Posts with the tag JUDEA

Anti-Zionism is hate, racism

Unknown user — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:33:40 EDT

Anti-Zionism is hate

By Judea Pearl March 22, 2009

In January, four longtime Israel bashers were invited to the University of California, Los Angeles, to analyze the human rights conditions in Gaza, and used the stage to attack the legitimacy of Zionism and its vision of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

They criminalized Israel’s existence, distorted its motives and maligned its character, its birth, even its conception. At one point, the excited audience reportedly chanted “Zionism is Nazism” and worse.

Jewish leaders condemned this hate-fest as a dangerous invitation to anti-Semitic hysteria. The organizers, some of them Jewish, took refuge in “academic freedom” and the argument that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.

I fully support this mantra, not because it exonerates anti-Zionists from charges of anti-Semitism but because the distinction helps us focus attention on the discriminatory, immoral and more dangerous character of anti-Zionism.

Anti-Zionism rejects the very notion that Jews are a nation - a collective bonded by a common history - and, accordingly, denies Jews the right to self-determination in their historical birthplace. It seeks the dismantling of the Jewish nation-state: Israel.

Anti-Zionism earns its discriminatory character by denying the Jewish people what it grants to other historically bonded collectives (e.g., French, Spanish, Palestinians): namely, the right to nationhood, self-determination and legitimate coexistence with other indigenous claimants.

Anti-Semitism rejects Jews as equal members of the human race; anti-Zionism rejects Israel as an equal member in the family of nations.

Are Jews a nation? Some philosophers would argue Jews are a nation first and religion second. Indeed, the narrative of Exodus and the vision of the impending journey to the land of Canaan were etched in the minds of the Jewish people before they received the Torah at Mount Sinai. But philosophy aside, the unshaken conviction in their eventual repatriation to the birthplace of their history has been the engine behind Jewish endurance and hopes throughout their turbulent journey that started with the Roman expulsion in A.D. 70.

More important, shared history, not religion, is today the primary uniting force behind the secular, multiethnic society of Israel. The majority of its members do not practice religious laws and do not believe in divine supervision or the afterlife. The same applies to American Jewry, which is likewise largely secular. Identification with a common historical ethos, culminating in the re-establishment of the state of Israel, is the central bond of Jewish collectivity in America.

There are, of course, Jews who are non-Zionists and even anti-Zionists. There are also Jews who find it difficult to defend their identity against the growing viciousness of anti-Israel propaganda.

But these are marginal minorities at best; the vital tissues of Jewish identity today feed on Jewish history and its natural derivatives - the state of Israel, its struggle for survival, its cultural and scientific achievements and its relentless drive for peace.

Given this understanding of Jewish nationhood, anti-Zionism is in many ways more dangerous than anti-Semitism.

First, anti-Zionism targets the most vulnerable part of the Jewish people, namely, the Jewish population of Israel, whose physical safety and personal dignity depend crucially on maintaining Israel’s sovereignty. Put bluntly, the anti-Zionist plan to do away with Israel condemns 5.5 million human beings, mostly refugees or children of refugees, to eternal defenselessness in a region where genocidal designs are not uncommon.

Second, modern society has developed antibodies against anti-Semitism but not against anti-Zionism. Today, anti-Semitic stereotypes evoke revulsion in most people of conscience, while anti-Zionist rhetoric has become a mark of academic sophistication and social acceptance in certain extreme yet vocal circles of U.S. academia and media elite. Anti-Zionism disguises itself in the cloak of political debate, exempt from sensitivities and rules of civility that govern inter-religious discourse, to attack the most cherished symbol of Jewish identity.

Finally, anti-Zionist rhetoric is a stab in the back to the Israeli peace camp, which overwhelmingly stands for a two-state solution. It also gives credence to enemies of coexistence who claim that the eventual elimination of Israel is the hidden agenda of every Palestinian.

It is anti-Zionism, then, not anti-Semitism, that poses a more dangerous threat to lives, historical justice and the prospects of peace in the Middle East.

Judea Pearl is a professor at UCLA and the president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation. This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.israel22mar22,0,72685.story

____________________________________________________________________________________

Gaza crisis: a crossroads for Obama

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:08:26 EST

Gaza crisis: a crossroads for ObamaIt could bring renewal – if Obama is bold enough to stand up to Israel.

By Sandy Tolan - from the December 31, 2008 edition of "The Christian Science Monitor"

Los Angeles - The catastrophe unfolding in Gaza has the dark force of a recurring Middle Eastern nightmare: Scattered guerrilla-like attacks from the weak lead to massive retaliation by the strong. Excessive lethal force provokes enraged recriminations. Fresh bloodshed fuels the hard-liners on both sides.

We have seen this cycle many times before: throughout Lebanon (2006), across the occupied territories during the first intifada (1987-93), in east and west Beirut (1982), and even during the founding of modern Israel and the subsequent dispossession of the Palestinians in 1948.

When the smoke finally drifts from Gaza, and the human rights investigations begin – into the death of schoolchildren in midday rocket attacks or the demolition of a women's dormitory – sober voices will ask why Israel has still not learned a fundamental lesson: By trying to crush your enemy, you only make him stronger.

Two years ago, despite killing hundreds of Lebanese fighters and civilians, and driving some 800,000 from their homes, Israel could not defeat the radical Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which emerged stronger than ever. For Israel, again, the lesson was lost – ironically, on a nation whose tragic motto is "never again."

The difference now is that from the ashes of this war, new lands can be seeded – if President-elect Obama is bold enough to do what his predecessors would not. Like the financial meltdown in the US, Israel's grave and massive blunder in Gaza provides Mr. Obama with an opportunity for sweeping changes unimaginable on Election Day.

Obama could begin by making clear that the days of Israel's impunity are over.......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1231/p09s01-coop.html

The First Casualty of Israel's War

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:10:29 EST

There Aren't Two Sides to the Story of a Real Rape

The First Casualty of Israel's War

By TED HONDERICH @ counterpunch.org

It is said truth is the first casualty of war. It is rather the first casualty of inhumanity. You have to lie, maybe to yourself as well, when your are engaged in inhumanity. You wouldn't have to lie about a war that really was right.

By Zionism I mean the founding and actually necessary defence of the state of Israel in roughly its 1948 boundaries. It was justified by the Holocaust in the past and is justified by the existence of a Jewish homeland now. By neo-Zionism I mean the taking from the suffering Palestinians, the only indigenous people of historic Palestine, at least their autonomy in the last fifth of their homeland.

A decent humanity, the Principle of Humanity, ultimately justifies Zionism. It condemns neo-Zionism absolutely. There aren't two sides to the story of a real rape.

The neo-Zionist government of Israel says that in attacking the democracy of Gaza it is doing no more than engaging in self-defence. It is saving lives of its own citizens from rocket attacks.

That is not its aim. If that were its aim, Israel would achieve it immediately by embracing the solution to the Palestinian problem, in no way complex. It would give up neo-Zionism. It would withdraw, without negotiation, from the remaining homeland of another people............

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/honderich12312008.html

George Washington's warnings and U.S. policy towards Israel

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:42:44 EST

George Washington's warnings and U.S. policy towards Israel

Glenn Greenwald @ salon.com - Tuesday Dec. 30, 2008 05:33 EST

University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes -- July 1, 2008:

A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 18 countries finds that in 14 of them people mostly say their government should not take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Just three countries favor taking the Palestinian side (Egypt, Iran, and Turkey) and one is divided (India). No country favors taking Israel's side, including the United States, where 71 percent favor taking neither side.

CQ Politics, yesterday:

Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle rallied to Israel’s cause Monday as it pressed forward with large-scale air attacks against Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip. . . .
“I strongly support Israel’s right to defend its citizens against rocket and mortar attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza, which have killed and injured Israeli citizens, and to restore security to its residents,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev. . . .
His view was echoed by leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“Israel has a right, indeed a duty, to defend itself in response to the hundreds of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza over the past week,” Howard L. Berman , D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the ranking Republican on the House committee, also expressed support for the Israeli offensive. . . .
The White House on Monday also took Israel’s side in the fighting, demanding that Hamas halt its rocket fire into Israel and agree to a last ceasefire.

Earlier this week, Nancy Pelosi issued an identical statement, and yesterday Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer did the same.

There sure is a lot of agreeing going on -- one might describe it as "absolute." The degree of mandated orthodoxy on the Israel question among America's political elites is so great that if one took the statements on Gaza from George Bush, Pelosi, Hoyer, Berman, Ros-Lehtinen, and randomly chosen Bill Kristol-acolytes and redacted their names, it would be impossible to know which statements came from whom..........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/12/30/democracy/index.html

Israel's Constant Crisis

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:04:32 EST

Israel's Constant Crisis

It's a survival mechanismby Justin Raimondo @ antiwar.com

As the Israelis continue to pound Gaza, killing Hamas cadre, traffic cops, and civilians alike, Americans shake their heads and wonder: why can't they all just get along? Why must we be involved? The answer to both questions lies in understanding the peculiar nature of the Israeli state and its "special relationship" to the West, specifically the U.S.

Defenders of the Israeli government and its policies often complain that Israel just wants to be treated as a "normal country," like any other. They cavil that the Jewish state is treated like an outsider, a pariah, and held up to standards that don't apply anywhere else. The big problem for these complainants, however, is that Israel is not a normal country, and never has been.

From the day of its birth, Israel has been a Western project, a unique creation of European ideologues whose vision of a Jewish state was rooted in myth, custom, and remembrance, rather than blood and soil.......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13978

Former Powell aide: Bush was ‘Sarah Palin-like’ in his knowledge of foreign policy.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:41:40 EST

Former Powell aide: Bush was ‘Sarah Palin-like’ in his knowledge of foreign policy.»

By Satyam Khanna at 10:22 am @ thinkprogress.com

In an interview with Vanity Fair for its upcoming issue on the Bush White House, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, ripped President Bush, saying that after the 2000 election, Bush’s knowledge of foreign affairs was as poor as that of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R):

We had this confluence of characters—and I use that term very carefully—that included people like Powell, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and so forth, which allowed one perception to be “the dream team.” It allowed everybody to believe that this Sarah Palin–like president—because, let’s face it, that’s what he was—was going to be protected by this national- security elite, tested in the cauldrons of fire.

Bush famously was unable to name the leaders of Pakistan, Chechnya, and India when running for President in 1999. In a recent interview, he reflected on his early days as President, stating, “I think I was unprepared for war.” Similarly, in 2004, Bush said he “was not on point” prior to 9/11. “I didn’t feel that sense of urgency, and my blood was not nearly as boiling.”

SOURCE - http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/30/bush-sarah-palin/

The Little Town of Bethlehem

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:28:27 EST

The Little Town of Bethlehem
By Doris Cadigan. Axis of Logic
Dec 18, 2008, 18:08

"When the Christian world raises its voices in joyful choruses this Christmas to sing: 'Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem', I shall remain silent in protest."

This Christmas when the Christian world raises its voices in joyful choruses to the song, "Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem", I will remain silent in protest over the Israeli army's siege of the Town of Bethlehem and its sad reflection upon the Christmas message: "Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward men".

Today, Bethlehem is far from the idyllic scene we pictured it in books and post cards. According to native born writer Mike Odetalla, "Bethlehem is home to some of the poorest people on Earth"

A recent report by the World Bank noted that almost half the Palestinian population are living below the poverty line on barely $2 a day or less. As many as 600,000 Palestinians unable to meet their basic needs in food, clothing and shelter to survive. Unemployment is rampant in many towns and villages due to travel restrictions, closures and curfews. The World Bank has urged the Israeli government to ease travel restiction to help impove the economic situation for the Palestinian people and today Israel has done little........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_29083.shtml

The House of Cards - Caution: Settlers Ahead

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:46:57 EST

The House of Cards

Caution: Settlers Ahead

By HANNAH MERMELSTEIN @ counterpunch.org

"As a Jew, I was ashamed at the scenes of Jews opening fire at
innocent Arabs in Hebron. There is no other definition than the term
'pogrom' to describe what I have seen." This quote from Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert came just before I returned to Palestine two
weeks ago. In Syria and in Lebanon, I watched as Al Jazeera
correspondents reported live from Hebron, showing settlers burning
houses and soldiers standing by and watching.

One of my first stops upon return to Palestine was to the Salfit
region in the north, quite far from Hebron, to visit friends. I
wasn't thinking about the settlers. I visited a friend whose house is
surrounded by the Wall, and asked how things were going. "They," she
pointed towards the settlement behind her house, "have attacked us
twice this week." In the middle of the night, the family had woken to
the sounds of stones hitting their house. This has happened before,
but not usually twice in one week. No settler has ever been punished
for throwing stones at their house, though they have broken windows
and water tanks........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/mermelstein12252008.html

Major Israeli settlement 'unlawful'

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:19:46 EST

Major Israeli settlement 'unlawful'

By Tim Franks
BBC News, Ofra

Israeli settlements on occupied territory are seen as illegal by the rest of the world. But now an Israeli human rights group is saying that even under Israeli law, one of the most significant and well-established settlements is unlawful.

