Footnotes 

1. Novak, Jeremiah, Christian Science Monitor (February 7, 1977)


2. The Trilateral Commission, Membership List, www.trilateral.org


3. Washington Post, January 16, 1977


4. op. cit.


5. About Us, http://www.iie.com/institute/aboutiie.cfm


6. Board of Directors, http://www.iie.com/institute/board.cfm


7. Brzezinski, Zbigniew, Between Two Ages: The Technetronic Era, (Penguin Books , 1971)

ORIGINAL
Comment on this Editorial

---

Life On Planet Earth

---

Earthquake hits Sumatra

Posted at 8:01pm on 01 Dec 2006

A strong earthquake, measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale, has hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra but there are no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The quake was centred 60km southeast of the North Sumatra provincial capital, Medan, at a depth of 200km.
Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the earthquake-triggered Asian tsunami two years ago, with 168,000 people killed in Aceh province in the north of Sumatra.
A quake on the south coast of the main island of Java also killed more than 600 people in July.



Comment on this Article

---

Hundreds feared dead in Philippine mudslides

Justin McCurry
Friday December 1, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

At least 400 people are feared dead after Typhoon Durian swept across the central Philippines, causing flash floods and burying villages in waves of muddy volcanic ash and huge rocks.

The country's civil defence office said today that 198 people had died, with 260 missing, but the death toll was expected to rise.

"There are a lot of conflicting reports but, looking at the trend, we could have about 300 to 400 people dead by tonight," Richard Gordon, head of the local Red Cross, said in a television interview.

Glen Rabonza, head of the civil defence office, said rescue workers were struggling to pull people from the debris. "Our rescue teams are overstretched rescuing people on rooftops," he said.

The president of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo, ordered the country's military to help reach people in submerged villages. More than 100 people died and 130 were injured after mudslides struck several villages on the slopes of the Mayon volcano.

"The disaster covered almost every corner of this province - rampaging floods, falling trees, damaged houses," Fernando Gonzalez, governor of Albay province, the worst hit area, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

"It happened very rapidly and many people did not expect this because they haven't experienced mud flows in those areas before. By the time they wanted to move, the rampaging mud flows were upon them."

Reports emerged of residents of Padang village having their clothes ripped off as they were carried away by muddy flows of volcanic ash.

"It's terrible," Noel Rosal, mayor of Legazpi city, Albay's capital, told AP. "Based on our interviews with residents and village officials, more than 100 people were killed or [went] missing. We now call this place a black desert."

The typhoon caused havoc with communications, and details of the extent of the damage remained sketchy. The storm is thought to have made about 11,000 people homeless, as well as knocking out power lines and phone links, and burying roads beneath landslides.

Local officials estimated that more than 22,000 people had been affected by the storm, which by last night was heading to towards the South China Sea and was expected to weaken to a tropical storm before striking Vietnam on Monday.

Durian, named after a pungent local fruit, made landfall yesterday in the island province of Catanduanes, where there are no mountains that could have limited the storm's impact.

The typhoon devastated the island of Marinduque, uprooting trees and ripping the roofs from many homes. "It's the worst in our history," a local congressman, Edmund Reyes, said in a radio interview. "Almost all houses were damaged by the typhoon in the province."

The widespread damage caused by the 20 typhoons and storms to hit the Philippines every year has been blamed on destruction of local forests. Last February landslides killed more than 1,000 residents of a village in Leyte province, and in 1991 more than 5,000 people died in the same region in floods triggered by a typhoon.



Comment on this Article

---

Aids ravaging workforce of poorest nations

Fred Attewill
Friday December 1, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

The Aids epidemic is devastating the economic prospects of the world's poorest countries, condemning millions of young people to a bleak future of unemployment and poverty, according to a new report.

Between 1992 and 2004, 31 countries in sub-Saharan Africa lost a total of more than 1m jobs every year due to the epidemic, as their economies grew more slowly.

The International Labour Organisation, which produced the report, said HIV/Aids killed almost 3.5 million people of working age last year.
The vast majority of the estimated 36.3 million people living with HIV/Aids globally are in sub-Saharan Africa, already the most deprived region on the planet.

In a speech to mark World Aids Day, the UN's secretary general, Kofi Annan, said politicians and individuals must consider themselves personally accountable for stopping the spread of the disease.

"It requires every one of us to help bring Aids out of the shadows and spread the message that silence is death," he said.

Last year, more than 3 million people - 75% in sub-Saharan Africa - were unable to work because of illness due to Aids.

The economic slowdown has hit young people hardest, with unemployment up to three times higher than for adults.

Young people stuck in the poverty trap are also at higher risk of contracting the disease, accounting for half of all new HIV infections. An estimated 5,000 to 6,000 people aged between 15 and 24 acquire HIV every day.

The report also focuses on the damage the epidemic is having on children, forcing them into child labour and ultimately preventing them from being able to find productive jobs as adults.

Often children are forced to seek work early after their parents are left dead or incapacitated from the disease, robbing them of an education and putting them at greater risk of contracting the virus themselves.

A survey in Uganda in 2004showed 95 per cent of children in HIV-affected households had some kind of job - and 16per cent worked day and night.

Girls in particular risk being sexually abused and being infected at work, especially those working as prostitutes.

The ILO added studies had shown most men and women working in the sex industry began in their teens or early 20s.

"Mortality losses to the labour force, illness and lack of access to antiretroviral treatment (ARVs) are jeopardising the ability of the worst affected countries to lift themselves out of poverty," the report said.

