Headlines for 12-12-07

Palestinians demand halt to settlements as peace talks begin The first formal Middle East peace negotiations in seven years got off to a tense start today with the Palestinian Authority demanding a halt to Israeli plans to build settlements on disputed territory.


A female Palestinian police officer directs traffic in the West Bank city of Ramallah


Sarkozy: Israel could attack Iran ** Israel is more likely to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities than the United States, Nicolas Sarkozy said.


Israel eyes hitting Iran **


Islamic Jihad claims firing rockets into southern Israel He vowed that his fighters would not stop firing rockets as long as Israel continues its operation into the coastal enclave.



Israeli military attacks close several media centers in Nabulus


Hamas-Fatah unofficial talks continue despite wide differences


Security cabinet says no to Gaza operation some 970 Qassam rockets and 1,200 mortar shells were fired from Gaza towards Israel since the beginning of 2007. Israel suffered five related casualties ? three IDF soldiers and two civilians.


Germany supplies the PA with logistic support Germany has supplied the Palestinian Authority (PA) with wireless telecommunication devices, worth $87.000, as a gesture of support to underway peace-making efforts between the Palestinians and Israelis.


Palestinian firm plans new multi-million-dollar town


Israel's top general says big Gaza push more likely Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, appointed after last year's costly Lebanon war with a mandate to overhaul the military, said Israel would also prepare to attack distant targets -- a possible allusion to arch-foes Iran and Syria.


Israeli official: U.S. is not doing enough on Iran nukes A senior Israeli official has fiercely criticized U.S. President George Bush's administration for the way it has dealt with the Iranian nuclear issue.


Indian support to Palestine has not wavered: minister 'India's support to the Palestinian cause has not wavered,' he said, reminding the committee that India had recognized Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as a representative of the Palestinian people in 1975 and was one of the first countries to recognize the State of Palestine in 1988.


Four kidnapped in Hebron including one female


Three wise men hit a barrier in Bethlehem "I wanted to give the world an idea of how we live in the Holy Land," the 65-year-old Palestinian carpenter said in his workshop, his sweater speckled with sawdust.


Teenage dreams of wrecking peace process from Jewish outpost Naming their wildcat outpost Shvut Ami -- "the return of my people" -- their aim is to torpedo the peace process as Israelis and Palestinians began formal negotiations on Wednesday for the first time in seven years.......A resident of Kedumim she is closely watching developments. Her neighbour, Shoshana Shilo, who works for the council, has just been stopped by police for helping teenagers to uproot olive seedlings planted by a Palestinian farmer.


Restrictions block Palestinian revival-World Bank Increased foreign aid and Palestinian plans to rein in government spending will not be enough to revive their economy if Israeli-imposed trade and travel limits stay in place, the World Bank said on Thursday.


New Poll Reveals How Unrepresentative Neocon Jewish Groups Are One of the defining traits of war-loving neoconservatives is that their unrelenting and exclusive fixation on the Middle East places them loudly at the center of any foreign policy debates. That tenacity - combined with their reckless exploitation of "anti-Israel" and anti-Semitism accusations as instruments in their political rhetoric and their corresponding, deceitful equation of their own views with being "pro-Israel" - often casts the appearance that they are some sort of spokespeople for the "pro-Israel" agenda or the Jewish viewpoint.


Bringing Iran in from the cold ** One of the reasons the NIE is so politically sensitive is that it is really not about whether a nuclear Iran threatens America but about whether it threatens Israel. The Israel connection makes it extremely difficult for any U.S. politician to advocate anything other than a confrontational stance with Iran......it's the existential threat to Israel that has allowed Bush to play let's-make-war-on-Iraq all over again, with just as little resistance. It's no accident that Bush used the inflammatory expression "nuclear holocaust" when discussing Iran in August. At an October press conference, Bush was even more explicit. "We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel," Bush said. "So I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from hav[ing] the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."



Leaders condemn Lebanon car bomb Politicians in Lebanon have condemned a bomb attack which killed a general slated to become army chief.


Lebanon blames Syria, Iran for deadly blast


Israeli Charity Saving Iraqi Children One Heart at a Time


U.S. reps want audit of refugee aid U.S. Congress members will push Condoleezza Rice for accountability on relief funds for Palestinian refugee camps.


