Here are the headlines from Mondoweiss for 12/08/2010:
Beinart wants to save Zionism for himself more than he wants to save Israel
Dec 07, 2010 11:12 pm | Jack Ross This afternoon I attended the final session of the Rabbis for Human Rights conference on Judaism and Human Rights, at which my beloved rabbi, Ellen Lippmann, was on a panel with Peter Beinart. It was a bit surreal going to the United Jewish Appeal building, as the dark side of their history is a major theme of my forthcoming book. How Rabbis for Human Rights, which is certainly far more outspoken and frank than J Street, has been deemed kosher by so much of the Jewish establishment remains a mystery to me. But one thing that is clear from this conference and in particular this panel, which had the blessing of The Forward, is that the rush of the mainstream to the Zionist left, akin to the rush to embrace the South African Liberals once apartheid was clearly collapsing, is definitely proceeding apace.
Though I understood it all intellectually, I was not prepared for just how deeply committed to the survival of Zionism Peter Beinart is. He began by talking about his four-year-old son, about hanging an Israeli flag in his bedroom, and about how jarred he can be by some of the things his son says to him coming from an Orthodox pre-school. The general thrust of his talk was that a progressive Zionism which is rooted in a confrontation with Israeli illiberalism can yet be the basis of a youthful American Zionism, even organized along the same lines as Birthright or the Orthodox Israel programs.
There was definitely a Don Quixote quality to the whole thing. And this much I could have anticipated. Just yesterday I read a column he wrote celebrating an Israel Rabbi trying to liberalize the Shas Party from within, proclaiming this as a cause American Jews could embrace. Tilting at windmills indeed. 
Up to a point I can admire and sympathize with this, as a philosophical conservative among left-wing Jewish anti-Zionists, as a member of a progressive shul whose favorite philosopher of Judaism is Will Herberg, who himself walked a very lonely path in his Judaism. What nagged at me however was that this was the very conceit that so shook me at the J Street Conference last year: that in the final analysis they are less interested in saving Israel as a Jewish state than in saving Zionism for themselves.
One friend who was also at the J Street Conference, as we reviewed our reasons for not intending to return to the next one, said that his overall impression of it was that it was above all meant to be a feel-good event for the intended audience of aging liberal Zionists. This was certainly the feeling I got today as well. The most perplexing phenomenon was surely that The Forward was getting applause lines that others did not.
None of this, however, should detract from giving Beinart credit where its due. To take just the most breathtaking example, his line on BDS: "The best way for BDS to enter further into the mainstream is for Israel and the American Jewish establishment to keep doing what they're doing."
My rabbi, who remains a co-chair of Rabbis for Human Rights, offered some much needed fresh air as usual. She spoke of a recent delegation she led to Israel/Palestine, and in particular of being in Hebron and being deterred by an armed Israeli soldier from walking down the Palestinian road - "we really did learn a lot from the Nazis". She also made clear that she does not call herself a Zionist, "the term is just a conversation stopper". One other interesting point was that she endorsed the suggestion of one person she met for the next flotilla - that it consist of largely empty boats so that the people of Gaza could get out.
As for Beinart, while the Don Quixote quality I've described should make his sincerity abundantly clear, I do have just the slightest bit of pause. In his recent writings on American politics it is clear he has very shrewdly taken the pulse of American liberalism, and so in this case I must also wonder to what extent he has just shrewdly recognized what the progressive Zionists want to hear and is milking it.
I'll conclude on this note: there was a lot of talk about who was to blame for the distance between American Jewish youth and Israel. Jane Eisner of The Forward posed the question directly to Beinart - is the blame less with the American Jewish establishment than with parents, teachers, and rabbis?
I've talked about this here before. What is most striking to me about my formal religious education in retrospect is that the fundamental premise of Zionism - that the Jews are a "nation" and that we, the Israelis, and all the Jews of the world are of one and the same "nation" - was never spelled out for us. I can only presume that this is so because my teachers and rabbis were simply not quite so credulous as to say this, even if most of them believed it in their heart of hearts.
This condition, of not being credulous enough to be able to plainly articulate one's beliefs, or to admit what one actually believes to oneself, did not obtain even in totalitarian movements of the past. In short, the root of American Zionism's crisis is its inability to understand what it even believes. Jack Ross's book, Rabbi Outcast, is a biography of the late anti-Zionist leader Elmer Berger. 
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Sullivan: end US aid to Israel
Dec 07, 2010 08:31 pm | Philip Weiss Jailbreak? How many others will echo this theme? it doesn't seem sensible to me to keep rewarding an ally that refuses to offer minimal cooperation. I also favor the US laying out its own preferred solution, perhaps as a way to recognize a Palestinian state in the UN... it's time for the US to assert its own interests and goals.
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Hamas aims to kill 'all Jews worldwide,' Oren says (after laying wreath on King's grave)
Dec 07, 2010 05:56 pm | Ira Glunts Three years ago I heard the American-born Israeli Michael B. Oren promoting his new book Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present at a university near my home in upstate New York. Oren is a tall, good looking man who radiated a quiet confidence. His book had the truly fanciful goal of showing that the intense American involvement in the Middle East and especially our engagement with the idea of a renewal of Jewish sovereignty in the region, was not a recent development. Oren claimed that both the Zionist idea and the friction between Americans and Muslims are important and persistent narrative threads running through American history from very early times. For instance, he describes the military confrontations of a young American republic with the Barbary pirates as the first battles in what we now call the "War On Terror." My own conclusion after reading his book, was that Oren's role as a conservative Israeli think-tanker had completely subsumed any desire he may have had to be an honest American historian. I assumed that he believed that this was a good career move for someone who simultaneously lived in Israel and taught at Yale University. At that point this apparently mild-mannered, obviously intelligent scholar seemed harmless enough. Of course, it was impossible to have known then that Oren would become Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's ambassador to the United States. Last week Michael Oren, as Israeli Ambassador to the United States, visited Atlanta in order to lay a wreath upon the grave of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King. In addition to the wreath, Oren used his Atlanta visit to lay some of his country's particularly odious hasbara (meaning public relations, some say propaganda) upon no doubt unsuspecting Georgians. According to Martha Dalton of Atlanta radio station WABE, Oren exploited the ceremony honoring King by making a statement about the imminent danger Iran's nuclear program presents to both Israel and the rest of the world. This is far from a universally accepted claim, but after having it repeated enough times in the U.S. media, most here accept it as fact. The ambassador also expressed concern about fallout from the recent Wikileaks release of thousands of diplomatic cables, some of which were embarrassing to Israel. In an opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on November 26 entitled "A 63-Year Search For Mideast Peace" Oren took full advantage of the leeway American newspaper editors give to public figures and especially to pro-Israel columns. According to Oren, Israel has been engaged in a 63-year struggle to make its neighbors and those it expelled from its territory, understand that all it has ever wanted is to peacefully share the land it claims for itself with its indigenous population. The United Nations voted to partition what is now Israel 63 years ago into Jewish and Palestinian states. The wisdom of this decision, which was rejected by the region's Arab governments and populations, is very much in question today. However to Oren, whose views reflect his own blind faith in Israeli power and a generous serving of fantasy, the partition decision (UN resolution 181) expresses the uncontestable truth that "[t]he Arab world was to welcome the Jews, after 2,000 years of exile back to their homeland." Surprisingly, at least according to Oren, the Arabs did not understand the imperative that they were morally obligated to welcome the Zionists and their proposed Jewish State on lands upon which the Palestinians had lived for centuries. A war ensued, in which according to Oren (repeating one of the favorite false claims of countless pro-Israel propagandists) "the weakly-armed Israeli defenders defeated the much stronger Arab armies." This description is on its face false. Of course, the stronger army won, do you think it was God who made the Israelis triumph despite their weakness? (For an extensive and detailed description of the relative military strengths of both sides in the 1948 War see the Israeli historian, Benny Morris' The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949.) Continuing to mercilessly ladle on the hasbara (which literally means explanation in Hebrew), Oren writes that despite the Palestinians' history of rejection of continuous Israeli goodwill, his government persists in reaching out with generous peace proposals. The ambassador points to examples of Palestinian recalcitrance in their refusal to accept the Israeli offers of "full statehood" in 2000 and 2008. The reader is not told how full statehood for the Palestinians is compatible with Israeli control of Palestinian water sources, no foreign policy, no army, and Israeli overflight rights, among many other crippling limitations, which are conditions upon which the Israelis always insist. Oren also neglects to mention that this "generous offer" of statehood does not now include Gaza nor its democratically-elected government. To this point Oren's op-ed had been a rehash of the Israeli and pro-Israel lobby talking points. But suddenly and unexpectedly the mild mannered ex-historian turned diplomat seeks to incite his audience with an original gem of hasbara. Oren declares, "Hamas …[is a]… group dedicated to the murder of all Israelis – indeed all Jews worldwide [emphasis mine-- IG]." Hamas is a political party and a social service organization which was democratically elected to rule the Palestinian territories. It also is a liberation and resistance movement which has employed violence against the Israeli army of occupation, the illegal Israeli settler/colonists, and ordinary Israeli civilians. However, the general statement that Hamas is dedicated to the murder of all Israelis is as valid as saying that the Israeli occupation army is dedicated to killing all Palestinians. The second charge, that Hamas is dedicated to killing all Jews worldwide is as fantastic as Oren's claim in Power, Faith and Fantasy that the American founding-fathers were proto-Zionists who spent inordinate amounts of resources fighting implacable Muslim enemies. Actually, Hamas explicitly rejects the use of violence against targets outside the occupied territories and Israel proper. Its behavior has reflected that policy. Before Oren went to Atlanta he made an appearance at the Jewish Federations General Assembly in New Orleans. In addressing the assembly, Oren urged American Jews to make it a priority to ensure that U.S.politicians continue to give Israel "bipartisan support" even if these same American Jews may believe that Israel's policies are wrong. Oren insisted that it is not only the duty of American Jews to fall into line with Israel's wishes, but he further declared, "we [Israelis] expect American Jews to refute... [any criticism of Israeli policy]." Ambassador Oren is demanding that American Jews become hasbara agents who blindly follow Israeli government policy while simultaneously inciting them with false fears of being murdered by what for American Jews is a totally imagined enemy. In assuming his new diplomatic role, Michael B. Oren has, unfortunately, been given the authority and platform to promote fantasies about which he could only theorize three years ago, when I heard him merely urging his audience of college students to buy his book. This article was first published in The Palestine Chronicle on December 6, 2010 as "Hasbara at Work: Oren Promotes Fantasies." 
