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.

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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