and other news from Today in Palestine:

Land, property, resource theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlers

Demolition on the Road 90 – No. 2

8 Dec – (Photo) Wednesday Israeli bulldozers didn’t only destroyed a vegetable shop on the Road 90, they also cut six trees few kilometers away. Those trees belong to Ibrahim and Saleh Zubeidat. The incident took place in Zubeidat village, in the central Palestinian Jordan Valley. The army cut these 50 year old trees claiming they affect the security control off Argaman settlement.

http://www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=137:demolition-on-the-road-90-nd2&catid=15:2010&Itemid=21

New army aggression in Abu Alajaj

10 Dec – (Photos) Abu Alajaj – Jiftlik – occupied Palestinian Jordan Valley — This morning the Israeli occupation forces came once again in Abu Alajaj to harass the Bedouin community living in this area since decades. Four military jeeps came over at 11:45 today in order to force the Daess family to remove a tent, claiming that is a new building. This tent was built four months ago and is located between other tents in the same area. Today, they also prevented the shepherds to put a new nylon over their hay. The hay is now surrounded by a fence built few weeks ago by the Massu’a settlers. An EAPPI team was present during this aggression as well as one of our foreign volunteer. She was put under delay for more than half an hour for interrogation and was threatened to be arrested.

http://www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=134:new-army-aggression-in-abu-alajaj&catid=15:2010&Itemid=21

New exhibit tells story of Bnei Menashe

12 Dec — Exhibition created by Shavei Israel organization portrays community’s daily life in Israel and northeastern India, chronicles their return to Jewish people after centuries of isolation … The Bnei Menashe (Hebrew for “sons of Manasseh”) claim descent from one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, who were sent into exile by the Assyrian Empire more than 27 centuries ago … In recent years, Shavei Israel has brought some 1,700 Bnei Menashe back home to Zion. Another 7,200 still remain in India, waiting for the day when they too will be able to return to Israel and the Jewish people.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3997244,00.html

RoR Committee: We do not recognize agreements waiving the right to return

AMMAN, (PIC) 12 Dec — The high committee to defend the right of return in Jordan is refusing to recognize signatures by Palestinian parties waiving the full right for refugees to return to their land. The committee, marking International Refugee Day on Saturday, called on the international community to see to the Palestinian right to return to the homes they were ejected from by force and to put UN resolutions in that regard into action. UN resolution 194 states that all refugees have the right to return and compensation for all losses and moral and material damages they and their descendants suffered throughout the years of the diaspora.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s78R%2blygnLDfxaWZvM8WctvTbhGjODw4ZgtbR1bT5ugFQHsV1R0n3sECIjLPdTGOu%2f6m4lpTKXmxC0Tgkg3Gnnr794sc3YSp9Qq9t%2bTPI74A0%3d

Violence

Israeli military missile hits family house

posted 12 Dec (ISM) – December 9th is a day that will be remembered by the Al Sirsawi family as a day in which God protected them from what could have been a catastrophe. At 11:15 in the morning, a powerful missile broke through the back wall of the family house, rocketed through one of the bedrooms, smashed the wardrobe and the door, soared through the hallway and shattered the dresser of the opposite bedroom where it landed in the wall … We wanted to check on the baby but couldn’t immediately see her. Finally, we found her: she too was covered in dust and her cradle was filled with stones and wood from the explosion.”… The shell was fired from an Israeli tank close to Karni Crossing, which is over 2 km away from Ash Shuja’iyeh where the Al Sersawi family lives. “We don’t know what happened or why they shelled our house with such a missile.

http://palsolidarity.org/2010/12/16013/

Israeli troops kill 2 Palestinians on Gaza border (AP)

JERUSALEM 12 Dec — The Israeli military says troops have killed two unarmed Palestinians trying to cross into Israel from Gaza. The military says troops spotted the men near the security fence that separates Gaza from Israel, then shot and killed them. Fearful of militant attacks, the military says it does not fire warning shots when Palestinians are trying to cross from Hamas-ruled Gaza. Some Palestinians try to cross into Israel in search of work. The military says during searches after Saturday’s shooting, an Israeli soldier was moderately wounded. It said it was investigating whether he was shot by militants or accidentally by Israeli troops.

