Israeli military shoot Palestinian cameraman in Nablus

Ala' Badarna, a Palestinian cameraman from the northern West Bank city of Nablus was shot in the back with rubber–coated bullets when the Israeli army invaded the area on Tuesday. Badarna, who had been arguing with an Israeli soldier to about his right as a journalist to cover the invasion, was deliberately targeted later by the same soldier and was shot at close range. He was taken to hospital for treatment.

http://www.imemc.org/article/50915

Israeli army injures Palestinians in Hebron and Tulkarem

Security sources in the southern West Bank city of Hebron report that Israeli soldiers opened fire in Al Arob refugee camp on Wednesday. A Palestinian man was injured. Jameel Khamees, aged 30, received injuries to his hand when an Israeli army patrol in the camp shot him.

http://www.imemc.org/article/50916

At least 25 Palestinians abducted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

In a number of attacks in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army abducted 25 Palestinians in the early hours of Wednesday morning. At least three Palestinians were abducted from the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia. Security sources say that the army carried out a military operation in several parts of the city, claiming they were searching for wanted Palestinians.

http://www.imemc.org/article/50919

Israeli army attacks a Gaza rural area, kills a fighter and abducts locals

The Israeli army attacked early on Wednesday the southern Gaza Strip village of aL-Faraheen, killing one resiastance fighter, wounding three others and abducting 15 others.

http://www.imemc.org/article/50924

Tel Harvesters Attacked by Masked Settlers

Villagers from Tel, southwest of Nablus city, had been harvesting their olives in the countryside just outside the village, for about one hour when settlers were spotted on the ridge of the hill overlooking the slope where villagers were at work.

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/10/16/tel-harvesters-attacked-by-masked-settlers/

Palestinian Resistance Kills Israeli Occupation Soldier

IDF Golani, Armored Corps troops enter suburbs of Khan Younis to search for terror infrastructure; soldier identified as Ben Kubany of Hadera killed during heavy exchanges of fire.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3460864,00.html

IWPS: Marda under curfew, assault, arrests, house occupations

At around 10a.m. on the 16th of October, 2007, the Israeli army entered the village of Marda in the Salfit governate in the Occupied West Bank. The Israeli military declared curfew on the village and arrested 7 young men and detained them for half hour. The home of four families were also occupied, with soldiers taking up positions on the roof where they fired rubber bullets and sound bombs.

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/10/16/iwps-marda-under-curfew-assault-arrests-house-occupations/

More Palestinian refugees scheduled to leave for Brazil

Thirty-eight Palestinians refugees who have been living in Rweished camp near the Jordanian-Iraqi border are scheduled to fly to Brazil on 18 October for resettlement, putting an end to four years of uncertainty, an official from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on 16 October.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74828

Amnesty Int'l slams Lebanon for plight of Palestinian refugees

The Lebanese government must do more to alleviate the miserable conditions of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon who are treated like "second-class citizens", Amnesty International said on Wednesday. In a report "Exiled and Suffering: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon", the London-based human rights group said the refugees face discrimination in education, jobs, health care and housing.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=913945&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1

More than 60% of Gaza residents live below poverty line

Average wage in Gaza Strip totals NIS 1,680 ($416) a month. Palestinian families spend some 47.2% on food. 63% of Gaza residents and 45% of West Bank residents live on less than NIS 10 ($2.48) a day. Poverty rate in Gaza higher than in Rwanda.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3460845,00.html

Peres: Government has no intention of dividing Jerusalem

President Shimon Peres denied Wednesday that the government has any intention of dividing Jerusalem, saying no Israeli would divide the city, Israel Radio reported.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=913989&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1

Hamad : Hamas has no objections to negotiations

According to Hamas spokesman, Ghazi Hamad, in statement made to the Ramatan news agency on Tuesday, the Islamic movement has no objections to negotiations with Israel. Hamad is quoted as saying that Hamas has made it clear that negotiations "are in the political interest of the Palestinians." The conditions for any talks would be that Israel declares its willingness to end the occupation and recognizes the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
http://www.imemc.org/article/50925

Hamas government: "Fall conference will only bring more concessions"

The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip held on Tuesday its weekly cabinet meeting, headed by Ismail Haniyya, and discussed several issues including the upcoming Fall conference in the United States. The government, which was deposed by president Mahmoud Abbas, stated it this conference will only force the Palestinians to make more concession to the occupation.

http://www.imemc.org/article/50910

Abbas: Palestinians want to agree on "specific and clear" document

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday following a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the Palestinians want to agree on a clear and specific document with Israel.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/17/content_6897938.htm

PA Chair: Time running out for preparing agreement with Israel

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday that time was running out for an agreement with Israel on key issues for the upcoming Middle East conference, adding that Palestinians would not attend at any price.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=914022&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1  

