The Beilin syndrome
The 'settlement blocs' provide a glaring example. It was Beilin who invented this term a dozen years ago. The intention was good. Beilin believed that if most settlers were concentrated in several limited areas near the Green Line, the settlers as a whole would agree to a withdrawal from the rest of the West Bank. The actual result was disastrous. The government and the settlers jumped at the opportunity. The settlement blocs were enlarged at a frantic pace and became veritable towns, like Ma'aleh Adumim, the Etzion Bloc and Modi'in Illit. The approval granted to the 'settlement blocs' enabled President George W. Bush to change [his] stance and approve Israeli 'population centers' in the occupied territories.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1199006629/ 

Har Homa sales high despite international criticism
The renewed international condemnation of a plan to build more than 300 new homes in the southeastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa has had little or no impact on apartment sales, Israeli real estate agents said Thursday. "I did not feel any change [by the recent news]," said real estate agent Laurent Boubli. "In contrast, the French-speaking public is buying more and more flats in the area." The east Jerusalem neighborhood overlooks Bethlehem and lies just inside the expanded city limits before Jerusalem's southern border with the West Bank . The neighborhood, which is viewed by some Israelis as a strategically placed buffer against the Palestinians and which city officials say was built on predominantly Jewish-owned land, is now home to 7,000 residents.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517238664&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Family home demolished as Occupation intensifies settlement of E. Jerusalem
Occupation forces yesterday continued the destruction of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, against the backdrop of new multimillion dollar plans for illegal Israeli settlement in the city. A wrecking crew accompanied by Occupation forces arrived at the house of Akram al-Wa'ywiy in East Jerusalem, claiming that the house had been built without permission. Mr al-Wa'ywiy and his family of six were ejected, the forces sealed the area and the house was torn down.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1585.shtml

Palestine is being destroyed – by Mark Braverman
My grandfather, born in the Old City of Jerusalem, emigrated to the United States early in the last century. I am a proud Jew, loyal to my tradition and to my people. Zionism was as much a part of my religious upbringing as praying in the synagogue and observing the Jewish holidays. But I am strongly opposed to the policies of the state of Israel toward the Palestinian people . . . The 1948 War, although it undoubtedly protected the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine from hostile Arab armies, was part of a larger plan to displace the Palestinians and claim the entire land for a Jewish State. Israel's policies post-1967 are a clear continuation of this plan. Israel is not a partner for peace. This reality is surfacing, slowly, inexorably.
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=876a32a6-a92f-4821-8d88-de89e6cbdaa8

Stranded Palestinians head to camps in northern Egypt
The Palestinians arrived in the Egyptian port city of Nuweiba in southern Sinai on Saturday after completing their pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia but have resisted Egypt 's attempts to have them return to Gaza through the Israeli-controlled Aouja border crossing. Some of the pilgrims are Hamas members, and they fear Israel will arrest them if they return through Aouja. The 1,166 Palestinians who left Nuweiba Sunday boarded 29 buses headed for El-Arish, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the Sinai port city and less than 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Rafah, the security official said. A total of 3,060 Palestinians have arrived in Nuweiba on two ferries. "We have allowed the pilgrims to cross because we are a Muslim country, but now we face a very critical situation because it is being said that they (the pilgrims) could carry prohibited things (into Gaza)," said Mubarak. He added  the problem with using Rafah was that the European Union no longer had representatives posted there to monitor the border crossing.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/30/africa/ME-GEN-Egypt-Gaza-Pilgrims.php

Gaza pilgrim crisis continues: Egyptian delegation to visit Israel while Palestinians moved inland
Egyptian security officials are slated to meet with Israeli authorities to discuss the ongoing dispute over the Israel-Egyptian and Gaza-Egyptian borders, Israeli radio reported on Sunday. Weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip will be one issue raised in the meeting, as will the issue of about 2000 Gazan pilgrims currently stranded in Egypt after returning from the Hajj in Mecca. Egypt, apparently under Israeli pressure, shifted its stance on the pilgrims. On Saturday, thousands of Gazans demonstrated on the Palestinian side of Rafah crossing, demanding that the stranded pilgrims be allowed to return home.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26946

LAST-MINUTE UPDATE: Stranded Palestinians will be allowed back into Gaza
It appears that a solution has been reached between Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority to allow more than 1,000 Palestinians returning from the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca to return to their homes in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians sources claimed that the agreement stipulated that Egypt would check the Palestinians and report to Israel about any large sums of money found on the pilgrims. Israel was concerned that senior Hamas members carrying large sums of money raised in Saudi Arabia were among the throngs of Gazans that were preparing to enter the Strip.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3488395,00.html

