Na'ama Lanski and Gidi Weitz | May 8

Haaretz - Olmert's bureau conceded that 10 invitations were issued on official paper, and regretted this error.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert used his bureau to promote the artistic career of his wife Aliza, a Haaretz report reveals. The report also says that when the couple were in New York for a private art exhibit by Olmert, their stay at a luxury hotel was paid for by an American association.

In the summer of 2005, Olmert presented an exhibition in New York to which dozens of wealthy and influential people were invited. The invitations were allegedly issued by Rachael Risby Raz, the foreign affairs advisor in Olmert's bureau when he was minister of industry, trade and labor. Invitations for a dinner were printed on official ministry stationary.

The Olmerts stayed at the exclusive Peninsula Hotel in a $2,500-a-night suite, for only $500 a night on the say-so of the hotel chain's Jewish billionaire owner Michael Kadoorie. A pro-Israel group headed by a former Likud activist, Sharon Tzur, paid for the room.

May 8 | The Independent

In the US and Britain, there is a campaign to smear anybody who tries to describe the plight of the Palestinian people. It is an attempt to intimidate and silence – and to a large degree, it works. There is nobody these self-appointed spokesmen for Israel will not attack as anti-Jewish: liberal Jews, rabbis, even Holocaust survivors.

My own case isn't especially important, but it illustrates how the wider process of intimidation works. I have worked undercover at both the Finsbury Park mosque and among neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers to expose the Jew-hatred there; when I went on the Islam Channel to challenge the anti-Semitism of Islamists, I received a rash of death threats calling me "a Jew-lover", "a Zionist-homo pig" and more. more after the jump

Tokyo | May 7

AFP - The leaders of Japan and China agreed Wednesday to start regular summits to ease decades of tension between Asia's two largest economies, pledging that neither would see the other as a threat.

Paying the first visit by the top Chinese leader to Tokyo in a decade, President Hu Jintao praised Japan's "peaceful" role in world affairs and called for the resolution of a damaging territorial row.

Relations between the countries have been mired by disputes over Japan's wartime aggression and the dispute over ownership of gas fields in the East China Sea.

But Japan counts on China as its top commercial partner, while Beijing is eager to ease regional friction as it seeks a greater global role.

Ethan Bronner | Jerusalem | May 7

NYT - As Israel toasts its 60th anniversary in the coming weeks, rejoicing in Jewish national rebirth and democratic values, the Arabs who make up 20 percent of its citizens will not be celebrating. Better off and better integrated than ever in their history, freer than a vast majority of other Arabs, Israel’s 1.3 million Arab citizens are still far less well off than Israeli Jews and feel increasingly unwanted.

On Thursday, which is Independence Day, thousands will gather in their former villages to protest what they have come to call the “nakba,” or catastrophe, meaning Israel’s birth. For most Israelis, Jewish identity is central to the nation, the reason they are proud to live here, the link they feel with history. But Israeli Arabs, including the most successfully integrated ones, say a new identity must be found for the country’s long-term survival.

“I am not a Jew,” protested Eman Kassem-Sliman, an Arab radio journalist with impeccable Hebrew, whose children attend a predominantly Jewish school in Jerusalem. “How can I belong to a Jewish state? If they define this as a Jewish state, they deny that I am here.”

Griff Witte & Ellen Knickmeyer | Ramallah, West Bank | May 2

WaPo - The first class of Palestinian security officers trained under a multimillion-dollar U.S. program to strengthen the Palestinian Authority is deploying to one of the West Bank's most restive cities without promised supplies of body armor, helmets or even flashlights after Israel blocked a shipment of equipment.

The shortage in U.S.-funded supplies threatens the Palestinian government's ability to provide security in the West Bank, which Israel has made a condition of future withdrawals from the occupied territories. There have also been significant problems with the training, including a final round that one American involved in the program described as "a complete fiasco."

more at the paper

May 2

Haaretz - Detectives from the national police fraud unit on Wednesday had asked to meet with Olmert urgently, within 48 hours.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was questioned under caution on Friday morning at his offial residence in Jerusalem, prompting a number of Knesset members to call on his to suspend himself pending the investigations.

The questioning began at 10 A.M. and lasted for about an hour and a half. The reason for the investigation is not known. Olmert is a suspect in several corruption affairs involving real estate deals and questionable political appointments, but has never been charged.

