And so it goes for over 60 years now:
"Palestinians march in annual mourning ritual" Associated Press, May 16, 2012
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinians marked the anniversary of their mass displacement that followed Israel’s creation with a blend of sadness and hope on Tuesday, stopping in their tracks for a mournful siren but also flashing victory signs and carrying banners proclaiming their right of return.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their villages during the war that established the Jewish state in 1948, an event they commemorate every year as their “Nakba,’’ or catastrophe.
It's called ethnic cleansing now.
Today, surviving refugees and their descendants number several million who are scattered across the globe, many still living in squalid camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and surrounding Arab countries....
A global scandal of unmentionable proportions.
In three West Bank areas north and south of Jerusalem, dozens of Palestinian stone-throwers clashed with Israeli troops, who fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel pellets....
--more--"
That's all the coverage my Zionist prism gives the catastrophe.
The catastrophe continues:
"Israel continues airstrikes in Gaza; Training sites for Hamas targeted" December 10, 2011|By Fares Akram and Isabel Kershner, New York Times
JERUSALEM - Israel carried out more airstrikes in Gaza early yesterday, killing one Palestinian, as militants fired more rockets into southern Israel.
Yeah, I wonder who is really firing those provocative, cui bono rockets.
Tensions flared after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Thursday killed two Palestinians whom the military described as terrorists involved in a plot to attack Israelis.
Seven Palestinians, including two women and several children, were wounded when Israeli fighter jets attacked at least two targets yesterday that were described as training sites for the armed wing of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza. A strike on a site in northern Gaza badly damaged a house nearby, killing an elderly man and wounding other family members, according to Adham Abu Selmia, a spokesman for the Gaza medical services.
The rockets fired into Israel on Thursday and yesterday landed in open areas and caused no casualties, the Israeli police said.
The HALLMARK of a settler-inspired false flag!!!
The Israeli military said in a statement that the main target of Thursday’s strike was Essam al-Batsh, 43, a senior operative of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a group nominally associated with Fatah, the party led by the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas. The military said that Batsh had been involved in numerous attacks on Israel, including a suicide bombing in the Israeli resort of Eilat in 2007 in which three Israelis were killed.
I thought Fatah was on "our" side?
What's with the flip-flopping, cui bono? Who benefits when Israel allegedly has no one to talk to?
Israeli security forces have been on high alert in recent days in the area along the Egyptian border because of intelligence warnings of an imminent attack. In August, gunmen who crossed into Israel from Sinai killed eight Israelis and wounded more than 30 in multiple attacks north of Eilat, the most serious assault on Israel from Egyptian territory in decades. Five Egyptian security personnel were subsequently killed by Israeli forces as they pursued the attackers, severely straining Israeli-Egyptian relations.
Some think it was a warning to the new military command.
Related: Israel Wants Another War
Preferably with Iran, but they will take whatever they can get (Syria) with the Palestinians always there to beat upon if all else fails.
--more--"
"West Bank settlers hit Israeli army base" December 14, 2011|By Ethan Bronner, New York Times
JERUSALEM - Dozens of radical Jewish settlers, reacting to a rumor that several of their outposts would be dismantled, attacked an Israeli army base in the West Bank yesterday, lighting fires, vandalizing vehicles and throwing stones, hours after another group of settlers occupied a border post with Jordan.
Isn't that terrorism?
Defense Minister Ehud Barak condemned what he called “a string of violent attacks by criminal groups of extremists,’’ adding that such “homegrown terror’’ would not be tolerated. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an urgent meeting of defense officials saying, “We must take care of these rioters with a heavy hand.’’
In the past few years, small groups of settlers have pursued a campaign they call “price tag,’’ attacking Palestinian civilians and property as well as Israeli security forces in retaliation for government policies they oppose. Olive trees have been slashed and burned, mosques vandalized, and army property damaged.
Now imagine living with that for OVER 60 YEARS!!!!
In the attack on the base, about 50 settlers used paint, nails, and rocks, the military said. Soldiers dispersed the rioters and detained one man. In a separate episode, settlers stopped a car driven by a local Israeli commander and threw a brick at him. He was slightly injured.
The skirmish on the border with Jordan was a protest at Jordan’s efforts to intervene in Israel’s closure of a footbridge used by non-Muslims leading to the holy compound in Jerusalem revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
The group cut through a closed military area and took over an abandoned structure near a Christian baptism site along the Jordan River. Troops removed them and arrested 17 people.
A settler named Hananel Dorfman told Army Radio, “It was a message to Jordan. We are not suckers. Stop intervening in our internal affairs or we will intervene in yours.’’
