Hamas calls for probe into arms transfer to Abbas:

Hamas on Saturday called on the Palestinian Legislative Council to launch an investigation into the transfer of rifles and ammunition to forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, charging that the move was intended to trigger civil war among the Palestinians.
http://tinyurl.com/m2pwg


In case you missed it:

Desmond Tutu: Apartheid in the Holy Land .

I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0...,706911,00.html


Amnesty: Microsoft helped Israeli Police in Vanunu probe:

Human rights group says company complied with request by Israel police to hand over information on nuclear whistleblower
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3256136,00.html


Israeli Weapons:

The estimated $4.5 billion dollar F-16I deal ($45 million per aircraft) will be financed by the annual U.S. military aid package and concludes the largest Israeli military purchase in history. Each F-15 cost approximately $84 million.
http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/air...-16i/F-16I.html


The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy:

The fear of being charged with anti-Semitism outranks all other worries that bedevil politicians, and the lobby has marketed it so efficiently that a wall of silence shields the American people from awareness of the lobby’s activities and U.S. complicity in Israel’s longstanding abuse of international law and Arab human rights
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/May-June_2006/0605018.html


Burning Cole :

In an article in the Yale Herald, Campus Watch, a pro-Israel group that monitors scholars' statements about the Middle East, was quoted as saying that Cole lacked a "penetrating mind," and suggesting that Yale was "in danger of sacrificing academic credibility in exchange for the attention" Cole would generate.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060703/weiss


Israeli hero known as a plunderer:

Stunning military victories made Israel's Gen. Moshe Dayan an iconic figure on the international stage, but his reputation for looting antiquities is little known outside the country where his myth was born.
http://tinyurl.com/pezua

EU envoy in Palestinian aid visit BBC News
An EU envoy is due to visit Jerusalem to brief leaders on a plan to provide indirect aid to Palestinian areas. The package agreed by the "Quartet" of Middle East peace brokers aims to release $120m of EU funds, while bypassing the Hamas-led government. The EU envoy will meet Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but no members of Hamas. The EU and US cut off funding after Hamas came to power earlier this year, accusing it of being a terrorist group. Western aid to the region was frozen after the group's refusal to renounce violence or recognise Israel. Many Palestinians have suffered severe economic hardship following the move, which prompted aid organisations to warn of a humanitarian crisis.

Talks
The Quartet, made up of the US, the EU, the UN and Russia, announced that they would back an EU proposal to provide support for local health services, guarantee fuel supplies and provide for the basic needs of poor Palestinians.


The EU's External Relations Commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, will lay out the mechanism agreed in separate meetings with Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas. "Parts one and two of the mechanism will be launched immediately, with the aim of making payments to individuals by early July," Ms Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement. The Quartet has said it hopes Israel and other international donors will consider participating in the scheme. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel would not comment on the aid plan until it was formally presented by Ms Ferrero-Waldner. The BBC's Nick Childs in Jerusalem says the hope is that the temporary and limited move by the Quartet can relieve some of the hardships for ordinary Palestinians. What impact it will have beyond that is not clear, our correspondent says.

Dependency
On Sunday, the Hamas-led government gave a guarded welcome to the plan. A Hamas spokesman said any funds for impoverished Palestinians were welcome, but he argued that in bypassing the elected government, the Quartet was undermining democracy. The Palestinian authority is heavily dependent on foreign aid and on donor countries. The EU gives about 500m euros ($632m) a year to the Palestinians, making it by far the biggest aid donor. However, public employees will not directly benefit from the new aid plan. The Hamas government has turned to other countries for assistance and hundreds of millions of dollars have been given or promised by Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and many other countries.

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/0...0569210434.html





Palestinians wary of plan to bypass Hamas
Date: June 19 2006


Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah

PALESTINIANS gave a muted welcome yesterday to an international emergency aid plan that bypasses the new Hamas-led Government.

"We hope for an expeditious implementation," said the Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, after President Mahmoud Abbas called the "temporary mechanism" a good step but inadequate.

Under the plan agreed by the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia on Saturday, money would flow by early July to cover costs for Palestinian health and utilities.

But a crippling funds freeze - imposed by international donors after Hamas, an Islamic militant group dedicated to Israel's destruction, was elected this year - will remain in place. About 165,000 Palestinian government employees have gone unpaid for the past three months. Hardship has deepened in the occupied West Bank and in Gaza amid inter-factional violence.

Hamas has refused to meet US, EU and Israeli demands to recognise the Jewish state, renounce violence and accept past interim peace deals.

The temporary aid, bypassing the Hamas administration, will provide essential supplies to the health sector and payments to health-care providers, utilities including fuel, and cash allowances to meet the basic needs of the poorest Palestinians.

An EU spokeswoman said the EU's executive had proposed providing €100 million ($126 million) for the program.

The international peace brokers, known as the Quartet, said they hoped Israel also would contribute. Israel has been withholding tax revenue transfers, about $55 million a month, to the Palestinian Authority since Hamas took office.

"We hope the international community will help us by releasing Israeli-withheld funds. This is the key to avoiding a human catastrophe," Mr Erekat said.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said Israel would have no comment on the aid plan until it was formally presented by the EU external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, during a visit to Jerusalem today.

He said: "Israel supports international efforts to directly support the Palestinian people that bypass the Hamas Government.

"From our point of view, international aid is desirable, but we don't want to see aid strengthening or giving legitimacy to the Hamas Government."

In a challenge to Hamas and in an apparent attempt to ease international sanctions, Mr Abbas has set a July 26 referendum over a manifesto envisaging a two-state solution to end the conflict with the Jewish state.

Mr Abbas's Fatah group wants a Palestinian state on land Israel occupied in 1967, whereas Hamas seeks an Islamic state on all of what is now Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A senior Abbas aide, Rawhi Fattouh, said after talks between factions late yesterday in Gaza that the groups were close to finalising an agreement on a political platform. Such a deal could lead Mr Abbas to cancel the referendum.

The inter-factional talks have also raised speculation over a possible Palestinian unity government that could weaken Hamas's hold on power and lead international donors to resume overall aid.

- Reuters





This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.

Gaza air strike 'kills children' BBC News
An Israeli air strike on a car in the Gaza Strip has killed two children and a teenager, Palestinian officials say. The occupants of the car leapt out before the blast in a crowded street in the Jabaliya refugee camp, witnesses say. Fourteen people were wounded. The Israeli military confirmed it had attacked the vehicle. Israel has repeatedly struck at targets Gaza in response to rocket attacks by militants, who have fired dozens of volleys into Israel in recent days. Hundreds of angry Palestinians gathered to protest at the scene of the latest explosion. Those who died include a boy and a girl - both about five-years-old - and a 16-year-old girl, Palestinian medical sources say. Khalil Roka, a cousin of one of the dead children, told the Associated Press news agency he saw a red flash as the car exploded amid a group of children playing. Several of the injured are also said to be children. The BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza says civilians are often killed when Israel targets militants in crowded areas. A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said the attack had targeted members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militant group associated with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. Israel says such strikes are necessary to deter militants from firing crude rockets from Gaza. People in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, frequently hit by Palestinian rockets, went on strike on Tuesday to protest that the government was not doing enough to protect them. An Israeli strike on a van carrying militants in Gaza City last week left nine people dead, seven of them civilians. Earlier this month, eight Palestinians - including seven members of one family - were killed in an explosion as they picnicked on Gaza's beach. Israel denied Palestinian accusations that its shelling had caused the blast.

Israeli Airstrike Kills Palestinian Teen, 2 Children:

Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a car in this Palestinian refugee camp Tuesday, killing a teenager and two children and wounding nine other people, the military and hospital officials said.
http://www.startribune.com/722/story/504341.html

===
Israeli Officials Call to "Decapitate" Hamas Leaders!:

The array of barbaric statements made by Israeli officials and military generals against the Palestinian people continued today, by demanding to decapitate the heads of the Hamas movement
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/print.asp?name=16580

===
America deaf to Palestinian screams:

The screaming of 11 year old Palestinian Huda Abu Ghalia from Gaza seems not to have reached American officials. - The US was the only major power which not only refused to condemn the incident, but described it as "self defense." Afterwards, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called Israel's army the "most moral" in the world.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/printer4827.shtml

===
Jonathan Cook: Israel Engineers Another Cover-Up:

Leaving the Truth Buried in Gaza's Sands
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13699.htm

===
Israel can no longer rely on the support of Europe's Jews:

Israel is discovering that it can no longer frighten non-Jews out of opposing its policies merely by accusing them of anti-semitism.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13701.htm

===
Hamas, Fatah agree on Israel's right to exist :

A senior Hamas official stressed on Tuesday that his group has reached an agreement with the rival Fatah movement on most items of the "prisoners' document" that is the basis of a pending referendum that would effectively recognise Israel's right to exist.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&cl...50803722286B253

Israel allowed to join Red Cross BBC News
The Red Cross movement has approved a resolution allowing Israel and Palestinian societies to join. The measure was passed in a late-night vote despite objections by Muslim countries to the Israeli Magen David Adom society becoming a member. The society has been applying to join since the 1930s, before Israel's creation, but objects to the traditional cross and crescent symbols. Under a deal reached in December, it will use a diamond-shaped red crystal. "We have a positive outcome," said Sian Bowen, a spokeswoman from the International Red Cross.

Two-thirds majority
The Red Cross and Red Crescent conference in Geneva had hoped for a universal consensus on Israel's admission, but the agreement almost collapsed at the last minute when Syria, backed by some Arab states, raised objections related to Israel's role in the Golan Heights. Instead, the issue was put to a vote and the two-thirds majority required was reached. An Arab amendment was defeated. "I am pleased very much now," the Israeli ambassador to international groups, Itzhak Levanon told the Associated Press. Thursday's resolution also called for the admission of the Palestinian Red Crescent, previously excluded because the territories are not a sovereign state. The Red Cross symbol - the reversal of the colours on the Swiss national flag - was adopted in 1863 when the organisation was set up to care for wounded soldiers. Muslim countries objected to the use of the symbol, which they said reminded them of Christian Crusaders, and used a crescent symbol.

