Jerusalem “mayor” to raze 200 Palestinian homes

{Al Quds lands only 13%-Zionist settlement 87%} by Ali Al Khalil-Al Khaleej newspaper-UAE

Jerusalem mayor to raze 200 Palestinian homes

by Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 9 February 2010

Jerusalem’s mayor threatened last week to demolish 200 homes in Palestinian neighborhoods of the city in an act even he conceded would probably bring long-simmering tensions over housing in East Jerusalem to a boil.

His uncompromising stance is the latest stage in a protracted legal battle over a single building towering above the jumble of modest homes of Silwan, a deprived and overcrowded Palestinian community lying just outside the Old City walls, in the shadow of the silver-topped al-Aqsa mosque.

Beit Yehonatan, or Jonathan’s House, is distinctive not only for its height — at seven stories, it is at least three floors taller than its neighbors — but also for the Israeli flag draped from the roof to the street.

The settlement outpost, named for Jonathan Pollard, serving a life sentence in the US for spying on Israel’s behalf in the 1980s, has been home to eight Jewish families since 2004, when it was built without a license by an extremist settler organization known as Ateret Cohanim.

Beit Yehonatan is one of dozens of settler-occupied homes springing up in Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem, most of them takeovers of Palestinian homes.

Critics say the intent of these “outposts,” together with the large settlements of East Jerusalem built by the state and home to nearly 200,000 Jews, is to foil any peace agreement that might one day offer the Palestinians a meaningful state with Jerusalem as its capital.

But exceptionally for the settlers, who are used to a mix of overt and covert assistance from officials, the inhabitants of Beit Yehonatan are at risk of being evicted from their home, two years after an “urgent” enforcement order was issued by the Israeli Supreme Court.

Last week Nir Barkat, Jerusalem’s mayor, finally agreed “under protest” to seal Beit Yehonatan amid mounting pressure from an array of legal officials. Barkat had been fighting strenuously against implementing the court order, aided by senior members of the parliament, the police, and even Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who opposed his own attorney general’s advice by declaring Beit Yehonatan’s future “a purely municipal matter.”

But the mayor has not simply capitulated. He warned that Beit Yehonatan would be evacuated only on condition that more than 200 demolition orders on Palestinian homes, most of them in Silwan, were carried out at the same time. He argued that he had to avoid any impression that the law was being enforced in a “discriminatory” manner against Jews.

Jeff Halper, head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, said Barkat’s idea of fairness was “ridiculous.”

“In the past 15 years there have been more than a thousand Palestinian homes demolished in East Jerusalem versus absolutely no settler homes,” he said. “In fact, no settlers have ever lost their home in East Jerusalem.”

In making his announcement, Barkat admitted that the 200 demolitions would trigger “a strong possibility for conflict.” Palestinians in East Jerusalem are already seething over decades of planning restrictions that have forced many of them to build or extend homes illegally because it is all but impossible to get permits from the Israeli authorities.

Halper said the municipality had classified 22,000 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem as illegal, even as it also assessed a shortage of 25,000 homes for the city’s 250,000-strong Palestinian population.

The homes targeted for demolition include Palestinian houses around Beit Yehonatan that violate planning restrictions that allow families to build only two floors; despite the restriction, many houses have four stories and owners pay fines.

In addition, the city council wants to demolish 88 homes in a small area called Bustan that the municipality claims is in danger of flooding.

Zeinab Jaber lives next to Beit Yehonatan in the home she was born in 61 years ago. The building was declared illegal 20 years ago, after it was extended to four stories to accommodate her growing family. Today she and her six grown-up sons pay monthly fines of more than $1,000 in the hope of warding off destruction.

Her son Amjad, 32, married with two young sons, said he did not dare miss a payment. “It’s simple: if you don’t pay, you’ll end up in prison.”

“What is there for the settlers here?” Jaber asked. “They are only here because they want to take this place from us. They won’t be happy till we leave.”

On the opposite slope across the valley from Beit Yehonatan, Mohammed Jalajil, 48, said he did not doubt that the municipality would demolish the 200 homes. He, his wife and five children have been crammed into a room in a relative’s apartment since their own house was demolished seven years ago.

Jalajil, 48, said: “It was only months after they took our house from us that I saw the settlers building theirs nearby. My lawyer tells me that, even though my house is gone, I won’t have paid off my fines for another 10 years.”

