Oh No Wait, Nevermind

According to this Haaretz article:

"There is no truth in the publications that Israel intends to deport Gazans residing in the West Bank," Brigadier-General Eitan Dangot, the coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian territories, told top Fatah official Hussein a-Sheikh during a phone conversation.

So instead of this order applying to Palestinians, it actually applies to everyone else:

A-Sheik added that "Dangot said that Israel would not enable tourists who enter Israel with a visa to enter the Palestinian territories."

So instead of physically forcing Palestinians to leave, they will just put a stranglehold on their economy and force them to leave that way. That's much better. Phew!

Nothing to See Here Folks, Don't Mind Us

Well this is not at all like the holocaust. Nope, not at all. Gaza is a ghetto There have been no ghettos created for any special class of citizens, dissidents are arrested and tortured everyone is free to protest, and at least Israel hasn't yet resorted to mass deportations of the undesirable portion of the population. Oh no wait. Yes they have.

From Haaretz today:

A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years.

What this means is that, first and foremost, Palestinians whose ID cards show addresses in the Gaza strip will be deported. Even if they were born in the West Bank. Even if their spouses and children were born in the West Bank. Secondly, foreign-born spouses of West Bank residents will be subject to deportation. To where, I don't know. Palestinians with Gaza addresses on their ID cards may face deportation to the strip, but many Palestinians who were born and raised in the West Bank still do not have Palestinian residency cards, and are citizens of no country.

Amira Hass of Haaretz writes, "The new order defines anyone who enters the West Bank illegally as an infiltrator, as well as "a person who is present in the area and does not lawfully hold a permit." What that means is that, even if you enter Israel legally and decide you want to spend some time hanging with your second cousin, or your former coworker, or whomever in the West Bank, you have to obtain a permit from the local Israeli military commander. Even if the area you want to stay in is completely under Palestinian control. And what do you suppose are the chances of actually being granted a permit to chill with your people?

Furthermore, the order is so vague as to allow the local military commander to interpret as he sees fit:

The order's language is both general and ambiguous, stipulating that the term infiltrator will also be applied to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, citizens of countries with which Israel has friendly ties (such as the United States) and Israeli citizens, whether Arab or Jewish. All this depends on the judgment of Israel Defense Forces commanders in the field.

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.

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.

Obama Gives up on Peace Process

My Dear Reader,
I haven't written in many months, much to the chagrin of my biggest supporters (mom, et al). So if you're reading this, it means you either know me personally and have been warned I would begin writing again, or you have just stumbled upon this blog for the first time. Welcome, I say, to the latter. Welcome back, to the former. And I also must issue a warning: this blog may be hazardous to your political correctness. Side effects of reading this blog include uttering tasteless jokes, racist jokes, and offending friends and acquaintances in general. I am not a humanitarian, I am not a peacemaker, I can only barely be called a journalist. But along with a lack of human compassion comes a lack of emotional involvement in the affairs of the Israeli and Palestinian governments. I mock them both equally, where mocking is called for.

I also sometimes mock fellow bloggers and journalists.

Now, I will begin my update with a summation of the situation as of the last time I wrote, which was in August, and any developments since then.

1. Obama had been in office half a year and everyone was eager to see what his big plan was to solve Middle Eastern Conflict. Obama appointed George Mitchell as his special envoy to this end and after conferring with the region's leaders for five minutes or so came up with this totally original and incredibly detailed plan:

   President Barack Obama's new Mideast envoy called Wednesday for an end to Hamas weapons smuggling and a reopening of Gaza's borders, seeking to strengthen the shaky cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants thrown into turmoil by new violence.

   This reads like Mitchell thinks he's the magic peace fairy and he can just ask what each side wants and then POOF there it is. [The link to that article has since died, super sorry about that, but the quote is accurate.]
   
   And then yesterday, this gem appeared in Ha'aretz, "Obama: U.S. expectations for Middle East peace too high." Obama is quoted as saying:

   I think it is absolutely true that what we did this year didn't produce the kind of breakthrough that we wanted and if we had anticipated some of these political problems on both sides earlier, we might not have raised expectations as high.

   Reading this article, I was shocked not only by the way Obama is willing to level with journalists, but also with his seemingly clear and realistic grasp on the situation. He summed up the key current issues as such:

   Both sides ... have found that the political environment, the nature of their coalitions, or the divisions within their societies were such that it was very hard for them to start engaging in a meaningful conversation.
   
   And I think that we overestimated our ability to persuade them to do so when their politics ran contrary to that. From Abbas' perspective, he's got Hamas looking over his shoulder and I think an environment generally within the Arab world that feels impatient with any process.
   
   And on the Israeli front, although the Israelis I think after a lot of time showed a willingness to make some modifications in their policies, still found it very hard to move with any bold gestures.

