The Corner Report

By STANLEY HELLER

Organized labor is joining with the NAACP in a “One Nation” jobs rally in Washington on October 2nd. No doubt they will be expecting anti-war folks to flock to it. Lots of peace organizations have already done so.

Trouble is the rally has no obvious peace focus at all. Look at the One Nation Working Together website. The demands are for jobs, education and equality for all. Nothing about peace even as a way to pay for jobs. Nothing about peace even though many, many unions have passed anti-war resolutions. Now there is a formation called “the Peace Table” that’s getting anti-war groups involved in the march, but what is “The Table” getting in return? Is it the poor relation allowed to come to the party as long as it stays out of sight?

And does organized labor deserve automatic support while it has a big war stain on its collar, the stain from the support its leaders give to Israeli Apartheid? They support it in two ways, by opposing the growing BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement against Israel and by buying huge amounts of Israel Bonds. No sooner had Richard Trumka taken over command of the national AFL-CIO than he ran to a Jewish Labor Committee denouncing Israel “bashing” and any thought of boycott. Go to the JLC website and see how RWDSU and AFT leaders give cover to Israel for its crimes on the Mavi Marmara. Yet, words are secondary. The biggest help to Israeli Apartheid comes from union member dues and pension money going to State of Israel Bonds.

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This is the most recent interview with Khaled Mesh’al who, since 1996, has been the Chairman of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Political Bureau. After the assassination of Hamas leader Abdul ‘Aziz Rantisi in 2004, Mesh’al became the overall leader of the movement.

In this interview with the Jordanian Al-Sabeel newspaper in July 2010, Mesh’al lays out the policy direction of Hamas on a number of critical issues: negotiations with Israel, international relations, Jews, Christians, women, among other issues. The interview – which was conducted over many hours – has been received as significant in the Arab world and is regarded as a clear indication of positions that Hamas wants to pursue, especially with regard to future attitudes towards Israel. It is an important piece articulating, in their own words, the perspectives of Hamas’ leaders, and is critical reading for all observers of the Middle East, and all policy-makers for whom the Middle East is important. The Afro-Middle East Centre (AMEC) translated this interview into English to make it accessible to a wider audience, and allow for greater understanding – especially in the English-speaking world – of the political perspectives of a movement which has become one of the most important role-players in the Middle East today.

On negotiations

Do you reject, in principle, negotiations with the enemy? If negotiations could not be conducted with the enemy, is it possible to do so with a friend? Does Hamas reject the principle of negotiations outright, or do you reject its form, conduct and results?

This is definitely a thorny and sensitive issue, and many people prefer to avoid any discussion of it, and tend not to take any clear position on it for fear of negative reactions or misinterpretations. The sensitive and critical nature of this issue is compounded by the dark shadows that are cast as a result of the bitter experiences of Palestinian-Israeli and Arab-Israeli negotiations. People are influenced by these experiences, and are extremely sensitive towards the idea of “negotiations”, particularly with regard to the collective mind and mood of the nation. There is now, in many quarters, loathing for and aversion towards the concept of negotiations. This is quite understandable and natural, but this does not preclude tackling the issue thoroughly and sorting through matters carefully so as to set every detail into context, God willing.

It is indisputable that negotiating with the enemy is not rejected, either legally or rationally; indeed, there are some stages during a conflict among enemies when negotiations are required and become necessary. Both from a rational perspective and from legal logic, it is true that negotiations as a means and a tool may be acceptable and legitimate at certain points in time, and rejected and prohibited at other times; that is, it is not rejected in itself nor is it rejected all the time.

In Islamic history, in the era of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and in subsequent ages – at the time of Salahuddin [Saladin], for example – negotiation with the enemy was conducted, but within a clear framework and a specific philosophy, within a context, vision, rules and regulations governing this negotiation. This is in stark contrast to the wretched approach taken by those negotiation professionals who consider it a way of life and the sole strategic option in the service of which all other options are ruled out.

If resistance itself, honourable and esteemed as it is, is a means and not an end, does it make sense to make negotiations an end, an only option and a constant approach, rather than being a means and a tactic to fall back on when necessary and when the context requires it?

The concept in the Qur’an is clear, when God Almighty says: “And if they incline to peace, incline (you also to peace), and trust in God.” This implies that negotiation is acceptable, reasonable and logical for us as advocates of a just cause when the enemy is forced to resort to it, when they come to us ready for negotiation and for paying the price, and to respond to our demands. However, if we seek it desperately and consider it our only option, then we will be the ones paying the price. Those who are forced to negotiate are those who usually pay the price. Hence God Almighty says in another verse: “Do not weaken and call for peace when you have the upper hand.”

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By Jeff Gates

The concerns of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are misplaced. The legitimacy of Israel is no longer threatened. It’s already lost. Long gone. Kaput.

Nation states are shared states of mind. The mindset in Iceland differs from India. Israel is the most unlike of all. Founded by extremists and terrorists, it’s been downhill ever since.

Psychopaths want to be loved. That’s why they’re so charming, albeit only superficially. They’re also pathological liars, egocentric, callous and remorseless.

Those qualities have long been familiar to Israel’s neighbors, particularly the Palestinians. After WWII, Harry Truman was charmed into treating this extremist enclave as an ally.

That decision may well go down in history as America’s greatest mistake.

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In an interview this week with Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, omnipresent Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev (see previous post) addressed the difficulty of defining the border between Israel and Palestine without knowing “what’s going to be on the other side” and whether whatever it is will recognize the Jewish state.

Deftly skirting Rattansi’s interjection that the Palestinians had already recognized Israel in 1993 by saying he would “answer that in a second” despite the fact that it was not a question, Regev continued: “How can we agree to a border unless we know what’s the nature and the character of the society on the other side of the border?” As for the nature and character of the Jewish state, comparable spiritual exclusivity on the other side of the fence such as an Islamic Republic of Palestine would presumably not merit comparable insistence by Regev of the state’s utter democracy.

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By Ken O’Keefe

I will be returning to America in the next 36 hours as a publically accused “terrorist operative”, according to the Israeli military that is. It will be interesting to see how my birth nation will handle me. Especially because I headed to Gaza aboard the Freedom Flotilla in order to “train a commando unit for Hamas” (according to Israel). But before I was venturing to train commando units I was already on the US “terror watch list”.

