Gershom Gorenberg writes, "Daily, at my desk in Jerusalem, I read e-mails from old friends in America, each describing the aunt, neighbor, colleague who dislikes George W. Bush's domestic record but plans to vote for him anyway, because he 'is good for Israel.' I wish I had time to write to each of those well-intentioned voters, because their difficult choice is unnecessary. Bush's supposed support for Israel is an illusion. The real Bush record on Israel consists of missed chances and neglect. Four more years of the same is unthinkable. There's nothing abstract about this for me. I moved from the United States to Israel 27 years ago. The past four have been the worst. " Gorenberg, an associate editor of The Jerusalem Report, is the author of "The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount."

CrossWalk: "Yasser Arafat''s Palestinian Authority gave its first public indication of which candidate it would like to see in the White House next year. "If Bush wins, he said he would renew efforts to resume the peace process," PA foreign minister Nabil Shaath told the BBC. "However, with the staff that surrounds him and with his current opinions, it doesn''t look promising." Under a Kerry admin, however, "it would be likely that several staff members during Clinton''s admin would return...That would be a good thing, but it could take at least a year before a policy is formulated." Elaborating on the PA''s unhappiness with [Bush], the Palestine Media Center said Palestinians held [Bush] responsible for Israel''s isolation of Arafat since the end of 2001." By isolating Arafat, Bush has effectively kept the Middle East hostilities at a fever pitch, which has helped him justify his invasion of IRaq. Btw - disregard the spin on this article - it comes from Bushie rightwing rag CNS.

AP: "Israel is set on a collision course with the European Union and could turn into a pariah state, like South Africa during the apartheid years, if the Mideast conflict is not resolved, Israel's Foreign Ministry warns in a confidential 10-year forecast. The document, put together by the ministry's Center for Political Research, says the EU is pushing to become a major global player in the next decade, and as a result, the United States, Israel's main ally, could lose international influence. The analysts wrote that if the EU, a 25-nation alliance, overcomes internal divisions and speaks in one voice, its global influence would grow considerably, and be more in line with its powerful economy. "

Boston Herald: "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview published Wednesday that Israel has no intention of sticking to the U.S.-backed 'road map' peace plan it endorsed last year. Sharon also said that there may be no further troop pullbacks after Israel carries out its so-called unilateral 'disengagement' from the Palestinians - a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements in 2005. 'It is very possible that after the evacuation (disengagement), there will be a long period when nothing else happens,'' Sharon told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper, commenting for the time in detail on Israel's plans after a Gaza withdrawal. Asked whether he was talking about decades of standstill, he said: 'It's impossible to say.' " In short, the Bush 'Road Map' was probably created simply as temporary PR for Bush - never a plan Sharon or Bush took seriously.

NY Times via Denver Post: "[Recent articles reported] that the Bush administration, trying to help Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon out of a difficult political spot, had agreed to accept new settlement growth quietly, within the existing physical boundaries of existing settlements." This represents one of Bush's worst flipflops yet. "For the past three years, U.S. policy has called for a freeze of "all settlement activity," including the "natural growth" brought about by an increase in the birth rate and other factors." What makes the flipflop esp. reprehensible is that the majority of American Jews also do not support Bush, nor do they support Sharon's heavy-handed tactics. Yet Bush continues to ignore the input of most American Jews (and most Americans, for that matter) in exchange for Sharon's support and the generous campaign donations of what has been described as a small group of aggressive fundamentalist 'Zionists," both Christian and Jewish.

Reuters: "French President Jacques Chirac, clashing with U.S. foreign policy for a second day, says the isolation of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would hinder Middle East peacemaking." Chirac believes Bush is sabotaging peace negotiations in the Middle East by refusing to recognize Arafat. "Chirac, who already had clashed with Bush at the NATO summit in Istanbul over Turkey and the Atlantic alliance's role in Afghanistan, said the U.S. policy was 'not very prudent or compatible with a strategy of restoring peace' in the region. 'People can have whatever opinion they like of President Arafat or any other president,' Chirac said on the sidelines of the NATO summit. 'But legitimacy cannot be contested if a different legitimacy is not proposed.' " An informal CNN poll with over 36,000 respondents finds that 71% of those polled say Chirac is justified in taking Bush to task.

Haaretz: "Israel operates hundreds of agents in the Kurdish areas in northern Iraq, according to a report published in the upcoming issue of The New Yorker magazine. In an interview to CNN on Sunday, reporter Seymour Hersh said that hundreds of Israelis, some of them Mossad agents, are operating in the region in order to collect information on Iran's nuclear program and monitor events in Syria. According to the report, Israel in the past has had many ties with the Kurds, which with the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime are currently being renewed. Israel is not confident of the success of the American program for the stabilization of the country, the report says, and that is why it is interested in setting up independent connections in the region. "

President Bush yesterday was bluntly told by European and Arab allies alike that a serious new push for a Palestinian-Israeli peace solution was vital if his vision of a stable Iraq at the heart of a reformed Middle East were to have any chance of success...Jacques Chirac of France - the fiercest critic of the 2003 invasion of Iraq - warned that "real progress" toward a peace deal was a "precondition" of any successful attempt at reform of the region. But despite some nods of assent, there was little sign that Washington has agreed to a major rethink of its Middle Eastern policies, and its embrace of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial plan to withdraw from Gaza.

British Journalist Peter Hounan, formerly with the the "Sunday Times" had been in Israel since April 16 working on a story Mordechai Vanunu, the about nuclear technician who blew the whistle on Israel's secret Dimona nuke program two decades ago. Hounan broke that story for the times in 1986. Vanunu has been in an Israeli jail for 18 years over his stand and is due to be released. Hounan was seized by Shin Bet, Israel's secret police, at his hotel and dragged off. Donatella Rovera, a researcher with the human rights group Amnesty International, who was staying at the same hotel says, "As they were bringing him through the garden he broke away from them and came running to my table. He said 'I'm being arrested, tell the Sunday Times.'" Thanks to the power of the press, Hounan is now being released, no explanation for his arrest given.

PA News: "Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said today that images of the army's demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip reminded him of his grandmother, who suffered under Nazi rule during World War II. Lapid, a Holocaust survivor who had many family members killed by the Nazi regime, said television footage of an elderly Palestinian woman searching on hands and knees through the rubble of her home for her medicine 'reminded me of my grandmother.' Lapid, who spent much of World War II in a ghetto in Budapest, Hungary, lost one grandmother in the Holocaust, while another survived the war. His father also was killed by the Nazis. 'You should also think about your grandmother and ask whether our behaviour is correct when we destroy homes beyond the ones that are being shot from or in which there are attack laboratories,' said Lapid."

Gideon Levy writes in Haaretz: "On a day when bodies of children were being stuffed into a big refrigerator used to store potatoes, and when thousands of homeless people were fleeing for their lives (some of them refugees rendered homeless for the second or third time), life in Israel went on as usual, as though what was happening in Rafah was not being done in the name of the country's citizens. Such apathy renders all of us responsible - and yet there are some who bear a heavier burden of responsibility. The mass demolition of innocent civilians' houses in Rafah is considered a war crime under criteria accepted around the world - despite the fact that the High Court has given the demolitions its typical stamp of approval. And this crime is no orphan; it has parents. And these parents must no longer be indulged. It's wrong to continue to blame the errant tank shell, and the tunnels and the terrorists themselves, for every lethal blunder committed by the IDF."

AP: "A 3-year-old Palestinian girl on her way to buy candy was shot dead as a senior UN official toured a battle-scarred refugee camp where Israeli troops continue the hunt for weapons-smuggling tunnels and militants. The United Nations on Saturday condemned the "completely unacceptable" destruction of houses, which has left 1,650 Palestinians homeless in the last 10 days. Despite the partial withdrawal of troops, bursts of machine-gun fire could be heard as Hansen toured a street littered with clothes, mattresses and the collapsed corrugated tin roofs of devastated houses. "The human price has been extremely high for this operation," UN official Peter Hansen said. He said 1,650 Palestinians had been made homeless over the past 10 days of the operation, including a brief Israeli incursion into Rafah last week. More than 11,000 Rafah residents have been made homeless by Israeli demolitions since 2000."

Ask to be directed to the latest wave of Israeli destruction in Rafah's al-Brazil neighbourhood and many fingers point towards the zoo. Amid the rubble of dozens of homes that the Israeli army continued yesterday to deny demolishing, the wrecking of the tiny, but only, zoo in the Gaza Strip took on potent symbolism for many of the newly homeless. The butchered ostrich, the petrified kangaroo cowering in a basement corner, the tortoises crushed under the tank treads - all were held up as evidence of the pitiless nature of the Israeli occupation..."he zoo is the only place in Rafah that children could escape the tense atmosphere. There were slides and games for children. We had a small swimming pool. I know it's hard to believe, looking at it now, but it was beautiful. Why would they destroy that? Because they want to destroy everything about us."