2. Gilad Shalit is still held in captivity somewhere in Gaza. The Israeli soldier was taken in a cross border raid over three years ago and his imprisonment has played a key role in negotiations since that time. On August 12 of last year, this article revealed that Hamas was confident Israel would finally yield to its demands.

   Mohammed al-Ghoul, the Hamas minister for prisoners' affairs, said "the Israeli occupation will soon surrender to the conditions that we have outlined for the release of Gilad Shalit."
   
   According to al-Ghoul, Israel will release the Palestinian prisoners whose names appear on a list Hamas has passed to Egyptian officials. The list includes a number of prisoners serving life sentences, as well as women, children, and some elderly inmates.

   First of all, al-Ghoul? Is that really someone you want to designate as any kind of representative to the western world? And secondly, that list has passed back and forth between Israel's and Hamas' hands so many times it probably carries swine flu, AIDS, and mad cow. The numbers of prisoners on the list has reportedly fluctuated wildly between 150 and 1,000 names. First Israel wouldn't release prisoners serving terms for murder, and then they would, but only certain ones, but Hamas wasn't happy with those certain ones, and so on. There are so many cooks in the kitchen on both sides that no matter the disposition of The List, it will never pass final muster. Sure enough, just one day later, a different Hamas rep was saying something else.

   Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal said there is no real progress in talks for the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, despite recent reports to the contrary.
   
   In an interview to Qatari newspaper al-Watan, that will be published in full on Sunday, with parts of it published on the Hamas website Thursday, Mashaal said mediation efforts in the matter were ongoing, but that no real progress has been made. He said this was due to "the manner in which the Zionist enemy's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is handling the matter.'

   And most recently, any mention of progress in the swap has halted except for this item from January 19:

   Mohammed Nazal told the Lebanese daily A-Sapir that the deal has been delayed thus far due to Israel's refusal to heed Hamas' demand to see top militants Marwan Bargouthi and Ahmed Sadat freed.

   So basically at this point, Hamas is mainly concerned with these final two guys, but they're biggies. This is the first I've heard of this Ahmed Sadat dude, but Bargouthi is a Palestinian "freedom fighter" who is so popular it's basically assumed that if he's released, he'll win the Hamas presidency. He's considered to be the leader of both the first and second intifadas but strongly supported the peace process, including the Oslo accords. He's basically the Nelson Mandela of Palestine. Further research (meaning I can use google) has revealed that this Sadat guy is pretty popular too but he doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist and was in opposition to the Oslo process. He was Secretary-General of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) beginning in 2001 after the previous secretary was assassinated. The PFLP is basically Fatah's armed wing that they keep all hush-hush like when you have a retarded child that you keep in the basement just to feed annoying salesmen and Jehovah's Witnesses. Anyway, Sadat was accused of planning the assassination of Israel's tourism minister, who was the founder of right wing party Moledet and advocated the forced transfer of Israel's Arabs to neighboring countries.
   
   So...what was my point? Oh yeah, transferring prisoners between Israel and Palestine is complicated.
   
   Good god this update is exhausting. One more item.
   
   
3. Operation Price Tag is still in full swing. It was way back in October of 2008 that I first wrote about this lovely little grassroots movement wherein Israeli settlers damage Palestinian cemeteries, farms, and livestock, injure Palestinian children on their walks to school, and injure and sometimes kill Palestinians and/or Israeli soldiers who try to stop them in an attempt to curb opposition to the Israeli expansion project. How it works is, every time the Israeli governments clamps down and actually follows its own laws regarding the disposition of West Bank land, settlers in the area do some sort of damage that is designed to remind Palestinians and Israelis alike that there is a price tag to their opposition. I found the latest incarnation of this movement on Ha'aretz yesterday and here is the gist:

   Recent violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, has been linked by some activists to the Israeli government's decision to impose a temporary, partial freeze on building in the enclaves.
   
   Through a strategy known as the "price tag", the settlers have targeted Palestinians and their property whenever the Israeli government is seen moving, or thinking of moving against the settlements, which are deemed illegal by world powers.
   
   Israeli police this month arrested four settlers on suspicion of involvement in an arson attack last month on a mosque near Nablus. Carpets and holy books were burnt in that attack.

   These backlashes typically follow the evacuation of an illegal West Bank settlement by Israeli officials. Meanwhile, the freeze continues in name only as concrete foundations continue to be poured throughout areas planned for West Bank settlement.
   

And that's all kids. My snarky mockery will continue unabated as I'm in-country for a stay now.

Anti-Arab Racism Seething in Israel

Israelis generally hate it when people compare their treatment of Palestinians to that of Nazis during the Holocaust, but I'm going to do that now, with good reasons, and with some qualifications.

