A photojournalist wounded when Israeli troops used
force to disperse a peaceful demonstration in Bil’ein
village, west of Ramallah.

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period.

Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF wounded 3 Palestinian civilians, including 2 cameramen, in the West Bank. In the West Bank, during the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall in the West Bank. As a result, Muhib Mohammed Asaad al-Barghouthi, 46, photographer of al-Hayat al-Jadida Newspaper, sustained wounds by two bullets to the feet. Al- Barghouthi was transferred to Palestine Medical Compound in Ramallah for treatment. Also Mohammed Ateya al-Tamimi, cameraman of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlement in Nabi Saleh village, sustained wounds by a tear gas canister to the right foot. A third Palestinian demonstrator also sustained wounds by a bullet to the right leg. PCHR fieldworker was unable to get the personal information of the third wounded person as he came from another village and he was not transferred to any hospital or medical center for treatment. On 31 January, Imad Ahed Khalil Abu Hashem, 21, sustained shrapnel wounds by a sound bomb when IOF used excessive force against a peaceful demonstration in Beit Ummar, north of Hebron. Additionally, dozens of Palestinian civilians and human rights defenders participating in peaceful demonstrations suffered from tear gas inhalation. [...] Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 56 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 12 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children and a university professor. In the Gaza Strip, on 29 January 2012, IOF, backed by military vehicles and apaches, moved into Gaza International Airport, in the far southeast of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip amid indiscriminate firing. IOF arrested Hajjaj Yousif Ehmeid al-Soufi, 21, who is a university student and Ahmed Hussein Awad Abu Athra, 20, who is a member of the Palestinian National Security Service. Al-Soufi and Abu Athra are from al-Shouka village in the east of Rafah. Restrictions on Movement: Israel had continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

Israel's top sociopaths are busy little warmongering bees: Barak: If sanctions fail, Iran must be hit --Ya'alon says Tehran is developing missiles capable of reaching the United States. 03 Feb 2012 Claiming that all of Iran's nuclear facilities are vulnerable and that a military option is real and ready to be used if sanctions fail, Israel's top political and military leadership issued a series of warnings to the Islamic Republic on Thursday in some of the most candid comments on the [alleged] nuclear threat in years. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said there was a consensus among many nations today that if diplomacy and sanctions failed to stop Iran, a military strike should be launched. "If sanctions don't achieve the desired goal of stopping [Iran's] military nuclear program, there will be a need to consider taking action," he declared.

Haaretz: 'Certain countries' could take Iran nuclear matter into their own hands, U.K. official says
Haaretz: Panetta lets stand report that Israel may attack Iran by June
Russia Today: ‘Israel to strike Iran in April, May or June’ – US Defense Sec
John Glaser: Israel Ramps Up Push for Attack on Iran
ANSWER: “No War on Iran” protests Feb. 4 set for at least 56 cities - 12 noon at the White House

Anti-Semitism must be condemned, exposed, and persecuted – but to keep warning that the next holocaust is around the corner is intellectually dishonest, morally problematic, and politically unwise. - The Holocaust is one of humanity’s most terrible historical episodes and the greatest horror that has befallen the Jewish people. It must be remembered and it must be studied. The Holocaust must, by no means, be used for political purposes. Never, and by no one.
It is time for Benjamin Netanyahu to stop misusing the Holocaust. I want to make it very clear: I do not compare Netanyahu’s use of the Holocaust to either the obscene abuse of Holocaust paraphernalia by Haredi demonstrators, nor to Glenn Beck’s smearing of George Soros. But in order to protect the memory of the holocaust, Netanyahu must stop using it as a trump card to score political points. Doing so cheapens the Holocaust; it clouds the mind, and it distorts historical and political judgment.

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up 320 Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and occupied Jerusalem in the first month of 2012, a researcher specialized in prisoners’ affairs said on Wednesday. - Riyadh Al-Ashqar said that 53 children were detained in this sweep the youngest being six-year-old Ali Al-Dirbasi in occupied Jerusalem. He added that the detainees also included four lawmakers, including parliament speaker Dr. Aziz Dweik, eight women, and an ex-prisoner who was liberated in the exchange deal between Hamas and Israel. Ashqar said that the Israeli courts passed and renewed administrative detention verdicts against 50 Palestinians.

