Iran to complete hospital that Israel started building in Mauritania

Just a few weeks after the Israeli ambassador to Mauritania was ordered to leave the country, with encouragement from Iran, the regime in Tehran is attempting to take control of a hospital for cancer research and treatment in the Mauritanian capital, which has symbolized relations between Jerusalem and Nouakchott.

Iran's Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, visited Mauritania on Wednesday, marking the first such visit since 1982. Although the visit lasted only six hours it included a stop at the hospital known by locals as "the Israeli hospital."

The hospital project has been stalled since Mauritania severed relations with Israel earlier this month. There are reports that Iran paid the Mauritania government about $10 million to kick out the Israeli ambassador.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074536.html

Rule now, liberate later

Rule now, liberate later
By Amira Hass

In Cairo, representatives of the Palestinian parties have discussed the threshold of votes required for representation on the Palestinian Legislative Council. The party that is considered the strongest, Hamas, wants a high threshold and threw out the figure of 8 percent, to the shock of members of one of the smaller parties. In Fatah, a ruling party that has known the taste of defeat, opinions were mixed: Some preferred a relatively high threshold (4 percent) in the hope that it would force the smaller factions within the PLO to run on a unified list with Fatah in democratic elections. Most of the Fatah representatives favor a lower number, however. Meanwhile, the rival leaderships are acting as if they operate within a sovereign country rather than in split and isolated territories under foreign domination.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074827.html

U.S. warned Sudan ahead of attack on Gaza convoy

The U.S. warned the Sudanese government that weapons were being smuggled into the Gaza Strip through its territory ahead of a recent attack on a Gaza-bound arms convoy, which foreign media has attributed to the Israel Air Force, the pan-Arab daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Monday.

On Friday, the American network ABC reported that the IAF had targeted a convoy of trucks in Sudan carrying Iranian weapons to Gaza in January. According to the report, 39 people riding in 17 trucks were killed, and civilians in the area sustained injuries. The network later reported that the IAF had carried out three such strikes since the beginning of the year.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074922.html

Israel accused of 'reckless' use of white phosphorus

Human Rights Watch says military should be held to account for 'war crimes'
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem

Palestinians run to safety during an Israeli strike on a UN school in Beit Lahia during the Gaza war in January. Palestinians run to safety during an Israeli strike on a UN school in Beit Lahia during the Gaza war in January

Israel "deliberately and recklessly" fired white phosphorus shells in densely populated areas of Gaza in an "indiscriminate" way that killed and wounded civilians and is "evidence of war crimes", Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

A detailed report from the agency says the Israeli military knew white phosphorus's lethal capacity to cause intense burns, and that the firing of it in airburst artillery shells revealed a "pattern or policy of conduct rather than incidental or accidental usage."

And the 71-page report reveals that the 15 January firing of phosphorus shells on or near the UN Relief and Works Agency compound in Gaza City, where 700 civilians were sheltering, continued for at least two hours after UN staff began making repeated telephone calls to the Israeli military asking it to stop. The shells caused an estimated $10m (£6.8m) damage and led to burning for 12 days after the attack.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-accused-of-reckless-use-of-white-phosphorus-1654286.html

Palestinian children sing for Holocaust survivors

By The Associated Press

The Palestinian youths from a tough West Bank refugee camp stood facing the elderly Holocaust survivors on Wednesday, appearing somewhat defiant in a teenage sort of way. Then they began to sing.

The choir burst into songs for peace, bringing surprised smiles from the audience. But the event had another twist: Most of the Holocaust survivors did not know the youths were Palestinians from the West Bank, a rare sight in Israel these days. And the youths had no idea they were performing for people who lived through Nazi genocide - or even what the Holocaust was.

"I feel sympathy for them," said Ali Zeid, an 18-year-old keyboard player, who added that he was shocked by what he learned about the Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed 6 million Jews in their campaign to wipe out European Jewry.

"Only people who have been through suffering understand each other," said Zeid, who said his grandparents were Palestinian refugees forced to flee the northern city of Haifa during the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1073846.html

IDF soldiers ordered to shoot at Gaza rescuers, note says

By Amira Hass, Haaretz Correspondent

GAZA STRIP - "Rules of Engagement: Open fire also upon rescue," was handwritten in Hebrew on a sheet of paper found in one of the Palestinian homes the Israel Defense Forces took over during Operation Cast Lead. A reservist officer who did not take part in the Gaza offensive believes that the note is part of orders a low-level commander wrote before giving his soldiers their daily briefing.