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/israeli-troops-kill-2-773145.html

Probe: Friendly fire cause of soldier’s injury in Gaza

Initial Southern Command investigation finds Armored Corps soldiers who killed two Palestinians near border later opened fire on group of paratroopers they mistook for terrorists

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3998047,00.html

Israel’s crackdown on the border area injures four more

11 Dec – The Israeli Offensive Forces are cracking down on people working in the buffer zone. In the past two weeks 20 people have been shot, four of whom were children. Today the atrocities continued: this morning three people were injured in Beit Lahiya; in Khuza’a, near Khan Younis, the army shot a child of 16.

http://palsolidarity.org/2010/12/16022/

2 Palestinians killed in clash on Gaza border

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) 12 Dec — Two Palestinians were killed and an Israeli soldier wounded in an exchange of fire along the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel Saturday night, the Israeli military said … Palestinian medical crews were reportedly unable to reach the scene of the shooting due to the danger posed by military action in the area. Local radio in Gaza reported an Israeli military incursion near Bureij refugee camp. For its part, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, Al-Quds Brigades claimed responsibility for firing three mortar shells at the Israeli military post Nahal Oz.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341196

Activism / Solidarity

South African visitors forced to flee in Ramallah protest

11 Dec – A South African delegation on a visit to Palestine was left shaken after they were attacked with tear gas and sound bombs by the Israeli army outside a Jewish settlement on the West Bank, on Friday morning … They were confronted by the Israeli army when they joined locals in Masra village, outside Bethlehem, who were picketing against the expansion of Jewish settlements, which encroach on their land …Mosholi said they had experienced first-hand what the people of Palestine experience daily in their struggle for independence. “What is happening here is much worse than we experienced under apartheid,” she said.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article811001.ece/SA-visitors-forced-to-flee-in-Ramallah-protest

Detention

Salah freed from Israeli jail (AFP)

RAMLA, Israel 12 Dec – Islamist leader Sheikh Raed Salah was freed from jail Sunday after serving five months behind bars for spitting at an Israeli policeman, a prison spokesman said. The Palestinian-Israeli leader, who heads the northern wing of the Islamic Movement, was greeted as he left prison in Ramla near Tel Aviv by a crowd of supporters waving the movement’s green bunting as well as Palestinian and Turkish flags, an AFP photographer said.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341311

Sheikh Salah: The days I spent in Israeli jails were the best in my life

GAZA, (PIC) 12 Dec — Sheikh Ra’ed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands, stated immediately after his release from Ramle prison that the five months he spent in jails was the best days in his life and heavenly moments he spent in worshiping God. Sheikh Salah said he was able to write three books while in detention and called on the world to consider the freedom of detainees inside Israeli jails political prisoners who must be released immediately according to international law.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7%2bqf8vBVOKipQTQVmiqDceiSx12oPnsKsywQsaEEjaz1hN5tcIl7RrsGqtv6uiwMadyppdFjUiPNUElBwTap7sJbyNTdEwJmRu16WaGFj888%3d

Israeli forces detain Palestinian near Hebron

Israeli forces raided the southern West Bank town of Dura south of Hebron on Friday morning and detained a 22-year-old man from his home, relatives said. Family members said that an Israeli military force raided their home in the early morning firing flare canisters inside the house before they detained Abdullah Muhammad Amayra. They added that his mother sustained bruises as a result of flares.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341205

Health risks threatening detainees in Israeli jails for lack of winter clothes

GAZA, (PIC) 12 Dec — The prisoners’ center for studies said that the Israeli prison authority prevents Palestinian prisoners from getting winter clothes in its jails for the fourth consecutive year, the thing which exposes them to health risks, especially because of the low temperatures this season.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7dOe9kvByJPuis4aWTSUr5WoWGBClYdBWiLzX6Gj2SHI8k2NeXgzQpkNp1u7X96caei%2fqkD3gpQHGolk%2f6i%2bYlq9vSwsDaZ0gddWabdaX6IM%3d

