6 billions, One Earth

Free ebook: Programming Windows Phone 7, by Charles Petzold - Microsoft Press - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

2011-04-01T17:14:00.000+02:00

Free ebook: Programming Windows Phone 7, by Charles Petzold - Microsoft Press - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Shoe-throwing journalist seeks Swiss home

2009-01-20T08:19:00.000+01:00

The Iraqi journalist who launched his shoes at outgoing United States President George W. Bush is seeking political asylum in Switzerland, his lawyer has said.

Mauro Poggia told the Tribune de Genève daily that he would write to the Swiss foreign ministry this week on behalf of the journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi.

However, a younger brother in Baghdad has denied the information, saying it was "a lie".

The 29-year-old journalist for the Al-Baghadadia television channel faces up to 15 years in prison for the incident on December 14, which made him a hero in the Arab world.

"It is the farewell kiss, you dog," Zaidi shouted after his shoes sailed past the ducking US president. Bush is widely unpopular in the region for the 2003 intervention in Iraq.

The Iraqi journalist has reportedly been beaten in custody and his lawyer said he could no longer work as a journalist in Iraq "without suffering terrible pressure".

In Geneva, Zaidi could "very well work as a journalist at the United Nations," he added.

Prise de parole Josef Zisyadis, député national suisse

2009-01-19T09:44:00.002+01:00

Prise de parole Josef Zisyadis, député national suisse ( A Gauche toute ! / POP & Gauche en mouvement)

Manifestation nationale
Berne 10 janvier 2009

Palestine, Palestine ! Pourquoi les Etats du monde t’ont-ils abandonnés ?

Gaza, Gaza ! Pourquoi la communauté internationale t’a-t-elle abandonné ?

Si nous sommes descendus dans la rue aujourd‘hui, c’est pour exprimer notre rage, notre dégoût, notre révolte devant la lâcheté internationale face à un Etat voyou. C’est à nous les peuples du monde, les citoyens du monde de reprendre le flambeau de la solidarité internationale face à ce génocide crapuleux.

Le martyr du peuple palestinien de Gaza a assez duré. Nous disons CA SUFFIT !

• Halte à l’agression militaire !
• Levée immédiate du blocus !
• Application du droit international !
• Arrêt de la collaboration militaire Suisse-Israël !

En tant que dernier député suisse qui a visité Gaza et rompu le blocus avec 12 autres parlementaires au début novembre 2008, je revois en ce moment les visages de ces hommes et femmes, de ces enfants, de ces jeunes, de ces médecins, de ces responsables municipaux, de ces pêcheurs que j’ai rencontrés, déjà épuisés par des mois de blocus israélien et égyptien. Que sont-ils devenus ? Sont-ils encore vivants ? 800 tués, des milliers de blessés innocents pour que des ministres israéliens puissent gagner leurs élections…

Une fois encore ce sont les civils innocents qui paient le prix de cette guerre ignoble, au mépris de la Convention internationale de Genève.

Un million et demi d’hommes, de femmes et d’enfants payent, sont punis pour avoir mal voté aux dernières élections démocratiques. La rééducation par la violence militaire pour qu’ils fassent un choix conforme à l’Etat israélien et à l’occident.

Il faut que cesse le double jeu que paye de son sang le peuple palestinien. La complicité active des États-Unis, le soutien tacite des régimes arabes en place, la passivité de l’Union européenne, le silence assourdissant de la Suisse ont encouragé le cynisme des va-t-en-guerre des dirigeants israéliens.

Notre pays, la Suisse doit cesser toute collaboration militaire avec un Etat voyou, expression qui qualifie exactement un comportement étatique qui bafoue le droit humanitaire, la protection des civils.

Qu’attend le Conseil fédéral pour rappeler son ambassadeur en Israël et expulser l’ambassadeur israélien en Suisse ? Oui ou non sommes-nous détenteurs de la Convention de Genève ?

N’avons-nous pas ce devoir d’humanité à proclamer à la face du monde ? La Suisse doit traîner les dirigeants politiques et militaires israéliens devant le Tribunal pénal international pour crimes de guerre.

Il n’y aura jamais de solution militaire au conflit israélo-palestinien. Il n’y a que la paix et la négociation qui sont la seule issue pour les peuples de cette région. C’est pour cela que nous sommes dans la rue.

C’est pour cela que nous sommes des citoyens du monde engagés au moment où les dirigeants de ce monde ont capitulé. Demain, il faudra reconstruire tout ce qui aura été consciemment détruit.
Nous serons là pour mettre en place tous les jumelages, toutes les coopérations entre le peuple palestinien de Gaza et la population de notre pays.

Frères palestiniens nous sommes à vos côtés ! Frères militants anti-colonialistes israéliens nous sommes à vos côtés !
(seules les paroles prononcées font foi)

'Zionism, a very clear ideology of exclusion, racism and expulsion' - exiled Israeli academic

2008-06-20T07:54:00.004+02:00

by Apostolis Fotiadis - Inter Press Service

ATHENS: Support for an academic boycott of Israeli universities exposed Ilan Pappe to death threats last year, forced him to resign as senior lecturer of political science at the University of Haifa, and leave the country. His argument that the creation of Israel in 1948 was followed by a policy of cleansing Israeli territory of Arabs, his support for the Hamas resistance despite rejecting its political ideology, and the denouncement of Israeli academia for justifying the occupation of Palestine have made him an unwanted person in Israel.

But still he remains a firm believer that the only way to improve this reality is by exposing its worst aspects.

In an interview with IPS, Pappe discusses the current situation in Palestine, and the Arab-Israeli conflict 60 years after it began.

IPS: Can Barack Obama's victory make a difference?

IP: I think people who strive to hold the post of the strongest person in the world are not interested in moral issues, or are really moved by suffering and oppression. Obama is no different, and the morality of the issue or the suffering of the Palestinians would not move him. He would move in a different direction if he and his advisers would feel that showing less support for Israel enhances their political power. So far this is not the case. It is better to be pro-Israeli to win American elections and be re-elected for the second term. If there is any hope, this is from a second term, when the powerful men are brought back to their normal human size again, and may begin to think like you and me about injustice, oppression and occupation.

IPS: Are we today experiencing the worst moment of the Arab-Israeli conflict since it first began?

IP: I still think the worst moment was 1948 and the ethnic cleansing; but it is very bad indeed. It is the final stages of the Israeli unilateral attempt to divide the West Bank into two parts, one annexed to Israel and the other maintained as a big prison camp, or a Bantustan at best. The situation in the Gaza Strip is worse, there the "prison" is already in place, and because of the resistance by the Palestinians to the imprisonment, Israel launches an escalating policy of massive killings. The world seems indifferent, and the Arab world uninterested.

IPS: During his last visit to the region US President George W. Bush described Israel as an example of progress and democracy in the Middle East. How objective do you find his view?

IP: A society that endorses a 40-year occupation of another people cannot be a liberal one. A society that discriminates against 20 percent of its population because they are not Jews cannot be described as progressive. The problem in Israel is not the role of religion or tradition; it is the role of Zionism, a very clear ideology of exclusion, racism and expulsion.
This ideology allows the army to play a significant role in most of the domestic and foreign policies, and it is probably right to say that Israel is not a state with an army, but an army with a state.

IPS: To what extent does the United States follow a policy of aggravating conflicts in the region while simultaneously calling for revival of the peace process? Does something similar happen with Palestinian militants who capitalize on people's rage? Are we experiencing an organized hypocrisy in the Middle East?

IP: I am not sure everyone is hypocritical in the same way or degree. Political elites in general are manipulators of people's tragedies and dreams, but they do differ. The worst is the American administration as in its case the gap between words and actions is the widest.
Talk of peace accompanies acts of war, support for negotiations in Palestine are actually the endorsement of Israel's occupation etc.
Israeli politicians are more transparent, their racism and oppressive plans are quite clear, but nobody in the West, and in particular Europe, is willing to do anything.
On the other hand the Palestinian Authority (PA) is not a paragon of honesty, and in fact this is why the Hamas [Movement] won the election [in 2006], but Hamas is trapped in an abnormality that would disable any political group from behaving differently. This is why the PA has to be dismembered.

IPS: On the other hand do you agree with those who see an advance of radical Islam never seen before in Palestine?

IP: Religion will continue to play for a long time a role in the life of the Palestinians, politically and socially. Whether it would be an aggressive stance or a constructive one depends entirely on the occupation and its oppressive realities. Once they are gone there is a better chance for building a political set-up that includes, rather than excludes, various ideological movements.
The advance of Hamas has a regional and local dimension. In the regional dimension it is part of the overall disappointment with the political regimes and their Western supporters. Locally, it is more directly connected to the occupation and the failure to liberate Palestine by the more secular forces. Most of Hamas support comes from the political vacuum and people's sense of defeat.

IPS: How has the abuse of history influenced the Arab-Israeli conflict up until today, and is there a way back to an objective understanding of what has happened?

IP: History was used especially in Israel to justify past criminal policies. This is the main abuse of history. It is also abused in the way that the historical narratives are employed to educate the next generations in one-dimensional, nationalist, one could say even, racist, mould. The most deplorable part of it is the abuse of the Holocaust memory which is used in Israel to Nazify the Arabs and the Palestinians, and justify criminal policies against them.

IPS: Where will this policy of suffocating Palestinians finally lead? Leaving aside the humanitarian aspect, can it become the reason for a new explosion of the Arab-Israeli conflict?

IP: It will not be a reason for another conflict, as the Arab regimes do not seem to care. But it can lead in the short term to the uprooting of Palestinians from [Gaza], genocide and ethnic cleansing. In the long run, it will make more difficult for future Palestinian generations to forgive and reconcile, and this could endanger the survival of Israel and the Jews living in it, as the Arab world and the Muslim world one day can change and become more effective and united, and Israel may lose its protector: the United States.

IPS: Has peace any chance left after 60 years of war, and if yes, what is the direction?

IP: There is no chance for peace in the near future because the conditions for it are very fundamental changes in the reality, which take time. Israel has to be de-Zionized before peace is possible, and peace has to include the return of the Palestinian refugees, otherwise it would be a futile exercise. However, one can still hope that first from the outside, through pressure, sanctions etc. and then from the inside, led by the growing number of young Israeli activists who are getting organized and effective, new energies would come to allow this transformation to take place. I think it will happen, it is hard to say when, but only working for it can bring it about.

The Daily Star Lebanon

Cluster bombs claim another victim in South Lebanon

2008-06-13T08:20:00.002+02:00

By The Daily Star and Agence France Presse (AFP)

TYRE: A Lebanese man was killed on Thursday by a cluster bomb dropped by Israeli forces during the 2006 war in Lebanon, a police official said.

Hisham al-Ghossein, 39, was killed in the village of Qantara, near the Southern town of Marjayoun, after stepping on the bomb while working in his field, the official said.

The munitions dropped by Israel during its devastating air war against Lebanon in July-August 2006 included at least a million cluster bomblets, according to the United Nations.

Unexploded ordnance has killed or injured 257 people since the conflict ended in August 2006, according to the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre (MACC). Of those killed, at least 30 were civilians.

Cluster munitions spread bomblets over a wide area, though they often do not explode on impact, effectively turning them into anti-personnel land mines.

MACC said that 43 percent of the land affected by the munitions has been cleared since the end of the 2006 war.

After more than a year of negotiations, diplomats from 109 countries agreed at Dublin in late May on a treaty that would outlaw the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions, which have killed and injured thousands of civilians over the last four decades.

Twenty-eight countries are known to manufacture cluster munitions, some 14 have deployed them in conflicts and at least 76 countries have stockpiles of the weapons.

Six of the world's leading users and producers - Russia, China, the United States, Israel, India and Pakistan - did not attend the conference.

Human rights groups complained Washington had been pressuring its allies and lobbying hard behind the scenes to weaken any deal.

The Daily Star, with AFP

Article: 'They hate us because of our policies' - US legislators

2008-06-12T07:54:00.002+02:00

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

WASHINGTON: Anti-Americanism is at record levels thanks to US government policies such as the war in Iraq, and Washington's apparent hypocrisy in abiding by its own democratic values, a panel of US lawmakers said Wednesday. A House of Representatives committee report based on expert testimony and polling data reveals US approval ratings have fallen to record lows across the world since 2002, particularly in the Islamic world and Latin America.

It says the problem arises not from a rejection of US culture, values and power but primarily from its Washington's policies, such as backing authoritarian regimes while officially promoting democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

"Our physical strength has come to be seen not as a solace but as a threat, not as a guarantee of stability and order but as a source of intimidation, violence and torture," said Democrat Bill Delahunt, chairman of the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight.

"We have dangerously depleted what [19th-century President Ulysses S.] Grant... identified as our greatest source of international power - our reputation for what he called conscience. I would substitute the phrase 'moral authority,'" the congressman added.

The report says that specific policies are to blame for falling approval ratings, notably the 2003 invasion and continuing occupation of Iraq, support for some repressive governments, what is referred to as a "perception" of bias in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and the torture and abuse of prisoners.

It says "disappointment and bitterness" have grown from the impression that "proclaimed US values of democracy, human rights and rule of law have been selectively ignored by successive administrations" for national security or economic ends.

The committee also says unilateralism, particularly in military action, has led to "anger and a fear of attack that are transforming disagreements with US policy into a broadening and deepening anti-Americanism."

These factors, as well as various US visa and immigration issues, have helped to create a "growing belief in the Islamic world that the United States is using the 'war on terror' as a cover for its attempts to destroy Islam," the report concludes. - AFP, with The Daily Star
The Daily Star Lebanon

Lebanon's feuding factions reach agreement

2008-05-21T23:11:00.002+02:00

By HUSSEIN DAKROUB, Associated Press Writer

Lebanon's feuding factions reached a breakthrough deal Wednesday that ends the country's 18-month political stalemate, but also gives the militant Hezbollah group and its allies veto over any government decision.

The deal, reached with the help of Arab mediators, was immediately praised by Iran and Syria, which back Hezbollah. But it appears certain to accelerate fears in the West over Hezbollah's new power.

Pro-government politician and parliament majority leader, Saad Hariri, seemed to acknowledge his side had largely caved in, spurred by a sharp outbreak of violence earlier this month after months of stalemate.

"I know that the wounds are deep and my injury is deep, but we only have each other to build Lebanon," he said after the announcement of the deal, which was brokered after five days of talks in Qatar.

Hezbollah's chief negotiator, Mohammed Raad, downplayed the group's win.

"Neither side got all it demanded, but (the agreement) is a good balance between all parties' demands," he said.

The Bush administration seemed to be trying to put the best face on the deal even though it gave more power to Hezbollah, considered a terrorist group by Washington and Israel.

"We view this agreement as a positive step toward resolving the current crisis," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement. "We call upon all Lebanese leaders to implement this agreement in its entirety."

The election of a compromise president — the head of Lebanon's mostly neutral army — was expected Sunday, Lebanon's state news agency reported.

The Hezbollah-led opposition won both its demands with the deal: veto power in a new national unity government, and an electoral law that divides Lebanon into smaller-sized districts, allowing for better representation of the country's various sects.

A few bursts of celebratory gunfire broke out in Beirut after the announcement. Lebanese television stations, which broadcast the Qatar ceremony live, showed Lebanese politicians and their Arab hosts congratulating and hugging one another.

The talks in Qatar and the deal were a dramatic cap to Lebanon's worst internal fighting since the 1975-90 civil war. At least 67 people were killed when clashes broke out between pro-government groups and the opposition in the streets Beirut and elsewhere earlier this month.

As Lebanon came close to a new all-out war, Arab League mediators intervened and got the sides to agree to hold last-ditch negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha, to resolve the crisis.
But the resulting deal was a major victory for Hezbollah.

Opposition-allied Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri also spoke at the Doha ceremony, saying that an opposition tent encampment across from the government building in downtown Beirut would be dismantled Wednesday.

Berri called such action a "gift" from the opposition, hailing the Doha agreement.

Within an hour, pickup trucks began hauling mattresses and supplies away from the encampment, which has paralyzed the commercial heart of the Lebanese capital for more than a year. Opposition supporters dismantled tents and took apart wooden boards used in the encampment.

In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the Lebanese deal was an "example of regional integration for achieving stability and tranquility."

Syria also promptly endorsed the deal, with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem saying "Lebanon's security and stability are important and vital to Syria's security and stability."

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he was "personally very happy" about the Doha agreement and said it was now "up to all the Lebanese to use this accord to build the basis for national reconciliation."

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said the Lebanese should draw lessons from what happened and called on them to reject violence. He also called on Arab states to help support Lebanese forces, which kept a neutral role during the latest clashes.

"We must ... pledge never to resort to arms to resolve our political differences," Saniora said at the Doha ceremony. "We should accept each other and hold dialogue to solve the problems. We want to live together and we will continue that. We have no other choice."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the deal was a "great success for Lebanon and all the Lebanese, whose courage and patience never failed despite the ordeals they have been through."
As part of the deal reached at dawn Wednesday, Hezbollah and its political allies would receive veto power in the country's new national unity government. The Syrian-backed opposition would get 11 seats in the Cabinet, while 16 seats would go to the U.S.- and Western-backed parliament majority.

The remaining three would be distributed by the elected president. Previously, the opposition held six seats in the Cabinet.

The agreement, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, states that the factions "pledged to refrain" from taking up weapons to resolve disputes and that the "use of arms or violence is forbidden to settle political differences under any circumstances."

The government had sought a concession in Doha that Hezbollah would not again turn its guns on fellow Lebanese as in fighting earlier this month, but the broad clause referring to all Lebanese armed groups was apparently as much as it achieved.

Lebanese Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh said while the agreement "forbids internal use of weapons," it also "calls for dialogue ... on the whole subject of arms."

Hamadeh also said both sides were satisfied with the new election law. The legislation is significant because it will determine how the sides distribute power in the capital and directly influence the outcome of the next parliamentary elections in 2009.

Lebanon has been without a president since Emile Lahoud stepped down in November, and rival factions have been unable to resolve their differences over a future government.

Both sides have agreed on Gen. Michel Suleiman, the army chief, as a consensus candidate. But parliament had been unable to muster a quorum to meet because of disagreement on other remaining issues — including the formation of the national unity government and electoral law.

Hamadeh also said legislators from the parliament majority, who have been living abroad fearing for their safety after a wave of bombings targeting mainly anti-Syrian lawmakers and politicians, would be asked to return to Beirut to vote for the president in parliament.

The agreement was struck after host Qatar stepped up pressure Tuesday, offering the rival factions two drafts on how to end the deadlock and a day to consider the proposals.

The 18-month standoff started when Hezbollah-led opposition lawmakers resigned from the government in November 2006 to protest the Cabinet's refusal to grant them enough seats to ensure veto power.

The Qatar deal was also a triumph for the tiny energy-rich Gulf state. The Lebanese stalemate had defied mediation efforts by other Arab and European countries, including shuttle diplomacy in the last year by the foreign minister of France, Lebanon's former colonial ruler.

Source: Associated Press (Yahoo News)

AFP: Libyan envoy stands by Israel-Nazi comparison

2008-04-25T08:24:00.002+02:00

Libyan envoy stands by Israel-Nazi comparison
By Agence France Presse (AFP)

UNITED NATIONS: Libya's deputy UN ambassador insisted Thursday that the situation in the Gaza Strip is actually "worse" than what happened in Nazi concentration camps, a day after similar remarks sparked a walkout of Western envoys in the Security Council. "It is more than what happened in the concentration camps because there is the bombing, daily bombs in Gaza," Ibrahim Dabbashi told reporters. "It is worse," the Libyan diplomat added, pointing out that there were no such bombings on concentration camps during World War II.

He said he made the controversial remarks in Wednesday's Security Council debate "as an argument" to buttress Libya's case that the 15-member body needed to act to end the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
"I think if those statements are correct, they reflect a degree of historical ignorance and moral insensitivity that is one of the large reasons why this council is unable to act on Middle East issues and why peace in the Middle East is so difficult," US Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff retorted.
"To compare the situation in Gaza, with all its difficulties, with concentration camps in Nazi Germany is as I described ... historically inaccurate and fundamentally at odds with efforts to try to make peace in the Middle East," he told reporters.
Libya is the lone Arab member on the 15-member council and acts as a spokesman for the Arab group at the UN.
Wednesday's Western walkout came as council members failed to reach agreement on a compromise statement on the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. In previous months, the council had several times tried and failed to agree on a statement regarding the crippling Israeli siege of Gaza.
Earlier Thursday, Israel hailed Western diplomats for their UN walkout a day earlier.
"They did what was called for in such a situation and we applaud that," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel. Israel imposed a punishing blockade on Gaza after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the Palestinian territory in June, ousting forces loyal to pro-American Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. - AFP
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=91443

Saudi king calls for interfaith dialogue

2008-03-25T21:42:00.002+01:00

By DONNA ABU-NASR and ABDULLAH SHIHRI, Associated Press Writers

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - King Abdullah is calling for a dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews, the first such proposal from this strictly Muslim kingdom at a time of mounting tensions between followers of Islam and those of other religions.
In a speech late Monday, Abdullah said the country's top clerics gave him the green light to pursue his idea. Their backing is crucial in a religiously conservative society that expects decisions taken by its rulers to adhere to Islam's tenets.
The monarch, whose kingdom follows a severe interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism and bans non-Muslim religious services and symbols, said he discussed the idea with Pope Benedict XVI when they met at the Vatican last year.
"The idea is to ask representatives of all monotheistic religions to sit together with their brothers in faith and sincerity to all religions as we all believe in the same God," the king told delegates to a seminar titled "Culture and the Respect of Religions."
His remarks were reported by the official Saudi Press Agency.
"I have noticed that the family system has weakened and that atheism has increased. That is an unacceptable behavior to all religions, to the Quran, the Torah and the Bible," Abdullah said. "We ask God to save humanity. There is a lack of ethics, loyalty and sincerity for our religions and humanity."

Abdullah's call is significant. The Saudi monarch is the custodian of Islam's two holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina, a position that lends his words special importance and influence among many Muslims.

His message for tolerance comes at a time of mounting Muslim anger over the republication by Danish newspapers of cartoons of Islam's Prophet Muhammad and the weekend high-profile conversion of a Muslim commentator to Roman Catholicism.

Abdullah did not say whether Muslim clerics from Saudi Arabia would be willing to meet with Jewish leaders from Israel. Saudi Arabia and all other Arab nations except Egypt and Jordan do not have diplomatic relations with Israel and generally shun unofficial contacts.

In Israel, Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger welcomed Abdullah's call. "Our hand is outstretched to any peace initiative and any dialogue that is aimed at bringing an end to terror and violence," he said in a statement.

Rabbi David Rosen, head of inter-religious relations at the American Jewish Committee, said he was "delighted" by the Saudi announcement.

"Religion is all too often the problem, so it has to also be the solution, or at least part of the solution, and I think that the tragedy of the political initiatives to bring peace has been the failure to include the religious dimension," Rosen said.

Since coming to power in August 2005, Abdullah has taken steps to encourage dialogue among his kingdom's Sunni Muslim majority and its other Muslim sects, including Shiites. His meeting with Benedict was the first between a Saudi monarch and a pope.

Abdullah said he plans to hold conferences to get the opinion of Muslims from other parts of the world as well as meetings "with our brothers in all religions which I mentioned, the Torah and Bible, so we can agree on something that guarantees the preservation of humanity against those who tamper with ethics, family systems and honesty."

Abdullah said that if such an agreement is reached, he plans to take his proposal to the United Nations.

How Can Israeli Holocausts In Gaza Be Seen As A Scar On Western Conscious?

2008-03-25T21:33:00.002+01:00

By Ali Al-Hail
ccun.org, March 24, 2008
Many observe that, selectivity, partiality, prejudice and bias imprint Western Foreign polices. Most notably, those of the United States of America. As regards, no subtle difference seems to be detected between what's called 'Democrats' and 'Republicans'.
Ms. Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives was seen by many to have been emotively, overwhelmed by the Tibetan unrest that, had 'enigmatically,' erupted on March 10. Her meeting with the dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, in Northern India on Friday, had clearly, manifested her dubious initiative.
Many argue that, since Tibet is part of China, Ms Pelosi may have offended the Chinese government, by not visiting Beijing instead, to discuss the issue. Her call on China to end its rule at the Tibet has widely, been perceived as typical of US double standard doctrine.

Apparently, the controversial number of fatalities amongst Tibetans, as whether they were nearly, 10 or 100, had prompted Ms Pelosi view about the Chinese. All of a sudden, a discerning humanity emerged out of her political performance.

Three weeks go, when Israel massacred 37 children and 7 breast-fed-babies in addition to more than 100 civilians, including women, elderly, and handicapped, Ms Pelosi was being hypnotized by the Israeli Lobby. No one heard of her, calling on Israel to end its 4-decade-occupaion of Palestinian lands, in the same way, she urged the Chinese to end their rule of the Tibet.

Similarly, no one heard of Ms Pelosi's, 'the human democrat' human side, while Gazan children's and breast-fed-babies' blood and flush were spreading everywhere, by the Israeli-US-made-F16 missiles. This trendy attitude is needless to mention, applicable to almost entirely, all representatives of Western governments. Thus, Ms Pelosi is not, and won’t be an exemption.

According to George Galloway, the British Labor Independent even Tony Blair, the QUARTET's representative to Israel and the Palestinian lands, happened to have swallowed his tongue and his conscious, during the Israeli holocausts in Gaza (George Galloway, Bahrain, quoted by Al Jazeera TV, March 20th).