One of the main themes in news reports during the Gaza operation, and which appears in many testimonies, is that IDF soldiers shot at Palestinian and Red Cross rescuers, making it impossible to evacuate the wounded and dead. As a result, an unknown number of Palestinians bled to death as others cowered in their homes for days without medical treatment, waiting to be rescued.

The bodies of the dead lay outside the homes or on roadsides for days, sometimes as long as two weeks. Haaretz has reported a number of such cases, some of them as they happened. The document found in the house provides written proof that IDF commanders ordered their troops to shoot at rescuers.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072830.html

IDF ceased long ago being 'most moral army in the world'

By Gideon Levy
Tags: Palestinians, Israel news

What shock, what consternation. Haaretz revealed grave accounts by officers and soldiers describing the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians during the war in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces Spokesman was quick to respond that the IDF had no prior or supporting information about the events in question, the defense minister was quick to respond that "the IDF is the most moral army in the world," and the military advocate general said the IDF would investigate.

All these propagandistic and ridiculous responses are meant not only to deceive the public, but also to offer shameless lies. The IDF knew very well what its soldiers did in Gaza. It has long ceased to be the most moral army in the world. Far from it - it will not seriously investigate anything.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072821.html

Israelis told to fight 'holy war' in Gaza

Israelis told to fight 'holy war' in Gaza

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem

Saturday, 21 March 2009

Many Israeli troops had the sense of fighting a "religious war" against Gentiles during the 22-day offensive in Gaza, according to a soldier who has highlighted the martial role of military rabbis during the operation.

The soldier testified that the "clear" message of literature distributed to troops by the rabbinate was: "We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the Gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land."

The claim comes in the detailed transcript of a post-war discussion by soldiers, publication of which has triggered a military police inquiry into allegations about the use of lethal firepower against unarmed civilians.

The investigation was ordered by the military's advocate general Avichai Mandleblit on Thursday after the liberal daily newspaper Haaretz published extracts from the transcript describing incidents in which Palestinian civilians were killed and property wantonly damaged.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelis-told-to-fight-holy-war-in-gaza-1650616.html

Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques - IDF fashion 2009

A T-shirt printed at the request of an IDF soldier in the sniper unit reading 'I shot two kills.'

Last update - 22:41 20/03/2009
Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques - IDF fashion 2009
By Uri Blau
Tags: Israel News, IDF, Gaza

The office at the Adiv fabric-printing shop in south Tel Aviv handles a constant stream of customers, many of them soldiers in uniform, who come to order custom clothing featuring their unit's insignia, usually accompanied by a slogan and drawing of their choosing. Elsewhere on the premises, the sketches are turned into plates used for imprinting the ordered items, mainly T-shirts and baseball caps, but also hoodies, fleece jackets and pants. A young Arab man from Jaffa supervises the workers who imprint the words and pictures, and afterward hands over the finished product.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072466.html

Rights group names 1,417 Gaza war dead; Israel disputes number

AP
A Palestinian human rights group has released the names of 1,417 Gazans it says were killed in Israel's recent war on the Palestinian territory's Hamas rulers.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said Thursday that of those killed, 926 were civilians, 236 were combatants and 255 were members of the Palestinian security forces.

Most of the policemen were killed in a series of Israeli bombing attacks on Hamas security compounds on December 27, the first day of the war.
The group says it has investigated every civilian death. The list is posted on the center's Web site.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev disputes the findings. He says Israel is working on its own list and contends that most of those killed were combatants or legitimate targets.

New Report: Israeli Soldiers deliberately killed WOMEN and CHILDREN in GAZA!

Initial testimonies given by Israel Defense Forces soldiers and officers who fought in Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip earlier this year paints a grim picture of civilian deaths, deliberate destruction of Palestinian property and loose orders to open fire.

Dozens of combat soldiers, graduates of the Oranim pre-military institute, gathered at their alma mater last month relate their experiences during Operation Cast Lead.

Their on-the-ground testimonies are different from the army's official statements, in which the IDF insisted its forces paid heed to high moral conduct in every sector.

In one testimony, a soldier describes an incident in which an IDF sniper killed a Palestinian woman and her two children.

"There was one house with a family in it... we put them into some room. Afterward, we left the house and another company went in, and a few days after we went in there was an order to release the family. We took our positions upstairs."

