Monday 06 October 2008 Israel's foreign minister expressed her commitment on Sunday to continue peace negotiations with Palestinians. Tzipi Livni made her first policy address since being nominated to form Israel's next government. She spoke in Jerusalem at a policy conference attended by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki. In his own address, Mr. al-Malki said that uncertainty about mid-east peace continues to prevail. Ms. Livni asked by President Shimon Peres last month to form a government following the resignation Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who faces corruption charges.
Tuesday 23 September 2008 President Shimon Peres has asked Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to try to form a government. Mrs. Livni was on Wednesday elected leader of the Kadima Party, the biggest formation in the existing governing coalition. Kadima has 29 of the 120 members of Parliament. Mrs. Livni has 42 days to form a government, failing which there would be a general election. She would be Israel's second woman president, the first having been Golda Meir between 1969 and 1974. Meanwhile, about a dozen Israeli soldiers were wounded Monday night by a Palestinian in a car on a street in West Jerusalem. Israeli public radio says two of the wounded are in serious condition. The driver of the car was killed. Earlier in the day, an Israeli soldier lost an eye and three Palestinians were hurt when a woman sprayed acid at the soldier at a checkpoint near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
Monday 22 September 2008 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has formally announced his resignation following the victory of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in a party leadership vote last week. Mr. Olmert's move was a formality. He had announced on July 30 that he would step down to battle allegations of corruption. President Shimon Peres will grant Miss Livni 42 days to form a new government. If she fails, general elections will be called.
Friday 19 September 2008 The new leader of the Kadima Party, Tzipi Livni, says she will act quickly to form a new government after her victory on Wednesday in the party's leadership vote. Kadima is the biggest of the parties comprising the governing coalition. The current prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is expected to announce his resignation on Sunday. He's involved in several corruption investigations. After he resigns, Mrs. Livni has 42 days to form a new government, but if she fails early elections must be held within 90 days.
Tuesday 16 September 2008 The biggest of the four parties in the country's governing coalition will elect a new leader on Wednesday, the Kadima party leader possibly becoming prime minister. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has had to abandon his post of party leader because an investigation for corruption is forcing him from office. Seventy-four-thousand Kadima members are eligible to pick a new leader. The principal contenders are Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz. In June, the latter caused a stir on world oil markets when he said Israel would have "no choice" but to attack Iran if diplomatic efforts to end its nuclear program fail.
Wednesday 27 August 2008 One-hundred-and-ninety-eight Palestinian prisoners were freed by Israel on Monday as a goodwill gesture. Several thousand Palestinians turned out to greet them in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was among the welcomers and said that there won't be peace between Israelis and Palestinians until all Palestinian prisoners are free. Israel is holding about 11,000 such. The release coincided with a one-day visit to the Middle East by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She says the administration of President George W. Bush continues to strive for a regional peace settlement before he leaves office in January but doubts one will emerge before the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly next month.
Tuesday 19 August 2008 The Israeli government has approved the release of some 200 Palestinian prisoners. The prisoners are to be released next week "as a goodwill gesture" toward Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas. Nearly all of the prisoners to be freed belong to groups linked to Fatah, the secular movement led by Abbas. The list does not include members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, both of which Israel brands as terrorist organizations. Two of those to be freed are veteran prisoners implicated in deadly attacks on Israelis in the 1970s. Most of the others have been held on minor offences.
Monday 11 August 2008 WP op-ed on the importance of water to the Israel-Palestine conflict:
Of the aquifers that lie mainly under Israel, Israel draws 100 percent. Of those that lie mainly under the West Bank, Palestinians draw 20 percent, Israel 80 percent. The average Israeli uses roughly 350 cubic meters of water per year -- four times the amount used by the average Palestinian.
Friday Aug 1, 2008 Israeli consulate to move from downtown to Westmount
The Israeli consulate is moving from its downtown location to Westmount. will move from the CIBC building on René Levesque Blvd. at the corner of Peel St. to Westmount Square by next Monday.....He added the offices of the Spanish and Brazilian consulates are also at Westmount Square.
Thursday 31 July 2008 Israel's prime minister says he will step down after his Kadima party chooses a new leader in mid-September. Ehud Olmert says he will not run in the Kadima primaries, nor intervene in the elections. If the new leader of the Kadima Party is able to form a coalition, Israel could have a new government by October. Mr. Olmert made the announcement during an interview with Israeli television. Prime Minister Olmert faces several corruption investigations. He denies any wrongdoing but promised to resign if indicted.
Tuesday Jul 8, 2008 No Mid East peace with Bush: Syria
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told a newspaper his country is unlikely to make peace with Israel...
