Sabah

Les Israéliens avaient annoncé un gel des constructions en Cisjordanie ? Eh ben non !
Report : Israel approves new settler homes in West Bank | Maan News Agency
▻http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=593668

ISRAEL-BDS. Alors que les Israéliens justifiaient la défection de Hawking par des raisons de santé, Hawking confirme qu’il s’agit bien là d’un boycott d’Israël en soutien aux Palestiniens. Un coup sévère au moral des Israéliens.

Stephen Hawking confirms he is boycotting Israeli conference - Diplomacy & Defense - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/stephen-hawking-confirms-he-is-boycotting-israeli-conference-1.519951

British physicist Stephen Hawking has dropped plans to attend a major international conference in Israel in June, citing his belief that he should respect a Palestinian call to boycott contacts with Israeli academics.

The University of Cambridge released a statement Wednesday indicating that Hawking had told the Israelis last week that he would not be attending “based on advice from Palestinian academics that he should respect the boycott.”

University officials said they had “previously understood” that Hawking’s decision was based solely on health concerns — he is 71 and has severe disabilities — but had now been told otherwise by Hawking’s office.

The decision means that one of the world’s most famous scientists has joined a boycott organized to protest Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Hawking, who has ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, cannot move his body and uses a wheelchair. He communicates through a computerized voice system.

The conference, which is in its fifth year, gathers world leaders and intellectuals for public discussions on a variety of subjects.

Hawking last visited Israel in 2006 at the invitation of the British Embassy.

IRAN. PROJECT ON MIDDLE EAST DEMOCRACY (POMED) publie un rapport sur la politique de réforme et la prochaine élection présidentielle iranienne
▻http://pomed.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/POMED-Policy-Brief-Farhi.pdf

As the Islamic Republic of Iran approaches its eleventh presidential election, the conflicting impulses that have shaped its 34-year life are once again manifest. The constitutional mandate to hold regular elections, whose competitiveness helps legitimize the Islamic Republic and deepen the allegiance of its citizens to the Islamic system, is again confronted with the need to place limitations on the contest in order to prevent the candidacies of those branded as “outsiders.”
The upcoming contest comes on the heels of two bruising presidential elections in 2005 and 2009: the former went to a second round, while the latter resulted in large protests and a subsequent crackdown by the security establishment. Ghosts of both cast long shadows on
the coming election, though for different reasons. The traditional conservative political establishment is fretting over the possible emergence of another relatively unknown and highly polarizing candidate “not up to the task” of managing the government and economy, as was the case in the 2005 election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. From this perspective, trouble lies in the possibility of continued economic ruin and international isolation through a combination of populist policies, managerial incompetence, and stridence.
Uncertainty regarding Iran’s fluid political environment remains. There exists potential for a large number of votes cast against a “preferred” candidate, even at the last minute. The working assumption is that the electoral environment and the field of candidates will be manipulated to assure that the establishment candidate is elected without tampering on election day. But an “engineered” election was also the plan in 2009, when a presumably washed up and uncharismatic former
Prime Minister, Mir Hossein Mousavi, was approved to run against Ahmadinejad, whose populist policies at least assured him support
in rural areas and smaller cities. The 85 percent participation rate registered in 2009, which was 22 percent greater than the participation rate in 2005, was unexpected—and grounds for public skepticism and post-election protests.


Carla Del Ponte désavouée pour ses accusations contre les rebelles syriens
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2013/05/07/carla-del-ponte-desavouee-pour-ses-accusations-contre-les-rebelles-syriens_3

L’agence de presse iranienne Fars News Agency commente longuement la cybe-rattaque syrienne contre Israël.

Fars News Agency : : Syrian Electronic Army Hacks Israel’s Main Infrastructure (SCADA)
▻http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107168206

The SEA said it has hacked into the Haifa infrastructural system at around 22:00 (local time) Monday night, underlining that the hacking was done in retaliation for the recent Israeli strike on a research center in suburban Damascus.

“We would like to announce that in response to the unfair and illegal attacks of Israel on DATE, the SEA has penetrated one of the main infrastructural systems (SCADA) in Haifa and managed to gain access to some sensitive data,” SEA said in a message left for the Israeli operators of Haifa SCADA system.

“Also, the SEA is now able to cause irrecoverable damage to the Israelis’ infrastructural systems,” it added.

Israel staged an airstrike on Syria on Sunday, hitting the Jamraya research center in the vicinity of the Syrian capital, Damascus. Syria said the Israeli regime had carried out the airstrike - the third in the last few months - after heavy losses were inflicted on al-Qaeda-affiliated groups by the Syrian army.

The SEA warned that it could cause a major blast by continuing the attack on the servers of the Haifa infrastructural systems, but avoided further move due to inescapable human casualties as it did not want a story like the recent accident in Texas which claimed the lives of dozens of the people.

