Marian Houk

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told an invited group of political allies and journalists -- and a world-wide television audience -- that he had no wish or desire to run again for office in the elections he has decreed for next January. The main reason, he indicated, is his disappointment with the U.S. Administration's backing off from a firm stance against Israel's settlement policies in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem. Another reason is the recent tidal wave of criticism he faced at home, in early October, because of the Palestinian leadership's decision to postpone consideration of the Goldstone report into last winter's Israeli attack upon Gaza. Is his decision final?

Justice Richard Goldstone is not "going to lie down and die", to use his own words, as the UN General Assembly is looking for a date to examine the nearly-600-page report on last winter's Gaza war that the Fact-Finding Mission he headed have submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in mid-September. Pressure on the Palestinians not to press the matter in the Human Rights Council backfired -- and badly damaged the credibility of the Palestinian leadership, to the extent that there was virtually no opposition to a Palestinian about-face, and a resolution they finally submitted was adopted by 25 votes in the 47-member Human Rights Council in mid-October. But, there has been no let up in the pressure, and Justice Goldstone has now asked the Obama Administration to justify its criticism of the report. He has, so far, received no answer.

The Israeli military is proceeding at its own pace to carry out its own internal investigations into the war -- and some cases have reportedly been sent for possible criminal prosecution, including cases of Palestinian civilians being shot while waving white flags. But the report written by South Africa's Justice Richard Goldstone, his team, and many Israeli as well as international human rights and international law advocates all have said that it is not possible for the Israeli military (or any powerful institution, for that matter) to carry out a credible investigation of itself. The Israeli Minister of Defense and his Chief of Staff are opposed to any other investigation. But other senior Israeli officials are reportedly speaking out in favor of an independent Israeli investigation. However, as reported in recent days, the reasoning is that it is advantageous to comply with the bottom-line recommendation contained in the UN Human Rights Council-mandated Goldstone report -- namely, that Israel and Hamas must each establish internal investigations within six months, or be referred to the UN Security Council. And, many Israelis argue that this is required for "better PR".

A dispute involving power and politics has delayed the launch of a second Palestinian mobile phone company, Wataniya, in mid-October. Wataniya is owned by Qatar Telecom and by the Palestine Investment Fund -- and the company is threatening to sue the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to recover costs due to the failure to secure an adequate bandwidth for its operations. Despite a reported agreement to authorize more, Israel has so far authorized the release of only part of the necessary bandwidth.

What's the real problem between the two main Palestinian political parties? Why is the dispute so bitter, and the division so deep? Hamas was urged to become a political party, and it complied, contesting January 2006 Palestinian elections for the Legislative Council, or Parliament -- and surprising everybody by winning. Fatah was not amused, and boycotted the first Hamas government, which was also boycotted by the U.S. and all the major donor countries. After Saudi mediation in 2007, a National Unity government was formed, but the Hamas rout of Preventive Security Forces in Gaza in May 2007 -- which Palestinian officials in Ramallah said was a military coup threw Palestinian politics into complete turmoil. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas then angrily dissolved the cabinet and appointed an Emergency Government -- which some analysts view as a political coup. President Abbas says that Hamas must restore the status quo ante, and return Gaza back to Palestinian Authority rule. A decision on reconciliation hangs in the balance now after recent months of efforts by Egyptian officials. His son, Yasser Abbas, explains the emotions behind the antagonism between the Palestinian rivals.

Yasser Abbas is a businessman in Ramallah, and the older of two living sons of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Fatah movement. In an interview, he talked about the Hamas takeover in Gaza, and about his father's house there.

The Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister invited diplomatic representatives in Ramallah for a briefing on the latest Palestinian strategy to have a discussion of the Goldstone report either in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, or in the UN General Assembly in New York. He said that the Palestinian Investigative Committee nominated eight days ago to look into the widely-denounced decision to withdraw a resolution supporting the Goldstone report began its work today.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas finally addressed his people on Sunday night after ten days of uproar over the Palestinian agreement to shelve the UN Human Rights Council's report on the Gaza war prepared by South Africa's Justice Richard Goldstone -- but the air did not clear. Abbas did not explicitly admit a mistake had been made, and he did not apologize (or resign, as some had urged). He simply said that a committee he had composed by decree a week ago would look into what happened, and if the decision was wrong, Abbas said, "We are courageous and we will accept it". And, Abbas said, he had instructed the Palestinian Ambassador in Geneva to reverse what had happened ten days ago, and to seek a special session of the UN Human Rights Council to reconsider the Goldstone report. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus said minutes later issued a call for a "better" Palestinian leadership. Those responsible for the fiasco should be put on trial, Meshaal said. Meanwhile, he suggested, it would be impossible to sign a reconciliation document that Egypt has been negotiating for months.

U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell is in the Middle East trying to re-start blocked Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, but without success so far as the fallout from the Goldstone report fiasco persists, and Jewish-Muslim tensions simmer in the Old City of East Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has said it wants to go back to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to reintroduce a resolution it withdrew ten days ago supporting the report of the Goldstone Fact-Finding Mission into last winter's Israeli military operation in Gaza. The reaction of anger from the Palestinian public -- which the Ramallah leadership apparently did not anticipate -- has not diminished, and may have grown. Meanwhile, Hamas now says it does not want to sign a reconciliation agreement with the Palestinian leadership that withdrew the resolution in the first place.

U.S. Special Envoy on the Middle East George Mitchell is back in the region again to try to re-start Palestinian-Israeli talks that were broken off during last winter's Israeli large-scale military operation in Gaza. Mitchell held talks with Israeli government ministers on Thursday, while the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stayed on in Rome to speak with the Pope. The U.S. State Department has announced that Mitchell will be meeting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Friday -- and with the Palestinian President. But where? And then, on Saturday, Mitchell is scheduled to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Will U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell, due back in the Middle East on Wednesday, be able to do anything in his trip to the region this week, while political turmoil simmers in the West Bank capital city of Ramallah? Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also due back on Wednesday from several days abroad after having decreed the establishment of an investigative commission to look into how it was decided not to back a UN Human Rights Council resolution supporting the conclusions and recommendations of the Goldstone report that looked into last winter's Gaza war.

The reaction has been strong, sustained, and continuing. Palestinians are angry, very angry, that someone authorized the Palestinian Ambassador in Geneva to withdraw support for a draft resolution in the UN Human Rights Council that would have endorsed the conclusions in Justice Richard Goldstone's fact-finding mission into last winter's 22-day Israeli military offensive in Gaza. It is not yet clear who -- or how -- this decision was made. No Palestinian official has taken responsibility, or offered any explanation. Matters have, if anything, only been made worse by an order given by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday for the establishment of a three-member committee to look into what happened. Many are asking how, since he is the President, it is possible that he did not know? This is all being chalked up to American pressure to get peace negotiations restarted -- negotiations that the Palestinians broke off during the winter offensive by the Israeli military in Gaza. This reported pressure may have been a grave miscalculation, as the very legitimacy of the Palestinian leadership is now at risk.