A Palestinian construction worker rampaged in a bulldozer along one of west Jerusalem's busiest streets on Wednesday, killing three Israelis as he crushed cars and overturned a bus before being shot dead
Friday 04 July 2008 11:44 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has called for a revival of the practice of destroying the homes of Palestinians who attack Israelis. He was responding to the rampage by a 30-year-old Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem who ploughed an earth-moving machine into cars and a bus, killing 3 people and injuring 45 others. The security forces shot the man to death. Mr. Olmert says the government should enact tougher measures against terrorists, particularly against those "who are part of our internal fabric of life" and that if social rights have to be revoked, then so be it. The military stopped demolishing houses in 2005 after determining that the demolitions didn't work as a deterrent.
Thursday 03 July 2008 A Palestinian went on a rampage in Jerusalem on Wednesday after ramming an earthmover into buses and cars in the city before being shot dead by police. Three people were killed and 45 injured. The 30-year-old man was a resident of East Jerusalem and had a criminal record. The city's police commissioner said the rampage appeared to be a "spontaneous incident" carried out by someone with no known links to armed groups.
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TRAGEDY IN JERUSALEM
The National, CTV News, and the Post front, while the Globe, the Star and La Presse go inside with the story of Hussam Dwayat, who plowed through Jerusalem in a bulldozer, killing three people and injuring forty-five. The man turned the vehicle into oncoming traffic and crowds of people, causing havoc in the busy streets. The National and CTV News show video clips of Dwayat’s rampage and an off-duty Israeli soldier shooting him in the head four times. The Globe is the only source that reports the Palestinian man might have been suffering from mental problems due to a failed relationship with a Jewish woman and a prison sentence. The Post ponders what could happen next: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is looking into punitive measures against Dwayat’s family - namely, tearing down the house in which some twenty of his relatives live, or revoking their health insurance - to deter future attacks. The Israeli government is considering ways in which it can secure Jerusalem, but tightening security in the city claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians as their capital means a forceful presence that could threaten to end the already tenuous Israeli-Hamas truce.
Sunday 29 June 2008 The Israeli army and Palestinian security officials shot dead a teenager in the West Bank who threw Molotov cocktails at an army patrol. Israeli soldiers entered the village near Hebron on Friday. They were on an operation to stop fire bomb attacks on Israeli vehicles on a nearby highway. The West Bank is not covered by a nine-day old truce between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip
Thursday 26 June 2008 The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad says it will respect a truce with Israel in Gaza. A spokesman for Islamic Jihad made the pledge after negotiations with Hamas, which controls the territory. But the spokesman said that if Israel violates the truce, the group will consult with other militant factions to determine retaliation. The ceasefire came into effect on June 19 after months of mediation by Egypt. On Tuesday, Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for having fired three rockets into Israel after one of its militants was killed in a gunbattle in Nablus in the West Bank. The truce doesn't include the latter territory.
Monday 23 June 2008 France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, began a three-day visit to Irsrael on Sunday, proclaiming friendship. He also said that Israel's security depended on the creation of a Palestinian state. Mr. Sarkozy's visit is the first to Israel by a French president in almost 12 years. He was greeted by President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who said that the visit was proof of Mr. Sakozy's support for the Jewish people and Israel. Just before his arrival to Israel, Mr. Sarkozy condemned an anti-Semitic attack that left a Jewish teenager in a coma in Paris.
Friday 20 June 2008 Thursday was the first day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-administered Gaza and there were no reports of attacks. The truce was mediated by Egypt. In the past year, clashes between the adversaries have left more than 400 Palestinians and seven Israelis dead. According to the terms of the truce, militants will stop attacks against Israel, which will cease its raids. After three days, Israel will ease its economic blockade and in one week further relax restrictions on cargo crossing points. There would eventually be talks about opening a crossing point between Gaza and Egypt and the return of an Israeli soldier kidnapped two years ago. The ceasefire is to last six months. Speaking in Paris, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the truce might last only days or weeks. The last truce in November 2006 lasted only weeks.
AFTER weeks of indirect negotiations using Egyptian mediation Israel confirmed on Wednesday June 18th that it and Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza strip, had reached a ceasefire agreement. Barring a last-minute escalation, hostilities between Israel and the militant groups in Gaza will cease on the morning of June 19th.
Monday 16 June 2008 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed displeasure on Sunday over further Israeli construction in east Jerusalem. The houses are being built in areas that Palestinians want for a future state. Miss Rice was in the region on her latest trip to promote mideast peace. But the outlook for achieving a peace deal by end of the year appeared increasingly dim. When talks resumed this year, the United States hoped to achieve a breakthrough before President George W. Bush leaves office in January. Miss Rice planned to raise the settlement issue at talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Last week, Israel announced that it would build 1,300 new housing units in east Jerusalem. In its peace negotiations, Israel makes a clear distinction between the West Bank and Jerusalem. Palestinians say that the new construction undermines the talks.
Peace Talks in the Middle East Israel and Syria have said they are holding peace talks in Turkey, and factions in Lebanon have reached a deal, ending a political crisis
Saturday 07 June 2008 OTTAWA: PM CANCELS ISRAEL TRIP
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has cancelled his planned five-day visit to Israel that was to have begun on June 16. The stated reason for the cancellation is the growing political uncertainty there and his unwillingness to arrive in the middle of a domestic leadership crisis. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faces a growing revolt in his cabinet, several ministers urging him to resign. Mr. Olmert is involved in a money scandal and is suffering from growing public distrust.
