US cuts UNESCO funding after Palestinian vote

David Killion, center, permanent delegate of the United States to UNESCO, reacts as delegates vote on Palestinian membership to the UN cultural agency in Paris

Israeli Settlement Slowdown to End at Midnight - Unfrozen settlements put peace on ice

Israel PM sees deal possible in year

Israel PM sees deal possible in year

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told visiting US congressmen he thinks it could be possible to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians in a year despite huge differences, his spokesman said.

Netanyahu (picture, second from left) told the visiting delegation that he “believes it possible, through such direct and contiguous negotiations, held without breaks or delays, to achieve a peace agreement within a year,” spokesman Nir Hefez said on Monday.

Israel’s Netanyahu sees difficult talks ahead

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians would be “difficult but possible”, acknowledging there was scepticism talks will succeed when they resume next month.

In his first remarks to reporters since Israel and the Palestinians accepted on Friday an invitation by the United States and other powers to restart direct talks, Netanyahu said:

“We want to surprise all the critics and sceptics. But to do that, we need a true partner on the Palestinian side.

“I know there is deep scepticism. After 17 years have passed since the Oslo process, it’s possible to understand why this scepticism exists,” he said at the start of Israel’s weekly cabinet meeting.

He made no mention of a potential stumbling block once the talks start in Washington on September 2 — the scheduled end some three weeks later of Israel’s 10-month limited moratorium on Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu attends a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem

Israeli army on defensive after spate of scandals

Israeli police have cleared the military’s top brass of wrongdoing during a fierce internal promotion feud, but the case has badly dented the army’s image, and a slew of other scandals has added to its growing woes.

The military plays a central role in Israeli life and suggestions it is becoming dysfunctional has provoked an outcry.

The promotion saga, which has dominated the Israeli media this month, centred on allegations that a senior general had hired a publicist to smear his rivals in his battle to replace Israel’s outgoing chief of staff.

Police said yesterday the accusations were not true and said that a document at the heart of the affair was a fake.

An Israeli poses for a photograph near Palestinian detainees, which she then posted to her Facebook page

In sign of stability, Israel removes blast wall

A crane lifts part of the concrete barrier put up eight years ago to protect residents in Gilo.

In a sign of improved stability in the West Bank, Israel is removing concrete blast walls put up eight years ago to shield a settlement on Jerusalem’s outskirts from Palestinian gunfire and shells.

Israeli army engineers yesterday hoisted away sections of a 3m-high concrete wall in Gilo, a settlement on the southern edge of Jerusalem targeted from the nearby West Bank town of Beit Jala during a Palestinian uprising.

The uprising, or Intifada, erupted in 2000, after the collapse of peace talks and died out some five years later.

“This is the first time that we have moved such a structure from a neighbourhood that was directly hit by sniper fire and shells,” Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Liebovich, a military spokeswoman, said. Settlements such as Gilo, built on Israeli-occupied land the Palestinians seek for a state, were targeted regularly during the Intifada. Suicide bombers also struck within Israel itself.

Hamas and secular groups, oppose direct talks with Israel

Palestinean groundswell rising to not give in to the talks the Obama administration has been urging.

Palestinean groundswell rising to not give in to the talks the Obama administration has been urging.

Two secular Palestinian organisations joined Hamas yesterday in calling on President Mahmoud Abbas not to bow to US pressure to resume direct peace talks with Israel, which they described as dangerous.

“Insisting on direct talk throws a life line to Israel as its isolation deepens,” Hamas said in a statement issued jointly after a meeting in the Syrian capital with other Palestinian organisations that included Islamic Jihad.

“A return to direct talks serves the US and Zionist aim to liquidate the national rights of the Palestinian people,” the statement said.

The statement was read by Maher al-Taher, a senior official in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine that does not usually toe the Hamas line.

Israel wasn’t ready for flotilla fight, says general

Ashkenazi (front) testifies at a state-appointed inquiry into the Israeli naval raid on a Gaza aid flotilla, in Jerusalem, August 11, 2010.
Israeli troops were not ready for the violent resistance they met when they boarded a Gaza-bound aid ship and killed nine pro-Palestinian activists, the country’s top military officer said yesterday.

Speaking to an inquiry, Israeli Defence Forces Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi gave the most detailed explanation so far of what went wrong with the military plan in the May 31 raid, which sparked an international outcry.

IDF commandos failed to clear the decks with stun grenades they used, and rappelled from their helicopter straight into a brawl with men wielding iron bars and knives and were even met by gunfire, Ashkenazi said.

The raid quickly became “chaotic,” he said. “After the first soldier went down the rope there was no choice but to continue with the plan.”

Turkish group may send new mission to Gaza

The Mavi Marmara (second from left) is towed by a Turkish tugboat (right) as it leaves the port of Haifa on August 5, 2010 after it was released by Israel.

The group behind a convoy to Gaza that ended when Israeli forces stormed the ships and killed nine activists said today it may use the vessels for another run on the blockade.

Israel released the three ships this week after sending the Turkish Foreign Ministry a message that said it expected Turkey to prevent the vessels, which arrived in the east Mediterranean port of Iskenderun earlier today, from attempting to reach Hamas-run Gaza again.

Huseyin Oruc, a board member at the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Aid (IHH), which owns the ships, told Reuters TV that if the blockade on Gaza continued, the boats may take part in another mission.

“If the problem is not solved, many flotillas ... will sail to Gaza. If necessary, these boats can also be used for this,” Oruc said.