The human rights group B'tselem has published a report in which it states that almost 60% of the settlement of Ofra has been built on land which remains in private Palestinian ownership.

The settlement was established in 1975, just to the north-east of Ramallah.

A history of the settlement recounts how about 20 Jewish settlers, with sleeping bags and jerry cans, came one Sunday to set up camp.........

ENTIRE ARTICLE-http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7795139.stm

Judy Kramer has watched the settlement grow hugely since 1990

Richard Falk was denied entry to Israel on December 13. The American professor of international law was traveling to the West Bank and Gaza, to fulfill his mandate as the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:03:48 EST

Detaining the United Nations

by Phyllis Bennis - Published on Tuesday, December 23, 2008 by Foreign Policy in Focus

Richard Falk was detained at the airport and denied entry to Israel on December 13, when he arrived in Tel Aviv. The American professor of international law was traveling to the West Bank and Gaza, to fulfill his mandate as the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories to investigate the human rights conditions affecting the civilian population. His most urgent task includes monitoring the rising humanitarian crisis facing the 1.5 million Palestinians, of whom half are children, living in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The decision to keep Falk out fits a pattern of Israeli efforts to hide the human consequences of the siege of Gaza and of the escalating settlement expansion in the West Bank. Denying entry to the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights is part of the same occupation playbook as keeping Palestinian human rights defenders such as Raji Sourani, director of the Palestine Center for Human Rights, locked up in Gaza and denied the right to leave to speak to the outside world. It's at one with the Israeli policy of blocking international journalists who might report on the spiraling humanitarian crisis (especially in Gaza). The same goal is evident in the beating and effort to intimidate the few Palestinian journalists who do manage the rare opportunity to get out and tell the world, such as Mohamed Omer, the young Gazan winner of the prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize in Britain.

Falk's detention and exclusion echo earlier Israeli moves to deny access to other UN human rights monitors..............

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5762

Press TV crew hit by Israeli forces

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:03:18 EST

Press TV crew hit by Israeli forces
Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:43:58 GMT

Press TV's cameraman and correspondent have been injured in Nilin where Palestinians are protesting the Israeli apartheid wall.

Cameraman Mustafa Khabeesa was shot by Israeli soldiers with a rubber bullet, while correspondent Sari Al-Khalili was knocked unconscious by teargas on Friday.

The two were taken to the hospital and are reported to be in stable condition.

They were reporting live from the scene of a confrontation in the West Bank village of Nilin, where Israeli soldiers were firing tear gas, live ammunition and rubber bullets at stone-hurling Palestinian youths.

Nilin -- located near the city of Ramallah -- is the scene of weekly demonstrations by international and Palestinian activists, who protest against the Israeli separation wall.

Israeli soldiers frequently resort to teargas and rubber bullets as well as live rounds to disperse demonstrators.

SOURCE - http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=78925&sectionid=351020202

Christmas, 'Palestinian' Muslims Oppress Bethlehem's Christians

Unknown user — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:57:23 EST

Xmas, 'Palestinian' Muslims Oppress Bethlehem's Christians

* Jihadists persecuting Palestinian Christians in Gaza

* Muslim grinches steal Bethlehem Christmas

* Christians persecuted in Bethlehem

* Bethlehem Christians fear neighbors A number of Christian families have finally decided to break their silence and talk openly about what they describe as Muslim persecution of the Christian minority in this city

THE DESTRUCTION began just before midday when Israeli security forces fanned out to form a line on a hill overlooking the tiny Bedouin settlement.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 22:35:50 EST

Bulldozing Bedouin

from "The Sunday Herald" (Scotland)

In 1963, Israel hoped they were a 'phenomenon that would disappear'. Now the country's forgotten people are being forced from homes they are told have no legal status. An eyewitness report by Billy Briggs THE DESTRUCTION began just before midday when Israeli security forces fanned out to form a line on a hill overlooking the tiny Bedouin settlement. Armed with guns, sprays and batons, the police moved forward with military precision, led by a paramilitary force called the Green Patrol. Out of sight, reinforcements sat in a fleet of vehicles in case of resistance by the Arab villagers, while behind the police line three bulldozers revved their engines ominously. Once they reached the bottom of the hill, officers vaulted a fence, then began clearing the village systematically. As police entered homes and ordered families to vacate, people were still inside frantically trying to salvage clothes and possessions.

Some of the Bedouin, resigned to their fate, were already on the move, carrying pets, potted plants and kitchen utensils, but others lingered and pleaded for more time. As one old woman left her home for the last time she wept and looked to the sky, while her daughter turned and spat in the direction of a policewoman videoing the operation...........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.2476912.0.bulldozing_bedouin.php

Hebron and Hoenlein: Silence of the Jewish Lamb

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:57:40 EST

Hebron and Hoenlein: Silence of the Jewish Lamb

Dec 12th, 2008 by Richard Silverstein @ "Tikun Olam"

The Forward notes in an article today that the largest U.S. Jewish umbrella group, the Conference of Presidents, refused to support the government’s eviction of extremist settlers from Hebron’s House of Contention. The Conference also tellingly refused to condemn the subsequent settler riots against Palestinians and Israeli police:

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella body of 51 Jewish groups, has not issued a statement about the evacuation of settlers and their supporters from a disputed house in the West Bank town December 4 followed by settler violence against Hebron’s Palestinian residents.
Moreover, Daily Alert, the Presidents Conference’s Internet newsletters of Middle East-related published articles, did not refer to the incidents at all during the week after they occurred. Daily Alert is sent via e-mail to tens of thousands of free subscribers and is displayed on Web site of the Presidents Conference.
…Calls seeking comment from the Presidents Conference’s executive vice president, Malcolm Hoenlein, and its chair, Harold Tanner, were not returned.

The Forward does not note that Aipac too has refused to issue any statement, though JTA earlier reported on Aipac’s silence by claiming the group generally doesn’t make public statements about internal Israeli policy (isn’t that a laugh, considering how aggressively interventionist their approach is regarding promoting Israeli interests within a U.S. political context). To my mind, even if this is true, it does not excuse its silence on such an important issue regarding Israeli democracy...........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2008/12/12/hebron-silence-of-the-jewish-lamb/

Long Island Orthodox Jewish Paper Defends Killing Muslims

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:20:06 EST

Long Island Orthodox Jewish Paper Defends Killing Muslims

Dec 18th, 2008 by Richard Silverstein @ "Tikun Olam"

Once again let me say I find astonishing the near total silence of the organized Jewish community and media to Lawrence Kulak’s diatribe against Islam published in the Long Island Orthodox paper, Five Towns Jewish Times. In his guest column, he claimed that if Islamists kill innocent non-Muslims that Muslim innocents should similarly be targeted for murder. Essentially, an invitation to anti-Muslim mass murder:

“The only way to deal with Islamic terrorists is the same way in which they deal with their victims. Muslims believe in the literal interpretation of the Biblical doctrine of an eye for an eye…They killed our innocents, and unless we kill theirs, they will go on killing ours. The Torah, however, preaches a doctrine which…would finally put an end to all Islamic terror: if somebody is coming to kill you, rise up and kill him first.”

The fact that Kulak was diagnosed in 1991 with a bipolar disorder and hospitalized at a mental health facility never appears to have factored into the publisher’s editorial decision about publishing the piece........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/

Anatomy of Settler Land Theft

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:14:41 EST

Anatomy of Settler Land TheftDec 20th, 2008 by Richard Silverstein @ "Tikun Olam"

The AP has done us a tremendous journalistic service (easily deserving of Pulitzer consideration) with a probing investigation of one particular instance of settler fraud that involved stealing privately owned Palestinian land for the illegal outpost of Migron:

Israeli soldiers guard illegal outpost on stolen land (Getty Images)

The transformation of a piece of West Bank land from a Palestinian field into a Jewish settlement has roots in an unlikely place - Orange County, California - and in a document that a [Palestinian landowner] supposedly signed more than four decades after the date of his death.
Unfolding from the West Bank’s terraced olive groves to a strip mall in a Los Angeles suburb, the story of this posthumous deal offers a rare glimpse into the underworld of straw companies and middlemen through which chunks of land move from Palestinian to Israeli hands. Each transaction further complicates an Israeli withdrawal that would be key to any peace agreement..........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2008/12/20/anatomy-of-settler-land-theft/

UN Representative Richard Faulk's Expulsion from Israel

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:52:26 EST

My Expulsion from Israel

by Richard Falk - Published on Friday, December 19, 2008 by The Guardian/UK

On December 14, I arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel to carry out my UN role as special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories.

I was leading a mission that had intended to visit the West Bank and Gaza to prepare a report on Israel's compliance with human rights standards and international humanitarian law. Meetings had been scheduled on an hourly basis during the six days, starting with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, the following day.

I knew that there might be problems at the airport. Israel had strongly opposed my appointment a few months earlier and its foreign ministry had issued a statement that it would bar my entry if I came to Israel in my capacity as a UN representative.

At the same time, I would not have made the long journey from California, where I live, had I not been reasonably optimistic about my chances of getting in. Israel was informed that I would lead the mission and given a copy of my itinerary, and issued visas to the two people assisting me: a staff security person and an assistant, both of whom work at the office of the high commissioner of human rights in Geneva.

To avoid an incident at the airport, Israel could have either refused to grant visas or communicated to the UN that I would not be allowed to enter, but neither step was taken. It seemed that Israel wanted to teach me, and more significantly, the UN a lesson: there will be no cooperation with those who make strong criticisms of Israel's occupation policy............

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/19/israel-palestinian-territories-united-nations

Israeli Youth Resist Palestinian Occupation

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:23:45 EST

Israeli Youth Resist Palestinian Occupation

by Ira Chernus - Published on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 by CommonDreams.org

If I were a Palestinian, watching Jews in Israel and around the world preparing to celebrate Hanukkah, I might be a bit confused. The holiday recalls a time, way back in the second century BCE, when Judea was ruled by a much stronger neighboring nation. The Jews took up arms to free themselves from a military occupation. Yet when Palestinians even talk about taking up arms against the occupying army of their powerful neighbor today, the Israeli government and its supporters call that unjustified, immoral, an outrage. And the government of the United States generally agrees, no matter which party is in power.

It doesn't seem fair, because there is so much similarity between today's Palestinians and the Jews of old. Ancient Judea was administered by the Seleucid empire, just as Palestine is administered by Israel. The Seleucids had local Jewish agents on the scene to help them keep control, just as Israel is helped by some number of Palestinians who see resistance as futile.........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/17-0

Obama and the Israel-Palestine Conflict

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:09:53 EST

Framing, Principle and Elements

Obama and the Israel-Palestine Conflict

By JEFF HALPER @ counterpunch.org

Writing recently in The Washington Post ("Middle East Priorities," Nov. 21), Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski, two former US National Security Advisors, a Republican and a Democrat, declared: "We believe that the Arab-Israeli peace process is one issue that requires priority attention [from the incoming Obama Administration]."

Their assessment is correct, of course. Addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an urgent priority. It is a conflict with global ramifications in a part of the world crucial to Western, and especially American, political and economic interests. The Israeli Occupation fuels anger and alienation among Muslims – as well as among peoples beyond the Muslim world, including in Europe – towards the US and its European allies..............

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/halper12172008.html

BBC has got a Muslim trying to rewrite historic Jewish Jesus from Judea (attempting — to no avail — to “Arabize” & confuse JUDEA with Arabia…)

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:29:21 EST

BBC has got a Muslim trying to rewrite historic Jewish Jesus from Judea (attempting — to no avail — to “Arabize” & confuse JUDEA with Arabia…).

Accompanied with a typical Islamic-bigotry’s bombarding propaganda of the “bad” Israelis that dare to try fight (with security checkpoints) the Arab Muslim (invaders) that terrorize the Jews.

Just another typical biased BBC’s blend of radical Islamism & Arabism re-”view” of true facts, in Islamic culture there’s a word for it: Taqiyya (http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/018169.php#c451487) - an intentional planned lying to and deceit of the infidel, it’s encouraged, as long as the infidel “buys” it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7784227.stm - BBC’s Aleem Maqbool: The road to Bethlehem

More People Are About to Become Homeless: The Order to Destroy has been Given

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:32:07 EST

More People Are About to Become Homeless

The Order to Destroy has been Given

By MATS SVENSSON @ counterpunch.com

It is Wednesday afternoon on the 5th November. I woke up this morning and was happy. The man who repeatedly exclaimed “Change” and “Yes we can” had done the impossible, had proven that change is possible. Now seven hours have passed and I have gone to Silwan, south of Jerusalem's Old City. A house is to be demolished and the morning and the happiness feel distant, as if it had been a different time.

