Hamas website over explosie huis in Gaza met 7 doden

Het haalde het nieuws nauwelijks, maar Hamas heeft - in het Arabisch - toegegeven zelf verantwoordelijk te zijn voor de explosie enkele dagen geleden waarbij 7 mensen, waaronder een baby, omkwamen. Uiteraard zijn zij een heroische martelarendood gestorven in hun strijd tegen het Zionistische gevaar...

 

Ratna

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Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:
While the Arabic Hamas website already openly admitted on 12 June that their people were killed while putting the "finishing touches" on rockets they were preparing (#2),  they only got around to putting out an English version of a statement on their website on 14 June that their men were "martyred in an explosion took place in a Palestinian house" (#1). They still haven't pulled the article claiming that the house was hit by Israel (3).

#1 Statements
2008-06-14

Military Communique
Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades
Information Office
June 12th,2008

 

www. alqassam.ps/english/?action=showsta&sid=1252

Al Qassam Brigades mourns martyrs of Beit Lahiya

 

As Al Aqsa Intifada against the occupation assault on the Gaza Strip continues, Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades has its best men to be in the playground of death to defend their people from any attack by the enemy..
Today , Al-Qassam Brigades  mourns the death of the Mujahideen :

Ashraf Naim Moshtaha                                         32-year-old
At-Toffah neighborhood/ Gaza
Hassan Mohammed AbuShaqfa                            28-year-old
Beit Lahiya/ northern Gaza
Mohammed Sabri Abu Naja                                  25-year-old
Ash-Sharbora area/ Rafah
Ahmed Monir Sbeih                                               20-year-old
Gaza city

The Mujahideen were martyred in an explosion took place in a Palestinian house in Beit Lahiya region to the north of Gaza Strip on Thursday 12th of June,20008. Al Qassam Brigades mourns the death of the Mujahideen, reaffirms the commitment and determination to continue the resistance against the belligerent occupation forces.


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#2 Arabic website Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades - the armed branch of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

www.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Falqassam.ps%2Farabic%2F&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=ar&tl=en

Qassam : Martyrs of Beit Lahia risen and they put the finishing touches to the task of jihad special
2008-06-13 2008-06-13

The "Martyr Brigades, Izz al-Din al-Qassam," the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas", to live up to its martyrs who Ela Thursday (12 / 6), in an explosion in a house of Beit Lahia, was martyred as they put the final touches on their way to carry out the task of Jihad in particular.

The asphalt "Qassam", the military statement issued Friday (13 / 6) martyrs and said they are "field commander Shahid Ashraf Naim desired fruit, and field commander Shahid Hassan Mohammed Abu Hqvh, Shahid field commander Magdi Adel Hammouda, the struggling divisions martyr Abu Mohammad Sabri survived , Shahid Mohammed Hamdan divisions struggling Xu, Shahid divisions struggling Munir Ahmed Sobeih, "adding they were" Knights sections of the unit who witnessed the arenas of jihad partnerships with many heroic, "according clarified.

The statement said the Qassam "on the path of Jihad and resistance; goes Qassam Miami men worshipped Zaki and sacrificed their bodies pure bridge crossing and access road to victory and liberation and empowerment, and on this thorny path goes to the heart convoys of innocent martyrs, who pay tax Jihad from their blood and lives."

 The "Qassam" may also be termed "the hero martyr Mahmoud Attaya, Hamouda, a martyred girl Noor Magdi Hammouda daughter martyr leader Magdi Hammouda," Treaty of God "on the path of jihad and martyrdom, and the blood of martyrs will not be lost in vain, and remain loyal to them and Palestine and the Asa "

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#3 English website Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades - the armed branch of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

www. alqassam.ps/english/?action=showdetail&fid=1038

 

2008-06-12

Zionist war planes destroyed a house completely, 7 civilians were martyred

 

Palestinian local sources reported that the Zionist war planes shelled a Palestinian house full of children and women.

Palestinian medical sources reported that seven Palestinians were martyred, at least more 40 wounded in the large explosion in northern Gaza on Thursday afternoon.

The incident occurred in the home of Ahmed Hamouda, a member of the Ezzedeen al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. Palestinian witnesses confirmed that the explosion was caused by a Zionist airstrike.

The Palestinian medical sources reported that there are women and children among those wounded, five of them are said to be in serious condition.

The explosion resounded throughout the far corners of the city and the house has been completely destroyed. A number of neighboring residential buildings and business establishments were seriously damaged.

The Islamic resistance movement Hamas blamed the Zionist war planes in this attack against the Palestinian civilians.


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IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website: www.imra.org.il

Palestijnse informanten bouwen nieuw leven op in Sderot

Een a-typisch artikel in de Britse Guardian, wiens berichtgeving doorgaans anti-Israël is: Aan het woord komen Palestijnen uit de Gazastrook die jarenlang met de Israëli's hebben samengewerkt in het bestrijden van terroristische aanslagen. Heimelijk, want 'collaboratie met de bezetter' was een gevaarlijke aktiviteit voor henzelf en hun families.

___________________________________

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/13/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast

A secret fresh start: former Palestinian collaborators forge new life in Israel

 

Eighty informants and their families enjoy relative safety in frontline town

 

Rory McCarthy in Sderot

The Guardian, Friday June 13 2008

 

From a plastic chair on his front porch Samir looked out over a garden neatly planted with rose bushes. In this house Samir, his wife, and five of their children are living a new life, surrounded by Jewish Israeli neighbours and, like them, in the firing line of the makeshift Palestinian rockets that target the Israeli town of Sderot. Last year one of these Qassam rockets fired only a couple of miles away in Gaza crashed into his garden, sending shrapnel up the front of the house.

Samir is not his real name, for this heavy-set, 52-year-old Palestinian is scared to reveal his true identity. This is his fresh start, his reward after working for more than 20 years in secret in his native Gaza as a collaborator with the Israeli security forces. "I don't regret any of my story," he said. "I'm very happy that I helped the state of Israel. Here everything is straightforward, not like with the Arabs. Here there is a law and there are rights."

Many of Sderot's residents are trying to sell their houses and move to safer towns beyond the reach of the rockets. But Palestinians such as Samir are moving in, in part because property is cheaper but also because there are others like them here, a community of perhaps 80 collaborators - they prefer to use a Hebrew word that translates as "assistants" - and their close relatives.

 

Most arrived before the rockets, when Sderot was simply an inexpensive Israeli town close to the Gaza border and convenient for occasional family visits. Those visits are now too dangerous and most of the Palestinians in Sderot now acknowledge they can never go home.

Samir was caught in 1994, the year that Yasser Arafat returned to Gaza in the wake of the Oslo peace accords. A friend and distant relative had given up Samir's name during a brutal interrogation. Samir had spent years giving the Israelis whatever information he could find about the armed groups and their planned attacks, work he kept secret even from his wife. But Palestinian collaborators risk death if they are caught by their own people.

 

Lucky escape

 

Samir was lucky: he was held in jail for four years, tortured and then forced to give up his savings, sell his land and his wife's jewellery to buy his way out of jail. Eventually one morning in 2000 he escaped into Israel and asked his handlers for help. He was given an Israeli residency permit, which he must renew every two years, and was allowed to bring out his wife and five youngest children. The five older children, who were all married, had to stay behind.