Professor, Dr. Ali Al-Hail, Professor of Mass Communication, Twice Fulbright
Award Winner, Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Vice-President Of Qatar Fulbright Group, CSR Award Judge and Board Member of AUSACE, ASC, IABD, NEBAA, BEA, IMDA and EAJMC American Associations.

Israeli police ban Palestinian event

2008-03-25T20:52:00.002+01:00

By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM - Israeli police on Tuesday broke up a Palestinian event meant to promote Jerusalem as the world's next "Arab Cultural Capital."

The Palestinians want next year's celebrations to strengthen their claim to the disputed city. But Tuesday's crackdown sent a strong signal that Israel will not go along with the decision by the 22-member Arab League to bestow its cultural prize on Jerusalem.

"We want to exploit this for Jerusalem," said Ahmad al-Ruweidi, head of the Jerusalem unit in the office of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Two years ago, the Arab League quietly designated Jerusalem its 2009 "Arab Cultural Capital," an honor that rotates among Arab countries. Winners typically use the occasion to showcase their attachment to Arab culture, sponsoring poetry, music, dance performances, lectures, school activities and sporting events.

In Jerusalem, it's not that simple. Israel says the entire city is its undivided and eternal capital. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem — captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and site of key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites — as the capital of a future state.

The dispute over Jerusalem is the most contentious issue in peace talks, and a Palestinian cultural celebration could easily be seen as a political message, angering Israel.

On Tuesday, Palestinian organizers planned to announce the winner of a contest to design a logo for the cultural campaign at the Palestinian national theater in east Jerusalem. But when they arrived, the doors were locked and police stood outside.

"Police arrived at the scene and showed them a warrant signed by the minister of internal security banning the convention," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

About 50 participants attempted to hold a news conference outside, but police broke it up. They said two people were briefly detained during a scuffle.

"We have the right to practice our culture in Jerusalem. We have the right to dance," said Bassem al-Masri, a campaign organizer.

Israeli government officials had no comment on next year's planned celebration, saying they were unaware of the Arab League's decision. But Israel forbids virtually all Palestinian political activity in the city.

Illustrating the challenge, the logo competition winner, Khaled Hourani, could not attend Tuesday's event because he lives in the West Bank and didn't have time to apply for an Israeli permit to enter Jerusalem.

His winning logo shows a multicolored 8-point Islamic star alongside a silhouette of Jerusalem's Old City, with barbed wire transposed over images of a mosque and a church.

Since Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip need permits to enter the city, organizers concede it will be extremely difficult for performers and audiences to attend next year's event. About 180,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem.

On Monday, Israeli police detained al-Ruweidi, who said he was questioned for several hours about projects for next year's event. Police said he was questioned because he recently traveled to Lebanon, an enemy state.

The event also won't attract Arab superstars — a key part of festivities in other Arab countries. Most Arab countries don't have relations with Israel, and their citizens are not allowed to visit Israel, which controls the city.

Performers from Jordan and Egypt, the only Arab countries at peace with Israel, refused to visit in protest against Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

The Arab League annually rotates the title of Arab Cultural Capital among cities of the region. Damascus, the Syrian capital, currently holds the honor.

The Arab League initially pegged Jerusalem as culture capital for 2011, but two years ago, the Iraqi government pulled Baghdad from the 2009 slot, citing security problems.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders hope to reach a final peace agreement, including a deal on Jerusalem, by the end of the year.

Since peace talks began last year, the Israeli government has emphasized its claim to the city by announcing plans to build hundreds of new homes in east Jerusalem neighborhoods built after 1967.

Palestinians and the international community view the move as settlement building — forbidden under the terms of U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.

"Israel must understand we are Arabs," said al-Ruweidi, the Palestinian presidential adviser. "We listen to Arab songs, and our loyalty is to Arabic culture."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080325/ap_on_re_mi_ea/jerusalem_culture_clash;_ylt=Ar8mzCkukB._81QwrfOfyRpvaA8F

Tragedy of Israel and Palestine

2008-03-14T00:19:00.006+01:00

By Mark Levine

The father of 18 days-old newborn Palestinian baby girl Amira Abu Asr, who was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers, mourns during her funeral on March 5 [GALLO/GETTY]

Americans have grown so accustomed to the disastrous dynamics operating between Israelis and Palestinians today that the failure to reach a peace deal amid the soaring death tolls assumes an aura of normalcy in their minds.

This reflects a situation we imagine ourselves to be powerless to help change and only adds to the tragedy unfolding in the Occupied Territories and Israel as well.

Today the world's attention has turned to the aftermath of the murder of eight students of an ultra-Zionist Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, established by the founder of religious zionism, Rabbi Avraham Isaac Kook in 1924.

Last week the focus was the ongoing war in Gaza, which will likely be the centre of attention next week as well.

The attacks on religious students in the midst of study and prayer - coupled with the ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza on the Israeli towns of Sderot and Ashkelon - are already being offered as the latest examples of continued Palestinian unwillingness to make peace with Israel more than two years after its unprecedented withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

World's largest prison

Shanbo Heinemann, a pro-Palestinian activist, is injured in a protest against the wall [GETTY]

But there are many problems with this argument; firstly, most of the acts of Palestinian resistance to the occupation have always been non-violent.

Equally important is the fact that while Israeli civilians no longer live in Gaza, Israel's military presence has never ended.

Tel Aviv withdrew civilian settlers and then threw away the key to what has now become the world's largest prison.

Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister and the architect of the settlement movement, was willing to sacrifice Gaza in order to ensure Israel held onto the major settlement blocs of the West Bank, which today house more than 250,000 settlers (almost double that number if one includes the Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem).

The settler population of the West Bank also doubled during the years of the Oslo "peace" process - which began when Abu Dahim was about 12 and ended when he was 19 - without a whimper of complaint from the United States.

By the time Yitzhak Rabin, the former prime minister, was assassinated in 1995, Palestinian leaders were warning that the continued settlement expansion was "killing" the peace process and would sooner or later lead to a "revolution" from the street.

Matrix of control

The presence of well over 100 settlements has necessitated a matrix of control in which 80 per cent of the West Bank be declared off limits to Palestinians.

It also meant the destruction of thousands of homes and olive and fruit trees (the backbone of an otherwise closed Palestinian economy), the confiscation of 35,000 acres of Palestinian land, and the creation of a network of bypass roads, military bases.

The 400-kilometre, 8-metre-high "separation wall" also pierces deep into Palestinian territory, cutting into at least three isolated cantons.

Together, the settlement system has made the idea of creating a territorially and economically viable Palestinian state impossible to implement.

With the eruption of the al-Aqsa intifada in September 2000 whatever infrastructure of peace had been created during Oslo was quickly dismantled by both sides.

By mid-2002 Israel began deploying a strategy of managed chaos, in which a near total closure of the Territories, coupled with a destruction of much of their economic and political infrastructure, turned the intifada into what Palestinians term an "intifawda," a neologism that brings the violence of the intifada together with the chaos, or "fawda" of a society living in a barely functioning state and economy.

Dividing Palestine

Israel's separation wall cuts a broad path through Palestinian olive groves [GALLO/GETTY]

Israeli planners gambled that by splitting the West Bank from Gaza, deepening the occupation of the former while freeing itself of the settlements in the latter, and routinely deploying disproportionate violence (including tanks, helicopter gunships, F-16s, and heavily armed troops) against all signs of resistance, Palestinian society would begin turning on itself.

Indeed, Israel hoped for this when it clandestinely supported the emergence of Hamas two decades ago, with the goal of building up a rival to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) that would have them fighting each other rather than figuring out more successful strategies of fighting the occupation.

But, even as Palestinians fight each other, resistance to the occupation has continued. Most of it is comprised of various forms of non-violence (marches, sit-ins, and attempts to stop home demolitions or replant uprooted fields or groves).

These are rarely covered by the international media, and are usually met with violence by the Israeli military or settlers.

Fairly or not, however, it has been Palestinian violence, and especially suicide bombings and now rocket attacks on civilians, that have defined their resistance to the ongoing occupation.

Suicidal suicide attacks

And in this regard the actions have been nothing short of suicidal - Palestinian "resistance" to the occupation seems to have been scripted by Israel as it has suited the interests of the Israeli governments in power since 2000. As Haaretz columnist Bradley Burston recently put it:

"The Palestinians have kept their ultimate doomsday weapon under tight wraps for 40 years ... Israeli senior commanders could only pray that the Palestinians would never take it out and put it to actual use ... non-violence. This is one reason why, for decades, Israel did its best to head off, harass, and crack down on expressions of Palestinian non-violence."

If Palestinians ever decided to just "get up and walk" en masse to the Erez Crossing separating Gaza from Israel and the major West Bank check points like Qalandiya and used hammers and picks to tear them down, there would be almost nothing Israel could do, short of a massacre in full view of the world's cameras.

But Palestinians have become so stuck in the ideology of summud, (which naturally become a national imperative after a million Palestinians were uprooted in the 1948 and 1967 wars), or defiantly staying put, that they have rarely taken the strategic or moral offensive.

When they applied the moral approach during the first intifada, Israel's harsh crackdown coupled with PLO dominance of Palestianian politics, ensured the de-politicisation and disempowerment of the first "intifada generation".

Two weeks ago, when a few brave Palestinians tried to organise a peaceful march to the Erez border crossing to build on the momentum gained by breaching the border fence between Gaza and Egypt, they were stopped far from the border by a line of heavily armed Hamas policemen.

Soon after, the day's ration of rockets was fired into the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, wounding two Israeli children.

Israel responded with a new rounds of attacks by Israel, killing and wounding more Palestinians.

How to stop?

A few years ago, in a particularly violent moment of the intifada, I interviewed a senior Hamas leader at his office in Gaza. After the usual boiler plate questions and answers, I finally grew exasperated and said to him, "Look, let's put aside the question of whether you have the right to use violence, particularly against civilians, to pursue your ends. The simple fact is that the strategy has not worked."

His response stunned me with its honesty: "We know the violence doesn't work, but we don't know how to stop."

In a mirror image of Israeli strategic thinking, Hamas has remained unable to break free of the dangerously outdated paradigm that says violence, particularly against civilians, can only be met by even more violence until the other side yields.

Aside from the moral turpitude of such thinking by both sides - not to mention blatant illegality according to international law - the reality, at least in the near term, is that the human and political cost of such a policy for Israel is far lower than for Palestinians, who have very little time left before their dreams of independence are crushed for good.

Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, has himself admitted, the day Palestinians give up on the dream of an independent state will be the day Israel will "face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, and as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished."

Dysfunctional dynamics

But so dysfunctional are the current dynamics that neither side seems willing to take the first step away from the abyss.

In such a situation, only a strong outside party can force the warring sides to make the hard compromises necessary to achieve a just and lasting peace.

This was the job the US signed up for in 1993, when Bill Clinton, then president, witnessed the signing of the first Oslo agreement on the White House lawn. But we have failed miserably in our self-appointed role as "honest broker."

It's not just that US has unapologetically taken Israel's side on almost every major issue since then.

During the Oslo years the US worked hand in glove with the Israeli and Palestinian security services to stifle dissent within Palestinian civil society, or the Legislative Council, to a process that was moving away from rather than towards a just and lasting peace.

And with the militarisation of US foreign policy after September 11 and the sullied occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, Israel has had even greater carte blanche to inflict precisely the kind of damage upon Palestinian society we are witnessing now in Gaza.

Blood of children

By refusing to press Israel - as many Israeli commentators, and an increasing number of US policy-makers as well, urge - to negotiate with Hamas we have not just enabled the current violence, but are directly responsible for it.

Hamas has declared its willingness to negotiate a two-state solution, albeit under conditions to which Israel has little incentive to accept.

The blood of Israeli and Palestinian children that appears on TV is on our hands too.

It would be nice if we could imagine that the next US president will have the courage to "change" this dynamic. But there is little chance of that.

The only hope is that Israeli and Palestinian societies come together to stop the violence their leaders keep inflicting on them before the delusions of victory on both sides cross the line into psychosis.

Mark LeVine is professor of history at UCI Irvine and author or editor of half a dozen books dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and globalisation in the Middle East, including Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Struggle for Palestine, Reapproaching Borders: New Perspectives on the Study of Israel and Palestine, Why They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil, and the forthcoming An Impossible Peace: Oslo and the Burdens of History.

Source: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BB1E373A-50F9-403A-9263-98D09D584A31.htm

Criticizing Israel is Not an Act of Bigotry

2008-03-12T09:40:00.003+01:00

Jewish Opposition to Israeli Human Rights Crimes is Growing

Criticizing Israel is Not an Act of Bigotry

By JASON KUNIN

A grassroots revolt is underway in Jewish communities throughout the world, a revolt that has panicked the elite organizations that have long functioned as official mouthpieces for the community. The latest sign of this panic is the recent publication by the American Jewish Committee of an essay by Alvin H. Rosenfeld, entitled Progressive Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism, which accuses progressive Jews of abetting a resurgent wave of anti-Semitism by publicly criticizing Israel.

This is the latest attempt to conflate anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism in order to silence or marginalize criticism of Israel. This approach is widely used in Canada. Upon becoming CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Bernie Farber declared that one of his goals was to "educate Canadians about the links between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism."

It is misleading for groups like the Canadian Jewish Congress to pretend that the Jewish community is united in support of Israel. A growing number of Jews around the world are joining the chorus of concern about the deteriorating condition of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories as well as the inferior social and economic status of Israel's own Palestinian population.

In a world where uncritical support for Israel is becoming less and less tenable due to the expanding human rights disaster in the West Bank and Gaza, leaders of Jewish communities outside Israel have circled their wagons, heightened their pro-Israel rhetoric, and demonized Israel's critics. These leaders imply that increased concerns about Israel do not result from that state's actions, but from an increase in anti-Semitism.

Despite this effort to absolve Israel of responsibility for its treatment of Palestinians, Jewish opposition is growing and becoming more organized. On Feb. 5, a group in Britain calling itself Jewish Independent Voices published an open letter in The Guardian newspaper in which they distanced themselves from "Those who claim to speak on behalf of Jews in Britain and other countries (and who) consistently put support for the policies of an occupying power above the human rights of the occupied people." Among the signatories of the letter were Nobel-prize winning playwright Harold Pinter, filmmaker Mike Leigh, writer John Berger, and many others.
This development follows the emergence of similar groups in Sweden (Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace), France (Union Juive Francaise pour la paix, Rencontre Progressiste Juive), Italy (Ebrei contro l'occupazione), Germany (Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost), Belgium (Union des Progressistes Juifs de Belgique), the United States (Jewish Voice for Peace, Brit Tzedek, Tikkun, the Bronfman-Soros initiative), South Africa, and others, including the umbrella organization European Jews for a Just Peace and the numerous groups within Israel itself. In Canada, the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians (ACJC) has been founded as an umbrella organization bringing together Jewish individuals and groups from across the country who oppose Israel's continued domination of the West Bank and Gaza.

Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic, nor does it "bleed into anti-Semitism," a formulation that says essentially the same thing. Some genuine anti-Semites do use Israel as a cover for maligning the Jewish people as a whole, but it is fallacious to argue that anyone who criticizes Israel is anti-Semitic because anti-Semites attack Israel. There are some anti-Semites who support Israel because they are Christian fundamentalists who see the return of Jews to Jerusalem as a precondition for the return of Christ and the conversion of Jews to Christianity, or because they are xenophobes who want to get rid of Jews in their midst. Anti-Semites take positions in support of and in opposition to Israel.

It is wrong to criticize all Jews for Israel's wrongdoings, yet Israel's leadership and its supporters in the Diaspora consistently encourage this view by insisting that Israel acts on behalf of the entire Jewish people.

This shifts blame for Israel's crimes onto the shoulders of all Jews. But Jewish critics of Israel demonstrate through their words and deeds that the Jewish community is not monolithic in its support of Israel.

Defenders of Israel often argue that Israel is forced to do what it does -- to destroy people's homes, to keep them under the boot of occupation, to seal them into walled ghettos, to brutalize them daily with military incursions and random checkpoints -- to protect its citizens from Palestinian violence. Palestinian violence, however, is rooted in the theft of their land, the diversion of their water, the violence of the occupation, and the indignity of having one's own very existence posed as a "demographic threat."

To justify Israel's continued occupation and theft of Palestinian land, the state and its defenders attempt to deny Palestinian suffering, arguing instead that Palestinian resentment is rooted not in Israeli violence, but rather in Islam, or the "Arab mentality," or a mystical anti-Semitism inherent in Arab or Muslim culture. Consequently, pro-Israel advocacy depends upon on the active dissemination of Islamophobia. Not surprisingly, engendering hatred in this manner inflames anti-Jewish sentiment among Arabs and Muslims. None of this is a recipe for making Jews safe.

Jewish people can help avert the catastrophic effects of Israeli behaviour, but only by taking a stand in opposition to it.

Jason Kunin of Toronto is a member of the administration council of the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians.

This article, which originally appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press, was written with help from other council members, including Cy Gonick and Dr. Mark Etkin, both of Winnipeg, Andy Lehrer of Toronto, Sid Shniad of Vancouver and Abraham Weizfeld of Montreal.

Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/kunin02242007.html

Does Iran's President Want Israel Wiped Off The Map - Does He Deny The Holocaust?

2008-03-11T23:42:00.002+01:00

An analysis of media rhetoric on its way to war against Iran - Commenting on the alleged statements of Iran's President Ahmadinejad .

By Anneliese Fikentscher and Andreas Neumann
Translation to English: Erik Appleby

04/19/06 "Kein Krieg!" -- -- - "But now that I'm on Iran, the threat to Iran, of course -- (applause) -- the threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel. That's a threat, a serious threat. It's a threat to world peace; it's a threat, in essence, to a strong alliance. I made it clear, I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally, Israel, and -- (applause.)" George W. Bush, US-President, 2006-03-20 in Cleveland (Ohio) in an off-the-cuff speech (source: www.whitehouse.gov) But why does Bush speak of Iran's objective to destroy Israel?

Does Iran's President wants Israel wiped off the map?

To raze Israel to the ground, to batter down, to destroy, to annihilate, to liquidate, to erase Israel, to wipe it off the map - this is what Iran's President demanded - at least this is what we read about or heard of at the end of October 2005. Spreading the news was very effective. This is a declaration of war they said. Obviously government and media were at one with their indignation. It goes around the world.

But let's take a closer look at what Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. It is a merit of the 'New York Times' that they placed the complete speech at our disposal. Here's an excerpt from the publication dated 2005-10-30:

"They say it is not possible to have a world without the United States and Zionism. But you know that this is a possible goal and slogan. Let's take a step back. [[[We had a hostile regime in this country which was undemocratic, armed to the teeth and, with SAVAK, its security apparatus of SAVAK [the intelligence bureau of the Shah of Iran's government] watched everyone. An environment of terror existed.]]] When our dear Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Iranian revolution] said that the regime must be removed, many of those who claimed to be politically well-informed said it was not possible. All the corrupt governments were in support of the regime when Imam Khomeini started his movement. [[[All the Western and Eastern countries supported the regime even after the massacre of September 7 [1978] ]]] and said the removal of the regime was not possible. But our people resisted and it is 27 years now that we have survived without a regime dependent on the United States. The tyranny of the East and the West over the world should have to end, but weak people who can see only what lies in front of them cannot believe this. Who would believe that one day we could witness the collapse of the Eastern Empire? But we could watch its fall in our lifetime. And it collapsed in a way that we have to refer to libraries because no trace of it is left. Imam [Khomeini] said Saddam must go and he said he would grow weaker than anyone could imagine. Now you see the man who spoke with such arrogance ten years ago that one would have thought he was immortal, is being tried in his own country in handcuffs and shackles [[[by those who he believed supported him and with whose backing he committed his crimes]]]. Our dear Imam said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement. We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine. Is it possible to create a new front in the heart of an old front. This would be a defeat and whoever accepts the legitimacy of this regime [Israel] has in fact, signed the defeat of the Islamic world. Our dear Imam targeted the heart of the world oppressor in his struggle, meaning the occupying regime. I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world."
(source: www.nytimes.com, based on a publication of 'Iranian Students News Agency' (ISNA) -- insertions by the New York Times in squared brackets -- passages in triple squared brackets will be left blank in the MEMRI version printed below)

It's becoming clear. The statements of the Iranian President have been reflected by the media in a manipulated way. Iran's President betokens the removal of the regimes, that are in power in Israel and in the USA, to be possible aim for the future. This is correct. But he never demands the elimination or annihilation of Israel. He reveals that changes are potential. The Shah-Regime being supported by the USA in its own country has been vanquished. The eastern governance of the Soviet Union collapsed. Saddam Hussein's dominion drew to a close. Referring to this he voices his aspiration that changes will also be feasible in Israel respectively in Palestine. He adduces Ayatollah Khomeini referring to the Shah-Regime who in this context said that the regime (meaning the Shah-Regime) should be removed.

Certainly, Ahmadinejad translates this quotation about a change of regime into the occupied Palestine. This has to be legitimate. To long for modified political conditions in a country is a world-wide day-to-day business by all means. But to commute a demand for removal of a 'regime' into a demand for removal of a state is serious deception and dangerous demagogy.
This is one chapter of the war against Iran that has already begun with the words of Georg Meggle, professor of philosophy at the university of Leipzig - namely with the probably most important phase, the phase of propaganda.

Marginally we want to mention that it was the former US Vice-Minister of Defence and current President of the World Bank, Paul D. Wolfowitz, who in Sept. 2001 talked about ending states in public and without any kind of awe. And it was the father of George W. Bush who started the discussion about a winnable nuclear war if only the survival of an elite is assured.

Let's pick an example: the German online-news-magazine tagesschau.de writes the following about Iran's president on 2005-10-27: "There is no doubt: the new wave of assaults in Palestine will erase the stigma in countenance of the Islamic world." Instead of using the original word 'wave' they write 'wave of assaults'. This replacement of the original text is what we call disinformation. E.g. it would be correct to say: "The new movement in Palestine will erase the stain of disgrace from the Islamic world." Additionally this statement refers to the occupation regime mentioned in the previous sentence.

As a precaution we will examine a different translation of the speech - a version prepared by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), located in Washington:

"They [ask]: 'Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?' But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved. [[[...]]] "'When the dear Imam [Khomeini] said that [the Shah's] regime must go, and that we demand a world without dependent governments, many people who claimed to have political and other knowledge [asked], 'Is it possible [that the Shah's regime can be toppled]?' That day, when Imam [Khomeini] began his movement, all the powers supported [the Shah's] corrupt regime [[[...]]] and said it was not possible. However, our nation stood firm, and by now we have, for 27 years, been living without a government dependent on America. Imam [Khomeni] said: 'The rule of the East [U.S.S.R.] and of the West [U.S.] should be ended.' But the weak people who saw only the tiny world near them did not believe it. Nobody believed that we would one day witness the collapse of the Eastern Imperialism [i.e. the U.S.S.R], and said it was an iron regime. But in our short lifetime we have witnessed how this regime collapsed in such a way that we must look for it in libraries, and we can find no literature about it. Imam [Khomeini] said that Saddam [Hussein] must go, and that he would be humiliated in a way that was unprecedented. And what do you see today? A man who, 10 years ago, spoke as proudly as if he would live for eternity is today chained by the feet, and is now being tried in his own country [[[...]]] Imam [Khomeini] said: 'This regime that is occupying Qods [Jerusalem] must be eliminated from the pages of history.' This sentence is very wise. The issue of Palestine is not an issue on which we can compromise. Is it possible that an [Islamic] front allows another front [i.e. country] to arise in its [own] heart? This means defeat, and he who accepts the existence of this regime [i.e. Israel] in fact signs the defeat of the Islamic world. In his battle against the World of Arrogance, our dear Imam [Khomeini] set the regime occupying Qods [Jerusalem] as the target of his fight. I do not doubt that the new wave which has begun in our dear Palestine and which today we are also witnessing in the Islamic world is a wave of morality which has spread all over the Islamic world. Very soon, this stain of disgrace [i.e. Israel] will vanish from the center of the Islamic world - and this is attainable."
(source: http://memri.org, based on the publication of 'Iranian Students News Agency' (ISNA) -- insertions by MEMRI in squared brackets -- missing passages compared to the 'New York Times' in triple squared brackets)

The term 'map' to which the media refer at length does not even appear. Whereas the 'New York Times' said: "Our dear Imam said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map" the version by MEMRI is: "Imam [Khomeini] said: This regime that is occupying Qods [Jerusalem] must be eliminated from the pages of history."

MEMRI added the following prefixed formulation to their translation as a kind of title: "Very Soon, This Stain of Disgrace [i.e. Israel] Will Be Purged From the Center of the Islamic World - and This is Attainable". Thereby they take it out of context by using the insertion 'i.e. Israel' they distort the meaning on purpose. The temporal tapering 'very soon' does not appear in the NY-Times-translation either. Besides it is striking that MEMRI deleted all passages in their translation which characterize the US-supported Shah-Regime as a regime of terror and at the same time show the true character of US-American policy.

An independent translation of the original (like the version published by ISNA) yields that Ahmadinejad does not use the term 'map'. He quotes Ayatollah Khomeini's assertion that the occupation regime must vanish from this world - literally translated: from the arena of times. Correspondingly: there is no space for an occupation regime in this world respectively in this time. The formulation 'wipe off the map' used by the 'New York Times' is a very free and aggravating interpretation which is equivalent to 'razing something to the ground' or 'annihilating something'. The downwelling translation, first into English ('wipe off the map'), then from English to German - and all literally ('von der Landkarte löschen') - makes us stride away from the original more and more. The perfidious thing about this translation is that the expression 'map' can only be used in one (intentional) way: a state can be removed from a map but not a regime, about which Ahmadinejad is actually speaking.