The questions aggregated this morning when I within myself still heard Obama's voice and simultaneously at a distance saw the violence spreading out before me.

Before I reach the house that is to be demolished, I stop for a while and look up at all the windows, at all the balconies, at all the flat roofs. People everywhere. Old, young, women, men. Everyone gazing in the same direction. I am struck by the silence. It is as if someone had said, “Silence, action.”

Many spectators but very few who are moving. Women stand in the shade, away from the sun. An old man behind the soldiers tries to shout something but his cry gets caught behind the bars of despair. I see the desperation in his eyes. I see how his back is bent. I see how the soldier, the soldier who looks like a teenager, shoves him away. He cannot get through. A young soldier carries water bottles, water for all the soldiers...............

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/svensson12162008.html

Military Police present video of uniformed soldier throwing stones at police officers during evacuation of disputed Hebron house.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:09:01 EST

IDF: Soldier filmed throwing stones in Hebron

Hanan Greenberg @ ynetnews (Israel)

VIDEO - An IDF soldier was arrested on suspicion of throwing stones at police officers during the evacuation of the disputed house in Hebron about two weeks ago, Ynet has learned.

The soldier admitted to being present on the site, but said he did not disrupt the security forces' operation. The Military Police however presented it says clearly shows the soldier throwing stones at security forces......

.........."When the Israel Police viewed the internal videos it filmed during the evacuation of the building, the camera caught a soldier in uniform throwing stones at officers," said a source close to the affair..........

ARTICLE / VIDEO - http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3638738,00.html

(Video) Military Police present video of uniformed soldier throwing stones at police officers during evacuation of disputed Hebron house. Suspect arrested; denies allegations

Settlement Extremists Threaten Israel’s Moral Substance

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:25:27 EST

Settlement Extremists Threaten Israel’s Moral Substance

Posted on Dec 11, 2008

By William Pfaff @ truthdig.com - Posted on Dec 11, 2008

Israel today is as much the prisoner of the Palestinians as the Palestinians are prisoners of Israel. Israel’s imprisonment is moral and political, in that it has now seemingly lost the ability to extricate itself from the dilemmas created by successive governments’ cowardice and connivance with the settlement lobby’s campaign to seize all of Palestine for Israel, and the American government’s passive acquiescence in this.

The steady expansion of nominally illegal colonies into the Palestinian territories, which previous governments were unwilling to check (one cannot say truthfully they were unable to check it; they simply chose not to), has gone on to the point where the political parties are now incapable of disengaging from the settlement enterprise.

The goal of the settler movement—there is no secret about it—is the conquest of all Palestine, logically requiring expulsion of the Palestinians from the entire country, or their reduction to a permanent condition of subordination in which they would be deprived of elementary political rights.

Even now they are deprived of legal rights that under international law should be accorded to the subjects of a military occupation. Their supposed independent or autonomous political status under the Palestinian Authority is meaningless so long as no Palestinian state exists. It is useless to resume the argument about why it should have come to this; it simply is so...........

ENTIRE ARTICLE-http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081211_settlement_extremists_threaten_israels_moral_substance/

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

WEBMASTER — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:26:14 EST

The Pickens Plan: For those who would like to become an active participant in a solution for our nations energy needs I urge you to join with T.Boone Pickens in his quest for a cleaner planet through alternative energy.

Also see Green Wave Energy: Green Wave was founded by Mark Holmes and was formulated for viable alternative energy solutions. Green Wave Energy is promoting state-of-the-art energy-saving products and services throughout the country.

Green Wave Energy understands alternative energy technology will become “main stream” when

individuals and organizations understand that alternative energy technology exists and
when people see the economic benefits of using alternative energy technologies

Call 949.645.1701 for information on how Green Wave Energy can help you save the planet.

Alternative Energy
Source: David Apperson

url: http://veterans.barackobama.com/page/community/tag/alternative-energy

Finkelstein, Gandhi and the 2-State Solution

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:27:47 EST

Finkelstein, Gandhi and the 2-State Solution

by Phil Weiss @ "Mondoweiss"

I think of Norman Finkelstein as at his best when he's engaging an antagonist's writing: Alan Dershowitz, Benny Morris, Joan Peters. Someone whose bad conclusions he can take apart through a passionate examination of the factual record. Well, now that he's been exiled by academia and is living in Brooklyn, Finkelstein has found a new textual figure to engage, but in a generous and humble way: Mahatma Gandhi. Last month Finkelstein gave an honorary lecture in the Netherlands, called "Resolving the Israel-Palestine Conflict: What We Can Learn from Gandhi."

The lecture's not online, but Finkelstein let me read a copy. In the piece, Finkelstein notes that Gandhi's collected writings run 90 volumes, and then apologizes for having only read 23! Talk about textual devotion. Finkelstein has never wanted to leave a stone unturned. And he makes these points......

ENTIRE POST - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/12/i-tend-to-think-of-norman-finkelstein-as-best-engaged-by-an-antagonist-text-alan-dershowitz-joan-peters-someone-whose-misr.html#more

An Israeli in Gaza: An Interview with Jeff Halper

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:28:30 EST

An Interview with Jeff Halper

An Israeli in Gaza

By FRANK BARAT @ counterpunch.org

Jeff Halper is the head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. He is the author of An Israeli in Palestine. He lives in Gaza.

You recently took part in the Free Gaza movement and successfully reached Gaza by boat with others activists, journalists and human rights workers from around the globe. How did you get involved in such an initiative and why was it important for you to take part?

As an Israeli and the head of an Israeli peace organization (ICAHD – The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions), I was asked by the Free Gaza Movement organizers to take part in their action to Break the Siege of Gaza by sailing two boats from Cyprus to Gaza City port. I agreed because this was a non-violent political action; breaking the siege and by implication highlighting Israel’s responsibility for it (which it tries to shrug) fit into ICAHD’s mission, to end the Israeli Occupation completely. Had this been defined as a humanitarian mission I would not have participated, since the so-called “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza is not the result of some natural calamity, but of a deliberate policy of Israel – plus the US, Europe and Japan, it must be said, and aided by Egypt – to break the will of the Palestinians to resist and to replace the democratically elected government of Hamas by a collaborationist regime more amenable to Israeli control.

What was the goal of this initiative and has it been reached?

The goal of this initiative, as I mentioned, was to break the Israeli and international siege on Gaza – although we were careful not to disconnect Gaza from the wider Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, of which it is a part.........

ENTIRE INTERVIEW - http://www.counterpunch.org/barat12122008.html

The Israeli media has since highlighted comments Feiglin made in a 1995 interview with the Haaretz daily, in which he spoke highly of Hitler and disparagingly of Arabs.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:13:14 EST

Anti-Arab hopeful irks Israel's Netanyahu

by Patrick Anidjar Patrick Anidjar – Thu Dec 11, 2:31 pm ET

AFP/File – Right-wing Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin is pictured in 1997.

JERUSALEM (AFP) – A far-right Likud party member has become a thorn in the side of party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, a frontrunner in the race to become Israel's prime minister, as media reprint comments he made praising the Nazi system and denigrating Arabs.

Moshe Feiglin, 46, had a strong chance of winning a parliamentary seat after gaining significant support within Likud, at a time when Netanyahu is seeking to soften the image of the right-wing opposition party............

........the Israeli media has since highlighted comments Feiglin made in a 1995 interview with the Haaretz daily, in which he spoke highly of Hitler and disparagingly of Arabs.

An observant yarmulke-wearing Jew, Feiglin called the man responsible for the Holocaust "an unparalleled military genius."

"Hitler savoured good music. He would paint. This was no bunch of thugs. They merely used thugs and homosexuals," Feiglin was quoted as saying at the time...........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081211/wl_mideast_afp/israelpoliticswwii

Ron Prosor, Israel's Ambassador in Britain lashed out against the Church of England on Wednesday for having approved an anti-Israel carol that was sung as part of a service.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:39:23 EST

Report: Israeli envoy to U.K. accuses church service of being anti-Semitic

By Haaretz Service (Israel)

Ron Prosor, Israel's Ambassador in Britain lashed out against the Church of England on Wednesday for having approved an anti-Israel carol that was sung as part of a service, according to the Times of London.

The carol was part of an "alternative" event called 'Bethlehem Now: Nine Alternative Lessons and Carols' that took place at the end of November in the Wren church of St James's in Central London, and was organized by anti-Israel campaigners, including one liberal Jewish group.

The carol Twelve Days of Christmas was sung as: "Twelve assassinations/Eleven homes demolished/Ten wells obstructed/Nine sniper towers/Eight gunships firing/Seven checkpoints blocking/Six tanks a-rolling/Five settlement rings. Four falling bombs/Three trench guns/Two trampled doves/And an uprooted olive tree."

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1045447.html

ANALYSIS / Israeli legal system going soft on settlers

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:31:36 EST

ANALYSIS / Israeli legal system going soft on settlers

By Akiva Eldar @ haaretz.com (Israel)

The decision Wednesday by Jerusalem Magistrate's Court Judge, Malka Aviv, to order the release of Ze'ev Braude, the settler suspected of shooting a Palestinian following the evacuation of the House of Contention in Hebron, did not come as a surprise to either the State Prosecutor's Office or human rights groups.

A brief search on the judiciary's Web site reveals that Aviv, according to her CV, is herself is a long-term settler. She was one of the first settlers of Gigit, a moshav which was established in the Jordan Valley in 1975.......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1045655.html

Gazan children drinking water contaminated by sewage, and the U.S. is complicit in this brutal confinement.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:49:22 EST

I'm an anti-Zionist

by Phil Weiss @ "Mondoweiss"

I think it's the first time I've embraced the label. I'm letting it rip today on TPM. Here's the full post, called "Palestinian statelessness is an American Jewish achievement."

Avraham Burg has urged me not to argue about Zionism but to talk about the future and what everyone can do. Nice. Last week Avraham said in New York that God made man out of polemics. Even nicer. And so today I'm going to argue more about Zionism.

The most elusive part of Avraham's book is that it's exalted, he's doing a vision quest for the Jewish and Israeli future. I love vision quests, and god knows Avrum's a prophet. But no one is going to effect change without talking about real conditions, and those conditions are (per the UN's special rapporteur) the absence of the rights of speech, movement, employment and even the right to life for Palestinians in the West Bank, and their confinement in Gaza under horrifying conditions, blockaded in an open-air prison. Children drinking water contaminated by sewage, and the U.S. is complicit in this brutal confinement, which is known across the Arab world.

Interesting that our little colloquium on Avrum's book includes a couple Israelis, me an anti-Zionist Jew, a leading critic of Israel in John Mearsheimer, but no Arabs. No big surprise. They get very little standing in the U.S...............

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/12/im-an-antizionist.html#more

Major U.S. Power Figures--Tisch, Greenberg, Milken--Linked to Charity that Funds Settlers' Militias

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:24:52 EST

Major U.S. Power Figures--Tisch, Greenberg, Milken--Linked to Charity that Funds Settlers' Militias

by Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz @ "Mondoweiss"

Three major U.S. power figures are linked to the charity run out of a 6th Avenue fabric store that is sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to settler militias in the West Bank: James Tisch, the ceo of Loews, Michael Milken the banker/philanthropist, and Alan C. (Ace) Greenberg, the former ceo of Bear Stearns.

The three men are named in a long list of apparent donors to the Central Fund for Israel that the fund attached to its 2004 federal filing as a 501(c)3 charity. CFI gives a lot of money to humanitarian causes and to schooling in the illegal settlements, but a good portion of the $8 million it raised on its last statement goes to meeting the "urgent security needs" of West Bank settlers.........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/12/major-us-power-figures-tisch-greenberg-milken-linked-to-charity-giving-money-to-settlers-urgent-secu.html

Invoking the Holocaust to Defend the Occupation

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:21:13 EST

Invoking the Holocaust to Defend the Occupation

By John Mearsheimer @ talingpointsmemo.com - December 9, 2008, 5:29PM

For American readers, the great virtue of Avraham Burg's important new book is that he says things about Israel and the Jewish people that are hardly ever heard in mainstream discourse in the United States. It is hard to believe how stunted and biased the coverage of Israel is in the American media, not to mention the extent to which our politicians have perfected the art of pandering to the Jewish state. The situation got so bad in the recent presidential campaign that journalists Jeffrey Goldberg and Shmuel Rosner -- both staunch defenders of Israel -- wrote pieces titled "Enough about Israel Already."