There was a moment in a report from Tunisia by the BBC’s Wyre Davies when I could not stop myself laughing. I was listening to it on the Corporation’s generally excellent World Service radio. (In my view this particular BBC service is generally excellent because unlike all other BBC news and current affairs outlets, radio and tv, it often reflects some of the truth about what is happening in and over Palestine that became Israel)....

During a broadcasted meeting of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, CIA Director, panel Chairperson indicate they met Tamir Pardo in Washington this week; U.S. official: [allegedly] Iran willing to attack U.S. targets if threatened. - The clandestine Washington visit was exposed during a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which was participated by CIA Director David Petraeus, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate panel. During the meeting, Feinstein asked Clapper whether or not Israel intended to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, with the top U.S. intelligence official answering that he would rather discuss the issue behind closed doors.

The Independent: Israel sets up elite command unit to strike behind 'enemy' lines

The Israeli prison service (IPS) carried detained Islamic Jihad leader Sheikh Khader Adnan to hospital after deterioration of his health condition, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a statement on Tuesday night. - It recalled that an IPS committee told the prisoner that in the event he continued to refuse liquids it would force feed him, after which Adnan opted to drink water and a potassium pill. Adnan is expected to appear in court on Wednesday to look into his lawyer’s demand for his release or to endorse an administrative detention ruling. Lawyer of the association said that the prison administration told her that Adnan decided to refrain from having liquids in protest against depriving him of meeting his lawyer. She added that the administration decided to force-feed the detainee if his condition worsened.

PIC: Israel to break Adnan’s hunger strike by force
Stephen Lendman: Khader Adnan Mohammad Musa: Israeli Prisoner of Conscience

Electronic Intifada: Protesters attacked, injured during commemoration for Palestinian teen murdered by Israeli settlers

In an effort to appeal to right-wing sentiments ahead of an election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has reinstated subsidies for Jewish settlers in the West Bank and appointed a panel in an attempt to legalize illegal settlements. [...] These latest moves are helping to break down recent low-level peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials. ”They are adding obstacles at a time when everyone is intensifying efforts to try to resume peace talks,” said Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib. “I think with every additional settlement activity, the feasibility of having two states is diminished.”

A recent report has revealed that the Israeli regime has increased the number of its overseas covert operations in countries such as Sudan, Lebanon and Iran over the past year. - "Most of the details about the operations are classified, including the exact number, but according to foreign reports, the IDF has operated in places such as Sudan, Lebanon and Iran," the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday. The daily said that the Israeli military has “a number of units that specialize in covert operations.” Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz “decided in December to establish the 'Depth Corps' -- a new unit that will oversee operations deep in enemy territory,” the report added. The report comes as Iranian officials have many times pointed to the fact that Israel is behind terrorist attacks against Iranian scientists.

On January 13th the Atlanta Jewish Times featured a column by its owner-publisher suggesting that Israel might someday need to “order a hit” on the president of the United States. - In the column, publisher Andrew Adler describes a scenario in which Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu would need to “give the go-ahead for U.S. based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel.” The purpose? So that the vice president could then take office and dictate U.S. policies that would help the Jewish state “obliterate its enemies.” On January 13th the Atlanta Jewish Times featured a column by its owner-publisher suggesting that Israel might someday need to “order a hit” on the president of the United States.

America’s frenzy over “diabolic” Iran has its roots not on the Potomac riverside, but rather on the banks of Tel Aviv’s Yarkon River: appeasing the US Jewish community has become an inevitable idiosyncrasy of the US presidential campaign. - When America beats the drums of war over Iran, it may not always be driven by the Islamic state's alleged nuclear intentions. Would-be US presidential candidates aren't shy when it comes to voicing their anti-Iran rhetoric in front of America's influential Jewish community. And America almost never misses an opportunity to praise its best ally. “Our iron-clad commitment, and I mean iron-clad, to Israel’s security has meant the closest military cooperation between our two countries, in history,” announced US President Barack Obama from a rostrum in Washington. And the American President did not forget to point a proverbial punch at Israel’s greatest adversary. “Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal,” Barack Obama insisted. However, for many American Jews and Israeli supporters, Obama’s war of words against Tehran doesn't go far enough.

The Israeli military says a drone that can fly as far as Iran has crashed in central Israel on a routine experimental flight.

