The Corner Report

US-backed security operations in the West Bank reinforce bitter political divide.

Speaking before a House of Representatives subcommittee in 2007, (US Lt.-General Keith) Dayton described the project as "truly important to advance our national interests, deliver security to Palestinians, and preserve and protect the interests of the state of Israel".

By Jon Elmer in Bethlehem

Abu Abdullah has never been charged with a crime, but he has been arrested by Palestinian security forces so many times in the past two years that he has lost count.

He has been arrested at work, in the market, on the street, and, more than once, during violent raids by masked men who burst into his home and seized him in front of his family.

Deep in the heart of the Deheishe refugee camp on the outskirts of Bethlehem, Abu Abdullah describes in detail the beatings he has endured in custody, the numerous cold, sleepless nights in cramped and filthy cells, the prolonged periods bound in painful stress positions, and the long hours of aggressive questioning.

"The interrogations always begin the same way," Abu Abdullah explains. "They demand to know who I voted for in the last election."

Allegations of misconduct have been made against Palestinian security services [GALLO/GETTY]

Abu Abdullah is not alone. Since Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's caretaker government took power in Ramallah in June 2007, stories like Abu Abdullah's have become commonplace in the West Bank.

The arrests are part of a wider plan being executed by Palestinian security forces - trained and funded by American and European backers - to crush opposition and consolidate the Fatah-led government's grip on power in the West Bank.

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Al Ahram

Tel Aviv's recent rhetoric is further proof that Israel cannot exist outside the cycle of perpetual war, writes Ramzy Baroud*

The Israeli military may be much less effective in winning wars than it was in the past, thanks to the stiffness of Arab resistance, but its military strategists are as shrewd and unpredictable as ever. The recent rhetoric that escalated in Israel suggests that a future war in Lebanon will most likely target Syria as well. While this doesn't necessarily mean that Israel intends on targeting either of these countries in the near future, it is certainly the type of language that often precedes Israeli military manoeuvres.

Deciphering the available clues regarding the nature of Israel's immediate military objectives is not always easy, but it is possible. One indicator that could serve as a foundation for any serious prediction of Israel's actions is Israel's historical tendency to be in a perpetual state of war. Peace -- real peace -- has never been a long-term policy.

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Al Ahram

The bodies of the famous five Palestinian siblings from the Baalusha family, following an Israeli air strike overnight in the Jabalia refugee camp, on 29 December 2008

Israel's vicious counter-campaign against the UN fact-based report on its war on Gaza continues as the time approaches when further action will be considered, writes Amira Howeidy

On Monday, 1 February, the Israeli media reported that the commander of the Israeli army's Gaza division, Brigadier General Eyal Eizenberg, and the commander of the Givati Brigade, Colonel Ilan Malka, were "disciplined" for authorising the shelling of a United Nations facility with white phosphorous during Israel's war on the Gaza Strip that started in December 2008 and lasted for 22 days.

During that onslaught the Israeli military killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, and wounded or maimed approximately 5,000. Israel destroyed at least 2,000 buildings in addition to significant sectors of Gaza's infrastructure. Besieged by the Israeli occupation since June 2007, the Strip's 1.5 million population is denied construction material -- in addition to adequate food, medical and energy supplies -- and has not been able to repair the damage since.

Known as Operation Cast Lead, the Gaza assault was Israel's seventh and latest war in the region. It stands out for its shocking brutality. The Israeli army's liberal use of white phosphorous munitions in densely populated areas meant that hundreds of Palestinian civilians were subject to the lethal chemical that burns flesh to the bone once in contact with oxygen.

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Al Ahram

Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh

Israel's assassination of a top Hamas official is clearly aimed at forcing the resistance group into a military response, writes Saleh Al-Naami

The ageing father of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, who was assassinated in Dubai two weeks ago, did not believe that his son died of a heart attack. "They killed him," he repeatedly stated.

In the beginning, the rest of Al-Mabhouh's family and Hamas leaders believed that he had died as a result of a stroke, as stated in a preliminary report by the Dubai police. It soon became apparent, however, that the intuition of the father was correct.

One week after his death, it was revealed that Al-Mabhouh was killed by a highly trained assassination unit. According to information gathered by the Dubai police and Hamas, a group of seven broke into Al-Mabhouh's room at the Rotana Al-Bustan Hotel the day he arrived from Damascus where he resided with his family. Al-Mabhouh had entered the emirate using an alias and forged passport.

The group of seven injected the Hamas leader with a poison that mimics the symptoms of a heart attack, leading Dubai police to believe his death was caused by a stroke. When it was revealed that the victim was a leading member in Hamas, and given the repeated suspicions of his father that Mahmoud was assassinated by Israelis, the police sent samples of Al-Mabhouh's blood to a laboratory in France. After the results confirmed traces of poison, Hamas officially announced that the Israeli Mossad killed Al-Mabhouh.

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Al Ahram

His political credibility wagered on the peace process, Palestinian President Abbas is not coping well with Israel's perpetual intransigence, writes Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah

With the Obama administration effectively reneging on pledges to get Israel to freeze settlement expansion in the West Bank, or even abide by the outdated "roadmap" peace plan, Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas is finding himself in an increasingly unenviable position.

Abbas had been insisting all along that he wouldn't agree to resume talks with Israel unless the latter agreed to halt settlement expansion in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem. However, in recent weeks, the Palestinian leader has been signalling that he may return to the negotiating table virtually without conditions.

In an interview that appeared on Sunday 31 January on The Guardian website, Abbas was quoted as saying that he would be prepared to resume face-to-face talks with Israel if the latter froze all settlement construction for three months and accepted the borders of 4 June 1967. "These are not preconditions; they are requirements in the roadmap. If they are not prepared to do that, it means they don't want a political solution."