To be honest, having the two greatest purveyors of terrorism and propaganda accuse me of “terrorism” is a massive compliment. Living as we do in George Orwell’s 1984, where black is white and white is black and the truth is nothing but a word, being a “terrorist” is a great thing. You see in this New World Order kind of world those with power speak a language in which words mean the opposite of what they seem. So when Israel and America say they want “peace”, that is Orwellian double-speak for “we are gonna bomb the bastards and steal their resources come hell or high water.”

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Will there ever be a seat at the negotiating table for Ismail Haniya?

Excluding Hamas from current and future Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations is an exercise in futility, Larbi Sadiki writes

Sidelining Hamas in any process to craft genuine peace between Israelis and Palestinians is a glaring omission tantamount to ignoring an elephant in the room.

Whether it is Obama's or the UN's negotiating room, pretending something of that size absent is an exercise in futility. Hamas is definitely an elephant with many tales. Telling some of these tales recounts the Islamist movement's rise to power against all odds.

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He did it with seven words. “Ultimately the U.S. cannot impose a solution.”

By Alan Hart

He was speaking at the White House the day before the start of the new round of direct talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, after he had met with them and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. (In my last post I anticipated Obama saying at the point of his complete surrender that “America can’t want peace more than the parties.” He also said that – ahead of schedule!)

Today there is a growing number of seriously well informed people of all faiths and none (including me) who believe there will only be peace if it is imposed.

Among those who have dared to say so in public is one of the most eminent Jewish gentlemen of our time, Henry Siegman. A former national director of the American Jewish Congress, he is president of the U.S./Middle East Project, which was part of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1994 until 2006 when it was established as an independent policy institute. He is also a research professor at the Sir Joseph Hotung Middle East Programme of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. During his more than 30 years of involvement in the Middle East peace process, he has published extensively on the subject and has been consulted by governments, international agencies and non-governmental organizations involved in the peace process. In a comment piece for the Financial Times on 23 February 2010, (quoted in Conflict Without End? the Epilogue to Volume 3 of the American edition of my book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews), he wrote this:

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Can the resistance exploit the fake talks, re-position itself and finally “come good”?

By Stuart Littlewood

Hamas “vows to step up attacks on Israel”, say reports in the western media.

Reading further, we learn that this escalation is either “a natural response to the crimes of the occupation” or a spiteful reaction to being left out of the talks.

Either way, Hamas surely knows better than to let such crude impressions be formed.

This is their golden opportunity. The eyes and ears of the world are focused on the Israel problem, and will re-focus every two weeks.

Instead of hurling threats of more violence, which only serve to reinforce opinion that Hamas is a terrorist organization, the words and deeds of the resistance movement should be carefully chosen to harmonise with the West’s values and beliefs.

This is Hamas’s chance to ‘educate’ the rest of the world as to the truth about the evil that stalks the Holy Land. It is perhaps a final window of opportunity to define the massive, decades-old injustice accurately.

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Palestinian Authority security forces on Wednesday used force to prevent dozens of Palestinians in Ramallah from voicing their opposition to the US-sponsored direct talks with Israel.

By Ali Abunimah

Salam Fayyad’s embrace by the U.S. and Israel doesn’t change the fact that millions of Palestinians languish under occupation and in poverty.

Rabbi Kenneth Chasen is the latest to offer a glowing report of the Palestinian-state-in-the-making supposedly being built by Salam Fayyad, a political unknown until he was boosted from obscurity by the George W. Bush administration and installed as the unelected “prime minister” of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

But the booming businesses and sleek glass towers Chasen raves about in Ramallah are part of a mirage, a narrative in which a docile Palestinian leadership “reforms” Palestine from within, making little or no noise about the ongoing depredations of Israeli occupation.

Chasen may be pleased that Fayyad barely uses the word “occupation,” but that doesn’t make the occupation any less real for the millions of Palestinians who suffer under it. As B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group, reported last month, Israeli settlements now control 42% of the West Bank. Virtually all of the Jordan Valley is off limits to Palestinians as Israel tightens its grip under the cover of a “peace process” that perpetually goes nowhere. In July alone, Israel demolished 141 homes and buildings belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank, the highest number since 2005, according to Human Rights Watch.

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By JAMES ABOUREZK

I can still remember in the 1950s when, in Rapid City, South Dakota, a black African diplomat tried to get served in a Rapid City restaurant. He was asked to leave. After the newspaper reported the story, the owner of the restaurant said if he had known the guy was a diplomat, he would have served him instead of throwing him out.

When we think back, it wasn't that long ago that blacks were not allowed to sit in restaurants, but were, instead, asked to go around to the kitchen to get served out of the back door. That was a time when blacks were not allowed to buy homes in white neighborhoods. I spent part of my youth visiting my older sister and her family in West Virginia. There, blacks were told they could only sit in the balcony of movie theaters, a place expressly reserved for them should they want to enjoy a film. There were white only drinking fountains in public places, such as bus stations. And, of course, we all remember who had to sit in the back of the bus.

I have not yet heard anyone on television making the comparison between how blacks were treated in the god awful days of segregation and how Muslims are being treated by some of our political leadership today.

I remember when the Cold War came to an end. That was when the Zionist movement lost an enemy--the Soviet Union--and had to look around for another group to hate. That's when the demonization of Muslims--and Arabs--began. The pro-Israeli propagandists, aided and abetted by the mainstream media, leaned heavily into the Arab and Muslim population, making them the villains. It was easy then, as the Arabs, either in the Arab world or in the United States were not well organized, so they didn't fight back. That failure to resist has cost them, as has the actions of some--Al Qaeda for example--which made it easier to hate them.

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By Hussein Assi

Sept. 9, 2010
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said on Friday that the so-called Middle East peace talks were stillborn and doomed, stressing that Jerusalem cannot be the eternal capital of the illegal State of Israel.

His eminence said that the Israeli enemy is facing a lot of challenges, emphasizing that the American-Israeli scheme has failed and that the one representing the Resistance has won although the conflict didn’t reach its end yet.

While renewing commitment to the equation of “army, nation and resistance,” Sayyed Nasrallah said that Burj Abi Haidar incident was tragic and individual, condemning the reactions of some Lebanese politicians who chose to exploit it for political purposes. His eminence also reiterated that Hezbollah is not concerned with the international tribunal or with the UN probe.