Monday 02 June 2008 The Israeli housing ministry has announced that it plans to build hundreds of new homes for Israelis in east Jerusalem. Palestinians have proclaimed east Jerusalem for the capital of their future state. An Israeli government spokesman says the new units are to be constructed in large Jewish neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem, annexed by Israel in 1967. The latest planned expansions come on the eve of the next scheduled meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas. The Palestinians see the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, as the biggest obstacle to a final peace deal. Meanwhile, Israel on Sunday accepted the remains of some of its soldiers from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, through the International Red Cross. The Israeli soldiers were killed in the war in Lebanon in 2006.
Thursday 29 May 2008 JERUSALEM: CANADA PART OF ANTI-TERROR NETWORK
Israel's public security minister says nine countries, including Canada, are co-operating in a new counter-terrorism network. Avi Dichter will host a security forum set to begin Thursday. He says the aim of the "Challenges to Homeland Security" conference is to foster the same co-operation that the nations have in fighting crime. The partners also include the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, the United Kingdom and the Palestinian Authority.
Sunday May 18, 2008 'Israel is a beacon of hope' By Joel Goldenberg, The Suburban More than 15,000 Montrealers celebrated Israel’s 60th anniversary in grand style, with a sea of blue and white flags downtown, an attempt to break a Guinness world record for folk dancing and tributes by federal leaders.
Friday 16 May 2008 U.S. President George W. Bush was in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the 60th anniversary of the independence of Israel. At an evening tribute to mark U.S.-Israeli ties, the president recalled that his country had recognized Israel diplomatically 11 minutes after its declaration of independence, thus becoming the latter nation's oldest friend. On Thursday, the president will visit the Roman fortress of Masada and latter address parliament. Mr. Bush launched a diplomatic drive last year to mediate a permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians but the drive has bogged down. On Wednesday, a rocket fired from Gaza injured several people in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and an Israeli air strike later killed two Hamas fighters.
Wednesday May 14, 2008 Can Israel survive for another 60 years?
It's somehow absurd and trivial to use the word "Israel" and the expression "60th birthday" in the same sentence or the same breath. (What is this, some candle-bedecked ceremony in Miami?)
The June 10, 1967 iconic David Rubinger photo above of three Israeli paratroopers who had reached the Western Wall has very special significance to us. David gave us a signed copy which hangs in our dining room. We were delighted to learn that David’s work was featured by the 92nd Street Y in February at a special exhibit and enjoyed the memories of his visits to Wednesday Night that were provoked by the mention that he would “return to the Y to share some of the stories behind his photographs in an informal Friday evening salon”.
Saturday 10 May 2008 One Israeli was killed on a communal farm after attackers fired mortar shells into southern Israel on Friday. Three other Israelis were injured. The Israeli military retaliated with missile strikes on two police stations which Hamas says killed five of its militants. The military says militants in Gaza have fired 1,950 mortar shells and rockets into Israel this year, almost as many as were fired in all of last year.
For a country, sixty’s not so old, but Israel’s birthday party, held yesterday, was momentous nonetheless. The Star goes inside with Israel’s celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of its founding, “with fireworks, air force flyovers and a great sense of pride … but also with uncertainty about its future and doubts about prospects for peace with the Palestinians.” While the holiday was undoubtedly bittersweet, marred as it was by the precarious standing of the state and a prime minister mired in scandal, the Post does all it can to excise the bitter from the mix, running a two-page spread that aggressively defends Israel against its critics. Rochelle Wilner criticizes Liberal vacillation on the Middle East in contrast to Harper’s steadfastly pro-Israel stance, while Michael Coren makes a historical argument for why Jews are entitled to Israeli land. Ultimately, though, both seek to silence any censure of the country’s policies by hinting that any such criticism is tantamount to anti-Semitism—a sentiment echoed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a birthday-celebratory speech in Toronto yesterday. After promising that Canada “will never abandon Israel,” Harper went on to say, “I guess my fear is what I see happening in some circles is … anti-Israeli sentiment, really just as a thinly disguised veil for good old-fashioned anti-Semitism, which I think is completely unacceptable.” None of these authors are so bold as to say that all critics of Israel are anti-Semites, but since they each write (or speak) from an entirely uncritical position, their words leave one wondering whether there could be any other explanation for a disapproving appraisal of the country. Does MediaScout really need to point out that just because anti-Semites tend to be anti-Israeli too, doesn’t mean that all those who are critical of the country’s policies or its borders are bigots?
