Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

• Neoconservative brinksmanship

• ‘Powerful lobby is hellbent’ for US to go to war w Iran

• Hermain Cain adviser, Gordon, linked to British scandal involving ‘rogue pro-Israel foreign policy’

• ‘Adbusters’ seeks right of reply to ‘NYT”s smear of anti-Semitism and fails to get it

• Orthodox Jews’ spitting attacks on Christian clergy in Old City are now daily occurrence

Neoconservative brinksmanship

Nov 05, 2011

Paul Mutter

So apparently, Obama and Holder are either too clever by half, or are just dhimmi dunces. They’re too busy playing cloak and dagger to really do something about Tehran:sanctions, MEK, Super Stuxnet and assassinations? Oh please! Where’s our Operation Opera? The Irano-Mexican terror cell run by the FBI proves we must do something, and fast! (And if the U.S. won’t, it seems increasingly possible that Israel’s top leadership, having created “Atomic Pressure” to spur action, may strike within the next two weeks).

The withdrawal from Iraq? That’s just a further sign of U.S. weakness in the eyes of many neocons (both Israeli and American), who, after all, were hoping to hold onto at least a few military bases in the country. But no, Obama and Holder dropped the ball by not fighting harder to give U.S. forces there legal impunity.

So, while many neocons (and 2012 presidential hopefuls) are now criticizing the withdrawal and rattling their sabers at Iran (Justin Raimondo has an interesting piece on how it might play out by 2012), there is at least one neoconservative who sees an opportunity – in a most roundabout way – in the Iraq withdrawal for the U.S. (and UK) to finally attack Iran.

Obama and Holder, one hopes, probably won’t see the grand opportunity that Lee Smith sees for the U.S.:

“U.S. policymakers cannot recognize the pending withdrawal from Iraq—or what is effectively the liberation of many thousands of American hostages—as an opportunity to go after Iran. Instead, Washington will continue to wage clandestine operations against Tehran—like killing Iranian nuclear scientists and sabotaging Iranian centrifuges with a computer worm. None of those operations will stop the Islamic Republic from getting the bomb—rather, that secret war, presumably conducted in tandem with Israel, is meant only to deter the Jewish state from attacking Iran in earnest.”

Of course, for Smith, there’s been enough discussion about this. The U.S. is the problem now because it’s holding the IDF back. That’s the problem: there is no “will” to act! It’s all talk, talk, talk! And Iran only understands action, for “Shiite Iran is responsible for far more American deaths and injuries in America’s two Middle East combat theaters than al-Qaida or other Sunni factions.”

For neocons, the fact that U.S. government has declined to release more evidence tying the presence of Iranian-made weapons in Iraq to the Iranian leadership just shows that Washington is lying and spineless . . . and not that Washington can’t determine the difference between unsanctioned Iranian smugglers and sanctioned Iranian commandos, or that a 2008 interdiction effort targeting Iranian-made weapons found very few of these weapons, even though they are apparently very easy for Iraqis to obtain through Iranian arms dealers.

(Smith’s assertion also ignores the facts that Afghanistan is not part of the Middle East, and that Pakistan is the main non-American foreign player in Afghanistan. But Pakistan is not on the regime change radar: Iran is.)

“The far-superior American military is capable of bringing Iran’s armed forces to heel,” Smith proclaims, and Americans should be embarrassed we haven’t struck back. His Weekly Standard colleague William Kristol agrees:

“The next speech we need to hear from the Obama administration should announce that, after 30 years, we have gone on the offensive against this murderous regime. And the speech after that can celebrate the fall of the regime, and offer American help to the democrats building a free and peaceful Iran.”

The focus is on all the lives that US inaction will cost – American, Israeli, and “Sunni Arab” (even though some neocons apparently believe that the Islamists who won a majority in the Tunisian elections are “more dangerous” than al Qaeda).

Clearly, the only way to protect these lives is to strike Iran hard. This will, in the end, “save” the Iranian people. Mitt Romney, the most likely Republican nominee for the 2012 presidential race, surrounds himself with unrepentant neocons and warns that “Iran’s suicidal fanatics could blackmail the world.” His fellow contenders are also opening their doors to neocons, who are trying to rebrand their failed “Project for a New American Century” as the more innocuous-sounding “Foreign Policy Initiative.”

Such statements are par for the course for Smith and Kristol, and for neocons in general: Iran is an irrational rogue state with a martyr complex. It is the enemy of all Western civilization, a Persian “Mordor” threatening the “Free Peoples” of the Middle East. The new “Evil Empire,” if you will.

