Headlines for 03-14-08

The Popular Committees demands Islamic Summit to protect the Aqsa Mosque


Egypt quietly lets in 230 patients from Gaza


At-Tuwani - Israeli Soldiers and Border Police Assault Palestinian Shepherds While Palestinian shepherds grazed their sheep and worked in their olive groves in Khoruba valley, near the Palestinian village of At-Tuwani, Israeli police threatened them with arrest and assaulted them. A border police officer twisted the wrist of one shepherd and pushed him to the ground. Police grabbed another by his collar and pushed several other Palestinians. Palestinians were attempting to graze their sheep and repair olives trees damaged by Israeli settlers over the last month


Hebron: The Seventh Station ? Jesus Falls the Second Time Under the Weight of His Cross Just before sunrise, the Israeli military had come in the name of the State of Israel, gun and demolition orders at ready, driving out the families, forcibly holding them back while the bulldozers smash their houses? Left in the piles of rubble, the families sit crushed with nothing left but the weight of their homes twice and thrice lost. .


Two Israelis wounded in clashes with IDF at anti-fence protest Two Israeli protestors were wounded Friday in clashes with Israel Defense Forces troops during a weekly protest against the construction of the West Bank separation fence near the Palestinian village of Bil'in. The protesters accused IDF troops of firing rubber bullets directly at them from short range, without any provocation. They do that quite frequently, evidently. That's how all of those Palestinian kids end up with severe head and neck injuries (some resulting in death) from these IDF-fired rubber bullets.


Palestinian premier calls for Israeli settlement freeze


EU leaders condemn Israel on settlement plan But they will do nothing about it - same goes for our government.


Hamas leader Haniyeh offers Gaza truce


Palestinians upset over 'Barak snub' "It would have been very appropriate for Barak to go. Maybe Barak couldn't go because he is busy planning more (settlement construction) and more incursions," Erekat said. Good one.


Palestinians Unite in Anger Against Israeli Attack


Rice says Israelis and Palestinians not doing enough


Gaza gunmen hit Israeli helicopter The television report said it was the first known case in which Gaza militants had managed to hit an Israeli aircraft.


State Dept: Criticism of Israel = Anti-Semitism? In the most recent edition of its annual "Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism" released Thursday, the State Department - and hence the U.S. government - moves ever more closely to a long-standing neo-conservative tenet: that criticism of Israel or Israeli policies often, if not always, equals anti-Semitism. The Israeli lobby has succeeded in getting our government to equate criticism of Israel with 'anti-Semitism'. It may only a matter of time now before it's illegal (in this country) to do so.


Germany to host conference on help for Palestinians Abbas "asked the chancellor to bring up with Israel the question of Jewish settlement building, which considerably complicates bilateral negotiations and the application of the 'road map'," according to the statement.


Facts on the ground The Olmert government contends that it is only allowing settlement growth in "built-up areas," which is usually taken to mean construction within established neighborhoods. That's not the case in Givat Ze'ev. On Thursday, construction workers were busy laying the foundation for at least two new neighborhoods. One sits on a ridge on the outskirts of existing Givat Ze'ev neighborhoods



Israel under fire at talks with Palestinians, US Israel came under fire for its continued Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank at high-level talks on Friday with the Palestinians, hosted by a senior US envoy.


Peres to host high-profile conference Shimon Peres will host a high-level conference featuring top figures from President Bush to Google founder Sergey Brinn.


Israel makes another bid for F-22 jets Israel is also holding high-level talks with the Pentagon concerning a future Israeli acquisition in a time of war of the Lockheed Martin-built Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile defense system. A delegation of officials from Israel's Homa Missile Defense Agency were in Hawaii recently to view a successful test of the system. The US Congress recently allocated $200 million subsidy for Israel's use if it decides to purchase the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.
The US Congress - Israeli-occupied territory.


