updates on the Israeli Palestinian conflict

[PathWalker]

IDF soldiers face penalty after uploading Hebron dance video to YouTube

WATCH: Video of soldiers, armed and wearing bulletproof vests, patrolling as a Muslim call to prayer is heard. Then the music changes and they break into a Macarena-like dance.


A number of Israel Defense Forces soldiers could face disciplinary action after they uploaded to YouTube a video of themselves stopping a patrol in the West Bank to dance to American electro-pop singer Kesha's hit Tick Tock.

The video "Batallion 50 Rock the Hebron Casbah" shows six dancing Nahal Brigade soldiers, armed and wearing bulletproof vests, patrolling as a Muslim call to prayer is heard. Then the music changes and they break into a Macarena-like dance.

Read and see more here

Very good sign the Army is losing the fear grip on the soldiers. Or the soldiers are simply stupid. Or both.
Israeli PTB do no have full control over the Internet yet. But there are plans to as in the EU and USA.

[HORIZONS]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-ssd063010.php

[PathWalker]

Study shows devastating impact of 2009 Israel attack on Gaza Strip
Excerpt from the link in the previous post.

The devastating impact of the 2009 Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip is detailed by one of the Abstracts published Online by The Lancet this week, written by Dr Niveen Abu-Rmeileh, Institute of Community and Public Health-Birzeit University, West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory, and colleagues.

The authors analysed health-related quality of life in terms of health before and after the invasion, and factors associated with poor quality of life; and the most urgent needs of a representative sample of adults living in the Gaza strip. They collected data using a randomly selected survey of oPt households, which consisted of questions in three sections about demographic, socioeconomic, and health information about all members of the household; housing characteristics, amenities, access to basic services, and events taking place during and after the attacks; and quality of life, distress, insecurities, and threats (with focus on adults ≥18 years). Some questions were specifically about the periods 6 months before the invasion, during the invasion, and 6 months after the invasion. The prevalence of all injuries and disabilities irrespective of the cause were extracted from different questions.

A representative sample of 3017 households (1% of total households within the Gaza Strip) were visited, with a response rate of 97%. Almost a third of the sample population was displaced during the war, while 39% of these 3017 homes were completely (1%) or partly (38%) destroyed. Three quarters of these homes had yet to be repaired at the end of the study (by August 29, 2009). 137 (0•7%) household members had injuries from various causes: Three-quarters of these were caused by the war (from the start of the attack until the time of the survey [July 14, to Aug 29, 2009]); and 4% of 321 disabilities were caused by the attack. More than seven in ten homes were reliant on food aid.

Quality of life was rated as less than good (out of five categories very good, good, neither good nor poor, poor, very poor) by half of respondents at the time of the survey compared with 39% during the period before the war. 52% of men rated quality of life as less than good versus 48% of women. Other factors also came into play in respondents' answers on quality of life. 69% of respondents with no one working at home rated quality of life as less than good versus 41% with one or more household members working full-time; 60% of respondents with damaged homes rated quality of life as less-than-good versus 43% of those with intact homes. Finally 57% of respondents whose families received food aid versus rated quality of life as less-than-good versus 30% of respondents whose families did not.

Furthermore, 85% of respondents had moderate or high levels of insecurities, fears, and threats, whereas half reported moderate or high levels of distress. Respondents were also assessed for their level of suffering in a number of categories on a scale of 0 to 10 where 10 was the worst. 92% of respondents rated their suffering as 8 or higher due to the siege at the time of the survey (Jul to Aug 2009); 90% rated their suffering as eight or higher due to the Israeli occupation, 85% as 8 or higher due to the latest war, and 83% rated their suffering as 8 or higher due to internal Palestinian fighting.

A number of crucial needs were identified by the survey: home repair was urgently needed by 58% of households with homes damaged during the war; a source of livelihood* by 2249 (75%); and utilities (water, electricity, cooking gas) were urgently needed by 56%.