Meanwhile, CTV News goes inside with Israeli Ambassador to Canada Alan Baker’s recent remark that Canada’s growing Muslim population is shifting the country’s Mideast policies in a direction unfavourable to Israel. Baker also expressed concerns about what he sees as Muslims’ inability to assimilate to Canadian culture, and identified Liberal MP Omar Alghabra, a Muslim, as an example of a politician who has been “less than friendly” toward Israel, though he provided no evidence for this claim. Bob Rae, Liberal MP and foreign affairs critic, responded that “Baker should reflect on his comments because I don’t think they were either accurate or constructive,” while Alghabra himself called the comments “shocking and inappropriate.” It’s disappointing, if unsurprising, that Israel’s birthday has brought about, besides Baker’s obfuscating generalizations, more doctrinaire and debate-limiting tracts than sober reflections on the value, failings and viability of the Israeli state. Of today’s analysis, only Gershom Gorenberg’s utopian essay in the Post holds much interest, perhaps because in the present climate, only a Jew can make a nuanced assessment of the Israeli predicament without being accused of anti-Semitism.
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Friday 25 April 2008 Israel has resumed pumping of diesel fuel to Gaza by pumping one million litres to the territory's only power plant. The Palestinians say this will be enough to keep the facility operating for three days. Earlier, a Palestinian official in Gaza had said the plant would have to shut without further deliveries. Supplies of fuel from Israel have been sporadic since Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli fuel depot near the border and killed two civilians.
Tuesday 22 April 2008 The Palestinian militant group Hamas says would accept the establishment of a state on land occupied by Israel in 1967 but wouldn't recognize the Israeli state. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal thus confirmed an account of his meetings during the weekend with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter which the latter recounted. Meshaal says Hamas could accept the formation of a state on the 1967 ceasefire lines, with full sovereignty and the right of refugees to return. The U.S. government reacted by saying it sees no change in Hamas' positions. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak noted that the Israeli government also sees no change in Hamas' attitude since Israel is targeted by rockets fired from Hamas-controlled on a daily basis.
Monday 24 March 2008 TEL AVIV: CANADA AND ISRAEL SIGN SECURITY DEAL
Canada and Israel have agreed to work together to combat public safety threats. Canada's Public Safety Minister, Stockwell Day, announced the new measures on Sunday after talks with officials in Tel Aviv. Canada and Israel will share information about common threats such as as border security, illegal immigration and organized crime. Mr. Day says that the deal is a way for both countries to protect their citizens better.
Sunday 23 March 2008 U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney arrived in Israel on Saturday to promote Middle East peace talks. He has planned a nine-day tour of the region. Upon arrival, Mr. Cheney said that the United States backed Israel's right to defend itself against rockets from Hamas-ruled Gaza and will not pressure the Jewish state to take steps that threaten its security. Mr. Cheney will meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert before heading to the West Bank on Sunday to meet with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. Mr. Cheney will encourage peace talks that the two sides revived in November. U.S. President George W. Bush is expected visit to the region in May to celebrate the sixieth anniversary of the creation of Israel. Egypt held talks on Saturday with representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, part of a push for a truce between the militant groups and Israel.
Monday 10 March 2008 Israel's government announced new plans on Sunday to expand a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. A total of 750 homes will be built in a settlement near Jerusalem called Givat Ze'ev. The settlement lies just outside the boundaries that Israel has drawn for Jerusalem. Two hundred partially built homes in the settlement will be completed. No date was set for construction of the other homes. Palestinian groups have denounced the announcement as a blow to the latest mid-east peace talks. The peace talks were already put in jeopardy after a Palestinian gunman killed eight Jewish students at a school in Jerusalem last week. The school was linked to a local movement promoting Jewish settlements.
Thursday 06 March 2008 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she has persuaded Israel and the Palestinian Authority to resume peace negotiations. She made the revelation in Jerusalem after a meeting with her Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni. Miss Rice didn't give a date for the resumption of the talks. Palestinian President confirmed that the negotiations would resume but said that a ceasefire in Gaza was a condition, which Miss Rice contradicted. Mr. Abbas suspended the talks during the weekend to protest against the five-day Israeli incursion during which the Palestinians said more than 120 people had been killed, one-half of them militants. The incursion was aimed at stopped the almost daily firing of rockets from Gaza into Israeli. The Israeli army said that 11 more rockets were fired on Wednesday, of which seven exploded inside Israel without doing damage
:Wednesday 05 March 2008 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has failed to win a commitment from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resume peace talks with Israel. The two met on Tuesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah. U.S. officials said they despite the lack of commitment to return to the talks, they expect him to do so soon. Mr. Abbas suspended the encounters with the Israelis on Sunday in protest against the five-day Israeli military incursion into Gaza, where more than 120 Palestinians were killed, about half of them civilians. Palestinian medical workers said a fresh incursion on Tuesday left a senior Islamic Jihad militant and a baby dead.
Tuesday 04 March 2008 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the military will maintain pressure on Gaza and that Monday's pullout of troops after a three-day incursion doesn't mean Israel will abate its campaign to stop rocket fire from the territory. Residents of northern Gaza ventured out of their homes after the most violent Israeli action against the territory in some years. Gaza's health ministry reports the deaths of 121 Palestinians since last Wednesday, including 22 children and dozens of militants. Two Israeli soldiers also died and one Israeli was killed in a rocket attack last week. Despite the extent of the Israeli attack, two projectiles fell on the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, injuring one person slightly. The army says the long-range rockets fired in recent were made in Iran.