The Nazis started small, with segregation, with government-sanctioned hatred and distrust of Jews. They didn't start right off with gas chambers, concentration camps, and wholesale murder. If they had, the world would have sat up and took notice immediately. They did it slow, so they could let the world adjust to the idea. "Separate but equal" was how it started in the U.S. but fortunately did not continue in that vein. There is an old adage: if you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will jump right out. But if you put a frog in a pot of cold water and slowly make it hotter, the frog will slowly boil to death.

Most Israelis probably don't even realize that this is the direction their country, and their culture, is heading. Most are idealistic, democratic, and share the values of the West. But values of racism and segregation are slowly permeating the culture. Slowly, so that people can accept incidents as isolated rather than as part of a pattern.

But meanwhile, Jewish settlers (with their government's support) take over Palestinian homes and farmland. They beat and sometimes shoot Palestinian farmers and schoolchildren, seldom with any consequences. The government discusses laws like the "Nakba law" that would make it illegal to publicly commemorate the expulsions that resulted in the creation of Israel. Members of parliament openly advocate forced segregation based on race. Palestinian Jerusalemites cannot buy property in West Jerusalem. I could go on, but I won't.

But the most obvious symptom of the pervasive culture of racism that is blooming within Israel is the one you can see on the walls of mosques, schools, bus stops, and everywhere else unwanted Arabs make their home. Graffiti like "gas the Arabs," "death to Arabs," "no Arabs allowed," and more are everywhere.

Please do click this link and see a post on "Lawrence of Cyberia" exhibiting a collection of photos from all over Israel and West Bank bearing these messages. Anyone who wants to deny anti-Arab racism exists at such a level in Israel will say that these are indeed isolated incidents. That the pictures were taken over a period of many years, perhaps, or that the grafitti is removed right away.

But those things aren't true. Out of the 26 photos on the post, I have personally seen 9 examples- either the very piece of graffiti pictured, or a very similar message, in the last year. In fact, several of them I saw last summer and they are still there this summer, a year later.

Israel Dismantles Outpost. Sort of.

Haaretz says today that Israel dismantled a small outpost outside of the Kiryat Arba settlement, which had been expanded on Tuesday to include two new families. But the article says, "The settlers are expected to build the outpost again on Wednesday, as is customary following their dismantlement by security forces."

This was after the Youth for Israel movement established 11 new outposts earlier this week.

Also earlier this week, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said, "the IDF has not received orders to prepare for the evacuation of outposts in the West Bank." One of the movement's members, Shlomit Amitai, said:

"What we do is like bandaging a mother's wounds," Amitai says, explaining the proverb's meaning. "This empty earth is a wound that must be bandaged with a settlement."

And by "empty earth" she means, "earth currently being cultivated by Palestinian farmers who, as non-Jews, have no rights to the land."

At the beginning of this whole spat with the US over settlements, activists and the blogosphere predicted that Netanyahu would order a few far-flung outposts dismantled, which would inevitably make it into the news and make it look like he was making an effort to stop settlement expansion. And that prediction seems to be all too true.

An opinion column on Ynet today says:

We have to admit that despite the unpleasantness involved in the American reprimands over the unauthorized outposts, this confrontation has several benefits. The Israeli government and its settlers enjoy every moment, as every minute dedicated to the quarrel over the removal of illegal mobile homes in Judea and mobile washrooms in Samaria is a minute that is not devoted to the truly important evacuations.

Besides, the preoccupation with the “illegal outposts” is a good thing, as it implies that all the other settlements are legal; as if alongside the lawbreaking thieves we see legally sound thieves, who rob and steal in line with the rules.

In addition, the outpost festival allows the official Israel to present an image whereby the problem – that is, the enemies of the peace process and of an agreement – has to do with reckless hilltop youth, devoid of any restraints or Ritalin.

What isn't mentioned here is that even these random, youth-initiated, illegal outposts are protected by the army and are sooner or later provided with paved roads, electricity and plumbing by the Israeli government. They literally could not even set up a tent without the support of the IDF. If Netanyahu didn't want them to set up house, there would be no need for a settler-military confrontation, he could simply ignore them. But what he's after is the creation of "facts on the ground", a phrase that become synonymous with Israel's race to populate the West Bank with Jews before the world puts its foot down about the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.

Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade Hot for Bruno

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Bruno star Sacha Baron Cohen has been threatened by members of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (an armed wing of Fatah) because of a member's portrayal in the movie.

The group denounced Cohen's "dirty use" of Aita, claiming that he was misled as to the "real context of the film." Bruno is seen remarking to Aita: "I want to be famous. I want the best guys in the business to kidnap me. Al-Qaida is so 2001."