The authors conclude: "The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip has had a negative effect on the quality of life of adults in the general population, and has resulted in high levels of reported distress, human insecurity, and social suffering. The siege on this region continues to be the main obstacle for improvement of the living conditions and quality of life of the population, and is a priority for action."

###

Dr Niveen Abu-Rmeileh, Institute of Community and Public Health-Birzeit University, West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory. T) +972-2-2982020 E) nrmeileh@birzeit.edu

Full Abstract: http://press.thelancet.com/optaftermath.pdf

PathWalker comment
I read the above report with awe and amazement.
Assuming the report is genuine and not cooked. 50% of Ghazzans fill good or better. While 61% felt good or better before the war in 2009 (there was siege than as well).
I would expect the people moral under siege to be in much worse.
This report contradicts the mainstream media viewpoint (both Arab and Israeli)
Maybe there are worse suffering populations on earth after all

[PathWalker]

IDF soldier charged with killing woman during Gaza war
After more than 400 officers and fighters questioned, military Advocate General decides to file criminal indictment.

An Israel Defense Forces soldier has been officially charged with killing a woman in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead in early 2009. The indictment against the soldier, a member of the Givati brigade, was filed on Tuesday following a military hearing.

Military Advocate General Avihai Mandelblit furthermore has taken legal action against soldiers who allegedly deviated from explicit orders in three additional incidents during Israel's winter offensive in Gaza.

The advocate general also decided to close the proceedings on all the other incidents that were mentioned in the Goldstone Report, a report commissioned by the United Nations to investigate Operation Cast Lead. The report mentioned 23 incidents of alleged war crimes perpetrated by Israeli soldiers. Mandelblit arrived at these decisions in light of the findings of the military probe in which more than 400 officers and fighters were questioned over the last 18 months.

Read more here

PathWalker comment
Never before the IDF indicted its soldiers on war crime.
We are in a new territory here.
The Goldstone report does have and effect on Israel. As does the Turkish flotilla to Ghazza.
After all Israel is taking action in response to world media opinion.
Two questions left.
1. Why now?
2. Is this an awakening process?

[PathWalker]

Egypt / Hamas politics, why Egypt persist in the Ghazza siege

Hamas is leveling for influence, and Egypt is getting fed up. Amid the broader regional issues, this shaky relationship has a trajectory of its own.

Egypt is fed up with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policy of stalling and the caprices of Hamas, which for more than six months has been refusing to sign the reconciliation document with Fatah that Egypt has formulated, thereby delaying Egypt's "liberation" from the burden of Gaza.

Egypt has informed Hamas that "[the Rafah crossing] will be opened when the occupation ends" and that Egypt is prepared to discuss fully opening the crossing point only when PA representatives show up on the Palestinian side, as stipulated in a 2005 Quartet agreement. Hamas is opposed to this agreement and considers it as part of the system of Israeli influence. Egypt itself did not sign that agreement. It has adopted it, but it is free to do whatever it wants on its side.

Since the flotilla incident, Egypt has indeed opened the crossing to Gaza Palestinians, and about 10,000 civilians were recorded passing through. However, it is not allowing free passage of goods. "This crossing point was never intended as a crossing point for goods," explained Aboul Gheit. Egypt does allow the passage of close associates of Hamas and delegations visiting the movement's leadership.

Fatah and Hamas received copies of the reconciliation agreement back in October 2009. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed it, while Hamas has been insisting on changes to some provisions on the integration of Hamas into the Palestine Liberation Organization and how elections are held in the territories. Egypt is not prepared to have the document changed, and blames Hamas for the delay.

Read the full article here

PathWalker comments:
It is fairly unpublished that Egypt is taking active role in the Ghaza siege.
While Israel is taking all the public heat. It is fairly understandable why Egyptian role in the siege is kept on low note.

