:icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

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Lebanese security officials announce the arrest of an army colonel and a senior retired customs officer on suspicion of espionage on behalf of Israel.

In the ongoing espionage investigation, the army officer was the second colonel arrested in less than a week, the officials said on Sunday. They added that at least 21 suspects have been charged and several confessions have been obtained.

Lebanese authorities have called on Israel to repatriate the two spies that fled to that country last week.

Senior Lebanese security officials say the arrests have dealt a major blow to Israel's spying network in Lebanon.

They have said that many of the suspects played key roles in identifying Hezbollah targets that were bombed during the 34-day war, in which Israel suffered a severe blow.

Hezbollah has called for the death penalty for all suspects convicted of espionage for Israel, but Israel has not yet commented on the arrests.

Investigators have displayed spy gadgetry seized in the course of the investigation.

Other suspects have been charged with monitoring senior Hezbollah officials and at least one is alleged to have played a role in the 2004 assassination of a commander of the group.

FTP/SME/HAR

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OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — As the Israeli government remains defiant to freeze settlement construction, a new report by an Israeli NGO concludes that nearly half of the lands on which Jewish settlements were built are private Palestinian property. "Defense Minister Ehud Barak said recently that he wanted to dismantle the outposts built on private Palestinian land -- he is going to have lots of work in the coming weeks and months," Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer told army radio on Sunday, May 31.

The group says that nearly 44 percent of Jewish settlements outposts were built on private Palestinian land without the permission of the owners.

Israel tries to make a distinction between settlements authorized by the government and so-called wildcat outposts which are set up by zealous settlers without state approval.

The international community and UN resolutions made no such distinction and consider all Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land illegal.

More than 164 Jewish-only settlements have been built in the occupied West Bank since 1967, eating up more than 40 percent of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Last March, Peace Now revealed Israeli plans to build as many as 73,000 units in existing settlements across the West Bank.

Defiant

The hawkish Israeli government remains defiant to freeze settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.

"I want to say in a crystal clear manner that the current Israeli government will not accept in any fashion that legal settlement activity be frozen," said Transport Minister Yisrael Katz.

"The government will defend the vital interests of the state of Israel."

US President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have both made very public calls for Israel to institute a total freeze on settlement activities.

This includes the so-called natural growth, a term used by Israel to describe construction inside existing settlements.

"The demand to prevent natural growth in settlements is unreasonable," said Israeli Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz.

"The Americans must understand that this is an unreasonable demand, and we must confront them firmly."

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will travel to Washington on Sunday in an attempt to put further pressure on the Obama administration.

Under the internationally-backed roadmap, Israel must freeze all settlement activities and dismantle 22 outposts constructed after March 2001.

Source: IslamOnline

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A senior Israeli Military Intelligence official who had a highly sensitive position has shot himself in the head in an army base, Israeli sources reveal.

The Military Police are investigating whether the suicide committed yesterday was due to personal circumstances or his intelligence work, Haaretz reported.

The 43-year-old officer had served for many years in various posts in Israeli Military Intelligence's electronic intelligence-gathering unit.

Yesterday he came to workplace, which is in a base in central Israel, as usual but after two hours in his office he shot himself in the head with his service gun.

Investigators have not yet confirmed that his death has been a suicide.

The Israeli newspaper has revealed that the suicide rate among the Israeli armed forces has been on the rise in the recent months.

MGH/DT

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Sarkozy Says Palestinian State 'Legitimate Right' Date : 25/5/2009 Time : 15:45

PARIS, May 25, 2009 (WAFA) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, Monday that establishing a state for the Palestinian people is a 'legitimate right'.

Sarkozy told the official UAE's news agency WAM, 'no one would think seriously about peace in the Middle East without giving the Palestinians a state they have been persevering for years. It is their legitimate right.'

'What is important is to put an end to this pain and wastage,' he said. 'In this conflict, Europe and US will stand by Israelis and Palestinians as well to reach reconciliation, but there will be no peace without genuine and sincere will of the two sides.'

Regarding colonization activities carried out by Israel in the West Bank, the French President, expected to arrive in the UAE later on Monday, said that construction of Jewish colonies should be stopped, as it hinders peace.
Source: AJP

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Israel has launched its largest-ever military exercise to test its capabilities against potential missile attacks, bombings and riots.

The drill indicates Israel's willingness to cause a new conflict by attacking Iran's nuclear facilities which they admit can ignite an all-out war in the region.

The five-day drill which was launched on Sunday will simulate simultaneous rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and missile attacks from Iran and Syria.