If Barkat follows through with his threat, the demolitions will prompt a rebuke from the international community. Last month, France and the United States joined the UN in denouncing more than 100 demolitions in East Jerusalem over the past three months.

The mayor’s decision, warned Meir Margalit, a Jerusalem city councillor, was comparable to the “price tag” policy of the settlers in the West Bank, who have attacked Palestinian villages in retaliation against official attempts to dismantle a few of the settlement outposts dotting Palestinian territory.

“But the difference here is that the price tag is being levied not by the settlers themselves but by the municipality and the government on their behalf,” he said.

Yesterday the municipality was due to issue a seven-day evacuation notice to the inhabitants of Beit Yehonatan, but the operation was cancelled at the last minute when police refused to cooperate.

Frictions have been growing in Silwan for several years over the activities of another settler organization, Elad, which, with official backing, has been building an archaeological park known as the City of David in the midst of the Palestinian neighborhood. As Palestinians have been pushed out, at least 80 Jewish families have moved into homes nearby.

As Elad entrenches itself in Silwan, Beit Yehonatan has proved more difficult to secure. “Usually the settlers present a facade of legality to what they do,” Halper said. “The problem here is that they built in an overtly illegal manner, without a permit and way over the building height restrictions.”

Barkat’s resistance to evicting Beit Yehonatan’s inhabitants was highlighted last month when he tried to stave off legal pressure by proposing a new planning policy to legalize unlicensed buildings in Silwan. The mayor proposed that the rules limiting homes to two stories be revised to four.

The reform would have applied to Beit Yehonatan first, sealing its top three stories but allowing the Jewish families to inhabit the rest of the building.

Although Barkat promised that illegal Palestinian buildings would also be saved, Ir Amim, an Israeli human rights groups, dismissed the mayor’s claim.

The overwhelming majority of Palestinian homes would fail to qualify because land registry documents are missing for the area and a range of requirements on car parking, access roads and sewerage connections are “impossible” to meet, Orly Noy, a spokeswoman, wrote in the Haaretz newspaper last month.

She added that Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem lacked 70 km of sewage pipes and that not a single new road had been paved in their neighborhoods since Israel’s occupation in 1967.

A planning map of East Jerusalem drawn up recently by the Jerusalem municipality came to light last month, as Barkat was promising to legalize buildings, showing that more than 300 homes — most of them in Silwan — were facing imminent demolition.

Effort To Retroactively Approve Illegal Jerusalem Settlement Backed By Israel’s Interior Minister

by Saed Bannoura, IMEMC, February 9, 2010

A seven-story building constructed by right-wing Israeli settlers on Palestinian land, in East Jerusalem in 2004, is moving toward receiving ‘retroactive approval,’ with the unexpected support of Israel’s Interior Minister, Eli Yishai. This support adds an air of legitimacy to the settler’s illegal maneuver.

After US President Barack Obama’s retraction of his call, last year, that Israel freeze settlement expansion, construction of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has expanded exponentially. Israeli authorities have moved forward with the Jerusalem E1 Plan which was articulated in 2004, in which Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem would expand to ‘encircle’ Palestinian neighborhoods in an attempt to drive the Palestinians out and “Judaize” Jerusalem.

The building in question is part of that plan. Located in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, the so-called ‘Beit Yonatan’ building was constructed on Palestinian land without permits, and used to house Yeshiva students. The Palestinian residents of Silwan have been forcibly removed from their homes, and many remain homeless.

Now, with the Interior Minister’s intervention, the illegal building is not likely to be demolished as planned. Instead, the Interior Minister has directed the Jerusalem planning committee to approve the settlement’s construction plan retroactively, and allow further construction on the site.

The building’s eviction order, which was supposed to be issued Monday morning, was called off, and right-wing Israeli settlers and their supporters gathered to cheer and celebrate at the site.

The Biased US Broker in the Middle East: The Israeli-US Unbreakable Relations

By Khalid Amayreh, IOL, February 8, 2010

Ever since the ill-fated Rogers Plan, proposed and named after former US secretary of state William Rogers in 1969, every American administration made ostensibly exhaustive efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

However, all these efforts failed miserably, apparently due to Israel’s adamant refusal to give up the spoils of the 1967 War.

