Headlines for April 8 - April 14

A Stand For Justice


U.S., Israeli attack on Iran would be 'unacceptable' - Russia military



Nuking the Mullahs by Philip Giraldi
Two issues likely will determine whether Israel will use nuclear weapons against Iran. The first relates to the ultimate objective of the Israeli attack. An attack with conventional weapons will hardly cripple the presumed Iranian nuclear program and would be designed rather to send a message and to bring the United States into the conflict to finish the job


Rights groups slam new West Bank deportation rules
Israel's military has issued new orders that human rights groups warned Sunday could lead to the expulsion of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank.
Under the new rules, anyone caught living in the West Bank without an Israeli permit could face expulsion within as little as three days or be sentenced to up to seven years in prison.


New Law Could Deport Thousands of West Bank Palestinians
The new order makes it a criminal act for anyone to live in the West Bank without a permit. .....According to an attorney for Hamoked, Elad Cahana, the military commander of the West Bank has never issued such permits so that even Palestinians who were born in the West Bank do not have them Those permits are only granted by Israel. Reminder: West Bank is PALESTINIAN territory.


AT-TUWANI RELEASE: Settler Youth Harass Palestinians and Internation



Hamas move on Gaza banks fuels banker concerns
Hamas said the funds were seized from a local bank in line with a court order challenging the Ramallah-based authorities' decision to freeze assets belonging to a medical association. The PMA had frozen the funds after the board of the Patient's Friend Association had come under Hamas control.


Gaza militant: Hamas stopping rocket fire into Israel
Last week, Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told the BBC that Hamas was working to curb rocket attacks against Israel by Gaza militants.


Israel, US have not settled east Jerusalem spat



Turkey to Challenge Israel, Support Hamas
A flotilla of ships funded by Turkey will approach Gaza in May, in an attempt to challenge Israeli control at sea - or, as organizers put it, “break Israel's illegal blockade on Gaza.”


Canceled Netanyahu trip spotlights Israel nukes
Muslim countries have long complained of a double standard when the West asks them to stay nuclear-free while turning a blind eye to Israel's program. Many Israelis see atomic weapons as their ultimate defense against annihilation in a hostile Middle East.


Clinton defends role of Israel at nuclear summit
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says Israel has much to contribute to this week's nuclear security summit even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is skipping the Washington conference.


Israel viewed as world's sixth nuclear power: analysts
Analysts at British defence specialists Jane's believe the Jewish state has between 100 and 300 nuclear warheads, putting them among the more advanced nuclear weapons states and roughly on a par with Britain.



Israeli officials say Syria gives Hezbollah Scuds
In Washington, the Syrian Embassy dismissed the allegations and accused Israel of trying to divert attention from questions about Israel's nuclear program.


Nuking the Mullahs by Philip Giraldi
The truth is that Israel is fast becoming a pariah nation, like South Africa before the final collapse of apartheid, because no one any longer accepts the legitimacy of its settlement growth and occupation policies. Like South Africa, the Israeli response to criticism has been to become more reactionary and inward looking, constructing a police state internally and waging unending war against its neighbors to maintain cohesion against foreign enemies....To be sure, there is a certain danger in isolating the Israelis too much as it could easily feed the always present Masada complex that might influence a dangerously unstable government to take action that might include exploiting its nuclear arsenal in search of Armageddon


US Generals and Admirals Who Have Accepted Free Trips to Israel
We, the undersigned, have traveled to Israel over the years with The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). We brought with us our decades of military experience and, following unrestricted access to Israel's civilian and military leaders, came away with the unswerving belief that the security of the State of Israel is a matter of great importance to the United States and its policy in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean Anyone that signed onto that is a traitor to the United States of America.


Youth despair as Gaza jobless rate hits 60 per cent



Police smash Israeli organ-trafficking ring
They had to do something since they had to stop stealing the organs of Palestinians..


Commentary: Armchair warriors
Three former CENTCOM commanders, now retired, with expert knowledge of the Middle East and all the key players, have said that learning to live with Iran as a nuclear power is wiser than bombing Iran. Israel wants us to attack Iran. Beware.


Obama: Israel should sign NPT



Israeli groups fight orders allowing army to jail West Bank residents
"The orders … are worded so broadly such as theoretically allowing the military to empty the West Bank of almost all its Palestinian inhabitants," said the 10 rights groups


Netanyahu cancels trip to Obama's nuclear summit



Hamas orders Gaza smuggling tunnels shut
Hamas ordered the tunnels closed late Tuesday, hours after Israel told its citizens to leave Sinai, saying it had "concrete" evidence that militants were trying to kidnap Israelis.


ElBaradei: Israeli occupation only understands force
The former International Atomic Energy Agency leader criticized the fence which Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak set up along the Gaza Strip border. The fence "hurts Egypt's reputation," he said. "It appears to be participation in the siege of Gaza, which has become the world's largest prison."


76 Senators sign on to Israel letter
More than three quarters of the U.S. Senate, including 38 Democrats, have signed on to a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton implicitly rebuking the Obama Administration for its confrontational stance toward Israel.


