Netanyahu Give Testimony In Assault in the Ship

Jerusalem  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to testify Monday on his version of events that led to deadly attacks against aid ships Gaza purposes. Testimony prime minister will be delivered in front of an Israeli commission investigating the deadly attack in late May that. Netanyahu became the first of three high officials who will give sworn testimony this week about the incident, which the Israeli navy commandos stormed the six vessels that help to break through the blockade against the Gaza Strip, which killed nine Turkish activists and injuring dozens of other passengers.

May 31 operation that sparked a diplomatic crisis and global calls for an investigation.Investigative panel that will hear sworn testimony from high-level decision makers involved in the commando raid, including the Prime Minister of Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, in a series of public hearings that began on 9 August.

However, the committee’s mandate would be limited to the study of international legal issues, and they will not investigate the decision-making process that led to the deadly operation.Public hearings will be held in a hall in Jerusalem.Israeli officials said the panel will listen to Barracks sworn testimony on Tuesday and Ashkenazi in the next day. Israeli commandos raided ships in the fleet assistance to the Gaza Strip on 31 May. Nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activist killed in the attack on one ship.

Israel-Turkey relations plunged to its lowest level since the two countries reached a strategic partnership in the 1990s due to the incident.Turkey summoned its ambassador from Tel Aviv and canceled three planned military exercises after the raid. Turkey also twice rejected the Israeli request for military aircraft using the airspace.

Severe violence in the pre-dawn raid Monday (31 / 5) by Israeli troops occurred on the boat Turkey, Mavi Marmara, who led the fleet of aid to Gaza.Israel argued that the passenger-passenger ship was attacked the troops, but the organizers claimed that the fleet of the Israeli troops started shooting as soon as they landed.

After the attack, Egypt, who reached peace with Israel in 1979, it opened the Rafah border to allow aid convoys into Gaza – widely seen as an effort to counter critics of the Egyptian role in the blockade.Cairo, in coordination with Israel, allowing only limited in its border crossing since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

Under increasing pressure, Israel then launched an investigation along with two international observers for the attack. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon encourages a separate investigation into the UN with the participation of Israel and Turkey.

Israel also relax the blockade of Gaza by allowing the majority of civilian goods into the coastal territory.Gaza Strip, a densely populated coastal regions, blockaded by Israel and Egypt after Hamas to power nearly three years ago.

Group Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June of 2007 after defeating Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a deadly battle for a few days.Since then, these poor coastal blockader by Israel. Any Palestinian entity into two separate areas – the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and West Bank under Abbas government. European Union, Israel and the U.S. enter into the Hamas terrorist organization list.( AFP)

Mavi Marmara pull out of Israel

Haifa, Israel  Turkish passenger ship that became the center of deadly violence during the raid against the Israeli navy ships aim assistance Gaza Strip Israel pulled out of port, on Thursday, an AFP correspondent said.Mavi Marmara taken out from the port of Haifa by a large Turkish tugboat sent to bring back the ship.Two other ships were also detained by the navy during the attack on May 31 would also be withdrawn from the port of Ashdod, southern Israel, on Thursday, the defense ministry said.

Repatriation of the ships were made after a decision taken by the political leaders after a request from Ankara, the ministry said in a statement.”Three Turkish tugs will arrive in Israel today. The crew they will receive three ships moored in Israel along with personal equipment on top of existing ships,” the ministry said, without explaining when the transfer is made. The ships were part of a fleet of six ships which attempted to penetrate the Israeli naval blockade against the Gaza Strip on 31 May. Unclear whether the other three ships were still in Israeli ports.The ship is also believed to aid Rachel Corrie, was arrested at an Israeli port, but the legal steps taken to set him free.Israel became the international spotlight after deadly attacks against aid ships.

Israeli commandos raided ships in the fleet assistance to the Gaza Strip on May 31, which killed nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists in the attack on one ship.Israel-Turkey relations plunged to its lowest level since the two countries reached a strategic partnership in the 1990s due to the incident.

Turkey summoned its ambassador from Tel Aviv and canceled three planned military exercises after the raid. Turkey also twice rejected the Israeli request for military aircraft using the airspace.Severe violence in the pre-dawn raid Monday (31 / 5) by Israeli troops occurred on the boat Turkey, Mavi Marmara, who led the fleet of aid to Gaza.Israel argued that the passenger-passenger ship was attacked the troops, but the organizers claimed that the fleet of the Israeli troops started shooting as soon as they landed.

