Headlines for 09-01-08

Israeli troops shoot Palestinian man with learning difficulties Two young Palestinians, one aged 10 and the second aged 17, were shot dead by Israeli troops during protests in Nilin in July. Video footage of another incident showed an Israeli soldier firing a rubber-coated bullet at very close range at a Palestinian in Nilin who had been detained, blindfolded and cuffed.



Mentally ill Palestinian critically injured by IDF The injured man, Awad Srur, who is believed to be mentally ill, was reportedly wounded by four rubber-coated steel bullets fired at him point blank.


Egypt closes Gaza border after thousands cross


Hamas and Fatah agree to form committee to end political arrests


Court orders P.A. to pay compensation Israel can enforce a U.S. court ruling ordering the Palestinian Authority to compensate terror victims, an Israeli court ruled.


Statistics: West Bank population above 2 million An official Palestinian population census published on Monday by the Palestinian Statistic Center (PSC) showed that the Palestinian population in the West Bank has grown up to 2,350,000


ME Arabs 'reject' idea of Iran strike By and large, Arabs in the Middle East "absolutely reject" an Israeli or American strike on Iran or its nuclear facilities and believe the Islamic Republic is being "targeted" for reasons other than its nuclear program, an Egyptian expert on Iran has told The Jerusalem Post.


Iran says has not bought Russian missiles Iran denied on Monday it had bought Russia's advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, after Israeli defense sources said the Islamic Republic could take delivery of the weapons by the end of the year......The U.S. Department of defense said in July that Iran was not expected to receive the anti-aircraft system this year. Those remarks followed comments by Israeli defense sources who said they expected Iran to take delivery by the end of 2008.



Dutch intel: US to strike Iran in coming weeks The Dutch intelligence service, the AIVD, has called off an operation aimed at infiltrating and sabotaging Iran's weapons industry due to an assessment that a US attack on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program is imminent, according to a report in the country's De Telegraaf newspaper on Friday.


Arab League vows not to accept continuation of Palestinian split


Shadow over Mideast Ramadan mood Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem stock up ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.


Evangelicals in Israel back McCain If you want a better chance of seeing more neocon-centric policies being put into action for four years starting in January of 2009, vote for John McCain. He's the best friends the neocons could want right now. And for that reason alone, he isn't getting THIS Republican's vote come November.


Biden camp says report on Iran a lie A spokesman for US Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden on Monday scathingly rejected an Army Radio report which claimed Biden told Jerusalem officials three years ago that he firmly opposed an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and that Israel would likely have to come to terms with a nuclear Iran.....Biden has a solid 36-year Senate record of pro-Israel leadership. He has called Israel "the single greatest strength America has in the Middle East" and declared himself a Zionist in an interview with a US Jewish television channel last year, saying that "you don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist."
Obama and Biden aren't much better than McCain/Palin. Both party's candidates are proposing to expend more American blood and treasure defending Israel - TO THE DETRIMENT OF THIS NATION - America.


Jerusalem Diary: Monday 1 September Hebron is also coloured - saturated - by the surreal juxtaposition of several hundred Jewish settlers, guarded by several thousand Israeli soldiers, in the centre of the West Bank's largest city, home to 160,000 Palestinians.


Woman who wore a suicide bomb takes up fight for Middle East peace "Israel destroyed our cities, I knew every inch of Netanya and I wanted to destroy it," she says. "Israel was arrogant and I thought our operation would hurt that arrogance. I am not a bloodthirsty person, I cannot kill a chicken. But the Palestinians were angry, I was angry. It was an eye for an eye."


Ex-Ambassador to U.S.: Arabs in Galilee are secessionist threat n Ayalon's first public appearance since he joined the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party on Saturday, he warned on Sunday: "If the government of Israel does not act to have a Jewish majority in the North, then the Arab majority in the Galilee will declare independence and [demand] international recognition on the basis of the precedents of Kosovo, Abkhazia and [South Ossetia].



McCain camp rebukes Buchanan claims On Aug. 29, the Democratic Party issued a release quoting U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) as saying that McCain's pick was a "direct affront to all Jewish Americans" because of reports of Palin's past associations with Buchanan, who has long postulated that the pro-Israel lobby is inordinately influential and that Hitler might have been contained through peaceful means.


Israel, Syria to resume indirect peace talks: public radio


Gaza kids 'training to kill Jews' "The Palestinian people support the resistance and understand that we are responding to the occupation and that these children are being recruited to help defend their homes and their land. We are preparing these children to fight the enemy, as the enemy does not differentiate between children and adults; it wants to annihilate the entire Palestinian nation."