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JERUSALEM — A Palestinian militant leader said Friday that his group is adhering to a cease-fire that stopped a barrage of rockets and air strikes between Israel and the Gaza Strip last month.
Sheik Nafez Azzam of Islamic Jihad said Israeli reports that he had called for an ongoing struggle against Israel, despite a cease-fire, were mistaken.
“We in the Islamic Jihad are committed to the cease-fire,” Azzam told The Associated Press.
He said a firebrand speech calling for ongoing resistance was a general political statement.
Israeli security forces swiftly evicted dozens of Jewish settlers from an illegally occupied building in this volatile West Bank city on Wednesday, ending a week-long standoff that had threatened to spill over into broader violence.
The raid caught the settlers off guard. Only a day earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had moved to block the eviction order. Settler supporters in Netanyahu's hard-line government condemned the surprise raid, a key political ally threatened to quit the coalition and settler leaders vowed retaliation.
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- Egyptian officials disputed on Thursday Israeli assessments showing that rockets which struck the city of Eilat were fired from Egypt's Sinai desert.
An Egyptian security official in the southern Sinai, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Egyptian-Israeli border was "intensively secured", and no one had detected a flash of light or sound on Wednesday.
No casualties or damage were reported after the rocket struck the Israeli resort town, police said, but the incident fueled Israeli worries over militant activity in the border area.
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Palestinian civil society and activists on Wednesday urged President Mahmoud Abbas to investigate attacks on demonstrators during a rally to mark Land Day.
A coalition of NGOs and civil society leaders called on the president to form an "independent and transparent" committee to investigate an attack on MP Mustafa Barghouti, who was injured at a demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint near Ramallah on March 30.
JERUSALEM — Roman Catholics and Protestants in the Holy Land commemorated the crucifixion of Jesus Christ Friday in prayers and processions through Jerusalem's Old City.
In the town of Beit Jala, adjacent to Bethlehem, Palestinian Catholics re-enacted Jesus' stations of the cross in their olive groves and vineyards. Father Ibrahim Shomali led the Good Friday procession in Arabic, wearing a white tunic and purple clerical shawl. Dozens of believers followed him, bearing Palestinian flags and olivewood crosses.
RAMALLAH, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Salam Fayyad, premier of the Palestinian caretaker government in the West Bank, has begun initial contacts to reshuffle his cabinet in a bid to treat an internal deficiency, an official source said Friday.
The source in Fayyad's government, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that Fayyad has finally agreed with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to reshuffle the government, without setting up a specific date.
JERUSALEM, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz on Thursday revealed a new deterrence policy towards attacks on Israelis or Jews worldwide, which specifically warned Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iran.
Gantz announced the army's new policy during a conference at an army base near Tel Aviv, the IDF Spokesman's office told Xinhua Thursday evening.
Shin Bet security service officials say their actions against extreme right-wing activists have led to a significant reduction in violent incidents against Palestinians.
Senior Shin Bet officials, from the unit monitoring the activists’ activity in the West Bank, made the statement recently at an internal defense establishment meeting dealing with events in the extreme right.
TEL AVIV // With early elections likely this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting a political high-wire act.
On the one hand, the right-wing premier must show his pro-settler credentials. On the other hand, in the face of widespread illegal Jewish construction in the occupied West Bank, Mr Netanyahu needs to prove at home and abroad that he is committed to law and order.
Late on Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu said he would provide the needed approvals to legalise three unauthorised Jewish outposts in the West Bank and save another outpost from a demolition order.
A university lecturer and single mother of two, Ismat Abdul-Khaleq, was arrested in the West Bank last week for criticizing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Facebook. Perhaps this is what Abbas meant when he said during a recent interview with al-Jazeera that his party, Fatah, was a political and ideological copy of the terrorist group Hamas. His words: “In all honesty, there are no disagreements between us.”
On March 16, a group of gay Israeli teenagers was set to meet with the Seattle LGBT Commission, a body representing the interests of the gay community before the city government. The students were touring the United States under the auspices of the Alliance of Israeli LGBT Educational Organizations, a network of groups that support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. The purpose of the visit was to exchange ideas about best practices for combating homophobia, share personal experiences and, like any cultural exchange, generally learn from one other.
Peter Beinart has been pilloried because of his call in a recent New York Times op-ed and in his newly published book, "The Crisis of Zionism," for a Zionist boycott of West Bank settlements. Beinart, former editor of the New Republic and founder of the new online forum "Open Zion," is tackling the concealed heart of our government's strategy: its campaign to erase any distinction between the occupied territories and Israel. Beinart has staked out a brave position, particularly in today's Zionist landscape.