Again following the independent translation: "I have no doubt that the new movement taking place in our dear Palestine is a spiritual movement which is spanning the entire Islamic world and which will soon remove this stain of disgrace from the Islamic world".

It must be allowed to ask how it is possible that 'spirtual movement' resp. 'wave of morality' (as translated by MEMRI) and 'wave of assaults' can be equated and translated (like e.g tagesschau.de published it).

Does Iran's President deny the Holocaust?

"The German government condemned the repetitive offending anti-Israel statements by Ahmadinejad to be shocking. Such behaviour is not tolerable, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier stated. [...] Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel proclaimed Ahmadinejad's statements to be 'inconceivable'" (published by tagesschau.de 2005-12-14.

But not only the German Foreign Minister Steinmeier and the Federal Chancellor Merkel allege this, but the Bild-Zeitung, tagesschau.de, parts of the peace movement, US-President George W. Bush, the 'Papers for German and international politics', CNN, the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, almost the entire world does so, too: Iran's President Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust.
What is this assertion based on? In substance it is based on dispatches of 2 days - 2005-12-14 and 2006-02-11.

"The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stepped up his verbal attacks against Israel and the Western states and has denied the Holocaust. Instead of making Israel's attacks against Palestine a subject of discussion 'the Western states devote their energy to the fairy-tale of the massacre against the Jews', Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday in a speech at Zahedan in the south-east of Iran which was broadcasted directly by the news-channel Khabar. That day he stated that if the Western states really believe in the assassination of six million Jews in W.W. II they should put a piece of land in Europe, in the USA, Canada or Alaska at Israel's disposal." - dispatch of the German press agency DPA, 2005-12-14.

The German TV-station n24 spreads the following on 2006-12-14 using the title 'Iran's President calls the Holocaust a myth': "The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stepped up his verbal attacks against Israel and called the Holocaust a 'myth' used as a pretext by the Europeans to found a Jewish state in the center of the Islamic world . 'In the name of the Holocaust they have created a myth and regard it to be worthier than God, religion and the prophets' the Iranian head of state said."

The Iranian press agency IRNA renders Ahmadinejad on 2005-12-14 as follows: "'If the Europeans are telling the truth in their claim that they have killed six million Jews in the Holocaust during the World War II - which seems they are right in their claim because they insist on it and arrest and imprison those who oppose it, why the Palestinian nation should pay for the crime. Why have they come to the very heart of the Islamic world and are committing crimes against the dear Palestine using their bombs, rockets, missiles and sanctions.' [...] 'If you have committed the crimes so give a piece of your land somewhere in Europe or America and Canada or Alaska to them to set up their own state there.' [...] Ahmadinejad said some have created a myth on holocaust and hold it even higher than the very belief in religion and prophets [...] The president further said, 'If your civilization consists of aggression, displacing the oppressed nations, suppressing justice-seeking voices and spreading injustice and poverty for the majority of people on the earth, then we say it out loud that we despise your hollow civilization.'"

There again we find the quotation already rendered by n24: "In the name of the Holocaust they created a myth." We can see that this is completely different from what is published by e.g. the DPA - the massacre against the Jews is a fairy-tale. What Ahmadinejad does is not denying the Holocaust. No! It is dealing out criticism against the mendacity of the imperialistic powers who use the Holocaust to muzzle critical voices and to achieve advantages concerning the legitimization of a planned war. This is criticism against the exploitation of the Holocaust.

CNN (2005-12-15) renders as follows: "If you have burned the Jews why don't you give a piece of Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to Israel. Our question is, if you have committed this huge crime, why should the innocent nation of Palestine pay for this crime?"

The Washingtonian ''Middle East Media Research Institute' (MEMRI) renders Ahmadinejad's statements from 2005-12-14 as follows: "...we ask you: if you indeed committed this great crime, why should the oppressed people of Palestine be punished for it? * [...] If you committed a crime, you yourselves should pay for it. Our offer was and remains as follows: If you committed a crime, it is only appropriate that you place a piece of your land at their disposal - a piece of Europe, of America, of Canada, or of Alaska - so they can establish their own state. Rest assured that if you do so, the Iranian people will voice no objection."

The MEMRI-rendering uses the relieving translation 'great crime' and misappropriates the following sentence at the * marked passage: "Why have they come to the very heart of the Islamic world and are committing crimes against the dear Palestine using their bombs, rockets, missiles and sanctions." This sentence has obviously been left out deliberately because it would intimate why the Israeli state could have forfeited the right to establish itself in Palestine - videlicet because of its aggressive expansionist policy against the people of Palestine, ignoring any law of nations and disobeying all UN-resolutions.

In spite of the variability referring to the rendering of the statements of Iran's President we should nevertheless note down: the reproach of denying the Holocaust cannot be sustained if Ahmadinejad speaks of a great and huge crime that has been done to the Jews.

In another IRNA-dispatch (2005-12-14) the Arabian author Ghazi Abu Daqa writes about Ahmadinejad: "The Iranian president has nothing against the followers of Judaism [...] Ahmadinejad is against Zionism as well as its expansionist and occupying policy. That is why he managed to declare to the world with courage that there is no place for the Zionist regime in the world civilized community."

It's no wonder that such opinions do not go down particularly well with the ideas of the centers of power in the Western world. But for this reason they are not wrong right away. Dealing out criticism against the aggressive policy of the Western world, to which Israel belongs as well, is not yet anti-Semitism. We should at least to give audience to this kind of criticism - even if it is a problematic field for us.

2006-02-11 Ahmadinejad said according to IRNA: "[...] the real holocaust should be sought in Palestine, where the blood of the oppressed nation is shed every day and Iraq, where the defenceless Muslim people are killed daily. [...] 'Some western governments, in particular the US, approve of the sacrilege on the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), while denial of the >Myth of Holocaust<, based on which the Zionists have been exerting pressure upon other countries for the past 60 years and kill the innocent Palestinians, is considered as a crime' [...]"

The assertion that Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust thus is wrong in more than one aspect. He does not deny the Holocaust, but speaks of denial itself. And he does not speak of denial of the Holocaust, but of denial of the Myth of Holocaust. This is something totally different. All in all he speaks of the exploitation of the Holocaust. The Myth of Holocaust, like it is made a subject of discussion by Ahmadinejad, is a myth that has been built up in conjunction with the Holocaust to - as he says - put pressure onto somebody. We might follow this train of thoughts or we might not. But we cannot equalize his thoughts with denial of the Holocaust.

If Ahmadinejad according to this 2006-02-11 condemns the fact that it is forbidden and treated as a crime to do research into the Myth of Holocaust, as we find it quoted in the MEMRI translation, this acquires a meaning much different from the common and wide-spread one. If the myth related to the Holocaust is commuted to a 'Fairy Tale of the Massacre' - like the DPA did - this can only be understood as a malicious misinterpretation.

By the use of misrepresentation and adulteration it apparently succeeded to constitute the statements of the Iranian President to be part and parcel of the currently fought propaganda battle. It is our responsibility to counter this.

Concluding:

A dispatch by Reuters confirms 2006-02-21: "The Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki has [...] repudiated that his state would want the Jewish state Israel 'wiped off the map'. [...] Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been misunderstood. 'Nobody can erase a country from the map.' Ahmadinejad was not thinking of the state of Israel but of their regime [...]. 'We do not accredit this regime to be legitimate.' [...] Mottaki also accepted that the Holocaust really took place in a way that six million Jews were murdered during the era of National Socialism."

The next step is to connect the Iranian President with Hitler. 2006-02-20 the Chairman of the Counsil of Jews in France (Crif) says in Paris: "The Iranian President's assertions do not rank behind Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'". Paul Spiegel, President of the Central Counsil of Jews in Germany, 2005-12-10 in the 'Welt' qualifies the statements of Ahmadinejad to be "the worst comment on this subject that he has ever heard of a statesman since A. Hitler". At the White House the Iranian President is even named Hitler. And the German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel as well moves over Iran's President towards Hitler and National Socialism by saying 2006-02-04 in Munich: "Already in the early 1930's many people said that it is only rhetoric. One could have prevented a lot in time if one had acted... Germany is in the debt to resist the incipiencies and to do anything to make clear where the limit of tolerance is. Iran remains in control of the situation, it is still in their hands."

All this indicates war. Slobodan Milosevic became Hitler. The result was the war of the Nato against Yugoslavia. Saddam Hussein became Hitler. What followed was the war the USA and their coalition of compliant partners waged against Iraq. Now the Iranian President becomes Hitler.

And someone who is Hitler-like can assure a hundred times that he only wants to use nuclear energy in a peaceful way. Nobody will believe him. Somebody like Hitler can act within the scope of all contracts. Acting contrary to contract will nevertheless be imputed to him. "Virtually none of the Western states recognize that uranium enrichment is absolutely legal. There is no restriction by contract or by the law of nations. Quite the contrary: Actually the Western countries would have the duty to assist Iran with these activities, according to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. As long as a state renounces the bomb it is eligible for technical support by the nuclear powers." (Jörg Pfuhl, ARD radio studio Istanbul 2006-01-11) But - all this does not count if the Head of a state is stigmatized as Hitler.

Source: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12790.htm

The Meaning of Gaza’s ‘Shoah’

2008-03-09T23:56:00.001+01:00

Israel plots another Palestinian exodus

By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth

08/03/08 "ICH" -- -- Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai’s much publicised remark last week about Gaza facing a “shoah” -- the Hebrew word for the Holocaust -- was widely assumed to be unpleasant hyperbole about the army’s plans for an imminent full-scale invasion of the Strip.

More significantly, however, his comment offers a disturbing indication of the Israeli army’s longer-term strategy towards the Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Vilnai, a former general, was interviewed by Army Radio as Israel was in the midst of unleashing a series of air and ground strikes on populated areas of Gaza that killed more than 100 Palestinians, at least half of whom were civilians and 25 of whom were children, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

The interview also took place in the wake of a rocket fired from Gaza that killed a student in Sderot and other rockets that hit the centre of the southern city of Ashkelon. Vilnai stated: “The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they [the Palestinians of Gaza] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.”

His comment, picked up by the Reuters wire service, was soon making headlines around the world. Presumably uncomfortable with a senior public figure in Israel comparing his government’s policies to the Nazi plan to exterminate European Jewry, many news services referred to Vilnai’s clearly articulated threat as a “warning”, as though he was prophesying a cataclysmic natural event over which he and the Israeli army had no control.

Nonetheless, officials understood the damage that the translation from Hebrew of Vilnai’s remark could do to Israel’s image abroad. And sure enough, Palestinian leaders were soon exploiting the comparison, with both the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the exiled Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, stating that a “holocaust” was unfolding in Gaza.

Within hours the Israeli Foreign Ministry was launching a large “hasbara” (propaganda) campaign through its diplomats, as the Jerusalem Post reported. In a related move, a spokesman for Vilnai explained that the word “shoah” also meant “disaster”; this, rather than a holocaust, was what the minister had been referring to. Clarifications were issued by many media outlets.

However, no one in Israel was fooled. “Shoah” -- which literally means “burnt offering” -- was long ago reserved for the Holocaust, much as the Arabic word “nakba” (or “catastrophe”) is nowadays used only to refer to the Palestinians’ dispossession by Israel in 1948. Certainly, the Israeli media in English translated Vilnai’s use of “shoah” as “holocaust”.

But this is not the first time that Vilnai has expressed extreme views about Gaza’s future.

Last summer he began quietly preparing a plan on behalf of his boss, the Defence Minister Ehud Barak, to declare Gaza a “hostile entity” and dramatically reduce the essential services supplied by Israel -- as long-time occupier -- to its inhabitants, including electricity and fuel. The cuts were finally implemented late last year after the Israeli courts gave their blessing.

Vilnai and Barak, both former military men like so many other Israeli politicians, have been “selling” this policy -- of choking off basic services to Gaza -- to Western public opinion ever since.

Under international law, Israel as the occupying power has an obligation to guarantee the welfare of the civilian population in Gaza, a fact forgotten when the media reported Israel’s decision to declare Gaza a hostile entity. The pair have therefore claimed tendentiously that the humanitarian needs of Gazans are still being safeguarded by the limited supplies being allowed through, and that therefore the measures do not constitute collective punishment.

Last October, after a meeting of defence officials, Vilnai said of Gaza: "Because this is an entity that is hostile to us, there is no reason for us to supply them with electricity beyond the minimum required to prevent a crisis.”

Three months later Vilnai went further, arguing that Israel should cut off “all responsibility” for Gaza, though, in line with the advice of Israel’s attorney general, he has been careful not to suggest that this would punish ordinary Gazans excessively.

Instead he said disengagement should be taken to its logical conclusion: “We want to stop supplying electricity to them, stop supplying them with water and medicine, so that it would come from another place”. He suggested that Egypt might be forced to take over responsibility.
Vilnai’s various comments are a reflection of the new thinking inside the defence and political establishments about where next to move Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians.

After the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, a consensus in the Israeli military quickly emerged in favour of maintaining control through a colonial policy of divide and rule, by factionalising the Palestinians and then keeping them feuding.

As long as the Palestinians were too divided to resist the occupation effectively, Israel could carry on with its settlement programme and “creeping annexation” of the occupied territories, as the Defence Minister of the time, Moshe Dayan, called it.

Israel experimented with various methods of undermining the secular Palestinian nationalism of the PLO, which threatened to galvanise a general resistance to the occupation. In particular Israel established local anti-PLO militias known as the Village Leagues and later backed the Islamic fundamentalism of the Muslim Brotherhood, which would morph into Hamas.

Rivalry between Hamas and the PLO, controlled by Fatah, has been the backdrop to Palestinian politics in the occupied territories ever since, and has moved centre stage since Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005. Growing antagonism fuelled by Israel and the US, as an article in Vanity Fair confirmed this week, culminated in the physical separation of a Fatah-run West Bank from a Hamas-ruled Gaza last summer.

The leaderships of Fatah and Hamas are now divided not only geographically but also by their diametrically opposed strategies for dealing with Israel’s occupation.

Fatah’s control of the West Bank is being shored up by Israel because its leaders, including President Mahmoud Abbas, have made it clear that they are prepared to cooperate with an interminable peace process that will give Israel the time it needs to annex yet more of the territory.

Hamas, on the other hand, is under no illusions about the peace process, having seen the Jewish settlers leave but Israel’s military control and its economic siege only tighten from arm’s length.
In charge of an open-air prison, Hamas has refused to surrender to Israeli diktats and has proven invulnerable to Israeli and US machinations to topple it. Instead it has begun advancing the only two feasible forms of resistance available: rocket attacks over the fence surrounding Gaza, and popular mass action.

And this is where the concerns of Vilnai and others emanate from. Both forms of resistance, if Hamas remains in charge of Gaza and improves its level of organisation and the clarity of its vision, could over the long term unravel Israel’s plans to annex the occupied territories -- once their Palestinian inhabitants have been removed.

First, Hamas’ development of more sophisticated and longer-range rockets threatens to move Hamas’ resistance to a much larger canvas than the backwater of the small development town of Sderot. The rockets that landed last week in Ashkelon, one of the country’s largest cities, could be the harbingers of political change in Israel.

Hizbullah proved in the 2006 Lebanon war that Israeli domestic opinion quickly crumbled in the face of sustained rocket attacks. Hamas hopes to achieve the same outcome.

After the strikes on Ashkelon, the Israeli media was filled with reports of angry mobs taking to the city’s streets and burning tyres in protest at their government’s failure to protect them. That is their initial response. But in Sderot, where the attacks have been going on for years, the mayor, Eli Moyal, recently called for talks with Hamas. A poll published in the Haaretz daily showed that 64 per cent of Israelis now agree with him. That figure may increase further if the rocket threat grows.

The fear among Israel’s leaders is that “creeping annexation” of the occupied territories cannot be achieved if the Israeli public starts demanding that Hamas be brought to the negotiating table.

Second, Hamas’ mobilisation last month of Gazans to break through the wall at Rafah and pour into Egypt has demonstrated to Israel’s politician-generals like Barak and Vilnai that the Islamic movement has the potential, as yet unrealised, to launch a focused mass peaceful protest against the military siege of Gaza.

Meron Benvenisti, a former deputy mayor of Jersualem, noted that this scenario “frightens the army more than a violent conflict with armed Palestinians”. Israel fears that the sight of unarmed women and children being executed for the crime of trying to free themselves from the prison Israel has built for them may give the lie to the idea that the disengagement ended the occupation.

When several thousand Palestinians held a demonstration a fortnight ago in which they created a human chain along part of Gaza’s fence with Israel, the Israeli army could hardly contain its panic. Heavy artillery batteries were brought to the perimeter and snipers were ordered to shoot protesters’ legs if they approached the fence.

As Amira Hass, Haaretz’s veteran reporter in the occupied territories, observed, Israel has so far managed to terrorise most ordinary Gazans into a paralysed inactivity on this front. In the main Palestinians have refused to take the “suicidal” course of directly challenging their imprisonment by Israel, even peacefully: “The Palestinians do not need warnings or reports to know the Israeli soldiers shoot the unarmed as well, and they also kill women and children.”
But that may change as the siege brings ever greater misery to Gaza.

As a result, Israel’s immediate priorities are: to provoke Hamas regularly into violence to deflect it from the path of organising mass peaceful protest; to weaken the Hamas leadership through regular executions; and to ensure that an effective defence against the rockets is developed, including technology like Barak’s pet project, Iron Dome, to shield the country from attacks.

In line with these policies, Israel broke the latest period of “relative calm” in Gaza by initiating the executions of five Hamas members last Wednesday. Predictably, Hamas responded by firing into Israel a barrage of rockets that killed the student in Sderot, in turn justifying the bloodbath in Gaza.

But a longer-term strategy is also required, and is being devised by Vilnai and others. Aware both that the Gaza prison is tiny and its resources scarce and that the Palestinian population is growing at a rapid rate, Israel needs a more permanent solution. It must find a way to stop the growing threat posed by Hamas’ organised resistance, and the social explosion that will come sooner or later from the Strip’s overcrowding and inhuman conditions.

Vilnai’s remark hints at that solution, as do a series of comments from cabinet ministers over the past few weeks proposing war crimes to stop the rockets. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, for example, has said that Gazans cannot be allowed “to live normal lives”; Internal Security Minister, Avi Dichter, believes Israel should take action “irrespective of the cost to the Palestinians”; and the Interior Minister, Meir Sheetrit, suggests the Israeli army should “decide on a neighborhood in Gaza and level it” after each attack.

This week Barak revealed that his officials were working on the last idea, finding a way to make it lawful for the army to direct artillery fire and air strikes at civilian neighbourhoods of Gaza in response to rocket fire. They are already doing this covertly, of course, but now they want their hands freed by making it official policy, sanctioned by the international community.

At the same time Vilnai proposed a related idea, of declaring areas of Gaza “combat zones” in which the army would have free rein and from which residents would have little choice but to flee. In practice, this would allow Israel to expel civilians from wide areas of the Strip, herding them into ever smaller spaces, as has been happening in the West Bank for some time.

All these measures – from the intensification of the siege to prevent electricity, fuel and medicines from reaching Gaza to the concentration of the population into even more confined spaces, as well as new ways of stepping up the violence inflicted on the Strip – are thinly veiled excuses for targeting and punishing the civilian population. They necessarily preclude negotiation and dialogue with Gaza’s political leaders.

Until now, it had appeared, Israel’s plan was eventually to persuade Egypt to take over the policing of Gaza, a return to its status before the 1967 war. The view was that Cairo would be even more ruthless in cracking down on the Islamic militants than Israel. But increasingly Vilnai and Barak look set on a different course.

Their ultimate goal appears to be related to Vilnai’s “shoah” comment: Gaza’s depopulation, with the Strip squeezed on three sides until the pressure forces Palestinians to break out again into Egypt. This time, it may be assumed, there will be no chance of return.

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His new book, “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East”, is published by Pluto Press. His website is www.jkcook.net

Gaza Holocaust in ‘Free’ Media

2008-03-06T23:02:00.000+01:00

No Comment!!!

http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/03/02/gaza-holocaust-free-media/

Jews and the GAZA HOLOCAUST

2008-03-06T22:43:00.006+01:00

This is an article by Kahlid Amayreh that I found here.

by Khalid Amayreh

In June, 1942, in reprisal for the assassination of the Nazi commander Reinhard Heydrich, the Germans carried out a murderous rampage of murder and terror throughout Czechoslovakia.

The small Czech village of Lidice bore the brunt of the German revenge, with the SS killing all the men, deported all women and children and razed the village to the ground.

Similarly, in March 1944, thirty-three German soldiers were killed when members of an Italian resistance group set off a bomb close to a column of German troops who were marching on via Rasella in Rome. Adolph Hitler got furious and ordered that within 24 hours, ten Italians were to be shot for each German soldier that had been killed. Herbert Kappler, the local German commander, quickly compiled a list of 320 civilians who were to be assassinated as vengeance.

On March 24, the victims were transported to the Ardeatine caves where they were summarily executed by the SS.

Numerous other ‘pacification operations’ were carried out by the Nazi armies against civilians throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, in which men, women and children were brutally killed to avenge the death of German occupation soldiers by local resistance fighters.

Now what is the difference between these Nazi atrocities and what Israel, the “only democracy in the Middle East” is doing in the Gaza Strip, where “the most moral army in the world” is slaughtering babies as young as six-months’ old? I know that many Jews, especially Zionist Jews, have developed almost instinctive knee- jerk defensive reactions to any comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany. However, the truth must be proclaimed aloud, irrespective of how many Zionists will get angry.

Israel claims that it doesn’t murder innocent civilians deliberately. But this is a big, obscene lie, of which even most Israelis are aware. Mistakes happen a few times, but when the wanton slaughter of children occurs each day and every day of the year, it means it is policy.

In addition, when the number of victims, especially innocent victims, as in Gaza, even intent itself becomes irrelevant.

In the final analysis, murdering knowingly is murdering deliberately, regardless of the prevarication and the verbal juggling.

Hence, Jews around the world, especially those who support Israel, should be willing to bring themselves to recognizing that what their wonderful state is doing to these helpless Palestinians is a virtual holocaust or at least a holocaust in the making.

How else can any honest person relate to these phantasmagoric images that keep coming from Gaza, haunting the conscience of every human being?

True, Israel had not introduced gas chambers in Beit Hanun and Khan Younis or Rafah. But we have F-16s raining down bombs and death on sleeping children and women and innocent civilians.

If Jews who support this satanic entity are not willing to call the spade a spade and recognize a holocaust as a holocaust, then they should be viewed as active accomplices in this wanton rampage of murder and terror.

This is not a war. Calling the current Israeli onslaught on Gaza a war is like fornicating with words. Wars occur between armies and states.What is happening in Gaza is actually a merciless and brutal rampage of murder and terror waged by a Wehrmacht-like army against a blockaded, beleaguered and starved people who want to survive and be free, very much like Jews did under the Nazi occupation of Europe.

Indeed, when Israel murders a hundred Palestinian, mostly innocent civilians, for every Israeli killed, there is a name for that, it is massacre.

It is conscionable that honest people around the world, including many conscientious Jews who can’t bear watching the heinous crimes Israel is committing in their collective name, must call the spade a spade. A holocaust, after all, doesn’t become lesser when perpetrated by Jews.

There is no such a thing as a kosher holocaust or kosher massacres.

Vilnai

Now, once again, human decency is being affronted and insulted by this reptile terrorist Matan Vilnai, Israel’s deputy defense minister, who has gone as far as threatening the thoroughly tormented Gazans with a holocaust.

Speaking to the Israeli army radio Friday morning, 29 February, Vilnai said “the more Qassam rockets fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, the Palestinians will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our power to defend ourselves.”

Well, if Israel thinks that carrying out a holocaust against its victims in Gaza and Rafah and Khan Younis can be justified, then why blame Hitler for effecting a holocaust against his own respective enemies? Is Vilnai vindicating the holocaust?

I think Jews should realize that this criminal state, with its manifestly intransigence and bellicosity, is forcing them to make a moral judgment. In the face of evil, and Israel is a clear embodiment of evil, one can’t be neutral. It is either one stands with evil or stands against it.

Today, people around the world, including millions of Jews, are watching the pornographic slaughter in Gaza live on their TV screens. And no amount of spin, lie, or hasbara will make the images of mutilated babies look innocuous.

Finally, the people of the world will not be duped by the propagandistic lies about so-called rocket attacks on Israeli towns, which are meant first and foremost to create an artificial equation between the wanton extermination of Gazans and the mainly psychological discomfort experienced by some Israeli citizens as a result of the fall of these nearly innocuous fire-crackers, fired by some desperate Gazans in order to deter Israel from killing more of their children.

This is because Israel knows very well how calm and peace can be restored for both the people of Gaza and Israelis across the border: Lift the criminal siege on Gaza, allow Gazans to access food and to travel, allow them to export and import, and stop these daily massacres. And then not a single Qassam will be fired onto Israel.
© 2008 Khalid Amayreh

SOURCE: http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/03/01/jews-and-the-gaza-holocaust/

Israel's Holocaust of Gaza

2008-03-06T16:19:00.005+01:00

Israel's Holocaust against the Palestinians.

By Carlos Latuff

The rules of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS for the Israeli-Arab conflict

2008-03-04T10:34:00.001+01:00

The rules of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS for the Israeli-Arab conflict:

Rule #1: In the Middle East, it is always the Arabs that attack first,and it's always Israel who defends itself. This is called "retaliation" .

