Fateh member dies in a Jericho prison

Fateh member dies in a Jericho prison
Palestinian media sources in the West Bank reported on Wednesday that one member of Fateh movement died in vague circumstances at the Jericho Central Prison controlled by Fateh security forces and police in the West Bank city of Jericho.
http://www.imemc. org/article/ 57186

Hamas: PA in Ramallah did not release 38 of the movements members
Hamas dismissed media reports that the Fatah allied Palestinian government in Ramallah has released 38 of its members and leaders in the West Bank.
http://www.imemc. org/article/ 57179

Fateh accuses Hamas of arresting one of its leaders in Gaza
Source within Fateh movement, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, accused Hamas in the Gaza Strip of arresting Mohammad Adel Al Masry, member of Fateh's regional council in northern Gaza, after breaking into his home in Beit Lahia and talking him to an unknown destination.
http://www.imemc. org/article/ 57183

Trial of leftist leader Ahmad Sa'adat postponed
The Israeli military court faced by General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmad Sa'adat, convened last week to announce that the trial was postponed for another two months until 25 November.
http://www.imemc. org/article/ 57192

New convoy to break the siege on Gaza to arrive Monday
On Monday a new aid convoy aimed at breaking the siege on the Gaza Strip is expected to enter through the Rafah crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc. org/article/ 57182

Attack focuses new attention on Israelis' divide
JERUSALEM - Sharp differences that have existed for years within Israeli society between ultra-nationalists in the settler movement have been brought into sharp focus following a pipe bomb attack on a prominent peace activist. Better known are the many well known fronts in the Israeli-Palestinian and the Palestinian- Palestinian conflicts including the long running, bloody drama between Hamas and Fatah.
http://www.canada. com/topics/ news/world/ story.html? id=08102ce3- 333c-4f0c- a6b0-1cbcb6a6fd6 f

Hezbollah orders its leaders not to visit Syria
Israeli Newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, reported on Wednesday that after the recent explosions in the Syrian capital, Damascus, Hezbollah party ordered its leaders and prominent members not to visit Syria.
http://www.imemc. org/article/ 57184

American technology stopping Hamas?
US and Egyptian soldiers pair up in recent weeks in a project to uncover Palestinian weapons' smuggling tunnels; 42 tunnels discovered in less than a month.
http://www.ynetnews .com/articles/ 0,7340,L- 3604575,00. html

Egypt to host 'Annapolis 2' peace summit in November
An international summit is to be held in Egypt in November, with representatives from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the members of the Quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. According to a senior official in Jerusalem, the Israeli and PA participants will brief the Quartet over progress made in the ongoing peace talks.
http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/1025598. html

Abbas says hopes Olmert's statements 'deposit' for next government
Speaking to Muslim clerics at Eid al-Fitr celebration, Palestinian president says that if territorial concessions laid out by Israeli PM in recent interview were to be implemented 'we could have peace in two days time'.
http://www.ynetnews .com/articles/ 0,7340,L- 3604251,00. html

Hamas: Fatah rejected 'choice of the people'
Leaders of both Fatah and Hamas called for national unity at the end of the holy month of Ramadan on Tuesday. Leaders said that they hoped unity talks at Cairo would eliminate rifts growing since the last summer's Hamas takeover of Gaza. But the Hamas movement noted in a statement that many Palestinians will reject peace with Fatah for "the division caused by a party (Fatah) that rejected the choice of the people. " De facto Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told Reuters that Fatah officials "cooperated with the occupation against their people. "
http://www.maannews .net/en/index. php?opr=ShowDeta ils&ID=32267

Hamas says no to government of technocrats
PNN - Palestinian diplomatic sources said today that the Hamas party will reject the proposal to form a professional government, that of technocrats, to handle the situation until legislative and presidential elections are held. The impending Hamas rejection comes in response to a proposal made by some Palestinian parties during the pre-national dialogue factional consultations held in Cairo throughout September.
http://english. pnn.ps/index. php?option= com_content&task=view&id=3659&Itemid=1

Palestinian president says Washington trip 'a successful visit'
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said that last week's trip to Washington, DC was "a successful visit. " Abbas told reporters that he and American President George W. Bush included "clear and frank discussions and points. " "We have exactly what is required and I think it was a successful visit," Abbas said. In response to questions on the potential that Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni could become prime minister, Abbas said that "we don't choose their prime minister. " "They are the ones who choose, and we deal with their choice," he said.
http://www.maannews .net/en/index. php?opr=ShowDeta ils&ID=32270

Israeli general says settler violence increasing
undreds of Jewish settlers are engaged in violence against Palestinians and Israeli soldiers who get in their way, Israel's top general in the occupied West Bank said in remarks published on Thursday. "In the past, only a few dozen individuals took part in such activity but today that number has grown into the hundreds. That's a very significant change," Major-General Gadi Shamni said in an interview with the Haaretz newspaper.
http://www.alertnet .org/thenews/ newsdesk/ L2395917. htm

