Headlines for 03-17-08

Israeli Border Police Attempt to Arrest Palestinian Shepherd and Declare Israeli police threatened to arrest Palestinian shepherds grazing their
sheep on Palestinian land near the illegal settlement outpost of Avigail.
Israeli border police then declared the area to be a "closed military
zone."



Five Palestinians kidnapped in the West Bank, two among them children


Israel to hold massive emergency drill In the face of a possible escalation with Syria and Iran's efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon, parts of the country will shut down next month in what security officials say will be the largest emergency exercise in Israel's history.


3 Arabs sent to jail for torturing Palestinian


Foreign envoys to press Israel on peace process The diplomats are likely to press Israel over its recently-published decision to build some 2,000 new housing units in east Jerusalem and the West Bank settlements.


HEBRON RELEASE: Al Eizariya/Bethany Palm Sunday Procession On Palm Sunday, 16 March, Palestinians and internationals, Muslims and Christians, gathered at the Lazarus Gate checkpoint to commemorate Palm Sunday and highlight the travel restrictions the Israeli government imposes on Palestinians through the use of permits and Israel?s separation barrier. Most Palestinians from the West Bank cannot travel to Jerusalem.


Barghouti, Abbas Popular for Palestinian Voters


Hamas: Anti-aircraft fire aimed at capturing Israeli pilots


PA urges Palestinians to 'return' The Palestinian Authority is planning to mark Israel's 60th anniversary by calling on all Palestinians living abroad to converge on Israel by land, sea and air. See UN resolution 194, section 11 that Israel never implemented.


Poll finds Hamas leader's popularity rises Israeli attacks in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have boosted the popularity of the Islamist group's leader Ismail Haniyeh among Palestinians in the territory and in the West Bank, according to a poll on Monday.


Olmert vows to continue east Jerusalem settlements The international community considers all Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land to be illegal.


Nations Working to Ban Cluster Bombs On the morning of an apparent cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah militants, 11-year-old Hadi Hattab played in the street for the first time since the monthlong war began in July 2006. Seconds later, an explosion of ball bearings shot into his skull from one of more than 4 million cluster bombs fired into southern Lebanon by the Israeli military. The boy died a few hours later.....Most of the bombs were fired by the Israeli military in the last three days of the conflict after a cease-fire had been declared.....Part of the problem is Israel?s refusal to cooperate with U.N. requests to supply information that would help mine removers find unexploded bombs.....
The Geneva Convention outlaws the use of weapons in civilian areas, and an initial report by the State Department in January found that Israel had broken a military sales agreement by using U.S.-made cluster bombs in civilian areas.



Syrian FM: War with Israel possible Moallem went on to call Hizbullah a friend of Syria. "Hizbullah is not a proxy of Syria but a friend. Hizbullah is a part of Lebanon and the difficulties Lebanon faces."


But did you know he's a Muslim? The night before speaking with Haaretz, Levine says he ate dinner with Israeli friends, one of whom asked him: "Would Obama be willing to use force to defend American interests?" .......Obama, Levine says, "fully understands that the greatest threat to Israel at this time is Iran, and that Iran's ability to obtain a nuclear weapon is completely unacceptable. He's made absolutely clear that his priorities with regard to Iran are to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, to stop Iran from continuing to support terror, and to stop Iran from threatening Israel's existence." I skipped a paragraph there in the excerpt, but go back to the article and see for yourself, and then ask yourself: how exactly did the question with respect to AMERICAN interests suddenly become equal to ISRAELI interests? Two different nations with different security threats. The AMERICAN national interest should COME FIRST to any American presidential candidate. And Iran does NOT threaten the AMERICAN national interest. Whose war is this?


Smearing Obama As for branding critics of Israel as anti-Semites, is Kessler really maintaining that this never happens? It's the smear-of-first-resort of the Israel-first lobby, as professors John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have recently discovered. Everyone knows that to traduce this terrain is to walk through a political minefield, which is why most American politicians scrupulously avoid it ? a testament, by the way, to the trenchancy of the Mearsheimer-Walt thesis that the Israel lobby wields an inordinate and ultimately unhealthy influence over the conduct of American foreign policy.


The U.S. Military's Assassination Problem In December 2006, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in the case. While the court stopped short of an outright ban on Israel's assassinations program, it ruled that international law constrains the targeting of terror suspects. Currently, in order to justify a strike, Israel must have reliable information that the suspect is actively engaged in hostilities (such as planning a terrorist attack) and must rule out an arrest as being too risky. The court also requires that there be an independent investigation after each strike. The Israelis still continue to kill numerous civilians as a result of their missile strikes, despite this ruling.


Israel upgrades ties with Germany Political, cultural, economic and social relations will all be strengthened, said a joint statement. Good! Maybe Israel can get the Germans to attack Iran instead of getting us to do it. Or better yet, maybe they could finally learn how to GET ALONG WITH THEIR NEIGHBORS. It's only been 60 years! (Hint, stealing Palestinian land and bombing the babies isn't how you go about it).


More To The Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer Than Meets the Eye In both his books 'By Way Of Deception' and 'The Other Side of Deception' former Israeli intelligence officer Victor Ostrovsky details how one of Mossad's primary functions was (is) entrapping important persons involved in politics, business, media and whatnot into compromising and embarrassing positions so as to make them more 'pliable' to the demands of the Jewish state. A very interesting piece by this blogger. Raises some new angles.


