded/
Sunday: 19 Iraqis killed, 9 wounded
Excerpt:
At least 19 Iraqis were killed and nine more were wounded
in the latest attacks. The casualty figures include eight victims found
in a
mass grave. Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered
a probe into the purchase of ADE 651 bomb detectors from a British
company.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/01/24/sunday-19-iraqis-killed-9-wounded/
Ahmad Chalabi at the center of Iraq's election
scandal / Jason DItz
Back again like a bad penny, controversial Iraqi politician and architect of the 2003
US invasion Ahmed Chalabi has once again returned to the headlines
amid a growing election scandal.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/01/22/ahmed-chalabi-at-the-center-of-iraqs-election-scandal/
Lebanon
Northern Command chief: Reports of tension in north
are virtual reality
Major-General
Eisenkot
says IDF exercises along Lebanese border meant to 'maintain
the quiet'; dismisses Nasrallah threats as 'empty slogans'
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838636,00.html
Ayalon: Hezbollah testing antiaircraft missiles
Deputy
foreign
minister meets in Jerusalem with UN special coordinator for
Lebanon, warns him Shiite organization getting supplies of advanced
weapon systems
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838871,00.html
U.S., world news
Far-rightists call Rahm Emanuel a traitor to the
Jewish people
Prominent far-right activists Itamar Ben Gvir and
Baruch Marzel wrote a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
over the weekend, threatening to protest his upcoming visit to Israel,
Army Radio reported on Sunday.
Gvir and Marzel attacked Emanuel's allegiance to Israel and the
Jewish nation. "You are like the Hellenists who acted against the
Israeli nation. You advise President Obama against Israel, and incite
and instigate against us. You are a traitor against the entire Jewish
people," Army Radio reported, quoting the letter.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144699.html
More anti-Semitic incidents reported in 2009 than any
year since WW II
Nearly half of Western European believe that Jews
exploit the persecution of their past as a method of extorting money,
according to an annual Jewish Agency report released on Sunday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144733.html
Analysts' view: 'Back to basics': Bin Laden hits
US-Israel tie
(Reuters) ...London-bases Saudi analyst Mai Yamani: The Palestinian
cause is
the beating heart of the Middle East. If the previous Bush
administration had focused on trying to solve the Arab-Israeli dispute
then there would be no excuse for bin Laden, and this justification
behind all this sort of propaganda would have tended to disintegrate.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE60N0BM.htm
Fear and Hate: How the New York Times found ways to
justify hostility to Muslims
Notice that the New York Times
has a new policy.
It refers to anti-Semitism as hate and prejudice (which it is), while
it now refers to anti-Islam as fear. To attribute fear to sentiments
and ideologies of hate is to rationalize the hate and cover up the
prejudice. Nazi anti-Semites often attributed anti-Semitism to fears,
and that notion should of course be rejected. Yet, the New York Times
now is referring to blatant expression of hate against Arabs and
Muslims as mere fears.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/01/fear-and-hate-how-new-york-times-found.html
Guantánamo group of 47
'should be held indefinitely' (BBC)
A task force on the US prison camp at Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba, has
advised that 47 inmates should be held indefinitely without trial,
officials say ... A US civil liberties group has said detainees should
not be held without due process in Guantánamo or
elsewhere. The news came as the deadline US President Barack Obama had
set himself for closing the prison camp passed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8476075.stm |
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