Olmert-Abbas face informal talks BBC News, Petra
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are meeting for the first time in a year. They are having breakfast in the ancient Jordanian city of Petra, hosted by Jordan's King Abdullah. Both sides insist it is not a formal meeting, though the Israelis say they are planning for a proper summit soon. There is no plan for the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to meet one-to-one at the event in Petra. They are meeting on the sidelines of a Nobel conference. Others around the table include Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel and the Thai deputy prime minister. The Israelis are not even calling it a meeting, even though Mr Olmert is has travelled to Jordan especially for the occasion. This sort of non-meeting may rather suit the Israelis. They can say they are talking with the Palestinians without actually having to engage in active negotiations. As for Mr Abbas, he continues to press for the reopening of full peace talks as soon as possible.
By Jon Leyne

Israel missile kills two in Gaza BBC News
Two Palestinians, a woman and a man, have been killed in the Gaza Strip in a blast blamed on an Israeli air strike. Sources quoted by Reuters news agency said seven others, including a number children, were wounded in the blast which hit a house in Khan Younis. Israel has killed at least 11 Palestinian civilians in air strikes in recent days, many of them children. The attacks are to stop militants firing homemade rockets at Israeli towns near Gaza, Israel says. Reports quoting eyewitnesses said an Israeli missile just missed a car carrying militants and hit a residential property. The militants fled into a nearby field, unharmed.The Israeli military confirmed that it carried out an air strike, but gave no further details. Correspondents say it seems to have been the second botched attempt to kill Palestinian militants in the space of two days.

Crowded areas
Earlier, thousands of Palestinians attended funerals for three children killed by an Israeli missile strike on a car on Tuesday. As the funerals went ahead, militants fired three more rockets, bringing the total to more than 140 this month, an Israeli military source said. There have been some injuries and damage to property during these attacks - mainly in the Israeli town of Sderot - but no deaths.


The BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza says the Israeli air force often carries out its air strikes against militants in very crowded areas and innocent bystanders can be hurt or killed. On 13 June, eight civilians were killed in a similar attack. Palestinians blame Israel for the deaths of another eight on a Gaza beach earlier this month, although Israel has denied responsibility. The Israeli army said the car in Tuesday's attack had been a legitimate target, but it regretted any civilian casualties caused by its actions. Britain condemned Tuesday's strike, urged maximum restraint by the Israeli military to avoid escalating tension and called for an immediate halt to Palestinian rocket fire. "We call on the Israeli authorities to respect their obligations under international law and ensure that civilians, particularly children, are not harmed," said UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett in a statement. Speaking at a meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised to take "very hard measures, more hard and more painful than those taken in the past" against Palestinians who attacked Israel.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1802862,00.html
Hamas performs about-turn on Israeli state

· Document recognises Israel's right to exist
· Shift away from founding goal of an Islamic state

Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
Wednesday June 21, 2006
The Guardian


A bulldozer moves an Israeli army jeep after it was set ablaze by Palestinians during clashes in an army operation in Nablus. Photograph: Nasser Ishtayeh/AP



Hamas has made a major political climbdown by agreeing to sections of a document that recognise Israel's right to exist and a negotiated two-state solution, according to Palestinian leaders.
In a bitter struggle for power, Hamas is bowing to an ultimatum from the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to endorse the document drawn up by Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails, or face a national referendum on the issue that could see the Islamist group stripped of power if it loses.

But final agreement on the paper, designed to end international sanctions against the Hamas government that have crippled the Palestinian economy, has been slowed by wrangling over a national unity administration and the question of who speaks for the Palestinians.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee and a lead negotiator on the prisoners' document, said Hamas had agreed to sections which call for a negotiated and final agreement with Israel to establish a Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem.

"Hamas is prepared to accept those parts of the document because they think it is a way to get rid of a lot of its problems with the international community. That's why it will accept all the document eventually," he said.

Hamas, facing a deep internal split over recognition of the Jewish state, declined to discuss the negotiations in detail. If it formally approves the entire document, it will represent a significant shift from its founding goal of replacing Israel with an Islamic state and its more recent position of agreeing a long-term ceasefire, over a generation or more, if a Palestinian state is formed on the occupied territories but without formally recognising the Jewish state.

Mr Abed Rabbo said he expected an agreement in the coming days, but that important differences still had to be settled, particularly over the document's call for the formation of a national unity government.

He described that as "the major issue that will determine the fate of two nations for decades" because a unity administration, built around a common policy of negotiations with Israel, would be the only way to combat its plans to unilaterally impose its final borders and annex parts of the occupied territories.

More immediately this was also the only way to restore foreign aid. But Mr Abed Rabbo added it would be a mistake to see the approval of the prisoners' document as sufficient, in itself, to end international sanctions against the Palestinian Authority. "The document calls for the foundation of a national unity government as the basis of a new programme that will approach the world," he said.

"But the document is part of a package. It should be accompanied by an agreement on policies for a new government. The document won't change conditions and relations on its own."

Mr Abed Rabbo said the July 26 referendum would be called off if there was agreement on the document, but that a ballot could be held later if Hamas blocked the formation of a new government or failed to agree on a negotiations policy.

Abdullah Abdullah, a Fatah MP and chairman of the parliamentary political committee, said other differences remained over the document, including Fatah's insistence that the PLO continues to be recognised as the sole representative of the Palestinian people in negotiations with Israel, and that all existing agreements between the PLO and Israel be recognised.

Israel has dismissed the prisoners' document as changing little because, among other things, it advocates continued resistance. But a complete renunciation of violence is unlikely to come while Israeli attacks continue to claim the lives of innocent Palestinians.

Earlier today, a women was killed and six children injured in an Israeli missile attack in Gaza. On Tuesday, an Israeli air force rocket killed three children, two boys aged five and 16, and a seven-year-old girl. In both cases, Israel said it was targeting militants who escaped injury.

Israel has killed 13 civilians, most of them children, in four air strikes this month. It is also probably responsible for the killing of a family of seven during a shell barrage against a Gaza beach two weeks ago.

Six 'militants' killed in Riyadh BBC News
Six militants linked to al-Qaeda have been killed by police in Riyadh, the Saudi interior ministry says. One policeman was killed and a seventh man arrested, the ministry said. The group, cornered in the al-Nakhil district of the capital, was on the verge of launching attacks, according to officials quoted by al-Arabiya TV. Saudi Arabia has seen a three-year campaign by militants, including an apparent suicide bomb attack on a major oil facility in February. Several other members of the security forces were injured in the gun battle, officials said. "The security forces at dawn Friday pursued seven members of the 'deviant minority' to a house in the al-Nakhil district of Riyadh, where they suddenly came under sustained automatic weapons fire," an interior ministry spokesman told the AFP news agency.

Internal struggle
February's attempted attack on the Abqaiq oil facility was the first physical attack on the kingdom's vastly important oil production facilities. Previous attacks had focused on the compounds and facilities used by Western expatriates in Saudi Arabia. Saudi authorities were slow to admit the country faced an internal struggle against militant Islamists, but that changed after bombings in May 2003 killed 35 people, says the BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner. Continual anti-terror operations have seen a string of militant leaders killed since then, but al-Qaeda sympathisers still appear active within the country.

ISRAEL'S SELF-DESTRUCTION - LOUIS RENE BERES (WASHINGTON TIMES, JUNE 22): Called upon repeatedly by our "civilized" world to negotiate with unrepentant terrorists, every prime minister from Yitzhak Rabin to Ariel Sharon has agreed to assorted policies of national defeat. So has current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060621-085648-9557r.htm

EUROPE, PALESTINE AND PEACE - DANIEL SCHWAMMENTHAL (WALL STRET JOURNAL, JUNE 23): Olmert's Israel is to be the midwife to a Palestinian state.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1151012347...ain_europe_asia
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

DON'T SHOOT, TALK EDITORIAL (HAARETZ, JUNE 22): Before deciding to escalate the conflict, before marking more and more individuals for assassination, it is appropriate to try the alternative: speaking instead of shooting.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/729860.html

LAND OF PARADOXES: - ALUF BENN (HAARETZ, JUNE 22): In a reversal of positions, Israel wants to leave the West Bank unilaterally, but the PA is opposed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/729859.html

BUILDING A NEW ERA IN U.S.-TURKEY RELATIONS - STEVEN A. COOK AD ELIZABETH SHERWOOD-RANDALL (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, JUNE 22): In an ominous sign that all is not well between the United States and Turkey, a 2005 Pew Global Attitude Survey indicates that large numbers of Turks not only oppose U.S. foreign policy, but don't consider Americans to be honest.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6062101613.html

DEMOCRACY AND THE MIDDLE EAST: POLICY REVIEW - DAVID SCHENKER (NEW REPUBLIC, JUNE 21): Has America abandoned the cause of democracy in the Middle East? Recent events give plenty of reason for concern.
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=w060619&s=schenker062106

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/0...0845378984.html




A town under siege urges war on Palestinians
Date: June 24 2006


Ed O'Loughlin Herald Correspondent in Sderot

WHEN Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from inside the Gaza Strip last year, most Israelis hoped they could once and for all forget about the fenced-off Palestinian enclave - most Israelis, but not the people of Sderot.

Only five kilometres from the border with Gaza, Sderot is the only Israeli town within range of the crude Kassam missiles manufactured in Palestinian workshops. Once the Jewish settlements inside Gaza were abandoned it became the chief target for militants seeking to continue their war against Israel.

Since the first of hundreds of Kassams landed on Sderot in March 2002, five people have been killed in the town - including two infants and a 17-year-old girl - and scores injured.

