Israel rejects UN's Gaza probe

Israel has described as "nauseating" a United Nations probe of last year's Gaza conflict.

Jerusalem says it created an unjust "equivalence of a democratic state with a terror organisation" and lacked the context of a decade of terrorist attacks by Hamas.

The Goldstone Commission Report concluded that both sides were guilty of committing war crimes, including the violation of human rights and international humanitarian law.

In a 575-page report, the fact-finding mission, headed by former South African Judge Richard Goldstone, himself Jewish, found that "Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity", during last year's Operation Cast Lead, which targeted Palestinian rocket squads in Gaza.

The report "concludes there is also evidence that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity", by firing rockets at cities in southern Israel, the UN said.

Appointed by the Human Rights Council in April, the mission was charged with investigating 36 specific incidents in Gaza and others in the West Bank and Israel.

In all, the mission conducted 188 interviews, reviewed 10,000 documents and viewed 12,000 photos and videos.

Goldstone said he has strong ties to Israel and noted his attempt to maintain objectivity during the probe.

The four-member investigative panel recommended that the UN Security Council require Israel to launch its own investigations, "that are independent and in conformity with international standards", into the Gaza operation and to appoint a committee of experts to oversee the "progress, effectiveness and genuineness" of these investigations.

If it failed to do so within three months, the report said, the Security Council should refer Israel's alleged war crimes to the International Criminal Court.

Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy expressed "nausea and fury" over the report.

Israeli officials were particularly stunned that the document summarily rejected the legal worth of Israel's own judicial bodies.

In a country where the High Court of Justice can stop a battle in mid-stream, as happened in Jenin in 2002 until the facts of the alleged massacre were determined, it was difficult to understand the Goldstone panel's mistrust of the Israeli judiciary, officials said.

"Israel has examined itself in the light of day in innumerable investigations and a robust system of independent courts," said Levy.

"We have nothing to be ashamed of, and don't need lessons in morality from a committee established by Syria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Somalia."

He added: "The immediate message of this report is: Terror pays. It says that terrorists who attack Jews, unlike terrorists who attack Americans, Spaniards, or other Arabs, will earn the protection of the UN."

A Foreign Ministry statement noted that the IDF had examined more than 100 allegations regarding the conduct of its forces during the Gaza campaign, resulting in 23 outstanding criminal investigations.

Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein said that "it hurts when people without morals pretend to be warriors for human rights".

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Jerusalem made the right decision not to cooperate with the inquiry.

"The report only came out because of countries like Pakistan, Libya and Saudi Arabia, who are members of the UN Human Rights Council," Ayalon told Army Radio.

"The results just prove the correctness and legitimacy of the decision not to cooperate . . . the report was compiled without any connection to investigations on the ground."

"It completely ignores all Hamas terror activity that preceded the IDF operation," he continued, stressing that the main reason for Israel's boycott of the investigation "was the presence on the commission of those who insisted that the operation was not one of self-defence, but an Israeli aggressive action".

Israel's former ambassador to the UN Danny Gillerman said that the UN Human Rights Council report contained "blatant, one-sided, anti-Israel lies".

"Members of the UNHRC include countries like Zimbabwe and Libya that spend 90 per cent of their time on Israel and don't deal for example with the Darfur massacre," he declared.

He stressed that while soul searching was being done by Israel and would continue, Operation Cast Lead was conducted to protect a million residents of the south from rocket attacks.

"We went to lengths no other country would have gone to in order to avoid civilian casualties," he said.

The Palestinian Authority welcomed the findings and also the charges against Hamas, saying the movement was also responsible for "atrocities" against Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Judge Goldstone's daughter Nicole maintains that her father "is a Zionist and loves Israel".

Speaking from Toronto, where she now lives, Nicole said she had many conversations with her father when he was asked to head the UN inquiry.

She said: "I know better than anyone else that he thought that however hard it was to accept it, he was doing the best thing for everyone, including Israel." continues here

Israel 'will attack Iran this year' if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions

Israel will attack Iran's nuclear facilities before the end of the year if the West has not launched an attempt to destroy the regime with crippling sanctions, a former senior defence official has claimed.

Ephraim Sneh, Israel's deputy defence minister until 2007, said a nuclear-armed Iran was an unacceptable threat to Israel. No Israeli government could put its faith in President Barack Obama's efforts to bring Tehran to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme, he said.

"The Israeli government is the only entity that is responsible for the existence of the Jewish people," he said. "Iran has been explicit in its hostility to Israel time and again. They would use these weapons.

"We believe that Iran has the capacity and the delivery capability for nuclear weapons. They can proceed to production. We have got two months to act - before the end of 2009."

Iran and the major world power are to start talks on the stand off over its nuclear programme, which stands in violation of United Nations resolutions, on Oct 1. Mr Obama's offer to talk to Iran without pre-conditions has made Israel nervous that Tehran will use detente as a cover to complete its drive for an atom bomb.

"If Iran gained the bomb it would trigger a regional arms race with Saudi and Egypt quickly obtaining weapons," he said. "We would be living next to three Pakistans."

Mr Sneh believes Iran's regime has been weakened by the pro-democracy uprising in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election. It could be brought to its knees by sanctions curtailing imports of petrol, the sale of spare parts for energy production, freezing its banks out of the global monetary system and banning cross-border investment. continues here

EDITOR'S Comment: They truly are "Inglorious Bastards"

Guardian rejects anti-semitism accusation

A new website was launched this week with the aim of monitoring antisemitism on the Guardian newspaper’s Comment is Free blog.

CiF Watch will function primarily as a blog which discusses content on Comment is Free that it considers to be anti-Jewish.

The anonymous founder of the New York-based site, who insisted on only being known by the pseudonym “Hawkeye”, said the site aimed “to challenge the mainstream In the Guardian’s eyes it is perfectly fine to give a platform to numerous contributors to CiF that support the dissolution of Israel as a Jewish state and its replacement with a bi-national state.
“To engage in such discourse is antisemitic under the EU monitoring committee working definition of antisemitism, because it denies the Jewish people the right to self-determination. orthodoxy of the extreme left that the Jewish state is a racist endeavour — which is a recurrent theme in Comment is Free”.

He added: “Besides the fact that CiF features a long list of anti-Zionists, including many Jewish anti-Zionists, its comment threads are full of vile, antisemitic statements. If you ever comment on one of those threads as a pro-Israel supporter, a lot of the time your comments get deleted.”

It was, he said, “a mistake to assume that CiF is a UK website. Its reach is international in nature and it has been the recipient of numerous web awards, ahead of the likes of New York Times online. Moreover, many contributors hail from countries abroad.”

“Hawkeye” complained: “The problem is that there are no boundaries to the commentary made about Israel. In the Guardian’s eyes it is perfectly fine to give a platform to numerous contributors to CiF that support the dissolution of Israel as a Jewish state and its replacement with a bi-national state.

“To engage in such discourse is antisemitic under the EU monitoring committee working definition of antisemitism, because it denies the Jewish people the right to self-determination. What is most troubling is that it is this kind of discourse that is being normalised in the British press, and when one points this out, one gets accused of shutting down open debate when we’re doing nothing of the sort.”

A spokesman for the Guardian rejected claims of antisemitism on the site. He said: “Comment is Free has always carried a wide range of different opinions on the Israel/Palestine conflict. We reject completely the charge of antisemitism.

