- 23 febr 2007
Muhammad Ali Ghalban
assassinated
21 apr 2012, 08:59 , Respect -
Maria 26 febr 2007
Annan Al Tibi 41
Palestinian civilian killed as Israeli army offensive continues in Nablus
A Palestinian man was shot and killed on Monday at midday by Israeli army gunfire in the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The military offensive continues for the second consecutive day.
Local medical sources reported that Annan Al Tibi, 41, was killed when an Israeli troop shot him in his own home, located in Al Yassamein neighborhood in the old city of Nablus.
Tibi's son was also injured during the attack on the family home; Palestinian medical teams reported that the boy is still bleeding inside the house and that Israeli soldiers are not allowing the medical teams to access him.
Also on Monday around midday, Israeli tanks bombed a second building in downtown Nablus city. Local sources reported that Israeli forces are attacking civilian cars and destroying them. In the meantime, the Israeli army have turned two local schools into detention camps and are gathering men aging from 15 to 35 there for interrogations.
Updated from:
Israeli Army Attacks Residential Buildings in Nablus Monday February 26, 2007 10:37 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies
Israeli army attacked Monday morning scores of Palestinian residential buildings in the West Bank city of Nablus, media reports said. Local sources confirmed that at least 50 Palestinian-owned houses across the city have been raided as inhabitants inside have been forced out.
The sources said that the attacks on houses included the arrest of approximately 100 people, who have been transferred to the Huwara detention center to the south of the city.
In the western suburb of Nablus, the Israeli army opened heavy gunfire at the Sal’ous residential building then forced all those inside out, witnesses said. This Palestinian city is being exposed to the harshest Israeli military offensive in recent years.
The Israeli army invaded Nablus yesterday under the pretext of cracking down on ‘wanted Palestinians’. Meanwhile, another residential building in the West Bank city of Jenin, has been reportedly attacked by the army early this morning and a military roadblock has been reportedly erected at the front door of the building.
http://www.imemc.org/article/47193 21 apr 2012, 08:59 , Respect -
Maria 28 febr 2006
Muhammad Ibrahim Mahmoud Abu Na'asah 31
Mohammad Abu Na’feh
Ala’ Breikeh
Muhammad resident of Jenin R.C., killed on in Jenin R.C.. Wanted by Israel. Killed in a taxi by undercover troops who came to arrest him.
Israeli force assassinates three Palestinians in Jenin
Three Palestinians were assassinated by an undercover Israeli army unit in Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Wednesday morning.
Three Palestinians were assassinated by an undercover Israeli army unit in Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Wednesday morning.
At around 7:30 am, undercover Israeli troops entered the refugee camp in a civilian car with Palestinian license plates and chased Ashraf Al-Saadi aged 25, leader of Al-Quds Brigade, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine.
Al-Sa’adi attempted to escape, Palestinian resistance fighters clashed with the Israeli army unit, which was backed by a helicopter and later by twenty military vehicles at this point. Al-Sadi, who has been claimed wanted by the Israeli army for 2 years was killed along with Mohammad Abu Na’feh and Ala’ Breikeh who are also operatives of the Islamic Jihad movement.
Following the assassination, Palestinians took to the streets in protest against the killing of the three youths, and threw stones at the Israeli forces that were still in the area. Thousands of angry civilians chanted anti-occupation slogans, others promised to avenge the death of the three resistance fighters.
http://www.imemc.org/article/47219 21 apr 2012, 08:59 , Respect -
Maria 28 febr 2007
Ashraf Al-Saadi 25
'Alaa Rafiq Da'ud Jabali 28
'Alaa: resident of Jenin R.C., killed in Jenin R.C.. Did not participate in hostilities when killed. Killed in a taxi by undercover troops who came to arrest wanted persons who were in the taxi.
