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Wed Sep 3

• * Hamas popularity among Palestinians declining, poll finds - Haaretz - Israel News: The popularity of the Islamic Hamas movement is steadily declining among Palestinians, while that of its rival - the secular Fatah movement - remains unchanged, a new public opinion poll published Monday revealed. According to the poll, if parliamentary elections were held today, Fatah would receive 43% of the vote, compared to 29% for Hamas, and the movement' s leader, Abbas, would receive the support of 53 percent of the voters, compared to 39% for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. The survey, conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, said that while the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was expected to lead to an improvement in Hamas' standing, the fact that Gaza crossings with Egypt and Israel remained closed for most of the time and the situation in the Gaza Strip has not improved, had contributed to the decline in support for the Islamist movement.

Tue Sep 2

• Peace Now: West Bank settlement construction nearly doubled this year - Haaretz - Israel News: More than 2,600 housing units are under construction in West Bank settlements, including units in more than 1,000 new buildings, Peace Now contends in its semi-annual report. Basing its conclusions on aerial photographs and field visits, the organization says that slightly more than half of the new structures are going up east of the separation fence, and in several places construction is encroaching on the boundaries of Palestinian towns, such as Ramallah and Bethlehem.
• Moot argument - Haaretz - Israel News: Former PA PM Ahmed Qureia ?(Abu Ala?) is aware of this sensitivity, and exploits it every time he hits a bump in the negotiations: "If Israel continues to put up opposition, we will demand a single state for two peoples," he said recently. Indeed, the Palestinians use the slogan "One State" to threaten Israel, and they know full well how effective that threat is. So great is the fear that the Palestinians are planning to exchange their struggle for national independence for a demand for citizenship rights in a binational state, that the very mention of this option is seen as proof of their unwillingness to reach peace. The Palestinian demand for Israel to annex the territories and extend citizenship rights to their inhabitants is considered more of a threat to Israel than the demand for an independent state, since civil equality is a universal norm and the demand for its implementation would win sweeping support in the West.

Sat Aug 30

• Israelis at center of ecstasy drug trade - Haaretz - Israel News: Israel is at the center of international trade in the drug ecstasy, according to a document published last week by the U.S. State Department. In recent years, organized crime in Israel, some with links to criminal organizations in Russia, have come to control the distribution of the drug in Europe, according to a Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs document. The same document also points out that Israeli criminal groups have a hand in the distribution of ecstasy in North America. During 2000, 80 percent of the ecstasy seized in North America originated in the Netherlands, which is the largest production centre, along with Belgium and Poland. The State Department is certain that Israeli organizations are linked to the laboratories in the Netherlands and are responsible for the worldwide distribution.

Tue Aug 26

• American peace activist killed by army bulldozer in Rafah. IDF expresses `regret'; State Department `assessing' reports - Haaretz - Israel News: A 23-year-old American woman, Rachel Corrie, a college student from Olympia, Washington who belonged to the International Solidarity Movement in the territories, was killed yesterday by an IDF bulldozer during a house demolition in Rafah. Israeli officials expressed "regret&q uot; over the incident to American officials, sources in Jerusalem said, and in Washington, a State Department statement said it had received reports of the incident, and was "assessin g the situation.&quo t; The ISM activist was taking part in protest efforts yesterday afternoon in Rafah, to prevent the army from demolishing houses in a strip of land a few hundred meters wide between the Rafah refugee camp and the nearby Egyptian border, in an effort to block smuggling from Egypt

Mon Aug 25

• Why do they keep silent? - Haaretz - Israel News: A new wave of violence by settler youth, more serious than the last one, has spread across the occupied territories. They have no interest in a legitimate political struggle, nor do they claim to be acting on "behalf of the people of Israel." These outlaws espouse anarchistic beliefs and try to prevent the Israeli people from achieving their goals. Such a phenomenon results in part from the disengagement crisis three years ago. That affair made these youths despise political struggles that "have no effect." Essentially, the phenomenon is part of a settler take on an Israeli attitude toward individualism. Israeli society in recent years has been busy "fulfilli ng itself," and the hell with collective responsibility . Then settler youths came along with their own violent version of that trend. "Rule of law" in itself, and respect for the rules of the game that go along with it, are not enough for them.
• How Grandma Rachel conserved water - Haaretz - Israel News: Statistics published by the Knesset's research division, nothing has been done in the last decade to save water in either the municipal or household sectors, despite the fact that the growing problem of dwindling water supplies was known to all the relevant decision makers, as well as to the public at large. The chairman of the public committee entrusted with examining how the water supply is managed, estimated as far back as the mid-1990s that municipalities and local councils had the potential to save up to 150 million cubic meters of water per year, 20% of the total amount of water this sector consumes annually. Today, it is clear that attempts at scare-mongerin g and preaching to the public have not helped in conserving water
• Tyranny or legality. Vice Premier Haim Ramon, who was justice minister until he rashly got himself and his mouth involved with a young female IDF officer, is third in importance in the government hierarchy.: He is more important than the deputy PM, including Shaul Mofaz. Above him are only the PM and the acting PM. This situation came about after the court, which convicted Ramon, determined that his acts were not tainted by moral turpitude. Ramon returned to the cabinet of Olmert driven by vengeance against those who caused his troubles. First is Attorney General Menachem Mazuz. From the moment of his court conviction - which he did not challenge, for his own reasons - Ramon embarked on an all-out war against the police, the prosecution and Mazuz, the person responsible for law enforcement. Last month Ramon failed in his efforts to create a committee that would probe those who investigated him. A cabinet majority fought off his manoeuvrings, backed by his successor, Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, and the examination of the issue of police wiretaps was transferred to the care of State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss.
• Haniyeh: Arrival of blockade-busti ng boats spells end of Gaza siege - Haaretz - Israel News: Free Gaza activist group accused Israel of sabotaging the mission, saying that Israel had jammed the boats' electronic communication systems. "I can't think of any other reason or any other party with an interest," ; said Angela Godfrey-Goldst ein, the group's spokeswoman in Israel. She accused Israel of jeopardizing the activists' ; safety, and appealed for international assistance.The activists said their communications systems had been jammed and scrambled and said they were victims of electronic piracy. "We are not experienced sailors. As a results, there is concern about the health and safety of the people on board," the statement said.
• Lebanon lodges UN complaint over perceived 'Israeli threats' - Haaretz - Israel News: PM Siniora sent a letter of protest to UN Secretary-Gene ral Ban Ki-moon having received the cabinet's approval of a decision to formally complain about what it perceived as recent Israeli threats against Lebanon. Siniora urged Ban to inform the UN Security Council's member nations of the seriousness of the Israeli threats, according to his office. "To hear what Israeli officials say, one would think Israel was showering L Advertisement ebanon with roses during its last aggression,&qu ot; he said of the 2006 summer war between Israel and Hezbollah, in which over 1,200 Lebanese - mostly civilians - were killed. Siniora was responding to remarks made by PM Olmert, who said Israel would dispense with restrictions it has so far imposed on itself in combating Hezbollah on Lebanese soil should Lebanon "become a Hezbollah state."

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