Let's hope that The Holocaust is Over is widely read and discussed, because it makes arguments that need to be heard and considered by Americans of all persuasions, but especially by those who feel a deep attachment to Israel. The fact that Burg wrote this book also matters greatly. He cannot be easily dismissed as a self-hating Jew or a crank, as he comes from a prominent Israeli family and has been deeply involved in mainstream Israeli politics for much of his adult life. Moreover, he clearly loves Israel........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/09/for_american_readers_the_great/#more

N.Y. Fabric Store Is Home to Tax-Deductible Fund for 'Urgent Security Needs' of Jewish Settlers

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:13:08 EST

N.Y. Fabric Store Is Home to Tax-Deductible Fund for 'Urgent Security Needs' of Jewish Settlers

by Philip Weiss @ "Mondoweiss"

One of the fervid Jewish settlers who was evicted from that disputed house in Hebron last week, Nadia Matar, has sent out a defiant email: "There is no doubt, the more violence they use against us, the more it proves how scared they are of the new generation of proud Jews that is emerging in Judea and Samaria in particular and all over Israel in general. A new generation that is not scared to declare: 'The Land of Israel was given by G-d to the People of Israel and no one has the right to give it away'." Then Matar asked for money:

U.S. dollar checks are tax deductible only if they are made out to the "Central Fund for Israel". They may be mailed to... Central Fund for Israel, 980 Sixth Ave., 3rd. Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. You must advise the Central Fund for Israel that the donation is intended for Women In Green by earmarking the check "Women in Green" [an organization of settlers]

That address belongs to Marcus Brothers Textiles, Inc. Jay Marcus, a settler in Efrat, is listed as the administrator of the Central Fund. A pro-Israel website lists the Central Fund/Jay Marcus and then directs Jews to "browse" settlement communities to figure out to whom they wish to earmark their Central Fund contribution. Jay's father Arthur Marcus lives on the Upper West Side and he is the vice president of the Central Fund. Hadassah Marcus, who shares Arthur's address, is the president.......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/12/nadia-matar-a-defiant-settler-who-was-evicted-from-that-disputed-house-in-hebron-last-week-has-sent-out-a-defiant-email-th.html#more

The Pragmatism of Ethnic Cleansing

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:58:38 EST

The Pragmatism of Ethnic Cleansing

by Steven Salaita @ antiwar.com

Barack Obama's election victory has inspired a windfall of comment, most of it euphoric, with some grumbling from the political Right and the small quarters of the Left that remain unimpressed, so I am hesitant to contribute to the chatter. There is one element of Obama's victory, however, that has received less attention than it deserves, and that is his profound commitment to an extreme form of Zionism. I do not wish to spend this essay condemning Obama for that commitment; I have done so elsewhere, and others have offered eloquent condemnation already, though such a perspective hasn't yet managed to penetrate the liberal-Left.

As a note of clarity, I do not use the phrase "extreme form of Zionism" for rhetorical effect; I deploy it soberly and literally. Obama's statements during his campaign unambiguously situate him in a right-wing Zionist outlook both politically and philosophically. During his 2008 AIPAC speech, for instance, Obama promised, "I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Everything in my power. Everything." Later, he remarked, "It was just a few years after the liberation of the camps that David Ben-Gurion declared the founding of the Jewish state of Israel. We know that the establishment of Israel was just and necessary, rooted in centuries of struggle and decades of patient work, but 60 years later we know that we cannot relent, we cannot yield, and as president I will never compromise when it comes to Israel's security."

These comments are notable for their implicit ferocity. Obama not only expresses fealty to Israel's lobby, he also refuses to set any parameters for what he would consider acceptable Israeli behavior.........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.antiwar.com/orig/salaita.php?articleid=13881

Israeli civil rights org says 4 million Arabs have no right to life, right to work, right of movement, right to speak

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:10:52 EST

Cry the beloved country: Israeli civil rights org says 4 million Arabs have no right to life, right to work, right of movement, right to speak

by Phil Weiss @ philweiss.org

The drumbeat continues, inside and outside Israel. Adam Horowitz reports:

An important report was released yesterday by the the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), an established and widely-respected Israeli NGO, founded in 1972. Each year, ACRI publishes a "State of Human Rights Report" describing the condition of human rights inside Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

In introducing this year's report ACRI notes that "It is disturbing to note that not only have the troubling trends that we cited a decade ago not diminished, they have in fact grown worse." [my emphasis] The introduction continues:

In modern Israel in the early twenty-first century, some citizens, not coincidentally, all of them Arab, still live in third-world conditions – especially in the unrecognized villages of the Negev. Eight years ago in October 2000, thirteen people were killed by the Israel Police – all Arabs and all but one citizens of Israel. Since then, despite unequivocal pronouncements by the Or Commission, institutionalized discrimination continues toward the Arab population of Israel. Very little was done to advance them and improve their status; gaps between Jews and Arabs have only widened; and discrimination grows worse...........

ENTIRE POST - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/12/cry-the-beloved-country-israeli-civil-rights-org-recognizes-crushing-reality-for-4-million-people-an.html

Hebron Settlers Take Their Fight Into Israel

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:43:20 EST

Hebron Settlers Take Their Fight Into Israel
Far-right plans march into Arab town

by Jonathan Cook @ antiwar.com

Extremist settler groups currently involved in violent confrontations with Palestinians in the center of Hebron have chosen their next battleground, this time outside the West Bank.

A far-right group know as the Jewish National Front, closely associated with the Hebron settlers, is preparing to march through one of the main Arab towns in northern Israel. The march, approved by the Supreme Court back in October, is scheduled to take place on December 15, the group announced this week.......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.antiwar.com/orig/cook.php?articleid=13864

New Tensions in Jerusalem’s Arab Neighborhoods

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:35:53 EST

New Tensions in Jerusalem’s Arab Neighborhoods

Israeli border officers in Silwan, a neighborhood adjacent to the Old City, during the demolition last month by the Jerusalem municipality of a Palestinian house built without a permit.

By ISABEL KERSHNER @ nytimes.com - Published: December 6, 2008

JERUSALEM — A series of recent Israeli actions in the mainly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem have raised tensions there, with Palestinian and Israeli critics contending that they are part of a wider plan to “Judaize” historically charged areas around the Old City.

Baz Ratner/Reuters

Palestinian boys watched as Jerusalem municipal workers demolished a house in Silwan, where tensions are running high.

The actions, ostensibly unconnected, include the demolition of two Arab homes in Silwan, a neighborhood adjacent to the Old City above the ruins of an ancient Jewish site; the start of a controversial infrastructure project there; and the eviction of a Palestinian family from its home in Sheik Jarrah, another neighborhood coveted by Jewish nationalists near the Old City............

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/world/middleeast/07jerusalem.html?_r=1

PA police: Settlers set fire to Palestinian home in Hebron

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 21:17:32 EST

PA police: Settlers set fire to Palestinian home in Hebron

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies

Jewish settlers torched a rooftop enclosure of a Palestinian man's home in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday, a Palestinian police spokesman said.

The alleged incident occurred amidst high tensions in the area. Israel placed military and police forces on alert Friday to head off settler violence after the evacuation of a disputed West Bank building brought hostilities between the government and extremist settlers to a peak.

ARTICLE/VIDEO - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1043992.html

VIDEO / Settlers filmed shooting at Palestinians turn themselves in

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 21:12:08 EST

VIDEO / Settlers filmed shooting at Palestinians turn themselves in

By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent

Two Kiryat Arba residents, suspected of shooting at Palestinians following the forced eviction of settlers from the "House of Contention" in Hebron on Thursday, turned themselves in to the authorities on Saturday.

The two have been transferred to the custody of the Hebron District police for questioning after they were seen apparently shooting at Palestinians at close range in a film shot by the Isareli human rights group B'Tselem.........

ARTICLE/VIDEO - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1044061.html

Israeli soldier allegedly assaults Haaretz photographer in Hebron

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:52:53 EST

Tess Scheflan, a photographer on assignment for Haaretz, being treated by an IDF medic after being assaulted by a soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday. (Oren Ziv / Jini)
Last update - 22:33 06/12/2008

Israeli soldier allegedly assaults Haaretz photographer in Hebron

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

An Israeli photographer on assignment for Haaretz was assaulted by an Israel Defense Forces soldier in Hebron on Saturday. The photographer, Tess Scheflan, suffered light head injuries and was taken by an ambulance to hospital.

The IDF issued a response later Saturday, apologizing for the assault and emphasizing its stance that the soldier acted inappropriately, even if it emerges that he struck her after being attacked.....

.......When they went outside on Saturday, Eyadat recounted, they saw three soldiers. Scheflan took their picture. The soldiers then tried to take away the camera of the second photographer. Scheflan then took a picture of the soldier trying to snatch her associate's camera. The soldier then allegedly punched her in the face and hit her with the butt of his rifle while she was on the ground.........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1044039.html

Israeli police on high alert as settlers vow revenge over eviction

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:38:56 EST

Israeli police on high alert as settlers vow revenge over eviction Middle East News

from monstersandcritics.com

Tel Aviv - Israeli police were on high alert Friday after settlers vowed revenge for the forced evacuation of dozens of radical Jews from a disputed house in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

Jewish settlers in the divided city plastered pamphlets on walls, calling for a 'week of revenge' against Thursday's eviction by Israel's security forces, which was carried out violently and left at least 25 police and settlers injured, Israeli media reported.

Hebron's settlers, meanwhile, vowed to continue their method of 'wearing out' the Israeli authorities and security forces by returning again and again to a number of buildings in the city from which they have been evacuated in the past........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/

article_1446684.php/Israeli_police_on_high_alert_as_settlers_vow_revenge_over_eviction_

UN urges Israel to protect Palestinians in Hebron

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:24:29 EST

UN urges Israel to protect Palestinians in Hebron (Roundup)

from monstersandcritics.com

Tel Aviv/Ramallah - The United Nations called on Israel Friday to protect Palestinians living in the West Bank city of Hebron, after radical Jewish settlers went on another rampage the previous night following their eviction from a disputed home.

'As the occupying power, the Government of Israel is under obligation to protect Palestinian civilians, property and holy sites,' the UN representative to the Palestinian areas, Robert Serry, said in a statement......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/

article_1446765.php/UN_urges_Israel_to_protect_Palestinians_in_Hebron__Roundup__

Jenin: A model for the West bank?

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:21:14 EST

Jenin: A model for the West bank?

By Heather Sharp
BBC News, Jenin

Training and a boost in numbers has helped the Palestinian forces take control

Sirens blare as four patrol cars crammed with khaki-clad Palestinian security men speed through the streets of central Jenin.

Milling locals look up briefly, before turning their attention back to shopping for the weekend.

This is the new normality in a town previously dubbed the Martyrs' Capital because of the stream of suicide bombers it supplied during the intifada, or uprising, that started in 2000.

A year ago, this Palestinian militants' stronghold was widely considered a no-go area for foreigners.

Now it is a key stop on the itineraries of international dignitaries - most recently US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who called it a "place of hope".

Under internationally-funded Palestinian Authority (PA) reforms, newly equipped and trained security forces have retaken the streets from the gunmen who used to roam with impunity...............

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7759765.stm

Border Guard officers of Ethiopian descent report rising number of racially motivated verbal attacks from Hebron youths

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:54:20 EST

Settlers to Ethiopian troops: N***ers don't expel Jews

Border Guard officers of Ethiopian descent report rising number of racially motivated verbal attacks from Hebron youths; Druze officers also suffer racist remarks

by Danny Adino Ababa @ ynetnews.com (Israel)

Not only do they serve long and tiring hours in the reserve forces, and not only are they forced to deal with violent clashes with settlers, but now, Border Guard officers of Ethiopian descent are also faced with rising racism.

"N***ers don't expel Jews! This isn't what we brought you to Israel for!" are just some of the degrading slurs Border Guard officers reported hearing from masked settlers..........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3633077,00.html

Israel braces for settler violence in wake of Hebron house evacuation

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:25:06 EST

Israel braces for settler violence in wake of Hebron house evacuation

By Nadav Shragai and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents

The Israel Defense Forces and police are preparing for a wave of violence by extremist West Bank settlers against Palestinians after Thursday's evacuation of Hebron's so-called House of Contention.

Settler violence erupted Thursday in protest against the eviction. Settlers torched fields, olive groves and yards in a wadi between Hebron and the settlement of Kiryat Arba. They also opened fire on Palestinians, wounding three.

Settlers hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles on a number of roads in the areas of Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron. In Bitin, north of Ramallah, settlers broke into a home and vandalized Palestinian property, and in several other West Bank villages, anti-Muslim graffiti was sprayed on mosque walls...........
ARTICLE/VIDEO - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1043794.html

Hebron settler riots were out and out pogroms

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:21:48 EST

ANALYSIS / Hebron settler riots were out and out pogroms

By Avi Issacharoff @ haaretz.com (Israel)

An innocent Palestinian family, numbering close to 20 people. All of
them women and children, save for three men. Surrounding them are a few dozen masked Jews seeking to lynch them. A pogrom. This isn't a play on words or a double meaning. It is a pogrom in the worst sense of the word. First the masked men set fire to their laundry in the front yard and then they tried to set fire to one of the rooms in the house. The women cry for help, "Allahu Akhbar." Yet the neighbors are too scared to approach the house, frightened of the security guards from Kiryat Arba who have sealed off the home and who are cursing the journalists who wish to document the events unfolding there...........