Is there a quid pro quo for the Palestinian agreement to delay -- until March 2010 -- action in the UN Human Rights Council on the report on the Gaza war submitted by a fact-finding mission headed by South Africa's Justice Richard Goldstone? The Palestinian move was made under intense U.S. pressure. So, what are the promised benefits? There has been no real explanation offered by any Palestinian leader. The U.S. hasn't been really helpful to the Palestinians, either, having accepted the Israeli argument that United Nations examination of possible war crimes committed during the IDF's Operation Cast Lead would damage prospects for peace negotiations that did not reach the promised conclusions by the end of 2008 -- and that were then suspended by the Palestinians during the 22-day Israeli military operation in Gaza.

The UN Human Rights Council is holding a day of public discussion of a report it mandated from a Fact-finding Mission headed by South Africa's Justice Richard Goldstone that looked into the circumstances involved in Israel's 22-day military operation in Gaza last winter, Operation Cast Lead. Justice Goldstone told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that "to date of the Government of Israel avoids dealing with the substance of the report". In the report, the Mission stated that it was "struck by the repeated comment of Palestinian victims, human rights defenders, civil society interlocutors and officials that they hoped that this would be the last investigative mission of its kind, because action for justice would follow from it. It was struck, as well, by the comment that every time a report is published and no action follows, this 'emboldens Israel and her conviction of being untouchable'. The Mission is firmly convinced that justice and respect for the rule of law are the indispensable basis for peace. The prolonged situation of impunity has created a justice crisis in the OPT (occupied Palestinian territory) that warrants action." Today, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner told the Human Rights Council that "We encourage Israel to utilize appropriate domestic (judicial) review and meaningful accountability mechanisms to investigate and follow-up on credible allegations ... If undertaken properly and fairly, these reviews can serve as important confidence-building measures that will support the larger essential objective which is a shared quest for justice and lasting peace". Posner also called on Hamas to investigate war crimes committed by Palestinians in Gaza.

Tensions have flared after clashes on Sunday -- just hours before Israel effectively shut down for observance of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar -- when a group of Jewish visitors accompanied by armed Israeli troops walked up onto the revered plateau in the Old City of East Jerusalem that houses the third holiest site in Islam, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Dome of the Rock. The plateau overlooks and is bordered by the Western (or Wailing) Wall, the most revered site in Judaism, which is believed to be the only visible remnant of the second and perhaps even the first Jewish temple. Palestinian figures protested on Monday that it was an attempted "break-in" designed to change the status quo on the Harame as-Sharif (known to Jews as the Temple Mount). The Palestinians said they feared the move presaged an attempt to partition the Muslim holy sites as has happened to the very important Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron, where Abraham and his wife Sarah, among others, are believed to be buried.

Leonard Cohen kept his date with over 50,000 fans in Tel Aviv's 50,000-seat Ramat Gan Stadium on Thursday, to glowing reviews. He will not, however, be making a separate but parallel appearance on Saturday in the seat of the Palestinian Authority -- the West Bank's capital city Ramallah -- because of objections from a Palestinian boycott committee. The sole issue for the boycott committee was that Leonard Cohen should have avoided Israel completely, something Leonard Cohen did not, and would not, agree to do.

U.S. President Barack Obama presided over a very major American diplomatic victory when he chaired a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday attended by 13 other world leaders that unanimously adopted a new resolution endorsing most aspects of American nuclear diplomacy, including the current pressure on Iran. It is a very nuanced document.

Israeli experts are making unprecedented warnings about the dangers of their government's new settlement activities in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem -- and about the possible consequences. Haaretz's Akiva Eldar wrote today that "Three days after the U.S. administration criticized the decision of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to authorize the construction of hundreds of new housing units in settlements, the Israel Lands Administration published tenders for the construction of 486 apartments in the neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev in East Jerusalem". He reported that Israeli attorney Danny Seidemann "describes the bid-taking as yet another example of a fraud that leads to creating facts on the ground". In addition, Colonel (Res.) Shaul Arieli has just writtend that "the strategic consequences [of Israeli settlement development in the West Bank] are alarming. Israel continues to invest in the [E-1] plan as if no final status negotiations are taking place, or as if it does not treat the negotiations with the seriousness needed to conclude an agreement". Arieli accuses his government of continuing "to position itself in the West Bank, including entrenching the settlement enterprise, under an apparent work assumption that the conflict would continue".

Washington's reaction is still awaited after announcement in Israel, during the U.S. Labor Day holiday, of the approval of new building permits for housing and apartments in Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank which has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. The authorization of new building permits in the settlements is seen as a highly-provocative symbolic move in a big-stakes game in both international and domestic Israeli politics. So far, the Palestinian reaction has been discounted -- and viewed as really not very important, which may be a big miscalculation.

In a direct challenge to American efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak -- who apparently rules the occupied West Bank -- has just authorized construction of some 455 new Jewish homes there, after getting a go-ahead from Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu. The Palestinians are in despair, and Palestinian negotiator Sa'eb Erekat said today that "This decision to approve the construction of over 450 new settlement units poses a particularly serious challenge to the international community, who for the past eight months, have unambiguously stated that both sides must meet their obligations under existing agreements and international law to create the environment for meaningful negotiations to resume. Rather than meet its Road Map obligations, Israel has spent the past eight months trying to renegotiate the Road Map, including exemptions on a settlement freeze". What will the U.S. do now?

Veteran Palestinian politician Nabil Shaath told international journalists at a briefing in Ramallah today that although there is no violence in the region at the present time, banking on the fact that violence has been defeated would be "very stupid". Palestinians want a fresh start to the peace process, but they do not want the process itself to restart back at square one. Shaath said that U.S. President Obama must stand firm on Israeli settlement activities: "We want Obama to come with a clear sentence repeating what is in the Road Map and in the Annapolis Declaration: 'there should be absolutely no settlement activity, including natural growth, and this does not allow continuing what is already under construction'," Shaath said. There must be no loopholes, no limited freeze, no nuanced cessation -- only a full halt to settlement activities, including in Jerusalem.

The most powerful and influential Palestinian political party, Fatah, has been meeting in Bethlehem, the town where Jesus is believed to have been born, which has been under Israeli military occupation for over 41 years. The Bethlehem meeting is the first for Fatah in 20 years, and will be the first time in those two decades that party members have the opportunity to elect new leadership.