Rule #2: The Arabs, whether Palestinians or Lebanese, are not allowed tokill Israelis. This is called "terrorism".

Rule #3: Israel has the right to kill Arab civilians; this is called"self-defense" , or these days "collateral damage".

Rule #4: When Israel kills too many Arab civilians, the Western worldcalls for restraint. This is called the "reaction of the internationalcommunity".

Rule #5: Palestinians and Lebanese do not have the right to captureIsraeli military, not even 1 or 2.

Rule #6: Israel has the right to capture as many Palestinians as theywant (Palestinians: around 10,000 to date, 300 of whom are children;Lebanese: 1000s to date, being held without trial). There is no limit;there is no need for proof of guilt or trial. All that is needed is themagic word: "terrorism".

Rule #7: When you say "Hezbollah", always be sure to add "supported bySyria and Iran".

Rule #8: When you say "Israel", never say "supported by the USA, the UKand other European countries", for people (God forbid) might believethis is not an equal conflict.

Rule #9: When it comes to Israel, don't mention the words "occupiedterritories" , "UN resolutions" , "Geneva conventions" . This coulddistress the audience of Fox.

Rule #10: Israelis speak better English than Arabs. This is why we letthem speak out as much as possible, so that they can explain rules 1through 9. This is called "neutral journalism".

Rule #11: If you don't agree with these rules or if you favor the Arabside over the Israeli side, you must be a very dangerous anti-Semite.You may even have to make a public apology if you express your honestopinion (isn't democracy wonderful?)

Chavez warns of war with Colombia

2008-03-02T23:17:00.001+01:00

By IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writer

Warning that Colombia could spark a war, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent tanks and thousands of troops to the countries' border Sunday and ordered his government's embassy in Bogota closed.

The leftist leader warned Colombia's U.S.-allied government that Venezuela will not permit acts like Saturday's killing of top rebel leader Raul Reyes and 16 other Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas at a camp across the border in Ecuador.

"Mr. Defense Minister, move 10 battalions to the border with Colombia for me, immediately — tank battalions, deploy the air force," Chavez said during his weekly TV and radio program. "We don't want war, but we aren't going to permit the U.S. empire, which is the master (of Colombia) ... to come to divide us."

He ordered the Venezuelan Embassy in Bogota closed and said all embassy personnel would be withdrawn. It pushes already tense relations between the South American neighbors to their lowest point yet, with potentially far-reach effects on billions of dollars in cross-border trade.
Though Chavez didn't say how many troops he was sending, a Venezuelan battalion traditionally has some 600 soldiers — meaning some 6,000 could be headed to the border.

Chavez called the Colombian government "a terrorist state" as he sided with the leftist rebels it has battled for decades, saying its military "invaded Ecuador, flagrantly violated Ecuador's sovereignty."

Neither Colombia's foreign minister nor the country's military leadership would comment on Chavez's latest move when pressed by reporters for comment Sunday as they left a funeral service in Bogota for a Colombian soldier killed in Saturday's raid.

Speaking in Texas, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said officials were monitoring the situation.

"This is an odd reaction by Venezuela to Colombia's efforts against the FARC, a terrorist organization that continues to hold Colombians, Americans and others hostage," Johndroe said.
Chavez said he had just spoken to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and that Ecuador was also sending troops to its border with Colombia. Chavez said his Ecuadorean ally told him that Uribe had lied and that the rebels were killed while asleep "in their pajamas."

"This is something very serious. This could be the start of a war in South America," Chavez said. He warned Colombian President Alvaro Uribe: "If it occurs to you to do this in Venezuela, President Uribe, I'll send some Sukhois" — Russian warplanes recently bought by Venezuela.
He called Uribe "a criminal" accusing him of being a "lapdog" of Washington saying "Dracula's fangs (are) are covered in blood."

The slaying of Reyes and 16 other guerrillas, Chavez said, "wasn't any combat. It was a cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated."

"We pay tribute to a true revolutionary, who was Raul Reyes," Chavez said, recalling that he had met rebel in Brazil in 1995 and calling him a "good revolutionary."

"The Colombian government has become the Israel of Latin America," an agitated Chavez said, mentioning another country that he has criticized for its military strikes. "We aren't going to permit Colombia to become the Israel of these lands. ... Uribe, we aren't going to permit you."

"Someday Colombia will be freed from the hand of the (U.S.) empire," Chavez said. "We have to liberate Colombia," he added, saying Colombia's people will eventually do away with its government.

Chavez maintains warm relations with the Colombia's largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and has sought to play a role as mediator in the conflict despite his growing conflict with Colombia's government.

Colombia and Venezuela have been locked in a diplomatic crisis since November, when Uribe ended Chavez's official role negotiating a proposed hostages-for-prisoners swap.

Nevertheless, the FARC freed four hostages to Venezuelan officials last week, and they were reunited with their families in Caracas. It was the second unilateral release by the FARC this year.

Chavez has recently angered Uribe by urging world leaders to classify the leftist rebels as "insurgents" rather than "terrorists."

The FARC has proposed trading some 40 remaining high-value captives, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. defense contractors, for hundreds of imprisoned guerrillas.

In Ecuador, army Gen. Fabian Narvaez told The Associated Press that soldiers had found the bodies of 15 rebels and that soldiers planned to hand the bodies over to Ecuadorean officials, who will conduct forensic exams.

He said three Ecuadorean battalions have been stationed in the area in the country's northeastern jungle since Saturday, just a few miles from Colombian territory.
Story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080302/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_colombia;_ylt=Amg5cQZ_66A5J5gi6t2uXJpvaA8F

Article: Scientists blame sun for global warming

2008-02-26T14:48:00.005+01:00

I came across this old article from the BBC. Apparently, global warming isn't due to man but to the solar activity. I, myself, think it could be quite possible. All this crusade about stopping greenhouse gas emissions is way blown out of proportions. It could only serve political and economical interests. I am not saying that global warming isn't happening, I'm only saying what if man wasn't responsible and that it was something beyond our control? Think about it.

Article begins:

Climate changes such as global warming may be due to changes in the sun rather than to the release of greenhouse gases on Earth.

Climatologists and astronomers speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Philadelphia say the present warming may be unusual - but a mini ice age could soon follow.

The sun provides all the energy that drives our climate, but it is not the constant star it might seem.

Careful studies over the last 20 years show that its overall brightness and energy output increases slightly as sunspot activity rises to the peak of its 11-year cycle.

And individual cycles can be more or less active.

The sun is currently at its most active for 300 years.

That, say scientists in Philadelphia, could be a more significant cause of global warming than the emissions of greenhouse gases that are most often blamed.

The researchers point out that much of the half-a-degree rise in global temperature over the last 120 years occurred before 1940 - earlier than the biggest rise in greenhouse gas emissions.
Using ancient tree rings, they show that 17 out of 19 warm spells in the last 10,000 years coincided with peaks in solar activity.

They have also studied other sun-like stars and found that they spend significant periods without sunspots at all, so perhaps cool spells should be feared more than global warming.
The scientists do not pretend they can explain everything, nor do they say that attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should be abandoned. But they do feel that understanding of our nearest star must be increased if the climate is to be understood.

Link to original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/56456.stm

Blog Post: Israelis say: Terror bombing 'great achievement for free world'

2008-02-18T08:43:00.005+01:00

From 'On the Contrary' by Michael A. Hoffman II: http://revisionistreview.blogspot.com/

----

They Rule By Assassination

ASSASSINATION IS "TERRORISM" WHEN ENEMIES OF THE ISRAELI-AMERICAN CARTEL COMMIT IT

ASSASSINATION IS A "BLESSING" FOR HUMANITY WHEN ISRAELIS OR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT PERPETRATE IT

Ex-Mossad chief: Mughniyah killing 'great achievement for free world'PMO denies Israeli role in Imad Mughniyah's death

By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Feb. 13, 2008

The Prime Minister's Office on Wendesday denied any Israeli role in the assassination of Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Imad Mughniyah, who was killed in a bomb blast in Damascus late Tuesday night.

"Israel rejects the attempt by terror groups to attribute to it any involvement in this incident," said the PMO in a statement. "We have nothing further to add."

Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom on Wednesday welcomed Mughniyah's death, calling it "a great achievement for the free world in its fight on terror."

"Mughniyah was one of the most dangerous and cruel terrorists of all time," said the Labor MK.

"There are numerous intelligence agencies and countries that have been pursuing him, and the one that was successful in reaching him [has proven itself] - to have a high intelligence and operational capability."

Yatom called Mughniyah's death a serious blow to Hezbollah, both in terms of morale and in terms of its operational capabilities, saying the assassination could only have been made possible by penetrating deep into the organization.

"Whoever can take him out can take out anyone in Hezbollah," he said. "It will take Hezbollah a long time to find an heir."

"Mughniyah was responsible for the deaths of many Jews, Israelis, Americans, and was solely and directly responsible for Hezbollah attacks abroad, through close cooperation with Iran," he said.

Environment Minister Gideon Ezra, formerly a senior intelligence officer, also hailed the killing of the top Hezbollah commander. "I, of course, do not know who carried out the assassination of Imad, but he should be blessed," he said.

Hamas slammed the assassination. "We condemn this crime and we emphasize the Muslim nation must rise up to confront the Zionist devil which is back by the Americans," said a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Samir Abu Zuhri.

Blog Post: Rowan Williams and Sharia Law in the UK

2008-02-18T08:40:00.001+01:00

From 'On the Contrary' by Michael A. Hoffman II: http://revisionistreview.blogspot.com/

Under the 1996 Arbitration Act, rabbinic courts are recognized in the law of Great Britain as tribunals to settle civil disputes, if both sides agree to their authority. If the Talmudists can have their courts in Britain, why not the Muslims?

President Carter talks about AIPAC and Israel on C-SPAN

2008-01-24T00:00:00.001+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBJgaBe5NgM

Saddam Wanted Out, Bush Lied About It

2007-09-29T07:22:00.000+02:00

From blog: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/28/saddam-wanted-out-bush-lied-about-it/

How much money does Bush think a US soldier’s life is worth? How much money does Bush think the lives of our allies’ soldiers or innocent Iraqis are worth?

As we’re finding out, not very much. On March 17, 2003 President Bush issued the warning: “Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict commenced at a time of our choosing ,” yet now thanks to a transcript leaked to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, we learn that more than three weeks prior to that Bush had told former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar that “The Egyptians are speaking to Saddam Hussein. It seems he’s indicated he would be prepared to go into exile if he’s allowed to take $1 billion …” When confronted about the leaked transcript yesterday, Whitehouse spokeswoman Dana Perino did not dispute its accuracy.

Just last week we learned from former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan that the real reason behind the war in Iraq was oil , and now we are finding out that the entire war could have been averted for letting him get away with $1 billion. That’s just than one tenth of 1% of what this insane invasion and occupation of Iraq, that continues claim the lives of our country’s bravest men and women, has now been forcast to cost. Think about that just for a second. Every single death, Iraqi and American coalition alike, could have been saved and Bush could have had Saddam’s oil, but apparently he didn’t even seriously consider it. Topping that, he then lied in public to the entire world about it just so he could have his war regardless. How’s that for compassionate conservatism?

Digital 'smiley face' turns 25

2007-09-18T12:12:00.000+02:00

By DANIEL LOVERING, Associated Press Writer

PITTSBURGH - It was a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon.

:-)

Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes — a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis — as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message.

To mark the anniversary Wednesday, Fahlman and his colleagues are starting an annual student contest for innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication. The Smiley Award, sponsored by Yahoo Inc., carries a $500 cash prize.

Language experts say the smiley face and other emotional icons, known as emoticons, have given people a concise way in e-mail and other electronic messages of expressing sentiments that otherwise would be difficult to detect.

Fahlman posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on Sept. 19, 1982, during a discussion about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly.

"I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-)," wrote Fahlman. "Read it sideways."

The suggestion gave computer users a way to convey humor or positive feelings with a smile — or the opposite sentiments by reversing the parenthesis to form a frown.

Carnegie Mellon said Fahlman's smileys spread from its campus to other universities, then businesses and eventually around the world as the Internet gained popularity.

Computer science and linguistics professors contacted by The Associated Press said they were unaware of who first used the symbol.

"I've never seen any hard evidence that the :-) sequence was in use before my original post, and I've never run into anyone who actually claims to have invented it before I did," Fahlman wrote on the university's Web page dedicated to the smiley face. "But it's always possible that someone else had the same idea — it's a simple and obvious idea, after all."

Variations, such as the "wink" that uses a semicolon, emerged later. And today people can hardly imagine using computer chat programs that don't translate keystrokes into colorful graphics, said Ryan Stansifer, a computer science professor at the Florida Institute of Technology.

"Now we have so much power, we don't settle for a colon-dash-paren," he said. "You want the smiley face, so all these chatting softwares have to have them."

Instant messaging programs often contain an array of faces intended to express emotions ranging from surprise to affection to embarrassment.

"It has been fascinating to watch this phenomenon grow from a little message I tossed off in 10 minutes to something that has spread all around the world," Fahlman was quoted as saying in a university statement. "I sometimes wonder how many millions of people have typed these characters, and how many have turned their heads to one side to view a smiley, in the 25 years since this all started."

Amy Weinberg, a University of Maryland linguist and computer scientist, said emoticons such as the smiley were "definitely creeping into the way, both in business and academia, people communicate."

"In terms of things that language processing does, you have to take them into account," she said. "If you're doing almost anything ... and you have a sentence that says 'I love my boss' and then there's a smiley face, you better not take that seriously."

Emoticons reflect the likely original purpose of language — to enable people to express emotion, said Clifford Nass, a professor of communications at Stanford University. The emotion behind a written sentence may be hard to discern because emotion is often conveyed through tone of voice, he said.

"What emoticons do is essentially provide a mechanism to transmit emotion when you don't have the voice," Nass said.

In some ways, he added, they also give people "the ability not to think as hard about the words they're using."

Stansifer said the emoticon was part of a natural progression in communication.

"I don't think the smiley face was the beginning and the end," he said. "All people at all times take advantage of whatever means of communication they have."

___

On the Net:

Carnegie Mellon University's smiley page: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/smiley/

Source

Israeli Textbooks and Children’s Literature Promote Racism and Hatred Toward Palestinians and Arabs

2007-09-13T07:30:00.000+02:00

By Maureen Meehan

Israeli school textbooks as well as children’s storybooks, according to recent academic studies and surveys, portray Palestinians and Arabs as “murderers,” “rioters,” “suspicious,” and generally backward and unproductive. Direct delegitimization and negative stereotyping of Palestinians and Arabs are the rule rather than the exception in Israeli schoolbooks.

Professor Daniel Bar-Tal of Tel Aviv University studied 124 elementary, middle- and high school textbooks on grammar and Hebrew literature, history, geography and citizenship. Bar-Tal concluded that Israeli textbooks present the view that Jews are involved in a justified, even humanitarian, war against an Arab enemy that refuses to accept and acknowledge the existence and rights of Jews in Israel.

“The early textbooks tended to describe acts of Arabs as hostile, deviant, cruel, immoral, unfair, with the intention to hurt Jews and to annihilate the State of Israel. Within this frame of reference, Arabs were delegitimized by the use of such labels as ‘robbers,’ ‘bloodthirsty,’ and ‘killers,’” said Professor Bar-Tal, adding that there has been little positive revision in the curriculum over the years.

Bar-Tal pointed out that Israeli textbooks continue to present Jews as industrious, brave and determined to cope with the difficulties of “improving the country in ways they believe the Arabs are incapable of.”

Hebrew-language geography books from the 1950s through 1970s focused on the glory of Israel’s ancient past and how the land was “neglected and destroyed” by the Arabs until the Jews returned from their forced exile and revived it “with the help of the Zionist movement.”

“This attitude served to justify the return of the Jews, implying that they care enough about the country to turn the swamps and deserts into blossoming farmland; this effectively delegitimizes the Arab claim to the same land,” Bar-Tal told the Washington Report. “The message was that the Palestinians were primitive and neglected the country and did not cultivate the land.”

This message, continued Bar-Tal, was further emphasized in textbooks by the use of blatant negative stereotyping which featured Arabs as: “unenlightened, inferior, fatalistic, unproductive and apathetic.” Further, according to the textbooks, the Arabs were “tribal, vengeful, exotic, poor, sick, dirty, noisy, colored” and “they burn, murder, destroy, and are easily inflamed.”

Textbooks currently being used in the Israeli school system, says Bar-Tal, contain less direct denigration of Arabs but continue to stereotype them negatively when referring to them. He pointed out that Hebrew- as well as Arabic-language textbooks used in elementary and junior high schools contain very few references either to Arabs or to Arab-Jewish relations. The coordinator of a Palestinian NGO in Israel said that major historical events hardly get a mention either.

“When I was in high school 12 years ago, the date ‘1948’ barely appeared in any textbooks except for a mention that there was a conflict, Palestinians refused to accept a U.N. solution and ran away instead,” said Jamal Atamneh, coordinator of the Arab Education Committee in Support of Local Councils, a Haifa-based NGO. “Today the idea communicated to schoolchildren is basically the same: there are winners and losers in every conflict. When they teach about ‘peace and co-existence,’ it is to teach us how to get along with Jews.”

Atamneh explained that textbooks used by the nearly one million Arab Israelis (one-fifth of Israel’s population) are in Arabic but are written by and issued from the Israeli Ministry of Education, where Palestinians have no influence or input.

“Fewer than 1 percent of the jobs in the Education Ministry, not counting teachers, are held by Palestinians,” Atamneh said. “For the past 15 years, not one new Palestinian academic has been placed in a high position in the ministry. There are no Palestinians involved in preparing the Arabic-language curriculum [and] obviously, there is no such thing as affirmative action in Israel.”

In addition, there are no Arabic-language universities in Israel. Haifa University, Atamneh points out, has had a steady 20 percent Arab student population for the past 20 years. “How can that figure have remained the same after all these years when the population in the north [of Israel] has grown to over 50 percent Arab?”

Answering his own question, Atamneh rattles off statistics that reflect excellent high school scores among Arab students which he contrasts to their subsequent lower-than-average performance in Hebrew-language college entrance exams given by the state.

“No major scholarships have ever been awarded to an Arab; there are no dorms for Arabs and no college-related jobs or financial aid programs. They justify this legal discrimination by the fact that we do not serve in the army. There are numerous blatant and official methods used to keep Palestinian Arabs out of the universities.”

Absence of Palestinian Identity in Schoolbooks

Dr. Eli Podeh, lecturer in the Department of Islamic Studies and Middle East History at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, says that while certain changes in Israeli textbooks are slowly being implemented, the discussion of Palestinian national and civil identity is never touched upon.

“Passages from ‘experts’ about the existence of a Palestinian identity were introduced, but in general it appeared that the textbook authors were not eager to adopt it,” said Dr. Podeh, adding that “the connection between Palestinians in Israel and Arabs in Arab countries is not discussed. Especially evident is the lack of a discussion on the orientation of Palestinians to the [occupied] territories.

“While new textbooks attempt to correct some of the earlier distortions, these books as well contain overt and covert fabrications,” said Dr. Podeh. “The establishment has preferred—or felt itself forced—to encourage the cover-up and condemn the perplexity.”

One Israeli public high school student told the Washington Report that the contents of the schoolbooks and the viewpoints expressed by some teachers indeed have a lasting negative effect on youngsters’ attitudes toward Palestinians.

“Our books basically tell us that everything the Jews do is fine and legitimate and Arabs are wrong and violent and are trying to exterminate us,” said Daniel Banvolegyi, a 17-year-old high school student in Jerusalem.

“We are accustomed to hearing the same thing, only one side of the story. They teach us that Israel became a state in 1948 and that the Arabs started a war. They don’t mention what happened to the Arabs—they never mention anything about refugees or Arabs having to leave their towns and homes,” said Banvolegyi.

Banvolegyi, who will be a high school senior this fall, and then will be drafted into the Israeli army next summer, said he argues with his friends about what he regards as racism in the textbooks and on the part of the teachers. He pointed out a worrisome example of how damaging the textbooks and prevailing attitudes can be.

“One kid told me he was angry because of something he read or discussed in school and that he felt like punching the first Arab he saw,” said Banvolegyi. “Instead of teaching tolerance and reconciliation, the books and some teachers’ attitudes are increasing hatred for Arabs.”

Banvolegyi spoke about his schoolmates who, he says, “are dying to go into combat and kill Arabs. I try to talk to them but they say I don’t care about this country. But I do care and that’s why I tell them peace and justice are the only ways to work things out.”

Racist Israeli Upbringing

Considering what the schools have to offer, both Banvolegyi and Atamneh agree that the oral tradition is one of the few ways to get the story straight.

“Unfortunately Israeli children’s books are not an option for promoting equality in this society,” said Atamneh, citing a book written by Israeli writer/researcher Adir Cohen called An Ugly Face in the Mirror.

Cohen’s book is a study of the nature of children’s upbringing in Israel, concentrating on how the historical establishment sees and portrays Arab Palestinians as well as how Jewish Israeli children perceive Palestinians. One section of the book was based on the results of a survey taken of a group of 4th to 6th grade Jewish students at a school in Haifa. The pupils were asked five questions about their attitude toward Arabs, how they recognize them and how they relate to them. The results were as shocking as they were disturbing:

Seventy five percent of the children described the “Arab” as a murderer, one who kidnaps children, a criminal and a terrorist. Eighty percent said they saw the Arab as someone dirty with a terrifying face. Ninety percent of the students stated they believe that Palestinians have no rights whatsoever to the land in Israel or Palestine

Cohen also researched 1,700 Israeli children’s books published after 1967. He found that 520 of the books contained humiliating, negative descriptions of Palestinians. He also took pains to break down the descriptions:

Sixty six percent of the 520 books refer to Arabs as violent; 52 percent as evil; 37 percent as liars; 31 percent as greedy; 28 percent as two-faced; 27 percent as traitors, etc.

Cohen points out that the authors of these children’s books effectively instill hatred toward Arabs by means of stripping them of their human nature and classifying them in another category. In a sampling of 86 books, Cohen counted the following descriptions used to dehumanize Arabs: Murderer was used 21 times; snake, 6 times; dirty, 9 times; vicious animal, 17 times; bloodthirsty, 21 times; warmonger, 17 times; killer, 13 times; believer in myths, 9 times; and a camel’s hump, 2 times.

Cohen’s study concludes that such descriptions of Arabs are part and parcel of convictions and a culture rampant in Hebrew literature and history books. He writes that Israeli authors and writers confess to deliberately portraying the Arab character in this way, particularly to their younger audience, in order to influence their outlook early on so as to prepare them to deal with Arabs.

“So you can see that if you grew up reading or studying from these books, you’d never know anything else,” said Atamneh.

“But in the case of Palestinians, we grow up 500 meters away from what used to be a town or village and is now a Jewish settlement. Our parents and grandparents tell us all about it; endlessly they talk about it. It’s the only way.”

Maureen Meehan is a free-lance journalist who covers the West Bank and Jerusalem.

SIDEBAR

www.stopmoskowitz.org

Now it is possible to keep abreast of all the legal loopholes and money shuffling Irving Moskowitz is doing daily simply by checking out the following Internet address: <http://www.stopmoskowitz.org>. The Web site is sponsored by the Coalition for Justice in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem.

The statement of purpose on the Web site deals with Moskowitz’s financial maneuvers to buy Arab properties in East Jerusalem with profits made from a “non-profit” bingo club in Los Angeles County’s smallest and most impoverished city, Hawaiian Gardens.

There are press releases and letters the coalition has sent to State Attorney General Bill Lockyear which question the legality of Moskowitz’ manipulation of Redevelopment Agency Funds to expand his gambling facilities in Hawaiian Gardens.

Another section deals with news stories from the U.S. and Israeli press which examine the danger the Florida millionaire poses to Israeli citizens with his schemes to buy or confiscate Arab land for “Greater Israel.” One quote from the Meretz Party’s Ornan Yekutieli states: “The investments of Moskowitz in the city [Jerusalem] are blood money. We and our children will pay for it in blood, while he sits in his bingo mansion in Miami and throws lit matches onto the Jerusalem gunpowder keg.”

Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, a co-founder of the coalition, alleges that the Poland-born Moskowitz and his non-profit foundation are impoverishing Hawaiian Gardens and exploiting the Latino “volunteers” who work 363 nights a year in the bingo club for tips only.

The real nightmare, Rabbi Beliak predicts, would occur if California permits Moskowitz to open the Hawaiian Gardens Card Club, which could bring an additional $100 million a year in profits for him to siphon to extremist right-wing Jewish organizations in Israel.

Source

Blog: A textbook case of Israeli propaganda

2007-09-13T07:26:00.000+02:00

by Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, Jul 8, 2002

A new Israeli army 'study' charges that Palestinian school textbooks contain 'systematic education to delegitimise the existence of the state of Israel, fanning the flames of hatred and violent revenge to destroy the country' ('Palestinian schoolbooks fan the flames of hatred,' Haaretz, June 28, 2002).

Such claims, which have been made by Israel and its extremist supporters in the United States for years, are simply an attempt by Israel to find some alternative explanation to the understandable rage felt by Palestinians who have suffered through decades of continuing dispossession, occupation, disenfranchisement, violence, torture and humiliation at the hands of Israel.

An independent study of Palestinian textbooks by Professor Nathan Brown of George Washington University in Washington, DC, notes that "virtually every discussion in English on Palestinian education repeats the charge that Palestinian textbooks incite students against Jews and Israel". Brown states that: "It may therefore come as a surprise to readers that the books authored under the PNA are largely innocent of these charges. What is more remarkable than any statements they make on the subject is their silence -- the PNA-authored books often stubbornly avoid treating anything controversial regarding Palestinian national identity, forcing them into awkward omissions and gaps."

