Prominent Jewish Congressman Rahm Emanuel Floated as Obama Chief of Staff

The Associated Press reports that Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel has been approached about being Barack Obama's chief of staff.

1 November 2008

US-As Barack Obama continues to absorb accusations that he is not committed to maintaining America's staunch support for Israel, knowledgeable Democrats have leaked word that he is considering a well-known, pro-Israeli Jewish congressman to be his chief of staff if elected.

The Associated Press reported Thursday night that Obama's campaign has approached Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel* about the job.

Such an appointment could be seen as a salve to Jewish voters, some of whom have grown skeptical of Obama despite his repeated statements that he is committed to Israel's security.

Emanuel belongs to an orthodox Jewish congregation in Chicago and worked as a volunteer in Israel during the first Gulf War. His father was a pediatrician who grew up in Israel and worked for the Israeli underground before independence.

Obama and his campaign won't comment on the implications of forging an Emanuel-led White House staff -- but they're not completely dismissing the report that he's being considered for the job, either.

Asked if Emanuel would be his chief of staff Thursday night in Missouri, Obama responded: I'm trying to win an election."

Is that a no? a reporter asked.

"Plouffe is my chief of staff," Obama answered, referring to his campaign manager, David Plouffe.

"There's no news because there's no job to offer. We're focused on one thing and that's the election, not anonymous D.C. parlor games," spokesman Nick Shapiro told FOXNews.com in an e-mail.

Emanuel, a veteran of President Clinton's White House, has swiftly ascended through the Democratic ranks since his election to Congress. He was chairman of the Democratic campaign committee two years ago, when the party won a majority for the first time in more than a decade, and he cemented his reputation as a prodigious fundraiser and strong-willed political strategist.

He also served as a senior adviser and fundraiser for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley before joining the Clinton White House. His Chicago ties could also explain why Obama may be considering him.

But the apparent trial balloon comes as John McCain's campaign continues to hammer the Obama for his statements on Iran, whose president is openly hostile toward Israel.

The McCain campaign recently recycled an ad that ridicules Obama for saying Iran "doesn't pose a serious threat."

The narrator says: "Terrorism, destroying Israel, those aren't serious threats? Obama -- dangerously unprepared to be president."

McCain's camp is also going after Obama for a tape in the Los Angeles Times' possession that supposedly shows Obama giving a toast to Rashid Khalidi, a fierce critic of Israel.

And Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher, who is now campaigning for McCain, twice agreed on Tuesday with a claim from a man at a rally that "a vote for Barack Obama is a vote for the death to Israel."

There was also a pro-Israel rally held Friday in Boca Raton, Fla., under the title: The Case Against Obama: Fatal for Israel -- Lethal for the Jews."

Obama states on his Web site that he strongly supports the U.S.-Israel relationship, as well as Israel's right to defend itself and providing foreign assistance to the country.

Meanwhile, McCain's campaign seized on the Emanuel leak as a sign of overconfidence Friday, with just four days to go until Election Day.

"He's measuring the drapes ... and this week he settled on a chief of staff," McCain said at an Ohio rally.

"I think the reality is that Senator Obama ought to let the American people have a vote before he starts setting up his White House," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said.

Both Obama and McCain have authorized their staffs to begin transition operations in recent weeks -- although only one of them will be in a position to make use of the results.

*Rahm Emanuel, is a right wing Zionist; who it is understood has no real regard for Judaism or Palestine in actuality.

Update:
Emanuel accepts job as White House chief of staff

Christian Zionist Huckabee: Proposes Displacement of Arab Palestinians

Huckabee: Let Palestinians create country 'elsewhere'

An activist from the right-wing (Zionist) settlement movement Ateret Cohanim, who are dedicated to expanding Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem, holds up a 'Keep Jerusalem United' bumper sticker behind former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (L) as he visits a settlement community in the heart of the Arab neighborhood of Abu Tor, on 18 August 2008 in Jerusalem.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee suggested creating a Palestinian state elsewhere in the Middle East:

"There is only one place on earth where the Jewish people could have a homeland that is consistent with their roots, whereas the Palestinians can create their homeland in many other places in the Middle East, outside Israel," he said.

Huckabee has proven during his current deceit filled lack of integrity visit to Palestine, that he is indeed a Christian Zionist, while he keeps making derogatory uncultivated statements laced with numerous insults not just towards the Arab Palestinians; but what was further interesting is his numerous insults towards the more religious Jewish populace.

Further Reading:

The People of Palestine are Not Cobblestones

The People of Palestine are Not Cobblestones

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (L) prays at the Western Wall, as Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall (Judaism's holiest site), frowns during Huckabee's visit, on 18 August 2008 in Jerusalem. The Rabi looked at Huckabee as he disgraced the Western Wall; with his visit.

