Meanwhile in Palestine

Video Debate : The Israeli Lobby: Does it Have Too Much Influence on US Foreign Policy?: John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt published an article in the London Review of Books. Entitled “The Israel Lobby: Does it Have too Much Influence on US Foreign Policy,” it drew swift charges of anti-Semitism in the editorial pages of American newspapers.

Two Palestinians Killed by Israeli Occupation Forces: Palestinian medics said a 14-year-old boy was killed in northern Gaza.

A Palestinian killed and others injured in Israeli bombardment of occupied Gaza: A Palestinian man was killed and four others were seriously injured when the Israeli army bombed a house in Beit Hanoun area northern Gaza Strip on Monday, local radio stations said.

Join Jenin childrens' struggle to break the Walls of Hatred through art: Walls of Hatred are being built in the Middle East. In the West Bank and Gaza these walls are built with concrete, whereas another Wall of Hatred has been constructed through Aerial Bombs in Lebanon. Within the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Jenin is also turning into a big prison, surrounded by an electronic fence and guarded by Israeli army patrols. As peasants are being cut off from their land, students cannot reach their universities and children are unable to get to school, the separation ideology and policy are becoming daily reality.

Rabbi leads defence of Palestinian olive groves: For the first time in four years, the family has been able to harvest the crop. Last time Mr Karni tried, radical Jewish settlers set fire to the tinder-dry land and beat him as he fled. “I’m so happy to be here,” he said, stretching to reach a branch in the relentless sun. “This is my land and if I can’t come here to farm it I feel incomplete. I must do this to keep the land in my family.” Mr Karni, 58, a Muslim, can go about his business without threat largely because of a rabbi who has co-ordinated with the Israeli Army and police to be on the spot to provide protection

IDF aims to keep out 'escorts' of Palestinian farmers during harvest: The Israel Defense Forces is demanding that Palestinian farmers not allow Israeli and foreign sympathizers to escort them during the olive harvest to places where military protection is needed against abusive settlers, Palestinian sources in the Nablus region told Haaretz. An Israeli security source confirmed the report, saying that IDF officers have been influenced by statements of settlers, who say they are enraged during the harvest by the presence of Israeli leftists who act as provocateurs.

Army kills Nablus resident at Huwwara checkpoint south of the city: Eyewitnesses at the checkpoint said that the Sa'adah ran towards a car at the checkpoint when he was shot by a number of soldiers. They said that he was not holding a knife as the soldiers claimed. However, soldiers insisted that they found the knife in his clothes after killing him while searching the body.

Israel Arrests Bil’in Journalist: Emad, who was filming at the time, was arrested by an Israeli Border policeman. When Emad arrived at the police station in Givat Zeev, he was wounded. The Border Police soldiers claimed a radio “fell” on him in the jeep, on the way to the station. He was taken to the Hadassah – Har Hatzofim hospital and was then taken back to the police station in Givat Zeev. After he was interrogated, the police refused to view the tapes that Emad filmed. Emad is accused of “assault on an officer” and of stone throwing and was sent to the Etzion prison.

Israeli air strike kills 1 in Gaza: witnesses: An Israeli air strike killed a Palestinian civilian and wounded three others in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, witnesses and medical officials said. A hospital doctor said the dead civilian was a 14-year-old boy, correcting medical officials who earlier said he was 17. The boy's father was among the wounded, medical officials said.

Freed detainee: “Female detainees were attacked after administration claimed that two tried to flee"
She added that the conditions in Ayalon are very bad, and that the detainees are lacking the basic needs such as soup, clothes and toothpaste and that the soldiers walk through their room several times while they are sleeping. The detainees who were moved from Telmond prison to Al Ramleh and Al Jalama are currently carrying a hunger strike and demand to be moved back to Telmond detention facility.

Abbas, Haniyeh meet to end escalation of violence: Preparations were being made in the Palestinian Authority for a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh scheduled to take place on Monday evening. The two will meet in a final attempt in preventing an escalation of the political crisis in the PA, which could spiral into civil war.

Hamas PM: Political infighting won't lead to Palestinian civil war: Addressing 300 religious and political leaders in Gaza at a "unity and reconciliation" feast on Sunday, Haniyeh appealed for calm. "We may criticize each other, raise our voices," he said. "However, it is certainly our concern and religious and moral commitment that matters don't come down to conflict, infighting and civil war."

Qatari FM to hold separate talks with Abbas, Haniyeh in Gaza: Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al Thani was to hold separate talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza on Monday evening, after a hoped for three-way meeting seemed unlikely to go ahead. The Qatari foreign minister helds talks in Syria on Thursday with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshal.

Fatah chair in PA parliament calls for new elections: The chairman of the Fatah faction in the Palestinian parliament yesterday called for new elections in the Palestinian Authority. "How can one authority have two heads blaming each other?" Azzam al-Ahmed told a press conference in Ramallah. "If so, we must turn again to the people," he said. "Any country whose government reaches a dead end calls for early parliamentary elections. Those who trust themselves do not fear the people," he added.

Bleak Ramadan in Palestine: The village mosque in Qisarya has been "converted into a bar," according to Walid Khalidi's All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated in 1948 (184). Qisarya (Caesarea) according to Benny Morris in Khalidi (183) "was the first pre-planned, organized expulsion of an Arab community by the Haganah in 1948." The expulsion took place on February 15, 1948, before any Arab army entered historic Palestine, and before Israel was declared a state. -Respected Palestinian journalist, Khalid Amayreh writes about Israeli ethnic cleansing, 21st century style.

Hamas' fall is nearer: In this context, portions of Haniyeh's speech were interesting. He complained about powerful forces in the world, headed by the United States, that have been wrestling his government since it was first established. Clearly hinting at PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and his Fatah movement, Haniyeh added that to his great regret, there are those in the Palestinian camp who are abetting this. Haniyeh had a clearer cavil about his brothers, the Arab governments. Since his party's election victory, no Arab government has invited him to visit aside from the emirate of Qatar.

Vital but unlikely: Also very low is the rate of those who believe Israel may achieve peace with the Palestinians and Lebanon within the next five years. The prevailing assessment is that these three regional actors - the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon - are not interested in an agreement with Israel, even though a majority of the Israeli-Jewish public views achieving peace, particularly with the Palestinians and Lebanon, as being in Israel's vital interests.

Beleaguered Olmert courts Right-wingers: With his current coalition under threat, Mr Olmert, who won the general election in March at the head of the centrist Kadima party, has put out feelers to Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home). The move indicates that Israel's dalliance with centrist politics will end soon.

In N.Y., Sparks Fly Over Israel Criticism: The historian, Tony Judt, is Jewish and directs New York University's Remarque Institute, which promotes the study of Europe. Judt was scheduled to talk Oct. 4 to a nonprofit organization that rents space from the consulate. Judt's subject was the Israel lobby in the United States, and he planned to argue that this lobby has often stifled honest debate. An hour before Judt was to arrive, the Polish Consul General Krzysztof Kasprzyk canceled the talk. He said the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee had called and he quickly concluded Judt was too controversial.