The ILO argues that "forceful measures" were needed to increase access to ARVs - and said a key aim was making them available at work.

Without better treatment, the future looks bleak. By 2020, losses to the global labour force due to the epidemic are set to reach 86 million a year, compared to an estimated 28 million for 2005.

Better access to drugs could cut that figure by up to a quarter.

"The prospect of averting between one fifth and one quarter of potential new losses of the labour force should serve as a powerful incentive to target the workplace as a major entry point to achieve universal access to ARVs," the survey said.



Comment on this Article

---

Philippines typhoon kills more than 100

AP
01 December 2006

The fourth super-typhoon in as many months has battered the Philippines, setting off a volcanic mudslide and widespread flooding that killed at least 109 people and left dozens more missing, officials said today.

Glen Rabonza, head of the national Office of Civil Defence, said 200 body bags were being shipped to the disaster zone at the request of provincial chiefs. With power and phone lines brought down, helicopters were carrying out aerial surveillance of cut-off areas.

"Our rescue teams are overstretched rescuing people on rooftops," Rabonza said after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was briefed on the storm's aftermath.
Fernando Gonzales, governor of badly hit Albay province, said 108 bodies had been found but that recovery operations were continuing. The figure did not include at least one person killed in adjacent Camarines Sur province, which reported that its capital was flattened.

Under secretary Dr Graciano Yumul of the Department of Science and Technology said the storm was particularly damaging because wind gusts hit 165mph when Typhoon Durian came ashore yesterday in Catanduanes, an island province with no mountains to break the storm's momentum.

At least 20 bodies were recovered from the village of Padang, which was hit by a mudslide of volcanic debris on the foot of the Mayon volcano, said Noel Rosal, mayor of Legazpi city, Albay province's capital.

Rosal said about 30 people were injured by boulders and roofing materials in Padang and taken to hospitals.

"It's terrible," he said, after visiting the village today. "Based on our interviews with residents and village officials, more than 100 were killed or missing."

Rosal said some victims had their clothes torn off as they were swept away by the mudslide.

"We now call this place a black desert," he said, referring to the colour of the volcanic debris.

Mayon erupted in July, depositing millions of tons of rocks and volcanic ash on its slopes. Rains from succeeding typhoons that hit the area earlier may have loosened the materials.

Rosal said three of the five communities comprising the village of 1,400 people had been "wiped out" with only the roofs of several houses jutting out of the debris.

He said some boulders were as big as cars.

Rosal said Padang could be reached only by foot or motorcycle because a bridge linking it to Legazpi, about six miles away, was damaged.

He said the mudslide occurred as the city was lashed by Typhoon Durian. His own residence was under water that was "higher than a person" from a flashflood.

Jukes Nunez of the Albay Provincial Disaster Co-ordinating Council said many communities in Legazpi were still flooded today.

"The request for rescue is overwhelming. The disaster managers are victims themselves," he said.

The typhoon weakened today as it moved north of Mindoro island south of Manila with sustained winds of 94mph and gusts of up to 116mph as it headed towards the South China Sea.



Comment on this Article

---

Richest, most powerful countries dump their toxic waste in poor countries

BBC News
27/11/2006

The world's richest nations are dumping hazardous electronic waste on poor African countries, says the head of the UN's Environment Programme (Unep).

Speaking in Nairobi, Achim Steiner said consumerism was driving a "growing mountain of e-waste".

Unep estimates that up to 50 million tonnes of waste from discarded electronic goods is generated annually.

Improper disposal of e-waste can release hazardous chemicals and heavy metals into the environment.
Mr Steiner made his comments at the opening of a week-long conference in Nairobi which will review the Basel Convention, aimed at reducing the movement of all types of hazardous waste.

"The need for Basel is ever more evident in this globalised world," he said.

"Accelerating trade in goods and materials across borders and across continents is one of the defining features of the early 21st Century."

Toxic waste

E-waste is thought to be the fastest growing part of municipal waste in the developed world.

The decreasing cost of replacing computers, mobile phones and other electronic gadgets, and the speed with which technology goes out of date, mean there is more and more to be disposed of.

Traditionally, much of the waste found its way to Asian countries such as China and India, but tighter regulations means more and more is ending up in Africa.

A recent study by the Basel Action Network concludes that a minimum of 100,000 computers a month are entering the Nigerian port of Lagos alone.

"If these were good quality, second hand, pieces of equipment this would perhaps be a positive trade of importance for development," said Mr Steiner.

"But local experts estimate that between a quarter to 75% of these items including old TVs, CPUs and phones are defunct - in other words e-waste."

When these are burnt, a common disposal method, it can release toxic fumes and leach chemicals such as barium and mercury into the soil.

International force

The conference will discuss how to tighten regulations to prevent this kind of incident occurring.

In particular it will review amendments to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal which will tighten controls on shipments and disposal of e-waste.

"We need to shine a brighter light on hazardous wastes - where they come from and where they end up," said Basel Convention Executive Secretary Sachiko Kuwabara-Yamamoto.

The convention is meant to regulate waste in all of its forms, including e-waste. It came into force in 1992, and has since been signed by more than 160 countries.

Members of the convention in Nairobi will also press those countries that have not yet ratified the treaty, such as the US, to do so.

Also on the agenda will be a recent incident in Ivory Coast where noxious fumes produced by waste dumped around Abidjan killed at least 10 people and left more than 70,000 seeking medical treatment.

Although there is no indication that the incident was caused by e-waste, the UN says the incident is indicative of the challenge facing African nations.

