Headlines for 12-05-07

One killed in Bethlehem shooting A Palestinian security force member has been shot dead in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, reportedly by Israeli soldiers on an arrest mission.


Israeli army kills Gaza militants At least two Palestinian militants from the Hamas movement have been killed by Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip, local medical sources say.


Hamas: Palestinian security forces arrest 18 of the movements' members in the West Bank


Israel launches diplomatic offensive to counter US report Bush said the report's finding would not prompt him to take a US military option against Tehran off the table.


Hebron Update: 26 November - 2 December 2007


New scepticism drives Iran report The Israelis have already rejected the NIE finding, claiming that Iran has re-started its nuclear weapons effort.
And critics in the United States are attacking the authors of the report, Mr Fingar among them. The Wall Street Journal said he was one of three "hyper-partisan anti-Bush officials" behind the NIE.
On behalf of all the true patriots in the American intel community that stood up for justice on this one, here's to Israel and the neocons.


Sneh: NIE should spur Israel readiness The lesson Sneh drew from the NIE is that Israel could no longer rely on the United States to lead the battle to force Iran to back down from enriching uranium. Whose war is this?


U.S. report on Iran's nukes puts Israel in difficult position The surprise assessment stunned many in Israel, which has relied on the United States for support of the view that Iran constitutes a grave strategic threat........ "Nowadays the thinking is to favor inaction in the absence of hard information." 'Holy crap! They won't be duped again! Looks like we may have to fight our own battles...'


Several medical clinics close in Gaza due to fuel shortage


Palestinian speaker denies offering Egypt to run Gaza security compounds


Hamas urges talks with Abbas amid Israeli attacks


Abbas aide: Israel can't continue settlement construction and do peace at the same time


Israel ready for Gaza operation if needed: army chief


'More effective sanctions' needed to stop Iran: Israeli minister both Russia and China, who sit on the UN Security Council, suggest that the report downgrades Tehran's nuclear weapons risk and therefore lessens the need for additional UN sanctions. Israel disagrees.



Hamas asks Arab states to condemn Israeli attacks in Gaza After three Palestinians were killed Wednesday morning in Gaza by an Israeli airstrike, adding to a death toll of fifteen killed in less than a week, the Hamas party called on allies of the Palestinian people to condemn the Israeli aggression.


Israel feels alone after report on Iran ** "This forces the Israelis to make a decision instead of being able to take some comfort that the U.S. would take action at some point," said Wayne White, former deputy director of the State Department's Middle East Intelligence Office. Well, but, whose war is it? Not ours. Chicken Little has already gotten us into one fine mess. They're on their own now, rightly so.


Sick Gazans stuck in queue of death Born last week with a heart defect, Salem al-Masri needs life-saving surgery. But like hundreds in the Gaza Strip, he and his parents have no permit from Israel to exit the enclave to a suitably equipped hospital....."The Israelis either refuse to give people permits or delay them until the disease spreads and causes death,"


Abbas says Jerusalem settlement growth undermines peace In a letter sent to US President George W. Bush Abbas, he demanded that Israel reverse the proposed expansion of the Har Homa settlement, according to Saleh Raafat, a senior member of Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).


Israeli army kidnaps 20 Palestinians from a village near Ramallah.


Israeli legal group aims to keep country Jewish Nachi Eyal, director of the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, an Israel-based organization of volunteer lawyers dedicated to ?keeping Israel Jewish,? was in town to canvass Toronto?s Jewish legal community for support last week.


State Holds Off on Saudi Arms Deal While blocking foreign arms sales is rare by Congress, the Bush administration's plans to sell Saudi Arabia such sophisticated weaponry has raised eyebrows on both sides of the aisle. The Joint Direct Attack Munitions technology would lend the country's armed forces highly accurate targeting abilities that could threaten Israel, lawmakers say.


With Bush on our side The ramifications for the longer term, the years following the Bush presidency, are more worrisome for Jerusalem. No matter who is president in Washington, Israel now confronts a united American military and intelligence front declaring that the Iranian nuclear issue is not urgent and probably not dangerous and rejecting an American military response.......if the new NIE prompts the US to expand its diplomatic exchange of views with Iran, Israel should urge Washington to represent its security concerns forcefully. Why is it up to us to defend Israel? Why the US and always only the US? Did the Israel-firsters in Congress slip it into the Constitution yet? JFC.


Iraqis 'left to rot' in Lebanon


Archaeologists find 2,000-year-old palace in east Jerusalem The suburb is part of Arab east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed soon thereafter, a move not recognised by the international community.


IAF chief draws Iran-Hitler link The commander of the Israeli Air Force urged his top brass to consider Iran's president a possible modern Hitler.


Palestinian militants clash in Lebanon camp A 10-year-old Palestinian girl was wounded in an armed clash on Wednesday between rival factions in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Helweh in south Lebanon, Palestinian officials said.


Lebanon Crisis: Health Cluster Bulletin No. 36, 05 Dec 2007 Landmines/UXOs/cluster bombs continue to cause casualties.


Proposed boycott of Israeli universities prompts speaker series on 'intellectual exchange'


Correcting Mideast view


Settlers ask High Court to stop eviction from Hebron building


Representative Tom Lantos: "True Blue and White"


Ex-head of Arabic school denied old job The founding principal of the city's first Arabic-themed school, forced out over comments she made to a newspaper about the word "intifada," is not entitled to get her job back, a judge said in a preliminary ruling Wednesday.


Sarkozy urges civilian nuclear cooperation with Muslim nations "Depriving the Palestinians of a nation state is an injustice that France will not accept," he said


Israel protests Egypt's opening of Gaza border for pilgrims Egypt allowed some 700 Palestinians to cross into Egypt Monday so that they can travel to Saudi Arabia and attend the Muslim Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, which starts December 18 this year.


LWF Calls Israeli, Palestinian Leaders to Urgently Pursue Annapolis Objective


Chandler family readjusts after ordeal in Gaza "We honestly didn't think we'd see each other again," Somaya said of her father leaving Gaza. "We had almost no hope."


Groups defend sanctions in wake of report Normally such an assessment would vindicate the decades-long drive by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to enact sanctions against Iran. AIPAC was the lead group -- at times the only group -- making the case in Congress and through the U.S. media that Tehran was pursuing a bomb, and that it should be stopped through economic and political sanctions......AIPAC and the Bush administration have pushed harder than ever in recent months to escalate Iran's isolation
The Israeli lobby behind the curtains again? Never would've guessed that....