 

At first the family lived in Haifa and then they moved to Sderot about seven years ago. The Israeli security forces paid for the house and left Samir to restart his life.

Today his children study at the local Hebrew-language school, speak the language fluently, dress more like Israelis than Palestinians and count Jewish Israelis among their friends. One of his sons spent nearly four years working as an interrogator with the Israeli security forces at a nearby prison, questioning Palestinian detainees.

 

Most of those in Sderot were recruited during the years of Israel's full military occupation of Gaza, before the Oslo accords and long before the settlers were withdrawn in 2005. Some were arrested for drug-trafficking or other criminal offences and were offered work as informants as a way to escape jail time, others were uniformed policemen working for the Israeli occupation. Few seem to have started for the money.

 

Samir began after his brother was wrongly accused of being a collaborator and killed in the early 70s. By giving information on the groups who killed his brother he sought revenge. "Because of what they did to my brother I decided to work for the Israelis. He was so strong, so beautiful and they killed him for something he hadn't done." He hid documents in his roof and speaks proudly of how for years he operated in complete secrecy.

 

On the other side of town is another collaborator, who used the pseudonym Subhi. He arrived in Sderot in 1996 and now runs a successful business, drives a BMW and boasts of his contacts with the "dignified people of Sderot". He wears gold jewellery, including a bracelet engraved with Hebrew lettering.

He left eight children in Gaza. The eldest son was jailed for being a collaborator, until he escaped during the factional fighting last year, and the second son was shot in the shoulder and nearly killed, again because of his father's work over 20 years for the Israeli security forces. "I don't regret what I've done but I want my children to come out and be with me," said Subhi, 54.

 

He gave little away about how he started as an informant, saying only he did not work for the money and that he believed it was the right thing to do. His experience has left him believing there can never be peace between Israel and the Palestinians. "The only choice is an Israeli military occupation to clean the area of weapons," he said. "But I don't believe there can be real peace."

 

Some of the Israelis of Sderot, a poor town built on Jewish immigrants from Morocco and the Soviet Union, accept the Palestinians as neighbours and acknowledge their work. Many others, however, have few good words to say about them. "I don't know how to accept them. We're afraid that Sderot will be filled with Palestinians from Gaza," said Sara Peretz, 58. Several Palestinian families have moved into her street. "It's complicated. Their people are also trying to kill us."

 

Several of the Palestinians are represented by Natan Shrayber, a lawyer who used to work in the Israeli security forces and is trying to bring the rest of their families out of Gaza. "Their contribution is considerable but the problem is we can't make public what they have done so often they are seen as a burden on society," he said. "But they have made an enormous contribution to state security: they are one of the main means of getting intelligence ... no state can manage without people on the other side but the difference is that in Israel people know about it."

 

Not far from Samir's house is another Palestinian who spent years working for the Israeli security forces before he too fled Gaza in 1993. He was granted Israeli citizenship, and claims that he not only informed on Palestinian militants but also killed several members of Hamas.

 

"When the Israelis ruled Gaza people lived like kings," said the man, who is aged 58. Like other Palestinians here he takes a hard line on Gaza, saying only a major Israeli invasion will halt the rockets. "Only when the army go into Gaza can they finish it," he said. He accepts now his life is in Israel, where he boasts of his children's good school grades and his large Mercedes car. He too understands he can never go back to Gaza. "They would make a kebab out of me," he said. "They'd chop me into pieces."

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http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=16308

Friday, June 13, 2008 by Staff Writer 

Some Arabs want Israel to return to Gaza

A small community of Palestinian Arabs living in the rocket-battered southern Israel town of Sderot say Israel is making a major mistake by not immediately launching a full scale invasion of the Gaza Strip.

 

The 80 Palestinian families living in Sderot are all former residents of Gaza who during the years of Israeli control there aided Israeli security forces in tracking and eliminating Palestinian terrorists. They were branded traitors for helping Israel combat terror, and so were pulled out of the area by the Israeli army for their own protection.

 

Speaking to the British newspaper The Guardian this week, the relocated Palestinians said that as former insiders, they could confirm without question that the only way Israel is ever going to curb the Gaza rocket fire in any significant way is to launch a broad military incursion into the territory.

Some went even further and said that once the Israelis finished with the terrorists, they should stay put and reinstate what the international community called Israel's "occupation" of Gaza.

 

Said one of the Arabs: "When the Israelis ruled Gaza, people lived like kings."

Another said he was happy he helped Israel in the past and now has the opportunity to live a prosperous life in the Jewish state, while other Palestinians suffer an intolerable existence created by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

 

Earlier in the week, Israel's security cabinet came to the decision to not launch a major military response to escalating Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza, and to instead continue to wait on Egypt to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers. That decision was made despite the fact that most of the members of Israel's cabinet had previously voiced opposition to a truce they believe will only allow Hamas to regroup and rearm for future violence.

 

Hamas and allied terror groups responded to what they clearly viewed as Israel's weakness by firing some 65 rockets and mortar shells at communities in southern Israel on Thursday. Miraculously, only one Israeli was wounded in the massive artillery barrage.

 

Speaking to Army Radio on Friday, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said the cabinet's ill-advised decision had created a ridiculous situation whereby Israel is seen as powerlessly pleading for calm as the terrorists pummel the Jewish state. It is Hamas that should be begging Israel for a ceasefire, insisted Mofaz.

 

While the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert maintained its refusal to launch a crushing response to the Gaza rocket fire, it did instruct the army to prepare for immediate action should the situation worsen any further.

The Olmert government has issued similar threats before only to fail to back them up with action, so few expect a green light to be given to the army regardless of how severe the rocket attacks become. But just in case, the United Kibbutz Movement on Thursday put in place a revamped emergency evacuation plan to remove the 5,000 Israelis that live in communities bordering the Gaza Strip should the army be sent in.

 

Israël ontkent dat vrijlating Schalit geen deel van wapenstilstand uitmaakt

Belangrijker dan de vraag of een gevangenenruil wel of geen onderdeel van het staakt-het-vuren wordt, lijkt mij de wapensmokkel van Hamas via Egypte. Door toe te geven wat betreft Shalit kan men daar wellicht met recht zijn poot stijf houden. Stel dat Hamas uiteindelijk met de Israëlische eis dat een gevangenenruil deel is van het staakt-het-vuren, in zal stemmen, wat heeft Israël daarmee dan precies gewonnen? Voor zijn vrijlating zal men nog altijd rond de duizend Palestijnen moeten vrijlaten, waaronder terroristen die direct verantwoordelijk zijn voor vele Israëlische doden. Zoals de Libanese Kuntar zal een deel van hen zijn oude 'professie' graag weer oppakken. Belangrijker dan een levende soldaat redden is een hoop nieuwe doden in de toekomst voorkomen.

 

Ratna

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Israel denies Schalit not part of truce

 

Jun. 14, 2008

JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212659730529&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

Israel insists that any truce agreement with Hamas will include the release of Gilad Schalit, held in captivity by Hamas for nearly two years, Army Radio reported Saturday.

