By Stephen Sniegosky: Review of Justin Vaïsse, Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2010), 366 p.
The mainstream media acclaim Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement as the best book on neoconservatism—the definitive account—and portray its author, Justin Vaïsse, a French specialist on American foreign policy and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, as a veritable Alexis de Tocqueville for his masterly insights. The mainstream’s high praise of this book, however, would seem to be due in large part to its minimization of two taboo issues—neoconservatism’s Jewish nature and its focus on Israel.
Where the book breaks through what was heretofore largely blacked-out in the mainstream media is its discussion of the major role played by the neoconservatives in bringing about the war on Iraq. The black-out had essentially placed the entire idea that the neoconservatives played a central role in bringing about the US attack on Iraq in 2003 beyond the pale of public discussion. In its most extreme form, this approach denied the very existence of neoconservatives. More moderate variants accepted the neocons’ existence but denied their influence on US policy. Instead the war on Iraq was alleged to have been essentially planned by President George W. Bush and/or Dick Cheney; or, for the anti-war Left, the war was brought on by the greedy oil interests or by unnamed nebulous corporatists (presumably gentile). Even to dwell on the neoconservatives could be taken as a sign of being “anti-Semitic.”
Vaïsse, however, candidly writes “that neoconservatism played an important role in launching the war in Iraq,” pointing out that the “neoconservatives had been advocating the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, though not necessarily through direct American intervention, since 1997.” (p. 13) He goes on to show how the neocons, both inside and outside the Bush administration, promoted the bogus intelligence that was able to generate public support for the war.
Vaïsse does offer a faux qualification to his emphasis on the neocons’ role by observing that “the decision to intervene militarily in Iraq cannot be ascribed solely to the influence of neoconservatives. This book seeks to put the intellectual history of the neoconservative movement in perspective so as to avoid errors of distortion.” (p. 13) Vaïsse presumably wants to differentiate his book from those still taboo ones, perhaps like mine, which mentioned the role of the neocons some time ago. But Vaïsse essentially slays a strawman since he does not cite any works that actually attribute the attack on Iraq “solely to the influence of neoconservatives,” and I am not aware of any works making such a claim. I should add here that although reviewers praise Vaïsse’s book as “definitive,” he refrains from mentioning (much less refuting) those works (again mine being one of these) that provided an account of the neocons’ primary role in shaping the Bush II foreign policy on Iraq (which Vaïsse duplicates in a briefer form) and offered substantial proof for the truth of the still tabooed topics.
Vaïsse downplays the significance of Israel and the overall Jewish nature of neoconservatism. At least, that is how the mainstream readers interpret his writing, and that would seem to be the author’s intent since his general interpretations of neoconservatism reflect this minimization. However, if read closely, one can find that interspersed within this book is considerable information, including the author’s direct statements, indicating otherwise.
In minimizing the Jewish nature of neoconservatism, Vaïsse writes that the idea that “neoconservatism is ‘in essence’ a Jewish movement” is “unconvincing,” though acknowledging that the perception that neoconservatism is Jewish is “based on the observation that a majority of neoconservatives are Jews.” (p. 273) He maintains, however, that “many of the most prominent neoconservatives are not Jewish, and the overwhelming majority of American Jews are not neoconservatives.” (p. 273)
Now it is obviously true that most American Jews are not neoconservatives, but that no more proves that neoconservatism is not fundamentally Jewish than the fact that most Muslims are not members of Al-Qaida would prove that Al-Qaida is not Islamic, or that most Poles and Polish Americans are not members of the Polish National Catholic Church would prove the latter is not essentially Polish.
Now although there are gentile neocons, it is not apparent that Vaïsse has actually demonstrated that “many of the most prominent neoconservatives are not Jewish.” For example, Vaïsse places Patrick Moynihan into this category. In neoconservatism’s early years, Moynihan did espouse ideas held by the neocons, but he was a significant individual before the neocons supported him, and their backing would simply reflect, in large part, their need to attach themselves to influential allies who held views consonant with their own. Moynihan’s positions would diverge from those of the neocons in the 1980s.
Henry Jackson, whom Vaïsse describes at length, was an unreconstructed hard-line Cold War warrior and devotee of Israel, who certainly staffed his office with younger neoconservatives, but cannot be called a bona fide neoconservative any more than Dick Cheney, whom Vaïsse explicitly describes as a neoconservative ally as opposed to an actual neoconservative (p. 149), but who likewise served as a neocon patron. And it would seem that Cheney was more deserving of the neocon designation since he actually adopted the neocon agenda, whereas Jackson’s already existing positions converged with those of the neocons.
Vaïsse refers to Admiral Zumwalt as “yet another example of a non-Jewish neoconservative” (p. 108) because of his support for both hard-line Cold War policies and for Israel. But Zumwalt is not conventionally known as a neoconservative. He did not have long-term intimate connections with the neoconservative network, and was simply a significant person in his own right whose views converged with those of the neoconservatives. Zumwalt was associated with the neocons far less than Dick Cheney, who, as just pointed out, is described by Vaïsse as a neoconservative ally, rather than a true neoconservative. (p. 149)
It is quite apparent that most major figures in the neoconservative movement such as Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Michael Ledeen, Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol, and Bill Kristol have been Jewish along with most of their associates. And those generally identified as neoconservatives are distinguished by more than just their ideas; they have formed and sustained close working and personal connections between themselves over a long period of time.
Neoconservatism essentially involves a network of people which has been perpetuated by becoming institutionalized in a number of influential think tanks and organizations. These close ties help to explain the neocons’ great power, which far exceeds their rather limited numbers.
Social anthropologist Janine R. Wedel, the author of Shadow Elite: How the World’s New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market, describes the successful neocon network as a “flex group,” which she defines as an informal faction adept at “playing multiple and overlapping roles and conflating state and private interests. These players keep appearing in different incarnations, ensuring continuity even as their operating environments change.” (Quoted in The Transparent Cabal, p. 29) Vaïsse makes reference to this network when he writes of “a definite clannishness to the neoconservative movement” (p. 206), but nonetheless when looking for prominent gentile neocons includes people outside of this network who simply have collaborated with the neocons, though in a few places he does make a distinction–for example, when he differentiates “hard-core neoconservatives” from “pragmatic hawks such as Nitze and Kampelman.” (p. 195)
While claiming the existence of important gentile neoconservatives, Vaïsse acknowledges that Jews make up the majority of its membership, but then goes on to downplay the significance of this fact, maintaining that there is nothing extraordinary about such Jewish overrepresentation because “Jews are disproportionately represented in almost all left and liberal political movements in the United States, as well as among intellectuals.” (p. 273) Although Jews may be represented in many groups in numbers exceeding their proportion of the American population, it is not apparent that most intellectual movements have been, or are, so overwhelmingly Jewish as neoconservatism. Moreover, it should be pointed out that if anyone unsympathetic to Jewish interests were to allege such extensive Jewish predominance, he or she would almost certainly be branded as an “anti-Semite,” not only by the Jewish establishment but by the same mainstream liberals who now applaud Vaïsse’s work.
But it is not solely the numbers involved that leads one to consider neoconservatism a Jewish movement, but rather the fact that it promotes Jewish interests, though the very fact that the group is predominately Jewish would seem to indicate that it would be biased toward Jewish interests.
Certainly, it is unlikely that groups dominated by Arabs or African-Americans would have such a deep commitment to the Jewish state (which will be discussed next). In fact, the conventional view in contemporary America is that the composition of a group does affect its outlook and thus provides the rationale for demanding diversity in all governmental organizations in the United States. One wonders why Jewish dominance would be any different than white dominance or male dominance?
But more than this prima facie presumption, however, there is definite evidence of the Jewish orientation of the neoconservative agenda. For example, the original flagship of the neoconservative movement was Commentary magazine, which was put out by the American Jewish Committee, and was edited for many years by Norman Podhoretz. The American Jewish Committee pronounced as its mission: “To safeguard the welfare and security of Jews in the United States, in Israel, and throughout the world.” (Quoted in The Transparent Cabal, p. 26). And as Murray Friedman, the author of The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy, notes: “A central element in Podhoretz’s evolving views, which would soon become his and many of the neocons’ governing principle was the question, ‘Is It Good for the Jews,’ the title of a February 1972 ‘Commentary’ piece.” (Quoted in The Transparent Cabal, p. 27)
Another significant component of the neocon nexus is the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), which was set up in 1976 to put “the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship first.” In the late 1980s, JINSA widened its focus to U.S. defense and foreign policy in general, without dropping its focus on Israel. JINSA’s advisory board has included such notable neocons and neocon allies as Stephen Bryen, Douglas Feith, Michael Ledeen, Joshua Muravchik, Richard Perle, Kenneth Timmerman, John Bolton, R. James Woolsey and Dick Cheney. While the existence of Bolton, Cheney, Woolsey would show the support of some gentiles for Jewish interests, the very name of the organization indicates its ethno-religious orientation.
The origins of neoconservatism sprang from American Jews dismayed about the turn of American liberalism and the world Left, with which most Jewish intellectuals historically had been aligned, to positions perceived as contrary to Jewish interests—support for racial quotas (which might threaten Jewish predominance in many important fields), animosity to Israel (as a racist, colonialist state), and growing anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and other Communist Eastern European states. Vaïsse goes over these Jewish concerns (pp. 58-64), without, in the end, giving them much importance in his overall assessment of neoconservative motivation.
It would seem that Vaïsse attempts to denigrate the idea of a connection between neoconservatism and Jews by writing that “only the white-supremacist extremist right (Kevin McDonald [sic] in Occidental Quarterly, for example) pushes this ethnic logic to its conclusion by considering neoconservatism as one possible expression of Jewishness.” (p. 273). Designating MacDonald (correct spelling) a “white supremacist” would presumably serve to make this type of thinking anathema in the mainstream, and it neatly avoids dealing with the very extensive data showing very strong Jewish identities and commitment to Israel of the key neocons. Considering the alacrity with which Vaïsse makes his racial supremacy charge, it is ironic—but understandable given the requisite intellectual double standards in the American mainstream—that he fails to make any effort to show how the neoconservatives’ preachment of global democracy meshes with support for the ethnically-based state of Israel, which could be classified as a Jewish-supremacist state.
Also, considering the mainstream hosannas about Vaïsse’s alleged definitive account of neoconservatism, it is ironic that he fails to mention the Jews who have pointed out the Jewish nature of neoconservatism, which would militate against the observation’s stigma of anti-Semitism. For example, Vaïsse does not refer to the aforementioned Murray Friedman or Gal Beckerman, who wrote in the noted Jewish newspaper Forward in January 2006: “[I]t is a fact that as a political philosophy, neoconservatism was born among the children of Jewish immigrants and is now largely the intellectual domain of those immigrants’ grandchildren.” In fact, Beckerman went so far as to maintain that “[i]f there is an intellectual movement in America to whose invention Jews can lay sole claim, neoconservatism is it.” (Quoted in The Transparent Cabal, p. 26)
Vaïsse also neglects the work of Jewish-American historian Paul Gottfried who has written extensively on the neoconservatives for three decades in numerous books and articles, and who clearly recognizes the Jewish nature of the movement. Gottfried, who wrote the introduction for my book, The Transparent Cabal, states that “the term ‘neoconservative’ is now too closely identified with the personal and ethnic concerns of its Jewish celebrities. . . . It is increasingly useless to depend on out-group surrogates to repackage a movement so clearly rooted in a particular ethnicity – and even subethnicity (Eastern European Jews).” (Quoted in Transparent Cabal, pp. 28-29)
It should be added that none of these three Jewish authors can in any sense be called “self-hating” Jews, the derogatory moniker used by pro-Zionists to delegitimize any criticism by Jews of Israel or other Jewish interests. Even Gottfried, who is highly critical of neoconservatives, is friendly towards Israel.
And now the issue of Israel, the significance of which to the neocons Vaïsse explicitly plays down.
However, while maintaining that “Zionism is not the right key to understanding them [neoconservatives],” he acknowledges that “The Jewish state . . . had been important to neoconservatives as far back as the 1960s. As the Middle East became central to America’s geopolitical concerns, unconditional support for Israel became increasingly decisive in their approach to international affairs. Seeing the Middle East through ‘Israeli lenses’ led to a distortion of perspective that caused them to underestimate the importance of the Palestinian quest for nationhood in the region’s troubles and to mistake the nature of America’s enemies.” (pp. 264-65) And he would also write that “in their intellectual and political approach to the Middle East, the close alliance with Israel often led them to identify the Jewish’s [sic] state’s struggle with that of the United States: the same enemy (Islamic terrorists), the same tactics (preventative war, unilateralism, ‘show of force’) and the same cause (‘they hate us for what we are’). This perspective was not analytically sound. Although it was normal for America to worry about the fate of a close ally, this undue identification with Israel and the tendency to see things through an Israeli prism undoubtedly helped to create an inaccurate picture of the region and led to unrealistic policy recommendations.” (p. 265)
Vaïsse’s references to the neocons’ “unconditional support” for Israel, identifying Israel’s “struggle with that of the United States,” “seeing the Middle East through ‘Israeli lenses’,” are about identical to what I maintain in my book. In fact, I had a sense of déjà vu when he referred to “Israeli lenses,” since I had used the term “lens” in the same way a number of times in my book, pointing out, for example, that “the neoconservatives viewed American foreign policy in the Middle East through the lens of Israeli interest.” (The Transparent Cabal, p. 7)
Vaïsse, however, does not illustrate to any degree the neocons’ extensive personal connections to Israel, though he acknowledges that some were strong Zionists, writing that “It is of course true that many third-age neoconservatives (such as Richard Perle, David Wurmser, Douglas Feith, and Elliott Abrams) were close to Israel’s Likud party, but their hard Zionist positions, which were not shared by all neoconservatives, cannot by themselves explain the neoconservative worldview.” (p. 274) Now the individuals he cites have been quite significant in neoconservatism since the 1990s—with Perle and Abrams being so even earlier—so their “hard Zionist positions” would certainly imply the significance of this allegiance in neoconservatism. In fact, Vaïsse fails to bring out their close connections to rightwing Israeli government officials with Perle, Wurmser, and Feith being involved in the 1996 “Clean Break” report, which advised then-incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pursue pre-emptive attacks on Israel’s enemies in ways quite analogous to what the neocons would later propose for the Bush II administration.