"There was a sniper position on the roof and the company commander released the family and told them to take a right," said the soldier. "One mother and her two children didn't understand, and they took a left. Someone forgot to notify the sniper on the roof that the family had been released, and that it was okay, it was fine, to hold fire, and he... you can say he acted as necessary, as he was ordered to."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072040.html

Is the Israeli Lobby Running Scared?

By Robert Dreyfuss

Is the Israel lobby in Washington an all-powerful force? Or is it, perhaps, running scared?

Judging by the outcome of the Charles W. ("Chas") Freeman affair this week, it might seem as if the Israeli lobby is fearsome indeed. Seen more broadly, however, the controversy over Freeman could be the Israel lobby's Waterloo.

Let's recap. On February 19th, Laura Rozen reported at ForeignPolicy.com that Freeman had been selected by Admiral Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, to serve in a key post as chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC). The NIC, the official in-house think tank of the intelligence community, takes input from 16 intelligence agencies and produces what are called "national intelligence estimates" on crucial topics of the day as guidance for Washington policymakers. For that job, Freeman boasted a stellar resumé: fluent in Mandarin Chinese, widely experienced in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, and an ex-assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175046/robert_dreyfuss_the_freeman_affair

The definition of Israel and Israelis in the conscience of the world

What is with these blights on the backside of humanity? A vast war machine pretending to be a tiny country, a mobilized citizenry sterilized of morality, drained of compassion, bereft of conscience, bestial in war, imperial in ambition, Goliathized in its marriage of high tech and high explosive; incorrigibly bigoted bullying simpletons, little more than racists who vote for racists, fascists who fall for fascists, an embarrassment to the West, an embarrassment to the Jews, an embarrassment, at root, to the progressive individual who asks the question.

CIA report: Israel will fall in 20 years

CIA report: Israel will fall in 20 years
Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:44:41 GMT

International lawyer Franklin Lamb

A study conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has cast doubt over Israel's survival beyond the next 20 years.

The CIA report predicts "an inexorable movement away from a two-state to a one-state solution, as the most viable model based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming specter of colonial Apartheid while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region."

The study, which has been made available only to a certain number of individuals, further forecasts the return of all Palestinian refugees to the occupied territories, and the exodus of two million Israeli - who would move to the US in the next fifteen years.

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=88491&sectionid=351020202

Has anyone in Israel asked why the Swedes hate us?

By Gideon Levy

Was it a coincidence? The day after Israel's Davis Cup tennis match in Sweden, played in a practically empty arena this week, a brief item appeared on the Haaretz Web site: Historians have discovered that Sweden, former tennis superpower, aided the Nazi war machine by extending credit to German industrial plants.

Coincidence or not, neutral in 1941 or not, 68 years later, public opinion in Sweden is definitely not neutral: Thousands demonstrated there against Israel, which was forced to wield its racket like a leper, with no audience in attendance. Did anyone in Israel even ask why it was considered a pariah in Sweden? No one dared question whether the war in the Gaza Strip was worth the price we're paying now, from Ankara to Malmo. It's enough to recall that the Swedes were always against us. The fact that there were times when they were awash in love for Israel was erased from our consciousness.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070657.html

Everyone agrees: War in Gaza was a failure

by Gideon Levy

Suddenly we're all in consensus: The recent war in Gaza was a failure. The bon ton now is to list its flaws. Flip-floppers say its "achievements" were squandered; leftists say the war "should never have started" and rightists will say the war "should have lasted longer." But on this they all agree: It was a blunder.

Because we consider the war to have been almost cost-free, with just 13 Israeli dead, it will be the first in 36 years without a Commission of Inquiry formed in its wake.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070476.html

U.S. official: Obama won't cut military aid to Israel

U.S. President Barack Obama will not cut the billions of dollars in military aid promised to Israel, a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday.

The $30 billion in aid promised to Israel over the next decade will not be harmed by the world financial crisis, the official told Israel Radio. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070318.html

Iraq's Unspeakable Crime: Mothers Pimping Daughters

By Rania Abouzeid / Baghdad Saturday, Mar. 07, 2009

After her husband was killed, Atoor's family tried to sell her to a local Baghdad brothel. "I didn't think it would happen to me," she said. "My mother used to spoil me. Yes, she sold my sisters but she regretted that. I thought that she loved me."

She goes by "Hinda," but that's not her real name. That's what she's called by the many Iraqi sex traffickers and pimps who contact her several times a week from across the country. They think she is one of them, a peddler of sexual slaves. Little do they know that the stocky, auburn-haired woman is an undercover human rights activist who has been quietly mapping out their murky underworld since 2006.