“This message carries a serious warning to the Israeli statesmen. They should know that not receiving a quick reaction to such childish ventures does not show the Syrian inability in doing so, but it is based on wisdom and humanity considerations. We do not approve of killing civilians and innocent people as this is an Israeli type of solution,” added the message.

“Also an advice to those who left their homelands for many years, dreaming a happy and safe life, deceived by politicians whose deed is much far from their slogans; Do the best to express your objection to Israeli policies, since we do not like to see innocent people getting killed like in Texas, US, but this time in Haifa.”

The SEA has recently gathered a name for itself in the hacking market by successful attacks on a wide range of the western media, most notably the hacking of AP Twitter accounts and sending of bogus messages which wreaked havoc on stock exchanges. The hackers tweeted that President Obama had been injured in a bomb attack at the White House, causing a temporary 143-point drop on the Dow Jones industrial average.

In an apparent effort to cause disruption and embarrassment in the West and to spread support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the SEA has so far hacked the Guardian, the BBC (including BBC weather, BBC Arabic Online and BBC Radio Ulster), France 24 TV, the National Public Radio in the United States, al-Jazeera, the government of Qatar, E!, and Sepp Blatter, the president of football’s governing body Fifa, whose Twitter account was hacked.

Cybersecurity experts told the Guardian that the SEA attacks are designed to disrupt and embarrass the West and pro-Israeli lobbies, states and entities.

In the BBC case, the SEA, which emerged two years ago, hacked into the Twitter accounts of the British broadcaster and sent nine bogus tweets in an hour, including some with anti-Israeli sentiments, and others saying “Long Live Syria”, and the “Syrian Electronic Army Was Here”.

Guardian itself believes that the SEA attack was a reprisal for a number of leaked emails from the Assads and their inner circle that it had published.

Hours after the cyber-attack began, the SEA said it has targeted the Guardian for spreading “lies and slander about Syria” and said it was in a “state of war with the security team of Twitter”.

But this last cyberattack is certainly a boost in the platform of SEA operations as it required much more sophisticated knowledge and capabilities compared with the previous hackings; giving the Syrian Electronic Army the opportunity to rise to a different level of fame.

SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) is a type of industrial control system (ICS). Industrial control systems are computer controlled systems that monitor and control industrial processes that exist in the physical world. SCADA systems historically distinguish themselves from other ICS systems by being large scale processes that can include multiple sites, and large distances. These processes include industrial, infrastructure, and facility-based processes.

Industrial processes include those of manufacturing, production, power generation, fabrication, and refining, and may run in continuous, batch, repetitive, or discrete modes.

Infrastructure processes may be public or private, and include water treatment and distribution, wastewater collection and treatment, oil and gas pipelines, electrical power transmission and distribution, wind farms, civil defense siren systems, and large communication systems.

Facility processes occur both in public facilities and private ones, including buildings, airports, ships, and space stations. They monitor and control heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems (HVAC), access, and energy consumption.

Hackers usually leave a couple of files for their colleagues to prove that their allegations are true. The SEA has left the following files on its website to show others in the hacking industry that it has had a successful security breach and hacking into the Haifa SCADA system.

LE “FEUILLETON” du PRISONNIER X, alias Ben Zygier continue.
Report: Zygier sabotaged mission to retrieve remains of IDF soldiers - Israel News, Ynetnews
▻http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4377298,00.html

Australian news network ABC reported that the “reckless indiscretion” of the late Mossad agent Ben Zygier, known as “Prisoner X,” led to the abortion of a secret mission aimed to return to Israel the bodies of three IDF soldiers.
 
Israeli servicemen Zachary Baumel, Yehuda Katz and Tzvi Feldman have been missing since the Battle of Sultan Youcoub during the first Lebanon War. It was known the three Israeli tank crewmen were captured and killed by Syrian forces during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
 

Lebanese national Ziad Al Homsi told ABC that he was recruited by Mossad in 2007 to take part in an elaborate mission by the Israeli agency to exhume the remains of the three soldiers.
 
ABC cited Al Homsi as claiming Mossad operatives gave him the exact location of the graves. His job was to organize for them to be exhumed and for the remains to be left at a location disclosed to a second Mossad-sponsored group, who would take over the recovery.

However, in 2009 he was arrested for espionage by Lebanese security forces, which led to the abortion of the entire operation. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail, getting out after only serving three. It remains unclear whether he was, as he claimed, a double agent working for the Lebanese security services to sabotage Israeli efforts, and that his contacts with Mossad were supported and monitored by the Lebanese all along.
 
It appears that in 2008, in an attempt to revive his fading career as a spy, Zygier, a dual Israeli-Australian national, set out on a mission in the course of which he tried to persuade a Hezbollah operative to become a double agent for Israel. Pressed for his own credentials, Zygier cited Al Homsi as being a double agent for the Israeli agency, thereby compromising the Lebanese man’s cover.
 