ARTICLE/VIDEO - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1043795.html

Jewish settlers in Hebron shoot Palestinian men

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:11:51 EST

Hebron, Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk, Friday December 5 2008 10.52 GMT

B'Tselem footage shows settler shooting two Palestinian at close range
VIDEO-http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/dec/05/hebron-settlers-shooting-israel-palestinians

The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has released graphic video footage showing settlers fighting with Palestinians in Hebron and shooting two men at close range in the hours after a settler house was evacuated by police yesterday.

The film, recorded by a Palestinian resident in Hebron, shows settlers attacking his house, which was in a valley close to the three-storey building where dozens of settlers were evicted by Israeli riot police. In the hours after the eviction, Jewish settlers rioted in Hebron, throwing stones at police and Palestinians and setting fire to Palestinian trees and attacking Palestinian homes. Most of the violence took place between the evicted house and the nearby hardline Jewish settlement of Kirya Arba.......

ENTIRE ARTICLE-http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/05/hebron-settlers-shooting-israel-palestinians

The Latest Hebron Settler Pogroms

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:00:58 EST

The Latest Hebron Settler Pogroms

by Jerimiah Haber @ themangeszionist.blogspot.com (Israel)

Well, with pseudo-Jewish settlers on the rampage as I write -- smashing, burning, throwing rocks, and even shooting at defenceless Palestinians – a few questions should be asked.

First, since some of the pogrom apparently is in Area A, why aren't Palestinian officers arresting settlers? Second, why was the area declared a closed military zone so late? Third, why are the IDF and the police so ineffectual in preventing the settler rampage? Fourth, why aren't the police using the same tactics against the settlers that the IDF uses against the protestors in Bil'in. After all, the settlers are much more violent than the Bil'in protestors.....

ENTIRE POST - http://themagneszionist.blogspot.com/2008/12/latest-hebron-settler-pogroms.html

Dayan as tragedy, Bibi as farce

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:40:39 EST

Dayan as tragedy, Bibi as farce

By Gershom Gorenberg @ haaretz.com

When Benjamin Netanyahu speaks about "economic peace," his new, brilliant diplomatic platform, which will postpone any diplomatic moves far into the unforeseeable future, I see his face shrink, his chin sharpen, a patch cover his eye. Moshe Dayan is speaking, just as he spoke in a cabinet meeting 40 years ago, in early December 1968.

The Eshkol government met then to discuss Dayan's proposal for a policy on the occupied territories. Dayan's plan had three pillars: large-scale settlement on the West Bank mountain ridge, permanent Israeli rule of the territories without Israeli citizenship for the Arab residents, and economic integration of the territories with Israel. Arabs would work in Israel, Hebron would get its electricity from the Israeli grid, and Israel would raise the standard of living of the residents of the territories. As a result, Dayan argued, they would become dependent on Israel, maybe even grateful to it.

The official cabinet minutes are still classified, but a partial record from a reliable source exists. Dayan's words reveal his worldview with shocking clarity. "We want to keep this population calm. Let them work, let them study," he said - and then added that when he visited the one-time German colony of Togo in Africa, "I was impressed by the memories they still have of German rule before World War I. [The Germans] left orchards and culture."

Straightforwardly, Dayan sought to establish a colonial regime.........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1043043.html

Settlers Turn Their Sights to 'Juda-izing' Arab Sections of Israel

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:23:38 EST

Settlers Turn Their Sights to 'Juda-izing' Arab Sections of Israel

by Philip Weiss @ Mondoweiss

Adam Horowitz has spent a lot more time in Israel than I have. He's collecting string on a dangerous new trend in Israeli culture/politics:

Welcome to the Israeli settler movement, the 2008 model: the growing priority of settling Palestinian areas inside Israel. This is not a totally new phenomenon, having been seen since the founding of the state in places like Nazareth Illit, but these two important articles in Ha’aretz and the Middle East Report outline the recent efforts to “judaize” the Palestinian centers of the ancient cities of Jaffa and Akko. A similar trend has been seen throughout the Galilee, Negev, the Triangle and any other Palestinian and Arab parts of the country.........

ENTIRE POST - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/12/i-have-a-new-correspondent-cant-give-his-name-hes-an-american-jew-whos-spent-a-lot-more-time-in-israel-than-i-have-ive.html

The Failure of Annapolis

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:27:08 EST

A Peace Process That Makes Peace Impossible

By NICOLA NASSER

Palestinian – Israeli peace-making can only deliver if Palestinians are united, but the current Annapolis “peace process” was launched first of all as a blueprint for perpetuating the inter- Palestinian divide.

Commitment or non-commitment to what the Quartet of the US, EU, UN and Russian mediators in Middle East peace – making described as the “Annapolis Process” in a statement they released after their meeting in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on November 8 has become the terms of reference to make or break the Palestinian unity of ranks, which has so far failed the Egyptian mediation efforts, the latest in a series of national, Arab and non-Arab similar reconciliation endeavors.

The Annapolis conference, which was hosted by the United States in Meryland on November 27, 2007 and attended by all members of the League of Arab States, convened with much fanfare and re-launched the Palestinian – Israeli negotiations after a seven – year interruption since the collapse of the trilateral Camp David summit with the U.S. in 2000.........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/nasser12022008.html

"His analysis is grim. He thinks that Israel has swallowed the occupied territories."

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:42:00 EST

Meeting Australian Author Antony Loewenstein

by Philip Weiss @ "Mondoweiss"

I saw Antony Loewenstein, the Australian activist, yesterday. His new book on the Blogging revolution comes out today. A few strong impressions:

Medium height, dark haired, very animated face, informal and Australian manner. Straightforward, personable. Silver earring in left ear. German/Austrian Jewish roots. Atheist.

An only child of two only children, he's extremely independent thinking. Maybe the most independent thinking person I know in this area. Unapologetic. I discern a psychological root: he has his parents' encouragement in his work. He went to work for the Sydney Morning Herald just a few years ago, what for anyone else would be a plum job, the sort of job I myself have kissed a lot of butt to have; but Antony chafed in the traces and soon went out on his own. Is now a leader of Jewish anti- opinion in Aussie and has an int'l reputation. Good on ya mate. Just published a book on internet censorship.

His analysis is grim. He thinks that Israel has swallowed the occupied territories. Sat down to dine on them by policy and design and with relish (and not accidentally!) 40, 60 years ago. Now they are in Israel's stomach. Won't be removed without major catastrophe, possible civil war and certainly not without American interference, which is unlikely to happen.......

ENTIRE POST -

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/12/i-saw-antony-loewenstein-the-australian-activist-yesterday-a-few-strong-impressions-medium-height-very-informal-and-aust.html#more

11 hurt in Hebron clashes

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:19:36 EST

11 hurt in Hebron clashes

Violent Saturday in Hebron: Palestinians, settlers hurl stones at each other near disputed home in West Bank city; Jewish teens, two Border Guard officers among injured. No arrests made in connection with clashes

by Efrat Weiss @ ynetnews.com

Tensions growing near disputed house in Hebron: Eleven people were wounded Saturday during clashes between settlers and Palestinians hurling stones at each other near the disputed Hebron house slated for evacuation.

The wounded include two lightly injured Border Guard officers. No arrests were made in connection with the violent incidents.

Violent day in Hebron (Photo: AFP)

Police in Hebron received reports of stone throwing in the area from the IDF Saturday afternoon. Army, police, and Border Guard forces arrived at the scene in order to quell the clashes between Palestinians and Jews.....

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3630521,00.html

Dialogue--or Private Atonement?

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:32:04 EST

Dialogue--or Private Atonement?

by Philip Weiss @ "Mondoweiss"

The Australian anti-Zionist, and Jewish atheist Antony Loewenstein, is visiting the States. He talked at Harvard last week. Told this anecdote:

I met a group of influential left-oriented Jews in Melbourne last year. They wanted to engage with me and discuss privately my ideas. It was a depressing affair, however, as one after the other detailed their “pain” and “trauma” over the occupation, expressed dedication to a two-state solution and pledged to work towards its implementation. Publicly, with a few notable exceptions, they refused to condemn Israel’s gross violations of human rights. It was simply a bridge too far. Talking passionately amongst themselves may have made them feel good but the situation in the Middle East requires more than hand-wringing. A fear of societal exclusion held these people back while the Palestinians suffered in silence........

ENTIRE POST-http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/11/dialogueor-private-atonement-.html

Top UN Official: Apartheid by Israel

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:12:19 EST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 26, 2008
2:17 PM

CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Top UN Official: Apartheid by Israel

WASHINGTON - November 26 - The Jerusalem Post reports: "General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann said the international community should consider sanctions against Israel including 'boycott, divestment and sanctions' similar to those enacted against South Africa two decades ago."

In his remarks, d'Escoto said: "Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories appear so similar to the apartheid of an earlier era, a continent away. I believe it is very important that we in the United Nations use this term. We must not be afraid to call something what it is."

Evicted from home of 52 years, newly homeless man dies.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:54:30 EST

Evicted from home of 52 years, newly homeless man dies.

by Tom J @ dailykos.com

Another tragic story of home foreclosures in the US? not really. But it is an american story, even if it happened 8,000 miles away.

Not many of us have lived in the same home for over 52 years, or even know of anyone that has.
Imagine what it would be like to be forced out of a home that has been part of your family for that long, with a government saying it belongs to others, that you are being evicted due to your ethnicity. Can't happen in the United States, not in a country that just elected an African American President? Perhaps not, at least probably not as brazen as something like this.

But it is happening with the support of your tax-dollars, and with the likely support or at least acquiescence of your congressperson/Senator.

More on the human cost of an apartheid system and the story of Mohammed al-Kurd of East Jerusalem..........

ENTIRE POST - http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/29/14289/119

Palestinian PM seeks steps against settlements

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:49:02 EST

Palestinian PM seeks steps against settlements

Fayyad asks Palestinian diplomats abroad to campaign for economic steps against Israel 'because condemnations and press conferences are not enough anymore'

from ynetnews.com (Israel)

The Palestinian prime minister asked Palestinian diplomats Thursday to campaign abroad for economic steps against Israeli West Bank settlements.

Israel has ignored international appeals to halt settlement expansion and a new approach is required, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told a gathering of Palestinian ambassadors.

"We want you to make the whole world aware of the problem because condemnations and press conferences are not enough anymore," Fayyad said.

Almost half a million Israelis live in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War and sought by the Palestinians for their future state, along with Gaza...........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3629743,00.html

A house in Hebron has become the site of the latest battle over settlements in the West Bank.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:46:38 EST

The House of Dispute

A house in Hebron has become the site of the latest battle over settlements in the West Bank. In a ruling last week, Israel's Supreme Court gave residents three days to clear out voluntarily, or face eviction.

Gershom Gorenberg @ "The American Prospect" | November 25, 2008 | web only

The House of Dispute is a long, rectangular, four-story building on the east edge of Hebron. The street-level rooms are built as storefronts, facing the road leading to the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba. Upstairs are living quarters. As I write, the people living in those quarters are settlers who moved in one night in March of last year.

How much longer they will live there is known only to a few top-level Israeli officials -- assuming that those officials have overcome their own trepidations and decided when and how to evict the settlers. In a ruling last week, Israel's Supreme Court gave the building's residents three days to clear out voluntarily, or face eviction by the government. The settlers and their hard-line supporters -- in the fortified Jewish enclaves in Hebron, in Kiryat Arba, and beyond -- say they won't let it happen.

"We shall defend [ourselves] against this injustice with our bodies," Noam Arnon, spokesman of the Hebron settler community, has declared. At a meeting to galvanize resistance, one rightist rabbi showed up with helmets for young people intending to struggle with soldiers at the site and said that the "the state of Israel's greatest enemy" is its own government. That was low-key compared to the response of the settlers, who vandalized a Muslim cemetery, sprayed "Mohammad the pig" on the wall of a mosque, and reportedly splashed turpentine in an Israeli soldier's face, injuring him..........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_house_of_dispute

The Irresponsibility of Thomas Friedman

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:09:17 EST

Jerome Slater: Tom Friedman Glibly Promotes 'Mythology' that Israel Is Fair, Palestinians Violent

by Philip Weiss @ "Mondoweiss"

For a year I've thought that the best analysis of the peace process is Henry Siegman's fabulous piece in LRB last year saying it has been a "scam" aimed at covering Israel's accession of more territory. Now here is a rival: a piece on Tom Friedman in the latest Tikkun, by Jerry Slater.

The heart of Slater's piece is the idea that Friedman is given to "glib" and derisive commentary about Arafat at Camp David and in the subsequent intifada when an actual and patient scrutiny of the best accounts of Camp David show decisively that Arafat was right not to accept Barak's vague deal.