The military says there were no injuries in Sunday’s crash, and it was investigating the incident. The Heron TP drone is also known locally as the Eitan. It has a wingspan of 86 feet (26 meters), making it the size of a Boeing 737 passenger jet. It is the largest unmanned aircraft in Israel’s military arsenal.

The drone figures to be featured prominently in any potential Israeli operation against Iran and its expanding nuclear program. Heron TP could provide surveillance, jam enemy communications and connect ground control and manned air force planes. It’s unclear if is could carry a deployable payload in a potential strike.

PressTV: Israeli drone crashes during test flight

The Palestine New and Info Agency, WAFA, reported that a Jewish settler illegally took over Palestinian land near the northern West Bank city of Jenin by enclosing the land in a fence and uprooting it, claiming that it belongs to him. - The land in question is located near Nazlat Zeid village, and is located behind the Israeli Annexation Wall. WAFA said that, last week, the settler, Known as Eli, fenced off a land that belongs to Abdul-Raouf Barry and some of his relatives, and claimed that he “rented the land from the Israeli government." The land is privately owned by the Barry family. Abdul-Raouf added that the family always planted the land, but was prevented from reaching it after Israel built the Annexation Wall, as the land became isolated behind it. It is worth mentioning that settlers of the Shikda and Hananit illegal settlements are conducting ongoing attacks against Palestinian orchards that belong to several residents of Nazlet Zeid village, Al-Arqa village, and Ya’bod town. Approximately 120 Dunams of lands became totally isolated behind the Wall in that area.

Stephen Lendman: Profile of a Rogue State

Such public displays have been incredibly common in recent years, but US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey’s emergency visit to Israel last week may well have had a sense of genuine urgency not often seen. - That’s because increasingly, the long-standing Israeli threats to attack Iran are being taken as a distinct and imminent possibility. Sanctions and announcements related to impending embargoes by the international community seem aimed more at placating Israel and convincing them to hold off on the attack.

Pepe Escobar: Iran Not Isolated - Audio
Jim Lobe: Growing Elite Opposition to Military Option Against Iran

For Republican candidates seeking Jewish vote in the 2012 US presidential election, it is an open season to launch scathing attacks on the Palestinians and to show the Zionist side of their faces. - These candidates have been competing with one another in a cannibalistic way for months to take the most hard line position against the occupied people of Palestine. In a TV talk show on Thursday, one of these candidates Mitt Romney, the most likely to represent his party in the election, said US president Barack Obama sacrificed Israel by his policies, while his party's mate Newt Gingrich reiterated his racist slurs against the Palestinians and labeled them as an invented people. Romney claimed that the presence of Hamas (a resistance movement founded in 1987 during the first intifada) and its supporters among the Palestinian leaders was the reason behind the absence of peace between the Palestinian and Israelis. During a debate aired by US TV channels, Romney also said the [occupied] Palestinians teach their school children how to kill Jews, while the Hamas-Fatah speeches deny the Jewish people their right to statehood and call for destroying Israel. He added that the Israelis would be happy to have a two-state solution, but the Palestinians reject this solution and want to eliminate the state of Israel.

'No One Can Go Out' Insists Steinitz. - In an interview today with Bloomberg Businessweek, Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz rejected the European Union’s ban on importation of Iranian crude oil, insisting it doesn’t go nearly far enough. Instead, Steinitz called for the international community to impose a full naval and aerial blockade across all of Iran so that “no one can even go out [sic].” This is the only option with any chance of success, he said. Steinitz said a good model for his plan was the Cuban blockade by the United States in 1962, an effort which nearly ended with the annihilation of all life on earth in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Peter Symonds: Israel prepares for war against Iran - Washington’s allies in Europe are getting ready for war as well. French and British warships accompanied the aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, into the Gulf last Sunday. British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond declared on Monday: “The UK has a contingent capability to reinforce its presence in the region should at any time it be considered necessary to do so.” [...] Claims that Iran is on the point of constructing a nuclear weapon are not supported by facts. The latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report—a political document designed to justify the latest US and European sanctions against Iran’s oil exports—provided limited evidence of Iranian research related to aspects of building a nuclear bomb. Much of the “evidence” came from US, European and Israeli intelligence sources. Most of the research projects were discontinued after 2003. Iran continues to deny any plans to build nuclear weapons.

The United States has been brought to the humble state of acting as an attack dog for the Zionist entity, an American political analyst tells Press TV.