Following his January 2010 arrest, Zygier was incarcerated in complete isolation at the Ayalon Prison in Ramla. He had died in a high-security cell in late 2010. According to official documents, he committed suicide and a recent State probe into the matter ended with no indictments.
 
’State’s fault’
Following the publication, relatives of the missing soldiers were unimpressed with what they perceived to be an attempt by the secret services to link the failure to retrieve the soldiers’ bodies to the controversial “Prisoner X.”
 
“For 30 years we are hearing about the missing soldiers from the Battle of Sultan Youcoub, but it’s not Zygier’s fault they never found my brother and the other two men; it is the State’s fault,” Farhiya Heiman, the sister of Yehuda Katz, told Ynet.
 
“I am aware of the reports and I do not find there is reason to delve into the details too much,” she added.
 
“The Supreme Court ruled my brother should not be pronounced as fallen in combat, but the State does little to provide the answers.”

Stephen Hawking boycotts Israeli academic conference, Guardian reports - Jewish World News - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/stephen-hawking-boycotts-israeli-academic-conference-guardian-reports-1.519

The world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking joined the academic boycott of Israel when he decided to pull out of a Jerusalem conference hosted by President Shimon Peres in protest of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, British daily The Guardian reported Tuesday.

According the Guardian, Hawking, 71, told Peres that he will not participate in in the annual “Facing Tomorrow” conference in June after consultation with his Palestinian colleagues, and “based on his knowledge of Palestine.”

The conference, which is in its fifth year, gathers world leaders and intellectuals for public discussions on a variety of subjects.

Hawking last visited Israel in 2006 at the invitation of the British Embassy.

Hawking, who has ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, cannot move his body and uses a wheelchair. He communicates through a computerized voice system.

The Guardian reported that although Hawking initially announced his participation in the conference, he received a deluge of appeals to refrain from attending in the last 4 weeks.

Syria cut off from global Internet as civil war rages - Middle East - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/syria-cut-off-from-global-internet-as-civil-war-rages-1.519841

Internet connections between Syria and the outside world were cut off on Tuesday, according to data from Google Inc and other global Internet companies.

Google’s Transparency Report pages showed traffic to Google services pages from the country, embroiled in a civil war that has lasted more than two years, suddenly stopping shortly before 3 PM EDT.

The vast majority of websites within Syria were rendered unreachable as well, other experts said, as the county appeared to shut itself off.

“Effectively, the shutdown disconnects Syria from Internet communication with the rest of the world. It’s unclear whether Internet communication within Syria is still available,” wrote Dan Hubbard, chief technology officer at infrastructure services firm OpenDNS.

“Although we can’t yet comment on what caused this outage, past incidents were linked to both government-ordered shutdowns and damage to the infrastructure, which included fiber cuts and power outages.”

Hubbard wrote on an OpenDNS blog that a similar Internet blackout in Syria occurred in November and lasted three days. About 80 Internet pathways normally are listed by Syrian providers, but only three were being advertised to machines searching for connections late on Tuesday.

The Syrian ambassador could not immediately be reached for comment.

Fars News Agency : : Former Egyptian Envoy : Israel’s Attack to Increase Arabs’ Political Support for Syria
▻http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107168128

Former Egyptian Ambassador to Damascus Mahmoud Shokri said that the Israeli attack on Syria had a positive outcome as it has increased Arab support for the Syrian government.

Diplomatic source : Iranian FM meets Assad | Maan News Agency
▻http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=593247

DAMASCUS (AFP) — Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, whose country is one of Syria’s closest allies, held talks with President Bashar Assad on a previously unannounced visit to Damascus on Tuesday, an Iranian diplomatic source said.

“Salehi arrived in Damascus from Amman and was received by President Bashar Assad,” the source said.

In the Jordanian capital, Iran’s top diplomat called for dialogue between the Syrian regime and “peaceful” opposition groups, warning that the impact of the conflict would affect the entire region.

Salehi’s visit comes after Israel reportedly carried out two separate attacks against Syrian sites last week.

Iran condemned those strikes and has said it is ready to train the Syrian army, which is in its third year of a conflict against rebels seeking to overthrow Assad.

Erekat: PLO not notified of settlement freeze | Maan News Agency
►http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=593212

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel has not notified the PLO of any changes to its settlement activity, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Tuesday, as Israeli media reported a new moratorium on settler homes in the West Bank.

“We have not been notified of any changes to Israel’s colonial plans, including ongoing construction in dozens of Israeli settlements in the Occupied State of Palestine, including in and around our occupied capital East Jerusalem,” Erekat said in a statement.

Israel’s army radio reported Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered a freeze on publishing tenders for new West Bank settler homes to avoid hampering US efforts to renew peace talks.

“What we need are actions and not words," Erekat said in response to the report. “We monitor Israeli activities on the ground on a daily basis.”