Of course, there’s J. R. R. Tolkein’s Mordor, and then there is the actual country of Iran.

No one should be fooled by the Iranian government’s attitude towards the “peace process” in the Middle East. Like any country participating the “peace process,” Iran’s involvement is largely an extension of its internal affairs. Iran today is run by one of the most repressive regimes in the world. The Iranian government rigs elections and literally beats down opposition leaders and protesters alike. Journalism is increasingly dictatedto reporters from on high. The security establishment of paramilitaries, special forces units and secret police squabble for supremacy and suppress internal dissent through manufactured crimes and reprehensible public executions. The bombastic Ahmadinejad rails against Israel, hypocritically calling for fair elections and transparency in the Arab world while denying the Iranian electorate the same rights. Iran’s real leadership – Supreme Ayatollah Khameini and his clerical colleagues – finds his bombast useful as they struggle to maintain dictatorial control over a populist revolution that ran out of steam (and cash) years ago. And now he goes to the UN to speak “for” the Palestinian people – a gross insult to their struggle for self-determination.

So what about the rest of Iran’s citizens? Are they, as neocons and religious rightists in Israel and the U.S. suggest, working to instigating a “Madhist” apocalypse because of a Shia martyr complex? Does the Iranian Revolutionary Guard plan to prep its missile men with Quranic verses like we’ve prepped ours with the New Testament? Jesus loves nukes, apparently. Does the Madhi also love nukes?

This is a dangerous line of thinking. One must consider that Iran’s leaders (and people) see nuclear weapons (or the ambiguity surrounding them) in much the same way that the Soviets did: as a deterrent to maintain their own survival, rather than as precious instruments to help them make their appointed rounds at Armageddon. The U.S. has nukes. Israel “has” nukes. Iran does not (so far as we know). Hussein’s Iraq and Qadhafi’s Libya never succeeded in obtaining nukes: today, Hussein and Qadhafi are dead. Pakistan was, of course, censured for its secret nuclear program, but they got “the bomb” and today, stand (against all logic) as an “ally” of the U.S. Islamabad ishardly an international pariah despite their military’s human rights violations and active collusion with terrorists. Pakistan is a poor ally indeed that many U.S. officials do not trust at all, but it has nukes, complicating New Delhi’s, Washington’s and Kabul’s hope and dreams.

With a nuclear deterrent in place, regime change will be unthinkable for Iran (or, at least, that is what the leadership hopes). The ayatollahs, having participated in not one but two 20th century regime changes in Iran (1953 and 1979), are well aware of the worst case scenario for them if they lose their grip on power, so they are striving to survive. As a Foreign Affairs article puts it:

“To deter any possible military actions by the United States and its allies, Iran is improving its retaliatory capabilities by developing the means to pursue asymmetric, low-intensity warfare, both inside and outside the country; modernizing its weapons; building indigenous missile and antimissile systems; and developing a nuclear program while cultivating doubts about its exact capability. And to neutralize the United States’ attempts to contain it, the Iranian government is both undermining U.S. interests and increasing its own power in the vast region that stretches from the Levant and the Persian Gulf to the Caucasus and Central Asia. Although it is being careful to avoid a military confrontation with the United States, Tehran is maneuvering to prevent Washington from leading a united front against it and strategically using Iran’s oil and gas resources to reward its friends.”

What is missing from Netanyahu, among others, is an effort to discuss Iranian motives – both in public or behind closed doors, as Nahum Barnea suggests – in terms of anything other than Hitler and Churchill analogies. There are specific reasons behind these human rights abuses and Janus-faced political theater in Iran, just as there were in the USSR.

For all its ideological and militant millenarianism, Moscow was not run by crazed ideologues with “Red” martyr complexes. Like Iran’s leadership, they would very easily through their ideological allies under a bus just to preserve good ties. Even Ronald Reagan backed away from using that language – hell, he even repudiated his “Evil Empire” comments in Moscow itself.

Moscow, and its client states from East Berlin to Bucharest, were run by coteries of apparatchiks responding to real (and imagined) geopolitical challenges who were far more concerned about maintaining their grip on power at home than in achieving “world revolution” in their lifetimes. And if the Soviet people, who had little choice over who ruled them, really were so mendacious and millenarian as U.S. propaganda portrayed them, I would probably not be writing these words today. The same caveat goes for the American people, so vilified by Soviet propaganda as war junkies. People understood there were consequences to taking the action of starting a preemptive war. That understanding, as some Israeli commentators note, seems to be lacking in Israel today, as though Iran, 2011 is Iraq, 1981.

