Israel Caught in Another Lie

QUOTE: In its defence, the Israeli report . . . specifically denied it was hit by an air strike. . .UN team find remains of aircraft-dropped bombs, contradicting Israeli report

UN find challenges Israeli version of attack on civilian building in Gaza war

UN team find remains of aircraft-dropped bombs, contradicting Israeli report on military conduct during three-week conflict

* Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem

A Palestinian woman covers her face as smoke rises following an explosion caused by Israeli military operations in Gaza City. Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP

A new Israeli report defending the military's conduct in the Gaza war was challenged tonight after evidence emerged apparently contradicting one of its key findings.

Israel submitted a 46-page report to the UN on Friday saying its forces abided by international law throughout the three-week war last year. It was meant to avert the threat of international prosecutions and to challenge a highly critical UN inquiry by South African judge Richard Goldstone, which accused both Israel and Hamas of "grave breaches" of the fourth Geneva convention, war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

The Israeli report looked in detail at a handful of incidents, including the attack on the al-Badr flour mill in northern Gaza, which was severely damaged.

The UN mine action team, which handles ordnance disposal in Gaza, has told the Guardian that the remains of a 500-pound Mk82 aircraft-dropped bomb were found in the ruins of the mill last January. Photographs of the front half of the bomb have been obtained by the Guardian.

This evidence directly contradicts the finding of the Israeli report, which challenged allegations that the building was deliberately targeted and specifically stated there was no evidence of an air strike. Goldstone, however, used the account of the air strike as a sign that Israel's attack on the mill was not mere collateral damage, but precisely targeted and a possible war crime.

The flour mill attack was not the most serious incident of the war: although nearly 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in just three weeks, no one died at the mill. However, because it was a civilian building producing food - the only operational mill in Gaza - the incident received particular criticism from Goldstone, who concluded that the building was hit by an air strike, the attacks were "intentional and precise", and they were "carried out for the purpose of denying sustenance to the civilian population". He added that the attacks violated the fourth Geneva convention and customary international law and may constitute a war crime.

In its defence, the Israeli report admitted the building had been hit by tank shells but said it was a "legitimate military target" because there were Hamas fighters "in the vicinity of the flour mill". It said the mill was "not a pre-planned target" and specifically denied it was hit by an air strike.

"The military advocate general did not find any evidence to support the assertion that the mill was attacked from the air using precise munitions, as alleged in the human rights council fact-finding report," it said. The military advocate general "found no reason" to order a criminal investigation.

But the Guardian visited the mill days after the war last year and on the first floor of the building saw what appeared to be the remains of an aircraft-dropped bomb in the burnt-out milling machinery.

The UN mine action team said it identified an aircraft-dropped bomb at the mill on 25 January last year and removed it on 11 February. "Item located was the front half of a Mk82 aircraft bomb with 273M fuse," according to the team. "The remains of the bomb were found on an upper floor in a narrow walkway between burnt-out machinery and an outside wall." The bomb was made safe by a technical field manager and removed.

The team also provided two photographs of what it said were the bomb remains, marked with the date and time it was identified: "25 Jan, 14:38". The team did not do a damage assessment of the building to see what other ordnance hit because that was not its task.

Asked to explain the new evidence today, the Israeli military referred the Guardian to an Israeli foreign ministry statement that summarises last week's report and states that the military is "committed to full compliance" with the law of armed conflict and to investigating any alleged violations.

As well as the heavy death toll, the Gaza war damaged a large amount of civilian infrastructure: more than 21,000 buildings and apartments were wholly or partly destroyed, including more than 200 major factories.

The al-Badr flour mill was the largest mill in the strip, with production lines spread over five floors - each of which were hit. Gaza's largest concrete factory, at a different site a few miles away, was also destroyed, as were several large food processing plants.

Goldstone said the nature of the attack on the flour mill "suggests that the intention was to disable its productive capacity" and said there was no plausible justification for the extensive damage. "It thus appears that the only purpose was to put an end to the production of flour in the Gaza Strip," his report said. It is not clear why Goldstone did not use evidence from the UN team in his report.