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US role in Palestine is 'perfect symbol' for recruiting Islamic terrorists –US Embassy in Algeria
Dec 07, 2010 05:25 pm | Philip Weiss "After the latest Algiers bombings" is the title of a December 2007 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Algeria following two December 11 bombings of government and U.N. buildings in Algiers that killed dozens and shook the government. AQIM is Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. I picked this up from Justin Elliott. Excerpt: The Al-Qaida in Iraq network, which already has ties to jihadi groups in Algeria, has strong influence on AQIM elements. ... The AQIM videos strongly resemble videos from Iraq in terms of the music, Quranic citations and filming of hits on enemy targets they show. They strongly pitch the alleged American wrongdoings in Iraq and Palestine to recruit men to join AQIM.... A prominent conservative Islamist political leader, Abdallah Djaballah, told the Ambassador on December 17 that the suicide attacks demonstrated the influence of the Iraqi jihadis whose appeal to religious sensitivities finds a ready audience here. In addition, he noted, Islamist extremists released under the government's amnesty program are hugely frustrated because they can find no jobs and lack any means to support themselves. They are easy to recruit, he claimed. AQIM's choice to put a video of Ayman Zawahari ranting about Palestine last week is likely to further boost recruitment. The website has had over 35,000 hits in a week. Djaballah warned that many young Algerians react strongly to any suggestion that foreign forces are attacking Islam itself, and Palestine, along with Iraq, is the perfect symbol. Jaghloul Abdelghafar, a counselor at the Presidency working on extremism issues, echoed the point about Algeria suffering because of Palestine and Iraq to the Ambassador December 18. He stated that there is a "hard-core five percent" that will always plague Algeria.   
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Solarz got his wish
Dec 07, 2010 03:35 pm | Philip Weiss The late Stephen Solarz left Congress in '92 after being beaten in a Democratic primary in his redrawn Brooklyn district. From an exit interview in the Times: "I suppose my deepest regret is that by the end of the year, when I'm out, Saddam Hussein will still be in. I hope somehow or other that can be corrected -- not so much by the miraculous resurrection of your humble servant but by the departure of Saddam from Baghdad."
What made Solarz tick? This was in the New York Times obituary for Solarz last week: When he was elected to the House in 1974, Mr. Solarz finagled a seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee with the idea that he could appeal to his largely Jewish district by attending to the needs of Israel. He immediately threw himself into foreign policy issues, visiting leaders of Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Syria in his first month on the job. He soon became a leading voice in the House on foreign affairs.
You'd think the pro-Israel angle in the second Iraq war would be fair game for the media by now. But it's not. Oh well. 
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Not sure whether to laugh or cry
Dec 07, 2010 01:18 pm | Philip Weiss The Guardian: The WikiLeaks crisis is holding back talks on Jewish settlements in the West Bank, according to the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak. Haaretz: "Racism originated in the Torah," said Rabbi Yosef Scheinen, who heads the Ashdod Yeshiva. "The land of Israel is designated for the people of Israel. This is what the Holy One Blessed Be He intended and that is what the [sage] Rashi interpreted." He added that he did not see the [rabbis' letter urging the barring of Arabs from rental property] as racist so much as segregationist. "The world is so big and the State of Israel is small, that God intended it for the people of Israel and the whole world covets it. That is the injustice."
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Rabbis say don't rent to Arabs, Israeli forces surround mosque, more scrap collectors shot
Dec 07, 2010 12:45 pm | Seham And more news from Today in Palestine: Settlers/ Land, Property, Resource Theft & Destruction/Ethnic Cleansing
Statistics: Israel razed about 1, 000 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem in 10 years
Statistics published by the land research center stated that Israel have demolished 995 Palestinian homes and displaced 5, 783 individualsin occupied Jerusalem since the start of 2000.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2b
Ayalon denies that settlement freeze is Israeli obligation
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon discussed this week's South American recognition of a Palestinian state, and a West Bank settlement freeze on Army Radio Tuesday morning. Responding to Chief Palestinian Authority Negotiator Saeb Erekat's declaration earlier on the program that a settlement freeze is an Israeli obligation, Ayalon retorted that it is a Palestinian condition. He noted that in the past, negotiations have taken place as life (building) went on [in the West Bank].
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=198349
Expansionist 'NYT' keeps annexing Golan Heights, Philip Weiss
Last February the New York Times had to correct an article filed by Isabel Kershner: Correction: February 13, 2010: Because of an editing error, the dateline of the Ghajar Journal article on Feb. 3, about the uncertain future of the residents of Ghajar, a far-flung village that straddles the border convergence of Israel, Lebanon and Syria, misstated the location of the village. It is Ghajar, Golan Heights — not Ghajar, Israel. Today in the Times, again Isabel Kershner: Israel, with its hot summers and paucity of rain, is prone to brush fires. A recent fire in the Golan Heights that burned for more than a day and scorched several thousand acres was set off by hikers who burned their toilet paper. P.S. Kershner is an Israeli married to an Israeli. The other member of the Jerusalem bureau has a son in the Israeli army-- his induction led a Palestinian correspondent to quit the Times. Maybe the NYT needs a little more detachment from the, er, Israeli narrative?
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/12/expansionist-nyt-keeps-annexing-golan-heights.html
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu call for release of Palestinian
(CNN) -- Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu are urging the Israeli military to release a Palestinian activist who is still imprisoned even though he has already served his prison sentence. Abdallah Abu Rahmah, 39, was convicted of incitement for organizing weekly demonstrations in the West Bank village of Bil'in against what Israel calls its security barrier and Palestinians call an apartheid separation wall.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/12/07/mideast.protest.leader/
Palestinian protest leader's case sparks scrutiny (AP)
AP - The tiny courtroom at an Israeli army base was packed with European diplomats, straining to follow proceedings in Hebrew and Arabic through translators whispering into their ears.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101207/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_imprisoned_activist
20 diplomats at hearing of anti-wall activist
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Twenty diplomats attended a military court on Monday to hear an appeal to extend the sentence of non-violent protest leader Abdallah Abu Rahmah, the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee said. Abu Rahmah was due to be released on 18 November, having served a 12-month sentence. The anti-wall activist was convicted of incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations for his role in Bil'in's campaign against the construction of Israel's wall on its lands.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339548
British Consul General Heads European Diplomats Attending Bil'in's Abdallah Abu Rahmah's Appeal, Joseph Dana
The UK's Consul General in Jerusalem attended the appeal hearing in the case of Abdallah Abu Rahmah at the Ofer Military Court of Appeals today, along with many other European diplomats. Former US president Jimmy Carter and The Elders issued a statement calling for Abu Rahmah's immediate release earlier today.