Another key reason behind the failure of the US peace diplomacy in the Middle East is the US reluctance and consistent refusal to exert meaningful pressure on Israel to abide by international law, which further emboldened Israel and made the Jewish state bask undisturbed in its rejectionism and arrogance of power.

In 1969, Golda Meir, the former Israeli prime minister, who displayed characteristic Zionist arrogance, as well as profound pathological hatred of Arabs, flatly rejected the Rogers Plan, describing it as a “disaster” for Israel and saying that “it would be irresponsible for any Israeli government to support such a plan.”

In1969, Israel’s cabinet formally rejected the plan, and in 1970, 70 American senators and 280 representatives rejected the plan as “being too one-sided against Israel.”

That was 40 years ago; today, the Obama administration is regurgitating more or less the same ideas, centering on the concept of the land-for-peace formula. Other US administrations under presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr, Bill Clinton, and George W Bush employed the same ideas in formulating their respective Middle East initiatives, but to no avail.

During these decades, Israel heavily employed diversionary tactics to distract attention from real issues. It used issues such as Arab non-recognition of Israel, Arab refusal to sit down with Israel at the negotiating table, and later the issue of “terror,” a reference to Arab resistance to Israel’s ruthless and cruel aggressions against Arab civilians in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, as well as inside the occupied Palestine.

In addition, successive Israeli governments used the time to create facts on the ground, namely building hundreds of Jewish colonies and transferring hundreds of thousands of its Jewish citizens to live on an occupied land belonging to another people.

The United States was closely monitoring all these developments, but refused to take any pro-active step against Israel, despite the latter’s brazen violations of international law, including America’s own laws such as the prohibition of the use of American-supplied weapons against civilians.

Why?

Israel is a small country with a population of six million, while the United States is the world’s remaining super power, with a population exceeding 300 million people. Moreover, Israel relies on the United States for acquiring state-of-the-art American military technology, which enables Israel to maintain a manifestly arrogant stand vis-à-vis the Arab world, as well as clear defiance of international law, including the United Nations and its Security Council.

Therefore, at the face value, one would think that the United States, not Israel, should be in a natural position to pressure, even coerce Israel, to heed the American will.

The truth, however, is that Israel has been in a position to pressure, even coerce, every American administration since president Eisenhower effectively ordered Israel in November, 1956 to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula, following the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt.

Even today, it is amply clear that President Obama is more concerned about Israeli (Jewish) pressure on his administration than Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is concerned about the possible US pressure on Israel.

This fact allows Netanyahu to successfully challenge and defy the Obama administration on the issue of settlement expansion, effectively forcing the American president to admit that he had underestimated the obstacles impeding a possible peace settlement between Israel and Palestinians.

The unique Israeli predominance over American politics and policies is not new. It goes back to the very birth of Israel when American Jewish circles used their financial leverage and political influence to get president Truman to recognize Israel against recommendations to the contrary by the state department.

Over the years, Israel and its powerful allies at the American arena successfully consolidated and virtually perpetuated Israeli predominance over US politics. The Israeli penetration of American politics has been meticulously documented by such American intellectuals, such as Alfred Lilienthal, who in 1978 wrote his masterpiece reference “The Zionist Connection: What Price peace; and Paul Fiendly who wrote “They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby.”

More recently, J J Mearsheimer and S W Walt jointly wrote The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy , which, using meticulous documentation, exposed Israel’s disproportionate influence on the US foreign policy.

Unbreakable Israeli-US Bond!

In fact, thanks to this disproportionate influence, the Octopus-like Israeli-American lobby, which tightly controls the Congress, was able to obtain long-standing commitments from the United States that no other country in the world would ever receive.

These include the following:

First, the United States committed itself to Israel’s survival and security, irrespective of Israeli behavior. This iron-clad commitment is routinely and almost ritualistically repeated by every new administration and by almost every American official visiting Israel. Again, this commitment is an independent variable, a constant that is not subject to other variables. In short, United States is with Israel all along, whether aggressor or victim.

Second, the United States is committed to maintain Israel’s qualitative edge in terms of its military and strategic capabilities over all Arab states combined and other Israel’s potential enemies. This is also a constant American foreign policy not subjected to the modes of Israeli behavior. This explains the visibly aggressive American efforts against the Iranian nuclear program, although there is no unequivocal evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

In this context, the United States imposed harsh sanctions against Libya until the North African state was bullied to dismantle its nuclear program and ship its components to the United States. All of this happened while Israel continued to maintain a large nuclear arsenal made up of hundreds of nuclear bombs and warheads.