Hundreds of Israelis marched in Tel Aviv and near the Gaza border to protest Sharon's brutal policy in the area. "None of us can sit at home at a time like this," read a statement issued by one group. "None of us can say, 'We didn't know!'" The police harassed protestors, randomly arrested several people, apparently illegally, then held three minors in jail overnight. Youth Court judge Ruth Ben-Hanoch said: "The court must warn against using court procedures to silence protesters or limit their rights to express their opinions." Judge Ben-Hanoch had harsh words for the behavior of the police in holding the minors overnight at Abu Kabir lockup." The peace movement in Israel is growing, with several groups now working together to try to put an end to Sharon's failed and brutal policies against Palestinian civilians.

Nico Pitney writes, "Israel is conducting its most extensive raids into the Gaza Strip since 1967. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Israeli military forces have demolished nearly two hundred homes and left more than two thousand Palestinians homeless in the last three weeks alone. In the midst of this, more than 100,000 Israelis marched together in one of the largest pro-peace rallies in the nation's history. The media is not devoting ample time to these crucial events; hopefully this photo collage will help tell the story."

So now the true colors of the hardcore so-called "religious right" that has kept Bush propped up come glaring through. Sen. James Inhofe is savaging Democrats for their outrage at the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and anger at Rumsfeld. But Inhofe also does not believe Palestinians have any rights because "God said so" and that 9/11 happened as a punishment to the US for urging the Israelis to take a more diplomatic and restrained approach to dealing with the "infidels." (i.e., Palestinians).

"The last 10 days have seen one of the most intense periods of destruction by the Israeli military in Gaza since the start of the Intifada, with more than 100 homes flattened and 1,100 people left homeless, the main United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees said Monday. According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the Israeli military has demolished or damaged beyond repair 131 residential buildings since the start of May, bringing to 17,594 the total number of people who have lost their homes in Gaza....UNRWA, the largest humanitarian operation in the occupied Palestinian territory, has been providing those who have lost their homes with water, food, blankets and cash assistance."

"Palestinians reacted angrily yesterday after US President George Bush threw into doubt a 2005 target date for their promised state. But Israel gleefully seized on Bush's open questioning of the timetable set out in an international peace road map. Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erekat accused Bush of effectively torpedoing the peace plan drawn up by the European Union, Russia and the United Nations as well as the United States, and published amid great fanfare last June. 'President Bush's position removes any substance from the road map by calling into question the timetable for its implementation'... Israel welcomed the (Bush) comments but went further, ruling out any possibility of Palestinian statehood next year."

From the Jerusalem Post: "A week after the Likud voted in a referendum against withdrawing unilaterally from the Gaza Strip, Christian Zionists in the US are planning a referendum of their own. 'Do you support the creation of a PLO state in the Land of Israel?' will be the question that Christians across America will be asked to vote on, according to an initiative of the Global Israel Alliance and Americans for a Safe Israel. The Global Israel Alliance Israel affairs director, Kim Hadassah Johnson, intends to present the referendum idea at National Religious Roundtable event on Tuesday in Memphis 'There is a clear analogy between Ariel Sharon's Likud constituency and the American Christian Zionist constituency upon whose support George Bush's reelection largely depends,' said Johnson."

"Likud central committeee members praised Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Saturday night for the assassination of Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, saying that such moves will increase the chances of Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan passing in a May 2 referendum of Likud members. The activists said they hoped that if the plan is trailing in the polls ahead of the referendum, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat could be assassinated as well."

New Zealand Herald: "The United States has refrained from condemning the killing of a top Hamas leader and has instead limited its criticism of the assassination to saying it feared for the stability of the Middle East." In a stunning show of Bush's lack of touch with reality, the White House released this statement: "The United States is gravely concerned for regional peace and stability." Incredible! "The US response to the assassination was in stark contrast to condemnations from around the world, The European Union condemned the killing as unlawful and 'not conducive to lowering tension.' A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the assassination violated international law and could lead to more violence in the Middle East."

Reuters: " 'It was Bush' The verdict was near unanimous amid the tears and rage on Palestinian streets after Israel killed Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi in an air strike on Saturday that many Arabs felt George W. Bush must have approved. 'Bush has Rantissi's blood on his hands,' said Khamis Saadi, among tens of thousands who swept into Gaza's shabby streets. 'All doors to hell should be opened against the Israelis and against the Americans,' he cried. U.S. officials denied giving a green light to Israel. But Palestinians, fuming over unprecedented concessions Bush gave Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last week for a Gaza pullout plan, felt Rantissi's killing was just another action in the same vein." In any case, Bush's actions were calculated to inflame Middle East conflict, not to bring peace.

Jerusalem Post: "Israel will consider destroying housing in Gaza settlements it intends on evacuating if it deems the houses will not be used to house Palestinian refugees... The official said that if the homes will be handed over to Hamas, or if they will be used to house Gaza's affluent and not residents of refugee camps, Israel would consider destroying them before pulling out. The officials said Israel wants to ensure that after Israel pulls out of Gaza, efforts will finally be made to start permanently resettling refugees. Israel destroyed Yamit and the northern Sinai settlements following the Camp David peace accords instead of handing them over to Egypt, because they did not want large Egyptian communities developed so close to Israel's borders."

"Palestinian militant group Hamas says US President George W Bush's statement today that Israel could keep parts of the West Bank proves armed resistance is the only way for Palestinians. The group's political leader, Khaled Meshaal, said Bush's policy marked the end of 'illusions that there can be a US-sponsored political settlement' between the Jewish state and the Palestinians. ... Bush announced at the White House after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that, 'in light of new realities on the ground,' it was unrealistic to expect Israel to return to borders that pre-date the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel seized Gaza and the West Bank... Bush also appeared to negate any right of return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel, saying they should be resettled in a future Palestinian state instead."

"The route of the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank will harm the country's security instead of improving it, dozens of reserve military officers said in a letter Tuesday. The Israeli government says the complex of fences, walls and barbed wire that will eventually stretch 425 miles is needed to keep out suicide bombers and other Palestinian attackers. Palestinians charge the barrier disrupts the lives of thousands of Palestinians by cutting them off from their land, jobs and schools, and constitutes a land grab since it cuts deep into the West Bank at several points. The letter, sent to Cabinet ministers, warned that they would be held responsible for the bloodshed that could result from the barrier's route. The 101 Israeli officers, many of them generals, are members of the Council for Peace and Security."

Ha'aretz: "Over 60 prominent Palestinian officials and intellectuals Thursday urged the public to refrain from retaliation for Israel's assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, saying it would ignite a new round of bloodshed that would only hurt Palestinian aspirations for independence. A half-page advertisement in the PLO's Al-Ayyam newspaper called on Palestinians to lay down their arms and turn to peaceful means of protest to end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The ad reflected apparently growing sentiment among many Palestinian leaders and intellectuals that military struggle is not helping the Palestinian cause... The intellectuals who signed the ad - including Nablus Governor Mahmoud Aloul, Geneva Accord co-author and PLO Executive Committee member Yasser Abed Rabbo and Abbas Zaki, a leading member of Arafat's Fatah movement - said such revenge attacks would lead to a strong Israeli retaliation and further hurt the Palestinian cause."

"Palestinians accused the United States on Friday of granting Israel a license to kill by vetoing U.N. condemnation of its assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin... At the United Nations, the United States late on Thursday vetoed a Security Council resolution by Arab nations to censure Israel for assassinating Yassin. Washington, alone among major powers in not condemning Monday's assassination as an extrajudicial killing, rejected the resolution because it did not also denounce Hamas for bombings in Israel. The vote was 11 in favor, three abstentions, and the United States veto that killed the measure. 'Israel's action has escalated tensions in Gaza and the region, and could set back our effort to resume progress toward peace,' U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said in a statement. But he added: 'This Security Council does nothing to contribute to a peaceful settlement when it condemns one party's actions and turns a blind eye to everything else occurring in the region.'"

"Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat fears he's next on Israel's hit list after the assassination Monday of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, aides said. Israeli security officials say their focus is on Hamas -- for now...Palestinian minister Saeb Erekat said Arafat's safety was discussed during an emergency Cabinet meeting Monday. 'Of course there is concern,' he said. 'This might be the end of the game, destroying the Palestinian Authority and killing President Arafat... Roni Daniel, military correspondent for Israel's Channel Two TV, cited a senior Israeli defense official as saying Arafat could be a target soon... Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has accused Arafat of supporting terrorism. Sharon called him 'irrelevant' and last September threatened to 'remove' the Palestinian leader."

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired anti-tank rockets and mortar shells at three Israel Defense Forces outposts on the Har Dov area on the Lebanese border Monday, hours after Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin...Hamas vowed that Islamic groups around the world will join together to retaliate for the assassination and implied that the United States could be a target. "The Zionists didn't carry out their operation without getting the consent of the terrorist American Administration, and it must take responsibility for this crime," Hamas said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press. "All the Muslims of the world will be honored to join in on the retaliation for this crime," the statement said.

