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House okays Egypt aid cut over Gaza smuggling, human rights
The House of Representatives voted Friday to withhold $200 million in military funds for Egypt until Cairo shows it is stopping weapons-smuggling from Egypt to the Gaza Strip and improving human rights abuses.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/874065.html

Lieberman slams plan to free PA tax funds as gesture to Abbas
Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) on Friday slammed the government's plan to release Palestinian tax funds as a gesture to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas ahead of a summit in Egypt on Monday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/873849.html

A restructured PLO
By: Dr. Azmi Bishara
The US and its Western followers revealed what democratisation of the Arab world actually means to them when they rejected the results of the Palestinian legislative elections and instead began an economic boycott. The result was escalating internecine violence fuelled by the lure of money.
http://tinyurl.com/24354o

Detainees in the Negev on Hunger Strike
Palestinian sources reported on Thursday that Palestinian detainees imprisoned at the Israeli Negev Detention facility continued their hunger strike for the second day in protest to the decision of the prison administration to bar high school detained students from conducting their final exams which are slated for the end of the month.
http://www.imemc.org/article/49105

Weiner: Cut Aid To West Bank And Gaza
U.S Representative Anthony Weiner will introduce an amendment to the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, banning all aid, including humanitarian aid, from the United States to the Palestinian Authority, according to a June 15 press release from Weiner's office.
http://www.rockawave.com/news/2007/0622/Community/094.html

Aid agencies warn of humanitarian crisis in Gaza
GENEVA - Aid agencies on Friday warned of a 'major humanitarian crisis' in the Hamas-held Gaza Strip, where food stocks could run out in two weeks, unless Israel's cargo blockade eases further.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070622-0726-mideast-gaza-aid.html

Open Bethlehem Exposes Israel's Systematic Strangulation of the Holy City
During a Jan. 22 presentation in All Saints Church in Pasadena, CA, Maxim Sansour explained that when the second Muslim Caliph, Omar Ibn al-Khattab, set eyes on Bethlehem in the mid-7th century, he realized it was an extraordinarily important Christian shrine, and decreed that Muslims were not to disturb a single stone of the holy site. Now Israel's illegal wall has turned Bethlehem into a prison for its inhabitants. The formidable barrier has cut off 70 percent of Bethlehem's agricultural lands from the urban center. His grandfather owns five acres of farmland, Sansour noted, but has been notified that Israel is confiscating it for "security purposes."
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/May-June_2007/0705056.html

The desecration of democracy
Part of a conquer and divide strategy is timing. Why did Israel wait until this moment to consider Mahmoud Abbas a "partner committed to peace" when his positions have hardly changed since his election over two years ago? Why is Israel only now considering freeing Marwan al-Barghouthi, a convicted Fatah activist? Why only now release the frozen government taxes ($570 million) that the Palestinians have desperately needed since Israel started withholding them in March of last year?
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7050.shtml

PLO is "an illegal and illusory authority," PLO political chief Qaddoumi says
Bethlehem - Ma'an - The Palestine Liberation Organization is as a "an illegal and illusory authority," the head of the PLO's political department, Farouq Qaddoumi, charged on Thursday. He also accused Palestinian President Abbas of misusing his presidential authorities.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23211

Palestine: Tears of Despair, Tears of Anger
As we witness Palestine further divide itself in the midst of a Hamas/Fatah factional split, I have felt both despair and anger. The reasons for the despair should be obvious. The Palestinian people are no closer to national self-determination than they were when the Oslo Peace Accords were signed in 1993; the Israeli 'apartheid wall' moves forward, further dividing the land; the USA does not even pretend to be an honest broker, giving unqualified support to any and every action carried out by the Israeli government; and the people of Palestine continue to suffer. Indeed, their suffering seems to worsen with each passing day.
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-06/21fletcher.cfm

5,000 Palestinians stuck on Egyptian side of Rafah crossing
The Palestinians at the crossing have no place to rest, sleep or take shelter in this hot weather; without electricity, sufficient water or food and having run out of money, many are believed to have been there for at least fifty days. The stranded Palestinians urged President Abbas and the government to intervene in order to allow them access to their homes and families in the Gaza Strip. They also called on Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, to take steps to ease their return.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=23226

Twilight Zone / Like chickens in a cage
By Gideon Levy
"People are talking about Ehud Barak, that he is now defense minister and is threatening to enter Gaza and liquidate all the Hamasniks. So people are really afraid. He is a disciple of Yitzhak Rabin, he will have no mercy on us, he will liquidate us - that is what people fear. There are people, Gideon, who say: Why did Abu Mazen remember only now, after Hamas took everything? And why is Israel giving him the money only now?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/873826.html