Reprisals

Army: Rocket fired from Gaza into Israel (AFP)

JERUSALEM 12 Dec – A rocket fired from the Islamist-run Gaza Strip hit southern Israel on Saturday without causing casualties or damage, a military spokesman said. The projectile “exploded on open ground,” he said, a day after a mortar round or rocket fired from the Palestinian territory exploded, again without causing casualties or damage. Gaza-based Palestinian militants have fired some 200 rockets and mortars into Israel this year. Eight attacks have been recorded this week.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341186

PFLP wing: Clashes with Israeli forces

GAZA CITY 12 Dec — The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades said fierce clashes erupted Saturday with Israeli forces north of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip … An Israeli military spokesman was not aware of any clashes in the area.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341126

Siege / Restrictions on movement / Rights violations

Limited export of strawberries, flowers from Gaza

Liaison official Raed Fattouh said the Palestinian side was told to expect entry of 170-180 truckloads of goods and humanitarian aid through Kerem Shalom terminal. In addition, Israeli authorities are expected to allow export of eight truckloads of strawberries and flowers, harvested in Gaza, through the same crossing. Kerem Shalom will see the entry of limited quantities of industrial-grade diesel and domestic-use gas into the besieged coastal enclave, he said, while the Karni crossing would remain closed Sunday.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341223

Gaza police officer says attacked by workers

GAZA CITY 12 Dec — Palestinian workers attacked a police officer Sunday as he tried to stop them collecting gravel in the southern Gaza Strip, a Gaza government police spokesman said. Ayman Al-Batneiji said an officer sustained a head injury after a group of workers hit him with a metal object in Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis. The spokesman said police chased the workers into a populated area, and a woman was injured by a stray bullet during the pursuit. She was transferred to hospital where medics described her condition as stable, Al-Batneiji said.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341291

Video: Beyond words

9 Dec – On the occasion of the Human Rights Day, which also marks the 62nd Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Al-Haq is pleased to launch its short documentary film entitled “Beyond Words: Palestinian Voices in Search of Justice”. Through this documentary, Al-Haq is giving voice to Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Their stories are but an example of the human rights violations committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on a daily basis and remain unpunished.

http://vimeo.com/17605904

Gaza furniture producers yearn to export

GAZA, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) — Rushing from Gaza to the West Bank, Wadah Bssiso, a Gaza-based furniture producer, found he can not re- establish trade with his old clients after more than three years of absence. “Most of my old clients are now importing from other producers in China and other countries,” said Bssiso, who now produces just 10 percent of what he used to do prior to the blockade … What added more uncertainty is that the Israeli cabinet’s decision last week was still vague. It does not say whether or not furniture and clothes would be allowed to be shipped.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2010-12/12/c_13646100.htm

EU Foreign Affairs discuss ways to help Gaza economy

Brussels (UNN) The EU Foreign Affairs Council is to discuss the situation in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iran’s nuclear issue, during its regular monthly meeting in Brussels tomorrow, Monday … EU High Representative Catherine Ashton will present the options for a package of EU actions to help develop the economy of Gaza with infrastructure, equipment and training measures, said the sources speaking on condition of anonymity. We want 1000 trucks per day to pass through the Gaza crossing per day to boost exports from Gaza, stressed the sources.

http://www.unnindia.com/english/story.php?Id=7259

Coming to America: Gaza boys take trip of a lifetime

10 Dec – Film documents experience of 15 students who were taken on an eye-opening journey to New York arranged by a UN agency — The distance from Gaza to New York is 9,150km, but for 15-year-old Motaz Al-Jamal the gulf between the rubble of his hometown of Rafah and the neon glitz of Times Square could have been inter-planetary.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/10/gaza-boys-film-new-york

