Iconoclast Arab Backing Israel Runs for Parliament

An Arab-Israeli Muslim woman is running for a parliament seat as a member of a hard-line religious Jewish party aligned with the West Bank settler movement and that opposes Palestinian independence.

The bid by iconoclast Anett Haskia, a 45-year-old hairdresser and mother of three, comes after she gave a series of bombastic television interviews in support of Israel's military this summer during its war against Hamas in Gaza. Now she is the lone Arab vying for a spot on the Jewish Home party's list ahead of its January primary.

Arab citizens of Israel, who make up 20 percent of the country's population, strongly identify with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. They generally oppose Israeli military actions, do not serve in the Israeli army and complain of deep-seated discrimination.

Haskia's children, however, voluntarily enlisted in the Israeli army ? including one son who served in an elite unit in Gaza during the summer war.

"Just because I was born in the Jewish state doesn't mean a Jew is better than me," Haskia recently told The Associated Press in Hebrew. "I sent the children to war, and nobody can tell me that I, Anett, the Arab, am second class."

A self-described nonconformist, Haskia opposed her family's wishes and broke cultural taboos by divorcing her husband and getting a collection of body piercings and tattoos.

Born in the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Akko in northern Israel, she lives with her children on an Israeli kibbutz, a rare Arab in one of Israel's cooperative living communities. Her organization called Real Voice represents Arab high school graduates who want to serve in the Israeli army or in national service, like volunteering in hospitals. Such activities are required of Israel's Jewish youth. The Israeli military puts the total of Israeli Arabs serving in its ranks at "several hundred."

"On one hand they want to be soldiers or to do national service, and on the other hand they are scared of hostile attacks, not only from their families but from society," Haskia said.

She opposes the Palestinian goal of establishing an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel won in the 1967 war from Jordan, saying it would only prolong the conflict with Israel. She encourages investment in Israel's Arab community instead.

"Today, I can't say that the settlements are a blow to Israel, no. The settlements are a blessing for Israel," she said.

It remains unclear whether Haskia will win a seat in parliament. Opinion polls forecast the Jewish Home winning some 16 seats, which would make it one of the largest factions in the 120-member Knesset. But party officials say competition in the upcoming primary will be fierce, making it difficult for her to secure a place high enough on the party's list to guarantee a seat.

Haskia says her unorthodox views have cost her some clients, while gaining her some unlikely supporters.

"Those who embrace me, the extremists who used to write me, 'We hate Arabs' or 'We don't want Arabs,' today call me their sister," she said.

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Associated Press writer Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Palestinians to Press War-Crimes Case Against Israel

Turning up the pressure on Israel, the Palestinians announced Wednesday that they are joining the International Criminal Court to pursue war-crimes charges against the Jewish state ? a risky, high-stakes move that brought threats of retaliation from Israel and criticism from the U.S.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas acted a day after suffering a defeat in the U.N. Security Council, which voted down a resolution setting a three-year deadline for the establishment of a Palestinian state on lands occupied by Israel.

"We want to complain. There's aggression against us, against our land. The Security Council disappointed us," Abbas said.

Turning to the international court at The Hague marks a major policy shift, transforming Abbas' relations with Israel from tense to openly hostile. The ultimate goal is to pressure Israel into withdrawing from the territories and agreeing to Palestinian statehood.

The strategy carries risks, including the possibility the Palestinians themselves could be accused of war crimes over rocket attacks by the extremist group Hamas on Israeli population centers and other violence against Jewish targets.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to take unspecified "retaliatory steps." In Washington, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said the U.S. was "deeply troubled" by the Palestinians' "escalatory step." He said it was "entirely counterproductive and does nothing to further the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a sovereign and independent state."

The Palestinians could seek to have Israeli military or political figures prosecuted for alleged crimes involving settlement construction on occupied lands or actions by the military that cause heavy civilian casualties, for instance.

Israel is not a member of the court and does not recognize its jurisdiction. And the court has no police force and no authority to go into Israel and arrest suspects. But it could issue arrest warrants that would make it difficult for Israeli officials to travel abroad.

Abbas has been under heavy pressure to take action against Israel amid months of rising tensions over the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks last spring, a 50-day war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza over the summer, a recent spate of deadly Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets, and Israeli restrictions on access to a key Muslim holy site in Jerusalem.

After two decades of failed on-again, off-again peace talks, the Palestinians have decided to seek recognition of their independence in various global bodies. Joining the International Criminal Court is seen as the strongest playing card.

The Palestinian application to the ICC is expected to be approved within about 60 days.

In a statement, Netanyahu said Israel will protect its troops from prosecution, calling the country's army "the most moral" in the world. He warned that Abbas' Palestinian Authority is "the one who needs to fear the International Criminal Court" because of its relationship with Hamas.

Robbie Sabel, an international law expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, agreed the step entails risks for the Palestinians.

"On the other side of the coin ? and this is why the Palestinians have hesitated up until now ? is that any Palestinian who commits a war crime anywhere in the world and has not been tried by a Palestinian court could also be subject to the jurisdiction of the court," Sabel said. "So it works both ways."

UN Rejects Palestinian Resolution to End Israel's Occupation

The Security Council rejected a Palestinian resolution demanding an end to Israeli occupation within three years late Tuesday, a blow to an Arab campaign to get the U.N.'s most powerful body to take action to achieve an independent state of Palestine.

The United States, Israel's closest ally, had made clear its opposition to the draft resolution, insisting on a negotiated peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, not an imposed timetable. It would have used its veto if necessary but it didn't have to because the resolution failed to get the minimum nine "yes" votes required for adoption by the 15-member council.

The resolution received eight "yes" votes, two "no" votes ? one from the United States and the other from Australia ? and five abstentions.

"We voted against this resolution not because we are comfortable with the status quo. We voted against it because ... peace must come from hard compromises that occur at the negotiating table," U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said.

She criticized the decision to bring the draft resolution to a vote as a "staged confrontation that will not bring the parties closer." She added that the resolution was "deeply unbalanced" and didn't take into account Israel's security concerns.

"Our effort was a serious effort, genuine effort, to open the door for peace," said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador. "Unfortunately, the Security Council is not ready to listen to that message."

Until shortly before the vote, council diplomats had expected the resolution to get nine "yes" votes. But Nigeria, which was believed to support the resolution, abstained. Its ambassador, U. Joy Ogwu, echoed the U.S. position saying the ultimate path to peace lies "in a negotiated solution."

The Palestinians, nonetheless, could point to support from two European nations, France and Luxembourg, reflecting the growing impatience especially in Europe over the lack of progress in achieving a two-state solution, and the increasing pressure on governments to do something to end the decades-old conflict.

This impatience, and frustration over the Security Council's paralysis in dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was echoed by many on the council, including the United States.

Jordan's U.N. Ambassador Dina Kawar, the Arab representative on the council, said after the vote: "The fact that this draft resolution was not adopted will not at all prevent us from proceeding to push the international community, specifically the United Nations, towards an effective involvement to achieving a resolution to this conflict."

Mansour said Palestinian leaders will be meeting on Wednesday "and will decide on next steps."

Before the vote, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the Palestinians can return again to the Security Council, which will have five new members starting Thursday who are viewed as more sympathetic to their cause.

If the council says "no" again, he said, the Palestinians will seek to join the International Criminal Court. They could then press charges against Israel for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

France had put forward a draft resolution setting the outlines for a peace agreement and setting a two-year deadline for negotiations ? and French Ambassador Francois Delattre told the council he will be pursuing council action to resolve the conflict.

'Wake-Up Call': U.N. Narrowly Rejects Israeli Withdrawal

Hamas Bars Youths Orphaned in War From Visiting Israel

Hamas bars Gaza children bereaved in war from visiting Israel

Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip prevented a group of Palestinian children who lost parents in the July-August war against Israel from making a rare goodwill visit to the Jewish state on Sunday , organisers of the trip said.

Gaza’s Hamas-controlled interior ministry, citing the children’s “suspicious” itinerary, confirmed they were barred from crossing the border.

Israeli peace activists said they had secured permission from the military to admit the 37 children and five accompanying adults for a week-long tour of Israel and the occupied West Bank, seat of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s government.

Yoel Marshak, an activist named on the permit,, said the group included children of Hamas fighters killed in the 50-day war, which according to the Gaza Health Ministry claimed more than 2,100 Palestinian lives, most of them non-combatants. Israel put the number of its dead at 67 troops and 6 civilians.

