American Patriotism in Disgrace

American Patriotism: Waiting for a Tomorrow




Land of the Free and Home of the Brave?



Think you got it bad?




America: Murder, Torture, Rape is on the Menu too many Allegations from Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine to Somalia






Being a Muslim doesn't make you a Terrorist!


Have you had your finger’s cut off and then your body torn in half by two American tank's, lately?
(American Military in Afghanistan towards the civilian population)

A Quiet Neighborhood: How the Right Wing Tried to Suppress Our Anti-War Message

by Stephen Pearcy November 22, 2006

When public support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq was at its peak, my wife and I voiced our dissent in a very public way. For that, we were demonized by the media and attacked by conservative hate mongers. See the 30-minute video showing the story the way it should have been reported--i.e., without a right wing spin!

The story of Stephen and Virginia Pearcy. February 15th, 2005. Poltical dissent and free speech issues. "Bush Lied, I Died" symbol at the heart of the controversy, in which media and the right wing reacted to the sign and generally misunderstood its meaning. In classrooms, this video could be used to start discussion about current issues, and gives insight to the difference between an event in reality and how different it comes across to the viewer when presented on the media.

Regardless of opinions or political position, this video can be used as a springboard for open discussion on important issues such as war, types of wars, history shaping the present, free speech, political dissent, radio,television,and newspaper media reporting, symbolism, and political groups.

Their Story...


September 24, 2005

Stephen Pearcy Reports: "Another of our 'Bush Lied, I Died' soldier displays was ripped down and stolen yesterday from our Land Park (Sacramento) home. This is the 4th time in the last 8 months that this has happened, and the 2nd time in less than a month." Since February, their home has been attacked in several other ways: Their cars, their guests' cars, and their house have been egged on several occasions; Bush re-election stickers have been affixed to their living room window; their house was fired upon with multiple rounds of paint balls at 2am; US Marine stickers were affixed to several windows on their house; a shovel was stuck in the middle of their front lawn between two orange cones spaced about 7 feet across from one-another (the way a grave site is marked for digging in a cemetery); numerous "hate" letters have arrived in the mail; numerous threats have been left on their answering machine; they have received numerous annoying hang-up calls; garbage has been thrown on their lawn on many occasions (McDonalds bags, beer bottles, etc.); someone subscribed them to about 40 different magazines; police have mysteriously and inexplicably gone to their house while they were at work in Berkeley; and more.

Stephen Pearcy tried to get information about one of the vandals by using Craig's List, but his posts have repeatedly been "flagged" and removed. When he complained to Craig, the Craigslist CEO (Jim Buckmaster) emailed him back and accused him of berating them and said he should use someone else's site. Pearcy has asked supporters to email Craig to encourage him not to allow flaggers to thwart his attempts to identify the right-wing vandals. Craigslist people, however, have continued to allow the flagging. Stephen and Virginia Pearcy had planned to spend vacation time together away from their home by participating in activities such as the anti-war protest in San Francisco, but they have been discouraged by the lack of official support for their battle to get the criminal justice system to help them. He wrote, "We're getting a bit tired and disappointed." Read more

Holiday Music 2006

Little Pink Boat on the Blue Glass Sea

Banana Song

December 9, 2006

by Housewife4Palestine

The world these days is a big heartache and the growth of so many people that would rather deceive reality then be honest.

With poverty on the increase, playing with taxes before the republicans are shoved out the door on decision making, wars, murders and just so much lack of harmony in the world; it makes you wonder what kind of legacy is being laid for our children’s future?

One thing about being pregnant, it is true from what I see that the baby within you does influence you, not just in what food’s you crave but what you seem to notice around you that you wouldn’t think to see as an adult. To me it is the innocence we seem to grow out of when we get burdened with the work, bills and so forth in life; not the beauty of the little pink boat on the blue glass sea.

Even with so much greed to the point of destruction reminds of the child that does not like to share or wishes what the other child just got as a gift. “Give it to me or I will knock you in the head with my Tonka truck,” selfishness that needs to be learned into sharing and appreciating.

A lot of the basic’s I think that people share the world over and hold dear to their hearts is the same as you have, the wish for happiness, love, safety, enough food to eat and just seeing the many color’s in the sunset every evening.

I am sure you are thinking where is she going with this? It is time to start appreciating you life, look a little towards the innocence you think you have forgotten and let us start living again with a smile, a little laughter; instead of the sadness and heartache, we have now.

Zionism: Pitting the West against Islam

by Professor M. Shahid Alam

December 5, 2006

The history of Israel has often been read as the saga of a people marked for extinction, who emerged from Nazi death camps -- from Auschwitz, Belzec and Treblinka -- to establish their own country in 1948.

Without taking away anything from the sufferings of European Jews, I will insist that this way of thinking about Israel -- apart from its mythologizing -- has merit only as a partisan narrative. It seeks to insulate Israel against the charge of a devastating colonization by falsifying history, by camouflaging the imperialist dynamics that brought it into existence, and denying the perilous future with which it now confronts the Jews, the West and the Islamic world.

When we examine the consequences that have flowed from the creation of Israel, when we contemplate the greater horrors that may yet flow from the logic of Zionism, Israel's triumphs appear in a different light. We are forced to examine these triumphs with growing dread and incredulity. Israel's early triumphs, though real from a narrow Zionist standpoint, have slowly mutated by a fateful process into ever-widening circles of conflict that now threaten to escalate into major wars between the West and Islam. Although this conflict has its source in colonial ambitions, the dialectics of this conflict have slowly endowed it with the force and rhetoric of a civilizational war: and perhaps worse, a religious war. This is the tragedy of Israel. It is not a fortuitous tragedy. Driven by history, chance and cunning, the Zionists wedged themselves between two historical adversaries, the West and Islam, and by harnessing the strength of the first against the second, it has produced the conditions of a conflict that has grown deeper over time.