Mossad Operation Threatened Against Reporter
The Shin Bet claims that Mr. Blau is holding hundreds of classified documents, including some reported to relate to Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s attack on Gaza in winter 2008 in which the army is widely believed to have violated the rules of war.


Israel tells its citizens to get out of Sinai now



.Obama voices frustration on stalled Mideast peace



Now It Is Told: An Israeli Story Of Secrecy and Censorship
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are living in Iran,” blogger Shooky Galili responded in a post on Twitter. Over the next two weeks, at least a dozen other Israelis published blog posts, Tweeted and created Facebook pages about the Kamm story. In each case, the post, Tweet or page was taken down within hours.



In Israel, reality hides under a 'top secret' stamp



Israel lifts gag order on ex-soldier spy case
Israel lifted months of censorship on a military espionage case Thursday, confirming the house arrest of a former female soldier charged with leaking more than 2,000 military documents to a newspaper.



Israel's nuclear standoff
What Israeli officials are not talking about is the most probable reason behind this cancellation – Netanyahu's unwillingness to stop settlements in East Jerusalem, despite US requests.


Obama recalls bunker-buster bomb kits to bar Israeli strike on Iran



Worry That New Sanctions Will Not Curb Iran’s Nuclear Goals
As another set of sanctions against Iran makes its way through the United Nations — the fourth in as many years — heads of American Jewish organizations and pro-Israel foreign policy analysts are wondering if these or any other measures will really be able to change the behavior of the regime in Tehran.


America’s Loose Nukes in Israel
In the early 1960s, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) began documenting suspicious lapses in NUMEC’s security, inexplicably lax record-keeping, and the ongoing presence of large numbers of Israelis at the plant. Very interesting article.


Lieberman: U.S. Should Attack Iran's Nuclear Program If All Else Fails
Regarding Israel, Lieberman says some of the steps Obama has taken, such as demanding a freeze on the building of Israeli settlements, don’t help the peace process and are in fact “missteps.” Come again?


Medvedev: Israeli strike on Iran to lead to global catastrophe



Netanyahu: Iran wants to destroy Israel and the world remains silent
Israel=Chicken Little


Why Are American Jewish Groups So Intent on Defending Illegal Israeli Settlements and Other Human Rights Violations?
this coalition of Jewish groups does not contest any of the facts. Without offering any evidence, they dismiss findings by reputable organizations like the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. Instead of condemning these human rights violations, they prefer to misinform the public by suggesting that it is somehow wrong to "take sides" against universally recognized injustice. ....In effect they are calling on students not to apply the same principles applied elsewhere to Israel. These groups want us to ignore reality and to allow Israel to be the one and only human rights violator that escapes accountability and condemnation. Israel and its defenders everywhere are the worst supremacists and hypocrites this world has ever seen.


Why Netanyahu Canceled His DC Visit, and Why the GOP Is Applauding
Ever since Netanyahu's government took office, there has been a never-ending stream of stories from unnamed sources taking shots at the Obama administration, trying to undermine its standing with the Israeli public, and sending the signal to the Likud echo chamber stateside to swing into action. This would appear to be the latest example and who better today than Liz Cheney to be on the receiving end of the Netanyahu long ball.


Jewish Groups Ask Feds To Change Policy and Include Antisemitism
Jewish groups have grown increasingly vocal in recent years over what they see as a surge in campus antisemitism. The University of California, Irvine, an Orange County campus that has garnered national attention for the aggressive anti-Israel activism of its Muslim student group, has emerged as a focus of Jewish communal concerns. Notice how anti-Israeli sentiment becomes 'anti-Semitism'.


International Attention Focused on Berkeley Divestment Vote
AIPAC has recently stated the need for a strategy to combat anti-Israel sentiments on U.S. university campuses.


The Israelis Next Door



"Hebron"Border Policeman Burns Palestinian Teacher with Cigarette



"Hebron"Old City Celebrates in a Gesture of Solidarity



Israel Builds Another Barrier, This One To Bar Illegal African Immigrants
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presented the decision as necessary to protect Israel’s Jewish majority. In statements released by his office, he argued that the problem with Israel’s southwest border is that, since it is one of the few places where people journeying on foot from Africa can enter a Western country, many Africans go there to sneak into Israel......Yaakov Katz, a lawmaker with the right-wing National Union party, told the Forward that he considers sealing the southwest border “a million times more important” than the conflict with the Palestinians, given the project’s long-term ramifications for the state. “In the last 100 years, the Jewish people has built here a Jewish state. Within 10 years infiltrators could cause this to go down the drain,”


Turkey: World is turning a blind eye to Israel's nuclear weapons
Recep Tayyip Erdogan remarked that Iran's nuclear program is being scrutinized because of its membership in the International Atomic Energy Agency whereas Israel, which has not signed a nonproliferation treaty, is free to do what it wants.


Can Obama erase ‘Bush nostalgia’ in the Middle East
Now as then, US policy continues to be anchored by a cynical bargain with Arab autocrats: If they faithfully support US regional objectives, the US turns a blind eye to their suppression of domestic dissent. It’s business as usual.

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