Neither Netanyahu’s office nor the housing ministry would comment on the army radio report, which said the premier had gone back on a pre-election pledge to push ahead with thousands of new settler homes if re-elected.

The radio said the tenders were related to construction in the major settlement blocs which are home to most of the 360,000 Israelis living in the West Bank.

Netanyahu’s decision to freeze the tenders was linked to efforts led by US Secretary of State John Kerry to relaunch peace talks with the Palestinians, according to the report.

Hagit Ofran of the Israeli group Peace Now, which opposes settlements, confirmed that the watchdog had seen no evidence of any new tenders published since the start of 2013.

“There have been no new tenders published for settlement construction in the West Bank since the start of the year, and tenders are normally issued every three months,” she told AFP.

“This is not a settlement freeze because construction in the settlements is continuing, but you could say it is a show of restraint by Benjamin Netanyahu who does not want to be accused by the Americans of being responsible for the failure of their efforts to restart negotiations with the Palestinians.”

Report Highlights Corruption In Palestinian Institutions - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/05/report-corruption-palestine-institutions-gaza.html

The annual report for 2013 issued by the Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN) showed that corruption is still rampant inside public Palestinian institutions despite the progress during the past year. It showcased the positive and negative developments that affected corruption in various sectors, focusing on the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, as gathering information from Gaza’s Hamas government is difficult.

Juxtaposition of Israeli action and U.S. inaction on Syria puts more pressure on Obama - Diplomacy & Defense - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/juxtaposition-of-israeli-action-and-u-s-inaction-on-syria-puts-more-pressur

The widespread American backing for the reported Israel Air Force bombings of Syrian targets has three central elements: 1. Deep support for Israel and understanding of its motives 2. Revulsion with President Bashar Assad and a feeling that he had it coming and 3. A certain delight, at least among President Obama’s foes, with the new opportunity to highlight what they perceive as his shameful inaction.

After all, while Obama examines, verifies, calculates and ponders the appropriate U.S. reaction to Assad’s reported use of chemical weapons, Israel is showing the kind of resolute decisiveness that his critics say the president so sorely lacks. “While Obama dithers – Israel acts,” was one such disparaging column published Sunday.

The very same people who claimed that Obama will turn his back at the first opportunity are now derisively portraying his unequivocal support for the alleged Israeli actions as further proof of his reviled “leading from behind” policy. And the apparent ease with which Israel succeeded in penetrating what the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey has described as the “dense and sophisticated” Syrian air defense systems has removed yet another obstacle – or excuse – for Administration’s idleness, as Republican Senator John McCain explained Sunday.

The dramatic videos and stills of thick columns of smoke and fire spouting from the mountains behind Damascus ensured that the reported Israeli raids on Damascus would receive top billing on the influential Sunday talk shows. The juxtaposition between the Israeli resoluteness and what was portrayed as Obama’s dilly-dallying fit in nicely with the current bon-ton inspection of whether the president is already a “lame duck”, so early in his second term, or will become one soon.

One should differentiate, though, between the personal, political and public persona challenges to Obama and their translation into practical actions on the ground. On a PR level, Obama is being portrayed as someone who drew a “red line in the sand” and is now trying to ignore it – and the disingenuous effort of some of his confidantes in the Sunday New York Times to retroactively describe it as an unintended off-the-cuff remark only makes matters worse. “Hoo lo gever” – he’s not a man – as Israelis would chauvinistically say, even in the eyes of those who aren’t sure of the wisdom or the necessity of an American military action.

U.S. public opinion, after all, is far from convinced that the U.S. should lend a helping hand to the Syrian rebels and is only slightly more favorable towards a military effort against Assad’s chemical arsenal. Even the most hawkish of Republican lawmakers are wary of a hasty decision to arm the rebels, lest “we replace one terrible dictator with a terrible ideological movement which is aimed at our destruction” as New York Congressman Peter King said Sunday. And everyone, but everyone, agrees that there should be no American “boots on the ground”, under almost any circumstances.

Americans are tired of the toll taken by Iraq and Afghanistan – 11 soldiers were killed over the last weekend alone – and are widely aware of the crippling economic burden that these two wars have placed on the U.S. economy for many years to come. Obama knows full well that public support for a campaign in Syria is limited - and that the same people who are now egging him on will be the first to blast him when things go wrong.

And if and when that time comes, rest assured, Israel will also be asked to explain how and why it got the U.S. embroiled in yet another Middle East quagmire. By then, the widespread support and universal applause for Israel’s initial forays into Syrian skies will be long gone and forgotten.

Former Bush administration official: Israel may be behind use of chemical arms in Syria - West of Eden Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
►http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/west-of-eden/former-bush-administration-official-israel-may-be-behind-use-of-chemical-ar

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who once served as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff, believes that the chemical weapons used in Syria may have been an Israeli “false flag” operation aimed at implicating Bashar Assad’s regime.

