IRAN STILL A THREAT

Bush says Iran's nuclear program still a threat By Tabassum Zakaria Tabassum Zakaria – Fri Dec 5, 7:05 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush said on Friday that Iran's nuclear program remained a threat to peace and the United States would not allow Tehran to develop an atomic weapon.In a speech to the Saban Forum, Bush struck a hopeful tone about prospects for social, economic and diplomatic progress in the Middle East, but criticized Iran and Syria.The United States under Bush's presidency, which ends January 20, has pressed the United Nations for more sanctions to convince Iran to halt its nuclear program which the West suspects is to build weapons, a charge that Tehran denies.President-elect Barack Obama has also said that it is unacceptable for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.The West has offered Iran diplomatic and economic incentives to suspend uranium enrichment and would support a civilian nuclear power program, Bush said.While Iran has not accepted these offers, we have made our bottom line clear: For the safety of our people and the peace of the world, America will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, Bush said.Amid signs of political, economic and social reforms in the Middle East, serious challenges remain, he said.

Iran and Syria continue to sponsor terror. Iran's uranium enrichment remains a major threat to peace. Many in the region still live under oppression, he said.Bush defended his decision to go to war against Iraq in March 2003 and topple Saddam Hussein, saying that after the September 11, 2001, attacks the United States could not risk the threat Baghdad posed.It is true, as I've said many times, that Saddam Hussein was not connected to the 9/11 attacks, Bush said.But the United States had to decide whether it could tolerate an enemy that supported terrorism and was believed to have weapons of mass destruction, and found that was a risk we could not afford to take.Weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion and that is considered a major intelligence failure. In a recent television interview Bush said the faulty intelligence on Iraq was the biggest regret of his presidency.Iraq has gone from an enemy of America to a friend of America, from sponsoring terror to fighting terror, and from a brutal dictatorship to a multi-religious, multi-ethnic constitutional democracy, Bush said.He acknowledged that efforts sometimes fell short, saying the fight in Iraq has been longer and more costly than expected. The reluctance of entrenched regimes to open their political systems has been disappointing.Bush said that despite setbacks to Middle East peace such as the Hamas election victory and takeover of the Gaza Strip, the process had moved forward.And while the Israelis and Palestinians have not yet produced an agreement, they have made important progress, said Bush, who had hoped for a Mideast pact before he left office. They have laid a new foundation of trust for the future.(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Eric Walsh and Chris Wilson)

Bush delivers upbeat defense of his Mideast policy By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer Deb Riechmann, Associated Press Writer – Fri Dec 5, 5:52 pm ET

WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush delivered a broad and upbeat defense of his Mideast policies on Friday, yet cautioned that President-elect Barack Obama will inherit threats from Iran's nuclear programs, an unfinished Israeli-Palestinian peace accord and a fragile democracy in Iraq.Bush said his administration has been ambitious in vision, bold in action and firm in purpose — although not always popular — in its approach to the volatile region. Some efforts have not always gone according to plan, and in some areas the administration has fallen short of its goals, he said in a speech at the annual Saban Forum, a gathering on Middle East policy sponsored by the Brookings Institution.For example, the fight in Iraq has been longer and more costly than expected, Bush said. The reluctance of entrenched regimes to open their political systems has been disappointing, and there have been unfortunate setbacks at key points in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.Still, Bush proclaimed that the Mideast was a freer, more hopeful place today than it was when he took office in 2001. He cited examples: The Lebanese are free from Syria's military occupation; Libya's nuclear weapons equipment is locked away in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are emerging as centers of commerce; Iran is facing greater pressure from the international community than ever before; and the threat from terrorist organizations like al-Qaida has been curtailed.Administration critics say Bush's view of the region is rosier than reality.If you look down the challenges that President Obama will face, he will have to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process almost from the ground up, said Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon analyst now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He will be dealing with an unstable Iraq, subject to growing Iranian influence, and an al-Qaida, which has been sharply weakened, but not defeated.I can't think of a public opinion poll that does not show a sharp deterioration in the U.S. position in the Middle East, Cordesman said, characterizing Bush's remarks as an attempt at spinning a foreign policy legacy from hell.

On Iraq, Bush defended the U.S.-led invasion on grounds the world could not have risked leaving Saddam Hussein's power unchecked. The president said that while it's true that Saddam was not connected to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the decision to oust him cannot be viewed in isolation.In a world where terrorists armed with box cutters had just killed nearly 3,000 people, America had to decide whether we could tolerate a sworn enemy that acted belligerently, that supported terror and that intelligence agencies around the world believed had weapons of mass destruction, Bush said, referring to intelligence reports that later proved false.

