At least four killed, 30 hurt in explosion at Gaza Strip funeral
At least four people were killed and 30 wounded Friday morning during a funeral procession as hundreds of mourners marched through Gaza City, hospital officials said.  Witnesses said gunmen were firing in the air during the funeral of a Fatah militant killed Thursday in an Israel Air Force strike. Then, a powerful explosion went off. The source of the blast was unknown and it was unclear if the device was triggered or set off accidentally.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/934677.html

Three Palestinians killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in Gaza
Three Palestinians have been killed on Thursday evening during a new fresh Israeli air strike on a car in southern Gaza city. Medical sources said corpses of three Palestinians were taken out dismembered from the hit car, as pillars of smoke were visible in the area of the attack. Israeli air strikes on Gaza have been widespread since Israel declared Gaza a ' hostile entity, with more Israeli measures on the ground being taken.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51996

Top Fatah Official Kidnapped in Gaza
Gunmen burst into the home of a top Fatah official in Gaza early Friday and kidnapped him, the man's family said, in the first such abduction of a politician since Hamas forces routed their Fatah rivals and overtook the strip in June. Omar Al-Ghoul is an adviser to Salam Fayyad, the moderate Palestinian prime minister appointed to lead the West Bank government after Hamas took control of Gaza. Al-Ghoul is considered a harsh critic of Hamas and has a regular newspaper column in which he frequently attacks the Islamic movement.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jZ9nkO-yuakos9Nk-Sumq_y-fpiQD8TH86T80

PCHR Weekly Report: 8 killed, 21 wounded, 28 abducted by Israeli forces
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) Weekly Report, in the week of the 6th to 12th of December, 2007, 8 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces, 21 were wounded, and 28 were abducted by Israeli forces.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51997

Abbas to blast Israel for building in settlements, E. Jerusalem
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will criticize Israel for its settlement policy in the territories and demand that it stop building in East Jerusalem, according to a draft of the speech he is to deliver at the donor states' conference in Paris next week. The draft has been seen by Haaretz.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=934565

Barak briefs Fayyad on measures against Gaza
Israeli war minister Ehud Barak on Thursday briefed Salam Fayyad, the premier of the illegal PA government in Ramallah, on latest measures taken against the Gaza Strip in the presence of Tony Blair the international quartet committee's envoy to the region. Hebrew press reports said that Barak spoke about the mini Israeli cabinet's decision on Wednesday that stipulated tightening the noose on Gaza and reducing further the quantities of fuel channeled to the Strip, which were already slashed a few weeks ago.

Palestinian group to seek damages over closed Gaza crossings
The Palestinian Shipping Council plans to file a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against "those responsible" for causing the severe monetary damage that has resulted from the loss of business brought on by the now half-year-long closure of the Gaza Strip crossings, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847335209&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle %2FShowFull

Blair sees Gazans backing Abbas over peace push
Middle East envoy Tony Blair said on Thursday he was confident people in Hamas-controlled Gaza would rally behind President Mahmoud Abbas if they thought peace talks with Israel would succeed.  Blair told Israel's Channel 10 television that final-status issues like the borders of a future Palestinian state, and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, were "resolvable" if the sides had confidence in each others' intentions.
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSL13727211

Abbas: US must be strong arbitrator
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that the United States must be a "strong arbitrator" in pushing the peace process and on the issue of Jewish settlements, a day after Israeli-Palestinian negotiations got off to a shaky start. Israeli and Palestinian officials held their first formal negotiating session in seven years on Wednesday, but the session was marred by heated complaints from both sides.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847334180&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle %2FShowFull

Two non-states
Who says there is no cooperation between the Palestinian Authority/Fatah and Hamas? Indeed, ever since June the two sides have been working energetically, in a kind of pas de deux of demonstrative pirouettes, so that the Gaza Strip will become another quasi-state entity with its three governing authorities - executive, legislative and judiciary - separate from those in Ramallah. All three branches are acting outside the delegated powers of the PA president, with the help of a separate police force and a system of taxation, collection and other payments. Two non-states for one people.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/933623.html

