MUSLIM CARTOON REBOOTED

WAY TO GO ISRAEL KEEP SETTING UP THOSE SETTLEMENTS, GOD GAVE USE THE LAND NOT THE ARAB MUSLIMS.

Israelis set up new West Bank settlement By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 15, 1:57 PM ET

MASKIOT, West Bank - Nine Israeli families staked out homesteads in a valley deep in the West Bank on Friday and promised to bring more settlers to the area that the Palestinians want for a future state.
Palestinian charges of bad faith over the move were fueled by reports that the Israeli government has awarded permits for more Jewish housing in an east Jerusalem neighborhood.The wildcat action at Maskiot, in the northern West Bank, was funded in part by a private American group and is just one of recent Israeli actions to anger Palestinians as peace negotiators try to reach a final treaty.

President Bush hopes to get the sides to complete a deal by year's end, but Israeli settlement activity and Palestinian failure to rein in militant violence are widely seen as stumbling blocks.The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the government has issued permits for construction of 307 Jewish homes in the Har Homa area of east Jerusalem. That drew sharp comment from a leading Palestinian peace negotiator.In the morning there are new violations at Har Homa and then in the afternoon we hear of caravans in the northern West Bank, Saeb Erekat said.When announced in December, plans for the east Jerusalem units prompted criticism from the U.S. and marred peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians as they were getting under way after seven years of bloodshed.This week, Israel announced that plans for an additional 350 units in the neighborhood would go ahead once the first 307 had been contracted out.We condemn this move and we believe this will undermine our efforts to begin the negotiations on Jerusalem and settlements and other ... issues. The Israeli government has an obligation to stop settlement activity, Erekat said.At Maskiot on Friday, the air smelled of fresh earth dug up for the trailers. A drill could be heard inside one of the homes.A barefoot boy peeked out the door of one home, calling for his father. Cardboard boxes from newly installed electric heaters littered the muddy ground. A bulldozer sat nearby.About two dozen Israelis from a former Gaza Strip settlement have moved to Maskiot despite a government decision last year to freeze plans to build a settlement here.

The international community criticized Israel in 2006 when it announced plans to establish Maskiot, saying the project violated Israel's commitments under an internationally sponsored peace plan.
Yossi Hazut, the settler leader at Maskiot, said 28 families are waiting for more trailer homes to arrive. He said his group decided to move in after being forcibly evacuated from Gaza in 2005.Like many settlers, those at Maskiot are Orthodox Jews and believe the West Bank is part of land given to the Jewish people by God.We hope that we will be able to bring all the families here, Hazut said, holding his year-old daughter, Shir, while his wife made pizza.

Maskiot has 150 acres where olive trees grow and date trees will be planted, said Hazut, who grew up in a tightly guarded Gaza settlement.A sign in English and Hebrew on one of the trailer homes read: This caravan was built in part through a grant from One Israel Fund. The organization's Web site says it is a New York-based charitable group that helps Israelis who were evacuated from Gaza. While Hazut said he understands Israel's government froze construction of permanent homes at Maskiot, he said a Defense Ministry official who visited him Friday did not say authorities would block any attempt to expand the community. The Defense Ministry oversees settlement activity. A call requesting ministry comment was not returned Friday. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, said Friday that Israel would abide by its commitments in the internationally backed peace plan known as the road map.There will be no new settlements, Regev said. Israel agreed in the plan not to establish new settlements or expand existing ones and to dismantle dozens of unauthorized outposts established by settlers to prevent land from being transferred to the Palestinians.

But Israel has not taken down any of the outposts, and Palestinians fear they will eventually become established communities. Most of the time our experience shows that they come move in and then the government keeps them there, Erekat said. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Israel, Stewart Tuttle, said Israel must evacuate all settlement outposts. We have commitments from the government of Israel and we expect that the government of Israel will meet them, he said.