Late Monday night, other settlers blocked a main West Bank road and threw stones at Palestinian vehicles.
Condemnation from within the settler leadership was fast and harsh. Danny Dayan, head of the settler council, called what was done disgraceful and ungrateful. Rabbi Yaacov Meidan, a settler rabbi, said such acts threatened the well-being of hundreds of thousands of settlers and the military....
Alienating the military and government poses a political danger to the settler leaders, especially as international pressure increases on Israel to end West Bank settlement....
Where is that pressure because they keep on settling (the term itself is offensive, as if no one was living there).
Yesterday, a coalition of 20 human rights and aid groups, including Amnesty International, Oxfam International, and Human Rights Watch, said they had noted an increase in the demolition of Palestinian homes by the Israeli government in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the past year.
Yes, I told you below it was an extremist government!
Moreover, last Saturday, a soldier fired a tear-gas canister at a Palestinian demonstrator, Moustafa Tamimi, killing him....
--more--"
"Israeli settlers set fire to a Jerusalem mosque; Netanyahu moves to curb violence" December 15, 2011|By Ethan Bronner, New York Times
JERUSALEM - A disused mosque was defaced and set aflame in Jerusalem yesterday, and Palestinian vehicles in the West Bank were pelted, burned, and spray-painted in a second day of Jewish settler violence that has driven Israel into an emotional debate on the growing lawlessness of the country’s extreme right.
So you see. My comments here are no danger to Judaism or Israel. They are DESTROYING THEMSELVES FROM WITHIN!!!
Political leaders from across the spectrum competed to condemn the actions, with the left and center accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of ignoring previous settler violence and the right saying that out-of-control youths were besmirching an otherwise noble movement.
Right, blame thuggish children, uh-huh.
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That's who is bringing me my "news."
After meeting with senior defense and judicial officials, Netanyahu announced a set of new steps aimed at curbing the “price tag’’ campaign, in which radical settlers attack Palestinians and Israeli security forces.
Isn't that TERRORISM?
"[An] act of terrorism, means any activity that (A) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; and (B) appears to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping."
Yeah, I guess it would be.
And the Israeli government has worried about peaceful protesters -- until now?
The steps include two controversial tools currently used by Israel only against Palestinians: keeping suspected perpetrators in prison without charge or trial, and trying them in military courts.
Is that where AmeriKa got the idea?
A message from the prime minister’s office said Netanyahu would also grant the power of arrest to soldiers and increase the number of security personnel and the number of settlers barred from the West Bank because they are considered troublemakers.
Netanyahu said he rejected for now officially describing the radical settlers as terrorists, which would have allowed the government to apply antiterror legislation against them, something many on the left have advocated. Netanyahu said the radicals were not representative of the larger settler population.
“We need to stop bad things when they are small, and this is small, and we will stop it now,’’ Netanyahu said Tuesday.
His critics assailed him for downplaying the extent of the violence.
“There is no word more shameful in the Israeli lexicon of violence than the word ‘handful,’ ’’ wrote Nahum Barnea, a columnist for the newspaper Yediot Aharonot. “This criminal behavior must be rooted out, and everyone knows where the roots are: in the incitement of the settler rabbis, in the Israeli governments that over and over again approved the settlers’ illegal acts, in the leniency of the judges, and in the powerlessness of the Shin Bet, the army, and the police.’’
--more--"
"Arsonists attack 2d Palestinian mosque; Israeli extremists suspected in blaze" December 16, 2011|Associated Press
Arsonists? Extremists? Not terrorists?
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Vandals set fire to a mosque in the West Bank yesterday and defaced it with Hebrew graffiti a day after a similar arson attack on a mosque in Jerusalem. Suspicion fell on Jewish extremists widely assumed to be behind stepped-up violence against Palestinians and the Israeli military.
The governor of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, Laila Ghanam, said arsonists doused the mosque in the village of Burqa with gasoline, then set it on fire. Carpets and furniture were also burned, the Israeli military said, and graffiti was visible after the attack. “Mitzpe Yitzhar’’ and the Hebrew word for “war’’ were painted in red on one wall.
Mitzpe Yitzhar is an unauthorized Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank where Israeli security forces demolished two structures early yesterday.
On Wednesday, suspected extremists torched an unused mosque in Jerusalem.
In recent years, settlers have attacked Palestinian and Israeli military targets in retaliation for Israeli government operations they see as overly sympathetic to Palestinians, like the demolition of unauthorized settlement housing.
They call it a "price tag" policy.
“The government of Israel unequivocally condemns these acts of vigilante violence,’’ government spokesman Mark Regev said. “We will act aggressively to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice.’’