Iran’s leadership sees a double standard: the U.S. has played up Iran’s (very real) human rights violations while saying much less about those committed by Iran’s regional rivals, such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt; all of whom benefit from billions of dollars in U.S. arms sales and a “protective” nuclear umbrella. A “revoltuion” needs external enemies to rally against, and regional rivals (and their superpower backer) help the regime channel dissent away from their domestic policies. As George F. Kennan said of the USSR:

“The Soviet leaders, taking advantage of the contributions of modern techniques to the arts of despotism, have solved the question of obedience within the confines of their power. Few challenge their authority; and even those who do are unable to make that challenge valid as against the organs of suppression of the state.”

These words could just as easily be applied to Iran’s post-1979 leadership and itscontrol mechanisms.

The U.S. is practicing containment of Iran, hoping to strangulate its leadership and effect regime change on the cheap. Some U.S. officials hope that economic sanctions and countering Iranian influence in the Middle East will, to borrow a phrase of George F. Kennan, “promote tendencies which must eventually find their outlet in either the break-up or the gradual mellowing of [Islamist] power.” Iran’s leadership, in turn, is practicing brinkmanship, which was something that some of the U.S. and the USSR’s most revered statesmen engaged in during the Cold War. Both sides are engaging in it: Iran announces it will not allow IAEA inspectors in, so the U.S. sends a fleet into the Persian Gulf; a new round of sanctions hit Iran, so Iran heaps praise and money on Hezbollah. This is, regrettably, how both sides practice their great game today (and how the U.S. and USSR played their hands during the Cold War in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America).

But as the specter of nuclear war became more dreadful, brinkmanship gave way to mutually-assured destruction (MAD). Both Israeli and U.S. politicians have thundered onabout effecting regime change in Tehran coupled with preemptive strikes on nuclear installations (Iranium, anyone?). That is what Iran’s leadership wants: the deterence of MAD. And what will they do to achieve it? No one can predict that (again, something that should give Israel’s leaders pause, rather than a preference to rspeak of a “second Holocaust” while conducting military drills).

This makes Iran’s gambling understandable and not, as certain hawks would have it, an existential conflict demanding an existential response. None of this gives neocons an excuse to bay for war with Iran as though the only consequences will be “saving” lives. Whose lives are we saving? Certainly not Iranian lives, and certainly not those of the Israelis, Americans and Iraqis who will get caught up in any decision made behind closed doors in Washington or Tel Aviv to attack Iran without prior warning.

Ideally, all of these recent moves from Israel will just amount to grandstanding, aimed at distracting Israelis from the Occupation and renewed J14 protests as the winter Knesset session approaches. Actions speak louder than words.

Existential conflicts, as every holy book illustrates, end with the whole world in flames. The leaders of the U.S., Israel and Iran, who often claim to be such devout men and women, must realize this and step back from the brink.

‘Powerful lobby is hellbent’ for US to go to war w Iran

Nov 05, 2011

Philip Weiss

Great piece by MJ Rosenberg at Huffpo on who is pushing for war against Iran– the lobby. Rosenberg says Israel’s sabre-rattling is just that. But it’s intended to jack up U.S. foreign policy yet again and send us to war. Imagine if we had had this kind of incisive commentary fingering the neocons before the Iraq debacle? Here is Rosenberg’s first third. Read the rest (including quote in my headline) at the link:

Wasting no time after its success in getting the administration to oppose Palestinian statehood at the United Nations, and still celebrating the UNESCO funding cut-off, AIPAC has returned to its #1 priority: pushing for war with Iran.

The Israelis have, of course, played their own part in the big show. In the last few weeks, it has been sending out signals that it is getting ready to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities (and embroil the United States in its most calamitous Middle East war yet).

But most observers do not believe an Israeli attack is imminent. (If it was, would Israel telegraph it in advance?) The point of the Israeli threats is to get the United States and the world community to increase pressure on Iran with the justification that unless it does, Israel will attack.

Naturally, the United States Congress, which gets its marching orders on Middle East policy from the lobby which, in turn, gets its marching orders from Binyamin Netanyahu, is rushing to do what it is told.

(If only Congress addressed joblessness at home with the same alacrity and enthusiasm.)