Zionist historiography describes the emergence of Israel as a triumph over Europe's centuries-old anti-Semitism, in particular over its twentieth-century manifestation, the demonic, industrial plan of the Nazis to stamp out the existence of the Jewish people. But this is a tendentious reading of Zionist history: it obscures the historic offer Zionism made to the West -- the offer to rid the West of its Jews, to lead them out of Christendom into Islamic Palestine. In offering to 'cleanse' the West of the 'hated Jews', the Zionists were working with the anti-Semites, not against them. Theodore Herzl, the founding father of Zionism, had a clear understanding of this complementarity between Zionism and anti-Semitism; and he was convinced that Zionism would prevail only if anti-Semitic Europe could be persuaded to work for its success. It is true that Jews and anti-Semites have been historical adversaries, that Jews have been the victims of Europe's religious vendetta since Rome first embraced Christianity. However, Zionism would enter into a new relationship with anti-Semitism that would work to the advantage of Jews. The insertion of the Zionist idea in the Western discourse would work a profound change in the relationship between Western Jews and Gentiles. In order to succeed, the Zionists would have to create a new adversary, common to the West and the Jews. In choosing to locate their colonial-settler state in Palestine -- and not in Uganda or Argentina -- the Zionists had also chosen an adversary that would deepen their partnership with the West. The Islamic world was a great deal more likely to energize the West's imperialist ambitions and evangelical zeal than Africa or Latin America.

Israel was the product of a partnership that seems unlikely at first blush, between Western Jews and the Western world. It is the powerful alchemy of the Zionist idea that created this partnership. The Zionist project to create a Jewish entity in Palestine possessed the unique power to convert two historical antagonists, Jews and Gentiles, into allies united in a common imperialist enterprise against the Islamic world. The Zionists harnessed the negative energies of the Western world -- its imperialism, its anti-Semitism, its crusading nostalgia, its anti-Islamic bigotry, and its deep racism -- and focused them on a new imperialist project, the creation of a Western surrogate state in the Islamic heartland. To the West's imperialist ambitions, this new colonial project offered a variety of strategic advantages. Israel would be located in the heart of the Islamic world; it would sit astride the junction of Asia, Africa and Europe; it would guard Europe's gateway to the Indian Ocean; and it could monitor developments in the Persian Gulf with its vast reserves of oil. For the West as well as Europe's Jews, this was a creative moment: indeed, it was a historical opportunity. For European Jews, it was a stroke of brilliance. Zionism was going to leverage Western power in their cause. As the Zionist plan would unfold, inflicting pain on the Islamic world, evoking Islamic anger against the West and Jews, the complementarities between the two would deepen. In time, new complementarities would be discovered -- or created -- between the two antagonist strains of Western history. In the United States, the Zionist movement would give encouragement to evangelical Protestants -- who looked upon the birth of Israel as the fulfillment of end-time prophecies -- and convert them into fanatic partisans of Zionism. In addition, Western civilization, which had hitherto traced its central ideas and institutions to Rome and Athens, would be repackaged as a Judeo-Christian civilization. This reframing not only underscores the Jewish roots of the Western world, it also makes a point of emphasizing that Islam is the outsider, the adversary.

Zionism owes its success solely to this unlikely partnership. On their own, the Zionists could not have gone anywhere. They could not have created Israel by bribing or coercing the Ottomans into granting them a charter to colonize Palestine. Despite his offers of loans, investments, technology and diplomatic expertise, Theodore Herzl was repeatedly rebuffed by the Ottoman sultan. It is even less likely that the Zionists could at any time have mobilized a Jewish army in Europe to invade and occupy Palestine, against Ottoman and Arab opposition to the creation of a Jewish entity on Islamic lands. The Zionist partnership with the West was indispensable for the creation of a Jewish entity. This partnership was also fateful. It produced a powerful new dialectic, which has encouraged Israel, both as the political center of the Jewish Diaspora and the chief outpost of the West in the heart of the Islamic world, to become more daring in its designs against the Islamic world and beyond. In turn, a wounded and humiliated Islamic world, more resentful and determined after every defeat, has been driven to embrace increasingly radical ideas and methods to recover its dignity and power -- and to attain this recovery on the strength of Islamic ideas. This destabilizing dialectic has now brought the West itself into a direct confrontation against the Islamic world. We are now staring into the precipice. Yet do we possess the will to pull back from it?
---------------------------------------------
M. Shahid Alam is a professor of economics at Northeastern University in Boston and author of Challenging the New Orientalism: Dissenting Essays on America's 'War Against Islam'.

Western Democracy How Far Will It Go?

Commentary

by Housewife4Palestine

It is a horrible situation whether you agree or not with certain eliminates of politics to watch it fall apart into not just chaos but utter degradation.

I will admit, I have never been one to clutch disaster; but to the contrary.

But just since I have been writing and doing observing, I have watched Western Democracy and the vermin it seems to be breeding falling into no less then the black plague type of scenario and it is getting to the point of collapsing block by block like a child throwing their toys?

Especially if the current progression continues, it will be like walking from the State of Rome to the Dark Ages and no one seemed to care.

Link:

The Surreal Politics of Premeditated War

President Bush Meets with British Prime Minister Tony Blair

Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building

President George W. Bush responds to a question during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2006, in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building. White House photo by Eric Draper

December 7, 2006

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you all. Please be seated. I just had a good visit with Prime Minister Tony Blair. I appreciate you coming back, Mr. Prime Minister. I always enjoy our discussions, and I appreciate your clear view that we are confronted with a struggle between moderation and extremism. And this is particularly evident in the broader Middle East.

White House Transcript

Bush and Blair answering those tough questions?

Living With Israeli Occupation Towards Forced Immigration?

Would you live this way?

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)

We will break the siege to reach Schools.

30 Nov.- 06 Dec. 2006

*4 Palestinians civilians, including two children, were killed by IOF in the West Bank, and a child died from a previous wound in the Gaza Strip.

*13 Palestinian civilians, including 7 children, were wounded by IOF.

*IOF conducted 37 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

*IOF arrested 117 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children and a woman.

*IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT; IOF arrested 8 Palestinian civilians, including a child, at checkpoints in the West Bank

*Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property in the OPT; a Palestinian child was seriously wounded in Hebron, and IOF destroyed 4 houses and 4 civilian establishments in Qalqilya and Bethlehem.

