Hamas slams PA marketing of the "Arab initiative" minus "the right of return"

"GAZA, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement strongly denounced the PA in Ramallah for intending to publish advertisements in Hebrew language in Israeli newspapers in order to market the Arab peace initiative without mentioning the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

In an exclusive statement to the PIC, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum considered these advertisements a waiver of the Palestinian right of return and a reflection of the bankruptcy of the PA leadership which is trying to get anything through negotiations with the Israeli occupation in exchange for alleged peace.

"This is cheap marketing by the PA with regard to the rights of our people which we believe are extracted and not auctioned in this way," Barhoum underlined.

The spokesman stressed that the only way to recover the usurped Palestinian rights is not through begging but through the resistance.

Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni had said last week that the Arab peace initiative was good but not enough.

In the same context, the Israeli Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported that the PA in Ramallah intends to publish a commercial to market the Arab initiative for peace in different Hebrew media without including any word about the Palestinian right of return.

According to the newspaper, similar commercials would be published in American and European newspapers. The commercials would be in Israeli newspapers as of Thursday."

Calling a Spade a Spade......

Al-Qaida No. 2 insults Obama, using racial epithet to describe president-elect

"....The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies. Ayman al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader.

In al-Qaida's first response to Obama's victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect — along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice — "house negroes."

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house negroes."

The message also includes old footage of speeches by Malcolm X in which he explains the term, saying black slaves who worked in their white masters' house were more servile than those who worked in the fields. Malcolm X used the term to criticize black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites......"

Who Will Stop the Settlers?

Rendered homeless, East Jerusalem's Al Kurd family now targeted in tent

Noise But No Action From US Over Family's Eviction

By JONATHAN COOK
CounterPunch

"The middle-of-the-night eviction last week of an elderly Palestinian couple from their home in East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers is a demonstration of Israeli intent towards a future peace deal with the Palestinians.

Mohammed and Fawziya Khurd are now on the street, living in a tent, after Israeli police enforced a court order issued in July to expel them.

The couple have been living in the same property in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood since the mid-1950s, when East Jerusalem was under Jordanian control. The United Nations allotted them the land after they were expelled from their homes in territory that was seized by Israel during the 1948 war.

Since East Jerusalem’s occupation by Israel in 1967, however, Jewish settler groups have been waging a relentless battle for the Khurds’ home, claiming that the land originally belonged to Jews......."

عباس يصدر أمرا بحجب موقع دنيا الوطن في مناطق السلطة الفلسطينية

غزة-دنيا الوطن

اصدر رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية محمود عباس توجيهات للنائب العام الفلسطيني احمد المغني بحجب
موقع 'دنيا الوطن' في مناطق السلطة.
وقال عبد الله عيسى رئيس تحرير موقع 'دنيا الوطن': 'لقد نشرنا خبرا يتعلق بمشادة كلامية بين رفيق الحسيني ومسؤولين في السلطة وصلت لدرجة تبادل الشتائم والاتهامات نقلا عن احد المواقع العربية، كما نقل الخبر مواقع أخرى نقلا عن نفس المصدر، إلا أن رئيس السلطة اصدر أوامره للنائب العام بحجب موقع دنيا الوطن فقط'.
وأضاف عبد الله عيسى 'للأسف أن الذي حصل في هذه القضية لم تشهده جمهوريات الموز في أمريكا اللاتينية فلم تتصل بنا النيابة ولم تعطنا فرصة الدفاع أو توكيل محامي أو سماع أقوال المشتكى عليه فقام النائب العام بإصدار حكمه غيابيا وفور وصوله قرار رئيس السلطة ونفذ دون أي إجراءات قانونية في دولة القانون والمؤسسات التي يتحدث عنها محمود عباس ليل نهار'.
وقال عبد الله عيسى 'نستغرب من هذه الممارسات التي تصدر عن رئيس السلطة ونسي انه كان اكبر المنتقدين لسياسة الرئيس الراحل أبو عمار، ولكن للأسف لم يقدم الرئيس الراحل أبو عمار على قرارات كهذه ولم يغلق مؤسسات صحافية بل كان يسمى أبو عمار بـ 'صديق الصحافيين' ولا ننكر أن 'دنيا الوطن' التي تأسست في عام ،2003 لم تكن لتصل إلى هذا المستوى لولا ديمقراطية أبو عمار'.
وأوضح عيسى 'في عهد أبو عمار نشرنا عشرات ملفات الفساد وكان يرى أبو عمار في الصحافة المستقلة شأن 'دنيا الوطن' أنها قادرة على لجم الفاسدين في ظل عدم قدرته على المحاسبة ولكن أبو مازن لا يريد مهاجمة الفساد ولا محاسبة الفاسدين وإجراءاته أصبحت تنصب ضد الصحافة وحرية الرأي والتعبير'.
**ويذكر بان قراء دنيا الوطن يستطيعون مشاهدة الموقع في كافة انحاء العالم ما عدا مناطق السلطة الفلسطينية .