http://josephdana.com/2010/12/british-consul-general-heads-european-dipl
#BDS: New South Wales Greens embrace BDS
At its State Delegates Council meeting held on the weekend in Sydney, the NSW Greens unanimously endorsed the following proposal: That the Greens NSW call upon all Australians and the Australian government to boycott Israeli goods, trading and military arrangements, and sporting, cultural and academic events as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel's occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territory, the siege of Gaza and imprisonment of 1.5 million people, and Israel's institution of a system of apartheid, by endorsing the following actions: 1. condemning Israel's apartheid and occupation policies; 2. censuring Israel's violations of the human rights of Palestinians and its failure to abide by international law; 3. halting any military cooperation or trade with Israel; 4. refraining from participation in any form of sporting event, academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions or teams except those that publicly oppose Israel's apartheid and occupation policies; 5. advocating a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions; and 6. supporting and promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.
http://youthanormalization.blogspot.com/2010/12/bds-new-south-wales-greens-embrace-bds.html
Attention progressives for Palestine: Rep. Alan Grayson wants to hear from you
Rep. Grayson penned an article for Huffington Post today, Looking For Your Ideas and Advice, and created a website where he wants the progressive community to write to him with their ideas about anything from peace to the economy. He will be forwarding all comments to the Progressive Caucus' two new leaders Reps. Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva. Though Rep. Grayson portrays himself as a progressive, on Palestine he is anything but. Rep. Grayson will be leaving Congress in January, but it's still important that we take this opportunity to let him know exactly where the rest of the progressive anti-war community that elected him stands on these issues and to let the new leaders of the Progressive Caucus know that Progressive Except for Palestine is not the direction we want them to take.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/12/attention-progressives-for-palestine-rep-alan-grayson-wants-to-hear-from-you.html
Celebrate five years of successes in the Quebec BDS movement!
http://www.tadamon.ca/post/8445
Video | The rise of Palestinian protest rap
Don Duncan travels to the West Bank and Syria to talk to Palestinian musicians who are finding their political voices through rap music.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/dec/06/palestinian-protest-rap
Anti
City councilors to Adidas: Boycott Jerusalem Marathon
Opposition wants race out of east J'lem: "A marathon doesn't bring Jews, Arabs together. This is just an aggressive move," Meretz councilman says. Three Jerusalem City Council members from the opposition sent a warning letter last week to sports apparel company Adidas, one of the major sponsors of the International Jerusalem Marathon, calling on the company to withdraw its sponsorship of the race if the municipality did not remove east Jerusalem segments from the route. "There's no reason why it needs to go through the eastern part of the city," said City Councilman Pepe Alalu (Meretz), who heads the opposition. "A marathon does not bring Jews and Arabs together. This is just an aggressive move."
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=198299
Anti-Muslim European MPs tour West Bank settlements
Austrian opposition leader Heinz-Christian Strache says after what was done to Diaspora Jewry the Europeans are responsible for the Jewish people.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/anti-muslim-european-mps-tour-west-bank-settlements-1.329315?localLinksEnabled=false
Siege/Rights Violations/Restriction of Movement
Goods – Needs Vs. Supply – Nov 7 – Dec 4
http://www.gazagateway.org/2010/12/goods-%e2%80%93-needs-vs-supply-%e2%80%93-nov-7-%e2%80%93-dec-4/
Gaza bakeries to close down next week
GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian officials warned on Monday of complete stoppage of bakeries in the Gaza Strip by next week after wheat supplied through Israeli-controlled commercial crossings ran out of stock. Importers of wheat said that the wheat crisis was the result of the new Israeli procedure of cutting down the days during which wheat is allowed into the Strip.
http://jnoubiyeh.com/2010/12/gaza-bakeries-to-close-down-next-week.html
Galloway Announces More Aid Bound to Gaza
Former British M.P. George Galloway promised, publicly, that new humanitarian aid convoys would be sent next year via land, air, and sea to the Gaza Strip to break the four-year long Israeli blockade, the Palestinian Information Center reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60108
Racism and Discrimination
Top rabbis move to forbid renting homes to Arabs, say 'Israel belongs to Jews'
Dozens of Israel's municipal chief rabbis signed on to the ruling, which comes just months after the chief rabbi of Safed initiated a call urging Jews to refrain from renting or selling apartments to non-Jews.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/top-rabbis-move-to-forbid-renting-homes-to-arabs-say-israel-belongs-to-jews-1.329327?localLinksEnabled=false
New Israeli laws threaten Palestinian civil society
A bill recently proposed in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, requires organizations to pledge loyalty to Israel as "Jewish and democratic." The legislation continues threatens the existence of civil society organizations working for Palestinian rights within Israel.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11649.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
Violence/Aggression
Witnesses: Israeli forces surround mosque
QALQILIA (Ma'an) – Israeli forces surrounded a mosque south of the West Bank city of Qalqiliya on Monday, witnesses said. Three military jeeps arrived the Beit Amin mosque and refused to allow those inside to leave, onlookers said. Soldiers questioned worshipers and checked their identity cards, locals said, adding that intelligence officers were also present. An Israeli military spokeswoman said she would look into the report.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339616
IN ANOTHER CRIMINAL ACT, ISRAELI FORCES INJURE TWO "SCRAP COLLECTORS" NEAR THE BEIT HANOUN (EREZ) BORDER CROSSING
Saturday, December 4th, Israeli forces opened fired at and injured two Palestinian "scrap collectors" near the Beit Hanoun (Erez) border crossing while they were collecting rubble and stones. Guilty of having just approached the "buffer-zone", an illegally restricted "no-go area" along the whole border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, they have been hit in Palestinian land, though it is no longer accessible for Palestinians since the longstanding Israeli imposition and enforcement by live ammunition of the ban on entry into what constitutes about 17% of the total Gaza's territory.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/JALR-8BVKGX?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P
Detainees
Israeli Troops Detain a Couple in Hebron and Issue Stop-Work Notices in Nahalin
A Palestinian couple was arrested, on Tuesday, after Israeli troops searched their house in Hebron. The Israeli military also ordered Palestinian laborers to stop working in the village of Nahalin, PNN reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60109
Report: Israel kidnapped last month 100 Palestinians in Al-Khalil
The Palestinian prisoner society said that the Israeli occupation forces kidnapped last November in Al-Khalil city about 100 Palestinians including three women, nine children, and seven patients.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2b
Researcher says detainees used in medical experiments
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Former detainee and researcher Abdul-Nasser Farwana said Monday that Israel performs medical experiments on Palestinians held in Israeli detention centers., Speaking at a workshop in Algeria, Farwana said more than 5,000 experiments had been performed in Israeli jails, and that this number was increasing.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339594
Mother of hunger striker says her son in very serious health condition
The mother of prisoner Majd Obeid, one of the six hunger strikers in West Bank jails, said that the health condition of her son is extremely bad and deteriorating everyday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87
Ahrar lashes out at IOA for renewing detention of female captive
A Palestinian human rights center lashed out at the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) for renewing the administrative detention of Kifah Jibril only few hours before her release date.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6
Bahar: Shalit remains in captivity until 'honorable' deal reached
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit will remain in captivity until an honorable prisoner swap deal is finalized, deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmad Bahar said Tuesday. Speaking during an international Arab forum on prisoners in Algeria, Bahar urged Palestinian resistance factions to capture more Israeli soldiers in order to force Israel to release all Palestinian political prisoners held in Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339791
Reprisals
Gaza brigade claims projectile fired toward Israel
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for firing a projectile into southern Israel on Monday. In a statement, the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades said the projectile marked the anniversary of the PFLP's establishment, and that the militant wing would continue to oppose Israel's occupation. An Israeli military spokeswoman said a projectile launched from Gaza landed in the Ashkelon Regional Council, and that no injuries were reported. In a separate incident, militants fired a Rocket-Propelled Grenade towards an army force stationed near the Gaza border on Monday, an army spokeswoman said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339669
Fatah
Hamas: PA forces detain 21 affiliates
TULKAREM (Ma'an) -- Hamas officials in the West Bank accused the Palestinian Authority's security services of detaining 21 of the movement's supporters, a statement released Tuesday said. The statement explained that the detainees were from the Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkarem districts in the northern West Bank as well as Hebron and Bethlehem in the south. Hamas officials said they believed the detentions were politically motivated.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339751
Hamas
Daily Roundup: Six Detained in Ramallah, Hamas Kidnaps Doctors
Bethlehem – PNN - In a series of overnight raids continuing until Monday morning, Israeli troops detained six Palestinian citizens throughout the Ramallah governorate. Meanwhile, sources in the Northern Gaza Strip report that a Hamas militia abducted three doctors on Sunday evening. Local sources in Ramallah said the Israeli military conducted the raids in the middle of the night and left before daylight, leaving the detained Palestinians currently unidentifiable. In Northern Gaza, eyewitnesses said the Hamas militia kidnapped Umya Asaf, Karem Eid, and Abed Halwa and took them to an unidentified location.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9231&Itemid=64
PCHR Condemns Shutdown of Peaceful Assembly and Arrest of 16 Participants by the Palestinian Police
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the shutdown of a peaceful assembly and the arrest of 16 participants by the Palestinian police. The peaceful assembly was held by a number of young people protesting against the Attorney General in Gaza's decision to close Sharek Youth Forum.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60100
Political Developments
Diplomatic battle on recognizing Palestinian state on 1967 borders begins