It should also be added that Perle, Feith, Bryen, Wolfowitz, and Ledeen have been suspected and sometimes investigated for allegedly providing classified material to agents of the Israeli government. Whether or not they were actually breaking United States laws (and the laws seem to be more relaxed if the foreign state involved is Israel), these episodes clearly illustrated their close connections to the government of Israel.
And the former are not the only neocons to evince “hard Zionist positions.” For example, as I point out in The Transparent Cabal, Norman Podhoretz, who as the long-time editor of Commentary had the power to determine what issues and individuals would be placed in the neoconservative spotlight, identified with the Jewish state to such an extent that, as Murray Friedman writes in The Neoconservative Revolution, “Commentary articles now [1970s] came to emphasize threats to Jews and the safety and security of the Jewish state. By the 1980s, nearly half of Podhoretz’s writings on international affairs centered on Israel and these dangers.” (Quoted in The Transparent Cabal, p. 27) Moreover, at the onset of the Gulf War of 1991, Podhoretz “went to live with his daughter in her home in Jerusalem in order to show his solidarity with Israel, which Saddam had threatened to attack by missiles, and did so to a limited extent.” (The Transparent Cabal, pp. 27-28)
Moreover, Vaïsse neglects to show that the neocons, once they were able to gain dominance in conservative organizations, purged those traditional conservatives who were critical of Israel and American policies that seemed to be guided by Israeli interests. Though referring to the neocon “takeover of the American Enterprise Institute” (p. 206), Vaïsse, with more than a modicum of understatement, writes of “increasing neoconservative influence over a number of key institutions in the new [conservative] establishment . . . in other words, a competition for money” and alludes to how this “fueled this bitterness” of some traditional conservatives (p. 208), but fails to mention that the neocons were able to totally marginalize any conservatives who opposed their Israelocentric Middle East agenda—opposition which they branded as “anti-Semitic” —by depriving them of their former sources of institutional support.
It should be noted that there had been a fairly sizeable number of Jewish individuals in the conservative movement for years without arousing the ire of their conservative brethren. What incensed the traditional conservatives therefore was not the neoconservatives’ Jewishness, but rather the latter’s successful efforts to make support for Israel and a pro-Israel Middle East agenda for the United States a litmus test for acceptance by the now neocon-dominated conservative institutions. Vaïsse, however, distorts this episode by implying that the neocons’ traditional conservative opponents were the aggressors and that “a hint of anti-Semitism lay behind these attacks,” and cites long-time conservative icon Russell Kirk, one of the mildest of men, as one of these attackers. (p. 208)
Another factor ignored by Vaïsse is the connection of Israel to the US attack on Iraq. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu, promoted war on Iraq during the period of the war’s build-up. And the Israeli government provided some of the bogus intelligence trumpeted by the neocons to generate support for the war. Furthermore, the very idea of using military force to eliminate Saddam Hussein’s regime would seem to have originated in Israel with Likudnik Oded Yinon’s 1982 work, “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties,” which called for an overall Israeli war agenda of fragmenting its enemies into small, ethno-sectarian statelets for the purpose of enhancing its own national security. Iraq was designated as the first target.
In short, support for Israel looms very large in neoconservative thinking, but if Vaïsse simply means that the neocons’ identification with Israel does not explain the “neoconservative worldview” in its entirety, this is something with which I concur in my book, The Transparent Cabal. For example, I write: “Undoubtedly, the overall neoconservative viewpoint does not revolve solely around the security needs of Israel, and the same is true even of the neocons’ positions on foreign policy and national-security policy. To state that neoconservatives viewed American foreign policy in the Middle East through the lens of Israeli interest – and that this was the basis of the neocon Middle East war agenda – is not to say that their support for Israel has been the be-all and end-all of their foreign policy ideas, which encompass the entire world.” (The Transparent Cabal, p. 7)
But the neocons have had their greatest impact on American policy in regard to the Middle East, and this is the fundamental concern at the present time. Consequently, what Vaïsse refers to as the neoconservatives’ “unconditional support” for Israel that has led to “unrealistic policy recommendations” is currently far more significant than their positions on Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs or arms limitations agreements with the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s.
However, Vaïsse’s points about the neoconservatives’ “unconditional support” for Israel occupy but a small portion of the book and are thus overwhelmed by a lengthy discussion of the earlier years of neoconservatism, where concern for Israel, though existent, did not loom paramount. Only 50 pages of the book’s narrative of 279 pages cover the neoconservatives’ activities from the post-Cold War 1990s to the present—the time in which their focus on Israel becomes most apparent.
Vaïsse also obfuscates the focus on Israel in his “Epilogue: Interpreting Neoconservatism”—a part that, being at the end of the book, most readers will likely remember and that most reviewers are apt to actually read closely rather than skim. There he portrays the neocons in the area of foreign policy as fundamentally motivated by a mixture of nationalism and universalist democratic ideals, as opposed to an attachment to Israel. “One can see neoconservatism,” he contends, “as a avatar of American messianism, as the expression of an underlying nationalism that has been present since the country was born, a reincarnation of Wilsonianism in a new, more martial form. Owing to American exceptionalism (‘a city on a hill’), the United States has swung from protection to projection, from isolationism (synonymous with preserving the American model) to imperialism (synonymous with extending the model around the world). See [sic] in this light, neoconservatism is above all a sign of the resurgence of this nationalist—but also universalist—faith, on the model of French Jacobin nationalism, an off-shoot of the French Revolution of 1789, which was mixed with a universalist credo.” (p. 278)
Undoubtedly, this type of nationalistic, democratic messianism has existed and still exists in United States, but there would seem to be no reason for this attitude to be connected with what Vaïsse describes earlier in the book as the neocons’ “unconditional support” for Israel. True nationalists—who would be focused solely on what is good for their own country—would not be in favor of “unconditional support” for any foreign country since changing circumstances would mean that such support would not always be in the national interest. In his famous Farewell Address, George Washington expressed this nationalist belief in his admonition to his fellow citizens to eschew a “passionate attachment” to a foreign country, which is exactly what “unconditional support” for Israel constitutes. And as has been widely recognized by Middle East experts in the United States government since the time of Israel’s creation, American support for the Jewish state makes positive relations with the Arab world, which are of crucial importance to the United States because of the region’s oil resources, more difficult.
In regard to exporting democracy, it is not apparent that some major neocon prescriptions, such as bombing Iran, even have that intent. As most experts contend, any United States attack on Iran would unify that country behind the Islamic regime and perhaps lead to revolts by radical Islamic groups throughout the Gulf against pro-Western governments. Moreover, America’s war on Iraq and identification with Israel have made it less popular in the Middle East and the rest the world—the effect of which is to increase the difficulty of extending the American democratic model. It would seem quite obvious that if the goal were to export America’s form of democracy elsewhere in the world, supporting the policies of the Jewish state and making war against its enemies would not be the way to achieve it.
Regarding Israel itself, it would seem that if democracy were the neoconservatives’ watchword, they would work to eliminate Israel’s undemocratic control over the Palestinians on the West Bank and try to make the country itself more inclusive—and not a state explicitly privileging Jews over non-Jews. The neoconservatives would either promote a one-state democratic solution for what had once been the British Palestine Mandate (Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank) or else demand that Israel allow the Palestinians to have a fully sovereign, viable state on all of the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli governments, in contrast, have regarded a one-state solution as anathema and have never offered the Palestinians more than a faux state of non-contiguous bantustans within which Israel would maintain security zones and control vital resources such as water. Similarly, instead of taking anything approaching a pro-democracy stance, the neoconservatives do just the opposite, backing the Israeli Likudnik Right, which takes an especially hostile position toward the Palestinians with its fundamental goal being the maintenance of the exclusivist Jewish nature of the state of Israel.
In making these criticisms, I do not want to leave the impression that there is nothing of value in this book. Vaïsse does a good job of describing some intricacies of the earlier years of neoconservatism (1960s, 1970s and 1980s). Although he does not seem to provide anything to change the broad outlines of the conventional history of neoconservatism, he does add a number of poignant details. For students of neoconology, he must be credited for puncturing as mythical the widespread claim that socialist Michael Harrington coined the term “neoconservative.” (p. 71-76) Vaïsse also makes an interesting point as to how some neocons were still trying to shape the Democratic Party after most migrated to Reagan at the beginning of the 1980s. And he notes that ultimately, after the end of the Cold War, one segment of the Democratic Party, the “neoliberals,” would adopt much of the neoconservatives’ interventionist foreign policy agenda.
As mentioned earlier, Vaïsse must be credited for accurately pointing out that the neoconservatives were the major factor in bringing about the United States’ attack on Iraq in 2003. He notes that the neoconservatives laid the plans for attacking Iraq prior to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and that those attacks created a climate of fear and anger which enabled the neocons, with their war agenda, to gain the upper hand in the Bush administration. He observes that the neocons, both within and outside the Bush administration, provided the propaganda that generated the public and elite support for the war and that even President George W. Bush was persuaded by them. And he shows that Bush, despite his neoconservative rhetoric, generally moved away from the neoconservative war policy during his second term, though adopting the neocons’ “surge” policy as opposed to the establishment-oriented Baker-Hamilton report on Iraq. Finally, despite America’s failure in Iraq and the nonexistence of actual neoconservatives in the Obama administration, Vaïsse makes the cogent observation that neoconservatism itself has not died, but remains “a potent force in Washington, only waiting for a more favorable political environment in which to exert its influence on American foreign policy again.” (p. 266)
While Vaïsse deserves credit for showing the neocons’ influence during the Bush administration, he only encapsulates what is often said about the neoconservatives outside the restrictive confines of the mainstream media. And I should add that my extensive documentation of this subject in The Transparent Cabal far exceeds what Vaïsse provides in a small portion of his book.
Where Vaïsse achieves some degree of originality is in his typology—his classification of neoconservatism according to somewhat overlapping chronological periods, which he terms “ages,” with each having a distinct agenda, political activities, and people (though he is not the first to make such distinctions). The neoconservatives of the first age, which began in 1965, were concerned about the rise of the New Left, campus violence, the counterculture, affirmative action and the overall leftward drift of American liberalism. Their focus was largely on domestic policy. They criticized the unintended negative consequences of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, and while they opposed the radical state-imposed egalitarianism sought by the New Left, they were supporters of the traditional liberal welfare state and remained loyal to the Democratic Party.
I should add that in my view this first age, which consisted of many individuals who did not hold the hard-line foreign policy views that would come to characterize neoconservatism, did not represent full-fledged neoconservatism. Thus, I would describe the individuals of this early period as proto-neoconservatives, with actual neoconservatism not really emerging until the start of the 1970s, as foreign policy became a fundamental concern.
Vaïsse dates 1972 as the beginning of the second age, which he views as a reaction to the nomination of George McGovern as candidate of the Democratic Party. The McGovern movement embodied the anti-war, especially anti-Cold War, ethos that took hold of American liberalism during the Vietnam era. The primary focus of the second age would be on foreign policy, as the neocons supported hard-line Cold War policies against the Soviet Union, in opposition to both what they considered to be the “isolationism” and “appeasement” of the McGovernite Democrats, as well as the Kissingerian détente of the Nixon-Ford administrations. They made strenuous efforts to reclaim the Democratic party for Cold War liberalism, but when President Jimmy Carter seemed to be continuing in the path of the McGovernites, the neocons reluctantly gravitated to Reagan in 1980, gaining positions in his administration, where they helped to craft his hard-line Cold War positions.
Like the second age, the third age, which Vaïsse has beginning in 1995, would also focus on foreign policy. With the Cold War over, the neocons would emphasize the need for global democracy and focus on the transformation of the Middle East. Their more expansive global ambitions reflected the fact that the United States had become the world’s sole superpower. It was during this age that the neocons would achieve their greatest impact, gaining influential positions in the Bush II administration, where they would act as the driving force for the war on Iraq.
Although an interesting typology, I don’t think the ages are as separate as Vaïsse often makes them appear, or at least as how his mainstream reviewers seem to interpret his position. In many respects the ages blend together. Vaïsse sometimes acknowledges this blending when he writes of the convergence between the first and second ages (p. 207 ), and when he acknowledges strong similarities between the second and third ages. (p. 221) Moreover, full-fledged neoconservatives from one age, such as Norman Podhoretz, supported the issues that loomed largest in the succeeding ages. (Norman Podhoretz was involved in all three ages.) The change in ages, therefore, did not represent so much a change in the neoconservative core membership, but rather the change represented the need to address new issues as a result of different circumstances, which did lead to changes in the neocons’ allies.
What Vaïsse fails to bring out clearly is the fact that Jewish interests loomed large in all of his three ages. In the first age, New Left demands for group equality and their efforts to bring chaos to the universities seemed to threaten the higher status of Jews. In the second age, neocons were concerned about liberal Democrats identifying with Third World attacks on Israel, seeking retrenchment of US military involvement that might weaken support for Israel, and advocating a friendlier policy toward the Soviet Union, which was now seen as anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. In the third age, the neoconservatives’ promotion of a “democratic” reconfiguration of the Middle East would involve the weakening of Israel’s enemies.
What is one to make of Vaïsse’s work? A positive way of looking at it would be to describe it as the best type of work that can be produced and still receive mainstream attention. For Vaïsse does point out that the neocons were the driving force for the war on Iraq. And he certainly does criticize their war-oriented activities. That he plays down the Jewish nature of neoconservatism and the movement’s focus on Israel could be interpreted as the necessary price to pay for this positive reception; in fact, as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, it is questionable if Vaïsse could have produced a work with an accurate discussion of the taboo subjects. For Brookings includes the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, which was created in 2002 largely by the funding ($13 million) of Haim Saban, who has pledged additional financial support. Saban happens to be a staunch Zionist, who has been quoted as saying: “I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel.”