"I sincerely hope that the tragedy in Cote D'Ivoire and the challenges of e-waste will serve as a wake up call to the Parties of the Basel Convention and other related treaties," said Mr Steiner.




Comment on this Article

---

Scientists fear results of collapsed ice shelf - The Ross Ice Shelf, a raft of ice the size of France, could collapse quickly, triggering a dramatic rise in sea levels, scientists warn

By JOHN HENZELL
29 Nov 06

A New Zealand-led drilling team in Antarctica has recovered three million years of climate history, but the news is not good for the future.

Initial analysis of sea-floor cores near Scott Base suggest the Ross Ice Shelf had collapsed in the past and had probably done so suddenly.

The team's co-chief scientist, Tim Naish, said the sediment record was important because it provided crucial evidence about how the Ross Ice Shelf would react to climate change, with potential to dramatically increase sea levels.

"If the past is any indication of the future, then the ice shelf will collapse," he said.
"If the ice shelf goes, then what about the West Antarctic Ice Sheet? What we've learnt from the Antarctic Peninsula is when once buttressing ice sheets go, the glaciers feeding them move faster and that's the thing that isn't so cheery."

Antarctica comprises about 90 per cent of the world's ice mass, with the the West Antarctic Ice Sheet holding an estimated 30 million cubic kilometres.

In January, British Antarctic Survey researchers predicted that its collapse would make sea levels rise by at least 5m, with other estimates predicting a rise of up to 17m.

Naish, a sedimentologist with the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, said the drilling team had banked on recovering about 30m of sediment core a day but was far exceeding that.

In one day this week the team, organised by Antarctica New Zealand, retrieved 83m, containing climate records spanning about 500,000 years.

"We're really getting everything we've dreamed of. What we're getting is a pretty detailed history of the ice shelf," he said.

"You go from full glacial conditions to open ocean conditions very abruptly. It doesn't surprise us that much that the transition was dramatic.

"We know from the Larsen Ice Shelf (which collapsed on the Antarctic Peninsula in 2002) that they go extremely quickly." The cores had to be sent from Antarctica to get a definitive date, but the indications were the team had reached sediments laid down about three million years ago.

"Once the date is more precise we'll be able to look at what the ice shelf was doing during periods when we know from other evidence that it was 2deg to 4deg warmer than today," Naish said.

The team's project manager, Jim Cowie, said the unexpectedly rapid progress of drilling came after decades of experience in Antarctica.

This included a preliminary sediment recovery project run by Antarctica New Zealand at Cape Roberts and involved researchers from seven countries.



Comment on this Article

---

The suffering that betrays a world divided

By Jonathan Brown, Andrew Grice and Steve Bloomfield in Zambia
UK Independent
01 December 2006

Today is World Aids Day. It was first marked in 1991, an attempt by the international community to alert humanity to the terrible scale of the threat posed by the disease.

Yet despite advances in medical science and a growing political consensus over the need to act, the epidemic shows no signs of abating. In fact, it is getting worse.

According to the United Nations, some 25 million people have already died from Aids. A further 40 million men, women and children are living with HIV. Since the turn of the millennium, 24.2 million people have been infected, 15.6 million have died.

If the world continues on its present course, Aids is set to surpass the Black Death of the 14th century as the deadliest outbreak of disease in human history.
World Aids Day will see millions marking their solidarity with those affected by the virus. Charities, campaigners and politicians from Africa to the Americas will speak of their plight and reveal the work that is going on to help them.

But the story of the battle against the epidemic reveals a world divided. A gulf exists between sufferers living in poverty in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the developing world and those in the rich nations of Europe and North America.

The emergence of antiretroviral drugs, hailed by researchers as a "miracle" on a par with the discovery of penicillin, means that in the affluent West at least, HIV is now a treatable disease. The tragic irony is that in Britain infection rates among some communities continue to rise. It was reported last week that incidences among gay men had reached their highest level since 1981 as safe sex practices were being ignored.

In Africa it is a different story. In Rwanda, where rapid advances in treatment have helped hundreds of thousands, doctors call it the "Lazarus effect" - just two antiretroviral drugs can restore a stricken patient to almost full health. Costing less than a dollar a day, they can be bought from any corner shop.

The tragic irony here is that even at this price, they are too expensive. Africa is seeing the fastest growth of any region of the world with an infection rate of 15 per cent. Perhaps hardest hit are the 2 million HIV-affected children of the region, who contracted the virus in the womb or during breastfeeding. Global drug-makers have little interest in making smaller doses of their life-saving medicines. The bigger profits are in the markets of the developed world among the sick, rich adults.

So doctors in Africa are forced to crush adult pills into child-sized doses. However, a deal will be announced today between two Indian drug-makers and former US president Bill Clinton's foundation which promises to reduce dramatically the cost of treating children infected with HIV-Aids next year.

But in some countries the threat of Aids is compounded by political failure. In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe has promoted traditional medicines over antiretrovirals and displaced 1 million of his poorest urban citizens, disrupting their treatment and increasing the infection rates in rural areas.

And even science has its limits. The hunt for a vaccine two decades after it was claimed to be just five years away from completion remains as elusive as ever.

The British International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, warned last night that the world may miss its target of providing universal HIV prevention care and treatment by 2010 unless the "stigma and prejudice" surrounding the disease is tackled. "We mustn't let our discomfort or prejudice get in the way of saving lives," he told a lecture at the London School of Economics to mark World Aids Day.

