Headlines for March 17 - March 23

A Stand For Justice


IDF tank fire kills four Palestinians in Gaza, hospital officials say
Palestinian medics said the dead youths were aged 12, 16 and 17. The 58-year-old owner of the house was also killed.


Palestinian man stabbed by settler in Tuwani days after settler riot
Sadly, villagers think these events may have been triggered in part by
the recent killing of a settler couple and their children in Itamar
settlement near Nablus. No Palestinians have been charged or arrested
and it now appears possible that the murders may have been committed
by Thai workers who were angry because they had not been paid for
their labor.


Five Gazans killed by Israeli fire: medics
Five Palestinians, most of them minors, were killed on Tuesday when Israeli artillery fired on a house in Gaza City, an emergency services spokesman said.


Israel kills 9 in Gaza in deadliest day in months
Palestinian medical officials said three youths aged 12, 16 and 17 who were playing football and an adult relative were killed by Israeli shelling, and five militants were killed later in two separate air strikes elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.


PM: Palestinian unity government would kill off the peace process



Palestinian leader: No state with temporary border



Israeli warplanes raid Gaza City: witnesses
I apologize that some of the links in this newsbatch are a few weeks old.


Hamas militants say truce if Israel halts Gaza attacks



46% of Jewish Israelis support settler “price tag” terror, Congress blames Palestinians for incitement
The police investigation into the Itamar murders remains under a gag order. No individual Palestinian has been accused or even named as a suspect by the police. However, the resident of the neighboring Palestinian village Awarta, who have suffered for years from settler pogroms, are being collectively blamed and punished. According to a report by three International Solidarity Movement volunteers living under curfew in Awarta, Israeli soldiers and settlers have rampaged through the village in recent days, seeking murder suspects and the satisfaction that comes with retributive violence. Read the first sentence again. I am not sure if anyone has since been arrested in the Itamar murder case, but the blame is automatically laid at the feet of the Palestinians.


Militants fire on Israeli city as Gaza violence spirals



Hamas: If IDF continue to bomb Gaza, response will be severe



Settlers Blame Left For Itamar Murders
Read the dispatch from the Christian Peacekeeper Teams (in that area) in this news batch regarding the attack on the Itamar settlers. They claim that even the police suspect Thai workers committed the attack. Notice how in Israel, the blame automatically falls on the Palestinians. I don't believe any arrests have been made in this case. I could be wrong on that.


Hebron: An Eventful day in the West Bank - March 15, 2011
A horrible murder took place four days ago in the illegal settlement of Itamar near Nablus. Parents and three young children were stabbed to death, presumably in their sleep.

The attack followed a week of countless attacks on the Palestinian people by the illegal settlers. Houses had been set on fire, trees cut down and water sources destroyed.


,,,,,Yesterday, we read in the media that all foreign workers of Thai and Filipino origin had been interrogated about the crime. From our contacts with the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) we were told that it was a man from Thailand who carried out the attack. He had threatened to kill the family if he did not get his outstanding salary

No Palestinians have been found guilty of the terrible atrocity in Itamar.

After all the accusations and threats, not least from the Israeli leadership, we expected to hear some form of apology and corrections. Instead, it was announced that 500 new settlement houses will be built as a punishment for the alleged offense. In fact, bosättarhåll announced that a new settlement is already being built on Palestinian land, in memory of and in retaliation for the slain family. The information about the man from Thailand has been neither confirmed or denied. Read that again, kids. The murder of the settler family was not committed by Palestinians. Yet Israel still used it as an excuse to announce more settlement construction.


Abbas to Russia: Pressure Israel to halt Gaza escalation
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to put pressure on Israel to end the "escalation" of strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.


Egypt warns Israel against military action in Gaza
He also warned others -- an apparent reference to Palestinian groups -- from giving Israel any excuse to use violence, adding that Egypt rejected and condemned violence against civilians.


Hamas threatens to retaliate for IDF killing of Gaza civilians
IDF military shelling aimed at Palestinian militants missed its target on Tuesday, killing three teens and their uncle and wounding 13 other family members as they played soccer in their backyard in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.


Israel admits to arrest and detention of Gaza engineer
Israel admitted that they indeed arrested the Gazan engineer, Dirar Abu Sisi, who was reported to have gone missing from the Ukraine almost two weeks ago, the partial lifting of a gag order revealed.


Israel passes laws that critics say are anti-Arab
The first law denies state funding to any municipality that commemorates Israel's 1948 creation as the "nakba," or "catastrophe." Palestinians use the term to describe their defeat and exile in the war that surrounded Israel's founding.

The second law grants small communities the authority to reject admission to applicants that are perceived as not fitting into their social fabric.


French PM: Palestinian state must be created in 2011



UN Investigator: Israel Engaged in Ethnic Cleansing
Israel's expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem and eviction of Palestinians from their homes there is a form of ethnic cleansing, a United Nations investigator said on Monday.


A Farewell Address by Philip Giraldi
After seven years and hundreds of billions of dollars invested, one might note that perfection is also something that costs a lot. As ex-Trotskyites, neocons can be unyielding in their understanding that freedom doesn’t come cheap or easy, even if they have been able to avoid the fighting and paying on any personal level. They know that that’s why you have government and a professional army – to make someone else actually bear the pain and cough up the cash. I'll sit with you at the tomb for the reading, Mr. Giraldi. I know how you feel.


Military action if Iran sanctions fail: Netanyahu
Netanyahu said if military action was taken, he would prefer that it be lead by the United States. They got us to attack Iraq for them (by way of their minions, the neoconservatives - Feith, Perle, Wolfowitz, etc).


