Islamic Jihad kills Israeli Woman, 70

A 70-year-old Israeli woman was killed early Monday evening from a Palestinian Qassam rocket which crashed into the backyard of a residential home in Yesha – a small community belonging to the Eshkol Regional Council. [...] Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar and Islamic Jihad leader Muhammad Al-Hindi said that the Palestinian people have a right to defend themselves if Israel chooses to reject an Egyptian ceasefire proposal. ... In a press conference in Gaza City, Zahhar said he does not expect Israel to immediately implement a ceasefire, but rather to haggle about the details of the deal, including the conditions of reopening the Gaza Strip's border crossings. [...] Israel will not endorse the Egyptian draft of a cease-fire agreement with Hamas in its current form, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman during a meeting between the two on Monday. [...] “If Israel rejects the agreement it will carry the burden of compromising its citizens’ security,” said a senior Hamas official to Ynet, referring to the message relayed to the Egyptian Chief of Intelligence Omar Suleiman in Israel.

Police raided the offices of the Jerusalem municipality on Monday, searching offices and confiscating documents as part of a widening corruption investigation against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. [...] US President George W. Bush said on Monday he considered Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to be an "honest man" despite the ongoing police investigation against him. + U.S. President George W. Bush will likely receive little more than a smile and handshake when he asks Saudi Arabia to help lower oil prices during a visit to Riyadh this week to commemorate 75 years of a relationship that has developed fissures in the last decade. + Inside-Story: Pres. Bush is scheduled to arrive in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Once there he'll be the guest of honor at a big international conference that Israeli Pres. (and former war-launcher) Shimon Peres is holding under the blah, catch-all title Facing Tomorrow. (Conference organizers are said to be keeping their fingers crossed that all the unseemly news about the latest probe into PM Olmert's alleged improprieties doesn't take the gloss off the conference.) The conference has its own, extremely lame English-language blog. You can read the schedule either there or in this PDF file, available on the official conference website. Though the conference is headlined by Peres, I guess his office doesn't have the budgetary or administrative capability to put on something as big and glitzy as this. So the funding has come from the ever-controversial Sheldon Adelson, who made himself the third-richest man in the US by buying and developing casinos in the USA and worldwide. Adelson is a big financial backer of, among many other organizations, the rabidly pro-war "Freedom's Watch" organization in the US, and the strongly pro-settler Shalem Center in Israel.

"Nothing is impossible. Air Force officers are providing remarkable responses to the various issues at hand, and this includes dealing with long ranges," said outgoing Air Force Chief Maj. Gen. Eliezer Shkedy on Monday in addressing the Iranian threat. "The IAF is outstanding, and it is prepared for any mission the country will task it with," he said. "The Iranian issue troubles me greatly and I take it very seriously. I pay considerable attention to the rhetoric of (Iranian President) Ahmadinejad and (Iranian Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah) Khamenei as well as that of the moderates, and I listen to what they say they are doing in the open and estimate what they are doing behind closed doors. [Ich habe hier auf die vielfältigen Schweinereien aus dem Hause Ahmanidejad verzichtet.] [...] On the eve of his trip to the Middle East next week, President Bush faces the collapse of one of his three top priorities in the region -- stabilizing Lebanon, a rare Arab democracy -- amid new fighting that once again pits the United States against Iran and Syria through surrogates, according to Lebanese and U.S. analysts. [Die korrekte Bezeichnung lautet Scherbenhaufen.] [...] American nuclear experts briefed by governmental officials are expected to issue a report detailing the tactics employed by Syria to conceal the existence of the nuclear reactor eventually bombed by Israel in September of last year, the Washington Post reported. Es handelt sich um zwei Berichte. "Extraordinary Camouflage" + "A Technical Note". Ziehmlich schwer vorstellbar das der israelische Bericht von Ephraim Asculai nicht diskutiert worden ist. Ein fachlich wohl einwandfrei gebildeter Mensch der jedoch den Hang mit sich trägt gewisse Prognostiken zu politisieren. Ein berühmtes Beispiel "Already having all the components for nuclear weapons, within a short while these weapons can be developed.", eine Aussage zum iranischen Atomwaffenprogramm im schönen Februar 2004. Gerade vor zwei Wochen: Given the official US statements, backed by extraordinary visual evidence, there is little doubt that the Israeli Air Force raid on the night of September 6, 2007 destroyed a building housing a nuclear reactor. [Die neuen Berichte stehen zur Prüfung an.]

In der Libanonkrise gelten die im letzten post erwähnten Opferzhalen als bestätigt. Vier halbwegs politische Neuigkeiten: Lebanon's army said it will use force from Tuesday to stop fighting in the country between pro- and anti-government forces that has recalled the 1975-90 civil war. [Blödsinn.] Parliament postponed a vote on a new Lebanese president for the 19th time, delaying the session to June 10 from Tuesday. + The U.S. destroyer Cole passed through the Suez Canal to the eastern Mediterranean on Sunday. The ship deployed off Lebanon in February as a show of support to Siniora's government. + Clashes resume in northern city of Tripoli. [...] Kommentar "Lebanon Becoming" [...] Bericht "Phyrrussieg für die Opposition?" [...] Jameel Theyabi "Hamas takes Gaza hostage. Hezbollah takes Beirut hostage." [...] Newsticker [...] Lebanon's once prominent Christian community is watching anxiously as deadly clashes rage between rival Muslim factions, amid fears that any move to join the fray would further fracture its ranks. "Both Christian camps [in the opposition and the ruling coalition] are convinced that they should not pay the price of the coup led by the Hizbullah," said pro-government figure George Adwan. [...] In Beirut, there was an uneasy calm, although schools and some businesses were still shut. Some opposition barricades remained, the road to Beirut's international airport was shut for the sixth straight day and a border crossing into Syria was still blocked.

Special mit verschiedenen Ansichten zur Frage "Israel celebrated its 60th birthday last week. Will it survive to celebrate its 100th?" bei der WaPost. Yossi Melman, Daoud Kuttab, Anwer Sher. Zusätzlicher Kommentar von Daniel Levy.