Summary

Taliban attack US Humvee with IED

December 7, 2006

Filmed near Gadyala, vehicle was assigned to 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division

UN and partners launch largest ever appeal for emergency aid for Palestinians: call for $453 million

Palestinians are becoming more vulnerable (MaanImages)

December 8, 2006

Ma'an - UN - Twelve United Nations agencies, together with 14 non-governmental agencies launched on 7 December 2006 their largest ever appeal for emergency aid to the occupied Palestinian territory – more than $453 million – to help address a rapidly deteriorating situation after donors cut off funds to the Palestinian government when Hamas, which rejects the state of Israel’s right to exist, won the Palestinian legislative elections earlier this year.

This appeal is the largest emergency appeal ever launched in the occupied Palestinian territory, the UN says, and the third largest ever worldwide.

"We have been compelled to launch a larger Appeal in the face of the increased need among the Palestinian population", said Kevin Kennedy, the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator, in a press release from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs . "It is particularly aimed at assisting the most vulnerable Palestinians, including children who make up about half of the population".

“Two-thirds of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are now living in poverty. Growing numbers of people are unable to cover their daily food needs and agencies report that basic services such as health care and education are deteriorating and set to worsen much further,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator Kevin Kennedy is quoted as saying in the joint UN press release, noting that children make up about half of the population of some 4 million.

The press release continues: "The $453.6 million sought by 12 UN agencies together with 14 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the occupied Palestinian territory for 2007 is only exceeded by the $1.2 billion requested for Sudan and $687 million for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

"The rapid deterioration is linked with the fiscal crisis facing the Palestinian Authority that has been unable to pay its 160,000 staff, who support another 1 million family members. In addition, Palestinians are subject to increasing restrictions on their freedom of movement through Israeli security measures, limiting their access to jobs, markets, health services and schools.

"Most of the funding will go towards addressing poverty through emergency employment programmes, and expanding food and agricultural aid. Agencies will also support the Palestinian institutions that deliver health, education and psycho-social services.

“Humanitarian assistance can cushion a deteriorating situation, but it ultimately cannot stop the decline,” David Shearer, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told the UN News Service.

“Ultimately only a political settlement can generate a significant improvement. We are anxious to help the most needy maintain their dignity and have income. But the humanitarian community is not in a position to provide the full range services offered by the Palestinian Authority, and has no ambitions to do so,” he added.

"Karen Koning AbuZayd, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has been caring for Palestinian refugees since 1949, said the loss of life, livelihood and security in the territory is most distressing. “It is increasingly difficult for people to cope in such a volatile and unpredictable environment,” she added.

“We must go beyond this crisis to be able to help people regain the hope and optimism required for building a stable future. Providing the support outlined in this appeal will be a large step in the right direction.”

"After Hamas, which is dedicated Israel’s destruction, won elections in January, Israel stopped handing over tax and customs revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, and international donors suspended direct aid, calling on Hamas to commit to non-violence, recognize Israel and accept previously signed agreements between Israel and the Palestinians."

The UN's OCHA office says, "Most of the 2007 emergency funding sought will go towards addressing poverty through emergency employment programmes, and expanding food and agricultural aid. Agencies will also support the Palestinian institutions that deliver health, education and psycho-social services. This year's Appeal also includes a new protection sector in response to the increased death toll and vulnerability of Palestinian civilians. "

The Zombies

Why is Israel separating me from my wife?

Ghassan Abdullah writing from Ramallah, occupied Palestine, 6 December 2006

Anita Abdullah at her home in the Al-Bireh area of Ramallah.

Israel has decreed that my wife and I can no longer live together. I am Palestinian and she is Swiss and we have been married for 28 years. She was recently given two weeks to leave the occupied Palestinian territory. The Israeli Ministry of Interior wrote on her Swiss passport: "LAST PERMIT." We have been living together in Ramallah for 12 years. We came in 1994, when, after the Oslo Agreement, we were encouraged to move to the West Bank by the prospect of 'peace' and development.

My wife Anita speaks Arabic, likes the landscape, cooks Arabic meals, and she cares for my grandfather's village house -- an old stone building and the plants around it -- more than I do. She votes in Palestinian elections as the spouse of a Palestinian. She is active in serving the local society in public health. She has numerous friends here and considers it home. She still has her valuable European element and contacts, but she doesn't want to be separated from this environment or from me, and I certainly do not want to be separated from her. Our children are grown up and work abroad, but they are also not sure they will be allowed to visit us here. On her way to visit us in Ramallah a few months ago, our daughter, who has a Swiss passport, was delayed for six hours at Tel Aviv airport and grilled when she landed. She was lucky. Others are deported to where they took off from, often spending a night or more at the notorious detention 'facility' at the airport.

For the past 12 years, Anita has managed to stay here by diligently renewing her permit or leaving and coming back every three or six months to comply with the Israeli 'law' that applies in the occupied Palestinian territories. She is fighting now to stay here by going to a lawyer and to the Israeli courts, hoping for an injunction to be able to stay until a verdict is reached. She is also in touch with her embassy, and she has joined others in the same predicament in addressing the European Union and the American consulate, and in talking to human rights organizations, both Israeli and Palestinian, and the media.

We don't know what to do. But whatever it is, we have to do it quickly. What do we do about our shared life, our papers and accounts, the hundreds of little things that we have grown to share? What do we do about the new apartment that we made the 'mistake' of purchasing at the wrong time? She was keyed up about what tiles to choose and how to model the kitchen. We can't believe, or accept, that we are going to be separated. We believe it though, when we are reminded by other 'mixed' couples or families around us who have, and are being, separated.

Anita's visa, marked "Last Permit" in upper left corner (highlighted).

Since last spring, the Israeli occupation authorities have been increasing the squeeze on holders of foreign passports by denying them entry into the Palestinian areas. Those affected include Palestinians with foreign passports or foreign wives, husbands, children, parents and other relatives. They also include foreign nationals, who come to teach at universities, work or volunteer with local or foreign non-governmental organizations, experts with various projects often funded by European countries, sympathizers or human rights activists.

Bitakhon is the magic word in Israel. In the name of bitakhon, or security, Israeli authorities can take any illegal, inhuman, immoral or aggressive measures against the Palestinian population under military occupation. They can throw the word bitakhon at any European or foreign diplomat who questions any of their measures, even when those measures go against human rights, international and humanitarian law, or the Fourth Geneva Conventions which govern the conduct of occupying powers towards the occupied population. It seems sometimes, to Palestinians, that a third rate official at any Israeli ministry can frighten the whole of the European Union and its officials by invoking the 'security' of Israelis, or by hinting at what Europe did to the Jews.

