Free Republic

When and if US President George W. Bush visits the West Bank later this week, his motorcade might not be able to pass through the main highway in Bethlehem. The reason: two tents that have been set up in the middle of the road by the families of three Fatah gunmen killed four years ago by the IDF. The tents were erected about two weeks ago at the entrance to the village of Al-Khader in protest of the Palestinian Authority's failure to help the families rebuild their homes, which had been destroyed by the IDF. Although a large section of...

Excerpt - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday told the cabinet that he will remove all unauthorized outposts in the West Bank, pledging to meet a key commitment under the "road map" peace plan, a government spokeswoman said. Olmert also said Israel would not build any new settlements in the West Bank, though he stopped short of promising a freeze in construction in existing settlements. The road map calls for a halt in all settlement activity. ~ snip ~

Yesterday, the University of Delaware asked Asaf Romirowsky to step down from an academic panel at the University of Delaware because another panelist, University of Delaware political scientist Muqtedar Khan, didn't want to share the podium with anyone who served in the Israeli Defense Forces. Romirowsky, who holds joint American/Israeli citizenship and lives in Philadelphia, had been invited to join Khan, his colleague in political science, Stuart Kaufman, a staff member of the National Security Council during the Clinton administration, and a graduate student to discuss anti-Americanism in the Middle East. The program was organized by the College Republicans,...

JERUSALEM (AP) — A vehicle that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is riding in is diverted into an Israeli fire station due to security concerns en route to the West Bank.

Three Hamas police officers were killed and two wounded after sundown Tuesday when a car exploded outside a Hamas security headquarters building in Gaza City, hospital and security officials said. At first Hamas blamed Israel, but later said it was unclear what caused the blast. The car exploded went off on the Gaza beachfront near the Hamas marine police force building. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Interior Ministry released a statement saying the car was hit by an Israeli naval vessel offshore, killing three marine police officers. But later, the Hamas government backed away, releasing a statement saying, "Investigations are still under...

FLINT, Mich. -- For the second time in two years, Katharine Lester boarded a plane to the West Bank to be with a Palestinian man she met on MySpace.com. Lester’s first attempt was thwarted when FBI agents intervened and returned the then-16-year-old to her parents in Michigan. Lester, now 18, was at the airport with her passport in hand, and there was little her parents could do to stop her. One family member told TV5 that she worries Lester won’t come back, and that she won’t ever see her again. The family member went on to say “I’m just really...

Palestinians back caliphate over politics By Carolynne Wheeler in Kfar Aqab, West Bank Last Updated: 1:16am BST 27/08/2007 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/27/wpal127.xml By day, they are the middle class, putting in days as mild-mannered teachers, factory supervisors and office clerks. Tens of thousands of Palestinian supporters of the Islamic Hizb ut-Tahrir movement demonstrate at a rally in Ramallah But by night, the growing number of supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamic fundamentalists who reject modern democracy in favour of a pan-Islamic religious caliphate, are gathering in the West Bank to recruit the thousands who have grown disillusioned with the vicious stand-off between the...

The entire month of August, during daylight hours as I sat in our home study trying to write and after dark as I sat on our porch trying to relax, there was (and continues to be) the sound of gunfire. The shooting is weapons familiarization and marksmanship practice. Some days it has commenced as early as 09:00. Some days it has not stopped before 24:00. Often, even during daylight hours, an attempt is made to mask the gunfire with the explosions of dozens of skyrockets and hundreds of other fireworks. The “Bangs” and the “Pops,” both day and night, have...

The Hamas terrorist organization is planning to declare the Gaza Strip an independent entity under its control.

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com JERUSALEM – Newly installed Israeli President Shimon Peres has quietly drafted a plan for the Jewish state to evacuate and transfer to the Palestinians nearly the entire West Bank and several Arab Israeli cities located within territory that is undisputedly Israel's according to the international community, WND has learned. The West Bank is strategic territory that runs alongside Jerusalem and is within rocket range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. It is home to many biblical Jewish communities and some of Judaism's holiest sites. Peres has presented his initiative to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and to...

Is the United States out of the intervention business for a while? With two difficult wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a divided public, the conventional answer is that it will be a long time before any American president, Democrat or Republican, again dispatches troops into conflict overseas. As usual, though, the conventional wisdom is almost certainly wrong. Throughout its history, America has frequently used force on behalf of principles and tangible interests, and that is not likely to change. Despite the problems and setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, America remains the world's dominant military power, spends half a trillion...