Accordingly the House Foreign Affairs Committee hurriedly convened this week to consider a new “crippling sanctions” bill that seems less designed to deter an Iran nuclear weapon than to lay the groundwork for war.

The clearest evidence that war is the intention of the bill’s supporters comes in Section 601 which should be quoted in full. (It is so incredible that paraphrasing would invite the charge of distorting through selective quotation.)

It reads:

(c) RESTRICTION ON CONTACT. — No person employed with the United States Government may contact in an official or unofficial capacity any person that — (1) is an agent, instrumentality, or official of, is affiliated with, or is serving as a representative of the Government of Iran; and (2) presents a threat to the United States or is affiliated with terrorist organizations. (d) WAIVER. — The President may waive the requirements of subsection (c) if the President determines and so reports to the appropriate congressional committees 15 days prior to the exercise of waiver authority that failure to exercise such waiver authority would pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the vital national security interests of the United States.

What does this mean?

Hermain Cain adviser, Gordon, linked to British scandal involving ‘rogue pro-Israel foreign policy’

Nov 05, 2011

Philip Weiss

As usual, Max Blumenthal gets to the heart of the Liam Fox/Atlantic Bridge scandal. An excerpt of a piece up at Alakhbar on the connections between Herman Cain adviser J.D. Gordon and the disgraced British lobbyist Adam Werritty. Read the whole piece to get a full picture of Gordon. I’m always snuffling for lobby stuff:

The Atlantic Bridge scandal began soon after the election of Tory Prime Minister David Cameron, who appointed Liam Fox, a leading Conservative, as minister of defense. Fox gallivanted around the globe on taxpayer-funded junkets beside his best friend, a lobbyist named Adam Werritty, who served as Atlantic Bridge’s executive director. Fox, who founded Atlantic Bridge with the stated mission of fostering better ties between British and American conservatives, allowed Werrity to masquerade as his personal envoy in explicit violation of British parliamentary rules. Meanwhile, Werritty leveraged hefty donations from wealthy British pro-Israel lobbyists to advance a radical right-wing agenda at home and a rogue pro-Israel foreign policy abroad.

While Fox and Werritty orchestrated clandestine schemes that bordered on criminality, Gordon acted as their man in Washington. Gordon’s public relations firm,J.D. Gordon Communications, was given a lucrative contract with Atlantic Bridge and still lists the group as one of his clients on his website. The amount Gordon was paid from the British-based group remains undisclosed. According to the blog Think Progress, Gordon was also a partner in a consulting firm, Gordon Cohen Strategies, which managed the US operations of Atlantic Bridge. Gordon’s business associate, Lee Cohen, was listed as the “Washington D.C. Director” of Atlantic Bridge while Werritty served as its executive director.

In October, the United Kingdom Charity Commission shut down Atlantic Bridge’s operations after it determined that the non-profit was no more than a tax-exempt shell for international corporate lobbyists. Fox was forced to step down from his post as defense chief. At the heart of the charges against Fox is that he allowed Werritty to escort him on as many as 18 government trips, giving his close friend access to highly sensitive meetings with foreign officials that may have compromised British national security and in any case was an illegal if not inappropriate relationship.

Those meetings included a chat with Meir Dagan, then the chief of Israel’s Mossad, at a national security conference in Israel discussing sanctions against Iran. Through his strangely intimate relationship with the Mossad, Werritty gained entrée to certain Iranian opposition groups, reportedly encouraging them to escalate their campaign against the Iranian regime.

 

‘Adbusters’ seeks right of reply to ‘NYT”s smear of anti-Semitism and fails to get it

Nov 05, 2011

Kalle Lasn

Kalle Lasn here with a story about how the New York Times refused to give Adbusters[which Lasn edits] the right of reply. Here is the chronology of what happened:

1. October 3 letter from Adbusters Kalle Lasn to the editor of the New York Times:

In the wake of the #OCCUPYWALLSTREET movement, the New York Times has twice taken a swipe at Adbusters magazine, originators of the event. David Brooks led the charge in his October 10 column, The Milquetoast Radicals, falsely accusing us of being anti-Jewish.

In an earlier column, Mr. Brooks said: “Jews are a famously accomplished group. They make up about 0.2 percent of the world population, but 54 percent of the world chess champions, 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureates … 37 percent of Academy Award-winning directors … 51 percent of Pulitzer Prize winners for nonfiction” and so on. And yet, in his October 10 column he found something insidious about an article Adbusters ran seven years ago pointing out that 50 percent of the prominent neocons surrounding the Bush administration were Jewish. Why the double standard, Mr. Brooks? How is this different?