Aita was reportedly furious with his portrayal in the film. "We reserve the right to respond in the way we find suitable against this man," Aita said in a statement published by World Net Daily.

Supposedly this guy Ayman Abu Aita is going to file a lawsuit against Cohen. Really? A lawsuit?

These guys shoot people in the street for lesser humiliations than that. Cohen has "tightened his security following the group's statement."

Good luck with that.



I couldn't find a clip of the actual scene in the movie, but above is a video of Sacha Baron Cohen telling Letterman about the "interview."

Palestinians Film Parody of Israeli Commercial

Last week, this commercial for Israeli cell company cellcom started making the rounds of the blogosphere, with everyone having their two cents to put in about it. Basically the consensus among Palestinians and left-wing Israelis was that the commercial attempted to make light of the occupation and the security wall.



This week, residents of the beleaguered village of Bil'in, about which I have written before, decided to film a response to the commercial to show the world what such a situation is like in reality.

Settlements Not an Obstale to Peace

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington meeting with President Obama this week, and he made some surprising concessions, in theory at least. Only time will tell if he will make good on his promises.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are of two types: state-sponsored and illegal. The "legal" settlements are built by the Israeli government, are protected by the Israeli military, and are usually much larger than the second type. Illegal settlements are those that are built in areas not approved for settlement by the government. These settlements are sometimes home to only one family, or several families.

Of the 26 illegal outposts on record, Israel will dismantle "a number of" them. No mention of dismantling any of the "legal" settlements. But no matter. According to Netanyahu, those are not really an issue.

From Haaretz:

The document, which Netanyahu issued for distribution only after meeting Obama, says Israel is ready to evacuate the illegal outposts. As for stopping construction in the settlements the document was more cagey, saying the settlements were not an obstacle to peace and that the evacuation of settlements in Gaza only led to the establishment of a Hamas terror base in the Gaza Strip.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak also added, "the new Israeli government would take action against the outposts, not because it was told to do so by the United States, but because Israel 'is a state of law."

It is widely understood that these statements were the price Netanyahu paid for Obama's support regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is taking a tougher stance on even the officially recognized West Bank settlements.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a hard line against settlement construction in the territories Wednesday, including a call to freeze building for natural growth. Her statement came in contrast to the general terms U.S. President Barack Obama expressed about the issue to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the week.

"Natural growth" refers to home additions designed to better accommodate a growing family. For example, adding a room onto the house when you've had a new baby. Or adding another small home to the property when one of your children marries. This type of natural growth is common in Arab families, as one piece of land is often lived on by many generations of a growing extended family. Unfortunately in many cases, this natural growth is deterred by the denial of building permits. In East Jerusalem, Arab homes are sometimes demolished because a proper permit was not obtained.

Gov't Report Reveals Corruption at Highest Levels

With Israeli elections just around the corner, we can safely assume that all major political developments are at least in part one group or another's attempt to win favor with the electorate. Operation Cast Lead was one example of political maneuvering, and quite possibly the most significant one of this election. It has seemed to achieve its goals of creating a sense of national unity, feelings of patriotism, and a strong distrust of outsiders and their criticisms. In short, the country has been put in a war mood.

This is good for Prime Minister candidate Bibi Netanyahu, who has already held the office from 1996 to 1999, as leader of the conservative Likud party. Support for the latest Gaza war and Israelis' tendency to go insular when they are threatened has made his success much more likely.

This could be the reason a secret government report revealing settlement construction to be illegal and corrupted has recently been released, even though it was completed over two years ago. What's more is that the research was done by the Israeli government and at the behest of former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, another right-wing candidate for Prime Minister in this election.

Ha'aretz writes:

An analysis of the data reveals that, in the vast majority of the settlements - about 75 percent - construction, sometimes on a large scale, has been carried out without the appropriate permits or contrary to the permits that were issued.

Now, let's deconstruct this in order to fully realize the significance. Building without permits is a pretty piddly violation. If building without permits was the only accusation we could make against the Israeli government, I wouldn't have anything to write about. What makes this significant is that Palestinian homes built without permits are demolished, oftentimes without warning, meaning the residents not only lose their home, but many of their possessions as well. Before the appearance of this report, government spokesmen could make all the excuses they want about these demolitions, but now, they can no longer claim Palestinians receive equal treatment in this regard.

Moving on:

The database also shows that, in more than 30 settlements, extensive construction of buildings and infrastructure (roads, schools, synagogues, yeshivas and even police stations) has been carried out on private lands belonging to Palestinian West Bank residents.

The government admits that it knowingly builds on the property of the West Bank's Palestinian residents.

