This is great news, if true. Yes, the guts of the story have already been posted here at The Agonist, but Harper goes into a bit more detail, worth reading, if you ask me. I do wonder what Ross did to get fired.

Jerusalem | July 2

Reuters - * Amnesty also accuses Hamas of war crimes
* Report says Israel put Palestinian children in harm's way
* No evidence found that Hamas used human shields

Amnesty International said on Thursday Israel inflicted "wanton destruction" in the Gaza Strip in attacks that often targeted Palestinian civilians during an offensive in December and January in the Hamas-run enclave.

The London-based rights group, in a 117-page report on the 22 days of fighting, also criticised the Islamist movement Hamas for rocket attacks on Israel, which it called "war crimes".

Among other conclusions, Amnesty said it found no evidence to support Israeli claims that Gaza guerrillas deliberately used civilians as "human shields", but it did, however, cite evidence that Israeli troops put children and other civilians in harm's way by forcing them to remain in homes taken over by soldiers.

Jerusalem | June 30

Reuters - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "to get rid of" Israel's ultranationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli media reports said on Tuesday.

Sarkozy's office had no immediate comment on the remarks Israeli newspapers and Channel 2 television attributed to him from his talks last Wednesday in Paris with Netanyahu. "You must get rid of this person," the Haaretz newspaper and Ynet website quoted Sarkozy as telling Netanyahu.

Netanyahu's office issued a statement saying "in light of the latest media reports", the prime minister voiced his "full confidence" in Lieberman during a meeting with ambassadors from European Union countries.

The reports said Sarkozy compared Lieberman, accused of racism by Israeli Arab lawmakers, with French far-rightist Jean Marie Le Pen, but retracted the remark after Netanyahu countered that the foreign minister left a different impression in private conversations.

A spokesman for Lieberman, leader of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, said that if Sarkozy made the comments, they would amount to "intolerable" meddling in Israeli affairs.

The media has some news apart from MJ, including the countdown to the USA withdrawal from Iraqi cities over the next day, with Army General Raymond T. Odierno stating that the USA Military has met the status of forces agreement deadline. What is intriguing is how air sovereignty will be handled. Over the past years billions of dollars of USA advanced arms sales have been given to Saudi Arabia and Israel to balance out any war-like aggression from Iran. Who is going to maintain the "air straits"?

June 27

BBC - The Egyptian Government is temporarily opening its Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, allowing some Palestinians to leave the blockaded territory.

Among those who have been given permission to pass through over the next three days are students and Palestinians needing medical treatment.

Officials attending the latest round of Palestinian unity talks will also make their way to Cairo.

Despite considerable criticism in the Arab world, the Egyptian Government has kept Rafah largely shut since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007.

Rory McCarthy | Jerusalem | June 24

The Guardian - Israel's defence ministry has proposed legalising 60 existing homes at a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, and building another 240 homes at the site, despite US calls for a halt to settlement growth.

Construction at the outpost, known as Water Reservoir Hill, near the Talmon settlement, north of Ramallah, would "greatly damage" the freedom of movement of Palestinian farmers in the area, according to Bimkom, an Israeli planning rights group.

It said the construction plan was put forward for public inspection shortly after the Israeli government was formed this spring and was first approved by Ehud Barak, the defence minister. It was now awaiting final approval.

But Bimkom added: "In virtually all cases, plans deposited for Israeli settlements were subsequently approved."

** Netanyahu meeting with Obama envoy postponed-official

Fred Reed | Central America | June 22

Fred On Everything - Islamo-fascism, Judaeo-fascism, Bapto-fascism, and Why We Need More Bars

June 22, 2009

The wheels are squeaking on the tumbrel methinks. At a recent conclave held by AIPAC, unease arose, reasonably enough, over eroding American support for Israel. What apparently did not arise was any indication of understanding of why support is eroding.

In Haaretz I find the following account of a speech by Howard Kohr, the executive director of AIPAC: “‘These voices [not hostile to Islam] are laying the predicate for an abandonment [by the US of Israel]…The stakes in that battle are nothing less than the survival of Israel, linked inexorably to the relationship between Israel and the United States. In this battle we are the firewall, the last rampart.’”