Sayyed Nasrallah was speaking through a large TV screen while commemorating Al-Quds Day in Sayyed As-Shouhadaa’s complex in Beirut’s southern suburb.

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By Khalid Amayreh

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu

Who says there is no Jewish Nazism?

Ovadia Yosef is the spiritual leader of hundreds of thousands of haredi orthodox Jews who give him automatic and nearly absolute allegiance. This week, he lashed out at the Palestinians, saying that they should all be annihilated. “May God destroy them with a plague,” said the elderly rabbi.

Yosef’s remarks should be taken seriously as they seem to reflect a deepening grave phenomenon in the Israeli Jewish society. It is Jewish fascism, pure and simple. It is racist, virulent and violent.

Unfortunately, with the exception of a few sporadic voices, which criticized the rabbi for saying what he said, the Israeli society generally ignored the manifestly racist remarks, either out of apathy, or because they concurred with him.

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By Ghada Karmi

With the odds stacked so strongly in Israel’s favour, Palestinians rightly view the US talks with dread

What an irony that the Palestinians’ arch-enemy, Israel, should also be their saviour. There is a real danger that the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks due to start on September 2 in Washington could yield a botched deal that falls far short of the needs of international law or elemental justice, and sets back the cause of Palestine for decades, if not for ever. Fortunately this will not happen as long as Israel’s obduracy can be relied on to save the Palestinians from such an outcome.

Time and again, when Israel was thrown a lifeline by Arab neighbours that could have ensured its legitimacy and security, its folly and greed lost it those opportunities. But, since they came at great cost to Palestinian rights, Israel’s obduracy had the perverse effect of safeguarding those rights. All peace proposals after 1967 were based on maintaining Israel as a regional power and forcing the Palestinians to settle for less than they were entitled to. They were repeatedly offered paltry settlements that legitimised Israel’s hold on most of their land and undermined their right of return. Had Israel agreed, the Palestinian cause would have been lost long ago.

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Half the Negev's Bedouin population live in unrecognised communities.

By Jonathan Cook - Hura, the Negev

Nuri al Uqbi's small cinderblock home in a ramshackle neighbourhood of Hura, a Bedouin town in Israel’s Negev desert, hardly looks like the epicentre of a legal struggle that some observers say threatens Israel's Jewish character.

Inside, the 68-year-old Bedouin activist has stacks of bulging folders of tattered and browning documents, many older than the state of Israel itself, that he hopes will overturn decades of harsh government policy towards the Negev’s 180,000 Bedouin.

For the past few months, Mr al Uqbi has been in court pursuing a case that has pitted his own expert witnesses against those of the state.

Mr al Uqbi claims the right to return to a patch of 82 hectares in the Negev, close to the regional capital, Beersheva, that he says has belonged to his family for generations. But as both the government and the judge in the case, Sarah Dovrat, seem to appreciate, much more is at stake.

Should Mr al Uqbi win his case, tens of thousands of Bedouin, who long ago had their properties confiscated, could be entitled to repossess their agricultural lands or seek enormous sums in compensation.

Theoretically, it might also open the door to claims by millions of Palestinian refugees scattered across the Middle East.

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Will Christians fulfill the Good News in preventing US arms from reaching Israel?

By Dallas Darling

Even now as Presbyterian leaders prophetically issue statements calling for the U.S. to end its military aid to Israel unless Tel Aviv stops it settlement activities in occupied land that belongs to Palestinians, they might want to recall what Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer wrote in his book “The Politics of Compassion.” Nelson-Pallmeyer believed that most Christians and denominations in the U.S.-who by virtue of their affluence, power, privilege, and isolation-are not only entirely separated from the true biblical message, but isolated from the people in whom that message is most clearly embodied today. Clearly, it is the experiences of the poor and the oppressed, including their poverty, repression, forced migration, resistance, endurance, suffering, and hope, that better enables one to understand the Good News of salvation and liberation from unjust political, economic and social structures.(1)

While discussing the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Christian delegates and members of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church affirmed their previous position that the U.S. should withhold aid if Israel builds new West Bank settlements. Like other Christians and international organizations, the Presbyterian Church has also repeatedly claimed Israel is violating international law by expanding its settlements in occupied Palestinian land and in al-Quds. Earlier, Presbyterians voted to authorize “phased selective divestment in global businesses operating in Israel” due to Israel’s discriminatory policies toward Palestinians, a stance that has been softened because of pressure from pro-Israeli lobbies operating in the U.S. Still, the Presbyterian Church has made a courageous move claiming the U.S. must stop its annually multi-billion dollar military assistance to Israel.

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Gazan supporters of Hamas rally to mark Al Quds day and to condemn new Palestinian-Israeli talks launched in Washington. Leaders at the Al Quds day rallies told supporters in Gaza that negotiations with Israel were 'pointless' [AFP]

Hamas and Islamic Jihad supporters have rallied in the Gaza Strip to mark Al Quds day and to condemn the direct talks launched in Washington between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Friday's rally comes a day after armed groups said that they had joined forces to step up attacks against Israel, possibly including suicide bombings.

Al Quds day is an annual event on the last Friday of Ramadan, expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people and opposing Zionism.

"The negotiations that the Palestinian people have tried for over two decades are pointless negotiations, the Palestinian people never gained anything from them except the loss of their cause and their rights," Ismail Rudwan, a Hamas official, told a large cheering crowd.

"Therefore, we consider that participating in these negotiations is a crime and treason."

Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, held talks sponsored by the US administration in Washington on Thursday.

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It is illegal to transport Palestinians into Israel without a permit.

By Jonathan Cook - Nazareth

Nearly 600 Israelis have signed up for a campaign of civil disobedience, vowing to risk jail to smuggle Palestinian women and children into Israel for a brief taste of life outside the occupied West Bank.

The Israelis say they have been inspired by the example of Ilana Hammerman, a writer who is threatened with prosecution after publishing an article in which she admitted breaking the law to bring three Palestinian teenagers into Israel for a day out.

Ms Hammerman said she wanted to give the young women, who had never left the West Bank, “some fun” and a chance to see the Mediterranean for the first time.

Her story has shocked many Israelis and led to a police investigation after right-wing groups called for her to be tried for security offences.

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Israeli soldiers arrest a peace activist during a demonstration against the closure of three shops in the West Bank city of Hebron

While Netanyahu greeted Muslims around the world, bulldozers in Jerusalem were busy desecrating historic Muslim graves, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank

As is customary, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a formal statement last week wishing Muslims of the world -- and Israel's Muslim population in particular -- a blessed Ramadan.