Meanwhile Hamas local leaders are doing what ever they can to block any reconciliation with their people and the Israelis. There are the explicit political interest that push to Hamas to the extreme, while there are implicit undercover forces that maintain the extremist pressure (not Islamic religion - religion is a cover story). My personal belief is that sunlight purify pain.

Therefore my solution is, public exposure to the hidden forces that perpetuate more extremism, and feed fanaticism (into all involved stakeholders - not just Iran). When the real interest are revealed the people in the street will cease to comply. The street people are the guns feeds for TPTB larger picture.

[PathWalker]

Israel's master plan to take over East Jerusalem and disperse its Arab population

Instead of reversing decades of neglect to meet the needs of Jerusalem's Palestinian residents, the plan backs up the local and national governments' apparent desire to relocate as many Arabs as possible to the margins of the municipal boundaries; to promote overcrowding in East Jerusalem in the hope that Palestinians will leave the city of their own accord, by developing new neighborhoods on the margins of the city and by making proposed construction in the heart of East Jerusalem impossible; and to accelerate evictions and house demolitions.

The Master Plan, the first in 50 years, was created by the Jerusalem municipality over the past decade, and is intended to shape the city for at least the next 25 years. The plan must be approved at the national level by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee and pass public muster before becoming official policy.

Read the full report in here

PathWalker comments
At last Israel is publicly revealing the implicit policy in East Jerusalem, taking place since 1967.
I truly believe that this disclosure is a good sign. Especially when it comes from Israeli officials. I am quite confident there is more to come.

[PathWalker]

MESS Report / Israel exposes valuable intelligence to warn Hezbollah

Israel is planning for the next round of fighting in the north by publicizing that Hezbollah has moved most of its facilities into southern Lebanon's Shi'ite villages.
By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel

Four years after the end of the Second Lebanon War, the Northern Command of the Israel Defense Forces did something unusual on Wednesday: A great deal of valuable intelligence information about the Lebanese town of al-Hiyam, presumably gathered over a long period of time, was sacrificed for a much greater purpose. The command presented to the media, in great detail, Hezbollah military preparations in the southeast Lebanon town, including accurate maps, photographs and information about Hezbollah military installations situated near civilian buildings such as schools and hospitals.

The move was not solely in the service of Israel's public relations. The head of the Strategic Division of the IDF Planning Branch, Brig. Gen. Yossi Hayman, presented it in June at United Nations headquarters. This is a battle for political legitimacy and credibility. Israel is planning for the next round of fighting in the north and assumes that it will involve hard combat with Hezbollah, which has moved most of its bunkers, command centers and rocket stores in southern Lebanon out of fields and into the 160 Shi'ite villages and towns in the area. In doing so the organization is implementing lessons that came out of combat in Lebanon in 2006 and the Gaza Strip in 2008.

The publication of detailed information about Hezbollah's intentions sends the organization a clear warning of what it can expect to face if it starts a war while preparing the international community for the measures the IDF is likely to take. The optimists believe that Hezbollah will think twice before starting a provocation (in part because it is now aware of the extent of Israeli intelligence penetration of its ranks ).


Read full report in here

PathWalker comments
Apparently Israel is taking action to chill the winds of war from the Arab nations I reported last week. Therefore we are assured that there are counter balances to the war mongering parties.

[Rocky_Shorz]

One of the last Shiite leaders in Lebanon standing against Iranian control just passed away...

During the '90s, Fadlallah had a falling out with Hezbollah and Iran. The sticking point was the concept of Velyat-e Faqih, or guardianship of the jurist, which held that the supreme religious and political authority for Hezbollah was Iran's Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pride played an issue for Fadlallah, who was a true scholar—a marja al-taqlid, or source of emulation—for millions of Shiites around the world. Khamenei was a mid-level cleric whose stature rested on his ability to maneuver among allies and adversaries in Tehran.


full story

[Gita]

Quote

For Propaganda to Work, It Must First Be Believable: The Captured Palestinian Missile Launching Garbage Truck
posted by [Redacted] on Friday, July 9, 2010

I received a wonderful piece of racist propaganda today by email from a dupe, someone who is obviously Pro-Israeli War Crime, a proponent of the genocide of an occupied people, the original inhabitants of Palestine or maybe just a paid shill, an internet troll mouthpiece paid by AIPAC for this type of PR work.