Rashad Hamada, one of two brothers who owns the mill, gave evidence at a public hearing in Gaza last June and said the mill was hit by an air strike. He said the ­factory twice received phone calls from the Israeli military telling them to evacuate the building in the days before the strike, but the factory was not used by Hamas or other Palestinian fighters.

Both Hamada brothers possess hard-to-obtain businessmen's permits to enter Israel and were therefore regarded as ­credible ­witnesses by the Goldstone team.

"What happened at the mill is total destruction of the whole production line of the factory," Hamada said. He ­estimated his losses due to the destruction were $2.5m (£1.7m) and said he believed that the mill had been targeted because it was working.

Four other flour mills in Gaza that were not operational were not targeted, he said. "As for the targeting, it is because [it was] a flour mill that is ­working," he said.

* guardian.co.uk, Monday 1 February 2010 20.25 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/01/gaza-war-report-accuses-israel

Another Failed US Attempt to Thwart Democratic Elections

Can we doubt Iran's charge that the US has been interfering in Iran's internal politics? The US would raise holy hell if a foreign power attempted to fix US elections. [Part of the earlier complete story repeated here to emphasize this issue.]

BELOW US ATTEMPT TO BUY ELECTION: ". . .a $3.2 million donation given by the US to Fatah ahead of the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election, won by Hamas, which had been intended to improve Fatah's image and boost its chances of winning."

'Corruption will let Hamas take W. Bank'

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Dramatic warning delivered by Abbas's former corruption-buster Fahmi Shabaneh.

. . .

Shabaneh cited several specific cases of alleged corruption within Fatah and the PA in the course of the interview, including asserting that Fatah personnel stole much of a $3.2 million donation given by the US to Fatah ahead of the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election, won by Hamas, which had been intended to improve Fatah's image and boost its chances of winning.

. . .

Palestinian Corruption Fighter Gives Up, Predicts Hamas Win

COMMENT: it was PA/Fatah corruption that allowed Hamas to win previous elections, although a PA-Fatah-Israel-US conspiracy deprived Hamas of its legitimate power. This well-placed observer was unable to root out the corruption and predicts that Hamas will eventually win the West Bank for the same reasons. But a correction is needed: Hamas did not "overthrow" the Fatah regime in Gaza, for Hamas won the election. On the contrary, Fatah sent US-trained troops into Gaza in an attempt to take the government away from Hamas, but at the first shot they turned and ran.

'Corruption will let Hamas take W. Bank'

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Dramatic warning delivered by Abbas's former corruption-buster Fahmi Shabaneh.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has surrounded himself with many of the corrupt officials who used to work for his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, and that's why Hamas will one day take control of the West Bank, Fahmi Shabaneh, who was appointed by Abbas four years ago to root out corruption in the Palestinian Authority, said on Thursday.

In an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post, Shabaneh, who until recently was in charge of the Anti-Corruption Department in the PA's General Intelligence Service (GIS), warned that what happened in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, when Hamas managed to overthrow the Fatah-controlled regime, is likely to recur in the West Bank.

"Had it not been for the presence of the Israeli authorities in the West Bank, Hamas would have done what they did in the Gaza Strip," Shabaneh told the Post. "It's hard to find people in the West Bank who support the Palestinian Authority. People are fed up with the financial corruption and mismanagement of the Palestinian Authority."

Shabaneh said that many Palestinians in the West Bank have lost hope that the PA would one day be reformed. "The Palestinian Authority is very corrupt and needs to be overhauled," he said.

Shabaneh cited several specific cases of alleged corruption within Fatah and the PA in the course of the interview, including asserting that Fatah personnel stole much of a $3.2 million donation given by the US to Fatah ahead of the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election, won by Hamas, which had been intended to improve Fatah's image and boost its chances of winning.