The ongoing debate for and against international intervention in Syria has been rendered obsolete by the mounting evidence that at least one nation has already very much intervened. The details emerging over the last few days can leave little doubt that the active campaign of support by the Iranian regime has ensured that President Bashar Assad will remain the absolute ruler of Syria for the foreseeable future.
Washington — A United Nations group’s decision to probe settlement activity on the West Bank has raised the specter of a new feud between Israel and the world body — and created a fresh headache for the White House.
Israel quickly denounced the Human Rights Council’s resolution, which calls for a fact-finding commission to investigate the “implications” of the settlements for Palestinians. The Jewish state also severed all ties with the council.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, as the old saying goes. And with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resolutely stamping out hopes of a negotiated two-state solution, these are indeed desperate times for the fractured Palestinian leadership.
Even a dead body can sometimes twitch reflexively. Here we go again: The settlers have occupied another building. Their lawyer isn't ashamed to boast about the deceptive way the property was acquired. The ministers make their pilgrimages. The defense minister pulls a surprise eviction. The right is furious, the remnants of the left utter praise, and even Europe and America seem satisfied - look, another settler real estate grab has been thwarted.
There is no electricity in the Gaza Strip — long a source of great suffering for the Palestinians. However, their problems are not limited to power cuts. Their national cause, political entities and struggle against the enemy have lost their momentum and vitality.
A letter rests on the table of the chairman of the Palestinian Authority (yes, such an entity still exists), Abu Mazen. The addressee is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The letter is biting, explosive, a true hot potato that can burn up the entire room — but it has not yet been sent to its destination. The Palestinians have already showed the letter to the Americans, the Europeans and other entities that are now putting heavy pressure on Abu Mazen to stop or at least delay the message.
Little more than a week from now, after the Jewish holiday of Passover ends, an interesting interaction will unfold between Israelis and Palestinians — at least that’s what the two sides are planning at this moment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will host Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Netanyahu’s Jerusalem office. Fayyad will hand the Israeli leader a letter from PA President Mahmoud Abbas in which he will blame Israel for the lack of peace negotiations and spell out four Palestinian conditions to restart talks.
At 64, Israel is older than more than half of the democracies in the world. The Jewish state, moreover, belongs to a tiny group of countries -- the United States, Britain, and Canada among them -- never to have suffered intervals of non-democratic governance. Since its inception, Israel has been threatened ceaselessly with destruction. Yet it never once succumbed to the wartime pressures that often crush democracies.
In January, Andrew Adler, the owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, wrote that Israel should “give the go-ahead for US-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel.” He saw the tactic as a way to resolve divergent opinions between the two countries on how to deal with Iran.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/24208
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/24208
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/24208
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] https://www.americantaskforce.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
[6] http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/former-israeli-peace-negotiator-blasts-palestinian-authority-says-it-should-be-dissolved/2012/04/05/gIQAgXNsxS_story.html
[7] http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2012/0405/Hebron-settlers-threaten-retaliation-after-Israeli-police-evict-them
[8] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=474316
[9] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=474252
[10] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/christians-mark-good-friday-in-the-holy-land-2286851.html
[11] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-04/06/c_131511508.htm
[12] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-04/06/c_131509584.htm
[13] http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/shin-bet-action-against-jewish-extremists-has-reduced-attacks-on-palestinians-in-west-bank-1.422916
[14] http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/netanyahu-in-political-balancing-act
[15] http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/silence-on-palestinian-censorship/2012/04/05/gIQAZ3khxS_story.html
[16] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-fallacy-of-the-pinkwashing-argument-1.422951
[17] http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-important-message-of-peter-beinart-1.422949
[18] http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/the-axis-haaretz-iran-blog/iran-has-saved-bashar-assad-for-now-1.423055
[19] http://forward.com/articles/154204/un-pushes-west-bank-settlement-probe/
[20] http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/editorial/concession-on-1967-borders-is-last-ditch-effort
[21] http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-real-radical-left-1.422666
[22] http://www.al-monitor.com/cms/contents/articles/security/01/04/urgent-questions-regarding-the-p.html
[23] http://www.al-monitor.com/cms/contents/articles/security/01/04/when-the-palestinian-living-room.html
[24] http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/05/2734075/in-israel-small-steps-toward-peace.html
[25] http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/05/Israel_Is_a_Democracy
[26] http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Opinion/Article.aspx?id=264941&prmusr=0Prr5%2fzatdOlrUmUMosElwVfhlUh50MqLrW%2bD1HzbIgtvegDHg8Lvo2r9tGo358l