UK protestors call Peres 'war criminal'

From The Angry Arab Blog

""Pro-Palestinian protestors interrupted President Shimon Peres' speech Tuesday evening at Britain's Oxford University. The angry students called Peres a "war criminal" and called for an end to the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories." A student at Oxford sent me her impressions (I use with her permission): "I am an avid reader of your blog and I have a story for you from Oxford. Tonight, on 18th November 2008, Balliol College of Oxford University hosted Israeli President Shimon Peres in our university's most prestigious venue, the Old Sheldonian Theatre. They honoured him not only with this platform, to speak on the topic 'The Globalisation of Peace'(!), but also with the announcement that this would constitute the first in a lecture series entitled 'Peace Lectures: Inaugurated by Shimon Peres'. We, the Oxford Arab Cultural Society and the Oxford Students' Palestine Society, alongside the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and concerned members of the public, held a demonstration outside starting over an hour before the talk, and lasting - audibly - throughout Peres' speech. Some of us attended the lecture and, at intervals, nine students got up and made loud statements beginning 'I represent all the Palestinians who...' One such student was bundled out of the lecture hall. Peres was visiblyfazed by these interruptions and the sound of the protestors outside, while the audience were thus made aware of the point of view being stifled by Peres' presence today in Oxford, and every day in Palestine. Several letters of opposition have been presented to the Master of Balliol, Andrew Graham, among which was one from a prominent group of South African anti-apartheid activists (attached below). We hope that there will be publicity for this opposition, and for the events of today, as part of our ongoing protest to show that the head of the Israeli state is not welcome here..." "

Caught in Bed with Evil

By Gilad Atzmon
Palestine Think Tank

"....Though the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now imminent, Western media refrains from reporting about the emerging disaster. Apparently, there are far more interesting things to write about, much more interesting than millions of Palestinians who are being starved by the Jewish state.

However the press was kind enough to report that British foreign minister David Miliband spent some time in Israel this week. He had been very concerned with issues concerning the Avocado and other ethical grocery matters.....

President Peres will also receive an honorary degree from Kings College for his efforts “furthering peace in the Middle East”. I think that considering Peres’ usage of ballistic technology against innocent civilians, a PhD in physics may be more appropriate.

On the face of it, at the time the Jewish state is exercising the most devastating forms of crimes against humanity, the British Government, the British Parliament, the royal family and a major British academic institute are all caught together in bed with no less than a nuclear enthusiast butcher.

I am rather impressed. More than ever I am proud to be British. Such an embracing openness towards wickedness is probably the ultimate form of British kindness and forgiveness. This is something I have never seen in my homeland. Looking at Parliament, Miliband and the Royal family I must admit, I have much to learn about compassion before I become a genuine British subject."

Extrajudicial Assassinations As Official Israeli Policy

by Stephen Lendman
Global Research, November 19, 2008

"Extra-judicial killings are indefensible, morally abhorrent, and illegal under international laws and norms. Article 23b of the 1907 Hague Regulations prohibits "assassination, proscription, or outlawry of an enemy, or putting a price upon an enemy's head, as well as offering a reward for any enemy 'dead or alive.' "

Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." UDHR also recognizes the "inherent dignity (and the) equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family."

So do "just war" principles that rule out gratuitous violence, assassinations, especially if premeditated, war against civilians, and so on, despite the difficulties of distinguishing between combatants, those who've laid down their arms, and the innocent in times of war - let alone dealing with "terrorism" or what one analyst calls the "twilight zone between war and peace." Others say it's justifiable resistance or "blowback" in response to state-sponsored violence and other crimes of war and against humanity......

Extrajudicial Executions in the Latest Reporting Period - April - June 2008

During the period, the IOF conducted eight OPT assassinations killing a total of 16 people, including two civilian bystanders. Two operations were carried out in the West Bank. Six others in Gaza.