My wife is not the only one to have been given an ultimatum this last week. Dozens of other wives, husbands and children who have been living in the West Bank for years, renewing their Israeli-issued 'visitors' permits every three months, have been given short extensions, none of which exceed the end of this year. Children will have to be taken out of schools and will be separated from their parents. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and grandparents of the cherished local extended families will be torn apart. Hundreds of others are also waiting their fate in the coming days and weeks. Thousands have been denied visits this last summer to their families and homes and roots. Summer is often the season for marriage of Palestinians divided by different passports or IDs and festivities used to fill the summer nights with music and dance. Not in the summer of 2006.

The Israeli occupation does not stop at confiscating the land. I feel occupied in my shirt pocket. My 'Palestinian' identity card is issued by Israeli authorities. They control the Palestinian civil population registry. Every birth, death, marriage, travels in or out, is controlled by Israel -- even in Gaza, disengagement withstanding. Of course, they control the water, the roads and the movement of people within the West Bank through hundreds of barriers and checkpoints. They uproot all the trees that they decide are in their way, that are in the way of the Apartheid Wall cutting its way into the flesh of our land, or in the way of their colonial settlers who decide to take over yet another spot of land or hill top that pleases them.

Why are the Israelis attacking mixed marriages of Palestinians? Before people fall in love in Palestine now, they ask about what ID each holds and from where it is issued. They do not want to build a life at risk of being torn apart from the start.

Muzaini: Shalit won't be released unless Israel meets captors' demands

December 7, 2006

Gaza - Hamas' prominent political leader Dr. Osama Al-Muzaini has affirmed that captured IOF serviceman Gilad Shalit will not be released unless Israeli occupation government heeded demands set forth by his captors to free Palestinian women and children inmates in Israeli jails.

Shalit was captured in an armed operation carried out by three Palestinian armed wings namely the Qassam Brigades of Hamas, the PRC's armed wing, and Army of Islam last June near the Kerem Shalom crossing point.

In this regard, Muzaini asserted that captors of Shalit will not soften their stands on the "just" demands they have made, noting that Hamas Movement has displayed a lot of flexibility to conclude the swap deal.

The captors of Shalit, according to Muzaini, want 1,400 Palestinian prisoners freed in return for the corporal's freedom. He explained that Hamas agreed to releasing 500 Palestinian inmates serving long-imprisonment terms in the first batch in addition to 400 women and children inmates before the release of 500 prisoners a month later.

Moreover, Muzaini asserted that those demands were the least the Palestinian people could ask for the sake of the heroic Palestinian inmates in Israeli jails; but he revealed that Israel's reply to chief of Egypt's intelligence Omar Suleiman on those demands proves that Israel was derailing the swap deal. He affirmed, however, that negotiations will not stop.

"Shalit is in our hands, and he will remain in our hands until our demands are met" Muzaini stressed.

Muzaini's affirmations were seconded by Abu Mujahid, the spokesman of the PRC, adding that captors of Shalit will not reduce level of their demands at all cost.

"Any swap deal that excludes women, children, and sick inmates in addition to those serving long-jail-terms will not be accepted", he confirmed in a statement to the PIC.

He emphasized that the "captors of Shalit can retain this file for years and not only months, as they are very patient until Israel shows responsibility and heeds those Palestinian humanitarian demands if it indeed wants its soldier back unharmed".

Bush on Censoring Photos of Coffins

The Bush administration's policy of censoring photos of coffins of US soldiers is hiding the truth from the American people

(Amjad Rasmi, Arab News, 4/29/04).

Uncle Sam Bribing History

المرتشون يدخلون النار ! ... bribe would go to hell !

Iraq report seeks 2008 withdrawal

December 6, 2006

A bi-partisan top-level report has advised the withdrawal of most US combat troops from Iraq by early 2008.

The Iraq Study Group also recommended the US engage with Iran and Syria over the conflict.

It calls for direct talks between Israel and Syria as part of a revived US commitment to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace "on all fronts".

The report was presented to George Bush by James Baker earlier on Wednesday

The report said: "By the first quarter of 2008, subject to unexpected developments in the security situation on the ground, all combat brigades not necessary for force protection could be out of Iraq."

George Bush, the US president, said he would take the long-awaited report "very seriously".

The panel, co-chaired by James Baker, a former US secretary of state, said the main mission of US troops in Iraq "should evolve to one of supporting the Iraqi army, which would take over primary responsibility for combat operations".

"The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating," the five Republicans and five Democrats in the group said in the report.

"There is no magic formula to solve the problems of Iraq."

'Rough waters'

At a press conference in Washington following the official release of the report, Lee Hamilton, the Democrat vice-chair of the panel, said:

"Our ship of state has hit rough waters, it must now chart a new way forward."If the Iraqi government does not make substantial progress in achieving milestones ... the US should reduce its military, political and economic support.

Q&A: Iraq Study Group

"The US must not make an open-ended commitment to keep large numbers of troops in Iraq."

Baker said US policy "must be focused more broadly than on military strategy alone or on Iraq alone".

Read: IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT

He called on officials in Washington to seek the "active and constructive engagement of all governments that have an interest in avoiding chaos in Iraq - including all of Iraq's neighbours."

Questions raised

Marwan Kabalan, a political analyst at Damascus University, told Al Jazeera that a closer relationship with the US "would be a welcome development".

Syria has been saying that it is a key regional player. It could help by talking to its allies and friends in Iraq and could urge them to lay down their arms."

Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Al Jazeera's Iraq correspondent, says that the major question raised by the report is how Iraqi security services can be trained in time for the proposed withdrawal.

Sectarian killing in Iraq is spiralling out of control

"Only about one-third of the army is capable of doing its job - the police are not capable of doing their jobs and have been infiltrated by militias."

Violence continues

The conflict in Iraq, which is increasingly unpopular in the US, has lasted longer than US involvement in the second world war and killed more than 2,900 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Hundreds of Iraqis are being killed in sectarian violence every week, raising debate over whether the country has descended into civil war and whether the US-backed government of Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, can end the carnage.

