Palestinian Girl Tries To Goad Soldiers Into Lashing Out -- YNet News
Video documents 10-year-old cursing, spitting at soldiers in attempt to provoke violent reaction – that never comes. Sending children to provoke soldiers: A video shot at a protest rally held in the village of Nabi Salih, in the central West Bank on Friday, captured an uncanny moment, showing how Palestinian protesters use children to needle IDF soldiers in hope of provoking a violent response. Familiar with the tactic, the soldiers did not fall for the obvious trap. The Palestinians residing in Nabi Salih claim that settlers have illegally taken over nearby lands.
Israel Facing Major West Bank Uprising Over Palestinian Hunger Strike -- The Telegraph
Israel has been warned that it faces a major uprising in the West Bank after six Palestinian prisoners taking part in one of the largest and most protracted hunger strikes ever staged in its jails were said to be close to death.
Palestinian militant groups and moderate politicians alike have predicted that years of relative tranquility could be brought to an abrupt and violent end if any of the 1,600 inmates now refusing food were to starve to death.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said this week that the six inmates who have declined sustenance the longest are "at imminent risk of dying".
My Comment: The world's focus has shifted away from the Palestinian cause when the Arab Spring started last year. A hunger strike is one way to galvanize opinion, but it will still be hard for the Palestinians to garner the world attention that they feel that they deserve when scores of civilians are being massacred on a daily basis only a hundred kilometers away in Syria.
Hundreds of prisoners are on hunger strike to oppose administrative detention and demand better conditions [Reuters]
Prisoners' Hunger Strike Escalates -- Sydney Morning Herald
RAMALLAH: The number of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails has grown to at least 2800, human rights groups say, while two of the inmates hovered close to death as they entered their 69th day without food. The Israeli prison service disputes the numbers.
Israel's practice of jailing people without charge - known as administrative detention - is the main issue driving the hunger strikers, whose images are seen on posters throughout the West Bank and Gaza as the protests backing the prisoners grow. Read more ....
More News On The Growing Palestinian Prisoner Hunger Strike
New York Meetings Open To Avert Palestinian Crisis -- Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A last-ditch international push began in New York on Sunday to try to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and avert a crisis over Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.
Officials met two days after President Mahmoud Abbas said he would demand full membership of the world body for a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly this week, setting up a diplomatic clash with Israel and the United States.
IDF Source: Israel Bracing For Clashes Along Its Borders Ahead Of Planned Protests -- Haaretz
Facebook-organized activists have called for demonstrations in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan to mark the upcoming anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War.
The Israeli military is preparing for the possibility of violent protests along its borders in the coming days, aiming to avoid a repeat of deadly unrest that erupted earlier this month, a senior military official told The Associated Press on Sunday.
Facebook-organized activists have called for demonstrations next weekend in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan to mark the anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War, in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip east Jerusalem and Golan Heights.
My Comment: I expect Israeli security forces will be ready for these protests unlike what happened when protests two weeks ago caught these same security forces off-guard.
Palestinian Police Kill Israeli Visiting West Bank Holy Site -- New York Times
JERUSALEM — The Palestinian police shot and killed one Israeli and wounded four others early Sunday after the Israelis surreptitiously visited a Jewish holy site inside a Palestinian-controlled area, officials on both sides said.
The shooting occurred outside Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus after three carloads of religious Israeli Jews visited the site to pray, without coordinating their plans through the Israeli Army. Twice-monthly trips to the tomb have been organized with army escorts for the past four years without incident.
Al Jazeera has obtained more than 1,600 internal documents from a decade of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Over the last several months, Al Jazeera has been given unhindered access to the largest-ever leak of confidential documents related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There are nearly 1,700 files, thousands of pages of diplomatic correspondence detailing the inner workings of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. These documents – memos, e-mails, maps, minutes from private meetings, accounts of high level exchanges, strategy papers and even power point presentations – date from 1999 to 2010.
My Comment: To say that this leak of diplomatic documents is explosive .... now that is an understatement. The documents are in English (which is quite incredible when the two main parties speak Arabic and Hebrew), and for the past few hours I have been browsing these documents. I can spend the next few days just dedicated to this news story .... the information that is being leaked is truly astounding. Both Al Jazeera and The Guardian have made it easy to browse the main points of this story, I would recommend going there as a start to appreciate what has been leaked to the world's media.