'Hundreds join' settler violence
Hundreds of settlers are engaged in violence against Palestinians and soldiers, a senior Israeli commander says.
http://news. bbc.co.uk/ go/rss/-/ 2/hi/middle_ east/7647991. stm

How I became a target for Israel's 'Jewish terrorists'
Peace campaigner attacked with a pipe bomb tells Donald Macintyre why militant Zionism should be feared. Zeev Sternhell is careful about his choice of words when he unhesitatingly calls the pipe bomb which exploded outside his front door last week "an act of Jewish terrorism." As a Holocaust survivor orphaned by the age of seven and a combat veteran of Israel's wars, Professor Sternhell, 73, who was lucky to have only been injured in the leg by flying shrapnel from the bomb, is "horrified" not for himself but because it might have hit his wife, daughter his grandchildren on one of their sleepovers, or their neighbours. "It was a terror act because they couldn't know who would have been hit."
http://www.independ ent.co.uk/ news/world/ middle-east/ how-i-became- a-target- for-israels- jewish-terrorist s-948610. html

Yesha's balance of fear
The pipe bomb attack on Prof. Zeev Sternhell does not necessarily herald "an escalation of activity by the radical right" and is not necessarily part of the escalation that has characterized the right since the Gaza disengagement. After all, there have been incidents in the past in which people on the left were attacked without any connection to one withdrawal or another - from the intimidating posters of the "Dov" organization [dikui bogdim, suppressing traitors] in the 1970s, to the murder of Emil Grunzweig in 1983, to the explosives placed outside the apartments of journalists and politicians associated with the left by the Sicarii in the early 1990s.
http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/1025605. html

Seth Freedman: In Israel, conscientious objection is disapproved of, unless you're from the ultra-orthodox community
http://www.guardian .co.uk/commentis free/2008/ oct/02/israeland thepalestinians. middleeast

Rattling the Cage: Militias in the mirror
As I write this, Sunday morning, a teenage Palestinian shepherd has been found shot to death near Nablus, which is surrounded by more Baruch Goldstein wannabes than anyplace else in the country except for maybe Hebron. Some Palestinian witnesses say they saw a white car with settlers in it chasing the shepherd. Recently I interviewed a Palestinian shepherd near Nablus who said the settlers in the area harass him all the time, killing his sheep. He complains to the police, the police do nothing. I'm sure they'll do nothing this time, too. Another unsolved murder of a Palestinian in Israel's "heartland." "Nationalistic motives" - Jewish "nationalistic motives" - are suspected. What's new?
http://www.jpost. com/servlet/ Satellite? cid=122201743202 8&pagename=JPost% 2FJPArticle% 2FShowFull

A schizophrenic state
The West Bank separation fence divides Israeli society into two worlds utterly different in their perceptions of reality and of the problems that affect them. On one side are those disturbed by the crisis on Wall Street, by the lack of leadership and the Iranian threat. Few worry about what is happening in the West Bank, and certainly no one visits there. The Palestinians are forgotten when there are no suicide bombings, the settlers are viewed as a strange society, and the peace talks pursued by Ehud Olmert seem like irrelevant spin.
http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/1025607. html

Ramadan in Jerusalem
Jerusalem is the sacred city of all three monotheistic religion, but during the holy month of Ramadan, Muslim followers converge on the city that is home to the oldest Islamic monument. A difficult task in these times.
http://www.france24 .com/en/20081001 -jerusalem- israel-palestini an-territories- al-qasa-ramadan

Month in pictures: Ramadan in Palestine, September 2008
The above slideshow is a selection of images from the month of September 2008. This year, September coincided with the month-long period of Ramadan in the Islamic calendar. This month's photographs feature Ramadan in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
http://electronicin tifada.net/ v2/article9867. shtml

Hasan Abu Nimah - The right of no return
The debate on the Palestinian refugee problem has been confused and badly mishandled. While Israel maintains a consistent position, the Palestinians and the Arabs are often contradictory, vague and inconsistent. For some unclear reason, the refugee problem has, with time, been limited to only one aspect: the right of return. This narrowed the scope of discussion to an extent that not only shifted emphasis but also played well into the hands of the Israeli hardliners who stubbornly deny all refugee rights as well as denying Israel's responsibility in creating the refugee problem, first through the systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestine and then by refusing to allow refugees to come back home. Yet the refugee problem entails more rights than the right of return and should be dealt with on that basis.
http://palestinethi nktank.com/ 2008/10/02/ hasan-abu- nimah-the- right-of- no-return/