On April 14, an air-to-surface missile killed Ibrahim Mohanned Abu 'Olba, the National Resistance Brigades' (the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine's armed wing) leader in northern Gaza. Two civilians were also injured, including a 15-year old boy. In addition, a number of nearby houses were damaged.

On April 15, an air-to-surface missile killed Abdullah Mohammed al-Ghassain, an al-Quds Brigades' (the Islamic Jihad's armed wing) activist in northern Gaza. Three others were also injured.

On April 17, the IOF besieged a building in Qabatya village, southeast of Jenin in the northern West Bank. They opened fire at a civilian car, ordered people out of the building, and fired shells and demolished it with a bulldozer. Two dead Palestinians were found inside.

On April 20, an air-to-surface missile killed Nour al-Dibari in Gaza. A second missile targeted a number of Palestinians who just left a grocery shop. Its owner was seriously injured as well as his son. At least one other Palestinian was hurt as well.

On June 29, the IOF entered Tubas in the northern West Bank and set a cemetery ambush for a group of Palestinian children there throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at military vehicles. They opened fire and killed one 16-year old from multiple gunshots to the chest and abdomen.

PCHR "asserts that the Government of Israel continues to act recklessly, and with utter disregard for the human rights of the Palestinian people, including (their) right to life" and safety. Israel also fails "to meet its obligations under human rights law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention." An Israeli government representative wasn't available for comment. "

Yes We Con!

Change We Can Bank On

By Robert Scheer

"This is not change we can believe in. Not if Robert Rubin or his protégé, Lawrence Summers, get to call the shots on the economy in President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming administration....."

Click on cartoon by Mike Luckovich to enlarge

Crossing the Line looks at Obama's "change" for Palestine

Podcast, Crossing the Line, 19 November 2008

"This week on Crossing The Line: With a resounding victory, United States President-elect Barrack Hussein Obama made history on the evening of 4 November 2008. Running on the slogan "Change You Can Believe In," many are hoping that after eight years of the Bush administration, change has finally arrived. But what about change for the Palestinians and their untenable situation? What change can Obama bring to the world's longest-standing refugee population? We'll speak to Kathleen and Bill Christison both formerly with the US Central Intelligence Agency about this issue.

Also this week, almost immediately after securing the presidency, Barack Obama picked Rahm Emanuel, a staunch supporter of Israel, as his White House Chief of Staff. How will this appointment affect the promise of "change" that Obama campaigned on, and in particular, how will it affect the Palestinians? The Electronic Intifada co-founder and author Ali Abunimah will join us to talk about the president-elect's first appointment to his staff.

And as always, Crossing the Line begins with "This week in Palestine," a service provided by The International Middle East Media Center.

Listen Now [MP3 - 24 MB, 1:00:00 min]

Ramallah Palestinian Authority blocks website reporting on corruption

Report, The Electronic Intifada, 18 November 2008

"The Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah has blocked access to a popular news website because of the site's reporting on widespread corruption among the entourage of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

For several days, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been unable to view the website Donia al-Watan (http://www.alwatanvoice.com) as access has been blocked through the PA-controlled telecom company. Readers outside Palestine and a few inside the country using proxies are still able to access the site.

The Electronic Intifada confirmed that several users attempting to access the website in Ramallah and other parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank could not do so and instead saw a message in English stating "We are sorry, the site was blocked based on attorney General instructions [sic].".....

The blocking of Donia al-Watan appears to be the first time the PA has attempted to censor a website and may foreshadow even more extreme efforts to crack down on critics of a regime Palestinians increasingly view as little more than an arm of the Israeli occupation. "

IOF Pirates Off The Gaza Coast.....

URGENT: Kidnapped by the Israeli Navy

The Free Gaza Movement

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date : 11-18-2008

Fifteen Palestinian fishermen along with three internationals have been kidnapped in Palestinian waters by the Israeli Navy. They were fishing seven miles off the coast of Deir Al Balah, clearly in Gaza fishing waters and well within the fishing limit detailed in the Oslo Accords of 1994.

The fishermen and the human right's observers were transferred from 3 separate boats to the Israeli warships. Other Palestinian fishermen reported that the 3 boats were seen being taken north by the Israeli Navy.

The three internationals are Andrew Muncie from Scotland, Darlene Wallach from the United States and Victor Arrigoni from Italy. The U.K., U.S. and Italian embassies in Tel Aviv have been contacted and know about the abductions.