According to the Jewish religious beliefs, such visit’s to the wall by non-Jews is blasphemy.

Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister who was a Republican candidate in the 2008 United States presidential primaries, visited with right-wing (Zionist) in east Jerusalem to underscore what he says are the rights of the Jewish people, under the same U.S. prejudicial foreign policy towards the Jewish people; with further unprecedented Islamophobic intentions towards the Arab Palestinian populace.

Furthermore, it should be known, that the right-wing (Zionist), are on the outs as far as the forgoing political system in Palestine today and towards her future; also, as the Zionist are now becoming the minority, with little voice.

As a strong request to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, that after his short visit to Palestine; that he is not to ever return, for he is not welcome in the country.

Nevertheless, Huckabee hid the fact that he came by right-wing (Zionist) invitation, so he would be able to come into Palestine; otherwise, in some people’s logic, he lied.

Jabotinsky Memorial Service

Jewish Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (R) and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu (L) are separated by an empty chair as they attend a memorial service for Zeev Jabotinsky, Zionist leader and founder of the Jewish right-wing ideology, at a cemetery in Jerusalem, on 31 July 2008.

What is interesting about this particular photograph is the body language between Netanyahu and Olmert, this alone speaks volumes.

While I do not approve of Zionism because of the harm it created towards the Jewish people, this particular scene between these two men was sure to overshadow this service and apparently, being one of those situations where certain people had to attend.

While I know little about Zeev Jabotinsky, he did appear to be a man of some contradictions’ towards what one usually understood about the Zionist movement. But it doesn’t, change my view of this movement; because it had came close to destroying the Jewish people.

Bible Club founded by Ben-Gurion gets Revived with a Peres Twist

Ben Gurion in 1951

27 March 2008

by Anshel Pfeffer

The president's Bible club, which resumed activity Wednesday at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, after a hiatus of more than four years, has undergone several incarnations.

David Ben-Gurion started it as prime minister in the mid-1950s. The club met every few weeks at his Jerusalem home, on Ben Maimon Street.

"It was attended by judges, professors, researchers, senior government officials, and even President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi himself," the second president's bureau chief, David Bartov, recalled.

The sessions were led by a series of well-known scholars, mainly from the Hebrew University, with Ben-Gurion, who considered himself a Bible scholar in his own right, taking an active role in the erudite discussions.

In Ben-Gurion's era the club had a distinctly secular flavor, consistent with the worldview of Israel's first prime minister, who viewed the "Book of Books" as a national and universal document and tried to remove it from an exclusively religious context.

"Ben-Gurion once said about the verse 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?' that it doesn't say you have to go up there wearing a skullcap," notes Yad Ben Zvi director Zvi Tzameret, who organized the club's revival. "He also said that Torat Moshe [Mosaic Law] and Torat Moshe Shapira [a minister from the National Religious Party] are two different laws."

President Shimon Peres, who was Ben-Gurion's right-hand-man, recounted how at a secret meeting in Paris in the 1950s, one of the hosts asked a question about the Bible, in response to which Ben-Gurion delivered an impassioned, 90-minute lecture, nearly forgetting the matter they were there to discuss.

After Ben-Gurion resigned, and Ben-Zvi died in 1963, Israel's third president, Zalman Shazar, moved the Bible club to the President's Residence, located then in Ben-Zvi's hut in Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood. When the present residence was established, in 1969, the club continued to be held there. After Shazar retired in 1973, several attempts were made to carry on the club, but it did not last long under any of the presidents who followed.

Moshe Katsav revived the club, this time led by Rabbi Mordechai Elon. Despite the fair share of secular attendees at Elon's lessons, some old-timers grumbled that it no longer bore the scholarly character of yesteryear.

The club stopped meeting in early 2004, when Elon quit for health reasons. It has now been regenerated by two young Bible scholars, professors Oded Lifshitz of Tel Aviv University and Nili Wazana of Hebrew University, who together with officials from the Yad Ben-Zvi institute applied to the President's Residence, where their enthusiasm was greeted with by Peres.

Peres, in contrast to Ben-Gurion, insisted on including religious elements. The eclectic program for the first meeting included a lecture by Prof. Lifshitz on the status and size of Jerusalem during the First and Second Temple periods, a lesson by Kotel Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, who is close to Peres and the Labor Party, about "Spiritual Jerusalem versus Temporal Jerusalem," readings of poetry by S. Shifra and young musicians performing a piece entitled "Jerusalem Blues."

The event drew over 200 people, secular and religious of all stripes, teenagers, students, teachers, and academics.