Shabaneh, a resident of east Jerusalem who worked as a lawyer before joining the GIS as its legal adviser after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, said he was forced to quit his anti-corruption job several months ago after exposing a sex scandal involving one of Abbas's top aides in Ramallah in 2009.

Video footage and other documents presented to the Post by Shabaneh show the aide lying naked in bed after being lured to an apartment in Ramallah by an east Jerusalem woman.

The footage shows Shabaneh and other armed security agents storming the bedroom, much to the surprise of the Abbas aide who is heard uttering: "Thank God it's you and not the Israelis."

Shabaneh said in the interview, the first of its kind with a high-ranking PA security official, that he and his men had been operating on instructions from their boss, Gen. Tawfik Tirawi, the former head of the GIS. Tirwai, for his part, denied that he had authorized Shabaneh to spy on the Abbas aide.

The top aide, who is one of the closest advisers to Abbas, was caught on tape making derogatory remarks against Abbas and Arafat. "President Abbas has no charisma" and is "not in control," he was quoted as saying. The aide was also caught on tape denouncing Arafat as one of the biggest dajjals (swindlers).

After the revelations, which were brought to Abbas's attention and were embarrassing for the PA president, Shabaneh was removed from his anti-corruption post and reassigned as head of the GIS's internal security force. More recently, he was promoted to overall commander of the GIS in the area.

Shortly afterwards, however, Shabaneh was arrested by Israeli police on suspicion of recruiting east Jerusalem residents to the GIS, spying on Israel, chasing suspected "collaborators" and Arabs involved in real estate deals with Jews, and threatening and blackmailing the senior Abbas aide.

Shabaneh has since been released from prison and most of the charges against him dropped. Today he remains under house arrest and is banned from entering the West Bank. The only charge he faces today is membership in a Palestinian military organization - a charge he claims is absurd given the fact that about 1,200 residents of east Jerusalem serve in the various security branches of the PA.

Shabaneh said that he had no doubt that his arrest by Israel was carried out at the request of "someone high in Abbas's office to punish me for fighting corruption and exposing sex scandals involving not only the senior aide, but many other officials as well."

He said that the decision to arrest him and prosecute him was also absurd because was always aware of his work and status in the PA security forces and never did anything to him.

�@

"For many years I worked as legal adviser to the General Intelligence Apparatus and no one ever asked me anything," Shabaneh noted. "When I was commander of the force in the area the Israelis even used to coordinate a lot with us."

Shabaneh insisted that the decision to pursue corrupt officials in Abbas's inner circle was part of the PA president's declared policy to combat financial corruption. "In his pre-election platform, President Abbas promised to end financial corruption and implement major reforms, but he hasn't done much since then," he said. "Unfortunately, Abbas has surrounded himself with many of the thieves and officials who were involved in theft of public funds and who became icons of financial corruption."

Shabaneh said that as head of the anti-corruption unit he and his men succeeded in exposing dozens of cases involving senior officials who had stolen public funds but were never held accountable.

"Some of the most senior Palestinian officials didn't have even $3,000 in their pocket when they arrived [after the signing of the Oslo Accords]," Shabaneh said. "Yet we discovered that some of them had tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars in their bank accounts.

Until today we didn't hear about one official who was brought to trial for stealing money from the PA, although we had transferred many of the cases to the Palestinian prosecutor-general."

Questioned as to why he had decided to go public now, Shabaneh said: "I'm not criticizing the Palestinian Authority simply because I like to criticize, but because I want to see a state of law, one with no room for corruption. I was offered $100,000 not to expose the last sex scandal, but I chose not to accept the bribe. I'm the one who resigned after my arrest, because after all that I've seen I no longer believe that Abbas's authority can be reformed.

�@

Asked whether PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is working to establish good government, Shabaneh said: "Salam Fayyad is a good man and I have a lot of respect for him. He's really working to build professional institutions and good government, but the corrupt Fatah people around Abbas are doing their utmost to thwart his efforts."

He added: "Even Abbas tried in the beginning, but the corrupt officials working with him didn't allow him to make progress."