The increasing frequency of the attacks, the sparse number of arrests, and the paucity of indictments have generated allegations that the Israeli government is not acting forcefully enough against extremists after two years of violence.
Like I said, that is because they are the government. And ever notice if it were a Palestinian attack the police and military would have someone arrested and jailed -- even if they had nothing to do with it.
Wednesday, after an assault on an Israeli military base, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved measures to clamp down on extremists, including giving soldiers the authority to make arrests and to ban extremists from contentious areas.
--more--"
Related: Israeli drone strike kills Gaza radical
"Israel charges settlers in clash at base" New York Times January 09, 2012
JERUSALEM - Israeli prosecutors charged five radical Jewish settlers yesterday with tracking troop movements in the West Bank and organizing a raid on an Israeli army base there last month.
The indictment was the first sign of a promised crackdown on settlers whose increasingly provocative actions have been described by some Israeli officials as homegrown terrorism.
In recent years, small groups of radical settlers have pursued a policy known as “price tag,’’ attacking Palestinian civilians and vandalizing property, distracting Israeli security forces, and damaging military equipment.
The concern only came when it turned on the Israeli state.
The point is to either thwart, or retaliate for, any attempt by the Israeli army or the police to dismantle property in illegally built outposts.
According to the charge sheet, the military was planning to dismantle an illegal outpost in the northern West Bank called Mitzpe Yitzhar on the night of Dec. 12.
But the prosecutors said the evacuation was thwarted by the five suspects who organized the raid on the army base, during which dozens of settlers broke in, rioted, blocked the entrance with rocks and burning tires, and damaged military vehicles.
The same night, extremists stopped a car driven by a local Israeli commander and threw a brick at him. The forces that had been deployed to dismantle the outpost ended up being diverted to handle the disturbances.
Two nights later, Israeli forces removed two structures at the outpost. The following morning, a mosque in a village outside Ramallah was defaced and set on fire.
The violence prompted the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to announce new measures to curb the radicals. He said that extremists would be treated the same way suspected Palestinian militants are: detained for long periods without charge and tried in military courts.
But it was the civil Jerusalem District Court that indicted the five yesterday. They were charged, among other things, with operating a hotline to collect reports on troop and police movements in the West Bank and calling on supporters to be at specific locations to thwart attempts by Israeli forces to evacuate outposts.
--more--"
"Jewish extremists suspected in vandalism at monastery, school in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM - Vandals attacked a monastery in Jerusalem and a prominent school with a mixed Jewish-Arab student body yesterday, and police said they suspected Jewish extremists were behind the violence.
“Death to Christians’’ and other Hebrew-language graffiti were scrawled on the Greek Orthodox monastery in Jerusalem, while “Death to Arabs’’ was sprayed across a wall outside the bilingual “Hand in Hand’’ school in another part of the city. ""
I wish all the Christian Zionist in this country would wake the fuck up.
Related:
“Only under Israel will the peace between the religions be ensured’’
That comment looks psychotic in light of what just happened.
Israeli police said they were investigating both incidents. Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that “price tag’’ was also painted at the monastery - a reference to a practice of Jewish extremists who lash out against the Israeli government for actions against settlers.
Such acts usually target West Bank mosques but have recently expanded to include a mosque inside Israel, Israeli military bases, and now, a Christian holy site and a school.
“Maccabees of Migron’’ was reportedly painted on the monastery, too.
Maccabees were ancient Jewish heroes, and Migron is an unauthorized settlement facing a court-ordered evacuation next month.
In the West Bank, “Mohammed is a pig’’ and other slogans were also found spray-painted near a gas station of an Arab village, Palestinians said.
Hard-line settlers believe Israel has a God-given right to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in 1967, and reject Palestinian claims to those lands.
Which is WHY THEY ARE REVILED! NO ONE likes ANYONE coming on that way!
Extremists, believed to be young Jewish settlers, have carried out dozens of attacks on Palestinians over the past two years. Few arrests have been made.
And we know why.
--more--"
"Israeli airstrikes kill 15 Gaza militants" by Aron Heller and Ibrahim Barzak | Associated Press, March 11, 2012
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel pounded Gaza for the second day in a row Saturday, trading airstrikes and rocket fire with Palestinian militants and killing 15 of them as the deadliest Gaza violence in more than a year showed no sign of abating.
Despite Egyptian efforts to mediate a cease-fire, Palestinians fired more than 100 rockets, some striking major cities in southern Israel and seriously wounding an Israeli civilian. The military responded with more than a dozen airstrikes and the targeted killings of Palestinian militants from various Gaza organizations.
Israel’s lauded Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted more than 25 projectiles. Still....
The loss of life is hardly "tit-for-tat."
