Tuesday, April 06, 2010

ISRAEL BEWARE OF NEW ISRAEL FUND AND DALIT BAUM

A covert look at Dalit Baum & New Israel Fund-In-Depth undercover investigative report: Academic lesbians for jihad By Lee Kaplan, Communications Director

1 April 2010: The Israeli taxpayers should take notice of Dalit Baum who bills herself as a Professor of Gender Studies and World Economy at the University of Haifa and Beit Berl College. As these taxpayers work to feed their families in an always tight Israeli economy, little do they know that Dalit Baum is traveling the world and the Internet, funded in part by the two sinecures provided from these taxpayer-supported colleges in Israel, to do all she can to see that those taxpaying Israelis lose their jobs, if not their entire country, and that they be unemployed.

Dalit Baum
Dalit Baum’s specialty is promoting BDS, or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel as a modern extension of the Arab League Boycott. As a radical member of the Coalition of Women for Peace, an NGO set up mostly by lesbian academics in support of the Arabs getting whatever they want from Israel, Dalit Baum has further carved out a niche for herself in the subgroup titled Who Profits From the Occupation?

You want to know who profits from the Occupation? Dalit Baum profits, that’s who. Baum was the founder of the radical group Black Laundry that is composed of radical lesbians who support the misogynist Arabs in their quest to dismantle the Jewish state. One should write a book on Baum titled How to have an academic career based solely on your own sexual disambiguation and by destroying the State of Israel.The only advanced degree she holds is a PhD in mathematics. But her anti-Israel activism, or rather, subversion, lands her lots of teaching work worldwide where she strives to bring down the Jewish state. I searched for hours and could not find one book or significant academic article by Baum in either Gender Studies or Economics.
Despite this, Baum does the lecture circuit in the US in Women’s Studies departments, primarily ones that have lesbian activists like herself who will hire her. It’s easy to see how she proclaims herself an expert on Gender Studies since she is a study in and of herself. As for World Economy, she lectures on how to economically boycott Israel, so gets the bully pulpit of classrooms (particularly in America) to push that agenda too. Her reading materials for a course she gave once at UC Santa Cruz that required students plan and carry out an activist attack on something (preferably Israel) included a book by Miriam Simos, aka Starhawk, an International Solidarity Movement (ISM) crazy who tells everyone she is a witch and practices paganism. This is an example of the academic research and sourcing as practiced by Dalit Baum as a field of academic study.

Her real research is in how to help the Arabs destroy Israel.

On February 17, 2010, Dalit Baum gave a guest lecture in San Francisco, California that was sponsored by the UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine, part of the same ISM that foments riots every weekend in Bi’ilin and works to bring money and material goods to Hamas in Gaza. Baum’s Who Profits? website is even permanently linked on the SJP’s website where their mission is to destroy Israel.The purpose of her lecture was to train activists in San Francisco in how to expand the BDS campaign against Israel in America. About 35 hardcore radicals showed up for this session and I attended it undercover and filmed everything that is now viewable with this article.For an excellent example of how Dalit Baum over the last several years has routinely lied or distorted facts on the college lecture circuit in order to demonize the Jewish state, there is a post by a California blogger named Becky Johnson that illustrates Baum in action before a mostly college-aged audience in Santa Cruz, California, where she has been allowed to teach.Back then and even to this day, during the lecture I attended, and on her website, she says that Israel holds 10,000 political prisoners in its jails, meaning that every Palestinian Arab who murdered an Israeli, or attempted to, or built bombs, should be released unconditionally. She is not a pacifist working toward peace, but rather a subversive working to destroy the same state that employs her and gives her two sinecures to go abroad and isolate Israel in the world of public opinion.I arrived at Baum’s training lecture early at 745 Valenica Street in San Francisco to see her in action. At the door, I was asked to sign a pledge card agreeing to participate in activities to boycott any companies accused of being complicit with the occupation.

Literature accompanying the pledge card stated the goal of the campaign was to end the occupation and colonization of all Arab lands (i.e. Israel itself),to recognize the fundamental rights of the Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel (Israeli Arabs) to full equality (which they already have by law in Israel that is enforced by the government), and a guaranteed right of return of all refugees (any Arab who says he is one) to their homes and properties left in 1948 (the Catch 22 so there can never be peace without tearing apart the Jewish state).This wasn’t a limited program to make a peace settlement in the region, but another form of warfare against Jews, in essence, starving them out of their country and national homeland. This type of action was said to be nonviolent and helping human rights, that is, by starving the Jews into submission. This was a lecture by an Israeli woman (thing) who wants Israel destroyed to become Palestine despite her two-faced denials.The event was sponsored by the Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley that just fixed a divestment proposal to be passed by the student government there as well Break the Siege, a group that works to assist Hamas against Israel, by trying to stop Israel from preventing the importation of weapons into Gaza by sea or land from Iran.Of note, there was a colorful brochure handed out to us at the door for the Coalition of Women for Peace, the NGO that Dalit Baum also works for. CWP’s brochure boasted how “In November 2006 we led a collation of 17 Israeli organizations and more than 100 groups around the world to protest against the economic and military siege of the Gaza strip (in other words, support for Hamas). The one month campaign included demonstrations, public events, car convoys, an on-line petition and more.Another excerpt declared The world says no to Israeli occupation.

The document then had a section titled Re-framing Security. It explained that security was a euphemism to justify all military activity and the occupation of Palestinian territories.It continued,The Reframing Security Project explores this term from the broadest feminist-civil perspective, thus challenging the narrow militaristic understanding of security. Security in its civil forms includes aspects such as economic security (having a job, a roof over one’s head, access to health care), security in the family and the community (safety from gender-related violence, protection from crime, having one’s children safe in schools), environmental security (clean tap water, clean air), etc. The project generates critical discourse through lecture series, workshops and tours for groups of formal educators and informal educators (like Baum’s presentation that evening), young leaders, social activists and other actors for change.Ironically, the Boycott lecture and training that Baum was to give that evening, based on information from her, already has cost jobs and social welfare benefits to Israelis who I guess are not entitled to security in its civil forms. Gender related violence as honor killings is normal in the Palestinian Authority and prohibited in Israel, and Israeli children in Sderot at school are subject to missile attacks from Hamas that CWP supports, but this too is apparently lost on Baum and her supporters. Even Gaza enjoys clean water thanks to Israel, not Hamas.Despite this, Dalit Baum‘s perverse lecture implied that human rights would be served by denying these same basic feminist-civil ideas of security to Jews and other Israelis.The brochure then listed eleven CWP allies that are also affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement, such as Machsom Watch that interferes with Israeli soldiers at checkpoints, Women in Black that demonstrates also in favor of Hamas, New Profile that was recently raided by the police for encouraging desertion and draft dodging from the IDF, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, a pro-Marxist group that sponsors a woman named Anna Baltzer who tours churches in America giving Christians fake reports on how Israel routinely commits atrocities against innocent Arabs and where she concludes how violence against Israelis is a natural reaction to such things. Baltzer is against Israel existing as a Jewish state so it isn’t a stretch to figure out that Dalit Baum is on the same page given the evening’s lecture.

