Pots and Kettles

As part of my ongoing efforts to find out "what really happened" during, or to cause, episodes of violence in this beautiful land that is my temporary home, I search several newspapers for the same story to see what differs, and what is common.

This weekend, there were two separate incidents near the city of Nablus, in the West Bank, wherein four teenagers were killed by the Israeli army, two in each incident. These facts are not in dispute, according to my sources. What is in dispute is what caused the soldiers to kill the boys, and how exactly they were killed.

Regarding one incident, Israeli sources claim two of the boys tried to attack the soldiers, who were stationed at a checkpoint, with a pitchfork. Regarding the second incident, Arab sources called the event a peaceful demonstration while Israeli sources called it an "illegal riot." Are there legal riots? Not be a smartmouth, but seriously. Israeli sources claim that only rubber-coated bullets were fired, and that therefore their deaths were tragic accidents. Arab sources (and the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem) claim the soldiers fired live rounds, which struck the boys in the head and abdomen, respectively.

I would like to offer now a sampling of media reports on the incident, first from Israeli news, and then from Arab news (Qatar-owned Al-Jazeera and Saudi-owned Asharq Alawsat).

Yedioth Ahronoth

The most popular newspaper in Israel, literally translated: Latest News.
IDF-appointed experts to probe death of 2 Palestinians

The IDF on Monday set up a committee of experts tasked with investigating the death of two Palestinian teenagers during riots that erupted near the West Bank city of Nablus on Saturday. The Palestinians claim that Israeli soldiers used live fire, resulting in the death of two people, while the IDF contends that soldiers fired rubber-bullets, in accordance with army protocol.

The committee, consisting of military physicians and forensic experts who were appointed by the army, will be tasked with looking into the discrepancy between the two versions with the use of eyewitness accounts and evidence gathered at the scene.
The experts will also examine X-ray images of the Palestinians' bodies provided by a hospital in Nablus and the testimonies of IDF soldiers. At this point, the army said, the cause of death cannot be determined.

Mohammed Qadus (16) and Osayed Qadus (19) were killed during clashes in the West Bank village of Burin. The IDF said that during the incident dozens of Palestinians threw stones soldiers, who responded with crowd dispersal means.

Pitchfork remained on ground during purported attack

The IDF reports – according to which one of the Palestinians tried to attack the soldiers with a pitchfork or hoe – were shown to be inaccurate. The two Palestinians were indeed in possession of farming tools. However, they were reportedly left on the ground beside them. As the two were asked what they were doing in the area and asked to hand over their details, the company commander reportedly heard one of them mutter something that sounded like a prayer. According to the debriefing, he then attacked the soldier with a broken piece of glass that he allegedly picked up from the ground.

The company commander turned around and fired two or three rounds at the Palestinian. The company commander then noticed that the other Palestinian man started moving in a threatening manner with a syringe he held in his hand. The soldier then fired two more bullets.

Haaretz

The most popular left-leaning newspaper in Israeal, literally translated: The Land
PA accuses Israel of killing Palestinian teens 'in cold blood'

Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib called for an independent investigation into the killing of 19-year-old cousins Mohammed Qawariq and Saleh Qawariq on Sunday, who were shot by Israel Defense Forces troops who they attempted to stab with a pitchfork. The soldiers were not harmed in the incident.

Khatib cited witness accounts that the two had been shot only after being arrested, while Mahmoud al-Aloul, a senior figure in the Fatah party led by
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the youth had been killed
in "cold blood".

Oseyd Abd al-Nasser Kadus was hit in the midriff by a rubber-coated bullet and was taken to the hospital in Nablus, where he had been listed in critical condition.

Another youth, Ibrahim Abd al-Khader Kadus, 16, died Saturday after being hit in the heart by a rubber-coated bullet fired by IDF troops.

The two were wounded clash after IDF soldiers tried to prevent clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinians near the village of Iraq Burin, south of Nablus. Villagers own land that borders the nearby settlement of Bracha.

The Palestinians maintain that the two teenagers were hit by live ammunition and that the soldiers prevented Palestinian medical staff from evacuating them. The two teenagers were subsequently rushed to the hospital in private cars.

Al Jazeera

Qatari-owned TV station and news magazine, literally translated: The Island
IOF Kills Teenager in Nablus

A teenager was killed and another gravely wounded as Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened Saturday afternoon fire at them in the West Bank village of Iraq Burin south of Nablus.