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By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

Writing in the Ha’aretz newspaper on Thursday, 28 January, under the title “holocaust remembrance is a boon for Israeli propaganda,” the noted Israeli journalist Gideon Levy accused Israel of employing the holocaust memory as a Public Relations gimmick to divert attention from the savagery and brutality meted out to the Palestinians.

“When the world is talking Goldstone, we talk Holocaust, as if out to blur the impression. When the world talks occupation, we’ll talk Iran as if we wanted them to forget.”

But Levy, like many other conscientious observers, knows this won’t help the Israeli goal of making the world forget the Palestinians, or more specifically what Israel has done and is doing to them.

“It won’t help much. Inter national Holocaust Remembrance has passed, the speeches will soon be forgotten, and the depressing everyday reality will remain. Israel will not come out looking good, even after the PR campaign.”

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Hamas has denounced the Palestinian Authority for the participation of the caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in an Israeli conference.

Fayyad addressed Israel's 10th annual Herzilya conference on Tuesday, following remarks by Tel Aviv's Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

"The Palestinian Authority's cooperation with Israel reached a political level and this is a serious indicator that this national side has connected its projects with Israeli interests and policies," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.

The conference, organized by the Strategic Studies Institute, is held annually in Israel and contributes to decisions on Israeli policy and strategy relating to security and politics.

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GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian government in Gaza submitted its official response to the office of the high commissioner for human rights regarding the recommendations of Goldstone report.

This came during a meeting between minister of justice Faraj Al-Ghoul and director of OHCHR in Gaza Curt Goering.

Minister Ghoul said that the government took many serious measures to implement its obligations toward the report such as the formation of a governmental committee to follow up the implementation of the recommendations mentioned in the report.

It also referred to the formation of an independent committee composed of international law experts in order to ensure the transparency and integrity of the actions taken.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en

By KATHLEEN CHRISTISON

The essential point of M. Shahid Alam’s book, Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism, comes clear upon opening the book to the inscription in the frontispiece. From the Persian poet and philosopher Rumi, the quote reads, “You have the light, but you have no humanity. Seek humanity, for that is the goal.”

Alam, professor of economics at Northeastern University in Boston and a CounterPunch contributor, follows this with an explicit statement of his aims in the first paragraph of the preface. Asking and answering the obvious question, “Why is an economist writing a book on the geopolitics of Zionism?” he says that he “could have written a book about the economics of Zionism, the Israeli economy, or the economy of the West Bank and Gaza, but how would any of that have helped me to understand the cold logic and the deep passions that have driven Zionism?”

Until recent years, the notion that Zionism was a benign, indeed a humanitarian, political movement designed for the noble purpose of creating a homeland and refuge for the world’s stateless, persecuted Jews was a virtually universal assumption. In the last few years, particularly since the start of the al-Aqsa intifada in 2000, as Israel’s harsh oppression of the Palestinians has become more widely known, a great many Israelis and friends of Israel have begun to distance themselves from and criticize Israel’s occupation policies, but they remain strong Zionists and have been at pains to propound the view that Zionism began well and has only lately been corrupted by the occupation. Alam demonstrates clearly, through voluminous evidence and a carefully argued analysis, that Zionism was never benign, never good—that from the very beginning, it operated according to a “cold logic” and, per Rumi, had “no humanity.” Except perhaps for Jews, which is where Israel’s and Zionism’s exceptionalism comes in.

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Avigdor Lieberman

BETHLEHEM -- Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family on Thursday, speaking at a business forum hosted by Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan University.

"If you declare war on Israel, you and your family will lose your reign," he said, according to a statement circulated by the university, which is considered among the more right-wing institutions in Israel.

Lieberman was referring to a comment made yesterday by the Syrian president that Israel is not serious about its intentions to make peace with Damascus, as evidenced by "its conduct which is leading the region to war."

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The National

By Wafa Issa

DUBAI -- The Israeli prime minister would be at the top of the wanted list if the Israeli foreign intelligence service, Mossad, is behind the killing of a senior Hamas official who was found dead in a hotel in the city last month, the chief of Dubai Police said today.

Lt Gen, Dahi Khalfan Tamim told The National: “Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will be the first to be wanted for justice as he would have been the one who signed the decision to assassinate [Mahmoud] al Mabhouh in Dubai. We will issue an arrest warrant against him."

He did not, however, assert that Mossad was definitively responsible for the killing.

Lt Gen Tamim had said the method used to kill Mr al Mabhouh, was a “Mossad method” but did not elaborate.

He added that Mossad “has carried out operations” in the past using similar procedures. Dubai Police had also earlier said only that the involvement of Mossad could not be ruled out.

Nearly 50,000 Palestinians from the West Bank are working in Israel – following the easing of restrictions on entering Israel under the “economic peace” promised by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister – and continue to have such contributions docked from their pay.

By Jonathan Cook
February 04. 2010

OCCUPIRED JERUSALEM -- Over the past four decades Israel has defrauded Palestinians working inside Israel of more than US$2 billion (Dh7.4bn) by deducting from their salaries contributions for welfare benefits to which they were never entitled, Israeli economists revealed this week.

A new report, “State Robbery”, says the “theft” continued even after the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994 and part of the money was supposed to be transferred to a special fund on behalf of the workers.

According to information supplied by Israeli officials, most of the deductions from the workers’ pay were invested in infrastructure projects in the Palestinian territories – a presumed reference to the massive state subsidies accorded to the settlements.

