Palestinian Pundit

DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal that last week, US and Israel transferred a quantity of automatic rifles to Abu Mazen’s Fatah forces

December 17, 2006, 8:14 AM (GMT+02:00)

The guns reached Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan who handed them over to the faction’s suicide wing, al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Abbas’ only reliable strike force. Dahlan is now in command of the armed campaign against Hamas from presidential headquarters in Ramallah. Israeli officials are turning a blind eye to transfer of the arms into the hands of the most badly-wanted masterminds of Fatah suicide killings, such as Jemal Tirawi from Nablus.

No, It Is Not Beirut, It Is Gaza.
Hamas supporters rally in opposition to the speech of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas effectively announcing a coup, in the streets of Gaza City, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006. (AP Photo)

Military Considers Sending as Many as 35,000 More U.S. Troops to Iraq, McCain Says: Senator John McCain said Thursday that American military commanders were discussing the possibility of adding as many as 10 more combat brigades — a maximum of about 35,000 troops — to “bring the situation under control” while Iraq's divided political leaders seek solutions to the worsening bloodshed here.

Iraqi politicians start national reconciliation conference: However, the meeting was boycotted by some Iraqi political groups, including the Sadr movement known for its anti-U.S. stance and the Iraqi National Dialogue Front. "We support any conference that serve the interests of the Iraqi people, but not under the occupation," Nassar al-Rubaie, spokesman of Sadr movement, told Xinhua.

Britain never thought Saddam was threat - diplomat: The British government never believed Saddam Hussein posed a threat to British interests and warned the US that toppling him would lead to "chaos", according to a Foreign Office diplomat closely involved in negotiations in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

Iraq: At least 18 killed in anpther bloody in Iraq: Police in Baquba sent the bodies of 10 unidentified people, including a woman, to the city's morgue

New push for Iraq reconciliation: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has called on former members of Saddam Hussein's army to return - in a move to win over disaffected Sunnis.

Bush ready to send more troops to Iraq: President George W Bush is poised to increase troop numbers in Iraq as part of a dramatic new strategy designed to regain control of Baghdad and suffocate the Sunni insurgency.

U.S. preparing surge of forces into Iraq?: The 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division is expected in Kuwait shortly after the new year, a senior Defense Department official told The Associated Press on Friday. The official requested anonymity because the plans had not yet been announced.

UN demands an immediate halt to Israeli settlements: New York- The United Nations has demanded that Israel immediately halt its controversial settlement policy, it was reported Saturday. "Settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights (are) illegal and an obstacle to peace as well as economic and social development," a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly with 162 votes in favour late Friday in New York said.

Poll call a 'risky political move': As president, however, Mr Abbas does not have authority to order the new elections and he has referred the matter to the Palestinian election commission to see whether or not they can be held.

Israel says it supports Abbas on poll: ISRAEL said today it supported moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas after his call to hold early presidential and parliamentary elections.

Jewish groups oppose Palestinian act: More than a dozen local Jewish groups signed a petition urging President Bush not to sign legislation that would isolate the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

Catholic Church cancels Christmas Crib: The Sacred Heart Catholic church in St Ives has cancelled its annual ‘Live Crib' event in protest against the Israeli wall being built around the holy city of Bethlehem. In place of crib, there will be erected a life-size replica portion of the Israeli concrete blockade that is causing untold suffering to the ordinary citizens of the city. The wall will stand as a symbol of the plight of these ‘abandoned' people.

Mufti of Jerusalem Condemns Israeli Measures: The General Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian lands Sheikh Mohammad Hussein denounced on Saturday the Israeli efforts to interfere in the affairs of the holy Aqsa. Sheikh Hussein called the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and Arab and Muslim leaders to help in facing the interference of non Muslims in the affairs of Al Aqsa Mosque.

Rice to seek additional funds to boost Abbas' security forces: United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday she would ask the U.S. Congress for tens of millions of dollars to strengthen the security forces of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas calls for fresh PA elections as soon as possible: Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert respects Abbas and "hopes that he will have the capability to assert his leadership over the Palestinian people, and to bring about a government that will comply with the international community's principles."

Hamas: Abbas' declaration a call for civil war: Following Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas; declaration that the general elections in the Palestinian Authority will be moved up, thousands of Fatah activists, including hundreds of gunmen from the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing, took to the streets of Gaza Saturday and began shooting in the air.

Medical officials: 18 wounded in Hamas-Fatah clashes in Gaza: Seven people were wounded by gunfire and eight by stones in the towns of Khan Younis, Gaza City and Rafah, according to reports from Hamas and hospital officials. Three others were treated after being trampled in Gaza City, medical officials said.

One Palestinian man killed by Israeli army fire in Nablus north of the West Bank:
Palestinian sources reported on Saturday morning that an Israeli army force invaded the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and killed on man. Ameen Makhluf, 20, was killed after being shot by the soldiers in his neck, chest and both of his legs, medical sources in the city reported.

Israeli troops attack a Palestinian police station near Hebron: Soldiers stormed the station, searched and ransacked it then detained and questioned the officers there for several hours before withdrawing from the village, Palestinian police sources reported.

Action Alert: Ask Veolia advisors to take a stand for Justice in Palestine!
Connex / Veolia and Alstom are the international investors in the Citypass consortium that will build and run a light rail project in Jerusalem that incorporates a number of Jewish settlements around East Jerusalem, built on stolen Palestinian land. It ensures the contiguity of these colonies with the central areas of the city and plays a key role in sustaining the settlements and ensuring they become a permanent fixture upon Palestinian land.

Hamas rallies in Gaza against Abbas call for early elections: Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters and members took to the streets in Gaza city Saturday evening in protest against President Mahmoud Abbas' call for early elections. Armed confrontations erupted in Gaza City between Hamas militants and Palestinian security forces, and witnesses said that at least two Palestinians were injured, and one policeman was kidnapped.

Damascus-based Palestinian factions reject Abbas' decision to call early elections: "The factions confirm their oppositions to the call to hold early parliamentary elections because there is no justification for it and it is illegal and lacks real Palestinian consensus," said a statement read by Maher Taher, a leader of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Committee led by Fateh to supervise negotiations with all parties, Arabs, internationals & Israelis: Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that Al Qaddumi does not represent the Fateh movement either “directly or even remotely.” He said that President Abbas, in his capacity as Commander in Chief of Fateh, has decided to form a committee to organize the country under the leadership of Fateh in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to begin work immediately.

UN demands an immediate halt to Israeli settlements: The United Nations has demanded that Israel immediately halt its controversial settlement policy, it was reported Saturday. "Settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights (are) illegal and an obstacle to peace as well as economic and social development," a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly with 162 votes in favour late Friday in New York said.

Twilight Zone / Death sentence: What is now going through the mind of the soldier who fired a loaded weapon at a boy on the Sunday before last - and killed him? What was he thinking when he aimed at the boy's head? Is he still thinking about his victim? Why does live ammunition have to be used against children, even if they are throwing stones at a armored vehicles? Don't the soldiers have other means of punishment? And what about the security cabinet's decision to promote calm in the West Bank, too?

The Independent - Gaza City: ‘Free the women and you free the whole country’: She found that Palestinian women were trapped between the savage Israeli occupation and a suffocatingly patriarchal Palestinian society. She knew there was only one way to free them - by getting them jobs and hard earning power. Her proposal to establish an organisation providing jobs for women was refused by the Israeli occupying authorities, but Ms Ahmad refused to let this stop her.

Two State Solution Best Way Forward To End Israel-Palestine Conflict: "It is not enough merely talking about the two state solution as mentioned in the Road Map For Peace...it must clearly defined that the two state solution must be based on the 1967 border boundaries," he said when giving his views on the second day of the United Nations-Asian Meeting in Support of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People here.

British PM: Coming days critical for Middle East peace process: Blair held lunchtime talks with President Hosni Mubarak, a key player in ending spiraling violence between rival Palestinian factions that has seen kidnappings and gun battles in the West Bank and Gaza. The British prime minister also planned to meet Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the grand sheikh of al-Azhar Mosque, the Sunni Islamic world's most important institution.

Blair calls on world to rally behind Palestinian president: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged the international community to throw all its weight behind Mahmud Abbas after the Palestinian president called for early elections.

US, UK welcome call for early Palestinian elections: The Bush administration supports an effort toward peace between the Israelis and Palestinians under the principles of the Middle East Quartet that includes the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

PALESTINE. D'ALEMA: U.S. TO SHOW GREATER COMMITMENT: "Europe has been leading, for some time now, the reconstruction of Palestine, even through plenty of material aid. Europe is present, but its efforts alone are not enough. The US and other middle eastern countries should show a greater commitment", said Italian FM Massimo D'Alema, on the sidelines of a convention in Florence.

Gaza: a prison again: Since Hamas and other Gaza militants seized the Israeli corporal, Gilad Shalit, and killed two of his comrades in late June, shells, drones and machine-gun fire from Israeli forces have killed some 400 Palestinians, including civilians -- women and children among them -- in a conflict overshadowed to a large extent by the war in Lebanon.

Israel-Palestine: It's Time to Go With the Saudi Plan & NATO: Today's news indicates that Palestinians are on the brink of a civil war which would surely spill over into Israel (militants will try to undermine President Abbas by launching mortar and/or suicide bombings), This would be disastrous for Palestinians, Israelis and Americans. The United States needs to start pushing hard for diplomatic movement that offers a political horizon for Palestinians to aim for. As the Baker commission tells us, America is badly damaged by continuation of this insanity.

IDF the unready: The absence of a sense of an extreme threat - along with a sharpening of the discourse concerning the occupation in the territories - made the kind of talk heard in the movie about commitment and service the province of only certain ideological and social groups. These changes are significant in terms of understanding what occurred here this past summer.

Corporate complicity in Israel's crimes: This report examines corporate involvement in the military occupation of Palestine, focusing in particular on the three sectors of construction, retail and transport. As well as providing information on the activities of these companies, the report calls on all readers to take action to bring them to account. This is War on Want's mission more widely: to support people in developing countries in their struggle for survival, but also to inspire people in rich countries to challenge the root causes of poverty around the world.

By Danny Rubinstein, Haaretz

"The speech of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Friday in Ramallah was one of a man preparing to do battle. The chairman and his
associates have no more illusions. Neither about the possibility of a unity government, nor of ideological change in Hamas.

Without such a change, a Fatah-Hamas government cannot arise whose guidelines would meet the well-known three international demands for the lifting of the siege on the PA: recognition of Israel, cessation of violence and acceptance of past agreements. Of that Abbas is certain. Hamas, on the other hand, believes it possible to fight the siege without giving up the ideology of non-recognition of Israel. How? By bringing suitcases full of money from Iran.

Abbas and his people clearly recognize that they must prepare for a confrontation that will involve violence. The chairman did not say Friday when he intends to issue an order to disperse the cabinet, and when approximately he intends to hold early elections.

Everyone knows why: Fatah, in its various components, is not ready for a campaign against Hamas, and needs time. First of all, money must be obtained for the payment of salaries - at lest those of the security personnel under Abbas. Saudi Arabia has promised the funds.

The United States has also pledged to take care of this, and perhaps other countries as well. Nothing is final. Second, the soldiers have to be organized - that is, the security forces loyal to the chairman. There are discussions of reinforcements coming in, in the form of the Palestinian Badr force from Jordan, but that issue also has not yet been finalized. Third, weapons are needed. The Palestinian media has recently reported that the Egyptian army intends to transfer arms to Mahmoud Dahlan's units in Gaza.

Meanwhile, though, there are only rumors.

But most important is Abbas' ability to rehabilitate his movement, Fatah, to stand united against Hamas. That is a hard task. Fatah is headed by a group of men aged 70 and above, who refuse to give up their places or the benefits they enjoy. And there are divisions even within that group.

No less important, Abbas needs to show his people that his policy of political restraint offers some kind of chance.

Money, soldiers, weapons, unity, political restraint. Will Abbas be able to obtain everything he needs for his campaign against Hamas? Even his friends are pessimistic."

"CAIRO (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged the international community to throw all its weight behind Mahmud Abbas after the Palestinian president called for early elections.

"Mahmud Abbas's decision to call early elections is a strong sign that the Palestinian president is seeking a way out of the deadlock in the peace process," Blair said Saturday during a visit to Cairo."

Israel says it supports Abbas on poll

"ISRAEL said today it supported moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas after his call to hold early presidential and parliamentary elections.

“The Israeli Government supports moderate Palestinians who manage to negotiate with Israel without resorting to violence. Abu Mazen (Abbas) is this type of leader,” government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

“We hope that he will be able to assert his authority over all of the Palestinian people,” Mr Eisin said in the first Israeli reaction to Mr Abbas's call for early polls.

Mr Abbas called today for early elections as a way to resolve months of political standoff with the Palestinian ruling Hamas movement, which has been in power only since March. "

by Molly Myers

I want to say a few words about Holocaust Denial in the Muslim world. I believe the main reason for the existence of Holocaust denial in the Muslim world is Israel. People who are rightfully furious about the tragedy the founding of Israel has had upon the Arab world have seized upon Holocaust Denial as a way of bolstering their arguments against Israel. They believe that if there were no Holocaust, there need be no state of Israel. Firstly, one can never disprove the events of the Holocaust. Furthermore, the denial of the Holocaust is absolutely unnecessary for criticism of Israel. In my opinion, the issue is not the "need for a state of Israel". This is an argument that it is impossible to prove one way or another. The issue at hand is not whether Jews worldwide need a refuge from discrimination, in the form of an exclusive state, but the impossibility of the maintenance of the state without continued grave human rights violations against those this state dispossesses. Therefore, Holocaust denial hurts the Palestinian cause more than it hurts the Jews, not only because the historical facts of the Holocaust are impossible to disprove, but also because it distracts from the issue at hand, the tragic and continuous uprooting of the Palestinian people. Even if the Holocaust created the need for a refuge for the Jewish people, it cannot, and should not, come with such tragic results for another people. And it is impossible to create a state on another's land without these results. The lesson we must all learn from the Jewish Holocaust is not that all persecuted minorities need their own state regardless of the cost to others, but that minorities must be protected in every state, and that no sort of Holocaust or dispossession is ethically permissable for any people.

US policy in Lebanon and in Palestine: A comparison. The US is opposed to unarmed demonstrations in Lebanon but supports armed demonstrations by Dahlan gangs in Palestine; the US does not deal with the president in Lebanon, and only deals with the president in Palestine; the US says that the Sanyurah government is democratically elected and should be supported, but opposes the democratically elected government in Palestine and calls for its punishment; the US calls for disarming of militias in Lebanon, but arms and finances militias in Palestine; the US is opposed to early elections in Lebanon, but supports early elections in Palestine; the US is opposed to a national unity government in Lebanon and also opposes one in Palestine--the idea of national unity bothers the US it seems; the US calls for Syria to not intervene in Lebanon but wants Syria to intervene in Palestine to support US/Israeli puppets; the US wants to punish assassins in Lebanon, but the US supports Israeli and Dahlan assassinations in Palestine, and the assassins there receive US financial and military support.

by Victoria Macchi, Skin Magazine

Katie Miranda’s “postcards” create visual dispatches to the American people of life, death, and innocence demolished in Palestine

Two young men, backs turned, wrists bound, heads hanging – paired with anger, a mouth stretched wide open in rage and spewing hate. “You are disgusting Arabs and you should be beaten like animals and stay in jail”.

You don’t look at Katie Miranda’s work. You feel it, a punch in the gut that sucks the wind out, replaces it with incredulity, then knocks you down again as you struggle to get up. Yet her pieces, reflections of life in occupied Palestine, are anything but hyperbolic. Both an artist living
in the West Bank city of Hebron and a volunteer in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Katie Miranda has walked the streets of the West Bank alongside Palestinians, drank the same water, protected their children, broken bread with their families – and her paintings reflect it. Her “Postcards from Palestine” series is an eternal testimony to a wounded people. The ongoing collection of paintings of people she has met comes with a message to the American people, exactly like a postcard – although instead of margaritas, sunsets and dolphins, the paintings reflect the violence committed against Palestinians by the IOF and settlers in the territories.

“I wanted to use my artistic ability to tell the story about what’s happening here,” says Katie, a 31-year-old San Francisco native. “I’m an illustrator by trade, so creating pictures that tell a story is what I was trained in… I just decided to interview people about their life and paint about individuals and about situations I witnessed.” As a human rights worker in the West Bank, she has a deep reservoir of stories; most burst with acts of hatred, moments of irony, wisps of humour. “A good deal of the violence is perpetuated by children because of an Israeli law that allows them to be free from arrest and prosecution if they are under the age of 12,” explains Katie.

In one postcard, the innocence of children is portrayed in the hopeless eyes of a girl holding a stuffed rabbit, her father killed by IOF soldiers and her house demolished, which are juxtaposed with a carefree boy playing with a ball, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. It’s difficult to imagine humans so jaded so young. But again, they have never known an unoccupied Palestine, freedom of movement, or simple justice for their friends and family slain during four decades of war.

Katie recalls an incident when life and art collided. It was the day after she arrived in Palestine, back in May. The ISM was called to the Balata refugee camp because the IOF had invaded and, the reports said, were killing people randomly. “ISM helps with medical evacuations in these situations,” Katie explains. “Sometimes when a person is shot or injured, the soldiers refuse to let the ambulance leave, so we try to negotiate with them to allow the ambulance pass. Right before we got there these two kids were killed.” Best friends Ibrahim Issa and Mohammad Natoor, both 17, were drinking tea on the roof of their apartment when they were shot by a sniper. Katie documented their funeral in one of her postcards, and in her message to the American people noted what they loved and how they smiled – and just how young they were. She transcribed the words of Ibrahim’s brother:

“Anywhere you see him, you will see Mohammad Natoor with him and anywhere you see Ibrahim and Mohammad, you will see them smile at you and say ‘hello, how can we help you?’” Mohammad was killed by Israeli forces on his 17th birthday.

The pair are immortalised on one of Katie’s postcards. “It was such an emotional experience because they were just kids, you know, they hadn’t done anything wrong,” says the artist. “And no one will be held responsible. It was a meaningless death. I couldn’t get the image of those kids’ faces out of my head for weeks. So I dealt with that and the trauma of being in a place under siege by painting the picture of Ibrahim during his funeral procession that wouldn’t leave my head.” She later painted a picture of him from a photo studio portrait. “When I gave it to the family it was really emotional. I could tell they were really touched and really liked it – but of course it also reminded them that their son or brother was dead. It was hard for me to look at his brother’s face when I gave him the portrait.”

In another postcard, a fairly innocuous image, a young boy is shown with his mouth gaping open and a few teeth missing. But it is rendered appalling by the explanation – a settler woman had filled his mouth with rocks and slammed his jaw shut, shattering his teeth. Another postcard elevates a Palestinian man, now paraplegic after a shot to the neck by an Israeli sniper in 2000, by painting him at a sharp angle, facing upwards, with the colours of the Palestinian flag bursting behind his head. Katie hopes this empowers the wheelchair-bound former karate champion.

The “Postcards”, though, are only her latest artistic project in Palestine. Katie, who estimates she has been attacked by settlers and soldiers around 50 times since arriving to Hebron in May, originally wanted to paint over the settlers’ anti-Arab graffiti. In one case, she covered up the words “Die Arab sand-niggers” with a mural of children playing in the sun. “When I first saw that graffiti it really disgusted me,” she says. “I wanted to get rid of it and I thought a nice cheerful mural of kids playing would be a good solution. It’s the idea of fighting hate with love.” “The mural is still there, but it has been defaced by the settlers, which I knew would happen. But it doesn’t really bother me because I was expecting it and it’s just another example of how hateful these people are.” She also wanted to obscure another spray-painted slogan, spread over two metal doors, that read “Gas the Arabs.” The Palestinian residents opposed the idea, explaining that the racist graffiti should stay precisely because it is so shocking. “When tourists, journalists and NGOs come into the area they are so shocked and horrified that they write and talk about it,” says Katie. “It’s also a great opportunity to see visual evidence of the disgusting nature of these people who live [in the settlements].”

While in Palestine, Katie also painted on what is becoming the largest canvas in the world – the West Bank wall. Her politically relevant reinterpretation of Michelangelo’s Pieta remains on the grey concrete near the Qalandia checkpoint. Eyes shut, palm upturned – in resignation, desperation – a woman holds a dead husband/brother/father/son who is slumped on her lap. “When I got the idea [in 2004], I knew that it had to be painted on the apartheid wall,” she says. “But I never imagined I’d actually be able to get it together to go to Palestine and do it.” She also painted a Soviet-esque angular figure of a man in black and white swinging a sledge-hammer into the wall – denting it but not yet breaking it down. “I hope [the murals] are destroyed when the wall comes down, inshallah,” says Katie. Her creativity enhances her non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation. Along with an ISM colleague, Katie performed “fire circuses” in Hebron. “No one had ever seen anything like it before and it was a big hit, especially the kids… We’d start performing when we’d see soldiers detaining and harassing Palestinians. It’s just such an absurd situation to see a bunch of teenage punks with guns start acting disrespectfully and physically aggressive towards women and old men for no reason at all. We dealt with that absurdity by adding to it… it had the effect of drawing the soldier’s attention away from the Palestinians and also entertaining the Palestinians while they were being detained.”

One of the greatest challenges of living in Palestine, says Katie, is having to accepting that my tax dollars as an American go towards funding the Occupation and the violence. “Americans grow up learning the values that everyone is equal and everyone, in theory, has the same rights. “To see that this is neither true in theory nor in practice in Palestine turned my world upside down – it’s like all of a sudden someone tells you 1 + 1 = 3 and you just have to accept it.” As Katie asks in her blog, also entitled Postcards from Palestine “Is this apartheid yet?”

More of Katie’s artwork can be seen on her website: www.theopticnerve.com
She also maintains a blog at: moomin13.livejournal.com

Occupation Hazards

Katie shares with Skin her top altercations with the IDF:

1. Water supplies being poisoned by Israeli soldiers

Our water is kept in tanks on the roof of our apartment building. The IDF soldiers occasionally use our roof as one of their outposts. One day we discovered some creepy-crawly things in the water coming out of the kitchen sink faucet. We went up on the roof to investigate and discovered that our water tanks had been turned into an IDF garbage dump. The garbage included forks, spoons, knives, army netting, unexploded bullets, paper, plastic, glass, bricks, broken pipes, pudding containers, an extremely outdated, unopened yoghurt package, and plastic trays on which soldiers’ meals are served. The water on the bottom of the tank was completely black but the water on the top was clear. When I smelled it I felt like I was going to throw up. Since we get the water on the top of the tank first, we didn’t notice a problem until we noticed wriggly things in our water. After we made the discovery I went to the doctor who found that I had some kind of gnarly amoebas living in my stomach. One volunteer was diagnosed with tapeworm.

2. Being trampled by a police horse

There were some Israeli mounted police who were allowing the horses to s**t all over this area in Jerusalem where Palestinians frequently pray… I went up to one of them, asked them if they had any intention of cleaning up after their horses and the cop jerked the reins of the horse so the horse’s head knocked my head and then the cop ran the horse into me, causing me to fall over. I wound up under the horse that then trampled on my foot. When my friend came to my assistance and started screaming at the cops, he was beaten. We were really lucky in that neither of us were hurt badly.

3. False accusations of assault on a settler

I was taken to the Israeli Hebron police station on suspicion of assault after a settler accused me of scratching her as I escorted a woman past a group of settlers who had been taunting, harassing and throwing rocks at Palestinians. The Israeli police present did nothing to rein in the settlers and did not see me assault anyone because of course I didn’t. But nevertheless I was taken into custody and interrogated.

U.S. expresses hope that PA elections calm violence, revive peace process (Reuters)

Gov`t spokesperson: Olmert hopes Abbas is able to assert leadership over PA (AP)

Blair praises Abbas for `determination to move on` without Hamas if necessary (AP)

This Travel Warning is being issued to update information on the
general security environment in Israel, Jerusalem, the West Bank, and
the Gaza Strip, and to reiterate threats to foreign nationals,
especially American citizens. Although the situation in Israel is
seemingly calm, the fact of the matter remains that Israel continues to
aggressively violate International Humanitarian and Human Rights Laws
daily. A disconcerting development is the Israeli practice of denying
entry of Palestinian Christians and Muslims to the Holy Land; embodying
religious discrimination during the high holy season. As Palestinians,
we have always looked forward to your being with us during Christmas,
Easter and other holiday feasts. In the past, it has been a time to
welcome you into our land, our churches, our mosques, and our homes,
despite the troubled times we have witnessed throughout the decades.

In order to visit any of the Holy sites you must pass through an
Israeli-controlled point of entry (airport or bridge), since Israel
controls all access to the Israeli occupied Palestinian territory,
where Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the Church of the Nativity and Holy
Sepulcher are located. Since March of this year, an extraordinary
number of foreigners have been denied entry through Israeli ports. Many
of these foreign nationals have been turned away at the airport or
bridges and sent back to their country of residence or to Jordan. The
Israeli authorities seldom give a reason for barring foreign tourists,
so people find themselves spending money to fly into the Israeli
airport or come to the Israeli-controlled border crossings not knowing
that they may be turned away without having the opportunity to visit
the Holy Land or visit their friends and families.

If this Israeli policy is allowed to continue it can literally empty
Palestine of another half a million Palestinians. Given that four
decades of Israeli occupation have already successfully reduced the
Christian population in Bethlehem from 15% to less than 2%, it becomes
clear that Israel's goal is to reduce the entire Palestinian
population to insignificant numbers.