Thousands more have been traumatised, said the town's mayor, Eli Moyal, and still the rockets fall: 300 in the past three weeks, seriously injuring an elderly man and narrowly missing a class of kindergarten children.

Angered at the Government's failure to protect them, this week some Sderot residents tried to shut down the city in protest. This weekend they plan to begin a march on Jerusalem, five days' walk away, to demand that the Minister of Defence do more to secure their town. But the march will be purely symbolic: the minister, Amir Peretz, is one of the town's 20,000 residents.

The bombardment of his home town has become a personal and a political nightmare for the Labour Party leader. As a local householder he must return home each night to face the same risk as any other Sderot resident.

As the Minister of Defence he must face accusations that he is failing to protect his neighbours. And, as a firm advocate of restraint and dialogue with the Palestinians, he is struggling to resist mounting pressure - not least from his townsfolk - for Israel to use its military superiority to teach the people of Gaza a lesson.

"I've had a lot of talks with him [Peretz] lately but he mostly just listens - I don't believe he's got answers," said Mr Moyal, whose office was held by Mr Peretz in the 1980s.

"The Israeli Government and the Defence Ministry have an internal conflict. On the one hand they know what would bring peace to Sderot, but on the other hand it would claim innocent lives on the other side. But if you ask me what side the Israeli Government should be on, the answer for me is obvious - I prefer Israeli lives."

Ran Abuksis, whose 17-year-old sister, Ella, was the last Sderot resident killed by a Kassam, in January 2005, has a similar view.

"Israel has a strong army that knows how to provide security, but the Government won't let them. Any other country in the world would respond immediately and with force against the terrorists who are killing us."

As it happens, the Israeli Defence Force is already waging a campaign against Palestinian militants involved in firing Kassams - and against the areas of Gaza in which they operate, or through which they travel.

A United Nations Security Council report this week said that 49 Palestinians have been killed in the past month alone, most of them in Israel's campaign against Kassam launches. Among the dead were a large number of militants but also at least 20 civilians, including 11 children and a pregnant woman, most of whom were killed by Israeli artillery shells or by guided missiles.

Apart from the shooting of an Israeli Arab in the West Bank, Palestinians have caused no fatalities on the Israeli side since an April 19 suicide bombing that killed 10 people in Tel Aviv. Figures from the Middle East Peace Policy Council say at least 95 Palestinians have been killed since then.

Despite the high death toll, Israeli attempts to suppress the militant fire have failed. And although the army rejects evidence that it was responsible for the June 9 deaths of eight picnickers on a beach that it was shelling, it was this incident, and the assassination of a militant leader, that sparked the recent intensification in Kassam fire at Sderot.

Having failed to deter the rocket fire by air and artillery assault, in recent weeks Israeli military officials have talked staging a large-scale ground operation that would turn the community of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip into a "ghost town".

And while the UN, European Union and Russia this week called on Israel to show restraint in Palestinian civilian areas, many Israelis believe that they are already being too nice.

"Look at what the Americans did after the twin towers," said Miro Shushan, a cinema manager and leader of the local pressure group Sderot Thinks about Tomorrow. "If Sderot was New Jersey, there's a good chance that Gaza would no longer exist."

Gun battle near Gaza border post BBC News
Palestinian gunmen have attacked an Israeli army post near the Gaza Strip reportedly killing two Israelis before soldiers shot dead three militants. Another Israeli soldier was reported missing after the attack, the worst clash since Israeli troops left Gaza. Militants tunnelled under the border at Kerem Shalom before attacking with guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Hours after the raid dozens of Israeli tanks, backed by helicopter gunships, pushed into the Gaza Strip. Four other Israeli soldiers were injured in the violence, one of them seriously.

Revenge
There had been reports that the Palestinian militants had seized the body of an Israeli soldier, but Israeli military officials have denied this is the case. "As far as we know, the soldier is alive," Israeli army chief of staff Dan Halutz said. A spokesman for Gaza's Popular Resistance Committee said they carried out the attack on the military post in revenge for the death of their leader, Jamal Abu Samhadana, in an Israeli strike. The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas said its forces aided the attack, using firearms and bombs. Hamas, currently the governing Palestinian party, ended an informal ceasefire with Israel earlier in June following the deaths of eight members of a Palestinian family on a Gaza beach. Hamas blamed the beach explosion on shelling from an Israeli warship, a charge Israel has denied. The BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza says that if Hamas did participate in this attack it represents a serious escalation in its dealings with Israel. Close to 20 Palestinian civilians have been killed in Gaza in recent weeks as a result of the Israeli air force's efforts to target militants from groups like Hamas, our correspondent says. The attack is the largest operation of its kind since Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza last summer, our correspondent says. A Hamas spokesman said that the militants had destroyed a tank, but Israeli military sources would not confirm this. Hamas is due to continue talks later on Sunday with the rival Palestinian Fatah faction to try to end their power struggle and form a united front.

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm...06&format=print



Sunday, 25th June 2006
International
Sun 25 Jun 2006
Israeli hawks call for troops to storm Gaza
ANNETTE YOUNG IN JERUSALEM
PRIME Minister Ehud Olmert's government is under growing pressure to reoccupy the northern part of Gaza in a move to end the firing of Qassam rockets into Israel by Palestinian militants.

Two senior Likud members including former Defence Minister, Moshe Arens, have called on the government to embark on a major military operation that would see the Israeli army (IDF) launch a ground attack in northern Gaza.

For the first time since withdrawing from Gaza last September, IDF forces carried out a raid inside the territory early yesterday, arresting two Palestinians they said were Hamas militants.

"The two, who are currently being questioned at a location inside Israel, were believed to be involved in the final stages of planning a major terrorist operation inside Israel," an IDF spokeswoman said.

Gaza resident Ali Muamar said the soldiers arrested his two sons - Osama, a doctor who had arrived in Gaza last month from Sudan, and Mustafa, a student of Islamic law.

A spokesman for Hamas, which won control of the Palestinian government in January, denied the men detained were connected to the group

The raid came as the government faced mounting pressure from senior IDF officials who believe recapturing the area in northern Gaza from where rockets are launched at Israel is the only way to end their firing.

But others have argued that such an operation would lead to troops becoming enmeshed in a drawn-out reoccupation, resulting in fatalities on both sides.

"It is possible that the IDF will decide to carry out a major military operation inside Gaza in the coming weeks," said Shlomo Brom, a retired IDF brigadier-general who is now a senior research fellow at Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Centre.

"But such a move sends out a message that last year's disengagement was a failure... which is why such a decision keeps being delayed."

On Friday, Likud member, Yuval Steinitz, who is the former chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, called on the military to launch a ground attack in Gaza similar to Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank, which the IDF launched following the Passover bombing of a Netanya hotel in 2002. "I call on the Israeli government not to wait any longer and to begin a comprehensive ground operation in Gaza to fundamentally damage the terror infrastructure in a few weeks," Steinitz told Israel Radio.

Steinitz's comments followed similar statements made by Arens. "The obvious move to cut down on this danger is for the IDF to reoccupy unilaterally some of the areas in the northern Gaza Strip that were so foolishly abandoned unilaterally last August."

Olmert has said Israel would "continue to carry out targeted attacks against terrorists and those who try to harm Israeli citizens," regardless of a growing number of Palestinian civilian casualties. Five Palestinian civilians were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza last week.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas urged US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to pressure Israel into showing restraint.

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=927072006

Last updated: 24-Jun-06 00:19 BST

http://www.israelnewsagency.com/iranisrael...iel3890624.html




Israel Needs A Preemptive Nuclear Strike Against Iran


Evidence of Iran building nuclear weapons.
After Iran stated that it will "wipe Israel off the map" Israel must now act to defend herself.



By Jonathan Ariel
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ----- June 24...... One of the best ways to ensure the world doesn’t get wobbly over Iran, is to make it understand that although Israel prefers to regard the rogue Islamic regime as an international problem, we will, if necessary, do whatever it takes to ensure our survival, including a preemptive nuclear strike.

In 1936, when Hitler marched into the Rhineland the allies appeased him, even though they could have been in Berlin in two weeks. In 1938 they once again let him off the hook, even though the allies could have been in Berlin within two months. Shortly after the appeasement of Munich, Russia signed a non-aggression treaty with Hitler, setting the stage for what it hoped would be his defeat of the West, which would pave the way for Russian domination of Eurasia, from Lisbon to Vladivostok.

Now we have Iran, a country led by Ahmadinejad, an equally deranged and evil maniac. He is driven by an ideology combining elements of Nazism and Mahdism, with a tad of Maoism as well, a lethal cocktail of three of the most evil ideologies of human political history.

By most current intelligence estimates, by 2008, exactly 70 years after Chamberlain announced on his return from Munich he had achieved “peace in our time”, the Iranian Islamo-Nazi regime will have succeeded in developing an atomic bomb. Although it seems that the international community has belatedly begun to awaken to the danger, it is still far from certain that this will actually lead to concrete and concerted steps to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Moreover, even if the West does get its act together, three is no guarantee that Russia will not revert to course, enacting a repeat performance of the Molotov-Ribbentrob pact. Putin seriously mulling double crossing the West.

This week new and highly disturbing evidence came to light that this is exactly what Russia is doing. According to a western intelligence report published earlier this week, satellite images showed large volumes of heavy Russian weaponry heading towards Iran. The weapons belonged to Russian military units evacuating Georgia, as part of the Russian-Georgian agreement signed in March, which calls for all Russian troops to be withdrawn from Georgian soil.

The Russians were evacuating their two big Soviet-era military bases in Georgia on the shores of the Black Sea – the 12th base in Batumi and the 62nd at Akhalkalaki to the north, 19 miles from the Turkish border. The mages revealed the retreating Russian units moving along not one but two routes. The first showed small groups of Russian officers and soldiers heading out of Georgia carrying only their personal kits, the second was jammed with convoys of trucks loaded with weapons and logistical systems, radar and ammo.