French FM urges Israel to lift Gaza blockade by Ezzedine Said Sat Feb 16, 6:59 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner urged Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip and to freeze its policy of building settlements in the West Bank, at the start of a visit to the region on Saturday. Kouchner visited east Jerusalem and met UN emergency relief coordinator John Holmes before travelling to Bethlehem in the West Bank to meet officials.Later he will meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah and is expected to have talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minster Ehud Barak in Jerusalem on Sunday.The economic and humanitarian situation in Gaza is especially bad. The blockade directly affects the entire economy and living conditions as well, Kouchner said in an interview with Al-Quds newspaper, published on Saturday.We call for the Gaza blockade to be lifted -- there must be free movement of both people and goods, Kouchner told the main Arabic daily in the Palestinian territories.Israel has kept Gaza under effective lockdown since last June following the territory's takeover by the Islamist movement Hamas, and on January 17 it tightened the blockade before easing it again slightly.The Israelis say the measure is in response to rockets being fired at it by Palestinian militants inside the impoverished coastal territory.

In the interview Kouchner also called on Olmert and Abbas to respect their commitments agreed at the relaunch of Middle East peace talks in the United States last November.Kouchner's arrival overnight on Friday came just hours after eight Palestinians, including a leading Islamic Jihad militant and members of his family, were killed in what medics and witnesses in the Gaza Strip said was an Israeli air strike.A military spokesman in Tel Aviv denied Israeli involvement in the blast.Both Israel and the Palestinians relaunched the US-sponsored peace process after a near seven-year hiatus with the aim of reaching an agreement by the end of 2008.President George W. Bush has said he would like to see an accord before he leaves office in January next year.Israel must completely freeze settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, dismantle all those deemed illegal, and reopen Palestinian institutions in east Jerusalem, namely the chamber of commerce, Kouchner told the daily.It cannot be said enough that the settlements are an obstacle to peace, he added.On Thursday five firms won bids from the Israeli authorities to expand the Har Homa settlement in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians consider to be the capital of their future state.US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said the move doesn't help to build confidence, while Abbas adviser Adnan Husseini said that if construction continues the Palestinians may suspend peace talks.

Kouchner also called on the Palestinians to take steps to improve conditions for a peace agreement.The Palestinian Authority must make very important efforts to fight against terrorist movements and reform the security services in order to make them more efficient, he said. Encouraging progress has been achieved but more must be done, he added. Kouchner also said that improving living conditions in the West Bank could have a positive knock-on effect on the Gaza Strip.

Militants vow revenge for Gaza dead by Adel Zaanoun FEB 16,08

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Saturday vowed revenge on Israel after eight Palestinians, including a senior military commander and family members, were killed in an explosion in the Gaza Strip. The bloodshed came hours before French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner began a visit to the region, calling for Israel to end its punishing blockade on Gaza.In the Hamas-run territory, anger boiled over as thousands of mourners attended the funeral of the eight Palestinians killed late Friday in the teeming Bureij refugee camp south of Gaza City.The dead included Ayman al-Fayed, 43, a senior militant in Islamic Jihad's armed wing the Al-Quds Brigades, his 37-year-old wife and three of their children aged 21, 19 and six, the Palestinian health ministry said.Three other people were also killed while 42 others, including 17 children, were wounded.Palestinian medics and witnesses said the blast was caused by a missile fired at the Fayed home during an air raid, but the Israeli military denied all involvement.

We condemn the Israeli crime perpetrated against the Bureij refugee camp, said Sami Abu Zuhri, spokesman for the Islamist Hamas movement that has ruled the Gaza Strip since June.Israel bears full responsibility and will also suffer the consequences, he told reporters. The occupation (Israel) will pay a huge price for this crime.The Israeli army insisted it was not involved.We did not undertake any operations on Friday against the Gaza Strip, a military spokeswoman told AFP.The radical Islamic Jihad was adamant.
The enemy is trying to deny responsibility for this crime, but it alone is responsible and all of its denials will change nothing, the group said in a statement.The Fayed house was completely destroyed in the blast, while 10 others were damaged in the Bureij, the most populous of eight refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, witnesses and an AFP correspondent said.Emergency services searched overnight through the rubble for people buried under the debris as hundreds of Palestinians, demanding revenge, gathered outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital south of Gaza City.Israel has kept Gaza under effective lockdown since Hamas violently seized control of the territory, and on January 17 it tightened the blockade in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

Kouchner, who is due to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas later Saturday and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday, urged the Jewish state to lift the Gaza blockade.The economic and humanitarian situation in Gaza is especially bad. The blockade directly affects the entire economy and living conditions as well, Kouchner said in an interview published on Saturday with Al-Quds newspaper.We call for the Gaza blockade to be lifted -- there must be free movement of both people and goods, Kouchner said. He also called on Olmert and Abbas to respect their commitments agreed at the relaunch of Middle East peace talks in the United States last November. Israel must freeze settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which are an obstacle to peace, Kouchner said, while the Palestinians must fight against terrorist movements and reform the security services.At least 180 people, mostly Gaza militants, have been killed since the November revival of the peace process, according to an AFP count. The latest deaths brought to 6,141 the total number of people killed since the eruption of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, most of them Palestinians, according to an AFP tally.