Complicit in the deception, the report adds, is the Histadrut, the Israeli labour federation, which levies a monthly fee on Palestinian workers, even though they are not entitled to membership and are not represented in labour disputes.

“This is a clear-cut case of theft from Palestinian workers on a grand scale,” said Shir Hever, a Jerusalem-based economist and one of the authors of the report. “There are no reasons for Israel to delay in returning this money either to the workers or their beneficiaries.”

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By George Friedman

This weekend’s newspapers were filled with stories about how the United States is providing ballistic missile defense (BMD) to four countries on the Arabian Peninsula. The New York Times carried a front-page story on the United States providing anti-missile defenses to Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman, as well as stationing BMD-capable, Aegis-equipped warships in the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, the front page of The Washington Post carried a story saying that “the Obama administration is quietly working with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf allies to speed up arms sales and rapidly upgrade defenses for oil terminals and other key infrastructure in a bid to thwart future attacks by Iran, according to former and current U.S. and Middle Eastern government officials.”

Obviously, the work is no longer “quiet.” In fact, Washington has been publicly engaged in upgrading defensive systems in the area for some time. Central Command head Gen. David Petraeus recently said the four countries named by the Times were receiving BMD-capable Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) batteries, and at the end of October the United States carried out its largest-ever military exercises with Israel, known as Juniper Cobra.

More interesting than the stories themselves was the Obama administration’s decision to launch a major public relations campaign this weekend regarding these moves. And the most intriguing question out of all this is why the administration decided to call everyone’s attention to these defensive measures while not mentioning any offensive options.

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Jamal Zahalka: 'There is a growing trend towards anti-democratic legislation.'

By Jonathan Cook - Nazareth

Leaders of the Arab minority in Israel warned this week that they were facing an unprecedented campaign of persecution, backed by the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, designed to stop their political activities.

The warning came after Said Nafaa, a Druze member of the Israeli parliament was stripped of his immunity last week, clearing the way for him to be tried for a visit to Syria three years ago.

In recent weeks legal sanctions have been invoked against two other Arab political leaders, following clashes with the Israeli security forces at demonstrations against the occupation, and pressure is growing for two more MPs to be investigated.

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Maan News

Al-Masri / Haniyeh [MaanImages]

GAZA – De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Wednesday that reconciliation is a national necessity, speaking at a meeting with businessman Munib Al-Masri in Gaza City.

Welcoming Fatah leader Nabil Sha'ath, who arrived the same afternoon, Haniyeh asserted that Gaza "is open for all."

"We are talking about practical procedures and agreed-upon views concerning notes and procedures that would lead us to sign the Egyptian proposal, with which we would achieve a real conciliation to end division," Haniyeh said.

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The Independent http://tinyurl.com/yf7u956

When a United Nations report by the South African judge Richard Goldstone accused the Israeli military of using disproportionate force in its December 2008 Gaza incursion, the Israeli government rejected the findings as "flawed from A to Z", "biased" and "ludicrous".

But now significant cracks are opening in that facade of rejection. Last week, the Israeli government sent a document to the UN revealing that it had reprimanded two officers for firing artillery shells at a UN compound in Gaza where 700 Palestinian civilians were taking refuge. The document also claimed that Israeli military inquiries had found that the al-Badr flour mill in Gaza did not come under air attack in the operation, contradicting the Goldstone report which said the mill was attacked from the air. Yet it has since emerged that a bomb defused last year at the mill was of the sort commonly dropped by F-16 jets.

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The Independent http://tinyurl.com/yzrry6y

An Israeli soldier directs a tank outside the Gaza Strip in December 2008

Civilians 'put at greater risk to save military lives' in winter attack - revelations that will pile pressure on Netanyahu to set up full inquiry

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem

A high-ranking officer has acknowledged for the first time that the Israeli army went beyond its previous rules of engagement on the protection of civilian lives in order to minimise military casualties during last year's Gaza war, The Independent can reveal.

The officer, who served as a commander during Operation Cast Lead, made it clear that he did not regard the longstanding principle of military conduct known as "means and intentions" – whereby a targeted suspect must have a weapon and show signs of intending to use it before being fired upon – as being applicable before calling in fire from drones and helicopters in Gaza last winter. A more junior officer who served at a brigade headquarters during the operation described the new policy – devised in part to avoid the heavy military casualties of the 2006 Lebanon war – as one of "literally zero risk to the soldiers".

Palestinian boys carry their belongings through the ruins of a house after an Israeli air strike in 2008

The officers' revelations will pile more pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to set up an independent inquiry into the war, as demanded in the UN-commissioned Goldstone Report, which harshly criticised the conduct of both Israel and Hamas. One of Israel's most prominent human rights lawyers, Michael Sfard, said last night that the senior commander's acknowledgement – if accurate – was "a smoking gun".

=> Read more!

Wednesday, 3 February 2010, 1:22 pm
Opinion: Michele Steinberg

Prof. Francis Boyle: Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza
by Michele Steinberg

Jan. 27--``What we're seeing in Gaza now, is pretty much slow-motion genocide against the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in Gaza.... If you read the 1948 Genocide Convention, it clearly says that one instance of genocide is the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a people in whole or in part,'' stated Francis A. Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois in Champaign. ``And that's exactly what has been done to Gaza, since the imposition of the blockade by Israel; then the massacre of 1,400 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were civilians, in Operation Cast Lead. And that also raises the element in the Genocide Convention, of murder, torture, and things of that nature.''
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Boyle spoke to {EIR} on Jan. 15, 2010, giving his assessment of Gaza, one year after the Israeli attacks. He stressed that he was speaking only for himself.