The back page of the brochure generated the most of my interest.It read, For a US-tax deduction (minimum $100), make out a check to New Israel Fund. Write in the memo line For the Coalition of Women for Peace and mail to NIF, 1101 14th Street NW, 6th Floor, Washington, DC 200005-5639.In Israel there has been a major scandal about the New Israel Fund (NIF) funding all manner of subversive and destructive organizations. Naomi Chazan, the head of NIF in Israel has denied publicly that NIF funds any such entities. Yet here in San Francisco was proof that NIF does exactly that; Baum’s event was advertised as a CWP event and her Who Profits? website is part of CWP. What most Israelis and even American Jews don’t know, is that above Chazan as Chairman of the Board of NIF, sits Martin Indyk, the former US State Department ambassador in Tel Aviv who has always opposed Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and supported Palestinian goals no matter how unreasonable. NIF was clearly funding this starve the Jews out lecture by Dalit Baum.So much for Chazan’s denials and further proof of a fifth column working from inside Israel’s academia funded from the outside.Other flyers handed out at the door urged End Apartheid. Boycott Israeli Goods,South Africa Did It, and Take the Pledge Now. Given that Israel is the only state in the Middle East that does not practice apartheid, the goal of the literature and speech that evening was to fool the naïve into thinking they are promoting a campaign as was conducted against former South Africa where apartheid was really practiced. Sadly, this manipulation of facts to fool people into hating Israel was further promoted by Baum during the evening’s talk. Still another flyer listed companies the pledges should work to boycott or encourage people to divest from. These companies included non-Israeli companies that were American firms that have Jewish managers or owners such as Estee Lauder.

In that case, it was explained that the owner, Ron Lauder, who is Jewish, volunteers for the Jewish National Fund, a quasi-national governmental organization that was established in 1901 to acquire Palestinian land… according to one flyer. It mentioned Lauder’s company was targeted for attack by Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT)another homosexual anarchist group that Dalit Baum belongs to.Given that the JNF purchased all its land legally before the creation of either Israel or a Palestinian state when the area was part of the Ottoman Empire, particularly back in 1901, and is somehow responsible for settlements today (meaning helping Jews find homes in Israel), Lauder’s company being listed is really a boycott against American Jews, if anything, and a violation of US Civil Rights Laws. Other American companies targeted for boycott included Hanes, Playtex, Champion, Ball Park Hot dogs and even the Wonderbra (perhaps a different type of support?).Even Victoria’s Secret’s bras were subject to the list because their cotton is grown in Israel on confiscated Palestinian land.Of course, since all of Israel is on confiscated Palestinian land in the view of Dalit Baum and her crowd, even the land purchased legally by Lauder’s Jewish National Fund back in 1901, this was a Boycott against all of Israel, not just the occupation of the West Bank or its settlements.This fact was also explained to us by Dalit Baum during her lecture. At first she said her group, Who Profits?, as part of the CWP, was only interested in the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, not inside the Green Line from 1948. Yet at one point during the lecture she told us that it is impossible to boycott just the occupied territories as they claim they do, that her group does indeed promote the boycott of all of Israel.Although the event was sponsored and advertised by the UC Berkeley chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine that only weeks later was to push through a divestment bill by the University’s student government, the evening was introduced as an event by the BACIA, the Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid. The host told us his group wasn’t shifting the debate away from the occupation,but rather devoting their efforts to do BDS work.

The goal of having Dalit Baum there that evening was to (1) get people to sign pledge cards to agree to boycott Israeli products (2) to damage the Israeli economy and 3) to keep in touch with a newsletter and other events to keep the boycott going.

Baum began her lecture by explaining that Who Profits? grew out of a discussion by CWP about the need to know more of the economic aspects of the 1967 occupation.She then went on to explain that it is impossible to separate the economy of the ’67 occupation from the entire community of Israel.Because of this, she said,we had to switch our thinking around.Occupation is expensive, costs a lot. Maybe we should pull out, too expensive to hold onto, when maybe the money could be used for health care,she explained.If you flip it, and look at it for profits and how all the money from US Israel relations goes to corporations and the military, some goes here, some goes there, we can trace money and look for a pattern.Israeli society profits from the occupation. Those close to the decision making in the government have more clout .Thus was born her organization and website with CWP, Who Profits? she explained, as a means of direct influence on Israel’s economy with three categories of involvement:The main idea is for activists to show things openly so as to invade the privacy of corporations or the government.Next, came the settlements calling to report on anything built beyond the Green Line. Although CWP is run by an Arab leader and an Israeli, she stated that since she and her colleagues are Israelis it allows them freedom of movement including at checkpoints only Israelis could have. She explained that most of her work involved taking photographs and using Google. She boasted about how she was told it is illegal for security reasons to take photos at checkpoints and how she scoffed at the soldiers who told her so, continuing on anyway.

She flashed a photo of the entrance to the Barkan Industrial Zone in Judea/Samaria, The biggest center with all the money,she said and explained how she made it a major target for boycott.It’s near the settlement of Ariel, she explained,most of their exports are kitchen items.She said that the settlers send her letters: They really were angry. We employ Palestinians, provide a service, why are you against us? she almost snickered. She said she replied to them We are doing what we can for peace, and offered them a chance to work with CWP to help Palestinians or do what she termed Green Work.The only Green Work I saw was Hamas green.There are many initiatives to boycott settlement products…, she continued,…very tiny, very small initiatives. Don’t buy settlement products. We want people to do much more.The life in Israel is affected by the economy of the settlements, she explained, as she described some of the settlement products such as halvah, and seasonings and herbs, whose origins in the settlements is concealed by some companies that use non-settlement addresses inside Israel.She explained the reason for this was Israel has free trade agreements with the US and EU that may not include the occupied territories. As such, her movement could force these Israeli companies to pay higher import taxes citing Germany as an example of how her group made some of the companies pay higher customs duties.This, of course, lowers profits and can cost people jobs. But Dalit Baum was on a mission and just getting warmed up.She mentioned that IT customer services are big in the settlements, as well.Two companies provide this,she said. She explained how people in America who thought they were calling an American customer service agent in the US were rerouted to places like Modi’in in Israel where there is usually an American Jewish woman who answers the phone and provides the service.It’s important to know which companies do the service,she said.