HERE WE GO AGAIN ROUND 2 OF THE RIOTS AND BURNING OF INNOCENT PLACES AGAIN BY MUSLIMS.

Hamas supporters protest over Prophet cartoon Fri Feb 15, 8:37 AM ET

JABALYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters of the Islamist group Hamas protested in the Gaza Strip on Friday against the reprinting of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad that sparked Muslim outrage two years ago. Hamas, which controls the coastal Palestinian territory, demanded that the Danish cartoonist be brought to trial and that an official apology be made to Muslims. It urged an end to what it called organized campaigns to spread hatred of Islam.We are all a sacrifice to the Prophet Mohammad, our blood, our property and our families are all a sacrifice to him, a Hamas activist shouted through a loudspeaker after Friday prayers in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.Danish newspapers said they reprinted a cartoon showing the Prophet with a bomb in his turban in protest over a plot to murder the cartoonist. The original drawing published in September 2005 sparked criticism and riots in the Muslim world.At least 4,000 Hamas supporters took part in the rally on Friday, many waving green Hamas flags and others holding banners condemning the cartoons and urging Muslims to take action against Denmark.Muslims must not be silent against these cartoons which are offensive to the great Prophet Mohammad, one banner read.

Most Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam as offensive.We urge Arab and Muslim countries to exert their efforts and to use all pressure tools under their control to stop these organized campaigns that spread hatred of Islam under so-called freedom of expression, a Hamas statement said.Masked militants blew up the library of the YMCA in Gaza early on Friday, destroying the building but causing no injuries. Security sources said they were investigating whether it was an attack on a specifically Christian symbol, and whether it was related to the reprinting of the Danish cartoon.Some 3,000 Christians live among 1.5 million Muslims in the Gaza Strip, which was taken over by Hamas in June, and relations between the two communities have generally been good, although a Christian bookshop was blown up last year and its owner killed.

Hezbollah appoints successor to slain commander By Nadim Ladki Fri Feb 15, 8:13 AM ET

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah has appointed a successor to its senior guerrilla commander Imad Moughniyah who was assassinated in Syria this week, a Lebanese security source said on Friday. The source said the appointment was made hours after the announcement of Moughniyah's death in a car bomb in Damascus on Tuesday. He did not identify the successor who would now command Hezbollah's formidable and well-armed guerrilla army.A joint investigation into the bombing by Syrians, Iranians and Hezbollah was well under way and suspects had been arrested in the Syrian capital, the source said.Hezbollah and its main backer Iran have accused Israel of killing Moughniyah, who was among the United States' most wanted men. The Israeli government has denied any links, though its Mossad spy service had been hunting him for two decades.A successor to Imad Moughniyah has been appointed, which is natural, said the source, who requested anonymity. That's how Hezbollah works, they move quickly to choose successors of fallen leaders.The source said the successor was not one of the two names being circulated in the Israeli media. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has threatened Israel with open war in retaliation for the killing.

Moughniyah had been in charge of Hezbollah's security organ. He gained legendary status in Hezbollah for a string of attacks on Israeli and Western targets in Lebanon in the 1980s.An Iranian Arabic television station released mobile phone footage of the scene minutes after the blast that killed Moughniyah, chief of the forces of a group that fought a 34-day war against Israel in 2006.It showed the car on fire and people running past it.The source said the investigation showed Moughniyah was killed by a car bomb parked close to his car. It was detonated remotely as he walked past after leaving a building he had been visiting.Early reports said the bomb had been placed inside Moughniyah's car.