Despite U.S. and international objections, Palestinian families were brutally evicted by a large number of armed Israeli Border Police from two structures in East Jerusalem before dawn on Friday. Almost immediately -- the move had clearly been prepared and coordinated, according to witnesses -- Jewish settlers moved into the Palestinian homes, and set to work setting up house behind Israeli police barricades. Israeli and international "leftists" protesting the actions were arrested on Sunday night, and Palestinians were injured in reported protests on Monday morning. U.S. diplomats in Israel delivered an initial protest on Monday morning, which they said would be followed by "high-level" steps from Washington, because these evictions of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and their replacement by Jewish settlers are "not in keeping with Israeli obligations under the Road Map", according to the American statement.

On 3 June, the IDF announced that a checkpoint north of the West Bank's Ramallah, which is currently the capital city of the Palestinian Authority, has been dismantled. But, there are still Israeli soldiers at this checkpoint. And, sometimes they do continue to make life quite miserable for the Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation. One of these occasions was observed, and recorded, and documented by Machsom Watch (Checkpoint Watch), a group of Israeli women who are opposed to their country's occupation, and for human rights.

Pressure on Palestinians who are residents of East Jerusalem have been mounting in recent months. On Sunday, as two families awaited with anxiety and dread their imminent forced eviction in one area of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, after losing all appeals to the Israeli courts, Israeli settlers with armed private guards protected by Israeli police made a surprise move into a nearby area of the same neighborhood. At the same time, international diplomatic pressure is also mounting -- though perhaps too discretely to be very effective -- on Israel to restrain settlers from exercising grandiose plans to restore a Jewish presence in East Jerusalem which most of the world regards as being under Israeli military occupation. Though Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu recently stated that the Israeli claim on all of Jerusalem is non-negotiable, a UN official told the UN Security Council on Monday that the position of the UN Secretary-General (a member of the Quartet of Middle East negotiators) is clear: "the future of Jerusalem remains a matter for final status negotiations between the parties".

Leonard Cohen's current World Tour has been scheduled to end in Tel Aviv on 24 September. Once that concert was announced, supporters of a boycott against Israel due to its policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians asked Leonard Cohen to cancel the Tel Aviv event. Instead, it was announced, Leonard Cohen would add a performance in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. But, boycott supporters inside and outside Palestine have urged that the Ramallah performance be cancelled. The decision on this matter has been put in the hands of Qaddoura Fares, a prominent member of the "young guard" in Fatah, who said he wants the matter to be decided by the families of the 11,000 Palestinian prisoners now in Israeli jails. Qaddoura Fares says he has proposed that Leonard Cohen's concert in Ramallah be dedicated to the release of the Palestinian prisoners -- and also of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit, seized three years ago at the Gaza perimeter and presumably still held somewhere in Gaza. "They all deserve to be free", Qaddura Fares said.

Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem live in a unique political limbo, without representation by any Government or Authority. They adhere, like most of the rest of the world, to the view that Israel's annexation of territory it conquered in the June 1967 war is illegal. Therefore, Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are not citizens of Israel by and large, but rather remain only permanent residents, a status which they wish to retain. Now, however, their worst fears of expulsion -- either through force or through the result of secret Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations -- are being reinforced by recent Israeli offers to given them new land to live on, in the Palestinian West Bank.

There is a mounting convergence of evidence reported by major international and Israeli human rights organizations that is being published now, documenting the Israeli use of battlefield weapons on trapped Gazan civilians during a major offensive this past winter. The reports all urge Israel to start to cooperation with the ongoing Fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, and led by South African Justice Richard Goldstone. If Israel does not do its own independent investigation, the groups say, there should be an international inquiry. Meanwhile, Israel continues to slam the motives of these reports, and still maintains that its own internal IDF investigation is quite sufficient. However, Amnesty International takes issue with Israeli reports that Hamas used civilians as human shields, saying it found no evidence of that. Amnesty International says that its findings show the opposite is true -- that the Israeli military turned Palestinian civilians in Gaza into human shields during the IDF's Operation Cast Lead. But, both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes, Amnesty International said -- adding even more reason for a major independent international investigation.

As it vowed, Israel has not allowed the latest Free Gaza expedition that sailed from Cyprus to reach the Gaza Strip. The "Spirit of Humanity" ship with 21 persons on board was intercepted around 2:00 am Wednesday morning, but it refused orders from Israeli naval ships to stop and turn around. About twelve hour later, when it was just a few miles away from Gaza's maritime space, the Free Gaza ship was boarded, and then forcibly towed to the Isreli southern seaport of Ashdod. The cargo was impounded, but Israeli officials say it will be transferred by them to Gaza after it passes inspection. The passengers and crew are reportedly still being held by Israeli immigration authorities, and may soon be deported.

In the first meeting of the Middle East Quartet since Barack Obama took office, the group issued a statement on Friday in Italy that reflected the somewhat tougher tone being taken by the Obama administration (a freeze of all Israeli settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory -- but not a roll-back on anything beyond "outposts" constructed since 2001, and an early resumption of negotiations without preconditions), combined with some long-held EU positions (unilateral actions will not be recognized by the international community). The Quartet said that "the establishment of a state of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza in which the Palestinian people can determine their own destiny is in the fundamental interests of the international community". And in one of its strongest statements to date, the Quartet said that the current situation in Gaza is "unsustainable" -- and in nobody's interest.

Free Gaza activists are still vowing to try to leave Cyprus by sea for Gaza Friday, despite warnings from Cypriot and American authorities that it is too dangerous. The group said that "We take these risks well aware of what the possible consequences may be. We do so because the consequences of doing nothing are so much worse. Anytime we allow ourselves to be bullied, every time we pass by an evil and ignore it - we lower our standards and allow our world to be made that much harsher and unjust for us all".

For the first time in nine months, the Israeli military is authorizing the transfer of some 350 calves on Sunday -- for the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza. The Israeli military, which administers the Israeli policy of blockade and sanctions against the entire population of Gaza, has determined in a "Red Lines" document that a minimum of 300 cows per week are needed to avoid malnutrition and a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. According to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, some 4,000 live cattle will be delivered for the upcoming month of Ramadan starting in September -- for 1.5 million people. Last year, about 9,000 live cattle were delivered for Ramadan. Apparently, it is hard to smuggle live cows through the extensive tunnel system under the border with Egypt that Gazans entrepreneurs operate at the risk to their employees's lives -- sheep are easier, because they are willing to walk through on their own, and besides they are smaller. For comparison, some 40,000 lambs have been brought into Gaza through the tunnels over the last year.

Israel's Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu offered his response on Sunday evening to President Obama's speech to the Muslim world from Cairo on 4 June. Palestinians must accept that the Jewish people have a right to live in its historical homeland, Netanyahu said, and a future Palestinian entity must be demilitarized, with Israel maintaining real security supervision under ironclad international guarantees.