It was clear to me, it was clear to members of both political parties, and to many leaders around the world that after Sept. 11, that was a risk we could not afford to take, the president said about the Iraq war, which has claimed the lives of more than 4,200 U.S. military personnel.Bush called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the most vexing problem in the region.He noted that he was the first U.S. president to call for a Palestinian state and said he sees progress toward reaching a two-state solution. The Israelis and Palestinians agreed last November at a meeting in Annapolis, Md., to reach some agreement by the end of the year. But after months of publicly insisting that an agreement could still be forged, the Bush administration has conceded that it will hand the fragile, unfinished U.S.-backed peace effort to Obama.More than 180 people attended Bush's speech, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; and members of Congress.

Israel braces for more trouble after Hebron rampage by Patrick Moser Patrick Moser – Fri Dec 5, 10:44 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Security forces braced on Friday for more violence after Israeli hardliners went on the rampage against Palestinians in retaliation for the eviction of settlers from a disputed Hebron house.The entire southern West Bank was declared a closed military zone to prevent Israelis from converging again on the flashpoint city where a mob of Jewish extremists on Thursday shot and wounded three Palestinians, hurled rocks at others and torched homes, fields and cars.Dozens of young Palestinians burned tyres and hurled rocks at an Israeli military position in Hebron on Friday and soldiers responded by firing teargas while in Gaza City, about 2,000 Palestinians took part in a Hamas-led protest against the settler violence.

Right-wing Israelis have vowed to exact revenge for Thursday's forcible eviction of some 250 settlers from the house that had come to symbolise hardliners' determination to fight for what they consider their God-given right to all the biblical land of Israel -- including Palestinian territories.I remain concerned about the potential for a further escalation of a tense situation, UN envoy Robert Serry said in a statement.Israeli authorities were also worried about a Palestinian backlash amid simmering anger over the perceived failure of security forces to confront the rampaging mob in Hebron.Security was beefed up around Jerusalem's mosque compound for Friday prayers and access was restricted to Muslims holding Israeli identity cards and aged over 45 in the case of men, with no age restrictions for women.Most Israeli media hailed the security forces, who used tear gas to finally drag the settlers from the Hebron house following an Israeli high court order on November 16.But authorities also came under harsh criticism for failing to protect Palestinians who live around what has been dubbed the House of Contention.

As the occupying power, the government of Israel is under obligation to protect Palestinian civilians, property and holy sites, Serry said, adding that actions of extremists continue to pose a threat to the peace process.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has asked for an urgent UN Security Council session to discuss the settler violence.Egypt, one of just two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, condemned the ferocity and savage behaviour of the settlers, a foreign ministry spokesman told the state MENA news agency.A videotape distributed by Israel's B'Tselem human rights group shows a settler shooting two Palestinians, and a guard from the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement firing into the air as relatives of the victims overpowered the gunman.B'Tselem said it delivered the video to Hebron police, demanding that the assailant be immediately brought to justice and that the involvement of the security guard be investigated.Additionally, the security forces must investigate the failures that allowed settlers to riot throughout the afternoon and evening in Hebron's Palestinian neighbourhoods, the group said.The conservative English-language Jerusalem Post printed a picture of soldiers aiming their guns at Palestinians trying to reach their homes near the disputed building, and another showing relaxed-looking soldiers chatting with masked youths, apparently settlers, some of whom are holding rocks.The presence of a few hundred Jewish settlers in Hebron's centre, and a further 6,500 in nearby Kiryat Arba, has been a source of tension in the Palestinian city of 170,000 long before 100 or so Israelis moved into the disputed house in March last year.In 1994, a Jewish extremist massacred 29 Palestinian worshippers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site holy to Jews and Muslims alike. The international community considers Jewish settlements in the West Bank to be illegal, and the Palestinians say they are the biggest obstacle to Middle East peace talks.

Israel evicts Jewish settlers from Hebron house By Haitham Tamimi Haitham Tamimi – Thu Dec 4, 5:49 pm ET

AFP HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli police used teargas and clubs to evict hard-line Jewish settlers from a building in the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday, igniting a wave of settler violence across the Palestinian territory.The lightning operation by hundreds of policemen and soldiers ended in less than an hour.