During their visit, Marshak said, the children were to have toured Arab towns in Israel and southern areas that had been under threat of Gaza rockets. They were also scheduled to attend a performance by a Jewish-Arab band and visit a mixed school, the Tel Aviv beach and a nearby safari.

The schedule also included a meeting with Abbas in Ramallah.

Goodwill visits to Israel from Gaza are rare given ongoing hostility with Islamist Hamas, though Palestinian patients from the impoverished enclave are regularly admitted for pressing medical treatment.

Eyad Al-Bozom, spokesman for the interior ministry in Gaza, said the children had been stopped from crossing into Israel “to preserve the culture and tradition of our people” and because they were slated to visit “suspicious” sites. He did not elaborate. Malek Freij, director of the charity Candle for Peace which was also named on the children’s Israeli military-issued entry permit, said he and fellow organisers had sent 40 truckloads of aid into Gaza during the war and had previously hosted a small number of Palestinian orphans.

He said that this time, advance Israeli media reports of the children’s planned visit apparently led Hamas to cancel it.

“They (Gaza authorities) thought that Israel wants to exploit these children, and that’s a mistake,” Freij said next to the empty bus awaiting the group on the Israeli side of the Gaza border.

Firebomb Attack Wounds Israeli Father and Daughter in West Bank

Corruption hampers effort to rebuild Gaza after summer conflict

The reconstruction of Gaza after this summer’s 50-day war with Israel is moving at a glacial pace with only a tiny amount of the promised rebuilding materials so far delivered.

Amid mounting criticism of the pace of the rebuilding effort, the Guardian has established that a controversial UN-designed mechanism to control the supply of building materials – and prevent them falling into the hands of the militant group Hamas – has been widely corrupted.

A report released by Oxfam this month warns that despite $5.4bn (£3.5bn) in pledges at an international donor conference this year, and an agreement between the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the UN to allow building materials in Gaza, less material was entering the coastal strip in November than before the war.

The Oxfam report said just 287 such truckloads had entered Gaza in November, adding that “at this rate, reconstruction and development could take decades”.

The UN estimates some 100,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in the conflict – which claimed the lives of 2,100 Palestinians and more than 70 Israelis – affecting more than 600,000 people in Gaza. Many still lack access to the municipal water network, while blackouts of up to 18 hours a day are common.

The mechanism for allowing the entry of materials into Gaza – including the monitoring of the distribution and use of concrete – was designed by the UN special envoy Robert Serry to satisfy Israeli government concerns that cement should not be diverted to Hamas for military purposes, including tunnel building.

But some within the UN and international aid groups had privately expressed fears that the mechanism – which involves inspection, registration and monitoring – was vulnerable to corruption.

During a recent visit in December, Serry warned of his concern about the pace of the reconstruction effort amid “dire” conditions.

“[The] difficult issues, coupled with insufficient financial assistance from donors, have only worsened the atmosphere in an already devastated Gaza,” Serry said, adding that he was “gravely concerned”.

He called on all stakeholders and the international community to make good on their calls to help Gaza when he visited the UN security council recently.

“This includes progress on all fronts, progress which must be made now lest we see Gaza fall back into yet another conflict.”

But despite promises that some 20,000 householders would qualify for help in rebuilding, the mechanism for that help has been hit by problems and controversy.

Under the scheme householders are assessed to see if they qualify for rebuilding materials, then registered and issued with a coupon allowing them to buy a specified amount of materials from warehouses monitored by a UN-administered inspection regime.

During a recent visit to cement warehouses in Gaza, however, the Guardian cement being resold a few feet outside the warehouse doors at up to four times the cost within minutes of being handed over to householders with coupons.

Elsewhere, the Guardian heard allegations of officials taking bribes to produce coupons for more concrete than was needed by householders, so the excess could be resold on the black market, with licensed dealers either turning a blind eye to fraud or participating in it.

At his warehouse, one of the biggest in Gaza City, manager Maher Khalil complained about the complexity of the system. “We do what we are supposed to do,” he told the Guardian. “There is a list published with people’s names which we post outside. They check their name and come with their coupon. We check the ID and then give them the cement.

“We told the UN inspectors who came to see us we can only check what is going on inside the warehouse, not what is happening outside. Inside we sell the concrete for 500 shekels [£81] a tonne. Outside they sell it for 1,600.”

Walking out of the warehouse the Guardian immediately encountered men with horse carts loaded with cement who offered to both buy and sell concrete. One man offered to buy a bag – usually costing 27 shekels – for 70 shekels, saying he would sell it for 90. Another street trader with a laden cart offered to sell concrete by the tonne.

Nine-year-old Adham scrapes up concrete dust into his bag to sell as men haggle in the background over the price of a cart of black-market concrete. Photograph: Peter Beaumont/The Guardian

At the bottom of this food chain was Adham, a scrawny boy of nine who was collecting the concrete dust off the carts to put into a bag that he planned to sell for 5 shekels to buy snacks for himself and his brothers.

“It is a disgrace what is happening,” said economist Omar Shaaban. “The new reconstruction mechanism has reproduced the Israeli siege of Gaza, only this time it is the UN that is regulating it. The UN is trading stability for cement – and not very much of it. And most of the cement that is coming in is being sold on the black market. Israel knows it. Serry knows it. The mechanism was a licence for corruption. It is a licence to prolong the siege. It is a licence for big salaries for the UN officials running it. What is absurd is that none of it is preventing Hamas rebuilding.”

The difficulties facing Palestinians whose houses were destroyed or damaged in Gaza are in evidence at almost every turn.

In Shujaiya, one of the areas most heavily hit during the war, the rubble had been cleared from the streets but there was little evidence of anyone rebuilding.

One exception was Nabil Ayad, who was supervising a small group of workmen building a wall around the space where his nephew’s shop once stood.

“It has been very difficult to find all of the materials. We got the bricks on the black market. Normally they cost 2.7 shekels each but we had to pay 4. We had the money for a wall, not to rebuild the store. Most people don’t have any money at all for rebuilding. The priority for now is the wall. Then we’ll take it step by step when we can afford it.”

Less fortunate was Sami Saad, 37, who was still living with his family in a school that had been turned into a UN shelter – one of some 70,000 without proper accommodation. His home, also in Shujaiya, was destroyed 10 minutes after he fled from it. His son Youssef needs an operation unconnected to the war and he hopes to take his family away to Jordan or Saudi Arabia.

If he can leave he does not plan to return. “If I can go,” he said, in the bare classroom that now serves as a bedroom, “I won’t come back. I had a clothes business and a nice house. Now all of it is gone. I need somewhere where I can live with dignity. There is no dignity here.”

Catherine Essoyan, Oxfam’s regional director, said: “It is deplorable that such little progress has been made given the enormous scale of needs and massive destruction. People in Gaza are becoming increasingly and understandably frustrated at the lack of progress.

“The international community has repeatedly failed the people of Gaza; it must not fail them again at such a critical time.”

Santa Protester Tear-Gassed in Clashes With Israeli Soldiers

Palestinian protesters demonstrating near Bethlehem were tear gassed by Israeli troops Tuesday afternoon and had to be carried away to safety.

There were a number of Santa hats worn at the Tuesday protest, and one man wearing a Santa suit was carried away by a medic and others.

One sign read: "We want Christmas without Occupation."

An Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson described the confrontation to ABC News.

"A group of approximately 80 Palestinians threw rocks at the checkpoint, the soldiers posted there responded with means of crowd control," the spokesperson said.

Mussa Qawasma/Reuters

PHOTO: A Palestinian protestors demonstrate against Israeli settlements during Christmas, near a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Dec. 23, 2014.

Israel Detains Dozens of Officials in Corruption Probe

Israeli forces shoot dead Hamas militant after Gaza border firefight

Israeli forces shot dead a member of Hamas’s armed wing after a firefight erupted along the border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and an Israeli soldier was wounded, Gaza hospital officials and the Israeli army said.

The military said in a statement that a routine patrol on the Israeli side of the border came under attack from snipers in the southern Gaza Strip and that forces responded with fire from the ground and the air.

Hamas sources named the dead man as Tayseer Asmairi, a member of its armed wing’s monitoring unit in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli soldier sustained a severe chest injury and was flown to hospital where he was listed in serious condition, the army said.