ENTIRE POST - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/11/jerome-slater-tom-friedmans-glib-endorsement-of-mythology-that-israel-is-fair-palestinians-violent.html#more

********************************************************************************

The Irresponsibility of Thomas Friedman

by Jerome Slater @ tikkun.org

As close observers of the century-old conflict between the Zionist movement and the Arab residents of Palestine increasingly understand, the Zionist narrative is riddled with historical mythologies that do not stand up under close and dispassionate examination. But these myths have had the devastating consequence of blinding Israelis—and their unthinking American supporters—to their own role in the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as in the wider Arab-Israeli conflict.

To be sure, the Palestinians and the Arabs as a whole have their own historical mythologies, and it is obvious that Israel does not bear all the blame for the ongoing conflict. Still, it is the Israeli mythologies, largely accepted by most Americans, which have been the greater obstacle to a peace settlement, especially in recent years.......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0811/frontpage/irresponsible

As President-elect Barack Obama focuses on the meltdown of the U.S. economy, another fire is burning: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:40:52 EST

Media Silence Doesn't Mean All's Well in Gaza

by Amy Goodman @ commondreams.org

As President-elect Barack Obama focuses on the meltdown of the U.S. economy, another fire is burning: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

You may not have heard much lately about the disaster in the Gaza Strip. That silence is intentional: The Israeli government has barred international journalists from entering the occupied territory. Last week, executives from the Associated Press, New York Times, Reuters, CNN, BBC and other news organizations sent a letter of protest to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert criticizing his government's decision to bar journalists from entering Gaza.

Israel has virtually sealed off the Gaza Strip and cut off aid and fuel shipments. A spokesman for Israel's Defense Ministry said Israel was displeased with international media coverage, which he said inflated Palestinian suffering and did not make clear that Israel's measures were in response to Palestinian violence......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/27-12

Israeli court rebukes state over illegal outposts

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:57:44 EST

Israeli court rebukes state over illegal outposts

The Supreme Court gave the government 45 days to explain why it hasn't taken down the illegal outpost of Migron in accord with the 'road map' peace plan.

By Joshua Mitnick | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Tel Aviv - An Israeli government effort to make good on a five-year-old commitment to the US and Palestinians to rein in settlement expansion in the West Bank is coming under legal fire at home.

Under the 2003 "road map" peace plan, Israel promised to remove about two dozen or so unauthorized hilltop outposts as a way to build confidence in Palestinian peace talks, but has so far avoided dismantling the outpost communities for fear of violent clashes with settlers.

This week, the government revealed a compromise reached with the settler leadership aimed at avoiding conflict: Migron, a flagship outpost of 40 families living in mobile homes near the Palestinian city of Ramallah, would be relocated to an already existing settlement.

But at a Supreme Court hearing Wednesday, justices sided with Palestinians who own the land at Migron......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1128/p07s04-wome.html

Yeshiva head arrested for 'incitement'

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:51:17 EST

Yeshiva head arrested for 'incitement'

By JPOST STAFF AND YAAKOV KATZ

Rabbi Yigal Shandrapi, the head of Yeshuat Mordechai Yeshiva, is expected to be brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Wednesday for a remand hearing, after police from the Judea and Samaria Division arrested him on Tuesday on suspicion of inciting Jewish youth to riot.

According to the allegations, Shandrapi incited the teenagers two separate cases, the most recent of which occurred two months ago at the Yad Yair outpost, in the West Bank. During that incident, soldiers described being attacked and said that their vehicles were damaged.

Meanwhile, nearly 40 Jewish youth reportedly rampaged through the streets of a Palestinian neighborhood in Hebron overnight Tuesday, puncturing car tires and shattering windows in Arab homes.....

ARTICLE/VIDEO - http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404841467&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Short on fuel, Gazans use car batteries to restart power plant

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:38:13 EST

Short on fuel, Gazans use car batteries to restart power plant

from haaretz.com

Power returned to large parts of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Wednesday when Palestinian workers figured out a way to use car batteries to help restart the territory's sole power plant.

Special batteries normally used to help run the plant died earlier this week, preventing it from restarting after Israel allowed limited amounts of fuel into the impoverished coastal enclave.

A director at the plant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the workers devised a solution to the problem by hooking generators up to 170 car batteries.

"Thank God," the director said. "It's working."

He said the Palestinians had requested permission from Israel to import the special batteries used at the plant. But it was unclear if and when the batteries will arrive..........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041275.html

Poll: 81 percent of Israelis back increasing IDF targeted killings

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:59:43 EST

Poll: 81 percent of Israelis back increasing IDF targeted killings

By Haaretz Service

A vast majority - 81 percent - of Israelis support increasing the targeted killings of Palestinian militants, according to a poll administered by Tel Aviv University's "Peace Index" survey.

The poll also found that 60.5 percent believe that Israel should not reach a cease-fire agreement with the Hamas in which the Israel Defense Forces would cease targeted killings if Hamas stops firing Qassam rockets towards Israel...........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/941792.html

The Israel Defense Forces has assassinated wanted men in apparent defiance of High Court of Justice guidelines for such operations

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:46:28 EST

IDF Killed Wanted Palestinians Despite Court Guidelines, Documents Show

by Uri Blau

The Israel Defense Forces has assassinated wanted men in apparent defiance of High Court of Justice guidelines for such operations, according to operational briefings obtained by Haaretz.

The documents reveal that the IDF approved assassinations in the West Bank even when it could have been possible to arrest the targets instead, and that top-ranking army officers authorized the killings in advance, in writing, even if innocent bystanders would be killed as well.

Moreover, the assassination of at least one member of a so-called "ticking infrastructure" was postponed due to an impending visit by a senior U.S. official.

Finally, Haaretz discovered that contrary to what the state told the High Court, assassinations were subject to only minimal restrictions prior to the court's ruling.

ARTICLE/VIDEO - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041160.html

An elderly Palestinian walks past a mural picturing the plight of Palestinian refugees, in the West Bank town of Jenin. Israeli forces have assassinated Palestinians in the West Bank in apparent defiance of High Court rules for these kinds of operations, the Haaretz daily reported on Wednesday. (AFP)

Israel 'occupies' no Arab territory

Natalia from Acampo, CA — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:10:40 EST

Israel 'occupies' no Arab territory
Nov 18, 2008 19:32 Updated Nov 19, 2008 10:03

Israel 'occupies' no Arab territories

By LOUIS RENE BERES

In urgent matters of national survival and geopolitics, words matter. The still generally unchallenged language referring provocatively to an Israeli "Occupation" always overlooks the pertinent and incontestable history of the West Bank (Judea/Samaria) and Gaza.

A topographical map of Israel, delineating the 1967 borders. Photo: Courtesy Perhaps the most evident omission concerns the unwitting manner in which these "Territories" fell into Israel's hands in the first place.

It is simply and widely disregarded that "occupation" followed the multi-state Arab aggression of 1967 - one never disguised by Egypt, Syria or Jordan. A sovereign state of Palestine did not exist before 1967 or 1948. Nor was a state of Palestine ever promised by UN Security Council Resolution 242. Contrary to popular understanding, a state of Palestine has never existed. Never. Even as a nonstate legal entity, "Palestine" ceased to exist in 1948, when Great Britain relinquished its League of Nations mandate. During the 1948-49 Israeli War of Independence (a war of survival fought because the entire Arab world had rejected the authoritative United Nations resolution creating a Jewish state), the West Bank and Gaza came under the illegal control of Jordan and Egypt respectively. These Arab conquests did not put an end to an already-existing state or to an ongoing trust territory.

What these aggressions did accomplish was the effective prevention, sui generis, of a state of Palestine. The original hopes for Palestine were dashed, therefore, not by the new Jewish state or by its supporters, but by the Arab states, especially Jordan and Egypt. LET US return to an earlier history. From the Biblical Period (ca. 1350 BCE to 586 BCE) to the British Mandate (1918 - 1948), the land named by the Romans after the ancient Philistines was controlled only by non-Palestinian elements. Significantly, however, a continuous chain of Jewish possession of the land was legally recognized after World War I, at the San Remo Peace Conference of April 1920.

There, a binding treaty was signed in which Great Britain was given mandatory authority over "Palestine" (the area had been ruled by the Ottoman Turks since 1516) to prepare it to become the "national home for the Jewish People." Palestine, according to the Treaty, comprised territories encompassing what are now the states of Jordan and Israel, including the West Bank and Gaza. Present-day Israel comprises only 22 percent of Palestine as defined and ratified at the San Remo Peace Conference. In 1922, Great Britain unilaterally and without any lawful authority split off 78 percent of the lands promised to the Jews - all of Palestine east of the Jordan River - and gave it to Abdullah, the non-Palestinian son of the Sharif of Mecca. Eastern Palestine now took the name Transjordan, which it retained until April 1949, when it was renamed as Jordan. From the moment of its creation, Transjordan was closed to all Jewish migration and settlement, a clear betrayal of the British promise in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, and a patent contravention of its Mandatory obligations under international law.

On July 20, 1951, a Palestinian Arab assassinated King Abdullah for the latter's hostility to Palestinian aspirations and concerns. Regarding these aspirations, Jordan's "moderate" King Hussein - 19 years later, during September 1970 - brutally murdered thousands of defenseless Palestinians under his jurisdiction. IN 1947, several years prior to Abdullah's killing, the newly-formed United Nations, rather than designate the entire land west of the Jordan River as the long-promised Jewish national homeland, enacted a second partition. Curiously, considering that this second fission again gave complete advantage to Arab interests, Jewish leaders accepted the painful judgment. The Arab states did not. On May 15, 1948, exactly 24 hours after the State of Israel came into existence, Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League, declared to a tiny new country founded upon the ashes of the Holocaust: "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre." This unambiguous declaration has been at the very heart of all subsequent Arab orientations toward Israel, including those of "moderate" Fatah. Even by the strict legal standards of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Arab actions and attitudes toward the microscopic Jewish state in their midst has remained patently genocidal. For some reason, this persistence has repeatedly been made to appear benign.

IN 1967, almost 20 years after Israel's entry into the community of nations, the Jewish state, as a result of its unexpected military victory over Arab aggressor states, gained unintended control over the West Bank and Gaza. Although the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war is codified in the UN Charter, there existed no authoritative sovereign to whom the Territories could be "returned." Israel could hardly have been expected to transfer them back to Jordan and Egypt, which had exercised unauthorized and terribly cruel control since the Arab-initiated war of "extermination" in 1948-49. Moreover, the idea of Palestinian "self-determination" had only just begun to emerge after the Six Day War, and - significantly - had not even been included in UN Security Council Resolution 242, which was adopted on November 22, 1967. For their part, the Arab states convened a summit in Khartoum in August 1967, concluding: "No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it...."

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed three years earlier, in 1964, before there were any "Israeli Occupied Territories." Exactly what was it, therefore, that the PLO sought to "liberate" between 1964 and 1967? This question should now be raised in connection with the US-sponsored "Road Map To Peace in the Middle East," a twisted cartography leading to "Palestine."

THIS HAS been a very brief account of essential historic reasons why the so-called "Palestinian Territories" are not occupied by Israel. Several other equally valid reasons stem from Israel's inherent legal right to security and self-defense. International law is not a suicide pact. Because a Palestinian state would severely threaten the very existence of Israel - a fact that remains altogether unhidden in Arab media and governments - the Jewish State is under no binding obligation to end a falsely alleged "Occupation."

No state can ever be required to accept complicity in its own dismemberment and annihilation. Both Israel and the United States will soon have new leadership. Neither Jerusalem nor Washington should be deceived by the so-called "Road Map To Peace in the Middle East," a twisted bit of highway that makes entirely inaccurate claims about "Palestinian Territories" and "Israeli Occupation."

For substantially documented reasons of history and national security, it is imperative that a twenty-third Arab state never be carved out of the still-living body of Israel. A topographical map of Israel, delineating the 1967 borders. Photo: Courtesy If anyone should still have doubts about Palestinian intentions, they need look only to former Prime Minister Sharon's "disengagement" from Gaza, an area that is now used by Hamas to stage rocket attacks upon Israeli noncombatants, and by al-Qaeda to mount future terrorist operations against American cities. The writer, a professor of International Law at Purdue University, is the author of many books and articles dealing with military affairs and international law.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404769705&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull T

The Democrats Owe Jimmy Carter an Apology

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:52:09 EST

Don't Suppress Carter (or the Opportunities for Middle East Peace)

By RALPH NADER

Now that the season of electoral expediency is over, Barack Obama owes Jimmy Carter an apology.

At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the Party denied Jimmy Carter the traditional invitation to speak that is accorded its former presidents.

According to The Jewish Daily Forward, “Carter's controversial views on Israel cost him a place on the podium at the Democratic Party convention in late August, senior Democratic operatives acknowledged to the Forward.”