Any Holocaust Makes for a Sad Day

1 March 2008

by HRM Deborah

It is strange, I guess because of the onslaught that is going these days among my fellow countryman, that I happen today to find a book at the seller’s stall on the Jewish Holocaust.

I would like to make it very clear here that I in all my studies thus far am still perplexed of how one person could treat another person so despicably. While I have not gotten very far in this new book, which I had been trying to find for a little time now to further my studies of such a time in history that caused so many broken hearts and lost of loved one’s.

When I found this book today, a new friend of mine just happened to be with me and we decided to have coffee and talk.

I was actually a little upset at the subject matter of this book, because as I said, how I feel about people mistreating each other.

Earlier in this blog, I had related a story of an older women that I use to help her carry her shopping bag. Because something about her reminded me of my Grandmother and later I learned she was a survivor of an extermination camp and yes the Nazi number Stamp was on her forehead. I will even say she was the only survivor of the Jewish Holocaust from her family and even talking about her today because she had to leave me when I was a child, that I still get a lump in my throat and I will admit a few tears because she was my friend.

In addition, a few people had asked me after I related this story earlier on this blog, if the Jewish friend knew I was Palestinian, I will be perfectly honest here; I do not think it made any more difference to her then it did to me that she was Jewish or I was Palestinian, because the bonds of friendship between two people can often time’s circumvent these other idea’s that sometimes people may have in the world.

Then I got to talking, I think later to my friend, something my mother had told me because when this event happened, I was not born yet. When my Grandmother Dora was Queen and their were several survivor’s of the Jewish Holocaust, she wanted very much to help them. She actually offered for those who wished to come and live among the Palestinian people in peace and she had wanted to ensure their safety because she was so upset to what happened to these people by the Nazi’s. What I was told, why this did not occur she was overturned not by the Palestinian people, but the American’s.

Until the day she died, she never got over that such a thing like this happened and she was made helpless, to at least try to help where she thought she could.

Now as to the current situation between the Zionist and the Palestinians, I heard the old Cliché’, that said to the effect that we the Palestinian people planned to destroy the Jewish,/ Zionist people that at this time is occupying Palestine. Myself, I had said nothing to this effect and I do not know of anyone else who had said such a thing either. Instead, who ever is telling these bold face lies need to put a muzzle over their head.

Myself, unless people forget so soon, I have tried to make a just peace between, the Jewish people and the Palestinians with the hope it would be fair to all, not an idiot statement to the negative effect.

As to threatening a Holocaust against the people in Gaza, just make’s people understand that if the Zionist people attempt to do this, they will become no better then the Nazi’s did to their people during the time of World War 2.

As I said, the day not so many hours ago, if the Zionist wish any advancement’s to cease, stop attacking and murdering innocent Palestinian’s and we will do the same. For it is better to have and honest peace equal to all; then lie’s, murder, deception especially by foreign power’s instead of each other.

I truly hope someday the word, “Holocaust,” will fall out of all the dictionaries in the world and become a thing of the past; to be replaced with love and goodwill.

Israeli Plan to Depose Haneyya's Government Disclosed

29 February 2008

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli political and military analysts have disclosed Thursday a military plan of the Israeli occupation government to weaken and depose the PA legitimate government under Premier Ismael Haneyya.

Ronnie Daniel, the well-known military analyst in the Israeli TV, unveiled that the Israeli political and security echelons endorsed the plan without reservations, adding that the plan calls for relentless and concentrated IOF aggressions against Hamas.

He added that the plan aims at weakening Hamas before toppling it, rendering Hamas incapable of firing home-made missiles on Israeli colonies, stopping of [the alleged] weapon smuggling through the Rafah terminal, and to completely separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank.

One of the Qassam home-made rockets fired on Israeli settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip in retaliation to the IOF vicious military onslaught resulted in the wounding of a bodyguard of the Israeli public security minister Avi Dichter. Dichter himself who visited the colony later had to run for cover upon hearing and air raid siren.

Following Dichter's experience, the landing location of the helicopter transporting the Israeli President Shimon Peres had to be changed when he visited the colony of Sderot.

Other Israeli military analysts including Ehud Yaari said that at least 160,000 Israeli settlers became within the range of the Palestinian home-made rockets and mortar shells after the Palestinian resistance succeeded in upgrading its rockets.

For his part, Matan Velnai refused calls for negotiating a truce with Hamas from the Israeli settlers and mayors of the affected Israeli colonies, stressing, "Hamas's strategy was to destroy Israel, so, Israel must strive hard to destroy Hamas".

Rice Accuses the Legal Palestinian Government of a Coup?