“We therefore welcome CiF Watch’s support for open and honest debate about the conflict and its acknowledgment that this can include criticism of Israel’s policies.

“While we aim to allow as free an expression of views as possible, we do not tolerate any hate speech, and our moderators will delete comments which are antisemitic or Islamophobic or otherwise racist, as soon as they are reported to us or when we see them ourselves.” continues here

“In the Guardian’s eyes it is perfectly fine to give a platform to numerous contributors to CiF that support the dissolution of Israel as a Jewish state and its replacement with a bi-national state.
“To engage in such discourse is antisemitic under the EU monitoring committee working definition of antisemitic, because it denies the Jewish people the right to self-determination”.

And there you have it of course, the charge of anti-Semitism, the ridiculous accusation that, should one criticize Israel that one by extension hates all Jews, utter poppycock, Israel is a state that was created deceitfully, that since its very inception has committed gross human rights violations, dispossessed and discriminated against a people and created much contemporary turmoil. A two state or even a bi-national state presents as loss to the Palestinians, yet it is all they can ever hope for, Israel is a nuclear armed country, possessing, in this instance, real weapons of mass destruction, how it came to be that it came to possess such weaponry, is yet again a case of deceit, betrayal and deception.

As a nationalist I hate no people, certainly I wish non-alien intervention within Europe, yet I would be a hypocrite of some magnitude, were I to advocate self-autonomy for my people and yet support a rogue state that denies such to others. Some may argue that in this regard I deny autonomy to Jewry, that by supporting the dispossessed Palestinian peoples, I at a stroke thwart any concept of a Jewish nation, this is of course wholly wrong, I merely advocate dialogue, discussion not deception, murder and conquest.

Jewry would have it that it has been a wandering “tribe” for some time, that it has by dint of circumstance been forced to wander the world, ever assailed by anti-Semites, yet much of what passes for Jewry today is not by definition Semitic, yet Ashkenazi Jews display appalling levels of discrimination towards their Sephardic brethren, it is of course even the case that origin and practice matter little over appearance and tradition, Sephardi covering many bases, of course gentiles, we, have little inclination to enter such muddy waters ,requiring only our freedom, so to further confuse this article with reference to Mizrahim, Musta'arabim or indeed many other of the group classifications within Jewry would be pointless.

It is enough here to state that prior to the creation of Israel Jews and Arabs lived in peace, today of course the problems of the east now visit our lands, our people are pawns in a game and their blood is split collaterally. Jewry is by definition not of Europe, yet this does not mean that gentiles wish it harm, desire conflict and bloodshed, far from it, nationalism recognises and indeed cherishes difference, it fights against the false orthodoxy of egalitarianism, lays into those that would promote a mono-culture and recognises the need for all to have both a home and a culture.

Yet European nationalism has been infiltrated, assailed, until nationalism itself has been changed and the few who speak out against it are considered foolish, of another age, whilst the agenda of Zionism presses on. True nationalism, will never recognise foreign influence, will never kneel to the alien, yet it will never hate for hatreds sake, Muslims have the right to exist, as indeed does the Jew, because in this fight against supranational government all races and creeds face attack. For some sixty years Zionism has shaped the world, although its influence reaches far back in time, yet it is here today that it wields power, it would seem that all governments kneel in servitude as Christendom is no more, today Islam is promoted, promoted to cause disquiet ,to augment enmity and to usher in conflict and hate. After all, once conflict breaks out will not the people beg for peace, call out for help and will not the forces of the state give it them, craft laws to save them, deny freedoms for the greater good, will not the state cradle us in its arms as we suckle upon poisoned milk.

Nationalism has the answer to enmity, the solution to problem, at its core respect, respect for all cultures and creeds, Zionism seeks global obedience, it believes that Jewry is above all, that all others must kneel to it, that it is written, that Israel shall govern the world. Some elements of Christianity believe this to, believe that the messiah can only return as chaos reigns and evil swirls and good returns to us first in that evil place, even Islam believes such, believes that the last battle, the ultimate fight between good and evil, can and must only occur in that land.

It is for this reason that Christians support Zionism, that fundamental Christianity rocks the states, that neo-conservatism, read Zionism, spans that land and the superpower is harnessed in evils name. Such rubbish, such nonsense, it is as if god requires man to err, as if god wishes blood split and man to make war with another, yet this god that they speak of, is he not benevolent one minute and almost evil the next, does not old and new testament vie for primacy, whilst the world spins in an orbit of hate. You see it is forever the goal, forever the cause, control the fate of all men, rule the world and all upon it, by force or fiction, it is nationalism that opposes that, nationalism that recognises difference and it is nationalism that is hated, undermined and lied about.

So many groups vie for supremacy when all should live in peace, true peace cannot and has not ever occurred in a multi-racial multi-group state, difference always provokes conflict, yet difference is only different in another place, in the east Muslims do not live their lives offended by western values, although the mass media and global communication is another story, no they live within their own culture amongst their fellows and who are we to oppose such. Yet here in the west their very creed provokes anger, their traditions and very strangeness jolt our sensibilities and the crafters make us rush to war, negroes, in their lands of origin face no discrimination, no bar to progression, only that which mother nature makes herself. Here, here in the west the common man would have little cause to hate, little reason to oppose should we be permitted to live amongst our own, instead of forced to live amongst others, creeds and peoples that threaten our very existence.

Instead this forced habitat, this forced realm, this kingdom of disunity is thrust upon us and we must make do, because they tell us we must, should I oppose it then I am, they say, a hater, a racist and much worse, yet if they had not chosen to change the world, to force difference to live together, if my race did not face extinction and my children a quite terrible world then I would have little reason to maintain this site, to lament my and mines fate and to oppose and oppose again evils cause. I will never succumb to Zionism, to multiculturalism, to evil, never stand by as cultures are denigrated and destroyed, as people of all races are forced to change to suit an appalling agenda, as my children’s very future is placed into the hands of madmen and fools, as they sneer at our plight and carry on regardless.

Yet I know full well that the fight is being lost, that nationalism has been terribly altered, that all organs of the current orthodoxy portray us wrong, they have taken away racialism, replaced it with the guttural racist, presented recognition of difference and indeed celebration of such as a hatred of the other, when this is a lie. If we continue to follow the course they set, continue down this terrible road, then it is not just we that shall suffer, not just the white-man, for we will be out of it, extinguished, gone, yet others shall succumb, even today terrible forces create carnage in the east and such will simply continue and no white hand shall stop it. Without whites slavery would still be openly practiced, instead of hidden away and marginalised as it is today, millions would die of hunger or disease and war would ravage the world, without whites innovation would recede, freedoms be lost and the world would be a much darker place, no pun intended.

Might would take precedence and the wishes of the few would be swept away in their blood, finances grip would be even tighter, exploitation immense and liberty a dream, for all our wrongs we have many rights, yet we are judged in a biased court, perhaps our loss to this world will be a punishment to those upon it. There is this great rush towards this new order, a step once taken that can never be undone, yet history tells us that difference can only be forced to live together under repressions wing. Can none see, do none have eyes, ears or sense, if difference must be forced to co-exist in a country, if millions must fall to achieve it then what then for a world, for a planet, for all peoples of all practices, how many must die, who must live and who must perish.