Reuters: "Israeli security sources said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon personally ordered and monitored the helicopter attack against the paralyzed cleric outside a Gaza mosque." Bush is accused of complicity in the attack, but is hiding behind Condi Rice (as usual), letting her do what the White House does best: lie and deny. "Pressed on whether the United States had played a role in Yassin's death or whether Sharon had called Bush to tell him that Israeli forces planned the assassination, Rice replied: 'He did not.' Hamas said it believed Washington had given the green light for Yassin's assassination but Rice disagreed. 'No, of course not,' Rice told CBS. She added: 'Let's remember that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that Sheikh Yassin himself has been heavily involved in terrorism.'" Note how she didn't add that Yassin is a crippled old man confined to a wheelchair.

"Palestinian gunmen and car bombers attacked a major crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Saturday. At least four attackers and two Palestinian policemen were killed, and no Israeli soldiers were hurt... On Friday, a security official said Israel will wait until after the U.S. presidential election in November to withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip, while soldiers sealed the West Bank and Gaza Strip amid new warnings of attacks by Palestinian militants... Earlier this week, Dov Weisglass, a senior Sharon aide, discussed the proposed withdrawal with top U.S. officials. The Maariv daily said Friday that U.S. officials pressed Weisglass for the delay, fearing the pullout could spark chaos at a time when the Bush administration wants to avoid further upheaval in the Middle East."

"The International Committee of the Red Cross yesterday called on Israel to halt construction of the steel and concrete 'security fence' through the West Bank... The Israeli government denounced the ICRC's unusually public criticism as 'political', because it came days before a legal challenge to the barrier at the international court at the Hague. The ICRC said that where the 125 miles of barrier already built enters occupied territory, it has resulted in the widespread appropriation or destruction of Palestinian property. 'The barrier deprives thousands of Palestinian residents of adequate access to basic services such as water, healthcare and education, as well as sources of income such as agriculture and other forms of employment,' the statement said. '[The wall] runs counter to Israel's obligation under international humanitarian law to ensure the humane treatment and wellbeing of the civilian population living under its occupation.'"

Haaretz reports: "According to a new peace initiative being prepared by Arab states, Israel will negotiate a peace agreement with all the Arab states, and not just with the Palestinians, and Arab states would absorb Palestinian refugees. The Kuwaiti newspaper Al Siyasa reported Saturday that the initiative, led by Saudi Arabia, would include 'declarations of peace agreements between all Arab states,' which will bring an end to the conflict between Israel and the Arabs. The states would declare a normalization in their ties with Israel, including the appointment of ambassadors."

"On 18 December, the low-key headline on the website of Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper noted: 'Herzliya conference sees verbal attacks on Israeli Arabs.'... [The meeting featured] Israel's top military, political and business leaders, gathered for an annual get-together in the town of Herzliya under the auspices of the Israeli Institute for Policy and Strategy... According to Ha'aretz, Dr. Yitzhak Ravid, a senior researcher at the Israeli government's Armaments Development Authority, called for Israel to 'implement a stringent policy of family planning in relation to its Muslim population.' In case his meaning wasn't clear, Ravid added: 'the delivery rooms in Soroka Hospital in Be'ersheba have turned into a factory for the production of a backward population.'... In the 1951 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, [the] definition of genocide includes 'imposing measures intended to prevent births' within a specific 'national, ethnical, racial or religious group.'"

AP: "About a dozen reservists from the Israeli army's top commando unit declared Sunday they would no longer serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, reflecting growing unease with Israel's hard-fisted policy in the Palestinian areas. Thirteen reservists, including three officers, from 'Sayeret Matkal' made their declaration in a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, according to Israeli media. 'We cannot continue to stand silent,' they wrote, charging that Israeli military activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are depriving 'millions of Palestinians of human rights' and endangering 'the fate of Israel as a democratic, Zionist and Jewish country.' 'Sayeret Matkal' is the top commando unit in the Israeli military and its most prestigious. Ex-Prime Minister Ehud Barak was once its commander, and another former premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, also served in the force, known for daring operations outside Israel's borders. Its soldiers rarely serve in the Palestinian areas."

From Jewish Voice for Peace: "We received this heartfelt request from our friend and ally Smadar Nehab-Kaminer, the mother of Israeli refusenik Matan Kaminer and a tremendous peace activist in her own right. Her high school-age son and five other young men could be facing up to three years in prison for refusing to serve in the occupation: 'Dear friends and allies, This is a personal request of you to sign the petition to free the occupation refuseniks (among whom is Matan, my son) who are approaching the verdict hearing in their almost year long (!) trial. In their act, these men uncover the ugly and irrational face of the Israeli occupation. A face known too well to the Palestinians. Standing behind the young men and supporting their right to conscientious objection is also a strong statement against the occupation. We're hoping for 20,000 signatures. Smadar." Click to sign the petition.

Ali Abunimah writes: "[The Geneva Accord] looks superficially promising, but close-up it fails to resolve any of the key issues that have torpedoed every earlier peace plan... Some Israelis and Palestinians acknowledge a need to seek a radically different solution: If dividing the land between two peoples is impossible, then why not give 100 percent of the land to both peoples? In practice this means a single democratic state with a constitution that guarantees the political, cultural and religious rights of Israelis and Palestinians, Jews, Christians and Muslims. A common homeland where Jews and Palestinians can flourish instead of fight. As I have traveled around the U.S. discussing this idea with college students, among them many Palestinian-Americans, Israelis and American Jews, I have found a great deal of openness and support. Above all, there is a strong desire to talk about solutions beyond the tired formulas that have failed for decades. This debate should continue."

In Ha'aretz, Yossi Sarid writes, "Tomorrow, the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee will host Italy's deputy PM, Gianfranco Fini... I won't be attending the session - in plainer terms, I will boycott it. I have no wish to play any part in sanitization ceremonies for fascists, neo-fascists and anti-Semites of all kinds. Fini is the leader of...the National Alliance - an extreme right-wing faction. The National Alliance is the legal heir of Italy's declared fascist party, which changed its name, and has even tried, in recent years, to change its repulsive character... Just a few years ago, Fini was still declaring, with passion and deep internal conviction, that 'Mussolini was the greatest statesman of the 20th century.'... [What explains the meeting?] Fini supports the Israeli government's policies in the territories; he is a friend of Ariel Sharon; and in a place that has no friends, even Fini will be considered one."

When Sharon refused to give humanitarian groups access to desperate Palestinian families in Gaza, Save the Children UK publicly condemned this horrendous action, which jeopardized the lives and health of thousands of children. However, the US partner of Save the Children which gets about 60% of its funding from the Bush government", refused to support the condemnation. Why? They were threatened with loss of funding by the Bushistas. Once again, this administration gives the world shocking proof that the almighty dollar and political self-interest supercedes all else - including the lives of innocent children.

From TomPaine.com's blog: "The second most influential Jew in America -- after Paul Wolfowitz -- has broken his silence and sharply attacked the policies of Israel's government. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism said the government's settlement policy endangers the future of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Yoffie went as far as warning that Israel is becoming an apartheid state, something most peace activists say has already happened. For its part, the Bush administration decided to give Israel a slap on the wrist for its illegal settlement activity, by reducing its loan guarantees to Israel this year by nearly $290 million, a paltry sum when compared with the $3 billion in direct economic and military aid Israel receives each year from the United States."

UK Independent: "Support is growing among Israelis and Palestinians for a two-state solution based on mutual recognition, an almost total Israeli withdrawal from territory captured in the 1967 war, division of Jerusalem and an end to the conflict. A poll published yesterday revealed that 55.6% of Palestinians and 53% of Israelis backed the principles of the Geneva Accords, an unofficial peace plan drafted by the ex-Israeli minister Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo, formerly a senior figure in the Palestinian Authority. Israeli voters and commentators are losing faith in Mr Sharon's capacity to fulfil his promise of 'peace with security'. Even the army Chief of Staff, Lt-Gen Moshe Ya'alon, has admitted that terror will not be defeated by arms alone. Mr Sharon is taking notice. He expects to meet the new Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmed Qureia, next week. But Israeli and Palestinian commentators remain sceptical of Mr Sharon's commitment."

"The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is ending its emergency food programme in the West Bank, saying the economic collapse there is the direct result of Israeli military closures and that Israel must live up to its responsibility as the occupying power for the economic needs of the Palestinians. The move comes as the Israeli media reported that Francois Bellon, the Red Cross representative, told senior Israeli generals that the Palestinian Authority was on the verge of an 'explosion' that could lead to 'the worst ever humanitarian crisis' in the occupied territories. Israel is concerned that other international organisations may follow the Red Cross, which would leave Israel to face the cost of providing the services they currently provide - a cost that some estimates put as high as $1.1bn a year."