The United States is no longer a super power that 'can make decisions that are in her own best interest,' but the country is like an 'unleashed dog' that is simply kowtowing to the Israelis, said Mark Glenn, of the Crescent and Cross solidarity movement in a Wednesday interview. The Idaho-based analyst referred to US President Barack Obama's Tuesday night State of the Union address as 'just one more proof in that direction [US obedience to Israel]'. Obama highlighted the US loyalty to Israel in his speech which was delivered to a joint session of Congress, saying "Our ironclad commitment -- and I mean ironclad -- to Israel's security has meant the closest military cooperation between our two countries in history." The US president's speech is actually a speech "that was written by Israel's foreign policy planners and that means the United States is fighting Israel's wars for her, wherever they may be, if it's Iraq, if it's Afghanistan, if it is Libya, if it is Iran," Glenn said.

A prominent member of the Saudi royal family has called for a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East, warning of the potential for a nuclear arms race in the region. - An Iranian nuclear weapons program would certainly be a concern to Saudi Arabia, who competes with Iran for regional influence, but the opinion of the U.S. intelligence community, the Obama administration, and the latest IAEA report is that Iran’s enrichment is so far civilian in nature. In May 2010, all 189 signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – including Iran – tacitly agreed to a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East and called for a conference in 2012. Finland will be hosting that event this year. But Israel has refused to support a nuclear weapons-free zone for the region, reluctant to give up its own. Israel also is not a signatory to the NPT. These facts have arguably destabilized the region, leaving open the possibility of a nuclear arms race in the region, as Turki warned.

In a meeting on Monday between U.S. State Department and Israeli officials, the U.S. officials promised to extend loan guarantees to Israel for the next three years. The $3.8 billion in loan backing is in addition to the $3 billion a year in aid given to Israel by the U.S. government. - Israel is the only recipient of U.S. foreign aid and loans that is not considered a ‘developing’ nation, with an annual GDP of $235 billion ($29,800 per capita). In contrast, the next biggest recipient of U.S. aid, Egypt, receives less than half of the amount given to Israel and has a GDP of $6,200 per capita. Every other recipient of US aid has a GDP that is below that of Egypt. The U.S. Congress recently approved a guaranteed $30 billion in aid to Israel over the next 10 years. This aid, unlike assistance provided by the U.S. government to other countries, has no requirements, and is provided without stipulation as to how it should be used.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Aqsa foundation for endowment and heritage (AFEH) has accused Jewish fanatics of destroying many headstones in the Islamic cemetery in Bisan. - AFEH said in a statement on Wednesday that it visits the deserted cemetery all yearlong and spray chemicals to combat weeds, adding that a delegation of the foundation visited the graveyard on Tuesday and discovered the destruction. It said that it maintains the graveyard within its annual maintenance program of sites of religious significance, adding that it rebuilt many graves over the past years that were the target of similar attacks.

Mahmoud Abbas the unelected Palestinian leader was in London last week holding discussions with David Cameron the Prime Minister at Downing Street. However, a planned meeting with British Jewish Leaders was cancelled by the Prime Minister of Israel Benyamin Netanyahu.

British Jews cancel meeting with Abbas in wake of pressure from Netanyahu

According to Haaretz British Leaders and the U.K. Israeli Embassy pushed for the meeting, however the order came from Tel Aviv saying not to go ahead. Such incidents can only add to the thorny issue of where the loyalties of The Leaders of British Jewry lie. More on this subject can be found here.

AIPAC: The Voice of America — Part 1: The Orange and the Pea
AIPAC: The Voice of America — Part 2 The Treasonous Dollar Drain

Aziz Dweik's six-month imprisonment is an attempt by Israel to thwart reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, says his office. - An Israeli military court has ordered the speaker of the Palestinian legislative body to be jailed for six months without trial after he was arrested at a checkpoint last week. Aziz Dweik, a member of Hamas and a senior elected politician, was imprisoned "without charge or legal justification", a statement from his office said. It claimed Israel was attempting to thwart moves towards reconciliation between the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas. Dweik was arrested at a checkpoint near Ramallah last Thursday. According to reports, he was handcuffed and blindfolded by Israeli soldiers, who said he was being detained for "involvement in terrorist activities". Dweik has been the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council since elections six years ago. However the PLC has not sat since the summer of 2007, when Hamas – which had won elections the previous year – took control of Gaza in a bloody battle with Fatah.