The Palestinian Muslim community in Israel makes up more than 20 per cent of Israel's overall population but is subjected to systemic discrimination by Jewish authorities.

"We mark this important month [Ramadan] amid attempts to achieve peace talks with the Palestinians and to advance peace treaties with our Arab neighbours," Netanyahu said. He added: "I know you are partners in this goal and I ask for your support, both in prayers and in any other joint effort to really create a peaceful and harmonious coexistence."

Netanyahu's congratulatory words to Muslims were tinged with significant hypocrisy and chutzpah. Indeed, as he uttered his words, Israeli bulldozers were unearthing and crushing Muslim graves at the ancient Mamanullah Cemetery, located in West Jerusalem, not far from the former armistice line between the eastern and western parts of the city. There, thousands -- some say tens of thousands -- of Muslims are buried.

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The message of the bulldozers is clear..

By Jeff Halper

The day before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, at 2:30 in the morning, workers sent by the Israeli authorities, protected by dozens of police, destroyed the tombstones in the last portion of the Mamilla cemetery, an historic Muslim burial ground with graves going back to the 7th Century, hitherto left untouched. The government of Israel has always been fully cognizant of the sanctity and historic significance of the site. Already in 1948, when control of the cemetery reverted to Israel, the Israeli Religious Affairs Ministry recognized Mamilla "to be one of the most prominent Muslim cemeteries, where seventy thousand Muslim warriors of [Saladin's] armies are interred along with many Muslim scholars. Israel will always know to protect and respect this site." For all that, and despite (proper) Israeli outrage when Jewish cemeteries are desecrated anywhere in the world, the dismantlement of the Mamilla cemetery has been systematic. In the 1960s "Independence Park" was built over a portion of it; subsequently an urban road was built through it, major electrical cables were laid over graves and a parking lot constructed over yet another piece. Now some 1,500 Muslim graves have been cleared in several nighttime operations to make way for.....a $100 million Museum of Tolerance and Human Dignity, a project of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. (Ironically, Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Wiesenthal Center's Director, appeared on Fox News to express his opposition to the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan, because the site of the 9/11 attack "is a cemetery.")

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Today in Aida Refugee Camp, people wait ..

By Rich Wiles

From the barred windows of a four storey house string runs across the narrow main street of Aida Camp, well above head height, to the caged fence atop the walls of Aida Camp Basic Boys School. Small plastic Palestinian flags hang down limply from the string. The outside walls of the school are adorned with political graffiti, and its two white metal doors are scarred by bullet holes. Two towers dominate this stretch of the street. One is tall and thin, and green lights glow from its minaret. The second tower, at the end of the street, looks much sturdier and is without damage from gunfire, unlike Aida Camp’s mosque. No lights glow from this tower and it is impossible to tell if anyone is inside or not. The small windows in the bullet proof glass at the top of the tower are covered by thick caging with just a small purpose-built rectangular hole in the metal, its width is sufficient to accommodate the barrel of a US-funded M-16 when the IOF who use this watchtower in the Apartheid Wall decide it is time to shoot at the camp. The facing wall of the four-story house provides testimony to the effectiveness of this practice.

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Evidence of ethnic cleansing kept under lock and key.

By Jonathan Cook - Nazareth

History may be written by the victors, as Winston Churchill is said to have observed, but the opening up of archives can threaten a nation every bit as much as the unearthing of mass graves.

That danger explains a decision quietly taken last month by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to extend by an additional 20 years the country’s 50-year rule for the release of sensitive documents.

The new 70-year disclosure rule is the government’s response to Israeli journalists who have been seeking through Israel’s courts to gain access to documents that should already be declassified, especially those concerning the 1948 war, which established Israel, and the 1956 Suez crisis.

The state’s chief archivist says many of the documents “are not fit for public viewing” and raise doubts about Israel’s “adherence to international law”, while the government warns that greater transparency will “damage foreign relations”.

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Tel Aviv portrays the Iranian reactor as an 'existential threat'.

By Jeff Gates

The phony intelligence used to induce our March 2003 invasion of Iraq has been dusted off. This time it's being deployed to take us into Iran.

Same scam. Same storyline. Same fraud—even featuring some of the same players.

Except that this time around their deception lacks the broader context required to gain traction for their phony content. That key difference makes today’s perpetrators far more transparent—for those willing to look.

Those foisting on us this latest fraud also face another challenge: Americans now realize it was Israel and its advocates who fixed that false intelligence around a Zionist agenda.

That realization adds combustibility to the facts now fueling Israel’s fast-fading legitimacy.

Each week brings new insights that undermine generally accepted truths about 911 and our response to that mass murder on U.S. soil. As the costs continue to rise in both blood and treasure, the credibility of those who sold us this “Clash” continues its steady decline.

One key player in this long-running fraud remains unfazed: mainstream media.

In March 2002, Israeli-American Jeffrey Goldberg published in The New Yorker a story alleging an alliance between the jihadists of Al Qaeda and the secular Baathists of Iraq. Though an impossible premise, his account made it appear plausible.

His collaborator was James Woolsey, a former Director of the CIA and an avid Zionist. Woolsey assured us that Iraqi intelligence officials met in Prague with Al Qaeda.

Woolsey’s intelligence was “sexed up” to sound credible. Now we know it was false. All of it.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

In the consistency and common source of this duplicity lies the perilous future of Israel and its fast-shrinking legitimacy as a nation state.

The fast-growing worldwide revulsion at all things Israeli suggests that this latest fraud may yet fail—though not for lack of trying.

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Hamas must re-invent itself as a matter of urgency.

When Palestinians elected Hamas, sore losers Fatah set out to cause maximum trouble. The relentless pressures of occupation and bribery succeed in causing internal divisions and self-destruction. When an attempted coup was beaten off there were claims that Hamas "seized control" when it simply acted to enforce its legitimate authority.

By Stuart Littlewood – London

In the five years since I became interested in the conflict in Palestine, only two things of positive note have happened in the Occupied Territories.

The Palestinians held full and fair elections in 2006 to establish themselves as a democracy… and much good it did them.