Freight trains were also pressed into service. This route wound out of Georgia and headed into Armenia where the vehicles halted at the Russian base near Gyumri. A Russian military spokesman explained this relocation by stating that “the property of the 62nd (Akhalkalaki), Georgia, would be reassigned to replenish Russia’s 102nd base in Gyumri, Armenia.” He added: “The transfer of this property to any other party is not envisioned.”

However Armenia was not the “the property’s” last stop. The close watch on the Russian supplies convoys continued and, lo and behold, a third route surfaced, this one heading out of the 102nd base in Armenia and into Iran.

Western military sources have traced the route these weapons took. From Gyumri, the trucks and trains rolled on to the Armenian capital of Yerevan. There, they were offloaded onto Armenian and Iranian trucks and trains, which turned south to the Iranian border. The freight crossed the border and halted at the Iranian town of Sadarak. Its next stop was the Iranian-Azeri town of Naxcivan and then on to Tabriz. Subsequent shipments by truck and rail followed the same route, They included APCs, heavy artillery, Grad rockets, BM-21mm missiles and anti-aircraft systems.

So far this year, Iran has purchased over $7 billion for arms from Russia, including anti-air, nuclear-capable Tor-M1 cruise missiles, considered by experts the most advanced of its kind in the world. Iran has purchased these missiles to secure the Bushehr atomic reactor and other nuclear sites. These sources say that Teheran is using the Georgian weapons deal as bait, to get Moscow to part with weapons and technologies it has so far refrained from passing over to the ayatollahs, specifically technology transfers enabling Iran to begin domestic production of the sophisticated Russian X-5518 nuclear cruise missiles, known also as Kh-55 or AS-15s.

Tehran already has a dozen of these missiles, which have a 3,000km range and are capable of carrying a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead. They were purchased on the black market of Ukraine in 2005. Teheran has reportedly promised to significantly increase its purchase of conventional weapons from Russia, if it agrees to the missile technology transfer.

Despite the uncertainty as to whether Russia (and possibly China as well) would cooperate with the West regarding Iran, the conventional wisdom has remained unchanged, namely that Iran is an international problem, being dealt with accordingly by the international community, and that Israel should therefore take a back seat.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The world needs to understand very clearly that Israel cannot and will not allow a Holocaust –denying regime that openly calls for its destruction to wield a nuclear bomb. Israel needs to make it very clear that the consequence of it having to face a nuclear Iran by itself will be a preemptive strike against Iran.

The more the international community gets the message that the consequences of appeasement will be worse than those of action, the better the chances of action. The growing evidence of Russian perfidy makes it even more important that there be no room for misunderstandings in this regard. The best way to get that message across is to make it very clear that if Israel is faced between an Iran nuclear bomb, or having to launch a preemptive nuclear strike to prevent that eventuality, it will opt for the latter.

The world must be told loud and clear by Israel that the only way to avoid the first nuclear strike by a nation since Nagasaki is to take whatever actions are required to ensure Iran doesn’t get the bomb, and to prevent an Iranian conventional weapons build up to the point where a preemptive nuclear strike becomes the only option for dealing with the rogue ayatollah regime.



Jonathan Ariel, was an advisor to the South African government and is a former editor-in-chief of the Israel on-line Maariv International. He has filled numerous positions with well known Israel and international media organizations such as Maariv, Makor Rishon, Jerusalem Post, Ha'aretz, The International Herald Tribune, Israel Radio, SABC and the Independent Foreign Service. These include Managing-Editor of Makor Rishon and Editor-in-Chief of Maariv International. He has been interviewed and quoted by leading media organizations such as the LA Times, The Economist, The Guardian, The New York Sun, Times of India, The Australian, Sunday Times and the BBC. His articles have been translated into over a dozen major languages, including German, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, French, Arabic, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. He has degrees in Political Science and Journalism. He speaks English and Hebrew at mother tongue level, French, Dutch (Afrikaans) fluently.



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Demands set for captured Israeli BBC News
Militant groups in Gaza have demanded the release of Palestinian children and women from Israeli jails before giving information about a missing soldier. It is the first such statement since the suspected abduction of Israeli tank gunner Gilad Shalit during clashes on the Gaza border on Sunday morning. The signatories included the armed wing of the governing party Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there would be no releases and warned of military action to free the soldier. "The question of freeing [Palestinian] prisoners is in no way on the Israeli government agenda," Mr Olmert said during a speech in Jerusalem. "There will be no negotiations, no bargaining, no agreements."

Denied knowledge
Cpl Shalit was believed to have been taken captive by militants who tunnelled out of Gaza to attack the army post at Kerem Shalom. Two Israeli troops and two militants were killed during the raid. Mr Olmert has put the army on standby for an extensive military operation against Palestinian militants and Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have assembled on the Gaza border. Hamas political leaders have denied any knowledge of the soldier's whereabouts - but they have called for him to be well treated. The faxed statement was signed by the Popular Resistance Committees umbrella group, Hamas's Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and the previously unknown Army of Islam. It said: "The Occupation [Israel] will not get any information about its missing soldier until it commits to the following: "First, the immediate release of all women in prison. Second, the immediate release of all children in prison younger than 18." Israel is believed to have incarcerated about 100 women and 300 under-18s among the 9,000 Palestinian prisoners it is holding in its jails. Intense diplomatic efforts have been under way since the soldier's disappearance, including mediation by an Egyptian delegation in the Gaza Strip. This was noted by the kidnappers themselves, who said their demands were "in response to various mediation efforts and other intervention". The statement did not confirm whether the three groups were holding Cpl Shalit captive themselves. Israeli officials have held Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, responsible for the 19-year-old Israeli's safety. Correspondents say the crisis could spoil efforts to bind Hamas into a plan implicitly recognising Israel, and may expose divisions between hardline and more pragmatic Hamas elements.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzgwZ...TFiYjc4ZGQ4OTU=

June 26, 2006, 6:00 a.m.

Our Blind Spot
Hamas and Saudi Arabia.

By Michael I. Krauss & J. Peter Pham

President George W. Bush has made the global war on terrorism not only the cornerstone of his foreign policy, but perhaps the defining element of his entire presidency. To his credit, shortly after 9/11, the president saw that the struggle against violent extremists by its very nature had to extend well beyond the immediate interest the United States had in hunting down those responsible for the devastating attack on the American homeland; he understood that this would necessarily include aggressively pursuing all those who use terror as a weapon against free societies. Within days of the attack, for example, federal agencies redoubled their efforts to halt the financing of al Qaeda, the Taliban, and some 22 other major international terrorist organizations.
On December 4, 2001, announcing the Treasury Department’s freezing of the assets of the Holy Land Foundation — a tax-exempt “charity” that funneled millions of dollars to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which the president himself described as “an extremist group that calls for the total destruction of the State of Israel…one of the deadliest terrorist organizations in the world today” — Bush pledged unequivocally: “The message is this: Those who do business with terror will do no business with the United States or anywhere else the United States can reach.”

This courageous (and correct) U.S. action notwithstanding, less than five years later, Hamas has carried out thousands of terror attacks in which 425 civilians and soldiers were murdered and 2,233 wounded. Despite its increasingly bloody record — or perhaps because of it — Hamas was elected to run the Palestinian Authority government. And, since the responsibilities of governance have not in the least tempered the fanaticism of the terrorist group’s leaders, the Bush administration has suspended direct financial assistance to the PA.

While PA's Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas and its Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya — along with their Western fellow travelers — have been loudly bemoaning the aid cut-off, and while certainly some ordinary Palestinians have had their lives inconvenienced, it is quite telling that Hamas has not been crippled. In fact, the Hamas campaign of violence continues unabashedly, in full swing, proving that terrorists can both “govern” and kill at the same time.

On June 9 Hamas issued a statement praising Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, as a “symbol of resistance to occupation.”

The next day, Egyptian Interior Minister Habib El-Adly confronted his PA counterpart with evidence demonstrating that the suicide bombers who had perpetrated attacks in the Sinai Peninsula in April were trained in the Gaza Strip by Hamas operatives.

Then, on June 13, CNN reported that Hamas may well have been directly responsible for the bomb that blew up on a Gaza beach the week before, killing an innocent Palestinian family. An errant Israeli bomb (meant to neutralize Hamas operatives) had been blamed for the killing, but after initially expressing its regrets the Jewish state has provided evidence that the family was killed by a Hamas improvised explosive device (IED) that went off accidentally. Hamas has since expressed its desire to renew the cease-fire it had cancelled in the wake of the family’s death, perhaps implicitly conceding that the findings of the Israeli investigation were on target.

How does this terrorist group continue operating despite the international boycott? An incident on June 13 involving PA Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar is telling. The Hamas leader was briefly stopped, but otherwise unhindered, as he transited through the international airport in Cairo with seven suitcases stuffed with an estimated $20 million. At the Rafah crossing-point from Sinai to Gaza, European monitors asked al-Zahar to explain the small fortune in his luggage, but did not detain him when he proved unresponsive. Then Palestinian Force 17 militiamen aligned with Fatah and President Abbas asked him to sign a guarantee that the money would be deposited in the Palestinian exchequer. Al-Zahar told them that he would think about it, then drove off. The foreign minister is the third Hamas official to enter at the Rafah crossing into Gaza carrying large amounts of cash. Last month, a Hamas lawmaker passed through with $4.5 million in banknotes. Before that, a Hamas spokesman brought in $800,000. Not a single dollar of these cash deliveries ever reached official Palestinian national coffers. Rather, Palestinian sources report that the cash covered the wages of Hamas’s militiamen and “security forces” — that is, the hired killers of “one of the deadliest terrorist organizations in the world today.”

And the provenance of this money? Ironically, given President Bush’s pledge that “those who do business with terror will do no business with the United States,” much of it comes from a country whose princes are regular guests at the Crawford Ranch.