Racism / Discrimination

Rabbis summoned over anti-Arab ruling

12 Dec – Three Judea and Samaria religious leaders inform police they won’t show up for questioning session on suspicion of issuing leaflet against hiring minorities. Settlement officials: Intimidation attempt like in Soviet Russia

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3997589,00.html

Safed student says ‘Arabs out!’ spray-painted on his car

12 Dec – Ali Mustafa, a student who rents an apartment in the north Israeli city of Safed, awoke on Friday to find his car vandalized. He reported to the police that unidentified perpetrators smashed his side mirror, scratched the vehicle and spray-painted the words “Arabs out!” on it … Mahmoud Abu Salah, a representative of the student union at Safed College, said that the act was an example of the racist attitude prevalent in the city … Police have charged a few Jews for some of the acts, and claim they continue to search.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3997561,00.html

Bar Association chairman: Rabbis’ letter is racist

Chairman of the Israel Bar Association Attorney Yori Guy-Ron, severely criticized the rabbis’ letter and noted in his appeal to the Bar Association that “the letter [against renting flats to ‘Arabs’], which began with Safed’s rabbi and then received shameful support from dozens of local authority rabbis is a sad moment in time. The statements in the letter are racist.” [End]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3997888,00.html

Civil administration wants Palestinians to submit requests in Hebrew only

The Israeli Civil Administration operating in the West Bank is demanding that Palestinian residents submit requests in Hebrew only, the Hamoked Center for the Defense of the Individual said. In a formal letter sent to the NGO by the office of the new chief of the administration, Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz, the government body suggests that the thousands of Palestinians seeking the services of the District Coordination and Liaison offices hire Palestinian “typists” to assist them. In a letter to Almoz, an attorney on the staff of Hamoked, Ido Blum, wrote that refusing to process requests written in Arabic sharply contradicts the duties of the military commander and the Civil Administration in occupied territories as defined by international law and acknowledged by Israeli court rulings.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/civil-administration-wants-palestinians-to-submit-requests-in-hebrew-only-1.330111

Fatah / Hamas

Report: PA warns media against reporting power struggle

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Many Palestinian editors and journalists have been warned against making any public reference to the power struggle between President Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah leader Muhamad Dahlan, an Israeli newspaper reported Sunday. “One journalist who dared to report about the dispute was thrown into a prison in Bethlehem for five days,” The Jerusalem Post reported … According to some, the rivalry poses the biggest challenge to Abbas since he entered office in January 2005, the report said.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341262

Abbas: We won’t hesitate to fulfill moral duties

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday praised the efforts of Palestinian firefighters who helped extinguish the worst blaze in Israel’s history … “Our history shows that we have never been late to fulfill our moral duties, just as Saladin did when he sent his doctor to treat his enemy Richard the Lionheart, who was heading a campaign to invade and occupy our country…” [no comment, leaves me speechless]

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341169

Fatah leader: Abbas asked Clinton to stop MP’s exile

12 Dec — RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — President Mahmoud Abbas wrote to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to stop Israel deporting a Hamas lawmaker (Muhammad Abu Tir) from Jerusalem, a senior Fatah official said Sunday.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341428

Nazzal: The PA asked Israel to imprison MP Qabha

AMMAN, (PIC) 12 Dec– Member of Hamas’s political bureau Mohamed Nazzal said that the Palestinian authority (PA) asked the Israel side to kidnap Palestinian lawmaker Wasfi Qabha after he had launched lately a scathing attack on its policies. Nazzal told the Jordanian newspaper Assabeel that there is an exchange of roles between the PA and Israel and this cooperation depends on letting Israeli troops kidnap Palestinian lawmakers and officials whom the PA cannot detain for diplomatic and political considerations.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s71yRVEwsQHr000Ru7Y5wfnWgLTWqtJgrJb5gqIlt26JJr%2bikxNhrc2SM1oRr7mL3NluiWx1XOmKKWTagqONBwjgF8xwVIXC5s7xxQTWooZek%3d

