Avigdor Lieberman proposes 45% tax on foreign donations to leftist orgs (no word on funding for settlers from the US)

Lieberman proposes tax on foreign contributions to Left
Ynet 8 Nov — Yisrael Beiteinu to demand Ministerial Committee on Legislation discuss proposal to impose 45% tax on foreign donations received by non-profit organizations … In what appears to be an attempt to lure more rightist voters, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly agreed to support a proposal which calls for imposing restrictions on foreign funding available to leftist organizations in Israel.

And more news from Today in Palestine:

Palestinians drop Migron damages suit
Ynet 8 Nov — Palestinians who sued state over building of West Bank outpost pull suit. Settlers claims plaintiffs failed to establish ownership of the land …  Attorney Michael Sfard, for the Palestinian plaintiffs, said that “The owners of the Migron lands have decided to suspend their suit pending a later hearing in March, when they will see whether the State upholds the court order to evict the outpost. The documents proving their ownership of the land have been submitted to the court and the representatives of the settlers, making claims that there is something to hide ridiculous.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4145507,00.html

Arab League asks UNESCO to open office in East Jerusalem
PNN 8 Nov — Mohammed Aziz Ben Ashour, the general director of the Arab League Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ALESCO) asked UNESCO on Tuesday to open an office in East Jerusalem to document and protect against attacks on Arab Islamic and Christian heritage.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10845&Itemid=

We live here, we exist here / Gary Spedding
PNN 7 Nov — Within the walled enclosure that now surrounds the little town of Bethlehem and its surrounding villages, there can be found up towards the hilltop facing the Mediterranean Sea a small, less famous but still biblical town known as Beit Jala. A once small village with rich Christian history that has lasted to this day, Beit Jala is home to a diverse community of Palestinians. With a majority Orthodox Christian community along with some Catholic and Lutheran Arabs as well as a sizable Muslim population, this peaceful town is known to be the place that the real Saint Nicholas dwelled for a time during the 4th century.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10842&Itemid=58

Settlers / Rightists

‘Rabin is waiting for you’ spray-painted on leftist’s building
Ynet 8 Nov — The phrases “price tag” and “Rabin is waiting for you” were spray-painted overnight Tuesday near the residence of Peace Now official Hagit Ofran in Jerusalem.  Tuesday evening marks the Jewish anniversary of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination.
The unknown vandals also wrote “Hagit Ofran – zal (of blessed memory)” and “Givat Assaf” – an illegal outpost in the West Bank which is slated for evacuation by the State. The Right is protesting against the planned razing of a number of illegal outposts.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4145329,00.html

Settlers ‘chop down 30 olive trees’ in Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 8 Nov — Israeli settlers chopped down more than 30 trees in Madama village south of Nablus on Monday, a local official said. Village council head Ihab Tahseen said residents from Yitzhar settlement destroyed Palestinian-owned trees and sprayed anti-Arab slogans in Hebrew.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=435496

Israeli forces

Israeli police harass Palestinian car drivers during Adha Eid
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 8 Nov — The Palestinian natives in occupied Jerusalem complained lately, especially during the days of the Adha Eid of being fined arbitrarily by Israeli policemen and municipal inspectors for alleged traffic violations. Many Palestinian car drivers and pedestrians reported that Israeli policemen and municipal inspectors were stalking them in all traffic areas in the holy city, in an attempt to fine them directly, sometimes without any reason and other times without giving any traffic direction or guidance as it is normally followed by policemen in other countries.
link to Palestinian Information Center

Witnesses: Israel erects flying checkpoints in Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 8 Nov — Israeli forces on Monday erected flying checkpoints around Nablus in the northern West Bank, witnesses said. Soldiers were searching cars and checking identity cards at checkpoints put up in Beita village, at the entrance of Yitzhar road and east of Nablus city, locals told Ma‘an. Abdul Abu Reeda told Ma‘an soldiers detained his nephew Ayoub, 25, at a flying checkpoint between Nablus and Huwwara. Ayoub was taken to an unknown destination, his uncle added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=435516