The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz has published revelations about how the Israeli blockade against Gaza operates -- although there is still a lot more to be revealed. The article, entitled "The Gaza Bonanza", reports that there is smuggling not only from the Egyptian side of the border, but also from the tightly-sealed Israeli crossings. Meanwhile, Sari Bashi, the Executive Director of the Israeli human rights organization GISHA says that "It is obvious that two years into the blockade, the restrictions on civilian goods entering Gaza are only hurting 1.5 million civilians, but providing no solution to regional problems". Bashi notes that "Almost nothing is allowed into Gaza … and there is no security rationale for that … This is not serving Israel´s security interests. Two years since the closure, none of the declared security or political goals have been achieved".

A United Nations mission with a broad human rights mandate -- and a military expert on board -- will arrive in Gaza on Monday to begin both public and private hearings on the what happened before, during, and after Israel's military operation in Gaza from 27 December to 17 January. The preparation has been intense, and meticulous, and the mission says the information it collects will remain the property of the United Nations, and that precautionary measures will be taken to ensure the safety or protection of victims, witnesses, sources and any other persons cooperating with the mission. Anyone wishing to make contact with the Mission on any matter relevant to its mandate can do so by email to factfindinggaza@ohchr.org, according to the Public Advance Notice. In addition, anyone wishing to make contact with the Mission during its visit to Gaza may call the Mission by telephone at: (+970) 0597 444 158 or (+970) 0597 444 159.

Israeli Border Police, carrying out a court order and a decision of the Ministry of the Interior, prevented the opening and closing sessions of the ninth annual Palestinian Literary Festival (PalFest09) from taking place in the Hakawati Theater -- the Palestinian National Theater -- in East Jerusalem. The Israeli suppression of Palestinian events that are thought to be connected to the Palestinian Authority in East Jerusalem has been increasing in recent years, even as the U.S. tried to move the peace process forward. The Palestinian Authority was established under the Oslo Accords after Israel and the PLO formally exchanged recognition and began to negotiate interim arrangements which the Palestinians, at least, believed would lead to statehood. But, despite the fact that East Jerusalem Palestinians have voted in successive Palestinian Authority elections held under the terms of the Oslo Accords, neither Palestinian Authority representation nor Palestinian Authority-connected activities are allowed in East Jerusalem. This past week, British and French diplomats have gently intervened to allow the Literary Festival to take place, in a small but significant gesture of defiance of the current suppression of Palestinian activities in Jerusalem.

Whatever precautions the Israeli military took were clearly inadequate, a UN Board of Inquiry has just reported about IDF attacks that hit UN installations in the Gaza Strip during the three-week Operation Cast Lead there. Warnings to civilians were unclear, and there was nowhere for them to go anyway. The victims in the UN installations included: a night guard in an UNRWA school; three young men (25,24,19) the IDF believed to be preparing a military attack but who were apparently only heading to a toilet in an adjacent area of another UNRWA school compound; two small boys (5 and 7 years old) sleeping in still another UNRWA school; and more. There was also millions of dollars worth of property damages. The Israeli Defense Minister insists that none of the attacks was intentional, and has just ordered that the UN be given the results of the IDF's own inquiry into the attacks on UN installations in Gaza during the recent war. It is not clear why this was not done earlier. And, Israel's State President Shimon Peres said that the government had formed a committee to look at the issue of compensation.

Even before the United Nations report was released on the Israeli military strikes that hit UN installations in Gaza during the 22-day IDF Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli government machine was busy at work, preparing to denounce the report, and trying to pressure the UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-Moon to soften the findings -- even more than he apparently already has. Israeli news reports said that the report, as it stood, "is liable to generate a diplomatic earthquake", and would "drag Israel into deep diplomatic mud". Will this Israeli pressure succeed?

The body of a young Palestinian man shot dead by Israeli Border Police during a punitive house demolition still has not been returned for burial, four days later. His father said Friday that the young man was not involved in an attack, contrary to what a police spokesman had stated -- and he said his son was killed "for no reason, for no reason". Yet, Israeli law enforcement officials claimed that it had been a terror attack -- this providing proof that heightened security measures are justified during the current ten-day Passover holiday period.

As the political climate in Israel hardens, pressure upon Palestinians is mounting. In East Jerusalem, house evictions and demolition orders are piling up. A punitive demolition was carried out on Tuesday in a Palestinian village in south-east Jerusalem, near Bethlehem, of part of a home of the family of a bulldozer driver who was killed after he allegedly went on a terrorist rampage last July -- though the family maintains he was innocent and had not intended an attack. Meanwhile, there has been little reaction to an Israeli media report that unmanned D-9 bulldozers had demolished many homes in Gaza in the closing days of the IDF's Operation Cast Lead in mid-January.

An Israeli military investigation was hastily opened, then quickly closed, after remarks made by soldiers that they had been given unusually "permissive" rules of engagement during the recent Israeli military operation in Gaza. But, Israeli rights groups say that there is plenty of evidence to back up the accusations that the lives of Palestinian civilians or the protection of Palestinian property were not regarded as very important, by comparison with the safety of Israeli soldiers operating on the ground in Gaza for two weeks in January. Now, a shocking new report has just emerged, that the Israeli military used huge unmanned D-9 armored bulldozers in the Gaza operation -- and was pleased with the results.

White phosphorus was used by the Israeli military in Gaza, for the first time, during two weeks in January, according to Human Rights Watch. The group's senior emergencies researcher told journalists in Jerusalem that "It was used extensively, it was used repeatedly, in densely-populated areas. For us, that means it couldn't have been just one unit, it had to have been a policy or a decision on the highest levels. Or, at least, there were no orders saying 'Don't use it in densely-populated areas', which is an order that they must, and should give, because that's the law. You don't use this stuff". He said that American and British military experts who were consulted said "We don't use white phosphorus in populated areas -- everybody knows that".

Israel's use of white phosphorus bombs during its recent Operation Cast Lead in Gaza violated the rules of war, a leading human rights organization reported today. Human Rights Watch said that even before its experts were even allowed to enter Gaza, they had watched from adjacent areas in Israel as air-exploded white phosphorus bombs exploded over densely-packed residential areas in Gaza. The report is damning.

More of the horrors of war continue to emerge from Gaza. A sewage lagoon containment wall was hit, and a large flood of raw sewage rushed 1.2 kilometers across the landscape, settling in the midst of growing crops. There are fears that even more damage has been done by this sewage flood to Gaza's already overly saline and already polluted underground water aquifer -- which is the only source of water in the crowded coastal strip where 1.5 million people are trapped. Fields of crops have also been polluted by the sewage flood, while Israeli military-administered sanctions ban the entry of many needed items into the Gaza Strip, including bottled gas used to cook and to boil and purify water for drinking. And, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights released figures confirming 1,434 deaths in Gaza in the 22-day Israeli military offensive.

It's hard to keep up, now, with the moves being made by Israel on the ground in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, in the absence of a functioning peace process -- moves that jeopardize the two-state solution that the U.S. has been working for in recent years, and moves that jeopardize local, regional, and international peace. This is much more than "unhelpful", as U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton just said in the region, echoing the exact wording of her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice...