Taha denies Mishaal asked for meeting with Dahlan

GAZA, (PIC) 12 Dec — Ayman Taha, a Hamas leader, said that his movement’s political bureau chairman Khaled Mishaal did not ask for a reconciliation meeting with Fatah MP Mohammed Dahlan. Taha told the PIC that what was published by Wikileaks quoting American state department documents on this issue was not “accurate”. He explained that Mishaal during a visit to Libya, Dahlan and Khaled Islam, who were also there, asked for such a meeting with Mishaal after the war on Gaza in 2009.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7ikfBV1bxRbdim4zovAKppEyvAihvK0RIyJhiWUb3ya4AW9%2f1M4rNiXXWzJTi36S0is%2biw0hNnKDhJmrXHG6Aw7KcVMNy%2b09emYDDr8vif%2fU%3d

Political / Diplomatic news

Report: Israel-Turkey talks stuck

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) 12 Dec — Negotiations between Israel and Turkey to resolve the Gaza flotilla crisis stalled late last week, an Israeli newspaper reported Sunday. Israel has refused to apologize for the killings of Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara and Turkey has refused to cooperate with Israel’s demands that it set aside the incident.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341211

Palestinians sceptical after US freeze failure (AFP)

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories – Palestinian officials expressed doubt and frustration on Sunday about the future of peace talks after the United States failed to secure a new settlement freeze. In a speech on Friday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged that Washington would remain engaged despite the failure, encouraging the two sides to address core issues through indirect talks. But Palestinian negotiators and analysts said Washington’s failure to win a new settlement freeze was a sign of Israeli intransigence and US weakness, and that they held out little hope for the future of negotiations.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101212/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestinianspeaceus

Palestinian envoys to Washington won’t see Israeli diplomats: source

12 Dec – Palestinian officials will not see Israeli diplomats in Washington, where the two sides are discussing reviving Middle East peace process with the U.S. administration, a Palestinian source said. The source, a senior member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, said that there are no plans to hold “any kind of bilateral meetings” between the Palestinian and the Israeli envoys.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/7228388.html

Israeli official: Barak’s vision of dividing Jerusalem is not government policy

12 Dec – Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s expressed support for partitioning Jerusalem along Jewish and Arab lines according to an initiative presented by former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 2000 is not official Israeli policy, an official in Jerusalem said Sunday,

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-official-barak-s-vision-of-dividing-jerusalem-is-not-government-policy-1.330184

ABC Video: Salam Fayad and Tzipi Livni tackle the big issues

12 Dec — In a rare interview with Christiane Amanpour, a top Palestinian official and a top Israeli official discussed the big issues of Middle East peace.

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/salam-fayyad-tzipi-livni-debate-mideast-peace-plan/story?id=12375464

Israeli minister: No peace talks with ‘stopwatch’ (AFP)

JERUSALEM 12 Dec — Israel will not discuss final status issues in talks with the Palestinians with “a stopwatch in hand,” a senior Israeli lawmaker said Sunday, responding to US pressure for new peace negotiations. “It is neither logical nor in Israel’s interest to negotiate with a stopwatch in hand,” Environment Minister Gilad Erdan told Israeli public radio … Erdan said large-scale Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank and East Jerusalem would turn those areas into bases for Islamists allied with Iran.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341270

Time running out for Mideast peace: Rudd (AFP)

…The construction of new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank undermines the push for a peace settlement, which should pave the way for an independent Palestinian state and guarantee Israeli’s security, he said. Rudd later met Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and said at a joint news conference that Israeli settlements contribute to “destroying” the chances of peace. The Australian foreign minister said he expects to visit Israel soon and will reiterate this position, adding however that the Jewish state has security fears and that these should be taken into account.

http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-world/time-running-out-for-mideast-peace-rudd-20101212-18tow.html

Other news

Al Jazeera video: Islamic group aiding Arab Israelis

11 Dec – Israel’s Arabs, who account for 20 per cent of the population, struggle with daily discrimination and living standards much lower than their fellow Jewish citizens. Arab political parties say they are struggling for representation in the government to defend the rights of the minority group in the country, but are failing to put up a united front. Sherine Tadros reports from Cana in northern Israel on why the Islamic Movement is emerging as the only group effective at providing social services for Arabs in the country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN-2GA6VaR0&feature=player_embedded#!