There have been sporadic clashes since a 50-day war ended in Gaza in August. On Friday, Israeli planes bombed a Hamas militant base in the Gaza Strip in response to a rocket that militants launched earlier that day.

“This attack, the second of this week, is a lethal violation of the relative quiet along the Gaza border and is a blatant breach of Israel’s sovereignty … Israel will not hesitate to respond to any attempt to harm IDF soldiers,” military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement.

Hamas blamed Israel for the escalation and said that while it wanted calm, it would respond to Israeli actions.

“The resistance is committed to calm as long as (Israel) abides by it but we will not be silent against continued Zionist crimes,” Hamas said, listing Israel’s air strikes as one form of violation of the truce.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive on July 8 with the declared aim of halting cross-border rocket salvoes by Hamas. The fighting was ended by an Egyptian-brokered truce on 26 August.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in seven weeks of fighting, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed.

Israel Flies Jets Over Gaza After Sniper Attack

Palestinians Throw Stones, Injure Israeli Boy

Palestinians hurling stones at Jewish settlers' cars in the West Bank lightly injured a 4-year-old Israeli boy on Sunday, the Israeli military said.

The incident took place at an intersection in a settlement area near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. The boy was taken to hospital, and Israeli troops afterward combed the area for suspects behind the attack, the military said.

Earlier in the day, Israeli police arrested five Israelis suspected of planning to attack Palestinians in Jerusalem.

The five, including four minors, had collected rocks in a Jerusalem park and were caught carrying two knives, said police spokeswoman Luba Samri. She added that they previously participated in activities of the extremist Jewish group Lehava, which is opposed to Arab-Jewish coexistence.

In a separate development Sunday, Israeli police took four Lehava activists into custody, part of a recent clampdown on the fringe organization which has become a symbol of rising anti-Arab sentiment in Israel.

The arrests took place in five different cities throughout Israel, Samri said. Four additional Lehava activists were detained and then released.

The arrests came as Israelis celebrate the weeklong Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

Last week, police arrested 10 Lehava members, including its leader, on suspicion of racist incitement and calls to violence. The group has sought to break up Arab-Jewish couples and has waged campaigns to prevent Jews and Arabs from working together.

Also, three Lehava members were indicted last week on charges of torching a bilingual Hebrew-Arabic school in Jerusalem last month.

Israel Bombs Hamas in Gaza

Israeli aircraft bomb Hamas base in Gaza Strip after militants fired rocket

Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas militant base in the Gaza Strip on Friday for the first time since the end of a war in the territory.

The bombs struck in the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip. Local hospital officials said there were no casualties.

The army said the move was in response to a rocket that militants launched earlier in the day, which landed in a field in southern Israel and did not cause casualties.

“The IDF (military) will not permit any attempt to undermine the security and jeopardise the wellbeing of the civilians of Israel. The Hamas terrorist organization is responsible and accountable for today’s attack against Israel,” military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement.

Two previous cases of militant rockets landing in Israel have been recorded but there was no retaliation to them.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive on 8 July with the declared aim of halting cross-border rocket salvoes by Hamas. The fighting was ended by an Egyptian-brokered truce on 26 August.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in seven weeks of fighting, according to the Gaza health ministry. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed.

In a separate incident on Friday, four Palestinian protesters were shot in the legs by Israeli troops after they ignored warnings to keep away from the border fence between the coastal territory and the Jewish state, the military and Gaza medical officials said.

Israel Carries out Airstrike on Hamas Site in Gaza

Israel's military struck a Hamas site in the Gaza Strip early Saturday in its first airstrike on the Palestinian territory since this summer's war.

The Israeli military said the airstrike on what it called a "Hamas terror infrastructure site" in the southern Gaza Strip was in response to a rocket fired from Gaza into southern Israel on Friday. The rocket fire caused no injuries.

Palestinian residents reported hearing two explosions in the Khan Yunis region of Gaza, in an area that contains training sites for Palestinian militants. No injuries were immediately reported.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said Israel's military "will not permit any attempt to undermine the security and jeopardize the well being of the civilians of Israel. The Hamas terrorist organization is responsible and accountable for today's attack against Israel."

The Gaza rocket attack and Israeli retaliation came days after a European Union court ordered Hamas removed from the EU terrorist list for procedural reasons, but said the bloc can maintain asset freezes against Hamas members for now. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas is "a murderous terror organization" and called for Hamas to be immediately returned to the list.

Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, fought a 50-day war this summer. In that war, Hamas launched thousands of rockets and mortars toward Israel, which carried out an aerial campaign and a ground invasion.

The war left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead, according to Palestinian and U.N. officials. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and six civilians were killed.

In the West Bank on Friday, fierce clashes erupted between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces at a West Bank military checkpoint and near the village of Turmus Aya, though no injuries were reported.

The village was the site of a Palestinian-Israeli scuffle earlier this month during which Palestinian Cabinet minister Ziad Abu Ain collapsed. He later died en route to hospital.

Palestinian and Israeli pathologists subsequently disagreed over the cause of Abu Ain's death. The Palestinian expert said the cause of death was a "blow," while his Israeli colleague said Abu Ain died of a heart attack.

In other developments, the Israeli military on Friday began relaxing travel restrictions for Palestinian Christians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the Christmas holiday season, saying it granted 700 permits for Gazans to travel to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan.

Israel said it was also allowing West Bank Christians to travel to Israel, permitting 500 of them to visit their families in the Gaza Strip, subject to security checks.

Israel restricts Palestinians in the two territories from entering the country without special permits, citing security concerns. Travel between the territories is also restricted but those bans are usually relaxed for Christians during the holiday season.

The army also said it would also expand the working hours at military checkpoints to allow pilgrims from around the world faster access to the West Bank city of Bethlehem during Christmas.

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Associated Press writer Fares Akram contributed to this report from Gaza City, Gaza Strip.

Leader Says Israel May Face 'Diplomatic Offensive'

Israel's prime minister says his country may face a "diplomatic offensive" against it that could fuel radical Islam in the Middle East.

Sunday's comments come a day before Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to Europe where he will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and urge international leaders to oppose U.N. Security Council resolutions regarding Israel's borders and its treatment of Palestinians.

"Now we also face the possibility of a diplomatic offensive, an attempt to compel us by means of U.N. decisions to withdraw to the 1967 lines within two years. This will lead Islamic extremists to the outskirts of Tel Aviv and the heart of Jerusalem," he said.

Kerry hopes the talks will avert the possibility of a U.N. Security Council clash over proposed resolutions dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian Attacks Israeli Family With Acid

A Palestinian attacker posing as a hitchhiker threw acid at an Israeli family on Friday before he was shot by a passer-by and arrested, the Israeli military said.

The Israeli family ? a Jewish man, his wife and four young girls ? were sitting inside a car when the Palestinian hurled acid at the woman and the girls in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem, the military said.

The army said the Palestinian also tried to attack the father of the family with a screwdriver and then started to run away, but a civilian passer-by shot him in his leg. Israeli police arrested him and evacuated him to hospital for treatment.

The Israeli family members sustained light injuries, the police said.

Acid attacks are rare in Israel and the Palestinian territories. In 2001, a Palestinian girl seriously injured a young Israeli woman when she entered a Jerusalem shoe shop and threw acid at a saleswoman.

Friday's attack came as Israel is seeing its worst bout of Palestinian violence in nearly a decade. Over the past month, 11 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks, mostly in Jerusalem, though there have been other attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank.

Earlier Friday, a Palestinian rammed his car into a bus stop where Israeli soldiers were waiting in the West Bank. The troops were not hurt, the military said. The driver was lightly hurt and taken in for questioning to determine whether it was an accident or an intentional assault.

Palestinians have used vehicles as weapons to carry out attacks in several instances in recent months, resulting in deaths and injuries.

Israeli officials say the attacks stem from incitement by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders.

Dozens of Shots Fired at Israeli Embassy in Athens

Unknown attackers fired dozens of bullets at the facade of the Israeli embassy in Athens without causing any injury in a pre-dawn, drive-by attack Friday on one of the Greek capital's best-guarded buildings.

Police said 54 bullet casings from an AK-47 assault rifle ? a weapon favored by Greek anarchist militant groups ? were recovered outside the embassy, on a busy road junction that was closed to traffic for hours.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred long before the building opened for business.

Officials in Athens condemned the shooting, stressing it would not affect the country's close ties with Israel.