Senior Israeli military officials call for a large offensive in Gaza
21 apr 2012, 08:59 , Respect -
Maria 1 mrt 2007
Nablus: Israeli army offensive continues for the fifth consecutive day
The Israeli army continued on Thursday its military offensive nicknamed as "Hot Winter" for the fifth consecutive day, targeting the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Today the city witnessed more military activities, during the early dawn hours an Israeli army force attacked Rafedia refugee camp searched and ransacked houses. They then abducted four Palestinian men. This attack was conducted by an ultra-Orthodox unit of the Nahal brigade of the Israeli army, Israeli media sources reported.
Later, a man the Israeli army claimed was a Palestinian resistance fighter, was injured when targeted by an Israeli sharp shooter in downtown Nablus, Israeli sources reported.
However, Palestinian sources stated that a massive Israeli force surrounded two residential buildings in Rafadia neighborhood in the western side of the city. The Israeli army claims that there are 'wanted' Palestinians inside; eyewitnesses stated that families and their children are trapped inside and no armed men are in the building.
Moreover, the city of Nablus has seen a massive abduction campaign since Thursday morning. Soldiers are searching homes in Balata refugee camp, in the old city, and in Rafidai refugee camp. Among those abducted were; Amer Shahin, Ghassan Zied, Zaki Dabanja. All were moved to the interrogation and detention center that the Israeli army set up in local school in the city.
The city of Nablus is currently under curfew, which is confining thousands of Palestinian families to their homes. Since Sunday morning, this Israeli offensive has left one civilian dead, at least 30 injured, and seen some160 abducted. Palestinian sources in the city stated that none of the abductees are resistance fighters, all are civilians.
http://www.imemc.org/article/47237 21 apr 2012, 09:00 , Respect -
Maria 3 mrt 2007
Sarid: “In 1967, Israeli army executed 250 unarmed Egyptian soldiers”
Former Meretz party leader in Israel, Yossi Sarid said in an interview with the Egyptian daily, Al Ahram, that the Israeli army executed 250 unarmed Egyptian soldiers at the end of the 1967 war.
Saird described the incident as a war crime, since it involved the killing of unarmed soldiers.
Israeli TV Channel one, aired a documentary earlier this week and revealed that an elite unit of the Israeli army, commanded by Labor member of Knesset, Benjamin Ben Eliezer, executed 250 unarmed Egyptian soldiers after they surrendered to the Israeli army.
“The killing of those captive soldiers in the Six Day War was a war crime”, Saird told Al Ahram, “But war crimes in the area are numerous”.
The report received intensive media coverage in Egypt, Israeli news reported.
During the interview, Sarid said that he did not see the documentary, but added that he was aware that Israeli troops carried out war crimes against Arab soldiers during the war.
He also told Al Ahram that “it is difficult to punish those responsible for these crimes since they happened 40 years ago”, and added that “history will remember and judge those people”.
Three years ago, a diplomatic crisis strained the relations between Israel and Egypt after the Egyptian Foreign Ministry demanded Israel to pay compensations for Egypt for the murdering of those soldiers.
Responding to the report, Ben Eliezer claimed that the casualties were killed in combat and that they “were Palestinian fighters and not Egyptian soldiers”.
9 mrt 2007
Egypt warns of arrest of Ben Eliezer if he enters country
Eliezer
Following a documentary film about the Israeli military “Shaked” unit, which is believed to be responsible of killing 250 surrendering Egyptian soldiers during the Six Day War in June 1967, Egypt warned on Friday that the Israeli Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, who was in command of the army during the war, would be arrested if he enters Egypt.
Egypt said that it holds Ben Eliezer responsible for the death of the 250 Egyptian soldiers who surrendered to the Israeli army during the war.
Egyptian Member of Parliament, Mustafa Bakri, said in a Friday interview with Kul Al Arab newspaper that Egypt “demands that these murderers and war criminals be brought to an Egyptian court”.
Bakri added that Benjamin Ben Eliezer and every Israeli soldier and officer who was involved in this slaughter of the Egyptian captive soldiers must be brought to justice.