1,500 in Gaza combine to combat gender violence

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) 12 Dec — UN agencies and civil society organizations on Thursday joined together with an audience of 1,500 people to open a festival to combat violence against women in the Gaza Strip … Speaking at the event on behalf of the participating UN agencies, the head of UNRWA operations in the Gaza Strip, Mr. John Ging, stated “The challenges in Gaza are huge.” He added: “The blockade has devastated the economy and made daily life more difficult. Domestic violence has increased due to escalating levels of stress and unemployment.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=340685

ACRI report: Freedom to demonstrate no longer obvious

12 Dec – The Association for Civil Rights in Israel’s 2010 report on freedom of expression, released Sunday, found that “the democratic space in Israel is shrinking and the freedom to demonstrate is no longer obvious” in Israel.

http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=199068

Storms prompt fear Caesarea’s ancient port may collapse

12 Dec – Following the collapse of the Caesarea breakwater, the waves pounding Israel’s shores are reaching the ancient port of Caesarea, prompting fears it may collapse too in one of the worst storms in this region for years.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3998013,00.html

Analysis / Opinion

‘Our lives became something we never dreamt’ — the former Israeli solders who have testified against army abuses

12 Dec – Former Israeli soldiers who have testified against army abuses have for the first time given up their anonymity, to make their voices all the harder to ignore. Donald Macintyre gets an exclusive preview of a powerful new book Occupation of the Territories

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/our-lives-became-something-wed-never-dreamt-the-former-israeli-soldiers-who-have-testified-against-army-abuses-2154663.html

The unholy alliance between Israel’s right and Europe’s anti-Semites / Adar Primor

12 Dec – Extreme nationalists in Israel have invited extremists in Europe and believe they have tamed them to their cause — The first of the pyromaniacs, the Dutch MP Geert Wilders – almost a permanent guest in Israel – was invited by MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union ) to persuade us that Jordan is Palestine … The honor of lighting the torch goes to the brightest jewel in this racist crown – Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of Austria’s Freedom Party .. As a university student, Strache belonged to an extremist organization from which Jews were banned, hung out with neo-Nazis and participated in paramilitary exercises with them The organizers of these visits believe they have tamed this bunch of extremists they brought over from Europe … But they have not genuinely cast off their spiritual DNA, and in any event, they aren’t looking for anything except for Jewish absolution that will bring them closer to political power … The Austrian press reported this week that the whitewashing undergone by Strache here in our Land of Milk and Honey could well pave his way to the chancellor’s office.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-unholy-alliance-between-israel-s-right-and-europe-s-anti-semites-1.330132

Keeping Israel Jewish and pure – and democratic if there’s time / Zvi Bar’el

It’s not a democratic state or a national Israeli state Netanyahu wants the Palestinians to recognize, but a state characterized by the values of Rabbi Wolpo, Rabbi Elyahu and the other geniuses.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/keeping-israel-jewish-and-pure-and-democractic-if-there-s-time-1.330129

Israel may have no military option against Iran / Gideon Levy

12 Dec – Any Israeli leader, even an adventurist and a former commando, should understand that the attack option is not really an option. It’s true that we succeeded in a few bombings in the past, but nothing lasts forever and the Scuds against us won’t always be hollow. A thousand new fire trucks and even the Iron Dome missile defense system will not provide protection. You can’t build a fortress for every citizen. This leads to the second, unavoidable conclusion, which should penetrate very deeply, not only among diplomats and commanders, but also among the many warmongers among us: the only existential option is integrating into the region

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-may-have-no-military-option-against-iran-1.330130