Shelly Yachimovich, a member of Olmert's ruling coalition from the Labor Party, on Thursday called the scope of charges against Olmert unprecedented and said he should suspend himself immediately.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Jimmy Carter. This is a man that has consistently tried to do what others in the political arena seem unable to do, and that is to live up to their own expectations, regardless of the political costs. His recent trip to the Middle-East was Carter at his finest. While he understood all to well that the compromised, immoral regimes of both Israel and Washington did not support his mission and were unlikely to approve anything that came out of his meetings with Hamas, he chose to go in order to illustrate to the world what these two governments are really about. I believe Carter was successful in illustrating that neither America nor Israel want to pursue a realistic solution for peace. If anything, his visit proved once again, that Israel seeks not peace, but capitulation.

Cairo | April 26

Xinhua - Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said Saturday that Israel's statements on Hamas truce proposal are premature and not final, the official MENA news agency reported.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera news channel, Zaki said the remarks by Israel may not represent the final stance, noting "the true positions will be uncovered during closed-door meetings with Israeli officials later this week."

Delegations of various Palestinian groups will arrive in Cairo next week to hammer out a unified stance on the proposed truce with Israel, he said.

Egypt is mediating a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas in Gaza Strip.

Sheesh, this is just absolutely unreal, proving once again that truth is stranger than fiction. It's complicated and convoluted and I'll be following this story (and its spin-offs) more closely in the near future. But for now from tonight's Nelson Report on 'that Syrian nuke facility' and how the North Koreans were involved in it:

SUMMARY: six months after the event, Capitol Hill finally got a full-scale briefing on the Syrian plant destroyed by Israeli bombs after photo-recon allegedly proved it was a nuclear facility patterned after N. Korea's Yongbyon.

Allegedly intended to boost the Administration's case for continued 6 Party negotiations with N. Korea, carrying out the "Singapore" finesse of us telling the DPRK what it's doing, and they not denying it?

But...it may have had the opposite effect, especially since they are denying it for now, pending what Korea desk chief Sung Kim brings back.

CIA obviously mistrusted Capitol Hill capacity to "leak" responsibly, objectively...why else the leaks, starting Tuesday, with emphasis on what the intel community wants Cap Hill to hear, think?

NY Times story this morning hints that A/S Chris Hill is on the way out, and allegedly close associates seem to feel they can say he will quit soon, if he isn't forced out.

The "real story" on Syria intel reflects intrigue inside the White House, between "war with Syria" advocates vs those who have actually learned a few things from Iraq.

At a minimum, you have to worry that regardless of what happens in Pyongyang, the 6 Party process is about to be scuttled right here in Washington...stay tuned.

If you want the full story there's more.

April 23

BBC - A military engineer has appeared in court in the US on charges of passing classified information to Israel.

Ben-Ami Kadish is alleged to have given secrets involving information about nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles to Israel in the 1980s.

He was charged with four counts of conspiracy, including disclosing documents relating to national defence and acting as an agent of Israel.

He declined to comment on leaving the Manhattan courthouse.

"I'm not saying anything. I have no comment," said Mr Kadish, 84, who worked at the US army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Centre in New Jersey from 1979 to 1985.

While the Israeli/Palestinian conflict shows glimmers of transformation and opportunity at the political level, violence and crisis continue at the level of ordinary people's lives and livelihoods.

Observers here and in the Middle East are debating the merits of former President Jimmy Carter's meeting with Hamas head Khalid Meshaal. Statements released after the talks by both Carter and Meshaal indicate that Hamas would offer a truce if Israel withdrew to its pre-1967 borders, though potential points of inconsistency have arisen between Hamas' statements and Carter's. Namely, Carter discussed Hamas' willingness to live beside Israel, while Hamas reiterated its refusal to recognize Israel. I suspect that this discrepancy can be explained by what I have said before: asking Hamas to renounce its charter or recognize Israel in advance of negotiations will not work, but if the prospect of creating a Palestinian state was placed on the table before them, they would play ball.

It’s amazing how ideas that were rejected just a year ago are flying through cyberspace as well as real-space, at the speed of light. I’m talking about two things here. The first I’ll mention is the idea that both the Democrats and the Republicans’ are pawns of the corporate power structure in this country. It will probably seem hard to believe now, but just a short time ago I was called all sorts of things for bringing that up. Since 2004, I have been writing about campaign financing and the need for reform. This one issue is the basis of corporate control along with the “good folks” on K-Street that staff 70 lobbyist’s for every legislator we have on Capitol Hill. Gee, what a great system we have up there (for the legislators and the lobbyists). I can’t wait to run for office myself so I can get in on those goodies they’re passing out (only kidding), this can’t last forever…or can it?

