How Holocaust survivor Yevgeny Bistrizky ended up on Israel’s streets

More than 50,000 Holocaust survivors live below the poverty line in Israel. Mr Bistrizky’s is the only known case of a survivor who became homeless.

The Latet organisation, which provides aid to the needy, discovered him after concerned residents contacted the group. They were astonished to learn that he had been living in the dog park for eight months, cleaning himself with a garden hose inside the rubbish room of a building, and hoping that the faeces-littered park would deter people from trying to attack him in his sleep.

For full article, visit http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6821008.ece

Swedish FM cancels Israel trip amid tensions between nations

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has cancelled a planned trip to Israel this Friday, against the background of Israeli anger at the Swedish government’s refusal to condemn an article in a Swedish newspaper accusing IDF soldiers of killing Palestinians and harvesting their organs.

For full article, visit http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1251804496582

Jonathan Cook: Accountability and the organ theft controversy

Given the facts that are known, there must be at least a very strong suspicion that Hiss removed organs without authorization from some Palestinians he autopsied. Both this issue, and the army’s possible role in supplying him with corpses, needs investigation.

Hiss is also implicated in another long-running and unresolved scandal from Israel’s early years, in the 1950s, when the children of recent Jewish immigrants to Israel from Yemen were adopted by Ashkenazi couples after the Yeminite parents had been told that their child had died, usually after admission to hospital.

For full article, visit http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10753.shtml

Robert Fisk’s World: Lessons in justice and fairness from a no-nonsense historian

But to Avi. He recalls arguing with the late Edward Said – and there is a titanic voice to be ever missed, irreplaceable is the only word – over the Oslo agreement. Here is what Avi writes: “In the years since 1993, I have often asked myself: who was right and who was wrong? When things were going well, when progress was being made, when Oslo II was signed, for example, I thought that I was right and that Edward was wrong.

For full article, visit http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fiskrsquos-world-lessons-in-justice-and-fairness-from-a-nononsense-historian-1760726.html

Hasan Abu Nimah: An impossible reconciliation

Palestinians in Gaza wearing masks of Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh call for unity between the feuding groups. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

One major stumbling block has been hundreds of Hamas political detainees held in Palestinian Authority and Fatah-controlled prisons in the West Bank. (The Palestinian Authority routinely denied such arrests, although Abbas announced that 200 Hamas prisoners would be freed on the occasion of the start of Ramadan.) Hamas also demands that Fatah security forces supplied, trained and supervised by US General Keith Dayton halt their crackdown on resistance fighters from Hamas as part of the American-backed plan for crushing any form of resistance to Israeli occupation.

This really is the heart of the matter. Hamas is in effect asking its Fatah/Palestinian Authority (PA) opponent to abandon its primary role undertaken as part of its “peace strategy” and its commitments to the so-called “international community,” the Quartet roadmap, as well as the Dayton plan. Fatah and the PA apparatus it controls adheres to this US-sponsored anti-resistance strategy as the primary condition for the continuation of international financing for the PA.

For full article, visit http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10742.shtml

Olmert becomes first premier to face trial

 

Ehud Olmert

 

 For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1111331.html

He is suspected of committing the crimes while serving as mayor of Jerusalem and afterwards when a cabinet minister, before he became prime minister in 2006.

For full article, visit http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/08/200983014538891475.html

 

In the first case, Mr Olmert is accused of accepting envelopes stuffed with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from an American businessman. He admits taking money, but insists that the donations were legal contributions to his campaigns for re-election as mayor of Jerusalem and for the leadership of Likud, his former party

For full article, visit http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/6114907/Ehud-Olmert-indicted-on-three-corruption-charges-in-Israel.html

Olmert’s spokesman, Amir Dan, issued a statement after the indictment was filed declaring that “after they forced a prime minister to step down in the middle of his term, it is obvious that the attorney-general and the state attorney do not have, and never had, any choice but to file an indictment against Olmert. The court, on the other hand, is free of extraneous considerations. Olmert is convinced that in court, he can and will prove his innocence once and for all.

For full article, visit http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251145156231&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Recent criminal investigations against Israeli politicians have landed several in jail and increased public calls for government reform. Avraham Hirshson, a former Finance Minister, is about to begin a five-year prison sentence for embezzling $1 million, while Shlomo Benizri, a former Health Minister, is serving a four-year sentence for bribery, fraud and obstruction of justice. Several others are still being investigated

For full article, visit http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6815383.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093

Gideon Levy: Swedish article on organ harvesting was cheap and harmful journalism

The bizarre Swedish report led to a no-less-bizarre Israeli response. Bad and irresponsible journalism crossed paths with bad and irresponsible diplomacy. Instead of simply denying the report, Lieberman, true to form, acted like a bully. In his fiery response – from his disrespectful mention of the Holocaust to identifying every criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism, to his ludicrous demand that the Swedish Foreign Ministry condemn the article – Lieberman caused great diplomatic damage to Israel. He even scandalously attacked Norway for marking the 150th birthday of its greatest author. However, the article’s damage to the fight against the occupation cannot be ignored.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1110401.html

What Actually Happened in Fatah’s Elections?

In his WINEP speech Dayton acknowledged this crackdown when he said, “I don’t know how many of you are aware, but over the last year-and-a-half, the Palestinians have engaged upon a series of what they call security offensives throughout the West Bank, surprisingly well coordinated with the Israeli army.” He further admitted that during the 22-day Gaza war last winter, U.S.-trained Palestinian security forces prevented Palestinians in the West Bank from organizing mass protests against the Israeli army, which ironically allowed for the reduction of the Israeli military presence in the West Bank in order to redeploy those troops to Gaza. Dayton added, “As a matter of fact, a good portion of the Israeli army went off to Gaza from the West Bank— think about that for a minute, and the (Israeli military) commander (of the West Bank) was absent for eight straight days.”

For full article, visit http://www.counterpunch.org/amin08142009.html

Seth Freedman: Israel Cries Wolf Over Blood Libel

On reading the original story, it is clear that the article’s content is journalism of the worst kind: based on the flimsiest of evidence, making tenuous connections on little more than pure conjecture and relying on dubious testimony in the absence of hard fact and proof. However, bad journalism does not automatically an antisemite make, especially when the allegations were directed at the Israeli army, rather than at Judaism and its practices. Had the article claimed that Jewish teaching encouraged the killing of gentile children and the use of their blood for ritual purposes – the classic definition of blood libel, and the origin of the phrase – it would be another matter, but in this case the accusations are clearly made against a subsection of Israeli society, not against Israelis per se, let alone the worldwide Jewish community.

For full article, visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/24/israel-blood-libel-aftonbladet-organ-harvesting

Israel gets India’s order for advanced surface-to-air missiles

The Israeli government-owned Rafael defense company has secured a one-billion-USD deal to sell advanced surface-to-air missiles to the Indian Armed Forces, local daily The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.

Under the deal approved last week by the Indian cabinet, Rafael will supply 18 Spyder mobile missile systems by 2012, said the report, adding that Israel overtook Russia as the main supplier of defense systems to India last year.

For full article, visit http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/international-military-news/2009-08/24/content_4027318.htm