And in Gaza these amazing people have resolutely survived a vicious land and sea blockade imposed by Israel and aided and abetted by the western powers as soon as those elections put Hamas into government. They have resisted almost daily air strikes and armed intrusions for four years and courageously withstood the cowardly Israeli blitzkrieg of 20 months ago.

And during all that time they have endured unending barbarity and betrayal, which would have brought a lesser nation to its knees. They have come through.

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Noam Chomsky is internationally recognized as one of America’s most critically engaged public intellectuals today. He spoke with Kathleen Wells, a political correspondent for Race-Talk, about Israel and its interplay with the United States.

Kathleen Wells: I’m speaking with Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and renowned political activist and writer. He has written over 100 books on linguistics, human rights, economics, and politics. Thank you, Professor Chomsky, for taking the time to speak with me this afternoon.

Noam Chomsky: Very pleased to be with you.

KW: Speak to me about the relation between the United States and Israel. Specifically, address, as you have previously stated, how every crime, violation of international law, that Israel commits is done through the direct participation and authorization of the United States.

NC: That’s a ... as a descriptive statement, that is pretty close to accurate. I mean "all" is a very strong word but it is certainly generally true. And, in fact, the United States has overwhelmingly vetoed Security Council resolutions condemning Israeli crimes and atrocities, prevented the Security Council from calling on Israel to terminate aggression, and so on and so forth. The descriptive comment is not really controversial. There are interesting questions about why it’s true. There were also interesting questions about the sources of support for this position in the United States, which helps us explain why it is true.

The history is reasonably clear. This was not the case up until 1967. In fact, before 1967, the relationships were not very different from relationships among other powers. There was sympathy and support for Israel, which has many, many sources, including the Christian Zionism, which is a very powerful force that precedes and is numerically far stronger than Jewish Zionism. But for somebody like, say, Harry Truman, raised in a deeply Christian tradition, it was just taken for granted that the Bible instructs us that God gave the land of Palestine to the Jews. So it is kind of like in his bones. And that’s true for a very large part of the American population, much more so than -- far more than any other country. So that is one factor, and there are other factors.

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The ‘news’ that is transferred to masses in the West through controlled media are so disconnected from reality that it is shameful. Fortunately the spreading of real news by decent people through the internet and other alternative media is shaking the foundations of oppression (which are ignorance, apathy, racism).

Thus, an anonymous ‘US official’ is quoted as threatening Turkey if it does not start towing the line in opposition to Iran and support of apartheid Israel. And the Israeli government statements about the removal of a wall in Gilo are printed as if they are facts (the wall was actually erected to keep residents of an illegal colony of Gilo afraid and supportive of apartheid rather than to protect them and since polls show that Israelis have developed fear of gentiles to paranoia levels, it is no longer needed).

And the Quartet (US, UN, EU, Russia) is unwilling to challenge the fascist government of Israel so it pressured Abbas to go to direct negotiations (already 19 years of that produced only expanded colonies and shrinking Palestinian lands). But the Zionist controlled media does not dare publish reality: what is happening on the ground to people. The popular resistance is all but ignored by the self delusional right wing Zionists and their managed media outlets.

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Seven days later and no one is praising Ban Ki-moon anymore.

By James Gundun, Washington D.C.

Last week the US government and media lauded Israel’s decision to cooperate with a UN investigation into the Freedom Flotilla raid. Although Israeli opinion was more critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision, the general consensus realized he had no choice. Stonewall here and Israel would have absolutely nothing to stand on going into the pivotal month of September, when Israel’s settlement “freeze” in the West Bank expires and the UN will debate Palestinian statehood.

"We thank both governments (Israeli and Turkish) for the constructive and cooperative spirit they have shown and the Secretary General for his leadership and determination," said Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the UN.

Seven days later and no one is praising Ban Ki-moon anymore. Only hours after Netanyahu testified to the UN that Turkish decision-making was ultimately to blame, the UN Secretary-General “quashed what he called a rumor” that Israeli soldiers were off limits to questioning. “There was no such agreement behind the scenes,” he claimed, prompting Netanyahu to threaten that Israel won’t cooperate with that level of investigation.

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Eden Abergil's pictures of Palestinian prisoners have sparked controversy in Israel

A former Israeli soldier has sparked controversy after posting pictures of herself on Facebook posing with bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoners.

The photographs show Eden Abergil positioned provocatively with the men, prompting lurid comments from other users of the popular social networking site.

The pictures, which were uploaded into a folder entitled "Army - the best time of my life," and associated comments were discovered by bloggers, who circulated them on the internet on Monday.

Palestinians have long claimed that they are subject to humiliating and degrading treatment while held in Israeli custody, but Israeli authorities have always rejected such allegations.

The Israeli military has sought to distance itself from the controversy, saying Abergil is no longer a serving member of the country's army.

"This is shameless behaviour by the soldier," a military spokesman told Al Jazeera.

"In light of the fact that she was discharged last year, all of the details have been turned over to the commanders for further attention."

Humiliating treatment

Abergil was discharged from the military a year ago, meaning authorities had no power to prevent her from posting the pictures on the internet.

The photographs were removed from the website late on Monday.

But Ghassan Khatib, the Palestinian Authority spokesman, said that the images typified the treatment meted out to Palestinians by Israeli troops.

"This is an example of life under occupation," he said.

"All aspects of occupation are humiliating. We call on the international organisations, starting with the UN, to work hard to end the occupation, because it is the source of humiliation for Palestinians and a source of corruption for the Israelis."

Sami Ershied, a lawyer based in Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera that the pictures show illegal activity.

"It's illegal to humiliate prisoners in this way," he said.

"It's illegal to publish these pictures in public showing this soldier making fun of these prisoners."

Special unit

It is not the first time that the Israeli military has been embarrassed by material posted on the internet.

In March, officers were forced to call off a raid in the West Bank after a soldier posted details, including the time and place, of the operation on Facebook before it took place.

Earlier this year, the Israeli military set up a special unit to monitor information posted online.

Members of the unit scan websites including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace looking for sensitive or embarrassing material.

Israeli authorities have issued strict instructions to soldiers regarding the type of information and photographs that they may post online about themselves and their military service.

Source: Al Jazeera

Rocket attacks were a pretext for well-planned naked aggression.

By Stephen Lendman

Despite a credible start, the fix is in. Expect justice again to be denied. After the Gaza War (Operation Cast Lead), the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) appointed Justice Richard Goldstone to lead an independent four-person fact-finding Commission to investigate human rights and humanitarian law violations committed on both sides, Israel doing everything possible to obstruct him in vain.