Then on October 17, Joseph Berger’s Cries of Anti-Semitism, but Not at Zuccotti Park, quoted an article in a conservative magazine founded by the American Jewish Committee which alleged that “the main organizer behind the movement — Adbusters editor Kalle Lasn — has a history of anti-Jewish writing.” Mr. Berger, why are you uncritically passing on other people’s allegations? Why didn’t you do your own research and come up with your own conclusions?

Adbusters is best known for its deconstruction of advertising, discontent with neoclassical economics and provocative takes on hot button geopolitical issues like the Israeli apartheid in Palestine. I invite readers to visit our web site, leaf through our magazine, look up what we’ve said over the past twenty years and decide for themselves if we are motivated by anti-Semitism or a sense of justice.

It seems the real story here is that I have somehow upset the pro-Israel and anti-Palestine stance that the New York Times has taken over many years in some of its editorials, columns and especially with the reporting by Isabel Kershner and Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner. Mr. Bronner is married to an Israeli citizen and has a son who served in the Israeli army. Ms. Kershner also has deep ties to Israel. Their often ahistorical, context-free reporting is partly to blame for what Adbusters has called “the United States of Amnesia.”

I think a cultural shift, a more nuanced and balanced perspective on Israel/Palestine, is in order at one of the great newspapers of the world.

Kalle Lasn Editor in Chief, Adbusters Magazine

2. November 2, New York Times letters department replies:

Mr. Lasn: Your letter as submitted is much too long for our letters column and refers to columns/articles that are now 2 and 3 weeks old. We do acknowledge that you deserve a right of reply, and we’d be willing to consider a much shorter letter that is focused on these two paragraphs:

“Then on October 17, Joseph Berger’s Cries of Anti-Semitism, but Not at Zuccotti Park, quoted an article in a conservative magazine founded by the American Jewish Committee which alleged that “the main organizer behind the movement – Adbusters editor Kalle Lasn – has a history of anti-Jewish writing.” Mr. Berger, why are you uncritically passing on other people’s allegations? Why didn’t you do your own research and come up with your own conclusions?

Adbusters is best known for its deconstruction of advertising, discontent with neoclassical economics and provocative takes on hot button geopolitical issues like the Israeli apartheid in Palestine. I invite readers to visit our web site, leaf through our magazine, look up what we’ve said over the past twenty years and decide for themselves if we are motivated by anti-Semitism or a sense of justice.”

If you’re agreeable, we can edit your letter along those lines and send it to you for review and approval, as we do with all our letters.

Best,

Sue Mermelstein, Letters Dept.

3. November 2, Kalle Lasn letter:

Ms. Mermelstein,

David Brooks’ and Joe Bergers references to Adbusters’ and Kalle Lasn’s anti Jewishness and anti Semitism have caused considerable harm to both our reputations in one of the most prestigious newspapers in the world and therefore I do not think your usual strict rules about length and time delay should apply in this case.

I am not prepared to cut references to David Brooks nor the paragraph that points to a pro-Israel and anti-Palestine culture of bias at the Times without which the basic argument in my letter does not make sense.

I am prepared to work with you to crisp up my letter without losing its basic thrust and argument.

I request that you pass this matter by David Brooks, Joseph Berger and your executive editor and explain to them why it is necessary for us to have a full right of reply in order to salvage the reputation of Adbusters and Kalle Lasn which you have damaged and defamed in a journalistically sloppy way.

I request that, not you in the letters department, but your executive editor make a final decision on whether to run our letter.

Please let me know.

Sincerely,

Kalle Lasn,

Editor in Chief, Adbusters magazine

4. November 2, New York Times’ letters editor responds:

Dear Mr. Lasn:

Thank you for your note to Ms. Mermelstein.

We respect your request for a reply, but we also reserve the right to edit letters in accordance with our standards. We believe that only part of your letter meets those standards.

It is not up to Mr. Brooks, Mr. Berger or the executive editor to decide whether to run a letter.

Sincerely,

Thomas Feyer, Letters Editor

5. November 2, Lasn letter:

Mr. Feyer,

I agree that it is not up to Mr. Brooks or Mr. Berger to decide whether to run the letter — I just thought they should know that a letter has been submitted.

