Joseph Dana, The Electronic Intifada, 3 January 2011

“I am in shock, we are in shock,” Hamde Abu Rahmah told me as we stood outside the small cemetery in Bilin where 36-year-old Jawaher Abu Rahmah was buried on Saturday. One day earlier, on 31 December, Jawaher was killed after inhaling US-made tear-gas fired by Israeli soldiers at demonstrators in the occupied West Bank village. Jawaher’s brother Bassem was killed by Israeli occupation forces in a similar manner in 2009.

“We simply did not think that this would happen. We deal with tear-gas on a regular basis but the amount that they used and the strength was something we have not yet seen,” continued Hamde, Jawaher’s cousin who has reported on and photographed Bilin’s regular demonstrations against Israel’s wall and occupation since 2008.

Click here to continue reading “From Bilin to Tel Aviv, outrage at killing of Jawaher Abu Rahmah” by Joseph Dana.

Juan Cole
2 January 2011

The new, major war will be a total war on civilians, Ashkenazi boasted: “In the next war Israel cannot accept any restrictions on warfare in urban areas.” (I den neste krigen kan Israel ikke godta noen restriksjoner på krigføring i byområder in Norwegian, or let us just translate it into the original German: “Im nächsten Krieg kann Israel keine Beschränkungen der Kriegsführung in städtischen Gebieten akzeptieren.”.) Mind you, the civilian deaths deriving from this massive and unrestricted bombing campaign on targets in the midst of civilian urban populations will be “unintentional.” Planning to bomb civilian areas with foreknowledge that you will thereby kill large numbers of civilians is a war crime.

Ashkenazi also admitted to then Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) that Hamas is not in control of even more radical groups, which had infiltrated cells into Hamas itself, and which had rocket-making capabilities. In public, Israeli officials routinely demonize Hamas for every rocket fired from the lawless, besieged territory of Gaza, but here in private Ashkenazi was admitting the opposite. He even admitted that Israeli intelligence had no means to distinguish the even-more-radical from the merely Hamas.

Click here to read “Wikileaks: Israel Plans Total War on Lebanon, Gaza” by Juan Cole.

IRmep
3 January 2011

Today the Israel Lobby Archive releases new filings from the Rosen v. American Israel Public Affairs Committee defamation lawsuit.  AIPAC formally protests former employee Steven J. Rosen’s possession, partial release and ongoing threats to disclose his entire cache of highly sensitive AIPAC internal information about the US National Security Council, US campaign contribution limits impact on AIPAC operations, employee-related matters and files on the political activities of AIPAC members.

Presiding Judge Eric Christian will make a decision about AIPAC’s motion to dismiss today.

Israel Lobby Archive:  http://irmep.org/ILA/rosen (Latest filings marked “new”).

Click here to read “AIPAC Protests Disclosure of Its Secret Files” by Grant Smith