28 February 2008

By HRM Deborah

To begin with, the organization that became known as the Palestinian authority was created illegally against the legal government of Palestine in about 1994, at the time the Queen Zaytuna of Palestine had been poisoned, she suffered for another year and died in 1995.

Condoleezza Rice, can sustainably accuse the legal government of Palestine as to try at this time to make accusations towards a coup, she need’s to rethink her position, for she is either lying to the global community or as well as working with a terrorist fraction in Palestine?

Because the United States with the inception in about 1964 to create a terrorist group known as the PLO and later Fatah in an attempt to overthrown Queen Dora of Palestine, that they now are trying to keep in charge to sustain their illegal peace treaty in Palestine, they really need to rethink their political policies or history of the Palestinian/Zionist war at least.

Furthermore, any attacks within Palestine by the Zionist will not be resolved by further murder’s to Palestinian civilians, especially women and children. For anything to stop, Israel has to stop all attacks and massacres in the Palestinian territory’s at once. For in doing so, their will be a seizing of fire by the Palestinian military as well.

For again, this has always been the policy in this war as far as I know; for you do not keep putting more gasoline on a burning fire if you wish it to expire.

Finally, this new maneuver you got going, will not work, I still refuse to abdicate my position as the Queen of Palestine. For Palestine, has been a monarchy for thousands of years and will stay as such. And as for peace in Palestine, we are willing to speak in such a case, but only if it is done right and not underhanded as so far has been the case.

Palestine Royal Guards: Olmert's Threats Do Not Terrorize Us

28 February 2008

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Royal guards on Thursday asserted that Israeli premier Ehud Olmert's threats would not terrorize the Palestinian people or the royal guards, describing the IOF ongoing raids as "war crimes".

Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Royal Guard spokesman, said in a press release that the Israeli occupation authority daily presents solid proofs that it was not concerned with calls for calm or stability.

He charged that the IOA war on Gaza carried the political goal of toppling the Royal Guard-led legitimate PA government and had nothing to do with the issue of the locally made missiles.

Turning to Olmert's threats, Abu Zuhri said that they do not terrorize the Palestinians and that Royal Guards would face those threats with resoluteness.

"The blood of children and innocent people compel us to confront this occupation and aggression with all what we own," he emphasized.

The spokesman also charged that the IOF large scale aggression on Gaza was the fruit of the American green line, international silence and constant incitement by Mahmoud Abbas against the Royal Guards and resistance.

"We, in the Royal Guards, call on the Arab and Islamic Nation to support the Palestinian people in face of the Israeli-international conspiracy in which a number of local and regional parties are involved in a bid to subdue this people and break its steadfastness," he concluded.

Ongoing Israeli Raids on Gaza Claim 25 Palestinians, including 8 Children and 5-month-old Baby

28 February 2008

Gaza – Ma'an – Four Palestinian children were killed in an Israeli air raid in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday afternoon, bringing the number of those killed in the Gaza Strip to 23 in the last 24 hours. Eight of the dead are children.

Mu'awiya Hasanain, director of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian health ministry, said the bodies of 11-year-old Deib Darduna and 14-year-old 'Umar Darduna arrived at the Kamal Udwan hospital in Beit Hanoun torn to pieces. Meanwhile, the bodies of 7-year-old Muhammad Hammuda and 8-year-old Ali Darduna were taken to Ash-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

A short while later, an Israeli unmanned reconnaissance plane launched a missile at a car in Beit Hanoun injuring two people, one of them seriously.

Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip have been continuous throughout Thursday.

On Thursday afternoon Palestinian medics found the dead body of 12-year-old Amjad As-Sakani in eastern Gaza City.

Meanwhile 25-year-old Hamas activist Rami Khalifa died of wounds he sustained on Thursday morning.

Israeli warplanes launched a raid on Thursday afternoon on the northern Gaza Strip killing 23-year-old Al-Qassam Brigades member Abdullah Zuwaidi.

A few minutes later, the Israeli warplanes launched another raid near the agricultural college in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. Several Palestinians were injured in the attack.

At around 9:30 on Thursday morning local time, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at Palestinian civilians in eastern Gaza City killing senior Hamas leader and Palestinian Legislative Council member and Hamza Khalil Al-Hayya and 23-year-old Jawad Tafish. Several others were also injured.

Mu'awiya Hassanain, the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian health ministry told Ma'an that Ash-Shifa hospital in Gaza City had received one of the dead and several people who had sustained serious injuries.

On Wednesday evening, three Palestinian children were killed and six others injured in an Israeli air strike on the Al Taw'am area close to the Khazandar gas station, north of Gaza City. One of the dead was 5-month-old Muhammad Nasser Al-Borey, who was in his family home when a missile struck the building.

