Headlines for 06-03-08

Palestinian dies in Gaza tunnel collapse: medics


At Tuwani Release: Israeli settler kills goats with car in South Hebron Hills The settler saw the flock on the road, aimed
his car, and rammed into three of the goats. He then redirected his car
and aimed for more, hitting an addition two. Three goats were killed and
two others were injured with broken legs.



Egypt slams Israel's plan to build more houses in east Jerusalem


AP Interview: West Bank premier pessimistic about peace but tries to instill sense of hope He hopes to break what he described as a culture of defeatism among Palestinians, nurtured by decades of Israeli occupation, and instead to instill a sense of the possible. "The way we end it (occupation) is by this ... spirit of positive defiance, to build despite the occupation, do what we can," he told The Associated Press.


Iran nuclear bid must be stopped by all possible means: Olmert "The Iranian threat must be stopped by all possible means. International economic and political sanctions on Iran, as crucial as they may be, are only an initial step, and must be dramatically increased," Olmert said in a keynote speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.


Horse-drawn buggies brighten tense W.Bank city "We are trying to revitalize life in the old city," said Emad Hamdan, head of the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC), which brought the carriages to the city.


Amnesty condemns Israel on human rights


Hamas punishes policemen for deaths in Gaza rally Hamas said on Monday it had punished 38 of its policemen for failing to prevent the killing of seven Palestinians during a rally staged by the rival Fatah faction last November in the Gaza Strip.


Israeli soldier wounded during Gaza incursion An Israeli soldier was moderately wounded on Tuesday when troops clashed with Palestinian militants in the southern Gaza Strip, an Israeli army spokesman said.


Gazans stage protest against Israeli siege Around 100 Palestinians gathered outside the UN refugee agency's headquarters in Gaza City on Tuesday to protest a nearly year-old Israeli blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.


Ahmadinejad calls Israel "false regime" of Zionists Europe is bearing the economic and political costs of a "false regime" of Zionists, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday in his second verbal attack on Israel in as many days.


Five people wounded in Gaza rocket attack on Israel At least three Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli strike shortly thereafter, one of them seriously


Egyptian parliament renews proposal to establish Rafah free trade zone The operation of the free trade area would be controlled by Egypt, not Israel, in a bid to alleviate the sufferings of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, it added.


Gaza students appeal to Brown over travel ban Two Palestinian students who risk losing their places at British universities because Israel has not allowed them to leave Gaza yesterday appealed to the British Government for help.


Olmert under fire over settlements ahead of US visit Olmert held talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas ahead of his departure for Washington but they were overshadowed by Palestinian anger at the settlement expansion plans, announced ahead of the 41st anniversary on Monday of Israel's occupation of the city's eastern sector.




Israeli warning over nuclear Iran Speaking during a visit to Washington, he said Tehran must be made to see it would suffer devastating repercussions if it pursued atomic weapons. Washington and Israel's agents therein are being given their orders.


Rice: U.S. will cooperate with Israel on missile defense system in face of Iranian threat


McCain: Iraq troop pullout bad for Israel McCain also criticized Obama by name for his support of troop withdrawals from Iraq, arguing that would jeopardize Israel's security and lead to civil war and genocide. To applause, McCain declared, "We must not let this happen."


Both McCain, Obama exaggerating Iran's nuclear program In a major speech Monday to a powerful Jewish American lobbying group, McCain asserted that Iran is actively developing nuclear weapons that threaten the security of Israel and could be passed to terrorist groups.


Iran Accusations Merit Skepticism by Philip Giraldi Israel is now playing the same game in an attempt to implicate Iran. An odd series of "leaks" to the media last week by Israeli security sources reporting anonymously seeks to demonstrate that Iran is supplying sophisticated weapons to both Hamas and Hezbollah and playing a major role with a number of militant groups......There is another sure sign that what the Israelis are putting out is disinformation. The Israel National News Service reported the same story and attributed it as "according to the Associate Press." In fact, the source is the Israeli government itself ? the Associated Press was only reporting the story. Using a planted bit of information to confirm the same information that has been planted elsewhere is a classic intelligence service technique.