Hamas forces detain at least 85 in crackdown on Fatah in Khan Younis Sunday
85 were reported detained and nine injured. Fatah spokesperson Fahmi Za'arir called these actions "criminal," and accused Hamas of exploiting international sympathy with Gazan Hajj pilgrims stranded in Egypt in order to further crack down on Fatah in the Gaza Strip. A member of the Al-Majayda family called Ma'an to confirm that Hamas gunmen and Hamas-allied police stormed the neighborhood in the centre of Khan Younis, beating men, women and children, and breaking down the doors of houses. He said Hamas arrested 85 people, taking them away on busses, and injured at least nine people. Some of those people were shot.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26951

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights calls for stopping attacks against Fatah in Gaza
On Saturday, 29 December 2007, the Palestinian police raided an office of Fatah movement in al-Remal neighborhood in the west of Gaza City.  On the same day, the police, accompanied by masked militants in civilian clothes, raided a building in al-Daraj neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, which includes offices of Fatah movement and Abu Jihad Association. On Sunday, 30 December 2007, the police, accompanied by masked militants in civilian clothes, raided the headquarters of Fatah movement near Ansar security compound in the west of Gaza City and the office of the Executive Committee of the PLO. They broke doors and confiscated equipment.
http://www.pchrgaza.ps/files/PressR/English/2007/178-2007.html

Fatah-affiliated educational center attacked in Gaza City
Unidentified people ransacked the Abu Jihad educational center in Gaza City, near the Az-Zahra school, on Saturday night witnesses said. The attackers burned papers and destroyed electronics in the facility, which belongs to the Fatah movement. Witnesses said the Hamas-allied police did not intervene.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26945

Israel denies Italian delegation entry into Gaza
Several members of Parliament were among those who traveled to Gaza on the delegation, but were denied entry at the Israeli-controlled border by Israeli troops. The group had planned to meet with Palestinian officials and humanitarian organizations, to help raise awareness worldwide of the plight of the Palestinian population in Gaza. They called Gaza a 'concentration camp', in which the Palestinian population is completely imprisoned with no way in or out, under a total siege by Israeli forces that control every part of the border. The Gaza Strip remains under complete closure for the fourth straight month, with its population of 1.4 million Palestinians trapped inside,
http://www.imemc.org/article/52146

Israeli incursion leaves Palestinian activist dead in southern Gaza Strip
22-year-old Adel Qishta was killed Saturday night near Kerem Shalom crossing. The WAED society for Palestinian prisoners and freed prisoners described the killing of Qishta as "execution" by Israeli forces.The group also said the deceased was affiliated with Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, and that he was killed while he was trying to block the Israeli incursion into the Ash-Shuka neighborhood.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26952

Israeli soldiers kill two near Gaza border on Sunday
Israeli troops Sunday killed two Palestinians suspected of planting a bomb near the fence dividing Israel from Gaza . The men were killed north of the Kerem Shalom Crossing, Ynetnews.com reported. Israeli military officials said Palestinian terrorists routinely plant bombs along the fence and detonate them by remote control as military vehicles approach. During the last year, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 50 terrorists along the security fence and thwarted dozens of attempts to place bombs, Ynetnews.com reported.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/12/30/israeli_soldiers_kill_two_near_border/8135/

Pinpointed IAF attacks on Gaza more precise, hurt fewer civilians
The Shin Bet and the IAF (in some cases the IDF Southern Command is also involved) are responsible for the most lethal part of combating terror organizations in the Gaza Strip: the assassinations from the air, for which Israel coined the euphemism "pinpointed thwarting." This past month alone, at least 40 armed terrorists were killed in IDF air attacks. Lately, the thwartings have indeed become more worthy of the title 'pinpointed'. In all the attacks of recent weeks, only gunmen were hurt, as confirmed by Palestinians. The rate of civilians hurt in these attacks in 2007 was 2-3 percent. The IDF has come a long way since the dark days of 2002-2003, when half the casualties in air assaults on the Gaza Strip were innocent bystanders.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/939702.html