Is it wrong that I am a white nationalist that I am forced to be a white nationalist, that as a people we are so threatened, that decent men and women must rail against a corrupt and malevolent system, that in doing so we are tagged as haters, as evil-doers, as evil incarnate. Yet whilst the body-politic, the masses sway to such a hypnotic beat, as millions sit mesmerised in front of that little box, as young men die in the lands of their fathers, due to race and creed, as young women suffer rape, as drugs and crime cut swathes through our population, as evil truly stalks a people, it is its opposers that are wrong.

There is so much against nationalism and therefore by extension the people, Zionist influence is most apparent within contemporary nationalism, many spew forth pro-Israel rhetoric, trained to hate Islam above all. Tory populism has taken the reigns and races us towards defeat, yet few can see, all suffer, Jew ,gentile, men of the crescent and men of the cross, black, white, young and old, give us back our world, let us live again in peace, take your malevolent agenda and move it from the physical world of men, to again a world of hypothesise and written conjecture, do not force such upon an unwilling world.

Israel furious over Swedish newspaper article

Story suggests Israeli troops killed Palestinians and harvested their organs

JERUSALEM - Israeli and Swedish officials responded furiously Wednesday to a Swedish newspaper article that suggested Israeli troops killed Palestinians and harvested their organs.

The article published Monday in Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest circulation daily, implies a link between those charges and the recent arrest in the U.S. of an American Jew for illicit organ trafficking.

Headlined "Our sons are plundered for their organs," the story made news in Israel, where some commentators compared it to medieval accusations that Jews killed Christian children for their blood. Daniel Seaman, who heads Israel's government press office, said the article played on "vile anti-Semitic themes."

The article was illustrated with a photograph of a dead Palestinian man with a line of surgical stitches running the length of his torso, apparently taken after an autopsy, as well as pictures of stone-throwing youths and Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, a New York resident arrested in an FBI sting last month and charged with plotting to buy a kidney from an Israeli and sell it to an American patient for $160,000.

Story based on 'accounts from Palestinians'
The writer, Donald Bostrom, based the story on accounts from Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza whom he identified only by their first names. It quotes an Israeli military spokesman denying the charges and saying that Palestinians killed by Israeli forces are routinely subjected to autopsies.

Bostrom writes of a shortage of organs for transplant in Israel and mentions a 1992 government campaign to recruit new donors.

"At the same time that this organ campaign was going on, young Palestinian men were disappearing and being delivered back to their villages five days later at night, dead and cut open," he writes.

'Worried by allegations'
Interviewed on Israel Radio on Wednesday, Bostrom said he was worried by the allegations he reported but could not vouch for their accuracy.

"It concerns me, to the extent that I want it to be investigated, that's true. But whether it's true or not — I have no idea, I have no clue," he told the station.

Aftonbladet's editor, Jan Helin, was not immediately available for comment.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor would not say if Israel planned to file an official complaint. However, Palmor said, "This piece is so blatantly racist and can induce to hate crimes in such a way that we think authorities need to take care of the matter." continues here

Israel

We notice that our “Cover Up” article has gone global, from the States to Youtube everyone’s reporting it, we even have Chaim Ben Pesach’s pro-Zionist group the Jewish Task Force citing our article aswell as urging their members to vote on our polls, so AAWR would like to reiterate, “We do not and never will support Israel, nor their actions against what is in the main a civilian population”, thank you, if you are a nationalist please vote on the below poll and lets show Zionism the door.

Do you consider Israel a rogue state and a violator of human rights?

Israeli Professor - 'We Could Destroy All European Capitals'

(IAP News) -- An Israeli professor and military historian hinted that Israel could avenge the holocaust by annihilating millions of Germans and other Europeans.

Speaking during an interview which was published in Jerusalem Friday, Professor Martin Van Crevel said Israel had the capability of hitting most European capitals with nuclear weapons. "Our armed forces are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that this will happen before Israel goes under."

"We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets of our air force."

Creveld, a professor of military history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, pointed out that "collective deportation" was Israel's only meaningful strategy towards the Palestinian people.

"The Palestinians should all be deported. The people who strive for this (the Israeli government) are waiting only for the right man and the right time. Two years ago, only 7 or 8 per cent of Israelis were of the opinion that this would be the best solution, two months ago it was 33 per cent, and now, according to a Gallup poll, the figure is 44 percent."

Creveld said he was sure that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wanted to deport the Palestinians.

"I think it's quite possible that he wants to do that. He wants to escalate the conflict. He knows that nothing else we do will succeed."

Asked if he was worried about Israel becoming a rogue state if it carried out a genocidal deportation against Palestinians, Creveld quoted former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan who said "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."

Regrettably there is no referring link, although this report has been published upon many websites, it is posted here for reader perusal and indeed in the hope that perhaps a reader may provide a valid link, in any event given the group-think of Zion, such rhetoric would not prove unusual.

Native-born children of foreign workers pose dilemma for Israel

TEL AVIV (JTA) – The round-faced boy given the unusual first name of Rabbi by his Filipino parents was born 11 years ago in Israel and has never known another home.

He speaks only Hebrew and has never traveled to the Philippines, but along with some 1,100 other children of foreign workers without work permits in Israel, the boy faces possible deportation along with his family.

"I feel Israeli in my heart and in my soul," said the boy, Rabbi Eliazar Cruz.

His parents initially came to Israel legally, as caretakers for elderly clients, but overstayed their visas.

"The Land of Israel is my land,” Rabbi said. “But these days I stay mostly at home, inside. I don't want to be caught outside and asked by the police where my parents are and deported."

In late July, a government order to deport the children and their families as part of a larger expulsion of migrants was delayed for three months by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the last minute under pressure from the public, local human rights groups and even President Shimon Peres.

Still, the question of government policy on the issue of the Israeli-born children of foreign workers, most of whose parents entered the country legally but stayed after their work permits expired, remains unresolved.

Like other countries in the industrial world, Israel faces the dilemma of how to deal with the families created on its soil by the foreign workers it invites in. But Israel, which has no immigration policy for non-Jews, finds itself in uncharted territory.

"On the one hand, Israel encouraged foreign workers to come for short-term stays and participate in the labor market in fields where there were not enough workers,” said John Gal, a professor of social work at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

“But there was no contingency for them staying and raising families here,” he said. "So Israel is now faced with a situation where we have children of workers born here but who lack citizenship or clear status.”

Sabine Hadad, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, said deporting illegal residents is a matter of law enforcement.

"These people have broken the law and they know that,” she said of foreigners who overstayed their visas. “The law needs to be applied."

Instituting a policy that allows the parents of children born in Israel to stay in the country permanently also would open a route for illegal immigrants to stay in Israel forever: simply have a child here.

In the meantime, some 2,000 children of foreigners have come of age in Israel. They speak fluent Hebrew, attend Israeli schools and have joined youth movements. Some have even served in the military.

In 2006, a one-time government ruling gave 900 of the children permanent residency status. Those whose futures are now in question are the 1,100 others.

"I'm not Jewish, but I am Israeli," said a teenager whose parents came to Israel from Turkey.

The boy was speaking at a meeting of such children Tuesday at the offices of the Hotline for Migrant Workers, which is one of the main organizations lobbying against deportation.