Brown, while not uncritical of the Palestinian textbooks, concluded that "the Palestinian curriculum is not a war curriculum; while highly nationalistic, it does not incite hatred, violence and anti-Semitism. It cannot be described as a peace curriculum either, but the charges against it are often wildly exaggerated or inaccurate." (Democracy, History and the Contest over the Palestinian Curriculum, an independent report prepared for the Adam Institute, 2002) Nationalism, whatever its drawbacks, underpins almost every country's school curriculum, not least in the United States and Israel.

How can we explain the glaring discrepancy between Brown's findings and those of the Israeli army propaganda unit?

According to Haaretz, the Israeli study claims that the Palestinian textbooks "express a lack of recognition of Israel, not even according to the 1967 borders, alongside adamant claims to Palestinian rule of all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea." Another complaint is that the books mention that Israel has "exploited" and "degraded" Palestinians "by changing the names of Arab villages and cities, and by defacing and stealing Arab manuscripts". The Israeli reviewers are outraged that in one book there is a story of a Palestinian girl visiting her family's original home in the city of Jaffa which is now in Israel. Their biggest complaint is perhaps that there are maps which show "Palestine" as it once was, covering land that is now in Israel. Hence, even an historically accurate map showing where major Palestinian population centres actually were prior to their destruction in 1948, constitutes for Israel "an adamant claim to rule" the whole country. Referring to Israel's systematic effort to erase Palestinian history in Israel prior to 1948 (something very well documented by Israeli geographer Meron Benvenisti in his book `Sacred Landscape', 2000) is taken as a "desire for revenge". Anything short of total amnesia about Palestinian history and complete devotion to Zionism's official mythology constitutes "hatred". Only people who are in neurotic denial could indulge in such absurdities.

Yet, let us accept, only for the sake of argument, that the Israeli claims are true and that they constitute some form of "incitement". Why should Israel complain that Palestinians do not respect the 1967 borders on their maps, when it has been Israeli policy since 1967 to erase those borders on the ground, using extreme violence to confiscate Palestinian land and implant Jewish-only colonies everywhere Palestinians live? You need only go to the "Israel Map", on Israeli Ministry of Tourism's official website, to see the Golan Heights and the West Bank depicted as part of Israel (the latter being labelled "Judean Desert" and "Shomron" [Samaria], while the Palestinian city of Nablus is given only the Hebrew name "Shechem").

Why should Palestinians express unconditional recognition of the legitimacy of the state of Israel and its historic claims when Israel has not recognised a Palestinian state, and its officials and many of its academics deny the undeniable -- that nearly three quarters of a million Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes so that Israel could rise on the ashes of Palestinian society? Of course, the fact that the Palestinian leadership has explicitly recognised Israel -- repeatedly and formally -- and that Palestinian policy is to seek a state within the 1967 borders does nothing to blunt the constant Israeli charges. This is because the purpose of the accusations is not to produce more friendly school curricula but to justify Israel's own refusal to recognise the 1967 borders, to provide cover for the continued colonisation of the occupied territories and to blame the Palestinians for all the violence resulting from this colonisation.

Even without Brown's commendable study it should be obvious that the constant Israeli refrain that textbooks are responsible for the violence is ridiculous on its face. Are we to believe that if Palestinian textbooks were written by the Israeli Ministry of Education, Palestinian children would be happy to live under the brutal foreign military dictatorship that is the Israeli occupation, to see their parents and friends killed and humiliated, their houses demolished and their land seized for Jewish-only settlement? If Palestinian youths were to read from Israeli textbooks, would they greet invading Israeli troops with showers of rose petals instead of stones? If Palestinian students could actually get past the roadblocks, curfews and gunfire to reach their schools in order to read Israeli-approved books, would they feel less hostility towards Israel?

And, perhaps Israel would be in a better position to lecture Palestinians about what they should do in their classrooms if Israel had not constantly shelled school buildings and used Palestinian schools as detention camps for thousands of men and boys rounded up during "Operation Defensive Shield", when they were forced to strip, and lie for hours and days on cold, concrete floors, sometimes with numbers written on their arms.

Indeed, for decades, Palestinian citizens of Israel ("Arab Israelis") have studied from textbooks written by the Israeli Ministry of Education, they stood to attention in front of the Israeli flag and sang the Israeli national anthem. And yet, despite their "good behaviour", their simmering and growing discontent is caused not by an insufficiently Zionist school curriculum but by the constant and increasing discrimination against them in every possible sphere of life by Israeli government and society. This discrimination reached the breaking point in October 2000 when thirteen Palestinian-Israeli youths protesting in solidarity with Palestinians in the occupied territories were shot dead by Israeli police. Such casual brutality is entirely unheard of against Jewish citizens.

Israel is further marginalising its own Palestinian citizens by cutting payment of child benefits to Arab, but not Jewish, citizens. Arab Knesset members are being persecuted: Azmi Bishara is on trial for making a speech, and Ahmed Tibi's parliamentary freedom of movement was recently revoked by a vote of his own Knesset colleagues. This discrimination cannot but produce anger and resentment, and making the textbooks more Zionist is not going to assuage it.

So if this is the situation inside Israel, what can one expect in the occupied territories, where the repression is infinitely greater, and where hundreds of unarmed Palestinian children have been shot dead by the Israeli army since October 2000? The Israeli occupation clearly does not need any help from textbooks to incite against itself. With all this, one can easily find ugly expressions by Palestinians both about Israelis and Jews, but these are exactly mirrored by frequent statements from Israeli cabinet ministers, rabbis and others, calling for the ethnic cleansing or annihilation of all the Palestinians, and other all too frequent expressions of racial hatred. These expressions on both sides are symptoms and not causes of the conflict. When the gross and real injustices that fuel the conflict are removed, then they will begin to disappear and messages of hatred will not resonate as they do today.

Only those who want the conflict to continue will maintain the lie about Palestinian textbooks and find in them non-existent excuses to continue the oppression and dehumanisation of the Palestinian people while what little is left of their country is stolen from under their feet.

Related links:

Special report: Israeli Textbooks and Children's Literature Promote Racism and Hatred Toward Palestinians and Arabs, by Maureen Meehan, Washington, Report on Middle East Affairs, September 1999, pages 19-20.

A campaign against 'incitement', by James J. Zogby, Arab American Institute, 9 July 2001.

The Politics of Palestinian Textbooks, by Fouad Moughrabi, Journal of Palestine Studies, Col. XXXI, No. 1, Autumn 2001, Issue 121.

Rights group accuses Israel on Lebanon

2007-09-06T15:01:00.000+02:00

By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM - In its harshest condemnation of Israel since last summer's war, Human Rights Watch charged that most of the Lebanese civilian casualties came from "indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes," according to a report to be released Thursday.

In a statement issued before the report's release, the human rights organization said there was no basis to the Israeli claim that civilian casualties resulted from Hezbollah guerrillas using civilians as shields. Israel has said it attacked civilian areas because Hezbollah set up rocket launchers in villages and towns.

More than 1,000 Lebanese were killed in the 34-day conflict last summer, which began after Hezbollah staged a cross-border raid, killing three Israeli soldiers and capturing two others. They are still being held.

Israeli warplanes targeted Lebanese infrastructure, including bridges and Beirut Airport, and heavily damaged a neighborhood in Beirut known as a Hezbollah stronghold, as well as attacking Hezbollah centers in villages near the border. Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at northern Israel, killing 119 soldiers. In the fighting, 40 Israeli civilians were killed.

Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said in the statement, "Israel wrongfully acted as if all civilians had heeded its warnings to evacuate southern Lebanon when it knew they had not, disregarding its continuing legal duty to distinguish between military targets and civilians."

He added, "Issuing warnings doesn't make indiscriminate attacks lawful."

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev rejected the report's findings. "Hezbollah adopted a deliberate strategy of shielding itself behind the civilian population and turning the civilians in Lebanon into a human shield," he said, charging that Hezbollah "broke the first fundamental rule of war in that they deliberately exploited the civilian population of Lebanon as a human shield."

The full report was being released Thursday at a news conference in Jerusalem. Human Rights Watch had to cancel a similar news conference in Beirut last month because of threats of Hezbollah protests. That report accused Hezbollah of firing rockets indiscriminately at civilian areas in Israel.

Human Rights Watch said it investigated 94 cases of Israeli air, artillery and ground attacks "to discern the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 510 civilians and 51 combatants," about half the death toll in Lebanon in the conflict.

The group said simple movement of vehicles or people, "such as attempting to buy bread or moving around private homes," could trigger a deadly Israeli attack. The group charged that Israeli aircraft targeted vehicles carrying fleeing civilians.

Roth said Hezbollah guerrillas did not wear uniforms, making it hard to pick them out from civilians, but that did not justify the Israeli military's failure to distinguish between them. He said the laws of war dictate "if in doubt to treat the person as a civilian."

The report said the investigation "refutes the argument made by Israeli officials that most of the Lebanese civilian casualties were due to Hezbollah routinely hiding among civilians." It said Hezbollah "did at times fire rockets from, and store weapons in, populated areas and deploy its forces among the civilian population."

However, the human rights group said it "found no evidence in these cases of separate legal violation of shielding, which is the deliberate use of civilians to render combatants immune from attack." Also, it said, Hezbollah conducted most of its activities and stored most of its weapons away from civilians.

Regev said there were "countless documented examples of civilian facilities being used for military purposes — missiles in houses, mosques and schools used for storing weapons."

The report found that Hezbollah used hilltop U.N. positions for shelling Israel, which it said might be shielding, but said that required further investigation.

Source

Army quashes attack by Fatah al-Islam remnants

2007-09-04T08:27:00.000+02:00

Troops continue combing nahr al-bared and environs for fugitive fighters
By Michael Bluhm
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army snuffed out a surprise attack by a handful of Fatah al-Islam militants in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in North Lebanon Monday, as troops continued hunting for escaped militants and mopping up the camp as the three-month battle came to a close. Troops killed six gunmen in the camp Monday and captured three others who had fled on Sunday, when the army prevailed in a final showdown after most of the remaining Fatah al-Islam militants had staged three pre-dawn attempts to break out of the camp, an army source told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.

Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi's body was identified by his wife and daughter in a Tripoli hospital, while the army recovered the body of Fatah al-Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha along with 10 other corpses in the camp on Monday, the source said.

Six Fatah al-Islam gunmen ambushed a group of soldiers in the camp, tossing a hand grenade that wounded two troops, the source said, adding: "They surprised the soldiers."

Army tanks fired their main guns at the militants, all of whom were killed, the source added. Army sappers set off several booby traps left by Fatah al-Islam, producing explosions that could be heard outside the camp, the source said.

In the area surrounding the battered camp, soldiers continued to comb fields and buildings in search of militants who escaped on Sunday, as military helicopters provided aerial reconnaissance, the source said.

The source could not say how long the pursuit of fugitive militants or the clearing of the camp would take, although Defense Minister Elias Murr will specify at a news conference on Tuesday the army's short-term strategy, the source added.

The military has lost 162 soldiers since the violence erupted on May 20, including four who died during Sunday's climactic battle, the source said. The army killed 39 militants and captured 21 others during Sunday morning's clashes, the source added.

At about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, a group of militants pounced on troops from a tunnel while another Fatah al-Islam unit attacked an army outpost as a white Mercedes arrived in support with three militants from outside the camp, according to media reports.

The army confronted the breakout bid, although the army source could not say how many militants escaped. After the battle, soldiers and local residents celebrated together briefly, as troops erected checkpoints on roads across the country and inhabitants of many surrounding villages fired guns in the air to mark the army's success.

Some media on Sunday said Abssi had managed to flee the camp, but his wife and daughter identified his body on Monday, the source said. The army, however, is waiting for DNA tests before officially declaring Abssi dead, the source added.

"We cannot take either his wife's or his daughter's [word as confirmation]," the source said.

Abssi, a Palestinian born in Jordan, reportedly arrived last fall in the Nahr al-Bared camp some 20 kilometers from the port city of Tripoli. The US State Department alleges that Fatah al-Islam broke off from the Syrian-backed radical Palestinian group Fatah al-Intifada, while Army Commander General Michel Suleiman labeled Fatah al-Islam a branch of Al-Qaeda.

With evidence gathered in the ruins of the Nahr al-Bared camp and information from the militants in custody, authorities can continue piecing together the Fatah al-Islam structure, said retired army General Elias Hanna. Security forces had 107 people in custody in connection with Fatah al-Islam before Sunday's events, and State Prosecutor Said Mirza charged the 107 detainees on August 20 for their involvement with Fatah al-Islam.

The conflict at Nahr al-Bared broke out when Fatah al-Islam gunmen blitzed an army checkpoint on the camp's outskirts on May 20 after security forces raided purported Fatah al-Islam safe houses in Tripoli while investigating a bank robbery on May 19 in the village of Amioun.

The army encircled the camp shortly after fighting began, while most of the camp's official count of 31,000 residents fled in the early days of the siege. Nine explosions rocked Beirut and its environs also beginning on May 20, though authorities have not linked the bombings to Fatah al-Islam. Four members of an alleged Fatah al-Islam sleeper cell were arrested on August 11 in Sidon, and three of them have been indicted for July 18 bombings in Kfar Falous and Roum in South Lebanon.

Fatah al-Islam militants in the Nahr al-Bared camp began firing Katyusha rockets on the region around the camp on July 13, damaging the Deir Ammar power plant on August 2 with two 105-millimeter Katyushas. Fuel tankers then refused to dock at the important power station, exacerbating the country's ongoing electricity shortages.

Army helicopters started dropping 250-kilogram bombs on Fatah al-Islam positions in the camp on August 9 and upped the tonnage to 400 kilograms on August 18. Abu Salim soon after asked Palestinian clerics serving as mediators for the evacuation of the militants' family members, and 25 women and 38 children were shepherded out of the camp on August 24.

With the end of combat in the camp, attention is turning to Nahr al-Bared's displaced residents. The UN Relief and Works Agency, which takes care of Palestinian refugees throughout the region, has pledged to rebuild the camp, a promise reiterated by Premier Fouad Siniora in his speech Sunday night declaring the army's victory over Fatah al-Islam.

Source

Lebanese Army prevails at Nahr al-Bared

2007-09-03T08:38:00.000+02:00

Fatah al-islam militants slaughtered in last-ditch bid to break out of camp
By Michael Bluhm
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army crushed a series of pre-dawn escape attempts by Fatah al-Islam militants on Sunday and won control of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in North Lebanon after more than 100 days of battle. Soldiers briefly danced in the streets near the camp with celebrating locals to mark the end of a conflict that left some 158 soldiers dead, as well as some 20 civilians and dozens of militants, according to official army counts.

The army killed 39 militants and captured 20 others on Sunday when the remaining Fatah al-Islam gunmen tried in at least three places to break out of the largely destroyed camp at about 3-4 a.m., said an AP report.

A high-ranking senior army officer told retired army General Elias Hanna that the military believed Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi had fled three to four hours before the other militants' bids to escape, Hanna said.

As The Daily Star went to press, however, reports emerged that Abssi's body had been found at Nahr al-Bared. These could not be confirmed.

The attempted breakout began as a clutch of gunmen sprang from an underground tunnel in an army-controlled part of the camp, a television report said.

At the same time, another band of militants reportedly attacked a different army position while accomplices from outside the camp arrived in a white Mercedes to pin army troops down from the other side. Soldiers killed three men from the car, a report by Agence France Presse said.

The army initially believed Abssi was in a third crew that snuck out along a river running between the southeastern part of the camp and the village of Ayun al-Samak in a remote mountainous region, the AFP report said. The army killed a number of members of that group, but several escaped.

Army troops fanned out around the camp and blocked roads to stop militants from fleeing, as helicopters helped in the search for fleeing gunmen, said an AP report.

The two other attempts at breaking out of the camp might have only been a "decoy" to give Abssi cover to get as far away from the camp as possible, perhaps out of the country, Hanna said.

"It was like a desperation move for Fatah al-Islam or maybe for the army not to kill or capture Shaker al-Abssi," he told The Daily Star. "I expected a breakthrough, but it seems that these guys really want to die. They had prepared for all of this when they evacuated the wives and the children."

The planning and use of outside personnel in Sunday morning's operation signals that Fatah al-Islam can still function despite the end of the Nahr al-Bared battle, Hanna warned.

"This kind of operation needs broader capabilities," he said. "It was well-prepared from inside and outside. They have to have communication and they have to have a certain knowledge or tactical information about what is going on outside Nahr al-Bared. There must be some people who planned for his escape from the camp.

"Was it only Shaker al-Abssi? I doubt it. This is not Abssi only. He is not Napoleon.

"From the outside they still have some committed people. There must be some more Lebanese or some more regional players involved."

The militants could never have won at Nahr al-Bared once the army surrounded the camp after hostilities erupted on May 20, but the army performed well in the conflict against the well-armed and well-trained Fatah al-Islam militants despite the army's lack of advanced weaponry and experience in urban warfare, he said.

"From the first day when the camp was encircled, militarily speaking it is doomed," Hanna said. "I don't think that three months for our army is too long if you take the situation of the camp - a very condensed area."

Army Commander General Michel Suleiman had told the Cabinet that the siege could last from three to six months, Hanna added.

The army's victory might deter any other militant groups with similar plans in Lebanon, Hanna said.

"The stakes were very high," he added. "This fight may help the army to really understand what could face the army in the future in Ain al-Hilweh or Rashidiyeh," he added.

Even though the army has taken control of the Nahr al-Bared camp, the military still has work to do. "From the military point of view, we're not done yet," Hanna said. "The army still has to clear the camp, see what is inside, debrief the people and reconstruct the whole structure of Fatah al-Islam" to determine if it resembled Al-Qaeda or was linked to a foreign intelligence apparatus.

The gun battles ceased before noon on Sunday, while the army later cordoned off the area around the camp, closed the nearby road connecting Tripoli to Syria, set up checkpoints throughout the country and continued searching for escaped militants. The army burned a field near Nahr al-Bared to flush out militants.

Many inhabitants of North Lebanon armed themslves with guns and sticks to defend their communities and deny refuge to escaped militants, one report said. Others gathered near the camp to cheer the soldiers, and nearby villagers fired weapons to celebrate the conquest.

The army also asked the displaced residents of the Nahr al-Bared camp, who number more than 31,000, not to return there until the military opened the camp. - With agencies

Source

Lebanese army crushes militants at camp

2007-09-03T08:28:00.000+02:00

By HUSSEIN DAKROUB, Associated Press Writer

MOHAMMARA, Lebanon - Lebanon's army crushed the last remnants of a militant group in a ferocious gunbattle Sunday that killed 39 of the fighters, ending a bloody three-month siege at a Palestinian refugee camp that was the country's worst internal violence in years.

Nearby villages celebrated with fireworks, drumming and dancing after the government declared victory.

The Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam fighters made their last stand by trying to stage a dawn breakout from the Nahr el-Bared camp, triggering the final gunbattles.

The militants sneaked out through a tunnel to an area of the camp under army control and fought with troops. At the same time, another group of militants struck elsewhere to try to escape. They were aided by outside fighters arriving in cars, said security officials and state-run television.

Troop reinforcements deployed close to the camp on Lebanon's northern Mediterranean coastline. They blocked roads to prevent fighters from sneaking out, residents said. Helicopters provided aerial reconnaissance, and checkpoints were erected as far as Beirut and southern Lebanon.

Troops hunted the militants down in buildings, fields and roads around the camp, residents said, and the army launched dragnets to capture any still at large.

Residents of nearby villages, armed with guns and sticks, fanned out to protect their houses and prevent the fighters from seeking refuge and melting into the local population, state TV reported. Smoke billowed from fields where the army set fires to deny militants a hiding place.

Mohammed Khodor Najib, 65, boasted about how he captured a militant in Mohammara, a farming community near the camp.

"I found one of them hiding in my garden," he said. Using a hunting rifle, he opened fire. "I hit him and handed him over to the army."

Officials said the army killed 39 militants and captured at least 15 others. It was not immediately known how many militants managed to escape. By late afternoon, only the occasional gunfire and could be heard from Nahr el-Bared.

The army said three soldiers were killed in Sunday's fighting and two on Saturday, raising to 158 the number of troops who have died in the conflict — Lebanon's worst internal fighting since the 1975-90 civil war. More than 20 civilians and more than 60 militants have also been killed.

Fatah Islam set up its headquarters at the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp last fall. Some Lebanese officials say the group is a branch of al-Qaida that wants to make Lebanon and the Palestinian refugee camps there a safe haven. The State Department has called the group an offshoot of a Syrian-backed militia, Fatah al-Intifada.

The siege at Nahr el-Bared began May 20 when police raided militants' hideouts in the nearby city of Tripoli. Fighters burst out of the nearby refugee camp, ambushing army troops called in to help. The army then laid siege to the camp with tanks and artillery.

Families of the militants — women and children — were evacuated in late August, the last civilians to leave the camp. Before Sunday, Lebanese officials had said up to 70 militants remained in the bombed-out camp — down from an estimated 360 fighters when the fighting erupted in May.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called Sunday's battle the "greatest national victory for Lebanon over the terrorists in Nahr el-Bared." He said in a televised speech to the country this was "an hour of pride, victory and joy with regard to the sacrifices offered by our country and martyrs."

The fate of Fatah Islam's leader, Shaker al-Absi, was not immediately clear. A senior security official said a cleric recognized a body in a nearby government hospital as that of al-Absi. Authorities sent for his wife to identify the body while a DNA test was being conducted.

Al-Absi, a Palestinian linked to the late leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has not been seen or heard from since early in the fighting.

Celebratory gunfire erupted in villages when news of Fatah Islam's collapse spread. Relieved townspeople and troops celebrated in the streets, waving Lebanese flags and flashing victory signs.

The joy cut through the deep political divisions in the country, with supporters of both the government and opposition praising the army. President Emile Lahoud said the army "has achieved what superpowers could not in confronting terrorism."

In Mohammara, residents honked car horns and threw rice as convoys of Lebanese troops poured into the area with soldiers atop armored vehicles flashing victory signs. Two residents carried a soldier on their shoulders while other villagers danced to the beat of drums on a highway.

"My joy cannot be described," said Fawziyeh Alameddine, a 45-year-old mother of six who was running on the street with others to celebrate. "This is our army, protector of Lebanon. They've protected us from the terrorists, those criminals who have destroyed our country."

___

Associated Press writer Sam F. Ghattas contributed to this report from Beirut, Lebanon.

Source

Lebanese troops kill 15 militants

2007-09-02T12:23:00.000+02:00

By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese troops fought al-Qaida-inspired militants who broke out of a besieged Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon on Sunday, killing 15 and capturing 15 others, officials said.

Heavy gunbattles that began during the dawn breakout continued through midday, with troops engaging Fatah Islam fighters in buildings, fields and roads around Nahr el-Bared camp, residents and television stations reported.

In a statement, the military said troops were attacking the remaining militant strongholds inside Nahr el-Bared and "chasing the fugitives outside the camp" who had staged "a desperate attempt to flee."

It called on Lebanese citizens to inform the nearest army patrol of any suspected militants in their area, but gave no specifics on casualties excepting saying "a large number" had been killed or captured.

Lebanese security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no official casualty figures had been released by the military, said 15 militants were killed and 15 captured, all of whom were wounded.

They also said two Lebanese soldiers were killed in the fighting, raising to 155 the total number of troops who have died in the conflict.

Before Sunday's battle, Lebanese officials had said up to 70 Fatah Islam fighters remained in the camp. When the fighting broke out more than three months ago, the number was estimated at 360.

Sunday's developments indicated the battle was almost over for the camp, large parts of which have been reduced to rubble.

According to security officials and television reports, the breakout began early Sunday when a group of militants sneaked through an underground tunnel to an area of the camp under army control and fought with troops. At the same time, another group of militants struck elsewhere to try to escape, reportedly receiving help from militants outside the camp.

State-run Lebanese television said the militants inside the camp were aided by outside fighters who arrived in civilian cars to attack army positions around the camp.

Residents said troop reinforcements deployed close to the camp and blocked roads to prevent fighters from sneaking out. Helicopters provided aerial reconnaissance.

State television reported Lebanese residents of nearby villages, armed with guns and sticks, fanned out to protect their houses and prevent militants from seeking refuge and melting into the local population.

Army officials said they did not know whether Fatah Islam leader Shaker al-Absi was among those who attempted to break out. Al-Absi has not been seen or heard since early in the fighting. His deputy, Abu Hureira, was killed by security forces in Tripoli recently, apparently after escaping the siege.

Fighting erupted May 20 between troops and Fatah Islam militants holed up in Nahr el-Bared camp near Tripoli, becoming Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

The battles have killed more than 20 civilians and scores of militants. The army has since inched its way into the camp under artillery and rocket fire, destroying buildings and capturing militants' fortified positions one by one while facing tough resistance from the Islamic fighters.

In recent days, the army has cornered the militants in a small area of the camp and has been pounding it with bombs dropped by helicopters.

Source

Fires wreak destruction in Greece for a fourth day

2007-08-29T08:30:00.000+02:00

Thirty villages evacuated as answers are sought on cause of worst ever blazes
Wildfires continued to ravage the Peloponnese and other parts of the country yesterday for a fourth day as thousands of villagers fled their homes and the official death toll from the unprecedented blazes climbed to 63.