Israeli aircraft struck a car in the central Gaza Strip on Monday, injuring at least five people, medics said. According to Islamic Jihad and medics in Gaza Strip, the car was carrying members of the group. Other witnesses said that the vehicle contained members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah movement. The strike occurred about 10 kilometers south of Gaza City. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is in favour of Jordanian forces deploying in the occupied West Bank to help Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas fight Hamas, a report said on Monday. "What Olmert has...

Fatah vows to wipe Hamas from West Bank By Charles Levinson in Nablus, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:35am BST 24/06/2007 Just two weeks ago, they were on the same uneasy side of the Palestinian fence: a butcher's son, who had spent nine years in an Israeli jail, and a mother of five children who, as deputy mayor of Nablus, supported the unity government formed in April. Fatah gunmen rally in support of President Mahmoud Abbas in Jenin But now Fayiz al Tirawi, the butcher and a militant Fatah leader, is out for revenge, and Khalood al Masry, a Hamas leader,...

Israel will not stand idly by and allow Fatah to slaughter Hamas members in the West Bank like Hamas did to Fatah last week in the Gaza Strip, a high-ranking defense official said Saturday. According to the official, Fatah was in the process of taking over Hamas installations and buildings throughout the West Bank in retaliation to Hamas's violent takeover last week of the Gaza Strip. In the meantime, the IDF said that the situation in the West Bank was relatively calm.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- Witnesses say Fatah gunmen storming Hamas-controlled government offices.

Palestinian security forces allied with Fatah arrested three dozen Hamas activists in the West Bank on Thursday, as the Islamic group neared a military takeover of Gaza. Fatah leaders said a decision was made by security commanders to crack down on Hamas in the West Bank, to prevent it from taking any positions in that territory, a Fatah stronghold. "Last night, there was a decision by the leaders of the security forces to go after Hamas and to arrest them, before they think of bringing the war here," said Issam Abu Bakr, a Fatah leader in the West Bank city...

The failure by editors of supposedly impartial and respected newspapers to correct inaccuracies in media articles regarding the West Bank and Gaza prior to their publication, gives continuing credence to total Arab denial of any Jewish rights in those areas - and also seriously misleads and misinforms their trusting readers as to the nature of the conflict that is taking place. Letters written to the editors requesting corrections are usually consigned to the waste paper basket and even if printed, are too late to undo the damage - allowing gross distortion of facts to be perpetuated and in many cases...

Nothing should be taken for granted. Neither Resolution 242 nor the proposed "land for peace" trade off.On June 5th 1967, Israel, under great threat of an imminent attack, had no choice but to defend itself. And defend itself, it did. Six days later Israel found itself in possession of what was left of the British Mandate after Jordan was removed from it. Israel made two fateful policy decisions; 1. Rather than annex the lands pursuant to its rights under the British Mandate, Israel offered to return much of the land for peace. 2. Rather than to obliterate the al Aksa...

Israeli forces seized a Palestinian cabinet minister, lawmakers and mayors in the occupied West Bank and launched more air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, stepping up a campaign against Hamas Islamists. The escalation came hours after Hamas and other groups rebuffed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's call for a halt to cross-border rocket attacks by Gaza militants at southern Israeli towns. Israeli troops entered the West Bank city of Nablus and took into custody Education Minister Naser al-Shaer of Hamas, according to his wife, Huda. "I asked them, 'Why are you taking him'. The officer said, 'We have orders',"...

Last update - 04:47 13/05/2007 FM: Creation of Palestinian state requires West Bank exit By Haaretz Service and , Haaretz Correspondent Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Saturday that the founding of a future Palestinian state will require Israel to make withdrawals from the West Bank. In an interview to Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper, Livni was quoted as saying that "the pullout from the Gaza Strip was not the last withdrawal." However, the foreign minister maintained that the peace process has been slowed because of moderate Palestinian leaders' inability to control the violence in the territories, and not because of Israel....

Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Saturday that the establishment of a future Palestinian state will require Israel to make pullouts from the West Bank. In an interview to the Cairo-based Al-Ahram newspaper, Livni was quoted as saying that "the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was not the last withdrawal." However, the Israeli minister claimed that the peace process has been slowed because of Palestinian leaders' inability to control the violence in the territories, and not because of Israel. "Israel does not want to rule over the Palestinians," Livni conveyed. Livni said that "the current situation in the Gaza...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will address the Israeli Knesset on Sunday evening as part of a congressional trip to the Middle East. The San Francisco Democrat is traveling with Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim member of Congress. They arrived in Israel on Friday. The lawmakers plan to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and to travel to the West Bank to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Ellison's spokesman, Rick Jauert.