The email in this instance is entitled, "HAVE YOU SEEN THIS ON OUR NEWS ??????" and only an uneducated zionist-friendly tard could believe something so stupid and would definitley not do any type of research to see if it was true, taking it at face value and forwarding it as the gospel truth!

After the war crimes charges following USrael's Cast Lead war operation on women and children in United Nations schools and hospitals, raining down death in the form of white phosphorous to kill all, the disastrous military attack and targeted assassinations on the Gaza Flotilla- of civilians and members of European parliaments on US and other NATO flagged ships - and now their push for the US to send our teenaged sons and daughters to die in a war against Iran for USrael, Iran being a country that has not attacked anyone in 200 years in contrast to USrael's wars of aggression since their inception, they will keep pumping the net full of this really poor attempt at propaganda. I used to do so much better when I worked in US intelligence overseas during the Cold War for all of the alphabets, creating anti-Soviet propaganda for use behind the Iron Curtain - and that was during the paste-and-layup days before we had the use of computers, long before the wonderful world of Adobe and their Creative Suite - when Photoshop was still a noun, before becoming a verb and was still a place to buy photographic artwork in frames, but I digress.

Here's the context of the viral email in all of its horrible formatting, probably to look like it came from just some bad typing American rather than out of some PR agency:

Captured Palestinian "garbage truck" from Gaza .


This is a captured Palestinian garbage truck from Gaza .

The truck is set up to fire 9 Kasem rockets and then drive off innocently.

The note pasted on the drivers door says In case of traffic violations, please contact The Palestinian Authority.

The Israelis have evidence of ambulances and emergency vehicles set up the same way.
Doesn't it make you all "warm and fuzzy" that Obama just gave
the Palestinians 400 million dollars from your taxes?

This is a system to direct exhaust gas from a matching manifold under the cab. Notice that you’ve never seen the lower back/bottom of the cab in ANY of the pictures. These same pictures were addressed in 2002, and these same trucks are still being used today, but not to launch rockets. This type of exhaust configuration is common on various types of dump trucks used around the world, to keep the contents hot, and/or keep the wet contents from freezing to the steel bed.


As you'll notice here, in this patent PDF entitled "Truck Body and Method of Heating Same," filed January 2, 1932 by Ray Ferwerda and given the patent number 1,942,207 on March 12, 1934, it states "...I have developed a truck body, the end, sides and bottom of which are so constructed as to permit heating thereof by the exhaust gases from the vehicle on which the body is mounted, such heating being wholly reliable efficient and inexpensive..." So there is nothing special about the technology being used almost a century later, the same type of mechanism that the ancient wealthy Romans used millennia ago to heat their floors using hot water pipes beneath the floor.

Also, as posted on this site, you find an additional image of the truck with both the Israeli text boxes absent. In this instance on a Pro-War Crime fetish site, they are showing this same truck that was forwarded around the net as being a captured Palestinian truck now being shown earlier as a captured Iraqi truck from 2008. So which is it?


I guess brown people in a war torn sandy area of the mid-east make for easy insurgent or terrorist claims, a bit of racist profiling. Even on this fetish site pointed out by an AIPAC sympathizer, (AIPAC being a non-registered agent of a foreign government being a Mossad front, the same thing the recent supposed 10 "Russian spies" were charged with and not espionage in that FBI comedy), is vague in proof to the claims of it being a missile launcher.