"The Greek government is fully determined to ensure the protection of all diplomatic missions in Greece," a Foreign Ministry statement said. "Of course, particularly strong security and protection measures are in force at the Israeli embassy."

Police said the attackers were riding on at least one motorbike, and escaped after the attack, leaving the building pock-marked with bullet holes.

One year ago, a small left-wing terrorist group called "Popular Fighters" claimed responsibility for a similar gunfire attack outside the German ambassador's residence in Athens, which caused no injury.

Motorcycle Gunmen Open Fire on Israeli Embassy in Athens

UN Envoy Meets With Top Hamas Leader in Gaza

Hamas says a senior U.N. envoy held a rare meeting with the No. 2 in the Islamic militant group to find ways to speed up Gaza reconstruction after the summer war between Israel and Hamas.

The group says Robert Serry, U.N. coordinator for the Middle East peace process, held talks with Moussa Abu Marzouk of Hamas at the U.N. headquarters in Gaza City on Thursday. Hamas is shunned by the West as a terror group.

U.N. officials would only say that Serry meets with Hamas officials when needed.

The U.N. is leading rebuilding efforts in Gaza, where the war damaged or destroyed thousands of homes.

Hamas seized Gaza in 2007 and remains in power there despite a unity agreement with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian, Israeli Pathologists Disagree on Cause of Death of Palestinian Cabinet Member

Palestinian, Israeli pathologists disagree on cause of death of Palestinian Cabinet member

Israeli Military Sees No Reaction to Syria Strike

Israel doesn't expect a Syrian or Lebanese response to an airstrike in Syria attributed to Israel earlier this week since they are too tied up with that country's bloody civil war and can't afford to open another front, a senior Israeli military officer said Wednesday.

The officer said Hezbollah guerrillas had the capability, but not the motivation, at this time to harm Israel and there was no "logic" to picking a fight with Israel while it was knee-deep in battling a Sunni insurgency.

"I don't see any reason why in 2015 Hezbollah will turn to Israel, there is no logic to that way of thinking," he said in a briefing with reporters at military headquarters. "But if you are talking about capacity and the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) should be ready to deal with any capability of any one of its enemies. The capability of Hezbollah is growing every year."

He spoke on condition of anonymity according to military guidelines.

The Syrian military says Israeli warplanes struck near Damascus' international airport Sunday, as well as outside a town close to the Lebanese border.

Since Syria's conflict began in March 2011, Israel has carried out several airstrikes in Syria that have targeted sophisticated weapons systems, including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles, believed to be destined for Hezbollah, with whom Israel battled in an intense month-long war in 2006.

Sunday's strike looked to be of similar nature.

Israel has tried to stay out of the war in neighboring Syria, but it has repeatedly threatened to take military action to prevent Syria from transferring sophisticated weapons to its ally Hezbollah.

As is its practice, Israel neither confirmed nor denied the most recent report. But Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon cryptically warned Tuesday that Israel "will not allow red lines to be crossed that endanger Israel's security."

"Anyone who tries to arm our enemies should know that we can go anywhere, anytime, in any way, in order to foil his plans. We will not compromise on this," he said, without addressing the airstrike directly.

Palestinian Minister Dies After Clash With Israeli Forces

Palestinian Official Dies Amid Israeli Troop Clash

A Palestinian Cabinet member died shortly after a West Bank protest Wednesday in which witnesses said Israeli troops fired tear gas at him and dozens of Palestinians marchers.

Witnesses also said the Cabinet member, Ziad Abu Ain, was beaten by an Israeli soldier.

The Israeli military said it is looking into the report and had no immediate comment.

The incident began with a march by several dozen Palestinians who headed to agricultural land near the village of Turmus Aya to plant olive tree saplings, said one of the participants, Mahmoud Aloul, a senior member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.

The land belongs to Turmus Aya, but is close to an Israeli settlement and mostly off limits to the village's farmers, Aloul said.

As the marchers walked toward the land, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at the Palestinians, Aloul said. He said Abu Ain was hit by a tear gas canister, an account not immediately confirmed by other participants who only said the group was engulfed by tear gas.

Another marcher, Salah Hawajeh, said Abu Ain marched toward the soldiers ahead of everyone else, until he was stopped by a soldier.

He said the soldier head-butted Abu Ain and then hit him in the chest with his rifle butt. Hawajeh said Abu Ain then dropped to the ground, and was evacuated by ambulance.

Footage aired on pan Gulf-based satellite news channel Hadath showed Abu Ain, pale faced, crumple to the ground after the clash, holding his chest.

Abu Ain headed a Palestinian Authority department dealing with Israeli settlements and the Israeli separation barrier, and had the rank of Cabinet member.

Previously, he served as deputy minister for prisoner affairs.

Osama Najar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry, said an autopsy would be performed to determine the cause of death.

Palestinian Minister Dies After Clash With Israeli Forces

Texas Man Arrested In Israel for Anti-Muslim Plot

Israel indicts Texas Christian for plot to attack Muslim sites in Jerusalem

A 30-year-old American Christian from Texas has been indicted in Israel for plotting to blow up Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.

Israel’s Ministry of Justice said on Tuesday that a court had indicted Adam Everett Livix in connection with the plot.

It said that Livix conspired with his roommate, an active soldier in the Israeli military, to obtain 1.4kg (3lb) of explosive material to use to blow up the unidentified Jerusalem holy sites. The ministry said the plot was discovered by a police agent in October.

It said that Livix was indicted on Monday and is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation.

Livix’s indictment comes at a time of rising tensions in Jerusalem, mostly over a disputed holy site that is sacred both to Muslims and Jews.

Syria Says Israeli Airstrikes Hit Near Damascus

Israeli warplanes bombed two areas near Damascus on Sunday, striking near the city's international airport as well as outside a town close to the Lebanese border, the Syrian military said.

Since Syria's conflict began in March 2011, Israel has carried out several airstrikes in Syria that have targeted sophisticated weapons systems, including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles, believed to be destined for Israel's arch foe ? the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group.

Israel has never confirmed the strikes, and on Sunday the Israeli military said it does not comment on "foreign reports."

The Syrian armed forces' general command said Sunday's "flagrant attack" caused material damage, but did not provide any details on what was hit near the airport or in the town of Dimas, which is northwest of Damascus along the main highway from the capital to the Lebanese frontier.

"This aggression demonstrates Israel's direct involvement in supporting terrorism in Syria along with well-known regional and Western countries to raise the morale of terrorist groups, mainly the Nusra Front," the military said in a statement carried by SANA.

There is no evidence Israel has provided any support to the Nusra Front, which is al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors the country's civil war through a network of activists on the ground, said the strike near the Damascus airport hit a warehouse for imports and exports, although it was unclear what was in the building.

The Observatory also said that around 10 explosions could be heard outside a military area near Dimas. It had no word on casualties in either strike.

While Israel has tried to stay out of the war in neighboring Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to take military action to prevent Syria from transferring sophisticated weapons to its ally Hezbollah. Israel and Hezbollah are bitter enemies and fought an intense monthlong war in 2006.

In May 2013, a series of Israeli airstrikes near Damascus targeted what Israeli officials said were shipments of Iranian-made Fateh-110 missiles bound for Hezbollah.

In eastern Syria on Sunday, Syrian warplanes carried out at least 11 airstrikes of their own against Islamic State militants attacking a key military air base, activists said.

The Islamic State group launched its assault on the sprawling air field just outside of the city of Deir el-Zour last week, touching off fighting that activists say has killed more than 150 people on both sides. For IS, seizing control of the base would eliminate the last significant government presence in the area and provide a major morale and propaganda boost.

The Local Coordination Committees activist collective and the Observatory said the strikes targeted four areas near the base.

After IS fighters succeeded in storming part of the base on Saturday, the Syrian military launched a counterattack ? bolstered by heavy air raids ? that managed to push the militants back. Scattered clashes on the ground continued Sunday with fighting on several fronts around the base, activists said.

A Syrian military official in Damascus told The Associated Press that troops are in full control of the base.

"They (IS) tried to launch attacks from their positions around the airport but they were countered, and tens of them were killed and large amounts of weapons were seized," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

———

Lucas reported from Beirut.

Israel Opens New Gaza War Investigations

Israel bars Gerry Adams from Gaza

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said on Friday that Israel had barred him from making a planned visit to the Gaza Strip during a three-day tour of the region.