According to Israel’s Center for Special Studies, as of 2003, up to 60 percent of Hamas’s annual budget came from Saudi Arabia, including from official sources, government-sponsored telethons, and government-run charities, as well as from Saudi individuals and organizations. The Saudi flow of money to Hamas has been so great, historically, that long before he became PA president, Mahmoud Abbas was complaining about it, as attested to by a December 2000 letter he wrote to Prince Salman, governor of Riyadh, discovered by Israeli forces during Operation Defensive Shield in April 2002.

Matthew Levitt, formerly a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and now deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury, has just published Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad. He notes that last September Israel arrested an Israeli Arab, Yakub Muhamad Yakub Abu Etzev, who played central militant, political, and financing roles for Hamas in coordination with what Israeli authorities described as a “Hamas command in Saudi Arabia.” Until he was arrested, Abu Etzev was in contact via e-mail with senior Hamas officials in Saudi Arabia. According to Israeli authorities, Abu Etzev confessed to receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Hamas headquarters in Saudi Arabia as well as instructions, which he passed on to Hamas field operatives. The funds entered the West Bank through human couriers and money changers, often under the cover of dawa (Islamic charity and proselytism work).

Saudi officials insist that then-Crown Prince Abdullah officially withdrew the kingdom’s support for Hamas in early 2002. However, late last year, Saudi television was still running a program on the “jihad” in Palestine that implored viewers to donate funds to the intifada. A caption on the screen informed prospective donors that they could send funds through the “Saudi Committee for Support of the al-Quds Intifada’s Account Ninety-Eight … a joint account at all Saudi banks.” The government-created account continues to fund Palestinian organizations, preeminent among them Hamas.

Michael Barone recently noted that President Bush has a much better sense of history than do many of his critics. The president, Barone argues, understands the need for bold action to confront an existential threat better than any president since Harry Truman. Yet, somehow, Bush has a blind spot when it comes to this desert kingdom, and it threatens to undermine the central pillar of his presidency.

—Michael I. Krauss is a professor of law at George Mason University School of Law. J. Peter Pham is director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University. Both are academic fellows of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and visited Israel for the FDD earlier last year


© National Review Online 2006-2007. All Rights Reserved.

Israel rules out prisoner release BBC News
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has refused to release any Palestinian prisoners in exchange for information about an abducted Israeli soldier. He was responding to a demand from three militant groups that women and youths be freed from Israeli jails in return for news on Gilad Shalit. Those making the demand included the armed wing of governing party Hamas. Mr Olmert also threatened military action to free the soldier seized in clashes on the Gaza border on Sunday. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged Israel to give diplomacy a chance to win the release of the tank gunner. She said a concerted international effort was under way to secure his freedom and appealed for calm rather than an escalation of the situation.

'Time running out'
Mr Olmert has put the army on standby for an extensive military operation against Palestinian militants to free Cpl Shalit and Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have been assembling on the Gaza border. "The question of freeing [Palestinian] prisoners is in no way on the Israeli government agenda," Mr Olmert said during a speech in Jerusalem.


"There will be no negotiations, no bargaining, no agreements." Mr Olmert said that Israel would not allow itself to become the victim of "Hamas-terrorist blackmail", warning that "a large-scale military operation is approaching". "The time is approaching for a comprehensive, sharp and severe Israeli operation. We will not wait forever," Mr Olmert said. Cpl Shalit is believed to have been taken captive by militants who tunnelled out of Gaza to attack the army post at Kerem Shalom. Two Israeli troops and two militants were killed during the raid.

Diplomatic efforts
Hamas political leaders have denied any knowledge of the tank gunner's whereabouts - but they have called for him to be well treated. The faxed statement calling for the prisoners' release was signed by the Popular Resistance Committees umbrella group, Hamas's Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and the previously unknown Army of Islam. It said: "The Occupation [Israel] will not get any information about its missing soldier until it commits to the following: "First, the immediate release of all women in prison. Second, the immediate release of all children in prison younger than 18." Israel is believed to have incarcerated about 100 women and 300 under-18s among the 9,000 Palestinian prisoners it is holding in its jails. Intense diplomatic efforts have been under way since the soldier's disappearance, including mediation by an Egyptian delegation in the Gaza Strip. This was noted by the kidnappers themselves, who said their demands were "in response to various mediation efforts and other intervention". The statement did not confirm whether the three groups were holding Cpl Shalit captive themselves. Israeli officials say they hold Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, responsible for the 19-year-old Israeli's safety. Correspondents say the crisis could spoil efforts to bind Hamas into a plan implicitly recognising Israel, and may expose divisions between hardline and more pragmatic Hamas elements.

One dead in Gaza explosion:

A Palestinian fighter loyal to Hamas, the ruling Islamic resistance group, has been killed and five civilians have been wounded after a vehicle exploded in Gaza City, according to medical and local security sources.
http://tinyurl.com/rwqo4

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Hamas, Fatah agree on plan implicitly recognizing Israel:

The rival Hamas and Fatah movements agreed on a plan implicitly recognizing Israel, a top Palestinian official said Tuesday after weeks of acrimonious negotiations meant to lift crippling international aid sanctions.
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=...orld&id=4309954

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US reacts cautiously to Hamas recognition of Israel:

The United States on Tuesday reacted cautiously to the Palestinian Hamas groups recognition of Israel to exist, saying it will await the formal version of the announcement.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Lan...=en&DSNO=880983

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Israeli Invasion Looms :

Israeli troops are amassed on the border of the Gaza Strip as Palestinian militants continue to hold an Israeli soldier captured on Sunday
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/internatio...,423930,00.html

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Palestinian militants release first information about soldier:

A Palestinian militant leader today said a captured Israeli soldier was being held in a “secure place,” and he claimed that his group also seized a Jewish settler in the West Bank.
http://tinyurl.com/omcup

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Palestinian groups demand release of jailed women

“The occupation will not get any information about the missing soldier, except after committing to first immediately release all women prisoners from Israeli prisoners,” the three groups said in a statement. “Secondly, (we demand) the immediate release of all children under 18 years,” they added.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=12846

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Road to Map to Starvation: What's Next for the Palestinians?:

The Israelis, and their Hard Right Zionist supporters in the U.S., should be put on notice that a day of justice is coming.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13774.htm

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The Iron Wall:

This eye-opening documentary exposes the Israel's colonization policy and follows the timeline, size, population of the "settlements," and their impact on the peace process.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13749.htm

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US cannot accept Israeli nuclear weapons: Arab League chief:

The United States cannot denounce Iran’s nuclear program while accepting Israel’s possession of nuclear bombs, the head of the Arab League said on Tuesday.
http://tinyurl.com/n9qe9

Israel Launches Incursion Into Gaza Strip

By Scott Wilson

GAZA CITY, June 28 -- Israeli ground troops pushed into the Gaza Strip early Wednesday in a military operation aimed at freeing a captured soldier whose fate has transfixed much of the country. The incursion was the military's first major move into Gaza since the Israeli government withdrew all...

To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...er=emailarticle

Israel warns of 'extreme' action BBC News
Israel's prime minister has warned of "extreme action" to free a soldier captured by Palestinian militants. Witnesses reported an air strike on a militant training camp in Gaza, after planes bombed a power station and three bridges overnight. Tanks also moved into the southern Gaza Strip, in the first big incursion since the Israeli withdrawal last year. There are no reports of clashes but the incursion brought condemnation from the main Palestinian factions. The White House said Israel had "the right to defend itself". "In any actions the government of Israel may undertake, the United States urges that it ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed," spokesman Tony Snow said. In developments elsewhere:

• Around 30 Israeli army jeeps have surrounded a building near the West Bank town of Ramallah.
• Militants in the West Bank showed what they said was a photocopy of the ID card of the missing 18-year-old Jewish settler Eliahu Asher, whom they say they have abducted and will kill if Israel continues its operation.
• Israel's Public Security Minister, Avi Dichter, told Israeli radio that Hamas leaders based in Syria could be attacked.

Cpl Gilad Shalit was taken prisoner in a raid claimed by three different organisations - including the armed wing of governing party Hamas - on an Israeli guard post near Gaza on Sunday. "We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family," Mr Olmert said, adding that Israel only wanted to rescue its soldier and did not wish to stay on in Gaza.

Tanks move in
Witnesses reported that at least one missile was fired into what they said was a Hamas training camp in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Wednesday afternoon. Israel said it had launched an air strike on open fields. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Palestinian security sources said an explosion at a house in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Wednesday afternoon appeared to be an accident, not part of the Israeli action. Overnight, covered by artillery and helicopter gunship fire, Israeli tanks moved in from the Kerem Shalom crossing near southern Gaza and took control of the disused airport. Planes also bombed three bridges linking the north and south of the strip, and Gaza's main electricity transformer, plunging much of the strip into darkness. Army officials said the operation would remain "limited and surgical".