Thanks, but no thanks Olmert demands of Palestinians that they must give up their history. President Bush decides for them what their borders and rights must be. And Tony Blair wags a finger and tells Palestinians that they won't get a state at all unless, it meets his high standards (sic) of governance


Halevy: Israel must be in on US-Iran talks Highlighting new indications that the US government will directly engage with Iran in the near future on all issues including its nuclear program, former Mossad head Efraim Halevy said Tuesday that Israel must ensure that it is a direct participant in such contacts. Otherwise, he warned, the future of the region will be determined in a forum from which Israel is excluded.....Asked why Iran would agree to any such direct contact with Israel, Halevy said that Israel should ensure that the US makes it a precondition.


The Israel Lobby and the War Party Israel is sitting pretty, right now, openly threatening its patron and financier, the United States government, with taking the Iranian nuke matter into its own hands and launching an attack on suspected nuclear facilities ? leaving U.S. troops in Iraq to face the Iranians and their Iraqi allies.


Israeli intel warns of waning support in the West The Cabinet was briefed on the Israeli intelligence assessment during a meeting on Nov. 21. ISA director Yuval Diskin said the proposal of "one state for two people" was sweeping Europe.


Postal workers pass anti-Israel resolution A regional conference of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has passed a resolution supporting the boycott of Israel and pledging an educational campaign about "the apartheid nature of the Israel [sic] state.".....Levinson brought his concerns to Canadian Jewish Congress, which has been meeting with a number of Canadian unions and churches in a bid to moderate their statements on the Middle East.


Clinton to be player on Hillary's team Discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Clinton noted he has many Palestinian friends and "I literally don"t know a single Palestinian in America who is not a college professor or a millionaire."


My Roommate Is My Enemy, Though We Do Like to Sing A musical comedy about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict sounds more like a punch line than like a pleasant night at the theater. (What yuks!) But the creators of ?West Bank, UK,? Oren Safdie (book) and Ronnie Cohen (music and lyrics), do an excellent job of avoiding the most obvious pitfalls ? partisanship, preachiness and political naïveté ? even if they get bogged down in allegory.


Keohane of Princeton on Walt and Mearsheimer


Politics before peace Reports produced by Israelis themselves have made clear the continuing policies of land expropriation, destruction of Palestinian farms, construction of a separate road system that bars Palestinians from traveling in their own territory, nearly 600 checkpoints that make daily life nearly impossible for local inhabitants, and military protection even of illegal Jewish outposts.


Extension of detention law for security suspects approved The legislation grants the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) authority to deny security suspects access to judges and lawyers, far exceeding the powers granted to police in the case of "regular" criminals.


U. of California at Irvine Cleared in Investigation of Anti-Semitism The civil-rights office had conducted an extensive investigation of the university's handling of alleged incidents of anti-Semitism in response to a letter of complaint filed in October 2004 by the Zionist Organization of America......After looking into and attending annual weeklong events protesting Israel's policies toward the Palestinian people, for example, the federal office?s investigators acknowledged that much of the speech at the events was offensive to Jewish students, but such speech was aimed at Israel's policies, and not Jewish students' national origin. The cry of wolf is starting to lose its oomph due to abuse and overuse.


DJ Khaled: Reaching Elite Status Born Khaled Khaled, this Palestinian New Orleans native comes off as a real person with big, yet attainable aspirations in this game.


Migrants were left to die, boat victims confirm Palestinian survivor Mustafa Kamil said: "We gathered in small groups. The groups did not know each other until then. We were sitting very close to each other on the boat. All of a sudden, there were screams and panic. I did not see how and why the boat went down."


Israel called Clinton refugee plan vague "Israel could not accept any reference to the right of return that would ... threaten the Jewish character of the state," Clinton wrote, noting that "the state of Palestine would be the focal point of Palestinians who choose to return to the area."



The Countdown to a Two State Agreement Begins! In a symbolic show of support for ongoing negotiations, today the OneVoice Movement announced the launch of a public awareness campaign through 6 digital screens announcing that the People -- as well as the leaders -- accept 2008 as the year for the two state agreement.


Bush will be 'hands-on' during Mideast trip: Rice US President George W. Bush will use his Middle East trip next month to intervene with the Israelis and Palestinians to spur on peace talks, his top diplomat said in an interview published Wednesday.


Rachel Corrie play set to run in Vancouver Adam Carroll, the western regional director of the Canada-Israel Committee. concedes that Corrie's death is tragic. "But I want people to realize that the play serves a very specific political agenda and tries to pull audiences against Israel without providing context or balance