RAMALLAH, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians have been recently intensifying their efforts to attract the international recognition of an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 and have managed to gain the recognition of Brazil and Argentina. The latest activity was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' request from Turkey to recognize the Palestinian state. Palestinian officials expect that more Latin American countries, such as Uruguay and Peru as well as some European countries will soon make their declaration of recognizing the future Palestinian state.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2010-12/07/c_13639304.htm
Recognition of Palestinian state isolates Israel, U.S.: PLO official
RAMALLAH, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- The more countries recognize a Palestinian statehood on the lands Israel has occupied in 1967, the more the U.S. and Israeli position "gets isolated," a Palestinian official said Tuesday. Hanan Ashrawi, a member of Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO)'s Executive Committee, made the remarks a day after Argentina recognized a future Palestinian state. On Dec. 3, Brazil also sent a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, recognizing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-12/07/c_13638937.htm
Erdogan pledges support for '67 state
ANKARA, Turkey (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas visited Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan in his Ankara home on Sunday, to discuss developments in the peace negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators. Following the meeting, Ambassador of Palestine to Turkey Nabil Ma'roof told the official PA news agency WAFA that Erdogan pledged to support a bid for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. The official said he would speak with the leaders of all those nations with which Turkey had diplomatic relations.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339326
Argentina, Uruguay to recognize Palestine (AFP)
AFP - Argentina and Uruguay said Monday they were joining Brazil in recognizing an independent Palestinian state, earning an immediate sharp rebuke from Israel and causing unease in the United States.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101206/wl_mideast_afp/palestinianmideastdiplomacyargentinauruguaybrazil
Argentina: Palestine is free and independent state (AP)
AP - Argentina announced Monday that it recognizes Palestine as a free and independent state within its 1967 borders, a step it said reflects frustration at the slow progress of peace talks with Israel.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101206/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_argentina_palestinians
Israel blasts Argentina recognition of independent Palestine
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel on Monday described as "regrettable" a decision by Argentina to recognize a "free and independent" Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, just days after a similar move by Brazil. "This regrettable decision will not help at all to change the situation between Israel and the Palestinians," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339662
A jolt? More on Brazil's decision to recognize Palestine, Léa Park
In a letter sent to Mahmoud Abbas by Brazilian President Luiz Inåcio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian government has declared its recognition of a Palestinian State along the 1967 armistice lines. The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted the announcement in both Portuguese and English on its website yesterday.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/12/a-jolt-more-on-brazils-decision-to-recognize-palestine.html
Who does and doesn't recognize Palestine: map
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5VcdmH
Hamas court orders execution of 'collaborator'
GAZA CITY (AFP) - A Gaza military court has convicted three men of collaborating with Israel, sentencing one to death and two more to prison terms, the Hamas interior ministry said on Monday. "The military court handed down a death sentence against one collaborator with the occupation, and prison terms of seven years and three years for two other collaborators," the ministry said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339644
Barak: U.S. put settlement freeze talks on hold due to WikiLeaks
Knesset committee members say defense minister's explanation that Obama administration was dealing with other issues is just an excuse to cover up Israel's bad foreign policy.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/barak-u-s-put-settlement-freeze-talks-on-hold-due-to-wikileaks-1.329339?localLinksEnabled=false
Abbas says dissolution of PNA not an option
ANKARA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that the Palestinians did not consider dissolving the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) an option as no demands for such an act had been voiced. Abbas told a joint press conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul that he would press for other states to recognize an independent Palestinian state if peace talks with Israel collapse, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-12/07/c_13637607.htm
Israel-Turkey diplomatic crisis nears its end
Turkish sources say two rounds of talks between Israeli, Turkish officials have been 'very positive'; Israel has agreed in principle to apologize and pay compensation for the Gaza flotilla incident.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-turkey-diplomatic-crisis-nears-its-end-1.329232?localLinksEnabled=false
PA anti-corruption unit says files received daily
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -The Palestinian Authority Anti-Corruption Commission receives daily complaints over corruption, commission head Rafiq Natsheh said Monday. The commission is studying the complaints and some files have been transferred to a court established in November, Natsheh told reporters at a press briefing.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339619
Cables: US fails to stop Hamas arms flow
WASHINGTON (AFP) -- US diplomats play a major role in trying to prevent arms from reaching world hotspots, but cables released to The New York Times show an uphill battle against the likes of Iran, Syria and North Korea. In one cable given to the paper by WikiLeaks, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is reprimanded for supplying sophisticated weapons to the Shiite movement Hezbollah one week after providing assurances he would not.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339708
WikiLeaks: Israel weapons manufacturer listed as site vital to U.S. interests
U.S. cable names Haifa weapons development facility as imperative to U.S. security interests due to its role in creating materials for sophisticated cluster bombs.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/wikileaks-israel-weapons-manufacturer-listed-as-site-vital-to-u-s-interests-1.329222?localLinksEnabled=false
WikiLeaks cables: Sudan warned to block Iranian arms bound for Gaza
The US has worked discreetly to block the supply of Iranian and Syrian weapons to the Palestinian movement Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, pressuring Arab governments not to co-operate – in many cases where the requests were based on secret intelligence provided by Israel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/06/wikileaks-sudan-iranian-arms-gaza
US embassy cables: Anti-Palestinian chants mar Jordanian soccer match
1. (S) Summary: Anti-Palestinian hooliganism and slogans denigrating the Palestinian origins of both the Queen and the Crown Prince led to the cancellation of a July 17 soccer game between the rival Faisali and Wahdat clubs, who traditionally represent the East Banker and Palestinian communities, respectively. Matches between the two teams have a long history of violence, but the specific digs at the royal family marked a new low. The clubs have been fined and their fans publicly chastised, yet official media reporting and commentary has been noticeably thin. The game exposed the growing rift between East Bankers and Palestinians in Jordan. The King's silence on the event is noteworthy, as is a reluctance among our contacts to discuss the issue. End Summary.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/218464
Other News
7,000 workers join picket line in Ramallah
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Around 7,000 striking workers joined a picket line in Ramallah on Monday to protest new legislation proposed by the Palestinian Authority. Employees of ministries, official institutions and banks joined a strike organized by Palestinian trade unions over legislation related to taxes, retirement and end of service benefits, health insurance and unions' work. The PA has submitted the amendments to President Mahmoud Abbas for approval.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339526
Investors set sights on Ramallah
As daily trading volumes at the Palestine Stock Exchange increase since its launch in 1995 from thirty thousand dollars to up to 5 million dollars, it is attracting international investors. The investment opportunities appear lucrative as, for the first time in 15 years, the Palestine Exchange will offer shares to the public. Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh reports from Nablus, on the signifiance of all this financial activity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErqEYgXWhxA&feature=youtube_gdata
Jonathan Pollard's divorcee flown to Israel
Ann Pollard brought to Israel by government initiative due to dire financial, medical state. 'We have moral, humanitarian obligation to her,' says Prime Minister Netanyahu.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3995313,00.html
Israel embroiled in Maltese power-station scandal
Former PM Ehud Olmert accused of working on behalf of an Israeli firm and pressuring the Maltese government over a tender for a new power plant on the Mediterranean island.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-embroiled-in-maltese-power-station-scandal-1.329233?localLinksEnabled=false
Palestine Tourism Hitting Records with Female Minister
As a place it is also blessed by many holy places, geographical diversities and even extra ordinary sites. History, heritage, and denominational mosaics are also part of the whole destination. Occupation is one huge set back but on the other hand there is a power resisting this negative player in the Palestinian tourism Industry. She is a Lady Minister…Dr. Khouloud Deibes.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9241&Itemid=1
The City of Christmas Celebrates with Trees, Ornaments, Lights, and Sweets
Bethlehem – Hiba Lama – PNN/Exclusive - On the first day of December, a bevy of trees, ornaments, sweets, lights, and gifts come together to announce the beginning of the Christmas season. Like every year here in Bethlehem, visitors from all around the world come to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ with songs, feasts, and festivals. The Bethlehem Christmas Market Streets are brightened with all manner of lights and decorations throughout the three cities of Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, and Beit Jala. Stores display Santa Claus toys, chocolate treats, and decorated Christmas trees. Small children wait for Christmas Eve and the anticipated visit of Santa Claus bearing the gifts they told him they wanted.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9233&Itemid=
Analysis/Op-ed
US mediation monopoly collapsing, Sam Bahour
The United States is at a crossroads in its mediation of Middle East peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. The Obama administration can no longer walk on the Israeli side of the line--which is exactly where the US has been since Israel's creation--while continuing to pay lip service to the illusion of walking on the thin line of fair mediation. Unfortunately, neither the US, nor anyone in the Palestinian leadership for that matter, has proposed anything beyond brushing the dust off already-failed initiatives and placing the burden for progress on the need for more Palestinian concessions; concessions that do not exist.