The Commission conducted 188 interviews, got over 300 reports, submissions and other documents, comprising more than 10,000 pages, 30 videos, and 1,200 photographs, much of it gathered first-hand. Secondary sources added corroboration, in total providing clear evidence of Israel crimes.

On September 15, 2009, the Commission concluded that:

"There is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity."

"While the Israeli Government has sought to portray its operations as essentially a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right of self-defense, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole."

Rocket attacks were a pretext for well-planned naked aggression. The Commission's findings were conclusively damning despite Israeli war criminals not punished, justice still denied but not forever.

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The union for Canada's postal workers is sending a message of support to the Gaza Strip, backing a plan that would take a ship through the blockade of the Palestinian territory in the wake of Israel's suspension of mail delivery there.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers on Thursday called on Canadians to co-ordinate with Canada Boat Gaza, a coalition of Islamic and human-rights organizations that are planning to sail a ship through the Israeli blockade this autumn to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip.

"As postal workers, we know very well that cutting off mail creates suffering and hardship for people, who are isolated from their loved ones," said Denis Lemelin, the union's national president. "How many more abuses will the people of Gaza have to endure?"

Israel Post, the nation's mail carrier, informed Canada Post this week they would no longer deliver mail to the Gaza Strip due to circumstances "beyond their control."

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From Mazin:

On the first Friday of Ramadan, thousands of Palestinians tried to reach the Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem for prayers in Al-Aqsa mosque. But only some men above 50 and some women above 45 year old were allowed to enter through the checkpoints in the apartheid wall. Some of those left behind participated in demonstrations.

Al-Walaja demonstration was particularly inspiring and faced the might of the apartheid system. The Apartheid wall here is being built to surround Al-Walaja on all sides. We marched from the mosque towards the village entrance and along the main road; here the wall facing Al-Walaja village is ugly concrete and the side of it facing the illegal colony of Har Gilo is decorated with Jerusalem stone.

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Three days following the exceptional press conference made by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah in which he directly accused the Israeli enemy of involvement in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, the revelations of Sayyed Nasrallah are still making the headlines in Lebanon and the region…

While the Lebanese political scene seemed to be as usual divided over the evidence revealed, Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the son of the slain Prime Minister, broke his silence and was quoted as rejecting the attempts to undermine the importance and the value of Sayyed Nasrallah's revelations.

Following Monday's press conference, Hariri made several external calls with world leaders seeking to reinforce internal unity and justice at the same time. He met with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz in Riyadh on Wednesday after holding talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday.

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Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman has little interest in a peaceful settlement.

By George S. Hishmeh – Washington, D.C.

Oftentimes, Israelis and their supporters bury their heads in the sand, ignoring all that goes around them. Take the case, for one example, of a university professor who joyously lauded in a commentary in a leading American newspaper, The New York Times (which in turn was remiss in not checking) an "opinion poll" that claimed that 71 percent of Arab respondents have "no interest" in the Palestinian-Israeli "peace process." Probably sharing his enthusiasm, the paper headlined the column, "The Palestinians, Alone."

It turned out that the shady poll that was cited by Efraim Karsh, who teaches at King's College, London and is author of "Palestine Betrayed," was nothing more than a tally of readers responding to another reader's query on the website of an Arabic television network. Moreover, one would have thought that Karsh should have known better. His puerile analysis failed to differentiate between Arab views of the "peace process" a lackluster issue and their genuine concern toward the Palestinians, whose homeland was mostly usurped by Israel 63 years ago, while the remaining segment the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is still under Israeli control since 1967. His punch line was that the Palestinians should abandon their dependency on the Arab world. "The sooner the Palestinians recognize their cause is theirs alone, the sooner they are likely to make peace...."

But Karsh would have done better had he digested what two prominent American Jewish leaders, Jeremy Benami and Debra Lee, wrote recently: "Decades of telling and retelling a comfortable narrative in which Israel is always extending its hand in peace, only to have it rejected by the Palestinians, understandably makes it hard to accept when the facts show otherwise." They underlined that "facts don't support the charge that the present Palestinian leadership is not a partner for peace."

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A state of arrested development has defined this particular refugee camp. (IRIN)

By Ramzy Baroud – Beirut, Lebanon

Two young girls stood, as if frozen, starting below them at an ever vibrant Beirut. Their balcony, like the rest of their house and most of their refugee camp was of an indistinct color. It was dirty, as were their clothes. They, on the other hand, looked beautiful and bright, although their future didn’t.

Here in Bourj el-Barajneh, one of a dozen Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, time seems to have stood still for years. Generation after generation, children grow up in the same desperate reality, punished for crimes they did not commit, injured by a history not of their making. They stand on dirty balconies, cracked beyond repair, watching Beirut and the world go by.

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Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has presented evidence proving that Israel masterminded the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

At a press conference in Beirut on Monday night, the Lebanese resistance movement's secretary general presented video materials captured by Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) as well as recorded confessions by Israeli fifth columnists substantiating that the February 14, 2005 assassination of Hariri in the capital was carried out on orders from Tel Aviv.

The Lebanese network Al-Manar aired the speech and incorporated the evidence, showing intercepted footage of Hariri's house in the lead-up to the massive car bombing which killed him and claimed the lives of 22 other people.

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In just a few years the Palestinian campaign to boycott Israeli goods has become truly global

Omar Barghouti
The Guardian, Thursday 12 August 2010

Despite Israel's siege of Gaza, and the escalating displacement in the Negev and East Jerusalem, Palestinians have some reason to celebrate. In Washington a food co-op has passed a resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli products, confirming that the boycott movement – five years old last month – has finally crossed the Atlantic. Support for the move came from prominent figures including Nobel peace laureates Desmond Tutu and Máiread Maguire, and Richard Falk, the UN's special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories.

The movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel was launched in 2005, a year after the international court of justice had found Israel's wall and colonies built on occupied Palestinian territory illegal. Over 170 Palestinian political parties, unions, mass movements and NGOs endorsed the movement, which is led by the BNC, a coalition of civil society organisations.

Rooted in a century of Palestinian civil resistance, and inspired by the anti-apartheid struggle, the campaign crowned earlier, partial boycotts to present a comprehensive approach to realising Palestinian self-determination: unifying Palestinians inside historic Palestine and in exile in the face of accelerating fragmentation.