'Collective punishment'
While the Israelis have reported no major resistance, Palestinian militants have been erecting barricades and preparing hideouts and ambush positions. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, condemned the Israeli incursion as "collective punishment" and said the problem could only be solved through negotiation. Cpl Shalit was captured when Palestinian militants tunnelled under the Gaza border and attacked an Israeli army position at Kerem Shalom, killing two soldiers. Israel has refused militant demands for Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails to be freed in exchange for information about the soldier. Hamas political leaders have denied they know of Cpl Shalit's whereabouts and have urged his captors not to mistreat him. Israel last year pulled soldiers and thousands of settlers out of Gaza, which it had first occupied after the 1967 war.
Palestinian accord seen producing little progress San Francisco Chronicle
Israeli forces consolidate positions in Gaza Financial Times
Reuters AlertNet - Zaman Online - Wall Street Journal (subscription) - BBC Bulgaria - all 4,036 related »

CRISIS FOR HAMAS: AN ISRAELI CAPTIVE FORCES A SHOWDOWN BETWEEN POLITICIANS AND TERRORISTS ? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON POST, JUNE 27): Arab governments, the United States and the European Union must press hard for the right outcome: If Hamas fails to embrace politics over violence now, it probably won't get another chance.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6062601232.html

MIDEAST HELD HOSTAGE EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, JUNE 27): If unreason prevails in the current hostage crisis, a tsunami of unnecessary suffering will break upon the peoples of the region.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...t_held_hostage/

ISRAEL'S DEADLY SIEGE OF PALESTINE - ALEXANDER COCKBURN (COUNTERPUNCH, JUNE 27): Do not the starvation, not to mention almost daily murder of Palestinian civilians merit even a word of reproach to the government of Israel, or the US and European governments that have joined in this barbaric siege?
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn06272006.html

THE IDEOLOGY OF OCCUPATION REVISITED RAN HACOHEN (ANTIWAR.COM, JUNE 27): The history of occupation is not just that of Palestinian suffering and Israeli aggression; it is also the history of its ideology, the history of the fictions the Israeli society fabricates in order to justify its major colonial project which has just entered its 40th year.
http://www.antiwar.com/hacohen/?articleid=9178

Israelis Cut Power, Water in Most of Gaza:

Palestinians dug in behind walls and embankments, preparing for a major strike after Israel sent in troops and tanks and bombarded bridges and a power station. Warplanes fired missiles in northern and southern Gaza.
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2006/06/2...s/d8ihamo80.txt

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Collective punishment of Palestinian civilian population:

Israeli Destroy Bridges Power Plant In Contravention of Geneva protocol-1 - Art 52. and Art 54:

Aircraft struck at three bridges on key roads in what the army said was an attempt to stop militants moving the captive. A helicopter strike on a power plant plunged much of Gaza into darkness.
http://tinyurl.com/l7qxr

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The Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflict:

It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population
http://tinyurl.com/4cqt

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Hans Lebrecht - The Right to Resistance According to International Law :

According to international law, the people of a country, occupied by a foreign power, has the full right to fight for their liberation. The Palestinian people, inhabitants of the territories, Israel has conquered and is occupying by military means since June 1967, too have this briefed right.
http://tinyurl.com/paobb

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Israeli military pummels Palestinians, warns Syria as it seeks soldier's release:

Israeli warplanes buzzed the seaside home of Syria's president and bombed Hamas targets in Gaza on Wednesday to pressure Palestinian militants to free a kidnapped Israeli soldier.
http://tinyurl.com/lzo3f

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Syrian Air Defenses Fire on Israeli Jets :

Air defenses fired on Israeli warplanes that entered Syrian airspace early Wednesday and forced them to flee, state TV said as Mideast tensions escalated over the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4010156.html

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Palestinians back prisoner release call :

For Walid al-Houdaly, 46, the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants offers the opportunity that his wife and their 18-month-old child will be freed from prison.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5122056.stm

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Israel won't let Abbas out of Gaza Strip:

Israel will not allow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to leave the Gaza Strip, part of the closure clamped on the territory after the abduction of an Israeli soldier, military officials said today.
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?...262&p=y87z5x968

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IDF knew militants planned abduction via tunnel :

A preliminary investigation into an attack Sunday on an Israel Defense Forces post has found that the IDF had widely deployed along the Israel-Gaza border following warnings that Palestinian militants were aiming to use a tunnel to abduct a soldier.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/731147.html

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Hamas denies recognising Israel :

Hamas says it has not agreed to recognise Israel despite a political deal reached with Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday.
http://tinyurl.com/pg6t5

Israel justifies Hamas detentions BBC News
Israel has denied Palestinian cabinet ministers detained in the West Bank are to be used as bargaining chips to release a captured Israeli soldier. The detainees include eight members of the Hamas-led government and 20 MPs. Palestinians called it an act of war. The Israelis say they suspect them of involvement in terrorism, and are holding them for questioning. Foreign ministers of the G8 countries meeting in Moscow called on Israel to exercise utmost restraint. Israeli military units advanced into southern Gaza on Tuesday night as part of efforts to get the soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, released. They have carried out further air strikes in Gaza during the day and shelled open areas to prevent retaliation by militant rocket crews. Much of Gaza has been left without electricity and running water after a power plant was hit by Israeli missiles on Tuesday. Israel aircraft also destroyed several bridges, preventing travel between the north and south of the 45km (30-mile) Strip. The body of a teenage Israeli settler abducted by Palestinian militants on Sunday has now been recovered by Israeli troops near the West Bank town of Ramallah.

'War of terror'
Israel has said it will not negotiate Cpl Shalit's release with his captors, or free Palestinian women and children held in its jails, as the militants demand. "They are not bargaining chips for the return of the soldier - it was simply an operation against a terrorist organisation," said an Israeli army spokeswoman. As they called for calm, the G8 foreign ministers were among a number of international bodies to question Israel's move. "The detention of elected members of the Palestinian government and legislature raises particular concerns," the ministers said in a written declaration. They also demanded the immediate release of Cpl Gilad - who was seized by Palestinian militants during a raid on an army post outside Gaza on Sunday. "We are united in demanding that the Israeli soldier be freed as soon as possible," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel of "waging an open-ended all-out war against the Palestinian people that aims to topple the Palestinian presidency and the Palestinian government". Meanwhile Syria condemned an incursion by at least two Israeli war planes into its airspace on Wednesday, flying over the summer residence of President Bashar al-Assad. Israeli officials accuse the Syrian government of harbouring the political leadership of Hamas, which it blames for the seizing of Cpl Shalit.

Dug in
The Israeli military detained more than 64 Hamas officials and parliamentarians in overnight raids across the West Bank. The detained ministers include Finance Minister Omar Abdal Razeq, Social Affairs Minister Fakhri Torokma and Prisoners' Affairs Minister Wasfi Kabha and Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Nasser Shair. Israeli ground forces meanwhile massed at Gaza's northern border, and troops and tanks dug into positions in the south, a day after they moved in. The Israeli air force staged mock raids over Gaza, causing sonic booms, and dropped leaflets in northern Gaza urging residents to avoid moving in the area because of impending military activity. Israel aircraft later attacked a car in Gaza City carrying militants from the Islamic Jihad group, Palestinian sources said. The militants escaped, although one was lightly injured in the blast, witnesses said. Nervous civilians stockpiled batteries and candles, as well as food and water. In southern Gaza, where the Rafah crossing with Egypt has been closed since Cpl Gilad's capture, militants blew a large hole in the border wall. Palestinian security forces stopped people from pushing through the gap by forming a human cordon, and a curfew was imposed.

Kuwaitis vote in landmark polls BBC News
Polls have closed in Kuwait's parliamentary elections which, for the first time, allowed women to cast ballots and stand as candidates. The vote was held early and comes at a politically turbulent period in the conservative Gulf state's history. A bitter dispute has broken out between the government and opposition MPs over increasing the size of constituencies as a way of preventing corruption. Women make up 28 of the 252 candidates, as well as 57% of the electorate. The BBC's Julia Wheeler in Kuwait says it was a big day for women there - even if they do not get elected this time round - and one they have long campaigned for. However, female candidates hope to secure some seats in parliament, despite standing for the most part against seasoned incumbents.

Single sex voting
"It feels like a wedding day," said Salwa al-Sanoussi as she came to vote in the wealthy Dahyia constituency.


Voters were seen arriving at polling stations in chauffeur-driven cars and being shaded by candidates' representatives with umbrellas as they walked in the scorching sunshine. Early voting was heavy in this women-only polling station. Under rules written in 2005 men and women must vote separately. Many candidates have made fighting alleged corruption in the ruling elite a key issue. There are frequent allegations of vote-buying by pro-government candidates and fears among reformists that Kuwait's rulers want to turn the parliament into a rubber-stamp body. The cabinet had backed a bill that cut the number of voting districts from 25 to 10, but the opposition MPs wanted the number lowered further to five. They argue that the existence of a large number of small constituencies in which the 340,000-strong electorate can vote promotes corruption and vote-buying.

Robust debate
Kuwait's parliament is considered to be the strongest of those in the Gulf monarchies, and the National Assembly often expresses differences of opinion with cabinet in a robust fashion.


However the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, has the final word on most government policies and key cabinet posts are held by members of the ruling family. The 50 elected seats in parliament are held for four years, unless the emir dissolves the body. All Kuwaitis over 21 have the vote, except members of the armed forces and those naturalised for fewer than 30 years.

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/0...1174333960.html



Acts of war: Middle East on edge
Date: June 30 2006


Ed O'Loughlin

AS THE crisis over a captured Israeli soldier lurches towards disaster, the Israeli Government has seized most of the political leadership of the Palestinian Authority - a move that poses a deadly threat to the last shreds of the Oslo peace process.

In night raids across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israeli troops rounded up most of the ministers and MPs representing the non-Gaza wing of the Palestinian ruling party, Hamas.

Hamas has described the raids as an act of "open war against the Palestinian Government and people" and said Israel would have to face the consequences.

Israeli spokesmen have denied that the Hamas leaders - reported to number 64, including most of the Ramallah-based cabinet - were seized as bargaining chips for the release of 19-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit, captured by Palestinian fighters in a raid on the edge of Gaza on Sunday.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official, Mark Regev, said Hamas was formally regarded as a terrorist organisation in Israel, the US, the European Union and Australia and that its leaders would be brought before an Israeli judge and charged with terrorist offences.

"If the government of the Palestinian Authority says it's OK to send rockets into Israel, to kidnap Israelis, to behave like terrorists, then they will be treated like terrorists," he said.

Israel's move against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is only the most serious of a number of grave developments threatening to escalate an already fraught situation into all-out war and humanitarian disaster.

Yesterday Israel launched an air strike on a car in Gaza City carrying a senior Islamic Jihad militant, who survived the attack, Palestinian sources said. The Israeli Army said it had targeted a vehicle, but gave no details about who it believed was inside.

