Headlines for 12-08-07

In pictures: West Bank Bedouin cling to traditions amid settlement pressure


Gulf Challenges US on Iran, Israel "We can't really compare Iran with Israel. Iran is our neighbor, and we shouldn't really look at it as an enemy," said Sheik Hamad. "I think Israel through 50 years has taken land, kicking out the Palestinians, and interferes under the excuse of security, blaming the other party."
U.S. support for Israel is very unpopular in the Middle East, even among closely allied Gulf states, and Washington's unconditional support for Israeli nuclear development has complicated its push against Iran.


Israel no nuclear threat to neighbours, says Gates Was it Iran that annihilated Lebanon last summer? Was it Iran that wiped Palestine off the map and in its place established by force the state of Israel? Was it Iran that committed war crimes during an attack on the USS Liberty that took the lives of 34 Americans? Is it Iran that has ignored tens of UN resolutions for nearly sixty years?


Rogue Israeli settlements in West Bank continue


Boim rebuffs Rice on Har Homa Israel's construction and housing minister rebuffed U.S. criticism of a plan to build new homes in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood.


Wider West Bank settlements proposed Israeli ministers are mulling a proposal that would allow a "massive" expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and retroactively legalize dozens of settler outposts, said a former Israeli state attorney who oversaw a government study on Jewish building in the disputed territory.


'US report ended attack option on Iran' ** "It looks like this ends the military option against Iran for now. Israel won't attack alone. Iran's facilities are too many and spread too far apart." ......Time reported that Israel's leaders were surprised and disappointed by the American report, understanding that it considerably lessened the likelihood of an American strike on Iran, an action Israel hoped the US would take if sanctions failed to stop the Iranian nuclear program. I wouldn't discount Cheney and the neocons. They might cook something up to get their attack on Iran, as they've done in the past with Iraq (via the Office of Special Plans).


Hamas denies intentions to give up Gaza facilities for dialogue


Testimony: Israel delays treatment of two Gaza toddlers


U.S. report on Iran's nuclear program 'flawed,' says Israel's ex-deputy defense minister Isarel and consequently its lobby (including the neocons) in the States are on the offense - their cries getting more shrill by the minute. It's rather reminiscent of the boy who cried wolf.


Palestinian 'settlement' protests Israeli expansion Activists built a mock Palestinian "settlement" in the West Bank on Saturday to protest a potential Israeli expansion there as Israel's housing minister vowed to proceed with a similar project in occupied east Jerusalem.


"No fuel, no gasoline, no benzene" With the majority of gas stations closed in Gaza due to the escalating fuel crisis, a group of local Gaza taxi drivers shared the fuel in their cars' tanks, for the sake of going back home, rather than earning a living under already dire economic conditions.



A Gaza patient dies because of the Israeli siege The medics identified the dead as Zuhair Hussain, a cancer patient of his sixties, saying that the ministry has asked for his referral to a hospital outside Gaza, yet the Israeli authorities refused to grant him access


Unilateral military strike still an option, senior ministers insist ** Binyamin Netanyahu, the popular rightwing opposition leader, was asked whether Israel should launch its own military operation. "We always prefer international action, led by the United States, but we have to ensure that we can protect our country with all means," he told the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz yesterday.


PA asks U.S. to force Israel stick to Road Map "We loudly ask the US administration to act as the judge and compel Israel to implement its commitments which the Road Map plan specified," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio.


Hamas: Shalit didn't convey a letter to Israel The statement was a reaction to earlier reports saying that Shalit's captors accepted to send a video tape for Shalit to his family in Israel "for reopening Rafah borders crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt."


US Defence Secretary sees Iran as threat to US and Mideast Gates rejected suggestions the US applied a double-standards policy towards Iran and Israel, which has never confirmed it has a nuclear arsenal but is widely believed to be the only state in the Middle East with such weapons, estimated to number 200.


Palestinians to call for 7.1 billion dollars at donor conference


Hamas chief visits Saudi for talks: aide Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal is holding talks with officials in Saudi Arabia, amid moves by the oil-rich kingdom to boost its role in securing peace across the Middle East, a source close to Meshaal said on Saturday.


Gulf countries challenge U.S. on Iran and Israel at security conference "Not considering Israel a threat to security in the region is considered a biased policy that is based on a double standard," said Abdul-Rahman al-Attiyah, the secretary general of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council. It sure is. And it's the same double standard that George Washington warned about in his Farewell Address.