Friday 29 February 2008 Palestinian sources say that 20 Palestinians died on Thursday in Israeli air attacks, 11 of them militants, in a second day of intense exchanges ion Gaza. Four of the dead were teenaged boys who were playing soccer. Thirty-two people have died in attacks in the past two days, including an Israeli killed by a rocket fired from Gaza. Sixty-five Gaza residents have died this month. Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai says the Palestinians "...are bringing this on themselves..." but Israel cannot not react to the rockets fired by militants.
Monday 11 February 2008 Op-Ed Contributor: Israel’s Secret Success Daniel Gavron asks why his fellow Israelis aren’t celebrating the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel
Monday 11 February 2008 One day after Palestinian rockets badly wounded two Israelis, including a young boy, Israel's prime minister threatened harsher action against Palestinian militants. Ehud Olmert vowed to target what he called all terror elements in Gaza. He strongly suggested that Israeli forces would begin hunting militant leaders of the Palestinian movement, Hamas. Following the rocket attack on Israel on Saturday, an Israeli air strike killed one Hamas militant, while Israeli troops staged a raid on Gaza, shooting one gunman. The violent exchange has put the latest attempt at regional peace talks in serious jeopardy.
Tuesday 05 February 2008 An Israeli civilian was killed in the small Israeli town of Dimona after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up. The suicide bombing was the first in Israel in a year. A source in the Palestinian Fatah faction said the group known as the Army of Palestine, a wing of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, carried out the attack. The attack raised speculation in Israel that a Palestinian militant from the Gaza Strip had infiltrated from nearby Egypt after Hamas Islamists blew open the territory's border at Rafah late last month. That border was closed on Sunday. The attack occurred several weeks after Israel and the Palestinians resumed peace talks opposed by Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip.
Monday 21 January 2008 OTTAWA: SRAEL EXPRESSING DISMAY OVER CANADIAN LIST
Israel's ambassador to Canada on Sunday expressed his country's shock over Israel's inclusion on a Canadian government list of countries that practice torture against prisoners. Alan Baker said that those who created the list were misguided and ill-informed. The list was in a training manual for Canadian diplomats. Other countries on the list included the United States, Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Syria. Canada's foreign minister, Maxime Bernier, on Saturday expressed regret over the inclusion of Israel and the United States. Mr. Bernier ordered that the list be revised and the two countries removed. But some human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have accused the United States of practising torture at its detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Saturday 19 January 2008 Israel bombed the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza on Friday. It was its first bombing of a Palestinian government building since Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after routing secular Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel has killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza this week as part of what officials describe as a stepped-up campaign to pressure Hamas to rein in militants who have fired more than 110 rockets into the Jewish state in the last three days alone. Meanwhile, in Geneva UN sources said Friday the UN Human Rights Council will hold an emergency session next Wednesday to examine alleged violations in Gaza after Israel closed border crossings and carried out attacks on the strip. The special one-day session was requested by Arab and Muslim countries. It will be the third on the Palestine issue since the 47-member state forum was set up in June 2006.
Saturday 19 January 2008 OTTAWA: ISRAEL AND US NAMED TORTURE RISKS
Canada's foreign affairs ministry has placed Israel and the United States on a list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured. The ministry also classifies some US interrogation techniques as torture. The revelation comes from a document that is part of a training course on torture awareness given to diplomats. The government mistakenly provided the document to Amnesty International Canada as part of a court case the rights organization has launched against the Canadian government over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan. Both Israel and the US have previously denied the use of torture in their prisons. The revelation is likely to embarrass Canada's Conservative Party government which is a strong ally of both Israel and the United States.
Friday 18 January 2008 Israel locked down the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The lockdown came after Israeli air strikes killed five more Palestinians in Gaza in a bid to halt nearly daily rocket fire and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to keep up raids on gunmen in the Hamas-run territory. Late Thursday night, Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the closure of all border crossings between Israel and Gaza. Israel said the closures would remain in effect for several days and would affect both commercial traffic and individual travellers. He added that crossings would be authorised to respond to "exceptional humanitarian needs."
Israel carried out a missile test on Thursday, increasing speculation the launch was part of a program to develop longer-range weapons or improve an anti-missile defence system. In recent years, Israel has focused on countering the threat of missile attacks from neighbouring Arab states and Iran. Israel accuses Iran of using its controversial nuclear program as a cover for developing atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
Thursday 17 January 2008 GAZA
An Israeli air strike killed three civilians including a teenager in the heart of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Wednesday. The air strike came a day after the deadliest day of violence in the territory for more than a year. Wednesday's victims--a 13-year-old boy, his father and uncle--were killed when a missile hit their car in Gaza City. The Israeli military said it had killed civilians "in error" while targeting militants. On Tuesday, a series of Israeli operations killed at least 19 people in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israel's military has increased its military operations in Gaza since Hamas took over the region in June after defeating the Fatah forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli-Palestinian fighting has escalated since the two sides revived peace talks in November, overshadowing US President Bush's prediction of a deal by the time he leaves office in January 2009.