However, given the considerable damage done to the reputations of Adbusters and myself in this matter and the larger political implications this has about the culture of bias at the Times, I think it is appropriate for us to ask for this decision to be made, not by you in the Letters Department, but by your executive editor . . . and I again respectfully ask you to pass this matter by her.

Tell her that we think it would be grossly unfair and against all journalistic standards for the Times not to give Adbusters adequate right of reply in this particular case.

Sincerely,

Kalle Lasn, Editor in Chief, Adbusters magazine

6. November 2, Feyer response:

Dear Mr. Lasn:

There is a wall separating news and opinion at The Times, so the executive editor has no say in what the opinion pages run.

We are willing to give you a chance to respond, but you have to be willing to be edited according to our standards. Everything that appears in The Times is subject to editing.

Sincerely,

Thomas Feyer

7. November 2, Kalle Lasn’s final email, to which there has been no reply:

Mr. Feyer,

I suspect you are refusing to run our letter because it it would once again open up a debate about the anti-Palestine culture at the Times that you do not wish to have.

Seems you have no problem taking swipes at the reputation of Adbusters, but are now unwilling to give Adbusters our legitimate right of reply.

The “chance to respond” you are giving us is grossly fair . . . it forces us to run a substantially watered down version which leaves out the crux of our argument against Mr. Brooks And Mr. Berger and would thus merely perpetuate the myth that there is something anti Semitic about Adbusters and Kalle Lasn.

I request a legitimate right to respond along the lines of our original letter. You have a right to edit our letter but not to neuter it.

I hereby demand that you pass this matter by your executive editor.

sincerely, Kalle Lasn

Orthodox Jews’ spitting attacks on Christian clergy in Old City are now daily occurrence

Nov 05, 2011

Kate

and other news from Today in Palestine:

Land, property theft and destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Restriction on movement / Exile

Occupation authorities arrest Ya‘qub Abu Asab in Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 4 Nov — The Israeli occupation authorities on Friday at dawn detained Ya‘qub Abu Asab, an academic and a member of the national committee against exile. Abu Asab, who is pursuing postgraduate research in the management of institutions, was detained by Israeli occupation on several previous occasions
link to Palestinian Information Center

Israeli authorities intend to commence Al-Bustan demolitions
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 4 Nov — Silwanic has learnt that Israeli authorities intend to commence their heavily criticised program of demolition in Al-Bustan neighborhood of Silwan in the coming weeks. Authorities seek to clear vast swathes of Palestinian homes and property to make way for a ‘biblical garden’ as part of the City of David settlement project. The Jerusalem Municipality has been trying to market the biblical park project since 2005, promoting Al-Bustan as the original site of King Solomon’s park. “Al-Bustan”, which can be translated as ‘the garden’ in Arabic, has been cited as conclusive evidence.
link to silwanic.net

WATCH: Israel blasts route of wall near Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 4 Nov (40 seconds) — Residents of Bethlehem awoke to loud blasts Thursday as Israeli construction crews dynamited a planned route of the separation wall through a nearby village … The construction is for a controversial separation wall cutting off the village of Walaja, which abuts an Israeli settlement outside Bethlehem, from other parts of the occupied West Bank.
link to www.maannews.net

So much for freedom of religion
Pilgrims: Israel stops freed prisoners at border
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 4 Nov — Israeli authorities on Friday barred passage of a bus taking released prisoners from the West Bank to make pilgrimage to Mecca, passengers said. Raed Amer, traveling with the group of 86 pilgrims recently freed from Israeli jails in a exchange deal with Hamas, said Israeli forces stopped the buses and forced them to return to the city of Jericho. Amer protested Israel’s continued “punishment” of former detainees by banning them from praying in the holy city of Mecca during the Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha, which begins Sunday.
link to www.maannews.net

Gaza

Officials prepare Rafah for prisoners making Hajj
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 Nov — Officials at the Rafah border crossing are facilitating arrangements for recently released prisoners to make the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the interior ministry in Gaza said.  Crossings officials at Rafah terminal on Gaza’s border with Egypt have been working since Wednesday evening to prepare passports and visas for the prisoners, the ministry said, adding that pilgrims would be able to leave Thursday evening or Friday morning.  Rafah crossing is the only entry and exit point from the Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel. Palestinian Authority religious affairs minister Mahmoud Habash announced Wednesday that Saudi King Abdullah invited 477 released prisoners to perform Hajj, an Islamic obligation. [Hajj is Nov 4-9 this year]
link to www.maannews.net