Adams says he was not given a reason for the Israeli decision to prevent the trip. “I am not surprised by the decision but I am disappointed by it,” he said.

A spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry, Emmanuel Nahshon, said that in consultation with defence officials the ministry decided to bar Adams from entering Gaza because of “his longstanding anti-Israeli positions and his plans to meet in the territory with leaders of Hamas”. Nahshon said that if Adams wanted to visit Gaza he could enter the territory from Egypt.

Israel fought a bloody 50-day war over the summer with the Hamas militant group, and views it as a terrorist organisation.

The Irish nationalist Sinn Féin party has long taken a pro-Palestinian position in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Earlier in his trip to the region, Adams met Isaac Herzog, leader of Israel’s opposition Labor party, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Adams said he had intended to meet NGOs, and visit hospitals and other public institutions in Gaza. He also acknowledged that he planned to meet Hamas leaders.

Palestinian shot ‘after attacking Israeli shoppers’

A Palestinian has stabbed two people in a supermarket in the West Bank before a private security guard shot him, Israeli police have said.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the attack on Wednesday took place in Mishor Adumim, east of Jerusalem, where a 16-year-old Palestinian entered the supermarket and stabbed two Israeli shoppers.

Samri said the shoppers were moderately wounded. The condition of the attacker is unknown after he was shot by the guard.

Over the past month, 11 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks, which included a deadly assault on a Jerusalem synagogue that left five people dead. Most of the violence has occurred in Jerusalem although there have been other attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank.

Plane Carrying 11 Crashes in Bahamas; US Man Dies

Police in the Bahamas say a small plane has crashed near New Providence Island, killing a 77-year-old U.S. man and injuring the 10 other people aboard.

Superintendent Paul Rolle says the 10-seat Navajo Chieftain went down after departing the nearby island of Eleuthera on Tuesday morning. He says the other passengers are hospitalized. Their conditions were not immediately known.

Police have not yet identified the man who died or his hometown.

The plane was operated by Ferguson Air and was serving as a charter for Southern Air.

Police said the pilot apparently alerted officials that he was having problems and tried getting the plane close to shallow water before it lost power some 550 feet (170 meters) from the coast.

Israel sees ‘stars aligned’ for new gas pipeline to Europe

Israel and Cyprus have launched a new push for EU funds to build a pipeline that could bring about 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of their natural gas to Europe annually, and ease the continent’s energy security anxieties.

But Palestinians are warning that without a broader resolution of regional disputes, the pipeline risks becoming a source of conflict.

The Cyprus-centred project could be the world’s longest pipeline if built, stretching up to 1,530km, and passing through depths of up to 3,000m.

The Israeli energy minister, Silvan Shalom, raised the issue at a ministerial conference in Rome last week and held talks on the margins with the EU’s vice president for energy union, Maros Sefkovic, Israeli sources say.

Israel, Greece and Cyprus expect a formal meeting with Sefkovic to discuss ways of actualising the project, on the fringes of an EU energy ministers’ summit on 9 December.

“The three countries involved intend to raise this issue [on the 9th] as it involves funding from the commission,” an EU diplomat said. Israel, as a non-EU member, will depend on its partner countries’ powers of persuasion.

With energy diversification and security both rising up Europe’s political agenda, “it looks like the stars have aligned in one position now and that might be good for our timing,” Guy Feldman, an advisor to Shalom told the Guardian.

But the Palestinian Authority cautioned the EU against signing any contract until territorial gas disputes with neighbouring countries such as Lebanon were resolved.

“The objective of energy security starts with a clear cut boundary of all the gas fields,” said the PA’s energy minister, Omar Kettaneh. “Otherwise instead of being a source of security the pipeline will be a source of conflict.”

In 2010, the US Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that the Levant Basin, could hold more than 3,455bcm of gas, which is comparable to Iraq’s reserves.

But until now, political instability has hindered its exploitation, with Israeli and Cypriot claims to overlapping gas fields contested by Lebanon and Turkey, respectively.

In 2012, Israel, Cyprus and Greece signed a deal to promote exports of their gas to the EU through an eastern Mediterranean corridor.

The planned offshore pipeline, which diplomats say could transport between 8-15bcm of natural gas annually, has already been selected for “project of common interest” status by the EU. This potentially gives it access to a €5.85bn fund, and preferential treatment from multilateral banks.

“It is technically challenging and because of that it might be financially challenging,” Feldman said. “But Minister Shalom said in Rome that if the EU will lend a shoulder on the financing, it might be a feasible option,” Feldman said.

A commission timeline estimates that the pipeline could begin pumping gas by 2020, four years after the Leviathan field, which contains around 450bcm of gas comes online.

As well as Leviathan, the already operating Tamar field has proven reserves of 283bcm. Israel also has several smaller gas fields and is searching for more exploitable reserves. The country wants to export up to 60% of the gas it produces, Feldman said.

A commission spokesperson said that east Mediterranean gas finds such as Leviathan “could play a very important role in helping both producing and neighbouring countries to address their energy security problems. They could also have a growing role in the EU’s diversification strategy, contributing not only to the security of the region but to the entire EU.”

But Kettaneh said that such words rang hollow in Gaza, which has been prevented from exploiting its own natural gas resources as a result of Israel’s blockade, and internal political divisions.

“It is ironic to talk about energy security for the EU when Gaza only enjoys five hours of daily electricity, and people are dying in hospitals because of a lack of electricity,” he said. “We should actually be talking about energy security for all.”

Chile’s Gaza sympathisers rally behind Palestinian football colours

In Patronato, a poor quarter of Santiago, the Palestinian community meets at the Beit Jala cafe. It’s just a step away from San Jorge, Chile’s oldest orthodox church founded by the first Palestinian migrants in 1917. Here the elders sip their coffee and savour oriental pastries. The walls are covered with photographs of Beit Jala, the village from where most of the Palestinians in Chile originated.

“I’m a third-generation Chilean,” says landlord Juan Bishara. His grandfather arrived in the 1950s. He speaks mostly Arabic to his customers, apart from to the younger Spanish-speaking generation. The community has one secondary and two primary schools. “Our neighbourhood is know as the Arab quarter, though a lot of shops are now run by more recent migrants, from Korea and Bolivia,” he adds.

Chile is home to the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East. There are no official statistics but estimates suggest between 150,000 to 400,000 people of Palestinian origin from first- to third-generation migrants. In keeping with their ancestors, 95% are Christians, which has helped integration. More than three-quarters of them moved here between 1900 and 1930, mainly from four villages: Belen, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour and Beit Safafa. The parents of historian Juan Sakalha left the Christian village of Tayebh, 12km from Ramallah, in 1915, arriving in Valparaiso (120km north of Santiago) after a gruelling journey. They passed through Beirut, Marseille, Panama, São Paulo and Buenos Aires, crossing the Andes on donkeys.

Most were small farmers or artisans, but literate. They settled in the capital and beyond. “There isn’t a single village in Chile lacking a curate, a policeman and a Palestinian,” according to a well-known saying. In Santiago they chose Patronato because the rents were low and it was close to the main market. In 1910 newcomers headed for Jorge Shahuran’s general store on the corner of Patronato and Santa Filomena. Here they could get assistance settling in and pass on news from home. The community started publishing its first paper, Al-Murshid, in 1912.

Their greatest source of pride is the Club Deportivo Palestino professional football side. Established in 1920, it is the world’s only top-division club to sport the Palestinian colours. It has its own ground, at La Cisterna. In January players replaced the number one on their jerseys with an elongated map of pre-1948 Palestine. They won their next three matches. But the 70,000-strong Jewish community protested against such “political exploitation of soccer” and accused the Palestinians of importing a conflict that they claimed had more to do with religion than territory.

The Football Federation of Chile summoned Palestino president Maurice Khamis Massu and banned the jerseys, fining the club $15,000. The players then tattooed the map of Palestine on their forearms. The controversy became news across the world and now the club’s jerseys, particularly number 11, have been selling like hot cakes. “A win by Palestino is a joy for the suffering Palestinian people. The terrible events in Gaza have strengthened our links with Palestine and our roots,” Massu says.

He was three when his family arrived in Chile, following the creation of the state of Israel. He is a member of the Belen 2000 foundation, which awards scholarships to children in Palestine and sends doctors to work there.