Thursday 10 January 2008 U.S. President George W Bush on Wednesday began a one-week trip to the Middle East, arriving in Israel for the first time in his presidency. On arrival in Tel Aviv, he told Israeli leaders that he saw a new opportunity for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Mr Bush will travel to Ramallah on Thursday to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Bush will also visit Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The trip follows a U.S.-sponsored conference last month in the city of Annapolis, Maryland, where Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Abbas pledged to try to forge a peace deal by the end of this year.
2007
Monday 24 December 2007 Israel plans to build about 740 new homes next year on occupied land near Jerusalem. The announcement comes despite Palestinian calls for a total freeze on new settlements. The issue of Israeli settlement building in East Jerusalem has upset negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians that were launched at a peace conference last month in the United States. Palestinians say that the plans jeopardize talks set to resume on Monday.
Thursday 13 December 2007 Israel and the Palestinian Authority held their first negotiations in seven years in Jerusalem on Wednesday but they went nowhere, the Israeli side describing the meeting as "tense," the Palestinians saying "not an inch" of progress was made. The talks were agreed last month at a U.S.-sponsored international conference at which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak promised to try to reach a final settlement by the end of next year. The tension was due in part to Israel's announcement last week that it would build 3007 new homes in eastern Jerusalem, an area where the Palestinians want to establish their capital. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused the Israelis of continuing to establish facts on the ground. Meanwhile, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired 20 rockets into Israel, hours after the Israeli military staged an incursion into Gaza and killed six militants.
Sunday Oct 28, 2007 Israel has decided to move a military exercise off the disputed Golan Heights to avoid further heightening tensions with neighbouring Syria. In early September, Israeli jets hit a target in Syria's north. Since then, tensions between the two sides have run high. An Israeli defence official says that the military will hold next week's exercise in northern Israel and not on the Golan Heights. Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Wednesday 17 October 2007 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has called upon Jews around the world to establish residence in Israel, as the Jewish state prepares to launch a campaign to revitalize immigration and to persuade emigrants to return home. The ministry of integration has fixed a goal to bring home 15,000 emigrants in 2008 and to increase to 20,000 the number of Jewish immigrants. Numbers of Jewish immigrants has been falling in recent years and is expected to hit in 2007 its lowest level since 1988.
Wednesday 03 October 2007 The Israeli government completed the release of 86 Palestinian prisoners on Tuesday. Twenty-nine prisoners were released to Gaza, after 57 were freed on Monday and sent to the West Bank. The releases are apparently intended to bolster the political position of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Most of those freed were members of his Fatah movement. None were members of the rival Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in June. Mr. Abbas will meet on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with the purpose of working out a framework for a "two-state" solution that would be presented at a U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference next month.
Tuesday 28 August 2007 There have been two threatening intelligence reports in Israel. In the first, Israel Defence Minister Ehud Barak told a parliamentary committee that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has more rockets now than it possessed during last summer's 34-day war with Israel. Mr. Barak says the rockets are located far from the border north of the Litani River but still within striking distance of northern Israel. Hezbollah fired almost 4,000 rockets into Israel during the conflict. In the second report, an intelligence official who couldn't be identified told the Israeli cabinet that the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas has smuggled 40 tonnes of weapons in Gaza since seized control of the territory in June. The source told cabinet that Hamas is growing increasingly motivated to carry out attacks against Israel and that the group's leadership exiled in Syria are intent upon disrupting peace efforts by Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by resuming suicide attacks. Mr. Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are scheduled to meet in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
Wednesday 25 July 2007 Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has arrived in Jerusalem on his first mission as envoy of the "Quartet," comprising the U.S., Russia, the EU and the UN. Mr. Blair's limited mandate is to help the Palestinians develop their economy and build institutions that will help in the creation of an independent state, while leaving aside such intractable problems as borders, Palestinian refugees and the sovereignty of Jerusalem. Mr. Blair has had a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni who said the critical time has come when progress is possible after years of stalemate in the region. She also advised her guest not to do anything to lend legitimacy to Hamas, which seized Gaza several weeks ago.
Friday 06 July 2007 Israeli troops shot and killed two Hamas militants during an exchange of gunfire in the Gaza Strip. The latest killings occurred as Israel continues to try to force the Palestinians to stop firing rockets into Israel. Militants have fired hundreds of rockets towards Israel, killing at least two people, in the past two weeks. In retaliation, Israel has killed more than 45 Palestinians, mostly militants. Appeals by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for a ceasefire have been ignored. Meanwhile, Mr. Abbas says he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert next week for the first time in nearly two months. The date and location are yet to be determined.