JOINT INVESTIGATION

The suspects arrested were mostly Palestinians residing in Syria, the Lebanese source said.Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki agreed with Syrian officials during a visit to Damascus on Thursday to set up a joint team to investigate the killing, Mottaki's deputy Alireza Sheik-Attar said on Friday.Mottaki had attended Moughniyah's funeral in Beirut.Moughniyah commanded the Islamic Jihad, a shadowy pro-Iranian group which emerged in Lebanon in the early 1980s and was believed to be linked to Hezbollah.The group claimed many kidnappings and bombings but disappeared after the release of the last Western hostages in Lebanon shortly after the end of the civil war in 1990.Moughniyah was implicated in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. embassy and U.S. Marine and French peacekeeping barracks in Beirut, which killed more than 350 people.
Israel accuses Moughniyah of planning the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and of involvement in a 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in the Argentine capital that killed 28. The United States indicted him for his role in planning and participating in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner and the killing of an American passenger. (Editing by Robert Woodward)

Israel moves ahead to expand Jerusalem settlement Fri Feb 15, 5:34 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli authorities have appointed five companies to expand a Jewish settlement in occupied east Jerusalem, work which could undermine peace talks with the Palestinians, officials said on Friday. The call for tenders for 307 housing units last December to be built in Har Homa was criticised by the United States and European Union and denounced by the Palestinians who want east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.The five companies whose winning bids were announced on Thursday have 60 days to sign a contract, with the work to be completed within three years, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Friday.This will make it harder to stop the planned building in this controversial district and could jeopardize peace talks with the Palestinians, the newspaper said.US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said the move to extend the settlement doesn't help to build confidence at a time of renewed peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.Haaretz quoted Adnan Husseini, adviser to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, as saying that if construction continues, the Palestinians may suspend the peace talks.

Rice and Livni discuss Gaza, Iran in Washington talks: israeli official Fri Feb 15, 2:13 AM ET

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipni Livni discussed the situation in Gaza and new sanctions against Iran in talks Thursday, an Israeli official said. Rice and Livni released no statement after their afternoon meeting at the State Department. But a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington, David Siegel, said they were to discuss conditions in the Gaza strip and peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority which are very intensive.A draft UN resolution on Iran calling for the tightening of sanctions against the regime over its disputed nuclear program was also on the agenda, he said.We would like to see a third resolution pass and we would like to see further measures and sanctions through the Security Council and outside the council, he said.The draft resolution would form the basis of a third set of economic and trade sanctions against Iran for defying Security Council demands to stop uranium enrichment activities.State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice expected to receive an update on peace negotiations from Livni, head of the Israeli delegation.

I expect they will talk about Gaza too, he said.The unscheduled meeting was arranged at the last moment with Livni in Washington to attend memorial services for US lawmaker Tom Lantos, the Holocaust survivor and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who died on Monday.

Canadian loses battle for Jerusalem, Israel passport by Michel Comte Thu Feb 14, 3:28 PM ET

OTTAWA (AFP) - A Canadian immigrant has lost his court battle to have his birthplace, Jerusalem, recognized as part of Israel on his passport as Ottawa insists it must remain neutral on the contested holy city. The Supreme Court refused Thursday to hear the appeal of Eliyahu Veffer, who immigrated to Canada about 12 years ago and wanted his Canadian passport to show he was born in Jerusalem, Israel.The decision means that Veffer has no further legal remedy in Canada for the differential treatment he faces under the policy, David Matas, Veffer's attorney, said in a statement.Veffer's passport states only his birth city with no reference to any country because Canada does not want to be seen as taking sides in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians over claims to the holy city, officials said.Matas argued unsuccessfully in federal court that Canada allows people to choose which state appears in their passport if a birth city is in disputed territory.

But Jerusalem is an exception to this policy.

Ottawa contends the status of Jerusalem, which is important to three major religions -- Judaism, Islam and Christianity -- has been disputed since 1948 when the state of Israel came into existence.The city, which dates back some 5,000 years, holds several places of religious significance, including the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built where Jesus Christ is believed to have been crucified and buried; and the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque where Mohammed is said to have briefly ascended to heaven.Both Israelis and Palestinians claim it as their capital or future capital.Until the claims of sovereignty over the city are settled, officials said, Canada would continue its current passport policy, to avoid showing favoritism to either side and prejudicing a peaceful political settlement.