Why? So maybe she and her boycott acolytes can cost that woman a job. After all, what better way to promote peace as the Arab League see it? What Dalit Baum doesn’t mention during her lecture is that Modi’in is well within the Green Line from 1948 and has been a Jewish city for millennia. Baum uses deceptive language to imply that even parts of Israel, separate from disputed territory taken in 1967, are settlements stolen from the Arabs. This is nothing more then subversion and giving aid to Israel’s enemies. What she can’t do to hurt her fellow Israelis with guns she will do with disinformation and words. Then again, as an academic she lectures all the time in two Israeli universities on topics she also knows little about.Next, she mentioned Lev Leviev’s company for targeting. It seems the Leviev company does building in the settlements.It’s not just a product, it’s also construction, she advised. Maybe she can cost some construction workers, even Palestinian ones, their jobs too. It won’t cost the PLO or Hamas leaders she shills for any income, but the average Palestinian can be sure to find less work then blame it on Israel thanks to Dalit Baum.She then went after services provided to Israelis in Judea and Samaria by companies inside the Green Line. Such companies don’t provide the same services to the Palestinians, she said, recounting a letter from a victim of her project who said flatly,We do not discriminate.But she went on that it was a very clear apartheid economy, not for the Palestinians.She did not define what these services were. Perhaps gun cleaning and bomb assembly for the Palestinian Authority?

She took relish in discussing the Veolia corporation as being a good example of a good organizing campaign.Veolia, a French firm, provides myriad services abroad and in Israel, but mainly in the EU such as water services, public transportation and waste removal. She explained that privatization of services had made it easier to facilitate the boycott internationally and how they were able to get smaller municipalities overseas to boycott Veolia by going to local governments and getting them to refuse to work with the French company for violating international law for dealing with Israel. CWP and Who Profits? obviously work with Arabs overseas to organize these campaigns.The occupied territories are in dispute and the settlements are not illegal, but Baum constantly recites the Arab propaganda line that they are and her trainees do the same in the EU and elsewhere overseas. She boasted that evening in San Francisco that they got the city of Galway in Ireland to refuse business with Veolia and the Norwegian capital of Oslo to do the same.The next time a city needs clean streets they will know not to deal with Veolia,she bragged, and then explained that her actions and group had cost the company $10 billion dollars in contracts and how that’s a lot of money.It sure is. And it’s a lot of Israeli jobs lost too. She then explained how Veolia pulled out of a contract to build a light railway to Judea and Samaria from Jerusalem as the result of her work, thus depriving Israelis of transportation as well as jobs.Next, she discussed an action of which she said, I am really proud. A Belgian bank named Dexia bought an Israeli bank that loaned money to Israelis to buy homes in Judea and Samaria. It was Dalit Baum and Who Profits?, working with the Palestinians, who began a campaign in Europe to have the bank boycotted for loaning money to many of the municipalities in Judea and Samaria. The situation resulted in Knesset hearings because the bank was not loaning money to these Israeli residents. It is important to understand that regardless if one thinks borders should be redrawn in a final peace settlement, the uprooting of Jewish communities is not a route to peace. Dalit Baum, however, wants the Arabs to take all of Israel, only starting with Judea and Samaria. Her actions got the governments of France and Belgium to pressure Dexia to not give loans to Israeli citizens, the same ones who pay her salaries at Israeli universities.

But wait, there’s so much more:She told us how in the UK, food products produced in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria have to be labeled so as to be more easily boycotted as a result of her efforts. It’s really great, she said, and it makes organizing supermarket boycott events so much easier.It should be noted a similar campaign was done with the French supermarket chain Carrefour where Arabs marched through the market pulling Israeli goods off the shelves (not just from settlements) and destroyed them. Local activists tried doing this at Trader Joe’s in the San Francisco Bay Area but were advised by law enforcement it’s illegal to tamper with the public food supply.She boasted that she spends all her time looking for logos: Danone, Coca-Cola, Disney—anything, especially companies that are well-known in Israel in order to hurt their businesses through her activism to get them to change their policy.Fruits and vegetable are especially a target for Dalit Baum, so maybe she is attracted to such products because she is so like one of them.She claimed that Israel requires the Palestinians to buy important products at higher prices from Israel and prevents the PA from exporting unless it is cheap goods. This may be true, but the PA is under license to Israel that subsidizes it and has a right to control financial exports until there is a Palestinian state. This, she did explain, was because of the Oslo Accords. What she did not explain was that the only requirement for a PA state was the Arabs stop terrorism and arrest terrorists, something they refuse to do.Of course Israel has a right to control imports and exports until the Arabs produce a truly peaceful state next door. The importation of weapons is a favorite Arab import right now.

She accused Israel of controlling Palestinian water also. The water systems that provide clean water to the Holy Land were built and run by Israel to this day. Israel provides clean water even to Gaza where missiles are fired from at Israel. If the Arabs were given unfettered control of the water supply the first thing they would do is prevent Israel’s access to it from Lake Kinneret or even poison it if it goes to Jewish communities. None of this was explained by Dalit Baum, only her idea that Israel denies Palestinians Palestinian water that would be subject to Israeli control.She next displayed a photograph of many common Israeli logos that represented companies in cellular communications, banks, transportation, fuel, chain stores and even food.You cannot live in Israel without using these companies,she explained,This is why it is impossible to boycott settlements and not Israel. Her statements prove she knows she is damaging the livelihood of all Israelis, not just those in Jewish communities in Yesha.Offering more entities to attack, she said, Banks are good. They give construction loans for settlements (Jewish homes). All Israeli banks are complicit. If you have bank concerns that you can convince the EU are illegal, this is good. They can’t transfer funds, or open new branches or open new bank accounts.