We would like to welcome you to Bethlehem in occupied Palestine this
Christmas season. However, to avoid spending money unnecessarily and
facing a humiliating experience, we recommend that you call the Israeli
Embassy or Consulate nearest you before embarking on your trip this
Christmas season. Please ask the Embassy or Consulate if you will be
able to pass through the airport or via one of the bridges from Jordan
in order to reach Bethlehem, particularly given the fact that thousands
who are trying to reach the Israeli occupied Palestinian territory are
being turned back.

While speaking to the Israeli Embassy officials, confirm that
Palestinians - Muslims and Christians - have not been allowed to
worship in their holy places for many years. In fact, no Palestinians
from the West Bank and Gaza have been allowed to enter Jerusalem
without Israeli military permission since 1993 and very few are granted
permits to enter Jerusalem, whether for worship during Lent, Advent or
Ramadan.

The building of the illegal Israeli Separation Wall (which is mostly
built on Palestinian lands acquired by force 1967) has made it even
more difficult for Palestinians and internationals to travel to
Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The Separation Wall has not been built for
security reasons, but rather to separate people from one another, from
their livelihood, from their places of worship, and from their future.
Walls do not create the conditions for peace with justice.
Historically, walls separate and divide and bring widespread despair,
which we are witnessing now.

Although the U.S. State Department's Travel Advisory for this same
area "urges U.S. citizens to defer travel to the West Bank and to
avoid all travel to the Gaza Strip," we would ask that you rather not
despair and actively attempt to join us in Bethlehem and Jerusalem this
Christmas.
If we acknowledge the international community's concurrence to allow
Israel to get away with denying the world's citizens the right to
worship and blatant, daily violations of human rights, then we would
all be accomplices to the war crimes being committed against
Palestinians.

Thus, we hope to see you all this Christmas season. Please contact us
when you are here so we visit and worship with you. You may contact us
either via email at info@righttoenter.ps or mobile at 059-817-3953.

If you cannot be with us, then please keep Bethlehem, Jerusalem and
Palestinians in your prayers and actions this holiday season.

Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re- Entry to the Occupied Palestinian
Territory(oPt) 

Media Contact:
Mr. Basil Ayish
Coordinator, Media Committee
(c) +970-(0)59-817-3953
(e)i...@righttoenter.ps
(w) www.righttoenter.ps

Abbas' Thugs Shooting The Palestinian People

Nigel Parry, The Electronic Intifada, 15 December 2006

"Since the Palestinian elections on 25 January 2006 brought a resounding Hamas victory, Fatah and its US and Israeli allies have been working to destabilize the democratically-elected government.

Hamas truly did deserve a chance at power after a year of unilateral ceasefire in the face of Israeli assassinations of its leaders, massive Israeli confiscation of Palestinian land, and the ongoing daily brutality of Israel's military occupation. And it certainly deserved the opportunity after seven years of Fatah's abject failure during the "peace process", leaving nothing but a legacy of continuously-colonized land while Fatah officials blatantly embraced self-serving corruption and overt pandering to US and Israeli interests.....

The obvious and ultimate end to this brutish and fundamentally anti-human means is civil war. You can only squeeze an entire population for so long, and employ the combined political might of the United States with Israel's military might — to attempt to shore up a failed, corrupt party against a democratically-elected government — before the fault lines you encouraged start rumbling and the ground starts shaking. And civil war is the obvious direction things are heading towards.

With the help of one faction of Palestinian prisoners, the US prison administrators and Israeli prison guards are rattling the cage and encouraging the brawl. Today, as if to demonstrate how the conflict between the US-Israel-Fatah alliance and Hamas has spiraled to new lows, news reports quote Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declaring that she intends to ask Congress for tens of millions of dollars to "strengthen the security forces" of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Thus, putting more guns in the hands of the people that were not elected. And of course, this was not the first US payoff to Abbas for this very same purpose......"

However much you re-label the jar, the contents remain the same

Azmi Bishara
Al-Ahram Weekly

"There must be some deeply ingrained sectarian/tribal dimension to Arab society that impedes democratisation and the evolution of a modern state. As if it is not enough that doctrinal differences within the same religion escalate into sectarian divides, political differences are almost invariably cast and played out as tribal or sectarian rivalries. Clearly such "support your brother right or wrong" attitudes are at odds, not only with conceptions of the modern polity but with the codified value systems of universalist religions that hold the individual responsible for his conduct before God.

Arab societies face enough problems of their own making -- the transition to modernism, to the nation-state, and to the concept of the individual as citizen -- without having to contend with the attempts of colonialist powers, since Sykes-Picot and San Remo, to fragment the only historical basis -- the cultural and geographic bond -- upon which the Arabs could build a nation.

The colonialists took a straight-edge ruler in order to carve up the region into separate political entities which they administered by relying on existing organic tribal and sectarian affiliations, some of which they elevated over others by granting them positions of power and influence in the government and the army........

....Sectarianism by any other name: now the idea is to support "moderate Sunnis". But several problems muddy this tidy picture. Michel Aoun and the Free National Movement has aligned itself with the resistance, as if to deliberately expose the fallacy of the new nomenclature. Hamas (the Sunni-affiliated Palestinian resistance movement) is allied with (the Shia) Hizbullah and the fact that it has been labelled "terrorist" does not obviate the blurring of the Sunni-Shia divide that Israel and the US are playing on. Then there is the Iraqi resistance, which defies any neat categorisation.....

....Continued."

Rather than moving towards a national unity government, tensions between Fatah and Hamas are threatening to tear the Palestinian street apart

Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank
Al-Ahram Weekly

"........The incessant and unmitigated pressure by a determined anti-Hamas group within Fatah, which Hamas often refers to as "Fatah's Israeli lobby" might yet succeed in persuading Abbas to cross the Rubicon. Certainly, the Palestinian president appears to have little room for manoeuvre, facing few choices, all of them fraught with uncertainty and not a small amount of risk.

If he decides to adopt the PLO executive committee recommendation and call for early elections without Hamas's consent, the resistance movement is likely to challenge the constitutionality and legality of the move. Most Palestinian legal and constitutional experts agree that while the president of the Palestinian Authority can dissolve the government, he cannot dissolve the legislative council.

Abbas, some observers suggest, might seek to pressure Hamas to consent to early general elections by ordering his security forces to take over government buildings and ministries in a de facto coup, but it is a scenario that could trigger a confrontation with Hamas, especially in the Gaza Strip, and Abbas would be blamed for the consequences.

Abbas also feels he must do something to appease Fatah and maintain his status as president. This could prompt him to call for early presidential elections, probably within 60 to 90 days, in the hope that he will be re-elected. With a popular mandate he would have a much stronger hand if he subsequently decided to dissolve the government and call for early elections.

This scenario, too, is fraught with uncertainty since Hamas will likely field its own presidential candidate, possibly the current premier Ismail Haniyeh, who might snatch the presidency from Abbas.

There have been suggestions that Abbas is asking Israel to free jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti to stand as Fatah candidate for president of the PA.

Assuming that Israel will accede to Abbas's request in this regard, and that is by no means certain, the choice of Barghouti as the PA's next president is unlikely to be acceptable to either Israel or the United States given Barghouti's rejection of any settlement with Israel that does not include total Israeli withdrawal from all territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem.

Barghouti's views in this regard are similar to those of Hamas and his election as PA president would be a victory for Hamas as much as for Fatah........"

The Blaircast: Blair Is In The Region; Expect Bloodshed Straight Ahead

They are a unified group of American intellectuals, who held key positions in Bush administration and were blamed for getting US into Iraq. Most of them are Jews, so they are obviously accused of risking America in favor of Israel. Israeli Meyrav Wurmser claims that if situation is bad, Israelis are also to blame

"WASHINGTON - It hasn't been a good year for neocons, that group of conservative American intellectuals pulling some strings of US policy, particularly during the George W. Bush administration.

The strongest indictment against them is the war in Iraq, a quagmire in which the US is currently stuck up to its neck. And as Bush's days in the White House grow numbered, they are leaving one by one.

Among the few remaining neocons is David Wurmser, an advisor for Vice President Dick Cheney on Middle Eastern affairs. Wurmser is a Middle East expert, just like his wife, Israeli Meyrav Wurmser, a researcher at the conservative Hudson Institute.

Meyrav Wurmser was also one of the co-founders of MEMRI, which tracks Arab leaders and translating their political statements from Arabic to English.

Despite the fact that many neocons are no longer part of the government, it turns out they're still one big happy family, who make sure to remain in touch.

Many are Jews, who share a love for Israel. Some of the accusations against the government regarding the war in Iraq is that it was undertaken primarily for Israel's sake and that the attack on Iraq was actually an Israeli objective. In an interview with Ynet, Dr. Meyrav Wurmser refutes the accusations and criticism.......

...."The objective was to change the face of the Middle East. But it was impossible to create a mini-democracy amidst a sea of dictatorships looking to destroy this poor democracy, and thus, where do insurgents in Iraq come from? From Iran and Syria." .......

Everyone feels beaten after last 5 years

At their prime, the neocons held the reigns of American decision making. In the Pentagon, there were Deputy Defense Minister Paul Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, and Harold Rhode, a senior Pentagon advisor on Islam. In the vice president's office were Louis Libby and John Hannah. Richard Perle headed the committee advising to the Pentagon. In the White House were Deputy National Security Adviser for Global Democracy Strategy Elliott Abrams and Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton, who later became the US ambassador to the UN."

Rice to seek additional funds to boost Abbas' security forces

"United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday she would ask the U.S. Congress for tens of millions of dollars to strengthen the security forces of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

"We will request funding to support the security reform [of Abbas's forces] and I think we will get support," said Rice in an interview with Reuters, adding that the aid would be in the range of tens of millions of dollars.

The funding request comes as tensions are at their highest in a decade in the Palestinian Authority, with government unity talks stalled and Hamas accusing Abbas of trying to start a civil war.

The United States wants to ensure that Abbas, whose Fatah party was trounced by Hamas in elections last January, emerges victorious in any power struggle with Hamas and has been saying for months that more needs to be done to boost his forces.

But Rice cautioned this could take some time. "You can't build security forces overnight to deal with the kind of lawlessness that is there in Gaza which largely derives from an inability to govern," she said.

"Their (the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority) inability to govern, of course, comes from their unwillingness to meet international standards," she added.

State Department officials have been discussing the request in recent weeks with key staff on Capitol Hill, trying to convince them the money will not reach Hamas.

"We are going to adopt extremely concrete and tight measures to make sure that the money is going to the right places," said Rice."

On Saturday Condoleezza Rice, Through Her Local Representative, Announced a Coup In Slow Motion Against the Freely Elected Palestinian Government.

"Ramallah - Hamas Movement has affirmed that the PA presidential guard apparatus along with other security apparatuses working under the command of PA chief Mahmoud Abbas have played an extremely bad role in the bloody incidents in Ramallah city.

PA security forces loyal to Abbas harshly quelled a peaceful rally organized by Hamas supporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday in celebration of the Movement's 19th anniversary, leading to tens of injuries (some critical) among the unarmed Hamas cadres and supporters.

A responsible source in Hamas affirmed later on Friday, "Abbas' forces started shooting at the peaceful demonstrators, and assaulted them with batons." He charged that coup-mongers within Fatah faction attempted to replicate the Algerian bloody experience in occupied Palestine after failure of their attempts to topple the Hamas-led PA government.

Furthermore, the source unveiled that Abbas' forces installed roadblocks in Ramallah's street where the march was supposed to pass in a bid to disturb and prevent it from going ahead.

"TV cameras that clearly showed Abbas' forces shooting live bullets at Palestinian citizens and wounding a number of them have indeed refuted fabrications made by certain Fatah officials that attempted to mislead the Palestinian people into believing that the clashes were between Fatah and Hamas supporters, and that Abbas' forces intervened to break them up", the source underlined.

Tens of Hamas' supporters were wounded with bullets of Abbas' forces; injuries of a number of the victims were described as "serious" with media reports saying that a 13-year-boy had died of his wounds.

PA presidential guards dubbed as "Force 17" along with elements of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, armed wing of Fatah, have warned Thursday that they will forcibly block any attempt by Hamas' followers to hold the rally.

But leaders of Hamas in the West Bank were prudent enough to prevent more Palestinian sacred blood to spill with Palestinian bullets as they affirmed that the Movement, despite the conspiracies against it, "will remain the safety valve of the Palestinian national unity, and the thorn in the throats of Israel and its local agents".

In 1994, Fatah-controlled PA security apparatuses killed 14 Palestinian citizens and wounded scores others while going out of Palestine mosque in Gaza city.

Real role of "Force 17":

For his part, representative of Hamas in the Islamic and nationalist forces follow up committee Khalil Nofal affirmed that the unfortunate incidents in Ramallah had indeed unmasked the real role of the PA presidential guard (Force 17) in the PA-run land after USA trained and armed them.

"It became clear for the Palestinian people that the role of that force wasn’t to protect them, but rather to implement the American agenda in Palestine, and to confront and sideline Hamas in the Palestinian arena", Nofal charged.

"The injury of around 40 Hamas supporters (some were hit in the head and the neck) with bullets of that force displays the kind of vicious brainwashing of those forces against Hamas and its cadres", he furthermore asserted.

He also scorned fabrications made by Fatah leaders that the assassination attempt against PA premier Ismail Haneyya that killed one of his bodyguards, and wounded his son and his political consultant was the result of Hamas cadres firing against each other, describing such claims as "a falsification to clear the (Fatah) faction of responsibility, in addition to being an obvious undermining of the minds of the Palestinian people". "

At least 18 killed in another bloody day in Iraq: Hospital sources said 13 people were killed in violence in different areas of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Exposed: Iraq Psy-Ops Campaign: A mysterious psychological operations campaign is underway in Iraq, with Muqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi Army as its target. In recent days, Baghdad residents report receiving phone calls that caller ID show to be originating from outside Iraq.

Diplomat's suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq war: The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

Three US occupation force soldiers killed in Iraq: Two US marines killed in occupied province of Al-Anbar, one soldier killed in Nineveh province.

No yellow ribbons for this soldier!: Missing Soldier Classified As Captured In Iraq: Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, a 41-year-old Iraqi-born resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., was snatched off the street while he was visiting his Iraqi wife in Baghdad on Oct. 23.

Iraqi Red Crescent accuses U.S. forces of attacks: The Iraqi Red Crescent accused U.S. forces on Friday of carrying out a spate of attacks on its offices over the last three years during operations to flush out suspected militants.

Tribal Leaders Don't Trust Iraq Soldiers: Tribal leaders and some political groups in the strife-ridden Iraqi province of Diyala are turning to terrorists and insurgents for protection rather than trust Iraqi soldiers and police, the commander of U.S. forces in that area said Friday.

Sadrists want U.S., British embassies in Iraq closed: The political committee in al-Shaheed al-Sadr's office urged the Iraqi government to close down the U.S. and British embassies in Baghdad and expel the two ambassadors

Top general calls for more troops: The Army's top general warned on Thursday that his force ``will break'' without thousands more active duty troops and greater use of the reserves. He issued the warning as President Bush considers new strategies for Iraq.

Bush weighing deeper commitment in Iraq, officials say: - President Bush is weighing whether to make a deeper American commitment in Iraq despite growing public unhappiness with the war, according to senior U.S. officials and former officials familiar with Bush's high-level review.

Graham Says 20-Thousand More Troops Needed In Iraq: South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says about 20,000 more American troops are needed if Iraq is going to establish a working democracy.

U.S. considers 35,000 more troops for Iraq: Senator John McCain said that U.S. military commanders were discussing the possibility of adding as many as 10 more U.S. combat brigades — a maximum of about 35,000 troops — to "bring the situation under control" while Iraq's divided political leaders seek solutions to the worsening bloodshed here.

Despite Its $168 Billion Budget: The Army Faces a Cash Crunch: At a time when the war in Iraq is deepening, and debate over pulling out the troops is intensifying, the rising cost of waging the fight is outpacing even the Army's huge budget. The financial squeeze is leaving the Army short of equipment and key personnel.

Democrats Expected to Increase U.S. Military Spending: This year's Pentagon budget is $436 billion. That amount does not include more than $140 billion that's being spent this year alone on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rice hints Baker report to be snubbed: US secretary of state tells Washington Post that US will not 'trade away' Lebanon to Syria nor allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons – in exchange for peace in Iraq. Says administrations stepping up efforts for Israeli-Palestinian calm.

Here is what happens when you challenge Zionism: David Horowitz: Jimmy Carter: Jew-Hater, Genocide-Enabler, Liar.

Former President Carter says he won't visit Brandeis: "I don't want to have a conversation even indirectly with Dershowitz," Carter told The Boston Globe. "There is no need ... for me to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine."

Israel boycott may be the way to peace: Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed since the summer.

The Green Line is the border: It is hard to understand why the line's deletion was justified and its restoration deemed unacceptable by settlers and their supporters. It is true that there is no sanctity in the cease-fire line beyond the fact that turning it into an official border is the only possible basis for determining Israel's final territorial arrangements and for ending the war both with the Palestinians and with the Arab countries.

Analysis: Building up force is PA Chairman Abbas' top priority: When news of the closure was broadcast this afternoon, a vendor at the New Gate in the Old City in Jerusalem cried out: "Do the Israelis want to starve us? Haniyeh is bringing in money for people who want to eat. Where else in the world is there such cruelty?" The anger against Israel is undermining the political power of Abbas who is calling for negotiations with Israel and peaceful coexistence. Aides to Abbas from the Fatah leadership have already concluded that there is no way of avoiding a direct and violent confrontation with Hamas.

Beyond imagination: While Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is still counting on the US and the EU -- and probably Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as well -- to "strengthen" his position against the Hamas-led government, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has been scoring success after success in his extended tour of a number of Arab and Muslim states in the region.

EU backs peace plan worded by Spain, France, Italy: The 25 foreign ministers reaffirmed the initiative Thursday and leaders from the 25 EU nations will formally endorse it Friday. Diplomats said the leaders' statement nudges Syria into doing more for peace and urges Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to keep up his efforts to form a government of national unity.

Assad to Olmert: Take a chance, See if we're bluffing: Syrian President Bashar Assad called on Israel in an interview published on Friday to renew talks with Damascus. Asked about this week's conference sponsored by Iran questioning the Holocaust - the killing of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany in World War Two - Assad said: "Listen, Europe has a complex about the Holocaust. We don't because we didn't do it."

EU summit urges Syria to play constructive peace role, warns Iran on sanctions: The European Union on Thursday embraced a Middle East peace initiative that urges Syria to play a constructive role in the region and hints to Iran of impending international sanctions over its nuclear program. It also condemned a move by the Palestinian militant group Hamas to seize a key EU-monitored border crossing Thursday between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Rice hints Baker report to be snubbed: Rice stressed that the administration will continue to push for a democratic Mideast, insisting it is a "matter of strategic interest," this as opposed to the Baker-Hamilton report which made a point of underplaying that goal. She reiterated the US's commitment to peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, saying that there will be many Mideast visits in the near future.

EU extends Palestinian aid deal that bypasses Hamas-led gov't: EU leaders said "the protracted deterioration" of the Palestinian situation justified continuing the World Bank-monitored aid scheme that has funneled hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) directly to Palestinians.

Rocket threat: Sderot factories at risk of closing down: In wake of this incident, the Ministry has demanded that all structures at the plants be fortified. However, in light of the dire economic situation in the region, due in large part to the almost daily Qassam attacks, both factories said they were unable to pay for such works.

Israeli Lawmaker Wants to Abolish Palestinian Authority in West Bank: "After 13 years of incitement and violence and terrorism and agreement violations, one should say that enough is enough. It is high time [that Israel] should abolish the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria [West Bank] and transfer the leadership to Gaza," said Israeli lawmaker Yuval Steinitz.

General Assembly adopts resolutions criticizing Israeli actions against Palestinians: The Assembly also adopted a text on Israeli settlements by 162 votes in favour to 8 against and with 10 abstentions reaffirming that "settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan, were illegal and an obstacle to peace and economic and social development." It also reiterated its demand for the complete cessation of all such activity.

Hamas wants simultaneous swap of Shalit, Palestinian prisoners: "The Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit will never be freed unless our hero prisoners, the long-serving and the faction leaders are freed in a reciprocal and simultaneous manner," senior Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya told a large Hamas rally in Gaza.

Haniyeh: We're Shahids, not ministers: The Palestinian leader called for unity among the Palestinian factions, after days of continually escalating violence in the Strip and the West Bank. "Palestinian blood must be safeguarded; we must unite for the fight to free our lands and holy sites," he said. With that, Haniyeh said no amount of pressures on his government would lead Hamas to modify its stances.

Nonviolent protest in Damon Prison against strip searches: For the third day in a row Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli Damon Prison are on hunger strike. This nonviolent action is in protest of the prison administration's arbitrary attempts to force Palestinians to submit to strip searches before visiting relatives.

Dahlan: "Accusing me of attempting to kill Haniyya, a clear lie, a bid for my assassination": Dahlan stated that Hamas gunmen were the ones who fired lat Monday at the vehicle of Major Baha' Balousha, killing his three children on their way to school, instead of him; the three children are Osama, 10, Ahmad, 6, and Salam, 3 years old. He added that Hamas knows the killers of the three children.

Hamas accuses Dahlan, presidential security of attempting to assassinate Haniyya: Hamas' media spokesperson Ismail Radwan said in a press release from Gaza that Haniyya survived an assassination attempt carried out "by a spiteful group led by Mohammad Dahlan who prepared and planned this attack", according to Radwan. Hamas accused the presidential guards of attacking the Prime Minister's convoy.

Dahlan vows to decimate Hamas:
"I told them [Hamas] that they would eat [expletive] if they recognised Israel and would eat [expletive] if they didn't recognise Israel. They would eat [expletive] if they recognised the Arab initiative and would eat [expletive] if they didn't."

Dahlan also tacitly admits that he has been behind much of the lawlessness and security chaos in Gaza: "I just deploy two jeeps, and people would say Gaza is on fire."

Dahlan says Hamas's victory in the elections was "a disaster", or nakba, for the movement, and yet, "Hamas is now the weakest Palestinian faction. They are whining and complaining. Well, they will have to suffer yet more until they are damned to the seventh ancestor. I will haunt them from now till the end of their term in four years. And I swear, whoever within Fatah says 'we should join the government," I will humiliate them."

Nonviolent protest in Damon Prison against strip searches: For the third day in a row Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli Damon Prison are on hunger strike. This nonviolent action is in protest of the prison administration's arbitrary attempts to force Palestinians to submit to strip searches before visiting relatives.

Israel to tighten enforcement of int'l boycott of PA: Security sources in Israel said that Hamas officials who will attempt in the future to bypass the economic embargo on the Palestinian Authority will also not be allowed to cross back into the Gaza Strip.

'Silent Transfer' presentation at TAU: It soon became obvious from the large number of people who had either been denied entry or had had their passports stamped 'last permit,' that in March 2006 Israel had instituted a new policy, a policy that would either separate families or cause families to leave. Recently, 105 passports were returned with visas not later than the end of December 2006, and all stamped "last permit." A week later 125 were returned with 'entry denied' stamped on them.


'Sacred Space' screened at St. Stephen's: Narrated by Nagle's wife Joy, the film focuses on the building of the wall around the area of the "Bethlehem Triangle," consisting of the towns of Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour." In many areas, including Bethlehem, the wall has been build well inside the West Bank, in order to include the settlements," Nagle tells viewers. "This wall confiscates Palestinian lands, attaching them to the settlements and making them part of Israel."

Jerusalem by numbers: changing birthrates: The team began to conduct the study after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke, earlier this year, of a plan to partition the city, claiming that placing tens of thousands of Arabs outside the municipal boundaries would preserve the Jewish majority in Jerusalem.

John Berger rallies artists for cultural boycott of Israel: The celebrated novelist, critic and artist John Berger today calls on British writers and artists to undertake a "cultural boycott" of Israel. In a letter to the Guardian, co-signed by, among others, the artist Cornelia Parker, the musician Brian Eno, and writers Arundhati Roy and Ahdaf Soueif, Berger calls for support for "our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues". He suggests boycott tactics; in his case it meant declining to be published by a large mainstream Israeli publisher, he says.

Former President Carter says he won't visit Brandeis: "I don't want to have a conversation even indirectly with Dershowitz," Carter told The Boston Globe. "There is no need to for me to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine." The debate request is proof that many in the United States are unwilling to hear an alternative view on the nation's most taboo foreign policy issue, Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory, Carter said.

'Barrier will be done by end of 2008': Construction of the West Bank security barrier will be completed by the end of 2008, a senior defense official.

Make Mideast peace urgent policy priority, interreligious leaders urge U.S. government: In the strongly worded, 2,500-word statement dated Dec. 12 and released Dec. 14, 35 leaders of national religious bodies, compelled by "our shared Abrahamic faith," said the United States has "an inescapable responsibility and an indispensable role to provide creative, determined leadership for building a just peace for all in the Middle East."


More lands confiscated from Kafr al-Labad, east of Tulkarem: Israeli forces have confiscated hundreds of acres of Palestinian lands belonging to the northern West Bank town of Kafr al-Labad, east of Tulkarem. The lands have been confiscated for the establishment of the separation wall around the Israeli settlement of Avne Hefez. Ma'an's correspondent has visited the location and reported that the lands are planted with olive trees and occupy some 144.6 dunums.