In Baghdad on Wednesday fierce clashes erupted between armed Shia groups and residents of a Sunni neighbourhood in western Baghdad following a mortar barrage that wounded five people.

Mortar rounds fell on the central Midan district of the capital, killing 10 people and wounding 54.

Source

Links:

The Iraq Study Group's Cautious Appraisal

The Oil Connection in Iraq Study Group Report

Israel Installing a "Moderate" Palestinian Government?

Israeli politicians call for toppling PA government, installing another "moderate" one

December 5, 2006

Nazareth - One of the leading politicians of the Israeli ruling party "Kadima" has called for toppling the Hamas-led PA government and installing a new "moderate" one through supporting PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction.

The Hebrew radio quoted the Kadima MP, Otin'il Schnler, as asserting that the current PA government must be toppled and Tel Aviv should take part in the formation of an "alternative Palestinian government".

For his part, Binyamin Netanyahu, leader of the opposition Likud party, said that his party would adopt a new policy in fighting the Hamas-led government and would support the formation of a "moderate" one.

He championed continued military attacks on the Gaza Strip to wipe out what he called "terrorism" and advocated the closure of the Rafah terminal to block what he alleged was the smuggling of weapons into the Strip.

Haneyya: Palestine and Palestinian legal rights will remain as time remains

December 5, 2006

Damascus - PA premier Ismail Haneyya who is now in Syria has affirmed that the right of return of Palestinian refugees is a "sacred right" that will not be abandoned at all cost.

"I swear by the Almighty Allah that if the entire world pressures us to cede such right we will not do so at all cost", said Haneyya who was speaking Monday evening before tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the Syrian capital Damascus.

A number of Hamas political leaders and head of the various Palestinian resistance factions based in Syria attended Haneyya's speech.

"I assure you that Palestine and the Palestinian legal rights will remain as long as time remains. The Israeli occupation, although harsh, won't be able to distort the beautiful image of our country that will remain a trust in our hands and we shall not betray that trust", the PA premier further asserted.

He explained to the massive audience that his government, which assumed power in the PA after Hamas overwhelmingly won the legislative elections last January, had pledged to protect national constants and legal rights of the Palestinian people, to defend Palestinian resistance, to start the reform and change program and political partnership, and to return the Palestinian issue to its Arab and Islamic strategic depth among other pledges.

But, he added, the American administration and its international, regional, and local allies attempted to derail the change and reform wheel in Palestine in a bid to bury the Palestinian democracy that produced Hamas, and to prevent the victory of Hamas from having an impact on other states in the region.

Haneyya's government and resistance:
Furthermore, Haneyya affirmed that his government sanctioned the right of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation of their country without disarming, apprehending, or chasing any resistance fighter or tagging him as "terrorist".

"We are proud of providing the resistance with the political cover it needs", affirmed Haneyya.

Talking on arranging the Palestinian internal home, Haneyya explained that there were two files in this regard namely the PA unity government, and the restructuring of the PLO on new and firmer foundations to allow all Palestinian factions go under its umbrella, adding that Hamas is very much interested in joining the PLO after its reactivation.

Retreat in the last moments:
The PA premier, moreover, unveiled that there was a retreat on the part of Fatah faction and the PA presidency on previous understandings with Hamas at the last moments before finalizing talks on unity government.

He unmasked that both Fatah faction and the PA presidency insisted on having a government of technocrats after previously agreeing with Hamas to have a government reflecting the weight of each faction in the PLC as stipulated by the parliamentary customs.

Nonetheless, Haneyya asserted that none in the Palestinian arena should give pessimistic statements or bad omens for the Palestinian future if talks hit snags, adding that dialogue alone can amicably solve any inter-Palestinian dispute.

"We in the PA government shall protect the dialogue principle in the Palestinian arena, and we shall be the shelter that shields any inter-Palestinian dialogue with the aim to enhance elements of steadfastness and resoluteness within the Palestinian people", the prime minister underlined.

Giving file of rebuilding the PLO more attention, Haneyya confirmed that he will meet with heads of the Palestinian factions in Syria to deliberate on the matter and come up with the best suggestions and solutions to realize that national goal.

In conclusion, Haneyya vowed that his government will remain the safeguard of the Palestinian legal rights and national constants, and will protect the national unity of the Palestinian people against those "targeting it".

On his visit to Syria and the Syrian stand towards the Palestinian issue, Haneyya hailed the Syrian leadership for the generous support it is extending to the Palestinian people and Palestinian question.

He also discussed with Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad a number of issues pertaining to the Palestinian people, including according holders of the PA passports all the rights accorded to Arab nationals in Syria, and releasing all Palestinian prisoners in Syrian jails.

Meet Satar Jabar

Staff Sgt. Ivan “Chip” Frederick clips his fingernails as a detainee nicknamed “Gilligan” 11 p.m. on November 4, 2003. Testimony of Spec. Sabrina Harman to military investigators on January 15, 2004: “I put wires on his hand. I do not recall how. I was joking with him and told him if he fell off, he would get electrocuted.”

Introduction

by Housewife4Palestine

I have always wondered what this man’s alleged crime was and what his name was to be broadcast the world over with the most heinous picture of torture by the American Military at the time which so happened to came out of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

What was more interesting as it turns out his crime was not terrorism in any form, but rather Carjacking.

He was not a dangerous criminal in any manner, unless it was to hijack someone’s Alfa Romeo, so for Satar to be abused in this manner or anyone for that matter is irreprehensible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Background:

Satar Jabar was a prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison who was subjected to psychological torture while detained.

Jabar was not in Abu Ghraib on charges of terrorism, as is commonly believed, but rather for carjacking.

Jabar was hooded, positioned on a box, and had wires attached to both hands and his penis and was told that he would be electrocuted if he fell off. The army claims, however, that the wires were not live and that the prisoner at no time faced actual electrocution, only the threat thereof.

This was later contradicted by Jabar, who stated in an interview that the wires were electrified and had been used to give shocks.

The image of this event was one of the most prominent to be featured in the media coverage of the scandal and frequently reappeared as a symbol for the abuse within Abu Ghraib in various examples of political cartoons and politically driven graffiti.