Mu'awiya Hassanain, said that ambulances transported the injured and dead children, including the headless body of a child, to the Shifa' and Kamal hospitals.

He added that five children were rushed to the intensive care unit and the operating room, with one clinically dead.

Witnesses said that those involved were passing by a local-made missile launcher that was struck by the Israeli forces.

Earlier on Wednesday, two Palestinians were killed and two others injured when Israeli artillery targeted an orange grove in the Ash-Shuja'iyya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.

Hassanain said that one of the dead was identified as 27-year-old Minwir Abu Mandeel, who worked as a guard at the grove. The second victim's identity remains unknown as the corpse arrived at the Kamal Udwan Hospital so badly damaged that it was not possible to identify the victim.

On Wednesday morning, five Al-Qassam Brigades activists were killed, and several bystanders were injured, after Israeli helicopters launched two missiles at a car in western Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Eyewitnesses told Ma'an's reporter that the car was targeted near Al-Aqsa University.

In another Israeli raid on Wednesday morning an Islamic Jihad activist was killed and two others injured when an Israeli unmanned drone targeted two sites east of Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

A spokesperson of the the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, said that the victim was Zaky Abu Zaid. The wounded were evacuated to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital for treatment.

Rice’s Bed of Lies and Threats?

Olmert: Israel will continue operations in Gaza

28 February 2008

Bethlehem – Ma'an – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Thursday that the Israeli government's patience with the Palestinians has come to an end.

During comments in a meeting with the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Japanese capital Tokyo on Thursday morning, he affirmed that Israel would continue with military operations in the Gaza Strip, threatening the Palestinian Royal Guards will pay a heavy price.

For her part, Rice called on the Palestinians to stop launching homemade projectiles from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli towns. She blamed Hamas for the deteriorating situation in Gaza and expressed her worries about a looming humanitarian crisis.

US State Department spokesman Tom Keisi announced on Wednesday night that Rice would pay a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories between 3 and 7 March. She will meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials to follow up with the mechanisms decided in November's Annapolis peace conference.

Israeli Withdrawal and the Fighting will Stop!

Israeli Air Raids Target Gaza

28 February 2008

Gaza-Israel has stepped up its offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing three more Palestinian fighters in air raids.

Thursday's deaths came a day after 15 Palestinians were killed and Hamas-run government buildings were damaged in the territory in intensified Israeli military operation.

Hamas has meanwhile fired 40 rockets into Israel, killing one Israeli and wounding another on Wednesday.

Hospital officials said a fighter from Hamas and two from the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) group were killed on Thursday.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack, saying they hit command posts and weapons manufacturing and storing sites.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said on a visit to Japan on Thursday that Israeli assaults on Gaza would continue.

"We are at the height of this battle and we will pursue it until the danger threatening residents in the south ends.

"It's a painful process. We are taking painful blows and we will hit back with even more painful blows."

Baby killed

Israeli aircraft fired missiles at the Hamas-run interior ministry and the office of Ismail Haniya, the Prime Minister of Palestine, late on Wednesday.

That attack left a 6-month-old baby boy, Mohammed Bourai, dead and many people wounded, hospital officials said.

A Palestinian security source said another Israeli helicopter had fired on a metals workshop in the east of Gaza City late on Wednesday.

Earlier, five senior members of Hamas were killed when the vehicle in which they were travelling was attacked from the air near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, medical officials said.

Hamas said the five were members of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, its armed wing.

Two missiles directly hit the minivan they were travelling in, witnesses told Al Jazeera.

Dr Moaiya Hassanain of the Gaza health ministry said four other people were wounded in the attack.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli military confirmed that it had "carried out strikes on vehicles in Khan Younis and identified hitting them".

Hamas rockets

Hamas said it fired rockets into Israel in response "to the Zionist massacre committed this morning in Khan Younis which led to the martyrdom of five of our best fighters".

Israeli media said the Hamas rocket exploded in a car park at Sapir College in Sderot.

Israeli officials said a 47-year-old student was fatally struck in the heart by shrapnel while television footage showed a second man being carried on a stretcher with wounds to his legs.

The first such Israeli death in nine months intensified calls within Israel to launch a full-scale ground invasion, with Ehud Barak, the defence minister, vowing to "get those responsible".

Meir Sheetrit, an Israeli cabinet minister, said if it were up to him, he "would hit everything that moves with weapons and ammunition".

I don't think we have to show pity for anyone who wants to kill us," he told Army Radio.