The Palestinian Federation of Chile is made up of several organisations including Palestino. It “has gained in importance in recent years as the conflict over Gaza has deteriorated”, president Mauricio Abu-Gosh says. “Our aim is to raise public awareness of the Palestinian cause and promote the unity of the Palestinian community in Chile.”

Chilean Primera División side CD Palestino redesigned their shirts so that the number one was replaced by a map of pre-1948 Palestine. Photograph: Claudio Reyes/Getty

It is certainly influential, accounting for 10% of senate seats and 11% of the lower chamber, representing a broad political spectrum reaching from the Communist party to the Conservatives. Palestinians head nine local councils, and there are 26 municipal councillors of Palestinian origin. Deputy interior minister Mahmud Aleuy’s family hails from Palestine.

Abu-Gosh acknowledges the existence of a “horizontal lobby” that has scored several “big successes”. In 2008 Chile welcomed 130 refugees fleeing the conflict in Iraq. The socialist president, Michelle Bachelet, held a reception for them at the Moneda palace, seat of the presidency, on the anniversary of al-Nakba (in May 1948, when Palestinians fled or were expelled from lands for the creation of Israel). Bachelet did not attend the ceremony at the Israeli embassy celebrating the creation of Israel. In 2011, the then conservative president, Sebastián Piñera, visited Palestine and endorsed its claim to statehood.

In August, as Israel resumed military operations against Gaza, Bachelet, re-elected in March, recalled the Chilean ambassador to Tel Aviv. Thousands of people demonstrated in Santiago in solidarity with Palestine. The ambassador only resumed his functions once a ceasefire had been arranged. Several neighbouring countries followed suit, the exception being Argentina, home to the largest Jewish community (250,000-strong) in Latin America.

Gerardo Gorodischer, leader of the Jewish community in Chile, deplores “the confusion between Jews and Israel” and the rise of “antisemitism unprecedented in Chile”. He goes so far as to say: “We are enduring a pogrom, without the Chilean government lifting a finger. The most prosperous people are thinking of moving to the United States.” He claims that the Israeli flag was burned at several pro-Palestine demonstrations. Palestinian leaders maintain this was the work of “radical groups which are not representative of the community”.

“I’m a Chilean, a Palestinian and a communist,” says Daniel Jahud, 47, leader of the local council at Recoleta, part of which overlaps with Patronato. He is proud of the fact that Salvador Allende, the socialist president overthrown by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973, should be buried in the district he governs. “Looking back in history the various religious communities co-existed peacefully until the artificial creation of the Israeli state by Europeans,” he says. “The conflict is not about religion. Relations are poor, not with Jews but with the Zionists who represent the Israeli government in Chile.”

Integration was difficult in Chile. The country was very conservative and treated the Palestinians as second-class immigrants, unlike the British, Germans and French who had won over the aristocracy. But despite cultural differences Palestinians were soon assimilated into the middle classes. Some families now command the biggest fortunes in the country. In the 1930s they built powerful textile industries, the Banco de Crédito e Inversiones and an insurance company. In the early years, in the face of hostility many Palestinians married outside their community and even in the 1970s this pattern was true of over two-thirds of marriages.

Another, more upmarket rallying point for the community is the Palestinian Club at Las Condes, a residential neighbourhood. Founded in 2007 its parks and gardens spread over 11 hectares, with palm trees and superb views of the snow-capped peaks of the Andes. It has an Olympic-size swimming pool, tennis courts and football pitches but no oriental architecture. The club house is all timber and glass. Anuar Majluf, the club’s thirtysomething head of communications, says he feels more Chilean than anything else, nevertheless acknowledging that the “Gaza conflict has rekindled the Palestinian identity in Chile”. He tempers that view by adding: “We’re not attempting to import the conflict, rather it is important to us.”

This article appeared in Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from Le Monde

Israel Edges Closer to Early Election

Israel's fractious coalition government seems headed for a breakup that could spark new elections against a backdrop of security turmoil inside the country, disputes over nationalist legislation and a deep freeze in peace efforts with the Palestinians.

With little to gain from a vote that would come two years early, the country's top politicians could still pull back from a brink that none seem to relish. But the vitriolic attacks of recent days suggest another angry campaign could soon be at hand.

If that happens, it seems likely for now that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be returned for a fourth term. Despite sagging popularity amid economic doldrums and increasing global isolation, his divided opposition lacks a credible unifying figure.

Under Israel's political system, the leader is the elected parliament member who can show majority support in the 120-seat house.

Netanyahu's current coalition consists of a diverse array of partner parties that includes the centrist "Yesh Atid," which rose to power with promises of economic relief for Israel's struggling middle class; "Jewish Home," a hard-line party closely identified with the West Bank settlement movement; "Hatnuah," which was elected on a platform pushing peace with the Palestinians; and "Yisrael Beitenu," a nationalist party that seeks to redraw Israel's borders to rid the country of many Arab citizens. His own Likud party is itself riven with disputes.

With little common ground, the competing factions have begun to squabble over a host of issues, including the budget, the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks, Jewish settlement construction and how to confront a wave of Palestinian attacks in Jerusalem.

The differences boiled over last week when Netanyahu pushed a piece of legislation defining Israel as "the Jewish state." Although its 1948 Declaration of Independence already does this, critics say enshrining it in law would undermine Israel's democratic character, enrage the country's Arab minority, and possibly enable future illiberal legislation. The dispute forced Netanyahu to delay a vote on the bill by a week, and officials say the vote is likely to be pushed back yet again.

Addressing his Cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu complained of the incessant infighting.

"I hope we can return to normal conduct," he said. "This is what the public expects from us. This is the only way to lead the country, and if not we will have to draw conclusions."

The comments came a day after Finance Minister Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid, accused Netanyahu of playing "petty politics," and said he hadn't spoken to him in a month.

Israel's media is almost unanimously predicting a government collapse with elections in a few months. Many observers believe Netanyahu's championing of the "Jewish state" law is an effort to establish terms of debate that would bring out his nationalist base.

"The things that Lapid said about Netanyahu on Saturday proved without a doubt: The current government has come to its end. It's only a matter of time," wrote Shimon Schiffer, a senior political commentator at Yediot Ahronot.

A new opinion poll published Sunday in the Haaretz daily provided little incentive for anyone to head to elections, though.

Soccer Stadium Attack Foiled, Israel Says

Israel Says It Busted Hamas Cell Planning Attacks

Israel's Shin Bet security service said Thursday it had uncovered a vast Hamas network in the West Bank that was planning large-scale attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem.

The Shin Bet said it arrested more than 30 Hamas militants who planned to kidnap Israelis and carry out attacks against Jerusalem's light rail and its largest soccer stadium, among other targets. It said the men were trained and recruited in Jordan and Turkey and that various arms and explosives were recovered.

While the Islamic militant group Hamas rules the Gaza Strip, the West Bank is run by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The arrests come amid Israel's worst sustained bout of violence in nearly a decade. Eleven Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks over the past month, including five people who were killed with guns and meat cleavers in a bloody assault on a Jerusalem synagogue last week. Most of the violence has occurred in Jerusalem, along with deadly attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank.

Hamas did not immediately comment on the arrests.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the Shin Bet for thwarting the attacks, saying that if carried out they could have exacted a heavy toll of casualties.

"This is one operation that has been published but there are many more that remain secret," he said of Israel's intelligence work. "These foiling activities are against terrorists and against Hamas, which challenges the existence of a Jewish nation-state and the existence of Jews in general."

From Cairo to Moscow: how the world reacted to Ferguson

Russia, China and other authoritarian regimes around the world reacted to violent protests in Ferguson with thinly disguised glee and schadenfreude on Tuesday, noting that the scenes of unrest in Missouri undermined the US’s credibility to criticise other countries on human rights.

The liberal use of teargas by police, the firing of non-lethal rounds and the enveloping sense of chaos featured extensively in coverage by international state media, including the Kremlin-backed news channel Russia Today, which often concentrates on highlighting deficiencies in western society.

RT broadcast live from the scene and ran a picture-gallery from Ferguson under the headline: “Ferguson burning: Torched cars, tear gas, clashes in massive night riots (DRAMATIC IMAGES).” RT also quoted UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein decrying America’s “troubled” record on race relations and pointing out that African Americans ended up in jail – or worse – in disproportionate numbers.