Washington Post Columnist Gives AIPAC Talks on How to Help Israel in '08 Election The AIPAC notices confirm what I have suspected about Beinart, a pro-Israel agenda. There is nothing wrong with having an agenda; most everyone's got one.


Wave of arrests at Birzeit University


Ackerman blasts Israel, P.A., Bush A top Jewish congressman blasted Israel for settlement expansion and Palestinian leaders for losing moral credibility.



Jewish Voice for Peace: cut aid Israel is virtually guaranteed the aid, which is favored across the board by pro-Israel groups.


Israel vulnerable to cruise missiles -newspaper Israel's air defences could fend off long-range ballistic missiles of the kind deployed by Iran and Syria but the Jewish state remains vulnerable to cruise missiles, an Israeli newspaper reported on Thursday.


Moscow court allows Israeli's extradition Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livini had privately urged her Russian counterpart to find some way to avoid extradition and allow Klein to fly to Israel.


Israel secretly warned Syria about Hezbollah Israel recently conveyed a warning to Syria through a third party that it would hold Damascus accountable if Lebanese Hezbollah launched attacks on the Jewish state, Israeli and European sources said on Friday.


Facebook Puts Jewish Settlers in ?Palestine? Israelis in the West Bank woke up earlier this week to be informed that they now live under Palestinian rule, though they were restored to Israeli rule on Friday. Jewish 'settlers' of Israel in fact reside unlawfully in Israeli-OCCUPIED territory, according to article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.


Ongoing tragedy in Mideast A historic tragedy is poisoning the entire Middle East. It involves the people of Palestine and the people of Israel. To this ongoing tragedy the one-sided reporting in the U.S. media, the dead hand of the AIPAC lobby, some millenarian fundamentalists and the hypocrisy of the U.S. government, make a great, perhaps decisive, contribution.



More Settlements, More Unsettled


Hollywood Execs Tune In to Israeli Television As Hollywood executives roll out the red carpet for television shows imported from overseas, Israel is emerging as an unlikely new starlet. ~Swell~.


Lawmakers Scuffle Over New Palestinian Aid Package "This was Congress's way of telling the administration it wants to be intimately involved in dealing with this issue," said a lobbyist dealing with Middle East matters on Capitol Hill. Geez, I wonder for which nation this 'lobbyist' was working? ....


Islamic summit favours dialogue not clash with West


Blinkers off for the other side of story What Sussan Ley did in Parliament on Wednesday night was speak for the Palestinian people. She was the only MP who did. In fact, the only MHR of the House's 150, apart from the two leaders, to even raise the issue.


Cheney's Mideast trip about Israel-Palestinians, Iraq, Iran and oil The first stop on Cheney's schedule is the U.S.-allied Arab monarchy of Oman, which has supported the U.S.-led missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The sparsely populated oil-producing state, which allows the United States the use of its four air bases, is situated on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran.



Islamic summit to censure Israel and shun terrorism A summit of leaders of Muslim states will condemn Israel for "war crimes" against Palestinian civilians and reject terrorism as against the teachings of Islam, a draft of a communique to be adopted on Friday said.


The Wright Stuff I've been a member of a conservative Jewish congregation for 25 years. I love the rabbi but not his sermons on Israel and the Palestinians. He is a total Israel hawk. To put it mildly, I am not. I am all about the two-state solution (the so-called Clinton plan). Even worse, the congregation has become the favorite of Washington's neocons including the worst warmonger of all: Douglas Feith. The idea of communing with God together with a thug like Feith is sickening to me. Then there is Charles Krauthammer who, in 2001, disrupted Yom Kippur services by bellowing at the rabbi for expressing, in the most general terms, the desire for Middle East peace.



Obama tries to allay Jewish concerns At the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, President Howard Friedman said Obama's Senate record on Israel has given his critics no reason to doubt him.


U.S.'s failed coup in Gaza I urge the Rutland Herald to print more accurate articles regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Your quest for profits has led you to ignore important facts that make a difference in public opinion and therefore government policy.