While the Israelis stopped the artillery bombardment and air strikes just before the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009, the deaths of Palestinians continue--from lack of medicines, infrastructure, clean water, and everything else that the world community--as shown in emergency aid to Haiti--{knows} is necessary to sustain human life.

But no international action has been taken to stop genocide in Gaza--despite the finding by the UN's Goldstone Report that Israel committed war crimes in the wanton destruction of civilian infrastructure, and in the killing of civilians, and despite the Jan. 21, 2010 letter by more than 50 members of the U.S. Congress to President Obama that due to ``the unabated suffering of Gazan civilians,'' he must press to end the Israeli blockade.

Similarly, according to Turkish Prof. Bulent Aras, there is almost no hope for a peace agreement, or for ending the growing isolation of Israel from the international community, unless Gaza is opened and reconstruction begins. Aras was speaking on a Jan. 14 conference call, sponsored by the Turkish SETA and New America Foundations in Washington, D.C. He was addressing the recent tensions between Israel and Turkey after the Israeli Foreign Ministry insulted the Turkish ambassador, and on the collapse of the Turkish-mediated Israel/Syria negotiations, which ended with the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

According to Boyle, the question of the Gaza opening must be immediately taken up by the Obama Administration. ``We need all the openings to Gaza, the crossings from Egypt and Israel, opened immediately. {Massive} provision of humanitarian assistance, medical supplies to Gaza--exactly what Obama's doing today, with respect to Haiti--I support that! But why aren't they doing it to Gaza? You have 1.5 million people over there.

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President needs dramatic gesture to change perception of him as lightweight ideologue, says Zionist ideologue

How to save the Obama presidency - bomb Iran
By Daniel Pipes
I do not customarily offer advice to a president whose election I opposed, whose goals I fear and whose policies I work against. But here is a way for Barack Obama to salvage his tottering administration by taking a step that protects the US and its allies.

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www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=12076

By Victor Thorn – American Free Press

“His explosives couldn’t have blown up his own seat. Even if full power, it wouldn’t have worked.” These were the words relayed to me during a Jan. 2 interview with military analyst and counterinsurgency specialist Gordon Duff in regard to the attempt of Christmas Day underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab [sometimes referred to as Abdulmutallab] to ignite 80 grams of the explosive PETN on a flight destined for America. He also explained how the patsy’s country of origin, Nigeria, is clandestinely controlled by the Israeli army and Mossad.

These entities train the military, sell weapons, run the airports, and wield power over DICON (Defense Industries Corporation). Furthermore, Mutallab’s father is a Mossad partner and Israel’s No. 1 contact in Nigeria. As the former CEO of his country’s most influential bank and the man who ran their national arms industry, Mr. Mutallab also harbors extremely close relationships with the U.S. ambassador and CIA chief in Nigeria.

On Nov. 19, 2009, Mutallab supposedly felt so alarmed about his errant son’s behavior that he met with the CIA’s station chief in Nigeria. Duff describes the father in a Dec. 31 article for Veterans Today as “one of the richest people in the world, head of a major bank, head of the national armaments industry, and close associate of the U.S. ambassador,” as well as being a Mossad asset. Yet we’re to believe that nobody prevented his Yemeni-influenced “terrorist” son from boarding a plane ultimately bound for Detroit?

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The Israeli offensive left up to 1,400 Palestinians dead, many of them women and children [AFP]

IN DEPTH
Gaza's phosphorus legacy
UN releases Gaza attack photos
War crimes convictions after Gaza?
Video: Gaza speaks out on white phosphorus use

The Israeli army has disciplined two high-ranking officers for firing artillery shells at populated areas during the Gaza offensive last year, according to local media.

The Haaretz newspaper website said on Monday that a military inquiry concluded that a division commander and a brigade commander endangered human life by firing highly incendiary weapons towards a compound run by a UN aid agency.

But the Israeli military spokesman's office said the army had reprimanded Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg and Brigade Commander Ilan Malka for using artillery in built-up areas - and not for using white phosphorous weapons.

"With respect to exploding munitions containing white phosphorous, the Military Advocate General concluded that the use of this weapon in the operation was consistent with Israel's obligations under international law", the military office statement said.

However, the army does not dispute that white phosphorous was used in Gaza and has submitted its report to the UN.

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Jews for Justice for Palestinians

The Inevitable Bi-national Regime
by Meron Benvenisti

The occupation of the territories in 1967 resulted from military action, but the military element quickly became secondary, while the “civilian” component,-settlements,-became the dominant factor, subjugating the military to its needs and turning the security forces into a militia in the service of the Jewish ethnic group. Eventually, settlements themselves were no longer as meaningful as they once had been.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the very fact of building and populating settlements at any given spot in the territories played a vital role in the creation of political faits accomplis. Those who planted the settlements in the Katif Block in the Gaza strip, or in the heart of Samaria and northern Judea, assumed that the Palestinians would forever remain submissive; otherwise, how could one explain the logic of establishing Jewish islands in the heart of Arab populations? The settlers argued that from the very beginning, Zionism flew in the face of reality. It succeeded, they said, precisely because it ignored reality. Therefore, the demographic and geographic arguments used against the settlers evaporated in the fervor of their fantasies.

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Haaretz

By Gideon Levy, Haaretz Correspondent

Looking at the way the right acts makes one go green with envy and want to learn from them. Four hundred criminal cases opened against opponents of the 2005 Gaza Strip disengagement, people who threw oil, acid, garbage and stones at soldiers and police, were closed last week and their criminal record expunged. Fifty-one MKs voted in favor of the closure, nine against. That is the true map of Israeli politics (and society). Only about seven percent of the lawmakers believed that this was a worthless and dangerous decision. All the rest agreed with it, or did not bother to vote or take an interest.