Ben Eliezer was planning to visit Egypt but had to cancel his trip after the hour-long documentary was broadcast on the Israeli TV Channel 1 last week.
Ben-Eliezer canceled his trip to Cairo in the wake of the storm created by the hour-long film, called Ruach Shaked. It shown on Channel 1 last week as an eyewitness testimony given to him as he set about telling the tale of the unit, which patrolled the southern border from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, Israeli online daily, Jerusalem Post, reported
Meanwhile, the Egyptian parliament will hold an emergency session on Saturday to discuss the response of Shalom Cohen, the Israeli Ambassador to Egypt.
Cohen met on Wednesday with the head of the Israel department in the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, as was requested, to provide explanations on the content of the documentary film.
Also, the Israeli Radio reported that several Egyptian members of parliament submitted proposals to cut ties with Israel and to expel Cohen from the Cairo department.
17 mrt 2007
Former Egyptian prisoner of war says he saw Ben-Eliezer killing two Egyptian soldiers
Eliezer
Israeli Ynetnews reported on Friday night that a former Egyptian prisoner of war said that he witnesses Labor member of Knesset and the National Infrastructure Minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, killing two captive Egyptian soldiers during the 1967 war, for drinking water without his permission.
The Gulf News Website reported on Friday that the former Egyptian soldier, Ameen Abdul-Rahman, stated that he was captured by the Israeli soldiers during the 1967 Mideast war. He stated that after the war started on June 5 1967 in central Sinai desert, he was taken prisoner in Al Husna in Sinai.
Abdul-Rahman served in the reconnaissance corps of the Egyptian army. He said that “it was very hot at that time, and the captured soldiers were very thirsty, adding that Israeli soldiers ordered the captured Egyptian officers to gather near a water tank to drink from it, but when they did, soldiers executed them using machine guns.
Israeli online daily Ynetnews, which republished the Gulf News article, said that Abdul-Rahman, who was imprisoned by Israel, accused Ben-Eliezer of killing two Egyptian prisoners of war.
Abdul-Rahman stated that Egyptian soldiers, including himself, were detained in a makeshift camp surrounded with a barbed wire fence.
He stated that after the captured soldiers could no longer handle the thirst, he collected that shoe laces from his colleagues and made a long rope which he tied to a military boot.
“I used this technique to bring water from a nearby ditch, but the soldiers noticed and took us to their commander who was Ben-Eliezer”, Abdul-Rahman said, “he spoke Arabic in an Iraqi dialect”.
“He shot an Egyptian military commander and a soldier for arguing with him over the water”, Abdul-Rahman added, “I survived, miraculously”.
The case of the slain captured soldiers was raised after Israeli TV aired a documentary that stated that a battalion under the command of Ben-Eliezer killed 250 Egyptian soldiers after they surrendered to the Israeli forces.
Following the report, several Egyptian members of parliament called on their government to cut its ties with Israel.
Ben-Eliezer was planning to visit Egypt but had to cancel his trip over fears of being arrested for war crimes after the documentary was published.
21 apr 2012, 09:00 , Respect -
Maria 5 mrt 2007
Report: 13 Palestinians killed, 188 injured by Israeli army fire during February 2007
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza issued a report on Monday which stated that 13 Palestinians including one woman, were killed while 188 others were injured by Israeli army fire during the month of February 2007.
The report mentioned that the number of the injured from the 3 to18 age category was 70. In effect, the ratio of injured children stands at 37.2 % of the total figure of casualties.
In the reported the ministry of Health stated that due to the clashes that erupted between Israeli troops and Palestinian civilians protesting the excavation near the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, 23 civilians were hospitalized while hundreds others were treated on the spot.
The military offensive ("Hot Winters") that the Israeli army conducted in Nablus city in the northern part of the West Bank, lasted nearly all of last week. The report stated that Israeli forces intensified the bombings of residents' homes in the Old Town of Nablus. 150 houses and a shop were damaged during the operation, according to the report.