Silencing Carter, who negotiated the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement, involved behind the scenes tensions between supporters of the hard-line AIPAC lobby and those Democrats who argued both respect and free speech to let Carter join Bill Clinton on the stage and address a nationwide audience.........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/nader11252008.html

Policeman filmed head-butting East Jerusalem residents

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:08:28 EST

Policeman filmed head-butting East Jerusalem residents

By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent Tags: police, East Jerusalem

The Justice Ministry's Police Investigation Department (PID) recently launched an investigation in efforts to locate a patrol police officer who was documented head-butting two Arab residents of East Jerusalem, a man and a woman, while evacuating homes slated for demolition......

ARTICLE/VIDEO - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1040584.html

'Obama Would Put Thru a Peace Deal Tomorrow

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:55:57 EST

'Obama Would Put Thru a Peace Deal Tomorrow If Not for the American Jewish Community'--MJ Rosenberg

by Philip Weiss @ "Mondoweiss"

Today's conference at New York's Central Synagogue on Jews uniting against the war—six years after it matters—was remarkable for two things: the soulsearching over the Israel/Palestine issue, which represents real progress after years of denial that the occupation had anything to do with the Iraq war, and indeed denial that there is an Israel lobby and we're part of it, and secondly for fine speeches by Elizabeth Holtzman and MJ Rosenberg. I'll leave till tomorrow a report on the conferees’ sometimes-honorable efforts to come to their senses about the wicked occupation of Palestine. For tonight, the news: Elizabeth Holtzman, MJ Rosenberg..........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/11/the-conference-in-new-york-today-on-jews-uniting-against-the--warsix-years-after-it-matterswas-remarkable-for-two-thing.html

Savage Settlers Near Hebron Attack Palestinian Shepherds, Kill a Donkey

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:03:45 EST

Savage Settlers Near Hebron Attack Palestinian Shepherds, Kill a Donkey

by Philip Weiss @ "Mondoweiss"

Here is a story about 15 settlers attacking three Palestinian shepherds and injuring two donkeys, killing one of them, near At-Tuwani in the South Hebron hills. I can't watch the video, can you? This is simply disgusting, and the fact that supporting the settlements was a winning campaign issue for Bill Clinton in '92 is all you need to know about American foreign policy in the Mideast. Also, what is the Israeli response? Surely condemnation and an investigation. But the original crime and the continuing crime, unaddressed: ethnic cleansing. It is, for many in Israel, policy. And we are complicit. These images are going out all over the Arab world.....

SOURCE - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/11/savage-settlers-near-hebron-attack-palestinian-shepherds-kill-a-donkey.html

The elections for the 17th Knesset have already been decided: Benjamin Netanyahu (Bibi the Barbarian) will be the next prime minister.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:52:36 EST

Israel elects its Bush

By Gideon Levy @ haaretz.com (Israel)

The elections for the 17th Knesset have already been decided: Benjamin Netanyahu will be the next prime minister. Nothing will change the current trend, which was reflected in polls this weekend. At a time when the entire world, including Israel, is amazed and moved by the miracle election of Barack Obama, Israel is on the verge of electing George Bush.

Tzipi Livni will not become less feeble, and Ehud Barak will not fix his waywardness. And the new left-wing party in the works will not make a difference one way or the other - it is too little, too late. Israelis intend to vote for the conservative, right-wing, nationalist, bellicose candidate - the Israeli Bush. The world is moving forward, while Israel is taking a step backward..........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1039947.html

The Israeli peace camp was born in sin and died because of a lie: It was born as the legitimate son of the sin of occupation, and died the illegitimate son of the lie that "there is no partner" with whom to negotiate

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:48:38 EST

Born in sin

By Gideon Levy @ haaretz.com (Israel)

The Israeli peace camp was born in sin and died because of a lie: It was born as the legitimate son of the sin of occupation, and died the illegitimate son of the lie that "there is no partner" with whom to negotiate on the other side. Between September 1967 and October 2000, it spent 33 years waging the brave and determined struggle of a minority against a majority, "traitors" against "patriots," "defilers of Israel" against "lovers of Israel," David against Goliath. Today, we must painfully admit that it was struggle that did not produce much.

The peace camp was born of a small ad - a statement bearing only a dozen mostly unknown signatures - addressed to the general public, and then began to die a pathetic death, which is lamented by no one. Since then, its body has laid in public squares that are void of protesters, in streets empty of struggle and in public discourse free of ideas. On occasion, it lets out a desperate and dying gasp from the direction of a group of determined but marginalized groups, near the separation fence in Na'alin or in Gush Shalom's advertisements in the Friday paper............

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1039470.html

It’s Madame Secretary for Hillary, But Which Hillary Will It Be?

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:38:05 EST

It’s Madame Secretary for Hillary, But Which Hillary Will It Be?

by Richard Silverstein @ "Tikun Olam"

The N.Y. Times reports that Hillary Clinton has accepted Barack Obama’s invitation to be his secretary of state. This development will no doubt rankle some on the left who campaigned hard for Obama’s election. I’m concerned too. I wonder which Hillary will be secretary of state: the bellicose, saber-rattling presidential primary candidate who threatened to wipe out Iran; or the pragmatic, flexible Hillary we’d prefer to see fill that position......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2008/11/22/its-madame-secretary-for-hillary-but-which-hillary-will-it-be/

U.S. Government Subsidizes West Bank Settler Pogromists: Your Tax Dollars at Work

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:27:01 EST

U.S. Government Subsidizes Settler Pogromists: Your Tax Dollars at Work

by Richard Silverstein @ "Tikun Olam"

The accompanying B’Tselem video should make your stomach turn and call to mind what a Kristallnacht perpetrated by Jews might resemble. These are citizens of the State of Israel who treat its authorities with utter contempt, not to mention shower them with violence:

Settler desecration of Hebron Muslim cemetery

…B’Tselem released footage on Thursday showing a mob of settlers clashing with Israeli security forces in the West Bank town of Hebron. During the clashes…settlers…wounded an IDF soldier by pouring turpentine on him as he tried to stop them from throwing stones at Palestinians…The settlers also scribbled graffiti…including spraying ‘Mohammed Pig’ on the walls of a local mosque and on Palestinian homes nearby.
Mouatassem Daana, a Palestinian resident of Hebron, said he saw settlers gathered near the building “writing demeaning graffiti on the wall of the mosque insulting the Prophet Mohammad” and breaking windows.
An IDF spokesman said settlers also vandalized a cemetery near the mosque.

'Mohammed hazir' ('Mohammed is a pig') graffiti on mosque wall

Israel’s prime minister has called such outrageous behavior a “pogrom.” Last week, Jews around the world commemorated the anniversary of Kristallnacht. I’m afraid that this represents our own Jewish Kristallnacht by which we desecrate Muslim cemeteries and mosques. And settlers committed such violence not only against their Palestinian target of choice, but against IDF soldiers and Israeli police. In fact, one wonders whether they even make a distinction.........

ARTICLE/VIDEO-http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2008/11/22/us-subsidizes-settler-pogromists/

WARNING: Don't Pressure Israel or She Goes Into Bunker...

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:11:47 EST

Jeffrey Goldberg Warns, Don't Pressure Israel or She Goes Into Bunker...

by Philip Weiss @ "Mondoweiss"

Jeffrey Goldberg is happy about Hillary as Sec'y of State and advises her to push for a Palestinian state now, but one pretty much on Israel's terms.

Palestinians suffer sometimes from the irrational hope that America’s support for Israel is mutable, and that the key to success is to bring about direct American pressure on Israel. This won’t happen for any number of reasons, and I think Hillary Clinton understands that American pressure will only encourage Israeli politicians to descend into the bunker.

My sense, without reading him in full, is that Goldberg while upset with what he calls "the settlement project" and wanting it to end now, and supportive of a "viable" Palestinian state on lands infiltrated by Israeli holdings, is firmly against the right of return and probably against retrenchment to '67 borders or even sacrifice of the "security zone" Israel wishes to maintain in the Jordan Valley.

That is: he is aware that the West Bank has been thoroughly colonized, and Palestinian society fragmented, and he knows that's a bad thing, but he doesn't want any pressure on Israel about abandoning its territorial holdings there...........

ENTIRE ARTICE - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/11/jeffrey-goldberg-warns-dont-pressure-israel-or-she-goes-into-bunker.html#more

Protests over Israeli president's peace speech

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:03:02 EST

Protests over Israeli president's peace speech

by Laura Pitel |

Armed police flanked the Bodleian on Tuesday night as Shimon Peres arrived in Oxford to present a lecture to staff and students at the Sheldonian.

But the heavy security could do little to prevent a verbal assault on Peres as students interrupted his speech with a series of attacks on Israel's policy on Palestine.

Throughout the course of the talk, entitled 'the globalisation of peace', a string of eight students stood up and shouted over the president in what they described as a gesture on behalf of the Palestinian people.....

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.cherwell.org/content/8133

ISRAELI ANALYSIS / A state within a state has arisen in the territories

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:50:12 EST

ANALYSIS / A state within a state has arisen in the territories

By Yossi Sarid @ Haaretz

It did not happen yesterday, it will not happen today, and in the near future it is not about to happen. The High Court of Justice did pronounce judgment at the beginning of the week, ordering the evacuation of the disputed house in Hebron within three days. But the rulings of the court have recently become rulings for the Messiah to deal with when he comes - who takes them seriously? The still, small voice of the High Court had only just spoken, and the Justice Ministry lawyers were running to their minister with wise advise how not to undertake the evacuation; the advisers know the situation and the soul of their minister.

A new custom has come to the country: High Court rulings are one thing, reality is another. One has not the slightest thing to do with the other: The settlements and the outposts are planted firmly in place and refuse to be uprooted; private land of Palestinians is being freely robbed; whole neighborhoods born in sin are being populated; homes that have been stolen are filling with people; a brazen fence stands according to its original, arbitrary plan with only minimal changes.......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1039500.html

On Thursday, angry settlers attacked Israel Defense Forces soldiers, vandalized Palestinian property and scrawled "Mohammed is a pig" on a local mosque...

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:34:25 EST

20,000 Jewish pilgrims to descend on Hebron amid settler violence

By Amos Harel @ haaretz.com

The security forces are gearing up for trouble this weekend when 20,000 Jews are expected to descend upon Hebron for an annual pilgrimage.

Officials fear the combination of the crowd and tensions over the planned evacuation of the so-called House of Contention could prove to be an explosive mix.

On Thursday, angry settlers attacked Israel Defense Forces soldiers, vandalized Palestinian property and scrawled "Mohammed is a pig" on a local mosque after the High Court of Justice ruled earlier this week that the house must be cleared of its Jewish residents until another court decides whether Jews or Palestinians are the legal owners......

ARTICLE/VIDEO - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1039491.html

Who Will Stop the Settlers?

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:32:48 EST

Who Will Stop the Settlers?

Noise but no action from US over family's eviction

by Jonathan Cook @ antiwar.com

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

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

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.antiwar.com/orig/cook.php?articleid=13789

Who Will Stop the Settlers?

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:37:20 EST

Noise But No Action From US Over Family's Eviction

Who Will Stop the Settlers?

By JONATHAN COOK @ counterpunch.org

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

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

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

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/cook11192008.html

Beach Umbrellas and His-and-Hers Automatics in the So-Called Occupied Territories

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:17:07 EST

WW3 REPORT EATS SOGGY PIZZA AT ISRAELI SETTLEMENT

On July 18, WW3 REPORT visited Ariel, the second largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank, just a 30-minute drive from Tel Aviv. It is a bedroom community of 19,000, with a large contingent of recent immigrants from Russia.

Entering Ariel entails going down a long access road. The road is lined with ornamental trees, with an elaborate irrigation system. It is a quite a contrast to the water-deprived and parched Palestinian towns and villages of the West Bank. Before entering Ariel proper, one encounters surprised security forces who are unused to tourists coming to visit the settlement. A nearby set-back sign reads "ARIEL" in Hebrew, with a dense, irrigated lawn stretching out in front of it..........

ENTIRE POST - http://www.ww4report.com/static/91.html#palestine2

Americans May Sympathize With Israel, But They Want a More Even-Handed Policy

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:34:05 EST

Americans May Sympathize With Israel, But They Want a More Even-Handed Policy, Say Walt & Mearsheimer

from Mondoweiss

John Mearsheimer and Steve Walt write:

We think that the discussion on your blog about the recent poll commissioned by the Israel Project misses a critical issue.

The fact that 57 percent of the respondents "support" or "strongly support" Israel, while only 6 percent "support" or "strongly support" the Palestinians is not surprising and is consistent with past findings. As Jeff Blankfort correctly points out, this is due in good part to the fact that Israel's supporters stifle criticism of Israel in the media, while working hard to demonize the Palestinians. But even if we had an open and freewheeling discourse about Israel in this country, we believe that most Americans would still be sympathetic to Israel and certainly support its existence......