This cost jobs in Israel.She then accused Israel of exploiting the Palestinian labor force. Israel doesn’t give jobs to the Palestinian Arabs, she claimed, it takes advantage of them (in the PA one of the best jobs is as a terrorist with $50K a year paid to Al Aksa terrorists, something she didn’t bother to mention). In fact, Arabs who work in construction for Jewish firms make sizeable incomes.Israel just does everything bad, you see, according to Dalit Baum. She found on Google a toxic waste dump in Yesha so the Israelis are dumping toxic waste on the Arabs even if it is on unused former Jordanian state land that is not lived on. She complained about a new light railway system from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem that takes 28 minutes but some in Israel objected to the noise near their homes. She alleged the route was changed to go through the West Bank to annoy the Arabs with the noise. Israel has hired an Italian firm to build a tunnel so as to abate the noise, she told us, and then said, It would be a good idea to start a campaign in Italy to stop the tunnel.More Israeli jobs lost.She continued,We have some reason to believe, some people told us that the kibbutz that manufactures Ahava skin care products might excavate some of the mud next to the Dead Sea shores for their product.She described this taking mud to make a saleable product abroad as pillage that is illegal per international law.Baum is not an international attorney and Ahava has been making skin care products forever. While the Arabs were training their kids how to shoot Jews and throw rocks, the Kibbutz at the Dead Sea produced a product from mud. Even this is objectionable to Baum and should be subject to international boycott.She attacked the gas supplier for Gaza for controlling gas supplies to Hamastan in favor of the Israeli government in time of war. Then she moved on to connections with the US complaining about Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut in Israel, more targets to boycott inside the Green Line.She mentioned an Israeli company that has one hundred 7/11 stores in the United States that need to be boycotted here and would thus cost American jobs in a bad economy too. It’s your job to find out about such companies and to attack them financially, she said.An audience member asked her what her position was on cases such as former PA Prime Minister Qureia holding a monopoly of the cement business in the PA.Oooh, a political hot potato,she said. Then continued, We only concern ourselves with Israeli companies and not what the Palestinians do.

So much for objectivity.She claimed next that her organization does not concern itself with weapons companies and says so on her website. However, it was plain to be this was a ruse to prevent the Israeli government from seeing her as a security risk that she clearly is. She told us that Israeli weapons do merit an investigation then showed us photos of security systems manned around Gaza by female IDF personnel.
It was at this point she moved into sedition as far as I was concerned. She showed a photo of a scanner at the Kalandia checkpoint and explained how she took pictures of it in defiance of orders by soldiers not to do so. She then explained the logo she found (she said she searches for logos at the checkpoints) revealed the scanner was made by an American company, but further research showed it was purchased by Israel through a Danish subsidiary. She explained how she and her allies took the issue before the Danish parliament. Their problem was how to convince the Danes that the scanner was from a Danish company and not America and they did just that, convincing the Danish government to not allow any future sales of the security equipment. She showed us how identity cards are made by a particular system for the Palestinian Arabs that allows them to pass through the checkpoints using biometric data, another target to pursue by ending business with Israel.Both of the above security systems save both Israeli and Palestinian lives, both Jews and Arabs, by stopping suicide bombers and terrorists. But Dalit Baum wants to facilitate their entry into Israel in her perception of peace that is definitely sedition for Arab enemies. Even the biometric cards that would make it faster and easier for Arabs to cross the checkpoints don’t escape her boycott plans.The rest of the lecture actually was devoted to attacking the weapons systems and security apparatus she claimed she does not pursue. She discussed the companies that build the Security Fence and boycotting them (The Security Fence has reduced terrorist bombings inside Israel by 95%). She boasted how the company that manufactures the fence used to have logos all along the fence but that now they are no longer seen due to her group’s efforts.

Again, more Israeli jobs lost.She mentioned how she and her acolytes go to the weekly riots in Bi’ilin and Ni’ilin in order to search for more Israeli companies to boycott worldwide.Then she concluded her presentation by discussing—weapons systems. She discussed drones used at sea and in the air. Displaying a photo of a drone boat used off Gaza, she claimed it was used to shoot at Palestinian fishermen, a barefaced lie.The sea drones are used to combat weapons and explosives smugglers. She also discussed the air force drones and unmanned vehicles then mentioned Elbit Systems, Israel’s weapons manufacturer, that makes missiles to shoot into people’s homes.She also mentioned that while her website features information on about 500 companies that they work to boycott Israel from, she has another thousand that she doesn’t post on the site. The Shin Bet should see those files.At the conclusion of her presentation, a member of the ISM in the audience pointed out I was in the room. Instead of running away as he must have thought I’d do, I went up to Dalit Baum and introduced myself by shaking her hand. I wrote an article about you, I said. She replied,I know. I read it. There isn’t a word of it that is true.Really? I said. As a journalist I surely don’t want to write things that are untrue. Can you tell me what I wrote in that article that isn’t true? I can even do corrections, if so. She couldn’t answer.Finally, she said, I don’t make a career out of reading your articles.I only wrote one article about you, I replied. Surely you can think of just one thing I wrote or said in the article that is untrue? You just said not one word in the article was true. Can you tell me one thing I wrote about you that’s not true in the article? I asked again.She just walked away without answering confirming that what I had written about her was, indeed, true.It’s one thing to be a pacifist, it’s even another to want to give concessions to the Palestinian Arabs in a delusional dream they will stop killing Jews, but for Dalit Baum, these are only ruses for a woman who wants Israel destroyed, and who will stop at nothing to do so by traveling worldwide and doing it by economic warfare. She is the most dangerous woman, er, person, in Israel in my opinion and of more danger than an armed terrorist, because her activities open the doors for terrorists by subverting Israel’s economy and security systems unconditionally in favor of the Arab terrorist groups. I firmly believe that’s what she really wants to do. Her deconstructing of the Israeli economy is chilling. All the while she is doing this on the Israeli taxpayer’s dime.

Maybe it’s time to boycott Dalit Baum? Want to complain? Contact University of Haifa and Beit Berl College administrators. They too have families in Israel who are threatened by this woman:President of the University of Haifa Prof. Aaron Ben-Ze’ev
Tel: 972-4-8240101 Fax: 972-4-8288110 E-mail: abenzeev@univ.haifa.ac.il
President of Beit Berl College Dr. Tamar Ariav Tel: 972 (9) 747 8701
Fax: 972 (9) 7478700 Email: ariavt@beitberl.ac.il

Sunday, April 04, 2010

CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE EASTER IN JERUSALEM

KING JESUS THE GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WORLD LIVES TODAY ON RESURRECTION SUNDAY SO WE CAN LIVE WITH HIM FOREVER ON EARTH WHEN HE RETURNS SHORTLY.

Christian pilgrims mark Easter in Jerusalem by Majeda El Batsh – Sun Apr 4, 7:38 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Thousands of Christian pilgrims streamed into Jerusalem's cavernous Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Easter Sunday at the traditional site of Jesus's crucifixion and burial.Incense filled the air as Western and Orthodox pilgrims packed into the labyrinthine maze of chapels and crypts lit by thousands of candles as services were held at the grotto where Jesus is believed to have risen from the dead.Women in shawls knelt to kiss the stone where Jesus's body is believed to have been prepared for burial as bearded monks in long black robes watched over visitors making their way through Christianity's holiest site.I came all the way from Belarus for the holiday,said Lana, 38, as she waited in a long line at one of the chapels.I am so happy to be able to light a candle at this holy tomb.