The IOF entered the Iraq Burin and the neighboring Burin village, following a settlers attack on the two villages. As Israeli soldiers opened fire toward citizens they gravely injured Mohamed Kadus, 16, and Aceed Jamal, but Mohamed died in hospital.

Israeli Soldiers Kill Four Palestinians in Nablus over Weekend; Abbas Condemns

This came after Israeli occupation soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians Sunday at an army check post near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. An occupation spokeswoman claimed that both men tried to stab a soldier.
"Two Palestinians were killed after attempting to stab a soldier on patrol near Awarta, southeast of Nablus. Other soldiers opened fire at the attackers, killing them," the spokeswoman told AFP.

A 19-year-old Palestinian also died on Sunday of wounds sustained one day earlier when Israeli occupation forces opened fire on demonstrators south of Nablus.
Oseyd Abd al-Nasser Kadus was hit in the midriff by a rubber-coated bullet and was taken to the hospital in Nablus, where he had been listed in critical condition.
Another youth, Ibrahim Abd al-Khader Kadus, 16, died Saturday after being hit in the heart by a rubber-coated bullet fired by occupation troops.

Palestinians maintain that the two teenagers were hit by live ammunition and that the soldiers prevented Palestinian medical staff from evacuating them. The two teenagers were subsequently rushed to the hospital in private cars.

The two martyrs were wounded when Israeli soldiers opened fire at Palestinian demonstrators who were defending their families and properties from settler gangs attacking their village.

Asharq Alawsat

Saudi-owned and printed in the UK, literally translated: The Middle East
Second Palestinian Youth Dies after shot in West Bank

Osaid al-Kaddous, 17, was fatally wounded in a confrontation between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths, who had been throwing stones, in the Palestinian village of Iraq Burin, near Nablus. Mohammed Ibrahim, 16, was killed there Saturday.

Due to be buried later Sunday, they were the first Palestinians to die in recent weeks of protests in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Kaddous had been struck in the head by what a Palestinian medic who treated him said was a live bullet.

The Israeli army has denied live ammunition was used.

Do note that this paragraph:

The Palestinians maintain that the two teenagers were hit by live ammunition and that the soldiers prevented Palestinian medical staff from evacuating them. The two teenagers were subsequently rushed to the hospital in private cars.

was exactly the same, word for word, in the Haaretz article and the Al-Jazeera article. In my humble opinion, it seems that it is much less risky for an Israeli journalist to question and be critical of his or her government than it is for an Arab journalist. The wrath with which Al-Jazeera reports on developments in Palestine fades to a flicker when comment is made about the Qatari government, and is once again fanned when journalists criticize the rival Saudi government. But here in Israel, even mainstream publications echo the sentiments of their Arab peers and question the legitimacy of the Israeli military's official line until it is confirmed with facts.

Israel's critics accuse it of being an ethnocracy madquerading as a democracy, which is true, with Arab Israeli's rights dwindling as we speak. But one could make the argument, and indeed I intend to, that Israel's Arabs are treated more fairly than Arabs' Arabs. Were protesters not killed in Iran after Ahmedinejad was "reelected"? (And yes I know they are not Arab, don't split hairs with me). Have Egyptian journalists not been abducted, beaten, and disappeared for criticizing their leaders? Have Saudi TV producers not been fired and replaced simply for discussing the pros and cons of Western lifestyles?

I will continue this argument in my own head and possibly on the blog at a future date.

Amid Numerous Clashes, J'lem Police Chief says "No Worries"

Couple days ago I wrote that some people think the third intifada could be starting soon. There have been outbreaks of violence, demonstrations, and vandalism throughout Jerusalem and the West Bank lately, but luckily Jerusalem's Chief of Police says there's no problem.

Police Commissioner David Cohen on Tuesday toured Jerusalem's Old City after clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, and said he did not believe the recent violence would not spark a third intifada.

And in a not-really-funny but yes-really-funny way, this paragraph made me laugh a little:

Palestinians hurled stones at police and burned tires and trash bins in several areas of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank during the 1967 Six-Day War.

"Burned tires and trash bins in several areas of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank..." the first time I read that, I thought it meant Israel had captured the tires and trash bins in 1967. I was like, "wow, that's a long time to be holding onto those. Maybe they are really planning to give them back eventually."