On a personal note .... I will never look at the Middle East peace process in the matter that I have in the past .... my perceptions have now changed completely.
Israeli Soldiers Who Used Palestinian Boy, 9, As A Human Shield Avoid Jail -- The Guardian
Mother says suspended sentences and demotions for forcing her son to check bag for bombs at gunpoint are 'a scandal'.
Two Israeli soldiers who used a nine-year-old Palestinian boy as a human shield were given suspended sentences and demoted after being convicted of "inappropriate conduct".
The unnamed soldiers, from the Givati Brigade, ordered Majeh Rabah, from the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City, to check bags for explosives in January 2009, towards the end of Israel's three-week offensive. Read more ....
My Comment: This is their punishment?!?!?! One more reason and symbol for both sides to continue the cycle hate.
Israel 'Traded 52 Prisoners For Air Force Pilot's Gun' -- The Telegraph
Israel traded 52 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners to the Hizbollah militia in exchange for the gun of an Israeli air force pilot who went missing in southern Lebanon in 1986, according to reports.
The Armalite AR-7 rifle, a light firearm designed to be used as a survival weapon, was carried by Ron Arad when his plane went down over southern Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war.
Eight years of indirect talks mediated by a German intelligence official failed to secure Arad's release and his whereabouts remains unknown.
Police Announce Calm After Riots Erupt In East Jerusalem --- Jerusalem Post
35-year-old shot dead by security guard; 10 people, 3 police officers injured; Fatah politician: death of east Jerusalem resident by private guard was 'calculated' act with 'political goals.'
Dozens of Palestinians on Wednesday that barricaded themselves in the al -Aska mosque on Temple Mount in Jerusalem dispersed and left the scene after Israeli security forces exited the area.
Police reported that a relative calm has been restored in the area after a day of violent clashes. Read more ....
Israeli Defence Force boats approaching the Rachel Corrie Photo: REUTERS
Israeli Forces Board Gaza Aid Ship The Rachel Corrie -- The Telegraph
Israel has boarded the Gaza-bound aid ship Rachel Corrie without resistance after it refused to change course.
The takeover stood in marked contrast to a violent confrontation at sea earlier this week when Israeli commandos blocked a Turkish aid vessel trying to break the blockade.
At the time, Israeli commandos abseiled onto the deck from helicopters and a clash with passengers left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead. Read more ....
More News On the Israeli Seizure Of The Rachel Corrie
Breaking: 40 Of “Peace Activists” On Gaza Flotilla Are Al-Qaeda -- Gateway Pundit
Yesterday, the Obama Administration condemned Israel and sided with the Gaza Flotilla. Now there is word that 40 of the arrested flotilla “peace activists” are al-Qaeda.
Earlier, it was reported that a majority of the arrested “peace activists” who brutally attacked the Israeli soldiers with pipes, metal rods. chairs and knives are linked to terror groups including Al-Qaeda. Several are members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The activists include Turks, Yemenites and Indonesians. And, many of the arrested “peace” fanatics have no identification papers.
The Arab Media reported that several of the flotilla participants were writing wills, preparing for martyrdom, and determined to reach Gaza or die.
My Comment: I have known and corresponded with Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit for almost 7 years. I disagree with his politics at times, but what he posts is usually done with great care and thought. He is also a blogger who has contacts within the Israeli Government, and is an unapologetic Israeli supporter. But he has raised an important question .... who are the unidentified passengers on this flotilla?
My guess .... they are Islamic radicals traveling to Gaza in search of Jihad. I do expect their identities to be found out and disclosed in the next few days.
Why US Sees Israeli-Palestinian Conflict As A Security Threat -- Christian Science Monitor
A growing roster of US officials is arguing that a failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fuels Islamic extremism, thus creating a security threat for the US.
As the United States and Israel navigate one of their most serious contretemps in years, a growing roster of American officials is making the argument that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict poses a national-security threat to the US.
