“What exactly is not clear about this story?”

Standing on Jaffa Road with a group of journalists waiting for transport to Tel Aviv for a briefing by senior former Israeli military analysts about “Alternatives to a Two-State Solution”, we saw first a black security motorcycle with two black-helmeted and clothed men riding on it, racing in the direction of the Central Bus Station. [...]

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“I told him: anything is possible”

On Tuesday evening, at almost the very last minute, I received a press invitation to attend a reading
by the enormously important and iconic Palestinian poets, Mahmoud Darwish, in Ramallah.
I had just returned from Ramallah — and experienced the worst traffic situation I had ever been in, around the fortress Qalandia checkpoint which Israel now describes [...]

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Gaza journalist forcibly undergoes stripping and full body cavity search by Israelis at Allenby Bridge

My friend and colleague Robert J. Parsons, a journalist in Geneva, sent me the news item below– a report from the Inter Press Service (IPS) about what happened to one of its correspondents.
Angry Arab also has a link to the Gaza Today blog here which picked up the same story as it was reported [...]

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Israeli revised plan for rebuilding Mughrabi Gate ramp may be approved soon

“Tensions may be heating up again about Israeli reconstruction plans for a damaged ramp leading from the Western Wall Plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem, where Jewish worshippers pray at Judaism’s most sacred and revered site, up to the Mughrabi Gate entrance to the Haram as-Sharif mosque esplanade, the third holiest site of Islam. [...]

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Some background on the Shebaa Farms

Some interesting details on the Shebaa Farms issue from Nicholas Blanford in The National, an English-language paper published in Abu Dhabi :

“Securing the liberation of the Shebaa Farms has been a cornerstone of Fouad Siniora’s diplomacy since 2005 when he headed his first government. Mr Siniora said he believes that an Israeli withdrawal from the [...]

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Israel keeps Gaza border crossings sealed again Thursday

There is something very awful about this.
The “tahdiya” or cease-fire or truce that Egypt negotiated between Israel (which refuses to talk to Hamas because of conditions that Israel said the UN has imposed) and Hamas was supposed to lead — after a halt in violence from both sides which started last Thursday — to a [...]

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Women’s undergarments are highest demand items for Gaza smugglers

An article reported from Gaza by the Christian Science Monitor on 16 June informs us that:
“…Severe fuel shortage has forced motorists to buy soybean oil to replace the diesel fuel and gasoline that Israel now provides to Gaza at a severely diminished quantity. Cooking oil sells for around $8 per gallon while gasoline on [...]

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The Spin in Sharm

Despite the spin from both sides, it is not entirely clear what happened in a one-hour summit meeting on Tuesday between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
An Israeli official told journalists who were waiting at the summit site as the meeting was underway that he expected the two leaders would discuss [...]

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Journalists at work - covering the Olmert-Mubarak summit in Sharm as-Sheikh

Here are glimpses of the press at work — covering the summit meeting today in Sharm as-Sheikh between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Husni Mubarak:

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Egyptian President Mubarak arrives in Sharm as-Sheikh to meet Israeli PM Olmert

Here are shots taken from our airport bus as we were waiting to go into the terminal at Sharm as-Sheikh.  We were trying to cover the summit meeting between Egyptian President Husni Mubarak, who is shown arriving in his Egypt Air jet taxing around the runway to a concrete reinforced protocol bunker.

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