The Ha'aretz article, besides a summary of the report, includes interviews with settler leaders and Housing Ministry officials. Not surprisingly, they all pass the buck higher and higher, until it becomes clear that decisions regarding the illegal building come from the very heights from which the order to compile the report was given. Nevermind why Shaul Mofaz would order a report written that could very well cost him the election, the question is: who released the report to the public, two years after its completion?

The answer, if I may speculate, comes from the left. If Operation Cast Lead hurt Tzipi Livni's chances in the election, this report does the same to her right-wing competitors. If the electorate knows their government is out looking for trouble, support of the Gaza war could wane, thus giving Livni the boost she needs at the polls.

House of Contention Update

In a troubling update about Beit Hameriva, the House of Contention, in the West Bank city of Hebron, Ha'aretz writes:

Medics said 18 Israelis and seven Palestinians were hurt in the violence. The clashes took place near Hebron's "House of Contention," where settlers have been holed up in defiance of a Supreme Court eviction notice...IDF officials described the severity of the settlers' riots as 'unprecedented.' They said the violent clashes were initiated by the settlers and not by the Palestinians, who only responded by throwing rocks.

Israeli security officials are planning a large operation to evict the settlers from Beit Hameriva, but they decline to state when that operation will be, for fear of allowing the settlers enough preparation time to prepare a defense against the IDF.

It is also worthwhile to note that an Israeli parliament member (Member of Knesset) is currently living in the House of Contention, which illustrates the political support right wing settlers enjoy and explains why their activities are referred to as "protests" in some newspapers, and "riots" in others. Many of you have asked me why violent settlers are not punished for their continued violence, and I offer this as only one reason why. Violent settlers are a very small minority of the Israeli people, and yet they enjoy tremendous power.

For another post I wrote on this curious phenomenon, go here.

Operation Price Tag: Settlers Organize their Attacks

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Israeli settlers living in illegal West Bank outposts sometimes attack when soldiers come to evict them or take away their building supplies.

One such resident, Itai Zer, tells the New Zealand Herald that these are not uncoordinated attacks in response to isolated incidents. These attacks are all part of "Operation Price Tag," an effort designed to disorient both Palestinian villagers and IDF soldiers so that outpost evacuations must be postponed.

Recommended methods reportedly include arson and road-blocking to force troops to abandon the evacuation and deal with the protesters’ actions, as well as demonstratively entering Palestinian villages - a tactic used repeatedly in the village of Asira al Qibliya.

Due to these acts of what some would call protest and others would call terrorism, 50% of the olive trees in the village of Burin, adjacent to the Yitzhar settlement, have been burned recently, and with the olive harvest just around the corner, some residents wonder where their livelihood will come from.

Yitzhar settlers also poison and shoot livestock and cut telephone and power lines in their effort to keep the situation chaotic. Some of these protesters draw the line at attacking people, but say they wouldn't stop others if they chose to attack Palestinian villagers directly.

There are nearly 300,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, from all different walks of life. Some are hardcore Jewish ideologues who seek to secure the entire West Bank for Israel in the fulfillment of a biblical promise. Others simply moved there in search of cheaper housing.

Palestinians acting in reprisal of the settler attacks have suffered doubly. Throughout the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there have been four times as many casualties on the Palestinian side with eight times as many children killed or injured. Recent events prove no different.

Two weeks ago, Yitzhar settlers went on a rampage in Assira al-Kubliyeh, following an arson and stabbing attack that injured a 9-year-old boy from the settlement. Dozens of stone-throwing settlers, some firing in the air, smashed windows of several homes and overturned a car in the village. Six villagers were hurt, including a 17-year-old girl shot in the right arm. Yesh Din said Israeli soldiers did little to prevent the riot.

Later that week, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy was shot to death while throwing a firebomb at Yitzhar.

Unfortunately, by not protecting the Palestinians, the IDF leaves them no choice but to retaliate for the settler violence, a natural act which nevertheless only hurts them once again and reinforces the settlers' mission to expel them.

Palestinian Infighting Now Infamous

Al Jazeera writer Ramzy Baroud questions whether the idea of "Palestinian Unity" has any meaning anymore in his article Palestinian Unity: Goal or Mantra?

Palestinian disunity, and political -- if not, geopolitical -- fragmentation is eroding the Palestinian cause more than all Israeli efforts, walls and military incursions combined. The painful-to-watch televised bickering between representatives of various Palestinian factions has led to confusion among traditionally pro-Palestinian groups worldwide. The political objectives -- once agreed upon as "constants" -- and symbols that once united Palestinians everywhere are now wide open for extreme interpretation.

In fact, "respecting the sanctity of Palestinian blood", which for long served as the lowest possible denominator agreed on by every Palestinian grouping, has been violated many times in recent months and years; too many times to count. Repeating the slogan is, at this point, an empty mantra, joining the numerous other mantras that have for long served as a sedative for the hapless masses, whether Arabs, Palestinians or both.