The Orwell lobby: Saban raises $9 million for a foreign army and Hillary calls him a ‘champion of peace’ / Philip Weiss

Haim Saban had a busy two days. Thursday, December 9. He hosts a fundraiser in Century City, Ca, for the Israel Defense Forces and, along with former Seinfeld star Jason Alexander and Andrea Bocelli, raises $9 million:

http://mondoweiss.net/2010/12/and-on-saturday-he-benchpressed-400-congressmen.html

Fables of the great Irish famine / Tim King

[or, why so many Irish support the Palestinian cause] SALEM, Ore. 12 Dec – A spin through Wikipedia under the search term ‘Irish Potato Famine’ leads to a page that describes a heartbreaking historic event; a potato disease that ravaged Ireland and killed a million people, while another million fled to places like the USA as starving refugees.

http://salem-news.com/articles/december122010/irish-troubles.php

Iraq

Saturday: 2 Iraqis killed

Only two deaths were reported in Iraq today; however, a mass grave was also discovered. Meanwhile Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that it is unlikely he would form the new government before the year’s end. A mass grave dating to 1991 was discovered in Basra province. In Baghdad, gunmen killed a police captain in the Mansour district. In Mosul, a police lieutenant was killed in a small arms attack near his home.

http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/12/11/saturday-2-iraqis-killed-2/

Sunday: 22 Iraqis killed, 90 wounded

While Ashuraa observances may be dampening reports of violence, two significant attacks made the headlines, including one against Shi’ite pilgrims participating in an Ashuraa procession. At least 22 Iraqis were killed and 90 more were wounded in those attacks and one other. At least 17 people were killed and as many as 57 others were wounded when a suicide car bomber struck at a police checkpoint near government offices in Ramadi….

http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/12/12/sunday-22-iraqis-killed-90-wounded/

Raids, arrests of Sunnis increase in Iraq

BAGHDAD — The soldiers yanked Arkan Subhi Ahmed al-Habshi out of bed shortly before dawn, screaming and striking him with their guns, a scene that has become routine in Sunni districts of Baghdad. His family’s futile attempts to navigate the criminal justice system into which he disappeared after his detention in July fit a pattern that has left Sunnis across the country feeling bereft and indignant.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2010/12/12/raids_arrests_of_sunnis_increase_in_iraq/

Iraq insurgents kidnap senior policeman’s relative (AFP)

KIRKUK, Iraq 12 Dec – Insurgents kidnapped the sister-in-law of a top Kurdish policeman in an apparent bid to release jailed detainees in the ethnically mixed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police said on Sunday. Kirkuk’s provincial police chief attributed the kidnapping in the oil-rich city on the release from jail nearly two months ago of five women linked to Al-Qaeda, which he admitted had been a “mistake.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101212/wl_mideast_afp/iraqkurdscrimekidnapkirkuk

Foreign Office memo shows 2002 plan to sell Iraq invasion to UK media

10 Dec – Strategy for bringing the media onside was drawn up six months before Iraq invasion … The document, drawn up by John Williams, press adviser to the then foreign secretary, Jack Straw, spells out ways to soften up the media, including “critics like the Guardian”. Under the heading Not taking the UN route, Williams wrote: “Our argument should be narrow, and put with vigour – Iraq is uniquely dangerous.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/10/memo-2002-iraq-invasion-media

Lebanon, other Mideast

Lebanon Sunni heads lash out at Hezbollah, army (AFP)

BEIRUT 12 Dec – Sunni leaders from opposite ends of Lebanon’s political spectrum on Sunday urged supporters to stand firm against the Shiite group Hezbollah, at a time of high tension between the two Muslim communities. An MP loyal to Prime Minister Saad Hariri and a radical Salafist leader jointly accused the army of serving as cover for Hezbollah, urging a gathering of 1,500 to reject an alleged military crackdown on their community.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101212/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonpoliticsunrestislam

Hezbollah threatens ‘new era for resistance’ unless Lebanon shuns Hariri tribunal

12 Dec – Hezbollah is demanding that the government end its financial backing of the international tribunal as a precondition for staying in the government.