http://www.bitterlemons.org/issue/pal2.php
Inconceivable! The US mainstream media on Israel back in 1952, Cecilie Surasky
Hat tip to Pulse Media and M. Shahid Alam for uncovering this fascinating tidbit from Time magazine, 1952, announcing the selection of newly elected Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh as Person of the Year for 1951. This sobering analysis is striking because of the way in which it speaks from the perspective of Arabs. It's exactly the kind of analysis we simply don't see anymore in the MSM (mainstream media) here in the United States, thanks, in no small part, to the growth of the Israel lobby which has obscured not just Israel's responsibility, but even more damning, the United States'.
http://www.muzzlewatch.com/2010/12/06/inconceivable-the-us-mainstream-media-on-israel-back-in-1952/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Muzzlewatch+%28MuzzleWatch%29
What's J Street Doing Meeting With Israeli Officials On BDS?, Alex Kane
The lobby group J Street has a somewhat muddled policy on the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. An interview in which their executive director says that he's meeting with the Israeli Foreign Ministry on "how to address" the movement adds to the confusion.
http://alexbkane.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/whats-j-street-doing-meeting-with-israeli-officials-on-bds/
Akiva Eldar / Europe doesn't delegitimize Israel, only the occupation
Massive foreign aid in battling the Carmel fire proves what former kibbutz volunteer and current Norwegian Ambassador Svein Sevje has always known: Europe doesn't delegitimize Israel, only the occupation.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/akiva-eldar-europe-doesn-t-delegitimize-israel-only-the-occupation-1.329263?localLinksEnabled=false
The Carmel wildfire is burning all illusions in Israel
Over the last four days, more than 12,300 acres have burned in the Mount Carmel area or northern Israel, a devastating swath of destruction in a country the size of New Jersey. While the cause of the fire has not been established, it has laid bare the myths of Israel's foundation.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11661.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
The intellectual dishonesty of Benny Morris: Blame the Palestinians, always, Matthew Taylor
Slog through Benny Morris' latest screed about who's to blame for the collapse of the two state solution at your own risk... It's like a ride on a quadruple loop roller coaster. The twists and turns of the rampant intellectual dishonesty, complete with the requisite comparison of "dealing with the Palestinians is like appeasing Hitler," will leave your stomach in your throat.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/12/the-intellectual-dishonesty-of-benny-morris-blame-the-palestinians-always.html
Hasbara at Work: Oren Promotes Fantasies, Ira Glunts
Three years ago I heard the American-born Israeli Michael B. Oren promoting his new book Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present at a university near my home in upstate New York. Oren is a tall, good looking man who radiated a quiet confidence. His book had the truly fanciful goal of showing that the intense American involvement in the Middle East and especially our engagement with the idea of a renewal of Jewish sovereignty in the region was not a recent development. Oren claimed that both the Zionist idea and the friction between Americans and Muslims is an important and persistent narrative thread running through American history from very early times. For instance, he describes the military confrontations of a young American republic with the Barbary pirates as the first battles in what we now call the "War on Terror." My own conclusion after reading his book, was that Oren's role as a conservative Israeli think-tanker had completely subsumed any desire he may have had to be an honest American historian. I assumed that he believed that this was a good career move for someone for someone who simultaneously lived in Israel and taught at Yale University. At that point this apparently mild-mannered, obviously intelligent scholar seemed harmless enough. Of course, it was impossible to have known then that Oren would become Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's ambassador to the United States.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16466
Obama's Policy of Appeasement in Israel
Even those familiar with the long and shameful history of America's appeasement of Israel were taken aback by the Obama administration's extraordinary offer to Netanyahu.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1641
From the Pages of Time: Truths about US and Israel, M. Shahid Alam
Was there ever a time when a leading organ of the US media could speak the unvarnished truth about the links between the United States and Israel? Consider this quote from Time magazine of January 1952, embedded in an article that explained its choice of Mohammed Mossadegh as its Person of the Year for 1951. It had no compliments for Mossadegh, the man who was spearheading his country's bid to take back its oil resources from the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. No surprise there.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16464
What Obama Must Do about Palestine, Israel, James Gundun – Washington, D.C.
The acting president of the Palestinian National Authority (PA) chose an appropriate setting to issue his latest impassioned plea. Himself in political limbo, running on the fumes of an expired term, Mahmoud Abbas was on hand in Ramallah to lay the cornerstone of the new presidential headquarters. The four-story complex will replace Yasser Arafat's British-era Mukataa within 18 months - just like U.S. mediated negotiations could use an overhaul.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16465
Breakthrough: Fear into Compassion - Book Review, George Polley
(Breakthrough: Transforming Fear Into Compassion, a new perspective on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Insight Press, Albuquerque, NM, November 2010. Paperback.) Richard Forer is a certified practitioner of the Meir Schneider Self-Healing Method. I met Richard Forer during a conversation he was having with a blogger about the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Learning that he had just finished writing a book about it, I asked him to let me know when the book was published, which he did. It arrived in the mail about a week ago. It is one of the most powerful books on the subject I have read to date.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16463
The Sad Loss of National Dignity, Rami G. Khouri
It is sad and shocking — pitiful, even, in many cases — how Arab leaders are portrayed in the U.S. State Department cables released by WikiLeaks earlier this week.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/opinion/02iht-edkhouri.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=khouri&st=cse
Glenn Greenwald on the Arrest of Julian Assange and the U.S. "War on Wikileaks"
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested in London on an international warrant to face sex crime allegations in Sweden. Assange is expected to face a hasty extradition process to Sweden. We speak with Glenn Greenwald, constitutional attorney and blogger at Salon.com. Greenwald says: "Whatever you think of Wikileaks, they have not been charged with a crime. They have been removed from the internet, their funds have been frozen, politicians have called for their murder. This is a war over control of the internet, which is a way for citizens to bond to gather to demand accountability from world's most powerful people."
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/7/glenn_greenwald_julian_assange_arrest_and
Al-Jazeera is not the emir of Qatar's poodle, Mark Seddon
We are becoming used to WikiLeaks reports of cables from US diplomats being immediately accepted as factual statements, rather than opinion based on encounters – the latest being the leaked communiqués from the US ambassador to Qatar, Joseph LeBaron.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/06/al-jazeera-qatar-us-embassy
Vichy Britain: The Truth Exposed by WikiLeaks, Neil Clark
The WikiLeaks disclosures reveal, the one-time rulers of the world have been reduced to the status of arch-crawlers to American imperial power.
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/72400,news-comment,news-politics,wikileaks-has-exposed-vichy-britain-and-our-pro-american-elite-special-relationship
Parvez Sharma: The Gray Lady Wears Islamophobia on Her Sleeve
I often defend The New York Times to Muslim friends elsewhere who don't trust it. Now, I am not so sure. I wonder if I am the only one to notice a recent lapse of judgment.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/parvez-sharma/the-grey-lady-wears-islam_b_792181.html
Lebanon/Syria
Israeli drones buzz over Lebanon skies
Three Israeli reconnaissance planes have penetrated Lebanese airspace and flown over parts of the country in flagrant violation of a UN Security Council resolution.
http://jnoubiyeh.com/2010/12/israeli-drones-buzz-over-lebanon-skies.html
Hezbollah 'has 50,000 rockets' (AFP)
AFP - US officials believe the militant group Hezbollah has acquired an arsenal of some 50,000 rockets and missiles, raising fears of an enlarged conflict with Israel, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101207/wl_mideast_afp/usdiplomacywikileaksisraelhezbollah
Embassy supplied Al-Manar shareholder names to US - cable
BEIRUT: The US Embassy in Lebanon is alleged to have provided Washington with the names of shareholders in Al-Manar television in a bid to weaken popular support for Hizbullah by designating those with a stake in the channel as "terrorist-related," The Daily Star can reveal. A confidential US diplomatic cable - obtained by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks and seen exclusively by The Daily Star.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=122293
Wikileaks: Bellemare "has no case" against Syria
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=7899&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Syriacomment+%28Syria+Comment%29
STL Amendments Confirm Tribunal Illegal, Unjust
"This is the weakest tribunal in history in terms of law and procedures," Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said in his latest speech, referring to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. "This is a legislative and executive authority that does as it pleases and amends laws and regulations whenever it wants to. It is really odd how such power had been given to this tribunal," his eminence pointed out. That's it. The Judges of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon had met in a plenary session from 8 to 11 November 2010 to consider, among other issues, proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure and Evidence (RPE).