EU condemns use by Palestinians of phony sugar bags to conceal banned chemicals
The European Union on Sunday condemned what it said was an "abuse of humanitarian aid" after sacks of a chemical used to make explosives were discovered by the military in packages disguised as EU sugar. The sacks, confiscated in the West Bank several weeks ago, contained 6.5 tons of potassium nitrate, a chemical Israel has outlawed because it can be used to manufacture explosives, the military said. The exact date of the seizure and the identity of those behind the shipment also remain classified, the military said. Potassium nitrate can also be used as a fertilizer or in the manufacture of cigarettes, among other applications. The military did not say why it believed the chemicals were being sent to militants.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/30/africa/ME-GEN-Israel-Palestinians-EU.php

IDF chief of staff: Israel might stay in Gaza for a year and a half once there
Ghabi Ashkenazi stated Sunday that the Israeli army – once it invades Gaza – will  stay there for one year and a half. He was speaking during a closed security meeting on a potential large-scale attack on the Gaza Strip. "It will be clear whether we or the Palestinians will eventually be defeated in case we massively invade Gaza", Ashkenazi told the meeting. The plan includes control over large Gaza Strip's cities like Rafah and Gaza, dismemberment of the coastal region into three separate parts, as well as taking over control of the Philadelphia route on Gaza-Egypt border line.
http://www.imemc.org/article/52151

Smother until surrender – by Laila El-Haddad
both my family and myself have been unable to return to Gaza since that time. No, we don't carry foreign passports (and even if we did, there is no way in unless you are affiliated with a humanitarian organisation). We carry PA "passports" (Passport to where? What good is a passport that can't even get you back home?) We are residents of Gaza. And we have nowhere to return to now. The only way in to Gaza is the Rafah Crossing. And it is not controlled by Egypt or by the Palestinians, as many assume. It is, and always has been, even after disengagement, controlled by Israel.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/laila_elhaddad/2007/12/smother_until_surrender.html

Palestinian political detainee dies due to medical negligence
Abu Al Rob, 20, was kidnapped by Israeli troops in July 2006 and the Israeli security services claimed that he is a member of the Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, and that he was kidnapped for his involvement in resistance actions against the Israeli army, but none of the chargers were proven in court, and he was placed under administrative detention.  The Palestinian Prisoners society issued a statement on Saturday stating that the center was informed by several Palestinians detainees who are in the same detention camp with Abu Al Rob that he was suffering from several severe illnesses and that the Israeli Prison Authorities (IPA) did not provide him with the needed medical attention, leading to his death.
http://www.imemc.org/article/52144

PA security forces: Hebron attack on soldiers was criminal, not political
Hebron security commander Samih As-Sayfi said on Sunday that Friday's drive-by killing of two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank was a criminal offense, not an act of political violence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Earlier, the military wings of Hamas, Fatah, and Islamic Jihad all claimed responsibility for the attack. He told Ma'an that the two suspects who were arrested in connection with the incident claimed to have no political affiliation.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26948

Olmert warns Palestinians on security after attack
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday ruled out relaxing Israel's grip on the occupied West Bank until the Palestinians rein in militants after a shooting attack killed two off-duty Israeli soldiers. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's government has condemned Friday's shooting near Hebron and said it was meeting its security obligations by carrying out a crackdown in West Bank cities. Citing security concerns, Israel has so far rebuffed U.S. and Western pressure to remove some of the hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints that restrict Palestinian travel in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel has not met its own road map commitments to halt all settlement activity in the West Bank
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKN2744083720071230?rpc=401&  

IDF soldier gets jail sentence for entering Bethlehem
A soldier arrested by the Palestinian police on Saturday upon entering Bethlehem was sentenced Sunday to 28 days in military prison. The soldier arrived in Bethlehem armed with an M-16 rifle and accompanied by two civilians. The three were on their way to the Church of the Nativity, thus violating Central District Command's orders forbidding uncoordinated entrance of Israelis into Area A, which is under full Palestinian control. They said that they had traveled to the West Bank city in order to see its fir trees.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/939824.html

Palestinian man killed by Israeli settler's car
A Palestinian civilian died last night in the West Bank village of Qibya, of wounds sustained after an Israeli settler ran him over on the bypass road near the village of Ni'lin west of Ramallah, local sources said. The sources said that 27-year-old Wasfi Al-Khatib sustained was seriously injured on Saturday evening after an Israeli car ran him over near the Hashmon'in settlement. The incident came hours after two off-duty Israeli soldiers from the Qiriyat Arba settlement near Hebron were killed. Right wing settlers threatened to take revenge on Palestinians.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26935