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli troops killed two Palestinian gunmen on Tuesday during a raid in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian militant group and the Israeli army said. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, announced the deaths over loudspeakers in the city of Nablus, a militant stronghold in which Israeli security forces often mount operations to detain wanted men. An Israeli army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said an Israeli force carrying out what she described as routine activity in Nablus fired at a group of armed men, hitting two of them. "A group of...

Despite the storm it ignited, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter held fast on Thursday to his accusation that Israel oppresses the Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza and seeks to colonize their land. Speaking at The George Washington University to a polite but mostly critical student audience, Carter offered no second thoughts on his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid that prompted 14 members of the Carter Center's advisory board to resign and drew fire from Jewish groups and some fellow Democrats. He said he was not accusing Israel of racism nor referring to its treatment of Arabs within the...

Palestinian teen caught at West Bank checkpoint with two explosive devices weighing 1.5 kilos each Efrat Weiss Published: 02.10.07, 12:37 / Israel News Two explosive devices weighing 1.5 kilos each (about 3.3 pounds) were found by IDF soldiers Saturday during a routine search of a Palestinian teen’s belongings at the Hawara checkpoint, south of Nablus in the West Bank. Border Guard sappers dispatched to the scene conducted a controlled-detonation of the devices, and the 16-year-old Palestinian was taken in for interrogation by Israeli security forces. It remains unclear whether the teen was supposed to transfer the devices to someone else...

Major thoroughfare in West Bank honors executed Iraqi dictatorJERUSALEM – Palestinians in the northern West Bank have named a major street after late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein that was funded – along with the surrounding municipality – by the United States Agency for International Development. Following Saddam's hanging earlier this month, thousands of Palestinians gathered in the Yaabid municipality, just outside of the northern West Bank town of Jenin, to hold a vigil in his honor. According to Arabic media reports translated by Palestinian Media Watch, local Palestinian municipal leaders and members of armed factions in Jenin named a school...

RAMALLAH — Hamas has been storing weapons and recruiting fighters in preparation for a war with Fatah in the West Bank. Palestinian sources said Hamas fighters have formed units in such cities as Hebron, Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah and Tulkarm. They said the units have stockpiled weapons to confront any Fatah offensive in the West Bank. "The assessment by Hamas is that Fatah will launch a major assault in the northern West Bank," a security source said. On Jan. 6, Fatah and Hamas forces battled in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, Middle East Newsline reported. Fatah operatives also abducted...

Original way to protest: Palestinians, peace activists hold demonstration at West Bank roadblock, dress up as native-Americans in bid to get message through to visiting US secretary of state Ynet Published: 01.14.07, 19:50 Some 100 Palestinians and peace activists launched a one-month campaign at the West Bank Sunday, titled '30 days against the roadblocks'. Inspired by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the area, some of the protesters chose to convey their message in an original way and dressed up as native-Americans. At about 11 a.m. the protesters gathered at the Hawara roadblock south of Nablus, and held...

In 2006, reports the Israeli Interior Ministry, the Jewish population of the Territories grew by 5.2 percent to 267,163 - just about the same as the population of Haifa. Since Haifa is about 10 percent Arab, there are actually more Israeli Jews now living in the West Bank than in the coastal town. And many residents of the West Bank - or Judea and Samaria, terms as historically and geographically valid as Galilee - actually live in good-sized towns themselves. The four largest are now Modi’in Illit, population 34,514; Maaleh Adumim, 33,259; Betar Illit, 29,355; and Ariel, 17,723. Given that...

One step forward, one step back seems to be the new tempo, or at least the new law of probability, in the diplomatic dance between Israelis and Palestinians. It's hard to know how else to describe Israel's decision this week to begin construction on a new residential settlement -- the first in 10 years -- in the Palestinian territory of the occupied West Bank. The announcement sends every possible wrong message to the Palestinians and the international community. It violates international law, which forbids nations to make permanent settlements in land under military occupation -- Israel has occupied the land...

