Press Room
Must Read News
Hussein Pointed to Iranian Threat
From www.thewashingtonpost.com
Posted on Wednesday July 1, 2009
Saddam Hussein told an FBI interviewer before he was hanged that he allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction because he was worried about appearing weak to Iran, according to declassified accounts of the interviews released yesterday. The former Iraqi president also denounced Osama bin Laden as “a zealot” and said he had no dealings with al-Qaeda.
Amnesty: Israel killed hundreds of Gaza civilians
From www.cnn.com
Posted on Wednesday July 1, 2009
Israeli troops killed hundreds of unarmed civilian adults and children, broke laws and committed war crimes during their winter offensive in Gaza, Amnesty International said in a scathing report released Thursday.
“Hundreds of civilians were killed in attacks carried out using high-precision, air-delivered bombs and missiles and tank shells. Others, including women and children, were shot at short range when posing no threat to Israeli soldiers.”
Amnesty says Israel "wantonly" destroyed Gaza
From Reuters
Posted on Wednesday July 1, 2009
Merkel: Settlements ruin efforts for 2-state solution
From www.haaretz.com
Posted on Wednesday July 1, 2009
German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded on Thursday that Israel halt construction in the West Bank settlements, saying it endangered efforts to achieve a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
Petraeus commends Lebanon's improvement since last visit
From www.dailystar.com
Posted on Tuesday June 30, 2009
US general praises development, hopes for swift cabinet formation
Visiting United States Central Command head General David Petraeus said on Monday he hoped for a swift formation of a new Cabinet in Lebanon and underlined “significant improvement” on the Lebanese domestic front since his visit last year. Following talks with President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister-delegate Saad Hariri, Petraeus announced the US commitment to provide Lebanon with military and humanitarian aid.
Sarkozy is right - Lieberman must go
From www.haaretz.com
Posted on Tuesday June 30, 2009
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he replace Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman exposes a sad truth: At present Israel does not have a functioning foreign minister. The international community refuses to speak to a politician who is considered racist in the wake of the campaign conducted by his party, Yisrael Beiteinu, against Arab citizens during the recent Knesset election campaign. There is not and cannot be any other way to interpret Sarkozy’s comparison between Lieberman and far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Israel downplays settlement rift
From www.bbc.com
Posted on Tuesday June 30, 2009
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has denied any impasse with the US over Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank as talks ended without agreement.
Mr Barak met US envoy George Mitchell as the two allies are struggling to end a rare public rift over the issue.
As Iraq Stabilizes, China Bids on Its Oil Fields
From www.nytimes.com
Posted on Tuesday June 30, 2009
Oil companies from China, the world’s second-largest and fastest-growing consumer of oil, bid aggressively on Tuesday as Iraq began auctioning licenses in six large oil fields.
A partnership of BP and the China National Petroleum Corporation, or C.N.P.C., won the first contract awarded, in the latest indication of Chinese interest in Iraq, a country that has until recently seemed to be firmly in the American sphere of influence for natural resources.
Barak: Too early to declare Israel settlement freeze
From www.thewashingtonpost.com
Posted on Tuesday June 30, 2009
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday after talks with the U.S. Middle East envoy that it was too soon to say whether Israel would freeze West Bank settlements as demanded by President Barack Obama.
Barak said the talks with envoy George Mitchell, which lasted over four hours, were “positive” but that there are still “differences.”
In a joint statement issued after their meeting, Barak and Mitchell said they had discussed the full range of issues related to Middle East peace and security. The statement said the discussions were constructive and would soon continue.
Barak, U.S. Envoy Discuss Settlements
From www.thewashingtonpost.com
Posted on Tuesday June 30, 2009
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak huddled for four hours yesterday with former senator George J. Mitchell, the Obama administration’s special envoy for Middle East peace, seeking to resolve an impasse between their two governments over the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
President Obama has demanded that Israel fulfill a commitment in the 2003 “road map” peace plan for a full settlement freeze, including a halt to expansion to accommodate “natural growth.” The Israeli government has responded with a series of counterproposals, including a temporary freeze with caveats, none of which the administration has accepted.
Fatah, Hamas set to unveil joint security body for Gaza
From www.haaretz.com
Posted on Monday June 29, 2009
The head of the Fatah parliamentary faction, Azzam al-Ahmed, reported progress Tuesday in his party’s reconciliation talks with rival group Hamas in Cairo, and said the two sides were set to announce the establishment of a joint security body for the Gaza Strip.
U.S. re-approves Israel loan guarantees program
From www.Haaretz.com
Posted on Monday June 29, 2009
The United States has re-approved its Israel loan guarantees program, subject to meeting fiscal targets, the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem said Tuesday.
The move comes amid tensions between Israel and the Obama administration over Jerusalem’s settlement policy in the West Bank.
Earlier in the decade, to help Israel deal with a recession caused by a global downturn and a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings, the U.S. in 2002 provided a package of $9 billion in loan guarantees, where Israel could sell bonds internationally with the backing of the United States.
Spain closes Gaza bombing case against Israeli officials
From www.jpost.com
Posted on Monday June 29, 2009
Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu cannot investigate the IAF bombing in Gaza on July 22, 2002 that killed Hamas terrorist Sheikh Salah Shehadeh and 14 others, Spain’s National Court ruled Tuesday.
The Penal Hall of the court decided, in a vote of 14 against 4, not to proceed with the war crimes allegations against seven senior Israeli officials, including former IDF chiefs of staff Dan Halutz and Moshe Ya’alon, and former defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.
Report Criticizes Israeli Drone Strikes
From www.nytimes.com
Posted on Monday June 29, 2009
Twenty-nine civilians, including eight children, were killed in several missile strikes by Israeli drones in Gaza in December and January, according to a report released on Tuesday by Human Rights Watch. The group questioned whether Israeli forces had taken “all feasible precautions” to avoid civilian casualties.
The report represented the latest in a series of accusations of civilian abuse in the Gaza war. And it raised broader concerns about how carefully the remote-controlled drones are being used, much like the complaints that the Central Intelligence Agency has encountered in its use of drones to attack members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan.
In the West Bank, Suburb or Settlement?
From www.thewashingtonpost.com
Posted on Monday June 29, 2009
Chaim Hanfling knows a lot about this settlement’s population boom. Six of his 11 siblings have moved here from Jerusalem in recent years to take advantage of the lower land prices, and at age 29, he has added four children of his own.
Located just over the Green Line that marks the territory occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the booming ultra-Orthodox community, home to more than 41,000 people, shows why the settlement freeze demanded by the Obama administration is proving controversial for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and also why Palestinian officials are insisting on it.