Israeli rights groups also take issue with what they call the government's revolving-door policy of forcing foreign workers out of the country and then bringing in new workers instead of just keeping those who are here and want to stay.

Most of the country's foreign workers are from the Philippines, Thailand, Colombia, China and Africa. The vast majority work as caregivers for the elderly or physically impaired.

After the second intifada began in 2000, large numbers of permits were issued to bring in foreign workers in agriculture and construction to replace Palestinian workers.

In announcing the decision to halt the deportation orders for the children and their parents, Netanyahu’s office released a statement explaining the administration’s stance on illegal residents generally.

"The never-ending flow of illegal residents into Israel during the last few years has led to a situation whereby the percentage of illegal residents in the country is one of the highest in the world, relative to the local population and the number of employees in the job market,” the statement said. “This fact increases unemployment among Israelis and significantly alters Israel's internal demographics.”

Harel Kohen, an aide to Yaakov Katz, the lawmaker who heads the Knesset's committee on foreign workers, said that taking a firm line on foreign workers illegally in Israel is about preserving the Jewish character of Israel.

"We need to ensure they do not stay in Israel, otherwise Israel is at risk of having its own people assimilated," he said. "We could lose our Jewish identity."

The Interior Ministry says there are some 300,000 illegal migrants and approximately 70,700 legal foreign workers in Israel. continues here

"What goes around..."

Gaza white flag deaths probe call

Israel must investigate the "unlawful" killing of 11 civilians carrying white flags during its Gaza operation earlier in 2009, Human Rights Watch has said.

Five women and four children were among those killed in seven incidents detailed by the US-based rights group.

Researchers said the soldiers at best failed to protect civilians, and at worst deliberately shot at them.

Israel has launched investigations into five "white flag" incidents, but says Hamas exploited civilians with flags.

In one incident, east of Jabalya, HRW said Israeli soldiers fired at two women and three children, three of whom were holding pieces of white cloth.

Two girls, aged two and seven were killed, and another, now aged four, was left paralysed below the waist.

The five were standing outside their home after an Israeli soldier had ordered them to leave it, HRW said.

"We spent seven to nine minutes waving the flags, and our faces were looking at them [the soldiers]," HRW quoted the girls' grandmother as saying.

"And suddenly they opened fire and the girls fell to the ground."

Two of the incidents in question have also been investigated by the BBC.

In five of the seven incidents, Israeli soldiers shot at civilians who were walking down the street with white flags, trying to leave the areas of fighting, HRW said.

"All available evidence indicates that Israeli forces were in control of the areas in question, no fighting was taking place there at the time, and no Palestinian forces were hiding among the civilians or using them as human shields," the report said.

The Israeli foreign ministry has opened investigations into at least five cases involving Palestinians who were waving white flags.

As of the end of July, one case had been closed. The Israeli military said troops had fired at "suspicious men" who ignored warnings as they walked near a Palestinian family carrying a white flag.

HRW said its findings were based on site investigations, ballistic evidence found at the scene, medical records of victims and lengthy interviews with multiple witnesses.

An Israeli government spokesman said the report lacked credibility because it was based on evidence from an area under Hamas control.

The Israeli military said troops were obliged to respect white flags, but accused "Hamas terror operatives" of "exploiting those with white flags as cover for belligerent action and to protect themselves from return fire".

But it gave no details of specific incidents.

Israel has said its soldiers acted lawfully during the operation, although some mistakes were made, such as the bombing of a house containing 21 civilians by accident.

It says it went to great lengths to distinguish between civilians and combatants, while Hamas put civilians at great risk by firing rockets from near schools and UN facilities, commandeering hospital facilities and ambulances, hiding weapons in mosques and booby trapping civilian neighbourhoods.

War crime accusation

Human Rights Watch last week accused Hamas of war crimes, for firing rockets at Israeli population centres. The group also says Palestinian militants operated from populated areas.

HRW's Bill Van Esveld said last Thursday that a Newsweek report quoted in a recent Israeli Foreign Ministry briefing was "as clear evidence of human shielding [by Hamas] as you're going to get".

Journalist Rod Nordland wrote on 20 January: "Suddenly there was a terrific whoosh, louder even than a bomb explosion. It was another of Hamas' homemade Qassam rockets being launched into Israel - and the mobile launch-pad was smack in the middle of the four [apartment] buildings, where every apartment was full."

But Mr Van Esveld said he was only aware of evidence of "three or four" such cases, and had seen more evidence of the use of human shields by Israeli troops than by Palestinian militants.

The Israeli activist group Breaking the Silence has published anonymous testimonies of Israeli soldiers describing a procedure in which they said Palestinians were forced at gunpoint to enter building where militants were hiding.

Soldier jailed

Israel said its 22-day operation in Gaza was "necessary and proportionate" and was aimed at reducing Palestinian rocket fire.

The Israeli military says it his currently investigating about 100 incidents, of which 13 are criminal investigations.

On Wednesday a soldier was jailed for seven months for using a credit card he stole from a Palestinian in Gaza during the operation to withdraw money in Israel. continues here

The Voice's racist Israeli jail claim is 'blood libel'

Israel’s ambassador to the UK has accused Britain’s leading black newspaper of printing a story “in the spirit of a blood libel”, while the paper’s own source for the article has slammed its coverage as “sensationalised and inaccurate”.

The Voice newspaper’s front page headline in its July 20 edition read: “Hundreds of black people being held in Israeli jails”, a claim based on the “astonishing” story of film-maker Ishmahil Blagrove, detained by the Israeli navy while on board a ship taking aid to the people of Gaza.

He was, like others on the aid ship, held in what The Voice describes as “Ramla High Security Prison”, although it was actually Givon Prison, a low security jail in Ramle, Israel.

The report calls the Israeli government racist and makes strong allegations about mistreatment of prisoners — particularly black prisoners — in Israel’s jails. "There is much to unite black Britons and the Jewish people. This article, however, is less in the spirit of being blood brothers and more in the spirit of a blood libel.”Ambassador Ron Prosor said: “The Voice should be a responsible, articulate voice for black Britons. “Instead, on this occasion it has chosen to be the voice of slander, disinformation and lies. There is much to unite black Britons and the Jewish people. This article, however, is less in the spirit of being blood brothers and more in the spirit of a blood libel.”

The full-page interview by reporter Janelle Oswald quoted Mr Blagrove, from Notting Hill, as saying: “The first day I was there I witnessed 500 Africans scooped from the streets of Tel Aviv thrown into prison… the prison population there was 90 per cent black.

“Without insulting the memory of those that survived the Nazi concentration camps, the prison we were kept in can only be described in that manor.” (Our italics.)

The Voice’s report accused the prison authorities of cramming 14 people into a 7sq ft cell.
The interview quoted Mr Blagrove as saying: “We were constantly being barked at and threatened with physical abuse. If they disobey, prisoners are stripped naked and put inside a hole with no lights or heating. We were seen as sub-human.”

He also apparently claimed immigrant prisoners had told him they were being refused leave to transfer back to their own countries. He condemned the Israeli government as “racist”.

The report was, however, undermined by an angry letter from Mr Blagrove himself, printed on page 22 of the following week’s issue under the headline: “I want to clarify some points.” He corrected ten facts in the report, including the dimensions of the cell which was actually 7m by 4m.