About 30 settlers suffered light-to-moderate injuries, mostly due to smoke inhalation. Three policemen were hurt by settlers, who threw rocks, chemicals and food at them.Angry Jewish settlers, some armed, responded by setting fire to Palestinian cars and property near the building. Eight Palestinians were hurt, including three from gunshot wounds. One of the shootings was filmed by a volunteer for a rights group.Settler violence quickly spread to other areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank with security forces moving to quell the protests, although Palestinian residents said settlers had blocked roads and thrown stones at their cars causing damage.After a few hours of protests in Hebron, at around midnight, local residents reported clashes had largely died down and an army spokesman said there were no reports of major incidents across the West Bank.Tensions have been especially high in the flashpoint city since the Israeli High Court on November 16 ordered settlers to vacate the building they have been occupying since March 2007.

Police in riot gear dragged settlers out of the building, some of them kicking and screaming.Four Hebron settlers later were arrested while more than 20 of their supporters in Jerusalem were taken into custody after briefly blocking a main entrance to the city, police said.The standoff in Hebron raised fears that ideological friction in Israel could provoke internal violence before a February 10 parliamentary election to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Olmert has said a new ultranationalist underground could threaten Israel and its chances of peace with the Palestinians.What was put to the test today was the state's ability to enforce the law and its will on its citizens, said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. He said the army had to act against lawless settler youth.

SPREADING VIOLENCE

Israeli military analysts said they feared violence in Hebron could spread to other settlements.This will not end here. We will come back over and over again, settler supporter Naftali Woldman, 20, said in Hebron. Pointing to nearby Palestinian homes, Woldman said: All this will be Jewish land one day.For some Israelis, television images of the operation evoked memories of the evacuation of thousands of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Many former Gaza settlers had vowed to prevent a repeat of the withdrawal in the West Bank.Palestinians welcomed the eviction but said Israel must do much more. President Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel to evict all 650 settlers who live in fortified enclaves in the heart of Hebron, home to some 180,000 Palestinians, an aide said.After the raid, settlers clashed with neighboring Palestinians near Hebron's old city. They hurled rocks at each other, and settlers broke windows, witnesses said. The settlers say they lawfully purchased the building from Palestinians. Hebron resident Faiz Rajabi says the building belongs to him and denies having sold it to the settlers. Thank God, the building has returned to its owners and I hope they will not come back, Rajabi said. (Additional reporting by Dan Williams, Joseph Nasr, Ori Lewis and Adam Entous in Jerusalem, and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Writing by Adam Entous; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Libya complains of Israeli high sea piracy to UN council Wed Dec 3, 10:51 pm ET

AFP UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Libya protested in vain Wednesday before the UN Security Council over Israel's interception of one of its cargo ships attempting to offload aid in Gaza.Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi told an emergency council session that Israel was guilty of piracy in the high seas, and called for effective action that will ensure compliance of Israel with international humanitarian law and the law of the seas.His complaints, however, failed to elicit a formal condemnation of Monday's actions by Israel, which needed unanimous consensus by the council's 14 members -- Libya is one of the 15-strong council's 10 rotating members.Israeli warships on Monday prevented a Libyan cargo vessel, the Al-Marwa, from reaching the Gaza Strip with 3,000 tons of humanitarian aid for the impoverished Palestinian territory, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since June 2007.Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev, invited to speak at the council meeting even though her country is not a member, rejected Libya's accusations, especially the piracy contention, and in turn charged Tripoli with provocation.She said that since Libya does not recognize the state of Israel, the interception was justified on grounds of national security.No member State of this Council, nor any other member of the United Nations, would allow a shipment originating from a hostile state towards a territory that serves as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against its civilians, Shalev said.The Libyan aid shipment is the first effort by an Arab state to circumvent the blockade of Gaza, which Israel has sealed off since the Islamist movement Hamas violently seized power there in June 2007. Israel has repeatedly come under rocket attack from Gaza since then.An official in Tripoli said the crew of the Al-Mawra will have no option but to return to Libya, since the aid cannot be unloaded in Gaza.US Deputy Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff also rejected Libya's arguments during the debate and deemed it absurd to assert Israel committed an act of piracy since not a single shot was fired nor was the Libyan ship boarded.He said Libya's attempt to access a closed sea port instead of following the usual channels for international aid was dangerous and irresponsible.Several council members used the debate to voice their concerns over the humanitarian situation in Gaza and deplore the Israeli blockade of the region.