The report confirmed that during the Nablus military offensive the Israeli army attacked the health sector. The Israeli forces prevented ambulances belonging to the Red Crescent Society and the medical aid from arriving to help the two killed civilians in Nablus' old city; both were injured and remained bleeding for more than two hours before they died.
In addition, Israeli troops deployed in Nablus stopped medical crews from attending other injured or sick civilians. Soldiers detained the medical crews and usully forced them to strip naked before letting them go, the report concluded.
21 apr 2012, 09:00 , Respect -
Maria 21 apr 2012, 09:00 , Respect -
Maria 9 mrt 2007
Muhammad Ahmad Muhammad al-Ghalban 17
No name 30
Muhammad: of Khan Younis, Gaza,killed by IDF gunfire while allegedly trying to attack Israeli soldiers near the Gaza perimeter fence.
Israeli Army Kills a Palestinian Civilian in Central Gaza
Medical sources reported that a Palestinian resident of the Deir Elbalah town, in the central Gaza Strip, was shot dead by Israeli army on Friday evening.
The sources confirmed that a man was shot dead with a heavy bullet in the head and that his identity has not been confirmed yet. Witnesses said that a man aged about 30 was killed on farmland to the east of Deir Elbalah town in the central Gaza Strip.
21 apr 2012, 09:00 , Respect -
Maria 10 mrt 2007
Wa'el Yousef Karawi 32
Israeli police beat Palestinian man to death
Wa'el Yousef Karawi was from East Jerusalem's A-Tur neighborhood. Israeli police attacked him on a popular shopping street. Now the 32 year old Palestinian man is dead.
Wa'el Yousef Karawi was from East Jerusalem's A-Tur neighborhood. Israeli police attacked him on a street popular for shoe, clothing and book shops. Now the 32 year old Palestinian man is dead. PNN's Jerusalem correspondent, Maisa Abu Ghazaleh, explained that the young man was driving on Salah Addin Street when the police stopped his car. Without any warning, the Israelis pulled Karawi out the vehicle and began severely beating him.
There was no reason offered at the time and Israeli forces still decline to comment. Abu Ghazaleh also reported that Israeli forces have detained Karawi's body, refusing to release it to his family pending their own investigation and autopsy. The Israeli police are currently claiming that the man died as a result of falling on the ground.
The family is demanding that the investigation and autopsy be performed by a neutral party.
On the end of Salah Addin Street, that meets the walls of the Old City, is the post office where Palestinians voted during the last presidential and Legislative Council elections. Next to that is an Israeli police station where several cruisers can be seen daily with officers milling about in the area.
21 apr 2012, 09:00 , Respect -
Maria 12 mrt 2007
Israeli source: “Israel preparing for a new and tough war against Hamas”
21 apr 2012, 09:00 , Respect -
Maria 13 mrt 2007
The Real Goal of Israel’s War on Lebanon
by JONATHAN COOK
Olmert's Testimony to Winograd
Israel’s supposedly "defensive" assault on Hizbullah last summer, in which more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians were killed in a massive aerial bombardment that ended with Israel littering the country’s south with cluster bombs, was cast in a definitively different light last week by Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert.
His leaked testimony to the Winograd Committee — investigating the government’s failures during the month-long attack — suggests that he had been preparing for such a war at least four months before the official casus belli: the capture by Hizbullah of two Israeli soldiers from a border post on 12 July 2006. Lebanon’s devastation was apparently designed to teach both Hizbullah and the country’s wider public a lesson.
Olmert’s new account clarifies the confusing series of official justifications for the war from the time.
First, we were told that the seizure of the soldiers was "an act of war" by Lebanon and that a "shock and awe" campaign was needed to secure their release. Or, as the then Chief of Staff Dan Halutz — taking time out from disposing of his shares before market prices fell — explained, his pilots were going to "turn the clock back 20 years" in Lebanon.