Senior officials in Jerusalem have said as much to the station in response to a report carried earlier Saturday by the London based Asharq Alawsat.

The paper reported that Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman has convinced Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau to abandon Israel's demand Schalit's release will be part of any truce agreement.

An Egyptian source told the paper that during a visit to Cairo on Thursday, Gilad presented Suleiman with Israel's response to the latest Egyptian offer. According to the source, Israel expressed concern on the subjects of weapons smuggling into Gaza and Schalit's release.

The source added that Suleiman convinced Gilad not to tie Schalit's issue with a declaration of ceasefire. Suleiman reportedly pledged that Schalit's release will be addressed immediately after a ceasefire agreement will go into effect.

The source said that despite his reservations, Gilad agreed to Suleiman's offer. The outcome of Egypt's mediation effort is expected to bear fruit in the coming days.
A Hamas delegation is expected to arrive in Cairo Saturday to hear Israel's response to Cairo's latest offer, Army Radio reported.

It was not clear, however, whether Israel demanded that Schalit be released as part of a truce deal or only that progress be made on the issue of securing his release at a later date, as a second stage in the ceasefire agreement.

Waarom een grote Gaza operatie nog uitblijft

Een gedegen analyse van de problemen wat betreft een militaire operatie in Gaza. Achter al het gepraat over een dergelijke operatie en een tijdelijke herbezetting van Gaza gaat diepgaande twijfel over nut en risico hiervan schuil.

 

"Thus, when Olmert and Barak are creating the impression that a major IDF move is imminent, the press rarely voices the basic, instinctive suspicion that if Israel has already been hesitating for two years now, it apparently has good reasons not to make good on its threats."

 

Ratna

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Playing chicken in Gaza

 

By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff

13 June 2008 Haaretz

 

On its border with the Gaza Strip, Israel has been conducting what has in effect become one of the longest "hold me back" games in the region's history. For more than two years now the sides have hardly budged. The two discussions last week, one in the "kitchen cabinet" and the other in the full cabinet the following day, apparently did not deviate from the general trend. They reinforced the public's impression that we are supposedly facing momentous decisions when it comes to Gaza, without our having changed course in the slightest. Israel is determined to threaten Hamas. Implementation is a different matter entirely.

The statement concluding Wednesday's cabinet meeting sounded a bit dramatic: We are giving the Egyptian truce (tahadiyeh) initiative another chance, while at the same time preparing for war. But what difference is there in Israel's stance today, compared to its stance a year or even two years ago? It is just the explanations that have been replaced. Once it was fear of a war with Syria, while on another occasion the cloudy weather was blamed, and yet another time it was the deal for the return of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, which is taking its time in coming to fruition.

Shalit, incidentally, is beginning to look like the ultimate excuse. In the space of less than two weeks, his fate has been used twice, to justify completely contradictory positions. First it was argued that there cannot be a truce without a commitment for his return. This week, quite a different argument was heard: It is necessary to reach a tahadiyeh to establish the conditions that will set the stage for his release.

The bottom line has remained the same: Absent a hit by a "strategic Qassam" that exacts many casualties in Israel and leads to massive escalation, no large-scale military offensive is expected in Gaza in the coming months (which in effect means, until the Knesset election). In the longer term, a direct clash with Hamas is definitely a possibility. But this, as noted, will take time.

In collective memory, the current round in Gaza began with Shalit's abduction, on June 25, 2006, about nine months after the disengagement. In fact, Qassam rockets were already being fired into the Negev during the final stages of the Gaza withdrawal, in September 2005 (Hamas had stopped firing for a few months prior to the disengagement, "so as not to interfere with the Jews' retreat"). However, government spokespeople did a fine job of downgrading the rockets' importance. The media, which no doubt couldn't decide whether this was a parting shot before the pullout or the first shot after it, quickly lost interest. They were awakened abruptly by Shalit's abduction.

The difficulties faced by the communities in the Gaza envelope are profound and there is no immediate solution to them. In these circumstances, it is important for the political and security establishment to spread the message that much is being done and to reassure the public of civilians and voters. The uncomfortable truth is buried under mountains of verbiage: "We are very close to a crucial juncture," "The military strike in Gaza is more imminent than ever" (Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, respectively, a week ago); the kitchen cabinet meets "under a blackout"; the cabinet "is seriously discussing the possibilities." The media tends to accept the official line almost literally. Thus, when Olmert and Barak are creating the impression that a major IDF move is imminent, the press rarely voices the basic, instinctive suspicion that if Israel has already been hesitating for two years now, it apparently has good reasons not to make good on its threats.

Fudging a war

A media riot broke out in the U.S. at the end of May, when Scott McClellan's book was published. McClellan was the White House press secretary during part of the Iraq war. In "What Happened," he describes how the Bush administration's daily "talking points" quashed doubts in U.S. media regarding the extent of America's success in imposing order and democracy in Baghdad. A well-oiled machine of distraction and concealment was at work in Washington. Its Israeli counterpart is operating, with considerable success, in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, albeit with one difference: In the U.S., it was a matter of justifying a war, while here it is a matter of fudging one.

The truth behind the inflammatory talk is that hardly anyone in the cabinet or the General Staff is eager for battle. After the failure in Lebanon two years ago, the ministers, like the generals, do not want to get caught up in another imbroglio in which they would end up with casualties being linked to their names. Gaza is not Lebanon: Hamas is less skilled than Hezbollah, even if it is working to close the gap. The IDF in 2008 is better trained, too, and its plans are more orderly and detailed than those of 2006. However, there are basic problems that have yet to be solved. The most important of these is the gap between the public's expectations and the operational ability in action.

According to the most optimistic IDF assessments, it would take many months of physical presence on the ground in parts of the Strip to bring about a significant decrease in the attacks on the Negev. The army is not certain whether the public or for that matter the government can muster such patience, when it is obvious that the prolongation of any fighting will cost the lives of many soldiers.

We can occupy parts of the territory, says a senior officer, with the aim of gradually reducing the rocket fire and preventing the strengthening of Hamas, which relies on weapons being smuggled in from Sinai. "However, under what arrangement will the territory be transferred into responsible hands? An answer of 'It'll be okay' will no longer suffice in this round."

Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi will carry out any mission he is charged with, but he is too cautious to repeat the mistake made by his predecessor Dan Halutz, who urged the government to launch a war without clarifying its aims. Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin is blunter in his criticism of the flaws in the Egyptian initiative, but it is his job to focus on the half-empty glass. The effort that will be needed in the wake of an offensive, to stabilize Gaza, is not at the top of his list.

The only senior administration official who has been articulating a consistent and forceful position in favor of a large operation is GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant. Galant, a skilled, experienced and organized officer, has prepared his command for extensive action. His opinion is also recorded and documented at every discussion of the subject. The cynics at General Staff are asking themselves whether this isn't the lesson the major general, a graduate of the Prime Minister's Bureau (he served as former prime minister Ariel Sharon's military secretary), learned from the Winograd Committee (which investigated the conduct of the Second Lebanon War).