WashPost: "Four former chiefs of Israel's powerful domestic security service said in an interview published Friday that the government's actions and policies during the three-year-old Palestinian uprising have gravely damaged the country and its people. The four, who variously headed the Shin Bet security agency from 1980 to 2000 under governments that spanned the political spectrum, said that Israel must end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, that the government should recognize that no peace agreement can be reached without the involvement of Yasser Arafat, and that it must stop what one called the immoral treatment of Palestinians. 'We must once and for all admit that there is another side, that it has feelings and that it is suffering, and that we are behaving disgracefully,' said Avraham Shalom, who headed the security service from 1980-86. 'Yes, there is no other word for it: disgracefully... We have turned into a people of petty fighters using the wrong tools.'"

Sid Blumenthal writes, "Abu Mazen... desperately required US pressure on the Sharon government to make concessions on building settlements on the West Bank. Abu Mazen sent a secret emissary to the White House [who] met [NeoCon] Elliot Abrams and laid out what support was needed from Bush if Abu Mazen - and therefore the road map - were to survive. Abrams told him, he says, that Bush 'could not agree to anything' due to domestic political considerations: Bush's reliance on the religious right, his refusal to offend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the demands of the upcoming election. Shikaki pleaded that Abu Mazen presented 'a window of opportunity' and could not go on without US help. 'He has to show he's capable of doing it himself,' Abrams answered dismissively. Inside the NSC, those in favour of the road map - CIA analysts Flynt Leverett and Ben Miller among others - were forced out. On September 6, Abu Mazen resigned, and the road map collapsed." Impeach Bush Now!

Democracy Now!: "A UN committee monitoring human rights abuses of Palestinians has concluded after 35 years of investigations that the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank was the worst ever last year." Mustafa Barghouti comments on one town, surrounded entirely by the 'separation wall': "Qalqilya is a city that is 46,000 people, surrounded now by a wall from all directions with one gate, which is eight meters width. And the gate has a key and the soldiers have the key. And they shut all the gates every night at 6:00 p.m. and they open it at 6:00 in the morning and sometimes they decide to shut off the city for several days, like has happened last month. So, imagine a whole city with a gate surrounded by the wall. You know, the people of Qalqilya called me the other day and said, 'You know, we don't see the sunset anymore because the wall is high enough to prevent us from seeing the sun set.'"

From Gush Shalom, the Jewish Peace Bloc: "About a thousand demonstrators - half of them Israelis, half Palestinians - converged on Saturday morning on the East Jerusalem neighborhood Sawahra, where a section of the 'separation wall' is going to be built. It will cut tens of thousands of Palestinian off from the world - from schools, universities, hospitals, businesses, workplaces - and even from their cemetery... It was part of a world-wide demonstration to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall... The demonstrators painted colorful graffitis on slabs of the wall, which are already there, such as 'A Wall Prevents Hands Meeting', 'Enough of the Occupation' and many others... Adam Keller, Gush Shalom spokesman, accused Ariel Sharon of diverting the wall, which was originally planned as a security measure along the Green Line, into a political weapon to destroy any possibility of creating a Palestinian state."

AFP reports, "Ariel Sharon's popularity further declined to reach its lowest point since he became Israel's prime minister in March 2001, said an opinion poll published on Friday by the Maariv daily. The survey said 57 per cent of Israelis were not satisfied with Sharon's performance at the helm of the country, while only 34 percent assessed it positively and nine percent did not voice an opinion. Last month, Sharon's ratings had already plunged to their lowest point since the start of his second term in office in January 2003, with 54 per cent of the population dissatisfied with his performance."

"A reservist Israeli staff sergeant who is refusing army duty on political grounds has been sentenced to military prison for 28 days. Tom Mehager told a military tribunal that he was no longer prepared to participate in the 'harassment' of Palestinians in villages near the Rimonim checkpoint, northeast of Ram Allah. Mehager, 27, refused to serve at the military outpost close to the Ofra settlement in the West Bank. In an interview from his prison cell, he told Israeli military radio he was no longer prepared to carry out orders which in his opinion had 'no military value'. After receiving his sentence, Mehager said: 'The punishment that has been handed down to me is nothing in comparison to what we are forcing on the Palestinians.'"

Stephen Zunes writes: "In what may be the most hopeful development in years to establish a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace, an unofficial group of Palestinian and Israeli political leaders announced on October 12 that they had agreed to a detailed framework that would end the violence and establish an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. Unfortunately, it appears that the Bush administration and the leadership of both parties in Congress are committed to making sure that such an agreement does not become reality. The accord is based in large part on a tentative framework that was being developed during peace talks in Taba, Egypt in January 2001 between the Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government of Ehud Barak. The negotiations were suspended when the rightist Israeli leader Ariel Sharon assumed office early the following month."

Democracy Now! reports: "In what the Guardian of London described as the largest left-wing demonstration since Gen. Ariel Sharon came to power, more than 100,000 Israelis gathered this weekend to denounce the occupation and call for peace. The gathering marked the eighth anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin was killed by Yigal Amir, an extremist Israeli who opposed the surrendering of any part of the West Bank to the Palestinians. At the rally former Prime Minister Shimon Peres called for the immediate pullout of Israeli settlers from the Gaza strip. In other news from Israel, workers have engaged in one of the country's largest strikes to protest the proposed overhaul of Israel's welfare system. Striking workers shut down government offices, banks, the international airport and trains."

Guardian: "The Israeli military has ordered thousands of Palestinians living near the steel and concrete 'security fence' through the West Bank to obtain special permits to live in their own homes. Palestinian officials said the order breached a pledge by Israel to the UN security council a fortnight ago that the barrier would not change the legal status of those who live near it, and was another step towards the annexation of tens of thousands of hectares of Palestinian land. The order, signed by the Israeli army's commander in the West Bank, said Palestinian land between the fence and the 1967 border, known as the green line, was to be a 'closed military zone'. Any Palestinian who lived in the area would be defined by a new category of 'long-term resident' and everyone over the age of 12 would be required to obtain a permit to live in their own homes and travel beyond their villages. The order said that only Israelis and Jews could enter the designated areas without a pass."

Bernard Weiner writes: "There are no shortcuts to peace. But there is a longcut that could work: A comprehensive peace treaty....The Mideast realities in the Autumn of 2003 tell me that the rivers haven't run red enough, the slaughter hasn't cut deep enough, the politicians aren't smart or courageous enough....Extremists on both sides (egged-on, unfortunately, by their elected leaders) believe that their claim to the disputed land is given by God. The Israeli fundamentalists want a Greater Israel, the Palestinian extremists want a Greater Palestine, with no Israel. Ordinarily, when two religiously-oriented groups claim that God is on their side, there is no room for accommodation, because it is believed that a compromise would be an affront to God. But in this extraordinary situation, it is not required that either side forsake their God."

"Yiftah Spector is one of Israel's most decorated fighter pilots... Brigadier-General Spector is a veteran of the 1967 and Yom Kippur Wars, and he commanded Israel's 1981 bombing of Iraq's nuclear reactor. But after four decades in the Air Force, he's been stood down from his job as an instructor for signing a petition in which he and 26 other Israeli airmen say they'll refuse to take part in raids against populated civilian centres... SPECTOR: 'It is unlawful to hit innocent people, full stop. What I'm saying is that the situation should be solved politically so that we are not standing before such dilemmas every other day... It brings us to disaster, including to immoral, unlawful, according to our own law, occurrences every other day. So I'm talking to the Government. My feeling is that this Government is working on one thing and this is to survive, for many reasons, and being deaf, blind and stupid, as it is, she chooses stupid, blind and deaf conclusions and decisions."

William Pfaff writes, "The unofficial Middle East peace plan unveiled in Geneva on Oct. 12 by former Israeli and Palestinian officials is the first hopeful initiative since the collapse of the Taba peace negotiations in 2001. It could be even more. This Geneva initiative is a detailed draft settlement, not just another plan of how to get from here to there. It bears no comparison to the road map, a sham from the start. The Israeli government of Ariel Sharon never intended to accept the road map, and the Bush administration never intended to enforce it. The Geneva agreement represents an enormous investment of private time and effort by people led by Yossi Beilin, Ehud Barak's former justice minister, and by Yasser Abed Rabbo, a former Palestinian Authority cabinet secretary and information minister. They decided to complete the near-agreement reached at Taba. The hard parts still weren't settled in 2001, and these people decided to demonstrate that they could be settled."

"Moderate Israelis and Palestinians have started drumming up support for a draft peace agreement they reached last weekend after years of negotiating. The deal does not have official standing but the Palestinian Authority (PA) has not rejected it out of hand. On the Israeli side, opinion polls show around 40% support... The main aim of the negotiations, participants in the talks say, is to show both sides that in spite of governments and militants, there is 'somebody to talk to' on the other side. Daniel Levy, an Israeli left-wing activist deeply involved in drafting the peace plan says it will 're-invigorate the Israeli left.' Both sides are believed to have gone much further on the most sensitive issues, which everybody agrees are the Palestinian refugees and control of Jerusalem. The negotiators have nailed down ground-breaking proposals on these issues that will now need to be absorbed by both parties."