Palestinian negotiators broke off direct negotiations with their Israeli interlocutors during the recent Israeli 22-day military operation against Gaza. Now, they say that for negotiations to resume, any new Israeli government must renounce settlement activity, and endorse all previous agreements -- including the aim to work for the creation of a Palestinian State. In the meantime, there is continued Israeli pressure on the ground in both the West Bank, where settlement activity is continuing, and in Jerusalem, where over a hundred Palestinian homes may soon be demolished.

A rare new interview with a former U.S. Army guard at Guantanamo describes abusive treatment of men and boys there some seven years ago. The interview came to light as a result of the extensive work of the Guantanamo Testimonials Project at the University of California at Davis. Newly-inaugurated President Barack Obama has ordered the closure of the Guantanamo detention facilities -- a year from now. But the goals of the Guantanamo Testimonials Project will not be met, its director says, until "all the abuse that took place there has been entered"(recorded)...

The Israeli elections held on 10 February came months after the country's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was forced to resign because of continuing investigations into possible corruption charges. The results give a winner -- Tzipi Livni's Kadima Party, and a challenger who will not concede -- Benjamin Netanyahu, a former Prime Minister who was also obliged to leave office early over questions about unethical behavior. Netanyahu claims to be better positioned to put together the next government by forming a coalition of "right-wing" parties that will hold a majority of seats in the new Knesset, or parliament. In the meantime, Olmert will continue in office, while negotiations with Palestinians, and relations with Israel's own Arab-Palestinian minority, some 25 percent of the population, hang in the balance.

U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell has arrived in the region to listen, and to work for a consolidation of a durable cease-fire between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza, for an easing of the humanitarian situation, and for an end to attacks on innocent civilians. He has spent the past two days listening to various Israeli officials. He also had lunch with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. But he apparently won't be meeting Hamas...

The international press has finally managed to gain unrestricted access to the battered Gaza Strip on Friday for the first time in months, but international aid workers are saying that they are having problems entering -- at a time when the needs are so acute. The conditions in Gaza are nothing less than shocking.

The scale of the devastation in Gaza is becoming clearer. The entire population could be said to be casualties, according to U.S. Professor Richard Falk, who is the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory. Israel has made the halt to arms smuggling into Gaza its top priority -- and says that it will not open border crossings into Gaza for anything other than the most basic necessities until captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is returned home.

Israel has opened a small clinic at the imposing Erez border crossing into Gaza as a "regional medical center for the people of Gaza". Israel's Ministry of Health asked the country's Magen David Adom (or Red Star of David, Israel's national equivalent to a Red Cross Society) to set up the clinic last Friday, a day of very heavy attacks that preceeded the proclamation of a unilateral cease-fire. So far, few patients have passed though -- despite the fact that this clinic has the power to make referrals for Gazan patients to Israeli medical centers, which helps avoid the cumbersome bureaucracy that was previously in place.

UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-Moon entered Gaza from Israel on Tuesday, the second day of what appears to be a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. The UN Chief apparently did not leave the UN compound, and the only damage he actually witnessed was along the route his convoy took to enter and leave the Gaza Strip. BAN said that he only saw a fraction of the devastation.

Just 70 miles off Gaza's coast, the Israeli Navy confronted just before dawn this morning the seventh Free Gaza expedition that set off from Cyprus on Wednesday after emergency repairs -- and after letting off some of the passengers following an explicit Israeli waring that it would use "all means" to block the ship from arriving in Gaza. Israel's Operation Cast Lead moved into a new phase on Thursday, and ground forces pushed into the middle of Gaza City, and into inhabited areas in the north and the south of the small but densely-populated coastal ship.

The acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza could easily worsen, Israeli human rights groups said at a press conference in West Jerusalem. It must be addressed immediately. There are many questions that will have to be asked later, the groups said, but the priority now is to get help to the Palestinians who are suffering. The group offered a list of suggestions, including the opening of a route for civilians to escape the battle zones. Rescue and medical teams must be allowed to reach areas of battle, or the IDF should do it. Appropriate medical care should be provided immediately, either outside or inside the Gaza Strip. The electrical, water, and sewage systems must be operating properly. Disproportionate harm to civilians -- and targetting of civilian objects -- must be stopped. Right now, they said, there is a clear and present danger.

Israel's attacks against targets in Gaza have moved into a new phase on Thursday, the 20th straight day of Operation Cast Lead, which has been unprecedented in both its ferocity and its duration. Diplomatic efforts are multiplying, but Israeli Defense Minister says that the fighting will continue "until the last minute".

It is not clear at all what is happening with the latest Free Gaza expedition, which set off from Cyprus for Gaza on Monday, then returned within hours for "repairs. The expedition was reportedly warned by Israel that it intended to stop the voyage by all available means. The Free Gaza's new boat, the Spirit of Humanity, may or may not have set out again from Cyprus headed for Gaza on Tuesday evening, but with far fewer people on board.

Israel's announcement of a naval blockade of Gaza's territorial waters may be challenged in the next day or two, by a new Free Gaza expedition that plans to sail from Cyprus to Gaza on Monday.

Israel attacks on Gaza continue, and the IDF is reportedly creating a "security zone" on the ground along the inner perimeter of the Gaza Strip -- one of the most-densely populated areas on earth, and only about 25 miles long and six miles wide. Alarm is rising about reported use of new weapons, along with calls for international investigations into grave breeches of the humanitarian law, and possible war crimes. And, a sixth Free Gaza expedition has now set sail from Cyprus toward Gaza, now under a formal Israeli naval blockade. There are many journalists on board.

The UN Security Council passed a new resolution calling for an "immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza" -- but it didn't really mean it, exactly. Rather, the wording indicates that the Security Council expects all three conditions to be fulfilled -- and that the ceasefire should be durable and fully-respected -- before the fighting is expected to stop. That is very similar to the position described by the U.S. State Department days ago. The new UN Security Council Resolution also includes wording that restates its support for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Hours later, the Israeli Government said that it would continue its military operation in Gaza. A Hamas spokesman said this new resolution "failed to consider the interests of the Palestinian people".

Two days of three-hour afternoon breaks for "humanitarian respite" from the IDF's unprecedented attacks in Gaza have led to grim discoveries -- untended wounded, starving children huddled next to the bodies of their dead mothers, and more corpses of Palestinian victims killed days earlier. The killing by IDF tank fire on Thursday of one (or possibly two) Palestinian contract workers driving trucks to pick up supplies of urgently-needed humanitarian aid has caused the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees to call off aid delivery in Gaza until the security of its staff can be assured. And, the UN Security Council holds a third day of consultations to discuss arrangements for a possible cease-fire.