Another way of looking at Vaïsse’s book would be to classify it in the genre of damage control or what Harry Elmer Barnes, a leading revisionist of the history of World War I and World War II, referred to as a “smother-out.” This approach would allow a partial revelation of the truth, as the complete black-out lost credibility, in order to stave off more extensive revelations.
By downplaying the significance of Jewish ethnicity and the centrality of Israel, however, Vaïsse’s work fails to provide much help in understanding the current push by the overall Israel lobby and the government of Israel for war on Iran, which the neoconservatives intended to have as the next major target for the US after the invasion of Iraq. More than serving as a guide for understanding the present, however, truth is good for its own sake since presumably the purpose of history is to best describe what actually happened in the past. What Vaïsse has provided is simply a partial truth that leaves out key elements, which should be recognized by anyone who truly investigates the issue. It would be hoped that the mainstream would open up sufficiently so that this fuller, unadulterated truth would not be shunted to the margins of society. This, however, would appear to be but a forlorn hope. As the 19th century New England poet James Russell Lowell put it: “Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.”
Stephen J. Sniegoski, Ph.D. is an American historian, with a focus on American foreign policy, and the neoconservative involvement in it. His first major work on the subject, “The War on Iraq: Conceived in Israel” was published February 10, 2003, more than a month before the American attack. He is the author of The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Bedouin Women Hold Non-Violent Demo Against Israeli Razing Of Villages
IMEMC - Around 700 Bedouin women held a protest in Jerusalem challenging the demolition of their villages by Israeli forces. They travelled to Jerusalem from the Negev desert in southern Israel, where they live in 'unrecognized' villages that have been razed multiple times since Israel was created in 1948.
They gathered outside the Israeli Ministry of the Interior on Tuesday, after the destruction of al-Arakid village this past weekend, holding signs and chanting slogans. Even as the mid-day sun beat down, and the women maintained their daily Ramadan fast of no water and food from sunrise to sunset, they continued to chant and attempt to dialogue with employees entering and leaving the building.
The women also submitted a letter of demands to the Israeli Interior Minister's advisor on minority affairs, Saeed Muadi. The demands included a recognition of their villages, and equal treatment under the law.
One activist, Hanan el-Sana, told the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahranoth, “The systematic razing of unrecognized villages in the Negev by the authorities shows the State has no respect for human dignity or the religious customs of the area's inhabitants. The (Bedouin) women feel that no one is hearing their cries. They feel this is the beginning of a long public campaign that will continue until the Israeli government recognizes the villages. For 60 years, we have suffered in our villages without basic necessities such as water, sewage systems, and electricity, and we have also lost our traditional livelihood because of the land appropriation policy. Add to this the recent home demolitions – the situation has become intolerable.”
The head of the Council of Unrecognized Villages in the Negev, Ibrahim al-Waqili, called on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to resign due to his blatant violation of international human rights law with his ongoing policy of destruction of Bedouin villages in southern Israel.
They gathered outside the Israeli Ministry of the Interior on Tuesday, after the destruction of al-Arakid village this past weekend, holding signs and chanting slogans. Even as the mid-day sun beat down, and the women maintained their daily Ramadan fast of no water and food from sunrise to sunset, they continued to chant and attempt to dialogue with employees entering and leaving the building.
The women also submitted a letter of demands to the Israeli Interior Minister's advisor on minority affairs, Saeed Muadi. The demands included a recognition of their villages, and equal treatment under the law.
One activist, Hanan el-Sana, told the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahranoth, “The systematic razing of unrecognized villages in the Negev by the authorities shows the State has no respect for human dignity or the religious customs of the area's inhabitants. The (Bedouin) women feel that no one is hearing their cries. They feel this is the beginning of a long public campaign that will continue until the Israeli government recognizes the villages. For 60 years, we have suffered in our villages without basic necessities such as water, sewage systems, and electricity, and we have also lost our traditional livelihood because of the land appropriation policy. Add to this the recent home demolitions – the situation has become intolerable.”
The head of the Council of Unrecognized Villages in the Negev, Ibrahim al-Waqili, called on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to resign due to his blatant violation of international human rights law with his ongoing policy of destruction of Bedouin villages in southern Israel.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Declassified Senate Investigation Files Reveal Clandestine Israeli PR Campaign in America
IRMEP
WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Declassified files from a Senate investigation into Israeli-funded covert public relations and lobbying activity in the United States were released by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on July 23rd, 2010. The subpoenaed documents reveal Israel's clandestine programs for "cultivation of editors," the "stimulation and placement of suitable articles in the major consumer magazines" as well as U.S. reporting about sensitive subjects such as the Dimona nuclear weapons facility.
Documents are now available for download from http://IRmep.org/ila/azc include:
Dimona (excerpt): "The nuclear reactor story inspired comment from many sources; editorial writers, columnists, science writers and cartoonists. Most of the press seemed finally to accept the thesis that the reactor was being built for peaceful purposes and not for bombs." http://www.irmep.org/11-121960AZC.pdf
Content placement and promotion (excerpt): "The Atlantic Monthly in its October issue carried the outstanding Martha Gellhorn piece on the Arab refugees, which made quite an impact around the country. We arranged for the distribution of 10,000 reprints to public opinion molders in all categories… Interested friends are making arrangements with the Atlantic for another reprint of the Gellhorn article to be sent to all 53,000 persons whose names appear in Who's Who in America…Our Committee is now planning articles for the women's magazines for the trade and business publications." http://www.irmep.org/09101961AZC.pdf
Pressure campaigns (excerpt): "It can be said that the press of the nation…has by and large shown sympathy and understanding of Israel's position. There are, of course, exceptions, notably the Scripps-Howard chain where we still need to achieve a 'break-through,' the Pulliam chain (where some progress has been made) and some locally-owned papers." http://www.irmep.org/11-121960AZC.pdf
Magazine Committee achievements (excerpt): "We cannot pinpoint all that has already been accomplished by this Committee except to say that it has been responsible for the writing and placement of articles on Israel in some of America's leading magazines...." http://www.IRmep.org/10301962_AZC.pdf
According to Grant F. Smith, director of IRmep, "It is frightening how easily some in the American news media surrendered to a foreign public relations campaign that spent the 2010 equivalent of $36 million over two years. Time has proven most of the planted content to be misleading, if not dangerous. These historical documents hold many important lessons for Americans who have long needed—but rarely received—straight reporting on key Middle East issues."
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. It retains 1%-3% of the most important documents of business conducted by the United States Federal government. The Israel Lobby Archive, http://IRmep.org/ila is a unit of the Institute for Research:
Middle Eastern Policy in Washington.
SOURCE Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy
WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Declassified files from a Senate investigation into Israeli-funded covert public relations and lobbying activity in the United States were released by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on July 23rd, 2010. The subpoenaed documents reveal Israel's clandestine programs for "cultivation of editors," the "stimulation and placement of suitable articles in the major consumer magazines" as well as U.S. reporting about sensitive subjects such as the Dimona nuclear weapons facility.
Documents are now available for download from http://IRmep.org/ila/azc include:
Dimona (excerpt): "The nuclear reactor story inspired comment from many sources; editorial writers, columnists, science writers and cartoonists. Most of the press seemed finally to accept the thesis that the reactor was being built for peaceful purposes and not for bombs." http://www.irmep.org/11-121960AZC.pdf
Content placement and promotion (excerpt): "The Atlantic Monthly in its October issue carried the outstanding Martha Gellhorn piece on the Arab refugees, which made quite an impact around the country. We arranged for the distribution of 10,000 reprints to public opinion molders in all categories… Interested friends are making arrangements with the Atlantic for another reprint of the Gellhorn article to be sent to all 53,000 persons whose names appear in Who's Who in America…Our Committee is now planning articles for the women's magazines for the trade and business publications." http://www.irmep.org/09101961AZC.pdf
Pressure campaigns (excerpt): "It can be said that the press of the nation…has by and large shown sympathy and understanding of Israel's position. There are, of course, exceptions, notably the Scripps-Howard chain where we still need to achieve a 'break-through,' the Pulliam chain (where some progress has been made) and some locally-owned papers." http://www.irmep.org/11-121960AZC.pdf
Magazine Committee achievements (excerpt): "We cannot pinpoint all that has already been accomplished by this Committee except to say that it has been responsible for the writing and placement of articles on Israel in some of America's leading magazines...." http://www.IRmep.org/10301962_AZC.pdf
According to Grant F. Smith, director of IRmep, "It is frightening how easily some in the American news media surrendered to a foreign public relations campaign that spent the 2010 equivalent of $36 million over two years. Time has proven most of the planted content to be misleading, if not dangerous. These historical documents hold many important lessons for Americans who have long needed—but rarely received—straight reporting on key Middle East issues."
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. It retains 1%-3% of the most important documents of business conducted by the United States Federal government. The Israel Lobby Archive, http://IRmep.org/ila is a unit of the Institute for Research:
Middle Eastern Policy in Washington.
SOURCE Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy
Philip Giraldi - Mossad in America - dominates airline and telecommunications security, Israeli spies go free
American Conservative
Israeli government claims that it does not spy on the United States are intended for the media and popular consumption. The reality is that Israel’s intelligence agencies target the United States intensively, particularly in pursuit of military and dual-use civilian technology. Among nations considered to be friendly to Washington, Israel leads all others in its active espionage directed against American companies and the Defense Department.
It also dominates two commercial sectors that enable it to extend its reach inside America’s domestic infrastructure: airline and telecommunications security. Israel is believed to have the ability to monitor nearly all phone records originating in the United States, while numerous Israeli air-travel security companies are known to act as the local Mossad stations.
As tensions with Iran increase, sources in the counterintelligence community report that Israeli agents have become more aggressive in targeting Muslims living in the United States as well as in operating against critics.
There have been a number of cases reported to the FBI about Mossad officers who have approached leaders in Arab-American communities and have falsely represented themselves as “U.S. intelligence.” Because few Muslims would assist an Israeli, this is done to increase the likelihood that the target will cooperate. It’s referred to as a “false flag” operation.
Mossad officers sought to recruit Arab-Americans as sources willing to inform on their associates and neighbors. The approaches, which took place in New York and New Jersey, were reportedly handled clumsily, making the targets of the operation suspicious. These Arab-Americans turned down the requests for cooperation, and some of the contacts were eventually reported to the FBI, which has determined that at least two of the Mossad officers are, ironically, Israeli Arabs operating out of Israel’s mission to the United Nations in New York under cover as consular assistants.
In another bizarre case, U.S.S. Liberty survivor Phil Tourney was recently accosted in Southern California by a foreigner who eventually identified himself as an Israeli government representative.
Tourney was taunted, and the Israeli threatened both him and journalist Mark Glenn, who has been reporting on the Liberty story. Tourney was approached in a hotel lounge, and it is not completely clear how the Israeli was able to identify him. But he knew exactly who Tourney was, as the official referred to the Liberty, saying that the people who had been killed on board had gotten what they deserved. There were a number of witnesses to the incident, including Tourney’s wife. The threat has been reported to the FBI, which is investigating, but Tourney and Glenn believe that the incident is not being taken seriously by the bureau.
FBI sources indicate that the increase in Mossad activity is a major problem, particularly when Israelis are posing as U.S. government officials, but they also note that there is little they can do to stop it as the Justice Department refuses to initiate any punitive action or prosecutions of the Mossad officers who have been identified as involved in the illegal activity.
In another ongoing Israeli spy case, Stewart Nozette appears to be headed towards eventual freedom as his case drags on through the District of Columbia courts. Nozette, an aerospace scientist with a top secret clearance and access to highly sensitive information, offered to sell classified material to a man he believed to be a Mossad officer, but who instead turned out to be with the FBI.
Nozette has been in jail since October, but he has now been granted an additional 90-day delay so his lawyers can review the documents in the government’s case, many of which are classified.
If Nozette demands that sensitive information be used in his defense, his case will likely follow the pattern set in the nine-times-postponed trial of AIPAC spies Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, who were ultimately acquitted in April 2009 when prosecutors determined that they could not make their case without doing significant damage to national security. A month after Rosen and Weissman were freed, Ben-Ami Kadish, who admitted to providing defense secrets to Israel while working as an engineer at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, walked out of a Manhattan court after paying a fine. He did no jail time and continues to receive his substantial Defense Department pension.
The mainstream media reported the Rosen and Weissman trial intermittently, but there was virtually no coverage of Ben-Ami Kadish, and there has been even less of Nozette. Compare that with the recent reporting on the Russian spies who, by all accounts, did almost nothing and never obtained any classified information. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that spying for Israel is consequence free.
————————————-
Philip Giraldi, a former CIA Officer, is the Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest.
Israeli government claims that it does not spy on the United States are intended for the media and popular consumption. The reality is that Israel’s intelligence agencies target the United States intensively, particularly in pursuit of military and dual-use civilian technology. Among nations considered to be friendly to Washington, Israel leads all others in its active espionage directed against American companies and the Defense Department.
It also dominates two commercial sectors that enable it to extend its reach inside America’s domestic infrastructure: airline and telecommunications security. Israel is believed to have the ability to monitor nearly all phone records originating in the United States, while numerous Israeli air-travel security companies are known to act as the local Mossad stations.
As tensions with Iran increase, sources in the counterintelligence community report that Israeli agents have become more aggressive in targeting Muslims living in the United States as well as in operating against critics.
There have been a number of cases reported to the FBI about Mossad officers who have approached leaders in Arab-American communities and have falsely represented themselves as “U.S. intelligence.” Because few Muslims would assist an Israeli, this is done to increase the likelihood that the target will cooperate. It’s referred to as a “false flag” operation.
Mossad officers sought to recruit Arab-Americans as sources willing to inform on their associates and neighbors. The approaches, which took place in New York and New Jersey, were reportedly handled clumsily, making the targets of the operation suspicious. These Arab-Americans turned down the requests for cooperation, and some of the contacts were eventually reported to the FBI, which has determined that at least two of the Mossad officers are, ironically, Israeli Arabs operating out of Israel’s mission to the United Nations in New York under cover as consular assistants.
In another bizarre case, U.S.S. Liberty survivor Phil Tourney was recently accosted in Southern California by a foreigner who eventually identified himself as an Israeli government representative.