Activism

PSCC organizes Palestinian ‘Freedom Rides’ on settler buses next week
PNN 8 Nov — …The rides, planned for the afternoon of November 15 and beginning in Ramallah, are being promoted as an act of civil disobedience protesting Israeli access restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank. Ten of eleven major West Bank cities have at least one entrance blocked off and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there are currently 522 checkpoints in the territory.“The Freedom Riders seek to highlight Israel’s attempts to illegally sever occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, and the apartheid system that Israel has imposed on Palestinians in the occupied territories,” according to the press release. The riders will “attempt to board” buses on the 15th, but there is no precedent suggesting they will be allowed or prohibited. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10844

Freedom Waves flotilla

Video: Democracy Now! correspondent on Gaza flotilla describes Israeli detention
Mondo 8 Nov — Democracy Now! correspondent Jihan Hafiz was among those detained in the Israeli interception of the Gaza-bound ships despite her press credentials. While jailed, Hafiz says an Iraeli official told her, “the Israeli government does not see my reporting, or Democracy Now!’s, as reporting, as journalism. It’s to them activism. They said that this form of journalism is actually activism.” Hafiz had been filing daily reports for Democracy Now! from the Canadian ship named “Tahrir.” She spent three nights behind bars, where she was strip-searched and denied phone calls to relatives for 48 hours.
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/democracy-now-correspondent-on-gaza-flotilla-describes-israeli-detention.html

Reporters without Borders condemns arrest of 5 journalists aboard flotilla
PARIS (WAFA) 8 Nov — Reporters Without Borders firmly condemned on Tuesday the arrest of five journalists who were aboard two Gaza-bound solidarity vessels, according to a press release … The five journalists were Lina Attalah of the English-language version of the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, Casey Kauffmann of Al-Jazeera English, Ayman Al-Zubair of Al-Jazeera, Jihan Hafiz of New-York-based Democracy Now! and Hassan Ghani of Press TV, the Iranian government’s English-language TV news station. Three of the journalists, Attalah, Kauffmann and Al-Zubair, were deported from Israel the next day. None of Attalah’s equipment, which had been taken by the Israeli navy, was returned to her. Hafiz, who is American, and Ghani, who is British, are still being held, the release said.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17976

Gaza

Siege of Gaza / Orhan Kemal Cengiz
Hurriyet 7 Nov – As I was watching an Internet video that related the story of Gazan fishermen, the word “tragicomic” rolled off my lips. Every tragedy unfortunately spawns its own comedy. This video showed us a fishing trip of a Gazan fisherman who cast his anchor even though he was only halfway through his tea, which he drank from his narrow tea glass. It turned out he had already reached the maritime boundaries drawn by Israel. Fishermen can only venture about 6 km off of the coast. Thus began the tragic comedy. As I was waiting for the fisherman to throw in his fishing lines and nets, he wore the top half of a wetsuit and underwater goggles. He then jumped into the water with his jeans on …  Since they have been entrapped inside this tiny coastal strip and are barred from venturing out into the open sea, they have already depleted the fish stocks, of course. Now they dive in and hunt for the fish that are swimming between rocks and inside sea caves. To adapt, the fishermen have evolved into free-divers.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=siege-of-gaza-2011-11-07

Discrimination

Parliamentarians slam no-women policy at radio station
JPost 8 Nov — The Knesset Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women held a stormy hearing on Monday on a policy of the independent haredi radio station Kol Berama that prevents women from working as radio broadcasters and from being interviewed on the station’s programs. The session, held at the request of MK Uri Orbach (Habayit Hayehudi), was attended by a number of MKs, including committee chairwoman MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), MK Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism) and Orbach, as well as Kol Berama broadcaster Avi Mimran and Shai Ben-Maor, a representative of the station’s owners.
“The voice of our matriarch Rachel, after whom Kol Berama is named, would not be able to be heard on this station,” Orbach declared.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=244771&R=R2