Then the army claimed that it was trying to stop Hizbullah’s rocket strikes. But the bombing campaign targeted not only the rocket launchers but much of Lebanon, including Beirut. (It was, of course, conveniently overlooked that Hizbullah’s rockets fell as a response to the Israeli bombardment and not the other way round.)
And finally we were offered variations on the theme that ended the fighting: the need to push Hizbullah (and, incidentally, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians) away from the northern border with Israel.
That was the thrust of UN Resolution 1701 that brought about the official end of hostilities in mid-August. It also looked suspiciously like the reason why Israel chose at the last-minute to dump up to a million tiny bomblets — old US stocks of cluster munitions with a very high failure rate — that are lying in south Lebanon’s fields, playgrounds and back yards waiting to explode.
What had been notable before Olmert’s latest revelation was the clamour of the military command to distance itself from Israel’s failed attack on Hizbullah. After his resignation, Halutz blamed the political echelon (meaning primarily Olmert), while his subordinates blamed both Olmert and Halutz. The former Chief of Staff was rounded on mainly because, it was claimed, being from the air force, he had over-estimated the likely effectiveness of his pilots in "neutralising" Hizbullah’s rockets.
Given this background, Olmert has been obliging in his testimony to Winograd. He has not only shouldered responsibility for the war to the Committee, but, if Israeli media reports are to be believed, he has also publicised the fact by leaking the details.
Olmert told Winograd that, far from making war on the hoof in response to the capture of the two soldiers (the main mitigating factor for Israel’s show of aggression), he had been planning the attack on Lebanon since at least March 2006.
His testimony is more than plausible. Allusions to pre-existing plans for a ground invasion of Lebanon can be found in Israeli reporting from the time. On the first day of the war, for example, the Jersualem Post reported: "Only weeks ago, an entire reserve division was drafted in order to train for an operation such as the one the IDF is planning in response to Wednesday morning’s Hizbullah attacks on IDF forces along the northern border."
Olmert defended the preparations to the Committee on the grounds that Israel expected Hizbullah to seize soldiers at some point and wanted to be ready with a harsh response. The destruction of Lebanon would deter Hizbullah from considering another such operation in the future.
There was an alternative route that Olmert and his commanders could have followed: they could have sought to lessen the threat of attacks on the northern border by damping down the main inciting causes of Israel’s conflict with Hizbullah.
According to Olmert’s testimony, he was seeking just such a solution to the main problem: a small corridor of land known as the Shebaa Farms claimed by Lebanon but occupied by Israel since 1967. As a result of the Farms area’s occupation, Hizbullah has argued that Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000 was incomplete and that the territory still needed liberating.
Olmert’s claim, however, does not stand up to scrutiny.
The Israeli media revealed in January that for much of the past two years Syria’s leader, Bashir Assad, has been all but prostrating himself before Israel in back-channel negotiations over the return of Syrian territory, the Golan, currently occupied by Israel. Although those talks offered Israel the most favourable terms it could have hoped for (including declaring the Golan a peace park open to Israelis), Sharon and then Olmert — backed by the US — refused to engage Damascus.
A deal on the Golan with Syria would almost certainly have ensured that the Shebaa Farms were returned to Lebanon. Had Israel or the US wanted it, they could have made considerable progress on this front.
The other major tension was Israel’s repeated transgressions of the northern border, complemented by Hizbullah’s own, though less frequent, violations. After the army’s withdrawal in 2000, United Nations monitors recorded Israeli warplanes violating Lebanese airspace almost daily. Regular overflights were made to Beirut, where pilots used sonic booms to terrify the local population, and drones spied on much of the country. Again, had Israel halted these violations of Lebanese sovereignty, Hizbullah’s own breach of Israeli sovereignty in attacking the border post would have been hard to justify.
And finally, when Hizbullah did capture the soldiers, there was a chance for Israel to negotiate over their return. Hizbullah made clear from the outset that it wanted to exchange the soldiers for a handful of Lebanese prisoners still in Israeli jails. But, of course, as Olmert’s testimony implies, Israel was not interested in talks or in halting its bombing campaign. That was not part of the plan.
