Poll: Half of Jews oppose living in neighborhoods with Arabs - Settlements/’Targeted assassination’ Terrorism/Jordan
Fadi Eyadat; 13/3/08
About half the Jewish public objects to Arabs’ living in Jewish neighborhoods, a Haifa University public opinion poll finds. Fifty-six percent of Israeli Arabs strongly support living in the same neighborhood as Jews. While 69 percent of the Jews in Israel support friendship with Arabs, 54 percent said they had no Arab friends. Professors Faisal Azaiza and Rahel Hertz Lazarowitz, who conducted the survey, interviewed representative samples of 501 Jews and 513 Arabs. Only 29 percent of the Jews were very much in favor of living in the same neighborhood as Arabs, and 23 percent supported this moderately. Some 19 percent of the Arab public supported shared neighborhoods moderately, while 25 percent objected to Arabs’ living in Jewish neighborhoods.
See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/963698.html
FM Livni downplays plans to expand West Bank settlement
13/2/08
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Wednesday said the plan to expand a West Bank settlement is unhelpful but insisted it would not prejudice a final peace deal under negotiation with Palestinians. Israel’s plan to build hundreds of homes in a settlement outside Jerusalem, announced after a Palestinian gunman killed eight Israelis at a religious seminary last week, has sparked an international outcry that was joined by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday. In an apparent bid to ease pressure from Israel on the issue that has threatened to derail fragile peace talks, Livni told students at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts: “It’s not the Israeli government policy to expand settlements these days.” Livni characterized the planned construction as private building and “not dramatic.” “Basically, I don’t think that it helps,” Livni said. “We decided to stop settlement activities.”
See: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/963691.html
Targeted assassination - Little room for mistakes
Amos Harel & Avi Issacharoff; 13/2/08
The fragile, indirect agreement the Egyptians brokered between Israel and Hamas over Gaza will meet its first test Thursday. The killings Wednesday of five wanted militants by the Israel Police’s anti-terrorism unit, in two incidents on the West Bank, is likely to spur Islamic Jihad into attempting retaliatory rocket attacks from Gaza into the Negev. It seems we’ve been here many times before. While official Israel denies the existence of an understanding with Hamas, in practice the past week was the quietest in months on the Gaza border. Wednesday’s incidents emphasize the understandings’ main weakness, which can end the calm at any moment.
See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/963898.html
Israel kills West Bank Palestinians -Terrorism
13/3/08
Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians in the West Bank and sources say one of them was the mastermind behind last week’s deadly attack on a Jewish seminary in west Jerusalem. Undercover Israeli forces killed four Palestinian activists in the middle of Bethlehem just after the men had finished dinner in one of the city’s restaurants. Among the four killed was Mohamed Shihadeh, a senior Islamic Jihad member who had been on Israel’s assassination list since 2000. Shihadeh had survived numerous Israeli attempts on his life and last Thursday, Israeli forces demolished his home in Bethlehem.
See: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4F562611-A2BF-4473-8776-B01819C42ACB.htm
Deputies condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza - Jordan
Mohammad Ben Hussein; 13/2/08
An eventful session on Wednesday saw lawmakers call for the expulsion of the Israeli and Danish ambassadors to Jordan and referring the environment minister for questioning over alleged environmental violations. Angry lawmakers took turns in condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza over the past two weeks, which killed over 100 Palestinians. Deputy Hamzah Mansour, head of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, said Israel is committing war crimes and that Jordan must act to honour the victims. He proposed that deputies vote to expel Israel’s ambassador to the Kingdom to send a message of outrage and pressure the Jewish state to reconsider its actions.
See: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=5066