Tourney was taunted, and the Israeli threatened both him and journalist Mark Glenn, who has been reporting on the Liberty story. Tourney was approached in a hotel lounge, and it is not completely clear how the Israeli was able to identify him. But he knew exactly who Tourney was, as the official referred to the Liberty, saying that the people who had been killed on board had gotten what they deserved. There were a number of witnesses to the incident, including Tourney’s wife. The threat has been reported to the FBI, which is investigating, but Tourney and Glenn believe that the incident is not being taken seriously by the bureau.
FBI sources indicate that the increase in Mossad activity is a major problem, particularly when Israelis are posing as U.S. government officials, but they also note that there is little they can do to stop it as the Justice Department refuses to initiate any punitive action or prosecutions of the Mossad officers who have been identified as involved in the illegal activity.
In another ongoing Israeli spy case, Stewart Nozette appears to be headed towards eventual freedom as his case drags on through the District of Columbia courts. Nozette, an aerospace scientist with a top secret clearance and access to highly sensitive information, offered to sell classified material to a man he believed to be a Mossad officer, but who instead turned out to be with the FBI.
Nozette has been in jail since October, but he has now been granted an additional 90-day delay so his lawyers can review the documents in the government’s case, many of which are classified.
If Nozette demands that sensitive information be used in his defense, his case will likely follow the pattern set in the nine-times-postponed trial of AIPAC spies Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, who were ultimately acquitted in April 2009 when prosecutors determined that they could not make their case without doing significant damage to national security. A month after Rosen and Weissman were freed, Ben-Ami Kadish, who admitted to providing defense secrets to Israel while working as an engineer at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, walked out of a Manhattan court after paying a fine. He did no jail time and continues to receive his substantial Defense Department pension.
The mainstream media reported the Rosen and Weissman trial intermittently, but there was virtually no coverage of Ben-Ami Kadish, and there has been even less of Nozette. Compare that with the recent reporting on the Russian spies who, by all accounts, did almost nothing and never obtained any classified information. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that spying for Israel is consequence free.
————————————-
Philip Giraldi, a former CIA Officer, is the Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
PA: Israel detains diplomatic & media delegation in Qalqiliya
Ma'an -- Israeli forces detained a diplomatic and media delegation in Qalqiliya on Monday, the Information Ministry reported.
The ministry organized a tour of the city, which is surrounded on all sides by the separation wall, to show the delegation of foreign diplomats the effect of the wall on residents’ lives.
During the tour, the group was detained inside a gate in the wall, the ministry said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was not familiar with such an incident.
The ministry organized a tour of the city, which is surrounded on all sides by the separation wall, to show the delegation of foreign diplomats the effect of the wall on residents’ lives.
During the tour, the group was detained inside a gate in the wall, the ministry said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was not familiar with such an incident.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Israeli police police recommend trying top religious Zionist rabbi for sex crimes
Ha'aretz - Police allege that Mordechai Elon committed sexual offences against young boys that came to him for advice.
After concluding their investigation, police recommended on Sunday that Mordechai (Moti) Elon, a prominent religious Zionist rabbi, be tried for allegedly committing sex-related crimes.
According to police, enough evidence was found during their investigation to try Elon for alleged sexual assault by force as well as sexual assault of minors.
In February, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein instructed the police to conduct a preliminary investigation of the complaints, according to which Elon committed sexual offences against young boys that came to him for advice.
The incident began with Takana, a forum dedicated to preventing sexual harassment by prominent religious figures, on the basis of complaints of alleged sexual relations between Rabbi Elon and minors that they had accumulated.
The Takana Forum revealed details of the complaints that they received in the past from students of Rabbi Elon. "One of the first complaints submitted to the forum was against Rabbi Mordechai Elon," the group wrote on its Web site. "One claim accused him of sexual exploitation by an individual with religious authority. These are grave acts that are not open to any other interpretation."
During an investigation, police located the boy who agreed to give testimony detailing the sexual assault which he allegedly experienced at the hands of Rabbi Elon which occurred between 2005 and 2006, when the boy was a minor.
Additional investigation revealed evidence bolstering the boy's claims. Consequently, Weinstein recommended the launch of a criminal investigation against Elon. During the criminal investigation, police located another boy who also alleged that Elon had sexually assaulted him when he was a minor.
Rabbis close to Takana, the group that originally alleged sexual misconduct on the part of Elon, had said in March that police were not pressing charges against the educator because Takana had promised confidentiality to Elon's former students who had complained.
After concluding their investigation, police recommended on Sunday that Mordechai (Moti) Elon, a prominent religious Zionist rabbi, be tried for allegedly committing sex-related crimes.
According to police, enough evidence was found during their investigation to try Elon for alleged sexual assault by force as well as sexual assault of minors.
In February, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein instructed the police to conduct a preliminary investigation of the complaints, according to which Elon committed sexual offences against young boys that came to him for advice.
The incident began with Takana, a forum dedicated to preventing sexual harassment by prominent religious figures, on the basis of complaints of alleged sexual relations between Rabbi Elon and minors that they had accumulated.
The Takana Forum revealed details of the complaints that they received in the past from students of Rabbi Elon. "One of the first complaints submitted to the forum was against Rabbi Mordechai Elon," the group wrote on its Web site. "One claim accused him of sexual exploitation by an individual with religious authority. These are grave acts that are not open to any other interpretation."
During an investigation, police located the boy who agreed to give testimony detailing the sexual assault which he allegedly experienced at the hands of Rabbi Elon which occurred between 2005 and 2006, when the boy was a minor.
Additional investigation revealed evidence bolstering the boy's claims. Consequently, Weinstein recommended the launch of a criminal investigation against Elon. During the criminal investigation, police located another boy who also alleged that Elon had sexually assaulted him when he was a minor.
Rabbis close to Takana, the group that originally alleged sexual misconduct on the part of Elon, had said in March that police were not pressing charges against the educator because Takana had promised confidentiality to Elon's former students who had complained.
Israelis hold protests in 15 Israeli cities against demolition of Palestinian homes
IMEMC - More than 1,000 demonstrators gathered in cities across Israel on Friday (6 August) for a day of solidarity marking the one-year anniversary of the eviction and settler take over of the Ghawi and Hanoun family homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
Around 700 demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv, 100 in Haifa, 60 in Beersheva, 100 in Wadi Ara, 100 in Taibe, 100 in Kfar Yassif and around two-dozen in Ra’anana. Another 50 gathered in the unrecognized Arab village of Dahmash on the outskirts of Ramle, where at least 13 homes are slated for demolition, according to the Jerusalem Post. Demonstrators from around the country then boarded buses for Jerusalem and attended the weekly protest in Sheikh Jarrah.
A 2008 Jerusalem District Court ruling paved the way for the August 2009 evictions by stating that the Palestinian neighborhood is in fact part of the former Jewish neighborhood “Shimon Hatzadik” and belonged to the Sephardi Community Committee.
Since the home evictions of the Ghawi and Hanoun families, Sheikh Jarrah has become home to protests every Friday, attended by Palestinian, Israeli and international supporters and activists, calling for the return of the families to their homes.
The neighborhood has also come to symbolize the battle over the future status of East Jerusalem, as Palestinian communities fight discriminatory policies and decisions from the Jerusalem municipality.
Knesset Member Dov Khenin from the Hadash party attended the anniversary demonstration, noting that "struggle is intensifying, because people understand we are fighting here not just against the injustice suffered by the Palestinians in the neighborhood, but also for ourselves, for our future in this country. Because with a settlement in the heart of Arab east Jerusalem, we won't be able to reach an arrangement of two states for two people. It's a critical battle and more and more people are realizing that."
Around 700 demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv, 100 in Haifa, 60 in Beersheva, 100 in Wadi Ara, 100 in Taibe, 100 in Kfar Yassif and around two-dozen in Ra’anana. Another 50 gathered in the unrecognized Arab village of Dahmash on the outskirts of Ramle, where at least 13 homes are slated for demolition, according to the Jerusalem Post. Demonstrators from around the country then boarded buses for Jerusalem and attended the weekly protest in Sheikh Jarrah.
A 2008 Jerusalem District Court ruling paved the way for the August 2009 evictions by stating that the Palestinian neighborhood is in fact part of the former Jewish neighborhood “Shimon Hatzadik” and belonged to the Sephardi Community Committee.
Since the home evictions of the Ghawi and Hanoun families, Sheikh Jarrah has become home to protests every Friday, attended by Palestinian, Israeli and international supporters and activists, calling for the return of the families to their homes.
The neighborhood has also come to symbolize the battle over the future status of East Jerusalem, as Palestinian communities fight discriminatory policies and decisions from the Jerusalem municipality.
Knesset Member Dov Khenin from the Hadash party attended the anniversary demonstration, noting that "struggle is intensifying, because people understand we are fighting here not just against the injustice suffered by the Palestinians in the neighborhood, but also for ourselves, for our future in this country. Because with a settlement in the heart of Arab east Jerusalem, we won't be able to reach an arrangement of two states for two people. It's a critical battle and more and more people are realizing that."
US Congress allocates record amount for joint US-Israel military effort; experts say project flawed; Congressman Rothman pushed funding through
IMEMC - A committee of the US Congress designated $217.2 million of US tax money to a joint military venture between the US and Israel – this is in addition to the annual $3 billion in direct aid and $3 billion in indirect aid provided by the US to the Israeli government.
The Defense Appropriations Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives approved the measure earlier this week, which provides support for a joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense system known as 'The Arrow' and David's Sling'. The missile defense systems are allegedly meant to repel potential Iranian missile attacks on Israel, though their effectiveness as defense systems has been questioned by military experts, some of whom say the project is destined for failure.
The amount designated by the US Congress for the project is $95.7 million more than the amount requested by US President Barack Obama for the project, and indicates the extreme support for Israel within the US Congress, that even at a time of budget cuts for health, education and welfare, the Congress would see fit to donate a record amount to military support for Israel.
Congressman Steve Rothman of New Jersey, who helped push the funding through, told reporters, “This is only the latest example that when it comes to defense, military, and intelligence cooperation, the relationship between the U.S. and Israel has never been stronger.”
The Defense Appropriations Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives approved the measure earlier this week, which provides support for a joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense system known as 'The Arrow' and David's Sling'. The missile defense systems are allegedly meant to repel potential Iranian missile attacks on Israel, though their effectiveness as defense systems has been questioned by military experts, some of whom say the project is destined for failure.
The amount designated by the US Congress for the project is $95.7 million more than the amount requested by US President Barack Obama for the project, and indicates the extreme support for Israel within the US Congress, that even at a time of budget cuts for health, education and welfare, the Congress would see fit to donate a record amount to military support for Israel.
Congressman Steve Rothman of New Jersey, who helped push the funding through, told reporters, “This is only the latest example that when it comes to defense, military, and intelligence cooperation, the relationship between the U.S. and Israel has never been stronger.”
Israel destroys three more Palestinian homes in Negev
Ma'an -- Israeli authorities demolished three houses in the western Negev on Monday, local officials said.
The houses in Abda village belonged to the At-Tantawi family, the Abda regional council said.
Ibrahim Al-Waqeely, head of the council, condemned the timing of the demolitions during a heatwave and a few days before the holy month of Ramadan, as families prepare to fast.
Villagers will remain on their land, Al-Waqeely said, despite "continuous provocations" by Israeli forces.
An Israeli police spokesman said he was not familiar with such an incident.
A Bedouin village which Israel considered unrecognized was destroyed in late July.
The houses in Abda village belonged to the At-Tantawi family, the Abda regional council said.
Ibrahim Al-Waqeely, head of the council, condemned the timing of the demolitions during a heatwave and a few days before the holy month of Ramadan, as families prepare to fast.
Villagers will remain on their land, Al-Waqeely said, despite "continuous provocations" by Israeli forces.
An Israeli police spokesman said he was not familiar with such an incident.
A Bedouin village which Israel considered unrecognized was destroyed in late July.
Palestinian farmers reclaim land from settlement
Ma’an -- Aided by the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee, farmers from a southern West Bank village have reclaimed lands inside an illegal Israeli settlement.
Imad Ash-Shaer, 42, from Husan village, said he gave up hope 10 years ago that he would be able to farm his land, annexed by an Israeli military base at the entrance to Betar Illit settlement.
“Israeli forces used to stop us accessing our land, even beating children if they came close to the military,” Ash-Shaer told Ma’an while standing on his reclaimed land inside the settlement.
Ash-Shaer’s family managed to reclaim all 48 dunums (about five hectares) of their land, most of which is inside the barbed wire fence surrounding Betar Illit.
Farmers can only use one entrance to the land, and initially, Israeli soldiers would confiscate their tractors as they attempted to cross.
After investigations, PARC found that Israeli authorities had no legal basis to deny farmers entry, only a security pretext. Farmers asked soldiers to summon police officers when they were denied access, and the police had no legal pretext to stop the farmers, project coordinator Ibrahim Manasra explained.
In this way, six families from Husan have reclaimed their land, at an estimated cost of $1,000 per dunum. PARC covered 75 percent of the costs, and farmers paid the rest.
Manasra said reclaiming land inside illegal Israeli settlement is one of PARC’s most important projects.
Settlers continue to harass the farmers, Ash-Shaer added. “They erected a movable house a few days ago, and harassed farmers until police evacuated them,” he said.
Betar Illit was established in 1982 on land owned by Palestinians from the villages of Husan, Nahhalin, Battir, Wadi Fukin and Jaba. The settlement now houses 40,000 settlers, most of whom are ultra-orthodox
Imad Ash-Shaer, 42, from Husan village, said he gave up hope 10 years ago that he would be able to farm his land, annexed by an Israeli military base at the entrance to Betar Illit settlement.
“Israeli forces used to stop us accessing our land, even beating children if they came close to the military,” Ash-Shaer told Ma’an while standing on his reclaimed land inside the settlement.
Ash-Shaer’s family managed to reclaim all 48 dunums (about five hectares) of their land, most of which is inside the barbed wire fence surrounding Betar Illit.
Farmers can only use one entrance to the land, and initially, Israeli soldiers would confiscate their tractors as they attempted to cross.