Most of Israel’s expendable workers are women / Merav Michaeli
Haaretz 8 Nov — As usual, discussions about subcontracted work, phrased in masculine plural in Hebrew, euphemistically disguise the fact that as in the cases of teachers or social workers, the people in question are exploited women laborers. These women workers earn starvation wages, and are treated like merchandise by their employers.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/most-of-israel-s-expendable-workers-are-women-1.394277

Political news

Fund transfer to PA to be renewed
Ynet 8 Nov 07:54 — Israel is likely to renew its funds transfer to the Palestinian Authority following the US Congress’ decision to unfreeze some $200 million in Palestinian security assistance, Jerusalem sources told Ynet on Monday.  Israel collects about $100 million in various taxes on behalf of the PA, which it transfers to Ramallah on a monthly basis. The transfer was suspended following the PA’s pursuit of full membership in UNESCO.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4145310,00.html

Lieberman rejects Germany’s request to free up Palestinian tax money
Haaretz 8 Nov 01:44 — Lieberman tells German FM Guido Westerwelle sanctions on Palestinians are necessary because of unilateral steps they were taking, senior FM officials says
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/lieberman-rejects-germany-s-request-to-free-up-palestinian-tax-money-1.394261

No consensus on Palestinian UN bid
UNITED NATIONS (AP) 8 Nov — U.N. diplomats say a report summing up the views of Security Council members on the Palestinian application for U.N. membership concludes there is no consensus among the 15 members. The four-page report says the council is divided between those who support Palestinian membership, those who can’t support it now and therefore would abstain, and those who believe the application doesn’t meet the criteria for membership and oppose it, according to diplomats. Portugal’s U.N. Ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, the current council president, sent the report to the committee on admissions Tuesday morning, the diplomats said … The committee, including all 15 members, will discuss the report Friday.
http://www.waaytv.com/news/world/story/No-consensus-on-Palestinian-U-N-bid/7OMhEyhhSUyzR5NniK4rQg.cspx

Quartet to meet Israelis, Palestinians on November 14: US
WASHINGTON (Reuters) 8 Nov — Envoys of the “Quartet” of Middle East peace mediators will meet separately with Israeli and Palestinian officials on November 14 in Jerusalem, their latest effort to jump-start the stalled peace process, the State Department said on Tuesday. “We expect these will again be Quartet envoy meetings with the parties separately,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a news briefing, saying the meetings would seek to encourage both sides to offer concrete proposals on land and security concerns.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45209676

Other news

Reporters confirm Sarkozy’s ‘Bibi slip’
Ynet 8 Nov — World media takes interest in French, American presidents’ G20 faux pas, which made their private views of Israeli PM embarrassingly public … Sarkozy was overheard as saying that he “could not stand” Netanyahu and that he believed him to be “a liar.” According to the report, Obama replied: “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4145537,00.html

Bibitours: Overseas trips involved 30 Knesset ethics violations / Richard Silverstein
8 Nov — Between 1999-2008 Bibi Netanyah and his family took scores of overseas trips which were paid for, at least in part, by private individuals or Jewish advocacy groups.  There are explicit ethics rules for ministers and Knesset members to follow in financing these trips.  He took scores of such trips and among them Drucker found at least 30 violations of the guidelines. A member must receive permission to take such trips and report who will be funding them.  The trips must be solely for State-related business.  He must also report who, if anyone, is joining him and who is funding their trip.  In some cases, Bibi got proper permission, in some he didn’t.  In some cases, he got permission for himself but not for his wife and family.  In such cases, the member is supposed to pay out of his own pocket for unapproved family members.  On no account, may private individuals or organizations pay for the expenses of someone who hasn’t been approved.  This happened multiple times.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/11/08/bibitours-overseas-trips-involved-30-knesset-ethics-violations/

Israeli planes violate Lebanese airspace
PressTV 8 Nov — Six Israeli planes have reportedly entered Lebanese airspace in violation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1701. The Lebanese army issued a statement on Tuesday, saying that two Israeli reconnaissance aircraft violated Lebanese airspace over the southern village of Ramish at 6:20 a.m. local time (0420 GMT). The two Israeli planes left the Lebanese airspace at 1:50 p.m. local time (1150 GMT). Four Israeli warplanes also entered Lebanese airspace over the southern village of Kfar Kila at 10:00 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) on Tuesday, and circled over the region before they left the airspace from above the southern town of Alma at 11:30 a.m. local time (0930 GMT).  Israel violates Lebanon’s airspace on an almost daily basis.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/209051.html