Firefighters and army conscripts, aided by foreign volunteers, fought blazes in the Peloponnesian prefectures of Ileia, Arcadia and Messinia and on the island of Evia as rescue workers scrambled to evacuate some 30 villages encircled by flames.

Meanwhile, a fire broke out on the slopes of Athens’s Mount Hymettus, part of which has already been ravaged by a blaze on Saturday. The fire service was quick to send four planes, a helicopter and 15 trucks to extinguish the blaze which was burning forestland near the northeastern suburb of Papagou. But other fires proved more difficult to control.

Late last night fires were still burning in Ileia, with the areas of Krestena and Andritsaina the worst affected. “These fires were started by the Zacharo blaze which has spread in several directions, destroying everything,” a senior fire service official told Kathimerini. “They have been impossible to curb,” he said.

Large fires were also burning last night in Amaliada and Oleni. One of the worst blazes was in the village of Frixa where residents telephoned television stations to appeal for help as they waited for helicopters to arrive and airlift them to safety.

Super Puma helicopters evacuated dozens of people from these villages. But some citizens, particularly elderly residents, were reluctant to leave their homes.

Serious blazes also hit the prefecture of Arcadia and a large fire in Evia split into four fronts, spreading menacingly.

The site of Ancient Olympia, which was struck by fire on Sunday, was yesterday said to be “safe” but flames ravaged nearby villages yesterday. The museum, temples and stadiums have not been damaged by fire, authorities say.

The fires that have torn through Greece since Friday are believed to have left hundreds of people homeless. Hospitals in fire-affected areas have been providing temporary accommodation to citizens whose homes have been destroyed.

Prosecutor Dimitris Papangelopoulous yesterday ordered a preliminary investigation into whether the fires could have been the work of terrorists.

The government has hinted at this theory and the anti-terrorist squad has been called in to look for evidence that might point to an organized plan on behalf of the alleged arsonists.

However, intelligence sources told Kathimerini yesterday that there was no evidence so far to suggest that domestic or foreign terrorists were behind the fires. The possibility that anarchists might have been involved is also being discounted, according to sources.

Although 79 people have been detained, only seven have been charged with arson in connection to the fires that have broken out since Friday. A 65-year-old man who has been charged with arson and multiple murder over the fire near the Peloponnesian town of Areopolis was yesterday given two days to prepare his defense.

Government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos insisted that the increased number of fires and their locations was suspicious.

“The government is not trying to imply anything but is simply wondering the same thing as every Greek,” he said.

He insisted that the fire and civil protection services had done all they could to put out the fires. He also defended the decision not to deploy the army, saying that soldiers are not trained to be firefighters and it would be too risky to use them in that role.

In a televised address last night, PASOK leader George Papandreou accused the government of implying that the Socialists were embroiled in the fires and called on Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis to immediately produce any evidence that would indicate there was an organized plan to start the blazes.

Karamanlis met with President Karolos Papoulias and said there were no plans to change the date of the September 16 general election.

“Immediately after the election there will be generous programs for the reconstruction of all the areas,” he told Papoulias.

The president emphasized that those affected also needed psychological support.

Source

Death toll in Greek fires rises to 64

2007-08-28T15:34:00.000+02:00

By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer

ATHENS, Greece - Foreign firefighters and aircraft joined in battling wildfires Tuesday that have destroyed some of Greece's lushest landscape, and the death toll from five days of blazes rose to at least 64.

The devastating blazes have infuriated Greeks — already stunned by deadly forest fires in June and July — and appear likely to dominate political debate before general elections scheduled for Sept. 16. Many blamed the conservative government for failing to respond quickly enough.
The country's worst fires in memory have burned olive groves, forests, orchards and homes, and the government budgeted upward of $410 million for immediate relief, although the bill was expected to be much higher, the Finance Ministry said.

Southern Greece, where the flames reached the birthplace of the Olympic Games in Ancient Olympia, was the worst area affected, although one fire official said there were signs of optimism in the fight.

The destruction was so extensive that authorities said they had no way of knowing how many acres were burned or how many people have been injured. New blazes broke out faster than others could be brought under control, leaving behind a landscape of blackened tree trunks, gutted houses and dead livestock.

The mayor of Zaharo, in the western Peloponnese, said the body of a missing shepherd had been found Monday. Rescuers were still searching for another shepherd missing from the nearby village of Artemida, where 23 people, including a mother and her four children, died on Aug. 24.
Some 56 new fires broke out Monday and Tuesday, the fire department said. The worst were concentrated in the mountains of the Peloponnese in the south and on the island of Evia north of Athens, spokesman Nikos Diamandis said.

Firefighting efforts were concentrating on one front burning in the Seta area of Evia, and on the village of Matesi, near Zaharo in the western Peloponnese. Most of the firefighters who have arrived from 20 countries are operating in the Peloponnese, Diamandis said.
A group of 55 Israeli firefighters were sent to one of the worst fires in Krestena, near Ancient Olympia. Parts of the 2,800-year-old World Heritage site were burned over the weekend, although the ancient ruins and the museum were unscathed.

By Tuesday, the site was open to visitors, and a few dozen tourists walked around the charred area.

Meanwhile, a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5 struck the fire-ravaged area in the south, panicking residents, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
Diamandis said 18 planes and 18 helicopters — including four from Switzerland — would be used in the southern firefighting effort.

"The picture we have gives us some optimism" in the south, Diamandis said. "We have a good picture and hope for some good results."

From the northern border with Albania to the southern island of Crete, fires ravaged forests and farms. Residents used garden hoses, buckets, tin cans and branches in desperate attempts to save their homes and livelihoods.

"We have been destroyed, we have nothing left," cried Katerina Andonopoulou, a 76-year-old woman trudging from the edge of Ancient Olympia to her destroyed house in the nearby village of Platano laden with a massive bundle of grass for the five surviving goats from her flock of 20. "Who will help us now?"

In many villages, people refused to board helicopters sent in to fly them to safety.

"We are asking people to be calm and to follow orders," Diamandis said. Greece's civil defense agency said the fire threat remained high because of high winds and temperatures, especially in the Athens region.

The government, which declared a state of emergency over the weekend, said arson might have been the cause of the fires, and several people have been arrested. A prosecutor on Monday ordered an investigation into whether arson attacks could come under Greece's anti-terrorism and organized crime laws.

In the past, unscrupulous land developers have been blamed for setting fires to try to circumvent laws that do not allow construction on forest land.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said Saturday it could not be coincidence that so many fires broke out simultaneously in so many areas, implying that arsonists were at work.

The main opposition Socialist Party leader George Papandreou accused the government of fabricating conspiracy theories about the fires and also said it was unable to protect lives and property.

"Unfortunately, the government of Mr. Karamanlis has disappointed the Greek people. It has been woefully unable to deal with the major issue of the fires all summer," Papandreou said.

Police announced vehicle bans in some wooded areas still unscathed by fire in the mountains around the capital, including a road leading to Athens' main casino on Mount Parnitha.

"This is an immense ecological disaster," said Theodota Nantsou, WWF Greece Conservation Manager. "We had an explosive mixture of very adverse weather conditions, tinder-dry forests — to an extent not seen for many years — combined with the wild winds of the past two weeks. It's a recipe to burn the whole country."

___
Associated Press writers Nicholas Paphitis and Patrick Quinn in Athens contributed to this report.

Source

Time Travel Machine Outlined

2007-08-21T08:03:00.000+02:00

Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com

A new concept for a time machine could possibly enable distant future generations to travel into the past, research now suggests.

Unlike past ideas for time machines, this new concept does not require exotic, theoretical forms of matter. Still, this new idea requires technology far more advanced than anything existing today, and major questions remain as to whether any time machine would ever prove stable enough to enable actual travel back in time.

Time machine researchers often investigate gravity, which essentially arises when matter bends space and time. Time travel research is based on bending space-time so far that time lines actually turn back on themselves to form a loop, technically known as a "closed time-like curve."

"We know that bending does happen all the time, but we want the bending to be strong enough and to take a special form where the lines of time make closed loops," said theoretical physicist Amos Ori at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. "We are trying to find out if it is possible to manipulate space-time to develop in such a way."

Many scientists are skeptical as to whether or not time travel is possible. For instance, time machines often are thought to need an exotic form of matter with so-called "negative energy density." Such exotic matter has bizarre properties, including moving in the opposite direction of normal matter when pushed. Such matter could theoretically exist, but if it did, it might be present only in quantities too small for the construction of a time machine.

Ori's latest research suggests time machines are possible without exotic matter, eliminating a barrier to time travel. His work begins with a donut-shaped hole enveloped within a sphere of normal matter.

"We're talking about these closed loops of time, and the simplest kind of closed loops are circles, which is why we have this ring-shaped hole," Ori explained.

Inside this donut-shaped vacuum, space-time could get bent upon itself using focused gravitational fields to form a closed time-like curve. To go back in time, a traveler would race around inside the donut, going further back into the past with each lap.

"The machine is space-time itself," Ori said. "If we were to create an area with a warp like this in space that would enable time lines to close on themselves, it might enable future generations to return to visit our time."

Ori emphasized one significant limitation of this time machine—"it can't be used to travel to a time before the time machine was constructed." His findings are detailed in the Aug. 3 issue of the journal Physical Review D.

A number of obstacles remain, however. The gravitational fields required to make such a closed time-like curve would have to be very strong, "on the order of what you might find close to a black hole," Ori told LiveScience. "We don't have any way of creating such strong gravitational fields today, and we certainly have no way of manipulating any such gravitational fields."

Even if time machines were technically feasible, the gravitational fields involved need to be manipulated in very specific, accurate ways, and Ori said his calculations suggest any time machine could be very unstable, meaning "the tiniest deviations might keep one from working. We need to explore the problem of stability of time machines further."

Theoretical physicist Ken Olum of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., who did not participate in this study, was skeptical concerning how this new model claimed to sidestep prior theoretical objections to time travel.

Still, Olum noted, "It's important if it's right—that there really is some kind of loophole. So this should be scrutinized very closely." The point of such work, he added, was to "expand the bounds of what's possible, what kind of things we can have and what kinds of things we cannot have."

Source: Livescience

Lebanese Army engages in house-to-house fighting in heart of Nahr al-Bared

2007-07-27T08:18:00.000+02:00

By Hani M. Bathish
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army pushed into the last pocket controlled by Fatah al-Islam militants inside the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp on Thursday. Lebanese soldiers engaged in "house-to-house" fighting with militants in the densely built camp, capturing new ground as army engineers worked to clear booby-trapped buildings.

A heavy and continuous artillery bombardment, focusing on the northeastern sector of the old camp, intensified in the early hours of Thursday morning between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. The National News Agency (NNA) reported that the army had captured nine buildings inside the camp, while army engineers had blown up a booby-trapped building. Army bulldozers also opened a path allowing army tanks to penetrate.

An army source told The Daily Star on Thursday that one soldier, 24-year-old Corporal Hassan Mohammad Ghosn from Shmustar in Baalbek, had died in the hospital from injuries sustained in fighting two days ago. No other casualties were reported.

The source said the army was continuing to close in on the militants and further reduce the area under their control, but despite the ferocious fighting only small advances had been made.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation reported that fresh troops had been arriving at the camp since late Wednesday night. Media reports have interpreted this as preparation for a final and decisive push to end the fighting by August 1, Lebanese Army Day.

On Thursday the army recovered the body of a soldier who died on Sunday when a booby-trapped building collapsed on him. The fighting, which began on May 20, has killed at least 246 people, including 120 Lebanese soldiers.

More than 85 Fatah al-Islam fighters and 41 civilians have also been killed and about 100 people are estimated to remain inside the area controlled by the militants, a figure that includes roughly 60 fighters and 40 women and children, mostly militants' family members.

Under the cover of tank shelling, the army surrounded a small section of the Saasaa neighborhood where a number of militants were hiding in a shelter. Soldiers and militants were reported to be fighting house-to-house in the Maghareba neighborhood of the camp, the NNA report said.

The army on Wednesday discovered several underground bunkers in the camp, where it found weapons caches of assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, ammunition and detonators, as well as ready-to-eat meals.

The army said in a statement there was no going back on its decision to refer the militants to the judiciary, calling on militants to surrender and allow their families to choose their own fates freely.

Sheikh Mohammad al-Hajj, a member of the Palestinian Clerics Association undertaking mediation efforts between the army and militants, told The Daily Star that Fatah al-Islam had agreed to hand over its arms, dissolve the group and hand over "certain members" to the army, but the army is insisting on "no negotiations until the group hands over Shaker al-Abssi and Abu Hureira."

"We were scheduled to go into the camp on Wednesday to meet with Shahine Shahine, but due to the fighting we could not," Hajj said, adding that the association was in constant contact with the army and that meditation efforts were continuing.

Palestinian-Lebanese Dialogue Committee chief Khalil Makkawi said a government plan to rebuild the Nahr al-Bared camp would be put before donor countries. Makkawi made the announcement while visiting Druze spiritual leader Naim Hassan on Thursday.

Makkawi said when the fighting at the camp ended, the camp would be the responsibility of the government - including the camp's security - and not in the hands of any Palestinian faction, as had been the case.

He said the more than 30,000 displaced camp residents who left after hostilities began would return to the camp once reconstruction was completed, adding that the reconstruction effort would take into account environmental standards.

"We are carrying out all preparations to rebuild the camp in the same spot that it originally occupied," Makkawi said. He said it was impossible for the terrorism spawned in Nahr al-Bared to arise in other camps because of Palestinians' awareness of the threat.

Makkawi said the government planned to undertake several development projects at other refugee camps to improve living conditions.

Source: The Daily Star Lebanon

Army death toll tops 100 as battle at Nahr al-Bared intensifies

2007-07-17T07:09:00.000+02:00

Militants fire more rockets, mortars at areas around camp
By Rym Ghazal
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Four Lebanese soldiers were killed on Monday as the army pounded away at remaining hideouts of the besieged militants in the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.

The fighting in Nahr al-Bared has claimed the lives of 101 soldiers since the onset of fighting on May 20 when the Islamist militants ambushed soldiers posted outside the camp.

At least 80 militants and 40 civilians have also been killed in what is being labelled as the worse internal violence since Lebanon's 1975-1990 Civil War.

The army released the names of two of those soldiers killed: Sergeant Edward George Khattar, born in 1981, and Corporal Mustafa Khoudr al-Shami, born in 1986, were killed on Monday as the army stepped up its assault on the camp.

Witnesses said that the army was using armored bulldozers and other vehicles to push its way into the camp, part of its declared strategy to tighten the noose around the militants.

The vehicles are also used as a precaution against booby-traps that have killed several soldiers.

The army has reported major progress in its battle against the gunmen since Saturday, raising Lebanese flags on buildings seized from the Islamists in the battered camp.

Meanwhile, Fatah al-Islam militants fired at least five Katyusha rockets and mortar shells that landed in areas outside the camp, causing damage but no casualties, the state-run National News Agency reported Monday. One of the rockets landed near a school about three kilometers from the camp, but failed to explode, it said.

The militants also unleashed volleys of rocket-propelled grenades and machine gun fire at army positions surrounding the camp. No casualties or injuries were immediately reported.

The NNA also reported that the army destroyed a number of rocket launchers and hideouts used by the gunmen to attack troops and that the army killed three snipers overnight.

The government has vowed to eradicate Fatah al-Islam, a shadowy gang which first surfaced in the camp late last year and includes extremists of various Arab nationalities.

Judicial sources told The Daily Star five more people were arrested on Monday in connection with Fatah al-Islam, four of them Lebanese and one Palestinian.

At the same time, the Saudi Okaz newspaper said Monday that three of the Saudi nationals arrested over links to Fatah al-Islam will be returned to Saudi Arabia for further interrogation. - With agencies

Source: The Daily Star Lebanon

Palestinians flee as Lebanon army set to storm camp

2007-07-11T14:01:00.000+02:00

By Nazih Saddiq

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (Reuters) - About 160 Palestinians fled a refugee camp in north Lebanon on Wednesday as the Lebanese army prepared to launch a final assault against al Qaeda-inspired militants holed up inside.

Troops have been battling Fatah al-Islam fighters at Nahr al-Bared for nearly eight weeks in Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. A total of 205 people have been killed.

The army seized all the militants' positions on the outskirts of the camp last month but refrained from entering its official boundaries.

A 1969 Arab agreement had banned Lebanese security forces from entering Palestinian camps. The agreement was annulled by the Lebanese parliament in the mid 1980s but the accord effectively stayed in place.

Security and political sources said the army was concerned it was being dragged into a war of attrition with the militants dug in inside the camp's narrow alleys and decided to move in to crush them after they refused repeated calls for surrender.

A soldier was killed by a sniper on Tuesday. At least 87 soldiers, 75 militants and 43 civilians have been killed in the fighting that began on May 20.

The sources said the army deployed extra troops in the area and was expected to use helicopter gunships and naval boats as well as tanks and heavy artillery in any assault on the coastal encampment.

Palestinian sources said some of the last remaining civilians in the camp left on Wednesday ahead of the expected assault. Local representatives of Fatah and other factions of the Palestine Liberation Organisation also left.

Witnesses said some two dozen men who left the camp were taken by the army to a nearby barracks for questioning. Red Cross sources said a total of 161 people, including women and children, left.

Most of Nahr al-Bared's 40,000 inhabitants fled in the early days of the fighting but a few thousands have stayed behind.

The Lebanese government says Fatah al-Islam is a tool of Syrian intelligence, a charge Damascus and Fatah al-Islam deny. The group says it has no organizational ties with al Qaeda, but supports its militant ideology.

Some of its members -- mainly Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrians and Saudis -- have fought in Iraq. Security sources say at least 10 Saudis are among the dead militants.

The authorities have blamed the group for twin bus bombings in a Christian area near Beirut in February that killed three civilians. Investigators are also pointing a finger at the militants in the assassination of an anti-Syrian Christian government minister last November.

Source: Yahoo!

Lebanon: Spain voices resolve to fulfill UNIFIL mission

2007-06-26T08:22:00.000+02:00

Defense minister arrives in Lebanon to collect remains of fallen peacekeepers
By Nour Samaha and Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Spanish Defense Minister Jose Antonio Alonso arrived in Lebanon on Monday and condemned Sunday's attack on the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which left six of his country's soldiers dead and two wounded. "This great loss is due to a terrorist attack on my country, as they serve in UNIFIL," said Alonso as he arrived in Lebanon. "This attack targets UN Resolution 1701 and the role of the international force."

The explosion, which took place near the Southern town of Khiam, occurred in the afternoon as Spanish UNIFIL members patrolled the area. It was the deadliest terrorist attack on UN troops in Lebanon since an Israeli air strike killed four peacekeepers in Khiam during the summer 2006 war.

"This attack has made UNIFIL more committed to fulfill its mission in Southern Lebanon," said General Claudio Graziano, commander of the almost 13,000-strong UNIFIL force. The road where the bombing took place had been under reconstruction with help from the Spanish government, following damage inflicted during last summer's war.

"The terrorist attack against the Spanish contingent made UNIFIL more aware of the possible dangers that it could encounter," said Denis Piojo, the military spokesman for the French contingent. "However, [UNIFIL] will continue to provide peace in South Lebanon, in order to implement UN Resolution 1701."

On Monday, UNIFIL stepped up security measures, keeping its troops within the "Yellow Area" and requiring soldiers to wear bulletproof vests and helmets. It also increased its patrols, conducted numerous flights, and tightened security measures around its headquarters. The Lebanese Army also increased its security presence by erecting numerous checkpoints on main and side roads in the area.

Israelis forces were also seen conducting numerous patrols along the border Sunday night.

The Lebanese Army closed the road leading to the explosion site in order to conduct an investigation. The engineering unit of the Lebanese Army is cooperating with experts from UNIFIL to gather evidence.

Alonso flew to Lebanon to collect the bodies of the soldiers killed by the bomb. He attended a religious ceremony for the slain soldiers at the Spanish base in Marjayoun. His helicopter circled three times over the bomb scene, witnesses said. The ceremony was also attended by Graziano, the ambassadors of Spain and Colombia, a representative of the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL's Sector East commander, Brig. General Ramon Martin-Ambrosio Merino of the Spanish Army. Officers and troops of the Spanish contingent, as well as representatives of other UNIFIL contingents, were also in attendance.

Lebanese Army commander General Michel Suleiman also inspected the site and met with the Spanish contingent to offer his condolences for those killed.

Suleiman urged the Lebanese Army to be on alert, especially after the UNIFIL bombing, which he said aimed to undermine Lebanese unity. "This attack won't prevent us from implementing UN Resolution 1701, a resolution that was done for the welfare of Lebanon, especially the region of the South."

"The Lebanese Army wants to face terrorism using all possible means, whatever the sacrifices might be," he added.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Fatah al-Islam militants battling the army in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared had previously accused UNIFIL of bombarding the camp.

Timur Goksel, a former UNIFIL adviser, said he viewed the bombing as a "solidarity operation" linked with the Nahr al-Bared fighting, perhaps carried out by a group promoting itself as a "candidate for Al-Qaeda membership."

Many residents in the South voiced their sympathies for the UNIFIL troops and their support of the troops' presence in the South. Some also expressed concerns about the security situation and potential future attacks in the area. "I'm worried about what might happen next," said Ahmad Abdullah, a Khiam resident. "I'm afraid that Al-Qaeda may be behind the attack."

Spain will observe a national day of mourning on Tuesday when the bodies of the six soldiers are expected to arrive there, a spokesman for the Spanish government said on Monday. - With agencies

Source: The Daily Star Lebanon

Fatah al-Islam snipers claim two Lebanese soldiers as fighting rages on

2007-06-26T08:17:00.000+02:00

By Rym Ghazal and Hani M. Bathish
Daily Star staff

NAHR AL-BARED/TRIPOLI: Sniper fire from Fatah al-Islam militants killed two Lebanese soldiers on Monday at the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, as sporadic fighting continued in the southern part of the camp, where militants have been cornered by the army. Captain Fadi Ibrahim Abdullah, born in 1968, and Corporal Khaled Ahmed Talib, born in 1983, were killed on Monday, the army said in a statement.

The latest casualties brought the total number of people killed in the conflict to at least 180, including 83 soldiers, 60 militants and 37 civilians.

The army continued shelling the remaining militants hiding among crumbling buildings of the Nahr al-Bared camp.

In nearby Tripoli, residents were still shaken by a clash between militants and the army on Sunday.

"We are all families here," said Izdehar Hares, a mother of six who spent 10 hours hiding with her family in their bathtub early Sunday. Six armed militants were killed in the battle, part of the army's clampdown on armed Islamists in the North.

"No one and nowhere are safe anymore," said Hares.

Drops of dried blood still stained the stairs leading past Hares' apartment and up to the roof, where a soldier was fatally wounded by militants.

"We cannot wipe away the blood of our country," Hares said of the stains.

During the past two months, security forces have been taking the offensive across Lebanon against groups said to be pursuing plans to set up an Islamic mujahideen base in North Lebanon. The army has called for "assistance" from citizens to inform them of any "suspects or suspicious behavior."

The mostly foreign militants involved in the latest raid in Tripoli were reported to belong to a group known as "Al-Shahal," an apparent reference to the founder of the Salafi movement in the North, Sheikh Dai al-Islam al-Shahal, but he denied any link.

"I have no connection to the building or the militants who were killed there," Shahal told The Daily Star. His office is located less than 400 meters away from where the raid took place.

Shahal agreed with earlier reports that the militants killed belonged to a "nameless" group led by a man called Nabil Rahim, who has disappeared since the incident. Shahal said he knew Rahim well.

"Rahim has naturally disappeared from sight, but he never wanted this to happen. He just gathered some youths around him," said Shahal.

"Nabil had a Lebanese group. I do not know how foreigners came to be part of his group - they could have been introduced to the group by other members," he added.

Shahal said Rahim's group and other Sunni militants were arming themselves either in anticipation of a possible security vacuum after the Syrian withdrawal and last year's summer war with Israel, or to fulfill what they see as a religious duty to have weapons.

"Some youths have made mistakes, but dealing with them violently is not the answer. Those in the apartment were guilty of possession of weapons or belonging to an armed group, but they chose to fight to the death rather than be captured and suffer torture. Some youths have come out of detention bruised and beaten, even though they did nothing. This makes people extremists," Shahal said.

He said that while the older and wiser members of the Sunni community do not stockpile weapons, some of the young complain that some sects are allowed to amass arms while Sunnis are not.

"Now, every practicing Muslim in the North is portrayed as a violent, suicidal extremist," Shahal complained.

One Muslim man from Mina who did not wish to be identified said that he was stopped often at checkpoints because of his beard. "But it is natural for the authorities to take precautions, given the current situation," he said.

The man said that his furniture warehouse is close to the building where the six armed men were killed.

"I was surprised that it happened in this area. This was such a calm neighborhood," he said.

Sounds of gunfire and shattering glass reverberated throughout the neighborhood on Sunday, leaving residents terrified of what would happen next and the local youth saying they wanted to leave the country.

"I want to go to Kuwait," said 13-year-old Abdul-Halim Hamzi, who lives two buildings away from where the raid occurred on Sunday.

"The problems seemed so far away before these raids, now they are here," said Hamzi. "I don't want to stay here, because I am scared."

Mahmoud Baroodi, another local teenager, said he was alone with his older brother in their home when the gunfire broke out. "At first we though the Tawhid group had clashed with the army, because we heard the army was looking for weapons," he said. "We had to flee to our grandmother's house after a stray bullet hit our neighbor's house."

The Sunni Tawhid movement, which came into existence during the 1975-90 Civil War, clashed with Syrian and some Lebanese troops in the 1980s, resulting in widespread feelings of suspicion festering between members of the Sunni groups in the North and figures of authority.