Haniyeh's bodyguard killed, son wounded in shooting attack: Haniyeh's convoy came under fire as it crossed, and it was forced to speed away. Officials said Haniyeh was unharmed. Government official Taher Nunu, an adviser to the Palestinian foreign minister, said Haniyeh's son Abed was wounded in the exchange.

Hamas and Fatah trade fire in power struggle: Violence between rival Palestinian groups edged closer towards civil war today as security forces loyal to the ruling Fatah organisation fired on Hamas supporters rallying in the West Bank. At least 32 Hamas supporters in Ramallah were wounded by gunfire from Fatah-loyal forces, hospital officials were quoted as saying by Reuters.

Non-violent march in Bil'in village met by Israeli military violence: "After the march, the army invaded the village and fired concussion grenades and teargas. Lately, they have been invading the village every Friday after our weekly protest", said Abu Rahme. He continued, "This is a clear attempt by the Israeli military to stifle our right to non-violently protest the unjust Israeli annexation Wall that is being built on our land." As of this report, the Israeli military is still in the village, occupying a number of houses and using those homes as sniper-posts.

Hillary Clinton: I join Israel against Ahmadinejad : Clinton called him a serious threat on Israel and her allies and continued to say that Iran must not be allowed to obtain and develop nuclear weapons.

Hamas, Fatah wage Gaza gun battle: Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh was eventually allowed to cross without the estimated $35 million cash but on the Gaza side of the border, his convoy came under intense fire from Fatah gunmen and one of his bodyguards was killed. Hamas said the gunmen had been aiming to kill the prime minister.

Hamas, Fatah Clash in Deepening Violence: - Gunmen allied with Hamas and Fatah clashed at a West Bank mosque and in Gaza Strip streets on Friday, as violence spread to areas of the Palestinian territories normally untouched by factional strife.

Gaza border shots 'targeted PM': The Palestinian Hamas group says a rival faction has tried to assassinate Prime Minister Ismail Haniya as he crossed back into Gaza from Egypt.

Hamas says Abbas wants war: A senior Hamas official has accused Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of Fatah, of starting a war after his security forces opened fire on a Hamas rally in the West Bank and firefights broke out in Gaza.

U.S. fermenting civil war: U.S. training Fatah in anti-terror tactics: U.S. officials training Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas are emphasizing urban anti-terrorist techniques as part of a systematic effort to bolster Abbas and his Fatah loyalists to counter the political success of Hamas, according to Palestinian analysts and officers receiving the training.

The enemy within: There are hundreds, possibly thousands of Palestinians working covertly for the Israeli intelligence services.

When There's No One Left to Blame

By VIRGINIA TILLEY
CounterPunch

Johannesburg, South Africa

"......We know you are still pursuing the old, fatal, futile fantasy: finally to redeem the Zionist dream by demolishing Palestinian nationalism. To break Palestinian national unity on the rocks of occupation. To reduce the Palestinians to Indians on reservations who decline into despair, alcoholism and emigration. To make them irrelevant to you.....

The Palestinians are five-million strong, equal to you in numbers. And they live within your borders. When their leadership ruins itself, bashing each other like rams fighting to the death, they will finally turn their five million pairs of burning eyes on you, for you will be the only power left over them. And you will be defenseless, because your paper shelter - your Fatah or PA quislings - will be damaged goods, cracked vessels, discredited, gone. And it will then be you and those you have disenfranchised - you and the Palestinians, in one state, with no Oslo or Road Map myth to protect you. And by then, they will truly hate you.......

We could appeal to the leader of the Fatah thugs, Mr. Abbas, shuffling at the feet of Israeli power, to find some spine. Or to the ubiquitous Mr. Erekat, who never had a political vision in his life, to develop one overnight.

We could appeal to the Fatah thugs to reject Mr. Abbas and Mr. Erekat and the fat cement contracts you gave them to build the Wall that imprisons them, and seek a high road they have never glimpsed.

We could appeal to the microscopic PFLP and DFLP, clutching their old programs too stale to chew and consumed by their acrid, decades-old bitterness and rivalry with Fatah, to lift their heads at long last beyond the old and new grievances.

We could appeal to the US, but no one bothers to do that.

We could appeal to the EU, but no one bothers to do that, either.

We could appeal to the world, but it only stands aghast.

We could appeal to the world media, but it is frozen with its ass in the air.

We can only appeal to you, Israel. To think what you are doing, if not to care.

For you are crafting your own destruction......"

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh from Hamas is helped by his bodyguards during a rally at the Yarmouk in Gaza City, Friday, Dec. 15, 2006 (AP)


Hamas supporters attend a Hamas rally marking the 19th anniversary of Hamas' foundation in Gaza December 15, 2006 (Reuters)

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh from Hamas is surrounded by bodyguards as he waves to supporters during a rally in Gaza City, Friday, Dec. 15, 2006 (AP)


Thousands of supporters gather as Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, not seen, delivers a speech during a rally in Gaza City, Friday, Dec. 15, 2006 (AP)

European Union leaders on Friday extended by three months an aid deal for the Palestinians that bypasses the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government that took office earlier this year.

The Middle East faces "one of the worst crises in years," EU leaders said, stating their readiness to work with a "legitimate" unity Palestinian government acceptable to the international community.
Arab League envoys this week mediated a tentative agreement between the Lebanese government and the opposition on a national unity cabinet.
EU leaders also condemned the assassination last month of anti-Syrian Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, and decried any other attempts to "destabilize Lebanon through political assassinations or terrorist acts."

Chirac said France would host an international donor conference for Lebanese reconstruction on January 25. "More than ever, Lebanon needs our help," he said.
Assad told Rome's la Repubblica newspaper Damascus was ready to cooperate with Washington to resolve regional issues and challenged Israel to open up to Syria. He also said Europe had a "complex" over the Jewish Holocaust.

"The fact is that we (Syrians) live in this region, we know it well," he said in the long interview, adding that Washington "needs our help" to formulate a plan for Iraq.

Asked if he was ready to work constructively with Washington, he said, "Certainly we are ready to do so. Because if you don't resolve regional questions - Iraq, Lebanon, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - it will be we bordering countries that will pay the highest price."

Syria had "excellent relations" with many factions in Iraq and could support a national conference on the future of the country, he said. Assad also said the United States and Europe "must talk to Tehran."

A report released last week in Washington by a special panel recommended the United States engage Syria and Iran to bring about stability in Iraq.

The White House has so far rejected such contacts and President George W. Bush renewed his criticism of Damascus on Wednesday, accusing Syria of human rights abuses and of trying to undermine Lebanese sovereignty.

Assad said the Iraq Study Group report vindicated Syria's position that it had to be listened to.

Assad said Israel should also take up Syria's offer to hold talks. "I say to [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert: 'Take a chance. Discover if we are bluffing or not.'"

Israel is firmly opposed to talks with Syria, saying Damascus needs first to cut its links to the anti-Israeli militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Syria wants talks to recover the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in
1967.

Asked about this week's conference sponsored by Iran questioning the Holocaust, Assad said: "Listen, Europe has a complex about the Holocaust. We don't because we didn't do it.

However, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has rejected a bipartisan panel's recommendation that the Bush administration engage Syria and Iran in efforts to stabilize Iraq, The Washington Post reported
on Friday.

The "compensation" required for any such deal might be too high, Rice told the paper in an interview.

Rice said she did not want to trade away Lebanese sovereignty to Syria or allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon as a price for peace in Iraq, the Post reported.

She also argued that neither Syria nor Iran should need incentives to help achieve stability in Iraq, the Post reported.

"If they have an interest in a stable Iraq, they will do it anyway," Rice said.

Rice told The Washington Post that Bush could be "quite expansive" in the policy review and that the new plan would be a "departure." However, she told the newspaper that Bush would not radically change any of his long-term goals or commitment to Iraq.

Rice also said the administration would not retreat from its push to promote democracy in the Middle East and reiterated her commitment to pursuing peace between Palestinians and Israelis, the Post said.

"Get ready. We are going to the Middle East a lot," Rice said.

Gaza City) PCHR

Friday, 15 December 2006

The PCHR issued its report for the week of 7 through 13 December outlining human rights abuses in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces arrested 40 Palestinians this week, including six children and attacked two radio stations. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights photo that accompanied the weekly report ran with the caption, "Thousands of Palestinian civilians waiting for the Rafah border crossing to open." The full text of the report follows: Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) Two Palestinian couple were killed by the explosion of a mysterious object from the remainders of IOF. A Palestinian woman died from a heart attack when IOF detonated a sound bomb inside her house. 11 Palestinian civilians, including two children, were wounded by IOF. IOF conducted 27 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. IOF arrested 40 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children. IOF raided offices of two local radio stations in Hebron. An IOF bloodhound bit and injured a Palestinian woman in Nablus. IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT; IOF have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world. IOF have continued to construct the Annexation Wall inside the West Ban; IOF have continued to construct a section of the Wall in ‘Azzoun ‘Atma village, south of Qalqilya. Summary Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law continued in the OPT during the reported period (7 – 13 December 2006): Killing: During the reported period, a Palestinian couple were killed in Sa’ir village, northeast of Hebron, and their child was seriously wounded on 9 December 2006, when a mysterious object exploded in junks collected by the husband from an area used by IOF as a training site. On 12 December 2006, a 56-year-old Palestinian woman died from a heart attack when IOF detonated a sound bombs inside her house. On 10 December 2006, a Palestinian child was wounded in al-Fara’a refugee camp, southeast of Jenin, when IOF fired at a number of children who demonstrated against them. In the Gaza Strip, in violation of the truce between IOF and the Palestinian side, IOF fired at a number of Palestinian civilians, wounding 10 of them. On 7 December 2006, 4 Palestinian civilians, including two brothers, were wounded in separate incidents of shooting by IOF in the northern Gaza Strip. On 8 December 2006, two Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded when IOF fired at a number of Palestinian civilians who were searching for wires and metals in the northern Gaza Strip. On 10 December 2006, IOF fired at a Palestinian civilian who was farming his land in the northern Gaza Strip, wounding him seriously. On 13 December 2006, an IOF gunboat opened fire at a fishing boat opposite to Rafah seashore, wounding 3 Palestinian fishermen, including two brothers. Continued...

As regards Lebanon

Despite the very minimal demands laid upon Israel under UN resolution 1701, Israel has been constantly violating the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

Some of the more important violations:

Monday December 11, 2006
Israeli jets violated airspace in southern Lebanon Monday by flying at low altitude over areas where UN peacekeepers are stationed. The jets also flew over the cities of Tyre, Marjayun and Nabatiyeh. (DPA)

Friday November 17, 2006
THREE Israeli warplanes violated again the Lebanese airspace. The fighter-bombers overflew the Tyre and Bint Jbeil areas where troops of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are deployed, intruding at high altitude repeatedly.(AFP)

Thursday November 9, 2006
Twelve Israeli jets violated Lebanese airspace on Thursday. The fighter-bombers entered Lebanon at 12:25 p.m. and flew high over the coastal town of Naqoura, headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) near the borders with Israel. They then flew over other Southern regions before flying at a lower altitude over the eastern city of Baalbek, the army added. The 12 planes left Lebanese airspace at 1 p.m. after flying over Tripoli and Akkar in the North.(AP)

Tuesday October 31, 2006
Israeli fighter jets dived low over the southern suburbs at least six times before roaring back into the sky. Lebanese security officials said eight Israeli jets had crossed the border and dispersed, flying over southern and central Lebanon, with some reaching south Beirut.Israeli fighter jets dived low over the southern suburbs at least six times before roaring back into the sky. Lebanese security officials said eight Israeli jets had crossed the border and dispersed, flying over southern and central Lebanon, with some reaching south Beirut.
Tuesday’s show was the heaviest aerial incursion of Lebanon since the end of Israel’s 34-day offensive against the Hezbollah militant group. Lebanon, with United Nations support, has frequently protested Israeli flights over its territory. (Reuters)

Wednesday October 25, 2006
Two Israeli warplanes and a German navy vessel have clashed off the Lebanese coast, the Defence Ministry in Berlin said on Wednesday without giving further details. Germany daily Der Tagesspiegel earlier on Wednesday quoted a junior German defence minister as telling a parliamentary committee that two Israeli F-16 fighters flew low over the German ship and fired two shots. The jets also released infra-red countermeasures to ward off any rocket attack, the paper quoted him as saying. “I can confirm that there was an incident,” a ministry spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday. An investigation was underway and he therefore was unable to provide further information, he added. (Reuters)

Monday October 23, 2006
Israeli Airforce planes swooped low over Lebanon on Monday, a day after Israel rejected a call by France’s defence minister to halt violations of its neighbor’s airspace. The planes conducted mock raids over much of southern Lebanon, Reuters reported, and residents saw them flying low over the capital Beirut, but neither Hezbollah nor the Lebanese army fired anti-aircraft rounds at them as they have done in previous years.

Tuesday October 17, 2006
Israeli troops, along with two bulldozers, crossed the UN demarcated Blue Line near the Lebanese border village of Kfar Kila on Tuesday. “The Israeli troops cut the barbed wire separating Israel and Lebanon and placed the water pipe 40 metres inside Lebanese territory,” the Lebanese army source said. “The incident took place in the sight of the French and Spanish peacekeepers who acknowledged that there was a breach of the Lebanese territories,” the source said without elaborating. The army source said that on Tuesday, Spanish UNIFIL troops were observing the area as the Israeli bulldozers broke the barbed wire to place a pipe to divert the rain-water into Lebanese territories. The Spanish troops did not interfere but took pictures of the breaches.

For full report, click link

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Gunmen allied with Hamas and Fatah clashed at a West Bank mosque and in Gaza Strip streets on Friday, as violence spread to areas of the Palestinian territories normally untouched by factional strife.

Hamas accused a Fatah leader of orchestrating the previous day's attack on Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - and a Hamas politician appeared to call for the Fatah strongman's assassination. Leaders of both groups have warned that the violence threatens to degenerate into civil war.

The clashes in Gaza City and the West Bank town of Ramallah marred celebrations Friday marking the 19th anniversary of Hamas' founding. However, the Islamic militant group pushed ahead with its rallies, and about 70,000 loyalists gathered at a stadium in Gaza City, cheering wildly, sobbing and firing in the air when Haniyeh arrived flanked by more than 50 armed bodyguards.

"We joined this movement to become martyrs, not ministers," Haniyeh declared in a fiery speech, referring to Hamas loyalists' willingness to die for the Islamic cause.

He then left for an emergency session of the Hamas-led Cabinet, called to discuss the escalating unrest.

The fighting Friday in the normally peaceful city of Ramallah began when Hamas supporters tried to march toward the town center, where Fatah-allied police had deployed to prevent a planned Hamas celebration.

Police formed a cordon around a Hamas mosque to prevent those inside from marching, then beat them with clubs and fired their rifles in the air when the activists tried to leave. The marchers fought back, throwing stones and bottles at the police, some of whom fired into the crowd.

Thirty-two people were wounded by stones and gunfire, hospital officials said.

In Gaza City, masked Hamas gunmen waged battle with Fatah-allied police near a security post.

The showdown, a block from the home of Mohammed Dahlan, broke out shortly after Hamas accused the Fatah strongman of orchestrating the attack on Haniyeh on Thursday at the Gaza-Egypt border terminal.

The latest round of fighting erupted Monday with a drive-by shooting that killed the three young sons of a Fatah security official and continued Wednesday with the gangland-style execution of a Hamas judge.

On Thursday, Haniyeh rushed home from a trip abroad to try to quell the violence.

But Israel ordered the Rafah crossing closed to keep Haniyeh from bringing in an estimated $35 million he had collected abroad to help alleviate the Palestinian financial crisis. Israeli officials said Haniyeh could return to Gaza without the money, which it said was to be used for terror attacks. Maria Telleria, spokeswoman for European monitors at the crossing, said Haniyeh left the funds in Egypt.

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told Israel's Army Radio that government officials made the right decision not to let Haniyeh bring the money into Gaza, adding that if Haniyeh had been killed, "I wouldn't put up a mourning tent."

While Haniyeh was delayed at the crossing, angry Hamas militants stormed the border terminal and fought with security forces stationed there who are loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah's leader.

When Haniyeh finally crossed, unidentified men began firing toward him. One of his bodyguards was killed and his son and 26 others were wounded.

At the bodyguard's funeral, Khalil al-Hayeh, head of the Hamas bloc in parliament, told mourners that Dahlan was trying to instigate a coup against the government and appeared to call for his assassination.

Al-Hayeh exhorted the crowd to "get us the plotters of the coup."

"We will, we will," the crowd replied.

Dahlan said the allegations were an attempt by Hamas leaders "to mask their sweeping failure to manage Palestinian political and social life."

Various other Hamas officials accused Palestinian collaborators with Israel, Abbas and the U.S. of involvement in the shooting.

The violence came amid a political deadlock between Abbas and the Hamas-led Cabinet and parliament following failed efforts to form a unity government. Abbas hoped such a government would end crippling international economic sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority after Hamas won January elections.

THE day after the Baker-Hamilton report on Iraq was released, Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, rejected the part that urged the United States to refocus on the Israeli-Arab conflict because all Middle East issues were, it said, “inextricably linked.”

Mr. Olmert responded, “The U.S.’s problems in Iraq are entirely independent of the problems between us and the Palestinians.”

Yet Mr. Olmert’s own recent statements and actions belie his argument. Partly in anticipation of an American shift in policy and partly out of longstanding and growing concern over Iran, he has been pursuing an approach to Israeli interests that involves reaching out to the Palestinians and Iraq’s neighbors. It could almost have been taken from the playbook written by James A. Baker III.

In a speech late last month at the grave of Israel’s founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, Mr. Olmert called for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state and said he would seek the help of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other gulf countries to make that a reality.

For the first time he praised elements of a 2002 Saudi-sponsored plan calling for full diplomatic relations between all Arab states and Israel in exchange for such a Palestinian state (under certain conditions). Senior Israeli officials have met in recent months not only with Jordanians and Egyptians but — most notably — with Saudis.

The Sunni states of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt share Israel’s concern about Shiite Iran and worry about its eventual influence in an Iraq that is spinning out of control. So they have made modest gestures toward Israel and the United States and urged them to move ahead with a Palestinian state. Both countries are listening.

“The Saudis are saying to us, ‘We are afraid of Iran and want to work with you but the Palestinian issue has to be solved,’ ” a senior Israeli official said, insisting on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “To some extent this is an excuse but to some extent it is genuine.
He added that the growing domination of Palestinian politics by Hamas, the militant Islamist group that calls for Israel’s destruction and has received Iranian aid, is a threat to secular Arab rulers just as it is to Israel. So they want to boost the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who favors negotiations with Israel — and that, too, coincides with Israel’s view.

The three current or potential civil wars in the Middle East, then — in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian areas — are therefore all interlinked in Israel’s logic, with Iran as the common denominator.

---

Click to view caption

Holding up a banner that reads in Arabic, "Who is the killer" referring to the assassination of three young siblings Monday in Gaza

While Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is still counting on the US and the EU -- and probably Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as well -- to "strengthen" his position against the Hamas-led government, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has been scoring success after success in his extended tour of a number of Arab and Muslim states in the region.

On Tuesday, Haniyeh wrapped up a three-day visit to Tehran during which he held high-profile meetings with top Iranian officials, including Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The meetings were more than just courteous encounters between heads of an emerging regional superpower and the leader of a beleaguered government that the US and Israel have been hell-bent on scuttling for its refusal to bow to Zionist- colonialist diktat.

In fact, Iran decided to give Haniyeh more than he had ever dreamt of. In the words of one Palestinian observer, the Iranians treated Haniyeh like a second prodigal son (the first being Hizbullah). On Monday, the Palestinian prime minister, who had earlier referred to Iran as "our strategic depth", termed his visit "historical and very, very successful". "We reached our goals on this visit. We found all the love possible to give to the Palestinian people," Haniyeh said during a brief press conference at the Mehrabad airport in Tehran.

Haniyeh's words, while not completely void of rhetorical indulgence, are more or less accurate. The Iranian government, taking advantage of skyrocketing oil prices, pledged to give the Palestinians a generous package of financial assistance, urgently needed given the eight-month-old harsh blockade imposed on the Palestinian people by the US, the EU, as well as a number of Arab regimes.

According to Haniyeh, the Iranian donation will include a direct cash payment to the Palestinian government of approximately $100 million. In addition, Iran will pay the unpaid salaries of employees of three ministries (Labour, Welfare and Culture) as well as six-month stipends to the estimated 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners languishing in Israeli jails. Iran also agreed to pay for the next six months a stipend of $100 a month to 100,000 Palestinian civil servants and the same for 3,000 Palestinian fishermen.

Furthermore, Iran also agreed to build a cultural centre and rebuild some 1,000 demolished houses at a cost of $10,000 per house. Finally, the Islamic republic agreed to purchase 300 new cars for the Palestinian government and purchase Palestinian olive oil at a special higher premium.

According to Haniyeh, Iran's supreme spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei, whom he met Sunday, personally approved the financial aid.

In short, Haniyeh's visit to Iran appears successful "beyond even the wildest dreams" of Hamas, as one of Haniyeh's political advisors put it during a telephone interview with Al-Ahram Weekly Tuesday. The unexpected generosity of Shia Iran towards a Sunni Islamist movement should be viewed as a rebuff and direct challenge to American hegemony in the region.

The United States, along with Israel and some Arab regimes such as Jordan, has been trying to strangle the Hamas- led government, employing some of the most draconian and sinister measures yet seen, such as bullying Palestinian and Arab banks to refuse to service the government, including transferring Arab and Muslim aid money from abroad into the impoverished and cash-strapped occupied territories.

This harsh and cruel blockade was aimed at achieving two mains goals: First to induce an implosion inside Palestinian society aimed at triggering a popular revolution against Hamas. This goal has not been reached as most Palestinians continue to blame the US and Israel, not Hamas, for their plight. Indeed, Hamas's popularity has not suffered significantly, evidenced in PA reluctance to hold early general elections in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as a means of overcoming the crisis.

The second goal was to discourage Islamist or even Islamic experiments elsewhere in the Muslim world by giving the impression that Islamists in power only bring poverty and hardship to the masses.

However, unlike Fatah's leader Abbas, who some Palestinians accuse of adopting a "feed me today, and kill me tomorrow," political modus operandi, Hamas has been successfully manoeuvring itself out of the treacherous minefield of the harsh blockade, adopting another adage: "I will suffer today so that I may live tomorrow."

Haniyeh's success in Tehran is added to earlier achievements during his visit to Qatar last week when Emir Hamad Ibn Khalifa Al-Thani pledged to pay the salaries of more than 40,000 Palestinian teachers and if necessary cover payments for workers in the public health sector.

According to Hamas officials, Haniyeh's next destination will be Riyadh where he will undoubtedly press his Saudi hosts to at least match Iranian generosity and "adopt" a number of Palestinian ministries for six months or one year. If the Saudis respond positively, this will be the final nail in the coffin of the American-led, Israeli- enforced blockade.

Indeed, it would be politically and ideologically expedient for the Saudi government, which views itself as the ultimate custodian and guardian of Sunni Islam, to give Haniyeh all the assistance and aid he seeks since rebuffing him would push Hamas (and probably the bulk of Palestinians as well) further towards the Iranian-Syrian-Hizbullah axis.

At a loss with regard to their quagmire in Iraq, and given their conspicuous inability to get Israel to abandon its colonialist schemes, the United States seems unable to present any viable and practical plan that would convince the masses, whether in Palestine, Saudi Arabia, or Egypt for that matter, to give the "peace process" one last chance.

It is even likely that powerless and frustrated allies like Abbas will sooner rather than later understand the foolishness of counting on the present American administration. One Fatah official close to Abbas this week lamented that Americans "have pushed us to this dismal situation".

"They keep saying they want to strengthen the moderates and strengthen Abbas while at the same time they can't even get Ehud Olmert to remove a single roadblock in the West Bank. So why would our people believe Abbas when he tells them to trust America? At least the Iranians are helping us, while the Americans and Israelis are starving us."

Abbas' Thug "Security Service" Beating Up And Firing On Palestinians In Ramallah; 32 people were wounded!

"Gaza – Hamas has accused Muhammd Dahlan, former preventive security chief, of being behind the attack on the Prime Minister's attack which took place Thursday evening on the Prime Minister's return to Gaza from the successful tour of Arab and Islamic countries.

Hamas also accused Dahlan of leading the trend of rebellion [against the Hamas government] in Fatah.

Hamas said in the statement, which was read by Ismail Radwan, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Friday afternoon, that Muhammad Dahlan was directly responsible for the attempted assassination of the Prime Minister and accused the presidential guards of carrying out the assassination attempt.

Hamas asked President Mahmoud Abbas, in the statement, to lift the cover off "the criminals" stressing that the President should withdraw the Presidential guards from the street as they are not capable of keeping the peace.

Mushir al-Masri, secretary of the Hamas parliamentary block, said that the attack was planned and was an implementation of Dahlan's threats. He added that Hamas parliamentarians will do all in their power to waive Dahlan's parliamentary immunity and get him tried in a court of law for all his crimes."

By Jim Lobe

"Attitudes toward the United States reached new lows through most of the Arab world over the past year, according to the findings of a major new survey [.pdf] of five Arab countries released here Thursday by Zogby International and the Arab American Institute (AAI).

Based on 3,500 face-to-face interviews of randomly selected adult respondents in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon, the survey found that the continuing deterioration in Washington's image was due primarily to U.S. policies in the region, particularly with respect to Iraq, Palestine, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Lebanon.

But it also found that attitudes toward U.S. cultural and political values have also become increasingly negative, compared to previous years' surveys, although not nearly as negative as Arab views of specific policies.