Meanwhile, the West Bank closure I mentioned previously is still in effect. And as a parting thought, I include this paragraph about why this whole mess started in the first place:

Sporadic violence has erupted in recent weeks in Jerusalem after Israel decided to include West Bank religious sites in a Jewish national heritage plan stoked Palestinian anger.

Hamas Leader's Son Outs Himself as Shin-Bet Spy

I love continuity. Really, it's my favorite thing when something I wrote about yesterday connects to something happening today. Well, ok, this didn't happen today, but I found out about it today. So with that said, I'd like to introduce Mr. Mosab Hassan Yousef. He is a Palestinian, born and raised in the West Bank, the son of a Hamas leader currently serving a prison term in Israel, and a voluntary spy for Shabak, Israel's intelligence service.

The news about this 32-year-old recent addition to California's population first broke on Israeli newspaper Haaretz- the writer, Avi Issacharoff, was given exclusive access to the now, we have to assume, on-the-lam Yousef. The story almost immediately bloomed into an international intrigue story. The same day as the Haaretz article came out, February 24, BBC picked up the story, adding some tidbits of their own. For example, the reaction from Hamas:

Earlier, senior Hamas leader Ismail Radwan condemned Haaretz's report as "baseless slander" aimed at the elder Yousef.

"The Palestinian people have great confidence in Hamas and its struggle and they will not be fooled by this slander and these lies of the Israeli occupation," he told AFP news agency.

Yousef became known over a year ago for outing himself as a converted Christian, and now he is outing himself again- this time as a spy for Israel- in a new book to be released soon, called Son of Hamas.

Some interesting tidbits from the Haaretz article:

Yousef was considered the Shin Bet's most reliable source in the Hamas leadership, earning himself the nickname "the Green Prince" - using the color of the Islamist group's flag, and "prince" because of his pedigree as the son of one of the movement's founders.

During the second intifada, intelligence Yousef supplied led to the arrests of a number of high-ranking Palestinian figures responsible for planning deadly suicide bombings. These included Ibrahim Hamid (a Hamas military commander in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti (founder of the Fatah-linked Tanzim militia) and Abdullah Barghouti (a Hamas bomb-maker with no close relation to the Fatah figure). Yousef was also responsible for thwarting Israel's plan to assassinate his father.

Especially touching were his statements about Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier still held in Gaza.

"I wish I were in Gaza now," Yousef said by phone from California, "I would put on an army uniform and join Israel's special forces in order to liberate Gilad Shalit. If I were there, I could help. We wasted so many years with investigations and arrests to capture the very terrorists that they now want to release in return for Shalit. That must not be done."

Yousef's former Shabak handler expressed his admiration for him.

Loai makes no secret of his admiration for his former source. "The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money," he says. "He did things he believed in. He wanted to save lives. His grasp of intelligence matters was just as good as ours - the ideas, the insights. One insight of his was worth 1,000 hours of thought by top experts."

He also says Hamas is a greater threat to the Palestinian people than Israel is.

I tell you with certainty that the Israelis care about the Palestinians far more than the Hamas or Fatah leadership does."

Lastly, check out this video which I am unfortunately unable to embed. It's an interview with Yousef on BBC Arabic where he talks about how Muhammad is a false prophet and Islam is a fundamentally flawed religion.

Tensions All Over the Place

Things are getting hot over here. I've been reading lately some interesting opinion columns from local writers who think the third intifada is about to start, and if things keep going as they have been, that may well happen.

Firstly, Israel sealed off the West Bank beginning on Thursday and plan to keep it that way until at least Wednesday. What that means is that some Palestinians who are usually allowed to cross the checkpoints in order to pray at Al-Aqsa mosque will not be allowed to do so until the closure is over. Women are allowed to cross as usual but only men over 50 will be allowed during the closure.

This Ynet article describes five incidents of violence this week, which is not alltogether out of the ordinary, but one of those incidents was at the Old City's Damascus Gate, which is not usually a site of tension.

Recently there was also an incident of stone throwing and other tomfoolery at Al-Aqsa. The closure is a result of Israeli intelligence getting information that such an event was going to happen again this past weekend.

