BUSINESS WEEK– Israel will not allow an international flotilla of ships to reach the Gaza Strip with construction materials and humanitarian supplies, a government official said, calling the action a provocative stunt.

“While they have wrapped themselves in a humanitarian cloak, they are engaging in political propaganda and not in pro-Palestinian aid,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said today in a telephone interview from Jerusalem.

The eight vessels, carrying 10,000 tons of cargo and some 550 pro-Palestinian activists through the Mediterranean Sea, will probably reach the coastal waters of Gaza by May 28 or 29, Dror Feiler, one of the organizers, said by satellite phone from aboard the Swedish-Greek ship Sofia.

Israel has restricted entry of people and goods into Gaza since it was taken over by the militant Hamas movement in 2007, allowing in only a limited range of supplies including food, clothing and medicine in truck convoys.

Israeli Navy ships have stopped three previous efforts by the Free Gaza Movement, an international group formed in 2008 to deliver aid, to reach the territory by sea.

The ships set sail from Ireland, Sweden, Turkey and Greece, Feiler said. Some are carrying television crews that plan to broadcast live any confrontation between Israeli forces and the activists.

“This is not going to look good on television,” said 58-year-old Feiler, an Israeli-born resident of Sweden. “We’re on a peaceful mission to help end the misery of the people in Gaza and it’s going to be very ugly if Israeli soldiers try to take over our ships.”

Continue reading about Israel Planning to Block Aid Ships to Gaza.

–With assistance from Saud Abu Ramadan in Gaza. Editors: Ben Holland, Peter Hirschberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at [email protected]

© COPYRIGHT BUSINESS WEEK, 2010

THE ATLANTIC– Joe Biden was kicked in the balls as he came to Israel with a simultaneous “fuck you” by the Israeli government announcing new settlements – 1600 houses – in East Jerusalem. The immediate spin was that Netanyahu was blindsided by the actions of his Interior Department and was embarrassed. But Haaretz reports today that these 1600 are just the beginning:

Some 50,000 new housing units in Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Green Line are in various stages of planning and approval, planning officials told Haaretz. They said Jerusalem’s construction plans for the next few years, even decades, are expected to focus on East Jerusalem.

Most of the housing units will be built in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods beyond the Green Line, while a smaller number of them will be built in Arab neighborhoods. The plans for some 20,000 of the apartments are already in advanced stages of approval and implementation, while plans for the remainder have yet to be submitted to the planning committees.

But Laura Rozen, always worth reading, sees skepticism in Israel:

Many observers were skeptical that Netanyahu was as in the dark about the plan as he claimed to Biden.

“Either one believes Netanyahu and his friends in government (saying it is all misunderstanding and bad timing),” wrote Jerusalem Post blogger Shmuel Rosner. “In such case, one should be concerned by Israel’s chaotic decision-making process on delicate matters.”

“Or, one might choose not to believe,” Rosner continued. “One might think Netanyahu isn’t telling the truth, or that [Interior Minister] Yishai is bluffing. If it’s the former, one will conclude that Netanyahu has no intention of seriously exploring the just-announced peace negotiations. If it’s the latter one will realize that Shas and Yishai are strong enough to toy with Netanyahu as much as they want – as much as embarrassing the American [Vice President]! – without paying a price. Not an encouraging thought.”

I cannot read Netanyahu’s mind. But I can observe Israel’s actions. They intend to occupy and colonize the entire West Bank forever.  They may allow some parceled enclaves for Palestinians, but they will maintain a big military presence on the Eastern border of West Bank, and they will sustain this with raw military power and force. I certainly cannot see any other rationale for their actions these past few years that makes any sense at all. Many Israeli politicians now use the term “apartheid” for this future. 

Map via Juan Cole

© COPYRIGHT THE ATLANTIC, 2010

(Video Below)

RAW STORY– Two weeks ago, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zadari suggested that Osama bin Laden might be dead, saying that U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agencies had been unable to detect any sign of the world’s most wanted man since an audio recording of his voice was released.

Sunday morning, Zadari went further: “I don’t think he’s alive,” the president told NBC’s David Gregory. “I have a strong feeling and reason to believe that.” Zadari continued: “I have asked my counterparts in the American intelligence services and they haven’t heard [from] him in seven years.”

The CIA has not confirmed that the voice purporting to be bin Laden in the March recording was in fact bin Laden. U.S. officials have claimed that bin Laden could be hiding in the mountainous region along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Just before saying that he believes bin Laden is dead, Zadari told Gregory that America has “been looking [in Afghanistan] for eight years… You lost him in Torah Borah, I didn’t.”

But Pakistan is still part of the worldwide “lookout brigade” for the alleged terrorism mastermind, Zadari said.

© COPYRIGHT RAW STORY, 2009

This video is from NBC’s Meet the Press, broadcast May 10, 2009.

TELEGRAPH– In the midst of its campaign against Hizbollah and Hamas “terrorists”, Israel has been accused by Britain of feting Jewish “terrorists” whose bomb attack killed 28 Britons 60 years ago today.

The accusation, which reopens the debate about the use of politically-inspired violence in the region, follows the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the attack on the King David hotel in Jerusalem on July 22, 1946, by the Irgun Jewish “resistance” to British mandate rule in Palestine. The 28 Britons were among 91 people killed.

This week, former Irgun fighters and current Right-wing politicians unveiled the plaque at the hotel, which read: “The hotel housed the Mandate Secretariat as well as the Army Headquarters. On July 22, 1946, Irgun fighters at the order of the Hebrew Resistance Movement planted explosives in the basement. Warning phone calls had been made urging the hotel’s occupants to leave immediately. For reasons known only to the British, the hotel was not evacuated and after 25 minutes the bombs exploded, and to the Irgun’s regret and dismay 91 persons were killed.”

But Israel’s celebration of its “freedom fighters” remains highly controversial at a time when it continues to pound Palestinian “terrorists”.

Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister, has found herself deeply embroiled in the debate – her father, Eitan, was Irgun’s chief operations officer. Simon Macdonald, the British ambassador to Israel, and consul general John Jenkins, wrote to the mayor of Jerusalem protesting at the plaque. “We don’t think it’s right for an act of terrorism to be commemorated,” their letter read. 

© COPYRIGHT THE TELEGRAPH, 2006