An explosion was also reported in Gaza City near the headquarters of a key security agency loyal to the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, witnesses said.

On Wednesday Israeli jets buzzed the summer palace of Syria's President, Bashar Assad, driving home Israel's threat to assassinate Hamas leaders at large in Gaza and in exile in Syria. Syria said its air defences fired on the aircraft without hitting them.

Early yesterday Israeli troops found the body of a murdered 18-year-old Jewish settler - Eliyahu Asheri, who is the son of an Australian immigrant - abducted by Palestinian militants in the West Bank on Sunday.

In Gaza, meanwhile, militants belonging to the mainstream Fatah military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, claim to have fired a chemical-tipped missile into Israel for the first time.

The Israeli Army said it had no information to support the claim, but it was likely to increase the pressure for an Israeli crackdown in the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza, from where most of the missiles are fired.

During the night, Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets warning residents that the area faced increased bombardment.

Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has said that Israel will not negotiate to release Corporal Shalit and will take "extreme actions" if he is not freed.

"Our aim is not to mete out punishment but to apply pressure so the soldier will be freed," he said. "We want to create a new equation: freeing the abducted soldier in return for lessening the pressure on the Palestinians."

Over the past 48 hours, Israeli attacks - including artillery bombardments, tank incursions and the destruction of two bridges and the strip's only power station - have left 700,000 people without power and threaten to cut off water to 1.3 million Gazans.

The actions have been condemned as "collective punishment" by human rights groups and by the British Foreign Office.

Mr Rejev rejected the allegations, saying that in warfare civilian infrastructure is a "legitimate target". He said the attack on the power station, like the destruction of two bridges, was designed to make it more difficult for Corporal Shalit's captors to move him from place to place.

Militants want Israel to free more than 8000 Palestinian prisoners in return for the corporal.

Palestinians said their attacks were in response to an Israeli blockade that has plunged the enclave into poverty and led to a big increase in civilian deaths.


Story Picture: An Israeli soldier rushes an artillery round to a waiting canon as Israeli forces shell the Gaza Strip.


This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/0...1174333969.html




Health crisis looms as plant bombed
Date: June 30 2006


THE destruction of the only power plant in the Gaza Strip threatens to create a humanitarian disaster because the plant supplied electricity to two-thirds of Gaza's 1.3 million residents and operated pumps that provided water.

Across Gaza yesterday, people hurried to stock up on emergency supplies of bottled water, candles and food that will not spoil.

With nearly three-quarters of a million people without electricity, Gazans sat on the footpath to try to catch a breeze, glancing skyward when Israeli aircraft circled overhead.

Twelve hours later, workers at the power station were still hosing down six wrecked transformers billowing smoke after each one was picked off by a single missile, leaving heaps of buckled metal.

The plant's operations manager, Derar Abu Sisi, predicted it would not be generating again before the end of the year. He said: "What I know about war is that economics and infrastructure is usually the last target … We're very sorry that it's the first stage of war here. They know very well the electricity sector doesn't have weapons."

Britain has challenged Israel's justification for the bombing of the plant. A Foreign Office spokesman said the destruction of the power station represented a collective punishment of a civilian population that posed no military threat. Collective punishments are a war crime outlawed by the fourth Geneva Convention.

Its closure will be felt acutely during the summer, when demand for air-conditioning peaks.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, insisted the destruction of the plant was done for purely military reasons. Israel has not adopted the Geneva Conventions into law but it says it abides by them.

Mr Regev denied destroying the power station was illegal, saying his country was involved in a genuine military conflict. The plant cost about $US150 million ($205 million) and took more than five years to build. The plant is insured by a US government agency, and US officials say they expect American funds to be used to pay for the damage.

But paying a claim on the plant, which was insured for $US48 million, could prove problematic for the US, which cut off funding for all infrastructure projects in the Palestinian territories after the militant group Hamas won legislative elections in January.

Bush Administration officials said the restrictions on working with a Hamas-led government could further complicate the repair of the electric facility.

The bombing of the plant could become a lasting problem for the Administration, which is appealing for an end to the showdown between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza.

Plans for the plant began in 1999, when two private investors laid down the blueprint for making the Palestinian territories less reliant on buying electricity from Israel.

The project faltered when violence broke out in Gaza in 2000 and when one of the shareholders, Enron Corporation, collapsed into bankruptcy.

But the other shareholder, the Palestinian construction mogul Said Khoury, continued to push forward. His construction company's American subsidiary, the Morganti Group, bought out Enron's stake in the plant.

In 2002 the plant began operating and became the first such facility regulated by the Palestinian Energy Authority.

In 2004, it reached full commercial capacity and its owners were able to buy $US48 million in "political risk" insurance from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, an arm of the US government that provides American businesses with financing abroad.

The corporation raises its reserve funds through insurance premiums but its funds are kept in the US Treasury and are controlled by Congress.

Advocates for the Palestinians say the plant must be repaired, even if the US Government is forced to pay for it.

"If you take out two-thirds of the power in a place like Gaza, and if this is the source of electricity that powers pumps for water, you may have a major crisis on your hands in short order," said Ed Abington, a former consultant to the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian PM condemns Gaza raid BBC News
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has denounced Israel's offensive in Gaza as an attempt to bring down the Hamas-led government. In his first public address since Israel's campaign began, Mr Haniya said Hamas would not change its policies. He also said the Israeli attacks were making negotiations on the release of a captured soldier more difficult. His statement came as Israel continued to target militants, with an air strike hitting a car on the outskirts of Gaza. Those targeted are believed to belong to the Islamic Jihad group. Three people were wounded in the strike, Palestinian medical sources say. The Israeli offensive in Gaza began on Tuesday. Speaking at Friday prayers in Gaza City, Mr Haniya said Israel was using Cpl Gilad Shalit's capture by militants as a pretext to bring down his government. "This total war is proof of a premeditated plan," he told worshippers. He said Israel's detention of dozens of Hamas officials on Thursday was "meant to hijack the [Palestinian] government's position, but we say no positions will be hijacked, no governments will fall". Mr Haniya said he was in contact with Arab, Muslim and European leaders to try to resolve the crisis, "but this Israeli military escalation complicates the situation".

'Systematic campaign'
On Friday, Israel revoked the East Jerusalem residency rights of a Hamas cabinet minister and three Hamas MPs held in mass detentions the previous day. The Israeli interior ministry said it acted after the four failed to meet a deadline to renounce their membership of the group. The officials were given the ultimatum in May. The ministry said the timing of the move was not connected to efforts to free Cpl Shalit. A lawyer for the four men, Osama Saadi, said he would appeal to Israel's Supreme Court, the Associated Press news agency reported. If the appeal fails, the MPs face being excluded from Jerusalem and barred from travelling freely within Israel. About 200,000 Palestinians are residents of East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised internationally. Palestinian political activity in the eastern part of the city is prohibited under interim peace accords.

'All-out war'
During Thursday night's air strikes, Israeli warplanes fired missiles into the Palestinian interior ministry in Gaza City, setting the building ablaze. The building was empty at the time.A member of the militant Islamic Jihad group was killed in a missile strike in Rafah in southern Gaza, Palestinian medical sources said. At least 20 other targets included an office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group, militant training camps, a weapons storage facility in Gaza City and sites used by militants to fire rockets at Israel. There were also reports of heavy exchanges of fire between militants and an undercover Israeli force near the northern town of Jabaliya. Another militant was shot dead by troops in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian sources said. In a separate incident, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades said it had captured an Israeli soldier in Nablus. The army said it was investigating the claim. Earlier this week the body was found of a young Jewish settler seized by Palestinian militants earlier this week was found dead near Ramallah.

Is this the beginning of "Transfer" in Gaza?

By Mike Whitney

In the minds of Ehud Olmert and the Israeli leadership, the invasion of Gaza is a "positive policy" which will "induce" vast numbers of Palestinians to leave. The humanitarian crisis they are precipitating is not seen as a disaster, but an opportunity.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13805.htm

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FBI and Western Union helped Israel With Targeted Assassinations

By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondent

American intelligence agents and company officials cooperated in tracking the data trail and in monitoring security cameras installed in Western Union branches in order to see who was picking up the funds.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13808.htm

Israel warns: free soldier or PM dies:

The unprecedented warning was delivered to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a letter as Israel debated a deal offered by Hamas to free Corporal Gilad Shalit.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13799.htm

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Hamas will not bow to Israeli force:

"Our people are patient. They can arrest leaders, assassinate leaders, but our flag will not fall," Haniya said.
http://tinyurl.com/kpcmq

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Mubarak: Hamas agreed to terms for soldier's release:

In an interview with Egypt's leading pro-government newspaper, Al-Ahram, Mubarak said "Egyptian contacts with several Hamas leaders resulted in preliminary, positive results in the shape of a conditional agreement to hand over the soldier as soon as possible to avoid an escalation.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13801.htm

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Israel rejects Mubarak deal on soldier :

Palestinian militants have agreed to a conditional release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier, but Israel has not yet accepted their terms, an Egyptian newspaper quoted Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, as saying.
http://tinyurl.com/jf9uw

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Egypt warns Israel not to take peace treaty for granted:

An Israeli "war on all fronts" drew a rare warning from Egypt on Thursday that the military escalation jeopardizes a peace treaty with Israel as the Arab League held an emergency session to discuss the crisis.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?ed...rticle_id=73592

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In pictures; The Destruction of Gaza
http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm

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Gaza power plant hit by Israeli airstrike is insured by US agency:

The Palestinian power plant bombed by Israeli forces Tuesday is insured by a US government agency, and US officials say they expect American funds to be used to pay for the damage.
http://tinyurl.com/g6q8h

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Jason Miller: Ravening Wolves in Sheep's Clothing :