Source: The Daily Star Lebanon

Army slays six militants in Tripoli

2007-06-25T07:58:00.000+02:00

Assailants had murdered LSF trooper, two daughters and father in law
By Rym Ghazal
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Lebanese soldiers cornered and killed six armed Islamist militants in Tripoli on Sunday, as clashes between the army and Fatah al-Islam fighters in nearby Nahr al-Bared refugee camp entered their fifth week. Security sources told The Daily Star that six armed men and one of their wives, a Leba-nese woman, were killed Sunday during a 10-hour siege of a building in the Sunni neighborhood of Abu Samra in Tripoli. The woman was married to fighter Bassem al-Sayyed, who had dual Lebanese and Australian citizenship, the sources said.

The army said most of the armed men killed were "non-Lebanese" and did not maintain any links to the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam. Tips from a captured Fatah al-Islam militant, however, had reportedly directed the army to the apartment where the shootout erupted.

The dead militants included three Saudi nationals, one ethnic Chechen and two Lebanese who also held foreign passports, the security sources said.

One soldier was killed during the raid and 14 were wounded.

The Internal Security Forces released a statement on Sunday saying that the six militants had killed a policeman, Khaled Mustafa Khodr; his two daughters, aged 4 and 8; and his father-in-law. "Armed men stormed [Khodr's] apartment and used him and his family members as human shields to hamper the army's advance, and then killed them in cold blood," said the statement.

In a separate statement, the army said that it confiscated weapons, grenades, ammunition, electronic booby-trap equipment, binoculars and camouflaged army clothes in the militants' rented apartment.

"The men arrested in raids in Abu Samra are neither Fatah al-Islam nor Al-Qaeda," Sunni Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad told The Daily Star. "They belong to a group founded by Nabil Rahim, an imam of an organization known as Ahl al-Hadith."

The group has about 220 members, according to Bakri, who has lived in Abu Samra since being barred from the United Kingdom eight months ago.

Bakri said the group's leader is on the run. He also said the building where the militants were killed Sunday is barely 500 meters from his home.

"I had to leave the house and go to another place because of the fighting," said Bakri. "From 11 p.m. till 9 a.m. the shooting never stopped. They started with gunfire, and then we heard rocket-propelled grenades and artillery fire."

Bakri added that the army had raided the home of his next-door neighbor, who is currently in Australia, early on Saturday.

A spokesman for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Sunday that three men with Australian citizenship had been arrested by Lebanese security forces in Tripoli.

Lebanese security officials, however, said that only one man with Australian citizenship had been arrested in Tripoli.

Residents of the five-story building - known as the Al-Shahal complex - were evacuated by the army on Saturday night as the army stormed the two upper levels of the building in the early hours on Sunday morning.

Television images of the building broadcast Sunday showed grim signs of the fight.

The top two floors were blackened and burned, with bullet and shell holes dotting the staircase and hallways of the building. Puddles of blood lay on the pavement just outside and inside some of the apartments.

Two other civilians, a man and a woman, were also killed during the raid, an army source told The Daily Star, adding that it is "critical for people to help us and inform us of any suspicious behavior or any suspects within their neighborhoods."

In other news, four soldiers were killed in fighting in Nahr al-Bared just 15 minutes away from the apartment building.

Fatah al-Islam militants also exchanged fire on Sunday with members of the Palestinian Fatah movement, killing three of its members.

As of late Sunday, 81 soldiers had been killed in the camp battle, which broke out on May 20. The soldiers killed in the camp and in Tripoli were Sergeant Ayyash Hamad Rustom, born in 1968; Corporal Louis Ibrahim Harb, born in 1983; Corporal Rami Samir Hamzeh, born in 1986; Sergeant Jad Joseph Makhlouf, born in 1980; and Corporal Taleb Hussein al-Khateeb, born in 1984.

Security forces also engaged Sunday in raids in the eastern Bekaa Valley, arresting three suspected members of an Islamist group: Lebanese Saad Allah Mohammad Ibrahim, Syrian Safwan Abdel-Rahim Abdel-Rahim, and Yemeni Ali Mohammad Zyed.

"To all Islamists who have legitimized aiming the rifle at the chests of their compatriots, I tell you ... this has nothing to do with Islam. It is strife," Fathi Yakan, a Sunni Islamist leader who is close to Syria, said Sunday. - With agencies, additional reporting by Hani M. Bathish

Source: The Daily Star Lebanon

Lebanese troops clash with militants

2007-06-24T10:02:00.000+02:00

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese troops clashed with suspected al-Qaida-inspired militants holed up in a neighborhood of the northern port city of Tripoli early Sunday, and at least four people were killed, security officials said.

The clashes Saturday night and again early Sunday in the Tripoli neighborhood of Abu Samra marked a new escalation in the army's battle with Islamic militants after the fighting shifted once again from the bomb-ravaged, besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared on Tripoli's outskirts.

An army soldier, a policeman and two others were killed in the confrontation, which began with troops laying siege to a building where the gunmen had taken refugee after nighttime clashes in the area, the security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The slain policeman happened to live in the besieged building. He confronted the gunmen, who killed him, his daughter and his uncle. At least 10 other people were wounded, the security officials said.

Casualties among the militants were not immediately available, but townspeople said six or seven were killed. However, those reports could not immediately be confirmed by Lebanese officials.

The affiliation of the militants was not clear, and officials could not tell whether they belonged to Fatah Islam or other groups.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Prior to Saturday evening, fighting had not occurred in Tripoli since the first week of the conflict with Fatah Islam militants at Nahr el-Bared, Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

Sunday's army fatality brought to 80 the number of soldiers killed in the northern battles. More than 150 have been wounded since fighting erupted on May 20. The fighting has claimed the lives of at least 60 militants and more than 20 civilians. Two Lebanese soldiers have also died in recent weeks in related clashes with militants around another Palestinian refugee camp, Ein el-Hilweh, in southern Lebanon.

The Tripoli gunbattle broke out Saturday night in the Abu Samra neighborhood as the Lebanese army pursued a suspected militant, who fired back, and soon thereafter, other gunmen opened fire at an army checkpoint nearby.

The army brought in reinforcements, and an expanded gun battle ensued, with witnesses reporting hearing explosions, indicating the use of rocket propelled grenades.

Officials have said a second suspected militant had been arrested earlier Saturday during a raid on a house in Tripoli.

The push against Islamic militants continued despite a government announcement that major combat in Nahr el-Bared was over.

Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr declared victory over the militants Thursday, and the army said the next day it had overrun Fatah Islam's main positions inside the camp.

But sporadic fighting has continued, and two top Fatah Islam leaders, Shaker al-Absi and his deputy, Abu Hureira, are still at large, along with an unknown number of fighters. They are believed to be holed up among the several thousand Palestinian civilians still inside sections of Nahr el-Bared not under army control.

The army issued a statement Saturday saying it would not halt its military offensive in the camp until "those responsible for the deaths of soldiers are brought to justice."

Source: Yahoo!

Lebanon: Murr rules out truce with Fatah al-Islam militants

2007-06-22T10:19:00.000+02:00

Group's ties to damascus not yet proven - minister
By Rym Ghazal
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army resumed its shelling of Fatah al-Islam militants in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp on Thursday, with the defense minister vowing to crush the group, in a marked departure from earlier expressions of willingness to seek a truce. "The army will win the battle and will negotiate on the basis of the surrender of the remaining fighters," Defense Minister Elias Murr told Nahar Ash-Shabab, a weekly supplement of local An-Nahar daily, on Thursday.

Palestinian leaders had previously held meetings with the army and the militants in an attempt to broker a cease-fire.

The offensive against the militants was launched on May 20, after a violent showdown between the army and Fatah al-Islam fighters in Tripoli was followed by attacks on army posts in which 27 soldiers were killed.

Seventy-five soldiers and an unknown number of militants have been killed in the fighting.

Murr vowed on Thursday that the army would not rest until it had taken custody of those behind the ambush on army posts outside Nahr al-Bared.

The sound of shells and gunfire reverberated throughout the camp on Thursday, although fighting was confined to the Cooperative and Naji Ali vicinity, where surviving militants are hiding among rubble and firing at the army.

The soldiers are advancing slowly from the northern part of the camp, dismantling mines and booby traps that have already killed several of their men.

De-mining teams precede them as large bulldozers, protected by sandbags and metal plates, wait in the rear, ready to go into action.

Murr cautioned the country's politicians against concluding that the militants in Nahr al-Bared have links to Syria, saying it was too early to tell.

"Does the government so far have an official confession about the links of these [Fatah Islam militants] or some of them to Syria? So far, there is no answer, and we have to wait for the next days," Murr was quoted as saying.

Fatah al-Islam first came to the public's attention in March, when the government blamed members of the group for fatal twin bus bombings in Ain Alaq a month earlier. Several ministers asserted at the time that the militants received support from Syrian intelligence and aimed to destabilize Lebanon.

State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza filed charges on Thursday against 16 suspected Fatah al-Islam members, including group leader Shaker Youssef al-Abssi, who is still at large.

Among the defendants were 10 Syrians, two Lebanese, two Palestinians (including one woman) and one Saudi fighter. Nine of the suspects charged Thursday are in custody.

Murr said several militants had been arrested in Tripoli before the fighting erupted in Nahr al-Bared, including members of Fatah al-Islam, Al-Qaeda and a third group that reportedly participated in clashes with the Lebanese Army in the northern region of Dinniyeh in 1999.

The Dinniyeh militants were released under a general amnesty in 2005, but were re-arrested last month.

"There is a faction of them which belongs directly to Al-Qaeda," Murr said.

Fatah al-Islam has said it has no organizational ties to Al-Qaeda but shares the group's ideology and views Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a mentor.

However, Omar Bakri Mohammad, an Islamist preacher who has been in contact with Fatah al-Islam, said the group does have Syrian ties and is not an offshoot of Al-Qaeda.

"Abssi discovered Syria was trying to sell them out to America under the pretext of being Al-Qaeda in Lebanon," Bakri told The Daily Star.

Fatah al-Islam "are hard-core practicing Muslims, but they are not Al-Qaeda," said Bakri, who was barred from Britain two years ago for his radical views.

Despite the continuing army advance, Palestinian mediators remained optimistic on Thursday that a cease-fire might still be negotiated. "So far, we have not received the army command's official response to the cease-fire proposal," Sheik Mohammad Hajj, one of the leading mediators from the Palestine Clerics Association, told The Daily Star.

"The proposal does include surrender, but with conditions," said Hajj, who wouldn't elaborate on the details of the proposed surrender of the Fatah al-Islam members.

"Hopefully an agreement can be reached to end the bloodshed in the camp and bring about peace," he added.

Meanwhile, soldiers said that the remaining militants, whose number is unknown, had proven elusive.

"They're fighting like rats - it's very hard to see them," an army sergeant resting behind the lines told AFP on condition of anonymity on Thursday.

"Their firing points are camouflaged. They are in several holes, and run from one to the other," the sergeant said.

"They made holes in the walls of the houses so they can pass from one to the other without coming out into the open," he said, adding: "We think they also have tunnels." - With agencies

Source: The Daily Star Lebanon

Lebanese Army traps militants in south end of Nahr al-Bared

2007-06-21T09:44:00.000+02:00

Military losses reach 75 since may 20
By Rym Ghazal
Daily Star staff

NAHR AL-BARED, North Lebanon: The Lebanese Army said it had taken control Wednesday of all positions formerly held by Fatah al-Islam, as the intermittent fighting shifted to the southern area of the camp. "Fatah al-Islam has nowhere to hide now, because we have completely destroyed their hiding places in the northern part of the camp," an army source told The Daily Star.

The southern part of the camp is in the hands of Fatah and other armed Palestinian factions which are hostile to Fatah al-Islam. These groups have been blocked off the southern area from Fatah al-Islam, leaving the militants caught in a vise between army troops and Palestinian enemies.

"We are advancing as planned," said the army source, who refused to elaborate on the next steps planned by the army.

On Wednesday, long periods of quiet were interrupted by swift but intense exchanges of fire between the army and the remaining Fatah al-Islam militants in the southern part of the camp. The army said it had taken control of the militants' last remaining base in the northeastern part of the camp, a complex of schools set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Sergeant Osama Mounir al-Sayoufi, born in 1980 and the father of two, died on Tuesday night, bringing the total number of army casualties to 75 since the conflict broke out on May 20 at the camp about 12 kilometers north of Tripoli.

Groups of locals perched on buildings around the rim of the camp on Wednesday to watch the battle unfold. Some families arrived with binoculars, while others brought packed lunches as the conflict became a place to meet for residents of northern towns. Palestinian residents of Nahr al-Bared who fled the conflict also regularly arrived in taxis to take a brief look at the latest developments in the siege.

In a statement, the Lebanese Army said on Wednesday that it had seized all the main positions previously controlled by Fatah al-Islam in the "new camp" of Nahr al-Bared, referring to the exterior part of the camp that was built as an extension of the original Nahr al-Bared refugee camp.

The new camp, in the camp's northern region near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, is mostly composed of multi-story concrete buildings and is roughly the same size as the original camp, the perimeter of which was fixed in 1948 by the United Nations and where all the buildings were only one-story high.

After a month of battles, the larger structures in the new camp have mostly been turned into a wasteland of crumbling concrete skeletons and debris.

The army and humanitarian organizations such as UNRWA have warned that land mines and booby traps litter the camp and must be cleared before the tens of thousands of displaced camp residents return home after the fighting stops.

The army said in a statement that it will continue to "comb" the camp to dismantle booby traps and land mines left behind by Fatah al-Islam.

Amid the ongoing battle, Palestinian mediators continued their efforts to try to negotiate a cease-fire, after Fatah al-Islam reportedly agreed to the conditions of the initiative proposed by the Palestinian Clerics Association. A delegation from the clerics' group met Wednesday with military intelligence chief General Georges Khoury.

Delegation leader Sheikh Mustafa Daoud said "the army command is examining the plan" proposed by the clerics, but gave no further details.

Defense Minister Elias Murr was quoted as telling the An-Nahar's youth supplement Wednesday that "the army will be victorious and will not negotiate."

When asked about the meeting, the army source would not comment on its outcome.

Source: The Daily Star Lebanon

Lebanon: Army announces total control of militants positions

2007-06-21T09:42:00.001+02:00

FPM: The Lebanese Army has announced that all Fatah al-Islam positions in what is known as the new Nahr el Bared camp have been captured and are in its total control.

Booby-trap kills four soldiers at Nahr al-Bared

2007-06-16T08:53:00.000+02:00

Army vows to 'push forward'
By Rym Ghazal
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Four Lebanese Army soldiers were killed on Friday when a building rigged with explosives by Fatah al-Islam militants at the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli collapsed on top of them. Troops surrounding the camp continued to engage in intermittent but frequently intense exchanges of fire with Fatah al-Islam fighters throughout the day.

"Four more men fell on Friday in the line of duty," an army source told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity, bringing the total number of soldiers killed to 68 since hostilities began on May 20. "The army will push forward with its assault and continue to tighten its grip on the area controlled by Fatah al-Islam," the source added.

Friday's casualties occurred when four members of an army special-forces unit raided a building where members of Fatah al-Islam had been believed to be hiding, said the source.

Some of the soldiers in the unit were reported to be engineers trained to dismantle booby-traps left in buildings along the edges of the camp.

Adjutant Ayman Saleh Msheimesh, born in 1981; Sergeant Ali Rafik Moussa, born in 1980; Lance Corporal Elias Hanna al-Ahmar, born in 1985; and Lance Corporal Milad Hanna Saade, born in 1983, were the soldiers killed on Friday, an army statement later confirmed.

The army also reiterated its demands in a statement released on Friday. The statement told the remaining Fatah al-Islam members holed up in the camp to "surrender" and be tried by the Lebanese judiciary.

"It is pointless for this gang to continue its fight," said the army statement.

Fatah al-Islam leaders have repeatedly pledged to fight to death rather than surrender.

In a second statement, the Lebanese Army accused Fatah al-Islam militants, who have reportedly taken up positions in apartment buildings, basements and sewers, of using one of the camp's mosques to store arms and fire at troops.

The army also said militants had deliberately blown up parts of a mosque to turn public opinion against the military.

"The army confirms its total respect for places of worship and promises to help [rebuild any] places of worship destroyed in the midst of battle, especially Al-Quds Mosque," said the second statement released by the army Friday.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Friday that mainstream Palestinian factions have proposed deploying a force of some 150 fighters to secure part of the camp not held by Fatah al-Islam and create a "safe haven" for refugees still there, according to Palestinian political sources. They said they were still waiting for the army's response to the proposal.

The fighting in Nahr al-Bared is Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 Civil War, killing at least 150 people, including 68 soldiers, more than 50 militants and about 32 civilians.

The conflict has forced thousands of people to flee the camp to the neighboring Beddawi camp and other camps across the country. Lebanese Premier Fouad Siniora announced Friday at a news conference that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had donated $12 million in aid for Palestinian families affected by the conflict. - With agencies

Source: The Daily Star Lebanon

Beirut car bomb update: Walid Eido killed

2007-06-13T17:33:00.000+02:00

Al Arabiya TV: The pro-Hariri deputy Walid Eido has been killed in the car bomb, along with his son and 2 bodyguards who were with him in the car.

Beirut car bomb update

2007-06-13T17:25:00.000+02:00

FPM: 4 dead and 15 wounded in the blast so far. According to Future TV (Lebanese TV station) the target was Walid Eido, a pro-Hariri deputy.

Beirut car bomb update

2007-06-13T17:19:00.000+02:00

FPM: News reports indicate that the deputy Walid Eido and his son have been hurt in the blast. Other reports also indicate that the bomb was placed in a Mitsubishi Pajero car and that it seems that a political figure who was inside it was the target.

Lebanon: Car bomb explodes in Beirut

2007-06-13T17:11:00.002+02:00

FPM: A car bomb exploded in Beirut at around 17:35 local Lebanon time. The area is near the Nejmeh stadium in Beirut, which is located between the Sporting Club and the Long Beach. The car was apparently parked in the parking of an amusement park. One person has been killed and several other wounded as the blast resulted in heavy damages to the park.

Army pushes Fatah al-Islam back, prepares to use heavier artillery

2007-06-13T14:15:00.000+02:00

Magistrate interrogates detainees on plans for terrorist bombings
By Hani M. Bathish
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army advanced from the northeast against Fatah al-Islam positions inside the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp on Tuesday amid a heavy artillery barrage, which reached a crescendo at about 6 p.m. The southern road to the camp, which had been used by humanitarian agencies to deliver aid, came under fire Tuesday morning when Fatah al-Islam tried to infiltrate the area.

The army continued to tighten its grip on the camp as army engineers continued clearing camp buildings of possible booby traps ahead of the troops' advance. Militants' mobile phones have also been disconnected since Monday, the army said.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) reported on Tuesday that the army had taken control of and confiscated many documents from the Nawras compound, at the northern edge of the camp, which included an office where Fatah al-Islam militants used to meet.

Heavier-caliber, 240-millimeter artillery shells will be brought into the fight against the militants by Wednesday, according to the LBC report. The heaviest caliber used by the army has been 155-millimeter.

The army, while it continued to respond to sources of hostile fire from inside the camp, said it tried to avoid hitting places of worship. The army statement warned militants not to launch attacks from locations such as Al-Quds Mosque.

While the army registered no casualties on Tuesday, it announced the names of the three soldiers who died in fighting on Monday: Sergeant Major Mustafa Ali al-Dahi, Sergeant Shadi Halim al-Jalbout and Corporal Mohammad Othman al-Hussein. The army denied that two of its members had been kidnapped in Tripoli by Fatah al-Islam members, as some local media reports said.

Military Investigative Magistrate Rashid Mezher interviewed one of the key Fatah al-Islam detainees, Lebanese national Ahmad Merhi, about the latter's role in the organization and the plans that he and his comrades intended to carry out in Lebanon, according to judicial sources.

Mohammad Merhi, Ahmad's brother and another Fatah al-Islam member were detained and interrogated earlier. Mohammad Merhi reportedly revealed bomb plots and named potential targets selected to destabilize Lebanon to allow the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in the North. The statements of the brothers also confirmed the smuggling of fighters from Iraq to Lebanon via Syria, recruiting fighters in Lebanon and training them, the sources said.

Following a security sweep late Monday, army intelligence detained three suspects in Bar Elias in the Bekaa Valley - two Palestinians and one Syrian - and confiscated documents during a raid on a home there.

Abu Hassan al-Badoun, a spokesman for the Islamic Action Front, told The Daily Star on Tuesday that mediation efforts with Fatah al-Islam are continuing, and that the group is asking for a neutral investigation into the events of May 20, when a Fatah al-Islam attack on army posts outside the camp provoked the battle.

"They believe they were taken to a place they never wanted to go and that the trap was laid for them as well as for the army. They want a neutral investigation to determine who is responsible," Badoun said, adding that the organization is capable and ready to continue fighting.

He also argued that it was not useful to refer to the group as a criminal gang that would be swept away by the army. Badoun said many were trying to oversimplify the matter, which is much more complex.

"First, we need to know what the intentions of the expatriate Arabs in the organization are," Badoun said, such as whether they share goals with Al-Qaeda.

Responding to events in Nahr al-Bared, a Syria-based, Al-Qaeda-inspired group called Tawhid and Jihad in Syria has threatened to "kidnap, shoot and chop the heads of Lebanese" if the Lebanese Army does not stop bombarding Fatah al-Islam positions inside Nahr al-Bared, according to an AFP report.

Tawhid and Jihad first emerged in November last year when its former leader, Omar Abdullah, clashed with Syrian security forces and blew himself up on the Syrian-Lebanese border. The group posted its warning on a Web forum often used by militants.

"We warn the Lebanese government that its vital interests, officials and sons will be moving targets for us, if it does not lift its siege of the camp," the statement said.

Sheikh Mohammad al-Haj, a member of the League of Palestinian Clerics trying to mediate a peaceful settlement to the fighting in Nahr al-Bared, told the Associated Press that his meeting on Monday with Fatah al-Islam spokesman Shahine Shahine was positive and Shahine showed flexibility.

Haj said the delegation of Palestinian clerics continued its mediation efforts on Tuesday with Fatah al-Islam leaders to avoid a military resolution to the standoff with the army, according to a report by the National News Agency.

Haj, who was shot in the leg on Monday, said mediation efforts will continue whether or not he personally goes into the camp, adding that talks have made major progress. He said the man who shot him was a "well known member of a Palestinian faction." - With agencies

Source: The Daily Star Lebanon

War Criminals at Harvard

2007-06-09T09:40:00.000+02:00

That's an informative website: http://harvardwarcriminals.blogspot.com/

In more details:

http://harvardwarcriminals.blogspot.com/2007/05/dan-halutz.html

http://harvardwarcriminals.blogspot.com/2007/05/doron-almog.html

http://harvardwarcriminals.blogspot.com/2007/05/gabi-ashkenazi.html

http://harvardwarcriminals.blogspot.com/2007/05/moshe-kaplinsky.html

http://harvardwarcriminals.blogspot.com/2007/05/noam-tibon.html

Lebanese Army advances on Fatah al-Islam positions, killing 16

2007-06-09T09:08:00.000+02:00

By Hani M. Bathish
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army continued advancing against Fatah al-Islam positions in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp on Friday, taking over buildings used by Fatah al-Islam snipers and tightening the army's grip on what remains of the militant group's fighters amid heavy and persistent bombardment.

Fierce battles erupted around the camp's Samed center, the Cooperative building and UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools, where the remnants of Fatah al-Islam fighters are holed up. Thick plumes of smoke were seen billowing from these positions as fires engulfed buildings around the area. While the army reported no casualties, an estimated 16 Fatah al-Islam fighters are believed to have fallen on Friday, six of them at the Mhammara front, said a report by the National News Agency.

The army briefly stopped bombardment at about noon to allow camp residents to go to Friday prayers. The reduction in the intensity of the bombardment allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in conjunction with the Palestinian Red Crescent, to ferry out 85 camp residents, mostly women, children, the elderly and the infirm.

Virginia De LaGuardia, an ICRC spokeswoman, told The Daily Star Friday evening seven ambulances managed to enter the camp to evacuate civilians. In addition, humanitarian-aid deliveries were made for the remaining civilians inside the camp.

"Today we managed to get in 1,200 liters of water, 1.9 metric tons of canned tuna and 1.6 metric tons of meals-ready-to-eat," De LaGuardia said. "We enter the camp whenever we can. It's always very difficult - there is a lot of rubble and debris, as well as unexploded ordnance. That is why we send ambulances [and] not trucks - because it's difficult to maneuver."

Tanks and heavy artillery opened an intensive barrage on militant positions at about 9 a.m. Friday morning, responding to machine-gun and rocket-propelled-grenade fire from inside the camp targeting army positions in Khan al-Abde to the north of the camp. Artillery fire also targeted militant positions at the northern bank of the Bared River, close to the main road at the center of the camp.

A senior army source said on condition of anonymity that the army was advancing "extremely slowly" and clearing rigged buildings, but troops have not yet penetrated into the heart of the camp and remain on the outskirts. "We are not storming the camp - we are going building by building."

Later in the day the southern entrance to the camp also came under fire, as militants tried to infiltrate the area. A mortar round from the camp also landed in the Mhammara heights to the east of the camp.