And the political crisis affecting the government cannot be ignored either. Israel's affairs are being run by a divided and quarrelsome administration, the head of which knows that his political end is nearing, while those under him are dreaming of the succession. Right now, the key person when it comes to Gaza is not Olmert, but rather Barak. The prime minister, who has lost all his public credibility, will find it hard to announce a large-scale operation without the defense minister's support.

However, Barak is the patron of the tahadiyeh. The defense minister prefers to give the talks at least another week or two, in the hope of achieving a temporary cease-fire. If an agreement is not reached, the pressure on the IDF will increase, but not to the point of having to launch a large-scale offensive. In the meantime, Barak has been diligently visiting every arena of disaster in the Negev, and getting his picture taken at each one. Participants in the most recent cabinet meeting gained the impression that there won't be an operation in the near future, because Barak is opposed.

For the time being, Olmert is going along with his defense minister. The question is, what will happen if Barak is forced to walk out of the government, should Olmert reject his demand to resign. Will the prime minister appoint Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz in his stead? After all, Mofaz was the successful chief of staff who led Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank in 2002.


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IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website: www.imra.org.il

De Gazastrook na een jaar Hamas controle

Onder Hamas heerschappij is de chaos en wetteloosheid wat afgenomen, wordt veel beweerd, maar in een jaar tijd zijn 118 Palestijnen in interne gevechten omgekomen en bijna dagelijks worden Fatah leden of andere dissidenten gearresteerd. Ook journalisten hebben het zwaar.  

 

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Last update - 13:01 13/06/2008

A year after Gaza takeover, Hamas shows no sign of ending violence

 

By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/992551.html

 

 

"For many of us, the coup in Gaza meant the end of the Palestinian dream of a single Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, with a connection between them," said P., a resident of Gaza City's Sajiyeh neighborhood, on the one-year anniversary of the coup in which Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip.

 

"Israel will not agree to a Palestinian state in Gaza as long as it is under Hamas control, and the coup divided the Palestinian people in two," he continued. "Even in the Diaspora, Palestinians are divided between Hamas and Fatah supporters."

 

Beyond the coup's negative implications for Palestinian politics, its negative implications for the personal lives of Gaza residents have been enormous. Yet no small number of Gazans also mentioned positive changes that have taken place in the Strip in the past year.
 
"The age of the armed gangs has ended," explained B., a former Fatah member. "I remember getting in a dispute with a member of a large family. I went to the police to file an assault complaint. The police advised me to drop it so I wouldn't get hurt.

 

'Today, you will not encounter anything like that. Family connections are no longer of any importance, and anyone who violates the law is punished. The chaos, the stolen cars, the extortion and threats are all gone."

 

A., a resident of Beit Hanun, also reported a substantial improvement in personal security. According to him, there are fewer internal conflicts and gang wars. "I no longer feel the need to be constantly armed for fear of encountering someone else armed."

 

But A. is not unequivocal statement about the improvement in the situation. "When Hamas took power, it brought about a dramatic improvement in the enforcement of traffic laws," he said. "There was no order in that sphere in the past, but now, drivers must even get car registrations. But now, there are almost no cars on the road because of the gas shortage. So what did we gain?"

 

It seems that even the improvement in personal safety is relative. From the June 2007 coup until the beginning of this month, human rights groups say, 118 Palestinians have been killed in internecine fighting. Hundreds of Fatah members populate the jails as the result of political persecution, and arrests are carried out almost every day.

 

"We live better from the personal safety perspective," said S. "But what is it all worth on an empty stomach and an empty pocket? There was a dream of making Gaza into the Singapore of the Middle East, but we have become Afghanistan."

 

On the list of pros and cons for Gaza under Hamas rule, poverty is the most significant con. About 50% of Gaza residents are unemployed. Two thirds live below the poverty line and need international aid to survive. Close to 90% of factories have been shuttered by lack of raw materials due to Israel's blockade. The construction sector is paralyzed. Most staples can be purchased only at sky-high prices. A. says tahini prices have doubled this year. So have fruit prices.

 

"Hamas gives out gas coupons every week," he said. "It's like living in the old Soviet Union. There is electricity three to four hours a day. It's impossible to go abroad, and impossible to travel with the children inside Gaza because of the gas shortage."

 

Poverty inevitably brings religious radicalization. According to B., not all Gazans have suddenly become religious, but many are growing beards and going to mosques to prove to Hamas that they are drawing closer to religion, and to the organization itself.

 

"Once, there were mostly older people at morning prayers," he said. "Now, more than ever, young people attend those prayers, too."

Voorlopig geen Israëlische operatie in Gaza Strook

Blijkbaar waren de dreigementen wat betreft een grote operatie in Gaza vooral voor interne consumptie, is Israël onder druk gezet door de VS en de EU om niet aan te vallen, is het leger nog niet geheel paraat of gelooft de regering ook gewoon niet dat men de Hamas een gevoelige klap kan toebrengen zonder dat tientallen of honderden onschuldige burgers daarbij omkomen. Hoe het ook zij, er wordt dus nog maar eens gepraat in de hoop dat de Israëlische voorwaarden nu wel door Hamas geaccepteerd zullen worden. Of is dat alleen maar voor de bühne, zodat men straks kan zeggen echt zijn best te hebben gedaan om tot een staakt-het-vuren te komen?

 

Ratna

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Security cabinet rules out Gaza operation for time being

 

Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST

June 10, 2008
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212659695155&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

The long-delayed decision whether to accept an Egyptian-brokered cease fire with Hamas or step up military operations against the Gaza Strip came before the security cabinet on Wednesday, and despite reports that a majority of ministers favored tough military action, the decision was to give the cease fire talks more time.

The meeting was preceded by a Tuesday discussion between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in which the various scenarios were reportedly discussed.

IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin also took part in that meeting, from which no details were provided.

One government source said that while Olmert and Livni favor stepped-up military action before agreeing to a cease fire, Barak wants to send his top adviser Amos Gilad back to Egypt one more time for additional clarifications before taking action.

Although technically Olmert, Barak and Livni could take action on their own without seeking approval from the security cabinet, the source said that in the current political climate, where whatever decision Olmert takes would be criticized as having been influenced by his legal and political problems, he wanted the decision to have the backing of the security cabinet.

A number of cabinet ministers came out in favor of a widespread action before Tuesday's weekly cabinet meeting, with Construction and Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim, a close Olmert ally, saying "Israel must launch an operation against Hamas," adding that the country could not risk letting the Islamic group rearm itself "before the next round."

Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann advised the ministers at the cabinet meeting (held on Tuesday rather than Sunday because of the Shavuot holiday) against talking publicly about whether or not there would be an operation, saying that the constant discussion on the matter reminded him of how Hassidim "wait for the messiah."

Barak also advocated taking a much lower public profile on the matter.

"When the moment comes, we will act," he said.

"The defense establishment is dealing with it, and the ministers should listen to what is being said about what can, and cannot, be accomplished through the various actions."

Speaking to government ministers about the status of peace negotiations with the Palestinians, Olmert said that progress in the area was critically important now given the proximity of the US presidential elections.

"One thing is certain: This administration is especially friendly," the prime minister said.