Blair wants new Gaza strategy, fears for two-state solution Wed Dec 3, 6:53 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Middle East envoy Tony Blair called here Wednesday for a new strategy to bring the Gaza Strip back into the peace process and warned a proposed two-state solution risked slipping away.Blair offered few details for the future of Gaza but entertained the idea that the Islamist Hamas could either be ousted from power in elections there or could even join the political process if it drops its anti-Israeli stand.We need a new strategy for Gaza, Blair told foreign policy specialists at a gathering in Washington hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) think tank.You will not get a peace deal while Gaza remains as it is, said the former British prime minister who has served for 15 months as Middle East envoy for the quartet of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia.Israel has imposed a tight economic blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized the territory from the western-backed Palestinian Authority in June 2007 and engaged in frequent armed clashes with the Jewish state.A shaky ceasefire in and around Gaza has been in place since June this year.Meanwhile, the rift between the Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank, has deepened despite reconciliation talks sponsored by Egypt.Blair said the situation in Gaza was untenable, citing in particular the smuggling of weapons and goods which he warned undermines Gaza's legitimate economy. I think time is pretty urgent, he said.

Asked by the council's president Richard Haas if he envisioned Hamas being ousted in elections or that it might change its stripes to join the political process, Blair said either one of those things is a possible way through.The envoy for the Middle East quartet noted that elections must be held in the Palestinian territories no later than 2010.We're going to try and make sure that people with a moderate and modern view of the future of Palestine win, or we'd better get the right measures in place to do that, Blair added.Hamas caused a major stir internationally when it won legislative elections in 2006.Another possibility, Blair said, is that the international community does a better job of convincing Gazans that they can have the blockade lifted provided that the politics within Gaza conform to a peaceful resolution.The quartet has endorsed a roadmap that calls for a Palestinian state living in peace alongside a secure Israel. It has refused to deal with Hamas, which it sees as a terrorist group bent on Israel's destruction.I think there is a risk, Blair conceded when Haas asked him if the moment was fast approaching where a two-state solution may no longer be possible.

Egypt cleric slams hajj ban after Hamas blocks pilgrims Tue Dec 2, 1:27 pm ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's leading cleric Mohammed Tantawi has condemned the blocking of Muslim pilgrims as an abominable crime after Hamas prevented the faithful leaving the Gaza Strip over the past four days.Whoever prevents (a Muslim from pilgrimage) is committing an abominable crime, state news agency MENA quoted him as saying on Tuesday.Egypt's government had said it would open its Rafah border crossing with Gaza starting from Saturday to allow 3,000 Palestinians to embark on the hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.But Hamas blocked pilgrims who had obtained Saudi visas through the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that does not recognise Hamas after it violently took over Gaza last year.The hajj is one of the five tenets of Sunni Islam, which each devout Muslim who has the means must fulfil at least once in their life.Hamas, which has increasingly used harsh crackdowns against its opponents in Gaza, was heavily criticized for blocking the pilgrims.Rafah is the only Gaza border crossing not controlled by Israel, which blockaded the impoverished territory after Hamas seized power there, routing Fatah.

The Egyptian government says it is impartial in mediating between the two rivals, but Hamas and Syria have accused it of bias towards Fatah.Tantawi, the state-appointed head of the Islamic Al-Azhar University, has criticized anti-Israeli suicide bombings by Hamas in the past.

Palestinian PM warns EU against boosting ties with Israel Tue Dec 2, 10:17 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday said he was deeply concerned about plans to upgrade EU-Israeli relations, citing lack of progress in the Middle East peace process.Fayyad spoke to journalists after he met with diplomats of EU countries on Monday.We asked for a meeting with representatives of those countries to express our deep concerns ahead of of the debate on the strengthening of relations with Israel, he said.I told them that since Israel violated all its commitments, including on human rights issues, the EU countries should wait before upgrading the level of Israeli representation at the EU, he said.