"We will be exercising the doomsday scenario of simultaneous strikes against Israel on all fronts and by different means," Israel's defense ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror told AFP last week.

Exercise Turning Point 3 will also include simulating chemical and biological strikes on populated centers and a wave of attacks by Palestinians.

Israeli cabinet will also hold simulated meetings to weigh its response to such scenarios.

This is the third consecutive year Israel is conducting such an exercise.Tel Aviv says the war games are defensive in nature.

Lebanese Army however has heightened its security measures along the southern border with Israel to repel possible threats during the Israeli drill.

The Hezbollah movement has also warned Israel against any attacks, saying its fighters are ready to respond.
Source: Press TV

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Jewish settler attack injures Palestinians
Palestinian medics treat a wounded man at the emergency ward of a hospital in Nablus
Two Palestinians were treated in hospital for serious injuries, medics say

Several Palestinian workers have been hurt in an attack by a group of Jewish settlers in the northern West Bank.

One worker suffered serious head injuries, as dozens of masked settlers threw rocks at their vehicles.

Police say no arrests have been made following the attack near the Palestinian city of Nablus, which is circled by Israeli settlements.

Friction and violence is common between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, captured by Israel in 1967.

Palestinian medics said two men were taken to hospital, one with a fractured skull, and four others were treated for minor injuries.

The violence happened on a road between Nablus and a nearby settlement called Kedumim, founded by Orthodox Jews in 1975 who believe the West Bank was promised to them by God.

The settlement movement is currently in open conflict with the Israeli government, which has adopted plans to evict small groups of hardline settlers from outposts not officially recognised.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the plans as he resisted calls from US President Barack Obama to freeze building activity in all settlements, a move correspondents say is Washington's attempt to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the 1967 war. It has settled about half a million Jews there, in defiance of international law, amid a population of about three million Palestinians.

BBC

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Israel TV star 'ordered attacks'
Dudu Topaz
Topaz is a household name in Israel for his variety shows

One of Israel's most famous entertainers has been accused of ordering attacks on TV executives who turned down his ideas.

Dudu Topaz, 62, whose own TV show was cancelled five years ago, was arrested on Sunday. He denies any involvement.

Over the past year, thugs assaulted two TV executives and an agent. The most recent case, last month, ended up in hospital with a broken nose.

Topaz is a household name in Israel for his popular variety shows.

But in recent years his career has been on the wane, and he was keen to make a comeback.

'Total shock'

His arrest has dominated the headlines in Israel, pushing other stories - including accounts of the fighting in the West Bank - down the news agenda.

Topaz's lawyer said his client was in "total shock" at the allegations. And last night Topaz told Israeli TV: "Someone stupid and cruel is spreading these rumours."

It is not the first time Topaz has courted controversy.

In 2003, on a TV show, he bit the arm of a Latin American soap opera star. And in 1995 he broke the glasses of a TV critic who had given his show a bad review.

Three other people have been arrested in connection with the most recent attacks. Two appeared in court on Sunday, where the judge described them as "the operational arm, but not the initiators" of the assaults.

BBC

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Goldstone's UN inquiry team arrives in Gaza
Richard Goldstone 1999
Mr Goldstone headed the UN tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

A UN team investigating possible war crimes in Gaza, led by Richard Goldstone, has arrived in the Strip on a week-long fact finding mission.

The four-member team entered from Egypt after Israel failed to grant visas, despite repeated requests by the UN.

The UN wants to investigate whether Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel's three-week operation in Gaza in December and January.

Israel accuses the UN branch carrying out the mission of bias against it.

The UN Human Rights Council has been accused of singling out Israel unfairly, and is viewed by some as having less credibility than other parts of the United Nations.

But correspondents say the selection of Mr Goldstone, a respected South African war crimes prosecutor who is also Jewish, as head of the inquiry has given it greater clout.

"They have been instructed to prove that Israel is guilty and we will not collaborate with such a masquerade," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AP news agency.

Public hearings

The team plans to meet "all concerned parties", including non-governmental organisations, UN agencies and victims and witnesses of alleged violations of international humanitarian law, its office said in a statement.

Mr Goldstone has previously said his team had hoped to visit southern Israeli towns which have suffered Palestinian rocket fire , before entering Gaza from Israel, but Israel has shown no sign of allowing access.

Israel was initially angered that the team was tasked only with investigating alleged Israeli violations, but after Mr Goldstone was appointed, its mandate was widened to cover the activities of Palestinian militants too.