"We cannot miss taking advantage of this opportunity. Therefore the element of time holds special importance. We must not lose this. [Things won't necessarily be the same] with the next government."

"We are working with the aim of advancement," Olmert told his ministers. "We don't yet have formal, written documents, but we're working with the intent of making progress towards building a foundation for a solution, within the framework of the time-frame we presented.

"Of course there are arguments, long discussions, but this issue is important for me."

Olmert and US President George W. Bush have both said they hoped that a framework agreement could be reached by the end of 2008.

"We don't know what will happen with the next US government," Olmert told the ministers.

"I am operating on the assumption that every American president will preserve the special friendship with Israel that is built on mutual values and interests."

Olmert said, without elaborating, that there are various mutual commitments with the current administration that may not "roll over" to the next administration.
Turning to the Syrian track, which is expected to resume with indirect talks in Turkey this week, Olmert told the cabinet he would have been happy had the announcement last month of indirect talks with the Syrians been accompanied by an expression of readiness on Lebanon's part to enter into bilateral talks with Israel as well.

"I see much advantage in that." Olmert said.

During the meeting, Olmert also took Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz to task for his comments that Israel might attack Iran if it carried on with its nuclear weapons program, saying that in these matters there is need for a great deal of diplomatic action, "and as little talk as possible."

Olmert said that Iran featured prominently in his talks with Bush last week in Washington, and that there was "understanding, agreement and coordination" on this matter between Jerusalem and Washington.

"Every day that passes we are moving another step forward," Olmert said. "That doesn't mean that in a very short time it will be possible to overcome all the problems, but there are efforts, common thinking, determination, readiness, and agreement on the ways we need to act."

Komende week stemming Knesset over motie van wantrouwen

 

Niet alleen de VS, ook Israël kan hoogstwaarschijnlijk voor het najaar verkiezingen tegemoet zien.

Dit is opmerkelijk, want de regeringspartijen staan op verlies in de peilingen.

 

Enerzijds is een nieuwe regering waarschijnlijk beter in staat om belangrijke beslissingen te nemen, bijvoorbeeld wat betreft concessies en vredesverdragen met de Palestijnen en Syrië, anderzijds ziet het er vooralsnog naar uit dat een nieuwe regering door rechts gedomineerd zal worden wat de kans op vrede niet vergroot.

 

Ratna

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Knesset votes to topple gov't next week

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212659699137&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

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GIL HOFFMAN and REBECCA ANNA STOIL , THE JERUSALEM POST

Jun. 10, 2008

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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government survived four separate no-confidence motions on Monday, but factions now numbering 74 MKs have expressed support for dissolving the Knesset. This includes Meretz's five MKs after the faction made a decision Tuesday to support Likud MK Silvan Shalom's bill to disperse the Knesset currently supported by Likud, Labor, Shas, Israel Beiteinu, United Torah Judaism and the National Union-National Religious Party.

Despite Meretz's previous preference for the formation of an alternative government and not an election, the group still agreed to support the bills slated to break up the government that will be voted on next week.

Shalom said he expected the bill to pass by a large majority. He called upon Olmert to cooperate with the process of removing him and to leave office in a dignified manner.

"The Olmert government has reached the end of its path," Shalom told the Likud faction. "There should be a short and respectful process leading to elections in November. Olmert should act courageously and end his government in a proper way and not a shameful one."

Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu added that "elections are necessary for the good of the country" and that "the burning issues facing the country cannot be held hostage by the foreign interests of our current leaders."

The opposition kept up its weekly pressure on the government, as no fewer than seven parties sponsored no-confidence motions. Although none of them passed, at least two of the votes reflected subjects likely to drive the government closer and closer to early elections.

The NU-NRP and UTJ's joint motion attacked the government on its unwillingness to increase child benefits, a topic particularly sensitive for coalition partner Shas, which is pushing hard to prove to voters that it can restore the benefits cut in recent years.

Likud's no-confidence motion repeated the party's consistent theme, that the government has reached the end of the road.

Prior to the votes, MK Yossi Beilin (Meretz) called upon Labor Chairman Ehud Barak to put his votes where his mouth was and support the no-confidence motions rather than "threatening empty threats of early elections." Beilin added that even as Labor is threatening to advance toward early elections, the party's ministers have remained in their places and are tacitly supporting the government - and Olmert - through their continued participation.

Minister-without-portfolio Ruhama Avraham responded on behalf of the government that the "party with only 12 seats," referring to the Likud, "will have to wait a little longer." In the corridors of the Knesset, MKs took turns mocking Avraham for a statement she made at a Kadima rally in Tirat Hacarmel on Thursday night. They accused her of being disconnected from reality for suggesting that no one cared about Olmert's multiple investigations.

"What happened?" Avraham shouted at the crowd. "It's true that this isn't the first investigation and not the second investigation and not the third investigation and not the fourth investigation, and I don't know if it's the last investigation. But why? Who does it really bother?"

 

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1212659699137&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

IDF voorkomt aanval op Gaza grens

Uiteraard komt dit niet op het nieuws en in de kranten, in tegenstelling tot de dood van een Palestijns meisje door Israël een paar dagen geleden. En de 7 doden bij een explosie in een huis vol met bommen van Hamas is voor de media blijkbaar ook een stuk minder interessant dan wanneer Israël eenzelfde aantal doden - waaronder vrouwen en kinderen - had veroorzaakt.

 

Ratna

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IDF: We prevented major Gaza border terror attack

By Haaretz Service and Agencies

Last update - 23:31 12/06/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/992297.html

 

The Israel Defense Forces foiled a large scale terror attack planned to coincide with a barrage of some 50 Qassam rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza into western Negev Thursday afternoon, the army said.

One Israeli woman moderately wounded when a rocket slammed directly into the infirmary in a moshav in the Ashkelon coastal region.

The IDF said that Gaza militants were planning to use the heavy barrage as a diversion in order to carry out a massive attack at the border fence between Israel and the Strip.

A heavy vehicle approached IDF troops stationed at the Gaza border fence at an alarming speed, the IDF described the attempted attack. The soldiers opened fire and forced the vehicle to stop. The IDF said that it was the soldiers' quick response that likely prevented a serious attack.

The vehicle and the scene were both studied by IDF investigators in order to learn more details of the militants' plan.

Furthermore, the IDF added that the Israel Air Force bombed the Palestinian mortar squad that fired on kibbutz Nir Oz minutes earlier, and identified a direct hit.

The barrage of mortar shells came shortly after an explosion destroyed a Hamas bomb-maker's house in the Gaza Strip, killing at least seven people, including a baby, in what Hamas initially called an Israeli air strike.

Israel, which routinely accepts responsibility for attacks on military targets, denied involvement and described the incident as a Palestinian work accident.

The explosion, which also wounded about 25 people, destroyed the two-story dwelling and damaged several other homes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, an area from which militants frequently fire rockets into southern Israel.

Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida later announced the group had launched an investigation into the cause of the blast, indicating that the explosion was likely caused by an accident.

Hamas initially said that an Israel Air Force aircraft attacked the house belonging to Ahmed Hamouda, whom it described as one of its senior bomb-makers.