PIC: Israel imprisons Dweik for six months without trial
PIC: Hamas condemns Israel's systematic detention of lawmakers
Khalid Amayreh: Dweik's abduction is state terror, pure and simple

Attacks by Islamist group Boko Haram have killed at least 935 people since the sect launched a violent campaign in 2009, including 250 this year alone, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. - "More than 935 people have been killed in some 164 suspected attacks” since Boko Haram launched its campaign of shooting and bomb attacks in July 2009, the New York-based global rights group. "In the first three weeks of January 2012 alone, more than 253 people have been killed in 21 separate attacks,” it said. It said 185 police and residents were killed in coordinated attacks targeting mainly police stations in Kano — the country’s second largest city — on January 20, Boko Haram’s deadliest single operation.

Jason Ditz: Boko Haram – An Overview on America’s Latest‘Threat’ [The CIA's latest "Islamist" outfit]

Alexander Cockburn writing about Sheldon Adelson's financing of Newt Gingrich:

"Some things don’t change in American politics, and rich people sitting in Las Vegas with pots of cash is one of them. Joel McCleary, a friend, remembers fund-raising in Las Vegas when he was working for the Jimmy Carter campaign in 1976. The crucial Pennsylvania primary was coming up and the Carter people (their chief fundraiser was Morris Dees) needed a big wad of cash for the final push against Henry “Scoop” Jackson of Washington, known as “the senator from Boeing,” also running for the Democratic nomination and favored by powerful labor chieftains in Pennsylvania.
Joel was told the go-to guy for untraceable campaign cash was Hank Greenspun, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun. Greenspun was a notoriously tough egg, former gun-runner for the Haganah, the man who, in the midst of the Cold War witch hunts, outed Senator Joe McCarthy in the Sun as a homosexual. Joel was told to act manly. Greenspun duly received him in his office. “Why the hell should I get money for Jimmy Carter?” he asked.
“Because Jimmy Carter is going to be president,” Joel answered boldly, “and if you don’t support his campaign he’ll fuck you.”
Greenspun told Joel to come back in two hours. He returned to find Greenspan sitting at a table surrounded by other toughs. In the middle of the table was a paper bag. “So the Baptist fuck wants money,” Greenspun growled, as he pushed the bag over to Joel. “Remember, this comes from the state of Israel. Don’t you ever forget it"

Is Barack Obama running for reelection as President of the United States or Prime Minister of Israel? A new Obama campaign video makes it increasingly hard to tell, and even more ominously ratchets further the Israelization of US politics. - False hopes of change: US President Barack Obama was elected in 2008 amid expectations that he would be the president who would at last bring some balance – and less abject subservience – to the US relationship with Israel. I knew this consensus was wrong, as I had documented Obama’s early pandering to extreme Zionists from the moment he decided to seek the US Senate seat he won in 2004, and wrote about it in “How Barack Obama learned to love Israel.” Now as Obama faces a tough reelection – and accusations from Republicans that he is insufficiently subservient to a foreign state – Obama is doubling down with a shocking video in which leaders of a foreign state – many themselves responsible for war crimes – are drafted in to attest to the US president’s commitment to this foreign state and his willingless to do whatever it takes in its service. It’s all part of a “phony war over which US party loves Israel most.” America & Israel: An Unbreakable Bond: The 7-minute film titled America & Israel: An Unbreakable Bond alternates video and audio of Obama speaking before the Israel lobby, AIPAC, and other Zionist groups, and clips of Israeli leaders endorsing Obama’s leadership. It begins and ends with the US flag and the Israeli flag side by side – thus bringing the Israeli flag directly into the US election campaign. Although the clips of Israeli leaders, including President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy and Ambassador Michael Oren appear to have been taken from interviews, they are cut to look as if they were provided specifically for the purpose of endorsing the president. The film even includes a clip of Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister from the Yisrael Beitenu party whose extreme anti-Palestinian policies include advocating the transfer of Palestinian citizens of Israel. Obama wants us to know he is proud to have the support of Israeli ethnic cleansers. As such, Obama is legitimizing the role of foreign – although certainly only Israeli leaders – to participate directly in US campaigns. Can we imagine Obama issuing a video in which he is endorsed as pro-Mexican by the President of Mexico, or pro-Canadian by Canada’s prime minister? It’s inconceivable.