Donald Macintyre | Gaza | June 17

The Independent - The former US president Jimmy Carter is to give a full report to Barack Obama after becoming easily the highest-profile Western figure to meet Hamas leaders in Gaza since the international boycott imposed after the party's election victory in 2006.

Mr Carter held three hours of talks with Ismail Haniyeh, the de facto Prime Minister of Hamas-controlled Gaza, and other senior figures in the Palestinian movement yesterday after issuing a ringing appeal for an end to the two-year blockade which, he said, had treated Gaza's 1.5 million people "more like animals than human beings".

Mr Carter, who handed over a letter from the parents of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli army corporal seized by Gaza militants three years ago, is believed to have discussed with Mr Haniyeh both the prospects of a prisoner release for Cpl Shalit, and whether Hamas will move towards the three preconditions imposed by the international community for opening contacts with the Islamic faction.

read more after the jump

Jerusalem | June 17

Reuters - An Israeli cabinet minister apologised on Wednesday after being caught by television cameras using a racial slur in addressing an Arab police officer.

The remark by Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu Party was broadcast by Israeli television and radio stations on Tuesday.

Aharonovitch was seen and heard telling the officer, who had apologised for his uniform not being clean: "What do you mean dirty? You look like a real 'Araboosh'," a derogatory term for an Arab in Hebrew slang.

"This remark is too racist, and very, very undesirable and incorrect for the current diplomatic climate," Afou Agbaria, an Israeli Arab lawmaker, said in response, speaking on Army Radio.

In a statement, Aharonovitch said: "This remark does not reflect my positions or world view and I apologise to anyone who was insulted."

"This remark is too racist, and very, very undesirable and incorrect for the current diplomatic climate," - of course demanding loyalty pledges are not...

VIDEO

A camouflaged robotic snake has been designed for the Israeli military.

The robot, with a camera and microphone installed in its head, is being developed for combat missions, say Israeli television reports

This is certainly an interesting rumor. Can't say I saw it confirmed yet, but still, if it plays out, I won't be sad to see Ross go.

Ari Rabinovitch | Jerusalem | June 14

Reuters - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver a major policy speech on Sunday that officials say will outline his vision of how to advance the peace process with the Palestinians and the Arab world.

Israel faces pressure from its main ally, the United States, to end settlement-building and embrace Palestinian statehood.

"The prime minister intends to articulate a clear view as to how he wants to move forward in the peace process with the Palestinians," said Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev.

"His vision is to move forward towards a historic reconciliation, and it is clear that all parties must play a role if this process is to succeed," Regev said, referring to Arab countries in the region.

Gil Hoffman & Hilary Leila Krieger | June 9

The Jerusalem Post - In a sign of growing concern in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government over US President Barack Obama's Middle East policies, Minister-without-Portfolio Yossi Peled proposed Israeli sanctions on the US in a letter to cabinet ministers on Sunday.

In the 11-page letter, obtained by The Jerusalem Post from a minister on Monday, Peled recommends steps Israel can take to compensate for the shift in American policy, which he believes has become hostile to Israel.

"Obama's ascendance represents a turning point in America's approach to the region, especially to Israel," he wrote in the letter. "The new administration believes that in order to fight terror, guarantee stability and withdraw from Iraq, a new diplomatic slant is needed involving drastic steps to pacify the Muslim world and the adoption of a more balanced approach to Israel, including intensive pressure to stop building in settlements, remove outposts and advance the formation of a Palestinian state."

Peled added that faced with an American government with an activist agenda that does not mesh with Israel's, traditional reactions are no longer relevant. He said he expected that Obama would eventually realize that appeasement and dialogue with countries that support terror would not have positive results.

But in the interim, the minister suggests reconsidering military and civilian purchases from the US, selling sensitive equipment that the Washington opposes distributing internationally, and allowing other countries that compete with the US to get involved with the peace process and be given a foothold for their military forces and intelligence agencies.

