Sick Gazans stuck in queue of death
Born last week with a heart defect, Salem al-Masri needs life-saving surgery. But like hundreds in the Gaza Strip, he and his parents have no permit from Israel to exit the enclave to a suitably equipped hospital.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071205/lf_nm/palestinians_israel_health_generalfeature_dc_2


Archaeologists find 2,000-year-old palace in east Jerusalem
The suburb is part of Arab east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed soon thereafter, a move not recognised by the international community. Palestinians, who see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, have long accused Israel of confiscating land in the Arab suburbs and of using archaeological projects to bolster Jewish claims to the area.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/071205/world/mideast_israel_archaeology_jerusalem


Israel to build in East Jerusalem
Tenders were published for housing units in Har Homa, a settlement to the south-east of the city on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war and later annexed. East Jerusalem is now home to around 200,000 Jewish settlers. Most of the international community does not recognise Israel's annexation of the east of the city. The announcement comes days after the peace conference at Annapolis in the US intended to restart long-stalled negotiations on an agreement to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2221976,00.html


Israel Plans New Homes in East Jerusalem
The new housing would expand Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood in an area Palestinians claim as capital of a future state. Palestinian officials appealed to the U.S. to block the project, but Israel says a pledge to halt settlement activity does not apply anywhere in the holy city. The plan focuses attention on one of the most difficult issues facing Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in peace talks that are supposed to resume this month — the future of Jerusalem.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jD4YSkDPlclqd9dHvg2f0Ij18zEgD8TB4P6G0


Palestinian civilian injured near Hebron
In related news a group of right-wing Israeli settlers attacked villagers in the nearby village of Halol. Sources stated that settlers tried to take over land owned by villagers which overlooks settler road number 60. They then attacked the village and assaulted some villagers. The settlers left after several hours, sources added.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51879


Israeli army kidnaps 20 Palestinians from a village near Ramallah
Palestinian sources reported on Wednesday that the Israeli army attacked the village of Beit Syra located south west of Ramallah city in the central part of the West Bank and kidnapped 20 civilians. Local sources said that an army convoy of around 20 military vehicles stormed the village at dawn on Wednesday and conducted house-to-house searches.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51878


Israeli army invades Jenin kidnapping two Islamic Jihad leaders
Local sources reported that clashes broke out between Palestinian resistance fighters and the invading army force as civilian's homes were attacked. During the invasion, army personnel kidnapped two senior members of the Islamic Jihad movement. The men were later identified as Ihab Al Sa'dy and Khaled Abu Zeina.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51872


Palestinian speaker denies offering Egypt to run Gaza security compounds
The head of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) said that his view was that Hamas hands over the security compounds to any side, even if it was the Egyptians, in order to resume talks with President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/05/content_7205324.htm


18 Hamas members detained in West Bank
Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas have detained 18 Hamas members in the West Bank in one of the largest crackdown against the Islamic movement, Hamas said Wednesday. Meanwhile, Hamas had detained Palestinians loyal to Abbas' Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip, saying, "they want to bring back the status of lawlessness to the Gaza Strip."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/05/content_7205073.htm


Hamas: Abbas should clarify his position towards Israel's offensive
"Abbas should get out of his silence towards what the Gaza Strip is facing. He should explain to which side he stands, to the side of Israel or to the side of his people that are slaughtered everyday," said Abu Zuhri.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/06/content_7206646.htm


Border Police unit kills PA police officer in bungled W. Bank action
During the operation, the Border Police troops fired at an unidentified group of Palestinians, after being fired upon. It later emerged that the source of the fire had been a Palestinian police force on patrol. An initial investigation into the incident revealed that the Palestinian police force fired at the Border Police officers, mistaking them for members of the militant Islamist Hamas organization.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/931551.html


Palestinian civilians as political currency
Israel cannot pretend it is not responsible for these people. After decades of Israeli occupation, the Gazan healthcare system is only beginning to put the severe de-development behind it. Although it "disengaged" from the Gaza Strip two years ago, Israel remains the key player in vital aspects of daily life. Controlling all sea, ground and air exits from the Strip and with its irritable finger on Gaza's main power switch, Israel can hardly be absolved of responsibility for people whose lives depend on its mercy.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195546804125&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Yet another decision about Jerusalem
Reuven Merhav, a former Foreign Ministry director general, and Guy Galili, a research assistant, visited the government archives to find all such decisions from the years 1975-2005. Not surprisingly, they found that alongside the decisions that were implemented, many other decisions that could have changed Jerusalem's status were left to gather dust on the shelves.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/931245.html


Israel/OPT: When the roadmap is a one way street
This is not really the case. Polls and the make-up of the Israeli government suggest that perhaps a quarter of Israeli Jews fall into the first group, the die-hards, while not more than 10 per cent support a full withdrawal from the occupied territories. (Virtually no Israeli Jews use the term "occupation," which Israel denies it has.) The vast majority of Israeli Jews, stretching from the liberal Meretz party through Labour, Kadima and into the "liberal" wing of the Likud, excepting only the religious parties and the extreme right-wing led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the current minister of strategic affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, share a broad consensus: for both security reasons and because of Israel's "facts on the ground", the Arabs (as we [Israelis] call the Palestinians) will have to settle for a truncated mini-state on no more than 15-20 per cent of the country between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/KKAA-79L4SG?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR


No peace in Israel-Palestine
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, had agreed to all of Israel's preconditions for negotiations by dissolving the Palestinian government of national unity, closing down more than 100 Hamas affiliated charities and sending Palestinian security forces into Nablus to liquidate the resistance cells that have held out against the Israeli army for the last seven years.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/no-peace-in-israelpalestine/2007/12/05/1196812794227.html


Qassam strikes house in Sderot during rally
A Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian terror groups from Gaza landed on the roof of a residential home in Sderot on Wednesday evening. No injuries were reported but damage was caused to an apartment.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3479396,00.html


Barak: IDF operation in Gaza is just a matter of time
Barak discussed the possibility of launching an extensive counter-terror campaign in the region with the soldiers: "We know a large-scale operation in Gaza is just a matter of time, but we are not trigger happy… we still consider such an operation a last resort."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3479421,00.html


Palestinian Authroity closes all charities in West Bank, Gaza
In August, the government of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad closed more than 100 charities, mostly belonging to Hamas. It was regarded as a move aimed at weakening Hamas which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/931624.html


Bush to visit Mideast January 10-13
US President George W. Bush is due to make his first visit as president to Israel and the Palestinian territories between January 10 and 13, Palestinian officials said on Wednesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071205/pl_afp/mideastdiplomacyusbushvisit_071205101620


Budget for United Nations agency for Palestine refugees promised contributions by 22 countries, as other governments express intent to pledge later
At the same time, the needs of Palestinian refugees should not be neglected, he said, noting that UNRWA presently faced heavy challenges on all sides, with demands for its increasingly complex services growing steadily. The Agency was the lead responder to a long-term emergency in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and more recently an emergency in northern Lebanon. Despite the strain of those demands, it remained a stable service provider for all registered Palestinian refugees, and the international community remained morally obliged to sustain its commitment to alleviate the refugees' pligh
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EGUA-79KTVK?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR


Leftists announce mock power cuts to protest Gaza fuel slash
Residents of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were surprised Thursday morning to find on the doors to their homes mock notices announcing that the flow of electricity to the two cities would be cut off next week. The 10,000 or so fake notices were posted across both cities by some 70 left-wing activists in response to the government's decision to reduce the supply of fuel to the Gaza Strip, and its plan to cut power flow in the near future.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/931528.html


A bad odor
They had a dream: to open an orderly dump site far from the built-up area that would serve seven villages in the area and enable more stringent environmental protection. But the Civil Administration blocked the route they paved to the site and confiscated the truck. This is Area C, they were told. And the Civil Administration is the master in Area C (which is under complete Israeli control) and in those villages, which are close to the Green Line, 95 percent or more of the lands are included in Area C.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/931228.html


In the case of an earthquake, it's better not to be in Safed
"The Jewish Quarter is located on a very steep slope, and the homes are not built on rock but on an archaeological tel, landfill, building fragments and construction scrap from previous eras," Katz said. "These conditions would enable a landslide and therefore we are concerned that during high-magnitude earthquake, there would be extensive destruction and many casualties.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/931207.html


Labor party in despair
The general feeling among a growing group of senior Labor figures is that Barak is conducting himself oddly. More and more Knesset members are starting to feel despaired. They, who backed Barak’s election for party chairman, now feel his leadership is facing a crisis, or alternately, doesn’t exist at all.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3479091,00.html


IDF Chief faults top brass, not troops, for war misconduct
Ashkenazi alluded to the possibility of a wide ground operation in the Gaza Strip, saying the army would be prepared for such action to stop Qassam and mortar shell fire. "If necessary, we are ready for the possibility of an operation [in Gaza]," the IDF chief said.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/931468.html


Palestinian entrepreneurs plan two built-from-scratch cities in the West Bank
Israel has final say over parts of the projects. During 40 years of Israeli occupation, a new city has never been built in the West Bank. Also, there is no infrastructure yet, like access roads and electricity hookups, and affordable mortgages, an essential marketing requirement, are hard to obtain.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/05/africa/ME-GEN-Palestinians-New-Cities.php


Israeli officials reject U.S. findings on Iran
Israeli officials, who've been warning that Iran would soon pose a nuclear threat to the world, reacted angrily Tuesday to a new U.S. intelligence finding that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons development program in 2003 and to date hasn't resumed trying to produce nuclear weapons. "It seems Iran in 2003 halted for a certain period of time its military nuclear program, but as far as we know, it has probably since revived it," Barak said.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/22534.html


Alone in the battlefield
The Israeli surprise stems from the gaps in the information: Defense officials fail to understand where the Americans got the idea that Iran froze the nuclear weapons development process in 2003 and has not renewed it to this very day. The information available to Israeli and Western intelligence services shows that Iran, due to diplomatic pressures, indeed froze the process in 2003, but the same information shows that the efforts were renewed two years later and are continuing to this day.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3478953,00.html