Neither did anyone think to apply a similar rule to 800 protesters against Operation Cast Lead, who were arrested and charged, perhaps because they are Arabs, nor to the dozens arrested for protesting in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, perhaps because they are leftists. Left-wing demonstrators never acted as violently as the settlers do, but no one thinks about pardoning them. Not even a semblance of equality before the law, not even the appearance of justice for all - that is unnecessary in a place where public shame no longer exists.

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Most of the West Bank is under rule which amounts to apartheid by paper

"Palestine" is no more. Call it a "peace process" or a "road map"; blame it on Barack Obama's weakness, his pathetic, childish admission – like an optimistic doctor returning a sick child to its parents without hope of recovery – that a Middle East peace was "more difficult" to reach than he imagined.

But the dream of a "two-state" Israeli-Palestinian solution, a security-drenched but noble settlement to decades of warfare between Israelis and Palestinians is as good as dead.

Both the United States and Europe now stand idly by while the Israeli government effectively destroys any hope of a Palestinian state; even as you read these words, Israel's bulldozers and demolition orders are destroying the last chance of peace; not only in the symbolic centre of Jerusalem itself but – strategically, far more important – in 60 per cent of the vast, biblical lands of the occupied West Bank, in that largest sector in which Jews now outnumber Muslims two to one.

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NASSER ISHTAYEH / AP
Palestinian women huddle amid their belongings after Israeli forces demolished their homes in the West Bank village of Khirbet Tana, near Nablus earlier this month

In the richest of the Occupied lands, Israeli bureaucracy is driving Palestinians out of their homes. Robert Fisk reports from Jiftlik

Area C doesn't sound very ominous. A land of stone-sprinkled grey hills and soft green valleys, it's part of the wreckage of the equally wrecked Oslo Agreement, accounting for 60 per cent of the Israeli-occupied West Bank that was eventually supposed to be handed over to its Palestinian inhabitants.

But look at the statistics and leaf through the pile of demolition orders lying on the table in front of Abed Kasab, head of the village council in Jiftlik, and it all looks like ethnic cleansing via bureaucracy. Perverse might be the word for the paperwork involved. Obscene appear to be the results.

Palestinian houses that cannot be permitted to stand, roofs that must be taken down, wells closed, sewage systems demolished; in one village, I even saw a primitive electricity system in which Palestinians must sink their electrical poles cemented into concrete blocks standing on the surface of the dirt road. To place the poles in the earth would ensure their destruction – no Palestinian can dig a hole more than 40cm below the ground.

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The report says the US asked other countries to interrogate prisoners on its behalf [GALLO/GETTY]

By Andrew Wander

Governments around the world, including those of Arab and European states, have colluded in the secret detention of terrorism suspects, UN investigators have reported.

An extensive report, released on Wednesday, paints a disturbing picture of a systematic secret detention programme involving many countries.

Officials found that secret detention "may even amount to a crime against humanity".

The 222-page document, which will be presented at a forthcoming meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, is the result of several years of investigation, and notes that secret detention is "a manifold human rights violation that cannot be justified under any circumstances".

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NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Sometime between 3-10 January 2009, Israeli army vehicles carved a Star of David measuring 60 meters into the soil of the southern Gaza Strip, according to a UN report released over the summer.

The issue was raised by South African jurist Richard Goldstone during an appearance on Wednesday at Yale University.

A publication issued by the UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT), published by the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), includes an apparent satellite image of the symbol.

According to the UN report, "not only do the ground signatures include tank tracks across cultivated fields and paved roads, but also a Star of David measuring 60m in diameter carved into the soil likely by IDF vehicles. It is important to note that this pattern was created during the first week of the IDF ground incursion into Gaza, sometime between 3-10 January 2009."

To read the United Nations Institute for Training and Reseach report click here

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By Cnaan Liphshiz

Swedish Jews are upset about comments made this week by the mayor of Malmo, who said anti-Semitism and Zionism were both forms of "unacceptable extremism," and urged local Jews to disassociate themselves from Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip.

"These statements and other events in Malmo are making the Jewish community feel very uncomfortable and some people, especially the young, are leaving the city," George Braun, the president of the Jewish community in Gothenburg, about 250 kilometers from Malmo, told Haaretz.

Ilmar Reepalu, mayor of Malmo, Sweden's third largest city, spoke in an interview published in a Swedish newspaper on Wednesday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. "We accept neither Zionism nor anti-Semitism," Reepalu said. "They are extremes who put themselves above other groups, seeing others as something lesser."

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Report comes as security official says wouldn't rule out chance that Mossad was behind January 20 killing.

The son of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh carrying his father's coffin at his funeral earlier this week. (AP)

By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent

Dubai police have a lead in the investigation of the assassination of Hamas strongman Mahmoud al-Mabhouh earlier this week, the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat reported Saturday.

The report comes as the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television quoted a senior Dubai security official as saying that he wouldn't rule out the possibility that Israeli intelligence was behind the January 20 assassination. Al-Mabhouh is believed to have been involved in the abduction and murder of two Israelis soldiers in 1989.

In another possible attempt to tie Israel with al-Mabhouh's assassination, On Friday, top Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar told Al Jazeera that it was possible that members of the entourage of an Israeli ministry were involved in the incident.

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Report comes as security official says wouldn't rule out chance that Mossad was behind January 20 killing.

The son of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh carrying his father's coffin at his funeral earlier this week. (AP)

By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent

Dubai police have a lead in the investigation of the assassination of Hamas strongman Mahmoud al-Mabhouh earlier this week, the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat reported Saturday.

