This morning I was awakened to NPR’s Linda Gradstein reporting as follows:
“…while Olmert was meeting President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in trying to push through a prisoner exchange…Israeli troops in an arrest raid killed four Palestinian civilians in the Center of Ramala, wounded about 20 others, embarrassing Olmert.” — NPR
Olmert was embarrassed, but in fact the four ‘civilians’ were armed guerrilla fighters, probably from the ‘moderate’ Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction.
By Vic Rosenthal
Yesterday I spoke about the recent war in Lebanon at a local men’s club. The first question I was asked is, “There are reports all over the news that Israel is planning to nuke Iran. Is it true?”
By Vic Rosenthal
One of the few Arab-initiated peace proposals for Israel and the Palestinians is the so-called Saudi initiative of 2002. Supposedly the idea was suggested by a journalist, Thomas Friedman. I too am a journalist, so I will make my proposal in the hope that an Arab monarch will adopt it.
A Bahraini athlete who ran and won a marathon in Israel has been stripped of his citizenship. Authorities said Mushir Salem Jawher, who was born in Kenya but moved to Bahrain in 2003, had violated the laws of the country.
Israeli media said Mr Jawher was the first athlete from an Arab country to compete in an Israeli marathon.
Bahrain has no official ties with the Jewish state but Mr Jawher said he was “very proud” to have taken part. — BBC
Mr. Jawher won the Tiberias Marathon in 2 hr. 13 min.
The US has taken sides in the Palestinian civil war:
JERUSALEM, Jan. 5 — The Bush administration will provide $86.4 million to strengthen security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, expanding U.S. involvement in Abbas’s power struggle with Hamas, documents showed Friday. — Reuters
But Hamas isn’t taking it lying down:
JERUSALEM, Jan. 6 — …Hamas warned Mr. Abbas that he was making a mistake and that it would resist any effort to disband the group, known as the Executive Force. The Hamas Interior Ministry immediately announced that it had plans to double the size of the Executive Force to 12,000 men and called on Palestinians to join it. — NY Times
Recently, Hamas has been bringing large amounts of money into the Gaza strip to fund its struggle with Fatah. It’s generally thought that much of it is coming from Iran.
One wonders how long it will be before these expanded militias will turn their American and Iranian guns on Israel.