Third, there is a long-standing American-Israeli understanding, according to which the United States would nearly unconditionally support and back Israeli diplomatically whether at the United Nations or the world at large. The United States used its veto power rather liberally to shield Israel from international condemnation, even when Israel was manifestly the aggressor party.

Hence, Israel effectively has nothing to worry about in terms of the military, political,and diplomatic ramifications and repercussions of its behavior in the Middle East.

This is why Israel has been able to annex and Judaize East Al-Quds )Jerusalem), build hundreds of Jewish-only colonies, and demolish tens of thousands of Arab homes throughout occupied Palestine, with nearly total impunity, thanks to this more or less total American commitment to the Jewish state.

In 2006, the Israeli air force dropped perhaps two million cluster bomblets over Lebanon, enough to kill or maim two million children. In 2008-2009, Israel committed a virtual genocide against the thoroughly starved and thoroughly-beleaguered inhabitants of Gaza, killing and maiming thousands of civilians and utterly destroying thousands of homes, schools, mosques, and other civilian infrastructure.

Tel Aviv Controls Washington?

Far from denouncing Israel’s violence and Nazi-like brutality, both the lame-duck Bush administration and the succeeding Obama administration watched the grisly massacres as if they were taking place on a different plant.

It was rumored a few years ago that the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a certified war criminal by any standard of honesty and fairness, told Shimon Peres, who reportedly objected to Israeli measures in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that he (Peres) should never worry about American pressure on Israel.

Sharon told him, “We control the United States, and the Americans know it.”

Israeli circles long denied the authenticity of the statement. However, it is amply clear that Sharon, who is now lying comatose for the fourth year, did not go too far in describing the unique American-Israeli relation.

By now and in the light of more than half a century of “special relations” between Israel and the United States, it should be clear that Israel has been able to impose its will on the US government, regardless of which administration is in power.

In light, it is explicitly futile to expect the Obama administration or any other American administration to force Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank and allow the Palestinians to have a viable state with East Al-Quds as its capital.

The United States has been given more than half a century to resolve the conflict in Palestine in accordance with international law, and the net result has been a gigantic fiasco.

Now, if Mr Obama, who is probably “the last and best shot,” from the Arab vantage point, is brazenly capitulating to Israel, as is clear from his administration’s inability or perhaps unwillingness to force Israel to stop the decades-old process of devouring whatever remains of the West Bank.

It is strikingly stupid to continue to count on his administration to give justice to Palestinians.

This is not to say though that the United States cannot be influenced. It can, but first, Arabs and Muslims must first show some respect for themselves and deal with the United States using the language of mutual interests, not the language of subservience and submission.

In the winter of 1973, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia told then US secretary of state Henry Kissinger that America could not be a true friend to Arabs and Muslims and at the same time continues to embrace Israeli territorial expansion at the expense of Palestinians.

Unfortunately, very few Arab leaders have ever since dared to make the same point to Americans.

To conclude, Palestinians and their supporters must stop chasing the American mirage, because it will not ever produce water. This is why an alternative strategy ought to be sought, preferably one that would make occupied Palestine a Muslim issue first, and a nationalist one second.

Khalid Amayreh is a journalist living in Palestine. He obtained his MA in journalism from the University of Southern Illinois in 1983. Since the 1990s, Mr. Amayreh has been working and writing for several news outlets among which is Aljazeera.net, Al-Ahram Weekly, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), and Middle East International. He can be reached through politics.indepth@iolteam.com.

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1265614057830&pagename=Zone-English-Muslim_Affairs%2FMAELayout#**1

Gaza’s recycled rubble: video

Palestinians are finding new ways to rebuild houses destroyed during the war on Gaza a year ago. That’s because an Israeli blockade is preventing construction materials from getting into the Strip.

Tel Aviv’s hydra-headed monster

by Linda S. Heard, source

It’s outrageous that in all probability Israel will once again be allowed to get away with committing murder on foreign soil while the world remains silent.

February 8, 2010

It’s surely ironic that the country that complains loudest about terrorism has assassination squads travelling the world in search of prey. The murder of Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room last month is believed to have been carried out by members of the Mossad allegedly using Irish passports. And the fact that the Israeli government has declined to comment other than to falsely claim that Al Mabhouh was in the emirate to meet with Iranian officials speaks volumes.