The Arab League called the Israeli attacks a “massacre.’’ The United Nations and the State Department condemned the violence and called on both sides to exercise restraint.
“This round in Gaza is far from being over,’’ Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in southern Israel....
The latest spate of violence began Friday afternoon, when an Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza City killed top militant commander Zuhair al-Qaissi and two of his associates. It was the highest-profile killing Israel has carried out in many months, interrupting a period of relative calm on the volatile southern front.
Almost immediately, Gaza militants unleashed a barrage of rockets toward southern Israeli border communities.
Militants have fired more than 100 rockets since Qaissi’s killing. During the previous three months, Palestinian militants fired some 50 rockets toward Israel.
Gaza’s militant Islamic Hamas rulers condemned the Israeli strike but, pointedly, their fighters did not fire rockets at Israel. Instead, they quietly allowed other smaller Palestinian militant groups to unleash salvos.
In previous flare-ups, Hamas has used such a strategy to allow Palestinian militants to burn off their anger, with an eye toward the exchange of strikes eventually quieting down.
Hamas has not been eager to participate in rocket barrages since Israel conducted a punishing three-week war against the militant group in 2009. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians and militants were killed, and the air and ground assault destroyed much of Hamas’ infrastructure.
And chemical weapons were used, war crimes committed, the same sort of price tag s***.
Hey, I suppose we are lucky to get the referral and somewhat view of the truth in this brief section.
Since then, Hamas has sought to shore up its Gaza rule and amass a better weapons arsenal.
Well, so much for that.
Still, Israel’s military said Hamas, as the territory’s ruler, would “bear the consequences’’ for any attacks that emerged from Gaza.
Egypt, which has helped arrange truces in the past, said Saturday it was trying to cobble together a cease-fire....
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, “we condemn in the strongest terms the rocket fire from Gaza by terrorists into southern Israel in recent days, which has dramatically and dangerously escalated in the past day. We call on those responsible to take immediate action to stop these cowardly acts.’’
And the airstrikes?
--more--"
Related: Israeli airstrike kills militant commander in Gaza
3 killed in Gaza as militants, Israelis trade fire for 3d day
Islamic Jihad, Israel agree to honor cease-fire
Israel's missile shield aces first serious test
"Palestinian man killed, scores injured in annual Land Day demonstrations" New York Times, March 31, 2012
JERUSALEM - Thousands of Palestinians protested on Friday against Israeli policies of land seizure and control of Jerusalem, leading to clashes with Israeli troops in which a 20-year-old was killed and scores of others injured.
When is a zettler going to be killed, huh?
The annual protest, known as Land Day, drew demonstrators in groups of hundreds in locations within Israel as well as in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza. There were also solidarity marches in neighboring Lebanon and Jordan.
But weeks of organizing for a global march on Jerusalem produced less than expected as Israel’s borders remained largely calm.
Uh-huh.
Security troops in riot gear were out in large numbers using rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannons, and high-pitched noise machines.
Land Day commemorates events in March 1976 when Israel confiscated land from Galilee Arab villages, leading to protests in which six Arabs were killed. This year, the focus was extended to Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem - which Palestinians want as the capital of a future state - and there were calls for protests and marches around the world.
And there were.
In Gaza, where the killing occurred, Hamas had organized a rally more than a mile away from the crossing into Israel with its forces deployed to keep the crowds from clashing with Israeli troops on the other side.
But some demonstrators sneaked through the lines, throwing stones and empty bottles at the Israelis. The Israelis responded with live fire, wounding about a dozen people, one of whom, Mahmoud Zaqout, 20, died at the hospital, a medical spokesman said.
Another group of demonstrators reached the security fence in southeastern Gaza, where they were also met with gunfire.
--more--"
"Israeli army orders settlers out of occupied Hebron building" by Amy Teibel | Associated Press, April 03, 2012
HEBRON, West Bank - The Israeli military ordered dozens of Jewish settlers Monday to evacuate a building they occupied last week in the heart of Hebron, the West Bank’s most volatile Palestinian city.
The order could lead to a violent confrontation between soldiers and one of the most militant settler communities. Settlers have violently resisted such evacuations in the past, lashing out with attacks elsewhere in the West Bank.
The settlers’ entry into the building before dawn on Thursday threatened to create another flash point in the biblical city of Hebron, the traditional burial site of Abraham, the shared patriarch of both Jews and Muslims. It has been a center of Israeli-Arab violence for decades. The burial site overlooks the three-story building the settlers entered last week.
Hebron settler leaders said about 10 Jewish families entered the building after it was purchased legally from a Palestinian landowner.