Shabaneh also said he had managed to track down some of the financial aid that went missing during and after the period of Arafat's death.

"I discovered, for example, that several senior officials had taken millions of dollars from the Palestinian leadership under the pretext that they wanted to purchase land that would otherwise be confiscated by Israel," he said.

"Our investigations revealed that many of the purported land deals were fictitious transactions and we even forced one official to return more than $800,000. We had another case where a senior Fatah official and his brother pocketed about $2.5m. which they took from Arafat under the pretext that they wanted to purchase land in the West Bank before Israel lays its hand on it.

Asked whether he believed outside donors should stop channeling funds to Abbas, he said his advice to the donor countries "is to follow up on their donations to examine how and where the money is being spent. We caught some officials who stole about $700,000 from the donors to study the atmosphere in . Why do we need to spend such a huge amount of money on something trivial like this when many people are suffering and have nothing to eat or feed their children?"

Was he serious about Hamas taking over the ? "Yes, no question about that," he said. "It will happen one day if the state of corruption and anarchy continue in the West Bank .

"Why do you think Hamas kicked us out of the Gaza Strip? Because the people there were fed up with the corruption and bad government of Fatah. What do you think the people in the Gaza Strip used to think when they saw a colonel in the Palestinian Authority driving in a big motorcade and surrounded by dozens of bodyguards and assistants?"

Did he see no chance that Fatah would reform? "As long as the same corrupt guys are running the show we shouldn't expect real changes," said Shabaneh.

"Before the 2006 parliamentary election, the Americans gave Fatah $3.2m. to improve the party's image and boost its chances of winning. But the Fatah people even stole most of the money that was intended to help them improve their image and reputation. These corrupt officials know no limits. They even used to forge Arafat's signature to obtain money by fraud," he said.

29/01/2010 03:25

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=167194#

Israel's Haiti Propaganda Mission Returns Home

Sceptics have opined that Israel's recent mission in Haiti, very helpful though it was, was motivated one part by humanitarianism and nine parts by public relations considerations. These words do nothing to dispel the scepticism.

QUOTE: "Many have tried recently to tarnish our image," Ashkenazi said in his welcome. "With you deeds, you have proven that the opposite is true."

Netanyahu to returning Haiti team: You raised Israel's image

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service

The Israel Defense Forces team dispatched to Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake two weeks ago returned home on Thursday morning, receiving a hero's welcome from top Israeli officials at the Ben Gurion International Airport.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi were on hand at the airport to laud the 200-member team as it landed.

"You have raised human spirits and elevated the name of the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces," Netanyahu told the returning team. "As many plot against us, distort and muddy our names, you have shown the real IDF."

"The Chief of Staff has told me that the other militaries were astounded by how quickly we arrived at the scene and began to work," added the prime minister. "Those who have seen the IDF over the years, operating under seemingly impossible situations and missions, are not surprised."

"Many have tried recently to tarnish our image," Ashkenazi said in his welcome. "With you deeds, you have proven that the opposite is true."

"Facing this massive catastrophe was an exceptional group of people from the Home Front Command and the IDF Medical Corps," Ashkenazi said. "This group was a source of pride for every Jew."

The Chief of Staff told the team that during his recent trip to Europe, numerous heads of foreign armies praised the work of the IDF crew, adding: "I was proud to be the man representing them."

In his welcoming address, Barak added his own accolades and praised the team for its efforts. "We all watched with excitement as the eyes of the world were on you. It warmed the heart to see you fulfill your professional mission."

"In a world where the IDF is criticized, you showed the true spirit of the IDF and the true spirit of Israel," Barak added.

The Home Front Command decided this week to bring the team back earlier than planned, as senior officers on hand in Haiti felt they had fulfilled their role in helping the earthquake victims.

One of the victims of the quake was a six-year-old boy named Wadli, who joined the Israeli team in its return. Wadli was born in Haiti with a life-threatening heart defect. In the coming weeks, he will undergo surgery at the Wolfson Hospital.