On the 12th day of Israel's unprecedented attacks on and in Gaza, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the military to open a humanitarian corridor to allow the transfer of essential humanitarian goods inside the besieged coastal strip where 1.5 million people are trapped. Israeli military planners did urge the population to flee -- but it did not say where, or how -- nor did it make preparations to take care of large fleeing families, or to set up field hospitals to treat the wounded, or to ensure an adequate supply of clean water or food. While some goods may have gotten in on Wednesday, journalists, however, did not. And international concern is mounting.

No one really knows exactly what is happening in Gaza. The Israeli Defense Forces are in total control of the flow of information. Only fragments of the overall picture are available. But the International Committee of the Red Cross, (ICRC) based in Geneva, sayid Tuesday that there is now a full-blown humanitarian crisis -- or worse -- in Gaza.

Israel's ground invasion of Gaza got underway on Saturday evening. Israeli censorship rules bar reporting of on-going military operations or casualties, but Israeli media reports indicate that the IDF has created two or three blocked-off areas inside the Gaza Strip, and that Gaza City is surrounded. Meanwhile, the U.S. has prevented United Nations Security Council action on a call for a cease-fire.

Israel's military attack on targets in Gaza continues, one week into Operation Solid Lead (alternately translated as Operation Cast Lead), but a widely-anticipated and feared ground operation has not yet begun.

Tension is rising about a possible imminent Israeli ground invasion into Gaza, as air and naval attacks continue, and the cabinet decided not to accept calls for an immediate cease-fire. The human suffering is increasing as well -- both for Palestinians in Gaza who have no where to go to escape the attacks, and who can barely expect adequate medical care in the current situation if they are wounded, as well as for Israelis living in communities around the Gaza border, as rocket and missile attacks continue with ever-expanding range.

The Israeli attacks on Gaza continue by air and sea, with a tentative land probe reported. And rockets and missiles fired from Gaza continue to fall on what is now being reported a 60-mile radius in Israel, from Ashdod on the Mediterranean Coast to Beersheva in the Negev desert.

International journalists have been barred from the Gaza Strip for most of the past two months, by a decision of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). An interim decision by Israel's Supreme Court, or High Court of Justice, handed down on Thursday in partial reply to a petition by the Foreign Press Association for restored press access to Gaza, was not implemented by the Israeli military on Friday, as its unprecedented attacks on Gaza continue for a seventh day by air and from the sea -- and a major ground offensive may be imminent. Meanwhile, the IDF is pleased by the press coverage of its war.

The Israeli Navy intercepted the sixth Free Gaza expedition sailing from Cyprus to Gaza on Tuesday morning. The Free Gaza organizers say their ship, the SS Dignity, which sails under a British flag, was in international waters at the time, and that it was deliberately rammed and damaged by an Israeli Naval vessel. Five previous Free Gaza expeditions were able to make round-trip voyages without any incident, though they were tracked by Israeli Navy vessels and asked to identify themselves..

Israel pressed its air attacks against what it said were carefully-chosen Hamas targets in Gaza for a third day on Monday. There were also reports of an Israeli naval attack on Gaza. The Palestinian death toll reached at least 370 -- and three more Israelis were killed on Monday (for a total so far of four, during this operation. Another man was stabbed to death in a West Bank settlement outside of Jerusalem in the direction of the Dead Sea. Intifada-style rock-throwing attacks and tire-burnings are occurring sporadically in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. And, a debate has been engaged in Israel between those who are ecstatic that their government is acting militarily to fight terrorism, vs. those who are calling for a cease-fire and dialog -- together with an immediate stop to the belligerent actions of "the neighborhood bully", in the words of Haaretz's Gideon Levy.

Israeli attacks on Gaza continued for a second day on Sunday, as the casualty figures continued to rise. In a statement to the press issued after emergency consultations late Saturday night, the United Nations Security Council called for an immediate halt to all violence, and an immediate stop to all military action. United Nations Human Rights officials took a stronger stand, and called for an end to the Israeli blockade on Gaza, as well as for international protection to Palestinian civilians. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority officials reportedly indicated they would be willing to go back into Gaza, if the Israeli military action is able to oust Hamas.

The situation in Gaza is critical -- and nearing critical mass. Israel has said it is on the verge of launching a major military operation against the Gaza Strip to stop the firing of rockets, mortars and missiles onto Israeli territory. Yet, quite negotiations still continue on renewing the calm -- or tahdiya -- that was more or less in place since last June. Hamas reportedly wants concessions from Israel, including re-opening of all border crossings. Israel wants the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, seized in a cross-border raid in late June 2006 and held somewhere in Gaza since then.

Israel has launched an unprecedented wave of air attacks on Gaza starting just before noon on Saturday that may be a prelude to even more Israeli military action on the ground and from the sea. By evening time in the region, at least 200 deaths were reported, and 700 injuries, as a further series of Israeli attacks was reported just underway. The decision to attack was taken on Saturday morning by three top Israeli officials -- the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister, and the Foreign Minister. The Israeli cabinet approved a major military action against Gaza in a meeting on Wednesday, but left the timing to be determined. The stated aim is to end rocket, mortar, and missile attacks from Gaza onto Israeli targets. But some Israeli officials indicate that another aim is the ouster of Gaza's Hamas rulers.

The United Nations Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory -- American professor and expert on international law Richard Falk -- was barred from entry into Israel after arriving on a flight from Geneva on Sunday. Falk was deported back to Geneva early Monday morning, according to reports in Israel. The Israeli Government says it objects to his mandate -- and to remarks he has made.

Two ships chartered by the Free Gaza group of international activists have set off from Cyprus on Friday morning on what should be a 30-hour journey to the Gaza Strip. Their aim, they say, is to "break the siege" imposed by Israel on Gaza. Israel exerts full security control of Gaza's territorial waters -- and the Israeli government is facing a delicate dilemma concerning how to handle the situation. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has informed the Free Gaza group that it regards the expedition as a form of support for what it believes is a terrorist group, Hamas, now in control of the Gaza Strip. Israeli media reports indicate that the country's Navy has been ordered to stop the expedition.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni described what sounds like at least some progress in post-Annapolis peace negotiations with former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei'a. In a press conference in Jerusalem, Livni told journalists that what both sides want is a comprehensive agreement that is "concrete enough, that represents the interests of both sides, and that can be implemented the day after." But, she said, this would require a change in the present situation on the ground, where Hamas is in control in the Gaza Stip.

The situation of some 150 or so Fatah-affiliated "asylum-seekers" who were legally admitted into Israel by the Israeli military upon a decision of the "political echelon" is very complicated. Thirty-two were sent back to Gaza -- and immediately arrested -- after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Prime Minister Salam Fayyad changed their minds about bringing them to Ramallah as they (and Egypt) had originially requested. While flip-flops by the Palestinian Authority leadership are shocking and awkward, they do not lessen Israel's responsibility for the protection of these "asylum seekers".