Israeli drone targets area in northern Gaza
GAZA  (WAFA) 3 Nov — An Israeli drone Thursday launched missile fire targeting an area northwest of the town of Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza strip, according to local sources. Sources said an Israeli drone targeted a group of Gazans during confrontations in response to Israeli soldiers’ incursion into the area, which led to the destruction of a water well used for agricultural purposes. The area was later heavily shelled by Israeli military tanks stationed at the border. There were no reports of any injuries.
link to english.wafa.ps

Occupation opens dams flooding Palestinian homes in Abasan
GAZA, (PIC) 4 Nov — Israeli occupation authorities opened water dams at Sanati to the east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip causing the flooding of Palestinian homes in the town of Abasan al-Kabira. The mayor of Abasan, Mustafa al-Shawwaf, told Safa news agency 8 homes in the town were flooded to a height of 70 to 90 cm, and that residents of those homes are being evacuated. Many streets in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, were also flooded as a result of torrential rain that  fell all night in the area.
link to occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com

Gaza airstrikes destroy olive groves / Ruqaya Issidien
Al-Akhbar 4 Nov — Gaza- Last week, 12 Palestinians and one Israeli were killed during a three day round of cross-border attacks on Gaza. Beyond the loss of life, Israel’s airstrikes also wrought long lasting damage on Palestinians’ livelihoods dependent on olive cultivation. On Sunday October 30, at 3am, an F-16 shelled an olive grove in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, destroying over 40 trees and leaving a crater five metres deep and twice as wide.

Sufyan Musa, whose family has owned the farm for over 50 years, explained: “It’s like the farm was hit by an earthquake, and now there is nothing; no farm, no yield, no point.”
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Photoblog: The story of Gaza’s olive oil / Ruqaya Issidien
Al-Akhbar 4 Nov — Gazan olive oil used to be considered amongst the most luxurious in the world. Today, the blockade and attacks on agricultural land have reduced the quantity and quality of oil to a shadow of its former status. But Gazan farmers are keen to keep the tradition, and the oil, running.
The olives are either handpicked or beaten with sticks and drop to tarpaulin below. They are then scooped into bags and taken to be squeezed in one of the few olive presses in Gaza.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Army: Rocket from Gaza lands in Israel
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 4 Nov — Israel’s army says a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck open territory in the Hof Ashkelon regional council late Friday. There were no reports of injury or damage.
link to www.maannews.net

Twilight Zone: Grad land / Gideon Levy
Haaretz 4 Nov — …A row of burnt cars stretches across the scorched parking area, wrapped in plastic and adorned with Israel Police ribbons, as though they are surprise gifts. Two days after the Grad missiles struck, employees of Window and Door – which does glass and aluminum work – and of Shai’s Shutters are busy taking apart all the windows on the facade of this seven-story apartment building … Two days after the tragedy, quiet and equanimity are apparent in all the places that were hit by rockets and missiles – Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gan Yavne. A small war that again erupted for a moment and was immediately capped, something the residents of this area have somehow got used to. The order of things is also, by now, routine: A Grad hits an open area, 10 or 20 Palestinian “activists” are assassinated in revenge, followed by a few more revenge volleys resulting in one Israeli fatality, then quiet until the next round, in the unending blood game of “whose is bigger.”
link to www.haaretz.com

Israeli’s selective blockade of the Gaza Strip / Mya Guarnieri
972mag 4 Nov — Four things Israel doesn’t want you to know about the blockade of the Gaza Strip — According to the “IDFSpokesperson” account on Twitter, “Gaza is under a maritime security blockade according to international law.” The two-boat flotilla known as “Freedom Waves to Gaza,” is, according to the same Twitter feed a “provocatilla.” Setting aside the issue of whether or not the blockade is legal–and I don’t believe that is — here’s what the IDF fails to mention when it starts issuing statements about the blockade: 1) In August of 2008 and October of the same year, boats manned by activists reached Gaza, breaking the blockade that Israel is now so intent on enforcing. 2) Israel itself selectively breaks the blockade when it needs or wants to. Take, for example, the recent decision to import palm fronds from Gaza for Sukkot 3) Even though both the Israeli government and the mainstream media claims that the blockade began in 2007, the closure of Gaza was a gradual process that started in 1991..
link to 972mag.com