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=164722&language=en
Berri Accuses March 14 of Crippling Gov't; Geagea Hits Back
06/12/2010 Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri accused on Monday the March 14 bloc of paralyzing the national-unity government, stressing that the ball was in the court of President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Saad Hariri, urging them to immediately call for a cabinet session. Speaking to Lebanese daily As-Safir, Berri dismissed accusations that the national opposition was crippling the government. "March 14 is the one that bears a direct and clear responsibility for crippling the government," Berri said, noting that Prime Minister Saad Hariri's insistence not to hold a cabinet session if the opposition wants a vote on the false witnesses' issue has crippled the cabinet. Hariri "has informed the President that he refuses to vote in Cabinet to forward the false witnesses' issue to the Judicial Council and threatened to withdraw from any meeting that supports the option of voting, thus crippling the cabinet due to his stance," the Speaker revealed.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=164703&language=en
Who is responsible?
I mean, an element of elementary logic would be in order here provided the elements of audacious double standards are discarded. If Syria is responsible (and blamed) for arming Hizbullah, surely the US should be held responsible (and blamed) for arming Israel with far deadlier weapons than all Middle East countries combined.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/12/who-is-responsible.html
US foreign policy is based on racism
Just look at this sentence in this Wikileaks report on Hizbullah's military capabilities: "damage and psychological terror Hizballah rockets caused in northern Israel during the 2006 war." Notice that the word "terrorized" in a war that killed far more Lebanese civilians than Israeli civilians is reserved to the people on one side of the border only. The entire course of US foreign policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict and toward the Middle East in general is based on the premise that there is one people (the Israelis) which is superior and valuable, and another (the Arabs) which is inferior and cheap and expendable and whose deaths is of no political value whatsoever. That is the crux of the policy, in fact.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/12/us-foreign-policy-is-based-on-racism.html
Iraq
Monday: 4 Iraqis Killed, 7 Wounded
At least four Iraqis were killed and seven more were wounded in light violence. Meanwhile, Iraqis need between two and three million new homes built for them by 2016 but there has been little progress toward that goal. Nor has there been much development in the formation of a new government either, even though fears that Iraqiya leader Ayad Allawi will be completely shut out of negotiations are growing. Also, the wife of a man holding dual British-Iraqi citizenship and held in Iraq without charges for the last year has renewed her pleas for help in releasing the man.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/12/06/monday-4-iraqis-killed-7-wounded/
Bombs kill 2 children near their home in Iraq (AP)
AP - A police spokesman says two young children have been killed by a bomb planted near their home in eastern Iraq.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101206/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq
Gunmen attacks scattered all over Iraq
Unknown gunmen killed head of Al Rashid municipal council as they opened fire using muted weapons on the civilian car he was driving late at night on Monday. In Al Sheala, western Baghdad, unknown gunmen killed a Police Lieutenant in a drive-by shooting.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-57299-Gunmen-attacks-scattered-all-over-Iraq.html
Threats of attacks during Ashura in Iraq
Iraqi security forces found provocative flyers in a neighborhood in eastern Baaquba threatening to target worshippers observing Muharram rituals, a police source from Diyala Province said.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-57294-Threats-of-attacks-during-Ashura-in-Iraq.html
Allawi threatens to quit Iraqi government: report (AFP)
AFP - Iyad Allawi, who won the most votes in Iraq's elections, threatened to quit a power-sharing government in an interview with Britain's Times newspaper on Tuesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101207/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestpoliticsallawi
US warns of aid cuts if Sadr bloc takes certain Iraqi ministries (The Christian Science Monitor)
The Christian Science Monitor - The US is warning that it could cut substantial funding to Iraq's Health, Education, and Transport ministries if the anti-American Sadr bloc is given those cabinet posts in a new government being formed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20101206/wl_csm/347773
Journalists Decry Iraq's Biased Media
They say the politicisation of the country's press is undermining independent journalism. Journalists are warning that the increasingly partisan nature of the Iraqi press is suppressing fair and impartial media coverage of politics.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/journalists-decry-iraq%E2%80%99s-biased-media
IRAQ: Displaced women still struggle for survival
BAGHDAD Tuesday, December 07, 2010 (IRIN) - Displaced Iraqi female-headed families who have returned home are still experiencing major livelihood challenges, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=91310
IRAQ: Displaced women still struggle for survival
BAGHDAD, 7 December 2010 (IRIN) - Displaced Iraqi female-headed families who have returned home are still experiencing major livelihood challenges, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM). An IOM survey of 1,355 female-headed displaced families who have returned to their places of origin found that 74 percent are struggling to secure adequate nutrition for their families. Delays in receiving subsidized government food rations or lack of some food items in the rations force women to buy food with whatever money they have, adding to their struggle, the report, issued on 3 December, states. The survey also found that health problems and social norms had prevented nearly 40 percent of them from finding jobs. Of those who are able to work, 71 percent are unemployed. About 40 percent of those surveyed said they depended on relatives, neighbours, NGOs and religious groups to meet their needs. And more than 25 percent had a family member with chronic disease while one in four lacked access to healthcare.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91310
U.S. and other world news
Tension grows between Calif. Muslims, FBI after informant infiltrates mosque
L Monteilh has gone public, revealing secret FBI methods and charging that his "handlers" trained him to entrap Muslims as he infiltrated their mosques, homes and businesses. He is now suing the FBI.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/04/AR2010120403710.html
Wikileaks New Site
http://wikileaks.c4ss.org/
Reading WikiLeaks a criminal offense, military warns soldiers
The Department of Defense and other government agencies are warning their employees that accessing the documents released by WikiLeaks is a criminal offense and could result in their computers being "sanitized." An anonymous tipster told Gawker that "the Army's unclassified, NIPRNET network in Iraq has blocked every major news website because of the Wikileaks issue."
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/military-warns-soldiers-view-wikileaks-documents/
Swiss bank closes WikiLeaks account
Bank account for whistleblowing website is frozen, the latest in a string of setbacks including disconnected servers.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/europe/2010/12/201012617104208313.html
Swiss bank freezes WikiLeaks founder's legal defense fund
Below: UK authorities prepare to arrest Assange Over €31,000 set aside for the legal defense of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been frozen by the Swiss bank PostFinance, which said that Assange had given false information in creating the account.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/swiss-bank-freezes-wikileaks-founders-legal-defense-fund/
Hackers take down website of bank that froze WikiLeaks funds
Hackers take down website of bank that froze WikiLeaks fundsA group of Internet activists calling themselves Operation Payback have taken credit for shutting down the website of a bank that earlier Monday froze funds belonging to WikiLeaks. Announcing its successful hack on a Twitter account, the group declared, "We will fire at anyone that tries to censor WikiLeaks." Earlier in the day, Swiss bank PostFinance issued a statement announcing that it had frozen 31,000 euro ($41,000 US) in an account set up as a legal defense fund for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/hackers-website-bank-froze-wikileaks-funds/
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange arrested in London on rape charges
The arrest, on rape charges from Sweden, comes after Julian Assange warned that WikiLeaks could release key US cables if anything 'happened' to him.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/VprO9Z1z2TE/WikiLeaks-Julian-Assange-arrested-in-London-on-rape-charges
WikiLeaks vows to keep operating after Assange turns himself in to police
Swedish prosecutors issued the arrest order for the Australian whistleblower who is wanted in Sweden on suspicion of committing sexual crimes.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/wikileaks-vows-to-keep-operating-after-assange-turns-himself-in-to-police-1.329325?localLinksEnabled=false
WikiLeaks releases list of sites 'vital to US national security'
A list of facilities around the world whose loss would "critically impact" America's ability to defend itself has been published by WikiLeaks, triggering anger in the US because of fears it could help terrorists identify potential targets for attack.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/wikileaks-releases-list-of-sites-vital-to-us-national-security-2153030.html
View Critical infrastructure sites in Canada
Among the cables released Sunday was a list of critical infrastructure sites outside the United States that the Americans regard as vital to their interests.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/902117--wikileaks-the-canadian-sites-vital-to-american-interests?bn=1
WikiLeaks: Egypt considering nuclear arms if Iran gets them
US cable: States in the region "terrified" of a nuclear Iran; head of Egypt's intelligence service offers assistance in taking on Iran. CAIRO — Egypt's president would consider turning his country into a nuclear power if Iran acquired atomic weapons, leaked US diplomatic cables revealed. A cable from May 2008, one of hundreds of secret diplomatic documents released by the WikiLeaks website over the past week, described how President Hosni Mubarak told a US Congressional delegation that everyone in the region was "terrified" of a nuclear Iran.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=198250&R=R3
Gulf war cries over Iran exaggerated
The United States media spin on leaked diplomatic cables in the Persian Gulf is that Arab rulers are as eager for military action against Iran as the Israelis. But this is based on a highly selective reading of the relevant documents that WikiLeaks has provided.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LL08Ak01.html
Iran: Resistance is the only thing Israel understands
ATHENS (AFP) - Resistance is the only thing Israel understands, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Monday during a visit to Greece. "History has shown that Israel understands no language other than resistance," Mottaki told a press conference on the sidelines of his two-day visit to Athens for talks with Greek leaders.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339642
US 'how to' guide on talking to Iran – in 1979 – emerges from WikiLeaks
A WikiLeaks cable written three months before the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran is at times insightful and at times sweeping in its condescension about the 'Persian psyche.'