Gaza doctor tragedy central in Israeli stage show
ACRE, Israel (Reuters) 8 Nov — An Israeli mother-and-daughter play performed at a recent theater festival climaxed with the tale of the killing of a Gaza doctor’s family, a 2009 event that brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict deep into Israeli living rooms. “Explosive: War tourism” culminated with the sounds of an audio recording of Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish’s cries, heard live at the time on Israeli TV, as he pleaded in a phone call to an Israeli reporter friend asking him to get the army to stop shooting at his house. Three of Abuelaish’s daughters and a niece were killed by a tank shell during Israel’s December 2008-January 2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip.
http://news.yahoo.com/gaza-doctor-tragedy-central-israeli-stage-show-145801021.html

Iran

Rattling sabers and beating drums: Fear-mongering over nuclear Iran reaches fever-pitch / Nima Shirazi
Mondo 8 Nov – NOTE: It has been over ten months since I wrote “The Phantom Menace: Fantasies, Falsehoods, and Fear-Mongering about Iran’s Nuclear Program“, a timeline of false U.S., Israeli, and European assertions regarding the supposed inevitability and immediacy of a nuclear-armed Iran, hysterical allegations that have been made repeatedly for the past thirty years. Whenever new predictions and claims about Iran’s nuclear program are released, I have added updates to my original piece. To read all past updates, click here. Culled from the past few months, here are some [of] the latest.
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/rattling-sabers-beating-drums-fear-mongering-over-nuclear-iran-reaches-a-fever-pitch.html

Russia: Swift Iran sanctions ‘serious mistake’
AFP 7 Nov — FM Lavrov urges int’l community to continue talks with Islamic Republic, says military strike would be ‘catastrophic.’ Israeli politician: Delivery of S-300s may compel attack
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4144953,00.html

IAEA confirms Iran worked on building nuclear bomb
Reuters/JPost 8 Nov — UN nuclear watchdog report finds Iran carried out testing relevant for nuclear weapons; US says it needs time to study report before taking further steps; Israel handed IAEA intelligence for report.
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?ID=244833&R=R1

“No ‘smoking gun’ in IAEA report on Iran”
Ynet 8 Nov — Diplomats say that while UN’s nuclear watchdog’s report on Iran will offer an abundance of evidence as to military nature of its nuclear work, it still lacks truly damning proof …  Diplomatic sources told the Daily Telegraph that a fifth round of international sanctions was “not a slam dunk,” mostly because Russia and China are likely to oppose them. “The current sanctions already cover Iran’s nuclear program and military industries,” a UN source told the Daily Telegraph. “Pursuing more sanctions would mean going after oil and gas resources, which Russia and China won’t abide.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4145373,00.html

Iran vows to pursue nuclear program despite speculation of Israeli plans to attack
DPA 8 Nov — Ahmadinejad advises U.S. and Israel to ‘stop and be ashamed’, as media frenzy debates consideration of military option; Iran president says UN nuclear agency chief is an American pawn … Ahmadinejad was speaking ahead of the publication Wednesday of a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA], which is expected to disclose new details of Iranian efforts to build a computer model of a nuclear warhead. Western nuclear experts have told Haaretz, in anticipation of the IAEA report, that Iran will be ready to build a nuclear bomb within a few months if it desires. Israel, the U.S. and some other Western countries were awaiting the release of the report before considering harsher steps against Tehran, while media reports have speculated that Israel may launch a military attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iran-vows-to-pursue-nuclear-program-despite-speculation-of-israeli-plans-to-attack-1.394395

Iranian nuclear program has no military dimension, Salehi says
Tehran (IRNA) 8 Nov — Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Tuesday that Iran has no weapons program and there is no document to prove military dimension for Iranian nuclear program. He told a western media reporter while arriving in Yerevan, Armenia that the International Atomic Energy Agency director general Yukiya Amano has documented his report on counterfeit evidences at the behest of Washington.
http://www.irna.ir/ENNewsShow.aspx?NID=30653379&SRCH=1