Israel has engaged in a long-term, multi-faceted effort to ensure the extinction of the Palestinians. Its patron and benefactor, the United States, shares equal culpability for their egregious crimes against humanity.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13811.htm

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Rabbi Michael Lerner: When Will They Ever Learn?:

Those who care about the Jewish people, want to preserve it and protect it, want to see a safe and secure Israel and a safe and secure Jewish people all around the world, have to shout out now in very clear words: “Stop what you are doing, Israel, not just at the moment, but in the essence of your policies.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13810.htm

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Israel strips J'lem residency from Hamas deputies:

Israel on Friday revoked the Jerusalem residency of four Hamas legislators, including one cabinet minister, in an unprecedented punishment that takes away their right to live in the holy city and travel freely in Israel, officials said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/733326.html

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UN Schedules Emergency Debate On Israeli Gaza Attacks:

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency debate Friday afternoon on the Israeli offensive in Gaza and the Palestinians said they will press for adoption of a resolution condemning Israel's aggression and demanding a halt to all military operations.
http://tinyurl.com/zffn2

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Irish MP: Israel an "abhorrent and despicable" regime:

Questioning the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern in the Dáil today he said the kidnap by Israel of some 25 democratically elected Palestinian representatives demonstrates "the true nature of Israel's commitment to not so democratic principles."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4875.shtml

Human Tragedy Gaza Zaman Online
The United Nations (UN) has warned that a human tragedy is emerging in Gaza; the target of attacks by Israel. UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland asked Israel to refurnish electricity and fuel to the town, and said, “The situation in Gaza will otherwise become a quick sand.” Israel arrested 64 people including eight government ministers on Thursday, and yesterday it cancelled the residential permit of a minister and three deputies in Eastern Jerusalem. A number of politicians arrested by Israel have reportedly begun a hunger strike. The international community has intensified its efforts to solve the crisis sparked by the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan yesterday and asked for Turkey’s support. Erdogan called for restraint. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement) had agreed to a conditional release of the kidnapped soldier, however, Israel refused to agree to any conditions. Egeland said they are anxiously monitoring the events following the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in Gaza last Sunday. Egeland informed that 1.4 million Palestinians may be left without power and water. Israel targeted power stations in the region; some 130 wells in Gaza run on electricity and back up diesel pumps are without fuel because Israel has also fuel to Gaza for four days. “We are astonished to see how both parties play with the future of civilians including children,” Jan Egeland said. The UN official stated that Israel’s selective bombing of the power station in Gaza that meets 40 percent of the region’s electricity needs is a violation of human rights and the situation is expected to get worse if aid is not sent directly to the region. Egeland called on the Palestinians to release the kidnapped Israeli soldier and prevent Palestinian militants from conducting missile attacks against Israel, and said “I am sure neither party wants to further deaths in Gaza populated with 1.4 million people, half of whom are children.” As part of the massive Israeli operation in Gaza to secure the return of the soldier, the Israeli army arrested 64 HAMAS officials including eight ministers on Thursday in the West Bank. The Israeli army recommenced the severe practices it used during the Intifada and took measures to make it difficult for East Jerusalem residents to enter West Bank towns. The Tel Aviv administration also cancelled the residential permit of a HAMAS minister and three deputies and issued an order to close the main passage between Jerusalem and Baytullahim to residents of East Jerusalem holding ID cards issued by Israel. The 237,000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem and East Jerusalem residents living in the West Bank towns near Jerusalem including Ramallah and Baytullahim and with family ties and commercial relations with Palestinians have been issued “Blue” ID cards by Israel. The HAMAS minister and most of the deputies arrested by Israel as part of the Gaza operation began a hunger strike. The 45 HAMAS politicians taken to Israel’s Ofer Prison near Ramallah have reportedly begun a hunger strike to protest “their abduction.” Thousands of Gaza residents bombarded by Israel gathered in the town center on Thursday evening condemning Israel and promised to support the HAMAS government. Prime Minister Ismail Haniya addressing the public for the first time since the Israeli operation said the operation does not only aim at securing the release of the kidnapped soldier but was an attempt to overthrow the HAMAS government. “This entire war is evidence of a pre-designed plan,” Haniya said and stated Israel’s roundup of ministers and deputies will not affect the government’s activities and the duties of these ministers will be undertaken by other members of the government. Meanwhile, the arrest of HAMAS ministers met with widespread reaction from the international community, and France called on the Tel Aviv government to immediately release all Palestinian government ministers.
By Cihan News Agency, Anadolu News Agency
Militants holding Israeli soldier issue new demands Canada.com
Israeli blitz keeps pressure on Gaza The Standard
ABC News - Globe and Mail - OregonLive.com - Salon - all 4,130 related »

Israel soldier medic claim denied BBC News
There are conflicting reports about whether an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants has been visited by a doctor. A spokesman for one of the groups believed to be holding Cpl Gilad Shalit said there was no truth to the reports. But a Palestinian official in the Fatah faction said earlier that he was stable after treatment for three wounds. Israel has rejected conditions set for information on the soldier, whose capture sparked an offensive in Gaza. The three groups believed to be holding Cpl Shalit proposed that Israel release 1,000 prisoners and end the offensive. A large Israeli force remains poised on Gaza's northern edge as mediators make last-ditch attempts to reach a solution. The head of Egyptian intelligence, Omar Suliman, is due to arrive in the region on Saturday for talks with both Palestinians and Israelis.

Father's message
The Israeli army said Cpl Shalit was wounded when he was captured during a raid on his post on Gaza's border last Sunday. Late on Friday, Israeli TV reported the 19-year-old conscript had been visited and treated by a Palestinian doctor. Palestinian Fatah official Ziad Abu Aen also commented on the condition of the soldier at a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, citing unidentified mediators. But a spokesman from the Popular Resistance Committees told the BBC there was no truth to reports Cpl Shalit had been seen by a doctor.Abu Mujahed said the story was an attempt to get them to reveal information about the soldier "for free". The denial followed a fresh demand by the groups believed to be holding the Israeli. In a statement, the militant wing of the ruling Palestinian party Hamas and the two much smaller militant groups repeated an earlier demand for Israel to free women and children in its jails for information on Cpl Shalit. But in an additional "just and humanitarian" demand the groups requested that 1,000 "Palestinian, Arab and Muslim prisoners" be released by Israel. There was no explicit offer to free Cpl Shalit in return, but a spokesman for Hamas's military wing told Reuters news agency he would be freed in such an event. Israel rejected the demands. "Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has reiterated that there will be no deals," foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

Strikes go on
Israel launched air strikes for a fourth successive night against what it said were facilities used by terrorists. Palestinians said the latest strikes had hit uninhabited areas near the Khan Younis and Rafah refugee camps in the southern Gaza Strip. Relief agencies have warned of an imminent humanitarian crisis following the bombing of the main power plant.

• Palestinian and Israeli diplomats traded accusations at an emergency session of the UN Security Council called by Arab nations - but a resolution condemning the Israeli offensive was blocked, apparently due to US opposition
• US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said the current situation would not have been reached "if it were not for Syria's support of and harbouring of terrorists" - and urged its president to help resolution efforts
• Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya denounced Israel's offensive as an attempt to bring down the Hamas-led government, and vowed it would not change its policies.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/060701/1/41ue0.html

Saturday July 1, 12:00 PM
Mideast hostage crisis deepens
The crisis surrounding the kidnapping of an Israeli army corporal by Palestinian militants has deepened with fresh demands by the hostagetakers and a claim that a second soldier has been seized.

The three Palestinian militant groups that captured Corporal Gilad Shalit six days ago in the Gaza Strip demanded that Israel free 1,OOO prisoners.

Washington's UN ambassador widened the diplomatic fallout of the crisis, accusing Syria of being partially responsible for the latest wave of violence, saying it was harboring militants from the Hamas movement.

"We would not be where we are right now if it were not for Syria's support and harboring of terrorists," John Bolton said.

Israeli public television reported late Friday that the kidnapped Shalit was alive and had been visited by a doctor who treated injuries he sustained before the abduction during a June 25 Palestinian attack on Gaza's southern border.

The three Palestinian groups responsible-- the Popular Resistance Committees, the armed wing of the governing Hamas and the Army of Islam -- demanded the release of "1,000 Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and other prisoners".

Saturday's statement did not explicitly specify that the releases were conditions for securing the freedom of 19-year-old Shalit.

The three groups said all the detained leaders of Palestinian movements as well as elderly and sick detainees should be freed and reiterated an earlier demand for the release of women and juvenile prisoners from Israeli jails.

The statement also urged Israel to end its retaliatory military offensive in the Palestinian territories.

Egypt, which is leading mediation in the crisis, said Hamas had agreed to secure the release of the soldier but that Israel had not agreed to the unspecified conditions.

The ruling Hamas party called for an end to Israel's offensive on Friday after fighter jets blitzed Gaza, striking the interior ministry and militant targets.

Bolton, in his comments at the UN, pressed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to turn over for prosecution Khaled Meshaal, Hamas's exiled political leader, who lives in Damascus.

"In addition, we call upon Syria to stop financing the terrorists and stop cooperating with other states, such as Iran, which finance terrorists," Bolton added.

As the United Nations Security Council debated the crisis, the Palestinian movement said it was working towards freeing the soldier but that the "barbaric aggression" by Israel would not topple its administration.

"We are working to end this crisis but the aggression must stop and the siege has to be lifted," Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya said in his first public comments on the crisis.

Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships have pounded the Gaza Strip with air raids, hitting the Hamas-run interior ministry overnight Thursday as well as weapons depots and Hamas training camps, but Israel suspended plans to send ground troops into the north of the territory.

The air strikes caused the first Palestinian casualties since Israel launched a ground offensive for the missing soldier early on Wednesday, its biggest military operation since pulling out of Gaza in September 2005.

A fighter from the hardline Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement was killed in an air strike, while another militant from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, linked to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fata