Dubai’s Police Chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim has warned that an international arrest warrant will be issued in the Israeli Prime Minister’s name if it is proved that the crime was perpetrated by an Israeli hit squad. That would certainly be a logical course of action but it’s easier said than done.

Government-sponsored Israeli murderers are professional and have decades of experience. It’s highly unlikely that they would leave behind them a trail of hard evidence that would stand up in an international court of law.

Moreover, even if Benjamin Netanyahu’s name were to appear on an international arrest warrant there would be very few countries, if any, willing to face Washington’s wrath by putting him behind bars.

Let’s be realistic. It’s just not going to happen! Britain, for instance, regularly tips off Israelis who are wanted for war crimes and is attempting to change its own laws to ensure Israelis are no longer vulnerable.

It’s outrageous that in all probability Israel will once again be allowed to get away with committing murder on foreign soil while the world stays silent. The reaction or rather non-reaction of the international community is unprincipled. It isn’t hard to imagine what an orchestrated outcry there would be if assassins backed by Arab governments were targeting prominent Israelis abroad. Every western television network would have rolling news and commentary centering on ‘Arab terrorists’, while US and European leaders would be issuing warnings and sending condolences.

There will be those who will say ‘good riddance’ upon hearing of the demise of a top Hamas lieutenant but I believe that anyone who takes that stance needs to check their moral compass. Whatever we feel about the victim should be neither here nor there.

Rogue state

Countries that equip assassins with foreign passports — usually acquired using devious means — to violate the sovereignty of a third nation should be censured in the United Nations and isolated. When a nation’s leaders behave like the Sopranos it deserves to be branded a rogue state.

Over the decades, the Mossad, the Shin Bet and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have carried out dozens of targeted assassinations. Several leaders of Hamas, Fatah, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Hezbollah have been killed along with the Egyptian nuclear scientist Yahya Al Mashad, who was murdered in a Paris hotel room in June 1980. By some estimates, the Mossad is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of nuclear scientists and is believed to have been behind the killing of Canadian ballistics expert Gerald Bull shot outside his Brussels apartment in March 1990 while working for Iraq.

The Mossad may be a well-honed killing machine but there are times when it makes mistakes. In 1973, Mossad agents using fake Canadian passports murdered a Moroccan waiter in Norway, whom they mistook for a Black September leader, and were arrested.

In 1997, Canada withdrew its ambassador from Israel after Israeli assassins were caught with Canadian passports in Jordan after a failed attempt on the life of Hamas leader Khalid Mesha’al. Then, in 2004, there was a diplomatic contretemps between Israel and New Zealand when Israelis working for Israeli intelligence fraudulently tried to obtain New Zealand passports.

Al Mabhouh’s killing may be stamped with the Mossad’s trademark but, in the end, the case is likely to be filed away marked ‘unsolved’. The slayers who flew out of Dubai within hours of doing the deed will be given new identities, new passports and new assignments.

Israel’s propagandists will attempt to pin the blame on Arab intelligence agencies and the rest of us will simply yawn and turn the page… until the next time this government-licensed hydra-headed monster strikes. The question is who will be next?

Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs.

Mottaki: “Israel” is a Crazy Country Run by Crazy People

Mottaki: Israel is a Crazy Country Run by Crazy People

Al Manar

09/02/2010 Iranian Foreign Minister Manchour Mottaki declared Monday that Israel was now weaker than ever before, adding that it was a “crazy country run by crazy people.” Mottaki told the Al-Jazeera news agency that Israel was in no position to embark on another military conflict, due to its internal political crisis and its losses over recent years in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

“Therefore, we must prepare for the chance that Israel will do something crazy against everyone in the region; the Syrians, the Lebanese and the Palestinians.”

When asked what would happen should Israel attack Iran, Mottaki replied: “Iran’s position is known by everyone. We can defend ourselves.” The Iranian foreign minister added that the Islamic Republic would “stand by our Arab brothers” should Israel attack any of its neighbors.

Mottaki’s remarks came after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei said that Western support of Israel was ineffective, telling a top Palestinian resistance leader that its obliteration was imminent according to the will of God.