Wilkerson made his astounding assertion in an interview on Current TV, the network once owned by former Vice President Al Gore and recently purchased by Al-Jazeera.

Wilkerson said that the evidence that it was Assad’s regime that had used the chemical weapons was “flaky” and that it could very well have been the rebels or Israel who were the perpetrators. Asked why Israel would do such a thing, Wilkerson said: “I think we’ve got a basically geostrategically, geopolitical inept regime in Tel Aviv right now.”

Report: Tehran car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/report-tehran-car-bomb-kills-iranian-nuclear-scientist-1.406676

Semi-official Fars news agency reports that Ahmadi Roshan, 32, supervised department at Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan; Tehran official blames Israel for bombing.

United States believes Israel conducted airstrike in Syria, CNN reports - Diplomacy & Defense - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/united-states-believes-israel-conducted-airstrike-in-syria-cnn-reports-1.51

Militants used chemical material against civilians near Idlib: Syria - Tehran Times
▻http://www.tehrantimes.com/middle-east/107306-militants-used-chemical-material-against-civilians-near-idlib-sy

Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari has said that the foreign-backed militants in Syria have used chemical material against civilians during an attack on a town near Idlib.

Bashar al-Jaafari said at a press conference on Tuesday that the militants spread the contents of plastic bags containing chemical material during the attack.

Many residents were affected by the armed groups’ “heinous and irresponsible act,” the Syrian envoy said, warning that it was an attempt to “implicate the Syrian government on a false basis.”

Some of the victims were transferred to Turkey for treatment, Jaafari added.

The envoy went on to say that ’today or tomorrow Ankara and Western media would launch a new propaganda campaign against Damascus and claim that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its own people.’

Reports say that two people were killed and 20 others injured in the militants’ chemical attack in Idlib.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama has said Washington did not know how chemical material was used in another recent attack in Aleppo.

The Syrian government requested the UN to dispatch a fact-finding mission to the country after reports circulated that the foreign-backed militants had used chemical weapons against civilians in Khan al-Assal district of the northwestern province of Aleppo on March 19. Over two dozen people were killed and more than 100 injured in the chemical attack.

Obama said at a press conference on Tuesday that, “If I can establish in a way that not only the United States but also the international community feel confident in the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, then that is a game-changer.”

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of government security forces and army personnel, have been killed in the violence.

Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

Syria has been subject to turmoil for anti-Israel stance and opposing US hegemony over Middle East
▻http://www.irna.ir/en/News/80640311/Politic/Syria_has_been_subject_to_turmoil_for_anti-Israel_stance_and_opposing_US_hegemo

Sanandaj, Kordestan Prov, May 2, IRNA — Supreme Leaderˈs representative in Syria, Mojtaba Hosseini said on Thursday that Syria has been subject to turmoil for anti-Israel stance and opposing US hegemony over the Middle East.

Hosseini said that resistance of people in Palestine and Lebanon and popular movements in Libya and Bahrain and other countries have worried the enemy.

He noted that despite US pressure, Iran-Syria relations are good and President Assad continues to cooperate with Iran.

He said that the enemies have attempted to use economic sanctions and social disorder to destabilize Syria.

The Iranian representative in Syria said that the enemy is worried about failing to divide Shia and Sunni Muslims and creating religious war in Syria.

He reiterated that current civil war in Syria is not connected to Shia and Sunni Muslims.

Hojjatoleslam Hosseni criticized the western media outlets for broadcasting distorted news on Syria.

He expressed hope that through implementation of new reforms and restoration of law and order the Syrian security, the economic and political problems would be solved.

Hamas rejects Arab League peace initiative - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/05/201353144052527593.html

The Palestinian Hamas movement has rejected a revised Middle East peace initiative put forward by the Arab League, saying outsiders can not decide the fate of the Palestinians.

In meetings this week in Washington, Arab states appeared to soften their 2002 peace plan, acknowledging that Israelis and Palestinians may have to swap land in any eventual peace deal.

The United States and the Palestinian leadership in the occupied West Bank praised the move. But speaking to hundreds of worshippers in a mosque in the Gaza Strip on Friday, senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh said it was a concession that other Arabs were not authorised to make.

“The so-called new Arab initiative is rejected by our people, by our nation and no one can accept it,” Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas government in the coastal enclave, said.

“The initiative contains numerous dangers to our people in the occupied land of 1967, 1948 and to our people in exile.”

He was referring to the partition of British-mandate Palestine in 1948 when the United Nations voted to divide the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state, and to the 1967 war when Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

’Not for sale’

Hamas refuses to recognise Israel’s right to exist and claims all the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river as rightfully Palestinian. It never accepted the Arab plan which was first presented in 2002.

“To those who speak of land swaps we say: Palestine is not a property, it is not for sale, not for a swap and cannot be traded,” Haniyeh said.