A spokesman for the roughly 70 settlers inside, Shlomo Levinger, said they moved into the building in the dead of night because they had received information that the Palestinian Authority had learned of the purchase and planned to take it over.
Military spokesman Major Guy Inbar said the settlers were ordered to leave by Tuesday afternoon or be forcibly removed, because the building was occupied without authorization. He said the military was still determining whether the purchase was legitimate.
Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked to delay the eviction and allow the courts to settle the matter. A spokesman for Netanyahu did not confirm or deny the reports.
Hebron settler leader David Wilder said settlers had not sought the military’s authorization to move into the building because they did not expect to receive it.
The city’s roughly 850 settlers live in heavily fortified enclaves in the midst of 180,000 Palestinians.
It's always the Jews under threat, the Jews under attack in my paper, and I'm tired of it.
In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military must approve property purchases.
Wilder said the expulsion order was political and insisted the purchase was legitimate.
“There are people who don’t want to see Jews living in Hebron,’’ Wilder said. “We are going to do everything we can to see this order is annulled.’’
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The city’s roughly 850 settlers live in heavily fortified enclaves in the midst of 180,000 Palestinians.
It's always the Jews under threat, the Jews under attack in my paper, and I'm tired of it.
In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military must approve property purchases.
Wilder said the expulsion order was political and insisted the purchase was legitimate.
“There are people who don’t want to see Jews living in Hebron,’’ Wilder said. “We are going to do everything we can to see this order is annulled.’’
--more--"
"Jewish settlers evicted from West Bank house" by Isabel Kershner | New York Times, April 05, 2012
JERUSALEM - Israeli police and border officers swiftly evicted a group of Jewish settlers from a contested house in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron Wednesday on the orders of the minister of defense, officials said, though at the same time, the Israeli government signaled strong support for more Jewish settlement in areas it captured in the 1967 war.
So much for "peace" talks.
Among the signs of official support, the Ministry of Housing posted new tenders on its website for plots for the construction of more than 800 new apartments in Har Homa, a Jewish development across the 1967 lines in south-east Jerusalem, and in Givat Zeev, a settlement north of Jerusalem in the West Bank.
“The principle that has guided me is to strengthen Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria,’’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said later Wednesday, using the biblical names for the West Bank. “But there is one principle that we uphold,’’ he added, in a warning to unruly settlers. “We do everything according to the law.’’
So did Hitler, s***ter.
The official support complicates any prospect of renewed peace talks, as Israeli and Palestinian leaders prepare for a rare, high-level meeting later this month....
In a move that appeared aimed at mollifying the settlers, but that is likely to infuriate Palestinians, Netanyahu said shortly before the Hebron eviction that he had asked the attorney general to “find a solution’’ for a neighborhood of the Beit El settlement that was built without proper permits and is supposed to be demolished by court order by May 1.
He said he also intended, together with the defense minister, to see the necessary permits to retroactively legalize three other West Bank settler outposts that went up without authorization.
The Hebron eviction came a day after the expiration of a deadline handed down by the military authorities for voluntary evacuation. Netanyahu had asked the defense minister to delay a forced eviction, saying that the settlers should be given time to make their legal case for ownership of the property.
But the eviction was carried out after Israel’s attorney general declared it necessary to uphold the rule of law, Israel’s Army Radio reported.
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And just in time to take your attention away from that:
"Israel hit by rocket fired from Egypt" New York Times, April 06, 2012
JERUSALEM - At least one rocket fired from the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt struck the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat overnight Wednesday, causing alarm but no injuries, police officials said Thursday.
PFFFFFT!
Residents reported hearing several explosions shortly after midnight, and bomb-disposal specialists located one rocket that fell in an open area close to buildings in a residential neighborhood.
How come Palestinian aim has sucked for eternity, and does it require airstrikes?
Israeli security officials have been warning for some time about a growing threat from Sinai.
Translation: We have ourselves a FALSE FLAG SITUATION!!
They point to an erosion of Egyptian authority there, particularly in the year since the Egyptian revolution, and to increased efforts by Palestinian militant groups emanating from Gaza to use the vast expanses of desert as a staging ground for a new front against Israel.
The rocket attack came just before the Passover holiday, traditionally one of the busiest seasons in Eilat, which is popular with Israeli and foreign tourists.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the Sinai Peninsula “has become a terrorism zone.’’
Absolutely reeking off a false flag cui bono!
“We are dealing with this. We are building a security fence, but it will not stop missiles,’’ he said. He added, “We will strike at those who attack us.’’
In August, eight Israelis were killed in a cross-border terrorist attack when gunmen and bombers ambushed a bus and several vehicles on a road just north of Eilat.
The attackers’ identities were never established, but Israel blamed a small Palestinian militant group, the Popular Resistance Committees, based in Gaza.