Fayyad spoke to the officials ahead of the December 8 European Council meeting and the plenary session of the European Parliament on Wednesday at which the EU is expected decide to whether to boost ties with Israel.He said the EU would send the wrong message to the Israeli electorate ahead of February 10 legislative elections if it agrees to boost ties.The message would be clear. By tightening links with Israel, the EU indicates that Israel gets what it wants without having to any consideration being given to its commitments towards the international community and within the framework of the peace process, he said.Fayyad reportedly told the diplomats on Monday that in the week the upgrade is being discussed, the misery index in Gaza has never been higher due largely to Israel's near-complete closure of the Palestinian territory over the past three weeks.Diplomatic sources said he also pointed out Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank has increased since the Annapolis, Maryland conference that relaunched the peace process in November last year and at which Israel reiterated its commitment to freeze all settlement activity.Checkpoints, home demolitions and evictions in the Palestinian territories have also increased, Fayyad said.All of these facts on the ground have jeopardized the possibility of the two-state solution and the credibility of the negotiations process begun at Annapolis, diplomats quoted him as saying.The premier already came under sharp criticism from Israel when he sent a letter in May urging the European Union not to upgrade relations with the Jewish state.Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was scheduled to hold talks with the European Parliament's external relations commission on Tuesday.

Israel blocks Libyan aid boat from reaching Gaza Mon Dec 1, 8:08 am ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli warships on Monday prevented a Libyan cargo vessel from reaching the Gaza Strip, the impoverished Palestinian territory under a crippling Israeli blockade.The ship, laden with 3,000 tonnes of goods, was stopped several kilometres (miles) off Gaza's shores and ordered to return to the Egyptian port of El-Arish, said Palestinian MP Jamal Khodary, who heads an international campaign against the Israeli sanctions.Navy ships approached the Libyan boat and ordered it on the radio to turn back, and so it did, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.Anyone wishing to transfer humanitarian aid into Gaza is welcome to do it in coordination with Israel and through the regular crossings. They can also contact Egypt.Israel sealed its crossings with Gaza -- the overcrowded territory's main gateway for food and humanitarian aid -- as well as its maritime borders after the Islamist movement Hamas violently seized power there in June 2007.The sanctions were again tightened in recent weeks amid renewed tensions and tit-for-tat exchanges of fire that threatened to destroy an Egyptian-brokered June 19 ceasefire.The Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border with Gaza has been shut since June 2006 but has opened on a few occasions for humanitarian purposes.Hamas said turning the Libyan boat back showed the true, criminal face of the occupation.A spokesman for the Islamist movement, Fawzi Barhum, also urged Egypt to reopen the Rafah crossing. Its closure will enter into history as a crime committed by all those who besiege Gaza, he said in a statement.

In Tripoli, an official said the ship's crew was in contact with the Libyan authorities.The crew has told us Israeli warships were conducting harassment measures even though it is a civilian vessel loaded with humanitarian aid, the official told AFP.The source said that the crew will have no option but to return to Libya as the goods cannot be unloaded in Gaza.The Libyan attempt to deliver aid to Gaza was the first such effort by an Arab state to defy the blockade, although European and other pro-Palestinian activists have made three trips from Cyprus since August without being intercepted by the Israeli navy.The pro-Islamist Qatar Charity Organisation said in Doha on Monday it plans to ship one tonne of medical aid to Gaza this week in a bid to break the blockade.Its vice president Abdallah al-Nimaa told AFP the ship is set to sail from Doha on Friday, but that he expects the Israeli authorities to stop the vessel.The Libyan consignment consists of 1,200 tonnes of rice, 750 tonnes of milk, 500 tonnes of oil, 500 tonnes of flour and 100 tonnes of medicine, said the Libyan Fund for Aid and Development in Africa, which chartered the vessel.Most of the 1.5 million people living in the Gaza Strip depend on foreign aid.Libya, the only Arab state on the 15-member UN Security Council, has no diplomatic relations with Israel and has frequently criticised it over the situation in Gaza.

Israel vows to protect Jewish centres after Mumbai attacks by Ron Bousso Ron Bousso –Sun Nov 30, 3:38 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed on Sunday to do everything necessary to protect Jewish centres across the world after nine Israelis were killed in assaults by Islamist militants in the Indian city of Mumbai.Israel is doing, and will continue to do anywhere, whatever it takes to protect Jewish institutions, Olmert told a weekly cabinet meeting.Israel's embassies and official representations across the world are always heavily guarded by Israeli and local security forces.But other than issuing warnings on possible attacks, Israel does not guard Jewish centres such as the Chabad centre that was targeted in Mumbai.The pictures of the Jewish victims, especially the scenes of those who ran the Chabad House, wrapped in prayer shawls, even as their blood-covered son was miraculously saved from the inferno, are shocking and take us back to events that we pray never recur, Olmert said.The hatred of Jews and the hatred of Israel and the hatred of Jewish symbols still continue to be a source fuelling these acts of murder.Israeli embassy officials in India have said that they did not believe that Chabad House, a cultural centre run by the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch movement where eight of the Israelis were killed, could have been targeted by accident.