Saturday Jun 30, 2007 rci Israel's President Moshe Katsav has resigned. The move came one day after he signed a controversial plea bargain that will see him convicted of sexual offences but avoid prison for initial rape charges. The deal with the attorney general's office ended a scandal that has caused much controversy in Israel. Accusations of sexual misconduct against Katsav were first mentioned a year ago and eventually spread to include four women who formerly worked with him in the president's office and earlier when he was tourism minister. Katsav stepped aside in January to fight the allegations against him but did not resign. Veteran statesman Shimon Peres, who was elected earlier in the month to succeed Katsav, is to take over the presidency on July 15.
Jun 18th 2007 ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS The dust settles after last week's violence among Palestinians revealing a changed political scene
Tuesday May 29, 2007
More election news and upheavals in Israel as Amir Peretz has been ousted as Labour party leader; which will doubtless lead to more uncertainties, with the possibility of new elections should Prime Minister Ehud Olmert fail to put together another coalition.
Israel and the Palestinians
Israel's wasted victory
May 24th 2007 From The Economist print edition
Six days of war followed by 40 years of misery. How can it ever end?
Getty Images
ON THE seventh day Jews everywhere celebrated Israel's deliverance from danger. But 40 years after that tumultuous June of 1967, the six-day war has come to look like one of history's pyrrhic victories. That is not to say that the war was unnecessary. Israel struck after Egypt's President Nasser sent his army into the Sinai peninsula, evicted United Nations peacekeeping forces and blockaded Israeli shipping through the Gulf of Aqaba. Israel's victory opened the waterway and smashed its enemies' encircling armies, averting what many Israelis sincerely expected to be a second Holocaust. And yet, in the long run, the war turned into a calamity for the Jewish state no less than for its neighbours.
But you never phoned
rci Israel continues its retaliatory air attacks against the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israeli warplanes fired on a car in Gaza City, killing two militants. An earlier strike destroyed a Hamas training centre south of the city, injuring one person. In the past 10 days more than 40 Palestinians have died in Israeli raids and one Israeli has died in a rocket attack. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has proposed a halt to the rocket attacks to permit a one-month truce with Israel as well as time to arrange a separate ceasefire between his Fatah faction and Hamas, which heads the Palestinian Authority government.
Part of the trouble was the completeness of the triumph. Its speed and scope led many Israelis to see a divine hand in their victory. This changed Israel itself, giving birth to an irredentist religious-nationalist movement intent on permanent colonisation of the occupied lands (see article). After six days Israel had conquered not just Sinai and the Syrian Golan Heights but also the old city of Jerusalem and the West Bank—the biblical Judea and Samaria where Judaism began. In theory, these lands might have been traded back for the peace the Arabs had withheld since Israel's founding. That is what the UN Security Council proposed in Resolution 242. But Israelis were intoxicated by victory and the Arabs paralysed by humiliation. The Arabs did not phone to sue for peace and Israel did not mind not hearing from them. Instead, it embarked on its hubristic folly of annexing the Arab half of Jerusalem and—in defiance of law, demography and common sense—planting Jewish settlements in all the occupied territories to secure a Greater Israel.
Offering Video, Israel Answers Critics on War Israel is using photographs and video to buttress its accusation that Hezbollah systematically fired from civilian neighborhoods in southern Lebanon.
Sun 29/10/2006 Israel's president, Moshe Katzav, vowed to stay on in his post despite allegations that he is guilty of rape and sexual harassment. He said the he would not resign even though he is at risk of criminal charges. Israeli police are also checking to see whether to open a criminal investigation into the activity of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. There are allegations that he promoted the interests of two foreign businessmen who wanted to buy Bank Leumi of Israel.
Fri 20/10/2006 Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper has again indicated his government's support for Israel. He says that no amount of political pressure will force the government to take a neutral position regarding Israel's fight against terrorism. Mr. Harper says he believes Israel has the right to defend its citizens against terrorists and that Israel can always count on Canada's backing. He made his statements at dinner on Wednesday evening sponsored by a Canadian Jewish organization. Last week, Mr. Harper accused the candidates competing for the leadership of the Liberal party of being anti-Israel. He mentioned candidate Michael Ignatieff's statement that Israel had committed a war crime with its attack on the Lebanese village of Qana during the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
Saturday 07 October 2006 rci The Iraqi government has taken an entire police brigade of between 700 and 800 off the streets of Baghdad out of suspicion that it is involved in the sectarian killings that have wracked the capital. The decision was taken after the U.S. military last month reviewed all 27 brigades deployed in Baghdad. U.S. Maj.-Gen. William Caldwell says there was evidence that the banned brigade was allowing death squads to operate. The officer also said that the numbers of bombs detonated and defused in Baghdad last week reached the highest level so far this year. Meanwhile, 14 people were killed and 75 wounded in a car bomb attack in the capital.