"Israeli helicopters and warplanes unleashed a string of missile strikes in Gaza City Monday, killing two Hamas members and a bystander and wounding 23 other Palestinians on the street, including at least four children. The three strikes - all within a period of four hours - destroyed a pair of suspected Hamas weapons warehouses in one of the most intense series of air raids in the past three years of fighting. They took place a day after Palestinian militants fired a barrage of homemade rockets into southern Israel from Gaza. Also Sunday, a Palestinian ambush in the West Bank killed three Israeli soldiers and wounded a fourth. Israel has stepped up its strikes against Palestinian militants since an Oct. 4 suicide bombing that killed 21 Israelis. In the past week, it has carried out an operation in the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah hunting for tunnels for smuggling weapons and, in the process, destroying more than one hundred Palestinian homes."

"The Israeli army was deploying thousands of reservists to the West Bank and Gaza Strip Sunday after intelligence reports that Palestinian militants were planning more attacks, reports and military sources said. The Israeli media reported that five reserve battalions -- which are each composed of at least 500 troops -- had been called up on the orders of Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, despite the misgivings of chief of staff General Moshe Yaalon. According to army radio, the five battalions will be mobilised for three weeks in order to replace regular army units who are due to undergo training."

"The Israeli demolition of refugee shelters in Rafah camp on the southern Gaza Strip last week has left 1,240 people homeless, UN relief workers said today. Teams working for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said in a statement that Israeli forces demolished 114 refugee shelters and six non-refugee homes during their incursion from 9 to 11 October. Another 117 buildings were damaged, but liveable, the agency said. 'The Agency's relief and social services office in Rafah camp is struggling to deal with the demand for assistance from the newly homeless, but has so far established that 1,240 individuals were made homeless,' UNRWA said... 'The recent incursion brings the total number of Palestinians who have been made homeless in Rafah since the beginning of the current intifada to 7,523,' it added. 'The total for the whole of the Gaza Strip now stands at 11,987.'"

"Ahmed Qureia, the Palestinian Prime Minister, told Yasser Arafat yesterday that he will resign in another three weeks if the men fail to resolve a dispute over control of Palestinian security services. He would be the second Prime Minister to throw in the towel within two months - his predecessor, Abu Mazen, lost a power struggle with the President. Mr Qureia, who has a reputation as a more skilled political operator, tried to avoid a clash, but Mr Arafat is still refusing to take a back seat. For three more weeks, Mr Qureia will head a seven-man emergency cabinet, but it lacks an Interior Minister. Gen. Nasser Yousef, his choice for the post, is demanding full authority over the multiplicity of security services, which would have the main role curbing the militants and inducing Israel back to the negotiating table. But Mr Arafat insists on keeping the reins in his own hands. General Yousef recently accused Mr Arafat of being the 'most incompetent revolutionary leader of all time'."

WashPost: "Dozens of Israeli tanks and other military vehicles backed by attack helicopters swept into a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip early Friday, sparking intense gun battles with Palestinian militants and other residents that left at least eight Palestinians dead and more than 50 injured... The dead included an 8-year-old boy, Ibrahim Qrenawi, who witnesses said was shot in the chest outside his home by Israeli troops who had come with bulldozers to demolish his house. Israeli officials said that three buildings were destroyed because they were being used by militants as positions for firing on Israeli soldiers. Many of the casualties occurred when an Israeli AH-64 Apache helicopter [made in the USA] fired a single missile into group of people on a street in the Brazil refugee camp near Rafah at about 3 a.m., witnesses and hospital officials said. An Israeli military source said the missile was aimed at a group of militants who were firing at Israeli soldiers."

"The UN Security Council on Friday agreed to a U.S. request to postpone to next Tuesday an open discussion on the separation fence Israel is building in the West Bank and around Jerusalem. The decision was reached during a closed discussion of Security Council members on the fence, which marked the first time the UN has addressed the issue. The Palestinians warned Washington on Friday that the Middle East peace process would be doomed if a U.S. veto allows Israel to continue building the fence. If Israel is allowed to continue construction, 'this will mean the end of the two-state solution, and that will take us to either a more drastic and radical solution or perpetual conflict. It should be looked at that seriously,' Palestinian UN envoy Nasser al-Kidwa said. After initial closed-door talks on the Palestinian request, diplomats said there was broad support in the 15-nation council for a resolution on the security barrier, although changes in the Palestinian draft were likely.

"Fighting erupted in a refugee camp, killing three Palestinians, as Israeli troops on Friday destroyed arms-smuggling tunnels following warnings that militants were trying to obtain anti-aircraft missiles. Witnesses said dozens of tanks and other armoured vehicles entered the Rafah refugee camp from two directions. They were joined by special forces, including engineering units with dogs trained to uncover tunnels. A gunbattle broke out between soldiers and Palestinian fighters. Three Palestinians, two men and a woman, were killed and 24 people wounded by Israeli fire, Palestinians said. They said most of the casualties came when an attack helicopter fired a missile at the camp. An Israeli soldier also was wounded. Residents said the Israelis bulldozed at least three houses near the border and fired machine-guns to drive families away from others. Explosions could be heard, possibly Israelis destroying tunnels or militants throwing explosives at tanks, they said."

"Israel warned yesterday that Syria could face more air strikes if it does not curb its alleged support for groups launching attacks against Israeli targets. 'If more terrorist attacks emanate from Syria and the orders come from Syria, we can't rule out that there will be legitimate targets [there] for strikes,' said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon... The warning followed reports shots were fired from both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border yesterday, despite George Bush calling for restraint. Unconfirmed reports on Lebanese radio said one Israeli soldier was killed and two wounded. Two Lebanese cars and a UN water tanker were apparently fired on from the Israeli side of the border. Israeli army officials confirmed some of their troops were fired on near Kfar Kila, a village on the Lebanese side of the border some 60 miles south-east of Beirut, but released no information of casualties."

"Israel described the target to be a terrorist training camp run by Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian group that had carried out the attack. But Syrian officials say the camp was largely abandoned. Israel's bombing of Syria was widely condemned in the int'l community. Kofi Annan said this 'has the potential to broaden the scope of current conflicts in the Middle East, further threatening regional peace and security.' Most of the Arab world and much of Europe condemned the attack." British journalist Patrick Seale: "[The suicide bomber's] brother and her cousin had both been killed by Israeli troops. The important thing to realize is that these suicide bombers do not need a huge infrastructure in support of them. Most of them make their bombs at home themselves. They are reacting out of despair after a terrible situation in which they find themselves. So by blaming Syria...is of course merely an attempt by Sharon to shift the responsibility away from himself and his policies."

BBC News: "Israel has sent warplanes to attack what it says is a Palestinian terrorist training camp on Syrian territory. The raid comes a day after a devastating suicide bombing in the northern Israeli city of Haifa that killed 19 and injured many more. The Israeli army says the camp near Damascus was being used by several radical Palestinian groups including Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility for the Haifa attack. The air strike is believed to be the first by Israeli forces inside Syria for about two decades - although it has previously targeted Syrian positions inside neighbouring Lebanon, where thousands of Syrian soldiers are based. Syria has said it will be making an urgent complaint to the United Nations Security Council over the attack."

AFP: "About 100 San Francisco Jews renounced on Thursday their right to immigrate to Israel to protest the country's refusal to extend the same right to Palestinians expelled from their land. Chanting 'Palestine will be free,' protesters handed in a petition to the Jewish Community Federation in San Francisco declaring their renunciation of Israeli citizenship rights, know as Aliyah. The group, which included 30 marchers carrying a petition of 100 names, called the act a ritual atonement in honor of the looming Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur on October 5. The protesters claim that Israel's offering automatic citizenship to overseas Jews while denying the same right to Palestinians forced off their homeland in Israel and the occupied territories amounted to 'apartheid.' 'This is hypocritical,' said Eric Romain, one of the protest's organizers. 'It is a betrayal of our legacy as Jews.'"

"A U.N. report released yesterday says Israel uses excessive force against Palestinians and accuses Israel of illegal 'conquest' because of its plans for a separation wall. The special rapporteur of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights for Palestinian territories, John Dugard, stressed Israel's legitimate security concerns, but said Israel's actions were out of proportion to the security threat posed by suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism. 'The special rapporteur finds it difficult to accept that the excessive use of force that disregards the distinction between civilians and combatants, the creation of a humanitarian crisis by restrictions on the mobility of goods and people, the killing and inhuman treatment of children, the widespread destruction of property and, now, territorial expansion can be justified as a proportionate response to the violence and threats of violence to which Israel is subjected,' Dugard wrote in his report."