It was not clear whether Hamouda, was inside the house at the time of the explosion.

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said a 4-month-old niece and teenage nephew of Hamouda were among the dead, along with an assistant to Interior Minister Said Siyam, a top Hamas figure in Gaza.

Over the years, dozens of Palestinian militants have been killed unintentionally while mishandling explosives meant to be used against Israel.

Earlier Thursday, Israel Defense Forces troops killed two Palestinian militants who were rigging explosive devices near the security fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

An IDF spokesman said the militants were also apparently trying to infiltrate Israeli terrirtory.

An IDF tank operating in the Nativ Ha'asara area north of the Gaza border opened fire on one of the militants and forces from the Givati Brigade shot at the second militant.

The militants killed belonged to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the groups said.

The violence came as members of the political-security cabinet decided to hold off on a much-touted invasion of Gaza in order to give Egyptian-brokered truce efforts more time to succeed.

Meanwhile, Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad headed to Cairo on Thursday in attempt to reignite the Egyptian-brokered truce talks.

IDF troops killed four Palestinians - one militant and three civilians - in three separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, an Israeli man was lightly wounded by a mortar shell fired from the coastal territory.

Hamas gesterkt door diplomatieke contacten Europa

"Not a week goes by without meetings being held between (Hamas) and representatives of European countries or organizations."
He said the meetings with European officials take place in Gaza.

 

Dat is de reden dat de boycot van Hamas niet werkt. Een boycot die geen boycot is heeft geen kans van slagen.

 

The Hamas leader said American officials admitted that the siege on Gaza hasn't achieved its goals and that he was confident that it would eventually be lifted.

 

Die heeft haar doelen niet bereikt omdat Israël steeds werd gedwongen van alles door te laten, omdat Egypte toeliet dat de grens bij Rafah werd geopend, en er op grote schaal wapens worden gesmokkeld en allerlei andere zaken. Ondanks de zogenaamde blokkade zijn duizenden Hamas leden op training in Iran geweest en hebben grote sommen geld Gaza binnengesmokkeld. Natuurlijk moet een humanitaire crisis worden voorkomen en moeten hulporganisaties goederen kunnen leveren, maar zolang de wapensmokkel niet wordt aangepakt en Hamas zich verder blijft versterken, lijkt een oplossing voor het Gaza drama ver weg.

 

Ratna

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Haniyeh: Gunmen protecting Palestinians' rights

 

After dozens of mortars, Qassams pound Israel, Hamas leader says, 'We are holding on despite a siege that would have caused large countries to collapse and give in to Israel's demands'

 

Ali Waked YNET

Published: 06.12.08, 18:39
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3554985,00.html

 

"We will not recognize Israel even if the siege on Gaza persists," Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said during a Palestinian trade unions conference in Gaza on Thursday, a day in which more than 50 mortars and Qassam rockets were fired toward Israeli territory from the Strip.

"We are holding on despite a siege that would have caused large countries to collapse and give in to (Israel's) demands," he said, adding that "the armed Palestinian organizations, headed by Hamas' military wing, are protecting the rights of the Palestinian people and allowing the Palestinian leadership to uphold its principles."

The Hamas leader said American officials admitted that the siege on Gaza hasn't achieved its goals and that he was confident that it would eventually be lifted.

"The Israeli-American siege policy has begun to collapse, our relations with the surrounding Arab countries are sound and our ties with elements in Europe are improving as well," Haniyeh said. "Not a week goes by without meetings being held between (Hamas) and representatives of European countries or organizations."

He said the meetings with European officials take place in Gaza.

Referring to Thursday's mysterious explosion in the north Gaza home of a Hamas commander, which left four Palestinians dead and 40 others wounded, Haniyeh said, "The daily Zionist onslaught proves that the Israelis are incapable of implementing this wide-scale operation they keep talking about."

Meerderheid Israëli's voor aftreden Olmert en tegen opgeven hele Golan

 

61% vindt dat Olmert dient af te treden.

46% tegen 38% zijn tegen het uitruilen van gevangenen met Hezbollah en Hamas als de Israëlische soldaten dood zouden zijn.

67% tegen 16% zijn tegen een volledige terugtrekking van de Golan.

 

_______________________________

War and Peace Index says majority of Israelis think PM should resign regardless of decision on future criminal Indictment; 66% demand a referendum be held regarding any future concessions in Golan

 

Ynet

Published: 06.09.08, 23:57
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3553423,00.html

 

The majority of the Israeli public believes Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is currently under investigation for allegedly receiving unlawful funds from American businessman Morris Talansky, should step down immediately; even before Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and the State Prosecutor's Office decide whether or not an indictment is warranted in his case.

The data was published by the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research Monday, as part of its monthly War and Peace Index project.

The Index, published monthly since 1994, is run by Prof. Ephraim Yaar and Prof. Tamar Hermann; and is compiled of a monthly telephone survey of 600 Israeli citizens representing the various sectors in Israeli society.

June's survey focused on three issues on the national agenda: The status of Olmert and his government; the negotiations with Syria; and the question of the Israeli prisoners in Lebanon.

The incorruptibility factor

A majority of the Jewish public - 61% vs. 30% - thinks Olmert should resign the premiership before the State Prosecutor's Office makes any final decision regarding an indictment in his case.

Given a choice, 40% of the public said their preferred alternative to the situation would be early elections; while 21% said they prefer a replacement by named without holding elections. This, said the Steinmetz Center, may indicate that the public is not interested in the government's continued tenure.

Still, 10% said they believe Olmert should remain in office pending the results of the police probe against him; and 20% said they prefer Olmert to stay in office pending the decision on an indictment.

The public's desire to see the investigation against Olmert concluded was also evident by the widespread opposition - 60% - to claim that this may not be the right time to investigate him since, if he were to step down it would be detrimental to the negotiations on the Palestinians and Syrian avenues.

A segmentation of the results showed that this position was supported by the majority of the voters. Regardless of political affiliation, suggesting that in the normative climate which has emerged in recent years, the incorruptibility of political leaders comes carries higher significance than political qualifications; even when it comes to advancing the peace process.

When asked who may be the best candidate to push both the Palestinian and the Syrian peace talks forward while safeguarding Israel's vital interests, the segmentation was as followed: Likud Leader Benjamin Netanyahu - 27%, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni - 17%, Defense Minister Ehud Barak - 8%, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz - 6%, Olmert - 5%, and Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter - 3%.

Israeli public unwilling to cede Golan Heights

The ongoing reports about renewed Israeli-Syrian negotiations with Turkish mediation have not caused a change in the Jewish public's positions on the conditions for peace with Syria, as 67% oppose signing any peace treaty which will entail Israel's full withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Only 16% of Israelis would support such a move. The rest - 17% - either had no clear position or declined to answer.

The Israeli public, said the Index, does not seem to be troubled by prospect of Israeli and Syria failing to strike peace: The existing situation, said 60.5% of the poll's participants, may still continue for many years. Only 30.5% of Israelis said that another war between Israel and Syria was a matter of time.