Monday 14 August 2006 Israel's cabinet on Sunday agreed to a United Nations cease-fire plan for Lebanon that would go into effect early on Monday morning. Lebanon's government agreed to the plan one day earlier. But the decision to approve the ceasefire has not ended the fighting. Israel has 30-thousand soldiers in southern Lebanon aimed at severing Hezbollah militants' supply lines. Five Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting on Sunday and 25 others were wounded, four of them seriously. At least five Lebanese were killed as Israeli missiles blasted targets across Lebanon. Hezbollah fired a number of rockets at northern Israel, killing one person and injuring seven. On Saturday, 24 Israeli soldiers died in fighting.
Sat 12/08/2006 Israel, Lebanon agree to UN ceasefire
As Israel troops to step up the offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the U.N. Security Council agreed on a new resolution to halt the violence and allow the deployment of UN and Lebanese forces as the Israelis withdraw. Olivia Ward reports.
Wed 09/08/2006 nyt Left or Right, Israelis Are Pro-War The harder the war with Hezbollah becomes, the more the Israeli public wants it to proceed, and with greater force.
Tuesday 01 August 2006 12:18 nyt Israel Pushes On Despite Agreeing to Airstrike Lull
By CRAIG S. SMITH and STEVEN ERLANGER
Israel’s defense minister told Parliament that the army “will expand and deepen its operations against Hezbollah.”
rci The fighting continued on Thursday between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants in Gaza. Dozens of Israeli tanks moved into an area near Gaza's border with Egypt at dawn. Israeli warplanes above fired missiles at groups of Palestinian gunmen, killing four and wounding 26, of whom 10 were militants. The sources of the information are Palestinian security and hospital officials. The UN, meanwhile, reports that the Israeli army is firing 200 to 250 artillery shells into Gaza a day since the fighting began more than one month ago, a shelling which the UN statement calls "disproportionate." It also called on the Palestinians to stop firing rockets into Israel. The fighting started in Gaza after militants killed several Israeli soldiers and kidnapped another.
rci JERUSALEM: CANADIAN PROF RELEASED IN ISRAEL
A Canadian with dual Israeli citizenship has been freed in Israel after being detained for 22 days on suspicion of spying for Iran and Hezbollah. Fifty-three-year-old Ghazi Falah, a university professor, says he was interrogated constantly, one session lasting for 60 hours. Mr. Falah says that during some of the sessions he was tied to a chair with his arms behind his back. The Israelis arrested him after finding him taking pictures along the Lebanese border. Mr. Falah says he thinks the real reason for his arrest was that he has written articles critical of Israel. He teaches at the University of Akron in the U.S. state of Ohio.
Israel continued its military offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon on Monday. Israeli warplanes conducted operations after a 48-hour halt following the bombing of the village of Qana in which 52 people were killed, more than one-half of them children. The Israeli government expressed regret for the air attack but claimed that Hezbollah had been launching rockets into Israel from emplacements in the village. One-hundred-and-fifty-six rockets are reported to have fallen on northern Israel on Sunday, and two on Monday. Lebanon was plunged into grief on Monday, flags flying at half-mast and banks and public institutions being closed. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora denounced the Qana attack as a "war crime." Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the offensive won't end until two soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah are returned and the threat posed by the guerrillas is removed.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Israeli Lebanon border quiet Israel will "expand and strengthen" its attack on Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, the defence minister said Monday, diminishing hopes that a 48-hour halt in air strikes could be turned into a longer term ceasefire.
Israel releases former University of Toronto professor An Israeli-Canadian professor held in an Israeli jail for more than three weeks after being accused of espionage said Israeli authorities deprived him of sleep for 60 hours and heaped verbal abuse on him bordering on sexual harassment.
Sunday 30 July 2006 TORONTO: ISRAEL RELEASES CANADIAN SUSPECTED OF SPYINGSunday 30 July 2006 THE FALL, RISE & FALL OF BEIRUT
Perhaps Beirut should be called Phoenix; as many times as it has been destroyed, it has risen from its ashes. The latest bombing of Beirut comes at a time when the ancient city has finally emerged from the rubble of a 15-year civil war, Christopher Hume writes.
Sat 29/07/2006 rci The U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, returned to the mid-east on Saturday on another peace mission. She was due to meet Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, in Tel Aviv to discuss the possible deployment of a United Nations force in south Lebanon. Israel has rejected a U.N. proposal for a 72-hour truce in the conflict with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The U.N. wanted to use the time to transport humanitarian aid to stricken civilians. Israel says that it's already providing safe corridors for transport of goods. Overnight, Israeli forces struck 37 more sites in Lebanon. One air strike hit a main road close to Lebanon's border with Syria. Another strike injured two United Nations peacekeepers from India. In all, 12 civilians were reported killed on Saturday. Hezbollah militants continued firing rockets at northern Israel, penetrating deeper into the country with a longer-range rocket carrying bigger explosives. One rocket struck the town of Afula, the most distant target yet. Israeli police say that it was a missile made in Syria. The latest rocket attacks i
Quebec And Israel by Beryl Wajsman 15 May 2008 
BBC
on Israel
Factsheet 
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