His silhouette has already become an icon of abuse.

Scope of Truce

Hamas: The Truce include the West Bank and Israel should commit it

Peretz: Military operations in West Bank won’t stop


Four Palestinian killed and 130 were injured in 70 Zionist violations since the declared ceasefire in November 25 ,2006. The Palestinian Factions declared a ceasefire with the occupation forces after a meeting with the Prime Minister Ismael Haniya.

The Zionist minister claimed that the forces will continue killing because the Qassam fire did not stop.

However, the Palestinian Factions agreed a ceasfire conditioned with the stop of killing and injuring the Palestinians.

The Palestinian health Ministry reported that 122 Palestinians have been martyred and 560 have been injured during November , 2006. These victims were targeted during a big attack to the northern Gaza Strip. Some other were targeted in the West Bank.

Palestinian fighters survive assassination attempt

December 5, 2006

Beit Hanun - In the most serious IOF breach of the calm up to date, IOF troops fired a land-to-land missile at a group of Palestinian resistance fighters in Beit Hanun, north of the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday but failed to liquidate them as they escaped moments before the missile blasted their position.

Eyewitnesses said that the missile was fired from one of the IOF bases in the green line (Palestinian lands occupied 1948) at the group of Quds Brigades (Islamic Jihad Movement) fighters at the southern entrance of Beit Hanun city.

The fighters quickly evacuated the scene and none of them was injured, the locals reported.The IOF missile firing is the most serious violation of the ceasefire agreement between Palestinian resistance factions and Israel that went into effect ten days ago.

IOF sources claimed that the missile was fired at a group of fighters who were planning to fire homemade rockets at Israeli settlers adjacent to the Strip.

Meanwhile, in Ramallah the IOF troops encircled a building north of the city and searched its six floors in the hope of catching a resistance activist but could not find him and the operation ended in 35 minutes without arresting anyone.

Locals said that the soldiers fired sonic and gas bombs during the raid, which injured the Arabia TV network's cameraman Haithem Al-Omari in his feet as a result of the explosion of the one of the sonic bombs.

Talks over a prisoners' exchange deal stall due to definition of 'long-term prisoners'

A woman holds photos of imprisoned relatives(MaanImages)

December 5, 2006

Gaza - Hebron - Ma'an - Talks regarding a prisoners' exchange deal have stalled, the Palestinian minister of prisoners' affairs, Wasfi Qabaha, has confirmed.

Qabaha said that the reason for the deadlock is the inability to reach an agreement over the criteria for assigning the prisoners for release, and over the definition of long-term prisoners. The minister described the Israelis as "stubborn" in regard to the long-term prisoners, who the Palestinians are calling to be all released.

According to the Palestinian criteria, 'long-term prisoners' means prisoners who have spent more than 16 years in Israeli jail. These number 367 Palestinian prisoners. The minister said that the Palestinians are worried that the Israeli authorities are going to consider all prisoners who have spent five years or more behind bars as long-term prisoners, greatly increasing the numbers of prisoners to choose from to release. That also means leaving hundreds of other prisoners behind bars.

The minister said that Palestinians have received positive and encouraging signs from the Egyptians regarding a prisoners' exchange deal. He said that the Israelis have agreed to release prisoners at the same time as the captured Israeli soldier, Cpl Gilad Shalit, is released.

He said that this agreement will include the initial release of 400 Palestinian prisoners, including a large number of female prisoners and children. At that moment, the Egyptians will receive the captured Israeli soldier, Shalit, from Gaza. In addition, the Israelis will pledge to release another batch of prisoners once Shalit has been reunited with his family. This second batch will include imprisoned Palestinian leaders such as Marwan Barghouthi of Fatah and Ahmad Sa'adat of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In the third and final stage, the long-term prisoners will be released, according to the agreed criteria.

Mr. President, the America We Believe in Is Not Your America

ACLU

ISRAEL DEFENCE FORCE

Visit Not In His Name

Source

Freedom From the Press

(Click on Picture for Program)

UN declares that Israel's imposition of laws on Jerusalem are illegal and invalid

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a press conference earlier this year (MaanImages Archive)

December 4, 2006

Ma'an & UN sources - By traditionally wide margins, the United Nations General Assembly on Friday adopted a series of resolutions on the situation in the Middle East, sponsored by Arab and non-aligned delegations, including one text reaffirming the United Nations’ permanent responsibility regarding the question of Palestine, until the question is resolved in all its aspects and in accordance with international law.

The General Assembly passed several resolutions in favour of the right of Palestinians to self-determination and Israel's withdrawal from the Syrian Golan. On the resolution for the right of Palestinians to self-determination and an independent state, which stressed the need for Israel's withdrawal from the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, the resolution passed by a recorded 157 votes in favour to 7 against with 10 abstentions. The countries that voted against the resolution were Australia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and the United States. The assembly declared that achieving a just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine is the key to stability in the Middle East.

Speaking after the action, the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations thanked those who had voted in favour of the resolution, calling the 192-member Assembly’s overwhelmingly positive response yet another indication of the massive support part of the international community towards moving forward the peace process.

On the question of Jerusalem, the General Assembly was very firm, stating that, "any actions taken by Israel to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City are illegal and, therefore, null and void, and had no validity whatsoever." This resolution was passed by a recorded 157 in favour and 6 against.

The assembly also expressed its concern about Israel's illegal settlement activities – the "E-1 plan" in Jerusalem – the construction of the illegal separation wall in and around East Jerusalem, and the further isolation of the city from the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The Assembly declared that this action is, “having a detrimental effect on the lives of Palestinians and could prejudge a final status agreement on Jerusalem.” The Permanent Observer of Palestine thanked those who had supported the draft on Jerusalem, adding that the resolution was a step in the right direction.

In addition to resuming talks with Syria and Lebanon, and respecting commitments and undertakings reached during the previous talks, the Assembly also, once again, demanded Israel’s complete withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Golan to the 4 June 1967 line. This resolution was passed by a vote of 107 in favour to just 6 against.

The full resolution can be read at:

General Assembly
GA/10543

Rumsfeld admitted Iraq failings

Rumsfeld suggested reducing the number of US troops while increasing training for Iraqi forces

December 03, 2006

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, admitted two days before he resigned that US policy in Iraq was failing and recommended scaling back American operations there, according to a leaked memo to the White House.