"I'm sure that the main memories you take with you will be of Waldi, the 16 babies that you delivered and the thousands of injured and sick people that you cared for," Barak told the team.

Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, the head of the Home Front Command, returned to Israel last Friday after spending a few days with the Israelis in Haiti, commanded by Brig. Gen. (res.) Shalom Ben-Aryeh. The command and the IDF Medical Corps are now preparing for the next stages of their mission: closing up shop and leaving behind a large part of the equipment brought there as a final goodwill gesture to the people of Haiti.

The winding up of the mission involved assisting the members of the team in returning to normal life back home after the complex experiences they they had, as well as drawing the necessary professional conclusions from the Haiti operation.

On the professional level, the IDF learned much about running a field hospital under such difficult conditions and operating rescue teams; and about dealing with a mass disaster that thankfully Israel has never experienced. The up close experience of dealing with an earthquake and its aftermath - a number of aftershocks occurred while the Israel mission was there - increased awareness of the enormous danger of such a natural event, but the upper echelons of the Home Front Command believe the situation in Israel is very different. While the earthquake in Haiti reached a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale, it seems the incredible destruction resulted more from the poor-quality construction there. Two similar strength earthquakes in California in recent decades resulted in only a few dozen killed in each quake.

Members of the rescue team who toured the area were surprised to discover there are almost no buildings built with reinforced concrete in Haiti. "You wander through the ruins and see no iron bars. Everything is made out of simple concrete, which turns into a brittle material in an earthquake of this magnitude. Everything collapses," said one member of the Israeli mission.

In Israel, by way of comparison, a far stricter building code was adopted in the mid-1970s, making buildings far less vulnerable to earthquakes.

The main conclusion of the Haiti mission from an Israeli perspective, said one senior officer, concerned the "awareness of the citizens and local authorities of the possibility of an earthquake. It is possible that more exercises are needed, but if you prepare properly for a missile attack on the home front, then you have 95% of the tools [needed] at your disposal for dealing with an earthquake," said the officer.

An analysis of the decision making process on sending the team once again shows that time is the critical factor. Israel moved quickly, in terms of making its decision and making the necessary preparations.

This provided effective help at a very early stage. In the case of Haiti, the rescue operations among the ruins - even though they drew huge media coverage - were downplayed. "It is very exciting to pull out survivors, but it's a drop in the bucket. We rescued or aided in the rescue of four people, while all the rescue teams from all the countries saved 132 people altogether. It seems almost 200,000 people died in the earthquake," said the senior officer.

Israel's main accomplishment was in the quick deployment of the field hospital in Haiti. "For five critical days, it was the best hospital in Port-au-Prince," said the officer. "We provided timely medical care to about 1,000 people, we conducted 300 operations and delivered 16 babies. In the past few days the Americans arrived and then you can put things in proportion and become more modest in the face of their airlift and the scope of their aid. You need to understand that those who will continue to treat the main suffering there are the Americans," he added.

For Israel, this is further proof of the importance of field hospitals; the IDF closed the last one five years ago and only reopened them as part of the lessons learned from the Second Lebanon War.

The IDF has praised the cooperation with the Foreign Ministry and El Al during the mission to Haiti. The good public relations is seen as being of only secondary importance: "Our people went to Haiti to save lives, to provide the best medical care they can and to represent Israel. That is the proper order of priorities. They did not think constantly about the blue and white flag flying overhead," said the senior officer

Last update - 11:53 28/01/2010

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145793.html

Israel's Ethnic Cleansing: Destroy the Books

QUOTE: Israel destroyed the Palestinian books in the framework of its plan to "Judaize the country" and cut off its Arab residents from their nation and culture.

Researcher: Israel destroyed Palestinian books

Tens of thousands of Palestinian books destroyed after Israel's establishment, Ben-Gurion University researcher says

Ynet

Israel plundered and destroyed tens of thousands of Palestinian books in the years after the State's establishment, according to a doctoral thesis to be submitted next month by a Ben-Gurion University researcher.

