Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Headlines for 12-11-07

Israel tanks enter Gaza on eve of peace talks Israeli troops in tanks and armoured vehicles mounted an incursion into Gaza yesterday, killing at least six Palestinian militants on the eve of a new round of peace talks.......Around 60 Palestinians were detained in what was the largest Israeli operation in Gaza for several months. Palestinian fighters fired back and hit one Israeli tank.


Undercover Israeli forces kidnap Palestinian from Ramallah


PLO: Israeli settlement expansion blocks talks on final-status issues


Deposed Hamas gov't calls for boycotting talks with Israel Deposed Hamas-led government in Gaza Tuesday called on Palestinian negotiators to boycott final status talks with Israel due to kick off Wednesday


Abbas' aide confirms PNA won't boycott post-Annapolis negotiations


Palestinian official hopes Bush visit to push Israel to implement roadmap plan A senior Palestinian official expressed hope on Sunday that an upcoming visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to the Middle East would push Israel to implement the roadmap plan.


U.S. report on Iran forces Israel to alter strategy ** The Israeli dilemma is how to prove Iran is cheating without being accused of trying to push the United States into war. That is why the official strategy is to work quietly behind the scenes......The new Israeli strategy is based on four main elements:
· actively pushing for stiffer international sanctions on Iran, despite the U.S. report; · working quietly behind the scenes to convince others through Israel?s own intelligence material that Iran is intent on producing nuclear weapons; · refraining from arguing with the U.S. assessment in public, lest Israel be seen to be trying to push the United States into military action against Iran; · and Israel keeping open its own military options.......the scenario that would have had the United States "take care" of Iran in return for Israeli concessions to the Palestinians has been blown out of the water.



Israeli and Palestinian businessmen urge trade talks


Olmert says Iran still dangerous Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has insisted Iran's nuclear programme remains dangerous, and called on world powers to prevent it acquiring atomic weapons 'wolf! WOLF!!'


Russia alarmed by Israel's plans to build homes in East Jerusalem


At-Tuwani Update: 1 November - 30 November 2007 An Italian film director came to film the children from Tuba walking to school in At-Tuwani with the army escort. She told CPT that she had contacted the Israeli army asking if she could drive over to Tuba (on the road between the settlement and the outpost) to film the children as they left their village


Troops demolish a Palestinian home in Jerusalem Israeli bulldozes belonging to Jerusalem Municipality demolished on Tuesday a Palestinian home in the Old City of Jerusalem and attacked two brothers while attempting to evacuate their furniture from the house before the bulldozers leveled it.


Hebron Update: 3-9 December 2007 Hicks met with a group of US Presbyterians to tell them about CPT's work. While waiting for the group outside the Ibrahimi Mosque, the border police detained their guide, a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem. He got his ID back when the group came out of the mosque. He said the border police officer commented, "Oh, a Christian from Bethlehem. You think you are so special." He commented to Hicks, "This is normal for you, I guess."


Daimler and UNESCO Honor Young Engineers for Innovative Development Aid Projects Engineering students from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah partnered with a team from the Birzeit University, Deir Quaddis, Palestinian Territories, and invented a simple filtration system to treat hazardous wastewater produced by olive oil mills in the Palestinian Territories.


Blair sleeps in Bethlehem to show Holy Land safe Bethlehem residents say Israel's towering barrier blocking the main road from Jerusalem deters tourists and stifles the economy as well as taking land they seek for a state


Abbas awaiting Israel response on settlement bid The Palestinians want Israel to state a clear intention to halt settlement activity in the West Bank at their first round of peace negotiations on Wednesday, president Mahmud Abbas said.


Bethlehem tourism looking up for Christmas The barrier has devastated Palestinian farmers, the mayor said, confiscating 7,000 dunums (about 700 acres or 280 hectares) of arable land, making the lives of Palestinians "almost impossible" and putting them in "ghettos".


Turkey calls Israeli settlement plan 'shocking' Gul said Israel's plan was "clearly in violation" of decisions made at the Middle East peace conference in Annapolis last month, at which Israel and the Palestinians agreed to try to negotiate a peace deal before the end of 2008.