However, the Government was condemned for its policy of deporting asylum-seekers who are HIV positive back to their home countries, where treatment is often not available. The Refugee Council said they should be given special dispensation to stay.



Comment on this Article

---

Zimbabwe's bad practice: 3,500 dead each week as meltdown looms

By Daniel Howden
01 December 2006

...this year, Zimbabwe has been judged by the World Health Organisation to have the lowest life expectancy in the world. Last month, the cemeteries of the capital, Harare, were declared full. This week more than 3,500 people will die of HIV-related illness and tests on post-natal mothers have found infection rates of 70 per cent. A country whose population at its last census numbered 12 million people is dying in droves; its health system is in total disarray and malnutrition is a daily struggle for the majority of the country.
The gap between HIV rhetoric and reality in Zimbabwe has become a chasm. And it is a chasm into which hundreds of thousands of people are falling.

This was the year we were told the government would roll out free antiretroviral drugs to nearly 200,000 of the worst-hit Aids sufferers.

At the first national conference on HIV/Aids in 2004, President Robert Mugabe spoke not only of the need for ARVs but also of the need for "comprehensive programmes for Aids care that include access to counselling and treatment of opportunistic infections, community-based care and orphan support."

But, this year, Zimbabwe has been judged by the World Health Organisation to have the lowest life expectancy in the world. Last month, the cemeteries of the capital, Harare, were declared full. This week more than 3,500 people will die of HIV-related illness and tests on post-natal mothers have found infection rates of 70 per cent. A country whose population at its last census numbered 12 million people is dying in droves; its health system is in total disarray and malnutrition is a daily struggle for the majority of the country.

The reality of the government's Aids policy is perhaps better reflected by Didymus Mutasa, the current Minister of State Security. He has said: "We would be better off with only six million people, with our own people who support the liberation struggle; we don't want all these extra people."

The government's approach to the public health catastrophe is characterised by hypocrisy, indifference and denial. Soaring infection rates have been compounded by a state-sponsored economic meltdown that has provoked a famine in one of Africa's most fertile countries. Much of the country is forced to subsist on one meagre meal a day and ARVs, even if they were supplied, cannot be taken on an empty stomach.

Hospital dispensaries in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, are empty. The hospitals themselves are almost empty as unofficial fees have put health care out of the range of ordinary people.

A senior doctor who has watched the disintegration of the health system said: "They [the government] are still living in denial or cloud cuckooland when it comes to Aids. They talk of waiting lists of six to nine months for ARVs. The infected don't live that long."



Comment on this Article

---

Cancer drugs harmful to brain cells

By John von Radowitz
30 November 2006

Common cancer drugs may be more harmful to the brain than the tumour cells they are meant to destroy.

Laboratory tests have shown that dose levels typically used when treating patients killed 70-100 per cent of neural cells but just 40-80 per cent of cancer cells. Several types of healthy brain cell continued to die for at least six weeks after exposure.

The findings, published in the Journal of Biology, may help explain the little understood cancer therapy side effect of "chemo brain".
Patients can suffer symptoms ranging from memory loss to seizures, loss of vision and even dementia. Until recently, these problems were often blamed on a patient's mental state.

However, a growing body of evidence is now leading doctors to accept the reality of "chemo brain".

A study this year suggested that more than 82 per cent of cancer patients may suffer some form of mental impairment. While scientists have suspected that chemotherapy could have an impact on the central nervous system, it was not clear how this might occur.

Mark Noble, from the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York, who led the research, said: "This is the first study that puts 'chemo brain' on a sound scientific footing, in terms of neurobiology and cellular biology."

The brain is populated with several types of cells that produce or repair normally functioning neurons. These are classified as dividing stem cells, dividing intermediate cells, precursors and progenitors, and non-dividing mature cells. Dr Noble's team exposed healthy brain cells as well as cancer cells to three chemotherapy drugs, carmustine, cisplatin and cytosine arabinoside, used to treat a wide range of diseases, including breast cancer, leukaemia and brain tumours.Tests showed that the drugs were toxic to all the different cell types even at very low concentrations.

The research points to several strategies for making cancer treatments safer, such as applying protective agents and screening to see what cell populations are most at risk.



Comment on this Article

---

Zionist Perfidy

---

Two Palestinians killed in W Bank

Friday, 1 December 2006, 10:11 GMT

Israeli soldiers have shot and killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the West Bank.

The Israeli military said soldiers opened fire on a man who threw a petrol bomb at a patrol.
The incident happened near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which has long been a source of tension in Hebron.

Earlier, a 16-year-old was killed in a village near Nablus. The Israeli military said the youth had thrown petrol bombs and a pipe bomb at troops.

Overnight in the northern West Bank, Israeli troops arrested 29 wanted people they say are members of Hamas, the militant Islamist group that heads the Palestinian Authority.

However, the six-day-old truce in Gaza is holding.

The Israeli army says that 14 rockets have been fired into Israel since the truce was declared.

No Israelis were injured by the rockets and the Israeli army has not responded.

'Small opening'

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a small opening exists for a resumption of peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians.

Speaking after talks with Palestinian and Israeli leaders, she said the fragile truce in the Gaza Strip should be strengthened and extended.

Ms Rice said that hopefully all sides could take advantage of the moment to move towards the goal of two states living peacefully side-by-side.

But she added: "This is the sort of thing that takes time - you don't expect great leaps forward, you expect progress and I think we've seen some progress."

In turn, Arab ministers from Egypt, Jordan and the six Gulf states have urged Ms Rice to encourage Israel to soften its security measures in the West Bank.

On Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that talks on forming an unity government with Hamas had ""unfortunately reached a dead end".

An aide to Mr Abbas, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said that the Palestinian leader was preparing new "political measures" to deal with the failure of these talks.

Palestinians factions have been trying to form a unity government, in which Hamas takes a back seat, in the hope that this will allow international donors to lift a financial embargo on the Palestinian Authority.



Comment on this Article

---

Army shoots and kills Palestinian resident of Hebron

IMEMC & agencies
01 December 2006

One Palestinian resident was shot and killed in the old town area of the southern West Bank city of Hebron after being shot in the head by Israeli soldiers on Friday at dawn.

Bashar Al Ja'bari, 22, was going to pray the morning prayers in the Abraham Mosque, also known as the Tomb of Patriarchs, located in the old city, when soldiers stationed at a military checkpoint at the mosque entrance shot Al Ja'bari in the head and killed him.

Palestinian medical sources in the city that Al Ja'bari was killed after sustaining multiple hits with live rounds in the chest and the head. He arrived to the public hospital in the city dead, the sources stated.




Comment on this Article

---

Palestinian youth killed, two injured by Israeli military fire near Nablus

IMEMC & Agencies
30 November 2006

Palestinian medical sources in Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, reported on Tuesday evening that a 17-year old youth was shot and killed by Israeli military fire in Aqraba village, near Nablus.

Shadi Isam Younis, 17, was shot dead after the army invaded the village as several youth hurled stones at the invading forces.

The army fired rounds of live ammunition, rubber-coated bullets and gas bombs at the youth.

Two youth, identified as Dia' Abu Mazin, 18, and Mustafa Jamil, 17, were moderately injured.




Comment on this Article

---

Israeli soldier who shot foreigner in Palestine to serve two-week sentence

IMEMC & Agencies
01 December 2006


In one of the few cases where the shooting of an unarmed man at an Israeli checkpoint in Asira al-Shemaliya, Palestine on November has actually warranted investigation by Israeli officials, the soldier responsible for shooting and injuring the man has been sentenced to a mere two weeks in Israeli military prison.
The man, Haytem Yasin, 25, was shot in the stomach and severely injured while visiting relatives in Palestine. Yasin was shot after apparently questioning the soldiers' invasive search techniques of female Palestinians passing through the checkpoint. According to Israeli sources, he is now being treated for major abdominal injuries in a hospital in the Israeli settlement of Petah Tikva.

The Israeli human rights group B'tselem reported that Yasin was first pushed by the soldier after making a comment about the searches. Then, according to eyewitness accounts, two other soldiers joined in hitting Yasin, knocking him to the ground and continuing to beat and kick him, then throwing him against the cement blocks around the checkpoint. After the soldiers had handcuffed him, they continued to beat and kick the man, and finally shot him in the stomach.

Yasin had been visiting Palestine from Algeria, where he lives with his parents.

Abuse at checkpoints is a common practice by Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights groups who monitor the situation.



Comment on this Article

---

Palestinian leaders call for extension of ceasefire, Israeli officials want to break it

IMEMC & Agencies
01 December 2006

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today urged restraint and a continuation of a week-long ceasefire in the Gaza Strip between Israeli forces and the Palestinian resistance, and called for an expansion of the ceasefire to the West Bank. Israeli security officials, however, have advised the Israeli cabinet to break the truce and continue their daily attacks in the West Bank.

Abbas stated that the ceasefire, which he claimed to be successful despite Israeli forces killing at least four Palestinians in the West Bank since the ceasefire began last Sunday, paves the way for a return to negotiations and to the peace process with Israel.

"I hope that the Ceasefire will include the West Bank, so we can return to the Sharm el-Sheikh understandings [an agreement made in February 2005] signed by the Palestinian Leadership with the former Israeli Prime Minister Areil Sharon towards returning to the peace process," said Abbas in a joint press conference in Jericho with the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice met with both Abbas and the Israeli President Ehud Olmert in her short visit to the region this week.

Rice, for her part, expressed a commitment by the US to see a "just achievement" for the Palestinian people, which she said would come in the form of a two-state solution, with a viable, independent and democratic Palestinian state -- although she did not specify whether that state would include a return of land illegally seized by Israel or the city of Jerusalem - two key issues for the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, inside Israel, the Israeli Cabinet met with military officials who advised a return to violence, and a continuation of the daily Israeli invasions and attacks in the Palestinian West Bank.

Israeli military sources reported that Palestinian resistance groups have not entirely adhered to the ceasefire, having fired 14 homemade shells into the Israeli desert from Gaza since the ceasefire was declared Sunday. The shells did not kill or hurt any Israelis. Palestinians point out that Israeli ceasefire violations have been much more severe - that at least five Palestinians have been killed, and a dozen more injured, by Israeli forces invading the West Bank. Among those killed are an elderly woman and a child.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated the the Prime Minister would be willing to extend the ceasefire, but only if the homemade shells fired by the Palestinian resistance come to a complete halt. Thousands of Palestinian security are in place in the border areas in Gaza to try to prevent shells from being fired by rogue factions into Israel.

But the military officials advising the Israeli Cabinet today advised against extending the ceasefire, saying that their ongoing invasions and attacks in the West Bank have actually prevented Palestinians who had planned to attack Israel.

Many of the Palestinians that have been taken prisoner in the Israeli raids have never been charged with anything, and maintain that Israel picked them up merely to maintain a pretense that their invasions are legitimate. With no way to present the evidence of their innocence in Israeli courts, these prisoners of war have no hope that they will be given a day in court to disprove that Israeli charge.