April 19

Independent - In shocking testimonies that reveal abductions, beatings and torture, Israeli soldiers confess the horror they have visited on Hebron

..The Israeli public was given an unflattering glimpse of military life in Hebron this year when a young lieutenant in the Kfir Brigade called Yaakov Gigi was given a 15-month jail sentence for taking five soldiers with him to hijack a Palestinian taxi, conduct what the Israeli media called a "rampage" in which one of the soldiers shot and wounded a Palestinian civilian who just happened to be in the wrong place, and then tried to lie his way out of it.

In a confessional interview with the Israeli Channel Two investigative programme Uvda, Gigi, who had previously been in many ways a model soldier, talked of "losing the human condition" in Hebron. Asked what he meant, he replied: "To lose the human condition is to become an animal."

The Israeli military did not prosecute the soldier who had fired on the Palestinian, as opposed to Gigi. But the military insists "that the events that occurred within the Kfir Brigade are highly unusual".

But as the 22-year-old soldier, also in the Kfir Brigade, confirms in his testimony to Breaking the Silence, it seems that the event may not have been exceptional. Certainly, our interview tells us, he was "many times" in groups that commandeered taxis, seated the driver in the back, and told him to direct them to places "where they hate the Jews" in order to "make a balagan" – Hebrew for "big mess".

I have been writing about the same things for years now. I have been writing against the loss of our freedoms, the draconian laws that have been enacted in order to “protect” us from people that “hate us for our freedom”, I have written about the corporations that have tied this nation to war and more war. Even though my message has been the same, I find that my writing has fallen on deaf ears as of late. In fact, my writing, because of my criticism of this phony two-party system that has led us to where we are now, I have been banned from OpEdNews.com, DailyKos.com.TPMMuckracker.com, and left me with a small sidebar on SmirkingChimp.com.

Khaled Yacoub Oweis | Damacus | April 18

Reuters - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrived in Damascus on Friday for talks with exiled leaders of Hamas, the Islamist group which he argues should be included in international efforts for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Carter, who is on a Middle East tour to hear views on solving the historic conflict, will meet Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and senior Hamas members in one of the highest profile encounters between the group and a Western figure.

The former statesman, who brokered the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt when he was president, met two senior Hamas officials in Cairo on Thursday after Israel refused him permission to enter the Gaza Strip, where they live.

Carter said the Hamas leaders he had met in Cairo told him they would accept a peace agreement with Israel negotiated by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the rival Fatah faction, if the Palestinians approved it in a referendum.

April 15

Haaretz - Speaking Wednesday at a news conference on the Iran threat, Netanyahu compared Ahmadinejad to Adolf Hitler and likened Tehran's nuclear program to the threat the Nazis posed to Europe in the late 1930s.

The Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv on Wednesday reported that Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu told an audience at Bar Ilan university that the September 11, 2001 terror attacks had been beneficial for Israel.

"We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq," Ma'ariv quoted the former prime minister as saying. He reportedly added that these events "swung American public opinion in our favor."

Netanyahu reportedly made the comments during a conference at Bar-Ilan University on the division of Jerusalem as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.

h/t Jonathan Schwarz

Yossi Melman | April 15

Haaretz -

Photo: Marcus Klingberg

A Soviet spy-turned-double agent led to the 1983 arrest of Professor Avraham Marcus Klingberg, the highest-ranking Soviet spy ever caught by Israel. The military censor allowed on Monday the publication of this incident, which had been previously suppressed for security reasons.

In lifting its gag order on the matter, which had been in effect for years, the censor declined to comment on the circumstances that led to its decision.

Klingberg, who was the deputy head of the top-secret Israel Institute for Biological Research in Nes Tziona, immigrated to Israel in late 1948. Before immigrating to Israel, he had served and been wounded as a soldier in the Red Army during World War II. Klingberg initially told his Israeli interrogators that he began working as a Soviet spy in 1957, after being blackmailed by a Soviet operative, but Israeli intelligence believes he was already a Soviet agent when he moved to Israel. In his book published last year, he said he was first enlisted in the early 1950s by a pro-Soviet Israeli while at a rehabilitation center, healing from injuries sustained in a car crash.

Adam Antous | Jerusalem | April 14

Reuters - Israel's secret service has declined to assist U.S. agents guarding former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit in which Israeli leaders have shunned him, U.S. sources close to the matter said on Monday.

Carter angered the Israeli government with plans to meet Hamas's top leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Syria, and for describing Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories as "a system of apartheid" in a 2006 book.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who brokered Israel's first peace treaty with an Arab neighbor, Egypt, signed in 1979, met Israel's largely ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, on Sunday but was shunned by the political leadership, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Mohammed Omer | Gaza City | April 12

IPS - "I am bleeding uncontrollably, I need an ambulance." That was not a call to emergency services, it was an appeal broadcast live on radio in Gaza City.