An Israeli airstrike on Gaza last month killed the leader of the Popular Resistance Committees and his assistant.
Israel is now rushing to complete a 150-mile, 16-foot-tall steel border fence that will stretch from Eilat up to Gaza.
But it is NOT GOOD ENOUGH for your southern border, 'murkns! And if you are for that fence, then you are a racist (or so says my supremacist media)!
The unrest comes at a time when Israel’s 30-year peace with Egypt is under strain, after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, a former staunch Israeli ally, and the rise of Islamist political forces in Cairo.
--more--"
"Israeli attack hurts two Palestinians
GAZA CITY - An Israeli airstrike wounded two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border Saturday. Israel’s military said its air force targeted Palestinians in Rafah attempting to launch a rocket (AP)."
"Israel stops fly-in activists at airport" Associated Press, April 16, 2012
JERUSALEM - Israel detained dozens of international activists as they landed at its main airport Sunday, preventing them from entering the country to participate in a planned solidarity mission with Palestinians in the West Bank.
What are they SO AFRAID OF, huh? That people will SEE THE TRUTH with their OWN EYES?
Israel said the activists, part of an umbrella group called “Welcome to Palestine,’’ were provocateurs who posed a security threat.
That REALLY MAKES ISRAEL LOOK BAD!!
But organizers said the event, meant to draw attention to Israeli travel restrictions on Palestinians, was nonviolent, and they accused Israel of using heavy-handed tactics to stamp out legitimate protest.
That seems to be how ALL GOVERNMENTS RESPOND to such things!!
Israel is jittery about the prospect of a large influx of foreign protesters because of deadly confrontations with pro-Palestinian activists in the past. In the worst instance, Israeli naval commandos clashed with activists on board a flotilla trying to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip in May 2010, killing nine activists.
Once again, that act of international piracy simply fades into the mist.
Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai said the government “will make sure that everyone who wants to provoke is returned home and the rest will be allowed to enter Israel.’’
**********************
Amira Musallam, one of the coordinators for “Welcome to Palestine,’’ said the weeklong program was now in doubt.
Then Israel succeeded -- with a very small price paid for public relations.
--more--"
"Israeli officer's assault of activist stirs outcry" Associated Press, April 17, 2012
JERUSALEM — Video of a senior Israeli military officer’s assault against an unarmed pro-Palestinian activist drew sharp condemnations Monday, raising questions in Israel over whether the country’s heavy-handed approach to nonviolent protesters is causing damage to Israel’s image.
Yeah, THAT is the CONCERN! Not FAIRNESS, or JUSTICE, or WHATEVER is RIGHT, but ISRAEL'S IMAGE!!!!
The assault Saturday, caught on video and featured in all Israel’s major newspapers and TV broadcasts, follows the government’s high-profile interception at its main airport of dozens of global activists who planned a solidarity mission with Palestinians in the West Bank.
Sadly, it received much less here in AmeriKa.
Israel has branded the activists provocateurs who posed a security threat to the country.
They just look like paranoid fools now.
Calling itself the Middle East’s only democracy, it says the protesters have their priorities wrong and should instead focus on rampant human rights violations in neighboring Arab countries.
Yeah, shift the blame to someone else. What a classic Israeli tactic!
In the video, Lieutenant Colonel Shalom Eisner is seen smashing a Danish activist in the face with his M-16 rifle. Israel said the group of about 200 activists was attempting to block a main highway in Jericho and had provoked the soldiers....
--more--"
Also see: Palestinians list terms for peace talks
Israel will put a stop to that:
"Israel legalizes West Bank settler outposts; Move comes as US envoy tries to restart talks" y Amy Teibel | Associated Press, April 25, 2012
JERUSALEM — Israel legalized three unsanctioned West Bank settler outposts and was trying to save another on Tuesday, infuriating the Palestinians as the chief American envoy to the Mideast was in the region laboring to revive peace efforts.
The decision fueled suspicions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line coalition would try to legalize as many rogue settlement sites as possible to cement Israel’s hold on occupied land the Palestinians claim for a state.
Yes, EVERYONE KNOWS THAT IS WHAT IS GOING on here, and they are not going to stop until they have it all. That's the plan.
Netanyahu faces stiff pressure from pro-settler hard-liners within his own coalition to fend off legal challenges to the unauthorized construction. Some hard-liners have even warned that the coalition, which until now has been remarkably stable, could unravel over the issue.
I suppose they have been sidelined after the new coalition took over.
Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem as the core of their hoped-for state, and see all Israeli settlement as illegal encroachment. They have refused to restart peace talks until construction halts.
