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A Palestinian militant was killed and four people were wounded in Israeli air and artillery attacks in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, a Gaza health official said.
The Israeli military confirmed a combined air and artillery attack, which Gaza health official Dr. Ashraf al-Kidra said wounded three Palestinians, including one critically.
Al-Kidra said a second airstrike later Thursday morning killed the militant and wounded another. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on that report.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Thursday that he would not return to politics, two days after he was acquitted of the central charges in a corruption trial.
Speculation over whether he may return to political life has been rife since a Jerusalem court dismissed most of the counts against him on Tuesday.
The charges cut short Olmert's premiership three years ago, ending all serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Many observers today ask themselves how the Middle East may have looked had he stayed in office.
In an apparent flip-flop, Palestinian investigators looking into Yasser Arafat's death said Thursday they want to review reports from a Swiss lab before deciding whether to exhume the leader's remains.
Israel poisoned the late Yasser Arafat with the lethal radioactive substance polonium, a nephew of the veteran Palestinian leader alleged on Thursday.
But Israel denied the accusation, saying it was "not involved" in Arafat's death at a French hospital in November 2004.
"We accuse Israel of killing Yasser Arafat by poisoning him with that lethal substance," Nasser al-Qidwa told AFP, referring to polonium, traces of which were recently found on clothing worn by the ailing leader.
The Israeli military has deployed the Iron Dome rocket-defense system to the Red Sea port city of Eilat.
A military spokeswoman told Xinhua on Thursday that a single battery was stationed near the city as part of a "routine operational deployment program," in which the batteries are periodically relocated to different sites throughout the country.
Palestinian militants intermittently fire rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel, but strikes against Eilat, a desert resort that attracts hoards of Israeli and European tourists during the summer, are rare.
On Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Ehud Olmert to congratulate him on the Jerusalem District Court decision that acquitted him of two major corruption charges that led to his resignation as Prime Minister. In an apparent coincidence, the same day in Washington, the House Subcommittee on the Middle East dedicated a large part of its hearing to a discussion on Abbas' alleged corruption in a hearing titled “Chronic Kleptocracy: Corruption within the Palestinian Political Establishment.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will hold their first meeting next week, a Palestinian official said on Thursday.
Senior PLO member Saeb Erekat said that Abbas will visit Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the Palestinian issues, among them the reconciliation between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah party.
In his inauguration speech following the Egyptian election in June 2012, Morsi reaffirmed his commitment to end the Palestinian political divide and to support the Palestinian people.
Israel is furious at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) over a recent decision to back a science chair at a Gaza university it says hosted bomb and missile makers, local media reported Thursday.
UNESCO released a statement this week announcing the inauguration of a chair in the Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences department at the Islamic University of Gaza.
For as long as Farah can remember, her father has never worked. Nor, in recent years, has she particularly wanted to spend time with him. She and her three younger siblings love Abu Shawareb, insists their mother, Naima, but they have grown wary of him, particularly of his mood swings and violent outbursts.
"It was like a part of me had gone for ever," says Shawareb, recalling the day five years ago when he suddenly lost his job. "I kept thinking, how am I going to feed my family? How will we live?"
Anti-Israel billboards showing a series of four maps to bolster claims that Israel has systematically confiscated land from the Palestinians have appeared at some New York train stations.
The ads that went on display this week at Metro North train stations in Westchester County show a succession of shrinking Palestinian territories in four maps and contain a headline stating that 4.7 million Palestinians are classified as refugees by the United Nations.
The billboards were posted under the auspices of The Committee for Peace in Israel and Palestine
Earlier this month, Palestinian police beat several journalists as they covered a non-violent protest in Ramallah, according to news reports. This incident is just the latest in a series of cases over the past six months where Palestinian journalists have experienced a significant crackdown on attempts to criticize Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority. The judiciary is reinterpreting laws dating back to the 1960s that criminalized defamation of officials as the basis for arrests, intimidation of journalists and blocking web sites.
Israel is preparing to increase its military presence in the eastern Mediterranean to protect its natural gas exploration activities, which have been a source of tension between Israel and Turkey.
According to a plan approved by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the chief of staff, Gen. Benny Gantz, Israel will buy four new combat vessels for its navy, assign more troops [to the area] and deploy unmanned aerial vehicles for patrols in the region.
The Palestinian finance minister says his self-rule government is facing its worst financial crisis in years because donor countries have paid only $466 million of $1.2 billion promised this year.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers 38 percent of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, depends on foreign funding, in part because of Israeli restrictions and a bloated public payroll.