After the attack, Egypt, who reached peace with Israel in 1979, it opened the Rafah border to allow aid convoys into Gaza – widely seen as an effort to counter critics of the Egyptian role in the blockade.Cairo, in coordination with Israel, allowing only limited in its border crossing since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

Under increasing pressure, Israel then launched an investigation along with two international observers for the attack. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon encourages a separate investigation into the UN with the participation of Israel and Turkey.Israel also relax the blockade of Gaza by allowing the majority of civilian goods into the coastal territory. Gaza Strip, a densely populated coastal regions, blockaded by Israel and Egypt after Hamas to power nearly three years ago.

Group Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June of 2007 after defeating Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a deadly battle for a few days.Since then, these poor coastal dibloklade by Israel. Any Palestinian entity into two separate areas – the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and West Bank under Abbas government.The AFP report, the European Union, Israel and the U.S. enter into the Hamas terrorist organization list.(AFP)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he was ready to conduct direct talks with Israel

Amman -Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday he was ready to conduct direct talks with Israel, following allegations of Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu that the Palestinians have been avoiding the conversation.”We are ready to hold direct peace talks with Israel,” said Abbas told reporters after talks with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Jordan’s capital, Amman, as quoted from the AFP.”We have had talks with the previous Israeli government, more than once. Why are we going to avoid that conversation. We will not.”Netanyahu told the committee on foreign affairs and defense  parliament, Monday, that the Palestinians have sought to avoid direct talks, while Israel is ready to begin direct talks was “immediately”.

“We have an understanding with the Americans that we need to move now, without delay, to direct talks, but in return, we have a clear effort to Palestine to avoid this process,” said Netanyahu.”They’re trying to back away and avoid direct talks and Arab League had bound to lead to conversation.”Netanyahu’s statement came just days before a meeting in Cairo between Abbas and the Arab League in which the Palestinian leaders would discuss the indirect talks with Israel, which began in May, and brokered by U.S. envoy George Mitchell weeks to the Middle East.

At a meeting in Cairo, Abbas will also deliver their most pressing issues concerning the transition from indirect speech into direct talks.Abbas has repeatedly said he can not step into direct talks without any real progress in important issues concerning the border and security, and without full development of freezing Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land.Meanwhile, Abbas will also meet with Spanish Foreign Minister Angel Moratinos Muguel, Tuesday, in Amman, before flying to Cairo.(AFP) 

RAMALLAH, West Bank Israel to build 700 apartments in east Jerusalem

Israel 700 apartments

RAMALLAH, West Bank  Israel announced Monday it is building nearly 700 new apartments for Jews in east Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope to set up the capital of a future state. The U.S., Palestinians and the European Union condemned the plan, a fresh setback to American efforts to restart Mideast peace talks.The Palestinians have said they will not resume talks without an Israeli settlement freeze, and criticized what they said was another show of bad faith by Israel.”With each individual action it undertakes on the ground, Israel is saying no to meaningful negotiations,” said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.President Barack Obama’s Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, who is trying to find a formula for reviving negotiations, is due in Israel and the West Bank in the second week of January.White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the U.S. “opposes new Israeli construction in east Jerusalem” and that neither side should take steps that pre-empt the outcome of talks. He urged both sides to restart negotiations without preconditions.

Sweden, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, said Israel’s latest plans “prevent the creation of an atmosphere conducive to resuming negotiations on a two-state solution.”Israel insists the Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem are not settlements, but part of its own capital, a view disputed by the international community.The plan announced Monday takes the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into new political territory, by initiating construction for Jews in east Jerusalem. Up to now, the government has been saying it was endorsing plans already in the pipeline. Israel’s Housing Ministry confirmed that the new construction bids are Netanyahu’s first in east Jerusalem.

A partition of Jerusalem – with Jewish neighborhoods going to Israel and Arab neighborhoods to a future Palestine – would likely be part of any peace deal. Palestinians say that with each expansion of Jewish areas, the Arab portion of the city is shrinking and partition becomes more difficult.Netanyahu said he was willing to get back to talks immediately, telling a group of Israeli ambassadors: “Israel wants peace.”

Israeli-Palestinian talks broke off a year ago. After coming to power nine months ago, Netanyahu withdrew key promises made to the Palestinians by his predecessor, including a willingness, in principle, to discuss the future of Jerusalem.About 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and another 180,000 in east Jerusalem, areas claimed by the Palestinians for their state. Under U.S. pressure, Netanyahu agreed to slow new housing construction in the West Bank, though construction of more than 3,000 houses there continues.