Inquiry conclusions

Several investigations into alleged violations of international law during Israel's 22-day operation in Gaza, which ended on 18 January, have now reported back.

Israeli bombardment of Gaza, 14 January 2009
Israel has been accused of war crimes for air raids in heavily populated areas

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has requested more than $11m (£7m) compensation from Israel for damage to UN property in Gaza, after a limited UN inquiry accused Israel of targeting known civilian shelters and providing untrue statements to justify actions in which civilians were killed.

The report found Israel to blame in six out of nine incidents when death or injury were caused to people sheltering at UN property and UN buildings were damaged.

The Israeli military has concluded in an internal investigation that its troops fought lawfully, although errors did take place, such as the deaths of 21 people in a wrongly targeted house.

Meanwhile, a fact-finding team commissioned by the Arab League said there was sufficient evidence for the Israeli military to be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and that "the Israeli political leadership was also responsible for such crimes".

It also said Palestinian militants were guilty of war crimes in their use of indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

Palestinian rights groups say more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the January conflict. Israel puts the figure at 1,166.

Israeli and Palestinian estimates also differ on the numbers of civilian casualties.

Ten Israeli soldiers were killed, including four by friendly fire, and three Israel civilians died in rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

BBC

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Israeli Arabs defiant on 'loyalty laws' plan
The BBC's Heather Sharp reports from the Israeli-Arab town of Um al-Fahm, where residents are angry over two proposed laws apparently aimed at increasing their loyalty to the state of Israel.
Suleiman Fahmawi, Nakba march organiser from Um al-Fahm
Next year, Suleiman Fahmawi hopes to march to his parents' old village

"They're welcome to jail us," says Suleiman Fahmawi.

He is planning next year's Nakba march, even though it could be illegal.

Every year, as Israelis celebrate their independence with flags and barbecues, he organises mourning marches to destroyed Arab villages.

In the 1948 Nakba, or "catastrophe", 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes as Israel claimed its independence.

A controversial bill backed by a government committee in Israel's Knesset last week is seeking to ban marking it in Israel.

Next year's planned march is to the village Mr Fahmawi says his parents were forced from three years before his birth.

They remained in Israel, meaning he was born into the conflicted situation of the state's Israeli-Arab minority - Israeli citizens who identify themselves with Palestinians.

'Fifth column'

The bill, proposed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's far-right party Yisrael Beiteinu, is part of what many see as a drive to demand deeper loyalty from Israeli Arabs.


Artist Nasreen Abu Bakr, Um al-Fahm gallery
They are deleting our memory... They're going to delete our language, our Arabic street names... We'll become Jewish
Nasreen Abu Bakr
Israeli-Arab artist

Cabinet rejects loyalty oath
Anger over Nakba ban proposal
Profile: Avigdor Lieberman

They make up 20% of Israel's population and face widely documented discrimination, but are feared by some Israelis as a potentially hostile "fifth column".

Mr Lieberman's party also wants all Israeli citizens to pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state and perform some form of national service.

Member of parliament Alex Miller, who proposed what is being called the Nakba bill, says citizens who want equal rights should shoulder "equal responsibilities", and not "go on demonstrations against the existence of the state".

The town of Um al-Fahm, where Mr Fahmawi lives, is in some ways a symbol of the issues that irk Yisrael Beiteinu.

Clusters of new-looking red-roofed villas declare at least modest prosperity amid the battered pavements and dense jumble of concrete houses.

Many residents work in construction, commuting to Israel's mainly Jewish towns.

But the green flags of the Islamic Movement, which controls the council, flutter on lampposts.

'They control everything'

Last Nakba day, its deputy leader declared "the Zionist sun will set, as the sun of the Islamic state rises".

Its head has previously accused Jews of using children's blood to bake bread and called for Jerusalem to be the seat of a wide-reaching Muslim state, or caliphate.

In offices adorned with photos of the iconic Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem, sits Abdelhakeem Mufeed, editor of the movement's newspaper.
Abdelhakeem Mufeed, Editor of Islamic Movement's newspaper
Abdelhakeem Mufeed says his loyalty is "to Palestine, not Israel"

His voice rises at the suggestion his leaders' statements might alarm Israelis. "You care for the Israelis? Why are they afraid when they control everything? The Palestinians are the ones who are suffering!"

He believes clashes - and possibly even a third intifada or uprising - will result if the bills are pushed through.

"Our loyalty is to our nation, Palestine, not Israel. We cannot be loyal to the country that demolished our houses, the one responsible for our Nakba," he says.