“Today Palestine is the symbol of life, determination, faithfulness, diligence, and dignity,” Ayatollah Khamenei told Ramadan Abdullah, the secretary general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement. He praised the Palestinian resistance movement and declared that it had proven itself stronger despite the military superiority of the Israeli occupation Forces.

Iran Atom Chief Declares Start of Higher Uranium Enrichment

Al Manar

09/02/2010 Iran’s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi announced on Tuesday that Tehran has started to produce 20 percent enriched uranium at its Natanz plant, the official IRNA news agency reported. “From today we have started the 20 percent enrichment in a separate cascade in Natanz,” Salehi said.

He added the separate cascade was “more on a lab scale”. “We have prepared a cascade of 164 centrifuges for this purpose. This can make between three to five kilograms (6.5 to 11 pounds) of 20 percent enriched uranium per month for Tehran reactor,” Salehi said. The production is “twice our need for Tehran reactor which needs 1.5 kilograms,” he added.

The Islamic republic has been conducting low level enrichment of uranium in the central city of Natanz for several years.

The Islamic republic on Monday formally told the UN nuclear body of its plan to produce higher enriched uranium. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday ordered Salehi to begin enriching uranium to 20 percent, saying world powers had not agreed to Tehran’s conditions for the deal.

Ahmadinejad: Enemy Can’t Hinder Iran Progress, ME Determines World’s Fate

Al Manar

09/02/2010 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that Iran’s enemies will not be able to block the country’s scientific progress. In an address to the Second National Festival of Innovation and Prosperity in Tehran on Monday, Ahmadinejad said that young Iranian students would continue to attain great achievements in various technological fields.

The Iranian president also said the enemy assassinated Iranian particle physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi but added that such attacks would only strengthen the country’s resolve to strive to attain even greater scientific achievements.

Members of the Ali-Mohammadi family attended the festival, which was held as part of the Ten-Day Dawn celebrations commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Professor Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was killed by a remote-controlled bomb that was detonated in front of his home in the Qeytariyeh district of northern Tehran on January 12.

Also on Monday, Ahmadinejad says the Middle East is the region that “will determine the fate of the world.” “The Zionist regime and its allies are on the losing side, and the free nations’ resistance is empowered,” Ahmadinejad said in Tehran during a meeting with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Secretary General Ramadan Abdullah Shallah.

The Iranian president also advised all nations and resistance movements to maintain unity.

Shallah said the world’s oppressed people are following the example set by the Islamic Republic of Iran in confronting the arrogant powers. “The Palestinians, too, as soldiers on the holy path, along with other forces in the region, stand beside Iran against the arrogant powers,” he added.

The Palestinian official also held separate talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. During the meeting, Mottaki said that jihad and resistance are the keys to success for the Palestinians in their struggle against Israel. He also stated that Tel Aviv will not be able to realize its goals in the Gaza Strip.

And Israel will never dare to attack Iran because the consequences of such an act “would be unpredictable,” Mottaki added. Shallah briefed Mottaki on the latest developments in Palestine and said that Israel is the main reason for instability in the region.

What’s “Israel’s” new strategy? Arresting Palestinian women

Middle East Monitor, February 9, 2010

The arrest by the Israeli authorities of Montaha Altaweel has been condemned by Ahrar Centre for Studies on Human Rights and Prisoners. Ms. Altaweel is one of the most active women working in the prisoners’ solidarity movement; her husband is the mayor of Albera, Gamal Altaweel.

Fouad Alkhafesh, the Director of the Centre, regards Ms. Altaweel’s arrest as a cowardly act that aims to undermine the Palestinian family. “This seeks to destroy our social fabric by targeting and terrifying women activists,” he said.

Montaha Altaweel, 45, is one of the most prominent Palestinian activists for the defence of prisoners and their rights. She has led almost all of the demonstrations held in Ramallah and Albera for solidarity with prisoners, and is a member of many committees defending men and women in Israeli custody.

According to Mr. Alkhafesh, from evidence of the new strategy which is emerging it is clear that the Israelis want to increase the number of Palestinian women in detention, in order to humiliate and, ultimately, deter other Palestinians from social activism. He condemned the escalation in the number of arrests of Palestinians in the West Bank by the Israeli occupation forces.