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Murr was speaking a few days after it was revealed that the US would withhold the aid [AFP]

The Lebanese defence minister has said that the country will refuse military assistance from the US should any aid come with conditions that weapons not be used against Israel.

The comments from Elias Murr were made on Wednesday, after it was revealed that $100 million in US military assistance to Lebanon had been suspended last week.

Aid was halted due to fears that Hezbollah, the Shia group backed by Iran, would manage to get hold of any arsenal provided. Concern was raised that Hezbollah holds influence over the Lebanese military and that the weapons could be used against Israel.

"If someone would like to help the army without restrictions or conditions, he is welcome," Murr said.

"But those who want to help the army on condition that it doesn't protect its territory, people and border from Israel, should keep their money - or give it to Israel instead," Murr said.

"We will confront [Israel] with the capabilities that we have."

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Israel and Saudis to buy advanced war planes.

By Jonathan Cook - Nazareth

Two of the United States’ closest allies in the Middle East, Israel and Saudi Arabia, are on the brink of signing large arms deals with the US in a move designed to ratchet up the pressure on Iran, according to defence analysts.

America has agreed to sell Saudi Arabia 84 of the latest model of the F-15 jet and dozens of Black Hawk helicopters. The deal also includes refurbishing many of the kingdom’s older F-15s, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Israel is believed to have opposed the $30 billion deal. However, in a concession to Israel, the new F-15s, made by the Boeing Company, will not be equipped with the latest weapons and avionics systems available to the US military.

The last such major arms sale by the US to Saudi Arabia was in 1992, when the kingdom received 72 F-15s. On that occasion, Israel tried to block the $9bn deal by lobbying the US Congress, straining relations with the White House of George H W Bush.

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Alvaro Uribe avoids retirement.

By Belen Fernandez

The four-member United Nations panel appointed to investigate the May 31 Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara which killed 9 people is scheduled to have its first meeting today. An August 3 AFP article noting the “surprising U-turn from the Israelis” in deciding to support the flotilla probe—a rare instance of Israeli cooperation with the U.N.—fails to note that the U-turn is perhaps not so surprising given the appointment as panel Vice Chairman of outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose expertise in the realm of security will thus not be lost with the end of his presidential term.

Israel and Colombia have been plagued with similar security challenges for decades, such as how to portray victims as aggressors in order to acquire land—although Colombian territorial entitlement admittedly lacks biblical endorsement. Past Israeli training of Colombian death squads may have contributed to current Colombian creativity in retroactively justifying massacres; starting in 2008, for example, it was revealed that the members of the Colombian army had—reportedly in thousands of instances—murdered civilians and then disguised them as guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in order to receive bonuses and additional vacation time. Israeli creativity in the aftermath of the May flotilla massacre meanwhile included Foreign Ministry Flickr postings of photographs of kitchen knives and marbles and declarations that a weapons cache had been found on board the Mavi Marmara, underscoring Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon’s claim that the humanitarian activists on the ship in fact had ties to “global jihad.”

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By Dr. Alan Sabrosky - Intifada Palestine

As the US edges toward an unprovoked and utterly needless war with Iran, some remarks by an eminent and experienced observer of that part of the world caught my attention. First, he noted that “Israel and the US realize that the next war will burn much of the Middle East and may well spell the end of Israel.”

Now, Israel certainly believes that about the Middle East, and in fact hopes it happens, because that just makes its position stronger. But neither Israel nor the US — at least at a governmental level — accept the second part of the proposition, just the opposite, that in fact it will be the saving of Israel — because (as I’ve noted elsewhere) if the regional chaos is great enough, Israel will take the opportunity to ethnically cleanse all Palestinians (and probably Israeli Arabs as well) from “Greater Israel” by shoving them over its borders, into Jordan and the Sinai (and some into the Lebanon as well). That will leave it intact and Jewish, its neighbors overwhelmed by a few million destitute Palestinians — a 2nd and even worse Nakba — and everyone else in ruins or teetering on the edge. Netanyahu, Barak, Lieberman and their merry thugs won’t shed a tear or lose a second’s sleep over any of it, much less over the many Americans who will die in yet another of America’s Jewish Wars.

Second, he remarked that “Every week Israel becomes weaker vis a vis the “resistance axis” and at what point does Israel decide to bring down the house and start again if it can survive with enough military power (backed by the US) to remake the region.”

But I simply don’t see Israel getting weaker, just more beleaguered, which is not the same thing. We need to keep in mind that Israel defines its usable power (and therefore its security) not only in terms of what it has, but also what it can command from its “most favored goyim” in the US — and that, now, is virtually everything. We know about Israel’s control of the Congress and the media, and I think people on our side generally understand about their control of political appointments that absolutely keep opponents of Israel out of office – the Chas Freeman incident ought to have been telling. The American public, unfortunately, is almost absolutely clueless about the whole enterprise, thanks to the prevailing dominant theme they get from the President, national politicians, the press and mostly the Protestant pulpit.

Yet it goes beyond that.

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By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem

Israeli hasbara doctors and their mouthpieces in the West don’t stop dithering about the perceived failure of the Israeli propaganda machine "to get the message through" to western audiences.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent every year and the best of the best PR firms are recruited to do the job for Israel.

However, Israel's image remains dark and ugly as many Europeans and others are drifting away from Israel as the outgoing British ambassador to Israel affirmed recently.

Of course, the failure of Israel's lying machine to get the message through has little or nothing to do with any presumed inefficacy of the lies themselves. After all, the Israelis have been professional liars since time immemorial and very few people under the sun could possibly outmatch them in this dishonorable field.

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By Jonathan Cook - Jerusalem

A police officer known as 'Major George' who is accused of torturing Arab prisoners in his previous role as chief interrogator in a secret military jail has been appointed to oversee relations with Jerusalem's Palestinian population, it has emerged.

The decision has been greeted with stunned disbelief from human rights groups, who say unresolved allegations against Major George that he brutally abused Arab prisoners for many years should disqualify him from such a sensitive post.

Relations between the Israeli police and the 250,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have been on a knife edge for many months, as extremist Jewish groups -- backed by the municipality -- have increased their settlement drive in traditional Palestinian neighbourhoods such as Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan.