Particularly remarkable, negative opinions toward the United States have skyrocketed in two key Arab monarchies long considered close allies of Washington, according to the survey. Nine of 10 Jordanian respondents said they held predominantly negative views of the U.S., up from only 32 percent on early 2005. Likewise 87 percent of Moroccans said their views of the U.S. were unfavorable, up from 64 percent last year.

At least as worrisome to U.S. policymakers, a major beneficiary of growing Arab anger at Washington appeared to be Iran, according to AAI president James Zogby, who also acted as a consultant to Zogby International. "As America's numbers go down, Iran's goes up," he told reporters. "That's the reality, and we're playing right into it."

While Arab leaders, including those with predominantly Sunni populations, "are very much concerned [about rising Iranian influence], the Arab public has a very different view," he said, noting that the survey results showed that most respondents were not worried about Iran's nuclear program, particularly compared to Iraq and Palestine. More than seven in 10 respondents in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Morocco, as well as a majority in Lebanon, said U.S. efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program contributed to their negative views of Washington.......

"What this poll says to me is that Baker-Hamilton are right," he said. "If we want to salvage our credibility in Iraq, we have to address issues of concern to our [Arab] allies," he said. "It's risky for [Jordan's] King Abdullah to meet with George Bush when 90 percent of his population feels negatively toward America." .......

Overall, negative views of the U.S. were highest in Jordan (90 percent) and Morocco (87 percent), followed by Egypt (83 percent), and Saudi Arabia (82 percent).

In Lebanon, where opinions on a range of issues were highly polarized between Shi'a and Christian respondents, in particular, 68 percent of respondents said their views toward the U.S. were unfavorable, an increase from 60 percent in early 2005.....Continued."

By Juan Cole

"So Bush's response to the clear public demand for a change of course and a disengagement? It is to run to Henry Kissinger's apron strings. And what does the Butcher of Chile and Indonesia urge? That Bush should put another 40,000 US troops into Iraq!

The problem is that Iraq is a 500,000 troop problem. Another 40,000 are just going to anger locals. And, apparently, they would be sicced on the Shiite Mahdi Army in hopes of permanently crippling the Sadr Movement headed (in part) by Muqtada al-Sadr. And maybe they'd be used in a new offensive against the Sunni Arab guerrillas.

Let me explain why it won't work. It won't work because Iraqis are now politically and socially mobilized. This means that they have the social preconditions for effective political and paramilitary action (they are largely urban, literate, connected by media, etc.) And they are politically savvy and well-connected. They are well armed, gaining in military experience, and well financed through petroleum and antiquities smuggling and through cash infusions from supporters abroad. The Mahdi Army fighters can be defeated by the US military, as happened twice in 2004. But they cannot be made to disappear, as they were not in 2004. That is because they are an organic movement springing from the Shiite poor, and are the paramilitary arm of a large social movement with a national network and ideology.

Attempts to crush popular movements once they have mobilized have most often failed. No attempts at counter-revolution in France in the 1790s were successful. Even powerful empires like Austria were helpless before the mobilized French infantry (who for the first time used large numbers of conscripts).......

......The US is not going to commit the half a million troops it would take to have a chance of winning in Iraq. Nor is it going to use genocidal methods to strike absolute terror into the hearts of the Iraqi people.[Are you sure about that, Juan?]

The Iraq situation has gone beyond the point where 40,000 troops can retrieve it. And that is if we even had 40,000 troops to put into Iraq and keep them there any length of time, which we do not.

In fact, since most of the "coalition of the willing" troops have now left (Italy, Spain, etc.), one of the two US divisions would only be putting the number of Coalition soldiers back up to what it was earlier in the Occupation, when things were also not going well.

The fact is that if provincial elections were held today, the Sadr Movement would sweep to power in all the Shiite provinces (with the possible exception of Najaf itself). It is increasingly the most popular political party among Iraq's Shiite majority. For the US to cut the Sadrists out of power in parliament and then fall on them militarily would just throw Iraq into turmoil. It would increase the popularity of the Sadrists, and ensure that they gain nationalist credentials that will ensconce them for perhaps decades.

The "surge" tactic is being generated by Rupert Murdoch's Weekly Standard and by Frederick W. Kagan and Bill Kristol, i.e. by the same plutocratic American Enterprise Institute (Likudnik Central) that brought you the Iraq War with champagne toasts in the first place.......

......Bush is the Napoleon of our age, trampling on whole peoples, a Jacobin Emperor mouthing the slogans of liberty and popular sovereignty while crushing and looting those he "liberated." And Kagan and Kristol (playing Talleyrand 1798) and Emperor Bush are readying a further slaughter of our US troops, 24,000 of whom have been killed or wounded, and of innocent Iraqis, 600,000 of whom have been killed by criminal and political violence since spring of 2003.

And you thought a mere election would make a difference. No one had to elect the American Enterprise Institute. No one needs to crown the emperor, he can do it himself. Welcome to Year 1 of the Empire."

It has to be resisted

by Justin Raimondo

"In my column on the Iraq Study Group, I neglected to mention the most objectionable aspect of the Baker-Hamilton report [.pdf], and that is the suggestion that it might be a good idea to inject a "surge" of U.S. troops to secure Baghdad and stabilize a regime that seems about to fall. The ISG averred that, although they rejected proposals to double U.S. forces,

"We could, however, support a short-term redeployment or surge of American combat forces to stabilize Baghdad, or to speed up the training and equipping mission, if the U.S. commander in Iraq determines that such steps would be effective."

The key part of that sentence is in the last phrase. The Los Angeles Times reports on the state of the internal debate:

"A troop increase has been opposed by Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, but it has been embraced by a growing number of military advisers inside and outside the Pentagon, several of whom have pressed the case to Bush in recent weeks.

"That group may be joined today by retired Army Gen. John Keane, an influential former vice chief of staff who met with Bush earlier in the week. Keane is to appear at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank, to present a plan for a troop increase that was developed by think tank military analyst Frederick W. Kagan."

Translation: The uniformed military are against the "surge" concept, but the civilians in the Pentagon and over at Neocon Central now have a retired general on their side......

.......Both parties have a political interest in maintaining the fictions of American supremacy and our alleged ability to transform entire societies by an adroit application of resources. It can't be done. Real conservatives used to know this, and some are beginning to relearn it. What I fear is that a "kinder, gentler" form of interventionism is being sold to the Democrats now that they are in the ascendant. I also have a hunch we'll soon be hearing that "it takes a global village" to win the war in Iraq. Liberal interventionism awaits its turn at the helm: that they will take us to the brink of a disaster similar to the one visited on us by their neoconservative counterparts is all too predictable.

Neither a surge in troops nor an increase in the amount of nonmilitary aid we pump into the stillborn Iraqi "government" can revive the patient. The only way to serve – and save – the national interest is to get out as quickly as possible, before more damage is done to our prestige, the U.S. Treasury, and the long-suffering peoples of the region."

"Fighting has broken out in the West Bank after Palestinian security forces fired on a Hamas rally in Ramallah.

At least 20 people were wounded in the clashes which came shortly after Hamas accused Fatah of attempting to assassinate Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister.

The ruling Hamas faction said they would punish those responsible for Thursday's attack at the Rafah crossing in Gaza which left one of Haniya's bodyguards dead.

The incident had raised fears of a civil war between the groups.

Another bodyguard, the prime minister's son and a political adviser were wounded.

Ismail Rudwan, a Hamas spokesman, said Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Fatah official and politician, was behind the armed attack on Haniya's convoy after it passed through the Rafah border from Egypt into Gaza late on Thursday night.

On Friday, Hamas was celebrating its 19th anniversary.

In Ramallah, the security units loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the president, and dressed in riot gear, used clubs and rifles to beat back the demonstrators before the shooting broke out.

Assassin 'named'

Rudwan said: "Mohammed Dahlan bears the direct responsibility for the assassination attempt which targeted the prime minister and he bears responsibility for the blood of the martyrs in the incident.

"The dirty hands which assassinated and wounded the bodyguards of the prime minister and attacked the prime minister's convoy will not escape punishment."

Rudwan offered no evidence of Dahlan's involvement. He said the attempt on Haniya's life had been planned in advance and that the perpetrators had received order from foreign parties."

AN IMPORTANT STORY

"Short summary:
On Thursday, November 23, 2006, a bomb exploded in a market in Thawra City (Sadr City) that caused the death and wounding of tens of civilians.
The culprit was caught the next day by Al-Mahdi army who control Thawra City. His name is Firas Al-Rikabi. He confesses in this video (in Arabic) that Hakam, who lives in the nearby Rashad district, had given him the bomb and the detonator and instructed him to place it among the crowd and blow it up, for $200 bounty.
Both Hakam and Firas are Shi'ites.
Hakam belongs to the Badr and SCIRI Iranian backed shi'ite militias who now control the police in the Interior Ministry (who are responsible for the recent mass kidnappings) and the army in the Defence Ministry (being trained to step up by the American occupiers to allow Bush to step down).

Hakam is now being sought by the Mahdi Army. They executed Firas after the recording of his confession."

Click to see film and hear confession of the culprit (in Arabic)

"The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, "at no time did HMG [Her Majesty's Government] assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests."

Mr Ross revealed it was a commonly held view among British officials dealing with Iraq that any threat by Saddam Hussein had been "effectively contained".

He also reveals that British officials warned US diplomats that bringing down the Iraqi dictator would lead to the chaos the world has since witnessed. "I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed)," he said.

"At the same time, we would frequently argue when the US raised the subject, that 'regime change' was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos."

.....Continued."

***

Do we still need any more proof that the chaos and collapse were not "mistakes" or "incompetence," but an intended and well-planned campaign of "creative destruction??"

Only those who live there can solve Iraq's problems, but Bush and Blair must bear prime responsibility for igniting them

Jonathan Steele
Friday December 15, 2006
The Guardian

"A rare joke was circulating among Iraqis shortly before their prime minister met George Bush in Amman recently. What would the US president be demanding? Answer: a timetable for Iraqis to withdraw from Iraq. It was a barbed reference to the huge number of Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homeland since the US invaded and presided over a catastrophic collapse in security. Up to 3,000 are leaving every day, according to the UN.

The joke also encapsulated the growing Iraqi feeling that the Americans are reaching the climax of a three-year exercise in shifting blame. Whatever has gone wrong in Iraq, it was always the Iraqis' fault. First they looted their own country in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein's downfall. Then they let foreign jihadis and suicide bombers come in and attack the Americans. Now they are indulging in an orgy of sectarian violence and mindless revenge killings which are beyond the powers of the kind and well-meaning Americans to control. Could anyone have imagined that ingratitude for liberation would ever reach such depths? The only way to save Iraq is to remove every Iraqi. Messrs Perle, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz would then have an empty field on which to build their model Middle Eastern state.
The line that "it's all up to the Iraqis now" also runs through the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group report, albeit in a subtle form.

.....Continued."

أكدت أنه يقود التيار الانقلابي في الساحة الفلسطينية

"غزة - المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام

اتهمت حركة المقاومة الإسلامية "حماس" محمد دحلان بالمسؤولية المباشرة عن محاولة اغتيال رئيس الوزراء المنتخب إسماعيل هنية، خلال عودته الليلة الماضية إلى قطاع غزة، عبر معبر رفح من جولة عربية وإسلامية ناجحة جدا، كما اتهمته بقيادة التيار الانقلابي في حركة "فتح".

وقالت الحركة في بيان، تلاه المتحدث باسم "حماس" إسماعيل رضوان، في مؤتمر صحفي اليوم الجمعة (15/12): "إن المدعو محمد دحلان يتحمل المسؤولية المباشرة عن محاولة اغتيال رئيس الوزراء إسماعيل هنية، وعن دماء الشهداء والجرحى الذين سقطوا"، متهمة جهاز أمن الرئاسة الفلسطينية بتنفيذ محاولة الاغتيال.

وطالب البيان رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية محمود عباس بتحمل مسؤولياته، "ورفع الغطاء عن المجرمين"، مشدداً على ضرورة أن يسحب رئيس السلطة أفراد أمن الرئاسة من أرض المعبر ومن الشوارع، لأنهم لا يصلحون لحماية الشعب.

ودعت "حماس" الشعب الفلسطيني إلى الحذر من محاولات الذين يريدون الانقلاب على الحكومة المنتخبة، مؤكدة أن الأيادي الخبيثة التي اغتالت وجرحت مرافقي رئيس الوزراء، وتجرأت بالاعتداء على موكبه، لن تفلت من العقاب وهي معرفة لدينا".

وقال مشير المصري، أمين سر "كتلة التغيير والإصلاح" البرلمانية، التابعة لحماس، خلال المؤتمر الصحفي: "إن ما حدث كان قد خطط ودبر بليل، وهذا كان تطبيقاً لما هدد به المدعو محمد دحلان، الذي توعد برد غير مسبوق".

وأضاف: "بمجرد أن أعلن الإنقلابيون عن وقف الحوار، عادت الفوضى، بخروج المظاهرات المسلحة، وللأسف من يقوم بذلك هي الأجهزة الأمنية الخاضعة لأوامر محمود عباس، رئيس السلطة".

وتابع المصري كلامه قائلا: "إن كتلة حماس البرلمانية ستتخذ كل الإجراءات اللازمة، كون دحلان نائبا، وسنتخذ كل الاجراءات لرفع الحصانة البرلمانية عنه، وأن يقف أمام العدالة ليحاكم على كل الجرائم، فهو صانع الفوضى ومؤسسها في الساحة الفلسطينية"، مذكّراً بأن دحلان هو من أسس فرقة الموت "التي قتلت العديد من أبناء الشعب الفلسطيني، واعتقلت المجاهدين، ووضعهم تحت مسالخ التحقيق، وهو يقود التيار الانقلابي". "

This is a copy of a training manual distributed to officers of the Presidential Guard during a two-week course held in Jericho earlier this year

Palestinian puppet forces being trained by the U.S.

"12-14) 04:00 PST Jericho, West Bank -- U.S. officials training Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas are emphasizing urban anti-terrorist techniques as part of a systematic effort to bolster Abbas and his Fatah loyalists to counter the political success of Hamas, according to Palestinian analysts and officers receiving the training.

But one officer who has received the training says the purpose of the newly beefed-up force is to protect the Palestinian president from assassination.

The Presidential Guard, made up entirely of Fatah activists loyal to Abbas, has been increased to 1,000, up from about 90 officers under his predecessor, Yasser Arafat. A new black-uniformed rapid deployment force -- Al-Tadakhwal -- has recently been formed to respond to emergencies. The Presidential Guard is commanded by Gen. Munir Zobi in the West Bank and Gen. Haj Musbar in Gaza.

Officers have also received training from U.S. officials inside the Mukata, the presidential compound in Ramallah that contains Abbas' office and Arafat's grave.

The Chronicle has obtained a training manual distributed to officers of the Al-Haras Al-Rayassi, Abbas' Presidential Guard, during a two-week course held in Jericho earlier this year at which the chief instructor introduced himself as a U.S. Secret Service officer who served during the Reagan administration. The manual, titled "Advanced Protective Operations Seminar," is emblazoned with the logo of the Counterterrorism Training Group, which includes the U.S. government seal.

Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the U.S. security coordinator to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, told the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth after news of the training sessions leaked out that since Iran is helping arm and fund Hamas political and military activities, the United States wants to prevent "moderate forces" in the Palestinian territories from being eliminated.

"We are involved in building up the Presidential Guard, instructing it, assisting it to build itself up and giving them ideas. We are not training the forces to confront Hamas," Dayton told Yedioth. "Hamas is receiving money and arms from Iran and possibly Syria, and we must make sure that the moderate forces will not be erased," Dayton said.

But one of the officers trained by Dayton's team said the American general is being naive and does not understand internal Palestinian politics.

"Ever since the Hamas election victory, security has been tightened around (Abbas)," said the officer, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The fear is that someone from Hamas will try to assassinate him, and we must be ready to deal with this threat. The main threat to the security of the president is from the militia of Hamas."

When the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994 with a mandate to handle its own policing, Arafat set up a string of 14 overlapping and often competing security forces -- each one controlled by a rival political or former guerrilla chieftain, but all of them ultimately loyal to him and his Fatah party. Arafat used these forces to control political opponents like Hamas and also maintain loyalty through patronage and the payment of salaries.

The United States had helped train the initial security forces, but ended its aid when the Palestinian uprising called the intifada began in September 2000. During the intifada, many trained security officers engaged in attacks on Israeli targets or joined the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Fatah militant wing.

Earlier this year, after it assumed control of the Palestinian government following its success in January's parliamentary elections, Hamas announced the formation of its own security service, the Executive Force, and placed Jamal abu Samhadana, a prominent militant, at its head. Samhadana was killed in an Israeli raid in June.

Abbas had denounced formation of the new police force as unconstitutional, saying that only the Palestinian president could command armed forces. On Dayton's advice, the U.S. training program began again over the summer, but so far it has been limited to the officers directly responsible for the personal security of Abbas and his VIP guests, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to Jericho last month.

Training seminars for the Presidential Guard are being held in various locations around the West Bank. A two-week course called the Advanced Protective Operations Seminar was recently held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Jericho, where participants were instructed in counterterrorism techniques. The manual from that course gave detailed advice on a range of security issues from airport and event security planning to securing motorcades, residences and offices. Suggested tactics included the use of "protective intelligence," "counter-snipers" and a "counter-assault team."

An official from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv traveled to Ramallah earlier this year to instruct about 60 Presidential Guard officers in securing vehicles and sites against bomb threats and suspect devices. The session, according to one of the participants, lasted about two hours and took place in a large meeting room close to Abbas' office in the Mukata compound.

"We are helping the Palestinian Authority security services to enhance their abilities, concentrating on the Presidential Guard," said a U.S. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We are also helping the Presidential Guard take on expanded responsibilities, like security at the border crossings in Gaza." [These are the people who tried to assassinate PM Haniyyah today.]

The American effort is part of a broader international package of support to bolster Abbas loyalists as Hamas threatens to increase its parallel Executive Force to 6,000 men. Training for Fatah forces also is provided by Egypt, Jordan and Turkey. Britain, Spain and the European Union have provided communications equipment, vehicles and logistical support.

But there are fears the American assistance program could backfire.

"The U.S.' involvement in attempts to bring down the Hamas government has only made things worse for Abbas and Fatah," wrote Khaled Abu Toameh, Palestinian affairs correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, in a commentary titled "Guns and Poses."

"The U.S. believes that by giving Abbas more rifles and cash, it would be able to bring about regime change. But in the West Bank and Gaza, there is no shortage of weapons. Tons of explosives, rifles and missiles are smuggled across the Egyptian border nearly every day. What the Palestinians need is not more rifles -- which they never use to stop Hamas, Islamic Jihad or other militias anyway -- but good governance and credible leaders," he wrote.

"American meddling in Palestinian affairs is backfiring, because many Palestinians are beginning to look at Abbas and Fatah as pawns in the hands of the U.S. and Israel. This does not help Abbas and moderate secular Palestinians, who are facing the dangers of the growing power of Islamic fundamentalism."

Abbas' guard members wear distinctive green uniforms with a shoulder patch bearing the name of the force and the Palestinian flag. Each officer carries a semiautomatic Kalashnikov assault rifle and Motorola communications equipment. Plans to replace the outdated Kalashnikovs of the Presidential Guard with lightweight Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine guns were scrapped because of Israeli opposition.

"It's a great shame the Israelis wouldn't allow us to have the new equipment. In a hostage situation inside a building, the MP5 is much more effective than the Kalashnikov, which is too large to handle indoors and has a very strong recoil," said the Presidential Guard officer who had been through the training.

The Israelis, this officer said, have refused to permit the supply of new weapons, tear gas and flak jackets to the Presidential Guard, based on their experience in the past when the CIA trained dozens of Palestinian security officers only to watch in dismay as many of them joined the ranks of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades during the intifada.

"I'm not thrilled at the idea of the Americans training Fatah militias or the Palestinian police," said Yuval Steinitz, a former chairman of the Israeli parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. "Until now, both Fatah and the Palestinian police have been a great disappointment to those who believed they could overcome terror as they promised they would. The opposite has happened. In the best case, they were simply passive. In the worst cases, they actually encouraged terrorism." "

Survey indicates Iraqis in despair: More than 90 per cent of Iraqis believe the country is worse off now than before the war in 2003, according to new research obtained by Al Jazeera.

U.S. Weighed Sunni Offer to "Clean Up" Militias: WASHINGTON (IPS) - U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad negotiated with Sunni armed groups for several weeks earlier this year on an agreement that would have supported Sunni forces in attacking pro-Iranian Shiite militias, according to accounts given by commanders of armed Sunni resistance organisations.

"I lost my only two sons in the explosion": A man driving a pick-up truck pulled up alongside a large group of Shi'ite day workers, calling them to him. He then detonated his explosives packed truck. At least 70 people were killed in the attack. Kawkab Barakat, 62, lost her two sons in the explosion. Needing sedatives to stay calm, she speaks about her tragic loss: "I lost my only two sons in the explosion. I cannot control the pain. Now I understand what every Iraqi mother who lost their sons feels. They were trying to work to bring food and pay our rent, which is three months late."

Iraq's border refugees reject new proposals: AMMAN - Iranian Kurds stuck on the Iraq-Jordan border for nearly two years say they will not leave their make-shift camp until they are resettled to a third country. Some 200 Iranian Kurdish refugees living in deteriorating conditions categorically rejected recent proposals by US-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) to resolve their problem.

Health officials in Iraq ordered to deport HIV-positive foreigners: ARBIL - Health officials in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region have said they lack anti-retroviral drugs and the necessary equipment for testing for the HIV virus and that they have been instructed by health authorities in Baghdad to deport foreigners who have been found HIV-positive.

Top US military calls for more support of Iraqi army: report : The chiefs do not support sending large numbers of more troops to Iraq and believe that bolstering the Iraqi army is key in obtaining stability in the war-torn country, the Post reported.
Bush to seek $100 bln more war funds-US House report: Such a large request would mark a rapid escalation in the cost of the Iraq war at a time when public support is plummeting and Bush is looking for new answers to stem violence that threatens to spin out of control.

McCain Calls For More U.S. Troops In Iraq: Sen. John McCain said today that America should deploy 15,000 to 30,000 more troops to Iraq.

Iraq: More than 40 killed in continuing violence in Iraq: Police found the bodies of 15 men, shot and tortured, near an irrigation canal in Khallisa village, 35 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police said

A Way Forward, a Look Back: The abrupt resignation of the Saudi ambassador to the United States and the postponement of George W. Bush's new Iraq policy speech mark a troubling new chapter for a U.S. strategy for the Middle East that continues to spiral toward catastrophe.

Abduction of Women on the Rise in Iraq: Thousands of Iraqi women have been executed, assaulted, or kidnapped and released only after their families paid considerable ransom money. The Organisation for Women's Freedom in Iraq has estimated from anecdotal evidence that over 2,000 Iraqi women have gone missing in the period from the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 until spring 2006.

Appalling conditions of women prisoners disputed: According to the Iraqi Minister of Women's Affairs and local NGOs, female prisoners in Iraq are held in appalling conditions, often without charge, and are sometimes raped and tortured.

UNICEF: 2006 One of the Worst Years for Palestine Children: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that 123 Palestinian children have been killed since outbreak of hostilities, more than double the 2005 figure, adding that some 340 children remain in detention facilities.
This year, says UNICEF, whether it is health care and education, protection from violence and abuse, or opportunities to play without fear - the rights of Palestinian children have been violated on an unprecedented scale.

Man dies en route to hospital as Israeli forces will not allow car to pass: Eyewitnesses reported that the incident took place at about 3:00 pm when Ramadan was being taken to the hospital. However the soldiers would not let them through so he tried to take another route to reach Nablus' Rafidiya Hospital. But progress was slow and medical sources at the hospital reported that Ramadan was dead on arrival, despite efforts to resuscitate him.

Palestinians with foreign passports on shaky ground: Palestinians say it is just one more hardship imposed on their lives and, more darkly, call it an attempt to rid the West Bank of some of the best, brightest and most moderate citizens with the education and wherewithal to improve the lives of people in the territory. "It's a terrible situation," said Yasser Abdelgani, 35, who divides his time between Clifton, N.J., and the West Bank and is in the second month of his three-month tourist visa. "This is the only place in the world where you are born here but you cannot live here."

High Court rejects appeal against separation "fence" in A-Ram: A seven-judge panel led by retired Supreme Court president Aharon Barak yesterday rejected by a vote of six to one a petition against the route of the separation barrier in northern Jerusalem, near the village of A-Ram. The minority opinion, Justice Miriam Naor, supported the request by residents of the village's Dahiat al-Barid neighborhood to move the wall, which bisects the village.

High Court: International law does not forbid targeted killings: The three-justice panel unanimously ruled that "it cannot be determined in advance that every targeted killing is prohibited according to customary international law." The decision is former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak's final ruling, and is expected to serve as a legal precedent in international law and war crime law.

Court orders criminal probe into IDF killing of Rafah girl in 2004: The High Court of Justice on Thursday ruled to open a criminal probe into the 2004 death of a Palestinian girl in the Gaza Strip shot by Israel Defense Forces soldiers, to determine whether illegal orders were given to open fire. The parents of the girl, 13-year-old Iman Darweesh al-Hams of Rafah, filed a petition to the court claiming that her killing constitutes a war crime.

Arab MKs: Ruling on targeted killings authorizes 'war crimes': MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) said in response that, "This is the continuation of the High Court's security-oriented stance, which since 1967 has authorized expropriation, expulsion, uprootings, and assassinations."