Further amendments are required to a revised plan to reconstruct the ramp leading from the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem's Old City up to the Haram as-Sharif plateau where Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are located. Israel's Regional Planning Committee has said that Islamic-era artifacts must not be converted into Jewish prayer halls, and that artifacts up to the modern period -- and not just those dating back to before 1700 AD -- must be preserved. But, the Regional Planning Committee has also approved an expansion of the Western Wall Plaza, and has given only large guidelines ordering that the artifacts "must be taken into account". This leaves a lot to discretion, and close attention and monitoring is still required, according to Ir Amim attorney Daniel Seidemann, who has been closely involved in trying to improve the reconstruction plan.

If negotiations for a two-state solution do not get serious, soon, the European Union at least should consider stopping its aid to the Palestinian people, a Palestinian political moderate, Sari Nusseibeh, has just said in Jerusalem. Massive international aid to the Palestinians over the past 15 years was intended to help build an independent state, but it has just been wasted, Nusseibeh said. One way out would be for the EU to condition its aid on Israeli seriousness about the post-Annapolis negotiations. Another suggestion Nusseibeh made was that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should just go into a room and sign an agreement -- any agreement, Nusseibeh said. He predicted that the majority of both peoples can be counted on to back a serious deal.

A revised Israeli design of the ramp from the Western Wall Plaza up to the Mughrabi Gate entrance to the Haram Ash-Sharif is expected to receive approval shortly. An earlier Israeli plan aroused great controversy, but the new plan is much more reasonable, according to some experts. They say that international attention the controversy attracted earlier has convinced the highest levels of the Israeli political echelon that this issue should be resolved responsibly. The new plan is more similar to the damaged ramp in location, slope, and overall size, the experts say -- but the real test will not be the design of the ramp itself, but whether or not part of the area underneath the ramp will still be marked for razing, and whether the idea to turn Islamic-era artifacts into Jewish prayer halls will be retained or rejected.

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert flew to Sharm as-Sheikn on Tuesday to hold discussions with Egypt's President Husni Mubarak on the recently-announced Egyptian-brokered cease-fire with Hamas. What happened in the Sharm talks is anything but clear. The cease-fire called for a two-stage opening of the Gaza border crossings this week, then for negotiations on the reopening of Rafah and the release of prisoners, including Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was seized by Palestinian fighters from Gaza two years ago, and who is still being held captive inside the beseiged Gaza Strip. After an appeal against the cease-fire by Gilad Shalit's parents, the Israeli Prime Minister now says that the release of the young soldier is at the top of Israel's priorities. And Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has just re-sealed the Gaza border crossings, as punishment for the firing of three "projectiles" fired from Gaza in retaliation for an Israeli attack that killed two Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Hopes are rising for breakthroughs that may bring peace -- after long months of anxieties about war -- in several areas of the Middle East.

Three United Nations reports presented Monday to the Human Rights Council in Geneva say that human rights continue to be violated in the occupied Palestinian territory -- they also say that Israeli civilians are at danger from rocket and other "projectile" firing from Gaza, also a human rights violation. Both Israel and the Palestinian parties must establish "accountability mechanisms", and the closure of the Gaza strip must end, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. And, the new Special Rapporteur asks for his mandate to be expanded to cover Palestinian violations of human rights "internationally" -- though not in the Palestinian territory.

The Palestinian Legislative Council has been in the deep freeze since last year's rout of Fatah security forces by Hamas in Gaza. Recently, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has made an initiative to call for dialog. And, members of the Palestinian Legislative Council have taken steps that may help build a bridge between the various actors in the Palestinian body politic. Palestinian parliamentarian and political figure Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, who himself has run, twice, against huge odds as an independent candidate for President, explains what is happening.

Gaza's borders are sealed only the Israeli military can decides who -- or what -- can get in or out. One indication of this control is the impact on students who hope to travel abroad to pursue higher education. A small group of Gazan students who hoped to be able to take up Fulbright scholarships to study in the U.S. in the next academic year were thrown into despair when they were notified late last week that they would not be permitted to travel out of the beseiged coastal strip, after all. But, a newspaper report drew attention to their plight, and the situation now seems to have changed -- though hundreds of other students are still affected, as are all the other 1.5 million inhabitant of the most densely-populated areas on earth, many of whom are refugees...

Israel's Foreign Minister and deputy Prime Minister Tzipi Livni spoke out on Thursday in favor of preparations for Kadima Party primaries, which might replace beleagured Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as party leader. Livni also said that she had spoken out against Hamas participation in 2006 Palestinian elections, but that her arguments were dismissed. Now, she says, the situation on the ground in Gaza -- where Hamas exercises de facto rule -- must be dealt with before the creation of a Palestinian State.

As international investors are being urged to take a risk in the Palestinian West Bank to support the peace process, an East Jerusalem businessman says that the main effort should be focussed now on Jerusalem. But, he feels frustrated by the lack of commitment, so far...

By now, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations under the Annapolis process were supposed to be well underway and proceeding towards conclusion later this year or, at the limit, by the end of President Bush's term in office in January 2009. However, there is no progress reported. Yet, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is pushing a Palestine Investment Conference planned as part of the Annapolis process, that will be held in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, from 21-23 May. Bethlehem's Governor Salah Ta'amri, a senior and legendary leader of Fatah, says he supports the investment conference, although the situation, he said, is surreal, like a scene in a Checkov play.

The situation in Gaza is descending into confusion and anarchy. The need for fuel is desperate. Pressure is mounting. But no much is moving in the crowded coastal strip.

Again, when the situation was just at the brink, the Israeli Military has authorized a limited loosening of sanctions it administers against the entire 1.5 million souls in the Gaza Strip, to allow a limited resupply of fuel to Gaza's only power plant. Without today's delivery, the power plant would have had to shut down this evening. The fuel expected to enter Gaza today will permit the power plant to operate until Sunday evening -- when the week-long Israeli public holiday of Passover ends, and fuel deliveries can resume. That is, as long as Palestinian attacks on Israel and on the Gaza crossings do not continue...

Again, Gaza's only power plant is facing imminent shut-down on Wednesday evening unless the Israeli military orders renewed fuel deliveries through the Nahal Oz terminal which is now closed for security reasons. Warnings from Gaza of an impending "explosion" have been increasing. An Israeli human rights organization has begun pre-litigation procedures and is preparing to appeal to the High Court of Justice on Wednesday, if there is no movement.

At nearly the last minute, on a day full of grief and anxieties, Israel delivered industrial diesel fuel to run Gaza's only power plant on Wednesday. A small quantity of fuel arrived -- as promised two days ago by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak -- but late.

Seven staff members of a Ramallah-based radio station, RAM-FM, were released from restrictions confining them to residence in Jerusalem on Tuesday, but are still under gag orders, and may not return to work for another week, while an Israeli police investigation continues into charges that the station was broadcasting without a licence from Jerusalem. RAM-FM says it was only broadcasting from Ramallah, and only used a microwave link set up by an Israeli broadcasting services company to transmit materials from the Jerusalem studios to Ramallah to go on the air from there.