Russian commentators and state media implied that the disorder in Ferguson was a kind of cosmic payback for the US’s meddling in Ukraine, currently the scene of a war in the east of the country. The Kremlin blames the conflict on the west and “neo-Nazis” in Kiev, rather than on Moscow’s covert invasion of Ukrainian territory. Russia’s “human rights ombudsman” Konstantin Dolgov, meanwhile, fired off a series of tweets accusing the US administration of hypocrisy and serial failure.

A demonstrator sits in front of a street fire during a demonstration following the grand jury decision in the Ferguson. Photograph: Stephen Lam/Reuters

He observed: “Racial and ethnic tensions continue to rise in US society. It’s about time the US authorities paid attention to this rather than focusing on lecturing the rest of the world on human rights.”

China’s foreign ministry also took the opportunity to poke Washington in the eye. Its spokeswoman Hua Chunying initially described the trouble, which began after a grand jury refused to prosecute a white police officer for the shooting of a black teenager, as an internal US affair. She then went on to hint, however, that the US might be better served by a little humility: “I would like to say that there’s no such thing as perfection when it comes to human rights regardless of whatever country you’re in,” Hua said. She added: “We have to improve the record of human rights and promote the cause of human rights. We can learn from each other in this area.”

In Egypt, social media users drew comparisons between Ferguson and events in Cairo, where rampant police brutality since the 2011 revolution has only once resulted in a conviction, and which has consequently often sparked bloody clashes between police and protesters. “Ferguson now looks like police assaults in Egypt,” tweeted the Cairo-based former Human Rights Watch researcher, Scott Long. “Our world is melding into a single military regime.”

Egypt’s government did not comment on the most recent violence in Ferguson, though during a previous round of protests, the Egyptian foreign ministry issued a barbed statement urging US officials to exercise restraint in their treatment of demonstrators. It was payback for the many times the US has criticised the excesses of the Egyptian police, who have killed around 2,000 protesters since 2011.

Egypt’s police force has itself previously issued five top tips to American police about how to deal with the unrest in Ferguson. “I ask the American police not to use excessive force in dealing with peaceful demonstrators,” said General Hany Abdel Latif, the police spokesman, in an interview this summer. Abdel Latif also suggested opening a dialogue with protesters, and bringing errant policemen to swift justice.

Ordinary citizens across the Middle East expressed solidarity with Ferguson’s unhappy residents. In particular, Palestinians expressed their support – and even offered handy tips as to how protesters might best deal with attacks by cops using tear gas. @MariamBarghouti advised:

Always make sure to run against the wind /to keep calm when you're teargassed, the pain will pass, don't rub your eyes! #Ferguson Solidarity

— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) August 14, 2014

Twitter users shared photos of Palestinians who had made homemade signs expressing solidarity with protestors in Ferguson. One held by a girl in a headscarf read: “Ferguson with love from Palestine”; another sign written by a young man read: “The Palestinian people know what it mean [sic] to be shot while unarmed because of your ethnicity #Ferguson #justice”.

Israel President Cancels Pop Star Appearance

Israel's president has cancelled the appearance of a local pop star at a high-profile public event following the star's release of a new song focusing on a fictional Arab who gets his kicks by stabbing Jews.

The office of President Reuven Rivlin said Tuesday that it was cancelling its invitation for Amir Benayoun to perform at next week's event marking the expulsion and exile of Jews from Arab countries and Iran.

The office said the sentiments expressed by Benayoun in the song "Ahmed Loves Israel" are "inconsistent with the responsibility required of the president's residence."

The song tells of a fictional Arab named Ahmed who wants to "send to hell a Jew or two" despite his moderate appearance.

Its release coincides with heightened tensions between Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu's Cabinet Moves to Define Israel as Jewish

Archbishop of Westminster shocked by effects of Gaza war

The archbishop of Westminster said he was deeply shocked by his first visit to Gaza on Sunday, and that he had seen “a deeply depressing situation in a devastated region where people are trapped”.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales, toured neighbourhoods of Gaza that were virtually flattened during the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in the summer. He visited a hospital and an industrial zone that were badly damaged by air strikes and shelling, and an orphanage caring for dozens of traumatised children, some of whom had been given up by parents unable to care for them.

“I was deeply shocked at the effects of war and endemic poverty,” he told the Guardian. “Pope Francis has said there must be an end to war, and when you see the effect in a place like Gaza it reinforces that.”

There was little sign of rubble being cleared, let alone reconstruction, he said. “It’s astonishing the number of people with the appearance of nothing to do – people just sitting on the streets. There is only the barest sense of order. This is not an economy that is going to be able to support its population.”

Nichols said he was concerned about “the innocent citizens of Gaza caught in a vice of conflicting ideologies – an almost impossible situation for them”.

The greatest fear was that the “rule of the extremists” was coming to the fore in the Middle East. “Political leaders must not be satisfied with a security or military response, but need to find a political solution,” he said.

Real political leadership was essential, he added, but “optimism is not the word that comes to mind, yet without it things will get worse.”

He had given an undertaking to the people he met in Gaza that he would try to widen public understanding of their situation, he said. Nichols has previously spoken in support of Palestinian Christians whose homes and livelihoods are threatened by a section of the vast concrete security barrier Israel is building near the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

During last summer’s war more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, and 71 Israelis and a Thai worker died in Israel. About 17,000 homes in Gaza were destroyed and reconstruction costs have been estimated at £5bn.

Israeli forces shoot dead Palestinian man in Gaza Strip

The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the first such fatality since the 50-day Gaza war ended in August.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

The ministry identified the man as Fadel Mohammed Halawa, 32, and said he was shot by soldiers east of Jabaliya refugee camp.

One of Halawa’s relatives said he had been searching for songbirds, which nest in trees near the Israeli border and command high prices in Gaza markets.

Israel has long designated areas near its frontier with the Gaza Strip as “no-go” zones for Palestinians, citing concerns that militants could plant bombs or carry out surveillance of Israeli patrols.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed during the Gaza war, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Israeli puts its death toll at 67 soldiers and six civilians, killed by rockets and attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.

Israeli Cop Charged Over Palestinian Youth's Death

Four Accused of Plot to Kill Israeli Foreign Minister

Israel Withholds Synagogue Attackers' Bodies From Kin

Israeli Mayor Draws Fire for Ban on Arab Workers

Israel Military: Gaza Militants Test Rockets

Israel's military says that militants in the Gaza Strip have test-fired rockets into the Mediterranean Sea.

The military said Thursday that four rockets had been fired over a 24-hour period, suggesting Gaza militants are "experimenting."

Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers fought a 50-day war over the summer that claimed more than 2,100 Palestinian and 70 Israeli lives. It broke out after Hamas fired dozens of rockets at Israel following an Israeli roundup of Hamas activists in the West Bank, which was in response to the killing of three Israeli teens there.

Rocket fire continued throughout the war, but was largely neutralized by Israel's "Iron Dome" aerial defense system.

Rockets from Gaza now have the ability to reach Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other Israeli cities.

Defiant: Israelis Return to Pray in Attacked Temple

Fifth Person Dies In Israeli Synagogue Attack

An Israeli police officer has died of his wounds from an attack at a Jerusalem synagogue by two knife-wielding Palestinian men earlier today, bringing the death toll in the assault to five.

The attackers also killed four rabbis, three of them American.

The officer was critically wounded when two Palestinian men armed with knives, axes and a pistol burst into the synagogue during morning prayers. He later died of his wounds.

The two alleged attackers were identified as cousins, Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal, from East Jerusalem, according to a police spokeswoman. Police said they shot and killed them at the scene.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would “reply harshly” after police said Palestinian assailants wielding knives and axes killed five people after attacking a Jerusalem synagogue.

After the attack, Netanyahu ordered the demolition of the alleged attackers’ homes and arrested multiple members of each man’s family. He told reporters he would also demolish the homes of other Palestinians accused of recent attacks against Israeli citizens.

“We will respond with a heavy hand to the brutal murder of Jews who came to pray and were met by reprehensible murderers,” said Netanyahu.

This the first attack of this kind on an Israeli synagogue.

Netanyahu earlier had denounced the attack as a "cruel murder of Jews who came to pray and were killed by despicable murderers."

During a news conference Netanyahu blamed Hamas, the Islamic Movement and the Palestinian Authority for helping to incite violence against Jews and warned Israelis to be alert for other potential attacks.

"As a state, we will settle accounts with all of the terrorists and those who dispatched them," Netanyahu said. "Let nobody take the law into his hands, even if tempers flare and blood boils. We are in a lengthy war against abhorrent terrorism which did not start today."