The report comes as the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television quoted a senior Dubai security official as saying that he wouldn't rule out the possibility that Israeli intelligence was behind the January 20 assassination. Al-Mabhouh is believed to have been involved in the abduction and murder of two Israelis soldiers in 1989.

In another possible attempt to tie Israel with al-Mabhouh's assassination, On Friday, top Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar told Al Jazeera that it was possible that members of the entourage of an Israeli ministry were involved in the incident.

=> Read more!

China says the deal 'seriously endangers' its national security and reunification efforts with Taiwan [EPA]

Beijing has suspended military exchanges with the US over Washington's plan to sell arms to Taiwan, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The decision was announced on Saturday, just hours after the US was cautioned that its decision to sell $6.4bn worth of weapons to Taiwan would cause "serious damage" to relations and co-operation between the two nations.

He Yafei, the Chinese vice-foreign minister, told Jon Huntsman, the US ambassador to China, that the arms deal could jeopardise bonds with Washington.

The sale "constitutes a gross intervention into China's internal affairs, seriously endangers China's national security and harms China's peaceful reunification efforts", Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, quoted He as saying.

"The US plan will definitely undermine China-US relations and bring about serious negative impact on exchange and co-operation in major areas between the two countries."

Baodong said China "strongly urges the US side to fully recognise the gravity of the issue, revoke the erroneous decision on arms sales to Taiwan and stop selling any weapons to Taiwan".

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China says the deal 'seriously endangers' its national security and reunification efforts with Taiwan [EPA]

Beijing has suspended military exchanges with the US over Washington's plan to sell arms to Taiwan, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The decision was announced on Saturday, just hours after the US was cautioned that its decision to sell $6.4bn worth of weapons to Taiwan would cause "serious damage" to relations and co-operation between the two nations.

He Yafei, the Chinese vice-foreign minister, told Jon Huntsman, the US ambassador to China, that the arms deal could jeopardise bonds with Washington.

The sale "constitutes a gross intervention into China's internal affairs, seriously endangers China's national security and harms China's peaceful reunification efforts", Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, quoted He as saying.

"The US plan will definitely undermine China-US relations and bring about serious negative impact on exchange and co-operation in major areas between the two countries."

Baodong said China "strongly urges the US side to fully recognise the gravity of the issue, revoke the erroneous decision on arms sales to Taiwan and stop selling any weapons to Taiwan".

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Barak has promised that individual Israeli soldiers will not be indicted for war crimes [AFP]

Israel has submitted its response to a UN report that accused it of deliberately targeting civilians during last year's Gaza offensive, but sidestepped a key UN demand for an independent commission to investigate war crimes allegations.

Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, told reporters in the southern Negev desert on Friday that the report backed the army's actions during Operation Cast Lead, the 22-day Gaza war, which ended last January.

"All of the soldiers and officers whom we sent to battle need to know that the state of Israel stands behind them even on the day after," Barak said.

"The Goldstone Report is a distorted, false, and irresponsible report."

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By Tom Doggett and Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Thursday approved legislation that would let President Barack Obama impose sanctions on Iran's gasoline suppliers and penalize some of Tehran's elites, a move aimed at pressuring Tehran to give up its nuclear program.

The sanctions, approved on a voice vote, would target companies that export gasoline to Iran or help expand the country's oil-refining capacity by, in part, denying them loans and other assistance from U.S. financial institutions.

The House of Representatives has already passed similar legislation. Differences between the two bills will have to be worked out before the measure becomes law.

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Hamas's military wing has vowed to take revenge
for al-Mabhouh's death [AFP]

Hamas has claimed that one of its commanders was assassinated by Israeli agents in Dubai.

A statement by the Palestinian group, which controls the Gaza Strip, alleged on Friday that Israel had killed Mahmoud Abdul Raouf al-Mabhouh.

"We hold the enemy [Israel] responsible for the assassination of the Martyr al-Mabhouh, and the enemy will not escape punishment," a statement from the Hamas military wing, said.

The Dubai government said police were hunting a group of mostly European passport holders they believe to be behind the killing, but said they had left the country.

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Dina Ezzat examines the debate over the two walls on Egypt's eastern borders

"The security measures that we apply on our eastern borders fall strictly under the jurisdiction of Egyptian sovereignty and we accept no argument on this matter," President Hosni Mubarak said this week.

Speaking in a no-uncertain-terms tone, Mubarak could not have been clearer in dispelling any thoughts that Egypt would backtrack, or at least suspend, its plan to install underground steel plates across the 14km border with Gaza.

As Mubarak said, in an address Sunday to celebrate Police Day, Egypt will "move on with the intensified security measures." This, he added, is not about appeasing the US or Israel, as has been suggested in some national, regional and international quarters, but to fortify Egyptian security.

"Our top priority remains Egypt first and Egypt before anything else," the president stated, to the applause of a high-ranking police audience.

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Faced with a resurgent Al-Qaeda in Yemen the Obama administration seems to have learned nothing, writes Graham Usher in New York

On Thursday -- on the sidelines of the London International Conference on Afghanistan -- another, smaller meeting took place. Its focus was Yemen, a country that in recent months has loomed almost as large as Afghanistan on the fluid frontline of America's wars against Al-Qaeda or those Al-Qaeda inspires or enfranchises.

Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP) has been a "serious problem" for America throughout 2009, conceded President Barack Obama earlier this month. But it morphed into a national security danger after the discovery that Umar Farouk Abdel-Muttaleb -- the Nigerian who tried to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day -- had been trained and dispatched by AQAP in Yemen. The failed attack was "revenge" for recent raids by Yemeni armed forces aided by the United States, said an AQAP statement on 28 December.