McClellan's Warning on Iran by Ray McGovern White House spinners are at it again ? "fixing" the intelligence around the policy, this time on Iran. The fixing is obvious, but don't expect to hear about it from the FCM. Olmert is on his way to Washington to provide us with more 'evidence' of Iran's nuclear program, no doubt.


Israel's housing move contrary to international law: UN UN boss Ban Ki-moon is deeply concerned at Israel's decision to build 884 more houses in east Jerusalem, which is "contrary to international law," his press office said Monday in a statement.


Olmert to leave for Washington Olmert is also expected to address several sensitive intelligence issues during his US visit, with Iran topping the list. Israel has been providing the US with intelligence regarding the Iranian nuclear program, in an effort to demonstrate that the Islamic Republic is making progress in its pursuit of a viable nuclear weapon. Read that again.


Jordan criticizes new Israeli settlement plans


The Archbishop puts our 'envoy' to shame in Gaza Tutu's comments came in the wake of a similar speech by 83-year-old former US president Jimmy Carter, appearing this week at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival. Carter has also been to Gaza and spoken to the Hamas leadership. He famously compared the situation there to that of apartheid in South Africa, remarks that earned him predictable accusations of anti-Semitism from the Israel lobby in America.




Palestinians say 23 protestors injured in anti-fence demonstration in Naalin


Rice drops mentioning peace deal by end of year


France condemns new Israeli construction in East Jerusalem The French government on Monday fiercely criticized Israeli intentions to build nearly 900 new homes in occupied East Jerusalem. "This decision (to build the homes) damages the viability of the future Palestinian state and the diplomatic process currently under way," a spokeswoman for the French foreign ministry said in an electronic press conference.


AL chief: Israel's intransigence hinders talks with Palestinians Israel refused to cooperate with the parties concerned, Moussa said, adding the construction of Jewish settlements in the disputed territory reveals Israel's bad intentions


Hamas claims responsibility for wounding Israeli soldier in Gaza


Palestinians give up on legal building route - UN Palestinians living in Area C of the West Bank, under Israeli control, have given up on obtaining construction permits from the authorities and instead build without them, leaving 3,000 structures in the territory under constant threat of demolition, according to a UN report.



Palestinian PM urges EU not to upgrade Israel ties


Palestinian pharma company makes first shipment of medicine to Europe


Human Rights Watch: US: Challenge Israel?s Restrictions on Gaza Students The United States should promptly call on Israel to end its blanket ban preventing hundreds of Palestinian students from leaving the Gaza Strip to study abroad, Human Rights Watch and two North American scholarly organizations said today.


Soldiers who abused Palestinians get 5.5 months in jail Jaffa Military Court rules three troops won't be demoted from staff sergeants to privates, despite plea bargain


McClellan Was Right About Iraq The Bush administration's main motive for invading Iraq was to introduce "coercive democracy."
This, in turn, originated in a controversial 1996 White Paper titled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," which referred to Israel. It advised then incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to repeal the Oslo agreements for a Palestinian solution, keep Gaza and the West Bank under Israeli control, and establish democracy in Iraq by overthrowing Saddam Hussein.




IDF to relocate hundreds of trees in Palestinian village Due to construction of separation fence near Modiin, army and Civil Administration decide to move some 440 olive trees belonging to Naalin residents. Palestinians say decision to badly harm their livelihood


Jordan to send aid to West Bank, Gaza


Israeli airstrike on southern Gaza wounds three militants


Israel lets Arab Israelis into W.Bank city Israel began on Monday to allow its Arab citizens into the West Bank city of Jenin to visit relatives and shop for the first time since the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000, Palestinian officials said.


Palestinians get new police stations Israel gave the Palestinian Authority permission on Tuesday to open three police stations in the northern West Bank as part of a U.S.-backed security campaign meant to ready the Palestinians for statehood.