Aqsa foundation: Aqsa walls cracked

February 9, 2010

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Aqsa foundation for endowment and heritage that caters for Muslim holy shrines in Palestine disclosed that big cracks were seen in the northern wall of the Aqsa Mosque.

According to a press release issued by the foundation and published by the Quds Press on Tuesday, the cracks were expanding day after day, and described the situation as “serious”.

The foundation quoted analysts and experts as asserting that based on the examinations they have conducted, the cracks were the result of the continued Israeli excavations near the wall, particularly under the Omari school, which is located within the zone of the Mosque.

However, the foundation highlighted that the Israeli excavations were more than what had been discovered so far, warning that the continuation of those excavations pose direct threat to the Mosque, and would sooner or later affect its existence.

Nevertheless, the foundation vowed to expose the Israeli practices against the Mosque, urging, at the same time, Arab and Muslim countries to stand up in defense of the first Muslim Qiblah.

British Government Promises Israeli Official He Won’t Be Arrested During Visit

by Saed Bannoura, IMEMC – February 9, 2010

After receiving a letter from the British Foreign Ministry promising that he wouldn’t be arrested for war crimes while in England, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon arrived in London on Monday.

He is the first Israeli official to visit Britain since a British judge issued an edict declaring that Israeli officials would be subject to ‘universal jurisdiction’ laws requiring their arrests and trial for war crimes. The ruling included an arrest warrant for Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni.

Since its invasion of the Gaza Strip last year that resulted in 1400 Palestinians killed, 80% of whom were civilians, and 5 Israeli civilians killed, Israeli officials have faced increased scrutiny and criticism abroad. This increased after Israel refused to acknowledge or examine the contents of the United Nations Report examining the Gaza invasion for possible war crimes.

Ayalon spoke Monday at the Institute for Strategic Studies in London, warning of ‘dangerous rhetoric’ emanating from Israel’s neighbors. The event was billed as a public ‘brain-storming session’ with British officials, researchers and diplomats. One of the subjects discussed was the growing boycott and divestment movement aimed at Israel’s apartheid policies. Ayalon considers the boycott movement to be an ‘image problem’ for the state of Israel.

Ashley Perry, a spokesperson for the British Foreign Ministry, said, “This visit takes place against the backdrop of anti-Israeli sentiment among some sectors in Britain and represents an attempt to present the basic elements of current Israeli policy.”

In the British Foreign Ministry’s invitation to Ayalon, the Ministry invited Ayalon to host an event at the Ministry’s office to celebrate an academic exchange program that “sends a clear message of Government support for strengthened links and of opposition to boycotts.”

US Arrests 12 People who Disrupted Israeli Ambassador’s Speech

Al Manar

09/02/2010 California Police reportedly made 12 arrests on Monday after a speech by Israel’s U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren descended into chaos.

Hecklers interrupted Oren’s lecture at Irvine University in Los Angeles over 10 times, shouting “killers” and “how many Palestinians did you kill?”

Oren took a 20 minute break after the fourth protest, only to be interrupted again by young men yelling at him every few minutes, local press reported.

The arrested students were apparently members of the university’s Muslim Student Union, which had publicly condemned Oren’s visit earlier in the day.

In a statement printed by the Orange County Register, a newspaper, the union said: “We condemn and oppose the presence of Michael Oren, the ambassador of Israel to the United States, on our campus today. We resent that the Law School and the Political Science Department on our campus have agreed to cosponsor a public figure who represents a state that continues to break international and humanitarian law and is condemned by more UN Human Rights Council resolutions than all other countries in the world combined?”

Oren eventually completed his speech, some time later than scheduled, but did not take questions from the audience as planned.

University Chancellor Michael Drake was booed by some and applauded by others when told the audience that he was embarrassed by the outburst.

The Useless Logic of Round Numbers: War is Criminal Any Day

{Obama's and promises of change} by Amer Al Zu'bi-Al Bayan newspaper-UAE

By Ramzy Baroud, source

The media’s habit of revisiting certain issues at set intervals can be strange and even illogical at times. For example, many news outlets commented on President Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office, as well as on the anniversary of his election win, and then again one year after his inauguration day. With every new round number, more commentators joined in and discussions heated up between proponents and detractors of his government’s performance.