Ben Lynfield | Hares, West Bank | June 9

The Independent - Children among Palestinian detainees abused during West Bank operation, according to soldiers' confessions

Two Israeli officers have testified that troops in the West Bank beat, bound and blindfolded Palestinian civilians as young as 14. The damaging disclosures by two sergeants of the Kfir Brigade include descriptions of abuses they say they witnessed during a search-and-detain operation involving hundreds of troops in Hares village on 26 March. The testimonies have been seen by The Independent and are expected to add fuel to the controversy over recent remarks by Colonel Itai Virob, commander of Kfir Brigade, in which he said violence against detained Palestinians was justified in order to accomplish missions.

Both the soldiers, from the Harub battalion, highlighted the tight tying of the plastic hand restraints placed on detainees. "There are people who think you need to tighten the restraints all the way, until no drop of blood will pass from here to there," one soldier said. "It doesn't take much time until the hands turn blue. There were a lot of people that you know weren't feeling anything."

He said about 150 Palestinians, some as young as 14, were bound, blindfolded and detained at the village school during the operation, which lasted from 3am to 3pm. He was told it was aimed at preventing village youths throwing stones against nearby settler roads. It was clear many of the people detained had done nothing wrong, but they were held to gather intelligence, he said.

This has to be one of the most loaded ledes I've ever seen in a so-called mainstream, objective paper:

Iran seems to be hurtling toward nuclear weapons capacity, Hezbollah could win Sunday’s election in Lebanon and Hamas is smuggling long-range rockets into Gaza again. So why is President Obama focusing such attention on the building of homes by Israeli Jews in the West Bank?

Where's the proof for all those assertions?

Arno Mayer

CounterPunch -

Israel is in the grip of a kind of collective schizophrenia. Not only its governors but the majority of its Jewish population have delusions of both grandeur and persecution, making for a distortion of reality and inconsistent behavior. Israeli Jews see and represent themselves as a chosen people and part of a superior Western civilization. They consider themselves more cerebral, reasonable, moral, and dynamic than Arabs and Muslims generally, and Palestinians in particular. At the same time they feel themselves to be the ultimate incarnation of the Jewish people’s unique suffering through the ages, still subject to constant insecurity and defenselessness in the face of ever-threatening extreme and unmerited punishment.

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON A NEW BEGINNING

Cairo University
Cairo, Egypt

1:10 P.M. (Local)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning; and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. And together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I'm grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. And I'm also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: Assalaamu alaykum. (Applause.)

Daniel Luban | Washington | June 4

IPS - As U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to deliver a major foreign policy speech in Cairo and his administration pushes aggressively for a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine, neoconservatives and other foreign policy hawks back home are calling on him to scrap the two-state solution altogether and consider alternatives to Palestinian statehood.

The most prominent alternative they are pushing is the so-called "three-state solution" or "Jordanian option", in which the West Bank would be returned to Jordanian control and the Gaza Strip to Egyptian control.

Although calls for a "three-state solution" have cropped up periodically over the years and have been dismissed by most Middle East experts as unrealistic, in recent weeks the three-state approach has received an unusual amount of attention and support on the right.

Gareth Porter | Washington | June 4

IPS - A report on Iran’s nuclear programme issued by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month generated news stories publicising an incendiary charge that U.S. intelligence is underestimating Iran’s progress in designing a "nuclear warhead" before the halt in nuclear weapons-related research in 2003.

That false and misleading charge from an intelligence official of a foreign country, who was not identified but was clearly Israeli, reinforces two of Israel’s key propaganda themes on Iran – that the 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran is wrong, and that Tehran is poised to build nuclear weapons as soon as possible.

But it also provides new evidence that Israeli intelligence was the source of the collection of intelligence documents which have been used to accuse Iran of hiding nuclear weapons research.

Sebastian Rotella | Paris | May 30

LA Times - Officials say they foiled a plot by Hezbollah and Iran to bomb the Israeli Embassy in revenge for the 2008 slaying of Imad Mughniyah. Anti-terrorism officials fear a new militant hub.

It happened in Baku, transforming the capital of Azerbaijan into a battleground in a global shadow war.

Police intercepted a fleeing car and captured two suspected Hezbollah militants from Lebanon. The car contained explosives, binoculars, cameras, pistols with silencers and reconnaissance photos. Raiding alleged safe houses, police foiled what authorities say was a plot to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic that borders Iran.