“We call upon the Israeli government to immediately stop all unilateral acts,’’ said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a senior Palestinian official. “Netanyahu is pushing things into deadlock once again.’’
A string of Israeli governments have pledged not to build any new settlements. But critics say the settler movement, with quiet support from the government, has used the outposts to grab more West Bank land. Dozens of clusters of homes dot the West Bank, in addition to more than 120 authorized settlements.
Oh, it is QUIET SUPPORT, huh?
Yeah, NOT TO BE FOUND in AmeriKan newspapers so much!
Netanyahu says the issue of settlements should be resolved through peace talks, which broke down more than three years ago over the settlement issue.
Related: Israel Intends to Keep All Settlements
Asshole.
Israel began settling the West Bank and East Jerusalem immediately after capturing them in the 1967 Mideast war, and 500,000 Jews now live there. The international community widely condemns the construction.
But they do nothing about it. I guess invasions are only for Arab and Muslim nations that defy Israel, huh?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling for one. The last thing Palestinians need is NATO killing a whole crop of them to liberate them.
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, “We don’t accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity.’’
As they nonetheless accept settlement activity.
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"Israeli soldiers cleared in 21 Gaza deaths" May 03, 2012
JERUSALEM - The Israeli military said Wednesday it has closed its investigation into the shelling deaths of 21 members of a single Palestinian family and would not file any charges in what was one of the gravest episodes in the 2009 war in the Gaza Strip.
The military’s move, which exonerates Israeli soldiers from any responsibility in the killings, outraged relatives of the killed Palestinians and the Israeli human rights group that had pressed for the investigation. They said the findings proved the army is not capable of investigating its soldiers’ conduct.
“We are talking about a crime against civilians,’’ said Salah Samouni, 34, whose 2-year-old daughter was killed when Israeli shells hit the Gaza City house where the family had gathered.
“We know that God above will punish the killers. If they escaped trial, they can’t escape God’s punishment,’’ said Samouni, who survived.
See: Staying at the Samounis
Israel launched the three-week offensive in Gaza after months of rocket fire by Hamas militants. About 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the fighting.
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Time to leave this post:
"Palestinian Airlines resumes flights" Associated Press, May 28, 2012
MARKA AIRBASE, Jordan - Palestinian Airlines is back in the skies after being grounded for seven years by the deepening enmities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Once hailed as a symbol of Palestinian statehood dreams, the carrier is a tiny operation, with just two 48-seat turboprop planes, two weekly flights, and a borrowed hub in Egypt. But Palestinians say just being on the map again is what matters.
In the late 1990s, when Palestinians appeared on the verge of a statehood deal with Israel, Palestinian Airlines operated from Gaza International Airport, flew tens of thousands of passengers a year to Middle Eastern destinations, and planned to expand to Europe. Those ambitions were crushed by the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000.
Yeah, right, it is always the Palestinians fault.
Over the next year, Israeli troops destroyed the Gaza airport, and Palestinian Airlines was forced to move its base to El-Arish, an Egyptian coastal resort about 35 miles from Gaza.
Seven years ago, the airline stopped flying after its reservoir of passengers dried up. It had mainly served Gazans who, starting in 2005, could no longer reach El-Arish because of increasingly frequent Israeli closures of Gaza’s borders.
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"Palestinian officials take steps toward long-delayed vote" Associated Press, May 29, 2012
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Election officials from the West
Bank arrived in the Gaza Strip on Monday to prepare the way for a
long-overdue vote, taking a key step toward repairing a five-year rift
between Palestinians.
The delegation crossed the Israeli border into Hamas-ruled Gaza to
formally begin its work Monday, said official Jamil al-Khaldi. He said
the delegation would need at least six weeks to update voter records.
Palestinian rivals hope to hold new elections within six months in
the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, choosing a new government to replace
the fragmented system under which they have lived for the past five
years.
The two territories, which flank different sides of Israel, have been ruled by different governments since Hamas fighters seized control of Gaza in June 2007, pushing out forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas now oversees Palestinian affairs in the West Bank.
Well, Hamas won elections, they didn't "seize" anything, and the Amerikan media know it. Yet they continue to print the lie. And if they lie about that.... sigh.
The rivals agreed this month to form a technocrat unity government until elections are held. A date for elections has not been set.
Reconciliation is seen as essential toward establishing a Palestinian state, though Israel and the international community have threatened to boycott any Palestinian government that includes Hamas.
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"Israeli defense chief urges action if deal not reached with Palestinians" by Josef Federman | Associated Press, May 31, 2012
JERUSALEM - There are signs the Israeli government is considering taking unilateral action if peace talks with the Palestinians remain stalled, a move that could involve a withdrawal from parts of the West Bank along the lines of a 2005 pullout from the Gaza Strip.