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/FdLyKPt6JqU/US-how-to-guide-on-talking-to-Iran-in-1979-emerges-from-WikiLeaks
Yemen diverted US counterrorism aid meant to tackle Al Qaeda, WikiLeaks reveals
A December 2009 cable, published by WikiLeaks, shows that Yemen deployed a US-funded counterterrorism unit to fight domestic rebels instead of Al Qaeda.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/xNFxKR02jaQ/Yemen-diverted-US-counterrorism-aid-meant-to-tackle-Al-Qaeda-WikiLeaks-reveals
EU doubts Afghanistan success: WikiLeaks files
European Union President Herman Van Rompuy told the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, that the EU no longer believes in the success of the military mission in Afghanistan. Van Rompuy, a former Belgian prime minister, suggested European troops are still being deployed only to bow to what the United States wants.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/12/05/wikileaks-afghanistan.html
Spike in Bagram prisoners
The number of prisoners, many of whom are believed to be Taliban members, in the US dentention centre in the Afghan city of Bagram has risen by 40 per cent since the beginning of the year. The increase of detainees came as US troops recently poured into the country in an effort to boost military operations. James Bays reports from Kabul, the Afghan capital. [December 6, 2010]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHQjTWrtzeE&feature=youtube_gdata
Saudi law professor held after article critical of monarchy
RIYADH: A Saudi law professor has been arrested after publishing an article on a website critical of the country's ruling royal family, a human rights group said Monday.Mohammad al-Abdulkarim, was arrested at his home in Riyadh Sunday by four men, variously wearing civilian clothes and uniforms, according to the Human Rights First Society of Saudi Arabia (HRFS).
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=122262
Abraham Serfaty: Political activist who fell foul of the French colonial authorities as well as Morocco's authoritarian King Hassan II
Abraham Serfaty was a leading Moroccan Jewish dissident, who spent his life fighting for independence and democracy in his homeland, first against the French colonial rulers and then King Hassan II's absolute monarchy. His struggle against all forms of injustice cost him 22 months in hiding, 17 years imprisonment and 13 years in exile, but he succeeded in returning to Morocco a free citizen.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/abraham-serfaty-political-activist-who-fell-foul-of-the-french-colonial-authorities-as-well-as-moroccos-authoritarian-king-hassan-ii-2149824.html
The Female Factor: 'Miss Arab' Competition Challenges Boundaries
The Miss Arab World 2010 contest aspires to embrace the conservative nature of Arab societies while still being, well, a beauty pageant.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=e4367957ad03b2b7fa9ce1337d0d6310 www.TheHeadlines.org 
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The forest through the trees: What the Carmel fire reminds us about Israel's history
Dec 07, 2010 11:38 am | Max Blumenthal Max Blumenthal has an important new piece for the Electronic Intifada on the Carmel fire and what it reveals about Israel's history and current politics. From The Carmel wildfire is burning all illusions in Israel: Among the towns that have been evacuated is Ein Hod, a bohemian artists' colony nestled in the hills to the north and east of Haifa. This is not the first time Ein Hod was evacuated, however. The first time was in 1948, when the town's original Palestinian inhabitants were driven from their homes by a manmade disaster known as the Nakba. Most of the original inhabitants of Ein Hod, which was called Ayn Hawd prior to the expulsions of '48, and was continuously populated since the 12th century, were expelled to refugee camps in Jordan and Jenin in the West Bank. But a small and exceptionally resilient band of residents fled to the hills, set up a makeshift camp and watched as Jewish foreigners moved into their homes. In 1953, a Romanian Dadaist sculptor named Marcel Janco convinced the army not to bulldoze Ein Hod as it did the scores of nearby Palestinian towns it had ethnically cleansed five years prior. He proposed establishing an art commune to generate tourism and contribute to the culture of Zionism. Today, the rustic stone homes that once belonged to Palestinians are quaint artist studios, while the village mosque has been converted into an airy bar called Bonanza. Visitors to the town are greeted at the entrance by Benjamin Levy's "The Modest Couple in a Sardine Can," a sculpture depicting a nude woman and a suited gentleman in a sardine can, which was unveiled by Israeli President Shimon Peres in 2001. After the catastrophe of 1948, the original Palestinians of Ayn Hawd set up their own village three kilometers away from what is today known as Eid Hod. For decades the villagers resisted attempts to dispossess them and were surrounded by a fence during the 1970s to prevent them from expanding according to natural growth. But they finally won official recognition in 2005. This meant that for the first time since the establishment of Israel they could receive electricity and trash service. Meanwhile, more than forty other Palestinian villages inside Israel remain "unrecognized." The 80,000 or so residents of the villages, which lay mostly in the Negev desert, are tax-paying citizens of Israel. However, they have few rights; their homes are routinely demolished to make way for Jewish settlements and they are deprived of basic services. I visited both Ein Hod and Ayn Hawd in June. When the residents of the Jewish village Ein Hod saw me filming, they reacted with a mixture of suspicion and hostility. "I know what you're doing!" an elderly woman sneered at me, insisting that I not film her. Inside the bar, I asked patrons if the place was in fact a converted mosque. "Yeah, but that's how all of Israel is," a woman from a nearby kibbutz told me as she sipped on a beer. "This whole country is built on top of Arab villages. So maybe it's best to let bygones be bygones." I provoked another annoyed reaction when I began filming a tour guide leading a group of elderly Israelis around the village. Speaking in Hebrew, the guide told the tourists as she took them through the art studios that they were inside "third generation houses" -- forget the Arabs who lived in them for hundreds of years. In the studios I noticed that much of the art being produced was Judaica kitsch for sale to foreign tourists -- generic shtetl scenes from the long lost, distant world immortalized in films like Fiddler on the Roof. Later, before taking her group to the town's Hurdy Gurdy museum, the guide mentioned a "welcoming committee" that vetted potential residents. Presumably this was how Ein Hod kept the pesky Arabs down the road from returning home. That and the Absentee Property Law of 1950 which placed all "abandoned" Arab property in the hands of the Jewish National Fund and the Israeli Land Administration, a provision that consolidated what the exiled Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament Azmi Bishara called "the largest armed robbery in history." During a break, the tour guide pulled me aside and demanded to know who I was. It was clear the villagers had grown wary of curious outsiders. Introducing herself as Shuli Linda Yarkon, a PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University, the tour guide told me she the leading authority on Ein Hod. She said I had to allow her to review all the footage I shot. She claimed that this would ensure that I not mistranslate words she used like kibbush, a Hebrew term that means "conquest" but is commonly used to refer to the occupation of Palestine. "So what about the conquest you mentioned?" I asked her. "Why didn't you tell the tourists who lived in the houses before 1948?" Visibly irritated, Yarkon remarked, "I've concluded after years of research that there are really no facts when you discuss this issue. There are only narratives." She assured me that Ein Hod's Jewish population maintained excellent relations with the expelled residents: "Go ask them. They will tell you how they feel." So I did. After following a winding dirt road around a hillside for several kilometers, I was inside Ayn Hawd, the Palestinian village. There was no installation art here, just ramshackle houses, dirt roads, a mosque with a tall minaret and lots of kids playing in the streets. Almost immediately some of the town's residents appeared from their homes to greet me. Abu al-Hisa Moein, a village council member and schoolteacher, invited me to spend the rest of the afternoon with his family on a patio beside his home, which appeared newer and more stately than those of his neighbors. He told me his ancestors arrived in the village more than 700 years ago from what is now Iraq. His relatives who were expelled to Jenin in 1948 told him they would be too angry to even lay eyes their former homes with the new occupants inside. When I mentioned the bar built into the old mosque, Moein shook his head in disgust. "It's very bad. It's an insult," he said. Moein took me inside his home for a tour, showing me the spacious, immaculately clean parlor and the picture window with a sweeping view of the valley below. He had built the whole place, he said with pride. Down a hall, his 13-year-old daughter, Ansam, was reclining on the floor of her room reading John Knowles' classic bildungsroman, A Separate Peace. She leapt to attention when I entered and spent the next ten minutes showing me her library of literature. With night setting in, Moein and his family took me back on the patio. There, he unfurled a map of Mandate-era Palestine and ran his fingers over the names of scores of villages destroyed on the coast between Jaffa and Haifa by Zionist forces in 1948. He pointed to towns like Kafr Saba, Qaqun, al-Tira and Tantura, the site of a horrific massacre of unarmed Palestinian prisoners on the beach just one month after the Deir Yassin massacre. Moein was a history teacher, but Israel had forbidden him from discussing these events in his classroom, and is in the process of criminalizing any public observance of them. As darkness blanketed the hills, I realized that I had lost track of time. I told Moein that I needed to get back to Tel Aviv. With that, his wife rushed into the house and gathered a bundle of grapes she had picked from a tree in the family's yard, packing it for me in some tupperware from their kitchen. Then Moein walked me to my car and hugged me goodbye. Read the entire article here. 