We will act, also in cooperation with the Indian government, to protect as much as possible the many Israelis and Jews in these areas who want, and are entitled to, full security, Olmert added.An Israeli air force plane took off for Mumbai on Sunday evening to repatriate the bodies. On the flight were representatives of the army, the rabbinate and foreign ministry, as well as forensic experts.Israeli media highlighted the case of Sandra Samuel, an Indian woman who worked as nanny for the toddler son of the slain Chabad House director and his wife, and who rescued him from the cultural centre after hiding from the militants for 12 hours.News websites reported calls for her to be given leave to come to Israel indefinitely or even be declared a so-called righteous gentile for her role in saving two-year-old Moshe.

We didn't get any application yet but that doesn't mean we won't approve it, said interior ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad.If we get the application, I am sure that we will consider all that took place.New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had praised the nanny's heroic rescue of the son and said that during a time of terrible sadness, her courage reaffirms our faith in the capacity of good to triumph over evil.Nearly 200 people are now known to have died in the attacks which ravaged the Indian commercial capital, hitting five-star hotels and other targets frequented by Westerners as well as Chabad House.Israeli newspapers gave blanket coverage to the Mumbai carnage in Sunday's editions, their first since the confirmation of the Israeli dead late on Friday.The top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily devoted more than a dozen pages to the attacks, while Maariv used its first 17.Yediot carried extensive criticism of the Indian commando operation and the length of time it took to overcome the militants. Ten terrorists, who, according to the findings of the investigation, arrived by rubber raft at the shore of Mumbai carrying machine guns, grenades and dry rations in their luggage, succeeded -- almost inconceivably -- in keeping almost 1,000 commando troops and counter-terrorism combat units occupied for three days, in several battle sites, one article said. But the Israeli foreign ministry put out a statement to domestic media distancing itself from such criticism. We are convinced that the Indian forces did everything they could to prevent harm from coming to the captives and civilians during the storming of the Chabad House, Yediot's website quoted ministry spokesman Yossi Levi as saying.

Tills ring out for Christmas in Bethlehem By Alastair Macdonald Alastair Macdonald – Sun Nov 30, 12:32 pm

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) – Jingle Bells rang out over Manger Square on Sunday as Bethlehem opened a Christmas market that the Palestinian city hopes will help cap a boom year for tourism with a profitable festive season.It has been an excellent year, Bethlehem's mayor Victor Batarseh said, forecasting 1.25 million visitors by the end of 2008 and noting a halving in local unemployment.We don't have any empty beds. Two years ago, all the hotels were empty.Trade in the biblical birthplace of Jesus was devastated when a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began in 2000 -- months after a papal visit and millennium celebrations had seemed to lock in a rosy future for Bethlehem as a magnet for tourists and pilgrims in a region aglow with hopes for peace.Eight years on, hopes for a final settlement with Israel have faded, like the patched up bullet holes in the Nativity Church which bear witness to a five-week siege in 2002. But a decline in violence has tempted back tourists who no longer fear suicide bombers and gunbattles erupting in the streets.We have witnessed a rebound in tourism, said Khouloud Daibes-Abu Dayyeh, the Palestinian Authority's tourism minister as she toured the handicrafts and festive decorations on sale from wooden booths in the German-style Christmas market.

We have put Palestine back on the map as a destination, she added, noting hotel occupancy rates were now typically above 70 percent, compared to 10 percent a few years ago.Israelis attribute some of that calm on the streets of nearby Jerusalem to the construction of hundreds of kilometers (miles) of walls and fencing around the West Bank. People in Bethlehem blame the barrier for discouraging visitors, who must pass through Israeli military checkpoints to reach the city.When we came, we saw the watch tower. It's not so good for Christians, said Kinga Mirowska, 24, from Krakow, Poland as she headed for the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born to Mary in a manger because Bethlehem's inns were full.

STRESS AND PRAYER

Khalil Salahat runs a souvenir store packed with olive wood crucifixes and Nativity cribs. Unlike many neighbors, whose shops remain shuttered even in the Advent season before Christmas, Salahat stuck through the lean years but is not about to declare all his problems over as world recession looms:It's better than last year, he said, looking forward also to an expected visit by Pope Benedict in May to bring a boost.