In an interview with the researcher published on al-Jazeera's website Thursday, he claimed that Israel destroyed the Palestinian books in the framework of its plan to "Judaize the country" and cut off its Arab residents from their nation and culture.

According to the doctoral dissertation, Israeli authorities collected tens of thousands of Arab books in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Safed, and other towns that were home to Arabs. Israeli officials proceeded to hand out about half the books, while destroying the second half, characterizing them as a "security threat," the researcher said.

In his al-Jazeera interview, the researcher claimed that, based on Israeli archives, IDF troops plundered the books from the homes of Palestinians expelled during the "Nakba" and handed them over to authorities. The State proceeded to establish a library in Jaffa and other towns for the books, he said.

'Cultural massacre'

The researcher told al-Jazeera that according to documents he possesses, Israel destroyed 27,000 books in 1958, claiming that they were useless and threatened the State. Authorities sold the books, most of them textbooks, to a paper plant, he said.

"This was a cultural massacre undertaken in a manner that was worse than European colonialism, which safeguarded the items it stole in libraries and museums," the researcher charged.

He added that some books were sold at discounted prices to Arab schools, while the others were transferred to the Hebrew University's library in Jerusalem.

The researcher estimated that about 6,000 Palestinian books are currently available at the National Library at Hebrew University. However, he claimed that many other books in Arabic, English, and French were not recorded, charging that most of them are being held in the library's warehouses and cannot be accessed.

Published: 01.28.10, 20:59 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3841252,00.html

Did US Censor Russian Ahmadinejad-Obama TV Ad?

QUOTE: The ads were censored in the United States, with black stripes covering the face of Obama/Ahmadinejad.

Why is Russia comparing Obama to Ahmadinejad?

By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent

The Obama administration has made a concerted effort to "reboot" American relations with Russia, yet the Russians have found increasingly creative methods of provocation aimed at Washington. Recently, Russia's English-language state television network, Russia Today, launched a controversial campaign comparing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to President Barack Obama.

The ad campaign presents a picture of Obama superimposed with that of Ahmadinejad, next to the question "Who poses the greater nuclear threat?"

In another ad entitled "Who is more dangerous?", a neo-Nazi's image is superimposed with that of a soccer patron, a subtle reference to British fans who gained notoriety for unruly behavior at matches.

The ads were censored in the United States, with black stripes covering the face of Obama/Ahmadinejad.

Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT, said the goal of the campaign is to prod the audience to examine their stereotypical views. Americans who have watched the network, however, said the station is less representative of "a new alternative to the mainstream" and more reminiscent of Cold War-era propaganda.

Some of the most influential Russian bloggers on the Web were angry at the Russian government's decision to pour significant funds into the ad campaign, particularly during these lean economic times.

"It's a good thing that the Americans censored the campaign," Anton Nosik, Russia's "Internet whiz kid" and an Israeli ex-pat, wrote in his blog. "I fear that this will not contribute to Russia's image abroad and that this was done due to billions being taken away from our schools, hospitals, and orphanages."

Simonyan denied on her own blog that the campaign's cost ran into the billions. She added that it was a necessary component of the Russian government's bid to influence world public opinion through state-controlled media.

Last update - 22:34 26/01/2010

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145380.html

Israel Claims Rabbi Torched Mosque

or . . . reliving the Old Testament takeover of the "Promised Land"

Settler rabbi arrested over West Bank mosque arson

By Chaim Levinson, Haaretz Correspondent

The Shin Bet security service on Tuesday arrested the head of a West Bank religious seminary for his alleged involvement in the torching of a Palestinian mosque in the village of Yasuf last month.

The suspect, Rabbi Itzik Shapira, is one of the heads of the "Od Yosef Chai" yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. He was initially questioned by West Bank police, though he was later transferred into Shin Bet custody in Petah Tikva after he refused to answer questions related to the arson.

The yeshiva is behind the "price tag" policy whereby settlers have vowed to instigate actions against Palestinians in retaliation for the government's enforcement of a construction freeze in West Bank settlements.