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4758482439875079905

Female Suicide Bombers: The Latest Weapon

By Bobby Ghosh/Baghdad Thursday, Jun. 26, 2008

An Iraqi woman at a checkpoint. Rarely frisked, women make effective bombers.

Franco Pagetti / VII for TIME

No one remembers Hasna Maryi ever opening her family's Koran. She rarely attended her village mosque, and she told others she regarded the imam, who once made a pass at her, as a lecherous scoundrel. It was not religious extremism that made this villager from Anbar province blow herself up at an Iraqi-police checkpoint last summer, killing three officers and injuring at least 10 civilians.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1818185,00.html

Must Jews always see themselves as victims?

Fierce debate has been raging in 'The Independent' about Israel's conduct in Gaza. Here, one leading Jewish thinker argues that until Jews shake off their persecution complex, there can never be peace in the Middle East

By Antony Lerman

Saturday, 7 March 2009

In the wake of Israel's attack on Gaza, eager voices are telling us that anti-Semitism has returned – yet again. Eight years of Hamas rockets and the world unfairly cries foul when Israel retaliates, they say. Biased media are delegitimising the Jewish state. The Left attacks Israel as uniquely evil, making it the persecuted Jew among the nations. Even theatres keep wheeling out those anti-Semitic stereotypes, Shylock, Fagin and the "chosen people", just to torment us. If this bleak picture were an accurate portrayal of what Jews are experiencing today, who could deny that suffering is the determining feature of the Jewish condition?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/must-jews-always-see-themselves-as-victims-1639277.html

Ethnic Cleansing and Israel

One of the more disturbing developments in the Middle East is a growing consensus among Israelis that it would acceptable to expel—in the words of advocates “transfer”—its Arab citizens to either a yet as unformed Palestinian state or the neighboring countries of Jordan and Egypt.

Such sentiment is hardly new among Israeli extremists, and it has long been advocated by racist Jewish organizations like Kach, the party of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, as well as groups like the National Union, which doubled its Knesset representation in the last election.

http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan03032009.html

Durban 2 draft statement: Israel's Palestinian policy is crime against humanity

A draft of the closing statement prepared for the upcoming United Nations-sponsored conference against racism, dubbed Durban 2, states that Israel's policy in the Palestinian territories constitutes a "violation of international human rights, a crime against humanity and a contemporary form of apartheid."

The conference, to be held in Geneva next month, is a follow-up to the contentious 2001 conference in the South African city of Durban which was dominated by clashes over the Middle East and the legacy of slavery. The U.S. and Israel walked out midway through that eight-day meeting over a draft resolution that singled out Israel for criticism and likened Zionism - the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state - to racism.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068076.html

Israel planning 73,300 new homes in West Bank

A report by the Israeli left-wing NGO Peace Now released Monday says that the government is planning to build more than 73,300 new housing units in the West Bank.

According to the report, approval has already been granted for the construction of 15,000 housing units, while a final okay is pending for a further 58,000 units. The report states that 5,722 of the planned housing units are in East Jerusalem, and some 9,000 units in total have already been built.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068033.html

Israel's death squads: A soldier's story

The incident described by the ex-soldier appears almost trivial by comparison with so much that has happened since in Gaza, culminating in more than 1,200 Palestinian casualties inflicted by Operation Cast Lead this January. It might have been forgotten by all except those directly affected, if it had not been for the highly unusual account of it he gave to Breaking the Silence, which has collected testimony from hundreds of former troops concerned about what they saw and did – including abuses of Palestinians – during their service in the occupied territories.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israels-death-squads-a-soldiers-story-1634774.html

Jordan's King: LSD, fortune tellers, and Black September

He did not like Shimon Peres, and pushed for Benjamin Netanyahu in the 1996 elections - though he soon regretted it. Years before Ehud Olmert met Morris Talansky, this man already was receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in brown envelopes from Americans, though he was too noble to open them in front of his CIA handler. He warned Gamal Abdel Nasser about the Six-Day War, and Golda Meir about the Yom Kippur War, but neither listened to him.

King Hussein of Jordan died 10 years ago this month, on February 7, 1999. He was 63, and had ruled the Hashemite Kingdom for four and a half decades, since he was old enough to vote. He led an artificial strip of a country that the British had carved out of the Arabian Desert for their own needs. He started out with both banks of the Jordan and ended up with one, not including Jerusalem.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1067582.html