And it was endorsed by Osama bin Laden in an audiotape aired by Al-Jazeera Arabic on 24 January. Entitled "From Osama to Obama", the Al-Qaeda leader said the Christmas Day attack "by the hero Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdel-Muttaleb" was "a confirmation of our previous message conveyed by the heroes of 11 September".

One year after the CIA pronounced Al-Qaeda's "near strategic defeat" on the borderlands between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda and allied groups seem resurgent, not only on the borderlands, but in North Africa, Somalia and Yemen.

The aim of the London meeting is to prevent Yemen from becoming "an incubator and safe haven for terrorists", said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In particular -- say diplomats -- foreign ministers from a dozen or so countries will try to agree a more coherent international response to the factors driving radicalism in Yemen.

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Blair said the intelligence convinced him it was necessary to stop Saddam Hussein [EPA]

Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has told an inquiry into the Iraq war that he has "no regrets" about removing Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi president, from power.

After facing six hours of questions on Friday, Blair said he felt "responsibility not regret", prompting angry shouts from the public gallery at the conference centre in London where the inquiry is taking place.

"I think he was a monster, I believe he threatened not just the region but the world ... and I do genuinely believe that the world is safer," Blair said.

Blair had earlier said that the pre-war intelligence convinced him it was necessary to stop Saddam Hussein, the then-Iraqi president, from developing weapons of mass destruction.

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From rich sounding promises, Obama's Israel-Palestine policy appears reduced to simply managing, not resolving, the conflict, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank

The conspicuous failure of the latest visit to the region by US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell raises questions as to the Obama administration's ability -- or even willingness -- to pressure Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian lands. Prior to his arrival, Mitchell was widely thought to be carrying "serious ideas" that would help resume stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

However, after meetings with both Palestinian and Israeli leaders, it became clear that the American envoy was near completely empty handed, and that he was succumbing to Israeli intransigence. Seeking to obscure his surrender to Israeli whims, Mitchell tried to cajole the increasingly vulnerable Palestinian leadership to resume the moribund peace process without receiving any guarantees that renewed talks would go anywhere.

Mitchell pressed the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel to start "low level talks" which he suggested might help leaders tackle the hard issues. However, in making such suggestions, Mitchell seemed to have forgotten that his proposal had been tried numerous times before but to no avail, mainly due to Israel's refusal to give up the spoils of the 1967 war.

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Israel has assassinated a senior Hamas military commander in Dubai, an official in the Palestinian Islamic resistance group said on Friday.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was assassinated on January 20 by Israel in Dubai, was killed by electric shock after an electrical appliance was held to his head and had already escaped several past attempts to kill him, according to his brother.

“The first results of a joint investigation by Hamas and the (United Arab) Emirates show he was killed by an electrical appliance that was held to his head,” Faiq al-Mabhouh told AFP by telephone.

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By Jeremy R. Hammond

Following is a list of United Nations Security Council resolutions directly critical of Israel for violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions, the U.N. Charter, the Geneva Conventions, international terrorism, or other violations of international law.

Res. 57 (Sep. 18, 1948) – Expresses deep shock at the assassination of the U.N. Mediator in Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, by Zionist terrorists.

Res. 89 (Nov. 17, 1950) – Requests that attention be given to the expulsion of “thousands of Palestine Arabs” and calls upon concerned governments to take no further action “involving the transfer of persons across international frontiers or armistice lines”, and notes that Israel announced that it would withdraw to the armistice lines.

Res. 93 (May 18, 1951) – Finds that Israeli airstrikes on Syria on April 5, 1951 constitutes “a violation of the cease-fire”, and decides that Arab civilians expelled from the demilitarized zone by Israel should be allowed to return.

Res. 100 (Oct. 27, 1953) – Notes that Israel had said it would stop work it started in the demilitarized zone on September 2, 1953.

Res. 101 (Nov. 24, 1953) – Finds Israel’s attack on Qibya, Jordan on October 14-15, 1953 to be a violation of the cease-fire and “Expresses the strongest censure of that action”.

Res. 106 (Mar. 29, 1955) – Condemns Israel’s attack on Egyptian forces in the Gaza Strip on February 28, 1955.

Res. 111 (Jan. 19, 1956) – Condemns Israel’s attack on Syria on December 11, 1955 as “a flagrant violation of the cease-fire” and armistice agreement.

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To read the letter, click here.

A number of US congressmen have written to President Barack Obama, urging him to pressure Israel to ease the blockade of the Gaza Strip over humanitarian concerns.

"We ask you to press for immediate relief for the citizens of Gaza as an urgent component of your broader Middle East peace efforts," said a letter signed by 54 lawmakers.

The impoverished coastal sliver has been under an Israeli blockade since June 2007. The siege has hampered the ability of relief agencies to distribute much needed aid amongst some 1.5 million people.

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Thanks, Howard, for more than we can begin to say.

Doctor Howard Zinn died of a heart attack on January 27, at the age of 87. A well-beloved figure, the author, historian, educator, and social-activist was best known for his tome, A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present. The telling of American history begins with vivid descriptions of the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the gruesome abuses they inflicted upon Native peoples. Skipping the well-known tales of American destiny, Zinn focused instead on the lesser-known epochs, the stories of the everyday people who struggled to build and mould their country.(Reference: The Examiner.com)

By Harvey Wasserman

Howard Zinn was above all a gentleman of unflagging grace, humility and compassion.

No American historian has left a more lasting positive legacy on our understanding of the true nature of our country, mainly because his books reflect a soul possessed of limitless depth.