'Israel plotted Ahmadinejad killing'

Israel planned to assassinate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the country's elections last month, Teheran's Intelligence Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei claimed Friday.

Mohseni-Ejei told the state-run Fars news Agency that Israel, collaborating with Iranian Mujahedeen opposition members, met in Egypt and France to plan Ahmadinejad's killing.

"The Zionist leadership met with members of the opposition near Sharm e-Sheikh in Egypt and also met with them in Paris in order to plan the assassination of Ahmadinejad," Mohseni-Ejei insisted.

"Opposition members set several conditions for the implementation of this mission and asked that the US and other factors remove the organization's name from its list of terror groups.continues here

Red Cross: Gaza humanitarian situation worsening in blockade

The International Committee of the Red Cross warned yesterday that six months after Operation Cast Lead, Israel's large-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip, the enclave's inhabitants were being prevented from "rebuilding their lives."

The closure of the crossings points - allowing in only a limited amount of basic humanitarian goods - was also causing overloads on the run-down water,sanitation and health infrastructures in Gaza, it said.

Water pipes, cement, painkillers and X-ray film developing materials were among the items lacking in Gaza, which "is cut off from the outside world."

Also, the economy has virtually collapsed, causing rampant poverty.continues here

Gaza war victims tell of Israeli shelling in first public hearing

A UN human rights mission listened as witnesses described in detail the Israeli shelling of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip during a three-week offensive at the turn of the year.



The delegation planned to hold two days of public hearings as part of its investigation into alleged war crimes during the 22-day offensive launched in late December that killed about 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

The group is headed by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge who previously served as chief prosecutor for international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

They listened as a young wheelchair-bound man named Ziad al-Deeb described how he had been sitting at home with his family, savouring a brief pause in the fighting, when Israeli forces began shelling his neighbourhood.In early January, an Israeli missile struck a house where dozens of family members had been ordered to take shelter by Israeli soldiers, killing nearly 30 people and leaving several others wounded and trapped in the rubble.

"We were shocked when we heard the loud noise coming from the Israeli shelling, then one of the missiles landed on top of us. There were 11 people killed," he said.

"My legs were cut off, and then I looked and saw my father and my family. Most of them had been killed. The children were screaming."

One of the investigators asked if there had been any warning before the strike.

"There was no warning," Deeb said. "If there had been, we would have left."

Later, they heard from the Samuni family, who draped a banner over a table bearing the pictures of 29 relatives, including several children, killed in one of the deadliest single incidents of the war.

In early January, an Israeli missile struck a house where dozens of family members had been ordered to take shelter by Israeli soldiers, killing nearly 30 people and leaving several others wounded and trapped in the rubble.

Rescue services were unable to reach the area for three days.

"All I want to know is why," Salah al-Samuni said as he choked back tears and held up pictures of some of the children, posing and smiling before the war and then as maimed corpses laid out on stretchers.

"Were they wanted by Israel, were they in the resistance? I really want to know," he said.

The mission was expected to look into several allegations of human rights violations that emerged in the aftermath of the assault, which Israel said was aimed at stemming Palestinian rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled enclave."Were they wanted by Israel, were they in the resistance? I really want to know," he said.

Israeli authorities have so far refused to allow the investigators into the country and have accused the mission, which was sent by the UN Human Rights Council, of bias against the Jewish state.

"The mandate is so one-sided, no fair, thinking person could see it as objective," government spokesman Mark Regev said.

"The UN Human Rights Council has over the last months and years totally discredited itself as a serious vehicle for advancing human rights."

The 47-member council voted by a large majority in January to probe accusations of "grave" human rights violations by Israel, but the team was later given a broader mandate to deal with "all violations" during the war.

Israel has insisted it made every effort to spare civilians, including dropping thousands of fliers warning residents to flee ahead of strikes.

It has also said that Palestinian fighters and rocket launchers operated in crowded residential areas, using civilians as human shields, a charge also made against Hamas by rights groups.

On their first visit at the start of June, the investigators visited 14 sites in and around Gaza City and conducted interviews with several individuals and organisations.

On both visits they had to enter the territory from the Rafah crossing point on the border with Egypt after Israel denied them access through its territory continues here

Some new-nationalists will support this, support the cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians because they are Muslim, real nationalism can never do so, real nationalism recognises the plight of these poor people, recognises that their land has been stolen whilst the world stands by, that Israel can never lay claim to humanity, that Israel is and will always be, a murderous rogue state, AAWR does not and will never support Israel and therefore can never come on board and support new-nationalism.

Do you consider Israel a rogue state and a violator of human rights?

Israel, US bridge gaps over fighter jet

A deal is close to completion for the purchase of the F-35 stealth fighter jet after the Defense Ministry and the Pentagon recently reached understandings on a number of IAF demands to integrate Israeli technology into the plane.

The apparent breakthrough was made following a series of visits to Washington recently by OC Air Force Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan and IAF Equipment and Procurement head Brig.-Gen. Kobi Bortman. Last week, Defense Minister Ehud Barak met with top officials from Lockheed Martin - the F-35 manufacturer - on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show.

Also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the F-35 will be one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world and will enable Israel to phase out some of its older F-15 and F-16 models.

According to senior IDF officers, the Defense Ministry and Pentagon have reached understandings on most of the major issues at the core of disagreement between the parties.

"There is understanding today on the main basic issues," explained one top officer.

As first reported in The Jerusalem Post, the IAF demands focused on three issues - the integration of Israeli electronic warfare systems into the plane, the integration of Israeli communication systems, and the ability to independently maintain the plane in the event of a technical or structural problem.

According to top officials involved in the deal, the Americans have given their consent and will grant Israel independent maintenance capabilities.

One of the US's main concerns regarding the installation of Israeli systems was that it would require configurations to the jet's internal computer system and expose top-secret technology to Israel.

In the recent round of talks, however, the Israeli side presented the Americans with a proposal of how to bypass the computer mainframe when installing the systems. The sides have yet to agree on a final price.

Israel has argued that due to operational requirements, it needs to have the ability to repair damaged or broken computer systems in "real time" and cannot wait for a computer system to be sent to Europe for repairs in the middle of a war.

Negotiations on the integration of Israeli technology began several years ago after Israel paid $20 million to receive the low-level status of a Security Cooperation Participant in the JSF program. Nine countries - including the US, Britain, Turkey and Australia - are full members of the JSF program. continues here

Virulent new strain of anti-Semitism rife in UK, says Chief Rabbi

Britain is in the grip of a “virulent” new strain of anti-Semitism, according to the Chief Rabbi. Sir Jonathan Sacks told The Times in an interview that in January the number of anti-Semitic incidents reached the highest level since records began.

Jews have been physically attacked, schools targeted and cemeteries desecrated.

“I was in the synagogue a few months ago when one of the members came in visibly shaken: somebody had just shouted at him, ‘It’s a pity Hitler didn’t finish the job’,” the Chief Rabbi said.

Although the new “mutation” was different from the anti-Semitism promoted by Hitler, it was dangerous because it was international, he said. “The internet means that we no longer have national cultures; we have global cultures and the new anti-Semitism is very much a phenomenon of the global culture.”

Whereas in the past, hatred was focused against Judaism as a religion or Jews as a race, the focus this time was on Jews as a nation. The rise in the number of attacks in January took place at the same time as Israel’s assault on Hamas in Gaza.