Hamas military court sentences 5 Fatah members to years in prison


Occupation has cost Israel dear, says report


McCain to AIPAC: I'm committed to making certain Israel maintains military edge Republican presidential candidate John McCain told a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Monday that the US would not accept a nuclear Iran under his leadership.


AIPAC?s in Town, and the Line-Up is Hawkish


At Tuwani Release: Israeli Military Blocks Main Access Road in South


Can Barack Obama be a friend of Israel if he talks to Iran? The Republican National Committee is already circulating damaging quotations from Mr Obama. These include comments such as ?nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people?, an apparent failure to remember that Israel is among America?s closest allies, as well as a suggestion that the violence of Hezbollah and Hamas ?weakens their legitimate claims?.




Don?t paint Israel perpetually innocent In 1948, the Arab world rejected Israel, but since then Palestinians have recognized Israel as a nation and tried to make peace. Peace resolutions have been broken by Israel. They confiscate Palestinian land, deny human rights, bulldoze homes, and are populating Palestinian territory.


Aipac Instructs Delegates To Stay 'Positive' Left out of the letter was the impetus for such a warning: At last year?s annual conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi received scattered boos when she spoke about the problems created by the war in Iraq. Organizers appear determined to avoid such political statements at this year?s event, which will be attended by presidential candidates John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.......Obama is at odds with Aipac in his willingness to enter into talks with Iran.....A draft obtained by the Forward of the lobby's 2008 policy "Action Agenda" calls on the administration to designate Iran and North Korea as "major national security threats" and to take "all appropriate measures to halt Iran's pursuit of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them."
AIPAC's job: to make ISRAEL'S problems AMERICA'S problems.


The capital of Palestinian escapism One weekday last year, at about three in the afternoon, Israeli armoured jeeps moved into the centre of Ramallah, pulling up outside the most popular hummus cafe. In full view of passers-by, including children on their way back from school, the troops dragged a man in his early 20s out of the cafe. He was a wanted militant. They shot him - first in the legs, then stomach, then his head.



The agony of the Ecstasy Israelis involved in the Ecstasy trade in the U.S. are scattered around the country, and according to the authorities are not necessarily organized in large groups, and certainly not under one criminal umbrella organization. There is no Israeli mafia that deals in Ecstasy, but wherever the drug is trafficked on a significant scale, there are sure to be Israelis in the vicinity. Israelis figure prominently in cases currently under investigation in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York and Miami - cities that constitute the primary source of drug consumption at parties in the U.S.


Water project is a drop in the ocean on West Bank With the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Palestinian Water Authority, one town on the West Bank now has access to plentiful water, giving Samua's mayor and townspeople something to celebrate.


Committee seeks to help Palestinian students


Israelis charged with planning to murder soldier


Amendments Give Aipac?s ?Action Agenda? a Right-Wing Tint Aipac?s leadership opposed the amendment, arguing that it would put the pro-Israel lobby on record as contradicting the government?s reasoning on issues of national security. Nevertheless, the change passed with the support of an overwhelming majority of the committee.


Obama and Palestinian Rights


FREE WORLD OF CENSORSHIP ~~ PURGE AT HaARETZ NEWS


Who are the Mid-East prisoners?


Smells of Gaza


West Bank Radio Station Helps Youth Trade Despair for Dreams With support from Internews Network?s Aswatona project for the West Bank and Gaza, one West Bank radio station has begun to address the rampant frustration and despair among local youth through a special radio program produced by and for young people.


Palestinians Don't Salute Israel


60th anniversary of Nakbah commemorated with folk dance-theatre performance


New York, Washington celebrate Israel's 60th Among the marchers crossing Fifth Avenue were Vice Premier Haim Ramon, Minister Ruhama Avraham and deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson and New Jersey Governor John Corzine arrived at the parade to show their support for the Jewish State.