A number of the yeshiva's administrators have published commentaries supporting this policy. Last week, the Shin Bet arrested four others linked with the arson, two of whose remand was extended by two days on Monday afternoon.

Both suspects denied the allegations against them, and were supported during the hearing by friends who shouted "god is king," and "everyone is silent."

Three more suspects were arrested in connection with the torching, two of whom are minors.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said following the incident that Israel must rein in settlers' "brutal" actions.

"The torching of the mosque in Yasuf is a despicable crime, and the settlers are behaving with brutality," said Abbas, who called the act a violation of religious freedom.

"The settlers' unruly behavior must be stopped," Abbas added after a meeting with United Arab List-Ta'al chairman Ahmed Tibi in Amman.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, also condemned the act as a bid to thwart the peace process with the Palestinians.

"This is an extremist act geared toward harming the government's efforts to advance the political process for the sake of Israel's future," Barak said.

Last update - 21:37 26/01/2010

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145274.html

Identity Card Turmoil in Israeli Theocracy

QUOTE: "It is unacceptable that over 200,000 immigrants are carrying identity cards that give their status as 'no religion'," Lieberman said.

COMMENT: one can't help thinking of Hitler stamping Jewish identity papers with "J." Israel should be ashamed of itself for stigmatizing people by their religion or lack thereof.

Lieberman: Conversion laws eroding non-Orthodox Judaism

By Yani Yagna

Nearly 300,000 immigrants still classified as non-Jews as conversion rates plummet.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on Monday for a change to laws on conversion to Judaism, which he said had left thousands of Israelis in limbo.

Speaking at a conference on immigrant absorption in Ashdod, Lieberman, who leads the hard-line Yisrael Beiteinu party, urged the state to allow head Rabbis in all Israeli towns to perform conversions.

"It is unacceptable that over 200,000 immigrants are carrying identity cards that give their status as 'no religion'," Lieberman said.

The number of immigrants entering conversion programs has plummeted following a controversial ruling in 2008 by the Rabbinical Court of Appeals, which at a stroke invalidated all conversions performed by the state-run Conversion Administration.

Yisrael Beiteinu, which enjoys strong support from Israel's large population of immigrants from the former Soviet Union - around a quarter of a million of whom are classified as non-Jews or having no religion - now hopes to roll back the changes and ease the process.

"Every town's chief rabbi must have the authority to perform conversions himself," Lieberman told the conference.

"In a generation's time there will be no Jews left in the world outside orthodox Judaism, because of assimilation."

This is not the first time that Lieberman, himself a Russian immigrant, has raised the issue of conversion. An attempt two years ago by Yisrael Beitenu to restore powers to municipal rabbis ran into opposition from religious parties in the government coalition and the rabbinical courts

Last update - 12:57 25/01/2010

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144984.html

Israel Remains Cause of Al Qaeda Terrorism

QUOTE: "Our attacks against you will continue as long as U.S. support for Israel continues," bin Laden said. "It is not fair that Americans should live in peace as long as our brothers in Gaza live in the worst conditions."

COMMENT: this isn't something new. Right after the 2001 attacks Bin Laden said that US support of Israel was one of the causes. George Bush's first speech mentioned Israel. The US news media and the White House soon got the message not to mention Israel and stopped doing it because Israel's supporters were afraid that tying it to 9/11 (and later to the Iraq war) in any way would decrease support for Israel in the US.

Bin Laden: Attacks on U.S. to go on as long as it supports Israel

By Reuters

A purported audio tape of Osama bin Laden aired on Al Jazeera television claimed responsibility for a Dec. 25 attempted bombing of a U.S.-bound plane, and vowed to continue attacks on the United States, as long as it supports Israel.

A White House top adviser David Axelrod said on CNN's "State of the Union" program that he could not confirm the authenticity of the audiotape.

"I can't confirm that (Al-Qaida's responsibility for the attack) nor can we confirm the authenticity of the tape, but assuming that it is him, his message contains the same hollow justifications for the mass slaughter of innocents that we've heard before," said Axelrod.

