Tag "Hamas"
Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank for the People’s Voice Nahom Barnea is a prominent Israeli journalist and regular columnist at the mass-circulation newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth. On Friday, 19 September, he revealed shocking details of a recent “security coordination” meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security commanders. Barnea, well known for his journalistic reliability, attended the meeting which took place at the Israeli occupation army’s West Bank headquarters at the settlement
Ha’aretz as published an article entitled “U.S. Army training Egyptians to find, destroy smuggling tunnels” which describes how Egyptian soldiers are trained by the US Army to prevent any tunnels being dug out of the open air prison of Gaza. Ha’aretz writes: The United States Army has begun training Egyptian soldiers to locate and destroy tunnels, in an effort to improve the Egyptian army’s ability to cope with arms-smuggling from
Press TV reports that the Political Leader of Hamas Khalid Meshaal has called on Arab countries to forge stronger ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Arab and Islamic countries should consolidate their unity and distinguish friend from foe, he said while addressing a ceremony held in the Syrian capital, Damascus, to commemorate the demise anniversary of the Founder of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, the late Imam Khomeini. He stressed the
Press TV has just published a short article saying that the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has granted an audience to Hamas’ political leader Khaled Meshaal. The AFP provides some more details about the meeting and its context: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday told the visiting political supremo of Hamas to keep up the resistance against Israel, warning that abandoning the struggle would lead to
It will be two years this June since the daring capture of the Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit by the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in the course of an attack on an IDF position near Gaza. Following this embarrassing incident, the Israelis tried everything they could, including the mass murder of civilians in Gaza, to force Hamas to release Shalit, but to no avail. Numerous diplomatic
It is a great honour and long awaited pleasure for me to interview a real expert on Palestine and the rest of the Middle-East: Tony, the author of what is definitely one of the best Palestinian blogs – Palestinian Pundit, a “must visit daily” for anybody interested in the Palestinian drama. I have been reading Tony’s posts for quite a while already (many thanks to datta for drawing my attention
By Reuters (via Ha’aretz) Israel Defense Forces attacks in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have boosted the popularity of the Islamist group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh among Palestinians in that territory and in the West Bank, according to a poll released Monday. The survey by the West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showed that if new presidential elections were held, Haniyeh would receive 47 percent of the vote compared
Al-Manar TV reports: Egyptian and Hamas security forces closed the border between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday, nearly two weeks after resistance fighters blew open the frontier amid as Israeli occupation blockade, a security source and witnesses said. “Security forces have starting closing the border,” an Egyptian security source said. “No more Palestinians are being allowed in.” One gate remained open to allow Palestinians to return to Gaza and Egyptians
Al-Manar TV reports: The Islamic Resistance Movement of Hamas has dismissed as an Israeli-led conspiracy PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s proposal to deploy his own, Western-trained forces at the Rafah crossing along with the EU monitors. Palestinian Authority said Monday that it had reached a deal with Egypt to take control of the Gaza border. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri dismissed the proposal, calling it an “Israeli-led international conspiracy with the participation
It was the be expected: the Pharaoh, who had been told by his masters that he was expected to “solve the problem” moved his stormtroopers in to attempt to close the border between Egypt and Gaza. Simultaneously, the Empire sensing that the situation might be getting out of control at the United Nations moved to prevent the adoption of a UNSC resolution on the blockade of Gaza. Lastly, Israel carried
Haaretz Analysis: Hamas shows IDF who is in charge By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents (emphasis added. VS) A few Israel Defense Forces Engineering Corps officers surely shed a tear yesterday while viewing the television reports from Rafah: The barrier built by the IDF with blood and sweat along the Philadelphi Route, on the Gaza Strip border with Egypt, was coming down. It was, apparently, the final remnant
I have never understood where the myth of the ‘clever Israelis’ came from (probably from the ‘superior Jewish intellect’ canard, itself a blatantly self-serving and racist belief). Today, the Israeli handling of the Hamas phenomenon appears to me as an ideal case study in stupidity and arrogance. I just came across such a perfect example of this delusional arrogance that I decided that I needed to share it with you.
According to the United Nations, some 350,000 Gazans have streamed into Egypt after Hamas militants blew up dozens of holes in the metal wall which separated Gaza from Egypt. Most of the wall is now destroyed. Obviously, while this is good news for the Gazans starved by the Israeli blockade, this development is also full of potential dangers. It is unlikely that Hamas will stop the firing of Kassam rockets
Israel’s policy towards the Gaza issue is at least as phenomenally stupid as it is evil. In fact, I consider it a perfect case study in Neocon short-term thinking. Let’s take a look at the context, at what has happened, at what is going on now and at where all this leads. The main, over-arching, issue Israel, as a self-described “Jewish state”, is facing today is not terrorism or Iranian
The great Annapolis Peace Conference has resulted in exactly nothing. This is not the opinion of Hamas, or Hezbollah, but the opinion of Ghaith al-Omari, legal adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who, according to CNN, declared: The Israeli-Palestinian statement read by President Bush at the start of Tuesday’s peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland, amounted to a “public relations gimmick”. “The statement has a shelf life of two days,” he
Commentary taken from the blog “Lenin’s tomb”: Israel and Palestinians commit to peace trumpets The Guardian, with a sick-making portrait of Bush, Olmert and Abbas holding hands. How’s that commitment working so far? Well, let’s not forget that having launched a ‘civil war’ against Hamas and used Dahlan’s goons to foment war in Gaza on behalf of Israel, Mahmoud Abbas supports Israel’s war on the Gaza strip. There is no
This interview was originally published in Yedioth Ahronoth in Hebrew; it has been translated by Diana Buttu of The Institute for Middle East Understanding. The moment that Abbas officially announces his resignation, even if I am in prison, I will put forward my candidacy for President (of the Palestinian Authority) and I will win. This is what Marwan Barghouthi said from his cell – number 28, section 3 – during
GAZA, Sept 12–Hamas said on Wednesday its security forces in Gaza have gone on high alert ahead of an anticipated large-scale Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory. Hamas said in a statement it had obtained “clear information” indicating that the “Zionist forces are preparing to launch a vast air, ground and sea offensive” in Gaza. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and war minister Ehud Barak decided on the operation following
By Anand Gopal BADDAWI CAMP, Lebanon, Sep 5 (IPS) – There is a new look to the entrance of the Palestinian refugee camp Baddawi in northern Lebanon. Hanging above the armed man who guards the entrance are posters of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the slain spiritual leader of Hamas, and other fighters from the Palestinian guerrilla group. Nearby, a huge Hamas banner covers the side of a house, and down the
On Tony Karon’s excellent blog Mark Perry offers 10 reasons why Hamas, rather than Abu Mazen and his U.S. backers will prevail in the struggle for Palestinian hearts and minds. The Islamists today represent the Palestinian mainstream, while Fatah is broken from top to bottom. Even more importantly, Abbas is increasingly isolated within his own organization, most of whose grassroots and mid-level leadership want nothing to do with the U.S.