OCHA special focus: The closure of the Gaza Strip - The economic and humanitarian consequences, Dec 2007
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/YSAR-79UQSF?OpenDocument& rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR

Donor organizations: Aid to Palestinians ineffective unless Israel changes policies
Both the World Bank and Oxfam International issued statements Thursday challenging Israeli policy in advance of next week's donor's conference in Paris.  The two organizations are both major donors to the Palestinian people, and issued the statements to point out what they see as the ineffectiveness of further aid money, given the current Israeli policies.
http://www.imemc.org/article/51994

Blockade of Gaza even makes dying difficult
THE last two years have been tough to live in Gaza - and now it's become difficult to die. The ever-tightening siege of the Gaza Strip has seen stocks run dry of raw materials for most of death's necessities. There is no cement for graves, no iron, or mortar to seal them and precious little white cloth in which bodies must be wrapped for a proper Islamic burial.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22920091-2703,00.html

Israel holds firm on curbs to travel, Palestinian says
The Palestinian prime minister said he had failed to win assurances from Israel's defense minister yesterday that stifling restrictions on Palestinian movement would be eased - a step seen as key to the success of an ambitious international effort to revive the Palestinian economy.  The World Bank warned that unless Israel removed some of the physical and administrative obstacles to Palestinian travel and trade, donor countries asked to pledge $5.6 billion at a conference in Paris next week might be wasting their money.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20071214_Israel_holds_firm_on_curbs_ to_travel__Palestinian_says.html

With schools in east Jerusalem overcrowded, Palestinian children are staying away
At overcrowded schools in Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods, children sit three to a desk, bathrooms are converted into makeshift classrooms and the dropout rate is rampant. This situation stands in sharp contrast to the holy city's better-equipped Jewish schools, which enjoy smaller class sizes and a great deal more government investment. Meanwhile, plans to build new classrooms in Arab sections have been put on hold.
http://www.pr-inside.com/with-schools-in-east-jerusalem-overcrowded-r347950.htm

Susan Sarandon exploring request that she cut ties with Leviev over Israeli settlement construction
Oscar-winning actress and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Susan Sarandon has told a New York City activist group, Adalah-NY, that she is exploring Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev's construction of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and exploitation of marginalized communities in other parts of the world.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=14499

Donkey power in demand in Gaza as fuel runs low
Donkey prices are at record highs in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip since Israel cut imports of car parts and fuel supplies. "Donkeys are better than cars these days," said salesman Odeh Odwan, because merchants and ordinary Palestinians are unable to afford, let alone find, working vehicles or petrol.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1429805.htm

Popular TV show seeks to humanize Arab-Israelis
Amjad is a neurotic Arab-Israeli journalist who desperately wants to fit in. He teaches his daughter Passover songs and wears a yarmulke when he takes his family to a Jewish Seder. He trades in his beat-up old Subaru for a more expensive "non-Arab" car so that he won't get stopped at Israeli checkpoints.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/23114.html

Soft Drink Fizz Goes Flat in Gaza
Every closed factory has its own kind of unbearable silence. The Yazegi Group's soft-drink plant in Gaza, with its maze of metal tubes and conveyor belts all switched off, has the hush of a futuristic mausoleum. Marketing manager Ammar Yazegi pauses beside empty 7Up bottles stacked in perfect emerald-green cubes up to the rafters and says, "I miss the music of the machines and workers. It's a beautiful noise. This silence drives me crazy."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1694477,00.html

Jerusalem above all? Not at all
Hanukkah and the Annapolis conference apparently caused some hysteria among the self-appointed "guardians" of Jerusalem. In recent weeks it has been almost impossible to tune in to any of the stations of Israel Radio without hearing one of two commercials, both of which seek to strengthen the ties between the (Jewish) people living in Zion and their capital city.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/934659.html

Prerequisites for peace
RAMALLAH, West Bank - As one who for decades has supported a two-state solution and the nonviolent struggle for Palestinian rights, I view the recent conference in Annapolis with a great deal of skepticism - and a glimmer of hope. Seven years with no negotiations - and increasing numbers of Israeli settlers, an economic blockade in Gaza and an intricate network of roadblocks and checkpoints stifling movement in the West Bank - have led us to despair and distrust. Any commitment must be made not only to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008 but also to end Israel's occupation.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.palestine13dec13,0, 2680401.story