Reuters reports: "Israel sharply criticized and grounded on Thursday a group of air force pilots who refused to carry out missions against Palestinian militants in which civilians could be killed... 'Everyone has the right to voice their opinion, but it is unacceptable that a group of military men interfere in such a issue, an issue decided on by the political echelon after great deliberation,' Ariel Sharon told Israel TV.. 'We, who were taught to love Israel and contribute to the Zionist enterprise, refuse to take part in attacks on civilian population centers,' the pilots wrote in a letter to Halutz... An F-15 pilot who signed the letter told Israel's Channel Two television: 'If dropping a bomb on a seven-storey building only to find out 14 innocent civilians were killed, of them nine children and two women, if that is not an illegal order, then what is?'"

Jewish Voice for Peace: "Tell Caterpillar to stop selling its bulldozers to Israel until Israel stops using these machines to destroy Palestinian homes and livelihood in violation of fundamental human rights principles. Caterpillar bulldozers demolish houses, uproot trees, separate people, confiscate land and kill civilians. Caterpillar bulldozers have left more than 50,000 people homeless. In April 2002 Caterpillar bulldozers demolished an entire neighborhood in the Jenin refugee camp, razing 140 multi-family houses and leaving 4,000 people homeless. In March 2003, Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist, was crushed to death by a Caterpillar bulldozer as she acted nonviolently to prevent it from destroying a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip. Speak Up! Write a letter to the Caterpillar Board of Directors, telling them that the business of destruction doesn't pay. Click the link below to send a letter, or read more at www.CATdestroyshomes.org"

Professor Edward Said died Wednesday after years of struggling with leukemia. "The greatest significance of Said's contribution is not only that he was an outstanding advocate for justice and peace in Palestine, but also that he consistently located this cause within a much greater struggle for a truly universal and humanist vision, entailing a firm rejection of ethno-nationalism and religious fanaticism. He taught by eloquent example that being faithful to a cause did not require blind loyalty to leaders or symbols, but rather necessitated self-criticism and debate. Edward Said was a fountain of humanity, compassion, intellectual restlessness and creativity. At a time when the crude calculus of raw power and fanaticism threatens to swamp global discourse, his irreplaceable voice never needed to be heard more. The most fitting tribute to Professor Said's life and work is to struggle with increased commitment for the vision of justice and humanity that inspired all of his efforts."

In Ha'aretz, Amira Hass writes, "The degree to which the Israel Defense Forces think ahead can be seen from...reports by Felix Frisch published on the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth's Web site, Ynet. [One], from September 21, relates that 'the separation fence to be built in the Gilboa region will include remote-control machine guns that will be operated by female soldiers from their command posts and will shoot at those suspected of being terrorists.'... This military-technological creativity is destroying the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians, injuring their livelihoods and their property and dealing mortal blows to the view and the environment. But in Israel, it is considered a solution, because we think that everything is the fault of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians - that terror runs in their blood, rather than being the fruit of political circumstances, namely the lengthy occupation."

AP reports: "The General Assembly passed a resolution Friday that demands Israel halt threats to expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and condemns Palestinian suicide attacks against Israelis. Gathering for its yearly session, 133 assembly members voted for the measure, with four opposing and 15 abstaining. The United States, Israel, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands voted against. Under amendments offered by the European Union, the assembly voted to condemn 'the suicide bombings and their recent intensification.' It also reminded the Palestinian Authority that under the U.S.-backed 'road map' for peace, it is obligated to 'take all necessary measures to end violence and terror.' Resolution wording also deplored Israel's 'extrajudicial killings and their recent escalation' and says those killings are both violations of international law and an impediment to relaunching the peace process."

Jane's reports: "Foreign Report can reveal that the Israeli government is planning an onslaught on the Gaza Strip. This is because, our informant said, its former policy of containing Palestinian violence, including the murder of the Hamas leadership, has failed. The idea is to launch an intervention in October, once a series of Jewish holidays have finished.... Israel is planning a huge call-up of at least 50,000 soldiers to cope with the conquering of the Gaza strip. Special Israeli troops will move from house to house to find and kill militants. The Israelis are well aware of the difficulties of such an operation. Gaza is the most densely populated place on earth. The Israelis assume they will face serious resistance and many casualties. But it seems that the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is determined to crush Hamas in Gaza."

In Ha'aretz, Yigal Bronner of Tel Aviv University writes, "One of the most dramatic geo-political changes in the history of the region is taking place at record speed and without any public debate. Before it becomes too late, we must take time out to look through the veil of lies about the fence.... By manipulating the genuine concerns of Israeli civilians, Sharon's cabinet is building a system of fences that will not provide any separation, will not create a border and will not guarantee security, either. The purpose of these walls is entirely different: they are designed to make it impossible to weaken the stronghold that Israel has gained in the territories occupied in 1967. Eighteen months from now, we will be awakening to an entirely different reality. Ours will be a brutal land of pens stretching between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean that will make South African apartheid pale. The outcome is too terrible to even imagine."

"In an interview 25 years after the Camp David accords, Carter said Israel and the Palestinians have abandoned the U.S.-backed road map for peace and have violated it, Israel most recently by threatening to 'remove' Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He suggested that the Bush administration is tilted toward Israel. 'At this point, prospects are dismal,' Carter said. 'The U.S. does not seem to be making any strong effort to implement' the road map.... 'As I know from bitter experience at Camp David, the likelihood the two sides are going to come together voluntarily and make very troubling concessions is nil... The only way this can be done is by the extreme, concerted commitment of the [r]esident or his top representatives--preferably himself--and a balanced approach between the two adversarial groups,' Carter said.... 'The United States is not being evenhanded,' he said. 'You have to have a mediator, willing to negotiate freely with both sides, and equally firmly with both sides.'"

"By 2020, Jews will be a minority [in Israel and the occupied lands]. Talk of two states will end. Two options will remain: an apartheid state run by a heavily armed Jewish minority, or a new political entity without a Jewish identity. The conclusion is clear. Israel must begin to plan its exit from the West Bank and Gaza.... Polls show that most Israelis understand. They do not want to drain their treasury and lose their children to protect West Bank settlements.... At the Democratic presidential debates, Lieberman criticized Dean for calling on Israel to dismantle most of its settlements. 'That's up to the parties in their negotiations, not for us to tell them,' he said. We strongly disagree. True support for Israel means helping it see through its pain and rage to its own best interest. You do not have to believe in Mr. Arafat's sincerity or the Palestinians' good will to grasp the need for a radical course shift. You need only understand the meaning of self-preservation."

"Last week, Howard Dean told supporters in New Mexico 'it's not our [the United States] place to take sides,' in the Palestinian and Israeli conflict. Since, Dean has been harshly criticized by two of his rivals for the Democratic nomination, Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman.... Lieberman stated, 'If this is a well-thought-out position, it's a mistake, and a major break from a half a century of American foreign policy. If it's not, it's very important for Howard Dean, as a candidate for president, to think before he talks.'... Dr. James Zogby: 'Polling shows that while the American people support Israel, three-quarters want the Administration to be balanced and 'steer a middle course' in order to achieve peace. Our polling also shows that American Jews and Arab Americans also want evenhandedness. In this context, therefore, Dean is right and the pandering comments of Kerry and Lieberman are just plain wrong.'"

CBS News reports: "Israeli warplanes on Wednesday dropped a bomb on the home of a senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, wounding him and killing his son and a bodyguard, witnesses and hospital officials said. In all, about 25 people were hurt, including Zahar's wife and daughter.... The airstrike came a day after suicide bombers apparently dispatched by Hamas killed 15 Israelis in twin attacks at a bus stop crowded with soldiers and at a popular Jerusalem nightspot. Hamas has stopped short of claiming responsibility for Tuesday's bombings, but has threatened unprecedented revenge for Israel's failed attempt over the weekend to kill several Hamas leaders, including founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, in an air strike.... Palestinian staff at the hospital called over loudspeakers for people to donate blood to help treat the wounded. Among the wounded were five children and three women, hospital officials said. Three of the wounded were in critical condition."

"Closures, blockades, checkpoints, curfews and a barrage of other restrictions imposed by the Israeli army on Palestinians have made even short journeys between towns and villages difficult, dangerous and often impossible - effectively confining some three and a half million Palestinians to a form of town arrest.... The restrictions have often prevented Palestinians from reaching their workplaces or distributing their products and factories and farms have been driven out of business by losses incurred, dramatically increased transport costs and loss of export markets. Unemployment has soared to over 50%, more than half the population is now living below the poverty line and malnutrition and other illnesses have increased. Most Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are forced to rely, to some degree at least, on charity for food and other basic needs."

"Civil society organizations have committed themselves to pressure their governments to condemn Israel's 'separation wall' in the occupied West Bank as part of its pattern of illegal settlement activity, according to a plan of action adopted by the United Nations International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People. Agreeing on the outline for the 'Bring Down the Wall' campaign contained in the Action Plan, adopted at the end of the conference last Friday, civil society organizations also committed themselves to combining resources to educate the public, increase pressure on governments to condemn the wall's illegality and demand its immediate destruction. Israel says the barrier, a complex series of walls, barriers, trenches and fences within the occupied West Bank that has nearly encircled and isolated some Palestinian towns and villages, is a security operation necessary to keep out suicide bombers."