But the tourists believe the Israelis -- they're scared of the Palestinians and they leave their money behind when they come here. It would be better without the wall, the occupation.It is a sentiment echoed by Palestinian officials.Unless the occupation stops, we will always be under economic stress and psychological stress, Mayor Batarseh said.Daibes-Abu Dayyeh saw tourism and peace intertwined: We see tourism as a tool to achieve peace in the Holy Land ... and to break the isolation from the outside world.Yet many tourists get only a fleeting glimpse of Palestinian life. Many prefer to stay in Israeli-run Jerusalem, 10 km (6 miles) away. Burgeoning numbers of east European pilgrims are bused in on whirlwind day-trips from Egypt's winter sun resorts on the Red Sea, a five-hour desert drive to the south.Even with more time, Bethelehem can be a confusing place -- a mainly Muslim city where the call to prayer from the mosque on Manger Square drowned out the Christmas carols playing for the tourists and where palm trees and warm sunshine contrasted with the snow-capped Santa Claus figures on sale at the market. But for many Christians it remains a moving experience. This is the home of Christmas, said Dennis Thomson, an American working in Jerusalem, who was visiting on Sunday. This is so important to our world, said Violetta Krupova, a retired Russian doctor from St. Petersburg, who was visibly moved as she left the church where local priests wafted incense and chanted Latin. I have wanted to come here for so long.(Additional reporting by Mustafa Abu Ganiyeh; editing by Michael Roddy)

Unquiet grave: West Bank tomb a magnet for strife By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer – Sat Nov 29, 5:07 pm ET

HEBRON, West Bank – With its dueling street names, barbed wire barricades and the tomb of a shared patriarch split between two religions, the city of Abraham takes the feud between Israelis and Palestinians to its outer limits.Even a humble olive harvest is a cue for violence in Hebron, where 600 of Israel's most radical citizens have carved out an enclave bristling with guns and watchtowers in the midst of 170,000 Palestinians.Yet for all the city's complexities, the essence of Hebron's anguish is simple: one forefather, one city and two peoples — one feeling invaded, the other convinced it has come back to its biblical birthright, right down to the deed of sale recounted in the Book of Genesis, when Abraham purchased a burial plot for 400 silver shekels.Jews and Arabs both claim descent from the biblical patriarch, but their relationship in Hebron is anything but brotherly.Fearful of a peace deal that would lead to their evacuation, the settlers are growing increasingly violent, throwing rocks, assaulting farmers and even taking on Israeli soldiers — all to show their government how difficult any withdrawal from the West Bank will be.This is the heart of the people of Israel, said 39-year-old Hebron settler Amikam Lederer, standing in a courtyard outside the Abraham Our Father synagogue, a short walk from the tomb. Normal people do not give their heart to someone else.

According to Islamic, Jewish and Christian belief, Hebron, in the southern West Bank hills, is where not only Abraham — Ibrahim to Muslims — is buried, but also the patriarchs Isaac and Jacob and the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca and Leah.But two massacres define the city as much as religion. In 1929 rampaging Arabs killed 67 Jews, and in 1994 a Jewish extremist named Baruch Goldstein shot dead 29 Palestinians praying at the mosque surrounding Abraham's grave.All this history, dating as far back as 3,800 years, weighs heavily on the latest initiative by Mideast peacemakers — the deployment in Hebron of some 600 Palestinian troops, mostly trained in Jordan under U.S. guidance. They are here to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and keep the Islamic militants of Hamas in check.While the move has enjoyed some success, with dozens of wanted gunmen arrested, it is also fraught with peril. Though the new forces are supposed to avoid the fifth of the city that remains under Israeli military control, any clash with settlers or soldiers could undermine their mission of helping create the conditions needed for peace.Hebron embodies the Israeli nationalist vision born after the 1967 Mideast War of reclaiming the Promised Land and filling it with Jewish settlers.In that war, Israel captured Hebron along with the West Bank, and Jews immediately began pressing for the right to move back into the city from which their forerunners had been expelled in 1929.Initially, they were housed in a new suburb, Kiryat Arba, outside the Arab-populated city, but after Palestinians gunned down six settlers on their way home from prayers at the tomb in 1980, the government retaliated by allowing settlers to move in near the tomb, living in buildings that had belonged to Jews until the 1929 bloodbath.The frictions have been constant. To get to the tomb from Kiryat Arba, worshippers ride a bulletproof bus on what Jews call King David Street, and which Palestinians call Martyrs Street. Wire mesh and metal bars protect Palestinian homes from settlers hurling stones and bottles from above.Black paint now covers the words Death to Arabs on the door of Nidal Jabari's grocery store in Hebron. The Palestinian says he hardly gets any business these days because of settler harassment.In the plaza in front of the high-walled Ibrahimi mosque over Abraham's tomb, the silence is shattered by dueling loudspeakers — Israeli nationalist songs vs. the muezzin calling the Muslim faithful to prayer five times a day.A strictly enforced timetable sets separate hours for Jews and Muslims to pray at the tomb.