Miles of Smiles 7 enters Gaza
IMEMC 4 Nov — The Miles of Smiles 7 solidarity convoy made it in the Gaza Strip on Thursday after crossing through the Rafah Border Terminal between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Issam Yousef, convoy coordinator, stated that the convoy carried more than 30 types of medications not found in Gaza due to the ongoing Israeli siege, 120 power-chairs, handicapped-friendly transport vehicles, and other essential medical supplies. Approximately 100 persons, from various Arab and European countries, (Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Algeria, France, and Britain) participated in the convoy.
link to www.imemc.org

Haniyeh says committed to safety of Gaza Christians
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 2 Nov — Ismail Haniyeh told Father Hammam Ashzoz, the chargé d’affaires of the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, that it is “their right, and our obligation” to ensure that Gaza’s 3,000 Christians are free to practice their religion … Muslims and Christians in Palestine share “one goal and a common destiny,” he said. Haniyeh congratulated Christians upon the release of Chris Bandak, a Bethlehem-born member of Fatah’s armed wing who was released to Gaza in the Israel-Hamas prisoner swap.
link to www.maannews.net

Gaza: 180 prisoners to be released on Eid al-Adha
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 3 Nov — The government in Gaza will release 180 prisoners for the Eid al-Adha holiday, the interior minister said Thursday. Fathi Hammad said 120 of the prisoners will be returned to jail after the holiday, which starts on Sunday subject to lunar sighting.
link to www.maannews.net

Israeli forces’ attacks, raids, incursions

PCHR weekly report: 12 fighters killed; 5 fighters, 4 civilians wounded by Israeli forces this week 27 Oct – 2 Nov
4 Nov — … Israeli war planes launched 17 air strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip.
A country house, a room and two containers were destroyed and a number of houses, shops and fields were damaged … Israeli naval troops arrested two Palestinian fishermen .. Israeli forces conducted 56 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they abducted 8 Palestinians. In addition, Israeli soldiers abducted 5 Palestinian civilians, including a child, at various checkpoints in the West Bank. In one instance, Israeli forces used a dog to attack a Palestinian civilian… Full text of the report
link to www.imemc.org

Hebron copes with self-deifying Israeli military and its settlers
ISM 3 Nov by Alistair George — The streets of Tel Rumeida are locked-down and divided; physically occupied by a forceful Israeli military.  For the Palestinian community living in this part of H2, Israeli-controlled Hebron, military occupation is an inescapable intrusion into everyday reality … Movement around H2 is severely restricted.  In some streets Palestinians are allowed to walk but not drive, forcing them to manually lug heavy supplies such as gas canisters and food.  Even ambulances are not allowed to drive through certain areas.  Palestinians are forbidden from passing through some streets by car or by foot … However, despite the enduring hardship in Tel Rumeida, resistance to the Israeli occupation remains strong.  The ‘Study and Challenge Centre’ is located on Palestinian land that is surrounded by four Israeli settlements – the closest of which is only metres from the rear of the building …  The centre is a hub of nonviolent resistance and its existence is a testament to the spirit that exists in a beleaguered community under occupation.
link to palsolidarity.org

Soldiers ‘raid journalist’s home’ in Jericho
JERICHO (Ma‘an) 4 Nov — A Palestinian journalist says Israeli forces raided his house on Wednesday in a Jericho refugee camp. Adel Ibrahim Abu Nimeh said soldiers held his family in a room while they searched his house in Aqaba refugee camp, filing through his papers and documents. Abu Nimeh, a reporter for Al-Hayat al-Jadida, said the soldiers terrified his family members.
link to www.maannews.net

Detention

Researcher: 23 lawmakers in Israeli custody
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 2 Nov — Israel holds 23 Palestinian lawmakers in its prisons, a researcher in prisoners affairs said Wednesday. Riyad al-Ashqar said the arrest of Hassan Yousef on Tuesday brought the total up to 23, in addition to two former ministers. Yousef spent six years in Israeli prison, and was released months ago before soldiers seized him again for belonging to Hamas. Israeli authorities have also sentenced lawmaker Jamal Tirawi to 30 years in prison. All but three of the MPs have been placed in administrative detention, al-Ashqar says. [End]
link to www.maannews.net

Prison administration ‘closes medical section’
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 3 Nov — The Israeli prison administration closed Thursday a section for sick detainees in Ramle prison hospital and isolated two representatives of the prisoners for demonstrating against the decision. The Fatah information department said the prison administration closed the section and moved 22 sick prisoners who were being treated to four small rooms with no kitchens or other facilities.