He said in the document the US strategy in Iraq was "not working well enough or fast enough" and "needed a major adjustment".

Rumsfeld noted that the US mission had changed from "major combat operations, to counterterrorism, to counter-insurgency, to dealing with death squads and sectarian violence".

The document also outlined possible large reductions in troops in Iraq and drastic alterations to their mission.

"Stay the course"

In the document, first obtained by The New York Times and later confirmed by the Pentagon, Rumsfeld also suggested positioning "substantial US forces" near the Iranian and Syrian borders, saying they would "reduce infiltration and, importantly, reduce Iranian influence on the Iraqi government".

The memorandum's contents conflict with Rumsfeld's frequent calls in public for the US to "stay the course" in Iraq.

He also recommends a reduction of US bases in the country from 55 now to five by July next year.

Rumsfeld also recommended buying support from prominent figures in Iraq, saying the US should "provide money to key political and religious leaders ... to get them to help us through this difficult period".

Critics said that this could be divisive in Iraq as it is the same policy that was used by Saddam Hussein.

Asked by Al Jazzera what he thought of Rumsfled's suggestion of buying support from various elemets in Iraq, Wamid Nazmi, a professor at Baghdad university, said: "I think all patriotic forces in this country would decline to receive money from the army of occupation, and as far as the government and militias are concerned, I feel they are rich enough from American financial support, Iranin financial support and the diplomatic and financial support they get form so-called moderate arab regimes."

"Drawing down"

Although he argues for keeping special forces troops in the country "to target al-Qaeda, death squads, and Iranians", Rumsfeld's memo suggests "drawing down all other coalition forces".

He suggested that the White House should "... Withdraw US forces from vulnerable positions - cities, patrolling, etc - and move US forces to a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) status, operating from within Iraq and Kuwait, to be available when Iraqi security forces need assistance".

While clarifying that the withdrawal should be only "modest," he said the number of US trainers and advisers working with the fledgling Iraqi forces should "significantly increase".

The outgoing defence secretary also advocated punishing "bad behaviour" by provincial governments by taking away their reconstruction funding and providing troops "only for those provinces or cities that openly request US help and that actively co-operate".

The White House has refused to say whether George Bush, the US president, has read Rumsfeld's writings, but Erin Witcher, a spokeswoman, said the president has been dissatisfied with the progress in Iraq, and "the right thing to do is to re-evaluate our tactics".

"There are a number of reviews under way, and the president is open to listening to a wide array of options," the spokeswoman said.

Eric Ruff, the Pentagon press secretary, said that Rumsfeld does not endorse any one particular recommendation, and that he notes in the memo that "many of these options could and, in a number of cases, should be done in combination with others".

Media leaks

Lawrence Di Rita, who was Rumsfeld's chief spokesman until last spring, said that the broad range of options presented by Rumsfeld belies the notion that he is inflexible and reluctant to consider alternative approaches.

"I see this thing as classic Rumsfeld," Di Rita said. "This is the way he operates."

Rumsfeld remains defence secretary while Robert Gates, a former CIA director nominated for the position by Bush, is seeking senate confirmation for his position.

There is no hint in the memo that he intended to step down, but a person familiar with the sequence of events leading up to his resignation on November 8 told the Associated Press news agency that Rumsfeld knew when he wrote it that he would be leaving.

The Rumsfeld memorandum is the second sensitive government document expressing dissatisfaction with the current course in Iraq to be leaked to the media in less than a week.

Last week, The New York Times published a White House memo in which Stephen Hadley, the US national security adviser, expressed doubt about the ability of Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, to control sectarian violence.

Source: Al Jazeera

Link:

Bush Adviser Tries to Cool Expectations for Iraq Study

Palestinians: IDF troops kill 16-year-old stone-thrower in Nablus

December 3, 2006

By Avi Issacharoff and Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents and New Agencies

Palestinians said Sunday that Israel Defense Forces troops shot and killed 16-year-old Jamil al-Zabazhi, who was throwing rocks at soldiers near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Medical personnel said soldiers opened fire on protesters who were throwing stones at military vehicles at a refugee camp outside of Nablus. The youth was shot in the head and died on the way to hospital, they said.

The IDF confirmed troops fired on Palestinian stone-throwers who were located on a rooftop in the refugee camp.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday that security forces would continue to operate in the West Bank.

Also Sunday, Palestinian militants fired a Qassam rocket at the western Negev, despite the Gaza Strip cease-fire. There were no injuries or damage in the rocket attack.

The army arrested six wanted militants across the West Bank on Saturday night.

A female Tanzim activist was arrested in Karwat Bnei Zayd, north west of the city of Ramallah. Two other Tanzim militants were arrested in Hirbet Jazzem, east of Bethlehem, and in Hebron the IDF arrested two Hamas activists and one other wanted militant.

IOF troops wreak havoc in Palestinian village

December 3, 2006

Jenin - IOF troops stormed the village of Yabad, Jenin district, at a late hour Saturday night firing live bullets, sonic and teargas canisters at civilians and destroying a number of vehicles, locals reported.

They said that the soldiers mounting five army vehicles entered the village from the eastern and southern flanks before firing at young men who threw stones at them.

The sources noted that three women were hospitalized after inhaling the teargas while tens were accorded field treatment.

Soldiers smashed the window shields of ten cars and arrested a baker then released him after beating him up.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian prisoner's club said that IOF troops rounded up 98 Palestinians in the district of Bethlehem alone in the past month of November.

The legal society noted that the escalating arrest campaign in Bethlehem and other West Bank districts coincided with the talk about an imminent prisoners' exchange deal between the Hebrew state and the Palestinian factions capturing an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip.

The report underlined almost all those captured were liable to beatings and harassment at the hands of the IOF soldiers during their arrest and interrogation.

The PLC chairmanship issued a statement in this regard denouncing the IOF cruel measures against Palestinian prisoners.

It demanded the immediate intervention of the world community, human rights organizations and the Red Cross to halt such atrocities and to extend badly needed medical treatment to the sick detainees.

Israeli military sources on Sunday, for their part, said that a Palestinian resistance missile slammed into the western Negev from the Gaza Strip causing no casualties or damage.