Analysis –   Nipping new West Bank Jewish terror group in the bud
The effort by the security forces to capture those who carried out the shooting attack where two IDF soldiers were killed west of Hebron on Friday is doubly important this time. It hopes to pay back the terrorists and keep them from attacking again, but it is also designed to nip in the bud the creation of a new Jewish terror organization in the West Bank. The two soldiers who were killed near Hebron on Friday were from Kiryat Arba and belonged to families with a deep connection to the settlement enterprise.  Members of the Palestinian preventive security forces suggested yesterday that the Israelis might have accidentally interrupted a meeting of arms dealers, who subsequently decided to shoot them.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/939538.html

PA security detains six Hamas members in West Bank
Palestinian security forces seized six Hamas supporters in the West Bank, Hamas claimed on Sunday. Three of the arrests took place in Hebron, and the other three in Nablus .
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26947

PA security forces arrest 17 'fugitives' near Qalqilia
A security force member says the Palestinians coordinated with the Israeli liaison in order to raid the village of Azzun Itma , located behind the Israeli separation wall. Azmi Ahmad, the head of the village council, said rounding up fugitives was important for restoring order in the town, but criticized the security forces for not coordinating with village officials in advance.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26943

Don't let Diskin scare you
Yuval Diskin, the current Shin Bet head, is proving to be the main critic of allowing laxer criteria when it comes to prisoner release. The prisoner exchange deal for the release of Gilad Shalit is looming and the prisoners issue is casting dark shadows on negotiations with the Palestinians.  . . Granted, there is a risk that some of the prisoners will once again engage in terrorism if they are released. But the facts show that this risk is exaggerated. 87% of the 6,912 terrorists who were released until 2003 did not target Israel again. Moreover, experience has shown that overall, the prisoners' leadership is relatively moderate. The prisoners incorporate much of the values of Israeli society, and are accepted by all the various camps of the Palestinian population. If anything, releasing these people could help reduce terror, promote negotiations and assist in selling such discussions on the Palestinian street.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/939527.html

Cop gets community service for shooting, paralyzing Kafr Qasem resident
A Tel Aviv Court on Sunday sentenced a Border Policeman who shot and paralyzed a Kafr Qasem resident to six months of community service and a one-year suspended prison term. In 2003, Haim Castro shot Salah Amar from a distance of a half a meter, claiming that his life was in danger and he acted in self defense. The court dismissed this claim and ruled there was no threat to Castro's life. Although 20 Israeli citizens have been killed by security forces since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000, Castro is the first person to be convicted of shooting an Israeli citizen.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/939749.html

Galilee police chief to be transferred ahead of report on Peki'in riots
Nir Mariash, commander of the Galilee District of the police, was notified Sunday he will be transferred to head the police's technology department.. Mariash is to leave his current position shortly before a police commission examining the riots in Peki'in publishes its findings. Two months ago, a cellular antenna was set on fire in New Pek'in, which is near the Galilee Druze village of Peki'in . As a result, a large police force came to make arrests in the area, and in the ensuing clashes, three local residents of the village and 29 police officers were injured.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/939802.html

Money changed found guilty of laundering for funds transfer to Bishara
Jerusalem District Court on Sunday convicted Firas Asila, a 29-year-old money changer from East Jerusalem, of money laundering for transferring $390,000 from an unnamed Arab country to former Balad MK Azmi Bishara. Bishara, who fled the country over six months ago, is suspected of financial and security-related crimes. A Balad statement said in response that the conviction constitutes a "dirty deal" meant to harm Bishara. "It shows how far the Shin Bet is willing to go when it comes to political persecution," party members said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/939796.html

IRIN: Pollution without borders
After spending three years studying the contents of the Hebron and Alexander (Al-Khalil and Zomar, in Arabic) rivers, the researchers concluded that "the results confirm the necessity of cooperation in watershed management." However, while there are some examples of Israeli and Palestinian joint efforts, for the most part, the security and political situation in the region has adversely affected true cooperation.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=76035

Arab League to hold emergency meeting in January
The Arab League will hold an emergency meeting in the first week of January to discuss the the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and the Lebanese political crisis, Secretary General Amr Mousa said on Saturday. Mousa said during a press conference that the international pressure has thus far failed to stop Israeli settlement construction on seized Palestinian land, and so the Arab countries must come up with a different response to Israeli intransigence.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26941

Bin Laden vows in Web audiotape to extend jihad in/to Palestine
Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden made an unusually sharp threat of attacks against Israel in a new audiotape posted on the Web on Saturday. "I would like to assure our people in Palestine that we will expand our jihad there," he said. "We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the sea," he continued, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction." Israel has warned of growing Al-Qaida activity in Palestinian territory, but the terror network is not believed to have taken a strong direct role there so far.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/939499.html