U.N. Accused of Undermining Palestinian State

On the eve of his retirement, and after 25 long years with the world body, the former Peruvian diplomat blasted the United Nations in a 52-page confidential report to the secretary-general, accusing the world body of undermining the goal of a Palestinian state.

http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=910

Israeli War Criminal Tired of Playing Nice Guy

Barak turns his back on dovish past:  For Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the future seems to be about the past — and how to disown it. Keen to reclaim the premiership he lost in 2001 after just 22 months, he's cast off the dovish image that defined that brief tenure.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/16/africa/ME-GEN-Israel-Rebranding-Barak.php

War is inevitable, Lieberman tells Rice

An IDF operation to destroy the terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip is inevitable, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday in a meeting at Jerusalem's David Citadel Hotel.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380563658&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

FEATURE-Uncertainty fuels jump in West Bank gun prices

Two years ago, an M16 automatic rifle could fetch $5,400 or more in the Palestinian West Bank. Now buyers at Hebron's clandestine gun market are asked to pay more than double.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/TAM341931.htm

Hamas denies arresting, holding people for political affiliation

The Palestinian Interior Ministry of the deposed Hamas administration in Gaza Strip said Wednesday that none of the detainees, arrested by Hamas' security forces, were held for their political affiliation.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/17/content_6896736.htm

Study: Israel is biggest polluter in eastern Mediterranean

Israel is the biggest polluter in the eastern Mediterranean, dumping over 140 tons of heavy metals into the sea every year with government approval, an environmental group claimed in a recently published report.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=913917&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7

ISRAEL-JORDAN: Pollution in Jordanian port exacerbated by Israeli sewage leak
Environmentalists and residents from the port city of Aqaba, 300km south of Amman, say they fear a recent sewage leak in the nearby city of Eilat in Israel, which spilled into the Red Sea, could kill marine life in the Gulf of Aqaba and threaten public health.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74688

WHAT ABOUT GAZA???? "Joyous occasion" as Palestinian villages connect to electricity grid

Renewed cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank allowed for what both sides described as a "joyous occasion", when this small town of about 300 Palestinian residents was connected on 16 October to the main power grid.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/b0e9bf251cfb8cb3b8184ab4d51d461f.htm

Dutch opposition irate over plan to sell defense system to Israel

Opposition parties in The Netherlands responded angrily to a plan to sell an air defense system to Israel in November, announced by deputy defense minister Cees van der Knaap in parliament on Tuesday.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=913576&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1

Palestinians launch first census in a decade

Palestinians launched their first census in a decade on Wednesday, visiting thousands of homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the hope of boosting their bid for an independent state.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15686479.htm

The show goes on ... and on

The Middle East peace process is returning to the stage, with no more sense of reality than a Broadway extravaganza.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ali_abunimah_/2007/10/the_show_goes_on_and_on.html

Breaking the Taboo: Why We Took On the Israel Lobby

John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt explain in this interview why they decided to speak out against the close relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

http://www.alternet.org/stories/65271/

Barenboim: New Wagner staging would make Hitler 'turn in grave'

An opera by Richard Wagner - whose music and anti-Semitic writings influenced Adolf Hitler - will be performed at an open-air theater built under the Nazi regime by an orchestra made up of Israeli and Arab musicians and conducted by a Jew.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=914009&contrassID=1&subContrassID=7

Formalizing apartheid packaged as peace initiative

Next month the US plans to host a regional meeting to discuss peace in the Middle East, or at least peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The maneuvering, deal making and negotiating about what will be on the table has been going on for some time. But the details of the agreement being discussed have been a well-guarded secret but for the steady flow of leaks and trial balloons. Deciphering this information combined with facts on the ground, one can put together a clear outline of Israel's "next generous offer."

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9045.shtml

The Open Secret About the Israel Lobby

There is an open secret in Washington. I learned it well during my 22-year tenure as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. All members swear to serve the interests of the United States, but there is an unwritten and overwhelming exception: The interests of one small foreign country almost always trump U.S. interests. That nation of course is Israel.
http://www.counterpunch.org/findley10162007.html

Paul Findley: U.S. Too Often Follows Israel 's Lead

Let the Mearsheimer-Walt book be a clarion that bestirs the American people to political action and finally brings fundamental change to both Capitol Hill and the White House.

http://palestinechronicle.com/story-101607120323.htm

We shouldn't flog ourselves over Darfur refugees – Olmert

During special Knesset session, PM asks: What can State do with dozens of illegal immigrants?

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3460987,00.html

GOP candidates: Protect Israel

Israel's security must be safeguarded in the coming talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, GOP presidential contenders told the Republican Jewish Coalition on Tuesday.  Palestinians must acknowledge Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and make a good-faith effort to stop terrorism, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071016/ap_on_el_pr/republicans_middle_east_4;_ylt=AtVIiiet0Dubq8yk4a8s7UcUvioA