We can now start to piece together why.
According to the leaks, Olmert first discussed the preparations for a war against Lebanon in January and then asked for detailed plans in March.
Understandably given the implications, Olmert’s account has been decried by leading Israeli politicians. Effi Eitam has pointed out that Olmert’s version echoes that of Hizbullah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who claims his group knew that Israel wanted to attack Lebanon.
And Yuval Steinitz argues that, if a war was expected, Olmert should not have approved a large cut to the defence budget only weeks earlier. The explanation for that, however, can probably be found in the forecasts about the war’s outcome expressed in cabinet by Halutz and government ministers. Halutz reportedly believed that an air campaign would defeat Hizbullah in two to three days, after which Lebanon’s infrastructure could be wrecked unimpeded. Some ministers apparently thought the war would be over even sooner.
In addition, a red herring has been offered by the General Staff, whose commanders are claiming to the Israeli media that they were kept out of the loop by the prime minister. If Olmert was planning a war against Lebanon, they argue, he should not have left them so unprepared.
It is an intriguing, and unconvincing, proposition: who was Olmert discussing war preparations with, if not with the General Staff? And how was he planning to carry out that war if the General Staff was not intimately involved?
More interesting are the dates mentioned by Olmert. His first discussion of a war against Lebanon was held on 8 January 2006, four days after he became acting prime minister following Ariel Sharon’s brain haemorrhage and coma. Olmert held his next meeting on the subject in March, presumably immediately after his victory in the elections. There were apparently more talks in April, May and July.
Rather than the impression that has been created by Olmert of a rookie prime minister and military novice "going it alone" in planning a major military offensive against a neighbouring state, a more likely scenario starts to take shape. It suggests that from the moment that Olmert took up the reins of power, he was slowly brought into the army’s confidence, first tentatively in January and then more fully after his election. He was allowed to know of the senior command’s secret and well-advanced plans for war — plans, we can assume, his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, a former general, had been deeply involved in advancing.
But why would Olmert now want to shoulder responsibility for the unsuccessful war if he only approved, rather than formulated, it? Possibly because Olmert, who has appeared militarily weak and inexperienced to the Israeli public, does not want to prove his critics right. And also because, with most of his political capital exhausted, he would be unlikely to survive a battle for Israeli hearts and minds against the army (according to all polls, the most revered institution in Israeli society) should he try to blame them for last summer’s fiasco. With Halutz gone, Olmert has little choice but to say "mea cupla".
What is the evidence that Israel’s generals had already established the protocols for a war?
First, an article in the San Franscisco Chronicle, published soon after the outbreak of war, revealed that the Israeli army had been readying for a wide-ranging assault on Lebanon for years, and had a specific plan for a "Three-Week War" that they had shared with Washington think-tanks and US officials.
"More than a year ago, a senior Israeli army officer began giving PowerPoint presentations, on an off-the-record basis, to US and other diplomats, journalists and think tanks, setting out the plan for the current operation in revealing detail," wrote reporter Matthew Kalman.
That view was confimed this week by an anonymous senior officer who told the Haaretz newspaper that the army had a well-established plan for an extensive ground invasion of Lebanon, but that Olmert had shied away from putting it into action. "I don’t know if he [Olmert] was familiar with the details of the plan, but everyone knew that the IDF [army] had a ground operation ready for implementation."
And second, we have an interview in the Israeli media with Meyrav Wurmser, the wife of one of the highest officials in the Bush Administration, David Wurmser, Vice-President Dick Cheney’s adviser on the Middle East. Meyrav Wurmser, an Israeli citizen, is herself closely associated with MEMRI, a group translating (and mistranslating) speeches by Arab leaders and officials that is known for its ties to the Israeli secret services.
She told the website of Israel’s leading newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, that the US stalled over imposing a ceasefire during Israel’s assault on Lebanon because the Bush Administration was expecting the war to be expanded to Syria.