Meanwhile, mediation efforts continued as Fathi Yakan, who heads the group of Sunni clerics and politicians known as the Islamic Action Front, met with Palestinian clerics Friday evening and will meet Saturday with Palestinian factions to try to mediate a peaceful end to the clashes.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation reported that Yakan's four-point initiative to bring an end to the fighting includes "resolving the Fatah al-Islam phenomenon, handing over suspects in the slaying of army soldiers, deporting the remaining Fatah al-Islam members to countries that accept them and establishing a security force in Nahr al-Bared similar to that set up in Ain al-Hilweh." The plan has not been conveyed to Fatah al-Islam, but clerics are expected to meet the militants in the coming days.

Camp resident Wissam Badran told Reuters by telephone Friday from inside Nahr al-Bared that a shell hit a house in which 10 civilians were taking shelter. Badran said he rescued a woman, a man and two children from under the rubble. "They had lost consciousness. We thought they were dead, but, thank God, they are alive," he said. The six others in the building sustained minor injuries.

In a statement issued Friday, the army said it is steadily taking control of militant positions in and around the camp with the aim of "ending this deviant phenomenon" that has been imposed on Lebanon for the purpose of creating instability and insecurity in the country.

While Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction completely backs the Lebanese government's military approach to the standoff in Nahr al-Bared, Palestinian Premier Ismail Haniyya called on Lebanon Friday to agree to a negotiated end to the siege.

"The solution to the Nahr al-Bared problem should be political and not military," Haniyya said. "We need to spare our people, who have suffered for over 60 years, a new exodus."

Lebanese authorities have said that based on admissions of Fatah al-Islam members in custody, the militants were planning to target UN peacekeeping forces in South Lebanon. On Thursday, Fatah al-Islam spokesman Shahine Shahine, speaking to AFP, promised to widen the scope of the attacks beyond Nahr al-Bared if the army continues its bombardment.

Lebanese authorities have demanded that Fatah al-Islam militants in Nahr al-Bared surrender, particularly those blamed for killing 27 soldiers on the first day of the fighting.

Source: The Daily Star, Lebanon

Update: Beirut blast June 7

2007-06-07T21:34:00.001+02:00

Al Jazeera: 1 killed and 2 wounded in bomb blast in Zouk Mosbeh.

Update: Beirut blast June 7

2007-06-07T20:58:00.001+02:00

According to the FPM website, the blast targeted a depot of oxygen bottles which resulted in a huge fire.

Lebanon: Blast heard in Beirut

2007-06-07T20:52:00.000+02:00

Al Jazeera: Explosion heard in the industrial area of district "Zouk Mosbeh" north of Beirut.

Al Arabiya correspondent broadcast with army special forces

2007-06-06T22:03:00.000+02:00

Al Arabiya has been broadcasting throughout the day a report by its correspondent who is stationed inside the Nahr el Bared camp. The report shows the man standing in a building room on the 3rd or 4th floor as we can see the special forces unit soldiers shooting with M16 assault machine guns from the window. Almost uninterrupted shooting can be heard in this 1 min footage which, I must say, is pretty impressive as the camera is just standing some 2 meters (7 feet) behind the soldiers and we can see the empty ammo rounds popping out of the gun.

Lebanon: Update on Nahr el Bared

2007-06-06T21:44:00.000+02:00

Things started out relatively calm this morning as fightings was sporadic until about 11:20 local Lebanon time. At that time, the Lebanese Army gave another push towards some Fatah al Islam positions and reports started circulating that the organization was starting to fall apart.

Clashes continued throughout the day as Fatah al-Islam militants tried to crawl out of the camp in the afternoon. The army kept pushing and conquering buildings from the militants as the engineering corps were busy defusing mines and booby traps placed by the militants on abandoned buildings and dead comrades.

Al Arabiya TV station reported that the militants were mining almost everything they could find. Also, Al Arabiys reported that a Fatah al-Islam militants was caught by the army trying to sneak out of the camp dressed as a woman.

At about 20:00, the fighting calmed down for a while and resumed back at 22:30 with heavy clashes as army helicopters participated in targeting Fatah al-Islam positions.
It is believed that the army has started the final assault on the militants and that the zero hour is near as the army had called 3 special forces units yesterday to the outskirts of the camp.

A final attempt by militants to crawl out of the camp was stopped by the army at around 22:24 local time.

Lebanon: Heavy clashes in Nahr el Bared

2007-06-05T21:15:00.001+02:00

Heavy clashes resumed today between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese Army after a day of relative calm yesterday. According to different sources, a number of Fatah al-Islam militants have surrender to the Fatah forces located inside the camp. They will be transfered to army custody later on. Also in the news, the United States will be making a donation of $3.5m for the rebuild of the Nahr el Bared camp, according to the US ambassador in Lebanon Mr. Feltman.
In the latest news from Nahr el Bared, a Fatah al-Islam militant escaped from the camp in the direction of an army position. He was captured and placed under arrest. He was slightly injured and is believed to have escaped Fatah al-Islam chief Shaker el Absi who threatened to kill all the militants who would stop fighting and surrender.

Lebanon: Fatah al-Islam militants start to surrender

2007-06-05T15:47:00.000+02:00

FPM: A spokesman from the Palestinian Fatah group has confirmed that militants of Fatah al-Islam have surrendered to Fatah men inside the Nahr el Bared camp.

Pictures from Beirut blast, June 4, 2007

2007-06-04T22:37:00.000+02:00

All these pictures are taken from FPM website. No copyright is mentioned on that site.

Update: Beirut bomb blast

2007-06-04T20:40:00.001+02:00

According to witnesses interviewed by Al Arabiya correspondent, the bomb was planted in a white van. The driver parked the van in a public parking and took off quickly. The man responsible for collecting the fees and guarding the place ran behind him and a few seconds later the bomb blasted. The fleeing coward was later caught by people and beaten. He was later delivered to the Lebanese Army.

Update: Beirut bomb blast

2007-06-04T19:51:00.000+02:00

Al Arabiya correspondent on site: The bomb blast happened near a center called "Centre Abdel Masih" and there are reports of about 10 completely destroyed store windows. Information from the security forces on site now indicate that the bomb was placed near the bus and that the driver had parked the bus to go get a sandwich. The blast happened when he was in the sandwich store. He seems to have been badly injured.

Lebanon: 7 injured in Beirut blast

2007-06-04T19:45:00.000+02:00

Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera: It appears that the bomb was placed in or under a bus parked near the Mar Takla church and reports indicate that there are at least 7 injured at this moment.

Explosion heard in Beirut, Lebanon

2007-06-04T19:30:00.001+02:00

Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya: There are reports of an explosion in East Beirut, in the vicinity of districts "Sadd el Bawshriyeh" and "Dekwaneh", near the Mar Takla church.

Al Arabiya correspondent says militants took a heavy hit in Nahr el Bared

2007-06-04T19:24:00.000+02:00

According to Al Arabiya correspondent positioned on the outskirts of the Nahr el Bared camp, the Fatah al-Islam militants have been severely hit by the Lebanese Army and took heavy losses. Also, from military sources, militants have dug several tunnel networks under the camp to be able to move around without being seen by the soldiers.

Deadly fighting grips second Lebanon camp

2007-06-04T11:28:00.000+02:00

by Muntasser Abdallah

SIDON, Lebanon (AFP) - Two soldiers were killed in fierce fighting at a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon as troops continued to bombard Islamist militants in another camp in the north of the country.

Six soldiers and two civilians were also wounded in the gunbattles which raged overnight between the army and militants at the entrance to the Ain al-Helweh camp, hospital sources said on Monday.

The fighting has added to concerns that the violence could spread to more of Lebanon's 12 refugee camps, which hold more than 200,000 Palestinians mostly in conditions of abject poverty.

A mortar shell fired from Ein al-Helweh, Lebanon's largest camp, crashed near the municipality building in the main southern town of Sidon and bombardments could be heard throughout the night.

The army has sent in more armoured vehicles around the camp after the fighting with gunmen from a Palestinian group calling itself Jund al-Sham or Soldiers of Damascus.

In the north of the country, Lebanese troops to tighten the noose around militants holed up in the Nahr al-Bared camp, where both sides vowing to fight to the end as the siege entered its 16th day.

Smoke billowed into the sky throughout Sunday as the intermittent thud of shells and the rattle of machine-gun fire reverberated around the Nahr al-Bared camp on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Backed by tanks and helicopters, the military pounded the squalid camp where Fatah al-Islam militiamen are still holding out in the face of superior firepower.

"We are inflicting great damage on the part of the Lebanese army," Fatah al-Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha told Al-Jazeera television on Sunday.

"We are... in total control of the battlefield... We have the upper hand in fighting at the moment. We will never surrender... we will fight till the last drop of blood."

Prime Minister Fuad Siniora on Saturday had warned Fatah al-Islam to surrender or be wiped out after two days of the fiercest gunbattles since the fighting erupted in northern Lebanon on May 20.

The standoff has continued despite efforts by a group of Palestinian clerics to mediate a negotiated solution.

On Sunday, army big guns fired a volley of around 20 shells at the east of Nahr al-Bared, setting fire to several buildings, AFP correspondents reported.

One officer told AFP that fighters had been firing from rooftops on to the motorway leading north from the nearby city of Tripoli, effectively cutting it off, before the army was able to destroy their positions.

Four Islamist militants were killed on Sunday, Lebanon's official news agency reported, including the group's deputy leader named as Shehab Kaddur.

However, a man who Al-Jazeera said was Kaddur denied he had been killed and boasted that his fighters "have arms that would shock the enemy."

The overall death toll from fighting in both camps now tops 100, including 46 soldiers.

It is the bloodiest internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war and has added to tensions in a country already battling an acute political crisis.

"This is a terrorist gang," Siniora told Al-Arabiya television on Saturday. "They have to surrender themselves and their arms."

He said the army was carrying out "surgical operations" to eradicate the gunmen, but that if the Islamists give up "they will face a fair trial."

It is not known whether the army is planning a ground assault on the camp. By longstanding convention, it does not enter Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps, leaving security inside to armed militant groups.

Fatah al-Islam, a tiny band of well-armed Sunni Muslim extremists which first surfaced only last year, is believed to have about 250 fighters, according to Siniora.

Tanks could be seen on streets outside the camp on Sunday, along with armoured personnel carriers loaded with soldiers and red-bereted members of the special forces.

Siniora said the camp's population had fallen from more than 31,000 to fewer than 3,000, with thousands taking flight from the fighting and an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation.

Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper reported that arrested members of Fatah al-Islam had confessed the group was planning a September 11-style attack in Beirut and bombings to isolate the north and proclaim an Islamic state there.

Source: Yahoo!by Muntasser Abdallah

SIDON, Lebanon (AFP) - Two soldiers were killed in fierce fighting at a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon as troops continued to bombard Islamist militants in another camp in the north of the country.

Six soldiers and two civilians were also wounded in the gunbattles which raged overnight between the army and militants at the entrance to the Ain al-Helweh camp, hospital sources said on Monday.

The fighting has added to concerns that the violence could spread to more of Lebanon's 12 refugee camps, which hold more than 200,000 Palestinians mostly in conditions of abject poverty.

A mortar shell fired from Ein al-Helweh, Lebanon's largest camp, crashed near the municipality building in the main southern town of Sidon and bombardments could be heard throughout the night.

The army has sent in more armoured vehicles around the camp after the fighting with gunmen from a Palestinian group calling itself Jund al-Sham or Soldiers of Damascus.

In the north of the country, Lebanese troops to tighten the noose around militants holed up in the Nahr al-Bared camp, where both sides vowing to fight to the end as the siege entered its 16th day.

Smoke billowed into the sky throughout Sunday as the intermittent thud of shells and the rattle of machine-gun fire reverberated around the Nahr al-Bared camp on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Backed by tanks and helicopters, the military pounded the squalid camp where Fatah al-Islam militiamen are still holding out in the face of superior firepower.

"We are inflicting great damage on the part of the Lebanese army," Fatah al-Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha told Al-Jazeera television on Sunday.

"We are... in total control of the battlefield... We have the upper hand in fighting at the moment. We will never surrender... we will fight till the last drop of blood."

Prime Minister Fuad Siniora on Saturday had warned Fatah al-Islam to surrender or be wiped out after two days of the fiercest gunbattles since the fighting erupted in northern Lebanon on May 20.

The standoff has continued despite efforts by a group of Palestinian clerics to mediate a negotiated solution.

On Sunday, army big guns fired a volley of around 20 shells at the east of Nahr al-Bared, setting fire to several buildings, AFP correspondents reported.

One officer told AFP that fighters had been firing from rooftops on to the motorway leading north from the nearby city of Tripoli, effectively cutting it off, before the army was able to destroy their positions.

Four Islamist militants were killed on Sunday, Lebanon's official news agency reported, including the group's deputy leader named as Shehab Kaddur.

However, a man who Al-Jazeera said was Kaddur denied he had been killed and boasted that his fighters "have arms that would shock the enemy."

The overall death toll from fighting in both camps now tops 100, including 46 soldiers.

It is the bloodiest internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war and has added to tensions in a country already battling an acute political crisis.

"This is a terrorist gang," Siniora told Al-Arabiya television on Saturday. "They have to surrender themselves and their arms."

He said the army was carrying out "surgical operations" to eradicate the gunmen, but that if the Islamists give up "they will face a fair trial."

It is not known whether the army is planning a ground assault on the camp. By longstanding convention, it does not enter Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps, leaving security inside to armed militant groups.

Fatah al-Islam, a tiny band of well-armed Sunni Muslim extremists which first surfaced only last year, is believed to have about 250 fighters, according to Siniora.

Tanks could be seen on streets outside the camp on Sunday, along with armoured personnel carriers loaded with soldiers and red-bereted members of the special forces.

Siniora said the camp's population had fallen from more than 31,000 to fewer than 3,000, with thousands taking flight from the fighting and an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation.

Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper reported that arrested members of Fatah al-Islam had confessed the group was planning a September 11-style attack in Beirut and bombings to isolate the north and proclaim an Islamic state there.

Source: Yahoo!

Boys shot dead at Gaza beach

2007-06-03T22:26:00.001+02:00

By Nour Odeh in the Gaza Strip

Two 13-year-old boys were shot dead, and another boy shot in the back, by Israeli forces after they took a swim near a beach in Beit Lahiya on Friday.

The boys, from Jabaliya's refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, planned to visit the beach near Beit Lahiya to fly kites.

Israeli soldiers took the boy who was shot in the back for treatment inside Israel.

They dropped him back to northern Gaza, where Palestinian paramedics picked him up.

The summer vacation period has begun for schoolchildren in Gaza. With limited recreational choices, the beach near Beit Lahiya has become a destination of choice for children in the Jabaliya refugee camp.

Source: Al Jazeera English

Lebanese Army sends reinforcements to bolster Ain el Helweh presence

2007-06-03T20:40:00.000+02:00

FPM: The Lebanese Army is currently sending reinforcements to bolster its presence around the Ain el Helweh Palestinian refugee camp, located to the south of the city of Sidon, in the south of Lebanon. A couple of hours ago, clashes erupted between the Lebanese Army and an islamist group called Jund al-Sham. This group has voiced its support to Fatah al-Islam, another islamist group who is currently being rooted out from its barricaded positions in the Nahr le Bared camp in the north of Lebanon.
Home to roughly 80,000 Palestinian refugees who were kicked out of Palestine when Israel was created in 1948, the Ain el Helweh is the largest of 12 refugee camps present on the Lebanese soil. The Lebanese government does not have any authority in the camp after an agreement between Lebanon and the Palestinians in 1969.

Lebanon: Ceasefire is reached in Ain el Helweh

2007-06-03T20:10:00.000+02:00

Al Arabiya, FPM: A ceasefire has been reached in the Ain el Helweh camp after mediation from different Palestinian factions.

Lebanon: Ain el Helweh clashes

2007-06-03T19:23:00.000+02:00

Reports of clashes between the Lebanese Army and an islamist group called Jund al-Sham in Ain el Helweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon located to the South of the city of Sidon in the south of Lebanon.

Lebanon: Wounded Fatah al-Islam militants try to blow themselves up

2007-06-03T17:17:00.000+02:00

Al Arabiya: According to Al Arabiya correspondent inside the Nahr el Bared camp, there are reports indicating that wounded Fatah al-Islam militants try to get as close to Lebanese soldiers as possible to be able to blow themselves up and make as much damage as possible before they die.

Pictures from Nahr el Bared: Sunday June 3, 2007

2007-06-03T17:16:00.001+02:00

REUTERS/Jerry Lampen (LEBANON)

Smoke rises from the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon June 3, 2007. Lebanese troops unleashed artillery and tank barrages at defiant al Qaeda-inspired militants dug-in at a Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday, the third day of a military assault to crush the gunmen.

Pictures from Nahr el Bared: Sunday June 3, 2007

2007-06-03T17:14:00.002+02:00

(AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

The Lebanese army shells a position being used by a militant sniper in the besieged Nahr el-Bared refugee camp near the city of Tripoli in Lebanon Sunday, June 3, 2007, as the Lebanese army continued to battle against Islamic militants barricaded in the Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

Pictures from Nahr el Bared: Sunday June 3, 2007

2007-06-03T17:12:00.001+02:00

REUTERS/ Jamal Saidi (LEBANON)

Lebanese soldiers take a rest near the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon June 3, 2007. Lebanese troops unleashed artillery and tank barrages at defiant al Qaeda-inspired militants dug-in at a Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday, the third day of a military assault to crush the gunmen.

Lebanese Army: No ceasefire until militants' surrender

2007-06-03T17:05:00.000+02:00

FPM: An army spokesman indicated that there would be no ceasefire and no rest in the attacks until Fatah al-Islam militants surrender.

Lebanese Army tightens grip on Fatah al-Islam

2007-06-03T15:04:00.000+02:00

Al Arabiya: The Lebanese Army has tighten its grip on Fatah al-Islam militants inside the Nahr el Bared camp.

According to FPM website, the army has advanced inside the camp from all sides and has surrounded the militants and severely weakened their military positions.

Al Arabiya correspondent broadcasting from inside Nahr el Bared

2007-06-03T12:53:00.000+02:00

As I have mentioned in the previous post, there is a correspondent from Al Arabiya TV currently broadcasting from inside the camp. He is located in an apartment that was used yesterday and the day before by the Lebanese Army to strafe the area so that it can advance towards the center of the camp. We can see the army sandbags walls with little windows in them to allow machine guns to fire. We can also see chains of empty heavy machine gun ammos on the floor. Gunshots can be heard uninterrupted along with explosions and we can also see those explosions in the direction towards the center of the camp.

Lebanese Army progresses to center of camp

2007-06-03T12:39:00.000+02:00

Al Arabiya: The Lebanese Army is shelling intensively Fatah al-Islam positions in the southern section of the Nahr el Bared camp. In addition, the army has past the center of the camp, known as "Al Taawuniya" and heading towards the south. Street clashes are currently taking place and they are the fiercest since the beginning of the army operation 2 days ago. Fightings are now building to building where different kinds of weapons are used, including heavy machines guns and 106mm canon that can be mounted on top of army jeeps.
Pictures can be seen now of Al Arabiya correspondent currently broadcasting from inside the eastern section of the camp via a phone line, from a Lebanese Army position hiding behind sand bags. Uninterrupted machine gun shots can be heard with a lot of explosions from artillery and mortar shelling. According to the reporter inside the camp, Fatah al-Islam militants are moving around from roof to roof to avoid army soldiers and vehicles.

Lebanon: Prominent Fatah al-Islam leader killed

2007-06-03T09:19:00.000+02:00

According to Al Arabiya TV, Fatah al-Islam has acknowledged that one of its prominent leaders, who goes by the name of Abu Riad, has been killed during the recent clashes with the Lebanese Army in Nahr el Bared.

Lebanon: Clashes resume in Nahr el Bared

2007-06-03T09:12:00.000+02:00

Fightings have resumes in the Nahr el Bared camp after a relatively calm night as the Lebanese Army has resumed shelling of Fatah al-Islam hideouts.

Lebanon Battles Fatah al-Islam

2007-06-03T01:25:00.000+02:00

By NICHOLAS BLANFORD/TRIPOLI

The showdown between the Lebanese army and the Fatal al-Islam group began at 7 a.m. Friday morning when the army started shelling the camp very heavily. The soldiers have several 155-mm artillery guns on a hill about five kilometers to the east with a clear view of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, where the radical Islamist group has been holed up for two weeks after initiating a series of attacks on government forces. Although Fatah al-Islam has past links to al-Qaeda, the Lebanese government says it has evidence that Syrian intelligence operatives are coordinating with it now. From where I am watching, near a frontline army position, there is a loud crack of artillery shells passing overhead every few seconds and an explosion inside the camp a few seconds after that.

Most of the shelling seems concentrated at the northern end of the camp, where the Fatah al-Islam base is located. But there is also shelling elsewhere, and huge plumes of black smoke are rising from the camp. There is a tank near our position that is firing rounds, too. We are close enough to the camp that the soldiers are shooting with M16 rifles as well.

A lot of what sounds like close-quarter fighting is coming from the edges of the camp. What the army has been doing is tightening the perimeter of the camp the last few days. As far as I can tell from my position, the army is softening up the camp with artillery fire before sending in commando units for street-to-street fighting. When I arrived today, there was a long column armored personnel carries and armored fighting vehicles. They were manned by special forces and looked like they were waiting to deploy inside the camp once the artillery shelling lifts up.

There is a lot of heavy machine gun fire, and it is hard to tell how much of that is the army's rounds going in or Fatah al-Islam's rounds coming out. Some local eyewitnesses told me that Fatah al-Islam attacked an army position earlier in the morning, either trying to push the army back or making a break for it. Three mortar rounds apparently fired by Fatah al-Islam landed in the neighboring village of Hamra this morning. There is a lot of sniping going on from inside the camp. Any vantage point where you can get a good view of the camp runs the risk of being fired upon.

Nahr al-Bared is a scruffy place, but you get a sense of the damage to the camp's buildings looking through binoculars from a distance. From outside the camp, there is no sign at all of Palestinian refugees. Many have fled the camp in the past two weeks. But now the entrances to the camp are blocked completely and no vehicles can get through at all. Whoever went to bed in Nahr al-Bared last night is still in there now. Outside the camp, there were Red Cross workers in bright orange uniforms sipping coffee, chilling out, waiting for the moment when the fighting dies down to go into the camp and take out casualties.

Nearby Lebanese townspeople are cheering the army on. Some took up arms when the clashes began last week and the army was caught by surprise by Fatah al-Islam attacks. Today, some armed locals took up positions in the hills and in the nearby villages, on the lookout for Fatah al-Islam supporters who might try to attack the army's rear position. "We want the army to go in and finish them off," says Faisal Obeid, 35, a civilian in Hamra who joined the fighting in support of the army two weeks ago. "We are willing to go into the camps and help."

Men in Hamra are sitting around makeshift coffee shops waiting for news of the fighting. "We are all supporting the Lebanese army here," says Marwan Zaatar, 33. "These people [in Fatah al-Islam] are not true Muslims. They are a gang of terrorists." That sums up the general mood. There is tension on the front lines, but local Lebanese are in good spirits. It's been a very noisy day.

Source: Time

Pictures from Nahr el Bared: Saturday June 2, 2007

2007-06-03T01:17:00.001+02:00

(AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

An explosion strikes a building in the besieged Nahr el-Bared refugee camp near the city of Tripoli in Lebanon Saturday, June 2, 2007, as the Lebanese army continued to battle against Islamic militants barricaded in the Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

Pictures from Nahr el Bared: Saturday June 2, 2007

2007-06-03T01:15:00.001+02:00

(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese army soldiers from navy commandos units, atop their armored personnel carrier, wave to colleagues on their way to replace another unit at the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared during clashes with fighters from the Fatah Islam militant group, in the northern city of Tripoli, Saturday June 2, 2007. Lebanon's army suffered more casualties as it pressed ahead with an offensive to uproot al-Qaida-inspired militants, pounding their hideouts in a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery a day after sending tanks and armored vehicles to seize positions in the camp's outer neighborhoods.

Pictures from Tripoli: Saturday June 2, 2007

2007-06-03T01:12:00.001+02:00

(AFP/Ousama Ayoub)

Lebanese soldiers stop and search a car at a checkpoint in Tripoli. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora repeated a warning to Islamist militants holed up in a northern refugee camp that they must surrender or be crushed, as intense fighting continued to rage.

Pictures from Tripoli: Saturday June 2, 2007

2007-06-03T01:10:00.001+02:00

(AFP/Ramzi Haidar)

Lebanese soldiers get ready to take positions in the northern city of Tripoli. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora repeated a warning on Saturday to Islamist militants holed up in a northern refugee camp that they must surrender or be crushed, as intense fighting continued to rage.

Pictures from Nahr el Bared: Saturday June 2, 2007

2007-06-03T01:03:00.000+02:00

(Jamal Saidi/Reuters)

Lebanese soldiers take position near the Palestinian Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon June 2, 2007.

Pictures from Nahr el Bared: Saturday June 2, 2007

2007-06-02T15:19:00.001+02:00

(AP Photo/Ahmad Omar)

Smoke billows from heavy shelling in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared, during a clashes with Fatah Islam militant groups, in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon Saturday, June 2, 2007. The Lebanese army pressed ahead with an offensive to uproot al-Qaida inspired militants, pounding their hideouts in Nahr el-Bared with artillery, a day after sending tanks and armored vehicles to seize positions in the camp's outer neighborhoods.

Lebanon: Fatah al-Islam using Palestinians as human shields

2007-06-02T14:03:00.001+02:00

Al Arabiya: It appears that Fatah al-Islam militants have been using Palestinian civilians as human shields.