America Vanquished, Part 1: America as an Israeli Colony
America Vanquished, Part 2: America under Jewish Rule

The Death of American Democracy - Video
AIPAC: The Voice of America — Part 1: The Orange and the Pea - Video
AIPAC: The Voice of America — Part 2 The Treasonous Dollar Drain - Video

The Zionist Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre (Bicom) has collaborated with the state-controlled British Office of Communications (Ofcom) to ban the alternative English-language channel Press TV in the UK, a political analyst says.

“With anti-Iran sabotage activities high on its agenda, Bicom has worked closely with Ofcom towards eliminating a critical voice: Press TV,” Ismail Salami, Iranian author and Middle East expert, wrote in an article published on Press TV on Sunday. Ofcom revoked Press TV's license and removed the channel from the Sky platform on January 20 for what it claimed to be the news network's breach of the Communications Act. The British media regulator also served Press TV's London office with an order to pay a 100,000-pound fine. “An office with intimate ties to the [British] Royal Family, Ofcom has issued the verdict under the sway of some influential parties in the government and the Bicom firm to boot,” Salami added. He went on to explain the activities and objectives of the Israeli-sponsored company, pointing out that as a “London-based” organization “tasked with inseminating the Zionist political ideology, Bicom also funds those who are in one way or another involved with anti-Iran activities.” “Apart from garnering support for the Zionist regime among Britons, the office also serves as a bridge between the Mossad and MI6,” with its current head, Lorna Fitzsimons, a member of the parliamentary lobby group Labor Friends of Israel (LFI), Salami elucidated.

The Iranian author also pointed to the October 2011 scandal over Adam Werritty -- an “influential member” of Bicom and “an unofficial chief of staff” to the former British Defense Minister Liam Fox -- and his efforts to subvert the Islamic Republic of Iran. “Werritty was financially backed by murky sources such as Bicom. And he was considered an influential member of the organization and a highly regarded agent for Mossad,” he noted.

Gilad Atzmon: Liam Fox Is Not a ‘Useful Idiot’
Gilad Atzmon: This Is How Israel Runs The British Press
Ismail Salami: Unfolding a plot: Mossad at work
Craig Murray: Matthew Gould and the Plot to Attack Iran
Jonathon Blakeley: Atlantic Bridge, Liam Fox, Adam Werritty & Israel

Stephen Lendman: UK Government Suppresses Truth
AWIP: Britain bans Iran-based TV channel

Every week, I watch videos of the weekly anti-occupation protests all over the West Bank, documented by excellent video journalists like TamimiPress, HaithamKatib, Davivreeb, YisraelPNM and many others. Every week there is new material to comment on. In every video you would see a brutal act by an Israeli soldier that requires accountability, but typically the act passes away at the end of the day without any of the soldiers being held accountable for their crimes. Often, we find human rights organizations compiling video footage and working to hold the criminal soldiers accountable; B’tselem is one of the leading human rights centers in this field. In the video above, by YisraelPNM, the video description notes that in minute 6:38 of the video, a masked soldier is seen holding a rifle capable of firing metal bullets coated with rubber or another kind of live ammunition. The point here is that the soldier, unlike any of his colleagues, is wearing a full face mask in order to hide his identity in case he were to be held accountable if he seriously injured or killed a Palestinian unarmed protestor.

Khalid Amayreh: "Jewish state" is euphemism for Jewish fascism
IMEMC: Trial Of Dr. Dweik Delayed Until Tuesday
PCHR: Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

The tale of the DC Five – the five Beltway bloggers at two prominent Democratic Washington thinktanks who have been smacked down (and one fired) for being insufficiently pro-Israel – is hardly a shock to those who know their history. But before we get into that, a few details on what is only the latest chapter in the story of how the War Party operates in this country. [...] The Isra-bots will “argue” that since Iran represents an “existential threat” to Israel’s very existence, anyone who opposes a war with Tehran is calling for a replay of the Holocaust. If you’re for peace, and see no vital US interest in going to war with Iran, well then you’re a “Holocaust-denier.” [...] The case of the DC Five is meant to sow fear among the policy analysts and thinktankers who inhabit the Washington Beltway: “do not cross the line,” they are telling them – and the closer we get to war with Iran, the faster the boundaries of the impermissible are growing. There is a method to this madness: it is a preemptive strike aimed at opponents of US intervention, and on the left as well as the right it is turning out to be quite effective.