Israel's plan to construct a new settlement on the West Bank drew rare criticism Wednesday from the Bush administration. If Israel goes ahead, it would violate Israel's obligations under the roadmap for peacemaking, a State Department spokesman said. ``The U.S. calls on Israel to meet its roadmap obligations and avoid taking steps that could be viewed as predetermining the outcome of future negotations,'' the spokesman, Gonzalo R. Gallegos, said. Israel agreed to the roadmap in 2003. It was devised by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia in an effort to guide Israel and the Palestinians...

The European Union on Wednesday condemned the construction of a new Israeli settlement in the West Bank, saying it was illegal and hampered efforts for a peace solution that would allow the coexistence of an Israeli and Palestinian state. "The European Union expresses its deep concern at the news that the Israeli government has authorized the construction of the Maskiot settlement in the West Bank,” said a statement issued by Finland, which currently holds the bloc’s presidency. On Tuesday, the Israeli government said it had approved a new settlement in the West Bank to house former Jewish settlers from the...

You have a problem. It’s a problem shared by Jews in Hebron, Serbs in Kosovo, Hindus in the Kashmir, Catholics in Lebanon, and Americans walking the streets of New York. Consider the inter-connectedness of the following incidents, all of which took place in the past few months: In Indonesia, three Christian schoolgirls were beheaded. In Iraq, a Syrian Orthodox priest was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. In Somalia, a nun was shot to death as she left the hospital where she worked, tending the sick and dying. In Lebanon, just days ago, a cabinet minister was assassinated. In Britain, authorities uncovered...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that the release of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, held since June by Gaza militants, would lead to the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. "With Gilad Shalit's release and his return safe and sound to his family, the Israeli government will be willing to release many Palestinian prisoners, even those who have been sentenced to lengthy terms," Olmert said. The prime minister, speaking at the grave of Israel's first premier, David Ben-Gurion, in Sde Boker, said that he was extending his hand in peace to the Palestinians, and that he hoped...

Four Palestinian Authority Arabs were caught by Samaria district police Tuesday evening as they were trying to cut down olive trees. The four claimed they were working for the owner of the property, who sent them to cut down the trees. Police launched an investigation to question the owner and determine whether the four have been involved in similar incidents in the past. They were held for questioning.

Testimony in the trial of Chicago resident Muhammad Salah and Abdelhaleem al-Ashqar of Northern Virginia, continued yesterday. FBI Agents gave testimony focusing on items found in Ashqar's home during a search of his Oxford Mississippi residence on December 26, 1993, in addition to wiretaps of his phone and fax lines. Special Agent Bradley Benabidez testified that the FBI acquired over 2400 hours of audio during the year that they maintained a wiretap. Benabidez further described the December 1993 search of Ashqar’s home where a team of agents from the FBI photographed over 1600 documents. A few of those documents which...

Schoolgirls marched and shopkeepers closed down their stores in this West Bank town on Monday in protest at the death sentence handed down against Saddam Hussein by a Baghdad court which found him guilty of crimes against humanity. Carrying pictures of Saddam, about 250 girls from seven to 13 years old paraded through the town's refugee camp, chanting "Beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv," the same slogan shouted by jubilant Palestinians when Iraqi rockets slammed into Israel during the 1991 Gulf War - before the marchers were born. Under Saddam's rule Iraq donated $25,000 per household for Jenin residents to rebuild...

PALESTINIANS RELEASE U.S. STUDENT HELD HOSTAGE IN W.BANK - SECURITY SOURCE Haaretz.com - Militants demand Israel release Palestinians for U.S. hostage

NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian militant during a fierce gunbattle Sunday in a West Bank refugee camp, a Palestinian militant group said. Osama Talad, 21, participated in an ambush on Israeli troops operating in the Balata refugee camp, near the West Bank city of Nablus, said Nasser Abu Ali, a leader of the militant Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. The army confirmed a gunbattle erupted between soldiers and militants in the refugee camp. Talad was killed and six other militants were wounded, Abu Ali said.

JERUSALEM – A Jewish man removed by Israeli police from a key section of the Western Wall for blowing the shofar, or ceremonial ram's horn, during prayer services for last weekend's Rosh Hashana high holiday has been barred from the holy site for the upcoming Jewish holidays, WND has learned. The shofar traditionally is blown hundreds of times during Rosh Hashana prayers. Shmulik Ben Ruby, a spokesman for the Jerusalem Police Authority, told WND the Jewish man, 19-year-old Jerusalem resident Eliyahi Kleiman, was taken forcibly from the Western Wall last weekend for fear the sound of the shofar would offend...