Avraham Burg writes, "Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centers of Israeli escapism. They consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture. They spill their own blood in our restaurants in order to ruin our appetites, because they have children and parents at home who are hungry and humiliated. We could kill a thousand ringleaders and engineers a day and nothing will be solved, because the leaders come up from below -- from the wells of hatred and anger, from the 'infrastructures' of injustice and moral corruption.... [Sharon] should present the choices forthrightly: Jewish racialism or democracy. Settlements or hope for both peoples. False visions of barbed wire, roadblocks and suicide bombers, or a recognized international border between two states and a shared capital in Jerusalem."

Financial Times: "Resident Bush is unlikely...to take the risk of pursuing a strong personal commitment [to the road map] as he embarks on the 2004 presidential election campaign. Indeed, one official said this week that the resident's personal involvement was already over.... Martin Indyk, Brookings Institution analyst and former US ambassador to Israel, now agrees with Mr Arafat that the road map is 'dead'. In his view, the reversal began after what he called the separate 'photo-ops' Bush held with Sharon and Abbas in Washington.... Bush, he said, was tied up with Iraq and was 'walking away' from the process. Indyk said Abbas lacked the capacity to deal with militant groups, and first needed Israeli steps, such as troop withdrawals and prisoner releases, to give him the support he needed to take action. But Israel wanted the crackdown first. 'It was a vicious circle the US failed to break,' he said. 'It's been hard to fathom what we've been doing over the past couple of months.'"

Forward reports: "A new neighborhood in this northern West Bank settlement was dedicated in a festive ceremony this week, in what Peace Now activists said was a deliberate display by the government to show that the road map is dead. 'They know exactly what is the meaning of this ceremony,' said Mossi Raz, a former Meretz Knesset member and a long-time Peace Now leader. 'It is to say, 'I don't care about the road map -- I violate the road map, and I show you that I violate the road map.' I was very pessimistic about this government, but even I did not expect such a ceremony.' According to the road map peace plan, Israel was to freeze settlement-growth and evacuate unauthorized outposts while the P.A. was to crack down on terror. Raz said the ceremony was the first such celebration under the government of Ariel Sharon, and the fact that it was conducted not for a new settlement but only for a new neighborhood within Kedumim was proof that it was done specifically for public show."

From USA Today's chat with Electronic Intifada founder Ali Abunimah: Q: "Why did the Palestinians bomb the bus in Jerusalem if there was a truce?" Ali Abunimah: "The suicide bomb in Jerusalem two days ago, which killed 19 Israelis, including a number of children was a particularly cruel and senseless attack, and like all attacks on civilians was morally reprehensible. This one seems to have been calculated to cause as much horror as possible. The Israeli government is, unfortunately, trying to make political capital out of the horrible death of its citizens by - as usual - blaming the Palestinian Authority for it. The Israeli government knows quite well - and the Israeli press is reporting - that this attack was organized and carried out from Hebron, a Palestinian city which is under complete Israeli military occupation. The Palestinian Authority has absolutely no forces or freedom of operation there, and there is, in fact nothing they could have done to stop this attack."

A chronology compiled by the UK Guardian: "August 2: Al-Aqsa Martyrs threaten to resume attacks after Arafat has 20 of them detained. Lebanon car bomb kills a Hizbullah member; Hizbullah accuses Israel of involvement; August 5: Abbas calls off meeting with Sharon, accusing him of dragging his feet; August 6: Israel releases 336 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture; August 8: Two Hamas militants and an Israeli soldier killed in Israeli raid on West Bank refugee camp. Two more Palestinians die later in protests; August 12: Two suicide bombers strike in Israel; one other person killed in each attack; August 14: Israeli troops kill Mohammed Seder, head of Islamic Jihad's armed wing in Hebron; August 17: Israelis and Palestinians fail to agree terms for the handover of four West Bank cities to Palestinian security control; August 19: Suicide bomber on a Jerusalem bus kills at least 20; August 21: Israel kills Ismail Abu Shanab of Hamas; Islamic Jihad official declares ceasefire over."

"The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today voiced deep concern at the sharp escalation in violence in the Middle East, and calling on both sides to curb their actions he reaffirmed the importance of sticking to the Road Map peace plan. 'While recognizing the right of Israel to live in security, Israel does not have the right to resort to extra-judicial measures, as it used today in the Gaza Strip,' said a statement issued by a spokesman for Mr. Annan in New York. 'The Secretary-General calls upon the Government of Israel to exercise restraint and to halt its current military actions, so as to enable the Palestinian Authority to take the necessary steps to bring extremist groups under control and ensure the truce continues.' Mr. Annan also 'urges the Government of Abu Mazen to act rapidly to that end and expresses his strong concern at the announcement that Hamas has renounced the truce,' the statement added."

B'Tselem's report reads: "Since September 2000, some 43% of the residents of the three main streets in the Casbah [in Hebron] have left their homes, at least 2,000 businesses have closed, and three schools ... were taken over by the IDF and closed. The report describes the primary reasons that Palestinians abandoned the Casbah: (A) Violence by settlers and the lack of law enforcement: Despite the numerous cases of violence by settlers, some of which were clearly anticipated, there is almost no law enforcement on the settlers.... (B) Violence by security forces: IDF soldiers and Border Police officers commit acts of violence against Palestinian residents of the city.... (C) Curfew and closing of businesses: The Israeli security forces do not allow Palestinians in Hebron to move about freely in the city, to study, to earn a living, and to meet their everyday needs. Since the beginning of the intifada, Israel has imposed hundreds of days of curfew on Palestinians living in Area H-2."

AP reports, "An American peace activist volunteering as a human shield in the West Bank was seriously wounded on Saturday when Israeli troops allegedly opened fire on him. Brian Avery, 24, from Albuquerque, N.M., heard shots fired and came out of his apartment building in Jenin to investigate just as an armored personnel carrier rounded a corner, said Tobias Karlsson, a fellow activist from Sweden. Avery and Karlsson are members of the Palestinian-backed group International Solidarity Movement. Members of the group often insert themselves between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers to try to stop Israeli military operations. 'We had our hands up and we were wearing vests that clearly identified us as international workers when they began firing,' Karlsson said. 'Brian was shot in the face, and it looks like he was hit by a heavy caliber bullet because of the extent of the wound.'"

Starhawk writes, "Rachel Corrie was an American, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, the group that I'm here with in occupied Palestine... Rachel was twenty three years old. I am trying to fathom the mind that could pull the levers and gun the motor to crush the life out of her young body. That choice, that deliberate act of murder that ended her sweet life, seems incomprehensible. But here in occupied Palestine, that murder seems a logical outgrowth of the system of total dehumanization that controls every aspect of life, that cannot see the human being in the Palestinian, that claims to be fighting terror by institutionalizing it. Please register your outrage-at Rachel's murder, at the home demolitions that she was trying to stop, at the illegal occupation that can only be defended by brutalizing a whole people. Call the Israeli Ministry of Defense (011972 3 6955476) and your US Representatives (202-224-3121)."

Ha'aretz reports, "Rachel Cor[rie], 23, from Olympia, Washington, was killed when she ran in front of the bulldozer to try to prevent it from destroying a house, doctors in Gaza said. 'Corey was killed in the al-Salam neighbourhood when an Israeli bulldozer covered her with sand as she stood in front of a bulldozer,' said Dr Ali Musa, a doctor from the al-Najar hospital in the southern Gaza Strip. He said she died from skull and chest fractures... Greg Schnabel, 28, from Chicago, said the protesters were in the house of Dr. Samir Masri. 'Rachel was alone in front of the house as we were trying to get them to stop,' he said. 'She waved for bulldozer to stop and waved. She fell down and the bulldozer kept going. We yelled 'stop, stop,' and the bulldozer didn't stop at all. It had completely run over her and then it reversed and ran back over her.'" This is deliberate murder - we demand an explanation from Ariel Sharon and George Bush!

These attacks with an unknown poison gas were reported in a prestigious regional newspaper. They appeared on EU wire services, and on a US military Website... repeatedly documented by an award-winning human rights organization affiliated with the UN. Graphic film of the victims' suffering is available on VHS and DVD. Three days after they began, the leader of the targeted people publicly alleged the use of "poison gas" and demanded that it stop. Yet the attacks broadened in scope and continued for six weeks, until they ceased mysteriously...But chances are you've never heard about this chemical warfare against innocent civilians. It was not the work of Saddam, or the Russians, or terrorists. It didn't occur in the '80s, and it didn't require the satellite data and battle planning that the US provided Iraq for its chemical warfare against Iran. These poison gas attacks were perpetrated just 2 years ago, by Israeli troops against civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories...