I read Al Jazeera and Israel's Haaretz news everyday, and it's not often that they both say the same thing, but when they do, I find it bears repeating. Further underscoring my commentation of Abbas' temper tantrum the PA again uses the media to issue veiled threats to Hamas.

Haaretz writes:

RAMALLAH - The Palestinian Authority must be ready to use force against Hamas in Gaza "to reunify the homeland," said the head of PA forces in the West Bank, Gen. Dhiab al-Ali (Abu al-Fatah), considered the Palestinian chief of staff.

"If Gaza remains mutinous, the Palestinian Authority will have no choice but to use force against it," Ali said in a recent interview with Haaretz at his Ramallah offices.

Ali said the PA has not ruled out using force if the territory remains in Hamas' hands.

"There haven't yet been consultations with the Israelis on the issue," Ali said. "We hope we won't need that option - for us it's the last choice for unifying the homeland - but we must be prepared to implement it."

No senior PA official close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has ever expressed such views to the media, and especially not shortly before a Fatah delegation is set to attend talks in Cairo on a possible detente with Hamas.

The mention of Israel backing up Fatah forces in a Gaza takeover is both heartbreakingly optimistic and a confirmation of a recent quip by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Firstly, Fatah doesn't have forces, per se. As I wrote back on August 9th, the U.S. is funding the creation of Palestinian security forces, but the first battalion of 500 soldiers has just finished training. This is hardly a force one goes off conquering non-contiguous pieces of land with.

Secondly, Hamas released a statement July 29, saying:

"Now the Zionists are protecting you," Hamas said in a statement addressed to security forces in the West Bank. "You know that once the protection of the Zionists is over, people will enter your headquarters and kick you out," it said.

"You must know we are not acting against you now in the West Bank because ... we know the Zionists will immediately back you."

Abbas and his cabinet do not seem concerned with countering this statement. In fact, it seems they rather enjoy the world knowing they are under Israel's protection, as the faction most cooperative with Israel's agenda. The problem is, they have secured Israel's cooperation at the expense of their peoples' needs and wants, which is perhaps what causes the infighting Baroud mentioned above.

2am proves IDF's Rush Hour

I normally do not report on the type of story I am about to report on. The potential for sensationalism and exaggeration is much too great. But I have seen so many similar reports over the last few months that to continue to ignore the trend would be to purposefully hide it. And so I must try to create something midway between sensationalism and deception.

At the customary hour for such dealings, 2:30 in the morning, On September 11, 12-year-old Mohammad Saleh Khawaje was awakened at home and arrested by Israeli soldiers for the charge of "stone-throwing and disturbance of public order." He is still in jail awaiting bail with his codefendant, 13-year-old Abdul Ahman.

In the Israeli justice system, Palestinian youth can be tried as adults at the age of 12. In contrast, Israeli youth are considered children until they turn 18.

This situation is further complicated by Mohammad's father's belief that his son was arrested in an act of revenge. Abed Saleh, Mohammed's father, says he had complained to Israeli police and military about a daylong beating he suffered at the behest of the now-infamous Lt. Col. Omri Bruberg.

Saleh tells ISM:

Abed Saleh wasn’t home when Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Ni’lin on Thursday night and raided his house. “The soldiers came to the house to take me again,” he explained. “They asked where I was. When they found out I wasn’t there they took my son instead.”

Saleh is not the first to accuse Bruberg of violence or of revenge for the complaints about such violence.

This is the second time in recent history that such allegations have been laid against Israeli soldiers under Lt. Col. Omri’s command. One month ago Jamal Amira, father of Salam Amira, the teenager who shot the infamous video in which Omri ordered the aforementioned shooting of Ashraf Abu Rama, was arrested as “Salam’s father” by self-proclaimed “friends of Omri”, and subjected to abuse strikingly similar to that Abd Saleh describes in his testimony.

A similar case was noted by the UK Guardian's Seth Freedman back in July. In that case, another Muhammad, this time 14 years old, described his ordeal in prison for the same charge as I previously mentioned: throwing stones. Freeman notes that, "Since September 2000 Israel has arrested and detained almost 6000 children, with 700 under-18s arrested in 2007 alone."

These are the facts on the ground, not rumor. What is debated is whether or not the children were actually throwing stones, and if they were, if this is a crime a 12-year-old should be arrested for.

From Another Angle

In covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I've heard a lot of complaints from both sides. Why can't they just... is a common prefix for such complaints, framed as questions. And they're logical questions, ones I've had myself.

Well, there's an article on Haaretz today that might answer one of those questions. And this article is by no means out of the ordinary.