Matas said these reasons are unpersuasive.I feel that the government is rejecting and denying my religious belief in the significance of Jerusalem to the Jewish religion, Veffer wrote in a court affidavit at the start of his legal fight in April 2006.My religion teaches me that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Mohammed Boudjenane, on behalf of the multi-faith group Canadians for Jerusalem, countered then: A Canadian passport is not a billboard to project your religion.

Israel on alert after militant killed By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 14, 12:28 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Israel put its military and embassies on alert Thursday and advised Jewish institutions worldwide to follow suit as Lebanese guerrillas threatened to avenge the killing of a militant tied to spectacular attacks against U.S. and Jewish targets. Imad Mughniyeh, one of the world's most wanted and elusive terrorists, was killed in a car bombing Tuesday in the Syrian capital of Damascus. He was the suspected mastermind of attacks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s.The Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah and its Iranian backers blamed Israel. Israel's government denied the charge, although military officials were more vague, refusing to confirm or deny involvement. And officials made no effort to conceal their satisfaction he was dead.

On Thursday, Hezbollah's chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah vowed in a videotaped eulogy broadcast at Mughniyeh's Beirut funeral to retaliate against Israeli targets anywhere in the world. Israel beefed up its troop presence along the Lebanese border.Mughniyeh, 45, was the Hezbollah's former security chief. Israel blamed him for the 1992 bombing of its embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in which 29 people were killed. Argentina linked him to the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center that killed 85 people.Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi put forces on heightened alert, instructing them to take the necessary precautions by air, land and sea in order to protect the northern border and other Israeli interests, the army said.The military sent more troops to the already heavily patrolled northern border with Lebanon, defense officials said, without elaborating. And soldiers were ordered to be on guard for attacks and kidnappings on both the border with Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories.Israeli embassies worldwide also were put on alert, and Jewish institutions across the globe were advised to be vigilant, Israeli officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss security matters with the media.

Israel Radio reported that security had been raised on airplanes and ships and at sensitive installations.A statement from the prime minister's office said the Israeli anti-terror command center warned Israelis abroad to act with extra caution, noting the threat of kidnapping. It recommended staying out of Arab and Muslim countries, avoiding concentrations of other Israelis and turning down unexpected invitations to meetings in remote places.Israel fought a fierce but inconclusive monthlong war with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, and residents of northern Israel feared a new conflict was brewing.Everything can get all messy after one incident like this, said Shuli Oozan, a 47-year-old convenience store employee in the town of Shlomi near the Lebanese border. The town was a frequent target of Hezbollah rocket attacks during the war, and was hit by two rockets fired last month, apparently by a smaller Lebanese group.The war killed 40 Israeli civilians and 119 Israeli soldiers and more than 1,000 Lebanese, most of them civilians.But while Israelis worried about the possibility of renewed war on their turf, Nasrallah declared on Thursday that his guerrilla group would hit Israeli targets anywhere in the world.

Israeli analysts were taking the threats seriously.Hezbollah doesn't want to heat up the border, said Ephraim Kam, an Israel-based Iran analyst. It's afraid Israel would strike it again hard, and Israel is better prepared to fight now, having learned the lessons of the war.The likelier avenue would be a spectacular terror attack, not necessarily against Israel itself, but something like the embassy attack in Argentina, Kam said. It won't necessarily take place tomorrow morning, he added. It takes time to carry out a spectacular attack.Yaakov Perry, a former chief of Israel's internal security service, said Hezbollah might act against Israel through allied Palestinian militant groups.

Hezbollah doesn't usually act alone, but acts with others, the best-known being Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Those who live among us, alongside us, could be its long arm.After word of the assassination got out, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, appealed to the Muslim world to rise up to confront the Zionist devil, which is backed by the Americans.Despite its denials, Israel is widely believed to have carried out daring, complex and deadly strikes against other terror masterminds in the past, sometimes deep in enemy territory. Palestinian Liberation Organization official Khalil Al-Wazir, linked to attacks that killed dozens of Israelis, was assassinated at close range in his home in Tunis in 1988, reportedly by an Israeli commando team ferried from Israel by boat, and aided ashore by Mossad intelligence agency operatives. Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shkaki was gunned down in Malta in 1995 by a man on a motorcycle. In 2004, a senior Hamas militant was killed in a car bombing in Damascus.