After investigations, PARC found that Israeli authorities had no legal basis to deny farmers entry, only a security pretext. Farmers asked soldiers to summon police officers when they were denied access, and the police had no legal pretext to stop the farmers, project coordinator Ibrahim Manasra explained.
In this way, six families from Husan have reclaimed their land, at an estimated cost of $1,000 per dunum. PARC covered 75 percent of the costs, and farmers paid the rest.
Manasra said reclaiming land inside illegal Israeli settlement is one of PARC’s most important projects.
Settlers continue to harass the farmers, Ash-Shaer added. “They erected a movable house a few days ago, and harassed farmers until police evacuated them,” he said.
Betar Illit was established in 1982 on land owned by Palestinians from the villages of Husan, Nahhalin, Battir, Wadi Fukin and Jaba. The settlement now houses 40,000 settlers, most of whom are ultra-orthodox
Report: Suspected Israeli spy met with Nasrallah
Ma'an -- A retired Lebanese army official detained on suspicion of spying for Israel met with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah at least once, Israeli media reported Monday.
According to the Israeli news site Enyan Merkazi, Brigadier General Fayez Karam, who is also a senior official with Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, met Nasrallah in his hideout in 2006, where he has been staying since. Aoun was reportedly present at the meeting.
According to the Israeli news site Enyan Merkazi, Brigadier General Fayez Karam, who is also a senior official with Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, met Nasrallah in his hideout in 2006, where he has been staying since. Aoun was reportedly present at the meeting.
Israel continues to demolish Palestinian homes in Jordan Valley, part of effort to confiscate area for Israel
Ma'an -- Israel's Civil Administration began razing housing units Monday in the Ein Hilwa area of the northern Jordan Valley, campaign officials said.
Save the Jordan Valley campaign coordinator Fathi Ikhdeirat said Israeli authorities, accompanied by border guards, began tearing down structures and handing down stop-work orders to residents.
He described the move as an attempt "to clear the area of its indigenous people and include it into Israel and called on international human rights groups to intervene to bring the demolitions to a halt.
A spokesman for Israel's Civil Administration did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
The Jordan Valley has been a target for demolitions by Israel's Civil Administration, with several structures in villages across the area being torn down.
On Sunday, dozens of Palestinians as well as foreign activists rebuilt areas in the nearby Al-Farisiya village that were recently bulldozed by Israel's Civil Administration.
Over the past 10 days, several shacks, homes and agricultural structures were torn down in the village by the administration, which has complete planning and building control over Area C. Last Thursday, the Civil Administration returned to the valley to demolish 23 structures rebuilt by residents and farmers.
Meanwhile, in the nearby Bardala village, locals said the Civil Administration distributed several stop-work orders to residents in late July.
The orders, known locally as "demolition orders," demand that homeowners appear before a magistrates court to defend allegations. Because legal action at the court rarely succeeds, the stop-work orders essentially constitute a demolition order.
According to a report in the Israeli daily Haaretz in July, the Civil Administration has received government orders to increase enforcement against Palestinian construction in Area C, according to a deposition by an administration official to the High Court.
The deposition, by the head of the administration's infrastructure authority, Colonel Zvika Cohen, came in response to a petition by Regavim - a group seeking the destruction of illegal Palestinian construction at six West Bank sites, citing a security threat, the daily reported.
A recent UN report said 86 structures in the Jordan Valley were demolished two weeks ago, and 17 others were demolished in other areas of the West Bank the week after.
"The spate of demolitions raises concerns over whether Israeli authorities could further escalate demolitions throughout Area C," a UN report said, noting more than 3,000 demolition orders handed down by Israeli officials to locals were still outstanding.
"Currently, it is nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits to maintain, repair or construct homes, animal shelters or necessary infrastructure in Area C," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest report on Area C.
Save the Jordan Valley campaign coordinator Fathi Ikhdeirat said Israeli authorities, accompanied by border guards, began tearing down structures and handing down stop-work orders to residents.
He described the move as an attempt "to clear the area of its indigenous people and include it into Israel and called on international human rights groups to intervene to bring the demolitions to a halt.
A spokesman for Israel's Civil Administration did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
The Jordan Valley has been a target for demolitions by Israel's Civil Administration, with several structures in villages across the area being torn down.
On Sunday, dozens of Palestinians as well as foreign activists rebuilt areas in the nearby Al-Farisiya village that were recently bulldozed by Israel's Civil Administration.
Over the past 10 days, several shacks, homes and agricultural structures were torn down in the village by the administration, which has complete planning and building control over Area C. Last Thursday, the Civil Administration returned to the valley to demolish 23 structures rebuilt by residents and farmers.
Meanwhile, in the nearby Bardala village, locals said the Civil Administration distributed several stop-work orders to residents in late July.
The orders, known locally as "demolition orders," demand that homeowners appear before a magistrates court to defend allegations. Because legal action at the court rarely succeeds, the stop-work orders essentially constitute a demolition order.
According to a report in the Israeli daily Haaretz in July, the Civil Administration has received government orders to increase enforcement against Palestinian construction in Area C, according to a deposition by an administration official to the High Court.
The deposition, by the head of the administration's infrastructure authority, Colonel Zvika Cohen, came in response to a petition by Regavim - a group seeking the destruction of illegal Palestinian construction at six West Bank sites, citing a security threat, the daily reported.
A recent UN report said 86 structures in the Jordan Valley were demolished two weeks ago, and 17 others were demolished in other areas of the West Bank the week after.
"The spate of demolitions raises concerns over whether Israeli authorities could further escalate demolitions throughout Area C," a UN report said, noting more than 3,000 demolition orders handed down by Israeli officials to locals were still outstanding.
"Currently, it is nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits to maintain, repair or construct homes, animal shelters or necessary infrastructure in Area C," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest report on Area C.
Palestinians in Gaza rally against Israeli confiscation of their farm land, Israeli forces open fire
Ma'an -- The Popular Resistance Campaign marched toward Israel's no-go zone Monday in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, in protest over land confiscation and prohibited access to farm land.
The march began at the Absan Al-Jadeda village east of Khan Younis toward to the zone, with protesters waving Palestinian flags and banners denouncing Israel's ban on access to the area that it considers a live combat zone.
Protesters said Israeli forces opened fire as they arrived at the area, where they placed Palestinian flags. No injuries were reported.
Imad Asfour, the Khan Younis campaign coordinator, condemned Israel's opening of fire and said the area was bulldozed daily.
During a speech at the rally, Adnan Al-Faq'awi said the Popular Campaign will continue to host marches and peaceful activities against the buffer zone in the eastern and northern part of Gaza, despite the threat of Israeli fire. He called for support for farmers affected by the no-go zone.
Al-Faq'awi further called for Hamas and Fatah to reconcile to defend Palestinian land from further land confiscation.
The march began at the Absan Al-Jadeda village east of Khan Younis toward to the zone, with protesters waving Palestinian flags and banners denouncing Israel's ban on access to the area that it considers a live combat zone.
Protesters said Israeli forces opened fire as they arrived at the area, where they placed Palestinian flags. No injuries were reported.
Imad Asfour, the Khan Younis campaign coordinator, condemned Israel's opening of fire and said the area was bulldozed daily.
During a speech at the rally, Adnan Al-Faq'awi said the Popular Campaign will continue to host marches and peaceful activities against the buffer zone in the eastern and northern part of Gaza, despite the threat of Israeli fire. He called for support for farmers affected by the no-go zone.
Al-Faq'awi further called for Hamas and Fatah to reconcile to defend Palestinian land from further land confiscation.
Israeli settlers attack Palestinian parliamentarian Mustafa Barghouthi; army blocks Palestinian farmers from their fields, destroys irrigation network
Ma'an -- A Palestinian lawmaker said he was attacked by settlers as he accompanied farmers trying to access their land near Hebron on Saturday.
Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouthi said after the attack, Israeli soldiers used force to prevent the group accessing farmland in Al-Buwiera and Al-Baq’a villages.
An Israeli military spokesman said Barghouthi was in a closed military zone when soldiers asked him to leave, but denied reports that force was used.
Barghouthi held Israeli authorities fully responsible for the farmers’ lands, which are at risk of drought since Israel’s Civil Administration destroyed what it described as an illegal water irrigation network in Al-Baq’a on Monday.
The parliamentarian noted that settlers from an illegal outpost near the Kiryat Arba settlement had rebuilt homes demolished by the army last week.
Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouthi said after the attack, Israeli soldiers used force to prevent the group accessing farmland in Al-Buwiera and Al-Baq’a villages.
An Israeli military spokesman said Barghouthi was in a closed military zone when soldiers asked him to leave, but denied reports that force was used.
Barghouthi held Israeli authorities fully responsible for the farmers’ lands, which are at risk of drought since Israel’s Civil Administration destroyed what it described as an illegal water irrigation network in Al-Baq’a on Monday.
The parliamentarian noted that settlers from an illegal outpost near the Kiryat Arba settlement had rebuilt homes demolished by the army last week.
Israeli military raids West Bank towns, assaults citizens
Ma'an -- Israeli forces launched a series of raids Sunday across the West Bank; entering homes, attacking residents, and delivering summonses ordering citizens to report to intelligence services, police said.
Two summonses were issued to Ahmad Khaled Shamsneh, 19, and Adham A’hed Shamasneh, 20, during a raid on Jayyous, south of Tulkarem.
Police reported that five villages in the Hebron district; Dura, Yatta, Halhul, Ath-Thaherieyah, and Beit Kahel; were raided, and summonses were issued to Mohammad Issa A’safreh, Bajes Mahmoud A’safreh, Mohammad Yousef Ezzat, and Ramadan Mahmoud Hassen Jibril from Beit Kahel.
Meanwhile in Jenin, Israeli forces assaulted Wajdi Walid Mohammad Hasen Qabaha, 24, from Barta’a, at a checkpoint, police said. He was transferred to Jenin’s Government Hospital for treatment, a statement said.
Also in the Jenin area, Salah Din A’ref Ghawadreh, 24, and Wasim Khader Turkman, 28, were admitted to hospital after falling from the separation wall while being pursued by Israeli soldiers, according to the report.
An Israeli spokeswoman was not aware of any military activity in the Jenin area, but confirmed that summonses were issued in Jayyous. The procedure was routine, she said.
Two summonses were issued to Ahmad Khaled Shamsneh, 19, and Adham A’hed Shamasneh, 20, during a raid on Jayyous, south of Tulkarem.
Police reported that five villages in the Hebron district; Dura, Yatta, Halhul, Ath-Thaherieyah, and Beit Kahel; were raided, and summonses were issued to Mohammad Issa A’safreh, Bajes Mahmoud A’safreh, Mohammad Yousef Ezzat, and Ramadan Mahmoud Hassen Jibril from Beit Kahel.
Meanwhile in Jenin, Israeli forces assaulted Wajdi Walid Mohammad Hasen Qabaha, 24, from Barta’a, at a checkpoint, police said. He was transferred to Jenin’s Government Hospital for treatment, a statement said.
Also in the Jenin area, Salah Din A’ref Ghawadreh, 24, and Wasim Khader Turkman, 28, were admitted to hospital after falling from the separation wall while being pursued by Israeli soldiers, according to the report.
An Israeli spokeswoman was not aware of any military activity in the Jenin area, but confirmed that summonses were issued in Jayyous. The procedure was routine, she said.
Gaza hospitals declare state of emergency
Ma'an -- Gaza's hospitals announced a state of emergency Sunday following the shutdown of the Strip's sole power station a day earlier.
Director of ambulance and emergency services Muawiya Hassanein warned of a potential humanitarian disaster as a result of the blackout, resulting from an ongoing fuel shortage. He warned of a severe deterioration in heath services, particularly in children's hospitals, maternity wards, intensive care units and for patients requiring dialysis and premature babies in incubators.
"The health care sector relies on generators ... If their power gets cut off for even five minutes, it could lead to dozens of deaths, including children and patients in critical condition in the operating room," Hassanein said.
The generators, which are in regular use across the Strip owing to the rolling blackouts, require constant maintenance and care, he said.
Hassanein added that hospitals began receiving dozens of patients since the blackout started who can longer power oxygen machines or medical equipment in their homes.
The official said that since 2008, 142 Gaza residents have died in generator-related accidents, noting an increase in house fires. Hospitals have received up to 450 burn victims as a result, 58 of whom were disabled, he added.
The power plant was shut down due to a shortage of fuel. Under current arrangements, the Gaza government is meant to collect electricity bill payments and transfer the cash to the Palestinian Authority, which in turn pays Israel, through which the fuel is transferred.
The Gaza Power Authority blamed Ramallah's finance ministry for failing to make the payments to Israel, while Ramallah officials have insisted that the GPA make a greater effort to collect power bill payments.
Gaza officials cited 50 percent unemployment rates, and the PA announcement Saturday that it will deduct 25 percent from paychecks of employed Gaza residents, as factors making it near impossible to collect sufficient payments to keep the plant running.
This is the third time power plant has been forced to close due to fuel shortage this year.
UPDATE: Gaza restarts generator - enough fuel for a day and a half
Ma'an -- One generator in Gaza's sole power station was restarted on Monday morning, after receiving a limited quantity of industrial diesel, an Electricity Company spokesman said.
Jamal Ad-Dardasawi said "Only 200,000 liters of diesel were delivered to the power station which is enough to run one generator for a day and a half," adding that he hoped more fuel would be transferred to avoid shutting down the station again.
The spokesman also announced an amendment to the emergency electricity distribution program with Gaza residents set to experience eight hours of power, followed by eight hours of cuts.
Ad-Dardasawi further said the Electricity Company delivered $2 million to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Finance in Ramallah for August, as both sides accuse one another of causing the ongoing electricity crises.
The power station was shutdown on Saturday due to a fuel shortage. Under current arrangements, the Gaza government is meant to collect electricity bill payments and transfer the cash to the PA, which in turn pays Israel, through which the fuel is transferred.
On Sunday, Gaza's hospitals announced a state of emergency following the shutdown. Director of ambulance and emergency services Muawiya Hassanein warned of a potential humanitarian disaster as a result of the blackout, affecting patients on life support and dialysis in particular.