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A rabbi's daughter sheds her ignorance
Dec 07, 2010 11:35 am | Philip Weiss Generally I'm not optimistic about the Jewish community's ability to come to terms with the tragedy of the Palestinian experience; I think ethnocentrism hobbles our community, and at this stage in history, Jews need to reach out to others for leadership. But though I can be harsh, I am also a proud Jew, and I know that there are some Jewish leaders who grasp the full moral dimension of what has befallen our community; and I want to tell you about hearing a Boulder pediatrician named Wendy Zerin speak about a recent trip to Israel and Palestine. Zerin appeared yesterday morning at a panel on "The Crisis in East Jerusalem" at the Rabbis for Human Rights of North America conference in New York. The conference was hosted at the Jewish Federation building on E. 59th Street-- i.e., it was ensconced in the bulwark of the official Jewish community. The daughter of a rabbi and a practitioner of Buddhist meditation, Zerin is obviously a spiritual person. When she was young, she had been an exchange student in Israel. But she hadn't been back to the country for 15 years, partly because she was avoiding the bad news. In that time, she said plainly, she "acquired a great deal of ignorance." And then she went there in October with a group organized by Rabbis for Human Rights. "I'm not an expert on the situation but what I can offer are my impressions of a 10 day whirlwind trip that was heartwrenching, awe-inspiring, amazing, the whole range of emotion. East Jerusalem is rather hard. Maybe because it blindsided me. And I will cop to my own ignorance of the situation there." Zerin told us that the blindsiding began as soon as they got to Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. For they saw a crowd surrounding a car, and a settler in a yellow shirt talking to a police officer. The man had tried to run over a Palestinian. "He tried to kill my cousin," a Palestinian man was shouting. The Palestinian neighbors had stopped his car when the settler tried to drive away. And it was explained to the visiting rabbis' group that nothing would happen to the settler. "That was a shock to my system. The impunity. That writ large or multiplied a thousand fold, speaks to the situation there." The group then met Palestinians who were living in tents on the street after they had been evicted from their homes to make way for Jewish settlers. As they stood talking, the settlers walked past. Zerin showed us pictures of the tent and its denizens in a clinical no-holds-barred manner. "Something I was not prepared for was the brazenness and the audacity. It was so out there in the open, and that was a shock to me... "The other thing that haunts me is how easy it would be not to be aware of this situation. You visit Israel and have no ideas of the reality as it is experienced… on a daily basis, by the people who are living there. That is with me… the human price. The cost to the psyche. The humiliation, the indignity, the homelessness... "All of a sudden his children is sleeping on the street. What that does to them-- and what it does to me as a parent." Since returning, Zerin has hosted some gatherings in her house, small, so as to bear witness to what she saw. "I'm not an authority. I can't engage in debate. I will lose. … For those who might be able to see through my eyes and be moved as I am, that's what I can offer." You won't lose, Dr. Zerin, please get over that. She said she will take further action, maybe develop expertise. "I don't know how it plays out." Lynn Gottllieb was in the room. She is an activist rabbi, and she said, "What you see here is just the tip of the iceberg that's been going on for 60 years. He [the evicted Palestinian] is one of millions of people who have had that experience." Gottlieb said that Jews have to think about how we define settler, and insider and outsider. In all her journeys to Israel and Palestine over many, many years, "I've seen the exact same situation going on, and we are just waking up to it now. It is very sobering. But I don't want people to think, this is a new situation. It is not." 
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My shiksa friend sees the crisis
Dec 07, 2010 11:06 am | Philip Weiss Haaretz: Dozens of top Israeli rabbis sign ruling to forbid rental of homes to Arabs
An academic friend, who will only identity as "your shiksa friend": If Jewish and American rabbis don't come out strongly against this what are us goyim to conclude?
This is not just one nutjob, it is DOZENS of TOP rabbis. And it is not like this rabbis' letter has occurred in response to a proximal threat - almost no Jews have been harmed by Palestinians for YEARS now (yet many thousands of Palestinians have been harmed (or killed) by Jews). In fact the restraint of Palestinians in recent years is astonishing: they have remained nonviolent in the face of ever-accelerating theft of land, house demolitions, imprisonment of nonviolent peace activists, etc. This nonviolence cannot last. Are these rabbis trying to force a violent reaction? It is true that we do not have a perfect society here either, that we have crazy Christians who espouse hateful views, and that we are about to give major tax benefits to the rich while many people remain in dire poverty, including lots of people living just a few miles from me. But this kind of systematic institutional racism in Israel seems to be simply beyond anything decent people would or should tolerate anywhere. Why aren't more American and Israeli Jews speaking out against this? OK these are all rhetorical questions, you do not have to answer. But I am finding it harder and harder to play nice with Israelis, and I am seriously considering full BDS including academic boycott. (What other options are there?)
Later my friend passed along the following email she received showing that the racism is not going unanswered in Israel. Original spelling preserved for purposes of entertainment: באנו חושך לגרש הבוקר פורסם מכתב עליו חתומים עשרות רבנים שקובע שחל איסור הלכתי חמור על מכירה או השכרה של דירות וקרקעות בארץ ישראל למי שאינו יהודי. בנוסף נכתב במכתב הרבנים כי אדם שנוהג בניגוד לפסק ההלכה - עשוי להיות חייב בנידוי. צעד כזה, של עשרות עובדי מדינה בכירים, אינו יכול לעבור! זוהי מתקפה פרועה על בסיסה הדמוקרטי של המדינה ופגיעה אנושה בנורמות הבסיסיות ביותר של חיינו כאן. הגזענות הרבנית היא חרפה ליהדות וסכנה לישראל. |
תנועת "סולידריות-שייח גראח" קוראת לכולם, חילונים ודתיים, להצטרף אלינו במחאה ובקריאה לפיטורים מיידים של כל חותמי המכתב. ההפגנה תתקיים מחר, 8.12, בשעה 17:00 ברחבת בית הכנסת הגדול בירושלים, ברחוב קינג גורג. הסעה תצא ממסוף אלעל, רכבת ארלוזרוב, ת"א, בשעה 15:30. לפרטים והרשמה להסעה: 0546236609 |
This morning, a letter signed by tens of Rabies, was published forbidding people to rent or sell apartments to non-Jews. We will not stand silent in the face of such racism!!! Tomorrow, 8.12, we will protest in front of the big synogoge in Jerusalem (King George St.) at 17:00. Transportation from Tel Aviv will leave arlozerov station at 15:30. For information call 0546236609. 
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Upcoming Events Thurs, November 11 Church of Gethsemane 1012 Eighth Avenue
(bet 10th St. & 11th St.) Brooklyn NY
Jewish Perspectives on the
BDS Movement
A respectful dialogue on BDS—whether you already have a position on it or you want to clarify for yourself the complex issues it raises. This event will provide an opportunity to hear from people who disagree about whether BDS is an appropriate and effective strategy.
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