Prominent figures – ranging from Gen. David Petraeus, head of the US Central Command, to presidential adviser David Axelrod – have recently espoused the theory that a failure to resolve the decades-old crisis fuels Islamic extremism and Iranian designs in the region. Moreover, the thinking goes, the US appears weak and open to disregard when an ally such as Israel openly challenges American diplomatic efforts. America has been widely viewed in the region as the sole power able to force the two sides in the conflict to take actions toward peace. Read more ....
My Comment: If there is one thing that I have learned from the Israeli - Palestinian conflict ... it is not the establishment of settlements, the building of a wall, or the slow pace of "peace negotiations" that grates on the minds of Islamic radicals .... what galvanizes them more than anything else is the existence of a place like Tel Aviv. Everyday that this city (a symbol of a modern Israel) exists .... helps to galvanize and fuel that sentiment of Islamic extremism.
Unfortunately .... the US administration has a different point of view and a different policy .... a policy that will probably only add more fuel to this conflict and a growing sense (for both Israelis and Palestinians) of being alienated from everyone else.
A boy in Beit Furik, in the West Bank, amid portraits of President Mahmoud Abbas, who has hinted he may quit. Jaafar Ashtiyeh/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images
Does Sinking Mideast Peace Process Hold Any Hope? -- Reuters
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Efforts to rescue the sinking Middle East peace process are losing support.
Influential U.S. pundits have lost faith. Those Israelis who never did believe in it are saying: we told you so.
Some Palestinians believe it is as good as dead, strangled by Israel. They talk gloomily of a moment of truth.
Middle East veterans say they have seen such hopeless spells before, and seen them lead to outbreaks of violence.
A construction worker works on a new housing development in East Jerusalem. The US and the EU have been pressing Israel to halt settlements construction. Photo from NRC
Plan to Expand Jewish Area in Jerusalem Angers U.S. -- New York Times
JERUSALEM — Israel said on Tuesday that it had advanced plans to expand a Jewish district of Jerusalem in territory that was captured in 1967 and that the Palestinians claim as part of their future state — a move likely to further complicate the Obama administration’s faltering efforts to restart peace talks.
The news that the building plans had moved closer to approval drew a sharp response from the White House, which has declared reviving the talks to be a major policy goal. Robert Gibbs, the press secretary, issued a statement saying the administration was “dismayed” and asking both parties to avoid unilateral actions that could “pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations.”
Palestinian youths hurl stones at Israeli police during clashes in Jerusalem's old city. Photo AFP
Israeli Police, Arabs Clash Near Jerusalem Mosque -- Yahoo News/Reuters
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli police stormed Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound Sunday, hurling stun grenades at Palestinians who threw rocks at them in another outbreak of violence at the holy city's most sensitive site.
A medic for the Palestinian Red Crescent said 18 Palestinians were injured. Police reported that three officers were hurt.
The unrest, following a similar incident a month ago, did not appear to herald any immediate slide into widescale violence that could disrupt U.S.-led efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, suspended since December.
BET EL MILITARY BASE, West Bank -- Israel's military, taking a page from the Pentagon's counterinsurgency playbook, has changed tactics in the West Bank by emphasizing improvements in Palestinian living conditions, rather than focusing solely on killing and capturing militants.
The shift, however, is threatened by personnel changes: Three generals who were instrumental in planning it are on the way out.
Under their guidance, the Israeli Defense Force, which has occupied and administered the West Bank since its capture in 1967, has pulled back its soldiers from the enclave's cities, turned over security responsibilities to Palestinians, and lifted many of the checkpoints and roadblocks that had shackled the economy.
My Comment: I would not be so boastful in calling the Jenin project a success. The hatreds that have sparked past conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians are still there .... once that is gone will there be a chance for some type of lasting peace.
Gaza Boat Explodes In Apparent Attack, No Injuries -- Yahoo News/AP
JERUSALEM – An unmanned Palestinian fishing boat laden with hundreds of pounds of explosives blew up off the coast of Gaza Monday in what the Israeli military said was an attempt to attack a naval patrol in the area.
There were no casualties, but the incident threatened to upset a relative calm in the volatile territory ruled by the Islamic militant group Hamas. Israel maintains a tight naval presence around the Gaza Strip, part of a larger blockade of the area aimed at preventing arms from reaching Hamas.