Haniyeh said the rival Palestinian Authority ruling the West Bank, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was to blame for inspiring the softer Arab position because it accepted the need for land swaps with Israel.

Israel rejected the Arab peace plan when it was proposed 11 years ago. Israeli officials gave a cautious welcome to the new suggestions, but the government still objects to key points, including the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees and the creation of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is seeking to revive direct peace talks that broke down in 2010 over the issue of Jewish settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

On Tuesday, he hailed the Arab League announcement as “a very big step forward”.

Israel’s top peace negotiator Tzipi Livni said in New York on Thursday that the modified Arab League initiative could bring new talks closer.

“It is [in] the interests of Israel, the interests of the Palestinians and the interests of the international community,” Livni told reporters after talks with UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

“It is clear that Secretary Kerry is completely involved, determined, and I believe that basically it [new talks] is something that we need to do.”

Defense Sec. Hagel: U.S. rethinking decision not to arm Syrian rebels - Middle East - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/defense-sec-hagel-u-s-rethinking-decision-not-to-arm-syrian-rebels-1.518934

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Thursday the Obama administration is rethinking its opposition to arming Syrian rebels but has not made a final decision.

Asked during a news conference whether the Obama administration was rethinking arming the rebels, Hagel said, “Yes.” Asked why, he said, “You look at and rethink all options. It doesn’t mean you do or you will.”

Hagel was speaking at a Pentagon news conference with British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond, who said any action should be based on “very high quality evidence” that would be admissible in a court of law.

State forces and militias loyal to President Bashar al-Assad committed a “massacre” when they stormed Syria’s coastal village of Baida on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, killing at least 50 people including women and children.

The Observatory said the final toll was expected to exceed 100 dead. Many of those killed appeared to be executed by gunfire or knives, it said, and other bodies were found burned.

Hagel to Israel: Military option will be considered after Iranian elections - Diplomacy & Defense - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hagel-to-israel-military-option-will-be-considered-after-iranian-elections-

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel reportedly told his Israeli counterparts that the Obama administration would examine military options against Iran more closely following the Islamic Republic’s upcoming elections, and their possible ramifications on the country’s nuclear program.

According to a report Friday in the Wall Street Journal, Hagel, together with other senior American officials, reached an understanding with Israel during the defense secretary’s recent visit to Israel. Apparently, the two countries would conduct a joint situation assessment following the elections, and that if diplomatic channels are ruled out, efforts will be shifted to a more detailed discussion of military options.

The report also stated that the United States has redesigned its “bunker buster” bomb, that should be able to penetrate the underground nuclear enrichment facilities at Iran’s Fordow plant.

REVUE DE PRESSE HEBDOMADAIRE DE POMED SUR L’IRAN
(Project on Middle East Democracy)

L’ambassadeur de l’Iran à l’ONU Ambassador Bagher Asadi a été arrêté à Téhéran en mars dernier. Selon certaines sources, les critiques qu’il aurait formulées contres les conservateurs seraient à l’origine de son arrestation. En janvier 2004, Asadi avait publié une chronique dans le New York Times dans laquelle il manifestait clairement son soutien aux réformistes, et reprochait aux "conservateurs" leur mépris des droits de l’homme et des éléments républicains de la gouvernance.

Sources :
Senior Iranian Diplomat Arrested in Tehran BBC Persian [Persian], 05/01/2013
Sources say senior Iranian diplomat detained in March Reuters [English], 04/30/2013

Le Conseil électoral central a approuvé la nomination de nouveaux membres
Des changements pourraient survenir dans le processus d’agrément électoral iranien. Le Conseil électoral central, une instance nouvellement créée, a tenu sa première réunion jeudi dernier et approuvé la nomination de plusieurs nouveaux membres. Cette semaine, le porte-parole du Conseil des gardiens Abbasali Kadkhodai a annoncé des modifications possibles dans le processus d’agrément des candidats à la présidentielle. Selon Kadkhodai, le Conseil pourrait exiger des candidats qu’ils présentent une copie de leur programme et qu’ils le défendent devant le Conseil.

Sources :
Guardian Council Approves Appointees to CEEB BBC Persian [Persian], 05/01/2013
Guardian Council Suggests New Requirements BBC Persian [Persian], 05/01/2013

Rafsanjani et Khatami n’excluent pas de se présenter aux prochaines élections
Dimanche dernier, l’ancien President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani a annoncé à des écrivains et journalistes qu’il n’avait pas exclu de se présenter aux prochaines élections présidentielles. Rafsandjani a insisté sur le fait que le prochain président sera confronté à de sérieuses difficultés, notamment des conflits avec la communauté internationale. De son côté, l’ancien président Mohammad Khatami n’a pas exclu lui non plus de se présenter.