The jist is this:

Some 90 right-wing activists on Thursday besieged an Israel Defense Forces post north of Ramallah, in protest against the civil administration's decision to remove construction supplies from an illegal outpost in the West Bank.

The settlers rallied around the civil administration officials, pierced the tires of a supervisor's car, and sicked a dog on one of the soldiers.

Israeli settlers were about to start building a house, or houses, in an unapproved area, so the IDF showed up and carted their construction materials away. This may partly answer the question, Why can't they just stop letting in more settlers?

Illegal settlements have been dealt with in a multitude of ways. Sometimes the government ignores them. Sometimes the government gives passive support. Sometimes the government gives active support, like providing IDF guards to protect the settlers. Sometimes the government evicts them. No doubt the Israeli government's reaction to each settler has more to do with the strategic placement of that particular settlement, and whether it supports the land grab, but illegal settlers are not always supported wholeheartedly.

However, when the IDF does take any action against Israeli settlers, the backlash is fierce, both immediately and long term. In the short term, you have attacks like in the Haaretz article above. You have settlers spitting, yelling curses, and the like, at their IDF brethren. Calling them traitors. In the long term, well.

In 1947, David Ben-Gurion struck a deal with the orthodox Agudath party. In exchange for implementing Jewish law as national law in the new state of Israel, Agudath supported Ben-Gurion politically and he became the well-loved first Prime Minister of Israel.

Ever since then, the orthodox Jews in Israel have had extraordinary power over the government. One cannot win office without their support. And once in office, one would be swimming against the tide to try to accomplish anything without their support.

And they support Jewish settlement of the West Bank.

So any Israeli politician who dares to remove settlers from Palestinian areas will first have the soldiers they send spit on, cursed, and possibly beaten, and then they will be booed out of office.

This is the state of affairs.

Olmert's Last Gasp

Haaretz announced today that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is finally being indicted for corruption charges. Olmert has been under investigation for suspicion of bribery since early May of this year.

Last month, when the bribery investigation reached critical mass, Olmert agreed to step down as soon as an election for leadership of the Kadima party was held. The two front runners for the party are Tzipi Livni, a politician on par with Obama in that she has great potential but has not been tested, and Shaul Mofaz, a man Palestinian leaders said would "derail the peace process."

Two weeks ago, Livni agreed to release 200 Palestinian prisoners in a show of good faith to faciliate peace negotiations.

And today, in one of his last gasp efforts to leave a meaningful legacy, Olmert proposed to prepare for the eventual evacuation of Israeli settlers from the West Bank.

He wasn't saying they should actually evacuate. He's just saying they should be prepared. An ounce of prevention or what have you.

But Mofaz made his opposition to the proposal known right away:

"The bill weakens the position of Israel in all future negotiations and I will not lend my hand to it," said Mofaz, a frontrunner in this month's Kadima leadership battle.

Note that Olmert suggested that the government should prepare for the evacuation of settlers living east of the security fence, not settlers living east of the green line, otherwise known as the pre-1967 border.

Nevertheless, suggesting that Israelis be evacuated from anywhere in the West Bank is not an advisable action for any Israeli politician whose retirement isn't already imminent. The last Israeli politician who made formal land concessions to the Palestinians was assasinated.

Palestinian President Throws Temper Tantrum

I've decided it's time for an update of my continuing coverage of Gilad Shalit. This update was inspired by a July 29 message sent by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and subsequently leaked to the press. The message was sent through Hussein al-Sheikh, head of PA civil affairs, to Israeli General Gadi Shamni.

It was a warning to Israel that if they released certain prisoners in their custody loyal to Hamas, that Abbas would dismantle the Palestinian Authority. Not simply resign, but dismantle the actual government.

Let's put aside the audacity and childishness of that warning for a minute and move on to the particulars involved here.

Hamas has held IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in Gaza for over two years now. After he was captured, Israel captured 64 members of the democratically elected Hamas-majority government, including eight cabinet members, twenty legislative council members, and the mayor of Qalqilyah and his deputy.

Just try for a minute to imagine what that would look like in any other country. What the international response would be. How fast it would get resolved. Just visualize.

40 of those elected officials are still in Israeli prisons.

Israel continues to hold them as a bargaining chip to exchange for Shalit. Hamas has since demanded their release, along with about a thousand other Israeli prisoners, some of which have been accused or convicted of murder.

Meanwhile, in June of 2007, Hamas took over Gaza, which was basically a declaration of war against the Fatah-majority government that remained in the West Bank. Since then Abbas and Israel have teamed up to destroy Hamas' infrastructure and avenues of funding. However, as I have mentioned, neither the PA nor Israel has managed to replace the community services they destroyed in the process. Numerous charities, medical centers, summer camps for kids, after school programs, and the like have been shut down in this process.