"During Sharon's 20 months in office, the country has skidded downhill in every possible sphere," writes Yoel Marcus of Ha'aretz. "The economy is six-feet under. More Israelis have been killed in Mr. Security's day than under any other prime minister. The man has never come up with a peace initiative. We've been turned into untouchables in the eyes of just about the whole world. And despite it all, everybody still loves Arik. Most of the public doesn't seem to connect the bungles and the terrible plight of this country with Sharon. It's as if he has nothing to do with any of it, as if none of the screw-ups were his fault. The terror, the intifada, the lack of a partner for dialogue - all of it simply fell on him out of the blue." We know just how you feel, Yoel!

Ewen MacAskill reports: "Tony Blair's drive for Middle East peace talks has suffered an embarrassing setback at the hands of ... George Bush, only days after the prime minister flagged up his plan at the Labour party conference in Blackpool. Mr Blair is pushing for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks, backed by an international conference, before the end the year... But the Guardian has learnt that Mr Bush has blocked the initiative and has made it clear to Mr Blair that he does not want such talks to be held in the near future... Mr Blair has staked a great deal of political capital on his relationship with Mr Bush. But Downing Street and the Foreign Office are exasperated by the American leader's attitude... In spite of the setback, Mr Blair is to continue to pursue the idea of peace talks over the next few months... The US sees dealing with Iraq as the priority whereas Britain sees the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the priority." Hey Tony, poodles only TAKE orders!

Here is a shocking analysis from the NY Times: Bush's recent ultimatum to the Palestinians to replace Arafat deliberately "stalled the American mediation effort in the Middle East, a state of affairs reflecting the broad view of Mr. Bush's more conservative advisers, among them Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not present a strategic threat to American interests in the Middle East." Read that carefully - it means Bush is happy to let Israelis and Palestinians kill each other, because Bush's only "strategic interest" in the Middle East is to steal Iraq's oil for his oil company paymasters. So the next time you see dead and wounded Israelis and Palestinians on your TV screen, say a prayer for the victims - and for Bush's corrupt, bloodstained soul.

Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper reports, "There are also questions among reservist officers about the planned operation and senior officers were very outspoken. They said unlike Defensive Shield, which was perceived as necessary, going into Gaza will break the public consensus. Other officers perceived a clear connection between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to go into action and Sunday's meeting of the Likud Central Committee. Many expressed worry about likely casualties. Some said the IDF crossed a psychological barrier in the callup for Operation Defensive Shield, and the current call-up does not have the same justification. The response rate to the callup was high yesterday, but it still appears to be accompanied by more doubts. 'Tanks going into Gaza will leave a lot of damage, even if we don't mean to do so,' said a senior officer. 'If they tell us to go, we'll follow orders, but that won't reduce our questions about the wisdom of the order.'"

"Evidence suggests that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) committed war crimes in the military operation in the Jenin refugee camp, Human Rights Watch charged in a report issued today after a week-long investigation. Human Rights Watch did not find evidence to support claims that the IDF massacred hundreds of Palestinians in the camp. 'The abuses we documented in Jenin are extremely serious, and in some cases appear to be war crimes,' said Peter Bouckaert, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch and a member of the investigative team. 'Criminal investigations are needed to ascertain individual responsibility for the most serious violations. Such investigations are first and foremost the duty of the Israeli government, but the international community needs to ensure that meaningful accountability occurs.'"

Israeli Jews and Palestinians - their number growing daily - are joining forces to fight for peace. They are shouting loud and clear against a campaign of aggression designed for political gain, but the world is not hearing their voices. Why? There is a media blackout in Israel against dissenters that is just as absolute as the blackout that Bush has, until very recently, been able to impose against dissenters in the US. Sharon, modeling his new reign of rightwing rule and media suppression on the Bush/Ashcroft regime, wants to present just as false a face to the rest of the world. He most surely does not want the world to know just how angry a growing number of Israelis are at his policies. Now Unknown News' Cheryl Seal presents a collection of voices of dissent. See also www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org for photos of a massive demonstration in Jerusalem last Saturday.

"Sharon seems to be our worst nightmare come true, but he's not nearly finished. Since this Intifada erupted, over 1,700 Palestinians and over 400 Israelis have been killed, with some 35,000 Palestinians and 4,000 Israelis wounded. So far. The terrorist attacks in Israel are horrible, but they have been used by Sharon to carry out deeds far in excess of 'destroying the terrorist infrastructure'. The Israeli army deliberately trashed the inside of every Palestinian institution that it did not entirely destroy -- schools, charities, health organizations, banks, radio and TV stations, even a puppet theater...in addition to all the records of every government ministry. In a few locations, Israeli tanks even rolled over mosques and cemeteries. How many new terrorists did the army create as it 'destroyed their infrastructure'?" So begins the report of the Coalition of Women for Peace's Gila Svirsky's on a peace march by 10,000 Israelis through Tel Aviv on 4-27-02.

According to the London Telegraph, "Israeli historian Martin van Creveld predicts that a US attack on Iraq or a terrorist strike at home could trigger a massive mobilisation to clear the occupied territories of their two million Arabs." van Creveld writes, "Two years ago, less than eight per cent of those who took part in a Gallup poll among Jewish Israelis said they were in favour of what is euphemistically called 'transfer' - that is, the expulsion of perhaps two million Palestinians across the River Jordan. This month that figure reached 44 per cent... Some believe that the international community will not permit such an ethnic cleansing. I would not count on it. If Mr Sharon decides to go ahead, the only country that can stop him is the United States."

In Slate, Robert Wright writes: "One thing nearly all pundits seem to agree on is that Yasser Arafat's rejection of the land-for-peace offer made by Ehud Barak at Camp David in the summer of 2000 was indefensible. This conventional wisdom has been a great asset to Ariel Sharon. Its implication—that Arafat was never really interested in a two-state solution to begin with—has helped turn many former peaceniks in both Israel and America into hard-liners... You can call Yasser Arafat many bad things and can use the Camp David negotiations to justify a number of them. But so far as I can tell, these negotiations don't justify what they're now being used to justify: the claim that the Palestinians will never accept a two-state solution, so Ariel Sharon's search-and-destroy policy is the only option Israel has left." And remember that Bush advisor Richard Perle meddled in the Camp David Talks while Bush was on the campaign trail. (Enter 'perle' in our search engine).

"Those on each side who ask innocently, 'who is causing this nightmare?' should look in the mirror first. The horrors will begin to end when people on each side are ready to criticize their own 'side' as quickly and as sharply as they criticize the other side. The horrors will end when both Palestinians and Israelis will speak out for peace in unequivocal terms. Not peace with 'justice' - meaning destruction of Israel, and not peace with 'security' - meaning settlements, but peace that allows both sides to live in dignity and safety. People on each side must condemn the horrors committed by their own side, and struggle actively to stop it. It is not treachery but patriotism, for the way of violence, the current road of insanity, is an express ticket to Hell for both Palestinians and Israelis, and getting us off this train must be national priority number one for those who really care about their own people on both sides." - an excerpt from MideastWeb for Coexistence.

Writes Bernard Weiner: "So much convoluted politics in the Middle East, so much history, so much violence and hatred. It's all so confusing. So once again I turn to the noted reference series for answers that can help me make the turmoil and tragedy easier to figure out."

Robert Fiske of the Independent summed up Bush's pathetic excuse for a world leader's speech: "Ariel Sharon could not have done better. The heaping of blame upon an occupied people, the obsessive use of the word terror – by my rough count there were 50 references in just 10 minutes – and the brief, frightened remarks about "occupation" and (one mention only) to Jewish settlements and the need for Israeli "compassion" at the end were proof enough that President Bush had totally failed to understand the tragedy he is supposedly trying to solve."

"After the United States declared a worldwide war on terrorism, Sharon saw an opening and seized it. Now, under cover of fighting terrorism, Israel is brazenly indulging in state terror against defenseless Palestinians. Those organizing and offering resistance to Israeli occupation and brutality are being branded terrorists and being assassinated, many on mere suspicions. Civilians are being bombed. Tanks roll in and raze houses and rip up roads. Infrastructures are being reduced to rubble. Missiles are fired from helicopters. Troops burst in, not sparing even refugee camps, and arrest hundreds while killing at will. Innocent men and children die every day. All this is justified by claiming that the action is being taken to eliminate terrorism, the mantra courtesy of President Bush." So writes Gulamhusein A. Abba in the Fairfield County Weekly.

Porn movies and programs in Hebrew are being broadcast by Israeli troops who have taken over three Palestinian television stations of Ramallah. The offices of three local television and radio stations were occupied by soldiers yesterday morning, a few hours after tanks and hundreds of troops stormed the town. The soldiers started broadcasting the porn clips -- considered extremely offensive by most Palestinians -- intermittently this afternoon from the Al-Watan, Ammwaj, and Al-Sharaq channels, the residents said. One 34-year-old Palestinian mother named Reema told AFP. "I have six children at home, they have nowhere to go with what is going on here and can't even watch TV." Anita, a 52-year-old mother of three children, complained about "the deliberate psychological damage caused by these broadcasts." So this is what the phony "religious right" - as embodied by Sharon and his Bush administration supporters - consider an acceptable tactic?