Facebook lists West Bank towns as Israel Residents of Ariel, Maale Adumim and other large West Bank settlements, angered when Facebook switched their country of residence to "Palestine," lodged protests with the social networking Web site. They noted that they are citizens of Israel and no Palestinian state exists. Facebook complies with requests from those in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 49); illegal squatters on (occupied) Palestinian land. I wonder what are the legal ramifications for such a move..


Donor: Netanyahu's London tour was kosher Joshua Rowe, a businessman who heads the Manchester branch of the United Israel Appeal, paid for most of a lavish weeklong British advocacy campaign by Netanyahu during the Second Lebanon War, an Israeli television expose on Sunday revealed


Rabbi: Hiring Arabs against Torah A top Israeli haredi rabbi banned the employment of Arab workers by Jews.


Hebron: The Ninth and Tenth Stations


AJC: Swiss Visit Supports Fanatical Iranian Regime The American Jewish Committee is profoundly disappointed by Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey's visit to Tehran today for the signing of a major gas deal between Swiss energy company EGL and the Iranian government. Oh dear.


Of war and cancer The crucial Israeli-Palestinian conflict, still the greatest cause of anti-Americanism in the region and one that Bush's neoconservative brain trust thought it could resolve in Israel's favor by smashing Iraq and putting a gun to the head of Iran and Syria, is at one of its most intractable points......Second, both justice and our national security require that we act to make fundamental changes in our Middle East policies. This means balancing our support for Israel's security with an understanding of the legitimate grievances of the Palestinians, and a real commitment to ending the 40-year-old Israeli occupation of their lands


Even Palestinians' beloved keffiyeh feels the heat of Chinese imports


Support of Christian Zionists makes some Jews uneasy While Israel's birth in 1948 seemed to fulfill biblical prophecy, Christian Zionists believe an intact Israel must also include Judea and Samaria -- the predominantly Palestinian West Bank captured by Israel in 1967. As such, they have resisted returning any land to the Palestinians as part of peace deal. And a war with Iran, some say, could usher in Armageddon......"I don't have to agree with anybody 100 percent in order to welcome their support, as long as their support is not conditioned on my agreeing with them on everything or accepting them 100 percent," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. The comments made by Foxman = hypocrisy.


Galloway plea to rescue Palestine "Israel works very hard in Britain and in the US to capture people's hearts and this is one of the problems that we face. "If you look at (US Democrat presidential candidate) Barack Obama he was very sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, but now he has to be on his knees in front of the Zionist lobby"......He is in the Gulf to drum up funding and support for his latest venture, a movie in the style of US film-maker Michael Moore about the Palestinian issue.



IDF initiates program to stem Kfir Brigade abuse Simulations, workshops and close cooperation with left-wing humanitarian groups are some of the steps the IDF's Kfir Brigade is implementing in an effort to curb an increase in the number of reported cases of its soldiers who allegedly abuse Palestinians in the West Bank. Maybe if Israel adequately PUNISHED these soldiers that commit the abuse, that would send a stronger message. Not the case right now, which only encourages it.


JINSA afraid US military might tell Israel what to do Who wears the pants here?


Greeted warmly in Israel, Merkel pressed on Iran ties Israelis asked that Germany, one of Iran's biggest trading partners, do more about stopping Iran's fundamentalist regime from acquiring nuclear weapons......Olmert planned to show Merkel the latest Israeli intelligence on Iran's nuclear program and urge the chancellor to clamp down further on trade with Iran, irrespective of U.N. sanctions decisions -- as the United States has done.


Jordanian Islamists: Merkel runs risk of igniting 'enmity' of Arabs "It is illogical to see the German sin complex towards what the Zionists allege as holocaust find expression in an unjust bias against the Palestinian people, who themselves have become the target of another holocaust as a senior Israeli official put it recently,"


Japan donates $5.5 million to rebuild war-destroyed Palestinian camp in north Lebanon The U.N. agency aiding Palestinian refugees says the government of Japan has donated 588 million yen (US$5.5 million, ?3.5 million) toward the rebuilding of a war-devastated Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.



'Rachel Corrie' Extends at New Rep New Repertory Theatre announces the extension of My Name is Rachel Corrie. My Name is Rachel Corrie and Pieces, two solo plays run in rotating repertory until March 30, 2008.


Talks mark Corrie's death


How a Station Tries to Calm Mideast?s Rage The station was set up last year by Issie Kirsh, a South African Jew. The idea came from a similar station, Radio 702, that he set up in the apartheid era, allowing South African blacks and whites to speak on the same call-in and talk shows.


Israel test-fires missile to intercept Gaza rockets Iron Dome is part of a multi-layered defence system aimed at protecting Israel from short-range missiles and rockets fired by militants in Gaza or Lebanon, and longer-range missiles in the arsenals of regional foes Iran and Syria.


IRAQ: War Launched to Protect Israel - Bush Adviser Some of us have know that for years.


The Palestinian Lyrical Front: A Step in the right direction The Palestinian Lyrical Front, comprising of 10 rap artists/bands aims to break the silence with Slingshot, a Hip Hop documentary focusing on the struggle and daily life of Palestinians living in Gaza, the west bank and Israel.


Swastika-shaped retirement home to renovate Today the complaints are coming from Israeli-American researcher Avrahaum Segol, who also brought to the public consciousness a swastika-shaped barracks at the Coronado Naval Base in San Diego.


Dialogue alliance lobbies in D.C. An alliance of Israeli-Arab dialogue groups lobbied Congress and the Bush administration for more funding.