White House Fought NIE Over an Old Charge ** By November 2006, the Central Intelligence Agency had already circulated an assessment within the intelligence community that rejected the covert weapons program thesis, as Hersh reported in late November. However, Vice President Dick Cheney and his aides were trying to exclude the CIA's assessment from the NIE, a senior intelligence official told Hersh. .......Another tactic used by Cheney was to cite a new claim by Israeli intelligence that its spies inside Iran had learned that Iran had developed and tested a trigger device for a nuclear bomb......The CIA did not regard the report as reliable, especially in the absence of details that would allow verification. But Cheney asked for the original raw Israeli intelligence report, according to Hersh ? the same thing Cheney and top Pentagon officials had done in constructing their case for the invasion of Iraq in 2002.


53 die in Turkey shipwreck Seven of the 85 people on board have been rescued and 25 were reported missing, officials said. Most passengers were of Palestinian, Somalian and Iraqi origin.


UN appeals for 462 million dollars in Palestinian aid


Saudi says Israel settlement move against Annapolis "The kingdom strongly condemns Israel's decision to expand settlement building in East Jerusalem, which contradicts the bases and principles of the Annapolis peace conference," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters.


Israel keeps up pressure on Iran ** Israel and the US seem to be working off the same intelligence sources.
The Israeli view, therefore, represents a different assessment of the same data. "Only time will tell who is right," Mr Barak said.
Well we know who was WRONG about Iraq. That's why the NIE took a different view this time (rightly so), geniuses.


Palestinians to urge settlement freeze at talks Palestinian leaders said on Tuesday they decided to attend the meeting but insist Israel freeze settlement activity.


Israeli Arab women demand end to custom that left them homeless Arab custom stipulates the family of the alleged murderer must leave its dwelling until a truce is reached, in order to prevent bloodshed and retaliation


Sarkozy and Netanyahu Met on Monday French President Nicholas Sarkozy assured opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday that he would continue to do everything possible to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.


The true aim of Annapolis, and why it failed


As rivals gain, Clinton and Giuliani get a lift from Jewish survey Giuliani's popularity among Jews derives partly from his unstinting support for Israel, but also because he is the most moderate Republican, corresponding with the positioning of some Jewish organizational leaders and pro-Israel activists who are hawkish on foreign policy but liberal on domestic issues like church-state separation, gay marriage and abortion.


Lebanese Hezbollah supporters protest electricity outage The protestors were chanting slogans denouncing the western-backed government of Premier Fouad Seniora and some figures from the anti- Syrian majority and called for electricity to their areas to be restored.


Bush uses menorah lighting to meet Jews who knew persecution Edelstein said Bush told him, " 'I'm not imposing a terrorist state on you.' " "The idea of a Palestinian state is for creating a coalition of moderate groups in the Middle East," Edelstein said. "He believes the creation of a Palestinian state puts an end to the right of return for Palestinians" to Israel.



'Green' Israel touted in San Francisco "From the start, our PR goal has been to use issues that people already care about, like women, the LGBT community and the environment, and relate that to Israel,"


Germany frees Iranian 'bargaining chips' Germany released two jailed Iranian agents whom Israel had wanted swapped for missing airman Ron Arad.


Israel's resolution adopted at U.N The resolution calls on developed countries to make their knowledge and know-how in the field of agricultural technology more accessible to the developing world.



Critics of Israel lobby draw fire


Splinter group bids to keep the outpost movement alive "If we want the land to be ours, then we have to come and settle it. This is the first step toward what I hope will one day be a community here," Ayana said, looking out at the sloping, sand-colored hills across from Ma?ale Adumim, one of the largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank located just a few miles outside of Jerusalem.......This one, its supporters say, is meant to ensure neighboring Ma?ale Adumim is expanded into an area called E-1 -- a controversial swath of land many say cuts off the northern and southern parts of the West Bank......"Everything was done with the government's permission, even if it was with a wink, therefore everything is legal,? Avigdor Lieberman, Israel?s minister for strategic affairs, was quoted as saying. Land-grabbing psychos.