Who knows whether there will ever be an ambulance or not. But this way the ambulance services still hear the appeal broadcast on Al-Iman FM Radio Station, one of few independent radio stations in Gaza. And if the emergency services cannot help, someone else who hears the appeal might.

The ambulance dispatcher announces he cannot get the ambulance to the man. An Israeli bulldozer is blocking the road, and an Israeli tank on a hilltop has been firing at the ambulance, he says. Nobody can say if anyone else got to help the man. But at least his SOS could have been heard.

Appeals again went on air after the Friday attacks on Bureij refugee camp, where the death toll climbed to 16 by the weekend. The deaths included six children among nine people killed Friday. Again, ambulance crews confirmed they could not reach many of the injured. But the appeals were made on radio for all to hear.

Tim Franks | April 8

BBC - The next UN investigator into Israeli conduct in the occupied territories has stood by comments comparing Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis.

Speaking to the BBC, Professor Richard Falk said he believed that up to now Israel had been successful in avoiding the criticism that it was due.

Professor Falk is scheduled to take up his post for the UN Human Rights Council later in the year.

But Israel wants his mandate changed to probe Palestinian actions as well.

Professor Falk said he drew the comparison between the treatment of Palestinians with the Nazi record of collective atrocity, because of what he described as the massive Israeli punishment directed at the entire population of Gaza.

Yeah, yeah, I know oil is fungible and all, but this?

Israel's Tehran connection --Israel, while supposedly observing an ironclad boycott of all things Iranian, is happily buying Iranian oil . . . . If you've ever wondered about the definition of hypocrisy you'll find the answer right here. Last month the Swiss foreign minister visited Iran and, together with President Ahmadinejad, attended the signing of a multi-billion euro contract for Iran to supply Switzerland with large amounts of natural gas over the next 25 years. The US State Department immediately condemned the deal and said it would be investigating whether it breached the Iran Sanctions Act. Israel complained too, describing the Swiss minister's visit to Tehran as an "act unfriendly to Israel". Various Jewish groups also joined in the protests, including the World Jewish Congress. This righteous indignation was entirely predictable but more than a little odd nevertheless. On March 30, the Swiss newspaper Sonntag retaliated with the revelation that Israel, supposedly observing an ironclad boycott of all things Iranian, has been buying Iranian oil for years.

Yeah, yeah.

The practice of carrying two passports from two different nations is something that I really can’t wrap my mind around. While I’m sure that it could be convenient to have two different passports in the event you may want to visit a nation that has bad relations with the US, or in case one of your passports is seized or lost, having two different citizenships in two different nations could be a problem. This would be a problem especially if you happened to work for one of the governments of which you hold dual citizenship.

Let’s presume that you work for the United States government, and let’s go a step further and presume that you hold a top-secret security clearance. This could pose a significant risk if you held citizenship in a country that had a significant interest in something that the US was doing or someone or something that the US was investigating. Where would your loyalties lie? If we take this a step even further and imagine that the US was going to deliberately withhold information from your “other” country or even worse, somehow double-cross that country, what would you do? Where would your loyalty to the United States end and the loyalty to that other country begin?

This election is killing me. I have never felt quite the same way about any presidential election. There have been times when I was lukewarm toward many of the Democratic hopefuls, but that doesn’t begin to describe how I feel today. Lukewarm would be a definite improvement over the way I feel, in fact I would welcome lukewarm. It would be akin to the way a hunter would welcome a roaring fire after he came in from the artic, after falling through the ice and trudging miles through a blizzard in wet, icy garb. That picture describes the way I feel about the prospects of voting for the choices that have been offered.

Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel | March 28

Haaretz - The senior Palestinian source said that the technical information for improving the rockets was smuggled into the Strip following January's breach in the Philadelphi Route wall.

Hamas militants who recently returned to the Gaza Strip after training in Iran have a detailed plan for upgrading the capabilities of the rockets being developed in the Strip, according to senior Palestinian Authority sources.

A senior Palestinian source told Haaretz this week that members of Hamas' military wing smuggled blueprints and other detailed technical instructions into the Strip that will enable the group to develop rockets capable of striking at longer distances.

The PA source was unable to estimate the actual distance that these upgrades will allow the Qassam rockets to cover, but said that the aim is to strike at communities north of Ashkelon, which is approximately 15 kilometers north of the northern border of the Strip.