Comment on this Article

---

Iran seeks more influential reaction of intl community against Israeli crimes

Friday December 01, 2006United Nations, New York, Dec 1, IRNA

The Ambassador and deputy permanent representative of Iran in the UN Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi on Thursday asked more influential international reaction against the Zionist regime's crimes in Palestine and other Arabian occupied lands.
The following is full text of Danesh-Yazdi's address to the 61st UN General Assembly session, that had been held on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People:

"In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,

"Madam President,

"At the very outset and on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I would like to reiterate the solidarity of the Government and the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the Palestinian people and Government in their brave struggle to defend their inalienable rights.

"May I take this opportunity to express my delegation's appreciation to the Secretary General for his informative reports and to the Chairman and members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for their tireless efforts to address the torment and onerous circumstances of the people of Palestine.

"This year's report once again illustrates the uninterrupted and increased violation of the rights and aspiration of the Palestinian people by the Israeli regime, resulting in the deterioration of the situation to an unprecedented and intolerable level.

"As the report indicates, throughout the period under review, the systematic pattern of human rights violations and massive breaches of international law and international humanitarian law by the Israeli regime has continued unabated.

"A fundamental principle of international law, flowing from the United Nations Charter, is the illegality of the acquisition of territory by use of force."

He reminded that, "The occupation of the Arab lands in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, which grossly contravenes this fundamental principle, lies at the heart of the festering crises in the Middle East."

He concluded that, "It gives rise to all illegal and criminal practices by the occupying forces, which all emanate from the inherent dynamics of occupation."

Indiscriminate use of military force, willfully killing and collectively punishing the Palestinians, destroying their homes and infrastructures, trying to economically strangulate them, unrelenting expansion of Jewish settlements on the occupied lands and targeted assassinations, which are all prohibited under the international law, has continued during the year under review.
Indeed, the report documents and records frequent resorts to all these practices by the Israeli regime.

"Madam President,

"The report at hand depicts Israeli brutal military campaigns in Gaza in the last summer, which included aerial bombardments, ground activities, the arrest of Palestinian cabinet ministers and lawmakers, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, including the only electric power plant in Gaza, roads and bridges, as well as many other public and private installations.
"The said atrocious crimes have resulted in the killing of over 202 Palestinians, including 40 children.

"According to the report, from September 2005 to August 2006, 450 Palestinians had been killed and over 2,500 wounded, which underscores the ever-present reality of the brutal, violent, and oppressive policies and practices of the occupying regime against the defenseless Palestinian people.
"During the year under review, the Israeli regime implemented a number of cruel restrictive and punitive measures such as checkpoints , curfews and closures that adversely affected the Palestinian lives and in turn have added to their suffering and hardship.

"At the same time, the Israeli settlement activities in the occupied territories continued unabated, and the occupiers began the construction of thousands of housing units in the West Bank and Al-Quds.

"The pace of construction of the separation Wall in the West Bank also accelerated during the reporting period.

"In this regard, land expropriation orders were issued by the Israeli regime to allow the extension of the Wall around Al-Quds.

"The Palestinian election, held on 25 January 2006, was a landmark development in the history of the region.

"Nevertheless, the reaction of the Israeli regime and a number of western governments to this important development not only was unproductive and disgraceful, but indeed helped unmask the real face of the kind of democracy that certain quarters in the west seek to extend to the region.

"While 1,000 international observers, including missions from the European Union, the US and Canada observed the conduct of the elections and called it a free and fair process, soon the US and few of its allies embarked on a campaign to deny the results of the elections, undermine the Government emanating there from and subject the Palestinian people to further hardship and suffering for freely expressing their will.

"Madam President,

"The situation in the occupied Syrian Golan is not very different.

"It continues to be another source of tension in the region and the Israelis have thus far indicated that they are not intent on considering a withdrawal from the Golan.

"Rather, they have made repeated attempts to alter the demographic and legal character of the area by establishing new settlements and imposing their laws on Syrian citizens in

contravention of all relevant UN resolutions.

"Moreover, the last summer aggression of the Israeli regime against Lebanon, and its subsequent humiliating defeat, has not stopped this regime to continue threatening the Lebanese people and Government.

"As has been repeatedly indicated by UNIFIL, the Israeli regime continues to occupy the Lebanese lands and to violate Security Council resolution 1701, including through daily violations of Lebanese airspace and harassment of UNIFIL forces.

"Such dangerous practices would undoubtedly create more instability and serve to inflame tension and threaten to further destabalise the situation in that volatile part of the region.

"It is evident that the settlement of the Palestinian issue is imperative and indispensable for the attainment of a comprehensive and lasting peace and stability in the Middle East and beyond.

"Peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved through aggression, state terrorism, intimidation and occupation. It is, indeed, long overdue for the international community to take meaningful measures to restore the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

"The Charter of United Nations has bestowed an immense responsibility upon this world body to help find a fair, just and durable solution to this crisis, which constitutes the core of the Middle East conflict.
"We believe that a durable peace in Palestine will be possible only through the full restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people including the return of all Palestinian refugees to their homeland and establishment of a Palestinian state with Al-Quds -Al -sharif as its capital.

Comment: By standing up to Israel, the Lobby, and their lap dogs in the US and the West, Iran has made itself the enemy of the day. It just isn't permissible to have people standing up in international bodies and telling the truth about what is going on in the Middle East. Every US news report on Hamas or Hizbullah notes that they are "backed by Syria" or "backed by Iran", without ever saying that "Israel is backed by the United States". That is what counts as "fair and balanced reporting".

