Meanwhile in Palestine

An enigma that only the Israelis can fully explain : If the Israelis or the Americans want to avoid accusations, at the very least, of a cavalier attitude to the use of nuclear waste products, they need to explain what was in that bomb and why it was there.

Egypt prepares for possible Israeli raids: Egypt has beefed up security along its border with the Gaza Strip after an Israeli daily said that Israel might bomb tunnels used for smuggling weapons into the Palestinian territories.

Palestinians sneak past checkpoints for Jerusalem prayers : The trip from Ramallah, in the West Bank, to Israeli-occupied and annexed east Jerusalem is a 15-minute drive on open roads. But it took Salama nine hours to get past a series of Israeli checkpoints meant to keep people like him -- men aged under 45 and women less than 35 -- out of Jerusalem.

Israel's scandalous siege of Gaza: The killing continues on a daily basis - by tank and sniper fire, by air and sea bombardment, and by undercover teams in civilian clothes sent into Arab territory to ambush and murder, an Israeli specialty perfected over the past several decades.

Christian Zionism: An Egregious Threat to U.S. - Middle East Understanding , By The Council for the National Interest : Christian Zionism, a belief that paradise for Christians can only be achieved once Jews are in control of the Holy Land, is gathering strength in the United States and forging alliances that are giving increasingly weird shape to American policy toward the Middle East.

The Armageddon Lobby: Dispensationalist Christian Zionism and the Shaping of US Policy Towards Israel-Palestine: With nearly 10 per cent of US voters declaring themselves as Zionist or dispensationalist Christians, and another 35 per cent constituting mainstream Christianity, the Christian Zionist lobby has targeted both voting pools for its purpose of assembling a pro-Israel constituency among American voters through the promotion of biblical and dispensationalist doctrine.

Israel occupation forces kills three in West Bank attack: Two men were shot dead in al-Fara refugee camp, near the city of Jenin. Residents said the men were civilians and one had been throwing rocks at troops.

'Hamas doesn't want to destroy Israel': Hamas wants to "liberate the Palestinians," not to destroy Israel, Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

Israel draws up an assassination hit-list of Hamas ministers: If Hamas resumes attacks deep inside Israel, the Israeli army is preparing to assassinate several Hamas leaders, particularly Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the official Israeli radio reported on Thursday.

Is Mahmoud Abbas planning a coup?: Hamas has instructed its followers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to be on high alert following unconfirmed reports that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party are planning a coup against the Hamas government on Saturday.

Breaking the Silence: Fmr. Israeli Soldier Tours U.S. to Expose Abuse of Palestinians by Israeli Military

Squaring-off on Zionism: Four Perspectives : Two heavyweights of pro-Palestine intellectual activism, Khalid Amayreh and Gilad Atzmon, enter the polemic between the Spanish thinkers Santiago Alba-Rico and Raúl Sánchez-Cedillo about the State of Israel’s historical responsibility in the Middle East tragedy

Gilad Atzmon: Surviving the Board of Deputies: What Do Ken Livingstone and a Fictional Character Named Artie Fishel Have in Common

Report: FBI In Expanded Aipac Probe: An explosive new report claims that the federal investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying organization, has been expanded to include suspicion of meddling in affairs of the House Intelligence Committee.