Unquote

Continued here.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

"It's a Trick, We Always Use It." (calling people "anti-Semitic")

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jUGVPBO9_cA

[JoshERTW]

This song is a pretty good summation of official Israeli/US Foreign Policy

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sgpa7...eature=related

[PathWalker]

The sound of war and the business of war are not the same

Turkey expects 4 more Israeli UAVs - report

While demanding an Israeli apology for the flotilla interception which turned violent, Turkey looks to complete an Elbit Systems deal from 2004.
Globes' correspondent11 Jul 10 11:38
Turkish daily "Today's Zaman" reports that remaining four Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) out of ten that Turkey ordered from Israel are expected to be delivered in August. The Herons are manufactured by Elbit Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT) and Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI)

Read more here

PathWalker comments:
It seems like complete Hypocracy. No it is not, it is the way business is done in the middle east. It is common practice among the natives to sound one way and act the other. All in favor of divergent political interests. This practice was acceptable as long as there was absolute control on the media and there was no freedom of speech. Guess what. The word pass as fast as the internet. And the internet is under attack as well.

The Turks buy weapons from Israel in order to massacre the Kurds and accuse Israel for massacre the Palestinians. This is how business works in the region.

[PathWalker]

Israeli navy on alert as Libyan aid ship heads for Gaza

A Libyan ship carrying aid and activists is heading for Gaza in a mission that Israel has described as an "unnecessary provocation".

The Israeli navy is monitoring the vessel's progress and preparing to intervene if it continues on a course to Gaza.

"I say very clearly, no ship will arrive in Gaza. We will not permit our sovereignty to be harmed," the foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said in a radio broadcast.

The ship, Amalthea, sailed from Greece at the weekend. It is carrying up to 15 activists and 2,000 tonnes of food and medicine, according to the organisers, a charity chaired by a son of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

Read more here

PathWalker comments:
I wonder what is the true goal of this voyage. The Turkish flotilla more then achieved its political goals: put great pressure on Israel, and release the siege on Ghazza. The Israelis will not be as stupid for the second time. Or would they?

[PathWalker]

Limitation to freedom of speech in the mainstream media

A Shia cleric dies in Lebanon and a CNN journalist gets fired for her tweet praising him while a British ambassador is made to apologise for eulogising him on her blog.

It could be yet another story about the pitfalls of new media but it is really about the complexity of Middle Eastern politics, the passion it stirs and the nuances that get lost in the debate.

For Shias in Lebanon, Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah was a revered cleric and he is being mourned by thousands who saw him as their religious reference, or marjaa'.

Condolences also poured in from the region, from Jordan's King Abdullah - a Sunni - to Iraq's prime minister and the ruler of Kuwait.

But Ayatollah Fadlallah was also named in 1995 by the US treasury department as a Specially Designated Terrorist under a presidential executive order.

Read more here

PathWalker comments:

Think what is the difference with totalitarian (china, Russia, Egypt) media control from the western media control (US, UK, EU)

[PathWalker]

Iranian fighter turned US spy: Tehran will attack Israel

Former Revolutionary Guard member who relayed its secret operations to CIA for 10 years says Iran will commit 'most horrendous suicide bombing in human history' if not stopped

A former fighter in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) turned US spy offered a rare glance into one of the most complex countries in the Middle East.


During a conference held at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Friday, Reza Kahlili (pseudonym) estimated that Iran will eventually attack Israel, Europe and the Persian Gulf states. He called for a preemptive strike on the regime in Tehran, but not on the Iranian people or the country's infrastructure.

Read more here

PathWalker comments:
I do not believe a word, but let the reader decide. This is a war on conscious perception. TPTB try to create a war perception as they did in the Iraqi war 2002.

[morguana]

Posted by PathWalker (here)
Iranian fighter turned US spy: Tehran will attack Israel

Former Revolutionary Guard member who relayed its secret operations to CIA for 10 years says Iran will commit 'most horrendous suicide bombing in human history' if not stopped

A former fighter in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) turned US spy offered a rare glance into one of the most complex countries in the Middle East.


During a conference held at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Friday, Reza Kahlili (pseudonym) estimated that Iran will eventually attack Israel, Europe and the Persian Gulf states. He called for a preemptive strike on the regime in Tehran, but not on the Iranian people or the country's infrastructure.