South African Government calls on Israeli Government to grant permission to UN Mission to Beit Hanoun: The South African government today Wednesday 13 December 2006 expressed its disappointment at the decision by the government of Israel not to grant permission to the mission mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to investigate the deaths of the 19 Palestinians in Beit Hanoun in November and called on the government of Israel to reconsider its decision.

Israel kills two Palestinians in West Bank: Earlier Thursday, occupation soldiers killed a Palestinian during a confrontation with stone throwers in the West Bank, Palestinian security sources and hospital officials said. Also in the West Bank, Israeli troops nabbed 12 Palestinians in different locations, witnesses said.

Israeli Navy fires at Palestinian fishermen, three injured: Israeli Navy ships fire at boats of Palestinian fishermen, near the coastal line northern Rafah in the Gaza strip on Wednesday night.

Israel: Haniyeh can enter Gaza, but without millions in cash: Israel agreed Thursday evening to allow Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to cross from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, but without the $35 million in cash he had brought from a tour of Muslim states.

Haniyeh heads for Gaza without cash he tried to bring: An agreement was reached between Israeli and Egyptian security officials whereby the money would remain in the border town of El Arish and then be transferred to the Arab League in Cairo, Israel Radio reported. Witnesses saw three cars cross through the border area, despite an earlier announcement by European monitors that the border was closed.

Abbas to declare Hamas gov't as interim administration: According to the sources, Abbas will set March 2007 as time to call public referendum on holding early parliamentary and presidential elections. In his speech, Abbas will vow to pay salaries for the 165,000 government employees from the National Fund that belongs to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Hamas gunmen, PA guards clash at Rafah Crossing: The Hamas members waiting outside the terminal grew impatient for Haniyeh's return and broke into the compound, shooting in the air. The Palestinian Presidential Guard, responsible for security at the terminal, began firing at them, according to an Associated Press journalist at the terminal.

PA intelligence agent linked to Fatah abducted in Gaza City: Abu Abir, a Popular Resistance Committees spokesman, confirmed the militant group was holding Abu Siyam. Abu Abir said said the intelligence officer would not be released until the detained Hamas and PRC-linked militant was freed, and he threatened to kidnap more intelligence officers.

Malaysia urges Palestinians to end rivalry: Malaysia's foreign minister urged Palestinian factions Thursday to set aside their rivalry, warning that a civil war would destroy their common goal of an independent state.

American politician: Olmert must resign: "You won't hear the White House say it, but the US-Israeli relationship is absolutely not the same as it was before the Lebanon war. Olmert's complete mismanagement resulted in an Israeli loss to a few thousand Hizbullah guerrilla fighters. America now doesn't see Israel as this great Middle Eastern superpower it can depend on."

On sectarian and ethnic sobriquets - By Azmi Bishara: Arab societies face enough problems of their own making -- the transition to modernism, to the nation-state, and to the concept of the individual as citizen -- without having to contend with the attempts of colonialist powers, since Sykes-Picot and San Remo, to fragment the only historical basis -- the cultural and geographic bond -- upon which the Arabs could build a nation. There is no denying the existence of sects, denominational groupings and the like. However, the task of modern democratic nation- building is not a cloning process that can take place in sub-regional "homogenous" political test tubes.

Do we need Green Line?: This is what's been happening to the State of Israel for about 60 years, since it was established: We have no borders - neither blue, nor green or purple or any other color. Moreover, we're fighting for a line. This war continues and will apparently continue for many years to come before it is decided by war or through a comprehensive or phased peace agreement.

On the verge: Just like the Americans, who for the past four years have wasted their enormous national resources on a baseless belief in democratization in Iraq, Israel wasted its limited national resources on a baseless belief in the unilateral withdrawal from the Palestinian Authority.

West Bank poverty affects Bethlehem Christians: "Ten years ago, we would have been booming at this time of year - it's Christmas after all. But this year, I am lucky if I make 1,000 shekels ($220) in a week." While that might not seem like a small income, not only does Khalil have to use it to cover his costs, he also has to support his wife, four children, three brothers, sister and his mother.

UPI Poll: Bush favors Israel: Very few -- 1.8 percent -- of Zogby interactive poll respondents said the U.S. administration was "leaning toward the Palestinians" in how it was pursuing peace in the Middle East. Another 19.4 percent said U.S. President George Bush was "steering a middle course." However, 68.3 percent said the policies were "leaning toward Israel."

Israel worried Hamas and Iran developing strategic relations: In Israel, experts are interpreting Hamas' move toward Iran as an act of defiance, in part based on the group's success in minimizing the damage caused by the international embargo on its Palestinian Authority government.

Israeli Committee against Torture: High Court's ruling could increase killings: "We are afraid the High Court's ruling could create a dangerous slope in which the harming and killing of innocent citizens will increase." According to the Committee's data, since the start of the second intifada 500 Palestinians have been killed in targeted killings.

Jonathan Cook: Still Jews only: Recognising Israel's "right to exist" is in practice bowing to paranoid state racism

Support for Israel in Congress is Based on Fear: I can tell you from personal experience that the support Israel has in the Congress is based completely on political fear -- fear of defeat by anyone who does not do what Israel wants done.

Citizens in Iraq and in the US hope to see an end to the presence of American troops in Iraq

More than 90 per cent of Iraqis believe the country is worse off now than before the war in 2003, according to new research obtained by Al Jazeera.

A survey of 2,000 people by the Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies found that 95 per cent of respondents believe the security situation has deteriorated since the arrival of US forces.

The findings follow a poll by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal that found that less than one in four Americans approves of George Bush's administration’s handling of the conflict in Iraq.

It also comes as armed men attacked the convoy of Iraq's vice-president and as up to 30 Iraqis were kidnapped in Baghdad on Thursday.

NBC reported that only 23 per cent of respondents backed the president's strategy, representing an 11-point drop since the last NBC poll in October.

Nearly seven in 10 respondents said they felt less confident the war would come to a successful conclusion, NBC said. Fifty three per cent said the US did not have an obligation to killed or wounded American soldiers to remain in Iraq.

Bush has said he is considering options for changing US policy in Iraq following the results of the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group report, but has said he will not be rushed into any decision.

Nearly 66 per cent of respondents to the Iraqi survey thought violence would decrease if US forces were to leave.

Thirty-eight per cent were also "unconfident" that Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, would be able to improve the situation in Iraq and nearly 90 per cent described the government's implementation of its commitments and promises as very poor.

Of the respondents, 36.5 per cent said they felt the official security forces were unable to keep control in the country.

Palestinian PM’s bodyguard killed, his son, another bodyguard and political advisor wounded when gunmen open fire at their convoy as it leaves Rafah crossing; PA official: Abbas; presidential guard responsible

Associated Press Published: 12.15.06, 00:04

"Hamas gunmen seized control of the Gaza Strip's border crossing with Egypt on Thursday in a ferocious gunbattle with Fatah-allied border guards after Israel blocked the Hamas prime minister from crossing with tens of millions of dollars in aid.

More than two dozen people, including the premier's son, Abed, 27, were wounded in the fighting, deepening factional violence that has pushed the rivals closer to civil war.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh cut short a trip abroad and was trying to return to Gaza in a bid to quell the infighting between Hamas and Fatah. He finally was allowed to cross into Gaza late Thursday, but he was unable to bring money for the cash-strapped Palestinian government.

Maria Telleria, spokeswoman for European monitors at the crossing, said Haniyeh left the funds, estimated at USD 35 million, in Egypt.

Haniyeh's convoy came under fire as it crossed, and it was forced to speed away. Officials said Haniyeh was unharmed.

Government official Taher Nunu, an adviser to the Palestinian foreign minister, said Haniyeh's son Abed was wounded in the exchange. Another official said none of the wounded, including the son, were badly hurt."

BREAKING NEWS

Events have escalated dramatically. After crossing the Rafah crossing into Gaza, the Haniyyah motorcade came under fire from Abbas' security men who are in charge of the crossing. One of Haniyyah's bodyguards was killed, his son was injured in the face and shoulder and his political advisor and two ministers were also injured. Haniyyah said that this was a serious escalation and he knew who was behind it.

The bloody coup is here!

"رفح - المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام

تعرّض موكب رئيس الوزراء الفلسطيني إسماعيل هنية، العائد من جولة عربية وإسلامية ناجحة، لإطلاق نار مباشر ومتعمّد من قبل أمن الرئاسة التابع لرئيس السلطة محمود عباس، مما أدى إلى استشهاد أحد مرافقي هنية الشخصيين وإصابة نجله والمستشار السياسي له ومرافقي اثنين من الوزراء.

وقد جرت عملية إطلاق النار على موكب رئيس الوزراء هنية فور خروجه من الصالة الفلسطينية في معبر رفح الحدودي، الفاصل بين مصر وقطاع غزة، بعد أن سعى الاحتلال الصهيوني منع عودته بإغلاق المعبر مساء الخميس.

وأكد مصدر حكومي أن إطلاق النار تم من قبل أفراد حرس الرئاسة، المتواجدين في المعبر، صوب موكب رئيس الوزراء بشكل مباشر، ما أدى إلى استشهاد أحد المرافقين الشخصيين لرئيس الحكومة متأثراً بجروحه الخطرة، وإصابة نجل رئيس الوزراء في كتفه ووجهه، إضافة إلى المستشار السياسي لرئيس الوزراء أحمد يوسف، وقد أصيب في ذراعه، ومرافقي كلاً من أمين عام مجلس الوزراء، ووزير الصحة الدكتور باسم نعيم.

من جانبه؛ قال إسماعيل هنية للصحفيين عقب الهجوم على موكبه، إن الحكومة لن تقف مكتوفة الأيدي أمام هذه الظاهرة، "وعلى كل الجهات والأفراد التي تغذي هذه الثقافة أن تتوقف، لأن ذلك سيزيد التوتر في الساحة الفلسطينية".

وأضاف هنية يقول: "نحن نعرف الجهة التي قامت بإطلاق النار بشكل مباشر على سيارات الموكب، وقد وقعت إصابات الأخوة المرافقين ومن الأخوة الذين كانوا في الاستقبال، وإطلاق النار هذا نحن نعرف كيف نتعامل معه".

من جهته، عقب محمود الزهار وزير الخارجية الفلسطينية على هذا الحادث، بقوله: "إن إطلاق النار لم يكن حدثاً عابراً"، نافياً أن يكون موكب رئيس الوزراء فيه أي نوع من السلاح، مطالباً بفتح تحقيق عاجل في الحادث."

Zionist inversion of values

Sorry for the repost, but this needs to be circulated AGAIN.

Dahlan vows to decimate Hamas
By Khaled Amayreh
8 - 14 June 2006
Issue No. 798

OFF THE RECORD, or so he thought, Fatah's former security boss in Gaza has strong words for Hamas and wavering Fatah supporters, reports Khaled Amayreh.

Former Gaza strongman Mohamed Dahlan said during a closed meeting held recently in Gaza that he would "rough up and humiliate" Fatah members or supporters who might be tempted to join the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

Speaking at the meeting held at the Gaza radio station, Al-Hurreya, Dahlan also said that, "Fatah has been 'out of order' since 1972."

"Fatah has been broken, destroyed, and is thriving only on the blood of the martyrs and suffering of the prisoners as well as personal and individual initiatives," he said.

The former chief of the Preventive Security Services in Gaza warned opponents within Fatah, saying: "The march will go on and if our brothers seek to stop it, they will be roughed up."

"Fatah is being run with the tools of failure. Okay, leave these tools as they are, but try to augment them with other tools that would conceal their blemishes and ill repute.

"You see, I learned from Abu Ammar [the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat] two things: if you want to delve into political action, especially in Palestine, the ability to persuade and the power to persuade. I asked Abu Ammar what he meant by the power to persuade and he said 'the rod'."

In an audiotape of the meeting made available to Al-Ahram Weekly, Dahlan is heard railing against Hamas, often using derogatory language.

"I told them [Hamas] that they would eat [expletive] if they recognised Israel and would eat [expletive] if they didn't recognise Israel. They would eat [expletive] if they recognised the Arab initiative and would eat [expletive] if they didn't."

Dahlan also tacitly admits that he has been behind much of the lawlessness and security chaos in Gaza: "I just deploy two jeeps, and people would say Gaza is on fire."

Dahlan says Hamas's victory in the elections was "a disaster", or nakba, for the movement, and yet, "Hamas is now the weakest Palestinian faction. They are whining and complaining. Well, they will have to suffer yet more until they are damned to the seventh ancestor. I will haunt them from now till the end of their term in four years. And I swear, whoever within Fatah says 'we should join the government," I will humiliate them."

Finally, Dahlan is heard telling the owner of the station that he would be willing to provide armed men to protect the station in exchange for the station adopting a sympathetic line. "I commit myself to meeting all your needs," he says.

The owner of the station, Majdi Arabeed, is also heard saying: "The station will adopt your way," with Dahlan responding " Al-Hamdulilah," or "Praise be to God."

Dahlan's office in Gaza refused to return calls requesting comment on the audiotape.

Dahlan, during a live interview with al-Jazeera TV earlier this week didn't deny the reality of the tape, when confronted with it by Hamas representative in Lebanon Muhammed Nazzal, saying rather laconically that he had nothing to apologise for.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh waiting for permission to cross the Rafah border from Egypt into Gaza on Thursday evening. (Reuters)

***

This is really insulting to both Haniyyah and to Egypt. Utterly shameless Usraeli arrogance and Egyptian regime cowardice.

*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily

*FALLUJAH, Dec. 14 (IPS) - Iraqi doctors and medical staff are outraged over yet another U.S. military raid at Fallujah General Hospital.*

The raid followed a roadside bombing Dec. 7 where four Iraqi policemen were killed and two civilians injured. The injured were taken to Fallujah General Hospital.

Shortly after this attack, a U.S. Marine who was on a patrol in the city was wounded by a gunshot.

"U.S. soldiers replied to the source of fire then headed straight to the general hospital across the (Euphrates) river hoping that they had shot and injured the sniper," an eyewitness told IPS.

"American soldiers seem to have some imagination to think wounded fighters might go to that so-called hospital," a retired surgeon told IPS. "We know that they do not trust that place because of the continuous raids by the U.S., and lack of everything in that hospital." The hospital is functioning at minimal capacity due to lack of medicines and equipment, the surgeon said.

Eyewitnesses at Fallujah General Hospital said U.S. soldiers raided the hospital "as if it were a military target."

"We panicked at the way they entered, kicking open doors and blasting locked ones," a nurse told IPS. "A doctor tried to tell them he had keys for the locked doors, but they pointed their guns to his face. Then they told us to go out of the building and they kept us under guard in the garden until the early hours of next morning."

The nurse said the soldiers "would not even allow us to get some blankets to keep us warm; the temperature was below five degrees centigrade."

Doctors and medical staff were arrested and insulted, and some were called terrorists, witnesses said. The hospital was then closed, and could no longer offer even minimal treatment.

"We are used to that kind of behaviour from American soldiers," a hospital employee told IPS. "This was the third time I was in handcuffs with my face down. They have been more vicious with medical staff than others because they consider us the first supporters of those they call terrorists."

The U.S. military said that Marines from Regimental Combat Team 5 entered Fallujah General Hospital in order to search for fighters after two Marines were wounded the previous day in the city.

Lt. Col. Bryan Salas, spokesperson for the Multi-National Forces in Iraq, told reporters: "Coalition forces searched the hospital to ensure that it continues to be a safe place for the citizens of Fallujah to receive the medical treatment they deserve."

This hospital has been raided many times before, particularly in the U.S. military assault on the city April and November 2004.

Two years back, on Dec 13, 2004, IPS reported that the U.S. military was impeding Iraqi health workers around and inside Fallujah, and was deliberately targeting ambulances. In November 2005 IPS reported that the U.S. military had raided two hospitals in Ramadi.

Many Iraqi doctors have been arrested by U.S. forces for various periods of time on suspicion of "supporting terrorism" in Iraq. Many have fled the country for fear of repeated arrests or even killings by U.S. soldiers or sectarian militia death squads.

The independent Iraq Medical Association announced last month that of the 34,000 Iraqi physicians registered prior to 2003, over half have fled the country, and that at least 2,000 have been killed.

Article 12 of the first Geneva Convention states: "(Combatants) who are sick and wounded...shall be treated humanely and cared for by the Party to the conflict in whose power they may be..." The article goes on to state that "any attempts on their lives, or violence to their persons, shall be strictly prohibited..."

Article 24 of the first Geneva Convention states: "Medical personnel exclusively engaged in...transport or treatment of the wounded or sick...(and) staff exclusively engaged in the administration of medical units and establishments...shall be respected and protected in all circumstances."

Under the fourth Geneva Convention, Article 18 reads: "Civilian hospitals organised to care to the wounded and sick, infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict."

1. Pax Christi International calls for immediate international efforts towards a new, just and comprehensive peace process in the Middle East. This call is made after consulting participants from the member and partner organisations present at the Pax Christi Third Regional Consultation for the Middle East (1), and representing different background and opinions. It reiterates the statement of Pax Christi International to the UN that was issued immediately after the July 2006 War. (2)

2. The situation in the Middle East today is fragile. Conflicts and the threat of more violence and war are dominating the region and beyond. The challenges and unresolved issues are enormous. Civilians, especially the poorest and weakest, lack the protection which they are entitled to under International Humanitarian Law.

3. Against the background of escalating conflicts and of polarisation and violent rhetoric, we still see signs of hope. With many others, we believe it is "1 minute to 12" and that if no action is taken now, the region will face a wave of stronger and prolonged violence that might spill over beyond the region. Therefore we strongly call on all parties to act NOW, with utmost responsibility and conscience, towards a comprehensive peace, for the sake of our future generations.

Against the background of escalating conflicts and of polarisation and violent rhetoric, we still see signs of hope.


Why now?

4. The absence of a genuine political peace process and continuation of double standards as well as the lack of commitment from the international community and conflicting parties has led to a situation where violence, paralysis, polarisation and chaos have increased. The region has again become the battlefield of greater geo-political struggles of a regional and global level.

5. Today, we are witnessing the most appalling violence in Iraq. Civilians, and amongst them increasingly intellectuals and peaceful activists, are deliberately targeted by armed groups. The inability to end the bloodshed and ensure the unity of the country are a worrying signal to the rest of the region.

6. The Palestinian people are being strangled and exhausted. This is caused by the ongoing Israeli occupation, military operations in and the blockade of Gaza as well as the continuing construction of the separation wall and settlement expansion in the West Bank. The international boycott of the Hamas government has mainly hit the civilian population and discredited the international community in the eyes of the population. In Israel, the government has no clear policy after its failure in the Lebanon war of last July. Lebanon's civil infrastructure was destroyed during that war and a struggle for power is going on which is closely related to the role of various external powers in the country.

7. The July War ended with a cessation of hostilities according to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701. However, that was a transitional resolution that leaves many key issues unresolved. In order to reach a durable solution, these issues must be addressed in a comprehensive way.

However, our hope stems from the opportunities that are in front of us and that we should grasp:

8. Although we have witnessed a "diplomatic vacuum" over the past period, since the war between Israel and Hizbollah, the international community has woken up and in Europe especially there is willingness to become more involved in solving the conflict. This willingness should be addressed to engage the US and Israel as well.

9. The Arab League has re-launched its peace initiative of 2002. The chances that were missed when the initiative was first launched should now be taken, since the plan offers a workable basis for a comprehensive regional peace.

10. There is a momentum for Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations. The Syrian authorities have indicated they are ready and influential Israelis have also urged their government to engage with Syria. Without solving the conflict between Israel and Syria, based on the return of the Golan, there will be no comprehensive peace in the region.

11. Over the years, a common understanding has been built in the region and around the world about the core principles of peace in the Middle East: Firstly, the concept of land for peace that will provide peace between the Arab countries and Israel in exchange for a return of all the territories occupied in 1967; Secondly, a consensus has been built accepting the two-state solution based on the borders before June 1967.

Outline of a New Peace Process

12. Pax Christi's Middle East Consultation participants emphasise the need of convening a Madrid II Conference for Security and Cooperation, as real peace must be built, not one that is manifested only in the absence of war. Such a Conference offers an opportunity to begin a new and holistic peace process in the region with a clear agreed on destination. This conference should develop mechanism to increase a regional understanding and guarantees respect for human rights and human security.

13. The agenda of peace negotiations has to be clear from the beginning. Key issues such as borders, water, refugees and the status of Jerusalem should be on top of the agenda and no longer postponed.

14. All parties to the various conflicts should participate in a process of dialogues that listens to all political parties, including Hamas and Hezbollah takes into account the legitimate concerns of all states involved. Isolation has proven to be counterproductive.

15. Next, the role of politicians who must listen to their people. There is an important role in such a process for civil society and religious leaders. Peace building also requires a "bottomup" project. A peace agreement which is imposed upon the people will not work.

16. The unresolved Palestinian issue is the major source of the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. Consequently any solutions or efforts to build peace in this region would be only partial and short term, should the issue of the ongoing dispossession of the Palestinian people remain unresolved and their right to self-determination unimplemented. Therefore it is crucial that the Palestinian refugees, who constitute the majority of the Palestinian people, be represented in negotiations. Their rights, as well as those of the Palestinians inside Israel, should be ensured.

17. The Quartet has lost its credibility by its inability to get a peace process off the ground. However, it represents the key international players. It could be reinforced by including a representative from the Arab world, e.g. Saudi Arabia that launched the Arab Initiative and another member acceptable to the different parties, e.g. Turkey. Such a strong third party is necessary in order to ensure that negotiations take place and agreements are implemented.

18. Regarding Iraq: we call for renewed international efforts to address the issues of human security, refugees and displaced persons and the absence of stability and rule of law. This should entail the involvement of relevant regional actors and international actors, including the neighbouring countries like Iran, Turkey and Syria, notably the UN and EU. The parties should commit to international agreed upon legal and moral principles, including mutual respect for sovereignty. The process of restoring rule of law, developing a legitimate government and national reconciliation on all levels should receive priority.

18. Finally, more international efforts have to be made to work towards the creation of a nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East. The UN, as well as the European Union and other intergovernmental bodies, should play an active role in a process of dialogue and mediation.

Notes:

(1) Meeting in Cyprus, 8-11 December 2006

(2) "Message of Pax Christi International to the United Nations Calling for a New Peace Process in Middle East", Brussels, 18 August 2006, ME.82.E.06. Read in English, French and Spanish at www.paxchristi.net

Statement, Reporters Without Borders, 14 December 2006

Reporters Without Borders called for an end to the impunity with which journalists are being targeted in Iraq after Omar Mohammed, of US-run Arabic satellite channel al Hurra, escaped a second murder attempt after being ambushed in Baghdad.

Mohammed was fired on by gunmen who had lain in wait for him as he left his office on 11 December. He escaped with a bullet wound to the left leg for which he received hospital treatment. He survived a first murder attempt in 2004, when his house came under a grenade attack.

"This journalist was extremely lucky, but he nonetheless remains in serious danger. As a well-known Sunni journalist and working for a US media, he is a target for some extremist groups," the worldwide press freedom organisation said. Mohammed is also a prominent journalist on the local version of the channel, founded in 2005, al Hurra-Iraq,

"We once again urge President Jalal Talabani to tackle impunity and send a strong message by opening thorough investigations to find and punish those carrying out attacks on journalists", the organisation said.

This journalist was extremely lucky, but he nonetheless remains in serious danger. As a well-known Sunni journalist and working for a US media, he is a target.

Witnesses said that Mohammed's assailants were able to leave the scene of the shooting with no trouble, as police officers in the vicinity apparently did nothing to intervene.

At least 94 journalists and 45 media workers have been killed in Iraq since the start of the conflict. Of these 118 have been Iraqi nationals.

By Abbas J. Ali

Al-Jazeerah, December 14, 2006

"......Probably, the most devastating and threatening act to the existence of Iraq and to the American interest in the Middle East is the neoconservatives’ reorganization of alliance among Iraqi groups which benefit from a weak and instable Iraq. Ambassador Khalilzad, a leading neoconservative, had a meeting with the leaders of these organizations. The outcome of the meeting was a new alliance among the two clan-based Kurdish organizations and the two sectarian –based religious groups; Iraqi Islamic Party and Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).

The alliance among these organizations is aimed at forcing Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki to mount a military assault against the popular Sadrist Movement, to reject any call for a timetable to withdraw foreign troops, and to abandon his goal of building a functional democratic Iraq free of terror and fear. Furthermore, the new alliance is thought to facilitate the realization of the neoconservatives’ ultimate goal of partitioning Iraq and maintaining chaos in the region.

Ambassador Khalilzad, in coordination with Vice President Cheney’ office, carefully orchestrated a visit for Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of SCIRI, and Tareq al-Hashemi, the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, to meet President Bush in the White House. Like their allied Kurdish warlords, both al-Hakim and al-Hashemi have an economic and political interest in maintaining foreign forces. These politicians fear that the withdrawal of foreign troops, in the near future, will ultimately lead to their political demise and the collapse of their newly found economic fortunes.

It is not surprising that these politicians broke rank with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in denouncing the ISG recommendations. In particular, the Kurdish warlord and President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, called the recommendations a threat to Iraqi sovereignty. Contrary to this claim, the majority of Iraqis, however, consider the presence of foreign troops and the occupation a menace to sovereignty and the welfare of the people.....

....Continued."