Director of ambulance and emergency services Muawiya Hassanein warned of a potential humanitarian disaster as a result of the blackout, resulting from an ongoing fuel shortage. He warned of a severe deterioration in heath services, particularly in children's hospitals, maternity wards, intensive care units and for patients requiring dialysis and premature babies in incubators.
"The health care sector relies on generators ... If their power gets cut off for even five minutes, it could lead to dozens of deaths, including children and patients in critical condition in the operating room," Hassanein said.
The generators, which are in regular use across the Strip owing to the rolling blackouts, require constant maintenance and care, he said.
Hassanein added that hospitals began receiving dozens of patients since the blackout started who can longer power oxygen machines or medical equipment in their homes.
The official said that since 2008, 142 Gaza residents have died in generator-related accidents, noting an increase in house fires. Hospitals have received up to 450 burn victims as a result, 58 of whom were disabled, he added.
The power plant was shut down due to a shortage of fuel. Under current arrangements, the Gaza government is meant to collect electricity bill payments and transfer the cash to the Palestinian Authority, which in turn pays Israel, through which the fuel is transferred.
The Gaza Power Authority blamed Ramallah's finance ministry for failing to make the payments to Israel, while Ramallah officials have insisted that the GPA make a greater effort to collect power bill payments.
Gaza officials cited 50 percent unemployment rates, and the PA announcement Saturday that it will deduct 25 percent from paychecks of employed Gaza residents, as factors making it near impossible to collect sufficient payments to keep the plant running.
This is the third time power plant has been forced to close due to fuel shortage this year.
UPDATE: Gaza restarts generator - enough fuel for a day and a half
Ma'an -- One generator in Gaza's sole power station was restarted on Monday morning, after receiving a limited quantity of industrial diesel, an Electricity Company spokesman said.
Jamal Ad-Dardasawi said "Only 200,000 liters of diesel were delivered to the power station which is enough to run one generator for a day and a half," adding that he hoped more fuel would be transferred to avoid shutting down the station again.
The spokesman also announced an amendment to the emergency electricity distribution program with Gaza residents set to experience eight hours of power, followed by eight hours of cuts.
Ad-Dardasawi further said the Electricity Company delivered $2 million to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Finance in Ramallah for August, as both sides accuse one another of causing the ongoing electricity crises.
The power station was shutdown on Saturday due to a fuel shortage. Under current arrangements, the Gaza government is meant to collect electricity bill payments and transfer the cash to the PA, which in turn pays Israel, through which the fuel is transferred.
On Sunday, Gaza's hospitals announced a state of emergency following the shutdown. Director of ambulance and emergency services Muawiya Hassanein warned of a potential humanitarian disaster as a result of the blackout, affecting patients on life support and dialysis in particular.
Officials say Israel lowering water supply to Nablus villages by fifty percent
Ma'an -- A Nablus village's local council has accused Israeli authorities of cutting several villages' water supply by 50 percent, as the global heatwave continues.
Rujeib council head Ahmad Dweikat said the water pumped to his village had been lowered from 5,000 cubic meters to 2,500 cubic meters without prior notice three weeks ago.
The nearby villages of Azmut, Salim, and Deir Al-Hatab have undergone the same reduction, he said.
The four villages have a combined population of 16,000, and several homes on hilltops have not had a supply of water for three weeks. As a result, residents are purchasing water from delivery tanks that cost up to 300 shekels ($95) for 10 cubic meters.
A spokesman for Israel's Civil Administration said the same amount of water was being pumped to the Rujeib
Residents filed a complaint three weeks ago and again on Wednesday that the water supply was not reaching them, he said.
A representative from Israel's Mekorot water company was sent out and determined the water was being illegally diverted, he added.
Rujeib council head Ahmad Dweikat said the water pumped to his village had been lowered from 5,000 cubic meters to 2,500 cubic meters without prior notice three weeks ago.
The nearby villages of Azmut, Salim, and Deir Al-Hatab have undergone the same reduction, he said.
The four villages have a combined population of 16,000, and several homes on hilltops have not had a supply of water for three weeks. As a result, residents are purchasing water from delivery tanks that cost up to 300 shekels ($95) for 10 cubic meters.
A spokesman for Israel's Civil Administration said the same amount of water was being pumped to the Rujeib
Residents filed a complaint three weeks ago and again on Wednesday that the water supply was not reaching them, he said.
A representative from Israel's Mekorot water company was sent out and determined the water was being illegally diverted, he added.
Israel painted over thousands of bullet holes in flotilla ship
Ma'an -- The Turkish organizers of a Gaza-bound aid boat said Saturday that Israeli authorities painted over "thousands of bullets" in one of their recently returned ships.
Huseyin Oruc of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Aid told Reuters upon the Mavi Marmara's return that "When they captured the boats, the Israelis hid all of this proof on the outside of the boat."
Reporters, according to the BBC, said the ship did appear to have been freshly painted.
Turkish prosecutors will board the vessels Monday to look for evidence of what happened during the raid on the six-strong flotilla, which was trying to reach Gaza with 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid.
Nine Turkish nationals were killed aboard the ship on 31 May. It was then sequestered at the Ashdod port.
Huseyin Oruc of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Aid told Reuters upon the Mavi Marmara's return that "When they captured the boats, the Israelis hid all of this proof on the outside of the boat."
Reporters, according to the BBC, said the ship did appear to have been freshly painted.
Turkish prosecutors will board the vessels Monday to look for evidence of what happened during the raid on the six-strong flotilla, which was trying to reach Gaza with 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid.
Nine Turkish nationals were killed aboard the ship on 31 May. It was then sequestered at the Ashdod port.
Rights federation 'concerned' over UN flotilla probe - "highly political composition of panel" affront to victims
Ma'an -- The International Federation for Human rights says it "concerned" over the composition of members appointed to a UN committee mandated with investigating Israel's raid of Gaza-bound aid fleet.
The federation said it believed the committee would not be able to investigate the 31 May raid, during which Israeli forces killed nine Turkish nationals, in conformity with international standards and transparency, owing to the panel's make-up.
A failure to do so could risk "contributing to a culture of impunity," the open letter read.
The federation said the "highly political composition of the panel" is of the groups primary concern, adding that the nomination of outgoing President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe as vice-chair could damage its credibility and "could also affect the trust that should exist for the United Nations, and can be seen as an affront to victims."
The letter follows the appointment on Saturday of former Israeli Foreign Ministry official Yosef Ciechanover to the panel and two former Turkish diplomats.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer will chair the panel and will meet on 10 August.
The federation said it believed the committee would not be able to investigate the 31 May raid, during which Israeli forces killed nine Turkish nationals, in conformity with international standards and transparency, owing to the panel's make-up.
A failure to do so could risk "contributing to a culture of impunity," the open letter read.
The federation said the "highly political composition of the panel" is of the groups primary concern, adding that the nomination of outgoing President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe as vice-chair could damage its credibility and "could also affect the trust that should exist for the United Nations, and can be seen as an affront to victims."
The letter follows the appointment on Saturday of former Israeli Foreign Ministry official Yosef Ciechanover to the panel and two former Turkish diplomats.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer will chair the panel and will meet on 10 August.
Israeli army confirms firing at Lebanese fishing boat
Ma'an -- The Israeli army confirmed Sunday that a naval vessel opened fire at a Lebanese fishing boat over the weekend, Israeli media reported.
An army statement said no damage or injury was caused, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
On Saturday, the Lebanese army issued a statement saying an Israeli gunboat “fired several bursts toward Lebanese territorial waters” off Lebanon’s southern coast at 4a.m., NOW Lebanon reported.
The incident follows recent increased tensions along the border following clashes on Tuesday in the border village of Aadeisha, during which one Israeli soldier, two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist were killed.
The clashes, the fiercest since the second Lebanon war in 2006, were reportedly ignited when Israeli forces attempted to uproot a tree to install surveillance equipment.
At the time, a Lebanese army spokesperson said the Israeli force was attempting to uproot a tree on the Lebanese side, while the Israeli army said it was on Israeli territory.
An army statement said no damage or injury was caused, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
On Saturday, the Lebanese army issued a statement saying an Israeli gunboat “fired several bursts toward Lebanese territorial waters” off Lebanon’s southern coast at 4a.m., NOW Lebanon reported.
The incident follows recent increased tensions along the border following clashes on Tuesday in the border village of Aadeisha, during which one Israeli soldier, two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist were killed.
The clashes, the fiercest since the second Lebanon war in 2006, were reportedly ignited when Israeli forces attempted to uproot a tree to install surveillance equipment.
At the time, a Lebanese army spokesperson said the Israeli force was attempting to uproot a tree on the Lebanese side, while the Israeli army said it was on Israeli territory.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Former Cabinet member Donna Shalala "humiliated" by Israeli officials because of Arab last name
Ynet - "American VIP humiliated at airport"
Donna Shalala, Clinton's secretary of health, arrives in Israel in order to fight academic boycott against Israel, claims she was held at Ben-Gurion Airport just because she has Arab last name
This is not how she imagined her visit to Israel. Prof. Donna Shalala, who served as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services for eight years under Clinton and is currently the president of the University of Miami, was held for two-and-a-half hours at Ben Gurion Airport during which she underwent a humiliating security debriefing because of her Arab last name – all this despite the fact that her hosts notified the airport ahead of time that she is a VIP.
The fact that Shalala arrived in Israel as part of an official delegation of the heads of universities fighting against the academic boycott against the Jewish State also seemed not to help her.
Donna Shalala, Clinton's secretary of health, arrives in Israel in order to fight academic boycott against Israel, claims she was held at Ben-Gurion Airport just because she has Arab last name
This is not how she imagined her visit to Israel. Prof. Donna Shalala, who served as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services for eight years under Clinton and is currently the president of the University of Miami, was held for two-and-a-half hours at Ben Gurion Airport during which she underwent a humiliating security debriefing because of her Arab last name – all this despite the fact that her hosts notified the airport ahead of time that she is a VIP.
The fact that Shalala arrived in Israel as part of an official delegation of the heads of universities fighting against the academic boycott against the Jewish State also seemed not to help her.
Weekly protest in Artas, near Bethlehem, against the Israel wall
IMEMC - The people of the village of Artas west of Bethlehem organized on Friday their weekly march against the construction of the wall on their land.
Dozens of citizens accompanied by international supporters marched through the village to the construction site of the wall. Local sources said that Israeli troops operating in the area were taping the march.
The marchers waved Palestinian flags and banners condemning the building of the wall on the farmers' lands.
Awad Abu Swai, spokesperson of the popular committee against the wall and settlements in Artas, spoke to the crowd calling for unity among the Palestinians in order to face the Israeli measures of land confiscation and the construction of the wall.
The marchers waved Palestinian flags and banners condemning the building of the wall on the farmers' lands.
Awad Abu Swai, spokesperson of the popular committee against the wall and settlements in Artas, spoke to the crowd calling for unity among the Palestinians in order to face the Israeli measures of land confiscation and the construction of the wall.
Palestinian & international Anti-wall protest in Ni'lin to commemorate the death of one of its activists
IMEMC - The villagers of Ni'lin near Ramallah in the West Bank organized their weekly nonviolent protest Friday at noon.
This week's activity was dedicated to commemorate the death of Yousef 'Amira who was killed by Israeli troops in 2008 during a nonviolent protest in the village.
The villagers managed to hold their prayers on the lands slated for confiscation for the sake of building the wall.
Following the prayer, protesters carried 'Amira's photos and waved Palestinian flags as they marched towards the construction site.
Israeli troops present there fired a number of tear gas canisters at them causing dozens of them to choke.
Five residents, youth and children, have been killed by Israeli troops in the past two years during Ni'lin anti-wall protests.
The villagers managed to hold their prayers on the lands slated for confiscation for the sake of building the wall.
Following the prayer, protesters carried 'Amira's photos and waved Palestinian flags as they marched towards the construction site.
Israeli troops present there fired a number of tear gas canisters at them causing dozens of them to choke.
Five residents, youth and children, have been killed by Israeli troops in the past two years during Ni'lin anti-wall protests.
Israeli forces attack dozens of nonviolent protesters in Bil'in weekly demonstration
IMEMC - The Popular Committee against the Wall and settlements in Bil'in organized their weekly march against the construction of the Wall on Friday at noon.
The march started after the Friday prayer and moved towards the lands Israel is building the wall on. Marchers carried Palestinian flags and banners calling for Palestinian internal unity and for the cessation of all settlement activities in the West Bank.
The villagers of Bil'in were accompanied by a group of International and Israeli peace activists and at least 80 youth from a summer camp from the village of Farkha near Salfit.
As the crowd arrived near the construction site of the wall, Israeli troops showered them with a hail of tear gas canisters and fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets. Clashes erupted later between youth and the soldiers.
Eyewitnesses said that troops also fired some kind of black rubber balls that caused bruises to those who were hit by them.
A number of protesters were also wounded as a result of inhaling the tear gas and were treated by field medics.
The march started after the Friday prayer and moved towards the lands Israel is building the wall on. Marchers carried Palestinian flags and banners calling for Palestinian internal unity and for the cessation of all settlement activities in the West Bank.
The villagers of Bil'in were accompanied by a group of International and Israeli peace activists and at least 80 youth from a summer camp from the village of Farkha near Salfit.
As the crowd arrived near the construction site of the wall, Israeli troops showered them with a hail of tear gas canisters and fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets. Clashes erupted later between youth and the soldiers.
Eyewitnesses said that troops also fired some kind of black rubber balls that caused bruises to those who were hit by them.
A number of protesters were also wounded as a result of inhaling the tear gas and were treated by field medics.
Weekly Report: Israelis killed 2 Palestinians, injured dozens, destroyed agricultural lands
IMEMC - In its Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for the week of 29 July – 04 August 2010, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights found that Israeli forces killed two Palestinian resistance fighters, one of whom was killed in an extra-judicial execution, in the Gaza Strip. Two resistance fighters were wounded by Israeli bombardment.