But the Islamic Movement by no means represents the feelings of all Israeli Arabs.

ISRAELI-ARABS
About 1.2m, a fifth of Israel's population, are Israeli-Arabs
They are citizens of Israel, but face widely documented discrimination
Outgoing PM Ehud Olmert said there is "no doubt" Israeli-Arabs have faced discrimination for "many years"
Israeli-Arabs own 3.5% of Israel's land, get 3-5% of government spending and have higher poverty levels than Jewish Israelis*
There are 13 Israeli-Arabs in the 120-seat Knesset, 10 representing [primarly] Arab parties
*Source: Mossawa Center

Israeli-Arabs vote in anger
Clash in tense Israeli-Arab town

Further down the town's steep streets, Said Abu Shakra shows me round the white-walled art gallery he founded 13 years ago.

It promotes dialogue by hosting work by Palestinian, Jewish and international artists.

"Of course, I accept Israel's existence," he says. "In spite of all our history… We have to look forward."

Mr Abu Shakra understands why statements such as those of the Islamic Movement worry Israelis, but feels they are taken to represent the wider population in a way that the rhetoric of Jewish extremists is not.

Installation artist and painter Nasreen Abu Bakr, 31, has just returned from visiting a Jewish friend.

"In reality there is a state of Israel, but I inside I still have a problem with it. There is a conflict between my identity and my life in Israel," she says.

Ms Abu Bakr says the two bills will be a "disaster" if they pass - although they face many hurdles.

"They are deleting our memory and they're not going to stop here. They're going to delete our language, our Arabic street names. We'll become Jewish."

'It's part of staying'

Many people in Um al-Fahm do not feel they owe Israel anything beyond the taxes they already pay.

They blame Israeli under-investment for the lack of work in the town, and say they have little option but to work for Jewish Israelis.

"Israel does not give us our rights," says Mr Fahmawi, "we take them".

Houses in Um al-Fahm
Many of Um al-Fahm's residents work in construction around Israel

In his comfortable house he says he battled discrimination to become a civil engineer and now works for both Jewish and Arab companies.

"It's business," he says. "And I want to stay in this land - living and working is part of staying."

Analysts say the gap between Jewish and Arab Israelis is growing.

An annual Haifa University survey recently found only 53% of Israeli-Arabs recognised Israel's right to exist, down from 81% in 2003, while 40% denied the Holocaust, up from 28% in 2006.

Israeli-Arabs cite the recent Gaza and Lebanon wars and ongoing discrimination as reasons, while some in Israel fear such findings show Israeli-Arabs becoming more radical.

Even with Israel's right-leaning government, the two draft bills are drawing vocal opposition and may never become law.

But many fear that they are already widening the gulf.

BBC

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An Israeli general has verified that Israel failed in its attempt to assassinate Hezbollah's secretary general during its second war on Lebanon.

"In the Second Lebanon War there was an attempt to hit Hezbollah leader (Sayyed) Hassan Nasrallah, but it wasn't successful," said the defense force's chief of staff during the war, Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz on Sunday, Jerusalem Post reported.

Halutz is largely associated with Israel's 'targeted killings' namely the 2002 assassination of Salah Shahade, a leader of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, his family and a dozen civilians.

He, however, gave no details about the plot which was foiled in July 2006 when the Israeli forces launched indiscriminate land and air strikes on Lebanese soil killing more than 1,000
mostly civilian Lebanese.

The attacks, which had been launched in response to alleged sporadic Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel, were repelled by Hezbollah's fighters who had also liberated southern Lebanon in 2000 from 22 years of Israeli occupation.

Israeli soldiers had reportedly been given instructions by the commander to "destroy 10 multi-storey buildings" in the capital Beirut in response to every alleged Hezbollah attack.

The 2006 military defeat was followed by the dismissal of several senior Israeli military officials, including Halutz.

Israeli intelligence and military have been repeatedly implicated in murder plots against the Hezbollah chief, the most recent of which was reportedly being carried out by suspected Israeli-commissioned spies.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, has stepped up precautions against the recent Israeli activities, namely the current military exercises codenamed 'Turning Point 3'. Tel Aviv has warned that the drill could develop into a full-scale regional war against the Lebanese group, Hamas, Syria and Iran.

Last Monday, the Hezbollah chief called on the international community to "punish Israel" before the materialization of, what he warned was, an ongoing Tel Aviv conspiracy against Beirut.

HN/SME/HAR