The Israeli leader refuses to stop building in east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed. He says he will not cede any part of the city.Successive Israeli governments have put up sprawling Jewish neighborhoods around east Jerusalem, and Monday’s decision would build in three of them: Pisgat Zeev, Har Homa and Neve Yaakov.

Abbas insists on a total settlement construction freeze, including east Jerusalem, and also wants assurances that the pre-1967 war borders would serve as the basis for talks that would pick up where they left off under Netanyahu’s more moderate predecessor, Ehud Olmert.In those talks, Olmert and Abbas accepted the principle of swapping land – meaning Israel would retain some West Bank land to incorporate large Jewish settlements but compensate the Palestinians with Israeli land. However, the Palestinians did not accept the offer because they felt Israel wanted to hold on to too much land, and Netanyahu withdrew it.

Mitchell has been sounding out Israel about possible compromise, in hopes of getting the talks restarted, according to an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and former Israeli lawmaker Yossi Beilin.Beilin said Netanyahu has not accepted the idea of basing the talks on the borders before the 1967 war, in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. Beilin, an architect of Israeli-Palestinian peace accords in the 1990s, remains in touch with government officials.

An Abbas aide said Mitchell is also talking to Israeli officials about possible goodwill gestures, such as releasing more Palestinian prisoners and expanding West Bank areas under full or partial Palestinian control. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the content of the meetings.

Israeli troops blasted their way into the homes of three wanted Palestinians on Saturday

Israeli troops

NABLUS, West Bank  Israeli troops blasted their way into the homes of three wanted Palestinians on Saturday, killing each in a hail of bullets and straining an uneasy security arrangement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.Israel’s military said the three, affiliated with a violent offshoot of Abbas’ Fatah movement, were targeted for killing an Israeli settler in a roadside ambush earlier in the week and had turned down a chance to surrender.In the Gaza Strip, three young men approaching Israel’s southern border were killed by shots from an Israeli helicopter gunship. Saturday’s deaths made it one of the deadliest days in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since Israel waged war on Gaza’s Islamic militant Hamas rulers a year ago.The violent Nablus raids, after months of relative quiet, embarrassed Western-backed Abbas, whose security forces have been coordinating some of their moves with their Israeli counterparts and share a common foe, Hamas.

At the funeral for the slain men, Abbas’ security policy was denounced by thousands of mourners, who chanted: “Why the coordination while we are under the bullets of the army?”Abbas’ prime minister, Salam Fayyad, rushed to Nablus in an apparent attempt at damage control, paying his respects at a large communal wake and condeming Israel. “This attack was a clear assassination, and I believe it is targeting our security and stability,” Fayyad told The Associated Press.

Israel did not let Abbas know of the raid in advance, said Maj. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman.Saturday’s killings put to the test an often strained relationship between Israel’s military and Abbas’ security.Since the violent takeover of Gaza by Hamas in 2007, Abbas has gradually strengthened his control in West Bank towns to keep the Islamists there in check.

Palestinian leaders frequently complain that Israel is undermining these efforts by carrying out arrest raids in areas under Palestinian control. Israel counters that while the performance of the Palestinian security forces is improving, its military will step in when necessary.The target of Saturday’s predawn raids were three longtime members of Fatah’s violent offshoot, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. The army said the three – Anan Subeh, 36; Ghassan Abu Sharah, 40; and Raed Suragji, 40 – were involved in Thursday’s deadly roadside shooting of an Israeli settler, and that Israeli forces entered Nablus to try to arrest them.Dozens of Israeli soldiers, some of wearing black masks, poured into Nablus’ casbah, or old city, at about 2 a.m. They were backed by sniffer dogs and dozens of jeeps, bulldozers and other military vehiclesThe forces surrounded the homes of the three. Lerner, the army major, said all three turned down a chance to surrender. However, relatives of Abu Sharah and Suragji said they were killed without warning. Lerner confirmed that none of the wanted men returned fire, including Subeh, who had two pistols and two assault rifles on him.

Soldiers used explosives to blow open the door of the Abu Sharah’s three-story apartment building, said Ghassan Abu Sharah’s brother, Jihad. The brother said that when Ghassan came downstairs, one of the soldiers opened fire and killed him.Troops also used explosives at the home of Raed Suragji, said his wife, Tehani.