Sources :
Circumstances in Competing Electoral Camps Jame Jam Online [Persian], 04/29/2013
Former Iranian President Doesn’t Rule Out Running Khabar News [English], 04/29/2013
Hashemi : “I haven’t ruled out running" Fararu [Persian], 04/28/2013
Khatami Refuses to Rule Out Run Fararu [Persian], 04/28/2013

New Post for Defendant in Torture Case ? :
On Wednesday, reports emerged that Saeed Mortazavi will replace Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh as Director of the Cultural Heritage Organization. Mortazavi, a former Tehran Prosecutor General, is accused of sending three protestors to the Kahrizak Detention Center in 2009, where they later died. His critics allege that Mortazavi was complicit in their deaths. Despite this potential appointment, the fourth closed-door session of the Kahrizak trial took place on Monday, with the final session scheduled for May 5.

Sources :
Fourth Kahrizak Hearing Held in Closed Session BBC Persian [Persian], 04/29/2013
Summary of Fourth Kahrizak Hearing Fararu [Persian], 05/01/2013
Saeed Mortazavi in New Post ? Fararu [Persian], 05/01/2013

Union sacrée des factions ennemies au pouvoir pour appauvrir la population en Iran
▻http://www.ncr-iran.org/fr/actualites/social/11857-union-sacree-des-factions-ennemies-au-pouvoir-pour-appauvrir-la-popu

Accord du gouvernement et du parlement pour augmenter les prix de 60%

Ces derniers jours en Iran, les prix de tous les produits et en particulier ceux de première nécessité ont été revus à la hausse. Selon les médias officiels, la viande a augmenté de 60%, l’huile de 40%, les haricots de 28%, le riz indien de 14% et le thon de 100%.

Hassan Radmard, vice-ministre de l’Industrie et du Commerce du régime iranien, a estimé que la hausse des prix est en moyenne de 30%. Même si cela reste éloigné de la réalité, en admettant que l’augmentation soit fondée sur ce faux chiffre, il apparait évident qu’une portion significative de la population ne peut même plus acheter de pain.

Ahmad Tavakoli, membre du parlement des mollahs, a récemment constaté : « Les gens ne peuvent même plus manger d’echkeneh (un plat très modeste), parce que l’echkeneh nécessite une cuillère d’huile. »

Les factions ennemies au sein du régime qui se livrent des batailles rangées au parlement et au gouvernement, affichent une union sacrée quand il s’agit de vider les poches de la population et la piller dans des dimensions astronomiques. Durant les délibérations sur la loi du budget de la nouvelle année iraniennes 1392 (mars 2012- mars 2013), le parlement a fixé le cours de la devise à 2350 tomans pour un dollar. C’est plus que le double du taux précédent de 1226 tomans. Cela double le prix des biens importés.

Le parlement a non seulement accepté les taxes écrasantes d’Ahmadinejad dans la loi du budget, mais il les a faites passer de 53.000 milliards de tomans à 55.000 milliards.

Le prix élevé des médicaments et des services médicaux met en danger la vie de millions d’Iraniens. Le président de l’Association des Sciences et Laboratoires d’Iran a déclaré le 16 avril : Les mutuelles étaient censées couvrir jusqu’à 70% du coût des services des laboratoires. Or à présent ils sont pratiquement le contraire qui se produit et avec les nouveaux taux, près de 90% du coût des analyses sont aux frais de la population.

Mehdi Soleimanjahy, un homme du pouvoir à la Direction de l’alimentation et des médicaments en Iran, a affirmé que les prix des médicaments produits en Iran augmenteront de 20 à 30% et ceux des médicaments importés le seront à 100%. Hassan Emami Razavi, sous-directeur des soins au ministère de la Santé, a déclaré que le coût de l’hospitalisation dans les hôpitaux privés est de 700.000 tomans la nuit. Cela représente le double du salaire d’un ouvrier. Les médias officiels ont annoncé une hausse de 53% du coût des admissions dans les hôpitaux publics. La montée des prix n’a pas non plus épargné les services publics comme l’eau, l’électricité, le gaz et le téléphone.

L’accord entre les factions ennemies du régime sur le pillage de la population comprend la seconde phase de la suppression des subventions. Le quotidien Mardomsalari écrit : « Bien que les membres du parlement n’aient pas voté pour la mise en œuvre de la phase suivante concernant des subventions ciblées, le gouvernement, s’appuyant sur les lois déjà adoptées, est pratiquement dans la totale libéralisation des prix et la mise en œuvre de la phase suivante des subventions ciblées dans le pays. »

Ainsi, déchiré par une guerre pour le pouvoir en raison de la mascarade électorale, le régime réagit comme un seul homme quand il s’agit de piller et d’augmenter les prix, tout comme pour intensifier la répression.

Les coûts astronomiques d’une arme nucléaire, du maintien de la dictature sanglante de Bachar el-Assad et du Hezbollah, tout comme les frais exorbitants pour entretenir les forces de la répression que sont les gardiens de la révolution, la milice du Bassidj et les agents en civil, requièrent des budgets mirobolants financés par l’argent public.