And the winner is ... the Israel lobby AIPAC keeps a very close relationship with an array of influential think-tanks, like the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for Security Policy, the Hudson Institute, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, the Middle East Forum, the The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.


Syria to allow UN probe of alleged nuclear site


Israel must quit all Syrian land for peace: Assad


Syria says Israel should face nuclear checks Syria's official press lashed out at the United States and Israel on Tuesday over claims it was building a secret nuclear reactor, and said the Jewish state's own atomic facilities should be subject to international inspection.


From the "What the Fuck?" file? What?s next? Get offended at Toyota pickups and AK-47s because terrorists use them? Old Toyota trucks are the number one choice in transportation for ragtag armies; and the AK has murdered more American soldiers than any other weapon since the beginning of time. I don?t see anyone banning their importation. Some great points and humor in this one. Apologies about the foul language and terms, but I wholly agree with his assessment of Michelle Malkin, may she read it whilst doing vanity searches in the blogs. Malkin is an attention whore who seems to have figured out that by suckling from the Israeli lobby teat, one goes places.


Would-be Lebanon bomber had fake ID: Palestinian official Munir Maqdah, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation security chief in Lebanon, told AFP he was carrying a forged Palestinian refugee identity card and that the UN refugee agency had no record of such a person.


US scholars may leave Gaza but hundreds of students remain


UN atomic watchdog to investigate claims of secret Syrian reactor Diplomats said it was unclear whether the inspectors would be allowed on the al-Kibar site. If they are, the IAEA is likely to shed new light on an episode that remains shrouded in mystery, with flat denials from Damascus, uncharacteristic silence from Israel and US insistence that the facility was being built by North Korea - which also denies any involvement.


Palestinian source: Settlers fired towards West Bank village


Israel court condemns student ban The Israeli Supreme Court has called on the government to reconsider its almost total ban on Palestinian students leaving the Gaza Strip to study abroad.


40 years after RFK's death, questions linger Sirhan fired his .22-caliber revolver from a few feet in front of Kennedy, according to police, yet Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi reported that the fatal shot was fired less than one inch from Kennedy's head, behind his right ear. Of the four shots fired at Kennedy, all came from the rear. None of this was raised at Sirhan's trial because his defense was based on the theory that he suffered from "diminished capacity" rather than on any challenge of prosecutors' evidence.


On Gaza frontlines, both Israel and Hamas draw farmers' ire 'The resistance fires rockets and we get it from all sides,' said Shamali, 56, who raises chickens in Juhr al-Dik, a hardscrabble village on the frontlines of the Gaza conflict, just a stone's throw from the Israeli border.


New Qaeda release expected from No. 2 Zawahri Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri is expected to issue a new statement calling for an end to Israel's economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, U.S.-based Internet monitors said on Tuesday.


Two sides of Mideast fight


Churches urge Govt to address Palestinian-Israeli conflict "It's time that the Australian Government took a more active role as a member of the international community in working for peace in the Palestine and Israel," he said.
But there has been an angry response from Jewish leaders.



US renews opposition to new Israeli settlements Meaningless when this opposition is not backed up with action.


Iran sanctions figure large in AIPAC lobbying


AIPAC Report Reveals Long History of Activities Harmful to US - IRmep


NJ Muslim leader talks of torture in Israeli detention Qatanani denies the charges, saying he was detained, not arrested, by the Israelis along with many Palestinians at the time


If you can't build, bake - Humanitarian operations adapt to the realities of the Gaza blockade


Rights court halts mercenary's extradition Klein's exploits came to light in April 1989, when José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, one of the Medellín cartel leaders, died in a shootout with a joint US-Colombian law enforcement team. A search of his ranch revealed 178 Galil assault rifles, made in Israel. They were part of a larger arms shipment that Klein had helped to arrange through a corrupt deal with the island government of Antigua.


Palestinians nabbed after fleeing Border Police custody The Border Police launched an inquiry on Monday to find out how two handcuffed Palestinians managed to escape custody from a large base in southern Israel on Sunday evening.