She said her husband opened the bedroom door. “Suddenly, shots were fired at us,” she said. “He fell down. I started shouting. I held his head in my lap and sat on the ground.”In the third raid, troops ordered everyone to come out of the Subeh home, said Subeh’s brother, Jamal. The family evacuated, but Anan Subeh stayed behind.

Lerner said Subeh was hiding in a small crawl space in his home when he was killed. He said soldiers heard him shout “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for God is great.Asked why soldiers opened fire, Lerner said troops “had to operate under the assumption that they (the suspects) are dangerous.”Subeh had recently been accepted in Israel’s amnesty program for Fatah gunmen, according to Nablus’ deputy governor, Anan Attireh. Subeh’s family said he had also joined the Preventive Security Service, a branch of the Palestinian security forces.

Suragji was released from an Israeli prison in January, after a seven-year term for involvement in shooting attacks. Abu Sharah was also held by Israel in the past, the military said.The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades carried out scores of shooting attacks and suicide bombings during the second Palestinian uprising, which erupted in 2000. Since then, the militia has been largely dismantled.

In Israel, right-wing critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his policy of easing travel restrictions in the West Bank was to blame for the shooting attack. Lerner said Israel did not plan to set up new roadblocks.Also Saturday, an Israeli helicopter gunship killed three Gazans, ages 19 and 20, as they approached the border barrier with Israel. The army said the three were hit after they ignored warning shots.Relatives of the three had tried to sneak into Israel for work and were not affiliated with political groups.Israel does not allow Palestinians to approach its border area with Gaza, fearing militants will stage attacks there.

"mentally disturbed" woman tried to attack Pope Benedict XVI

"mentally disturbed" woman tried to attack Pope Benedict XVI

The woman who dragged the Pope down Thursday night during Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica is the same woman who tried to attack the Pope at the same function last year, the Vatican said.The woman, described by a Vatican spokesman as “mentally disturbed” jumped a barrier at the start of the event and toppled Pope Benedict XVI as onlookers gasped.Screams erupted from worshippers when the woman ran toward Pope Benedict XVI and grabbed onto his vestments as he walked down the main aisle of the Rome church, video footage showed.

He was quickly helped to his feet by his aides — prompting cheers from the crowd — and the service was resumed, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told CNN.The Pope was not hurt in the incident, Lombardi said.

“Unfortunately that is not the same for Cardinal [Roger Etchegaray] who was nearby; he fell and broke his femur,” said Lomabardi.The woman was being detained, Lombardi said. Lombardi did not release the name of the woman but she had been named in Italian news outlets.He confirmed that the woman was same person who unsuccessfully tried to rush at the Pope at the event last year.

Lombardi defended the Vatican’s security saying authorities were sure that the woman did not have any weapons because she had gone through security screening.

John Allen, senior Vatican analyst for CNN, said such security breaches aren’t uncommon.”As compared to say, the president of the United States, the security membrane around the pope is pretty thin and fairly permeable,” he said, citing similar past incidents, including one that happened last Christmas Eve.

Allen said that generally, these disruptions are caused by people who aren’t seeking real harm, but who want to be close to the pope.Benedict began what has traditionally been a midnight Mass at the Vatican at 10 p.m. as officials sought to keep the 82-year-old pontiff from a late night.

Celebrants in Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus in the West Bank, however, joined the Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal for a midnight Mass attended by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials.

Outside the Church of the Nativity, erected over the site Christian tradition says was the place of Jesus’ birth, the faithful gathered under the watchful eyes of heavily armed Palestinian police.

But Palestinian shopkeeper Nadia Hazboun said the security situation in the West Bank has improved in the time since the militant Hamas group took over Gaza and Abbas’ Fatah movement abandoned the narrow strip of land between Israel and the Mediterranean for the West Bank.

“It was bad, now it is good,” he told Voice of America radio. “I told you, before anybody take the law in his [own] hands. But now the law [is] with the police. We have security, we have calm, we have now the best situation in Bethlehem.”Were you there? Share pictures, video

Christmas Eve in Bethlehem is a popular destination for American Christians, including Iowan Paul Edelman.”Just the festivities, the idea that this is the birthplace of Christ, and you get to see all the historic places and share it with people from around the world; it’s a very nice experience,” he told Voice of America radio.