“It begins as anti-Zionism — but it is never merely anti-Zionism when it attacks synagogues or Jewish schools,” Sir Jonathan said. “In the post-Holocaust world the single greatest source of authority is human rights — therefore the new anti-Semitism is constructed in the language of human rights.”

In a new book, Future Tense, he describes a “virulent new strain of anti-Semitism”. A worrying alliance had developed between radical Islamists and anti-globalisation protesters, he said.

The UN had also fanned the flames. At the World Conference against Racism in Durban in 2001, he said, “Israel was accused of the five cardinal sins against human rights — racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and attempted genocide. So the old myths are recycled they are alive and well but they are done in a new kind of vocabulary.”

The media should also be more careful in coverage of the Middle East: “I do think too little of the history has been set out and people don’t really understand what’s at stake, so the Jewish community has felt quite vulnerable because of that.”

Asked whether he thought the BBC had shown anti-Israeli bias, he replied: “No comment.”continues here

Sssh don't say a word its anti-semitic...

Jews ‘Very Concerned’ About Obama, Leader of Jewish Organizations Says

President Obama’s strongest supporters among Jewish leaders are deeply troubled by his recent Middle East initiatives, and some are questioning what he really believes, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview.

Though Hoenlein says he is only offering his personal views, the conference he represents is a political powerhouse that includes 50 major Jewish groups. Among them are the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), B’nai B’rith International, the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, the Zionist Organization of America, Hadassah, and the Anti-Defamation League. Hoenlein has been the professional head of the conference since 1986, overseeing its day-to-day activities as the coordinating body for American Jews on issues of concern in the U.S. and globally.

Jewish leaders "are expressing concern about what was said [in Obama’s Cairo speech]," Hoenlein says. "I’ve heard it from some of his strongest supporters. It’s expected from his detractors. Even people close to him have said to us that there were parts of the speech that bothered them."

Obama’s speech to a Muslim audience in Cairo in early June was his second effort early in his administration to re-define America’s posture toward the Arab world. In April, Obama traveled to Ankara, Turkey, to offer a similar outreach to the Muslim world.

But many in the Jewish community, including some of Obama’s most ardent supporters, are troubled by his comments in the Middle East, especially his remarks to his Cairo audience. Others are concerned that, facing a multitude of problems on the domestic front, Obama has traveled twice to the Middle East without visiting Israel, America’s stalwart ally in the region for more than a half-century.

"There’s a lot of questioning going on about what he really believes and what does he really stand for," Hoenlein says of Obama’s outreach.

Reaction to Obama’s speech has drawn a range of reaction from many Jewish leaders. On the right, some have condemned it as a revision of the long and close relationship between the U.S. and Israel. But many on the left who backed Obama were also surprised and dismayed over Obama’s speech. Such reactions from major Jewish leaders have largely remained beneath the surface, exchanged privately among them.

Hoenlein’s comments to Newsmax are his first detailed appraisal of Obama’s speech and represent the first time a major Jewish leader has spoken openly about the erosion of Jewish support for Obama.

According to the exit poll conducted by major press organizations during the 2008 election, Obama captured overwhelming support from American Jews, winning 78 percent of their vote. Despite the fact that Republicans are stronger on national security and the war on terror, Obama also won support from Jewish leaders who have been champions of Israel’s security, such as the former Democratic mayor of New York, Edward I. Koch. Koch crossed party lines in 2004 to back George W. Bush.

Reacting to Obama’s Cairo speech, Hoenlein tells Newsmax, "I have no problem with addressing the Muslim world. I’m in fact in favor of outreach, and we here at the conference have done it for about 12 or 15 years, visiting Muslim countries in Central Asia and the Middle East. But the question is, what is the message they get? It’s not so much what he says, but how do they perceive what he says?"

On the one hand, Hoenlein says, "His reference to Israel and the special relationship being unbreakable is important, and references to persecution and Holocaust denial were important, and some of his references to some human rights issues also were important."

But Hoenlein notes the speech included a number of troubling references and comparisons. He cites the fact that Obama claimed America has seven million Muslims. That is a figure "Arab propagandists have put out," he says. "In fact, they say only six million, when in fact there’s no study that shows even half of that."

In 2007, the Pew Research Center estimated the Muslim American population at 2.35 million.

Hoenlein is disturbed that Obama did not mention the Jewish people’s ancient connection with the land of Israel.

"There was no reference to the 3,000 years of Jewish connection to this land," Hoenlein says. "And that is again one of the propaganda lines that the Arabs have used: that the Jews are interlopers, that the two temples never existed, that there was never any Jewish history in the land of Israel. Even Yasser Arafat and others have used that argument because they’re trying to deny the legitimacy of the Jewish state. I don’t believe that was the president’s intent, but not making those references I think is troubling."

Jews have claimed a connection to the land of their forefathers since 1400 B.C. Even after the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D. and the dispersal of many Jews throughout the Roman Empire, many Jews continued to reside in Jerusalem through the centuries, surviving various invasions. An Ottoman census of Jerusalem conducted in 1845 showed Jews outnumbered Muslim Arabs by almost to 2 to 1 and were the dominant ethnic group in the region.

Hoenlein believes that the most troubling aspect of Obama’s comments in his Cairo speech was his effort to equate the Nazi killing of more than six million Jews during the Holocaust with Israel’s struggle with the Palestinians over six decades and the suffering caused by the displacement of the Palestinians.

"There’s no comparison between the Holocaust, even if it was an indirect one, and what happened to Palestinians," Hoenlein declares.

In his speech, President Obama addressed the issue of the Holocaust head-on, saying "Six million Jews were killed — more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today."

But he quickly changed the subject, comparing Hitler’s genocide of the Jews to the Palestinian struggle.

"On the other hand," Obama said, as he transitioned from the Holocaust to the modern Middle East, "it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people — Muslims and Christians — have suffered in pursuit of a homeland."

Hoenlein doesn’t buy Obama’s line of reasoning.

"The Palestinian refugee problem, or dislocation as he said, didn’t come about because of the creation of the Jewish state," Hoenlein says. "It came about because the Arab states declared war on Israel and warned the Arabs that they would suffer the same fate as the Jews if they didn’t get out. And then they kept them as political pawns."

Obama made no reference to the fact that "the reason the Palestinians don’t have a state is because their leaders rejected every offer for peace," Hoenlein says. "Whether it was in 1937 or 1947 or 1967, or later on, up until Ehud Olmert’s offer and Ehud Barak’s offer, they rejected everything, even when they were getting virtually everything they had asked for."

That is because, "The problem really is not what Israel does, it’s that Israel is," Hoenlein says. "And they’re not ready to accept the existence of the Jewish state."

In discussing the Palestinian refugee problem, Obama failed to mention the other refugee problem involving nearly a million Jews, Hoenlein says. At the time of the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948, Jews populated all of the major Arab cities from Baghdad in the East to Casablanca in the West.

Hoenlein notes that after modern Israel saw its rebirth, Jews "were driven out of Arab countries penniless, and some of their families had lived there for a thousand years, and yet there was no reference to them." He adds, "This is not a question of tit for tat. It’s a question of the realities that are communicated to a vast audience in the Arab Muslim world."

