Remains of Alec Collett found in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley

This is an ugly and traumatic story.
Alec Collett, a former colleague accredited as a journalist at UNHQ/NY in the early to mid-1980s, was one of those internationals kidnapped during the long Lebanese civil war.  Alec was taken from a car near Beirut airport in March  1985, while on a temporary assignment for UNRWA in [...]

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Fatah Conference in Bethlehem

For many of the people attending the Fatah Sixth General Conference that opened today in Bethlehem, Fatah was the hope of their lives.
Fatah was the nationality that most of these Palestinians still do not have.
The membership, mostly men, believed with all their hearts and souls that Fatah would save them, [...]

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Shafik Al-Hout is gone

…probably to a better place. He died today in Beirut, Lebanon, apparently in the hospital. Though he suffered from heart problems for years, and underwent bypass surgery in the United States, news reports today indicate that he died of cancer.

He was born in Yaffa on 13 January 1932, and went into exile with [...]

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My neighbors are all outside

The children just rang my doorbell. My neighbors are all outside, because they’ve heard somewhere, somehow, that we should all be taking precautions and not staying indoors after the earthquake that shook Crete several hours ago, and was felt along the Mediterranean coast of Israel (and of course Gaza as well).
I wonder where they [...]

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Pondering Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza

Israel has asserted its security control over Gaza’s maritime space, but it does not have title to these Mediterranean waters — nor has Israel ever asserted a territorial claim on them.

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Four Katuysha or Grad missiles reported fired from Lebanon onto northern Israel

…and Israel’s Defense Forces have already fired back, shooting artillery at what is believed to be the source of the Katuysha fire.
UPDATE: The IDF has now issued a statement saying: “We view the Lebanese government and military as responsible to prevent such attacks”.
The IDF statement said that “a number of rockets were launched into northern [...]

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New turn in the war on Gaza? UPDATED

At around 0800 hours in Jerusalem (and Gaza and Lebanon), reports came in of three Katuysha missile attacks on the Israeli coastal city of Nahariyya.
Three hours later, there were reports of more Katuyshas falling on the north of Israel. UPDATE: A subsequent report doubt was cast on these reports, which could have [...]

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Israeli Navy confronts and attacks Free Gaza boat headed to Gaza

UPDATED: The sixth Free Gaza expedition that set off last night on what it called a “mission of mercy” to Gaza from the port of Larnaca in Cyprus has been interdicted and attacked on the high seas this morning, the group says.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the ship was escorted back to Cypriot territorial [...]

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Marcel Khalife paid hommage to Mahmoud Darwish — in Amman

To listen to a clip from Marcel Khalife’s song, Passport, based on the poem by Mahmoud Darwish, click here .

Mahmoud Darwish’s final journey took him from the United States, where he died in a hospital in Texas apparently following complications after his third heart surgery, to Ramallah via Amman.
That made it possible for Lebanese [...]

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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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