Western anti-terrorism officials say the arrests a year ago thwarted swift retaliation by Hezbollah and Iran for the slaying of Imad Mughniyah, the legendary warlord of the Shiite Muslim militia based in Lebanon whose death was widely blamed on Israel.

The prosecution remained largely a secret until this week, when closed court proceedings began for two Lebanese and four Azeris charged with terrorism, espionage and other crimes.

May 26

UPI - Lebanese military prosecutors charged three Lebanese nationals, including military officials, with spying for Israel in a growing intelligence network.

Lebanese authorities have uncovered scores of Lebanese military officials allegedly serving as agents for the Israeli spy network Mossad.

The latest charges bring the total number of Lebanese nationals convicted of spying for Israel to 21. At least 30 were arrested in the past three months.

The arrests come as the Israeli military plans operations for May 31 along the border with Lebanon.

More election meddling?

Allyn Fisher-Ilan | Jerusalem | May 25

Reuters - Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's party plans to propose legislation requiring residents to swear loyalty to the Jewish state, a move critics denounced as liable to hamper the rights of Arab citizens.

The ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party intends to seek cabinet approval for the bill before presenting it to parliament where it would have to pass three votes and a committee review before taking effect, a party spokesman said on Monday.

The chances of Parliament approving the measure seemed uncertain, though greater than in 2007 when a similar bill presented by Lieberman's deputies failed to pass.

Yisrael Beitenu grew to Israel's third largest political party in a February election, reflecting a shift to the right by the Israeli public.

Lieberman's party is junior partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government, which is more likely to support the legislation.

Party spokesman Tal Nahum said the measure would require all Israelis to declare loyalty "to the state of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state" before they can be issued a national identity document. The law requires all Israeli residents over 16 carry their identity cards at all times.

Donald Macintyre | Jerusalem | May 23

The Independent - Almost a quarter of Israel's seven million citizens would consider leaving the country if Iran becomes a nuclear military power, according to a new poll.

The poll also shows that over 40 per cent of Israelis believe that their military forces should strike Iran's nuclear installations without waiting to see whether US President Barack Obama's plans for diplomatic engagement with Tehran work or not.

Professor Menashri(head of the Tel Aviv centre), who has himself in the past advocated US diplomatic engagement with Iran, said: "Still, I think it is important to note that half of the population surveyed [49 per cent] still believe a diplomatic route should used. Ten per cent even believe that Israel itself should engage in diplomatic attempts with Iran."

Richard Boudreaux | Kochav Hashachar, West Bank | May 22

LA Times - The Israeli border police waited till the morning Torah reading was over. Then, after six Jewish families were given time to remove their possessions, a pair of front-end loaders pounded their modest dwellings into twisted wrecks on a bare plateau overlooking the Jordan Valley.

A few young men climbed atop a makeshift synagogue nearby, intent on resisting, but scrambled to safety before it too was demolished.

By afternoon, however, the tiny Jewish outpost in the West Bank was humming with electric drills, saws and orders for building materials shouted into cellphones, a rebuilding attempt that defies Israel's right-leaning government and the United States.

As the Obama administration endeavors to revive a Middle East peace process, no issue in its relationship with Israel is more problematic than the growth of Jewish settlements on West Bank land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state. In Thursday's struggle over the outpost of Maoz Esther, Israel took Washington's side but stirred a settler backlash that underscores a long-standing rift between the two allies.

Ben-Gurion Airport | May 20

Reuters - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday after talks with U.S. President Barack Obama that Israel was ready to immediately open peace talks with Syria without preconditions.

Netanyahu, who took office seven weeks ago, had appeared cool to the idea of reopening stalled talks with Damascus.

He has repeatedly voiced opposition to pulling out of the Golan Heights, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war which Syria wants returned as part of any peace deal.

"There was agreement that we must immediately launch peace talks," Netanyahu told reporters at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv after talks in Washington on Monday with Obama.

"I said I was ready to immediately open peace talks with the Palestinians, by the way, with the Syrians as well, of course, without preconditions," Netanyahu said. "But I made it clear that any peace settlement there must find a solution to Israel's security needs."