Israeli forces continued to use force against peaceful protests in the West Bank. A Palestinian boy and two International human rights defenders were injured. Israeli forces abducted 7 civilians, including a child and an Israeli human rights defender.
Israeli forces continued to fire at Palestinian farmers and workers in border areas of the Gaza Strip. 5 Palestinian workers, including a child, were wounded in the northern Gaza Strip. 19 Palestinian civilians, including two women and a child, were wounded by an Israeli air strike against a Palestinian police station in Gaza City.
Israeli settlement activities:
Israel has continued its settlement activities in the West Bank in violation of international humanitarian law, and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.
On 29 July 2010, at least 40 armed Israeli settlers from "Atirat Kohanim" group stormed a two-storey apartment building belonging to the Qarrash family, in which 9 families counting 49 individuals, including 22 children, live, the majority of whom were outside the building at the time. The settlers, escorted by the Israeli police, broke locks and broke into the building. The family had previously filed a petition at an Israeli court, which ordered the evacuation of settlers. The Israeli police procrastinated in implementing the court ruling, and the settlers were able to appeal against the court ruling, and the court froze the ruling. The Jewish group has claimed ownership of the building since 1987. The family have pursued the case before Israeli courts, Israeli courts recognized the family's ownership of the building in 2000 and in 2008.
At approximately 14:20 on Friday, 30 July 2010, dozens of Israeli settlers from "Brakha" settlement, south of Nablus, attacked the eastern outskirts of Bourin village and set fire to large areas of agricultural land planted with olives in al-Juhair and 'Ein al-Sharqiya areas. In his testimony to PCHR, Rakhaa' 'Abdul Ra'ouf 'Eid, a civil defense officer, stated: "At approximately 14:20 on Friday, 30 July 2010, while I was on duty, we received a phone call informing us that fire broke out in olive trees and grass in al-Juhair area in the east of Bourin village. Immediately, a fire engine was sent to the village. The fire engine was driven by Mohammed 'Omran accompanied by officer Sami 'Omran. The fire engine arrived at the aforementioned area, and its staff saw about 20 settlers setting fire in the area. They threw stones towards the fire engine. We contacted the Palestinian Liaison Department and informed about what was going on. Approximately 20 minutes later, while the civil defense officers were extinguishing fire, a number of Israeli military vehicles arrived at the area and stopped near the settlers. Israeli troops fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs at civil defense officers and at villagers who provided assistance to extinguish fire. As a result, officer Sami 'Omran suffered from tear gas inhalation.
“In the meantime, were received a phone call in which we were informed that fire broke out in 'Ein al-Sharqiya area. Officer Shadi al-Zeben, 29, and I traveled in a vehicle towards the area. When we arrived at the area, Israeli troops fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs at us. Officer al-Zeben suffered from tear gas inhalation. He was treated by a medical crew of Palestine Red Crescent Society and was then taken home. We moved back to our center after having been able to extinguish the fire that burnt at least 100 olive trees; we were able to save 140 olive trees. When were arrived at our center, we were informed that fire broke out again in al-Juhair area because of tear gas canisters and sound bombs fired by Israeli troops. We moved towards the area, but Israeli troops prevented us from reaching the blaze. We contacted the Palestinian Liaison Department, and 10 minutes later, we were allowed to reach the area and we were able to extinguish fire."
At approximately 06:00 on Monday, 02 August 2010, Israeli forces moved into al-Baq'a area in the east of Hebron and started to dismantle irrigation networks on 3 fields belonging to Badran Bader Jaber. Israeli forces also confiscated the dismantled networks and many saplings of vegetables. During this operation, Israeli troops violently beat Jaber, his wife, his daughter, his child, 16-year-old Wadee', and his brother-in-law, Mohammed Musbah al-Ja'bari, 37. They arrested the child and the brother-in-law. They beat and arrested the latter before the eyes of his 4-year-old child who was crying and begging Israeli soldiers not to beat and arrest his father. Soon after, Israeli forces moved to a nearby field belonging to 'Azzam Mohammed Jaber and dismantled the irrigation network and uproot meters of water pipes used for irrigation, confiscated an agricultural sprinkling machine and damaged hundreds of saplings belonging to Badran Jaber. This attack against Badran Jaber's family had been the fourth in the past 10 months.
On Monday, 02 August 2010, the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem approved the construction of 40 housing units in "Pisgat Ze'ev Mizrah" settlement neighborhood. According to Israeli media sources, the Planning and Construction Committee in the municipality approved the construction of 4 buildings, each of which would include 10 housing units, which is part of a wider project that includes the construction of 220 housing units in the area. It is worth noting that the construction of another 32 housing units in the area had been approved two weeks earlier.
According to a report issued by the Israeli Peace Now, the past months witnessed the beginning of construction of 390 settlement buildings in the West Bank, during the period of temporary freezing of settlement activities. This number includes 223 stable units and 167 mobile ones. Thus, the number of housing units being built during the period of temporary freezing of settlement activities has mounted to 603. These units are being built in the following settlements: 180 units in "Bitar Elite;" 62 units in "Burkan;" one unit in "Binreh;"60 units in "Sha'ari Tikva;" 40 units in "Givat Ze'ev;" 24 units in "Matsbe Yericho;" 22 units in "Ariel;" 21 units in "Ma'le Adomim;" 20 units in "Kfar Etzion;" 18 units in "Kfar Adomim;" 12 units in "Eitamar;" 11 units in "Elli;" 9 unit in "Uranit;" 9 units in "Tsufin;" 7 units in "Bitar Elite;" 6 units in "Alkana;" 6 units in "Fdu'el;" 5 units in "Eliazer;" and 5 units in "Yakir."
Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip:
During the reporting period, Israeli forces killed two members of the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip. They also wounded 29 Palestinians, including 16 police officers, two women, two children and two resistance fighters.
During the reporting period, Israeli forces extra-judicially executed a fighter of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) in the central Gaza Strip. The targeted persons had been subjected to several extra-judicial assassination attempts, the latest of which was during the latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which killed his wife and five children.
On 30 July 2010, 19 Palestinians (16 police officers, two women and a child) were wounded, when Israeli warplanes bombarded a security site in Gaza City.
On 04 August 2010, Israeli forces killed a fighter with the Palestinian resistance, when Israeli soldiers fired a drone at a number of fighters in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis.
During the reporting period, Israeli forces fired at Palestinian workers who were collecting raw construction materials in the northern Gaza Strip. As a result, 5 workers, including a child, were wounded.
Also during the reporting period, Israeli warplanes bombarded tunnels along the Egyptian border, south of Rafah, and a number of civilian targets in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli attacks in the West Bank:
Israeli forces conducted 31 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they abducted 28 Palestinian civilians, including 8 children.
Israeli troops stationed at military checkpoints and border crossings in the West Bank abducted two Palestinian civilians.
Israel has continued to take measures aimed at creating a Jewish demographic majority in Jerusalem.
During the reporting period, the Israeli Central Court in Jerusalem, rejected a petition filed by a number of Palestinian civilians, who hold identity cards issued by the Palestinian National Authority and live in al-Salam and 'Anata suburbs, north of Jerusalem, against an Israeli decision to expel them from their homes and lands. The court claimed that the presence of more than 60 Palestinian families counting about 500 individuals in the area is illegal since it is a part of Jerusalem, and that they can go to Ramallah as they do not have permission to be in the area.
Israeli Annexation Wall:
During the reporting period, Israeli forces used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized by Palestinian civilians in protest of the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities in the West Bank. As a result, a Palestinian boy and two international human rights defenders were injured. Israeli forces also violently beat a number of demonstrators. Israeli forces also abducted 7 Palestinian civilians, including a child, and an Israeli human rights defender.
When complete, the illegal Annexation Wall will stretch for 724 kilometers around the West Bank, further isolating the entire population. 350 kilometers of the Wall have already been constructed. Approximately 99% of the Wall has been constructed inside the West Bank itself, further confiscating Palestinian land. At least 65% of the main roads that lead to 18 Palestinian communities in the West Bank are closed or fully controlled by Israeli forces (47 out of 72 roads).
Following the Friday Prayer on 30 July 2010, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders, including Mr. Paolo Sionfi, speaker of the parliament of a state in Brazil, British singer Kareen Dennis, US singer Marcel Cartier, a 45-member Spanish delegation and a 30-member German delegation, organized a peaceful demonstration in protest against the construction of the Annexation Wall in Bil'ein village, west of Ramallah. They moved towards the annexation wall. Israeli troops stationed in the area fired rubber-coated metal bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the demonstrators. As a result, Mohammed Shawkat al-Khatib, 18, was hit by a tear gas canister to the left shoulder, and an international human rights defender, who has not been identified, was hit by a tear gas canister to the foot. Several of demonstrators also suffered from tear gas inhalation and others sustained bruises as they were beaten by Israeli troops.
Also following the Friday Prayer on 30 July 2010, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and human rights defenders organized a peaceful demonstration in Ne'lin village, west of Ramallah, in protest against the construction of the Annexation Wall. They clashed with Israeli forces troops positioned near the Wall. Israeli forces troops fired rubber-coated metal bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at demonstrators. As a result, dozens of demonstrators suffered from tear gas inhalation, and others sustained bruises.
Also following the Friday Prayer on 30 July 2010, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders organized a peaceful demonstration in Nabi Saleh village, northwest of Ramallah, in protest against land confiscations in the Wad al-Raya area between the villages of Nabi Saleh and Deir Nizam. When the demonstrators attempted to reach areas of land seized by Israeli settlers near "Halmish" settlement, Israeli troops fired rubber-coated metal bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, Elli Kid, 23, a British human rights defender, was hit by a tear gas canister to the right leg. A number of demonstrators suffered from tear gas inhalation and others sustained bruises. Israeli forces also arrested Waleed Daifallah al-Tamimi, 13, and Ben, 21, an Israeli human rights defender, but released them an hour later.
On Saturday afternoon, 31 July 2010, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders demonstrated in the center of Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron. They moved towards Zaher al-Brahish area, where Israeli forces plan to confiscate areas of Palestinian land to the north of the Israeli settlement of "Karmi Tsur." Israeli troops attacked the demonstrators and fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs at them. As a result, 5 civilians, including a child, a woman and two photojournalists, were injured:
Recommendations to the international community:
Due to the number and severity of Israeli human rights violations this week, the PCHR made a number of recommendations to the international community. Among these were a recommendation that the international community recognize the Gaza disengagement plan, which was implemented in September 2005, for what it is - not an end to occupation but a compounding of the occupation and the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
In recognition of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as the guardian of the Fourth Geneva Convention, PCHR calls upon the ICRC to increase its staff and activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including the facilitation of family visitations to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
For the full text of the report, click on the link below:
Israeli forces continued to fire at Palestinian farmers and workers in border areas of the Gaza Strip. 5 Palestinian workers, including a child, were wounded in the northern Gaza Strip. 19 Palestinian civilians, including two women and a child, were wounded by an Israeli air strike against a Palestinian police station in Gaza City.
Israeli settlement activities:
Israel has continued its settlement activities in the West Bank in violation of international humanitarian law, and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.
On 29 July 2010, at least 40 armed Israeli settlers from "Atirat Kohanim" group stormed a two-storey apartment building belonging to the Qarrash family, in which 9 families counting 49 individuals, including 22 children, live, the majority of whom were outside the building at the time. The settlers, escorted by the Israeli police, broke locks and broke into the building. The family had previously filed a petition at an Israeli court, which ordered the evacuation of settlers. The Israeli police procrastinated in implementing the court ruling, and the settlers were able to appeal against the court ruling, and the court froze the ruling. The Jewish group has claimed ownership of the building since 1987. The family have pursued the case before Israeli courts, Israeli courts recognized the family's ownership of the building in 2000 and in 2008.
At approximately 14:20 on Friday, 30 July 2010, dozens of Israeli settlers from "Brakha" settlement, south of Nablus, attacked the eastern outskirts of Bourin village and set fire to large areas of agricultural land planted with olives in al-Juhair and 'Ein al-Sharqiya areas. In his testimony to PCHR, Rakhaa' 'Abdul Ra'ouf 'Eid, a civil defense officer, stated: "At approximately 14:20 on Friday, 30 July 2010, while I was on duty, we received a phone call informing us that fire broke out in olive trees and grass in al-Juhair area in the east of Bourin village. Immediately, a fire engine was sent to the village. The fire engine was driven by Mohammed 'Omran accompanied by officer Sami 'Omran. The fire engine arrived at the aforementioned area, and its staff saw about 20 settlers setting fire in the area. They threw stones towards the fire engine. We contacted the Palestinian Liaison Department and informed about what was going on. Approximately 20 minutes later, while the civil defense officers were extinguishing fire, a number of Israeli military vehicles arrived at the area and stopped near the settlers. Israeli troops fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs at civil defense officers and at villagers who provided assistance to extinguish fire. As a result, officer Sami 'Omran suffered from tear gas inhalation.
“In the meantime, were received a phone call in which we were informed that fire broke out in 'Ein al-Sharqiya area. Officer Shadi al-Zeben, 29, and I traveled in a vehicle towards the area. When we arrived at the area, Israeli troops fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs at us. Officer al-Zeben suffered from tear gas inhalation. He was treated by a medical crew of Palestine Red Crescent Society and was then taken home. We moved back to our center after having been able to extinguish the fire that burnt at least 100 olive trees; we were able to save 140 olive trees. When were arrived at our center, we were informed that fire broke out again in al-Juhair area because of tear gas canisters and sound bombs fired by Israeli troops. We moved towards the area, but Israeli troops prevented us from reaching the blaze. We contacted the Palestinian Liaison Department, and 10 minutes later, we were allowed to reach the area and we were able to extinguish fire."