This week a committee formed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made recommendations that could have dire consequences for Israel. They could also end the Mideast peace process once and for all.
The so-called Levy committee put forth a justification for annexation of most of the West Bank and for permanent Israeli rule over millions of Palestinians who live there. Such a move would force Israel to choose between granting these Palestinians full Israeli citizenship or keeping them disenfranchised and confined to territorial cantons.
The settlers and their supporters erupted in jubilation Monday after a committee headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy presented its report on the issue of settlements and outposts in the West Bank.
Likud MK Danny Danon was quoted on Tuesday by Ma’ariv as describing the publication of the report a “day of celebration for settlement.”
The dramatic decision of the Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday morning to acquit former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of charges pertaining to the Rishon Tours and Talansky affairs, will shock not only Israeli law enforcement, but will also send shockwaves through Israeli politics and the international arena.
In an interview with Yaakov Lappin published in The Jerusalem Post on July 5, 2012, I asserted that considering polonium 210’s 138-day halflife, the abnormally high levels of polonium discovered by specialists at the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Yasser Arafat’s belongings eight years after his death could mean the polonium was planted much later.
Earlier in this space I noted how Mitt Romney seems to emulate Groucho Marx’s famous line, “I have my principles, and if you don’t like them, I have others.” That was on display again last week when he was tied in knots contradicting himself and his top advisers on both immigration and Romneycare following two key Supreme Court decisions.
Romney may also have a Nixonian trait.
No, I’m not saying he’s a crook or paranoid, but he does appear obsessed with secretiveness.
In this paper, the former chief of staff to Israel's minister of defense argues that, in addition to the moral imperative to help the Syrian people, there are also strong strategic reasons for the West and various regional states to be more proactive in bringing about the end of the Assad regime. Speeding up the process of the regime’s collapse would avert the destabilising consequences of a lengthy civil war, as well as dealing a blow to the radical, Iran-led alliance in the region.
However, the deeply traditional, male-dominated society that is prevalent across much of the Arab world, coupled with bureaucratic restraints unique to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, pose particular challenges for women seeking to get ahead.
“Many women in the West Bank want to do things, but they can’t. Our culture is generally more of a man’s culture. Women are trying to do things, but in small steps,” said Shyrine Ziadeh, a 24-year-old Birzeit University graduate.
I’ll say this for the Levy report: It filled my inbox. After the Israeli blue-ribbon commission, headed by former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Edmund Levy, concluded that “Israelis have the legal right to settle in Judea and Samaria,” the usual suspects leapt into action. J Street wants me to “Urge US Opposition to Israeli Settlement Report,” Americans for Peace Now wonders whether it is “1984” in Israel.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/26552
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/26552
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/26552
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] https://www.americantaskforce.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
[6] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/israeli-military-strikes-gaza-kills-1-militant-2415340.html
[7] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/israels-olmert-says-he-wont-re-enter-politics-2415390.html
[8] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/palestinian-officials-hesitant-on-arafat-autopsy-2415389.html
[9] http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gHwRxpyPd-rVJz6mzQkrUELd8-OQ?docId=CNG.00be614c65ee13f1afe668d192dfb448.321
[10] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/12/c_131711853.htm
[11] http://www.haaretz.com/u-s-lawmakers-slam-mahmoud-abbas-for-alleged-corruption.premium-1.450279
[12] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/12/c_131711820.htm
[13] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/12/c_131711805.htm
[14] http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jul/11/israeli-blockade-mental-health-gaza
[15] http://forward.com/articles/159223/shrinking-palestinian-land-depicted-in-ny-ad/
[16] http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2012/al-monitor/abbas-palestinian-authority-step.html
[17] http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/01/07/this-israeli-move-will-anger-tur.html
[18] http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/palestinians-in-cash-crunch-say-donors-came-through-with-466-million-of-12-billion-pledged/2012/07/11/gJQAh6oKdW_story.html
[19] http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/trudy_rubin/20120712_Worldview__Israel_should_be_wary_of_Netanyahu_panel_s_West_Bank_recommendations.html
[20] http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=277142
[21] http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/diplomania/will-olmert-return-to-politics.premium-1.450187
[22] http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=277135
[23] http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=277147
[24] http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/how-to-advance-transition-to-a-post-assad-future
[25] http://arabnews.com/palestinian-women-battle-break-business
[26] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/11/a-tale-of-two-reports.html
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