Israeli drones have been detected spying on Turkish military units in southern Turkey for the PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party), according to Today’s Zaman, Turkey's English version of the mass-circulation Turkish daily Zaman. The PKK is considered by the US and EU to be a terrorist organization. The Jerusalem Post is also on the story. First, TODAY'S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL

Turkish intelligence agencies prepared a report after the detection of two Israeli Herons in Hatay and Adana roughly two months ago, claiming that the Herons are collecting intelligence on Turkish military units in order to aid PKK operations in those regions. The report asserts that the PKK's training camps in northern Syria, near Turkey's Hatay border “where Turkish military border posts are relatively weak,” were established in those locations based on intelligence collected by the UAVs. The report also claims that Kenan Yıldızbakan, a PKK member who commanded an assault against a Turkish naval base in İskenderun in 2010, has made repeated trips into Israeli territory, reinforcing suspicions of a possible link between Israel and the PKK.

AMSTERDAM, (PIC)-- Palestinians in Holland have declared their intention to seek a court order for the arrest of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu on his visit to the Netherlands scheduled to start on Thursday. - The Palestinian home, a society formed by Palestinians living in the Netherlands, said in a statement on Wednesday that it would seek the court order in view of the Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity during the latest war on Gaza. It said that Netanyahu’s visit to Amsterdam, the headquarters of the International Criminal Court, posed as a blatant challenge to this court and to what it represents. The statement recalled that the Israeli war machine killed 1400 Palestinians, mostly women, children, and innocent civilians, in the course of three weeks of “genocide” against Gaza in 2008-2009 that also devastated the Strip’s infrastructure, places of worship, and hospitals. It pointed to the Goldstone report that condemned Israel for committing war crimes in that war, calling for reactivating the report and prosecuting the Israeli leaders for involvement in crimes against humanity. The society drew the attention to the new Israeli threats of waging a fresh and more brutal aggression Gaza within the few coming months, adding that the lack of concrete legal steps against Israel encouraged it to commit more crimes.

In its annual report regarding the humanitarian situation and human rights in the occupied territories, that was submitted to the Security Council on Wednesday, the United Nations (UN) reported that the Israeli siege on Gaza is an act of collective punishment that is directly impacting the daily lives of more than 1.6 million Palestinians living in the coastal region. The report, that was prepared upon an official Palestinian request, indicated that, comparing to 2010, is a %30 increase in the number of Palestinians who are impacted by the Israeli policies and occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It also revealed that the Palestinians are having more hardships when it comes to obtaining basic services, including food supplies. The UN further stated that Israel is still enforcing the siege on the Gaza Strip, adding that this siege is an act of collective punishment as it impacts all aspects of life, in addition to Israel’s severe restrictions on fishermen and farmers, in addition to its restrictions on the freedom of movement of the people and the goods, an issue that created health and educational hardships. The report also discussed what was described as the “complex situation” in occupied Jerusalem due to home demolitions, and the fact the residents became more isolated from the West Bank due to the Annexation Wall.

PIC: Israeli occupation authority serves demolition notices to three brothers in Nablus

Intelligence officials claim Israeli drones collected data that helped Kurdish rebels set up training bases in Syria-Turkey border, Today's Zaman reports. - Turkish intelligence officials accuse Israel of aiding the Kurdish rebel group PKK, Turkish daily Today's Zaman reported on Tuesday. The paper quoted intelligence officials as saying that Israeli drone activity has been detected in the Hatay and Adana provinces in recent months, and that the unmanned aerial vehicles collected intelligence for the Kurdish rebels. Turkish intelligence officials have drafted a report detailing the activity of the drones, after two were recently detected flying over the country. According to the report, PKK training bases in northern Syria, near the Turkish border, "Were set up in areas that are known to be weakspots for the Turkish military, after they obtained intelligence collected by the drones." The intelligence report also charged that Kenan Yıldızbakan, a senior PKK member who commanded the 2010 attack against a Turkish Navy base in Iskenderun, visited Israel several times.