Oren Ben-Dor: Israeli apartheid is the core of the crisis
It is unethical to blame Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem for events in Gaza. T he apartheid label should not be restricted to the post-1967 occupation. There is a more fundamental form of apartheid, of which the occupation is but a manifestation. Apartheid in historic Palestine originated, and has persisted, in the ideology of creating a state in which Jews would be separated from non-Jews in terms of their stake in the political community. The well-planned ethnic cleansing, in 1948, of 750000 indigenous people was apartheid practice par excellence.
http://www.counterpunch.org/bendor06232007.html

"They see us all as criminals"
Irish activist Caoimhe Butterly, shot by the IDF in December 2002 while trying to protect children in Jenin, has been in Baddawi Refugee Camp for the past month, and has a few words to relay about the Lebanese army apparently acting like the worst parts of the IDF or the US forces: "The beatings were severe, but bearable — but it was the insults, the humiliation of being called a dog, an animal, having my wife and daughters verbally degraded to me, that was the real assault."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7049.shtml

Palestinian fantasy vs. reality
"The United States was intent to see the Hamas government fail. Not only did it work assiduously to block international funding, but it poured arms and money into militias controlled by the discredited nationalist forces that had lost the election. To add to the pressure, Israel refused to transfer tax revenues paid by Palestinians to the new government. A prime beneficiary of US largesse has been Muhammad Dahlan and his Preventive Security Force, which was decisively defeated last week by Hamas. Dahlan, who is about as popular in Gaza as Ahmed Chelabi is in Iraq, is Washington's man."
http://tinyurl.com/299j2y

All In The Family: Disharmony In Gaza
By Remi Kanazi
Rubbing Hamas' face in the dirt (along with the 1.4 million people of Gaza) like schoolyard bullies may seem like an after school delight, but it will only foment more hatred against Israel and more disgust with Fatah
http://www.countercurrents.org/kanazi220607.htm

Democracy Defeated
By Ramzy Baroud
All my forewarnings have suddenly been actualised, all at once: Gaza has descended into total and utter chaos; Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has capitulated to Israel and to the United States without a shred of reservation; and the Palestinian democratic experiment, which was until recently an astounding success, has been smashed to pieces
http://www.countercurrents.org/baroud220607.htm

An Active Complicity In Israel's Terror
By Ghali Hassan
On June 5, 2007, the pro-Zionist U.S. House of Representatives passed Resolution 152, endorsing Israel's occupation of Palestinian land and Israel's illegal and violent "reunification of Jerusalem". The passing of the Resolution was a deliberate violation of UN Security Council and in contempt of world peace.
http://www.countercurrents.org/hassan220607.htm

How Low Can He Go?
President Bush registers the lowest approval rating of his presidency-making him the least popular president since Nixon-in the new NEWSWEEK Poll.
June 21, 2007 - In 19 months, George W. Bush will leave the White House for the last time. The latest NEWSWEEK Poll suggests that he faces a steep climb if he hopes to coax the country back to his side before he goes. In the new poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday nights, President Bush’s approval rating has reached a record low. Only 26 percent of Americans, just over one in four, approve of the job the 43rd president is doing; while, a record 65 percent disapprove, including nearly a third of Republicans.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19352087/site/newsweek/

Are Americans Unready to Boil?
How much worse does American democracy have to get before public outrage demands what the Constitution’s Framers gave us in case citizens lost confidence in the federal government? Haven’t Americans lost enough trust to use what elites have fought and feared? Can’t we trust ourselves to have a peaceful populist rebellion through an Article V convention before we boil? If America’s distracted citizen-frogs stay glued to their large plasma TVs, SUVs, electronic devices, and obese-friendly foods they may find themselves boiled. Our constitutionally protected freedoms will be gone. George W. Bush has shown how easily that is done. Our middle class will be gone. Our national sovereignty will be gone - sold out through globalization chicanery. For all but the rich, our quality of life and standard of living will be gone. The Upper Class will be richer and happier in their opulent gated McMansions and private entertainment and vacation spots, protected and pampered by their private police and servants.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/06/are-americans-unready-to-boil/

The bumbling envoy
By Robert Fisk
Stupefaction comes to mind. I simply could not believe my ears in Beirut when a phone call told me that Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara was going to create "Palestine". I checked the date–no, it was not 1 April–but I remain overwhelmed that this vain, deceitful man, this proven liar, a trumped-up lawyer who has the blood of thousands of Arab men, women and children on his hands is really contemplating being "our" Middle East envoy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk06232007.html

[Image by Ben Heine]