Comment on this Article

---

Israel stole private land for settlements: report

Tue Nov 21, 10:52 AM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Almost 40 percent of land held by Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank is privately owned by Palestinians, a left-wing Israeli group that monitors and opposes settlement-building said in a new report on Tuesday.

Peace Now said it based its findings on the database of Israel's military-run Civil Administration in the West Bank. The Civil Administration declined comment on the apparent leak, pending its examination of the report.
Israel has long maintained that Jewish settlements, which are illegal under international law, were built on "state lands," or areas not registered in anyone's name, and that no private property were being seized for settlement building.

"This report is a harsh indictment against the whole settlements enterprise and the role all Israeli governments played in it," Peace Now said on its Web site.

"The report shows that Israel has effectively stolen privately-owned Palestinian land for the purpose of constructing settlements and in violation of Israel's own laws regarding activities in the West Bank," the movement said.

The Palestinians, who want all the West Bank along with the Gaza Strip for a future state, and human rights groups have long accused Israel of illegally expropriating "state land" for the purpose of building settlements.

According to the report, Palestinians privately own nearly 40 percent of the land on which settlements have been built, and 3,400 buildings have been constructed on those properties.

In addition, more than 50 percent of the land on which settlements have been constructed has been designated "state," or unregistered, land by Israel, Peace Now said.

About 2.4 million Palestinians and 260,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war but stopped short of annexing.

The YESHA settler council, responding to the Peace Now report, said in a statement Israel halted authorizing construction on privately-owned land in the West Bank after a 1979 Israeli court ruling on the issue.

Peace Now said that in spite of court restrictions, Israel continued to build settlement homes on lands it knew to be owned by Palestinians.

Some of the settlement blocs Israeli leaders have said they intend to keep in any final peace deal with the Palestinians have been built in part on private Palestinian land, the report said.

They include the settlements of Maale Adumim, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and Ariel in the central West Bank.

The World Court says settlements Israel has built on occupied territory are illegal. Israel disputes this.



Comment on this Article

---

Arabic teachers: Security situation is damaging the subject's image

Last update - 04:05 30/11/2006 By Or Kashti, Haaretz Correspondent

Carmit Bar-On, an Arabic teacher in Rosh Ha'ayin's Begin high school, is frustrated. The Internet site she set up for Arabic studies won a prize from the European Union, after competing with 800 educational sites from some 30 countries, but has received no recognition from the Education Ministry.

"Almost every student of Arabic in Israel uses this site. I built it and maintain and update it myself, on my own time. It's terribly frustrating, but since I didn't build it to win a prize, the education system's attitude is less important to me," she says.
Many Arabic teachers share Bar-On's frustration. More than 50 percent of the Arabic teachers in secondary schools cited the language's low status as the main obstacle in teaching it, a new study of the Henrietta Szold Institute, the National Institute for Research in the Behavioral Sciences, finds.

The survey questioned some 360 teachers in the Jewish school system and examined the feelings of principals and students as well.

Arabic is a compulsory subject in junior high, but only is taught in 80 percent of the schools, the study finds. However, senior Education Ministry sources say that only about two thirds of junior high schools teach Arabic.

"The regulations are not always followed," says the ministry's supervisor for Arabic studies, Shlomo Alon. "The ministry allows for French to be taught in place of Arabic, or Russian in communities with a concentration of new immigrants. A few places teach Amharic as well, and some junior high schools teach no foreign language at all."

Bar-On says that many dedicated teachers encounter not only a reluctance among pupils to study subjects considered impractical, like mathematics or English, but also prejudice and ignorance. "The Arabic language and culture are seen as inferior and primitive," she says.

Only 2009 pupils took the five-unit matriculation exam in Arabic last year, 6 percent fewer than two years earlier. This is a negligible percentage of the Jewish students who took matriculation exams.

"Some of my friends asked what I needed it for," says Yaniv Ninio, a 12th grader from Rosh Ha'ayin studying Arabic. "We are actually studying about another culture. It's important to know the other - both in war and in peace. You can't run away from it and pretend it doesn't exist."

According to the study, 63 percent of the Arabic students in high school said they were studying it because they wanted to "serve in intelligence." Zuf Aragman, also of Rosh Ha'ayin, chose it because she wanted to study another language. "Pupils think that those who study Arabic do it only to get into intelligence, but that's not necessarily true. Languages are among the only things school gives you, because history, for example, I can learn from books," she says.

Some 80 percent of the teachers who participated in the study support adding Arabic to the compulsory matriculation exams. Only about half the principals support this, while the pupils predictedly object. Making the exam in Arabic compulsory would prove that the Education Ministry regards it as an important subject, says Alon. "Arabic must be exactly like literature, civic studies or history."

"If the pupils knew that at the end of the road they had to pass an exam in Arabic, they would doubtless study it much more seriously," says Bar-On. "Every subject that is required for matriculation is taken seriously. It's the only way. Something is wrong here if for so many years the Education Ministry has not succeeded in making it compulsory for pupils to take even a small-scale Arabic exam for matriculation."

The Education Ministry commented: "We are aware of the problem that exists in certain schools, which do not teach Arabic, and we enforce the requirement by means of district instructors and reports to the district directors, who are supposed to oversee study rosters."