Robert Fisk: Palestinians understand Gaddafi better than we do
There was a time when this kind of drivel would be ignored but it is now part of an increasingly dangerous narrative in which charity is turned into evil, in which the one institution supplying help to perhaps 95 per cent of almost five million Palestinian refugees is to become a target. And since UNRWA in Gaza did appear to become a target in the 2008-9 bloodbath, this is pretty frightening stuff.


Egypt report: Israeli spy ring uncovered by Egyptian authorities



Is Another ‘Cast Lead’ in the Offing?
Indeed, the stars seem to be aligning for another brutal Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip two years after “Operation Cast Lead” killed some 1,400 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, and completely destroyed 3,000 homes in what Judge Richard Goldstone termed a “deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population.”


Sarah Palin dines with Netanyahu, skips Bethlehem
As expected, the former Alaska governor had dinner Monday night with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, becoming the fourth 2012 hopeful in the last three months to sit down with the top Israeli leader.


WikiLeaks: Lebanon army seized Hezbollah arms truck during 2006 war
According to the WikiLeaks cable, the Christian leaders told then U.S. envoy to Lebanon Jeff Feltman and Assistant Secretary of State David Welch that they would approve of another week or two of Israeli attacks against Hezbollah if it meant those actions would weaken the militant group.


Report: U.S. considering strategic outreach to Hezbollah



Reckoning Wrongly in a Massacre’s Wake
Again, were any Palestinians arrested for the murder of the settler family? It is automatically assumed it was the work of Palestinians.


Historic Canadian Jewish Congress To Be Merged Into New Communal Group
The Canadian Jewish Congress, which has functioned as Canadian Jewry’s primary advocacy group since 1919, is being merged into a larger super-agency that is expected to put greater emphasis on Israel advocacy.

Canadians, beware.


Sirhan Sirhan denied parole in 1968 RFK killing
I apologize that some of the links in this newsbatch are a few weeks old.


Hamas protests UN plans to teach Holocaust in Gaza
The United Nations has launched a new plan to teach the Holocaust in Gaza schools, drawing fierce condemnation from Gaza's militant Hamas rulers, school teachers – and even the body tasked with peace negotiations with Israel. Touche.The Israelis just passed a bill denying funding to muncipalities that commemorate the 'Palocaust' (the Nakba). I guess the difference between the two is that the Palocaust goes on to this day.


Victim was looking to build a better world for all
Ahmet Dogan, the father of a 19-year-old man killed by Israeli troops who violently attacked a humanitarian aid ship from Turkey, recently was in Washington to tell the truth about that attack. His commentary, "A father speaks for his son," appeared in the Times Union on Feb. 24.




Penn, De Niro Attend U.N. Screening of 'Anti-Israel' Film
Over the objections of the Israeli government and the American Jewish Committee, the United Nations yesterday hosted the American premiere of a movie sure to generate further controversy with its depiction of Israel’s 1948 founding.

Oh dear.


Helen Thomas: Playboy Interview
THOMAS: I knew I’d hit the third rail. You cannot say anything about Israel in this country. But I’ve lived with this cause for many years. Everybody knows my feelings that the Palestinians have been shortchanged in every way. Sure, the Israelis have a right to exist—but where they were born, not to come and take someone else’s home. I’ve had it up to here with the violations against the Palestinians. Why shouldn’t I say it? I knew exactly what I was doing—I was going for broke. I had reached the point of no return. You finally get fed up. God love her for never backing down, despite the overwhelming vitriol aimed at her. And kudos to Playboy for this interview. What happened to Helen Thomas is yet further proof that you can say anything you want in this country about Christians or Muslims, but don't you dare criticize Israel (or Jews), you're done for.


What's Palin Doing in Israel?
For the former Alaska governor, the trip offers a chance to distinguish herself as more pro-Israel than other American politicians and, perhaps, to make amends for her “blood libel” gaffe in January that angered many Jews. Palin has already pointed out that President Obama has yet to visit Israel during more than two years in office. At a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she was expected to distance herself from the position of some fellow Tea Partiers—chiefly Sen. Rand Paul—in favor of cutting aid to Israel. You can be sure that Sarah is going to need some Kleenex to wipe the Israeli feces off of her nose.


US politician Sarah Palin visits Israel
Stay there, Sarah.


The ‘Other Muslim’ in Congress
Carson, who visited Israel last August and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Tzipi Livni, has a solid voting record on Israel and attended the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee last year. After the Gaza military operation of 2008, Carson supported a resolution backing Israel, a vote that triggered some criticism against him from pro-Palestinian activists.

So in other words, Carson is an 'Uncle Tom' Muslim.


Sarah Palin: The End of the Affair
At a minimum, we can assume that Kristol’s core operatives such as Randy Scheunemann and Michael Goldfarb will be with Palin for the long haul.


The Manipulative Pro-War Argument in Libya
my real question for Judis (and those who voice the same accusations against Libya intervention opponents) is this: do you support military intervention to protect protesters in Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and other U.S. allies from suppression, or to stop the still-horrendous suffering in the Sudan, or to prevent the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Ivory Coast? Did you advocate military intervention to protect protesters in Iran and Egypt, or to stop the Israeli slaughter of hundreds of trapped innocent civilians in Gaza and Lebanon or its brutal and growing occupation of the West Bank?


Israeli Government Rejects Orthodox Converts’ Bids To Immigrate as Jews
He added that although Fanny, who completed her conversion 10 years ago, could move to Israel registered as his non-Jewish wife, the Smiths cannot afford to do this. She would lose out on the financial benefit package that only new Jewish immigrants receive.

Only Jews receive the financial package? Really? I call that discrimination. Supremacism.


Israeli-Arab leaders under fire for Libya visit



Ukraine seeks answers on Palestinian's detention
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it plans to summon Israel's ambassador for an explanation of how a Palestinian engineer disappeared from Ukraine and ended up jailed in Israel.

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