As troubling as Obama’s references to Israel and the Palestinians were, Hoenlein found the president’s failure to mention the radical regime now running Tehran equally disturbing.

"What concerned us, concerned many people, was the message to Iran that we didn’t hear," Hoenlein says. continues here

Pontiff calls for regional peace, vows to fight anti-Semitism

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Israel on Monday, starting a historical five-day, emotion-laden pilgrimage by calling for peace, an end to anti-Semitism, and freedom of worship and understanding between religions.

"Thank you for your warm welcome to Israel, a land which is holy to millions," Benedict said. "I appreciate the opportunity to come here."

"I come, like so many others before me, to pray at the holy places, to pray especially for peace - peace here in the Holy Land, and peace throughout the world," the pope continued, adding that although the name Jerusalem meant "city of peace," it is all too evident that peace has eluded the region.

The pope vowed to battle rising anti-Semitism, and spoke about his upcoming visit to Yad Vashem later in the day.

"Tragically, the Jewish people have experienced the terrible consequences of ideologies that deny the fundamental dignity of every human person," he said. "It is right and fitting that, during my stay in Israel, I will have the opportunity to honor the memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Shoah, and to pray that humanity will never again witness a crime of such magnitude."

"Sadly, anti-Semitism continues to rear its ugly head in many parts of the world. This is totally unacceptable," the pope continued. "Every effort must be made to combat anti-Semitism wherever it is found, and to promote respect and esteem for the members of every people, tribe, language and nation across the globe."




Turning to politics, the pontiff urged both Israelis and Palestinians to find a solution which will allow each side to live peacefully together.

"The eyes of the world are upon the peoples of this region as they struggle to achieve a just and lasting solution to conflicts that have caused so much suffering," he said. "The hopes of countless men, women and children for a more secure and stable future depend on the outcome of negotiations for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

"In union with people of good will everywhere, I plead with all those responsible to explore every possible avenue in the search for a just resolution of the outstanding difficulties, so that both peoples may live in peace in a homeland of their own, within secure and internationally recognized borders," the pope said. "In this regard, I hope and pray that a climate of greater trust can soon be created that will enable the parties to make real progress along the road to peace and stability."

Upon arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport, the pontiff was greeted by President Shimon Peres in a red-carpet reception. Peres warmly welcomed Benedict as "first among the faithful," and voiced hope that his presence would help foster peace in the region.

"Your Holiness the Pope, Benedict XVI, in the name of the State of Israel I welcome you and offer you a blessing on your arrival: peace," Peres said in Hebrew. Then, switching to Latin, added, "Hail Benedictus, first among the faithful, who visits the Holy Land today."

"I see your visit here, to the Holy Land, as an important spiritual mission of the highest order: a mission of peace," the president continued. "A mission of planting seeds of tolerance and uprooting the weeds of fanaticism. I appreciate your stances and your actions to bring down the level of violence and hatred in the world."

The Pope's trip comes amid lingering suspicions among Jews and Muslims over past actions and remarks by the Catholic spiritual leader. In his greetings, Peres alluded to that rift.

"I am certain that this will be a continuation of the dialogue between Judaism and Christianity in the spirit of the Prophets," he said. "Israel safeguards the absolute freedom of religious practice and free access to holy places. We are always happy to receive pilgrims from throughout the world in the Holy Land."

"We have made peace with Egypt and Jordan, and we are in negotiations to make peace with the Palestinians, and even to arrive at a comprehensive regional peace," the president continued. "Your visit here brings a blessed understanding between religions and spreads peace near and far. Historic Israel and the renewed Israel together welcome your arrival as paving the great road to peace from city to city."

The pope, who heads an official delegation of 40 representatives from the Vatican, will officially be hosted by Peres during his visit to Israel, as well as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and senior government leaders.

Following the ceremony at the airport, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Jerusalem by helicopter, where he met with Mayor Nir Barkat upon his arrival in the capital.

In his packed first day here, the pope will meet with Peres at his official residence, then visit the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, and hold an evening meeting with Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders before retiring for the evening at the Papal Nuncio's residence in Jerusalem.

The visit to Yad Vashem has taken on added emotional significance and is expected to be closely watched, both because of the pope's recent controversial decision to revoke the excommunication of a bishop who denies the Holocaust, which sparked Jewish outrage, as well as over an ongoing dispute over the role of the wartime pope, Pius XII, during the Holocaust.

The papal tour will include a visit to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall on Tuesday, a visit to Bethlehem on Wednesday, and a day-long trip to Nazareth on Thursday, before he heads back to Rome on a special El Al flight Friday afternoon.

The trip will be the second official visit by a pope to Israel, following Pope John Paul II's historic visit in 2000. continues here

We back Israel 100pc, says America

US President Barack Obama called protecting Israel's security a "top priority" when welcoming Israel's President Shimon Peres to the White House on Tuesday.


Later, a delighted Peres said: "There is no space between us and the United States."

But in a sign of the differences between the views of the two new governments, in an earlier meeting with Vice-President Joseph Biden, Peres said ending natural growth in settlements was a non-starter.

"Israel cannot instruct settlers in existing settlements not to have children or get married," Peres added.

Biden had told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee earlier in the day that settlement expansion must stop and called on Palestinians and the Arab world to make "meaningful gestures" to advance peace.

” President Barack Obama called protecting Israel's security a "top priority"….”

Peres also rejected the idea of "linkage" between the Palestinian and Iranian issues - two topics the US administration has frequently mentioned together.

Before his meeting with Obama, Peres said Israel had not demanded that the US set a time limit on its negotiations with Iran.

"Israel doesn't give the US an ultimatum," he said after meeting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

He added that the US and Israel were "100 per cent" on the same page when it came to Iran but that the issue of a time frame was misleading.

He explained that it was impossible to "set a clock" because events were "fluid and volatile" and would dictate the pace.

But earlier, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman reportedly declared that action would need to be taken if three months of diplomacy elapsed with no results. continues here

Holocaust still an issue as Pope Benedict prepares to visit the Holy Land

• Many Israelis still angry over Vatican's war record
• Palestinians hoping for support for independence

Israel's Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, is housed within an angular concrete corridor that leads visitors through appalling stories of persecution, suffering and death and out eventually to a calming view over the Jerusalem forests.

Halfway down the corridor in a room on the left are two black and white ­photographs of the wartime pope, Pius XII, with a few lines of text in English and Hebrew. It is one of hundreds of displays in the museum and easily overlooked, but it runs to the heart of Israel's often troubled relationship with the Vatican.

Pope Benedict XVI makes an official visit to the Holy Land next week and will attend Yad Vashem on Monday to lay a wreath, but he will not visit the museum or see the caption. The wording set off a diplomatic spat two years ago when the papal envoy to Jerusalem threatened to skip Israel's Holocaust day service and it remains contentious, symbolic of the troubled history between the Catholic church and the Jewish people.

For some, Pius XII was little more than "Hitler's pope" and the caption at Yad Vashem is accusatory. It claims Pius "shelved" a letter against racism and antisemitism prepared by his predecessor and says that when the Vatican received news of the murder of Jews "the pope did not protest either verbally or in writing".

In December 1942 he "abstained" from signing an allied declaration against the extermination of Jews, and when Jews were deported from Rome to Auschwitz "he did not intervene". "His silence and the absence of guidelines obliged churchmen throughout Europe to decide on their own how to react," it says.