VIDEO / Israeli, Palestinian women come together to lose weight
Starting after the Muslim Ramadan and the Jewish New Year, a group of Palestinian and Israeli women will be meeting face to face in Jerusalem. Not for political reasons, not to cast blame on who's right or wrong in the Middle East conflict - these women will be focusing on their waistline, and sharing a simple and common desire to lose weight.
http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/1025567. html

The Explosions in Damascus and Tripoli; Bombs in the Levant
Two bombings in three days have rattled both Syria and Lebanon. And as with most events in the Middle East—especially those that occur in neighboring countries—nothing happens by coincidence. The first took place in Damascus on Sept. 26, killing 17, all civilians. According to Syria's state run news agency SANA, the attack was the result of a suicide car bomber. This past Monday, a second car bomb, this time detonated via remote-control, targeted a bus filled with Lebanese soldiers in the northern city of Tripoli, killing seven and injuring 33.
http://mail. google.com/ mail/?shva= 1#compose

Wednesday: 8 Iraqis Killed, 37 Wounded
Excerpt: At least eight Iraqis were killed and 37 more were wounded in the latest attacks. The lion's share of the casualties occurred during an attack on a shrine in Balad. No Coalition casualties were reported anywhere in Iraq. The Eid al-Fitr holiday continues, so there may be fewer reports than normal coming out of the country. In other news, U.S. and Iraqi casualties were down from the same period last September.
http://www.antiwar. com/updates/ ?articleid= 13537

Deadly attacks hit Baghdad mosques
Several worshippers killed in bombings close to mosques in the Iraqi capital.
http://english. aljazeera. net/news/ asia/2008/ 10/2008102616284 10157.html

Six Iraqis killed in gunfire attack northeast of Baghdad
Six family members were killed and three others injured on Thursday in a gunfire attack on their vehicle near a town in the volatile province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source said. The incident occurred when unknown gunmen showered with bullets a minibus carrying the family of 10 persons while traveling near the town of Maqdadiyah, some 100 km northeast of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/ 2008-10/02/ content_10142307 .htm

Sept sees 440 civilians, security staff killed in Iraq
The number of Iraqi civilians and security personnel killed in insurgent and militia violence in September was 440, little changed from August, security officials said on Wednesday.
http://www.arabianb usiness.com/ 532854-sept- sees-440- civilians- security- staff-kill- in-iraq

Maliki says Iraq ready to compromise on US security pact
Iraqi Premier Nuri al-Maliki said Monday that the government was ready to compromise to reach a security accord with the United States, saying the country still needs US troops despite the recent drop in violence.
http://www.dailysta r.com.lb/ article.asp? edition_id= 10&categ_id=2&article_id=96406

Sahwa fighters warn Iraqi government
Sunni fighters who turned their guns on al Qa'eda say Iraqi government must continue to support them or risk a return to chaos.
http://www.thenatio nal.ae/article/ 20081001/ FOREIGN/82003349 6/1041/rss

Marines accused in Iraqi slayings refuse to testify against each other
Lawyers say two sergeants will not provide court-martial testimony. The pair also refused to testify at the August federal trial of their former squad leader, who was subsequently acquitted of killing four Iraqi prisoners. In August, a former Marine sergeant charged in the killing of four Iraqi prisoners was acquitted in federal court -- in large part because two Marine sergeants refused to provide key testimony against him.
http://feeds. latimes.com/ %7Er/latimes/ middleeast/ %7E3/409005469/ la-me-marine2- 2008oct02, 0,1855819. story

US soldier faces court-martial in Iraq killings
Army Spc. Steven Ribordy was part of a patrol accused of killing four Iraqi prisoners in spring 2007 who were bound, blindfolded and shot before being dumped in a canal. Ribordy, who is not believed to have taken part in the actual shooting of the prisoners, is scheduled to be court-martialed Thursday, charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Last month another soldier, Spc. Belmor Ramos, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven months in prison and a dishonorable discharge. Ramos, 23, testified that he stood guard as the killings were carried out.
http://ap.google. com/article/ ALeqM5hYtcV7GUHR C88uGXnQ8Hl6I5lv bAD93I7G000

The Ho Chi Minh trail leads to Baghdad
McCain still believes that in Iraq and Vietnam the problem was the wrong strategy, not the wrong war. It may be the last thing in this campaign McCain says that's true to his core beliefs and record, but he's wrong. Dead wrong.
http://www.guardian .co.uk/commentis free/cifamerica/ 2008/oct/ 01/john.mccain. iraq.vietnam

"The Age of the Warrior": Robert Fisk on the U.S. Elections, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Israel-Palestine
Robert Fisk is Britain's most celebrated foreign correspondent and has borne witness to countless tragedies in the Middle East for over three decades. With the publication of a new collection of essays, Fisk joins us to talk about the U.S. elections and their bearing on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Israel-Palestine.
http://www.democrac ynow.org/ 2008/10/2/ the_age_of_ the_warrior_ robert

www.TheHeadlines. org