Howard’s PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES will not be surpassed. As time goes on new chapters will be written in its spirit to extend its reach.

But his timeless masterpiece broke astonishing new ground both in its point of view and its comprehensive nature. The very idea of presenting the American story from the point of view of the common citizen was itself revolutionary. That he pulled it off with such apparent ease and readability borders on the miraculous. That at least a million Americans have bought and read it means that its on-going influence is immense. It is truly a history book that has and will continue to change history for the better.

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For the besieged Palestinians in Gaza, Erdogan is becoming a household name.

By Ramzy Baroud

Uri Avnery’s assessment of the recent Israeli-Turkish diplomatic and political row - that “the relationship between Turkey and Israel will probably return to normal, if not to its former degree of warmth” – seems sensible and daring. In my view, however, it is also inaccurate.

Simply put, there is just no going back.

In a recent article entitled “Israel Must Get Used to the New Turkey,” Suat Kiniklioðlu, Deputy Chairman of External Affairs for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) wrote, “Israel appears to be yearning for the golden 1990s, which were the product of a very specific situation in the region. Those days are over and are unlikely to come back even if the Justice and Development Party (AKP) ends up no longer being in government.”

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Photo from Getty Images

Instead of criticising Al Jazeera's coverage, the US government needs to learn the lessons of past humanitarian deployments, Bishara says.

By Marwan Bishara
January 28th, 2010

I could only shake my head in amazement when I learned that US assistant "secretary of state for public affairs'' (read information minister!) Phillip Crowley was unhappy with Aljazeera's converge of the disaster in Haiti.

Not that a news organisation should lose sleep over a government official - any government official's criticism. Rather, I was amazed by the flimsy excuse to attack Aljazeera English.

Appearing on Aljazeera to explain his characterisation of our coverage as "unfair and unbalanced", Crowley sounded paternalistic. He said he "supports" Aljazeera as an independent network and valued our presence in places like Haiti.

He seemed amused by Aljazeera's defensiveness towards his criticism that he said was pretty normal between governments and media outlets. What he left out, however, is why - out of all the networks - he chose to pick on Aljazeera per se.

Now that's not funny

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TAMPA, Fla. – President Barack Obama says he's working to get the Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks.

At a town hall meeting in Tampa, Fla. Thursday, Obama declined under questioning to condemn Israel for actions against the Palestinians. He said Israel is a strong U.S. ally and that he will never waver from helping Israel keep its people safe in a hostile Middle East.

But Obama also said the situation facing the Palestinian people is one that needs attention, too. He said he is seeking a solution in which Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace. But both parties must return to the bargaining table, and that is something Obama said he is working to achieve.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100128/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_mideast

The national

A member of the Bnei Menashe community paints Israeli flags on childrenís faces for the Israeli Independence Day in 2009. Michal Fattal / Getty Images

By Jonathan Cook

NAZARETH -- The Israeli government is reported to have quietly approved the fast-track immigration of 7,000 members of a supposedly “lost Jewish” tribe, known as the Bnei Menashe, currently living in a remote area of India.

Under the plan, the “lost Jews” would be brought to Israel over the next two years by right-wing and religious organisations who, critics are concerned, will seek to place them in West Bank settlements in a bid to foil Israel’s partial agreement to a temporary freeze of settlement growth.

A previous attempt to bring the Bnei Menashe to Israel was halted in 2003 by Avraham Poraz, the interior minister at the time, after it became clear that most of the 1,500 who had arrived were being sent to extremist settlements, including in the Gaza Strip and next to Hebron, the large Palestinian city in the West Bank.

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By Amira Hass

Israel, via the Interior Ministry, continues to spit in the face of friendly countries, and those countries continue to admire the falling raindrops. The ministry's most recent gob of spit was the cancellation of the work visas that citizens of those countries who are employed by international NGOs have been getting for years.

Instead, they will be given tourist visas that restrict their freedom of movement and activity. These people are usually employees of humanitarian organizations that operate among the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

In taking this step, Israel is declaring its contempt for international aid organizations, as well as its ingratitude, because it is these bodies that put out the fires ignited by Israel's discriminatory policies against the Palestinians in the territories. It is the governmental, public and private foundations from those friendly countries, mostly in the West, that fix the damage done by the occupation, both in the past and present.

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By FIDEL CASTRO

Two days after the catastrophe in Haiti, which destroyed that neighboring sister nation, I wrote:

“In the area of healthcare and others the Haitian people has received the cooperation of Cuba, even though this is a small and blockaded country. Approximately 400 doctors and healthcare workers are helping the Haitian people free of charge. Our doctors are working every day at 227 of the 237 communes of that country. On the other hand, no less than 400 young Haitians have been graduated as medical doctors in our country. They will now work alongside the reinforcement that traveled there yesterday to save lives in that critical situation. Thus, up to one thousand doctors and healthcare personnel can be mobilized without any special effort; and most are already there willing to cooperate with any other State that wishes to save Haitian lives and rehabilitate the injured.”

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Dr. Azizi Duweik, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council

By Khalid Amayreh

Recent statements by Palestinian Islamic leader Professor Aziz Duweik about the possibility of amending or even abandoning some clauses in Hamas’s charter have elicited a plethora of reactions in occupied Palestine and abroad. Some hostile groups have been quick to conclude that Hamas is now willing to recognize the legitimacy of Israel. Moreover, PA propaganda organs have deliberately twisted Duweik’s remarks, claiming that Hamas is finally following the footsteps of the PLO.

Well, the truth is that none of this is true since sidestepping or even abandoning the so-called “Hamas charter” should never be confused with the Islamic liberation movement’s principled stance on the Zionist entity.

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