The decision was based on police intelligence received on a group of Arab youths planning to enter Temple Mount and causing disturbances. Accordingly, the Jerusalem District Police and Border Guard will deploy in force around the Temple Mount complex and the alleys of Jerusalem's Old City.

Speaking of Israeli intelligence, this other article brags about the intelligentsia's ability to preempt bad stuff.

The IDF emphasized that Udda's arrest illustrates the freedom the military enjoys in the West Bank and the precise intelligence hold it has which enables such arrests. "Anti-terror activity is constantly ongoing. We take action against anyone involved in terror now and against elements that were involved in terror in the past and have yet to be brought to justice. This is the approach that guides us, and will continue to guide us," an IDF source said.

This was in reference to the arrest of Maher Udda, a Hamas big fish that they consider the last man they were seeking in connection with the second intifada's terror attacks.

Everyone Hates Netanyahu

Remember last week when I described how Netanyahu inserted his foot fully into his mouth with that whole Biden thing? Well, now clean-up is happening.

Firstly, yesterday, Bibi was apparently trying to explain that he handled the situation with Biden:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he thought his apology to Joe Biden over the ill-timed announcement of east Jerusalem construction was sufficient and believed the matter was closed.

This he says the same day he was "harshly reprimanded" on the phone by Sec. State Clinton. She expressed this sentiment herself:

In an interview with CNN, Friday Secretary of State Clinton said the move was "insulting" to the US.

"We have to make clear to our Israeli friends and partner that the two-state solution which we support, which the prime minister himself said he supports, requires confidence-building measures on both sides," she said.

And then today, when Netanyahu sees that everyone is still talking about it, he tries again:

"We opened the newspapers today and read all kinds of commentaries and estimates about the crisis with the United States. I suggest that we avoid getting carried away and calm down."

But the fact that he, himself, called it a "crisis" belies his message. In any case, the more interesting question to some will be whether Netanyahu really didn't know that the Interior Ministry would make the announcement on the same day as Biden's visit. My sources say no, that in fact, Israel really is that disorganized. But Netanyahu intends to remedy that:

Netanyahu on Saturday decided to form a committee comprising senior officials in the aims of preventing such mishaps.


The new committee will be responsible for establishing procedural guidelines to prevent the reoccurrence of similar incidents in the future.

Basically, everyone is mad at Netanyahu. Also, the word "crisis" was used exactly seven times in this one article.

Netanyahu is Going to Get Impeached

According to this AP article Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu really put his foot in it yesterday. VP Joe Biden showed up in Israel to try to re-start the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and what does Israel do? Announce its plans to build 1,600 new housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo.

The announcement was made just before Biden was scheduled to arrive to a planned dinner with Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Biden was on the phone with Washington asking just what he was supposed to do with this steaming pile of dung that had previously resembled a peace prospect. This caused him to be over an hour late to the dinner, a blunder which was perceived as an insult to Netanyahu, on top of the fact that he publicly condemned the move.

Israel's opposition party, Kadima, is reportedly planning a no-confidence vote to oust Netanyahu, which is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Israeli prime ministers who rub the U.S. the wrong way have suffered the same fate before. In fact, one of the reasons Bibi did not win re-election after his first term as prime minister is that he failed to please Clinton. And even Rabin, who would later be America's darling because of Oslo, stepped down partially due to the fact that he and Carter had bad chemistry.

Gitmo Released Taliban's Second in Command

According to this AP story today, America's human rights activists are saying, "Ooops, my bad. Go on with what you were doing. Don't mind me."

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan – A man freed from Guantanamo more than two years ago after he claimed he only wanted to go home and help his family is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials say.

Abdul Qayyum is also seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, said the officials, interviewed last week by The Associated Press.

So now we can spend hundreds of millions of dollars in technology and manpower, not to mention the collateral damage of all his fine work, to find him somewhere in a cave or village in Afghanistan. But we could have just kept him in Gitmo. But he seemed so nice

And Qayyum is not nearly the only one who managed to slip through Gitmo's fingers, "U.S. intelligence asserts that 20 percent of suspects released from the Guantanamo Bay prison have returned to the fight and the number has been steadily increasing."

This guy could be the next #2 in the Taliban hierarchy and "From his houses in Quetta he appoints the (Taliban) governors, the district governors," Sharifuddin said. "Nothing happens in these provinces without his approval." Yet we thought he was just a nice rural boy who wanted to go home and help his family.

Oops.