Comment on this Article

---

ADL slams UN body for making Tutu head of Beit Hanun mission

Last update - 12:01 30/11/2006 By Haaretz Service

The Anti-Defamation League on Thursday blasted the United Nations Human Rights Council for appointing Desmond Tutu as head of its fact-finding mission to the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun.

The mission is charged with investigating a botched Israel Defense Forces shelling in Beit Hanun which killed 19 Palestinian civilians.
"The appointment of Desmond Tutu as head of the fact-finding mission to Beit Hanun is an extension of the anti-Israel kangaroo court tactics used by the UN Human Rights Council," said ADL National Director Abraham Foxman.

"No fact-finding mission can produce balanced and trustworthy results if its leader professes to know all the answers beforehand.

"Tutu has already publicly expressed his anti-Israel views and his opinions regarding what happened in Beit Hanun, and combined with the one-sided anti-Israel mandate provided by the resolution, the results of the mission are all-but preordained," he added.

The council, which has censured only Israel in its six-month existence, recently passed a resolution calling for a mission to "assess the situation of victims, address the needs of survivors, and make recommendations on ways and means to protect Palestinian civilians against further Israeli assaults."

Tutu, the former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has spoken out against Israel in the past and publicly denounced the Beit Hanun operation.

"It is an outrage that cries out to heaven and we must condemn it unequivocally as we do the atrocities committed by suicide bombers against Israeli civilians," Tutu said.

Tutu said Thursday he was "honored" that the United Nations had asked him to lead a fact-finding mission. "I hope that our mission will advance the cause of peace and stability for Palestinian and Israeli alike, and contribute to halt the awful carnage and bloodletting," he said.

"I believe fervently that it is possible for Arab and Jew to live amicably together," he added.

Foxman has condemned the UN Human Rights Council - an effort to reform and replace the UN Commission on Human Rights - an "overwhelming failure." The organization has been widely criticized for concentrating its efforts on condemnations of Israel, and Foxman branded its replacement a political tool of its Arab and Muslim majority.

The ADL said the new UN Human Rights Council has "ignored the world's worst human rights atrocities and instead has pursued Israel for political gain."

The 47-member council, which earlier this year replaced the discredited Human Rights Commission, has been severely criticized by some countries, including the United States, for moving four times to condemn Israel but not taking up human rights violations in Myanmar, North Korea or Sudan.

The Council has come under similar criticism from outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"From the day it opened for business, the UN Human Rights Council has never operated with any moral authority," Foxman said in a statement released on Tuesday.

"The Council has failed in its most fundamental purpose: to monitor human rights abuses in all parts of the world. Instead, it has become a political tool wielded by its Arab and Muslim members who have the power of an automatic majority. The Council has ignored the world's worst human rights atrocities and instead has pursued Israel for political gain."

Earlier this month, the Council condemned an IDF artillery attack that killed 20 civilians in the northern Gaza Strip and ordered an on-site investigation by UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour.

The organization made no reference to Palestinian Qassam attacks. But when Arbour visited the area last week, she and her party were nearly hit by a Qassam that slammed into the Negev town of Sderot, in a salvo that killed a local factory worker.

"Closing in on six months since its first meeting, the Council has held one regular session and three special sessions and has yet to address a single state besides Israel," the ADL said in the statement. "The Council passed two resolutions yesterday condemning Israel while ignoring other more pressing problems around the world."

Comment: That wasn't a botched shelling. It was a complete success from the point of view of Israel and the IDF. But what else would you expect from the ADL, the attack dogs of Israel in the United States, ready to snap at anyone that doesn't offer the lushest of praise for Israeli brutality.

Comment on this Article

---

Rice meets PM, praises Olmert's diplomatic plan

Last update - 07:16 01/12/2006 By Yoav Stern and Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem on Thursday and praised the prime minister for his diplomatic initiative presented earlier this week.

"Rice expressed her appreciation for Prime Minister Olmert's speech earlier this week and said that it was an important step that was likely to both contribute towards calm and advance the peace processes in the region," said the Prime Minister's Office in a statement.

Olmert said Monday during a speech in Sde Boker that Israel would accept a territorially contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank in exchange for Palestinians relinquishing their demand for a return of Palestinian refugees to Israel.
Olmert said Monday during a speech in Sde Boker that Israel would accept a territorially contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank in exchange for Palestinians relinquishing their demand for a return of Palestinian refugees to Israel.

Rice also praised the Gaza cease-fire, as well as Israel's restraint in the face of violations of the truce by Palestinian militants.

"[The cease-fire] must be backed by deeds," said the secretary of state.

"Prime Minister Olmert informed Secretary of State Rice on his meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman regarding the cease-fire, [arms] smuggling and the ongoing efforts to release [captured Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit," said the statement. "The secretary of state updated the prime minister on her meeting earlier today with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas."

"The two also discussed the Iranian issue," added the statement.

Olmert's chief of staff Yoram Turbowitz, his military adviser, Major General Gadi Shamni, the prime minister's diplomatic adviser, Shalom Turgeman, and his media adviser, Asaf Shariv, also attended the meeting.

The American delegation included U.S. Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs C. David Welch and National Security Council Director for Near East and North African Affairs Elliot Abrams.

Following her meeting with Olmert, Rice met with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Livni said prior to the meeting that "the prime minister's speech was very important, in which he sent an important message to the Palestinian Authority."

"I believe that there is a diplomatic horizon," she added. "I would like to thank the United States and Secretary Rice on their policy which ensures that terror is not rewarded. I would also like to thank them for on the other hand sending a message to moderates that there is a diplomatic horizon, which strengthens them."

Rice meets Ab