Israeli academics, including researchers at Yad Vashem itself, have pressed the Vatican to open its wartime archives and shed light on documents that might explain in more detail how the Catholic church acted. Workshops and discussions on the Holocaust have been held between Yad Vashem staff and Catholic clergy.

Vatican officials have tried to smooth over the differences, although Pius remains on track for canonisation. Monsignor Antonio Franco, the papal envoy who threatened to stay away from the Holocaust service two years ago, said this week that the Vatican was making a "huge effort" to accelerate the opening of the archives. Perhaps within four or five years they might be revealed, he said. "It really demands a lot of work, a lot of investigation and things must be done in a very professional way," he said.

Pope Benedict was not coming to Israel to quarrel, Franco said, but at 82 he was an elderly man with a busy schedule and a visit to the museum had "never been on the agenda". This despite the fact that in 2000 his more charismatic predecessor, John Paul II, spent several hours at Yad Vashem listening to Holocaust survivors.

Vatican officials have also been at pains to describe the papal tour as a pilgrimage, not a political visit. But in reality it holds much more significance. It will be only the third visit of a pope to the Holy Land and comes at a time when hope of a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians is ever more illusory.

More and more Christians are leaving the area, particularly the Palestinian territories, for several reasons, among them friction with the surrounding Muslim community and the suffocating and often deadly effect of Israel's four-decade military occupation.Only in 1993 did the Vatican sign an accord recognising the state of Israel, but the "fundamental agreement" between the two sides, with its 15 articles about property rights and hugely valuable tax exemptions, has still not been implemented. Negotiations continue.

There are other issues of dispute, some theological, others practical. Many Israelis were angered by the pope's decision in January to revoke the excommunication of the British bishop Richard Williamson, who denied the existence of the Nazi gas chambers. Senior Jewish leaders said that decision threatened the reconciliation between the Catholic church and the Jewish people. In February, an Israeli TV show was forced to apologise after airing a sketch that ridiculed Jesus and Mary.

Some opinion polls have suggested these differences run deep. A poll of Jewish Israelis by the Jerusalem Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations last year found that 41% regarded Christianity as an idolatrous religion, and 46% did not believe Jerusalem was a central city for the Christian world. Some 40% believed the Catholic church had a very or largely negative attitude towards Judaism and Jews.

Hardliners have played on this, and on Benedict's own background growing up in wartime Germany. Michael Ben Ari, a far-right Israeli MP, said on Tuesday that the pope's visit would be an insult to the memory of Holocaust victims.

"A state welcome for the pope would be turning our backs on the millions of Jews who were killed in the shadow of the Christian religion of grace and mercy," he told a session of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. "This pope was a member of the Hitler Youth."

Among Palestinians, political expectations are high. They hope Benedict will speak out in support of Palestinian independence. After he says mass in Bethlehem on Wednesday he will visit Aida, a Palestinian refugee camp, where a stone stage has been built for him next to Israel's vast concrete West Bank barrier. Fouad Twal, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, said the camp itself symbolised the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees who were forced out or fled from what is now Israel in the 1948 war.

However, it is far from clear whether Benedict will speak out on these political issues, and it now seems doubtful that he will even reach the stage in Aida camp.

Elsewhere there are more careful voices. Father William Shomali, rector of the Latin seminary in Beit Jala, next to Bethlehem, said there was little point hoping that the pope's visit might alter the reality of the conflict. "After hundreds of meetings between committees and sub-committees we are still negotiating how and with whom to negotiate," he said. "I don't want it to be a political visit or it will continue the frustration."

Instead, he hoped the pope would emphasise prayer, acknowledgement of the suffering of others, reconciliation and religious dialogue. "If everyone recognises his own guilt, reconciliation becomes easier," he said.

As for Pius XII and his wartime conduct, although it is true the Vatican has been slow to study the issue in detail, it also appears that Yad Vashem's verdict is not the last word.

Some historians, among them Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill's biographer, have come out in support of Pius as in fact an unsung hero of the war. He points out that the pope's 1942 Christmas message infuriated the Nazis because it defended the Jews, and notes that the pope organised rescues of Jews in Hungary and intervened to stop deportations in Slovakia. In 1943, Pius tried to disrupt implementation of the Final Solution throughout occupied Italy. continues here

American Jewish professor probed after comparing Israel to Nazis

A Jewish professor from California who is under review for disseminating material that equates Israelis to Nazis has petitioned other scholars to protest a probe of his actions, an Israel advocacy group has told Haaretz.

The University of California, Santa Barbara, is investigating allegations of improper conduct and anti-Semitism against Sociology professor William I. Robinson for sending an e-mail to 80 of his students in January that contained photos of Jews killed by the Nazis and similar photos of Palestinians killed in the recent Israeli offensive in Gaza.

The founder of the group whose members filed the complaint against Robinson, the U.S.-based Israel advocacy student group StandWithUs, told Haaretz that the e-mail used the terms "concentration camp" and "genocide" when referring to Gaza.

"The bylaws of the school forbid using classrooms for as platforms for dogmas that have nothing whatsoever to do with the material being studied," StandWithUs founder Roz Rothstein from Los Angeles said while on a visit to Israel.

The complaint against Robinson was filed by two students. Lia Yaiger, one of the pair, is a graduate of StandWithUs' Emerson Fellowship program, which trains students in campuses in "response techniques" to anti-Israel efforts on campus.

In Robinson's petition - which Rothstein says has been sent out to "radical left-wing" professors - he argues that he was within his rights of academic freedom to challenge students with controversial topics, and that the process that the university has initiated is an attempt to silence him and infringes on his right to free speech.

The same email that Robinson sent already roused controversy in January, after a Norwegian diplomat serving in Saudi Arabia used her official mail from the foreign ministry to spread it to recipients.

The letter contains gory images of slain children said to have been killed in the Israeli attack on Hamas in Gaza, juxtaposed with photos of Holocaust victims in seemingly correlating situations. continues here

Anti-Israel protesters in Edinburgh face racism charges

Four protesters who tried to disrupt an Israeli music concert in Edinburgh are due to appear in court next month to face racist allegations.

The new accusations on charges of breaching the peace were dropped last month against Michael Napier, 62, Kevin Connor, 39, Niel Forbes, 54, Vanesa Fuertes, 34, and Sofia Macleod, 38.

The case against the four, who are members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC), relates to a demonstration again a performance by the Jerusalem String Quartet in the Scottish capital last August.

The SPSC has reacted strongly against the new charges of allegedly following a racist course of conduct or acting in a racially aggravated manner, while the two men and two women have denied committing any offense.

"We just think it's totally ridiculous. Our actions and campaigning are based on international human rights," Macleod told the Scotsman newspaper. "There is no question whatsoever that any of our actions are racist in any way," she said.

It was claimed the four caused alarm and distress to the musicians and audience by shouting at the players while they were performing at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall.

The protesters, who reportedly numbered several dozen, claimed the musicians were affiliated to the Israeli Army and said they wanted to raise awareness of the plight of Palestinians.

The picket outside the concert hall came after the SPSC lobbied for the performance to be canceled, but organizers and managers of the venue, which is owned by the city council, decided to go ahead with the show. continues here