The Association of Civil Rights in Israel (Acri), Israel’s largest legal rights group, revealed last week that it had made a formal complaint in February about Major George, whose real name is Doron Zahavi.

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Netanyahu compared Hamas to the Nazis and the firing of Qassam rockets with the London Blitz during World War II

By Dr. Lawrence Davidson

“Unfortunately, even if you believe that Israel is a necessary retreat for threatened Jewry, the use of the Holocaust as a justification for Israel and its policies is a grave strategic mistake. For by underpinning its continued existence on preventing a second Holocaust, the defenders of Israel invite some of their adversaries to call into doubt the first Holocaust”

On August 5, 2010 Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, citing a Fars (Iran) news service story, reported that a non-governmental organization in Iran had “launched a Website with cartoons on the Holocaust aimed at undermining the historic dimensions of the mass murder of Jews.” Israelis and Zionists reacted angrily to this announcement. Spokesmen at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust museum stated that the website was “yet the latest salvo emanating from Iran that denies the facts of the Holocaust and attempts to influence those who are ignorant of history.” The Haaretz report also noted, somewhat resentfully, that “since the 1979 Islamic revolution , Iran has not acknowledged Israel as a sovereign state and even refrained from using the name Israel, instead referring to the Jewish state as the Zionist regime.”

This is obviously a hot button issue and so I will begin my examination of this report by stating that the Holocaust is a proven factual event and the number of six million Jewish victims killed is roughly accurate. Histories based on detailed research on this subject include the early classic study by Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, first published in 1961 and followed later by his Sources of Holocaust Research (2001). Other recent works include David Engel’s The Holocaust: The Third Reich and the Jews (1999) and S. Hochstadt, Sources of the Holocaust– Documents in History (2004). There are many other works as well.

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Saturday 07 August 2010

By Robert Naiman, Truthout | Op-Ed

Is there a man or woman in America today who is willing to stand at noon in the public square and claim that demands to bomb, invade, and occupy other people's countries have anything to do with human liberation?

If such people can be found, let them answer a few simple questions about the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

How many Iraqis did we "liberate" from the companionship of their loved ones?

How many Iraqis did we "liberate" from dwelling in the houses and towns and the country of their birth?

How many Iraqis did we "liberate" from life on Earth?

If any American who claims to believe that indefinite continuation of the war in Afghanistan -- or a US/Israeli military attack on Iran -- is justified by humanitarian concerns cannot give a fact-based and intellectually coherent answer to the question of how many Iraqis have lost their lives as a result of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, do not that person's claims for "humanitarian" war, bombing, and occupation deserve zero credence?

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By Mark Steel

Somehow, the Chilcot Inquiry has become like Big Brother. About once a month it pops up as a small item in the news and you think: "Oh blimey, I didn't realise that was still going on." Before long, like Big Brother, they'll come up with stunts to try and revive some interest. So they'll reintroduce contestants from previous inquiries such as Martin McGuinness and Christine Keeler, or make some witnesses complete a task of finding hidden ping-pong balls in the room or they have to give evidence blindfold.

So it might seem these procedures are pointless, in which case it makes no difference that the Israelis have agreed to co-operate with a United Nations inquiry into the episode in which nine people died after the Israeli Defence Force went aboard the Mavi Marmara as it sailed towards Gaza.

But it seemed to matter to the Israelis, because until this week they insisted their own inquiry was sufficient, and that was already under way. One fact emerging from this process was that the victims, according to "Sgt S" who shot six of them, "were without a doubt terrorists". And he produced evidence to back this up, which was: "I could see the murderous rage in their eyes".

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An Israeli army bulldozer takes a tree from the same spot Wednesday

So was the tree inside Israel? The UN implies that the shrubbery that ultimately cost the lives of five men on Tuesday was on the Israeli side of the "Blue Line".

"Unifil established... that the trees being cut by the Israeli army are located south of the Blue Line on the Israeli side," said a Unifil military spokesman.

The tree was certainly north of Israel's own "technical fence". But the Lebanese have their doubts about some parts of the "Blue Line" – which is why Israel's attempt to cut down what appears to be a spruce tree started a gun battle on Tuesday on Lebanon's southern border which killed three Lebanese soldiers, a 55-year-old Lebanese journalist and an Israeli lieutenant-colonel. Along with the fact that Israel had apparently not co-ordinated its gardening expedition with the Lebanese via the UN.

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"The Obama administration, colluding with Israel, is backing the gradual naturalization of the Palestinians wherever they are or can be embedded. In this context, and according to the information acquired by the Kuwait Daily, Al-Anbaa, 'the State Department has formed a team of Arabs and Europeans, in order to pressure the Gulf States into financing a fund to support any country that will accept and nationalize Palestinians.' ”

By Franklin Lamb

SHATILA PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMP, BEIRUT -- For months as Lebanon’s historic debate over basic civil rights for Palestinian refugees has unfolded, the Obama administration has watched idly along the sidelines. As hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees cough and slow-bake while inhaling rancid camp air in Lebanon’s sweltering breezeless heat, the White House has now sent Lebanon’s Parliament a message.

The United States will not support meaningful civil, social or economic rights for the World’s largest and oldest refugee population and it wants them naturalized anywhere except anyplace in Palestine.

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A Palestinian boy walks outside a souvenir shop in Gaza City decorated with Turkish flags. Israeli ministers stressed the importance of mending the country’s relations with Turkey after weeks of diplomatic crisis. Lefteris Pitarakis / AP Photo

Jonathan Cook, Foreign Correspondent, The National

NAZARETH // Israel quickly reined back expectations yesterday over its agreement to co-operate with a UN investigation into the Israeli army’s lethal raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla two months ago.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, had hailed Israel’s backing of the investigation on Monday, after weeks of intense international pressure, as an “unprecedented development”.

It is the first time Tel Aviv has agreed to take part in a UN inquiry involving the country’s military. Last year Israel snubbed a UN investigation led by a respected international jurist, Richard Goldstone, that was highly critical of Israel’s attack on Gaza in 2008.

As the panel was announced on Monday, Mr Netanyahu declared: “Israel has nothing to hide. The opposite is true. It is in the national interest of the state of Israel to ensure that the factual truth of the overall flotilla events comes to light throughout the world.”

But faced with stinging rebukes yesterday from Tzipi Livni, the leader of the opposition party Kadima, for agreeing to the inquiry, government officials began to play down the significance of Israel’s concessions to the international community.

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