As for why the Israeli public views the Golan Heights as crucial to Israelis, 65% said it carries strategic military importance; 20% cited its national significance as part of the historic Land of Israel; and 7% believe it has economic and tourism value.

As for the question of who should have the final authority to sign a peace accords entailing any concessions in the Golan Heights, 20% said it should be the government with the support of a regular or special majority of the Knesset (8% and 12% respectively); but a majority of 72% said the matter should be left up to the public.

Moreover, 66% said they would like a referendum to be held on the matter, indicating the public has little faith in its elected politicians when in comes to the Golan Heights. As for the question of in which stages of the negotiations a referendum should be held, 48% said they prefer it to be held before any detailed treaty was reached, while 41% favor conducting it only after a deal is struck.

Prisoners' exchange? Not at all costs

Finally, on the question of whether Israel, in return for the retrieval of Israeli MIA's Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, should agree to release any of the Lebanese prisoners it holds, including Samir Kuntar, who was jailed 29 years ago, after murdering the Haran family members and two police officers during a terror attack on the northern city of Nahariya; the public's position seemed to be dependent on the existing information regarding their state.

Given the widespread belief that unfortunately, Regev and Goldwasser are no longer alive, 46% of those polled said they were against striking a prisoners' exchange deal; while 38% said they would agree to it.

The answer changed, however, when those polled were asked for their opinion on the matter should Israel receive proof that the two - or even one - were still alive. Should that be the case, 80% of the Israeli public would support favors a prisoners' exchange deal.

 

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Iraans bedrijf: "trouw of wordt ontslagen"

De reden dat een aantal medewerkers niet getrouwd zijn is armoede, en dat valt de staat aan te rekenen die miljarden aan het atoomprogramma besteedt, en aan de training en bewapening van Hezbollah en Hamas, in plaats van te investeren in de mensen en de economie. Iran is rijker dan de Arabische staten in het Midden-Oosten, en de bevolking is beter opgeleid. Bovendien is het land rijk aan grondstoffen. Dat er toch zoveel armoede heerst, is een schande.

 

Ratna

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Marry or lose job, says Iran firm

Many young Iranians are having difficulty affording getting married

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7447227.stm

Single workers at one of Iran's major state-owned companies have been told to marry by September or face being fired, Iranian newspapers have reported.

 

The Pars Special Economic Energy Zone Company employs thousands of people, mostly young men, on Iran's Gulf coast.

Being married is a job requirement, a directive from the company is reported as saying.

Correspondents say the ruling appears to be an attempt to reduce the number of prostitutes working in the area.

The company controls Iran's large network of gas and petrochemical facilities around the coastal city of Assalouyeh on the Gulf coast.

Its directive, according to the Etemad newspaper, says that despite requests "some of our colleagues did not fulfil their commitments and are still single".

It continues: "As being married is one of the criteria of employment, we are announcing for the last time that all the female and male colleagues have until September 21 to go ahead with this important and moral religious duty."

In the same vein, the governor of the eastern province of North Khorasan ruled recently that only married people would be hired for official posts in the region.

Economic difficulties in Iran have led many people to postpone getting married, despite sexual relations being illegal outside marriage. __._,_.___

 

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VS traint Egyptenaren om smokkeltunnels te vinden

Eén van die dingen waarvan je je afvraagt waarom het niet eerder is gebeurd......

 

Misschien kan er dan ook gelijk een gedeeltelijk ondergrondse muur worden gebouwd, zodat de tunnelgravers wel erg diep moeten graven. Een lastig probleem is de wijdverbreide corruptie in Egypte: mensen in overheidsdienst verdienen zo weinig dat ze dat schamele loon aanvullen met steekpenningen. Misschien zou Amerika niet alleen de trainingen moeten geven, maar ook de uitvoering zelf ter hand nemen.

 

Ratna

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Last update - 01:08 11/06/2008

 

U.S. Army training Egyptians to find, destroy smuggling tunnels

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

 

 

The United States Army has begun training Egyptian soldiers to locate and destroy tunnels, in an effort to improve the Egyptian army's ability to cope with arms-smuggling from Sinai to the Gaza Strip.

A second, larger group of Egyptian soldiers is also due to arrive shortly for training, which is taking place at a U.S. Army base in Texas.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is teaching the Egyptian troops how to use advanced technological equipment to find and destroy the tunnels, including instruments that measure ground fluctuations and signal that a tunnel is being dug.

There has already been some improvement in Egypt's anti-smuggling activity, said Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, who heads the Military Intelligence research division.

"The Egyptians have intensified their efforts along the border, but their activity is still a drop in the sea, and the smuggling is continuing," Baidatz told the cabinet.

Arms-smuggling is a key issue in Israel-Egypt talks on a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Israel demands that Hamas commit to stop smuggling weapons as a condition for a lull, but Hamas refuses to do so. As an alternative, Egypt said it would guarantee a halt in smuggling and intensify its efforts to thwart such activity. Israel, however, is
concerned the issue will damage its relations with Egypt.

Over the past year, the U.S. has put much pressure on Egypt to improve how it deals with the arms-smuggling into Gaza, an Israeli diplomatic source said. Members of the House of Representatives proposed freezing $200 million in military financial aid to Egypt until it acted to stop the smuggling. Egypt was angered by the initiative, which was eventually nixed by U.S. President George W. Bush.

All the same, the developments in Congress did help change the Egyptian attitude toward the arms-smuggling, which the Egyptians had long denied. Some six months ago, Egyptian officials began admitting to American officials that the smuggling was taking place and demonstrated the results of their efforts to stop the smuggling.

The Bush administration also sent a Pentagon delegation to the Egypt-Gaza border, and they submitted a report recommending that the U.S. help the Egyptians halt the smuggling and ask Israel to agree to an increased Egyptian border force in Sinai.

In January, U.S. Congressman Steve Israel, a Democrat from New York, announced after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that the U.S. would allocate $23 million of its military aid to Egypt for tunnel-locating equipment.

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Israëlische Arabieren verspreiden boekjes over de 'Nakba' buiten scholen

The booklet discusses events like the Deir Yassin massacre, in which Jewish paramilitary troops killed about 120 Palestinian villagers, and refers to the separation fence as ethnic cleansing. "Only after the Palestinians become more familiar with their own narrative can we discuss others," Ghanem said.

 

De Arabieren in Israël kennen hun eigen narratief inmiddels wel, zou je denken. 'Palestijns narratief' lijkt bovendien een eufemisme te zijn voor 'anti-Israëlische ophitsing', waarin het met de waarheid niet nauw wordt genomen. Het feit dat zelfs Israëlisch-Arabische onderwijzers de boekjes bekritiseren is veelzeggend. Zij zouden er zeker niks op tegen hebben als Arabische kinderen leren over de keerzijden van Israëls stichting, maar hebben ook belang bij een goede samenwerking met de Joden in Israël. Bovendien is er binnen Israël alle ruimte en mogelijkheid om over de Palestijnse kant van de zaak te leren, en wordt daar in het Arabische lesmateriaal al aandacht aan besteed. Als ze iets ouder zijn kunnen ze bovendien de columns van Amira Hass en Gideon Levy in Haaretz lezen, en de vele boeken en films bekijken van kritische Israëli's en anti-Zionisten. Nergens in het Midden-Oosten is zoveel ruimte voor kritiek op de staat als in Israël, en daar wordt gretig gebruik van gemaakt.

