Israel

"More people are dying in Syria so why do you talk about Israel?"

Its a simple strawman that is being used to attack those showing support for Gaza.

The basic gist of all similar statements is along the lines of "somewhere else in the world, something worse is happening, so why don't you focus on that instead and let this thing happening in israel be burried?"

It's quite a powerful argument - thousands have been killed in Syria.

However the thing about Syria is that we all know what is happening there is wrong and we are all ciritical of it. Our government (that is the British government) is also critical of the Syrian regime and we support its criticism of the Syrian regime.

Towards a United Israel?

Israel has a population of 5.9 million (Israeli) Jews.

There are are also 1.6 million Israeli arabs.

The West Bank holds 2.6 million Arabs and Gaza hold 1.6 million Arrabs.

Total all that up and you get 5.8 million Arabs. They also are growing at a faster rate.

So what should be sought is 1 vote for 1 citizen there and if that was achieved, all would be golden.

Yasser Arafat Murdered by pollonium poisoning?

Big news doing the rounds recently.

Yasser arafat died in hospital in 2004 and some thought the circumstances were suspicious.

However nothing was proven.

However new tests of his clothing at the time have shown trace amounts of pollonium.

Pollonium most famously being used to murder Alexander Litvinenko two years later where it was fingered.

Now some people want to exhume his body in order to carry out further tests.

British Ambassador to Israel and the plot to attack Iran

A few weeks ago there was a "scandal" about the links between the Defence Secretary Liam Fox and his friend Adam Werritty.

Some suggested that the two were running a separate foriegn policy to the official one stated by the government.

Now the plot thickens and Adam Werrity , who is pretty much pro Israel and intervention in Iran.

"Mossad linked to Iran military blast"

A series of news reports linking Israel's intelligence agency the Mossad to a blast at a military facility in Iran, in which 17 people were killed and a further 15 wounded, has gained widespread coverage in the Israeli media on Monday.

While Iranian officials insist the explosion at the Bid Ganeh base was accidental, caused by the movement of ammunition, claims from anonymous western and Israeli officials that Saturday's blast was a covert Israeli operation have gained momentum.

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Gaza sea blockade: two boats from Turkey set out to break siege

Pro-Palestinians sail with medicines from Fethiye on mission to 'end Israeli injustice' over Gaza

Two boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists have entered international waters after sailing from Turkey with the aim of breaking Israel's sea blockade of Gaza.

...

If the vessels are not intercepted by the Israeli navy they expect to reach Gaza on Friday.

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Israel rushes settlement growth after Unesco accepts Palestinians

Israel is to expedite the construction of about 2,000 homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in response to the Palestinians' successful bid to join Unesco.

Israel also imposed a temporary halt on the transfer of tax revenues which it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) pending a final decision on whether to impose a long-term freeze. Israel collects about £630m a year in VAT and customs revenues which it passes on to the PA.

Read more @

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit exchanged for Palestinian prisoners

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured 5 years ago in 2006 when he was just 19 has now been released - being exchanged for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners - some of whom had been convicted of serious crimes, others who had not been charged at all.

He has spent a long time in captivity, and so have some of the people released.

One thing which I noted is that the 1000:1 ratio used here has been used previously too, when 1000 Palestinians (generally civillians) were killed for each Israeli (generally a soldier) in the assault in Gaza at the end of 2008/start of 2009.

I think that it is a good thing he was released - it needed to be done a long time ago.

I just hope that Palestinian lives are not considered to trade for so much less.

Britain to change war crimes laws to allow senior Israeli government officials into the UK

Something that should have been posted about last week when it was announced.

Until now, former senior Israeli government officials have shied away from making public visits to the UK, and even last weeks visit by Tzipi Livni needed special consideration to be safely allowed into the UK :

The Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni has avoided the possibility of prosecution in a British court for war crimes after the Foreign Office declared that she enjoys temporary diplomatic immunity.

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