The centuries-old church is shared uneasily by six denominations of Jesus Christ's followers -- Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Egyptian Copts, Syrian Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox.In previous years Israeli police have had to rush into the church to break up fist fights between rival monks over alleged attempts to alter a delicate status quo hammered out over centuries, but this year calm prevailed.The Latin Patriarch Fuad Twal welcomed the fact that Easter fell on the same day for Western and Eastern denominations, saying in his Easter sermon that this year... our joy is double.Someone might be disturbed by the overlapping of prayers and songs... Yet this seeming cacophony, lived in faith, becomes instead a symphony that expresses the unity of the faith,he said.Israeli police had stepped up security across the walled Old City during holy week, when thousands of pilgrims trace Jesus's final steps through its winding cobblestone streets.Israel maintained a general closure of the West Bank imposed for the weeklong Jewish Passover holiday but the military said it issued more than 10,000 permits allowing Palestinian Christians to enter for up to two weeks.Another 500 Christians from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, about a fourth of the territory's tiny non-Muslim minority, were also granted permits to travel to Israel and the West Bank, according to the military.The Palestinians have however complained of restrictions, including long waits at the hundreds of checkpoints scattered across the occupied territory.My family got permits to come to Jerusalem but they decided not to because they will suffer at Qalandiya,said Rimas Kasabreh, 34, a Greek Orthodox woman living in Jerusalem, referring to the main checkpoint outside the city.Her family hails from a village near the northern West Bank town of Jenin.The lines take hours. It would spoil the happiness of the holiday,she said.Jerusalem, with famed sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, has seen rising tensions in recent weeks following Israel's announcement of plans for new Jewish settlements in the mostly Arab eastern side of the city.The Old City is part of east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed in a move not recognised by any other government.

Israel views all of Jerusalem as its eternal, undivided capital, but the Palestinians have demanded east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the dispute over the city has paralysed US-led peace efforts.In an Easter message delivered at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI called for a true exodus from the Middle East conflict. I pray... that in the Middle East, and especially in the land sanctified by (Christ's) death and resurrection, the peoples will accomplish a true and definitive exodus from war and violence to peace and concord,he said.

Pope hailed as unfailing leader at Easter Mass By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer - APR 4,10

VATICAN CITY – A senior cardinal staunchly defended Pope Benedict XVI from petty gossip on Sunday as the pontiff maintained his silence on mounting sex abuse cover-up accusations during his Easter message.The ringing tribute by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, at the start of Mass attended by tens of thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square, marked an unusual departure from the Vatican's Easter rituals.Sodano's defense of the pope's unfailing leadership and courage, as well as of the work of priests worldwide with children entrusted to their care, built on a vigorous Vatican campaign to defend Benedict's moral authority.The pontiff and other church leaders have been assailed by accusations from victims of clergy sexual abuse that he helped shape and perpetuate a climate of cover-up toward the crimes against children in parishes, schools, orphanages and other church-run institutions.Dressed in gold robes and shielded from a cool drizzle by a canopy, Benedict looked weary as he listened to Sodano's speech at the start of Mass in the cobblestone square bedecked with daffodils, tulips and azaleas.

In early evening, the pope, who turns 83 later this month, was to fly by helicopter to the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside retreat in the Alban Hills southeast of Rome, where he will greet pilgrims from the palace courtyard balcony on Monday.Easter Sunday Mass was the highlight of a heavy schedule of public appearances by the pope before the thousands of faithful who have poured into Rome for Holy Week services.With this spirit today we rally close around you, successor to (St.) Peter, bishop of Rome, the unfailing rock of the holy church, Sodano said. "Holy Father, on your side are the people of God, who do not allow themselves to be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment, by the trials which sometimes buffet the community of believers.At the end of the two-hour long ceremony, Benedict delivered the papacy's traditional Easter Urbi et Orbi message — Latin for to the city and to the world — which analyzes humanity's failings and hopes.Benedict singled out the trials and sufferings of Christians in Iraq and Pakistan, noting that these believers have risked persecution and death for their faith. He urged hope for the people of Haiti and Chile, devastated by earthquakes. He said Easter could signal the victory of peaceful coexistence and respect in crime-ravaged areas of Latin American countries plagued by drug trafficking and said he would pray for peace in the Middle East.But, despite repeated appeals by victims of clerical sexual abuse that he take responsibility for his role in the handling of pedophile priests, he stayed silent on that issue. The victims contend there were decades of systematic cover-up by bishops in many countries, including the United States, Ireland and Benedict's native Germany.

They want him to demand the resignations of bishops complicit in any conspiracy to shield pedophile priests by shuffling them from parish to parish instead of kicking them out of the priesthood.The accusations against the pope stem from his leadership as archbishop of Munich before he came to the Vatican three decades ago, as well as his long tenure in Rome leading the Holy See's office dealing with a growing pile of dossiers about pedophile priests.Sunday's edition of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano denounced the accusations against the pope as a vile defamation operation.Benedict hasn't made any explicit reference to the sex abuse scandals since he released a letter to the Irish faithful concerning the abuse crisis in that country on March 20.

Sodano defended the church's priests as well as the pontiff.Especially with you in these days are those 400,000 priests who generously serve the people of God, in parishes, recreation centers, schools, hospitals and many other places, as well as in the missions in the most remote parts of the world,the cardinal said.In rushing to Benedict's defense, the Vatican has angered abuse victims and their advocates. Jewish leaders also fumed after the papal preacher in a Good Friday sermon told the pope that the accusations against him were akin to the campaign of anti-Semitic violence that culminated in the Holocaust. The preacher, the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, told Corriere della Sera daily in an interview Sunday that he had no intention of hurting the sensibilities of the Jews and of the victims of pedophilia.
I have sincerely regretted and I ask forgiveness, reaffirming my solidarity with both lobbies, he was quoted as saying.