See for example this thread first. In a tragic attempt to be hip The creator of the Dilbert strip Shows himself at a loss (Like his pointy-haired boss! Next time, THINK!!! Or else button your lip!

1 GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Aug 29, 2006 (AP)— Some 300 unemployed Palestinian laborers surrounded the parliament building Tuesday, demanding welfare payments, scuffling with police and waving empty plates in another challenge to the beleaguered Hamas-led government. Elsewhere in Gaza, Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians at least one of them a militant and wounded five others, including a 4-year-old boy. In the northern West Bank, troops killed two Palestinian militants in a firefight. In the Gaza City protest, jobless demonstrators chanted "Oh, for shame, we are starving." They waved empty plates and pita bread outside the parliament building. Some of...

JERUSALEM - A top Palestinian militant leader in the West Bank was shot in the head and seriously wounded, militants and hospital officials said. Hospital officials said Hossam Jaradat, the West Bank leader of Islamic Jihad's militant wing, was shot by Israeli soldiers in the Jenin refugee camp. But Islamic Jihad said it was not sure Israel was behind the shooting. The Israeli army said it was checking the report.

(IsraelNN.com) The government is reviving plans to demolish several hilltop communities, often called outposts, according to Mideast Newsline. The demolitions were postponed because of the Hamas and Hizbullah terrorist attacks on Israel. Kadima officials have said the party's election platform to destroy dozens of towns in Judea and Samaria is no longer a high priority item, but the hilltop communities still are on the chopping block. Sources quoted by Mideast Newsline said demolition orders could force the deployment of thousands of policemen and soldiers to encounter expected resistance. As during last summer's expulsion of thousands of Jewish residents of Gaza...

Israel stops the Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister, member of Hamas RAMALLAH (the West Bank) - Israeli soldiers stopped Saturday morning the Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister, member of Hamas, Nasser Shaer, one learned from sources Palestinian and Israeli. Mr. Shaer was stopped in his residence with 04H30 (01H30 GMT), declared with AFP his wife, Huda. A spokesman of the Israeli army confirmed the arrest, explaining that it "concerns the fight against the radical movement Hamas" which refuses to recognize the Hebrew State and to give up violence. According to sources' of Palestinian safety, some 30 vehicles of the Israeli army...

After the year of the Katyushas, raining first from Gaza on Israeli cities in the South, and then from Lebanon in the North all the way down to Haifa, can anyone doubt the need for Israeli land mass which would have to include the West Bank? Is there still a question that the Olmert Disengagement Plan is dead, if not also Kadima and Olmert as a political leader? The lessons the Arabs/Persians have learned here is that the rocket attacks work. True, longer range missiles are still a threat even with Greater Israel, but those threats are less available to...

JERUSALEM - Hezbollah guerrillas fired more than 300 rockets from Lebanese border towns into northern Israel on Wednesday, Lebanese security officials said, including one that hit the West Bank for the first time. Israel medics said that rocket hit near the town of Beit Shean, about 42 miles from the border, which makes it the deepest rocket strike into Israel so far. Witnesses said it struck between the West Bank villages of Fakua and Jalboun, causing no injuries. Hezbollah said it was a Khaibar-1 rocket, which Israel claims is Iranian-made. Israeli police and rescue services said at least 84 rockets...

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Islamic Jihad says the head of its military wing in West Bank has been killed by Israeli troops.

Police suspect that a settler missing since Thursday morning from the northern West Bank was killed by Palestinians, who then burned and dismembered his body. The missing man was a resident of the settlement of Yakir in the northern West Bank, east of Qalqilyah. His scorched body was discovered in the drunk of a burnt car with Israeli license plates, near the Palestinian village of Kafr Abbus in the northern West Bank. Advertisement Larges forces had been out since morning searching for the missing settler and his car. Palestinian residents of Kafr Abus and Huja complained to police during the...

This protest/counter-protest took place on Friday in front of the Federal Building on Wilshire Blvd. in West Los Angeles. We believe it's important that we document events like these and bring the images (along with some description and commentary) to your attention. To that end, I attended the event in the capacity of a photo journalist. I endeavored, at least for a portion of the event, to maintain an outwardly neutral disposition. That said, I am not neutral; I am a strong supporter of Israel. [My reasons for this support are simple. First, because God tells me to do so...