While emphasizing that the United States also condemned the synagogue attack, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke added that "punitive home demolitions are counterproductive to the cause of peace, especially in an already tense situation."

Three American citizens were among the victims in the attack -- Rabbi Moshe Twersky, 59, formerly of Boston, Rabbi Kalman Levine, 55, and Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, 43, Israeli officials said. The fourth dead victim, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, was a British national.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said it will lead the U.S. side of the investigation and was "working in close collaboration and cooperation with the appropriate Israeli allies and partners."

“This is a tragedy for both nations -- Israel, as well as the United States -- and our hearts go out to the families, who obviously are undergoing enormous grief right now," President Obama said, denouncing the attack as "horrific" before a meeting with his national security team.

Ammar Awad/Reuters

PHOTO: Israeli emergency personnel stand at the scene of an attack at a Jerusalem synagogue Nov. 18, 2014.

The attack happened in Har Nof, an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood with a population of 20,000 residents, at around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, local time during morning prayers.

Thirty worshipers were taking part in the morning services when the two alleged assailants broke in wielding knives before using a gun to shoot at worshipers, according to the Israeli government. Many of those taken to the hospital had suffered blows to the head with an ax. Pictures of the scene showed the floor of the synagogue covered in blood, according to an Israeli Foreign Ministry official.

At least seven people were injured in the attack, Israel Police foreign press spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. The area near the synagogue was closed off, and the injured were transported to Jerusalem hospitals.

Hours after the attack, funerals for the four victims drew thousands of mourners, Rosenfeld tweeted.

The accused cousins were reportedly part of the militant group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but the organization did not say if it ordered them to carry out the attacks.

Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, praised the attack saying it was “quality development in confrontation with Israeli occupation."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' office said in a statement that he "condemns the killing of the worshippers" in the Jerusalem synagogue, but that Israel should stop "the invasion" of a key Jerusalem holy site and halt "incitement" by Israeli ministers.

Ariel Schalit/AP Photo

PHOTO: A bullet hole and forensic evidence are seen in side the Synagogue at the site of an attack in Jerusalem, Nov. 18, 2014.

Israel and the Palestinians have blamed each other for a recent escalation of violence, and Obama called on leaders from both sides to diffuse tensions.

“At this sensitive moment in Jerusalem, it is all the more important for Israeli and Palestinian leaders and ordinary citizens to work cooperatively together to lower tensions, reject violence, and seek a path forward towards peace,” he said in a statement.

Secretary of State John Kerry voiced anger over the attack.

"The people who had come to worship God in the sanctuary of a synagogue were hatcheted and hacked, were murdered, in that holy place in an act of pure terror and senseless brutality murder," Kerry said. "I call on the Palestinian leadership at every single level to condemn this in the most powerful terms."

Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images

Israeli security forces secure the scene after a synagogue attack in Jerusalem, November 18, 2014.

The attack put U.S. law enforcement on guard, with New York Police Commissioner William Bratton announcing extra protection would be sent to synagogues throughout New York.

"The NYPD is following developments in Jerusalem closely and working with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force to monitor any further developments," said Bratton in a statement. "As of now, there is no specific credible threat to New York City. The NYPD has increased its attention to Synagogues and other symbolic locations around the city."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Jerusalem synagogue attack – live updates

AFP has more graphic accounts of the attacks from witnesses.

“There were people running from the synagogue, and a man sitting on the pavement covered in blood, it looked like he has been stabbed,” said local resident Sarah Abrahams, who was walking past when it happened.

“Two people came out with their faces half missing, looking like they’d been attacked with knives,” she said as hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews pressed up against the police tape, a few chanting “Death to terrorists.”

Fighting back tears, Moshe Eliezer said he had narrowly avoided being at the scene after oversleeping.

“This is a yeshiva community. Ninety percent don’t serve in the army. We’re not violent,” he said.

Details are emerging about the suspects.

Police said the attackers were two cousins from the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabal Mukaber.

Speaking to journalists at the scene, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat expressed shock at the scale of the bloodshed.

“To slaughter innocent people while they pray... it’s insane,” he said.

AFP also confirms that Hamas praised assault as a response to the death earlier this week of a Palestinian bus driver from east Jerusalem who was found hanged inside his vehicle.

“The operation in Jerusalem is a response to the murder of the martyr Yusuf Ramuni and to the series of crimes by the occupier at Al-Aqsa,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.

“Hamas calls for more operations like it.”

4 Israelis Dead After Knife, Ax-Wielding Attackers Storm Jerusalem Synagogue

Assailants wielding knives and axes forged an attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem today, with at least four people dead and two of the attackers killed by police, a spokesman with Israel Police said.

The attack happened in Har Nof, an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood with a population of 20,000 residents.

The area near the synagogue is closed off, and people injured in the attack have been transported to Jerusalem hospitals, Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for Israel Police, said.

Trauma surgeon Mads Gilbert will defy Israeli ban on Gaza entry

A Norwegian trauma surgeon and activist who helped provide life-saving medical care during this summer’s 100-day war in Gaza has said he will defy an Israeli ban on his return.

Chief surgeon Mads Gilbert, 67, has spent 15 years treating patients in Gaza and spent 51 days in Shifa hospital earlier this year treating many of the 11,000 Palestinians who were wounded in the war between Hamas and Israel.

When he returned last month to try and enter Gaza via the Erez crossing in Israel he was denied entry indefinitely.

The Israeli government now says Gilbert is banned from entering Gaza for security reasons. The Norwegian embassy in Tel Aviv has taken up Gilbert’s case on his behalf after he was refused entry in October.

“When we came back to the Erez border station the Israeli soldiers told me I was not allowed to go into Gaza,” he told media.

“I had a valid permit for multiple entries, an invitation from the Palestinian Ministry of Health and a recommendation from the director at my hospital.”

In a written statement, Norway’s Secretary of State, Bard Glad Pedersen, said: “From the Norwegian perspective, we have raised Gilbert’s exclusion from Gaza and asked Israel to change their decision. The humanitarian situation is still difficult and there is a need for all health workers.”

Norwegian authorities confirmed Gilbert had been banned “indefinitely” by Israel.

Gilbert is a vocal critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the blockade on the Gaza Strip. Photos and television footage of Gilbert in his light green surgical wear in Gaza’s Shifa hospital treating Gazans wounded and dying were broadcast internationally and often daily during the course of the war between Hamas and Israel.

He vowed he would fight any restrictions placed on his movements by Israel.

“I have never violated Israeli law, never been arrested and never lied.”

In July Gilbert wrote a statement from Shifa hospital at the height of the fighting that was published widely. He described in graphic detail people that had been “maimed and torn apart”.

He described the patients he treated as being innocent civilians. “We still have lakes of blood on the floor in the emergency room, piles of dripping blood soaked bandages to clear out. Cleaners are everywhere swiftly shoveling the blood and discarded tissues, hair, clothes, cannulas, and the leftovers from death – all taken away to be prepared again to be repeated all over.”

He called on readers to force Israeli to stop its attacks on Gaza. Dr Gilbert gave a similar account during live television interviews.

Gilbert is defiant in responding to the ban and resolved to make a return to Gaza in the near future.

“It is completely unacceptable to restrict the movement of humanitarian personnel – much needed in Gaza now after the last bombardment,” he said.

“I will not be stopped from returning to Gaza to do medical work. There are different attempts going on to conceal the reality on the ground for the good people of Gaza – this is one of them – and we must persist in resisting attempts to shutdown Gaza from the world.

“The first precondition for the recent ceasefire was to ease the siege,” he said. “It has not been eased. This attempt to stop medical personnel entering Gaza is a tightening of the siege – this, again, is totally unacceptable.”

During the war, Gilbert charged that Israel was committing “state terrorism at the highest levels”.

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Paul Hirschson, replied Dr Gilbert was “not on the side of decency and peace and he’s got a horrible track record. I wouldn’t be surprised if his acquaintances are among the worst people in the world.”

During Israel’s 51-day military operation in Gaza over 2,000 Palestinians were killed – mostly civilians, and 70 Israelis were killed, mostly soldiers. A ceasefire deal was struck at the end of August to bring an end to fighting. Dr Gilbert said the agreement had not been upheld and called his ban on entering Gaza as further evidence a blockade on the coastal enclave was no closer.