They said that the missile firing was in violation of the truce reached a week ago, ignoring the IOF soldiers repeated violation of that truce in the West Bank and twice in the Gaza Strip over the same period.

Link:

Israeli violations of ceasefire agreement within the last seven days

Hezbollah-led protesters paralyse central Beirut

A Lebanese Hezbollah supporter sits on a street light as he waves a Lebanese flag during a demonstration to force the resignation of Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, in Beirut, Lebanon, 1 December 2006 (AP)

December 2, 2006

BEIRUT, (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition paralysed parts of central Beirut on Saturday on the second day of a campaign to topple the U.S.-backed government.

Scores of tents sprung up overnight as protesters occupied parking lots, squares and streets leading to the government's headquarters bringing Beirut's normally bustling commercial district to a standstill.

Restaurants and cafes, usually packed with people on weekends, were shut. Many banks also stayed closed.

Hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters rallied on Friday to demand the resignation of the Western-backed government, but Prime Minister Fouad Siniora insisted his government would not be toppled through demonstrations. "This is a government elected by the people of Lebanon and a government which has the constitutional authority that election gives it," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told reporters after meeting Siniora in Beirut.

Shi'ite Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Shi'ite Iran, wants to topple what it calls a U.S. government in Lebanon. The anti-Syrian politicians who dominate the cabinet say the opposition is attempting a coup. "Going out on the streets will not yield a result and we won't reach a solution except if we sit behind ... the negotiating table," Siniora told reporters.

The demonstrators imposed a blockade on the government offices on Friday, but later eased it after contacts between opposition leaders and Arab diplomats, a senior opposition source said. "The government received our message," he said.

Scores of soldiers have cordoned off the government offices with barbed wire and metal barriers.

Although the dispute is political, many Lebanese fear the situation could spark sectarian violence. Tension between Sunnis and Shi'ites is high, in addition to bad feeling between Christians who support leaders allied to the rival camps.

Washington ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called on the opposing sides to exercise "wisdom". "What I fear is that if the demonstrations continue, and take on a sectarian form, supporters of these sects from outside Lebanon will join in and no one will be able to control it, especially if it continues for a long time," Mubarak told journalists in Sharm el-Sheikh. "And the result will be a transformation of Lebanon into a battlefield that subjects it to danger."

Many supporters of Hezbollah and its allies -- the Shi'ite Amal Movement and Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement -- said they would stay put until Siniora's government resigned. "We're staying here until the government falls, even if it takes one month or two months," said Mohamed Hussein, 25, from Baalbek. The indefinite sit-in was festive with protesters dancing to drumbeats or smoking waterpipes.

Hezbollah has been at loggerheads with Siniora's government over what it says was its failure to back the group during the 34-day summer war with Israel.

Six opposition ministers quit the cabinet last month after talks collapsed on giving them a greater say in government. The cabinet was further weakened by the assassination on Nov. 21 of anti-Syrian minister Pierre Gemayel.

Lebanese Hezbollah supporters shout anti-government slogans as they hold a picture of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nassrallah, during a demonstration to force the resignation of Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora (EPA)

Christian opposition leader General Michel Aoun (C) gestures to supporters while his bodyguards hold a bullet-proof glass during a protest in downtown Beirut 01 December 2006 (AFP)

Palestinian child succumbs to wounds, another wounded in IOF incursions

December 2, 2006

Gaza - A Palestinian child Saturday succumbed to serious wounds after one week of sustaining those wounds in the IOF incursion into northern Gaza after which he was sent to one of the hospitals in the 1948 occupied lands where he was proclaimed dead.

Medical sources announced the death of Ayman Abu Mahadi, 10, after suffering a bullet in the head on 24/11/2006 during an IOF troops' incursion east of Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza city.

In Qalqilia, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was hit with an IOF rubber bullet in his shoulder and his condition was described as "moderate".

Local sources said that IOF soldiers stormed the village of Azon, east of Qalqilia city, and fired at Palestinian youths, who confronted the soldiers' advance with stones, hitting the boy Sanad Shubaita.

Meanwhile, an IOF spokesman said that a Palestinian resistance missile slammed into an open area to the west of Negev desert, adjacent to the Gaza Strip, causing no casualties or damage.

The AMB, armed wing of Fatah Movement, claimed the attack with an upgraded, homemade Aqsa-103 missile in retaliation to the IOF soldiers' murder of a Palestinian child in Beita village, Nablus district, earlier Friday and the IOF troops' continued aggressions on the West Bank cities and villages.

In an unrelated development, Israeli premier Ehud Olmert said on Friday that his government would not make a deal with Lebanese Hizbullah party over an exchange of prisoners if it was not sure that the two soldiers captured by that party were still alive.

Hebrew daily 'Ma'ariv' quoted Olmert as saying during a meeting with European ambassadors accredited to the Hebrew state on Tuesday that Hizbullah's refusal to allow a Red Cross visit to those two soldiers did not send an encouraging sign.

He said that there would be no serious negotiations without no signs of life of those two soldiers, adding that Israel won't give Hizbullah what it wants in return for coffins.

IOF gunboats fire at Palestinian fishing boats, IOF troops demolish house in Qalqilia

December 2, 2006

Rafah - IOF gunboats on Saturday opened heavy machinegun fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of southern Gaza as IOF troops in the West Bank demolished a Palestinian home in Qalqilia.

In a fresh violation of the ceasefire between Palestinian factions and the Hebrew state, IOF gunboats twice targeted Palestinian fishing boats off Rafah coast, but no casualties were reported.

In the West Bank, IOF troops flattened the home of Mu'in Munir in Qalqilia district at the pretext of lack of permit.

Locals reported that IOF vehicles escorted a military bulldozer that leveled to the ground the citizen's home rendering him and his family homeless.

Israel's Version of a Human Shield

(Click on Picture to enlarge)

More lately, you hear of Palestinians surrounding a home to protect a brother or sister from being murdered by the Israeli Military. Otherwise, they are using themselves as human shields.

Tying a boy to a vehicle so his friends not throw rocks at the IDF is for lack of a better word, ISRAELI TERRORISM. In addition, it r3eminds me how their propaganda says they DO NOT target children.