A local PFLP leader calls on Hamas to renounce hegemony over Gaza


Palestinian militant groups resume rockets attacks on Israel Al-Aqsa Brigades, Fatah's military offshoot and Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for launching three makeshift rockets at southern Israel.


Official: Dialogue between Fatah, Hamas to be postponed A senior Hamas official revealed on Saturday that a dialogue between his movement and rival Fatah movement is to be postponed until after the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to the region in January.


Palestinian UN Envoy: Israeli attacks have destroyed hope for peace


Israeli police interrogate three Israeli journalists who visited Arab states


Hamas says Israeli settlement expansion plan "slap" on Annapolis attendants


ACTION UPDATE! 11 Human Rights activists arrested in E-1 Area! Early this morning Palestinians built a house in the controversial E-1 area. Palestinians are routinely denied permits to build on their own land, and homes that have been built are demolished. The Human Rights activists stayed inside for a few hours before a large police and army presence evicted them through use of force.



Three injured in peaceful protest near Ramallah


Fake edition of Sun sets off lawsuit The owner of The Vancouver Sun has launched a lawsuit against a pro-Palestinian activist and a local printing company over the publication of a fake edition of the daily newspaper.


Go home or go to jail, Lebanon tells Iraqi refugees


Nuclear fallout / Who's right here? Over the last year, a certain hope has developed in Israel that the U.S. would do our dirty work for us; because what is possibly going on, quietly and secretly, between President Bush and his spiritual advisers will lead Bush to the conclusion that his supreme moral obligation is to remove the Iranian nuclear danger threatening Israel before he passes his job on to his successor.
....Is Israel capable of presenting the Americans with any information that can prove to the Americans their new evaluation is wrong? And what new policy will Jerusalem need to formulate on the Iranian issue, based on the reasonable assumption the U.S. will not change its mind?.....The report will most likely also have an indirect effect on the Israeli-Palestinian process. If Israel no longer enjoys the full support of the Americans on nuclear matters, then Israel is likely to feel less committed to make concessions and move forward in talks with the Palestinians. Hmm, so that last sentence suggests, as I and some others have too, that Israel is only putting on a dog and pony show for this peace agreement in order to get the US to attack Iran?...


Largest Dutch trade union will increase pressure on Israel


Middle East huge for Sundance Palestinian hip-hop, tall tales in Jordan, the gritty realities of war in Lebanon and a pair of star-crossed lovers straddling the Arab-Israeli divide. The Sundance Film Festival has lined up a record number of films from the Middle East for its Park City outing in 2008.


The New Republic and National Review fabricate Middle East news ? Say it Ain?t so?


EU: New settlements, Gaza Siege, targeted assassinations acts of war, not peace


An untraditional tradition for the holiday season Another offering from Duke Chapel is the sale of Bethlehem Imports products -- hand-carved olive wood ornaments, nativity sets, figurines and crucifixes. These carvings are used in the chapel's Christmas decorations. All proceeds go to support economically struggling Christian Palestinian artisans and local mission organizations.


Church briefs Hannah Mermelstein, Jewish American human rights volunteer with the International Women's Peace Service, will present a talk entitled "Life in Occupied Palestine" at 10:15 a.m. Dec. 16 at Salina Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 901 Beatrice. The talk is free and open to the public. Mermelstein, who also is co-founder of Birthright Unplugged, will present photos, videos and stories from her work with Palestinian refugees, Israeli activists, and others working nonviolently for peace and justice in Israel/Palestine.


Report: Israel to reopen Rafah crossing in exchange for new Shalit tape According to the report, which quoted Fatah officials as its source, the recent crossing of Palestinian pilgrims en route to Mecca through the Rafah crossing was not made without Israel's consent, but in return for a new tape featuring Shalit.


India should suspend military ties with Israel: Karat "We demand the stopping of at least security and military collaboration with Israel till it comes to the negotiating table and arrive at a reasonable settlement with Palestine,"


Author/Journalist Phil Weiss on The Jewish Community's Turn Toward Peace


Israeli Dep'y Defense Minister to American Jews: Help U.S. Make Peace Now or We Face 100-Years War There was throughout the evening the strong feeling, and what a testament to the IPF this is, that Yes there is an Israel lobby, and it is many of the people in this room, and the time has come to take your foot off the breathing tube of the Palestinians.


Siege that spells slow death for the innocents


Letters | The crimes of the Zionists