But back to that whole Shalit issue. Haaretz says:

According to an Israeli source well-versed in what is happening in the PA, publication of Abbas' threat to dismantle the PA if Israel releases the Hamas parliamentarians is liable to discredit him massively in the eyes of many Palestinians.

In addition, the source noted, this threat creates another obstacle to Israel's efforts to reach an agreement for Shalit's release.

This suggests first that this "statement" could be a Hamas-engineered ploy and second, that the journalist who wrote those very words has no qualms with causing Abbas to lose face.

But most interesting about this passage is the last sentence. This seems the most logical direction to take this development, but I don't think it's true. While the public is led this way and that and Shalit's family is dragged along, I don't think Hamas has ever had any intention of releasing Shalit. You may ask why they abducted him if not to trade for their own people, but instead of looking at what has happened since his abduction, look at what hasn't happened.

Hamas has fired missiles into Israel's cities and towns almost every day in the last two years. Gilad Shalit may be the only factor compelling enough to prevent a sweeping IDF operation in Gaza.

He's not a bargaining chip, he's an insurance policy.

And his worldwide fame at this point makes him more valuable than any nameless Israeli who dies as a result of those missiles, and certainly more valuable than any Palestinian politician.

Including Mahmoud Abbas. Israel and Uncle Sam are perfectly capable of installing a more agreeable PA president just as they installed this one.

And in response to the possibility that Abbas' temper tantrum could have been engineered by Hamas, the Haaretz writer adds:

Since his election as PA president in January 2005, Abbas has repeatedly threatened to resign - sometimes due to lack of progress in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, or due to internal power struggles within his Fatah movement. However, he has never yet carried out his threat.

In related news, Hamas and Fatah continue to antagonize each other like children, leading Hamas to retort most recently to Fatah that they are only safe and still in power in the West Bank because they enjoy Israel's protection.

Haaretz says, in a separate article:

Abbas' security forces have detained at least 150 Hamas supporters in the West Bank in response to a sweep in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas seized nearly 200 Fatah sympathizers after a bomb blast killed five Hamas militants and a girl on Friday. Hamas blamed the bombing on Fatah, which denies involvement.

These sorts of mysterious bombings are common here. Both sides accuse the other. It reminds me again and again of an ancient and well-proven warfare tactic: when you have two enemies, you don't fight them both, you get them to fight each other.

The US did it in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan twenty years ago. When we wanted to destabilize Iraq, we gave weapons to the Kurds. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, we gave weapons to the Afghanis. When Iran and Iraq went to war, we sold weapons to both of them and then sent the profits to the Contras in Nicaragua.

Let's look at the big picture, folks.

31 Sides to Every Story

I created this slide show as a condensed overview of my time spent in Israel and Palestine this summer. They are pictures from events that happened in several cities and villages throughout Israel and the West Bank. They are pictures of people I know and people I don't know. They record pain and joy, triumph and heartbreak. They show people living their daily lives in the shadow of uncertainty.

When you look at a situation from more than one point of view, your convictions may weaken. Your feelings of indignation, fear, or even hatred toward others may seem less founded. And the more points of view you visit, it will become more and more difficult to pass judgment on anyone. Until eventually you realize that you are the same as everyone else. That when you hurt another person, you are hurting yourself.

The things you don't like about the world, you can think of as cancer. You may want to kill that cancer so that you can live. But it came from you. It is you. And you can only hurt it so much before you kill yourself.

For the full posts of each photo included above, visit these links:

The Holocaust as Political Platform

Hebron: Land of Guard Towers and Minarets

Palestinian Dignity: Contraband Under Occupation

Cease Fire Still Cooking Despite Attacks

Checkpoint Soldiers Given Grudges, Guns

Tzipi Snatches Dangled Carrot

Last week, I wrote about Israel's hotly debated leadership. Warhawk Shaul Mofaz and moderate Tzipi Livni are still the two frontrunners for leadership of the Kadima party, and most likely Israel.

But waaa-aaay-yay down at the bottom of that article I wrote about the proverbial dangled carrot in this scenario. The PA had released a statement saying that if Mofaz were elected, the peace process would halt. They even stated that for the current peace plans to proceed, Tzipi has to win.

Oh and then they asked Tzipi to release a few hundred Palestinian prisoners as a show of good faith. I personally was in favor of this move because, just as the article states, such a move would garner the PA some favor among the people, which would give them more power to actually accomplish stuff. But I really did not except Tzipi, and Israel, to come through on it.

And then they did.

According to Haaretz, Israel has approved the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners, some of whom "have blood on their hands," whatever that means.

And Tzipi says:

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the leading Kadima candidate to succeed Olmert, said the release showed Palestinians that dialogue, not violence, achieved the best results.