‘Kill one of us and we’ll kill dozens of you’, Iranian army commander warns US
AFP 8 Nov — Iran will kill “dozens” of U.S. military commanders for each Iranian commander murdered, if covert hits urged by two U.S. defense analysts last month are carried out, a senior Iranian military chief warned on Tuesday … In remarks directed to the U.S. military, he stressed “you must not forget that American commanders are present and travel around in Afghanistan, Iraq and regional countries.” His comments referred to October 26 testimony by two hawkish U.S. military experts to a U.S. congressional committee looking at possible ways to hit back at Iran for an alleged plot by Iranian officials to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington. In that session, a retired four-star general who helped plan the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, Jack Keane, and a former CIA agent, Reuel Marc Gerecht, argued for the targeted, covert murders of Revolutionary Guards officers.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/11/08/176058.html

‘Not even 500 Israelis will be killed’
PressTV 8 Nov — Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak has dismissed as “delusional” recent reports regarding the increasing possibility of Tel Aviv launching a military strike against Iran. “Israel had not yet decided to embark on any operation,” Barak said on Tuesday. “War is not a picnic. We want a picnic. We don’t want a war,” Reuters quoted Barak as saying. Barak also criticized reports suggesting that as many as 100,000 Israelis could be killed if Iran attacks Israel in retaliation against Tel Aviv aggression. “There will not be 100,000 casualties, and not 50,000 casualties, not 5,000 casualties and not even 500,” Barak said.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/209063.html

U.S.

Justices wary of bid by American born in Jerusalem
AP 8 Nov — The Supreme Court on Monday waded warily into Middle Eastern politics and a dispute between Congress and the president in the case of a 9-year-old Jerusalem-born American who wants his passport to say he was born in Israel. The justices appeared unlikely to rule for Menachem Zivotofsky, whose family sued the government after State Department officials refused to list Israel as his place of birth in his American passport .. The Obama administration says the passport policy is in line with longstanding U.S. foreign policy that says the status of Jerusalem should be resolved in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. But Congress passed a law in 2002 seeking to give Americans born there the right to have Israel listed as their birthplace. The justices seemed reluctant to question the administration’s position that the law was an improper congressional attempt to speak for the country on foreign policy.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/11/08/176020.html

Another Eid in Guantánamo Bay / Jeb Sprague
AJ 8 Nov — As the Middle East – and Muslims around the world – complete the celebration of Eid al Adha, it is important to remember that there are almost 200 men who just “celebrated” their tenth Eid behind bars in the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, with no end in sight to their imprisonment. Two of those men are my clients, Kuwaiti citizens Fawzi al Odah and Fayiz al Kandari. Both are being held in “indefinite detention without trial”, a category previously unknown under US law until it was adopted by the Obama administration, despite President Obama’s claims that he wants to close Guantánamo. There are many tragic mysteries about Guántanamo, but the one that puzzles me most is why these two Kuwaitis remain there. Obama administration officials say that they would like to release more prisoners, but cannot find countries to accept them. Yet the government of Kuwait, at the highest levels, has repeatedly asked President Obama and the US government to return the Kuwaiti citizens.
http://english.aljazeera.net//indepth/opinion/2011/11/2011118131517244568.html

Clinton: US interests sometimes clash with Mideast reform
WASHINGTON (Reuters) 7 Nov  – U.S. interests sometimes clash with its support for democracy in the Middle East, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged Monday, but she said democratic freedoms were the best guarantee of stability in the long run.
In a speech on Washington’s response to the Arab Spring that toppled several U.S. allies, Clinton implicitly faulted the military council that succeeded former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for moving too slowly on elections.
She also acknowledged that the United States sometimes deals differently with pro-democracy movements, saying no two situations are the same and that diverging U.S. interests sometimes force it to adopt varying stances.
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111108/pl_nm/us_mideast_clinton_democracy

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