By Mike Luckovich

By Gareth Porter

"Of all the faults of the Iraq Study Group the most serious was its warning, highlighted by Co-Chairman Lee Hamilton, that a “precipitate withdrawal” would cause a “bloodbath” in Iraq as well as a region-wide war. The cry of “bloodbath”—now given bipartisan status—will certainly be used to crush any attempt in Congress to advance a plan for a timetable for withdrawal.

In offering this bloodbath argument, the ISG has unconsciously mimicked the argument used by President Richard Nixon to justify continuing the U.S. war in Vietnam for another four years. Nixon, too, warned of a postwar “bloodbath” if there was a “precipitate withdrawal” of U.S. troops. If the Vietnam era bloodbath argument sought to distract the public’s attention from the very real bloodbath that the U.S. war was causing, the new bloodbath argument distracts attention from the relationship between the U.S. occupation and the sectarian bloodbath that is continuing to worsen with every passing month......

The bloodbath argument evades the central fact that the U.S. occupation has never been aimed at avoiding or reducing sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites. On the contrary, the U.S. has used sectarian conflict for its own purposes. The main purpose of the U.S. occupation has been to claim victory over those who resisted it, which has meant primarily suppressing the Sunni armed resistance throughout the Sunni zone. The Bush administration had to have Iraqi allies against the Sunni resistance, and after Sunni security units showed in 2004 that they would not fight other Sunnis on behalf of the occupation, the administration began relying primarily on Shiites to assist its war against the Sunnis.....

Continued."

Why Hamas May Be Right

A Great Piece
By JONATHAN COOK
CounterPunch

in Nazareth.

".....The magic words "We recognise you" could end all this suffering. So why did their prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, vow last week never to utter them. Is Hamas so filled with hatred and loathing for Israel as a Jewish state that it cannot make such a simple statement of good intent?

It is easy to forget that, though conditions have dramatically deteriorated of late, the Palestinians' problems did not start with the election of Hamas. Israel's occupation is four decades old, and no Palestinian leader has ever been able to extract from Israel a promise of real statehood in all of the occupied territories: not the mukhtars, the largely compliant local leaders, who for decades were the only representatives allowed to speak on behalf of the Palestinians after the national leadership was expelled; not the Palestinian Authority under the secular leadership of Yasser Arafat, who returned to the occupied territories in the mid-1990s after the PLO had recognised Israel; not the leadership of his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, the "moderate" who first called for an end to the armed intifada; and now not the leaders of Hamas, even though they have repeatedly called for a long-term truce (hudna) as the first step in building confidence.....

There is far more at stake for Israel in winning this little concession from Hamas than most observers appreciate. A statement saying that Hamas recognised Israel would do much more than meet Israel's precondition for talks; it would mean that Hamas had walked into the same trap that was set earlier for Arafat and Fatah. That trap is designed to ensure that any peaceful solution to the conflict is impossible.

It achieves this end in two ways.

First, as has already been understood, at least by those paying attention, Hamas' recognition of Israel's "right to exist" would effectively signify that the Palestinian government was publicly abandoning its own goal of struggling to create a viable Palestinian state. That is because Israel refuses to demarcate its own future borders, leaving it an open question what it considers to be the extent of "its existence" it is demanding Hamas recognise. We do know that no one in the Israeli leadership is talking about a return to Israel's borders that existed before the 1967 war, or probably anything close to it.....

The second element to the trap is far less well understood. It explains the strange formulation of words Israel uses in making its demand of Hamas. Israel does not ask it simply to "recognise Israel", but to "recognise Israel's right to exist". The difference is not a just matter of semantics.

The concept of a state having any rights is not only strange but alien to international law. People have rights, not states. And that is precisely the point: when Israel demands that its "right to exist" be recognised, the subtext is that we are not speaking of recognition of Israel as a normal nation state but as the state of a specific people, the Jews. In demanding recognition of its right to exist, Israel is ensuring that the Palestinians agree to Israel's character being set in stone as an exclusivist Jewish state, one that privileges the rights of Jews over all other ethnic, religious and national groups inside the same territory. The question of what such a state entails is largely glossed over both by Israel and the West.

For most observers, it means simply that Israel must refuse to allow the return of the millions of Palestinians languishing in refugee camps throughout the region, whose former homes in Israel have now been appropriated for the benefit of Jews. Were they allowed to come back, Israel's Jewish majority would be eroded overnight and it could no longer claim to be a Jewish state, except in the same sense that apartheid South Africa was a white state.

This conclusion is apparently accepted by Romano Prodi, Italy's prime minister, after a round of lobbying in European captials from Israel's telegenic foreign minister, Tzipi Livni. According to the Jerusalem Post, Prodi is saying in private that Israel should receive guarantees from the Palestinians that its Jewish character will never be in doubt.Israeli officials are cheering what they believe is the first crack in Europe's support for international law and the rights of the refugees. "It's important to get everyone on the same page on this one," an official told the Post.

But in truth the consequences of the Palestinian leadership recognising Israel as a Jewish state run far deeper than the question of the future of the Palestinian refugees. In my book Blood and Religion, I set out these harsh consequences both for the Palestinians in the occupied territories and for the million or so Palestinians who live inside Israel as citizens, supposedly with the same rights as Jewish citizens. My argument is that this need to maintain Israel's Jewish character at all costs is actually the engine of its conflict with the Palestinians. No solution is possible as long as Israel insists on privileging citizenship for Jews above other groups, and on distorting the region's territorial and demographic realities to ensure that the numbers continue to weigh in the Jews' favour.......

This is the bottom line for a Jewish state, just as it was for a white apartheid South Africa: if we are to survive, then we must be able to do whatever it takes to keep ourselves in power, even if it means systematically violating the human rights of all those we rule over and who do not belong to our group.

Ultimately, the consequences of Israel being allowed to remain a Jewish state will be felt by all of us, wherever we live -- and not only because of the fallout from the continuing and growing anger in the Arab and Muslim worlds at the double standards applied by the West to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Given Israel's view that its most pressing interest is not peace or regional accommodation with its neighbours but the need to ensure a Jewish majority at all costs to protect its "existence", Israel is likely to act in ways that endanger regional and global stability.

A small taste of that was suggested in the role played by Israel's supporters in Washington in making the case for the invasion of Iraq, and this summer in Israel's assault on Lebanon. But it is most evident in its drumbeat of war against Iran.

Israel has been leading the attempts to characterise the Iranian regime as profoundly anti-Semitic, and its presumed ambitions for nuclear weapons as directed by the sole goal of wanting to "wipe Israel off the map" -- a calculatedly mischievious mistranslation of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech......

But in truth there is another reason why Israel is concerned about a nuclear-armed Iran that has nothing to do with conventional ideas about safety.

Last month, Ephraim Sneh, one of Israel's most distinguished generals and now Olmert's deputy defence minister, revealed that the government's primary concern was not the threat posed by Ahmadinejad firing nuclear missiles at Israel but the effect of Iran's possession of such weapons on Jews who expect Israel to have a monopoly on the nuclear threat. If Iran got such weapons, "Most Israelis would prefer not to live here; most Jews would prefer not to come here with families, and Israelis who can live abroad will ... I am afraid Ahmadinejad will be able to kill the Zionist dream without pushing a button. That's why we must prevent this regime from obtaining nuclear capability at all costs."

In other words, the Israeli government is considering either its own pre-emptive strike on Iran or encouraging the United States to undertake such an attack -- despite the terrible consequences for global security -- simply because a nuclear-armed Iran might make Israel a less attractive place for Jews to live, lead to increased emigration and tip the demographic balance in the Palestinians' favour. Regional and possibly global war may be triggered simply to ensure that Israel's "existence" as a state that offers exclusive privileges to Jews continues.

For all our sakes, we must hope that the Palestinians and their Hamas government continue refusing to "recognise Israel's right to exist"."

AN Australian was barred from a London-Melbourne flight unless he removed a T-shirt depicting George Bush as the world's number one terrorist.

By Mark Dunn
December 14, 2006 12:00am

"Allen Jasson was also prevented from catching a connecting flight within Australia later the same day unless he removed the offending T-shirt.

Mr Jasson says Qantas and Virgin Blue were engaging in censorship but the airlines say the T-shirt was a security issue and could affect the sensitivities of other passengers.

"The woman at the security check-in (at Heathrow) just said to me, 'You are not wearing that'," Mr Jasson, 55, said yesterday.

Mr Jasson, who lives in London and was flying to Australia to visit family on December 2, said he was first told he would need to turn the T-shirt inside-out before he would be allowed to board the Qantas flight.

"I told her I had the right to express my opinion," he said.

"She called other security and other people got involved. Ultimately, they said it was a security issue . . . in light of the present situation."

After a prolonged argument about freedom of speech and expression, Mr Jasson said a Qantas gate manager said he could not fly at all unless he wore another T-shirt."

A Very Good Piece
by Gabriele Zamparini

Global Research, December 13, 2006

"Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet died this week. He won’t be missed.

Now imagine Augusto Pinochet visiting the United States while he was carrying out torture and mass murdering in Chile. Imagine the “largest coalition of peace and justice organizations in the U.S.” welcoming the ruthless murderer, “it is our pleasure to welcome you in the United States”.

This is what indeed happened this past summer when United for Peace and Justice’s National Coordinator Leslie Cagan wrote an open letter to puppet Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Maliki. (full text of letter in annex)....

Of course it would be wrong and ungenerous the comparison; next to Al-Maliki and his sectarian death squads government, Pinochet would seem a boy scout.

Intellectuals and activists of the Imperial anti-war movement started immediately after the invasion to legitimize the “supreme international crime” by supporting the so-called “political process”, a Trojan horse studied to destroy Iraq and force its people into a civil war. Those notorious sectarian Iraqi elections, based on religion and ethnicity, far from being forced on the US by the non-violent resistance of some clerics, were part of the plan to install a quisling government, getting the approval of the vultures and hyenas of the international community and preparing the bases for the eventual partition of the country.

Finally democracy has landed on Iraq; too bad for those 655,000 deaths who didn’t wait to enjoy the apocalypse. The slaughtering is going on with hundreds of people killed every day, ethnic cleansing, tortures, collective punishment, millions of Iraqis displaced and a country waiting to be wiped off the map. God bless America.....

“No blood for oil” doesn’t tell the whole story; how much more blood for the old Zionist project of Greater Israel?

While its two neighbors have been invaded and occupied by the Empire, Iran’s regime is holding an international conference questioning the Holocaust of Jews during WWII.

Using an unspeakable tragedy like the genocide of Jews (when will we also remember the others? Roma People, homosexuals, etc?) by the Nazi and their collaborators for political ends is always abominable, both when it comes from Israel and the Jewish lobby around the world and when it comes - like in this case - from Iran, a country that claims to fight the Israeli influence in the Middle East.

The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been using inflammatory language against Israel and the United States to win over the Arab public opinion and the international left. In reality, Iran – a non-Arab country – has been spreading its influence in the Middle East for years. But both the Arab public opinion and the international left should take a closer look at Iran’s regime, both at home and its role in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.

While its propaganda has given ammunitions to Israel and the United States, Iran has been having a central role in the apocalypse inflicted to Iraq, supporting the American installed sectarian, quisling Iraqi government and its militias responsible for mass murdering and ethnic cleansing. And don’t let fool yourself on the “support” of the Palestinian cause by the Iranian regime. The Iranian supported sectarian militias operating in Iraq have been persecuting and killing many members of the Palestinian community in Iraq since the occupation started in 2003.

As I wrote somewhere else, four hyenas, the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and Iran have destroyed a country that could have been a power in the region and a model for the Arab world. The vultures of the international community have been cooperating and watching the bloodbath waiting to share the rich carcass. The control of the energy resources is just part of the whole picture; Iraq had to be destroyed to allow the so-called reshaping of the Middle East. The notorious “political process” has been a formidable Trojan horse that forced the Iraqi People into a civil war. Far from being a failure, the main mission of this bloody project has been accomplished. Iraq as we knew it has gone, probably forever...."

By Gareth Porter
Asia Times

"WASHINGTON - US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad negotiated with Sunni armed groups for several weeks earlier this year on an agreement that would have supported Sunni forces in attacking pro-Iranian Shi'ite militias, according to accounts given by commanders of armed Sunni resistance organizations.

The revelations of the intensive US-Sunni negotiations, reported by Hala Jaber in the Sunday Times of London, are consistent with an account of those negotiations provided by a Sunni participant last May in an interview with the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

But the new accounts make it clear for the first time that the main objective of the talks was to explore possible US support for building a Sunni military force directed primarily against Shi'ites in Iraq.

....Continued."

***

The U.S. objective is very clear. The U.S. withdrawal is non-negotiable, and that is what the resistance insists on, hence there was no point to continue contacts. The U.S. wanted to use the resistance to fight the pro-Iran Shiite militias, just as it is using those same militias to fight the resistance and to destroy cities such as Fallujah and Ramadi. It is the same old divide-and-conquer: let the Iraqis slaughter each other.

Now, the U.S. wants to take this fragmentation process one step further: have the Shiites fight and kill each other. Next we will see full-scale warfare between Hakim's Badr militias (with U.S. backing) and Muqtada's Mahdi Army.

Until the Iraqis wise up to this obvious divide-and-conquer strategy, the fragmentation will progress until every Iraqi fights every other Iraqi.

Will they ever learn?

By Juan Cole

"Bush seems likely to try the "surge" tactic in Iraq of putting in substantially more troops, perhaps 20,000, in an attempt to take Baghdad and clear it of 'terrorists.'

Hope springs eternal in the human breast, which is the only explanation for adopting this stupid idea. The Iraqi masses are now politically mobilized, and they are well armed. There are 27 million Iraqis, and some 6 million of them in the Sunni Arab areas. 20,000 US troops is a drop in the bucket. Some are saying the US should try to destroy the (Shiite) Mahdi Army. The Mahdi Army is an urban social movement, and cannot be destroyed by conventional military forces. Bush is about to take us on another destructive wild goose chase."

by Paul Craig Roberts

"The report by the Iraq Study Group is an attempt by elder statesmen of the American political establishment to take U.S. foreign policy out of the incompetent hands of President Bush and the self-serving hands of the Israeli Lobby. The Iraq Study Group's effort may or may not succeed.....

Even war critic Pat Buchanan is dismissive of the ISG report. Buchanan, however, comes closer to the truth than the report's other critics when he writes that the purpose of the report is to save the establishment from any responsibility for the debacle that Bush and his neoconservative government have produced.

The Iraq Study Group, which includes Bush's new secretary of defense, Robert Gates, realizes that far from being the macho superpower that controls the world's destiny, the U.S. does not even control its own destiny. The U.S. is in a "grave and deteriorating" situation that can easily result in a far greater calamity than merely a bruised ego from a lost war. The entire Middle East can come undone.

The real problem is the Israeli Lobby's powerful influence – about which the Lobby brags – over U.S. policy in the Middle East and Israel's inflexibility toward the Palestinians, whose land Israel has stolen. As long as Israel exercises a veto over U.S. policy in the Middle East, the powder keg will remain alight.

The members of the ISG are elder statesmen. They have held high positions and accumulated the honors. Their careers are behind them. They have nothing to lose. They can afford to tell the truth and to address the real problem......

According to Insight, "officials said the Baker proposal to exclude Israel garnered support in the wake of Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 25. They said Mr. Cheney spent most of his meetings listening to Saudi warnings that Israel, rather than Iran, is the leading cause of instability in the Middle East." The official told Insight that the administration "has fallen in line," but that "Bush is not in the daily loop. He is shocked by the elections and he's hoping for a miracle on Iraq."

President Bush lacks the knowledge, judgment, and experience to be in the Oval Office. He has been deceived and manipulated by neoconservatives who live in the fantasy world of their own ideology and who have been aligned with Israel's right-wing Likud Party for most of their careers.

The neoconservatives put Bush and the U.S., along with Iraqis, Afghans, and Lebanese, in harm's way. Their fantasy enterprise failed, and now they damn Bush for a lost war that they said would be a cakewalk. Neoconservatives told Bush that U.S. troops would have flowers thrown at them, not bombs.

Many neoconservatives have been cleared out of the Bush administration. But other neoconservatives still occupy media positions, which they will continue to use to lie to the American public. As long as the neoconservatives' protector, Vice President Cheney, continues to have influence, the Israeli Lobby might again succeed in overthrowing American public opinion and win its war against the Iraq Study Group."

THE PRODI WIND-UP DOLL: THE EU'S BEST!

AP
Published: 14 December 2006

"Candid TV footage of the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Italian counterpart, Romano Prodi, showed Olmert coaching Prodi on what to say at their joint press conference in Rome.

In the footage, taken by a cameraman for Israel's Channel 10 TV, the two men are seen - apparently unaware they are being filmed - conversing yesterday about what to say at the press conference, held during Olmert's visit to Rome.

Olmert tells Prodi that he should mention the international community's demands that the Hamas-led Palestinian government recognise Israel, renounce terror and respect signed peace agreements.

"It's important for me that you emphasise the three principles of the Quartet, that they are not negotiable, that they are the basis for everything. Please say this," Olmert tells Prodi, leaning close to the Italian leader.

Olmert also asks Prodi to mention Israel's status as a Jewish state, implying that he rules out a key Palestinian demand that millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants be allowed into Israel, changing its demographic balance and possibly making Jews a minority.

"I have heard you say something about the Jewish state," Olmert prompts Prodi.

At the press conference, Prodi obliged. "Every peace process must go through a renouncing of violence, recognition of the state of Israel, recognition of past agreements and, I must add, also the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state," Prodi said. "

Candid TV footage of the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Italian counterpart, Romano Prodi, showed Olmert coaching Prodi on what to say at their joint press conference in Rome.

In the footage, taken by a cameraman for Israel's Channel 10 TV, the two men are seen - apparently unaware they are being filmed - conversing yesterday about what to say at the press conference, held during Olmert's visit to Rome.

Olmert tells Prodi that he should mention the international community's demands that the Hamas-led Palestinian government recognise Israel, renounce terror and respect signed peace agreements.

"It's important for me that you emphasise the three principles of the Quartet, that they are not negotiable, that they are the basis for everything. Please say this," Olmert tells Prodi, leaning close to the Italian leader.
Olmert also asks Prodi to mention Israel's status as a Jewish state, implying that he rules out a key Palestinian demand that millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants be allowed into Israel, changing its demographic balance and possibly making Jews a minority.

"I have heard you say something about the Jewish state," Olmert prompts Prodi.

At the press conference, Prodi obliged. "Every peace process must go through a renouncing of violence, recognition of the state of Israel, recognition of past agreements and, I must add, also the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state," Prodi said.

(Click on to enlarge)
I hear a lot of chatter, but I see nothing except more destruction.
Blair: nothing is more important than peace in the Middle East.

Protesters holding a sign reading 'Olmert, not welcome, Free Palestine' during a rally against the Prime Minister's visit to Italy on Wednesday. (AP)


By Kurt Nimmo

"Not long ago, Ehud Olmert was caught admitting Israel has a hoard of nukes, a well-known enough fact, although generally unspoken in the corporate media. For accidentally speaking the truth, angry voices arose from across the Israeli political spectrum—mostly of one monotonous color—demanding Olmert take a hike for speaking the unspeakable.

Now Olmert was discovered “coaching” Italian prime minister Romano Prodi “on what to say during their joint press conference,” as if Mr. Prodi is a meathead unable to speak intelligently for himself. “It is important that you emphasize the three principles of the Quartet—that they are not negotiated (sic). They are the basis for everything,” Reuters quotes Olmert as instructing.

It, of course, makes sense Olmert would push the so-called Quartet on Prodi or, for that matter, anybody else who bothers to listen. Quartet is shorthand for the cooked up plans for the Palestinians by the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations. As if to gauge what is in store, consider the Quartet’s special envoy for Israel’s “disengagement” from Gaza between May 2005 and April 2006 was none other than James Wolfensohn, Bilderberg intimate and former president of the World Loan Sharking Operation, otherwise known as the World Bank.......

....Of course, Romano Prodi, as a “center-left” politician and former president of the European Commission (a “supranational” elite managed by international banksters) fell in line. “As it happened, Prodi did deliver words to that effect. He further endorsed Israel’s vision of remaining a Jewish state—code for ruling out an influx of Palestinian refugees. This, Channel 10 television suggested, was also at Olmert’s prodding,” Reuters continues.

Only a bit of translation is in order: Israel intends to remain a racist state, a nation where only Jews enjoy full citizenship (and Israelis are stripped of citizenship if they marry Palestinians), and there will be no right of return, that is to say the violent theft of Palestinian land and the expulsion of Palestinians will remain codified, and Palestinians will continue living in squalid refugee camps, driven there by massacre, rape, and the memories of Dawayima (where the Israelis killed everything that moved) and Deir Yassin (a massacre led by Irgun terrorist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Menachem Begin)......

.....No, little of substance will change, even as Ehud Olmert whispers in Romano Prodi’s ear as if the latter is some sort of Stepford automaton, nodding with nearly bovine acceptance. Prodi will do as instructed, as will the Americans, especially those in Congress, lest they lose their place at the trough. Israel shall remain a racist state, Palestinians will suffer, and, oh yes, Iran will be attacked, setting the Middle East on fire, as long planned.

As for the attack waged against Iran, guaranteed before Bush exits office, Democrats agree.

It’s all but a done deal.

U.S. Commander Says Withdrawal Won't Be Soon: The outgoing top U.S. operational commander in Iraq said on Tuesday that military might alone would not win the war and that the withdrawal of U.S. troops would not happen quickly.

Army, Marine Corps To Ask for More Troops: The Army and Marine Corps are planning to ask incoming Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Congress to approve permanent increases in personnel, as senior officials in both services assert that the nation's global military strategy has outstripped their resources.

Buildup in Iraq gaining support : Strong support has coalesced in the Pentagon behind a military plan to "double down" in the country with a substantial buildup in U.S. troops, an increase in industrial aid and a major combat offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite leader impeding development of the Iraqi government.

Bomb Blasts in occupied Iraq Kill at Least 23: Bomb blasts killed at least 23 people in Iraq on Wednesday, including seven Iraqi soldiers.

At least 40 kiled in another bloody day in Iraq: A car bomb exploded in a crowded area of Kamaliya in eastern Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding 25, an Interior Ministry source and police said.

Australia: Downer warns against 'disastrous' Iraq withdrawal : Mr Downer and Defence Minister Brendan Nelson have spent a day talking to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as part of annual Australia-US ministerial talks.

US staying the course for Big Oil in Iraq : Washington at large and President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in particular may apply every contortionist trick in the geopolitical book to save their skins in Iraq - and the reasons are not entirely political.

Operation Hollywood: "You must glorify war in order to get the public to accept the fact that your going to send their sons and daughters to die." Never let the absurdities of history get in the way of a box-office blockbuster. The inside story of the cozy relationship between big box office American war movies and the Pentagon .

Ex-CNN chief starting all Iraq news site : NEW YORK For the past four years there has been no shortage of news and views on Iraq and the long-running war there. What's been missing: a one-stop-shopping clearinghouse for nonpartisan information, including material coming out of Iraq itself from natives of that country, not from foreign correspondents.

Rumsfeld hasn't read ISG report: Outgoing In an interview with columnist Cal Thomas, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted that he hasn't read the Iraq Study Group report, only excerpts, and critiqued the Bush Administration's "war on terror" phrase, even though he made frequent use of it.

U.S. senator, Syrian President meet in Damascus for talks: Syrian officials say Damascus is encouraged by the report by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which urged President George W. Bush to abandon his policy of trying to isolate Syria and Iran and resume attempts to end the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Unknown gunmen kill a Palestinian judge in southern Gaza Strip: Bassam Al-Farra, 45, was leaving his car and walking towards the court house of Bani Suheila town east of Khan Younis when he was ambushed by a group of unknown masked gunmen, "who showered him with live rounds", eyewitnesses reported. Sources in the Gaza strip said that the judge is known for his affiliation with Hamas movement and he also work and a lecturer in Al Quds Open University.

No Palestinian fishing rod : And above all, the high aid ceiling reflects the depths of the leniency toward Israel, or the absence of the political ability to cause Israel to do one of two things: Either to recognize its obligations as the occupying power under international covenants, and to care for the occupied population, or to desist immediately from its policy of intentional economic strangulation. For years, Israel has been using the weapon of economic strangulation as a means of political pressure.

Destroyed Homes in Walaja: "It's always the same picture for us…"In the space of two weeks, the Israeli occupying army has come to the village of Walaja at least three times. The first time was to demolish an outbuilding that housed animal feed. The second, last week, was to arrest a father of five during the night for apparent links to political party Hamas (he works for a Bethlehem orphanage supported by the social services part of Hamas). The third was this morning when they came to demolish the home of Monder Abed Hamad and his family, for the second time.

Israeli army attacks a Palestinian school and takes over two nearby houses south of Hebron: Troops stormed the school, searched and ransacked it then tuned it into a military post. Soldiers also attacked two adjacent Palestinian houses, forced each family in a room in their houses, and tuned the two houses into military posts, eyewitnesses reported. Residents of Al Samou'a village reported that troops are attacking houses and schools on daily basis over the past few weeks.

First Gaza killing since truce:
The man was hit in the head by Israeli fire opposite the boundary fence from the Israeli village of Nahal Oz. Medical officials identified the man as a member of Fatah, which is led by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

Pipe-bomb explodes at Hamas rally in Gaza-witnesses : Hamas representatives blamed members of the rival Fatah for the attack in Nusseirat refugee camp, which came amid spiralling inter-factional violence. Fatah spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment. The Nusseirat rally was held to protest against the killing earlier on Wednesday of a Hamas judge by gunmen.