A poll published on Wednesday, before the fatal rocket attack, showed that a majority of Israelis favour talks with Hamas to stop the barrages and win release of a soldier captured in 2006.

But Israel's government has ruled out talks with Hamas.

The spike in violence provides a troubling prelude to the latest visit by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, whose aides confirmed that she would arrive on Monday for several days of talks on the US-sponsored peace process.

Vicious cycle

The Israeli military carries out near-daily air strikes in Gaza, targeting Palestinian armed groups firing rockets into Israel.

Hamas says attacks from the Gaza Strip, including rockets fired by its own fighters and others, are a response to Israeli military operations in the territory and the occupied West Bank and would end if Israel stopped all such activity and lifted its blockade.

In addition to its military strikes, Israel has imposed tough economic sanctions on Hamas-ruled Gaza, which have caused widespread shortages of basic goods.

On Wednesday, the area's main water authority urged residents to boil all drinking water, citing a dire shortage of purifying chlorine as a result of the blockade.

It said there was a "major concern over a health disaster due to possible contamination of the drinking water" and appealed to the international community for help.

An Israeli military spokesman said the Palestinians did not make a request for chlorine until Wednesday and that it was working on supplying it.

No Al-Qaeda in the Gaza Strip

Interior Ministry Categorically Denies Presence of Qaeda in Gaza

27 February 2007

GAZA, (PIC)-- The interior ministry expressed on Wednesday its shock and dismay at Mahmoud Abbas's allegations that there are Al-Qaeda members in the Gaza Strip, categorically denying the presence of any form of Al-Qaeda in the Strip.

In a press statement received by the PIC, the ministry underlined that Abbas's statements are consistent with similar allegations made by the Israeli occupation, pointing out that the PA leadership had made many allegations before against Gaza including the presence of the Fatah Al-Islam organization.

The statement added that investigations conducted by the ministry revealed that there was an agreement between former PA security elements and the PA leadership to market the presence of Al-Qaeda members and extremist groups in Gaza in order to show to world that the Strip is unsafe and pose a threat to the whole region and also to give Israel pretexts to attack Gaza and tighten its siege on it.

For its part, the Hamas Movement charged Abbas with providing a cover for Israel to commit more crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza, highlighting that Abbas's latest statement in Cairo were a new declaration of war against the Palestinian people.

In a press release, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, underscored that the main goal and preoccupation on the agenda of Abbas is to incite the world against Hamas through linking between the Israeli siege and aggression and the resistance rockets.

Dr. Abu Zuhri underlined that the Palestinian people are facing a PA chief inciting against them and justifying the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

IOF Troops Kill Fighter of Aqsa Brigades after Kidnapping Him, and a Civilian

27 February 2008

NABLUS, (PIC)-- The IOF troops killed on Wednesday morning a wounded fighter of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the dissolved armed wing of Fatah, called Ibrahim Al-Misaimi, 25, in the Nablus city, northern West Bank after they kidnapped him and put him in jail.

Palestinian local sources reported that Misaimi was injured during an Israeli incursion in the Tal street west of Nablus, where the IOF troops also wounded two other citizens including his brother Wa'el.

Informed sources said that Ibrahim was killed in the Israeli jails, while his brother's wounds were described as critical, adding that the IOF troops kidnapped three other citizens and shot a construction worker in his stomach.

The PA unconstitutional government in the West Bank had announced the dissolution of all formations of AMB, where many of the Brigades' fighters surrendered their weapons and signed a pledge to renounce resistance against the Israeli occupation.

Palestinian eyewitnesses reported IOF troops boarding civilian cars infiltrated into the Tal street again and opened fire at three Palestinian citizens walking in the street and brutally dragged two of them on the ground as they were bleeding.

The invading IOF troops also stormed the house of Naseef family in Nablus and turned it into a military post and have been stationed in the house until the moment of preparing this report.

The IOF troops stormed and ransacked last night a number of houses in Jenin, its refugee camp and the Abu Da'eef town east of Jenin, where they kidnapped eight Palestinian citizens and took them to an unknown destination.

The IOF troops also kidnapped on the same day journalist Jihad Shehada, the director of the Bayan office for press and information in the north of the Salfit city, northern West Bank, after they forced him to get off from his car, and took him to an unknown destination blindfolded and in chains.

In a related context, the IOF troops resumed its new campaign which started on Tuesday against Palestinian charities in Al-Khalil city, southern West Bank, where they broke into and ransacked four charitable societies in the villages and towns near the city.

The IOF troops had announced the confiscation of the Islamic charitable society in Al-Khalil with all its branches and assets and also decided to confiscate the buildings, assets and buses of the Muslim youth association in the city.