 

Ratna

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Arab towns to distribute 'Nakba' booklet outside schools

 

By Yoav Stern Haaretz

Last update - 04:57 10/06/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/991255.html

 

Israeli Arabs will distribute 20,000 booklets on the Nakba - the "catastrophe," what happened to the Palestinians after 1948 - outside of schools in Arab settlements throughout the country. A camera crew from the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television network will cover the handing out of the booklets tomorrow at 11 A.M.

The booklets, which were written by 150 Palestinian children in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Syria and Lebanon, are part of an initiative by the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies (ICDS) in the northern town of Tamra to "reaffirm Palestinian consciousness, and maintain and reinforce it among future generations."

Dr. Asad Ghanem, the chairman of the ICDS, told Haaretz yesterday that the project is the first of its kind to involve Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank, and Lebanon and Syria.

"There's a double message here: Firstly, that we are one people with one Nakba; secondly, that the status of the Palestinians in Israel supports the Palestinian national movement," Ghanem, a senior faculty member at the University of Haifa, said. "There are fields in which we don't need to wait for the Jewish establishment, and one of these is education."

The booklets have been criticized by some Israeli Arab educators for not providing an Israeli side of events. For instance, the booklets mention the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan was passed with "strong U.S. backing," but failed to mention that it also received Soviet support. In addition, it does not state that the plan was accepted by the Jewish leadership while it was rejected by the Palestinians.

"This is catastrophic and will only lead to increased tension," an Israeli Arab educator said. "This booklet is exactly what the Islamic Movement would like to hand out."

The booklet discusses events like the Deir Yassin massacre, in which Jewish paramilitary troops killed about 120 Palestinian villagers, and refers to the separation fence as ethnic cleansing. "Only after the Palestinians become more familiar with their own narrative can we discuss others," Ghanem said.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry said it had not been consulted on the booklets, which received no ministry support.

IDF reservisten tegen onredelijke gevangenenruil

Dit is ware heldenmoed en de juiste 'fighting spirit', waar Israël haar oorlogen door heeft gewonnen. Hoe begrijpelijk het ook moge zijn dat Gilad Shalit smeekt om zijn vrijlating, het is strategisch gezien desastreus als Israël bereid zou zijn daar een hoge prijs voor te betalen, en maakt het alleen maar aantrekkelijker voor Hamas en Hezbollah om meer soldaten te ontvoeren.

 

Normaliter worden krijgsgevangenen na een oorlog en het sluiten van een vredesverdrag vrijgelaten, maar Israël en de Palestijnen (en Hezbollah) bevinden zich in een soort van permanente staat van half-oorlog, waarin Hamas wel raketten mag afschieten, en beide groeperingen pogen Israëlische soldaten te ontvoeren, maar Israël onder grote internationale druk staat 'terughoudend' te zijn. Onderdeel van deze asymetrische oorlogsvoering lijkt te zijn dat een Israëlische soldaat wel duizend Palestijnen waard is, een absurd idee. Uiteraard zullen de vrijgelaten Palestijnen daarna hun activiteiten in de 'gewapende strijd' weer oppakken, en vaak hebben zij in de gevangenis waardevolle inzichten en kontakten opgedaan.

 

Ratna

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Reservists: If we're captured, don't negotiate for our bodies

 

By Haaretz Service

Last update - 23:49 10/06/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/991539.html

 

"If we are captured by the enemy, we ask that the state of Israel does not release many hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for our freedom," Israel Defense Forces reserves soldiers wrote in a letter addressed to the IDF chief of staff, channel 2 reported Tuesday.

The reservists, members of a decorated infantry battalion, are slated to be the first soldiers to enter enemy territory should Israel decide to carry out a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip.

According to Channel 2, the letter will be handed to IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi only when such an operation begins.

The soldiers and officers emphasize in the letter that they are "ready to sit in an enemy prison for as long as it takes," and demand that Israel refrain from paying a high price for their freedom. The soldiers also ask that no negotiations be held over their dead bodies or parts of their dead bodies.

Earlier this month, the Lebanon-based guerilla group Hezbollah handed over to Israel the remains of several IDF soldiers, in what some viewed as efforts to advance a prisoner exchange.

Channel 2 also reported Tuesday that former United States president Jimmy Carter was launching efforts to get a letter to captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, from his parents. A letter apparently written by Shalit, who was captured by Palestinian militants in 2006, was transferred through the Carter Center to his family on Monday.

The Shalit family declined to make public the contents of the letter they received, but said that Gilad begged for his life in it and asked that Israel cooperate and take action to secure his release.

OneVoice jeugd daagt wereldleiders uit

Een overzichtje van de aktiviteiten waarmee de OneVoice Movement de afgelopen maand aan de weg heeft getimmerd. OneVoice staat voor de tweestatenoplossing.

 

Wouter

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This past month, OneVoice youth from Israel, Palestine, and the international community brought their message before an array of world leaders, challenging them with their demands for progress at the negotiations table and their visions for a better future:

 

·         OneVoice Youth Challenge World Leaders with Vision for Future at World Economic Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

 

Ø  OVI Youth Leaders Meet Defense Minister Barak & OVP Leaders Meet Prime Minister Fayyad

Ø  Gamal Mubarak Encourages OV to Continue its Work

Ø  Tony Blair Applauds Youth Leaders' Visions for 2018

 

·         On the Ground in Israel & Palestine:

 

Ø  OneVoice Israel to the Leadership: Sit Down & Negotiate! Travelling "Chair" Exhibit Draws Hundreds

Ø  OneVoice Palestine: Building Partnerships with Civil Society Groups, Strengthening Network

 

·         Live from Jerusalem: Global Town Hall Meeting Attracts 1200+ Students

 

·         OneVoice Europe Meets with British Foreign Secretary: "Change needs bottom-up mobilisation"

 

·         OV Gathers International Board to Strategize for the Coming Months:

 

Ø  OV Meets with Members of Knesset from across political spectrum: Yoel Hasson, Avishay Braverman, Ephraim Sneh offer advice & encouragement

Ø  Palestinian leaders from West Bank & Gaza – Qaddura Fares, Mohammad Najah, Azzam al-Shawwa, Samir Huleileh, & others – host OV staff & international Board in Ramallah

 

One of the greatest challenges facing the current negotiations process is the lack of connection between the leadership and the street. If the leaders are to be successful and deliver on their commitment to reach an agreement by the end of the year, the people on both sides will need to feel invested in and connected to the process. Only then will they be able to build back the trust they have lost after years of missed opportunities and empty promises.  OneVoice is working to serve as the catalyst, as the connector – bridging the gap between the leaders and the people.

 

We need your help.

 

Donate.

Sign up to join the Movement.

Spread the word.

 

The OneVoice Teams in Ramallah, Gaza, Tel Aviv, London, and New York

 

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For more information and to tell us what you think, please visit our blog:
http://blog.onevoicemovement.org