"The anger [in the White House] is over the fact that Israel did not fight against the Syrians The neocons are responsible for the fact that Israel got a lot of time and space. They believed that Israel should be allowed to win. A great part of it was the thought that Israel should fight against the real enemy, the one backing Hizbullah. It was obvious that it is impossible to fight directly against Iran, but the thought was that its [Iran's] strategic and important ally [Syria] should be hit."
In other words, the picture that emerges is of a long-standing plan by the Israeli army, approved by senior US officials, for a rapid war against Lebanon — followed by possible intimidatory strikes against Syria — using the pretext of a cross-border incident involving Hizbullah. The real purpose, we can surmise, was to weaken what are seen by Israel and the US to be Tehran’s allies before an attack on Iran itself.
That was why neither the Americans nor Israel wanted, or appear still to want, to negotiate with Assad over the Golan and seek a peace agreement that could — for once — change the map of the Middle East for the better.
Despite signs of a slight thawing in Washington’s relations with Iran and Syria in the past few days, driven by the desperate US need to stop sinking deeper into the mire of Iraq, Damascus is understandably wary.
The continuing aggressive Israeli and US postures have provoked a predictable reaction from Syria: it has started building up its defences along the border with Israel. But in the Alice Through the Looking Glass world of Israeli military intelligence, that response is being interpreted — or spun — as a sign of an imminent attack by Syria.
Such, for example, is the opinion of Martin Van Creveld, an Israeli professor of military history, usually described as eminent and doubtless with impeccable contacts in the Israeli military establishment, who recently penned an article in the American Jewish weekly, the Forward.
He suggests that Syria, rather than wanting to negotiate over the Golan — as all the evidence suggests — is planning to launch an attack on Israel, possibly using chemical weapons, in October 2008 under cover of fog and rain. The goal of the attack? Apparently, says the professor, Syria wants to "inflict casualties" and ensure Jerusalem "throws in the towel".
What’s the professor’s evidence for these Syrian designs? That its military has been on an armaments shopping spree in Russia, and has been studying the lessons of the Lebanon war.
He predicts (of Syria, not Israel) the following: "Some incident will be generated and used as an excuse for opening rocket fire on the Golan Heights and the Galilee." And he concludes: "Overall the emerging Syrian plan is a good one with a reasonable chance of success."
And what can stop the Syrians? Not peace talks, argues Van Creveld. "Obviously, much will depend on what happens in Iraq and Iran. A short, successful American offensive in Iran may persuade Assad that the Israelis, much of whose hardware is either American or American-derived, cannot be countered, especially in the air. Conversely, an American withdrawal from Iraq, combined with an American-Iranian stalemate in the Persian Gulf, will go a long way toward untying Assad’s hands."
It all sounds familiar. Iran wants the nuclear destruction of Israel, and Syria wants Jersualem to "throw in the towel" — or so the neocons and the useful idiots of "the clash of civilisations" would have us believe. The fear must be that they get their way and push Israel and the US towards another pre-emptive war — or maybe two.
21 apr 2012, 09:00 , Respect -
Maria 14 mrt 2007
Muhammad Ibrahim Ismael Jaber Barghouti 17
of Aboud, near Ramallah, killed by IDF gunfire, from a jeep, while throwing stones.
Egypt demands that Israel probes the 1967 massacre of surrendering Egyptian troops
Ahmad Abu Al Gheit, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, said on Tuesday night that Israel must investigate reports which held the Israeli Army responsible for executing 250 Egyptian soldiers who surrendered to the Israeli army during the 1967 war.
Abu Al Gheit told reporters that he sent a harsh rhetoric letter to Tzipi Livni, his Israeli counterpart, after he watched the Israeli-made documentary “The Spirit of Shaked” in which testimonies collected from former Egyptian soldiers revealed that Israeli soldiers executed 250 surrendering Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai peninsula, Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported.