Israel allows commercial shipment of goods into Gaza by Sakher Abu El Oun – APR 4,10

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israel on Sunday allowed the first commercial shipment of clothes and shoes into the Gaza Strip since 2008 but said its policy towards the territory's Hamas rulers had not changed.A Palestinian official had earlier said the five truckloads of clothes and five of shoes were the first such shipment since the summer of 2008, but later clarified that smaller amounts of such items had entered Gaza as part of international aid packages.Today is the first time they have allowed the private sector to bring clothes and shoes into Gaza since August 2008, said Raid Fatuh, the Palestinian Authority border official in charge of coordinating such shipments.After the Gaza war in 2009 UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees) and other international organisations brought in aid that included clothes and shoes, but it was a small amount.A military official said the shipment was part of a long-standing policy of allowing basic goods into the territory ruled by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, which is sworn to Israel's destruction and blacklisted as a terrorist group by the West.This is a regular shipment that enters every few months. There has been no change in policy, he said on condition of anonymity.Israel has sealed the territory of 1.5 million people off from all but vital aid since Hamas seized power there in June 2007, tightening sanctions imposed after the 2006 capture of an Israeli soldier.However, large amounts of clothing, domestic appliances and other basic goods are smuggled in through tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border, and although prices have gone up, there are no shortages of such goods.

The military official said Sunday's shipment was part of a package of goods approved for UN-run projects in the impoverished territory.Everything is coordinated with the UN so we are sure who is getting the clothes, he said.The Israeli official said the approved package would include a rare shipment of cement to be used for a UN waste water project, without specifying the amount or date of the shipment.Israel will not allow the reconstruction of Gaza, which we regard as a terrorist entity because it is controlled by Hamas and the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is still held captive, he said.Shalit was captured by Hamas and two smaller militant groups in a deadly cross-border raid nearly four years ago. Hamas has said it will only release him in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.UN chief Ban Ki-moon said during a visit to Gaza last month that Israel had approved the import of construction materials for UN projects to build 150 homes, a flour mill and a sewage treatment plant.He referred to the projects as a drop in the bucket, but expressed hope that they could pave the way for further reconstruction.The closures have prevented virtually any reconstruction following the December 2008 to January 2009 Gaza war, which killed some 1,400 Palestinians and destroyed thousands of homes.

Thirteen Israelis were killed during the offensive, which was aimed at halting years of near-daily rocket attacks on southern Israel.Israel has said any construction materials could be hijacked by Hamas and used for underground bunkers and makeshift rockets. Critics of the policy have said militant groups get all the cement they need from the tunnels.

Holy Fire brings Jerusalem Easter to joyful climax By Alastair Macdonald – Sat Apr 3, 2:47 pm ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Bells, drums, ecstatic chants and flaming candles lit from the tomb of Jesus brought Easter to a joyful climax in Jerusalem on Saturday for Palestinians and thousands of Orthodox Christian pilgrims from around the world.

Sectarian tensions were, as ever, in evidence at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the ceremony of the Holy Fire, which symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus after his death on the cross. But, under a heavy Israeli police presence, there was none of the factional violence that has seen rival clergy trade punches -- and even a stabbing -- in the past few years.A mass influx of Russian and other visitors from the former Soviet bloc, and the absence of many Palestinians denied permits from Israel to enter the Old City, confirmed the changing face of Christian rites in Jerusalem since the fall of Communism.The coincidence of the Easter calendars of the Eastern and Western churches has prompted ecumenical gatherings during Holy Week, notably among the dwindling Christian communities in the West Bank, where Israeli occupation and more militant Islam have fostered emigration in recent years, local church figures said.Roman Catholics and Protestants, however, eschew the Holy Fire rite; Western visitors have for centuries scoffed at the ceremony in which the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem produces a lighted candle from the sealed and empty tomb -- without the aid of matches or other, visible, terrestrial aids.At times, terrible stampedes have left worshippers injured or even killed. Several hundred died in a crush in 1834.

RIVAL CELEBRATIONS

For thousands of locals and foreigners packed in the many corners of the ancient church around the ornate stone tomb on the traditional site of the crucifixion and resurrection, the ritual progressed much as it is must have done for a millennium.

For hours, competing chants, singing and processions marked out areas of the church dominated by the Greek Orthodox and the Armenians, congregations which, with Roman Catholics, have the main rights to the Holy Sepulchre through an arrangement drafted under 19th century Ottoman Turkish rulers anxious for calm.Colorful, noisy groups from other denominations, including Copts from Egypt and Syrian Orthodox, added to the throng.A couple of dozen teenagers in uniform red T-shirts from one church group, Roman Catholic monks observing with detachment from the upper balconies, and a preponderance of heavy-set young men in clerical garb at the forefront of the main Greek and Armenian delegations lent an air of sporting competition.But fears of a showdown between the two denominations, whose clergy engaged in a widely televised bout of fisticuffs inside the church less than 18 months ago, proved unfounded.The Greek patriarch and a senior Armenian cleric both emerged from the tomb bearing the holy fire for their followers.In seconds, light spread around the darkened chapels as the delighted faithful lit one bunch of candles from flaming others.This is the greatest joy of my life,said 64-year-old Suhair Amin, who had travelled two days by bus from Egypt and said many of her Coptic fellows were denied entry to the church.

Competition for places has become particularly intense with Israel's opening of visa-free travel for Russians, tens of millions of whom have embraced the Orthodox Christianity long frozen out under Communism. One Russian attending on Saturday said he had paid $700 for a pass given by one denomination.Asked whether it was worth it, as the candle flames raced around the church, he was speechless, simply beaming in reply.Members of smaller but hitherto influential denominations in Jerusalem, like the Greeks and Armenians, are wary of the surge in numbers and money coming from Russia -- and of Israel's potential to use its control as a diplomatic bargaining chip with Moscow, at the expense of smaller churches.(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Israel warns of new Gaza assault as US urges restraint by Gavin Rabinowitz – Sat Apr 3, 6:07 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Friday threatened widescale military action against the Gaza Strip after launching a string of air strikes in response to rocket fire from the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.However, the United States urged restraint on both sides, saying there was no military solution to the conflict.Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom warned of a new offensive on the coastal territory unless militant rocket attacks ceased.If this rocket fire against Israel does not stop, it seems we will have to raise the level of our activity and step up our actions against Hamas, Shalom told public radio.We won't allow frightened children to again be raised in bomb shelters and so, in the end, it will force us to launch another military operation.I hope we can avoid it, but it is one of the options we have, and if we don't have a choice, we will use it in the near future, he said.Three Palestinian children -- aged two, four and 11 -- were hit by flying glass in one of six overnight raids, said Moawiya Hassanein, head of the Palestinian emergency services in Gaza.

There were no other reports of casualties.