Please call the Israeli Ministry of Justice at +972 26 46 66 66 and register your outrage over these illegal actions by the Israeli Navy. Then call the Embassies in Jerusalem and make sure they know that many of us are appalled by Israel's illegal search and seizure.

Stephen Brown, UK Consulate +972 25 41 41 00
U.S. Consulate General + 972-2-6227230
Luigi MATTIOLO, Italian Ambassador +972 3 5104004...."

The Role of The Rabbit Windbag is Becoming Clearer and Clearer....

Report: UK, Syria Cooperating on Intelligence Matters

Al-Manar

"19/11/2008 Britain reestablished high-level intelligence links with the Syrian authorities as UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband made his landmark visit to Damascus on Tuesday, London-based The Times newspaper reported Wednesday, quoting senior Syrian officials.

According to the report, the move was first raised earlier this year at a New York meeting Miliband and his Syrian counterpart, Walid Muallem.

The Times said Britain hopes its cooperation with Syria will provide access to one of the best intelligence-gathering systems in the Middle East, in particular in tracking the movements of gunmen into Iraq and around the region.

“Miliband asked Muallem in New York whether he could reestablish intelligence links at a senior level” after lower level contacts, said a Syrian official involved in the matter. Following that meeting, the report said, Muallem invited Miliband to take intelligence officials with him on the trip to Damascus......."

Israel rebuffs call by UN Chief Ban to open Gaza crossings

"Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday rebuffed a call by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip through crossings Israel has largely sealed in two weeks of violence.

Asked by Army Radio about Ban's appeal and whether Israel intends to reopen the passages, Barak said: "No. There needs to be calm in order for the crossings to be opened." [The calm of the graves??]....."

Palestinian Split Deepens

Analysis by Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

"CAIRO, Nov 19 (IPS) - Palestinian resistance factions were roundly blamed in the mainstream media for their last-minute decision to boycott last week's Egypt-sponsored "comprehensive dialogue" summit, ostensibly aimed at Palestinian national reconciliation. But some independent commentators say the move, led by Gaza-based resistance faction Hamas, was justified.

"It's unreasonable to expect Hamas to hold 'dialogue' when the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) is persecuting its members in the West Bank," Magdi Hussein, secretary-general of Egypt's Islamist-leaning Labour Party, officially suspended since 2000, told IPS......

The Labour Party's Hussein, however, takes a different view, saying that Hamas's decision to boycott the summit -- given the circumstances -- was entirely justified.

"The Ramallah-based PA continues to arrest and torture Hamas members in the West Bank by the hundreds, while shutting down the group's offices and media organs," he said. "If Hamas attended the summit under such circumstances, it would be seen to be negotiating from a position of obvious weakness."

While much of the mainstream media has portrayed the Fatah-Hamas rift as an inter-Palestinian dispute, Hussein sees it more as a contest between "those resisting occupation and those cooperating with it."

"There is very close security coordination between Ramallah and Israel -- a fact made obvious by the ongoing arrest of Hamas members in the West Bank," he said. "There is also a measure of political coordination, evidenced by the long-standing siege of the Gaza Strip, in which the PA is tacitly complicit."

Hussein went on to support claims by Hamas that Fatah was "under orders" from the U.S. and Israel -- both of which call Hamas a "terrorist organisation" -- not to make peace with the resistance group.

"This can be seen by the fact that different reconciliation initiatives, sponsored by different countries, have all failed to bridge outstanding differences," he said, pointing to the 2007 Mecca Agreement, the 2008 Yemeni Initiative and the current round of Egyptian mediation.

"Unfortunately, those cooperating with the occupation say they're negotiating with Israel to realise Palestinian rights," added Hussein. "When, in actuality, the leadership in Ramallah belongs entirely to Israel and the U.S., and is fully incapable of independent decision-making.""

This Holocaust Will Not Be Televised

On Top of Humanitarian Disaster, A News Blackout

By Cherrie Heywood

A baby in Shifa hospital in Gaza struggles against illness and lack of medicines and electricity.

"RAMALLAH, West Bank, Nov 18 (IPS) - Israel has imposed a virtual news blackout on the Gaza Strip. For the last ten days no foreign journalists have been able to enter the besieged territory to report on the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's complete closure of Gaza's borders for the last two weeks.

Steve Gutkin, the AP bureau chief in Jerusalem and head of Israel's Foreign Press Association, said that he personally "knows of no foreign journalist that has been allowed into Gaza in the last week."