Israel warns Hamas after rocket fire

Israel's prime minister has issued a stern warning to Gaza's Hamas rulers after weekend rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory on two Israeli communities.

The attacks caused damage but no injuries.

Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday that Israel holds the Islamic militant group Hamas responsible for the rare flare-up in violence. He said Israel would continue "to use all means" to protect its citizens.

No Palestinian group took responsibility for the attacks.

Israel responded with a series of airstrikes on militant targets in Gaza, including one that killed a senior commander of the Hamas military wing.

Israeli soldiers captured on YouTube doing the 'West Bank shuffle': Patrol dances during Muslim call to prayer

The six soldiers crouch down during an apparently routine patrol in the West Bank town of Hebron

Music maestro, please: Suddenly Kesha's track Tick Tock starts and the soldiers start their routine

Some Israeli soldiers may have to face the music for a viral video of them dancing on duty.

A video of the soldiers stopping a patrol in the West Bank to dance to American electro-pop singer Kesha's hit 'Tick Tock' has appeared YouTube.But Israeli TV stations picked it up and showed it repeatedly on Monday.

Israeli soldiers captured on YouTube doing the 'West Bank shuffle': Patrol dances during Muslim call to prayer

Some Israeli soldiers may have to face the music for a viral video of them dancing on duty.A video of the soldiers stopping a patrol in the West Bank to dance to American electro-pop singer Kesha's hit 'Tick Tock' has appeared YouTube.But Israeli TV stations picked it up and showed it repeatedly on Monday.

The YouTube user who posted it identified the dancers as Israeli infantrymen in the tense Palestinian city of Hebron.The video shows six soldiers patrolling as a Muslim call to prayer is heard. Then the music changes, and they break into a Macarena-like dance.The military called the video a 'stunt' and said the troops' commanders have been informed.That could mean their next dance will be 'Jailhouse Rock.'

 

 

Protesters clash with Israeli police over park plan

Palestinian and Israeli left-wing activists take part in a demonstration against the Jerusalem Municipality's plan

JERUSALEM — Israeli police clashed on Sunday with some 200 Palestinian protesters in an Arab neighbourhood of east Jerusalem that is the planned site of a controversial archaeological park, police said.

The protesters threw stones and fire bombs at a Jewish home in the area before private security guards fired in the air and police were called in to disperse them, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

Turks shot multiple times on Gaza ship: forensics

Nine people were killed on board a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on May 31

ANKARA — All but two of the nine Turks killed in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship were shot more than once, and five died from bullet wounds to the head, according to forensic reports.

The reports were made available to AFP Tuesday by lawyers for the victims' families, who have petitioned Turkish prosecutors to investigate the May 31 bloodshed on the Turkish Mavi Marmara ferry.

Goods to arrive in the Gaza Strip-Easing of Gaza siege 'not enough'-Concerns over Gaza blockade "ease"

Road shipments to Gaza begin

Food aid shipment to Gaza

Road shipments of goods to the Gaza Strip are under way following Israel's decision to change the conditions of its blockade of the Palestinian territory.

Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston, reporting from the Keram Abu Salem crossing, said on Tuesday more than 100 lorries loaded with goods had begun arriving in the coastal enclave.

Israel has said it will allow the import of "civilian" goods, but will continue to restrict items they say could be used to build weapons, including cement and steel rods.

Inside Story - Turkey's role in the Middle East-Activist Onboard Flotilla: 'Beaten', 'Tasered'

Netanyahu says ready to testify in flotilla inquiry

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends a Likud party meeting at parliament in Jerusalem June 7, 2010.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he was willing to testify in an inquiry Israel intends to hold into its deadly raid on a convoy of aid ships bound for the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.

A formal Israeli announcement of an investigation of the May 31 bloodshed awaits the conclusion of consultations with Israel's main ally, the United States, on a format for the probe, Israeli officials said.

"We will be prepared to appear and give all the facts," Netanyahu said in a speech, mentioning himself, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, the military's chief of staff.

Israel eases Gaza blockade on some banned foods

Palestinians, some holding national flags, stand near the border line with Israel, background, during a weekly protest march against Israel, in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Tuesday June 8, 2010. The sudden opening of Gaza's gateway to the world through its southern border with Egypt has turned into a scene of extreme anxiety. Hundreds crowd around border officials to snatch updates on whether they can cross to Egypt by day's end, mostly only to be told "no."


A Palestinian girl holding a national flag stands near the border line with Israel, background, during a weekly protest march against Israel, in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Tuesday June 8, 2010. The sudden opening of Gaza's gateway to the world through its southern border with Egypt has turned into a scene of extreme anxiety. Hundreds crowd around border officials to snatch updates on whether they can cross to Egypt by day's end, mostly only to be told "no."


Palestinians, some holding national flags, approach the border line with Israel, seen in the background, during a weekly protest march against Israel, in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Tuesday June 8, 2010. The sudden opening of Gaza's gateway to the world through its southern border with Egypt has turned into a scene of extreme anxiety. Hundreds crowd around border officials to snatch updates on whether they can cross to Egypt by day's end, mostly only to be told "no."

Israel eased a three-year blockade of Gaza Wednesday to allow in some previously banned food items in an effort to defuse the worldwide furor over its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound international flotilla. But critics said the step falls far short of what is needed in the impoverished Palestinian territory.
In the first tangible step to temper the uproar caused by last week's raid, Israel only narrowly expanded the list of items that can enter by adding little more than snack foods and spices. It did not permit the most sought after items, such as cement, steel and other materials needed to rebuild the war-devastated territory and it was unlikely to ease international pressure.