The head of the Islamist Hamas movement's government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniya, blamed the Jewish state for the increase in tensions.We call on the international community to intervene to stop this escalation and Israeli aggression, he said in a statement. Israel closer to death if it attacks Gaza: Ahmadinejad

In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters Israel has a right to self-defence. At the same, as we've said many times, we don't ultimately think there is a military solution to this, he said.Our message remains to the Israelis and Palestinians that we need to get the proximity talks going, focus on the substance, move to direct negotiations and ultimately arrive at a settlement that ends the conflict once and for all.Britain and France also expressed concern at the escalation, calling for restraint and the launch of US-backed indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.We call on all parties to show restraint,a Foreign Office spokeswoman said in London. We encourage Israelis and Palestinians to focus efforts on negotiation and to engage urgently in US-backed proximity talks.In Paris, France's foreign ministry echoed British concern.Any initiative likely to raise tension is not appropriate, not welcome, not constructive, said ministry spokesman Bernard Valero, urging all sides to act responsibly and take brave and necessary measures to restore trust.The air strikes came after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants landed near the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon late on Thursday, causing damage but no casualties, the military said.Nearly 20 rockets have been fired into Israel in the past month, including one that killed a Thai farm worker, in the worst violence since the end of Israel's 22-day assault on Gaza that began in December 2008. Since the war, which killed some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, Israel has routinely responded to rocket fire by targeting smuggling tunnels and workshops it says are used to make rockets. Three of the overnight Israeli strikes struck near Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. Two missiles hit a guard post of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades.

A fourth raid destroyed a workshop in Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Hamas and witnesses said. In the other raids, a small dairy was destroyed in western Gaza City. The Israeli military said it hit a weapons manufacturing site in the northern Gaza Strip, a weapons manufacturing site in the central Gaza Strip and two weapons storage facilities in the southern Gaza Strip.The (army) holds Hamas as solely responsible for maintaining peace and quiet in the Gaza Strip, it said. Haniya said his government was in contact with other Palestinian factions to maintain the internal consensus (truce), to protect our people and strengthen our unity.The increased rocket attacks come amid tensions over Israel's settlement plans for annexed east Jerusalem that have stymied US efforts to launch peace talks and after fresh clashes along the Gaza-Israel border. Two Israeli soldiers, including an officer, were killed along with two Palestinian gunmen on March 26-27 when Israeli tanks made a brief incursion into Gaza.And on Tuesday, a Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli troops near the border of the blockaded coastal strip.

US says talks the solution in Mideast
Fri Apr 2, 2:26 pm ET


WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States called Friday on Israel and the Palestinians to pursue talks and said there was no military solution to the conflict after a flare-up in violence.The Israelis have a right to self-defense. At the same, as we've said many times, we don't ultimately think there is a military solution to this, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.Our message remains to the Israelis and Palestinians that we need to get the proximity talks going, focus on the substance, move to direct negotiations and ultimately arrive at a settlement that ends the conflict once and for all.Israel has launched a string of air strikes in the Gaza Strip and threatened wide-scale military action after rocket attacks from the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.We are always concerned that steps taken by other side, legitimate or otherwise, can be misconstrued, can be twisted and ends up causing turbulence that can be an impediment to progress, Crowley said.The United States has been seeking to launch peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.But even before the latest violence, the efforts were stymied by disagreements between Israel and the United States over the Jewish state's settlement plans in annexed east Jerusalem.

Israeli planes and helicopters mount Gaza attacks
Fri Apr 2, 4:31 am ET


GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli planes and helicopters mounted at least seven missile attacks on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Friday, destroying what a military spokesman described as Palestinian munitions sites.Four air strikes blew up two caravans near the town of Khan Younis, witnesses and Hamas officials said. There were no casualties in this attack.A fifth missile hit a cheese factory in Gaza City, setting it on fire, the witnesses and Hamas officials said. Hospital officials said two children were slightly wounded by flying debris.Helicopters struck twice in the central refugee camp of Nusseirat, destroying a metal foundry and no one was injured.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the attacks, saying they had targeted two weapons-manufacturing plants and two arms caches.The air strikes were Israel's response to a Palestinian short-range rocket that was fired across the border into the Jewish state on Thursday, the spokesman said. The attack, which went unclaimed by any Palestinian faction, caused no damage.Israel has said it will hold Hamas responsible for any attacks on its cities from the Gaza Strip.Hamas's leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said the Islamist group was trying to reaffirm an agreement reached last year with other Palestinian factions to curb the rocket fire.An Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip early last year was designed to counter such salvoes. Rocket attacks have resumed sporadically in recent weeks and Israel has responded with air strikes.(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Dan Williams)

Palestinian PM sees statehood by August 2011
Fri Apr 2, 4:09 am ET


JERUSALEM (AFP) – Palestinian premier Salam Fayyad predicts a Palestinian state will be established by August 2011 through positive facts on the ground, in an interview published on Friday in an Israeli newspaper.The birth of a Palestinian state will be celebrated as a day of joy by the entire community of nations, Fayyad told the Haaretz daily.The time for this baby to be born will come, he said,and we estimate it will come around 2011, the prime minister said.That is our vision and a reflection of our will to exercise our right to live in freedom and dignity in the country (where) we are born, alongside the State of Israel, in complete harmony.

Fayyad's August 2011 target is based on a decision taken by the Palestinian leadership in August 2009 to establish a state within two years. Since then Fayyad has been building institutions for a de-facto state.If for one reason or another, by August 2011 (the plan) will have failed ... I believe we will have amassed such credit, in the form of positive facts on the ground, that the reality is bound to force itself on the political process to produce the outcome, Haaretz quoted him as saying.Palestinians have repeatedly said they will unilaterally declare a state or ask for UN recognition of their independence amid growing frustration with so-far ineffective US efforts to relaunch peace negotiations with Israel.The talks were suspended during the Gaza war of December 2008-January 2009.Israel, however, has warned of a tough response to a unilateral Palestinian declaration.US President Barack Obama's administration has so far been unable to convince Israelis and Palestinians to resume their peace talks, amid deep disagreements on the thorny issue of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.The Palestinians insist on a freeze of all settlement activity before talks restart, while Israel is offering a temporary and limited ease on construction, saying the issue will be resolved during final-status negotiations.