In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian local sources reported that the IOF troops kidnapped at noon Wednesday four Palestinian citizens near the Yasser Arafat airport, east of the Rafah city in southern Gaza during infiltration into the area and took them into their military posts.

An Israeli air strike killed on Wednesday evening a Palestinian citizen called Manwr Abu Mendil and wounded a woman with her husband in an agricultural field in Jabaliya, southern Gaza Strip.

Environmental and Health Disaster Looming in the Gaza Strip

Palestinian children wait to collect water frompublic taps in the Gaza Strip (MaanImages)

27 February 2008

Gaza – Ma'an – The spokesperson of the Popular Committee for Confronting the Embargo on the Gaza Strip, Rami Abdu, said on Wednesday that an environmental and health disaster is looming in the Gaza Strip if chlorine used for water purification is not brought into the coastal region.

Abdu affirmed that the amounts of chlorine in the municipal council warehouses in the Gaza Strip are depleted, which means that water pumps in the Strip will soon stop, leaving the residents without water.

Water purification engineers are considering reducing the amount of chlorine in the water which will impact on the cleanliness of water used in the Gaza Strip.

A bloody day in Gaza: Israeli military adds 3 children to list of dead

27 February 2008

Gaza-Ma'an- Three Palestinian children were killed and six injured in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday evening, in the Al Taw'am area close to the Khazandar gas station, north of Gaza City.

The total number of Palestinians injured was 17, including the six children.

Dr. Mu'awiya Hassanain, the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian health ministry, said that ambulances transported the injured and dead children, including the headless body of a child, to the Shifa' and Kamal hospital.

He added that five children were rushed to the intensive care unit and the operating room, with one clinically dead.

Witnesses said that those involved were passing by a local-made missile launcher that was struck by the Israeli forces.

Earlier in the day, two Palestinians were killed and two others injured when Israeli artillery targeted an orange grove in the Ash-Shuja'iyya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.

Hassanain said that one of the dead was identified as 27-year-old Minwir Abu Mandeel, who worked as a guard at the grove. The second victim's identity remains unknown as the corpse arrived at the Kamal Udwan Hospital so badly damaged that it was not possible to identify the victim.

On Wednesday morning, five Al-Qassam Brigades activists were killed, and several bystanders were injured, after Israeli helicopters launched two missiles at a car in western Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Eyewitnesses told Ma'an's reporter that the car was targeted near Al-Aqsa University.

In another Israeli raid on Wednesday morning an Islamic Jihad activist was killed and two others injured when an Israeli unmanned drone targeted two sites east of Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

A spokesperson of the the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, said that the victim was Zaky Abu Zaid. The wounded were evacuated to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital for treatment.

On Tuesday evening, Palestinian medical sources announced the death of a Palestinian farmer, 35-year-old Hasan Abu Sabt from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The sources said he received a gunshot to the pelvis from the Israeli forces stationed at the Kissufim military post, east of Khan Younis.

Israeli warplanes also launched two air raids on eastern Khan Younis and eastern Gaza City on Wednesday afternoon.

Eyewitnesses told Ma'an's reporter that the Israeli warplanes targeted a group of Palestinian activists in eastern Gaza City. Hassanain emphasized that noone was injured in those attacks.

Why has their been Palestine Massacres?

27 February 2008

by HRM Deborah

It at first should be understood that my family has been the royal family for thousand’s of years and until the beginning of the Zionist war against us, we never have been out of Palestine. We are one of the few oldest families in Palestine, which date’s back about 8,500 to 9,000 B.C., even before Abraham himself graced our land.

The horror’s that we are seeing today with the Zionist aggression, is nothing new, for example less we forget, Sabra and Shatila massacre, 16 September, 1982; when my mother Zaytuna was Queen.

For the last three generation’s of my family their has been massacres towards Palestinian’s in an attempt to force the current Queen to abdicate and none ever has in all our generation’s. With this war that has been going on now for 107 years, every time there is pressure by that current American president, the Zionist are commanded to commit these heinous atrocities towards the Palestinian people and like my predecessor’s; we know if we where to step down all Palestinian’s will die.

When this current heinous situation actually started, especially towards Gaza, I heard on national television when now President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union address threatened pressure on me to abdicate and many have expressed to me that is why his approval rating fell to 17%. It also, must be understood, the majority of Palestinian’s also heard this and became quite upset, that Bush would insult me in such a manner, let alone threaten me. Furthermore, Bush did this, to force his failed peace plan upon all people in Palestine and this includes Christian’s, Jew’s and Muslims.