Il va sans dire que ce grand pillage s’accompagne de la crainte de la colère d’une population excédée qui se retrouve les assiettes vides à table. Les dirigeants sentent très bien le potentiel explosif qui menace la dictature, en raison de la résistance organisée présente dans tout le pays.

First Israeli Intelligence Squared debate tackles the future of Jewish democracy - National Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/first-israeli-intelligence-squared-debate-tackles-the-future-of-jewish-demo

Intelligence Squared, the renowned international debate forum, launched its Israel operations Tuesday night with a debate on the motion of “If Israel continues on its current course – it cannot remain both a democratic and Jewish State.”

“Since the inception of Intelligence Squared in London there have been a succession of brilliant Israeli orators who have participated in our debates here in London,” John Gordon, one of the two media businessmen who founded the organization in the United Kingdom in 2002, told Haaretz.

“It is therefore with great pride that the IQ2 style of debate - which is the hallmark of the democratic process and which speakers on all sides of the Israeli political spectrum have engaged in here in London with both passion and supreme skill - has been launched in Israel itself.”

Moderated by Haaretz English Edition Editor Charlotte Halle, the filled-to-capacity evening event was held at Tel Aviv’s Museum of Art, and featured Peter Beinart and Michael Melchior for the motion, and Yoram Ettinger and Dan Gillerman against it. As prescribed by the format, which follows the Oxford Union style, the debaters were each given 12 minutes to present their arguments, after which questions were taken from the audience, and concluding statements were made. Voting on the motion took place twice: Once, informally, at the door, and later, at the end of the debate, via ballots.

Opening the debate, for the motion, was Beinart, a New York based political pundit, the author of The Crisis of Zionism, a senior fellow at the New America foundation and editor of The Daily Beast’s blog “Open Zion. Beinart made four concise arguments, pertaining to the question at hand. One: Israel controls the West Bank. Two: Israel is not a democracy in the West Bank. Three: Israeli is making its control over the West Bank ever more permanent. And four: If control of the West Bank remains permanent, he argued, Israel will have impaired not only its democratic character but ultimately its Jewish character as well.

Next up was Ettinger, a former minister for congressional affairs at Israel’s embassy in Washington DC, and a member of the American-Israel Demographic Research Group. Speaking against the motion, he suggested that Beinart, as a non-Israeli, did not understand Arabs, argued that this is a region where any agreement is “carved in ice” and not stone, talked tough on security and the critical need to maintain control of the “mountain regions of Judea and Samaria,” and veered off into lengthy lecture on demography.

Melchior was the third speaker, on Beinart’s side. A rabbi, former cabinet minister and Knesset member, who today also serves as the chief rabbi of Norway, Melchior recounted Hillel’s famous lesson: “Do not do unto others that which is hateful to you. That is the entire Torah. The rest is commentary, go study it." Ultimately, Melchior argued, denying the Palestinians their right to self-determination will “empty the real content of what it means to be a true Jewish state.”

Gillerman, a businessman who served as Israel’s ambassador to the UN during 2003-2008, spoke of Israel’s contributions to the world in the areas of science, high tech and culture. “No other country contributes so much to mankind,” he posited. As to the resolution, he said that, while he is a great “yearner and believer” in peace – he is unwilling “to be frightened into a doomsday scenario” when it comes to Israel’s democracy, and that while Israel’s leaders have risen to the plate when it comes to making peace – the Palestinians have offered up no leader whom Israel can trust.

Before the debate, 44 percent of those attending said they agreed with the evenings motion that “if Israel continues on its current course – it cannot remain both a democratic and Jewish State,” while 26 percent said they did not agree with it. Thirty percent of the audience declared themselves undecided at the start of the debate.

After listening to the speakers, those in favor of the motion were still more plentiful – at 50 percent. But a higher percentage of the undecided said that now disagreed with the motion, with 37 percent voting against it. Thirteen percent of those gathered said they remained undecided – and then everyone, for, against and unsure alike, headed out to the lobby for wine, nuts, more debate and small talk about the hot weather, on which everyone could agree.

Iran likely behind drone that Israel intercepted opposite Haifa coast - Diplomacy & Defense - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iran-likely-behind-drone-that-israel-intercepted-opposite-haifa-coast.premi

Despite the lack of official explanations to the wording of Thursday’s statements, it seems that those responsible for the launching of the drone were the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon. Iran has a long list of grievances with Israel: not only does it consider Israel to be behind the assassinations of the nuclear scientists in Tehran and the cyber attacks on their nuclear program, it has added a relatively new accusation concerning the assassination of the commander of the al-Quds regiment of the Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, near the Syrian border last month. The reliability of this accusation is yet unclear; some reports attributed the assassination to the Syrian opposition.