Israel faces army recruitment problems: report
Israel is facing an army recruitment problem with fewer and fewer people signing up as career officers following the loss of prestige suffered in the Lebanon war, a newspaper reported on Friday. Disaffection with careers in the military -- less well paid than jobs in the private sector -- are beginning to affect non-fighting units with interest still high in the top-end, elite commando units, the Maariv daily said.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071214083841.poai7r3z&show_article=1

Army spotters count wild animals on both sides of security fence
Israeli army spotters have a new job - counting wild animals on both sides of Israel's West Bank security fence, helping naturalists to assess the problems caused by the huge structure, an army publication reported.  The spotters, all female soldiers, logged 500 sightings of animals along the northern section of the fence in recent weeks. Regular spotter duty, in contrast, includes looking out for attempts to infiltrate into Israel from the West Bank.
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/ 1,2506,L-3482103,00.html

J. A. Miller: Palestine Park
So while the great-great-grandparents today's Palestinians were tending their fields and orchards and plying their crafts all unawares, Americans in Arab drag acted out their ownership fantasies in a Palestine theme park. This past fall I traveled to Boston to attend the Sabeel Conference on the "Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel" held in the Old South Church.  Global warming was in full swing on the muggy weekend which coincided with the October 27th anti-war demonstrations organized by UFPJ.  Sabeel – Arabic for "path" -- is a Palestinian Christian organization billing itself as an "ecumenical, international grassroots peace movement…that promotes nonviolence, human rights, international law, democratic principles and Gospel teachings on justice and peace-building".  Since the Zionist project was originated by Protestants hundreds of years ago and is now sustained not only by the murderous brutality of the Israeli army, the efficient ministrations of The Lobby and American largesse but also by the very edifice of Protestantism I was curious to see what the liberals among them were up to these days in this regard.
http://palestinechronicle.com/story-12140740007.htm

John Chuckman: Annapolis: Dead Man Walking
Israel's near-paranoid ideas about its own security are sucking much of the planet's resources into the political equivalent of a black hole from which nothing emerges. The Annapolis Conference was, like so many political and diplomatic events of our time, highly choreographed, finely stage-managed, and heavily marketed. Yet, as soon as it was over, it was apparent little had happened, much as when a child opens a much-advertised, expensive plastic toy on Christmas, a brief, glitzy, big-eyed moment followed quickly by tedium. You might compare it to a George Bush press conference or any American presidential debate. Indeed, such choreographed non-events make up a fair portion of what Americans see on their evening news, a phenomenon we might call virtual or synthetic news.
http://palestinechronicle.com/story-12140735726.htm

Art barrier
Mike Kanawati, the manager of The Three Arches souvenir and jewelry shop on Bethlehem's main street, sat in his office at the back of the large shop and stared at the pictures transmitted by the security cameras he has placed on the premises and at his store's entrance. The customers were behaving in an exemplary manner, and the movement in the street outside flowed with soporific slowness, but on the other side of the street, a man who was "neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin, just ordinary," was attaching a large plastic stencil to the wall of the building that belongs to Kanawati's family; he took out a can of black spray paint and began spraying.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/934459.html

Santa's Ghetto
http://www.santasghetto.com/wall.asp

Al Awda Palestinian Right of Return Coalition: Until Return Issue 3
http://www.al-awda.org/until-return/3.html

Stealth campaign underway to name late Moroccan king as righteous gentile
RABAT, MOROCCO - Morocco and Israel have a longstanding relationship veiled in secrecy, one involving quiet diplomatic initiatives and discreet intelligence cooperation. So it is only fitting that it is a stealth campaign that is pushing to have a former king of Morocco become the first Arab admitted to Yad Vashem's Righteous Among the Nations, which recognizes non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/934686.html

Google delists Israeli jobs site
Search giant drops Israel's Alljobs from its index, after it apparently tried to artificially boost ratings. 'We cannot tolerate websites trying to manipulate search results,' says Google.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3482617,00.html