Gaza's only power plant, that supplies electricity to Gaza City and regions of central Gaza where one-third of population of the beseiged coastal strip resides, is once again facing a complete shut-down due to a lack of Israeli-supplied fuel. The industrial diesel fuel it uses is paid for by the European Union, and supplied by the Israeli Dor Alon company under a contract concluded with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority. A shortage of regular diesel fuel and of gasoline for cars has brought Gaza to the brink of another crisis, and Hamas is warning that civilians might soon take matters into their own hands.

The Jerusalem studios of Ramallah-based RAM-FM radio were raided on Monday, equipment was confiscated, and staff were arrested and questioned in the night before their court appearance on Tuesday. The charges: illegal broadcasting. The station has a Palestinian-Authority assigned radio frequency and a powerful transmitter in Ramallah that covers much of Israel, but there were problems with radio interference in Jerusalem. For six months, the station has been saying on air that listeners having difficulty in Jerusalem could tune into their second frequency. RAM-FM may -- or may not -- have fully complied with all the legal requirements...

American Palestinian businessman Sam Bahour speaks about the difficulties of living and working under Israeli occupation in the West Bank city of Ramallah, and discusses whether or not present proposals are helping to improve the situation.

Israeli security obliged journalists -- at least, the "foreign" journalists -- who wanted or needed to attend last Saturday night's press event between U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert. The press event was held at Olmert's official residence in Jerusalem. The travelling press who accompanied Cheney were not subjected to this treatment, nor were journalists who attended a Cheney-Mahmoud Abbas press event at the Palestinian presidential compound in the West Bank City of Ramallah.

The outlines of a Grand Deal between Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinians appears to be taking shape. Under an agreement approved by Arab League Ministers in May 2007, and later finalized directly between Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, Egypt will build a new electricity line to Gaza which will offer an alternative to, if not totally supplant, the present arrangement whereby Israel supplies just over half of Gaza's present electrical demand. An Egyptian-Israeli gas deal that became operational this month may offer an alternative to Gaza's own power plant, which now operates on Israeli-supplied industrial diesel fuel. This Grand Deal both depends on, and offers an incentive for, a new relationship between Israel and Gaza, and between Israel and the Palestinians overall.

The Israeli government has not -- yet -- ordered the demolition of the East Jerusalem family home where the yeshiva attacker lived. But there is still a troubling absence of high-level statements condemning viligante behavior of demonstrators who have vowed to do the job themselves if the government does not act. Former top Israeli police officials, however, complain about police unpreparedness that barely restrained Sunday's violent protest.

With tensions rising, the Israeli government does not appear to be doing enough to cool hatreds between communities in Jerusalem or elsewhere -- and government officials are even among those stoking the fires. But it is the responsibility of the government, both under the international human rights treaties it has signed, and under domestic Israeli law, to step in and calm things down.

U.S. Secretary of State Rice left the Middle East on Wednesday with her mission apparently accomplished. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to resume Annapolis-process negotiations with Israeli negotiators, though he had suspended the negotiations only days earlier to protest Israel's recent deadly military incursion into Gaza. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch headed off to Egypt to pursue all matters relating to Gaza, while Lt. General William Fraser will return for as "trilateral" meeting next week with Israelis and Palestinians to discuss his evaluation of their progress, or lack of it, in implementing Road Map obligations.

Egyptian liquid natural gas begins to flow to Israel in what could be the beginning of an economic rearrangement of relations in the region. Israel, meanwhile, says that it needs to have at least five energy suppliers, to be sure it can survive any future embargo.

Israel's Supreme Court has accepted the Israeli military argument that its fuel cuts and proposed electricity cuts to the 1.5 million people in the crowded Gaza Strip are reasonable measures to take in retaliation for attacks by Qassam rockets and other projectiles shot from Gaza into Israeli territory. Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups are deeply dismayed, and say they will continue to resort to the court for a remedy to relieve the effects on innocent civilians.

Gaza´s Power Plant is coming back on line but still at the brink after one Israeli fuel delivery. Uncertainty continues, and so will power cuts, because not enough electricity is available, and it is cold in Gaza. Condoleeza Rice says Hamas is ultimately responsible, but calls on Israel to avoid a humanitarian crisis. The UN Security Council is meeting and expected to issue a statement.

Gaza's only power plant has been forced to shut down operations on Sunday, because of continued Israeli closures of crossings into Gaza where vital humanitarian supplies are transferred into the nearly-totally-isolated Gaza Strip. Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the closures on Thursday after continued Palestinian firing on Israel territory.

Israel is loosening its sanctions against the Gaza Strip, as humanitarian consequences are reported, though it says Palestinian complaints are propaganda. Industrial diesel fuel used exclusively to operate the main Gaza Power Plant will now be supplied in the amount delivered in October, before Phase I fuel cuts went into effect. This will help, but it is not enough.

Israeli military-ordered fuel cuts to Gaza have now caused electricity cuts in the nearly-totally-isolated Gaza Strip. The Associated Press reported Sunday that 8-hour per day electricity cuts will now have to be instituted across the board in Gaza. Maher el-Najjar, Deputy Director of the Coastal ...

The Israeli Defense Ministry’s program to punish Gaza’s population for Qassam rocket fire into Israeli territory is apparently moving into a new phase. A second round of fuel cuts – Phase II -- was scheduled to start on 30 December, with a military-ordered reduction of some 35% to 43% (appare...

USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore, who was just sworn in by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on December 13 at a ceremony in Washington D.C., suddenly turned up in Jerusalem on December 14, and on December 15 appeared on the main road to Ramallah (which is now being repaired by USAID), where...

Israel has been reducing fuel supplies to Gaza for some weeks now – though tightened Israeli sanctions against the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip were supposed to go into effect only a week ago. Gaza is totally dependent on Israeli supplies of fuel – including gas for cooking, gasoline for automob...

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has just forcefully endorsed positions taken by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and by Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak, calling on Palestinians to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state. This may actually be a gift. The Palestinians have actually a...

Photo by Rev. Julie Rowe. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice visited the Church of the Nativity -- reputed to be the birthplace of Jesus -- in Bethlehem on Thursday. The visit was described as “a break from peacemaking” — but she must have whispered a prayer or two, to help her efforts ...

The UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, John Dugard, has said today that the UN Secretary General should pull out of the Quartet that the U.S. has put together to support President Bush’s moves for Middle East peace -- unless the Quarte...

Israel's President Simon Peres told journalists from the world media last week that Israel is "today being supported by the Quartet". Peres has served in 12 different Israeli cabinets, and three times as Prime Minister. In 1994, a few months after the surprise announcement of mutual recognition be...