Read more here

PathWalker comments:
I do not believe a word, but let the reader decide. This is a war on conscious perception. TPTB try to create a war perception as they did in the Iraqi war 2002.

please pathwalker can you supply us with a couple of other news sources covering this issue? i have had a quick look and couldnt find anything other than forum talk regarding this one artical.
always good to check around things, would be much apprectiated
cheers

[Samarkis]

Pathwalker!

I would like to request:
Can you put the articles in small print and your comments in big print???

Otherwise, which wolf are we feeding???
Many Thx!!

[PathWalker]

Posted by morguana (here)
please pathwalker can you supply us with a couple of other news sources covering this issue? i have had a quick look and couldnt find anything other than forum talk regarding this one artical.
always good to check around things, would be much apprectiated
cheers

The previous source was from Israeli news site, but here are some more links from the controlled media. From my perspective the syndicated media is controlled.
CNN

And there is development on this issue.

Iran: CIA conducting 'psychological warfare' against us
Medvedev: CIA Iran report 'worrying'
US: Iran Threatens Family of Nuclear Defector Shahram Amiri

I also wish to remind your of the old report from 2007 U.S. report: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003

I collected all from google news.

PathWalker comments:
It is all war on your perception. It is all a game of make believe. Connect the dots you wish to connect then, follow your heart. All sides in the game have a honorable role to play.
I wish out of the game. I believe that my way out is by changing the game rules. Exposure change the game rules. It worked with the swine flu, it worked with climategate.

[PathWalker]

Most Palestinians Believe Proximity Talks To Fail: Poll

RAMALLAH, July 12 (Benama) -- Most Palestinians believe the US-led indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) would fail, a poll showed on Monday.

According to Xinhua news agency, the survey, conducted by the West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO), said 53 percent of the surveyed expected the negotiations that started in May would fail, 37 percent said the proximity talks would be successful and 10 percent refused to answer the question.

Meanwhile, 53 percent of the 1,002 samples blamed Israel for the failure of the talks, saying the Jewish state "was not interested in peace." Only 11 percent said Israel wants to make peace.

The study showed the Palestinians shared pessimistic views on the possibility of reaching a peace deal with Israel next year.

Only 4.4 percent said the peace agreement was possible and 49 percent said it was impossible. However, 47 percent were less certain and said there "might be" a deal.

The poll also indicates the ceiling of expectations for US as 77 percent ruled out that the US supports a Palestinian plan to declare a statehood within two years regardless Israel's position.

The poll was conducted between June 17 to July 2 and samples were randomly selected from Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

PathWalker comments:
I believe as long as TPTB are involved and there are preconditions to communication. There is no sincerity. Both sides' leaders are corrupt. And the leaders are reflection of their people. We get what we deserve here in the hot pot.
There is great disillusionment on both side. Both are exhausted and very righteous. The mutual hate and pain are great.

[Steven]

Posted by PathWalker (here)
...It is all war on your perception. It is all a game of make believe... I wish out of the game. I believe that my way out is by changing the game rules. Exposure change the game rules...

I totally agree, exposure does change the game rules because the game they play with us is based upon 'ignorance' in its litteral meaning.

Namaste, Steven

[PathWalker]

U.S. threatens to stop financial aid to Jordan over nuclear dispute
The United States is threatening to stop providing financial assistance to Jordan if the country continues developing its nuclear program without coordination with Israel.

Following six months of talks, Jordan continues to refuse Israeli demands to be included in the extraction of uranium and has failed to secure American approval for its nuclear reactor project. Last month, the government in Amman accused Israel of undermining its efforts to create a peaceful nuclear program. At the time, King Abdullah II effectively told Israel to "mind [its] own business."


PathWalker comment:
Very delicate issue. I wonder how it slipped into the controlled media and why. It seems as if Israel PTB are not happy with the development.