US wants Syria to act as key peace player
Thu Apr 1, 12:55 pm ET


DAMASCUS (AFP) – President Barack Obama's administration considers Syria a key player in Washington's efforts to revive the stalled Middle East peace process, US Senator John Kerry said in Damascus on Thursday.Syria is an essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region, Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a speech after meeting President Bashar al-Assad.Both the United States and Syria have a very deep interest... in having a very frank exchange on any differences (and) agreements that we have about the possibilities of peace in this region, he said in the statement.A summit of Arab leaders last weekend ruled out renewed Palestinian-Israeli peace talks unless the Jewish state halts all settlement building, particularly in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.There are things that the United States can do, there are things that Syria can do, there are things that Israel can do, Turkey can do, some are unilateral, some are multilateral, Kerry said.But all of us have to work together in order to seize real opportunities.

Obama's administration has pursued a year-long campaign to engage Syria, a former US foe, and energise its thwarted push for a broad Arab-Israeli peace, particularly between Israel and the Palestinians.Its decision in February to appoint the first US ambassador to Damascus in five years was evidence that engagement with Syria is a priority at the highest levels of our government,said the former US presidential candidate.Envoy Robert Ford is still awaiting US confirmation of his new post, but he will be an excellent representative of the president's policies and an outstanding envoy to the Syrian government, Kerry said.He also called on Syria to play a role to halt the supply of weapons to Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah.We also remain deeply concerned about the flow of weapons in this area, through this area, to Hezbollah. That is something that must stop in order to promote regional stability and security,Kerry said.

Hezbollah will not be silent if accused in Hariri murder by Natacha Yazbeck – Wed Mar 31, 5:01 pm ET

BEIRUT (AFP) – Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday warned that his Shiite militant group would not remain silent if a UN probe into the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri pointed its finger at his party.Accusing individual members of our party is equivalent to accusing Hezbollah, he said.That would take Lebanon to a very difficult place.We will not remain silent if we find we are facing political accusations, Nasrallah said in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Manar television.The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up by a UN Security Council resolution in 2007 to find and try suspects in the murder of Hariri, who was killed in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront in February 2005.In its first annual report published in March, the tribunal said investigators were getting closer to identifying the suicide bomber who carried out the attack.Tension has been brewing in Lebanon after a flurry of press reports said the UN court was readying to accuse Hezbollah operatives in the Hariri murder.But the tribunal said the reports were mere speculation in a statement last week.Nasrallah confirmed the UN team investigating the murder had interrogated members of his party but said Hezbollah was not currently in the tribunal's line of fire.In the past few weeks the prosecutor's office in Beirut contacted a number of our brothers, some of them members of Hezbollah and others close to the party, and requested they come in for interrogation,he said.They called in 12 of our brothers in recent weeks, and I believe they are now in the process of summoning six more,Nasrallah added.

Representatives of the prosecutor's office guaranteed us that all those being interrogated were called in as witnesses, and not as suspects, at a semi-official meeting with representatives of Hezbollah,he said.The prosecutor's office has not until now accused any Hezbollah member. But we don't know what could happen in the future.The Shiite leader downplayed the tribunal's credibility, saying it had ruled out the possibility of archfoe Israel being behind the Hariri murder too soon and was leaking information to the press.But Nasrallah said the court still had a chance to rebuild trust and said his party would continue to cooperate with the UN team.

We will cooperate ... Hezbollah has nothing to fear,he said.None of the Hezbollah members interrogated so far were public figures, Nasrallah said, adding that the tribunal had also interrogated male and female party members in previous years.Some of our brothers and sisters were interrogated at the end of 2008, after the events of May 7 and right before the four generals were released, he said.He was referring to street battles that broke out in the Lebanese capital Beirut on May 7, 2008 -- the worst sectarian fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war -- pitting supporters of a Hezbollah-led alliance to those of a rival camp loyal to Hariri's son Saad Hariri, now Lebanon's prime minister. The clashes, sparked by a government crackdown on Hezbollah's private communications network, left over 100 people dead. Four Lebanese generals were detained for nearly four years in connection with Hariri's assassination but were released last April, after evidence against them was deemed insufficient. The Hariri murder has been widely blamed on Syria, a main backer of Hezbollah, although Damascus has roundly denied any involvement. A UN commission of inquiry said it had found evidence to implicate Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services prior to the tribunal's formation, but there are currently no suspects in custody.

U.S. seeks 4-month Jerusalem building freeze: report
Wed Mar 31, 5:40 am ET


JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama wants Israel to freeze construction in East Jerusalem for four months in exchange for an attempt to renew stalled Israeli peace talks with Palestinians, an Israeli newspaper said on Wednesday.Washington hopes such a deal could persuade Palestinians to renew direct negotiations rather than indirect proximity talks, as had been planned, the Haaretz daily said, quoting an unnamed Israeli political source.A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reached by telephone, declined to comment.Asked about the report, Nabil Abu Rdainah, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: What is required is firstly a freeze to settlement in Jerusalem and in the rest of the West Bank before a return to any negotiations, direct or indirect.

Obama has also pressed Israel to stop building in East Jerusalem, which it captured along with the West Bank in a 1967 war and annexed.Officials said he asked Netanyahu in talks last week in Washington to introduce some unspecified goodwill gestures to help persuade Palestinians to renew peace negotiations suspended since December 2008.
Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim that has not won international recognition. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they hope to establish in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel's Maariv newspaper at the weekend Washington's main demand of Israel was freezing construction in most of the Jewish neighborhoods, listing four in the East Jerusalem area.Lieberman called the demand completely unreasonable and said it had not been accepted by any senior cabinet ministers.Netanyahu, who has thus far resisted U.S. pressure on the Jerusalem issue, has held two inconclusive cabinet consultations on Washington's proposals, and officials have said these discussions would continue.The Haaretz newspaper said a consensus among ministers, who last met on Sunday, was that Israel would avoid declaring an outright building freeze in Jerusalem, and seek instead to achieve a quiet understanding on the issue.

Netanyahu's differences with the Obama administration on Jerusalem have put him in a political bind, as he seeks to avoid harming Israel's critical security ties with Washington while keeping his pro-settler ruling coalition from breaking apart.The Israeli leader excluded East Jerusalem from a 10-month moratorium he declared, under U.S. pressure, in November on new housing starts in West Bank settlements.(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah)(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Sarkozy joins Obama in condemning settlements
Tue Mar 30, 5:15 pm ET


WASHINGTON – France is standing with the United States in condemning Israeli settlement activity in east Jerusalem.French President Nicolas Sarkozy (sar-koh-ZEE') says his own commitment to Israel's security is well known but adds that the settlement activity in an area claimed by the Palestinians contributes nothing.
Speaking at a news conference with President Barack Obama after their White House meeting Tuesday, Sarkozy praised Obama for trying to engage the two sides in peace talks. Sarkozy said that the absence of peace in the region is a problem for all of us — and that it feeds terrorism around the world.