ENTIRE POST - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/11/american-people-are-far-more-critical-of-israeli-policy-than-their-elected-representatives-say-walt-mearsheimer.html

'Palestinian Civilization Is Being Destroyed in Gaza'--Ireland's Former President

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:28:52 EST

'Palestinian Civilization Is Being Destroyed in Gaza'--Ireland's Former President

by Philip Weiss @ Mondoweiss

How long can Americans deny international consensus?

A human rights group founded by Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland, with the likes of Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter, lately visited Jordan, Israel, and Palestine, with sadly predictable consequences:

President Robinson noted a startling deterioration in humanitarian conditions since her last visit in 2000 when she was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.....

ENTIRE POST - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/11/palestinian-civilization-is-being-destroyed-in-gaza--irelands-former-president.html

California Woman Is Red-Lighted, Badgered and Humiliated for 3 Hours at a West Bank Checkpoint

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:07:30 EST

California Woman Is Red-Lighted, Badgered and Humiliated for 3 Hours at a West Bank Checkpoint

by Philip Weiss @ Mondoweiss

Anna Baltzer, a Jewish anti-Zionist from California who works tirelessly on The Issue, is about to go back to Palestine. Lately she has (published this letter in the Washington Times and) sent out an email to her friends describing her humiliation at a checkpoint 3 years ago. (I see it's been posted here.) It's a great story in a horrifying way, faceless loudspeakers, holding pens, shouting, crying, singing, searching, and so on and so forth, as Chomsky likes to say, all culminating when a weeping Baltzer smashes her food on their machines. It is important to consider that Baltzer's angry resistance at the checkpoint, for instance, taking pictures, might have resulted in further detention were it not for the fact that she is an American and the U.S. consulate apparently intervened........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/11/held-at-einab-junction-inside-israels-new-terminals--when-i-first-the-west-bank-in-2003-checkpoints-were-controlled-by--you.html

The United States says Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank threaten any peace between Israel and the Palestinians -- yet it also encourages Americans to help support settlers by offering tax breaks on donations.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:31:43 EST

EXCLUSIVE-US tax breaks help Jewish settlers in West Bank

Source: Reuters, By Adam Entous

JERUSALEM, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The United States says Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank threaten any peace between Israel and the Palestinians -- yet it also encourages Americans to help support settlers by offering tax breaks on donations.

As Condoleezza Rice flew in on Monday for another round of peace talks, Israeli and American supporters of settlements defended the tax incentives, which benefit West Bank enclaves deemed illegal by the World Court and which the U.S. secretary of state has said are an obstacle to Palestinian statehood.....

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LK275621.htm

Israel's High Court on Sunday instructed settlers occupying a house in Hebron to evacuate it within three days, but a coalition of right-wing organizations, MKs and West Bank rabbis said they plan to oppose the move firmly.

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:56:46 EST

Settlers threaten 'Amona'-style riots over Hebron eviction

By Nadav Shragai and Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz Correspondents

The High Court on Sunday instructed settlers occupying a house in Hebron to evacuate it within three days, but a coalition of right-wing organizations, MKs and West Bank rabbis said they plan to oppose the move firmly.

In an emergency meeting on Sunday in the settlement of Kiryat Arba - the house is located between the settlement and Hebron - the opponents of the evacuation pledged that the settlers would not be removed by Wednesday as the court had demanded. Their resistance, they said, would be "uncompromising, but not violent."

"If the house is evacuated, there will be Amona part two here," said a participant at the meeting, referring to the February 2006 clashes between settlers and security forces during the evacuation of a West Bank outpost.....

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037864.html

Barack Obama is to pursue an ambitious peace plan in the Middle East involving the recognition of Israel by the Arab world in exchange for its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:52:12 EST

Barack Obama links Israel peace plan to 1967 borders deal

by Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv and Sarah Baxter

Barack Obama is to pursue an ambitious peace plan in the Middle East involving the recognition of Israel by the Arab world in exchange for its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, according to sources close to America’s president-elect.

Obama intends to throw his support behind a 2002 Saudi peace initiative endorsed by the Arab League and backed by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister and leader of the ruling Kadima party.....

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5162537.ece

Israel Bars Liberal Rabbis from Visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 13:35:14 EST

Israel Bars Liberal Rabbis from Visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron

by Jerimiah Haber (nom de plume) @ themagneszionist.blogspot.com

Yesterday, a group of North American rabbis on a tour sponsored by Rabbis for Human Rights, and led by the IDF veterans' group, Breaking the Silence, was prevented from visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the Cave of Machpelah.

During Jordanian rule, no Jews were allowed within the site, which is also a mosque. That changed when Israel occupied Hebron in 1967. After the Barukh Goldstein massacre, an elaborate division of the Tomb of the Patriarch was engineered by Israel......

ENTIRE POST - http://themagneszionist.blogspot.com/2008/11/israel-bars-liberal-rabbis-from.html#links

PS. Russ Feingold for Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (replacing Biden)

Israel Tightens Chokehold on Village of Entrepreneurs

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:45:48 EST

Israel Tightens Chokehold on Village of Entrepreneurs
by Jonathan Cook

Overlooked by the homes of the neighboring Jewish settlement of Hashmonaim, a handful of Nilin's braver teenagers finally come out to work.

Jamal and Abed are sweating from their efforts to beat both nightfall and the return of the army. They stand proudly, the fronts of their T-shirts turned out to hold a bulging stash of used tear gas canisters and stun grenades. Each is worth one shekel (25c) in scrap value, and between them they have at least 50 canisters......

ENTIRE ARTICE - http://www.antiwar.com/orig/cook.php?articleid=13766

Israel infuriated by British plan to label West Bank produce

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:31:22 EST

Israel infuriated by British plan to label West Bank produce

By Barak Ravid

Relations between Israel and Britain remained strained on Thursday over Downing Street's intention to label products manufactured in West Bank settlements, a week before the expected arrival of British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Miliband, to the Middle East.

Miliband, who will visit Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Lebanon next week, is expected to talk to Israeli officials over the settlements in the West Bank and his country's proposed plan to label products manufactured in them. "This initiative is a serious and substantial problem in relations between the two countries, and is generating a sense of crisis," a senior diplomat in Jerusalem said.......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037263.html

Switzerland: Israel breaking int'l law by razing Palestinian homes

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:25:55 EST

Switzerland: Israel breaking int'l law by razing Palestinian homes

from Haaretz

Switzerland accused Israel on Thursday of wantonly destroying Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and near Ramallah in violation of the Geneva Conventions' rules on military occupation.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry demanded that Israel immediately halt the demolitions, which Israel has said are aimed at removing illegally constructed shacks........

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037210.html

Israel Tightens the Chokehold on Village Entrepreneurs

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:36:30 EST

The Withering Palestinian Economy

By JONATHAN COOK

The sun is sinking fast behind the trees of an olive grove on the outskirts of the West Bank village of Nilin. After a day of confrontations between the Israeli army and the Palestinian villagers over Israel’s building of its separation wall on Nilin’s land, the soldiers appear finally to have gone.

Overlooked by the homes of the neighbouring Jewish settlement of Hashmonaim, a handful of Nilin’s braver teenagers finally come out to work.

Jamal and Abed are sweating from their efforts to beat both nightfall and the return of the army. They stand proudly, the fronts of their T-shirts turned out to hold a bulging stash of used tear gas canisters and stun grenades. Each is worth one shekel (25c) in scrap value, and between them they have at least 50 canisters......

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/cook11132008.html

Boycotting Israeli Settlement Products

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:27:47 EST

Tactic vs. Strategy Boycotting Israeli Settlement Products

By OMAR BARGHOUTI

A spate of recent news reports on international companies moving out of the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) to locations inside pre-1967 Israeli borders gives the impression that boycotting products originating in illegal Israeli colonies is on its way to becoming mainstream, handing the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement with a fresh, substantial victory. While this development should indeed be celebrated by all BDS activists anywhere, caution is called for in distinguishing between advocating such a targeted boycott as a tactic, leading to the ultimate goal of boycotting all Israeli goods and services, and as an end in itself. While the former may be necessary in some countries as a convenient tool of raising awareness and promoting debate about Israel’s colonial and apartheid regime, the latter, despite its lure, would be in direct contradiction with the stated objectives of the Palestinian boycott movement....

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/barghouti11132008.html

Barak calls right-wing extremists 'cancerous growths'

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:20:50 EST

Barak calls right-wing extremists 'cancerous growths'

by The Associated Press and Haaretz Service

Defense Minister Ehud Barak called right-wing Israeli extremists "cancerous growths" during a rally Sunday at the Tel Aviv square where former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated 13 ago.

"The violence is also creeping today, they once called them bad apples in the bunch, but today they are dangerous, metastisizing cancerous growths," Barak said........

ENTIRE ARTICLE- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1035405.html

Israeli Soldiers Film Themselves Ha-Ha Threatening to Sodomize Bound, Blindfolded Palestinian With 'Log'

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:03:24 EST

Israeli Soldiers Film Themselves Ha-Ha Threatening to Sodomize Bound, Blindfolded Palestinian With 'Log'

Last night I posted a disturbing video of soldiers teasing a Palestinian in ways I couldn't understand. Here is the Haaretz story behind it:

Channel 10 on Thursday released footage taken by Israel Defense Forces soldiers of themselves humiliating a bound and blindfolded Palestinian man at a West Bank checkpoint.

The footage shows the Palestinian kneeling and repeating sentences given to him to say by the soldiers, who belong to the Golani infantry brigade.

One of the lines is: "Golani will bring you a log to stick up your ass." As the detainee repeats the words, the soldiers are heard laughing raucously in the background.

Later Thursday, the army issued a harsh condemnation of the troops' actions.

Only in Haaretz. I ask you to imagine this happening in Brooklyn with a black person--or say, Iran, with some of the small Jewish population there. Would it make our news?

Finally, reread the headline. Israeli Soliders Film Themselves... And this is no aberration. Do you understand why I say this is a crisis for Jewishness?

VIDEO- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1035088.html

Israel Defense Force troops film themselves humiliating bound Palestinian

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:07:42 EST

IDF troops film themselves humiliating bound Palestinian

By Haaretz Service

As the detainee repeats the words, the soldiers are heard laughing raucously in the background............

ARTICLE/VIDEO- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1035088.html

Israel demolishes dozens of West Bank shacks

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:24:23 EDT

Israeli army demolishes Bedouin shacks in West Bank, leaving dozens homeless

by BEN HUBBARD

The Israeli army knocked down shacks in a West Bank village for the second straight day Thursday, leaving dozens of Palestinian Bedouin homeless, a United Nations official said.

Israeli military spokesman Zidki Maman said the structures razed were built in a closed military zone without permits and the villagers were warned in advance.

Forty-five people lost their homes Wednesday in a village near the West Bank city of Hebron, said James Weatherill, Humanitarian Affairs Officer at the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.......

ENTIRE ARTICLE- http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/10/israel_demolishes_dozens_of_we.php

America Must Plumb Olmert’s “Depths of Reality”

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:06:55 EDT

America Must Plumb Olmert’s “Depths of Reality”

by Robert Weitzel

“I was the first who wanted to impose Israeli sovereignty . . . I admit it . . . I was not ready to look into all the depths of reality.”
- Incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert -

In a September 30 article in the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronot, Israel’s incumbent Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a former member of the right-wing Likud party, said that Israel must withdraw “from almost all of the territories, if not from all the territories. We shall keep in our hands a percentage of these territories, but we shall be compelled to give the Palestinians a similar percentage....

ENTIRE ARTICLE- http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/17837

Jews protect Palestinians in harvest of hate

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:38:55 EDT

Israelis cross religious divide to shelter olive farmers from settlers' attacks

By Donald Macintyre in Awarta, West Bank

In the shade of the trees where they have been picking olives all morning, in this wadi, south-east of Nablus, a Palestinian farmer, Jamal Otman Koarik, and two of his daughters share a lunch of home-baked bread, zatar, oil, courgettes and salad with three visitors. It's a bucolic scene that could have happened any time in the past century. But what makes it notable in 2008 is that the guests who have been helping Mr Koarik pick the olives are Israeli Jews: a rabbi, an anthropologist and a youth worker, Hellela Siew.............

ENTIRE ARTICLE- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/jews-protect-palestinians-in-harvest-of-hate-956706.html

QUIQUE KIERSZENBAUM

Hellela Siew helps Jamal Otman Koarik pick olives near the intensely hostile Itamar Jewish settlement

At the Checkpoint on the Day of Atonement

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:43:39 EDT

The Devouring Dragon

By MATS SVENSSON

In a few hours, Israel will celebrate Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and repentance. Everything will be closed for 24 hours. Tel Aviv Airport shuts. No planes land or depart. The border crossing to Egypt or Jordan is similarly closed. Everything shuts down. When I sit and speak with Muhammad in Abu Dis, I realize that he sort of celebrates Yom Kippur every day. This is his normal life. Always shut up behind a wall and military checkpoints........

ENTIRE ARTICLE- http://www.counterpunch.org/svensson10092008.html