Commenting of the documentary, Abu Al Gheit stated that it raises questions about the Israeli military actions, especially since there was no reason for the Israeli soldiers to use excessive force against the special Egyptian forces, Haaretz added.
But Haaretz also said that in spite of the tension the documentary caused, and the national anger in the country, Egypt does not intend to cut ties with Israel.
The documentary was broadcast in Egypt in early March, and the tension it caused forced the Israeli Infrastructure Minister, Benjamin Ben Eliezer, to cancel a trip to Cairo.
Ben Eliezer was in command of the Shaked unit that carried out the reported killing of the 250 soldiers.
Egyptian Legislators called on their government to suspend its peace deal with Israel, recall its ambassador in Tel Aviv, and file criminal charges against Israel.
Meanwhile, Abu Al Gheit did not voice a direct accusation against Israel, but said that the country must conduct an immediate investigation and take all of the necessary measures to try the suspects for their violations of International Law.
Haaretz also said that the documentary's producer, Ran Ederlist, claimed that the Egyptian press “badly distorted his documentary” saying that the incident involved Palestinian fighters and not Egyptian soldiers.
In 1995, Egypt probed Israel about the incident and the Israeli Vice Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, assigned an army major to investigate it, but the investigation yielded no results, Haaretz said.
Moreover, several Egyptian newspapers published interviews this months with Egyptians who served in the army in 1967, including an army officer identified as Osama Al Sadeq.
Al Sadeq stated that on June 6th 1967, orders were given to the soldiers to withdraw, but some of them were captured by the Israeli army and were executed.
“We located the bodies of some 40 Egyptian soldiers”, Al Sadeq stated, “all were shot in the head, we also observed prints of tanks that had driven over their bodies”.
Report: “Two killed, 26 injured in Israeli military attacks last week”
A report prepared and published by the Palestinian Information Center – State Information Service, revealed that Israeli soldiers have shot and killed two Palestinians and injured 26 others over the past week.
The center reported that the army committed 1139 violations against the Palestinian people during the reported period; March 3rd to March 12th.
The report revealed that soldiers used excessive violence against the Palestinian people, causing the huge number of casualties. The soldiers shelled residential areas, causing massive destruction and resultant losses, and carried out repeated invasions of Palestinian communities.
Soldiers also installed dozens of additional roadblocks closing several Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Authorities annexed more Palestinians lands for the construction of the Illegal Wall.
Troops fired at civilians and private Palestinian property 75 times during the reported period; two civilians were killed, and 26 were injured.
The army carried out 36 “arrest raids” and abducted 162 Palestinians; a total of 54 invasions were conducted during the reported period.
Soldiers broke into dozens of homes, and detained dozens of residents at military checkpoints.
The residents of the occupied territorioes were barred from travelling out of Palestine through the international crossings.
Soldiers installed roadblocks 39 times, and installed 80 temporary checkpoints.
Meanwhile, illegal Isreali settlers carried out at least one attack against the Palestinian residents of the West Bank.
The number of Israeli violations committed since the beginning of 2007 up until March 12th has increased to 12,194. During these attacks, soldiers carried out 480 shooting attacks, killed 22 civilians and injured 356.
During this period, Israeli soldiers installed 954 portable roadblocks and took prisoner 1307 civilians, while settlers carried out 21 attacks against the Palestinian residents of the West Bank.
21 apr 2012, 09:39 , Respect -
Maria 16 mrt 2007
Hussein Salhi 31
Palestinian intelligence officer shot dead in central Gaza Strip
Gaza - Ma'an - A member of the Palestinian military intelligence was killed in unknown circumstances and another was seriously injured on Friday morning.
Both men were shot at by unidentified gun men near Deir al-Balah cemetery in the central Gaza Strip this morning. Our correspondent in Gaza reported quoting security sources that both men were in a white Subaru car when they were stopped by armed men and forced to get out of the car. They were then shot at directly in the head.
The two men, Hussein Salhi, 31, and Mousa Erjailat, 28, were transported to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where it was reported that the first man had died.