WTF have they been doing all along? Pffft!
Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a security conference on Wednesday that inaction is not an option and Israel cannot wait forever to reach an accord.
“Israel cannot afford to tread water,’’ Barak said. If a deal “proves to be impossible, we have to consider a provisional arrangement or even unilateral action.’’
The statement reflected a growing sense of urgency in Israel about ending its 45-year entanglement with the Palestinians, even if no peace deal is possible....
And as time passed, a shift of thinking has quietly occurred in Israel: The occupation of Palestinian lands may ultimately be bad for Israel simply because ruling millions of Arabs will demographically sink the Jewish state.
Look, they are only worried about keeping the supremacist nature of their state!
The new twist: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has grown increasingly vocal about the need to separate from the Palestinians, now has a broad coalition freeing him of nationalists who claim biblical rights to the West Bank.
Netanyahu, who for years rejected most concessions to the Palestinians, has also raised concerns in recent months that continued control of the more than 2 million Palestinians in the West Bank would threaten Israel’s character as a democracy with a Jewish majority.
Early this month, he shored up his coalition by bringing the main opposition party, Kadima, into the government. Netanyahu now presides over a coalition comprising 94 of parliament’s 120 members, meaning he is no longer reliant on hard-liners to preserve his majority. The formation of this new supermajority has raised speculation that Netanyahu might come forward with an initiative to end the deadlock.
Kadima’s leader, Shaul Mofaz, has called for creating a temporary Palestinian state in roughly 60 percent of the West Bank until a final agreement can be reached. Such a proposal could easily align with Barak’s suggestion of a unilateral withdrawal. Mofaz’s office did not return messages.
Palestinian officials quickly rejected the idea of unilateral Israel moves - clearly concerned that after a partial pullout leaving them well short of their goals, Israel would have scant reason to negotiate further.
Barak did not elaborate on what sort of unilateral action he has in mind, but a spokesman said the defense minister has many “creative’’ ideas. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing internal discussions in the ministry.
It also remains unclear whether Netanyahu would support a unilateral action.
Netanyahu was a leading opponent to the 2005 Gaza pullout, resigning as finance minister at the time to protest what he believed was a surrender to violence.
Oh, I forgot to snag the link? Sorry.
"Israel strikes back at Gaza, accuses Iran of complicity" by Amy Teibel | Associated Press, March 16, 2012
JERUSALEM - Israeli aircraft and Gaza rocket squads traded strikes across the border Thursday as the Israeli prime minister blamed Iran for the violence from the Palestinian territory.
Benjamin Netanyahu, going a step further in his warnings to Iran, hinted that Israel did not need Washington’s blessing to go ahead and attack Iran....
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Diskin's Dissent
Thursday’s cross-border violence tested a shaky truce Israel and Gaza militants reached earlier this week to halt a four-day flare in fighting. Since then, sporadic rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes have persisted.
In a speech to Parliament Wednesday, Netanyahu accused Iran of arming, financing, and training Gaza militants, and giving them their marching orders.
“Gaza is Iran,’’ he declared.
Pffft.
Israel considers Iran its most fearsome enemy, in large part because it is convinced Tehran is developing atomic weapons technology, despite its claims that its nuclear program is peaceful.
In the United States last week, where he met with President Obama, Netanyahu was markedly more vocal about Israel’s willingness to attack Iran’s program, alone if necessary, although he said no decision had been made on whether to strike.
On Wednesday he ratcheted up the tough talk, suggesting Israel would be ready to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities even if the United States objected.
“Israel has never left its fate to others, not even the best of its friends,’’ he said, citing Israel’s 1981 attack on an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor, which at the time was condemned by the United States.
Also Thursday, the Israeli military said soldiers stopped an infiltration attempt along the Israel-Egypt border. One infiltrator was killed and three wounded.
An Israeli soldier was stabbed on Jerusalem’s light rail, and police apprehended a Palestinian suspect at a Jerusalem crossing into the West Bank.
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GAZA CITY - In an effort to renew long-stalled peace talks, Israel handed over to the Palestinian government Thursday the remains of 91 militants who had been killed while carrying out suicide bombings and other attacks.
The bodies had been buried in coffins in Israel and were dug up for the transfer....
Dozens of Islamic Jihad fighters and families holding framed pictures of their dead relatives welcomed 12 coffins as they entered Gaza, draped with Palestinian national flags that were then presented to families. Women ululated and threw rice and sugar over the coffins. Hamas police officers fired 21 shots into the air in salute.
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Yeah, Israel is so nice to Palestinians.