It should be also understood, that while these aggression’s are going on in Palestine, the royal family and most especially the current Queen is being subjected also to extreme hardship’s and pressure’s and while I weather the storm as a political hostage, all citizen’s of Palestine have to do the same and I know that they do understand this.

While we have to live in sorrow because of these massacres and continuously bury our dead, we will never give up hope and the firmness that Palestine is truly our home and nothing on this earth will change that fact. Just the main fact, that we do wish peace, for this was heralded as far back as my Great Grandmother Maram, even on the day she was murdered by the Zionist.

Nevertheless, it always seems sadly understood, that outside American interference always seems to bring massacres and the continuation of this war, not its peace.

Finally, I do not understand, why the Zionist can make claims that there is anti-Semitism being perpetrated against them, when they are murdering on a daily basis, people that are actually Semitic like themselves?

The Arab-Israeli Conflict

Vienna: 26 February 1930: Letter to the Keren Hajessod (Dr. Chaim Koffler)

25 February 2008

by Dr. Sigmund Freud

Freud would not have been surprised at the continuing conflict in the Middle East. He predicted as much 70 years ago.

We can predict Freud's response because of a letter he wrote to Dr. Chaim Koffler in 1930.

In February 1930 Freud was asked, as a distinguished Jew, to contribute to a petition condemning Arab riots of 1929, in which over a hundred Jewish settlers were killed. This was his reply:

Letter to the Keren Hajessod (Dr. Chaim Koffler)

Vienna: 26 February 1930

Dear Sir,

I cannot do as you wish. I am unable to overcome my aversion to burdening the public with my name, and even the present critical time does not seem to me to warrant it. Whoever wants to influence the masses must give them something rousing and inflammatory and my sober judgement of Zionism does not permit this. I certainly sympathise with its goals, am proud of our University in Jerusalem and am delighted with our settlement's prosperity. But, on the other hand, I do not think that Palestine could ever become a Jewish state, nor that the Christian and Islamic worlds would ever be prepared to have their holy places under Jewish care. It would have seemed more sensible to me to establish a Jewish homeland on a less historically-burdened land. But I know that such a rational viewpoint would never have gained the enthusiasm of the masses and the financial support of the wealthy. I concede with sorrow that the baseless fanaticism of our people is in part to be blamed for the awakening of Arab distrust. I can raise no sympathy at all for the misdirected piety which transforms a piece of a Herodian wall into a national relic, thereby offending the feelings of the natives.

Now judge for yourself whether I, with such a critical point of view, am the right person to come forward as the solace of a people deluded by unjustified hope.

Your obediant servant,

Freud

Intel's Exports from Israel Reach $1.54 Bn in '07

26 February 2007

by Amir Ben-Artzi
NETANYA, Israel — The value of Intel's exports from Israel in 2007 reached $1.54 billion, 18.4 percent up on the previous year. This makes Intel, once again, one of the biggest exporters from Israel.

The company is also one of the largest private employers in Israel; in 2007, the number of Intel employees in the country reached 7,323, compared to 6,800 workers in 2006.

In a press conference in Tel Aviv Tuesday (Feb. 26), Intel said that it would continue recruiting workers in various technology fields, mainly for the new fab it is building in Kiryat Gat in Southern Israel, which is set to open in the second half of 2008. During 2007, Intel bought products and services worth $1.1 billion from suppliers in Israel, largely for the new Fab 28 in Kiryat Gat. More than 90 percent of this was paid to local Israeli companies.

IOF Troops Storm Two Charities, Confiscate Property

26 February 2008

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- IOF soldiers stormed at dawn Tuesday the premises of two Islamic charities in Al-Khalil city, confiscated their property and arrested the employees.

Sources close to those societies told PIC correspondent that the soldiers burst into the two headquarters and wreaked havoc inside them.

The commander of the invading unit ordered the confiscation of buses and vehicles that serve students who study in those societies' schools and kindergartens.

Both societies were the frequent target of similar attacks at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces and their staffers were also detained on previous occasions.

The IOF command ordered closure of the two societies, which threaten the future of thousands of orphans and poor students who study in their schools, in addition to stripping their teachers and the administrative staff of their sole source of income.

The societies in addition to running schools and orphanages provide charity to many poor families and are regarded as two of the biggest charities in Palestine.

Sources close to Hamas Movement in Al-Khalil described the IOF closure of those two societies as a "disaster", warning the IOA that such a decision would eliminate the sustenance of many orphans and staffers.

The sources charged that the decision came in harmony with the unconstitutional government of Salam Fayyad's "war on charities" where many were closed or had their bank accounts frozen.

In another atrocity, IOF soldiers rounded up 8 Palestinians in various West Bank areas at dawn Tuesday at the pretext of being wanted for interrogation.