I am not exactly sure why we like round numbers. Is it because they make valuations easy, even when the particular number is irrelevant? Some philosophers, Plato included, believed that order and symmetry are innate values in the human psyche. Perhaps. Or, perhaps, in the case of the media, numbers give us the sense, deceptively, that we have a grasp over certain truths. We determine the order in which legacies such as Obama’s should be dissected. After a decided date, the subject can be ignored until the next round number arrives, bringing with it more useless chatter.

Of course, this is a delusion. Like much of the media’s behaviour, it has no connection to reality. It’s all a mind game. A lie, even. For victims of US policies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and elsewhere, the attention given to round numbers is wholly illogical. The drones flying over Afghanistan and Pakistan, loaded with killing technology, care little for numbers, including the number of lives they destroy daily.

Did Gazans starve less when we ‘examined’ Obama’s (pro-Israel) legacy after 100 days of his presidency? Where they better off one year from his election victory or one year from his inauguration?

How about 273 days from his ascendancy to the White House? Was that a particularly chaotic day in Baghdad’s streets? Do soldiers take a break from killing on even days, and resume the slaughter on odd ones?

But why should this discussion matter at all? It matters because we often buy into this folly, allowing the media to determine what is important and when a discussion is pertinent. Those involved in this charade express their views, agreeing politely and disagreeing loudly. The next day, the media returns to a state of complacency, as if the detrimental policies of Obama’s government ceased to exist; as if war was eradicated, and there was nothing left to talk about.

But truly, do Palestinians in Gaza care much for round numbers? I doubt it. Nor do Iraqis, Afghanis, and, now, Yemenis. Misery is misery, any day, every day; war is an inferno. The smell of death, the scenes of blood in Kabul and Baghdad and Gaza, will remain the same on a Friday, or a Tuesday, 100 day into Obama’s presidency or 514 days later.

Every minute in a victim’s or potential victim’s life counts. Those who have lived in war zones can comprehend this truth. That’s why Gaza wants to see the end of its misery now, instead of waiting for CNN’s next roundtable discussion assessing the next round number in Obama’s presidency. Iraqis and Afghanis similarly listen to words and judge deeds, caring little for numbers.

Remember when Obama spoke to the “Muslim world” from Cairo on June 4th? That’s the date that Muslims – many still victimized, directly or otherwise, by the Obama administration’s policies – remember and recount. On that day, Obama made promises, speaking with ‘audacity’, and much hubris. Muslims listened. Some clapped and even cheered; others hesitated or expressed cynicism, but still hoped for change. Alas, none of those hopes have been fulfilled, as instead of change, there is only a continuation of the policies of his predecessor.

“I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect,” said Obama in Cairo. His deeds since then have reaped the opposite results: mistrust and disrespect.

“Make no mistake: we do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan,” he said. Since then, he has ordered the surge of 30,000 additional soldiers to that already distraught country. The US, its allies and their drones have killed and maimed hundreds of innocent civilians since that statement was made.

“Today, America has a dual responsibility: to help Iraq forge a better future – and to leave Iraq to Iraqis,” he said. One fails to see evidence of a better future based on his administration’s conduct in Iraq in the last year or so. Little progress has been made in leaving Iraq to the Iraqis.

Even in Cairo, he had the audacity to lecture Palestinians, the very victims of Israel’s brutal occupation, which is armed and funded by US money. “Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. Now is the time for Palestinians to focus on what they can build.” We must note that the US government continues to make these demands of Palestinians, ignoring the fact that Israel’s reign of terror has never ceased, including Israeli violence against Palestinian non-violent resistance in the West Bank.

Still, Obama did state that “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. Israel must also live up to its obligations to ensure that Palestinians can live, and work, and develop their society.”

Alas, the Obama administration faltered on its demand of a complete Israeli freeze, and is now harassing the ineffective leadership of Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank to return to the negotiation table without conditions.

In addition, the hope of ensuring that “Palestinians can live, and work and develop their society,” is nothing but a pipedream, considering that Palestinians in Gaza teeter between chronic malnutrition and starvation. We cannot forget the fact that the siege on Gaza would not have been possible without US support.

So before we giddily gather to discuss Obama’s legacy the next time another round number is celebrated on our television screens, let’s remember that for an Iraqi father, frantically searching for his son’s remains in a Baghdad street, numbers matter little, whether even, odd, round or in any combination. A massacre is a massacre, and a war of choice is a crime, any day, any time.

- Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is “My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story” (Pluto Press, London), now available on Amazon.com.