On Sunday's audiotape, the Al-Qaida vowed to continue attacks so long as Palestinians cannot live in peace.

"Our attacks against you will continue as long as U.S. support for Israel continues," bin Laden said. "It is not fair that Americans should live in peace as long as our brothers in Gaza live in the worst conditions."

The Yemen-based regional wing of Al-Qaida has said it was behind the Dec. 25 attempt to blow up the plane as it approached Detroit. The botched attack and subsequent threats in Yemen prompted Sanaa to declare an open war on the global militant group within its territory.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Andy David, dismissed the latest Al-Qaida message and its attempt to link Israel with attacks on the U.S.

"This is nothing new, he has said this before. Terrorists always look for

absurd excuses for their despicable deeds," he said.

"The message sent to you with the attempt by the hero Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a confirmation of our previous message conveyed by the heroes of Sept. 11," bin Laden said on the tape, aired on Sunday.

"If it was possible to carry our messages to you by words we wouldn't have carried them to you by planes," bin Laden added in a message he said was directed "from Osama to [U.S. President Barack] Obama."

Yemen has launched a series of air strikes targeting Al-Qaida leaders since then and has declared that some top leaders including Qasim al-Raymi and Ayed al-Shabwani have been killed. Al Qaeda denies this.

Defense and counterterrorism officials say Washington has been quietly supplying military equipment, intelligence and training to Yemen to destroy suspected Al-Qaida hide-outs.

The last public message from bin Laden appears to have been on Sept. 26, 2009, when he demanded that European countries pull their troops out of Afghanistan. The order came in an audiotape that also warned of retaliation against nations that are allied with the United States in fighting the war.

Last update - 16:27 24/01/2010

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144712.html

How Israel Treats its Arab Citizens

QUOTE: Hanin Muslah said that during Thursday's incident she was also subjected to a full body search.

COMMENT: some would say it serves her right for going to a "settler" college on occupied Palestinian territory. And by the way, Arabic is an OFFICIAL language of Israel.

Ariel College student says taken off bus for speaking Arabic

Israel-Arab claims she was humiliated by two security guards who ordered her off bus after hearing her speak Arabic on cell phone. College: First such incident in 15 years

Yaheli Moran Zelikovich

An Arab-Israel student at the Ariel College in the West Bank claimed she was told to get off a bus because she "dared" to speak Arabic on her cell phone.

Hanin Muslah said that during Thursday's incident she was also subjected to a full body search.

Muslah, who is originally from the Wadi Ara area and is studying for a degree in engineering at the establishment's architecture and interior design department, said two armed security guards boarded the bus near a checkpoint as it was leaving Ariel. She claimed that the guards questioned her after hearing her speak Arabic and eventually ordered her to get off the bus.

As I was talking on my cell I noticed they were pointing at me," said Muslah, who takes the same bus home every day. "I started to cry. I have never been so humiliated in my entire life. They took me off the bus in the middle of nowhere. I told them, 'I'm an Israeli, just like you are, so why are you treating me like this? Why take me off the bus in such a degrading manner?'"

"I don't wear a veil or traditional dresses; I don't look Arab," said the student, "I was taken off the bus only because I spoke Arabic."

The Ariel Municipality said the guards in question work for a security company that operates "according to IDF guidelines," adding that "non-Jewish citizens, including students, pass through Ariel's gate every day."

Ariel College said in response that the establishment's Arab-Israeli students make up four percent of the entire student body. "Many of them live in the dorms and are involved in the student community and the city itself. We regret the incident and will check it with the company responsible for security at the roadblock. This is the first time since Arab students began enrolling in the institution (15 years ago) that such an incident has taken place," it said.

Despite the college's claim, Muslah said other female Arab students have also been humiliated at the Ariel checkpoints, adding that they are considering taking legal action.

Israel's Arabs - they are not a threat. They only want to go about their business in peace," she said.

Published: 01.22.10, 22:42 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838230,00.html