Gutkin said that "while Israel has barred foreign press from entering Gaza in the past, the length of the current ban makes it unprecedented." He added that he has received no "plausible or acceptable" explanation for the ban from the Israeli government.

AP has relied on reports from two of its journalists who were able to enter Gaza days before the closure began and are currently stuck there.

A delegation of European Union parliamentarians was also prevented from entering Gaza to assess the situation on the ground and to hold talks with Hamas leaders. They subsequently broke the naval siege of Gaza by entering the coast's territorial waters from Cyprus by boat, defying the Israeli navy......"

Rewarding War Crimes

By Robert Dreyfuss
The Nation

"A doddering old former US secretary of state wants President-elect Obama to do more than keep Robert Gates on a secretary of defense. He suggests that Obama ought to retain W.'s policy of preventive, unilateral military assaults on, well, anyone we don't like.

No, it's not Henry Kissinger. George Shultz, who served under President Reagan, in an interview with the Washington Times, said that Bush's "doctrine of pre-emptive defense against terrorism" was "a controversial but important idea," adding....."

What the Clinton Appointment Means

And why we won't see any change in American foreign policy

By Justin Raimondo

".....In any case, what I really mean to say is that our crazed foreign policy was a major reason why Americans gave Obama such a stunning victory. There's just one problem: our foreign policy is going to remain pretty much the same.

Say whaaaat?!

That's right: you heard me. No change in that department. Why is that, you ask? The reason is because the War Party has a strategy perfectly suited to solving their major problem, which is that they lack any kind of popular support, as the McCain campaign discovered to its horror. So instead of playing the game, they decided to rig it and greet the incoming Obama administration with a fait accompli.......

In order to understand how the sellout happened, however, let's rewind the tape. As luck would have it, the economy's collapse occurred just at the high point of the general election campaign. This was a big break for the War Party: it meant, first of all, that the focus was taken off two losing wars – their gift to the new president. It also meant that the incoming president would have his hands full with domestic issues. People are losing their jobs, their homes, and their minds; this is no time to worry about the fate of South Ossetia. Indeed, the problems of the U.S. economy – and the global market – are so overwhelming, that certainly President Obama will have to make them his first and virtually sole concern from the moment he's sworn in.....

Obama, however, being the consummate politician that he is, had a solution: hand foreign policy over to the Clintons. Cede Hillary the international arena – his area of greatest weakness – and use her connections to his own advantage. This would free him to roll up his sleeves and tackle the great problem of how to kick-start America's economic engine......."

Succession of Rule in the Arab World
Power is Inherited.....

By Emad Hajjaj (Abu Mahjoob)

موسى: لا مانع من انضمام إسرائيل لجامعة الدول العربية بشروط

موسى: لا مانع من انضمام إسرائيل لجامعة الدول العربية بشروط
"لندن ـ القدس العربي:أعلن الامين العام للجامعة العربية عمرو موسى من العاصمة السورية دمشق، ان هناك وساطة تركية لمحاولة خلق آلية شرق أوسطية للتعامل، تضم بمقتضاها اسرائيل وايرن وتركيا وجامعة الدول العربية، وهو مايعني ضم اسرائيل الي جامعة الدول العربية.

وأبدت أطراف فلسطينية استياءها الشديد من الطرح التركي، وأعربوا عن رغبتهم في عدم مناقشة هذا الطلب الغريب الا بعد إعلان دولة فلسطينية مستقلة عاصمتها القدس.

وحسب صحيفة "الوفد" المصرية المعارضة، فقد وافق موسي على الاعتراضات الفلسطينية، وأكد بدوره ان هذا لن يتم الا بعد موافقة اسرائيل علي مبادرة السلام العربية وإعلان قيام دولة فلسطينية عاصمتها القدس.

ويأتي الطرح التركي مع قبول موسي المبدئي عليه متوافقا مع مبادرة السلام العربية، التي طرحتها المملكة العربية السعودية في قمة لبنان ونالت موافقة جماعية من القمة العربية.

وتقدم المبادرة لإسرائيل سلاما شاملا وتطبيعا كاملا في مختلف المجالات ومن قبل مختلف الدول، نظير قبول اسرائيل لمبادرة السلام، وإعادتها للأرض العربية المحتلة، والعودة الى حدود 67 وقيام دولة فلسطينية مستقلة عاصمتها القدس المحتلة."