At approximately 06:00 on Monday, 02 August 2010, Israeli forces moved into al-Baq'a area in the east of Hebron and started to dismantle irrigation networks on 3 fields belonging to Badran Bader Jaber. Israeli forces also confiscated the dismantled networks and many saplings of vegetables. During this operation, Israeli troops violently beat Jaber, his wife, his daughter, his child, 16-year-old Wadee', and his brother-in-law, Mohammed Musbah al-Ja'bari, 37. They arrested the child and the brother-in-law. They beat and arrested the latter before the eyes of his 4-year-old child who was crying and begging Israeli soldiers not to beat and arrest his father. Soon after, Israeli forces moved to a nearby field belonging to 'Azzam Mohammed Jaber and dismantled the irrigation network and uproot meters of water pipes used for irrigation, confiscated an agricultural sprinkling machine and damaged hundreds of saplings belonging to Badran Jaber. This attack against Badran Jaber's family had been the fourth in the past 10 months.
On Monday, 02 August 2010, the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem approved the construction of 40 housing units in "Pisgat Ze'ev Mizrah" settlement neighborhood. According to Israeli media sources, the Planning and Construction Committee in the municipality approved the construction of 4 buildings, each of which would include 10 housing units, which is part of a wider project that includes the construction of 220 housing units in the area. It is worth noting that the construction of another 32 housing units in the area had been approved two weeks earlier.
According to a report issued by the Israeli Peace Now, the past months witnessed the beginning of construction of 390 settlement buildings in the West Bank, during the period of temporary freezing of settlement activities. This number includes 223 stable units and 167 mobile ones. Thus, the number of housing units being built during the period of temporary freezing of settlement activities has mounted to 603. These units are being built in the following settlements: 180 units in "Bitar Elite;" 62 units in "Burkan;" one unit in "Binreh;"60 units in "Sha'ari Tikva;" 40 units in "Givat Ze'ev;" 24 units in "Matsbe Yericho;" 22 units in "Ariel;" 21 units in "Ma'le Adomim;" 20 units in "Kfar Etzion;" 18 units in "Kfar Adomim;" 12 units in "Eitamar;" 11 units in "Elli;" 9 unit in "Uranit;" 9 units in "Tsufin;" 7 units in "Bitar Elite;" 6 units in "Alkana;" 6 units in "Fdu'el;" 5 units in "Eliazer;" and 5 units in "Yakir."
Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip:
During the reporting period, Israeli forces killed two members of the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip. They also wounded 29 Palestinians, including 16 police officers, two women, two children and two resistance fighters.
During the reporting period, Israeli forces extra-judicially executed a fighter of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) in the central Gaza Strip. The targeted persons had been subjected to several extra-judicial assassination attempts, the latest of which was during the latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which killed his wife and five children.
On 30 July 2010, 19 Palestinians (16 police officers, two women and a child) were wounded, when Israeli warplanes bombarded a security site in Gaza City.
On 04 August 2010, Israeli forces killed a fighter with the Palestinian resistance, when Israeli soldiers fired a drone at a number of fighters in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis.
During the reporting period, Israeli forces fired at Palestinian workers who were collecting raw construction materials in the northern Gaza Strip. As a result, 5 workers, including a child, were wounded.
Also during the reporting period, Israeli warplanes bombarded tunnels along the Egyptian border, south of Rafah, and a number of civilian targets in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli attacks in the West Bank:
Israeli forces conducted 31 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they abducted 28 Palestinian civilians, including 8 children.
Israeli troops stationed at military checkpoints and border crossings in the West Bank abducted two Palestinian civilians.
Israel has continued to take measures aimed at creating a Jewish demographic majority in Jerusalem.
During the reporting period, the Israeli Central Court in Jerusalem, rejected a petition filed by a number of Palestinian civilians, who hold identity cards issued by the Palestinian National Authority and live in al-Salam and 'Anata suburbs, north of Jerusalem, against an Israeli decision to expel them from their homes and lands. The court claimed that the presence of more than 60 Palestinian families counting about 500 individuals in the area is illegal since it is a part of Jerusalem, and that they can go to Ramallah as they do not have permission to be in the area.
Israeli Annexation Wall:
During the reporting period, Israeli forces used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized by Palestinian civilians in protest of the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities in the West Bank. As a result, a Palestinian boy and two international human rights defenders were injured. Israeli forces also violently beat a number of demonstrators. Israeli forces also abducted 7 Palestinian civilians, including a child, and an Israeli human rights defender.
When complete, the illegal Annexation Wall will stretch for 724 kilometers around the West Bank, further isolating the entire population. 350 kilometers of the Wall have already been constructed. Approximately 99% of the Wall has been constructed inside the West Bank itself, further confiscating Palestinian land. At least 65% of the main roads that lead to 18 Palestinian communities in the West Bank are closed or fully controlled by Israeli forces (47 out of 72 roads).
Following the Friday Prayer on 30 July 2010, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders, including Mr. Paolo Sionfi, speaker of the parliament of a state in Brazil, British singer Kareen Dennis, US singer Marcel Cartier, a 45-member Spanish delegation and a 30-member German delegation, organized a peaceful demonstration in protest against the construction of the Annexation Wall in Bil'ein village, west of Ramallah. They moved towards the annexation wall. Israeli troops stationed in the area fired rubber-coated metal bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the demonstrators. As a result, Mohammed Shawkat al-Khatib, 18, was hit by a tear gas canister to the left shoulder, and an international human rights defender, who has not been identified, was hit by a tear gas canister to the foot. Several of demonstrators also suffered from tear gas inhalation and others sustained bruises as they were beaten by Israeli troops.
Also following the Friday Prayer on 30 July 2010, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and human rights defenders organized a peaceful demonstration in Ne'lin village, west of Ramallah, in protest against the construction of the Annexation Wall. They clashed with Israeli forces troops positioned near the Wall. Israeli forces troops fired rubber-coated metal bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at demonstrators. As a result, dozens of demonstrators suffered from tear gas inhalation, and others sustained bruises.
Also following the Friday Prayer on 30 July 2010, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders organized a peaceful demonstration in Nabi Saleh village, northwest of Ramallah, in protest against land confiscations in the Wad al-Raya area between the villages of Nabi Saleh and Deir Nizam. When the demonstrators attempted to reach areas of land seized by Israeli settlers near "Halmish" settlement, Israeli troops fired rubber-coated metal bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, Elli Kid, 23, a British human rights defender, was hit by a tear gas canister to the right leg. A number of demonstrators suffered from tear gas inhalation and others sustained bruises. Israeli forces also arrested Waleed Daifallah al-Tamimi, 13, and Ben, 21, an Israeli human rights defender, but released them an hour later.
On Saturday afternoon, 31 July 2010, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders demonstrated in the center of Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron. They moved towards Zaher al-Brahish area, where Israeli forces plan to confiscate areas of Palestinian land to the north of the Israeli settlement of "Karmi Tsur." Israeli troops attacked the demonstrators and fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs at them. As a result, 5 civilians, including a child, a woman and two photojournalists, were injured:
Recommendations to the international community:
Due to the number and severity of Israeli human rights violations this week, the PCHR made a number of recommendations to the international community. Among these were a recommendation that the international community recognize the Gaza disengagement plan, which was implemented in September 2005, for what it is - not an end to occupation but a compounding of the occupation and the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
In recognition of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as the guardian of the Fourth Geneva Convention, PCHR calls upon the ICRC to increase its staff and activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including the facilitation of family visitations to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
For the full text of the report, click on the link below:
Israeli authorities threaten Palestinian-American professor from Yale Mazin Qumsiyeh
IMEMC - Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, who has taught at Yale and Duke Universities in the US, and is a renowned author and activist on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, has been issued an order by the Israeli military to appear before a military tribunal on August 9th.
Qumsiyeh's supporters believe that he is being targeted by Israeli authorities for his documentation of non-violent demonstrations against the Israeli Annexation Wall in the Bethlehem area. He has posted dozens of videos on Youtube in recent months, showing Israeli troops attacking non-violent demonstrators engaged in 'sit-ins' to protest the illegal construction of the Israeli Wall on their land, in violation of international law.
Professor Qumsiyeh has been targeted before for his outspoken opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, and his support for the non-violent movement in Palestine. He was recently detained for 12 hours by Israeli authorities on his way back to Bethlehem from Turkey, and told that he must report to the Israeli military post in Gush Etzion for an unknown 'traffic offense', as well as another 'offense' on which the Israeli authorities refused to elaborate.
Despite Israeli High Court rulings against the route of the Annexation Wall in Wallaja village, near Bethlehem, and Bil'in village, near Ramallah, construction of the Wall in both places continues unabated, and the people who have organized non-violent demonstrations and spoken publicly about the illegal construction have been targeted by the Israeli authorities. Organizer Eyad Bornat of Bil'in, and Mohammed Al-Qatib with the Popular Committee Against the Wall were both recently denied exit from the West Bank by Israeli authorities while on their way to international speaking engagements about the Wall construction.
Qumsiyeh has called the ongoing harassment of himself and other activists a blatant attempt by Israeli authorities to stifle dissent, and to silence those who would dare to speak out publicly against Israeli policies in the West Bank.
Qumsiyeh's supporters believe that he is being targeted by Israeli authorities for his documentation of non-violent demonstrations against the Israeli Annexation Wall in the Bethlehem area. He has posted dozens of videos on Youtube in recent months, showing Israeli troops attacking non-violent demonstrators engaged in 'sit-ins' to protest the illegal construction of the Israeli Wall on their land, in violation of international law.
Professor Qumsiyeh has been targeted before for his outspoken opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, and his support for the non-violent movement in Palestine. He was recently detained for 12 hours by Israeli authorities on his way back to Bethlehem from Turkey, and told that he must report to the Israeli military post in Gush Etzion for an unknown 'traffic offense', as well as another 'offense' on which the Israeli authorities refused to elaborate.
Despite Israeli High Court rulings against the route of the Annexation Wall in Wallaja village, near Bethlehem, and Bil'in village, near Ramallah, construction of the Wall in both places continues unabated, and the people who have organized non-violent demonstrations and spoken publicly about the illegal construction have been targeted by the Israeli authorities. Organizer Eyad Bornat of Bil'in, and Mohammed Al-Qatib with the Popular Committee Against the Wall were both recently denied exit from the West Bank by Israeli authorities while on their way to international speaking engagements about the Wall construction.
Qumsiyeh has called the ongoing harassment of himself and other activists a blatant attempt by Israeli authorities to stifle dissent, and to silence those who would dare to speak out publicly against Israeli policies in the West Bank.
Masked Israeli settlers beat Canadian & Danish peace activists in face and body with metal poles
Palsolidarity - "We were sitting under a fig tree"
This morning, in a second day of violence in the village of Al-Buwayra, near Hebron, two international peace activists were attacked by three Israeli settlers wearing black masks.
Both were left seriously injured and have been hospitalized following the unprovoked attack.
The settlers knocked Canadian Peter Cunliffe, 26, to the ground then beat him in the face and body using metal poles and wooden sticks. He is being treated for a probable broken nose and serious back injuries.
Danish peace activist Koba Soernesen. 23, is currently having his left foot examined as he is unable to stand.
He said: “We were sitting under a fig tree where we often sit, when they appeared out of nowhere, from the direction of the settlers’ area. Peter had his back to them and didn’t see them coming. They continued to beat him when he was on the floor, but I was able to fend them off a bit with my leg.
“They also stole my bag with my passport and camera in it.”
Both are currently receiving treatment in Hebron hospital.
The attack comes after violence erupted in Al Buwayra yesterday following the evacuation by Israeli authorities of an illegal Israeli outpost near the Kiyrat Arba settlement. Peace activists based in the area have been trying to prevent settlers setting fire to olive trees and documenting cases of attacks on Palestinians by settlers.
On 25th July two other peace activists, from the Christian Peacemaker Team, were attacked by settlers in Al Buwayra during a massive settler gathering at an illegal Israeli outpost.
This morning, in a second day of violence in the village of Al-Buwayra, near Hebron, two international peace activists were attacked by three Israeli settlers wearing black masks.
Both were left seriously injured and have been hospitalized following the unprovoked attack.
The settlers knocked Canadian Peter Cunliffe, 26, to the ground then beat him in the face and body using metal poles and wooden sticks. He is being treated for a probable broken nose and serious back injuries.
Danish peace activist Koba Soernesen. 23, is currently having his left foot examined as he is unable to stand.
He said: “We were sitting under a fig tree where we often sit, when they appeared out of nowhere, from the direction of the settlers’ area. Peter had his back to them and didn’t see them coming. They continued to beat him when he was on the floor, but I was able to fend them off a bit with my leg.
“They also stole my bag with my passport and camera in it.”
Both are currently receiving treatment in Hebron hospital.
The attack comes after violence erupted in Al Buwayra yesterday following the evacuation by Israeli authorities of an illegal Israeli outpost near the Kiyrat Arba settlement. Peace activists based in the area have been trying to prevent settlers setting fire to olive trees and documenting cases of attacks on Palestinians by settlers.
On 25th July two other peace activists, from the Christian Peacemaker Team, were attacked by settlers in Al Buwayra during a massive settler gathering at an illegal Israeli outpost.
Ukranian police arrest Israeli-headed organ trafficking ring
Jerusalem Post
Photo by: Courtesy of www.linksambulance.co.uk
Twelve people, some of them Israeli, were arrested in the Ukraine on suspicion that they were selling human organs, Army Radio reported on Friday.
According to Army Radio, the head of the Human Trafficking Department in the Ukrainian police said the twelve contacted organ donors in the Ukraine and other countries in the Former Soviet Union over the past three years.
Related story - "Israeli Organ Trafficking and Theft: From Moldova to Palestine"
Photo by: Courtesy of www.linksambulance.co.uk
According to Army Radio, the head of the Human Trafficking Department in the Ukrainian police said the twelve contacted organ donors in the Ukraine and other countries in the Former Soviet Union over the past three years.
Related story - "Israeli Organ Trafficking and Theft: From Moldova to Palestine"
The disinherited - report about the 130,000 Syrians Israel forced out of Golan heights in 1967; 200 villages wiped out in systematic process of destruction
VIDEO - Inside Story - Blue Line tensions [report on clashes at Lebanon-Israel border]
Al Jazeera - Trouble is brewing at the Israel-Lebanon border. At least five people were killed and several others wounded. The Lebanese army has confirmed that it opened fire on Israeli forces for reportedly crossing the border fence and cutting trees in its territory. So, in this tense situation in a highly volatile region, could a new war be averted?
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