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/mess-report/hezbollah-threatens-new-era-for-resistance-unless-lebanon-shuns-hariri-tribunal-1.330110

Egyptian opposition mounts protest (Al Jazeera)

Opposition groups in Cairo stage demonstration against election result as president rejects claims the poll was rigged.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/12/2010121214281133115.html

Sand, snow, thunderstorms wreak Mideast havoc (AFP)

CAIRO 12 Dec – Winds, rain sandstorms and hail battered the southern and eastern Mediterranean on Sunday, killing at least five people, closing ports and disrupting traffic in the Suez Canal. Drought-stricken countries across the Middle East had been praying for rain for weeks when the weather turned violent at the weekend, with at least five people killed as gale-force winds and torrential rain pounded the coastline.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101212/wl_mideast_afp/mideastweatherstorm

US and other world news

France cited Palestinians as ‘precedent’ for EU exile

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) 12 Dec — In talks in 2009 on closing America’s detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, French officials cited Israel’s siege of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem as a “useful precedent” for resettling deportees. Three diplomatic cables from the US embassy in Paris, quoting French officials, suggest that the 2002 siege and deportation of Palestinian operatives to EU countries and elsewhere could serve as a model for resettling in Europe some of the detainees at Guantanamo, despite concerns raised by other member states.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341307

Worldwide demos called in support of jailed WikiLeaks chief (AFP)

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama on Saturday offered his strongest condemnation yet of WikiLeaks’ “deplorable” documents dump, as supporters of Julian Assange called for demonstrations to press for release of the website’s founder.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341234

WikiLeaks’ advocates are wreaking ‘hacktivism’

12 Dec – In England, a 26-year-old advertising agency employee caters to multinational clients but on the side has been communicating with a secretive band of strangers devoted to supporting WikiLeaks. Halfway around the world, a 24-year-old in Montana has used a publicly available – and, according to security experts, suddenly popular – software program called Low Orbit Ion Cannon with the goal of shutting down Web sites of WikiLeaks’ perceived enemies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/11/AR2010121102897.html?hpid=topnews

May considering ban on US pastor Jones (AFP)

LONDON 12 Dec – The Home Secretary Theresa May said on Sunday she was “actively” considering whether to ban firebrand US pastor Terry Jones from entering Britain to speak to far-right activists. He has been invited to an English Defence League (EDL) rally to speak out “against the evils and destructiveness of Islam”. Jones caused an international firestorm earlier this year after threatening to torch hundreds of Korans — the holy book of Islam — to mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101212/wl_uk_afp/britainusattacksreligionislamfarright

FBI sting entraps another victim / Stephen Lendman

10 Dec – In December 2007, an article titled Police State America: A Look Back and Ahead discussed the growing threat, accessed through the following link. It reviewed post-9/11 legislation and a blizzard of Bush Executive Orders, National and Homeland Security Presidential Directives, and other ways of enforcing police state harshness by eroding constitutional protections.

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/12/fbi-sting-entraps-another-victim.html

Updating Mohamed Harkat’s persecution / Stephen Lendman

11 Dec – Mohamed Harkat – Targeted for His Faith and Ethnicity — He’s one of Canada’s Secret Trial Five – five Muslim men, bogusly arrested and persecuted. He wasn’t charged, but was imprisoned on secret evidence, denied bail, held mostly in solitary confinement, prevented from contacting family or friends, and under Canadian law can’t appeal a judge’s ruling by order of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Yet he never before was accused, convicted, or even suspected of a crime. He’s an innocent man now. Authorities know it, but persecute him anyway ruthlessly.

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/12/updating-mohamed-harkats-persecution.html

Israeli wearing tefillin on NZ ferry causes panic

12 Dec – Ferry boat captain calls police after spotting man described as wearing “boxes” with “wires taped to his leg and forehead.”

http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=199041