High Court's ruling / Human rights trump the Knesset's laws : However, the state remains immune from damages incurred during "combat operations." In the past, the Supreme Court ruled that this immunity applied only to combat operations in the "narrow and simple" sense of the term, meaning operations in which soldiers' lives were in real danger. It was this ruling that led the state to enact the current law, with its much broader definition of combat operations. Now, the courts will presumably have to revisit the question of how this term should be applied.

Under-cover troops abduct three resident in Tulkarem : Salah Iraki, 24, Mo'men Safaka, 24, and Mo'tassem Abu Dughsh, were taken to an unknown destination when under-cover troops, driving a Palestinian licenced vehicle, forced the three into the car and sped to an unknown destination.

Ten Palestinian men abducted by the Israeli army during morning invasions in the West Bank : Hassan Badir, 16, and Ather I'lian, 14, were abducted when Israeli forces and Israeli secret service agents (Shin Bit) invaded Abu Dir town, east of Jerusalem, and searched houses there. The two teens were handcuffed blindfolded then they were moved to unknown detention camp, their families reported.

Report: Haniyeh says Israel more flexible on Shalit prisoner swap : Haniyeh said Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who has been a central mediator on the issue, told him that Israel has agreed in principle that the release of Shalit and the release of Palestinian prisoners by Israel would occur simultaneously, the radio reported. Nonetheless, the two sides have yet to agree on the number of Palestinians that will be freed, or their identities, the radio said.

Blair seeks to get Palestinians to negotiate with Israel: Tony Blair revealed yesterday he intended to set out a political and economic offer to the Palestinians when he visits the Middle East, detailing what they can expect in return for negotiations with Israel. Speaking at his monthly press conference in Downing Street, he also hinted that the US and the EU were willing to be flexible on the "pre-conditions" that the Hamas-led Palestinian government would have to meet to see direct aid restored and talks started.

Time to pay for mistakes : In a rare decision, Supreme Court justices told the State of Israel that it cannot do whatever it wishes without paying. Even if we're talking about another people, the kind been ruled over for 40 years. And please note the ironic timing: A day after the Olmert government gave the United Nations the finger and refused to accept a UN commission of inquiry into the Beit Hanoun affair, the High Court ruled that we are responsible in fact.

Prodi: Preserve Israel's Jewish character: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed great satisfaction with his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. During the meeting Prodi said that "Israel's Jewish character should be preserved." Olmert interpreted this sentence as Prodi's support of the Israeli stance on denying the Right of Return to Palestinian refugees.

Right furious at 'Intifada Law' verdict's ramifications : MK Michael Eitan (Likud), a former chair of the Knesset Constitution Committee, asked Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik to schedule an urgent plenum debate on the ruling. "If the overturning of Knesset legislation continues, the High Court will liquidate the existence of Israeli democracy and the army's defensive capabilities," he said.

Kidnappers release Gaza-born Israeli after 46 days; family complains of official inaction : "Only his relatives were interested in the matter," said Mansour. "We didn't read a thing in the papers, and we didn't hear anything on the radio. No one demanded that he be returned." Al-Luh was kidnapped as he was heading back to Israel after visiting his parents' family in Gaza for the Muslim holiday of Id al-Fitr.

MKs okay preliminary reading of bill for Arabic language academy: "We have an academy for the Hebrew language and institutions for the preservation of Ladino and Yiddish, all funded by the government. Why shouldn't there be a similar institution dedicated to Arabic?" Reiter told Haaretz.

President is expected to call for early elections, but not to set the date : Expectations are running high, as is speculation, as to the contents of President Abbas' speech scheduled for Saturday. He will address the Palestinian situation, the state of lawlessness, the impasse over the national unity government, and the Palestine Liberation Organization call for early elections.

EU considers paying Palestinian police: Abbas asked the EU to expand its so-called Temporary International Mechanism (TIM) to include roughly 80,000 members of the security services, including the police force. The EU programme makes payments to Palestinian hospital workers and pensioners but the security services are excluded.

Iran, Arabs demand UN action over Israeli nuclear arms : The 22-member body called on "all states which offered assistance to Israel, particularly on the issues of uranium and heavy water, to speak out without delay," he said. "Everyone knows that Israel possesses weapons of mass destruction which could reach as far as 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles), and all Arab capitals are within this range," Sobeih added.

EU presidency wants Olmert to explain nuclear comments: The Finnish presidency of the European Union has called for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to explain his apparent admission that the Jewish state has nuclear weapons. "I think that Mr Olmert must explain more fully what this information means ."

Let the world worry : Kennedy told Peres at the 1963 White House meeting that the U.S. was closely following the development of Israel's nuclear potential and asked what he had to say about it. The surprised Peres responded: "I can tell you clearly that we shall not be the ones to introduce nuclear weapons into the area. We will not be the first to do so." It was a momentary stroke of brilliance designed to ward off Kennedy's pressure and the deterioration of bilateral relations at a time when Israel was searching for a new ally after the special relations with France, the reactor's supplier, had ended.

Carter prays with rabbis angered by book : Carter's book follows the peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians during his presidency in 1977-1980. He's critical of all players in not reaching a better accord, but he's especially critical of the Israelis. He previously told The Associated Press that Americans are rarely exposed to anything other than pro-Israeli views in the news media.

Analysis: Israeli-Arab dispute feeds ire: A poll conducted on 6,296 Americans between Dec. 4 and Dec. 6 found that for 59.2 percent, it is very important to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The numbers were high regardless of party affiliation. Among Democrats 67 percent found it very important compared to 51.8 percent among Republicans and 59.1 for Independents.

Concert in honour of secretary-general kofi annan to take place on monday : The renowned pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim will conduct the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra on Monday, 18 December 2006, at 6:45 p.m. in the General Assembly Hall. The concert, sponsored by the Government of Spain and promoted by the Barenboim-Said Foundation .

War Crimes: How Israeli Soldiers Kill and Civilians Grow Numb: One Israeli officer says the world doesn't seem to notice killing in small numbers. And those closest to the violence become too scared to empathize for those who die .

Court overturns Israel's intifada law: Israel's Supreme Court has overturned a controversial Israeli law banning Palestinians from claiming compensation for harm suffered at the hands of soldiers.

Gunmen shoot dead Hamas judge in Gaza: Unidentified gunmen dragged a judge from the Hamas Islamist movement out of a taxi and shot him dead in front of his courthouse in Gaza on Wednesday, increasing fears of a Palestinian civil war.

UK visit to Bethlehem welcomed by local church and civic leaders : Church and civic leaders in Bethlehem, together with the Anglican and Catholic bishops of Jerusalem, have welcomed the plans by UK church leaders to make an Advent pilgrimage to Bethlehem - which is facing isolation, depopulation and economic collapse due to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the presence of the separation wall.

Israeli Hight Court rejects appeal against Wall route north of Jerusalem : The Israeli High Court rejected on Wednesday an appeal filed by residents of Al Ram neighborhood, in Jerusalem, against the construction of the Annexation Wall around the norther Jerusalem neighborhood. The High court, headed by Justice Aharon Barak, also ruled that the route of the Annexation Wall in Bir Nibala town, is "legal", thus rejecting five appeals filed regarding the same issue.

UPI Poll: Israeli lobby's U.S. influence: Nearly half of those asked on a UPI-Zogby International poll said pro-Israel interest groups have a significant level of influence on U.S. foreign policy.

Five Palestinian refugees killed in Iraq, dozens injured: armed militias in Iraq shelled a Palestinian compound in Baghdad killing five Palestinian refugees and injuring at least 25 others, in addition to causing considerable damage to the property. A total of ten shells were fired at the Palestinian compound on Wednesday, the agency added.

I am sorry to post this article in Arabic. I couldn't find an English version, so I will give a brief translation at the bottom. It deals with an important topic: The threat of the Internet use to Arab governments and their efforts to block sites and censor the use of the Internet.

""الخصم العنيد".. تحت هذا العنوان أصدرت الشبكة العربية لمعلومات حقوق الإنسان تقريرها الثاني عن حرية الإنترنت في العالم العربي، والذي تم الإعلان عنه في ندوة بنقابة الصحفيين في القاهرة الأربعاء.

وشهدت الندوة هجوما ضاريا على الأنظمة العربية، التي اتهمتها ببذل جهود متفاوتة للحد من حرية الرأي والتعبير على الإنترنت، كما طالب المشاركون بسن تشريعات واضحة للنشر على الإنترنت تحميه من بطش السلطات.

وأكد المدير التنفيذي للشبكة جمال عيد أن الحكومات العربية توحدت مجهوداتها في الحد من حرية مستخدمي الإنترنت، وذكر أن عدد مستخدمي الإنترنت في العالم العربي قفز من 14 مليونا عام 2004 إلى 26 مليونا عام 2006.

وقال مع ذلك فإن الحكومات تشجع الاستخدام "من نوع معين وتتجاوز الإنترنت كوسيلة لحرية الرأي والتعبير، بينما تظهر نفسها أنها حكومات تشجع التكنولوجيا لتحسين صورتها".

وذكر مثالا على ذلك بالسودان "التي تركت الإنترنت لمدة 4 إلى 5 سنوات بدون تضييق، لكن بعد أن وجدت الحكومة انتشار استخدام الإنترنت كوسيلة للتغيير، قامت بفرض الرقابة وإدخال تكنولوجيا حجب المواقع".

وانتقل عيد للحديث عن دول أخرى كالسعودية التي قال إنها كانت من آواخر الدول العربية توفيرا للإنترنت، وهي تقوم حاليا -بناء على قرار ينظم إدخال الإنترنت- بتوفير كل الإمكانات الفنية لحجب المواقع.

ويعتقد أن السعودية تكاد تكون الدولة الوحيدة التي تعلن بوضوح شديد ورسمي وتفاخر أنها تحجب 400 ألف موقع، رغم أن نفس البيان الرسمي ذكر أن 95% فقط من هذه المواقع إباحية، ما يعني أن هناك 20 ألف موقع غير إباحي تم حجبها.

تشريعات الإنترنت
وأكد كاتب التقرير إيهاب الزلاقي أنه لا توجد في أي دولة عربية تشريعات مفصلة للنشر الإلكتروني، وبالتالي "فإن البديل للحكومة أن تدخله ضمن ترسانة القوانين الأخرى مثل قانون الطوارئ أو قانون النشر العادي كما في مصر".

وذكر أن مصر تحاول "تشكيل جماعة ضغط باتجاه تقييد الإنترنت". واستدل على ذلك بأن وزير الداخلية المصري حبيب العادلي قدم اقتراحا بهذا الشأن في اجتماع وزراء الخارجية العرب في فبراير/شباط 2006 بتونس.

وقال الزلاقي إن الحجب قانونا ليس مشكلة فكل دول العالم تحجب وتتبع بعض المواقع، لكن وفق تشريعات وقوانين واضحة وبعد موافقة القضاء "لكن المشكلة عندنا في طريقة الحجب التي تقع بعيدا عن إذن النيابة وأحكام القضاء، وإنما باختيار ضباط الشرطة وموظفي الداخلية".

فشل ذريع
وذكر عيد أن الحكومات العربية لم تجن من التضييق على الإنترنت سوى تشويه سمعتها، بينما فشلت في وقف تدفق المعلومات، وأيده الزلاقي قائلا "بعد ملايين الدولارات التي أنفقتها السعودية لحجب المواقع الإباحية أثبتت دراسة أن 75% من الشباب السعودي يستخدم الإنترنت لزيارة تلك المواقع".

وأوضح عيد أن اختيار عنوان التقرير "خصم عنيد" ينبع من أنه في مقابل زيادة محاولات القمع يظهر نشطاء جدد على خلفية هذا القمع، بينما كان عنوان التقرير الأول "مساحة من القمع" يحمل من التساؤل أكثر مما يحمل من إقرار دوافع.

وقال الزلاقي "بعد أن كانت الحكومة سابقا تحجب المواقع في صمت كامل، تصاعدت الأصوات لعدم الاكتفاء بالحجب وإنما معاقبة وسجن الكاتب"، مؤكدا أن مشروع قانون حكوميا للنشر على الإنترنت يتم إعداده بمصر في الأساس لعرقلة نشاط المدونين.

الجدير بالذكر أن التقرير وهو الثاني من نوعه يقع في 190 صفحة، حيث زيد عدد الدول التي تناولها إلى 18 دولة بدلا من 11 بلدا في التقرير الأول الصادر عام 2004، وتناول الوضع المعقد لمزودي الإنترنت في الأراضي الفلسطينية.

وأشار إلى أن المواقع الإسلامية لا تزال تحتل صدارة المواقع العربية، بالإضافة لتضمنه فصلا كاملا عن ظاهرة المدونات في العالم العربي."

***
In a seminar in Cairo, the findings of the second report on Internet freedom in the Arab world were disclosed on Wednesday.

The seminar witnessed a fierce attack on the Arab regimes and their effort to limit freedom of expression on the Internet.

The number of Internet users in the Arab world has increased from 14 million in 2004 to 26 million in 2006. In spite of the increased use, the regimes want to emphasize technological use (to show themselves as progressive) but limit freedom of expression.

One of the last regimes to make the Internet available was KSA. However, it has taken all technical steps possible to block sites, the regime decides on. KSA even brags that it has blocked over 400,000 sites. It claims that 95% of them are pornographic, but that still leaves 20,000 which are not.

The author of the report stated that no laws to regulate electronic publishing exist in any Arab country. Therefore, regulations are often enacted as part of "emergency laws," as in Egypt for example.

In spite of all the efforts, the author said that KSA, as an example, has failed to limit access. A study has shown that 75% of Saudi youth still access porno sites.

Al-Manar

"The political assistant of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, Hajj Hussein Khalil held a press conference Wednesday and unveiled a letter sent to Sayyed Nasrallah, during the war, in which the head of the so called majority MP Saad Hariri requested "a word of honor" that the resistance hands over its arms in order to stop the war.

Khalil showed the letter to reporters and said that it was written by "lieutenant colonel Wisam al-Hasan", the head of the "Intelligence Branch" of the Interior Ministry and Hariri's "assistant." Khalil said that the disclosed letter is from the "archive of war" and that it was hand written by "Wisam al-Hasan". The Hezbollah official added that he had told Hariri's envoy that he would be ashamed to deliver such a letter to Sayyed Nasrallah, especially during the time of war. However, Khalil said, Wisam al-Hasan replied that "Hariri" insists that this letter be delivered to Sayyed Nasrallah.

Hajj Husein Khalil said: "We had hoped that MP Hariri would not oblige us to disclose his position during the Israeli aggression against Lebanon, and we had worked on continuing the relation and understanding that we had established with his father, martyr Rafiq Hariri, on the common view of Lebanon as well as the role of the resistance. But unfortunately MP Hariri could not get out of the circle of internal and external pressure and ascent to the level of this relationship. Instead he worked to annul it through turning against it and then disavowing every deal, pledge and agreement we had made with him. Khalil added that after Hariri attacked the resistance, "I challenged him to unveil the content of the letters that he used to send to the leadership of the resistance during the Israeli aggression, but he kept silent and we also chose not to raise the issue. However, they (Saad Hariri and his Future Movement) continued to distort facts what prompted us to disclose the content of this letter." Sayyed Nasrallah's political aide then read the letter: "Dear brother Hajj Husein Khalil: 1- I informed Sheikh Saad of our meeting in details and I explained to him your fear and objection to the international force, and your desire that it be under UN command and not to come under Chapter 7 (of the UN charter). 2- I also explained to him your insistence that the government would not mention the disarmament of Hezbollah in the resolution that would be issued by the Security Council, provided that this matter would we dealt with according to the Taef Accord as "an internal affair", so that it would not look like it is imposed on you by Israel and the US. 3- Sheikh Saad Hariri called me again this morning to ask me about the "pledge of honor" by his eminence the Sayyed regarding the arms issue, and told me to ask you for an answer." "

Briefing By U.S. Consul-General in Jerusalem, Jacob Walles (Reuters photo)

"غزة - المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام

اتهم يحيى موسى نائب رئيس كتلة "التغيير والإصلاح" البرلمانية، التابعة لحركة المقاومة الإسلامية "حماس" المجموعات الانقلابية بالوقوف وراء جريمة اغتيال القاضي الشاب بسام الفرا صباح اليوم.

وقال موسى: "إن الجميع أصبح أمام مسلسل مخطط ممنهج ينفذ في الساحة الفلسطينية، ومكان تخطيطه القنصلية الأمريكية في القدس"، مشيراً إلى أن هناك فريق خرج خاسراً من الانتخابات، "ينتقل من مرحلة إلى أخرى ليؤسس للانقلاب على السلطة ومحاولة إرجاعها إلى نقطة الصفر والعودة بها إلى التنسيق الأمني مع الصهاينة".

وأضاف النائب الفلسطيني يقول: "إن هذا الفريق الفاسد الذي يتحكم بمصير الشعب الفلسطيني، يريد أن يعود إلى السلطة ولو على حساب الأبرياء من الأطفال والقادة والمجاهدين".

وأكد موسى أن هذا التيار الانقلابي يثير الساحة الفلسطينية من خلال الإعلام المأجور، "ويعمل على بث الذعر والرعب داخل المجتمع الفلسطيني عقاباً له على انتخابه لحركة حماس"، مشيراً في الوقت نفسه إلى أن حماس لا تتهم حركة فتح والمناضلين فيها، لكنها تتهم من سرقوا حركة فتح من حركة فتح، "الذين انقلبوا على أبو عمار في حياته، فهؤلاء هم الذين ينقلبون اليوم على الديمقراطية".

وأكد أن يد حماس ستبقى ممدودة لكل الحريصين على وحدة الشعب الفلسطيني، "بما يوفر الأجواء المناسبة لاحتواء الفتنة ومجابهة التحديات الداخلية والخارجية التي تواجه شعبنا"."

Staying the Course with James Baker and the Iraq Study Group

by Michael Schwartz

"The report of James A. Baker's Iraq Study Group has already become a benchmark for Iraq policy, dominating the print and electronic media for several days after its release, and generating excited commentary by all manner of leadership types from Washington to London to Baghdad. Even if most of the commentary continues to be negative, we can nevertheless look forward to highly publicized policy changes in the near future that rely for their justification on this report, or on one of the several others recently released, or on those currently being prepared by the Pentagon, the White House, and the National Security Council.

This is not, however, good news for those of us who want the U.S. to end its war of conquest in Iraq. Quite the contrary: The ISG report is not an "exit strategy;" it is a new plan for achieving the Bush administration's imperial goals in the Middle East.

.....Continued."

There Will Always Be A Palestine

Heck of a Job, Maliki!

By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst

"WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- It looks like curtains for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He is under attack from all sides. But when he goes nothing will change in Baghdad.

Maliki during his troubled months in office this year could do nothing to stem the widespread violence in his country. Indeed, it got vastly worse during his premiership and as a result of his policies.

But Maliki was no powerful figure for either good or evil. He was, as we predicted in these columns when he won parliamentary approval, just a piece of flotsam tossed up by the waves. The very democratic and parliamentary process that produced him as prime minister also guaranteed he would have to be a sectarian and divisive figure when he took office.

Maliki has already lost the confidence of the Bush administration because of his efforts to try and distance himself from it. The final straw was his insistence on gaining full operational control of all Iraqi military forces in his own hands.

Maliki's government had already angered Washington by cosying up to neighboring Iran. He was also dependent for most of his time in office on the parliamentary bloc loyal to Iraq's leading anti-American poltical figure, Moqtada al-Sadr. Yet now, Maliki has even lost Sadr's confidence. Sadr this week made clear he also wanted Maliki replaced.

Worst of all, during Maliki's time in office, the Iraq civil war has metastasized into a fully blown sectarian conflict between the Sunni and Shiite communities. Scores of thousands of Iraqis who could manage it have fled the country. Scores of thousands more are expected to flee in the coming weeks. Iraq has become a disaster area.

On Monday, White House Press Spokesman Tony Snow denied that the Bush administration was trying to topple Maliki and replace him. One wonders why he bothered. Everyone in Iraq knows that President George W. Bush last week bestowed his seal of approval on Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, another relatively prominent Shiite political leader from the Iraqi Islamic Party who journeyed to Washington to get Bush's seal of approval. The U.S. aim is to produce a new Iraqi government that will squeeze Sadr out and marginalize him, while offering some carrots to moderate Iraqi Sunnis. Maliki offered them none.

Such a government, involving three Shiite parliamentary factions -- would, at least in theory, offer a new hope to bring Iraq back from the brink of a disintegration that could be virtually genocidal in its death toll, ferocity and chaos. But it looks as unlikely to succeed as Maliki or any of his predecessors did.

For over nearly four years, U.S. leaders have backed one wrong Iraqi horse after another: It started with Ahmed Chalabi, the corrupt, convicted bank embezzler beloved of Washington neo-conservatives and who had zero political support among his fellow Shiites in Iraq. A wave of other figures -- quickly promoted and equally instantaneously discarded -- followed.....

....Iraq is not an almost-state, or a failed state. It is a non-state. The murderous but functional tyranny of Saddam was smashed by U.S. forces in March-April 2003. Since then, disastrously incompetent U.S. policies have failed to create a credible or functional state structure. The vast democratic parliamentary superstructure that was so painstakingly, even obsessively erected, over the past three years therefore rests on no realistic base at all. The Iraqi armed forces remain entirely unreliable and heavily infiltrated and subverted by the dominant militias, especially the Shiite ones.

It therefore does not matter who occupies the prime minister's office in Baghdad. Wisdom in Washington will only start to come when these hard truths are finally acknowledged."

By Robert Dreyfuss

"President George W. Bush, who is being shadowed these days, and rather ominously, by a suddenly revived Vice President Cheney, confronts two hostile majorities opposed to his Iraq policy. The first is American, growing in power, that demands a U.S. withdrawal from the Iraqi quagmire. The second, also growing, is even more potent: It is the Iraqi majority that wants a quick end to the U.S. occupation of their country.

If, indeed, President Bush is determined to flout both of those majorities in pursuit of a phantasmagorical notion of “victory” in Iraq, then the future is grim beyond all measure. The latest news from Iraq—namely, that Bush and Ambassador Khalilzad are trying to micromanage the creation of yet another pro-American coalition government to replace the current regime of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki—is a sign that the president is truly lost in a fantasy land. The president is making policy for an Iraq that exists only in his imagination, even as conditions in the real Iraq, the one here on this planet, deteriorate ever faster......

.....Because the government of puppets won’t hold, the only really viable government in Iraq must be built around the one theme that a majority of both Sunnis and Shiites support—namely, the withdrawal of U.S. forces. One scenario to achieve this is for a new Hakim-Hashemi government simply to ask the United States to leave Iraq, perhaps in six months when, many Iraqi leaders say, their own army and police will be ready to take over. (They won’t be ready, but no matter.) An alternate scenario—more ugly from the standpoint of the Bush administration—is for Sadr, militant Sunnis, and anti-SCIRI Shiites to form a broad-based anti-U.S. occupation bloc and take power, ordering an immediate U.S. pullout. Unless President Bush is truly Machiavellian, the likelihood of the former is nearly zero. And although, at this moment, a coalition between Sadr and the Sunni-led resistance in Iraq is unlikely, things are moving fast. What seems impossible today could take the United States by surprise tomorrow. As Sadr said on Sunday, in a fiery speech demanding that the United States withdraw its troops: “Yesterday’s friends are today's enemies, and yesterday's enemies are today's friends.”

And remember: the much-maligned Baker-Hamilton report not only called for the United States to open talks with Iran and Syria about the war in Iraq, but also said that the United States "must also try to talk directly to Muqtada al-Sadr, to militia leaders, and to insurgent leaders”—i.e., talk to precisely the forces that the Bush administration wants to fight."

By Juan Cole

"Helene Cooper with Hassan Fattah of the NYT has the scoop that Saudi King Abdullah told US VP Dick Cheney two weeks ago that if the US withdrew precipitately from Iraq, the kingdom would have little choice but to support the Sunni Arab guerrillas. The Saudi government had pledged to the US not to do so as long as US troops were in Iraq. But it is alleged that Saudi oil millionaires privately already send money to the guerrillas. Saudis, as Wahhabi Muslims, belong to a sect that is to the right of Sunnism. But the Wahhabi tradition dislikes Shiites and in any Sunni-Shiite struggle, the Wahhabis will come in on the Sunni side.

This item is no surprise, of course, and I have brought up this likelihood a number of times myself. What is remarkable is that it is being stated by the Saudi leadership and published in the press. The Saudis are usually circumspect. If they are leaking this sort of thing, their hair must be on fire with anxiety........

Meanwhile, a de facto Israeli-Saudi alliance appears to be building against Iran and the Shiites. Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz is now saying that the 2002 Beirut peace plan put forward by then crown prince--now King--Abdullah of Saudi Arabia must be the basis for going forward with an Arab-Israeli peace process. Abdullah got the Arab League to offer Israel full recognition and political and economic relations if only they'd go back to the 1967 borders and recognize a Palestinian state.

At the time, then prime minister Ariel Sharon dismissed Abdullah's plan rather rudely. But now Israel has been bloodied by a Lebanon war that it lost on points to Hizbullah despite its clear military superiority. Bashar al-Asad of Syria pointed out that every generation of Arabs hates the Israelis more than its predecessors. Iran is emerging as a new hegemon in the eastern stretches of the Middle East.

Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert hoped that the Lebanon War of last August would finish off Hizbullah. Instead, Hizbullah put up a respectable resistance to the Israeli military. Now, Hizbullah and its Christian allies loyal to Michel Aoun have staged enormous daily protests aimed at bringing down the reform government of Fuad Seniora, and they may even succeed. Hizbullah is allied with Syria, which is allied with Iran.......

Saudi Arabia is equally frantic about the possibility of a nuclear Iran, and is moreover apoplectic that the US delivered Baghdad into the hands of Iraqi Shiite fundamentalists allied with Iran. Saudi Arabia fears Hizbullah in Lebanon as an Iranian cat's paw in the Arab world. The Khomeinists of Iran and south Lebanon believe that Islam is incompatible with monarchy (Khomeini said, "there are no kings in Islam.")

Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and (de facto) the 14 March Bloc in Lebanon are ranged against Iran, Shiite Iraq, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas. Neither Israel nor Saudi Arabia can openly admit to the tacit alliance for fear of anger from their own publics because of objectionable parties to it. But this is how things are shaking out......"

"The toll of war is measured here on an acre of Pacific sand, where each Sunday volunteers array handmade wooden crosses in regimental columns to honor U.S. service members lost in Iraq.

The white crosses — each with a small American flag at its base, some decorated with photographs of the fallen — recall the gravestones of Arlington National Cemetery in a place usually reserved for sunbathers and tourists.

Now, as the nation approaches the grim milestone of 3,000 war fatalities, the seaside memorial in one of California's most popular coastal destinations has reached a crossroads of its own. The group of veterans that organizes the weekly tribute has decided to stop adding crosses because it is struggling to keep pace with the tally of death.

"It's getting out of hand," said Stephen Sherrill, who builds and paints each cross in his garage. "I wish I could keep going, but I'd need a lot more help."

The display has grown as the national mood has soured on the war. The first crosses went into the sand on Nov. 2, 2003, when they numbered 340.

The display started as more protest than commemoration, when the public and the media appeared to pay little attention to the dead. In time, organizers sought to emphasize respect for fallen soldiers and bring attention to the cost of war, while veering around overt political statements.

Now the crosses, which numbered 2,928 as of last weekend, weigh more than a ton."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Is al Qaeda a Sunni organization, or Shi'ite?

The question proved nettlesome for Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, incoming Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

"Predominantly -- probably Shi'ite," he said in a recent interview with Congressional Quarterly, a periodical that covers political and legislative issues in Congress.

Unfortunately for Reyes, the al Qaeda network led by Osama bin Laden is comprehensively Sunni and subscribes to a form of Sunni Islam known for not tolerating theological deviation.

Officials blame al Qaeda's former leader in Iraq, the late Abu Musab al Zarqawi, for the surge in sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites.

But Reyes' problems in the interview didn't end with al Qaeda.

Asked to describe the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Congressional Quarterly said Reyes responded: "Hezbollah. Uh, Hezbollah," and then said, "Why do you ask me these questions at five o'clock?"

Reyes' office issued a statement on Monday noting that the Congressional Quarterly interview covered a wide range of topics.

"As a member of the intelligence committee since before 9/11, I'm acutely aware of al Qaeda's desire to harm Americans. The intelligence committee will keep its eye on the ball and focus on the pressing security and intelligence issues facing us," Reyes said in the statement.

A former border patrol agent and a congressional opponent of the Iraq war, the Texas congressman was chosen for the chief intelligence job by House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi.

The nuclear cat is out of the bag – and Olmert issues a warning…

An Important Article
By Justin Raimondo

".....Yet, taken in context – not only the context of the interview, but the context of Israel's present position – I would argue the Israeli Prime Minister was sending a message not only to Iran, but also to the U.S.....

The message sent to Washington – and, indeed, to the entire world – is that Israel is making a clean break with the policies of the past, based as they were on a strategy of economic, diplomatic, and military dependence on Western allies. Israel feels it has been abandoned by the West, including not only Britain but also the U.S. – and all bets are off.

This fear of abandonment, although greatly exaggerated, is not entirely unfounded. It is based on a sensitive reading of the political dynamics in the U.S. and the threatened future of Israel's "special relationship" with the Americans. The Israel lobby in the U.S. has recently taken it on the chin four times in a row, without so much as getting a punch in edgewise: it started with the arrest and indictment of two top AIPAC officials, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, for espionage. They are charged with funneling classified information, some of it high-level stuff, to Israeli embassy officials. Then there was the Harvard University research paper authored by professors John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, documenting and decrying what they called "the Lobby" and its distorting effect on American foreign policy. Now there's the Baker-Hamilton commission linking the Palestinian question to our "grave and deteriorating" prospects in Iraq, and, to top it off, the Jimmy Carter book.

The Lobby is reeling. For the first time since the Eisenhower era, our Israeli-centric policy in the Middle East is being openly and successfully challenged.....

The road to Damascus and Tehran would run through Baghdad, however, as the authors of "A Clean Break" put it:

"Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq – an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right – as a means of foiling Syria's regional ambitions."

Syria and Lebanon were seen by the Clean Breakers as the front line in their battle to expand the frontiers of Israeli power. Following a successful campaign to "redefine Iraq," it would be possible to envision a "profound" shift in the regional "strategic balance of power." Jordan would be drawn into the new order, and the Israelis would succeed in "diverting Syria's attention by using Lebanese opposition elements to destabilize Syrian control of Lebanon."

A decade after the Clean Break scenario was conceived, its policy prescriptions read like prophecies. However, as the game plan approaches its projected climax – an attack on Iran and/or Syria – there are numerous indications the U.S. is bailing, and not only in Iraq. The appearance on the American political and intellectual scene of forces willing and able to challenge the Lobby's unquestioned hegemony over U.S. foreign policy – especially when it comes to the crucial [.pdf] Middle East – threatens to scuttle the Clean Break scenario. Israel wants regime-change in Syria and Iran, while the Baker-Hamilton folks want to open up negotiations with them over the future of Iraq........

Now that the full disaster in Iraq is unfolding in all its bloody viciousness and tragic futility, the Israelis are catching a lot of the blame, and the power of the Lobby is being undermined, perhaps fatally. The cord to the U.S., which has sustained Israel for so long, is in danger of being cut – before Israel is ready to make the break. Iraq is destroyed, but the front-line enemies of Israel – Syria and Iran – are still left standing......

No wonder the Israelis have abandoned all pretenses of reasonableness and are now threatening to plunge the Middle East into the throes of a nuclear Armageddon. Israel is alone against the world, or so their leaders seem to believe: cornered, they are revealing their true face, snarling their resentment and defiance – their ire directed not just or even primarily at the Iranians, but at U.S. policymakers.....

Would the Israelis ever use them? That is the question that we have to ask in light of Olmert's unprecedented admission. After all, why "come out" to the world as a nuclear power at this particular moment? Surely the threat of a nuclear first strike against Iran is implicit in Olmert's "slip of the tongue."

The Israeli conceit is that to equate a regime such as the one that rules in Tehran with Israeli "democracy" is an obscene "moral equivalence" that overlooks the obvious: after all, we can trust Tel Aviv with WMD, but not the Iranian ayatollahs. Yet the growing extremism dominating Israeli political life, as demonstrated by the rise of such a dangerous character as Avigdor Lieberman, points to a troubling trend that has culminated in Olmert's stunning announcement.

We are now about to experience the consequences –the "blowback" – of our Israel-centric policy, which has fostered and nurtured Israeli ultra-nationalism in the womb of the "special relationship." As in so many other cases of aiding and abetting foreign "freedom fighters," we'll find we have created yet another monster. By the time this realization dawns on us, however, it will, unfortunately, be too late."

One solution to the Iraqi tragedy would be for the Bush administration to give up its quest for the country's oil, with no preconditions. This is not going to happen, which is why there can be no firm timeline for a complete US withdrawal. A new Iraqi oil law being drafted will open the industry to foreigners, and US troops will be needed to defend Big Oil's investment

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"....Once again, it's the oil. The Bush-Cheney system by all accounts went to Iraq to grab those fabulous reserves. The only way for an overall solution to the Iraqi tragedy would be for the Bush administration to give up the oil - with no preconditions, turning the US into an honest broker. Realpolitik practitioners know this is not going to happen.Instead, the ISG is explicitly in favor of privatizing Iraq's oil industry - to the benefit of Anglo-American Big Oil - after the impending passage of a new oil law that was initially scheduled to be passed this month by the Iraqi Parliament.

For Big Oil, the new oil law is the holiest of holies: once the exploitation of Iraq's fabulous resources is in the bag, "security" is just a minor detail. Enter the ISG's much-hyped provision of US troops remaining in Iraq until an unclear date to protect not the Iraqi population, but Big Oil's supreme interests. This is really what ISG co-head James Baker means by "responsible transition"......

The Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group implemented by the Pentagon is regarded by Sunnis and quite a few Shi'ites as being the mastermind of some of the car bombings, assassinations, sabotage, kidnappings and attacks on mosques fueling the civil war. The "Salvador option" has developed into the "Iraqification option". US-trained death squads in Iraq are not much different from the death squads in El Salvador during the 1980s - subordinated to the same "divide and rule" tactics. This is the "civil war" dirty secret: let the Arabs kill one another with the US posing as "victims". ....

....Iraqi Shi'ites fear that the White House now wants a new Saddam. They should not worry (or should they?): the only man with certified street power in Baghdad to become a new Saddam is Muqtada, which for the US is anathema. What Shi'ite politicians - SCIRI and Da'wa - want most of all is for the US to help them take out the Sunni Arab guerrillas as well as al-Qaeda in Iraq. In his recent visit to Washington, Hakim was explicit: no US withdrawal. Instead, full speed ahead against the Sunni Arab guerrillas, but not against the Shi'ite militias (especially his own). Muqtada, an Iraqi nationalist (and not an Iranian puppet), in this case would disagree, because he views the Sunni Arabs as alegitimate resistance force (with preconditions: in a recent sermon in Kufa, Muqtada stressed that Sunnis must not kill Shi'ites, must not join al-Qaeda, and must rebuild the Askariyah Shrine in Samarra).

Muqtada strikes back

The crucial development in the next few weeks is Muqtada's fine-tuning of a stunning Shi'ite counterpunch to demolish once and for all the US-created pro-sectarian strategy: a nationalist, pan-Islamist, anti-occupation coalition of the Sadrists and the neo-Ba'athists, plus any other religious or secular anti-occupation group.

Transcending the Sunni/Shi'ite divide, this would preempt any threat of all-out civil war - not to mention decide the fierce Shi'ite family feud between Hakim and Muqtada in the Sadrists' favor. No wonder US Senator John McCain wants to "take out" Muqtada as much as the Pentagon does......

....The neo-conservative hallucination of a puppet Iraqi regime as the centerpiece of a US-driven Greater Middle East - loads of cheap oil, Israel-friendly, anti-Iran - may have been derailed by a Mesopotamian sandstorm. But even with the defeat of the occupation, the US - or "the snake", as Muqtada defines it - still is not going anywhere. The "snake" will redeploy. Sunni Arab US ally/client regimes fear that a US withdrawal would lead to a whole new regional ball game tilting toward pro-Iran or pro-al-Qaeda regimes.

Not even a long-drawn civil war - Arabs killing one another - may save Bush and Cheney. And Iraq won't succumb to "divide and rule" and break up - because its identity as the eastern flank of the Arab nation is a geopolitical fact. So the real tragedy is how much longer millions of Iraqis caught in the crossfire will be paying with their own blood for the United States' cataclysmic folly. "

A Great Piece
By Gilad Atzmon

"I may as well be the King of The Jews. I have achieved the unachievable, accomplished the impossible. I have managed to unite them all: Right, Left and Centre. The entirety of the primarily-Jewish British political groups: the Zionists the anti-Zionists, Jewish Socialists, Tribal Marxists, The Board of Deputies, Jewish Trotskyites, Jews Sans Frontieres, Jews Avec Frontieres for the first time in history all speak in one single voice. They all repeat exactly the same misquotes. They all hate Gilad Atzmon.....

I recently came across an interesting insight into the subject of hate and anti-Semitism. It goes like this:

‘While in the past an 'anti-Semite' was someone who hates Jews, nowadays it is the other way around, an anti-Semite is someone the Jews hate.’

The politics of hate can be effective, as well as being vicious. And you’d think tribal Jewish activists would be the first to understand this. We all know that Jews have been suffering hatred and discrimination for centuries. Yet the Jewish ethnic activists seem to have learned hatred from their enemies so much that the secular Jewish political discourse has been totally shaped by it. Moreover, hate has become the main matrix of negation: The Israelis are set to hate the Arabs, the Zionists are there to hate the Goyim (in general), Jews against Zionism hate the Goyim as well as Israel as well as Atzmon (in particular).

But why do they hate so much? The answer is simple. Once Judaism is eliminated, what remains of Jewish identity is pretty threadbare. Once stripped of religious spirituality, all that is left of Jewishness is a template of negation fuelled by racial orientation and spiced up with some light cultural context. Sadly, I have to say that though very many emancipated and assimilated Jews have adopted universal humanist ideas, secular collective Jewish identity has never matured into adopting a universal humanist ideological standpoint or even a philosophical insight. The reasons are simple:

A. Racial or even ethnic orientation cannot form a basis for a universal ethical argument.
B. Chicken soup or Jewish humour (culture) does not make an ideological argument.
......
....However, I must admit that I am not concerned at all with the healthiness of the Socialist or Marxist discourse. I am engaged here solely in the deconstruction of a political standpoint and in scrutinising its rhetoric. Rather than saving the Marxist philosophy, I care for the people of Beit Hanoun, Jenin, Ramallah and Nablus. I devote my energy to support the Palestinian people who are bombed and starved by a State that happens to be ‘the Jewish State’. My message is clear. A crime of immense proportions is taking place in Palestine. As far as the humanist argument is concerned, Palestinians are the priority. If the crime against the Palestinians is a crime against humanity, we had better fight it collectively as human beings rather than as isolated formations of ethnically and racially segregated groups. The task ahead is complicated enough. Tribal Judeo-centric issues to do with anti-Semitism may be important to some. However, I maintain that they are secondary as far as Palestine solidarity is concerned. In other words, when you speak universal you may as well mean it for a change."

The Bush Puppet, Talabani: We Reject the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Report
(Click on to enlarge)
(Hamed Atta, Al-Khaleej, 12/12/06).

By Amira Hass

"The world is applauding Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus for applying the folk wisdom that a poor man should be given not a fish but rather a fishing pole. That is, to fight poverty, it is necessary not to feed poor people but rather to let them earn a living. And at the same time, the world is being asked to keep giving the Palestinians fish, because it knows very well that Israel will block any shipment of fishing rods.......

....And above all, the high aid ceiling reflects the depths of the leniency toward Israel, or the absence of the political ability to cause Israel to do one of two things: Either to recognize its obligations as the occupying power under international covenants, and to care for the occupied population, or to desist immediately from its policy of intentional economic strangulation. For years, Israel has been using the weapon of economic strangulation as a means of political pressure. And the tempest this policy has reaped has thus far been that the Palestinians are growing closer to Iran.

Israel is continuing to steal hundreds of thousands of shekels in customs and tax monies that do not belong to it, which it is not transferring to the Palestinian treasury. This is the proximate cause of the deepening of the crisis. The continuing, permanent and historic cause are the limitations on movement Israel imposes, contrary to the repeated promises (particularly to the World Bank and the American State Department) to "ease up": The closing of the Gaza Strip crossing points and the positioning of hundreds of roadblocks and barriers in the West Bank are the factors that make any economic activity a gamble, to the point of bankruptcy and giving up a priori. It is much easier for the Western countries to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to subsidize food that Israel is not allowing the Palestinians to produce and purchase themselves than it is to cause Israel to stop behaving as though it stands above international law."

Three years and nine months after the U.S.-led Coalition began its war against Saddam Hussein, researchers have quietly recorded another grim milestone in the cost of the conflict. American military casualties have now exceeded 25,000.

"KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait on Tuesday signed a security agreement with Nato at the opening of an international conference to discuss boosting security links with Gulf Arab states.

The Information Security Agreement, signed by Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al Sabah and Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, will regulate the exchange of security information between the 26-member Nato and oil-rich Kuwait as part of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI).

The deputy head of Kuwait’s National Security Agency, Sheikh Thamer Ali Al Sabah, told reporters the agreement would allow the exchange of “classified” security and defence information between Nato and Kuwait.

“The agreement will enhance the existing security cooperation between Nato and Kuwait ... It also involves exchange of information on countering terrorism,” he said.

Kuwait is the only country of the ICI that has signed such an agreement, he said.

Around 120 Nato delegates are attending the “International Conference of Nato and Gulf Countries: Facing Common Challenges through ICI.”

A number of senior officials, including Bahrain’s crown prince, Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and military commanders are representing the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) at the conference."

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Why not have a security agreement with Israel while you are at it.

A Great Editorial (Arabic)

عبد الباري عطوان

"يتعرض الرئيس الامريكي الاسبق جيمي كارتر الي حملة اسرائيلية شرسة في الولايات المتحدة وباقي الدول الغربية لانه تجرأ علي الكلام وكسر حاجز الصمت، وشبه الدولة العبرية بالنظام العنصري الابيض في جنوب افريقيا، وفضح انتهاكات حكوماتها لحقوق الفلسطينيين.
الرئيس كارتر تعرض لسلسلة من الاتهامات تبدأ بمعاداة السامية، وتنتهي بنشر الاكاذيب، وهو الرجل الذي فاز بجائزة نوبل للسلام، وحقق لاسرائيل اكبر انجاز استراتيجي في تاريخها القصير وهو توقيع اتفاقات كامب ديفيد التي شقت الصف العربي، وأخرجت مصر من المواجهة، واقامت اول علاقات دبلوماسية بين اسرائيل وبين اكبر دولة عربية.
كتاب الرئيس كارتر الذي يحتل حالياً قائمة الكتب الأكثر مبيعا جاء صدمة للوبي اليهودي، واختراقا لهيمنته علي المؤسسات السياسية والاعلامية الامريكية في وقت بات فيه العالم بأسره يدفع ثمنا باهظا لحروب المحافظين الجدد، انصار اسرائيل، في العراق وافغانستان وقريبا في ايران.
وربما يجادل البعض بان الرئيس كارتر لم يتحدث بهذه القوة، ويتجرأ علي مواجهة اللوبي الاسرائيلي الا بعد ان خرج من السلطة واقترب من المراحل الاخيرة لشيخوخته، وهذا صحيح، ولكن الرجل لم يعمّر في السلطة الا لدورة واحدة (اربع سنوات)، وعندما بدأ يتفهم حقيقة الصراع في المنطقة، خسر الانتخابات الرئاسية.
الرئيس كارتر انحاز الي ضميره كإنسان، وقرر ان يقول كلمته قوية حادة ضد دولة عنصرية خطفت من خلال انصارها البيت الابيض ودائرة صنع القرار فيه ووظفته في خدمة مصالحها وحروبها، للتغطية علي جرائمها في حق الشعب الفلسطيني والأمة العربية بأسرها.
بكلمات اخري اكثر وضوحا، اثبت الرئيس كارتر انه اكثر شجاعة وجرأة من الغالبية الساحقة من الزعماء العرب الذين يتربعون علي عروش السلطة حاليا. فأتمني ان يسمي لي احد زعيما عربيا واحدا يجرؤ علي مقارنة اسرائيل بالنظام العنصري في جنوب افريقيا، واتحدي ان يكرر الرئيس الفلسطيني محمود عباس ومن يلتفون حوله من شلة المعتدلين ما قاله الرئيس كارتر، وذلك في مؤتمر صحافي عالمي تحضره محطات التلفزة العالمية.
واذا كان الرئيس كارتر قال كلامه لانه خارج السلطة، فان الزعماء العرب لا يملكون هذا الترف، لانه لا يوجد زعيم عربي واحد علي قيد الحياة خارج السلطة، فجميعهم عدّلوا الدساتير، ومدّدوا لانفسهم في كرسي الحكم مدي الحياة. في الماضي كانوا يفوزون بالتجديد من خلال استفتاءات وانتخابات هم المرشحون الوحيدون فيها، بنسبة 99.9%، الآن اصبحوا يفوزون في انتخابات تبدو شكليا حرة، ولكن مع تخفيض نسبة الفوز الي 79% او 69%.
الزعماء العرب، او معظمهم، باتوا لا يتجرأون علي انتقاد اللوبي الاسرائيلي في واشنطن، ولو بشكل سطحي، لانهم اصبحوا في حاجة ماسة الي خدماته للوصول الي البيت الابيض وعطاياه وبركاته، سواء علي شكل مساعدات مالية او حماية عسكرية، او تسهيل عملية توريث السلطة في بلادهم لأنجالهم من بعدهم.
فمقر اللوبي الاسرائيلي ومؤسساته ومعاهده البحثية في واشنطن بات المكان المفضل لحجاج البيت الابيض من الزعماء العرب، والأكثر من ذلك ان قادة هذا اللوبي لا تنقطع زياراتهم للعواصم العربية حيث يفرش لهم السجاد الأحمر، ويستقبلون علي اعلي مستوي، ويجري تكريمهم وفق اصول الضيافة العربية التقليدية. ومن المؤسف ان هذا الاعتدال لم يؤد الا للمزيد من المستوطنات والمجازر والتصلب الاسرائيلي.
الرئيس كارتر بات يذكرنا بثوابتنا التي نسيناها، او تناسيناها بسبب الارهاب الفكري والسياسي الذي يمارس علينا من قبل الأنظمة واللوبي الصهيوني وبعض الجماعات العربية التي تتخفي خلف الليبرالية والواقعية والاعتدال.
فأي انسان عربي يشكك بحق اسرائيل في الوجود يعتبر متطرفا، او شعبويا او غوغائياً وأي كاتب يقول بأن فلسطين هي ارض عربية جري اغتصابها قبل ستين عاما فقط وتشريد شعبها، يوصف بأنه معاد للسلام، وأي فلسطيني يتمسك بحق العودة الي ارضه اسوة باليهود الروس او الفلاشا يتهم بانه غير واقعي يريد تدمير دولة اسرائيل المقدسة.
حتي الفضائيات العربية باتت لا تستضيف الا هؤلاء الواقعيين، وتصر في الوقت نفسه علي وجود الرأي الآخر الاسرائيلي بحجة التوازن والموضوعية المهنية. بينما لا نشاهد محطة تلفزيونية اسرائيلية واحدة تستضيف عربيا واحدا من مواطني الدولة العبرية يطالب بحق العودة ويتمسك به، ويساند المقاومة، ويصف اسرائيل بالعنصرية وهي كذلك.
المتحدثون الاسرائيليون يحتلون مساحات واسعة في فضائياتنا، ويتهموننا بالارهاب، ويدافعون عن مجازر حكومتهم في بيت حانون وجنين وشاطئ غزة، ويبررونها، اما عندما يطالب مثقف عربي بتحرير فلسطين، ويتحدث عن المجازر الاسرائيلية بانفعال، وينتصر الي المقهورين المجوعين، فانه يوضع علي اللوائح السوداء في معظم الفضائيات ويوصم بالتطرف وربما بالجنون مثله مثل أحمد الدقامسة الاردني او محمد خاطر المصري.
الرئيس كارتر يستحق منا كل الاحترام والتقدير لانه اعاد تذكيرنا بثوابتنا، وقال لا قوية للارهاب الفكري والاعلامي الاسرائيلي في الولايات المتحدة ومختلف انحاء العالم، وليس الاقبال الشديد علي شراء كتابه من قبل الامريكيين الا دليلا علي وجود صحوة يجب ان تعطينا الدافع للتحرير من عقدة الخوف من هذا اللوبي، سواء ككتاب او كزعماء او كمواطنين عاديين.
الزعيم الجنوب افريقي القس ديزموند توتو وقف في قلب واشنطن اثناء الحرب الثانية علي العراق الشقيق ليعلن ان اللوبي اليهودي خطف البيت الابيض ووظف القوة العظمي الوحيدة في العالم في خدمة المصالح الاسرائيلية، وطالب بوقفة عالمية في وجهه لمنع اخطاره علي البشرية، والرئيس الايراني احمدي نجاد لم يتردد لحظة في تحميل الغرب مسؤولية حرق اليهود في افران الغاز وحل المشكلة اليهودية علي حساب عرب فلسطين، وها هو الرئيس كارتر يعلق الجرس ويقارن بين اسرائيل وأبشع نظام عنصري في تاريخ البشرية.
ليس من بين هؤلاء زعيم عربي واحد ولا مفكر عربي واحد، ولا رجل دين عربي واحد. انها مفارقة تكشف ابرز اسباب الانحدار العربي الراهن.
نعم اسرائيل عنصرية، واكثر عنصرية من النظام الابيض في جنوب افريقيا نفسه. فهي تقيم المعازل في الضفة الغربية، وتخنق اربعة ملايين فلسطيني، وتحول قطاع غزة الي سجن كبير للجوعي والمرضي، وتبني حائطا يحول حياة ربع مليون فلسطيني الي جحيم، وتصادر الاراضي، وتنتقم من اشجار الزيتون رمز عروبة الارض بقلعها.
اسرائيل التي يتغني الغرب بحضاريتها وديمقراطيتها لا يوجد فيها وزير عربي واحد، ولا سفير من اصل عربي في اي عاصمة عالمية مهمة او من الدرجة الثالثة حتي، رغم ان العرب يمثلون اكثر من ربع سكانها، وتضم حكومتها افيغدور ليبرمان العنصري الحاقد الذي يفوق النازيين في عنصريته ونوازعه في التطهير العرقي والترانسفير والابادة الجماعية."