Arab group: Israel committed war crimes during Lebanon war Arab Association for Human Rights says Israel violated international humanitarian law during Second Lebanon War by 'positioning temporary and permanent military outposts in close proximity to Arab communities'. IDF: decision on where to position these installations was based solely on operational considerations


Poll shows drop in Jewish support for Palestinian state


Israel PM warns Iran can develop nuclear bomb by 2010 The NIE report last week said US allegations about Iran's atomic goals had been overblown for at least two years, but that Tehran could have the capability to make a nuclear weapon by 2015.


Subterranean kitchen A Palestinian woman bakes traditional bread in her home in a hillside cave in the West Bank village of Ghwien


DFLP, PFLP, Islamic Jihad delegates visit a number of Human Rights Organizations in Gaza


Anglican leader condemns Israeli occupation The leader of Australia's Anglican church has spoken out against Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. Anglican Primate Phillip Aspinall has been touring the West Bank with a delegation of Australian church leaders.


Frank talk about the Israel lobby


US Public Diplomacy Chief Departs Amid Praise, Criticism Hughes quickly embarked on a tour of the Middle East. "I came home from my very first trip and asked to see the president," she said. She says she told Mr. Bush that making progress on the creation of a Palestinian state would be the single most important thing he could do for public diplomacy among Muslims worldwide.


No. 6 Day in pictures Israeli police arrest a Palestinian man after he tried to prevent the demolition of his family house in Jerusalem, which officials say was built without permission.


Second Committee approves text calling on Member States, United Nations system to step up promotion of agricultural technology for development Noting that Israel had recently announced the building of 307 settlement housing units on Palestinian agricultural land in East Jerusalem, he said those units would add to the settlements already established on agricultural lands in the occupied Syrian Golan and Lebanon's Shab'aa Farms, which remained under continuing Israeli occupation. The Arab Group was convinced that Israel was neither interested in agriculture nor the peace process. It pretended to be concerned about agricultural technology and development everywhere but the occupied Arab lands where it continued to adopt policies that undermined all forms of agriculture.


Running a gauntlet in Jerusalem To most of the world, Efrat ? population about 8,000 ? is an illegal Israeli settlement constructed on stolen land, territory that properly belongs to Palestinians.....The truth is, nobody is forcing Israelis to live in Efrat or in any of the other nearby Jewish settlements that hug these ruddy hills like huge slabs of limestone honeycomb. Israelis who live here, on what most people consider to be Palestinian land, do so because they choose to



Bad form on campus Being an advocate for Israel on any American university campus poses a myriad of challenges Getting more difficult to shill for Israel these days, is it? ...


Palestinian refugees demonstrate in northern Lebanon Palestinians went on strike in northern Lebanon Tuesday to protest the delay in efforts to reconstruct the devasated Nahr al-Bared camp,


Popular Tunisian singer Saber el-Rubai makes rare visit to West Bank One of the most popular singers in the Arab world, Tunisian Saber el-Rubai, made a rare visit to the West Bank on Tuesday and urged other Arab artists to follow in his footsteps.


America's silly demand I'm saying all of this because it's difficult to understand the huge outcry. Har Homa was built on land that is part of Greater Jerusalem. It is not located on land that the State of Israel "forgot" to handle the way David Ben Gurion handled the territories captured in 1948 Territory taken by force is inadmissible according to international law. Most of Israel today was never purchased, but taken by force. The same goes for the land taken in the West Bank and E. Jerusalem for more settlements.


Syria sees long way to go before reclaiming Golan


The Murdochs and the Middle East Rupert Murdoch is such a hard-right supporter of Israel -- Ariel Sharon was his great hero (he even visited him on his farm) -- that many regard him as a Zionist. So the staunchly pro-Israel Wall Street Journal has nothing to fear on that front as the Murdoch tentacles get to grips with it.....But that might be about to change for these newspapers are all now under the control of Murdoch's son, James, who has pronounced pro-Palestinian views which he holds strongly......It would be quite a shift if the Murdoch papers became pro-Palestinian -- and a matter for grave concern among the pro-Israeli lobby



Israel-Vatican relations hit rocky ground


'Kite Runner' defies film stereotypes of Muslims

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