Whole streets along the way to the tomb have been cleared of Palestinian stores, leading to what the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem calls the economic collapse of the center of Hebron.The decline has been most marked in the eight years since the Palestinians unleashed their second uprising against Israel. Of the hundreds of Israelis killed in suicide bombings and other attacks, 31 were Hebron settlers. During that time, 195 Palestinians died in Hebron fighting while curfews confined the Arab population to their homes in the Israeli-controlled section of the city for months at a time. Thousands simply moved away. Some shops and businesses were closed by army order, others because of extensive restrictions on Palestinian movement. If a customer is stopped by the Israeli army he will not shop there, said Hisham Sharabati, a human rights worker. It's an indirect message that says don't come back to this area.The Israeli government maintains it has had no choice but to adopt stern measures to protect the settlers from militant violence. The settlers used to enjoy broad public sympathy. Viewed as pioneers, they were allowed to operate with impunity for decades. But now they sense that this sympathy is waning as Israelis increasingly are seeking ways to disentangle themselves from the West Bank and end the war. And this in turn is driving the hard-liners to greater extremes. After the army demolished an illegal settlement outpost near the city, settlers attacked an Israeli policeman, vandalized a Muslim cemetery and slashed the tires of two dozen Arab-owned cars. What most irked Israelis was a settler declaring on the radio that the troops involved in dismantling the outpost deserved the same fate as Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive for more than two years by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Nowhere are tensions more acute than at a four-story, unfinished house where 14 Jewish families live under round-the-clock army protection. Twenty months later they are still there. The Defense Ministry has decided they must go, but evacuation deadlines haven't been met.

The settlers have named it House of Peace, but clash frequently with their neighbors. On a recent day, settlers carrying automatic rifles walked in and out past a photo of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Jewish militant leader assassinated by a Muslim extremist in New York in 1990. When a Jew bows his head in the Land of Israel and doesn't believe that the country belongs to us, the Arabs feel wonderful and they hurt us, says Ruth Hizmi, a mother of seven and grandmother of six who lives in the House of Peace. When they feel that Jews are strong ... they go away.But they have a worsening image problem in Israel. Their critics have been galvanized by B'Tselem, the rights group, and Breaking the Silence, an organization of Israeli army veterans who take Israelis on tours of Hebron's flash points. B'Tselem hands out video cameras to Palestinians, then makes the footage public. In one video that caused a stir in Israel, a Jewish woman tells a Palestinian woman to stay behind a gate. Sit here, in the cage, the settler taunts. When the Palestinian refuses, she hisses: You're a whore, and your daughters, too.Another video shows children as young as 4 throwing debris at Palestinians while a black-bearded man in a skullcap looks on. Olives have become a factor in the conflict, as settlers try to chase Palestinian farmers away from land near settlements. In one recent incident, they punched a 53-year-old British woman who was trying to shield farmers from attack.

Increasingly, Israelis are asking why their government doesn't intervene. The reason, says Gershom Gorenberg, author of a history of the settlers, is that Hebron has a place in ancient Jewish history and modern Zionist history that has an emotional resonance that works against making a practical decision about it.Under accords signed in the 1990s, Abbas' government controls 80 percent of Hebron and Israel the other 20 percent. Some 30,000 Palestinians live in the Israeli-run area, and they complain that it has become a refuge for drug gangs and common criminals, immune from both their own law and from Israeli troops whose orders are to protect Jewish settlers, not stop Palestinian crime. Sharabati, the rights worker, described a scene of young Palestinians smoking hashish directly below an Israeli army watchtower, the smoke wafting up through the windows to the booth where the soldiers sat. Israeli surveillance is everywhere. Abdel Kareem Hadad, a Palestinian living in the Israeli-controlled area, has an army camera bolted to his house. It began moving as he sat on his porch one recent morning, at one point cueing directly at him as he spoke. This is for their security, not our security, Hadad said.