The admission discredits Israel's stated claims that Iran presents a threat to their existence. - A nuclear Iran might make it more difficult for Israel to attack its immediate neighbors, according to a senior Israeli military official on Tuesday. Military planning division chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel said if Tehran attains nuclear weapons, that could constrain Israel from striking Iranian-backed groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. “If we are forced to do things in Gaza or in Lebanon, under the Iranian nuclear umbrella it might be different,” Eshel said at a briefing in Jerusalem. "Concern" in the U.S. and Israel over Iran’s nuclear program has increased in recent months, bringing harsh economic sanctions and calls from both Americans and Israelis for a unilateral military strike against Iran. The latest event in the controversy came last week when another Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated in a plot widely suspected as the work of Israel, the U.S., or both. Still, there is no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, and the opinion of the U.S. intelligence community, the Obama administration, and the latest IAEA report is that Iran’s enrichment is so far civilian in nature.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast has said that Iran has documents that prove certain Western countries’ support for terrorists and plans to release them in the future. - Mehmanparast made the remarks during his regular press briefing on Tuesday in reply to a question about the diplomatic efforts that Iran has made to pursue the issue of the assassination of Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, a graduate of Sharif university in chemical engineering and an official at the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, who was killed in Tehran on January 11. Commenting on the assassination, he said, “The true faces of the self-proclaimed advocates of human rights and the campaign against terrorist are revealed in such scenes, and we are seeking to release documents showing certain Western countries’ support for terrorists.” “We expect the self-proclaimed advocates of human rights and the campaign against terrorism to show how serious they are about dealing with terrorism and condemning it,” he added.

A group of computer hackers known as ‘Nightmare’ managed to shut down the websites of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, as well as the Israeli government’s airline El Al on Sunday night. - According to a spokesperson for the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, trading was not affected by the hacker attack that shut down the website that provides information about regarding Stock Exchange. The anonymous hacker group sent an email to the Israeli news website Yedioth Ahranoth, from the same email address that claimed credit for releasing thousands of Israeli credit card numbers. The news agency identified the sender as a Saudi Arabian hacker, but were unable to identify other than the country of origin. The hack comes one day after representatives of the Hamas party in Gaza issued a statement calling for an increase in cyber-attacks on Israeli targets.

Gilad Atzmon: Israel is under Cyber Attack
PressTV: Cyberwar on Israel, new resistance

The simmering conflict between religious and secular Israelis threatened to overspill after Tanya Rosenblit stayed in her seat on a bus when Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men demanded that she move to the back. - Tanya Rosenblit is a 28 year old TV producer, the daughter of Russian immigrants who lives in the coastal town of Ashdod. Last month, she caught a bus to Jerusalem where she had a medical appointment. She made an effort to dress modestly, as her doctor was in an ultra-Orthodox area of the city. The ultra-Orthodox are a small group of extremely religious and theologically rigid Jews. They wear black, the men have long side curls, and every aspect of their lives is governed by the Old Testament. Rosenblit was the first passenger to board. She sat in the front of the bus so the driver could tell her when she reached her stop. Ultra-Orthodox men who boarded after her were uncomfortable when they saw her. Then one insisted he would not travel unless she moved to the back of the bus. "He started shouting, 'This is our bus they're not welcome here, if they want to come on, they have to respect us,'" said Tanya Rosenblit. "He said, 'Jewish men don't sit behind women!' And that was the statement that made me stay put."

Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan with his son, Alireza.

Killing our enemies abroad is just state-sponsored terror – whatever euphemism western leaders like to use.

On the morning of 11 January Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, the deputy head of Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, was in his car on his way to work when he was blown up by a magnetic bomb attached to his car door. He was 32 and married with a young son. He wasn't armed, or anywhere near a battlefield.

Since 2010, three other Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in similar circumstances, including Darioush Rezaeinejad, a 35-year-old electronics expert shot dead outside his daughter's nursery in Tehran last July. But instead of outrage or condemnation, we have been treated to expressions of undisguised glee. "On occasion, scientists working on the nuclear programme in Iran turn up dead," bragged the Republican nomination candidate Rick Santorum in October. "I think that's a wonderful thing, candidly."

Deutsche Welle: Iran makes arrests in scientist's death
Fars News Agency: Students Urge UN to Study Israel's Role in Assassination of Iranian Scientists

Officials Lobby Against Attack on Iran as Military Leaders Bolster Defenses - U.S. defense leaders are increasingly concerned that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran, over U.S. objections, and have stepped up contingency planning to safeguard U.S. facilities in the region in case of a conflict. President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top officials have delivered a string of private messages to Israeli leaders warning about the dire consequences of a strike. The U.S. wants Israel to give more time for the effects of sanctions and other measures intended to force Iran to abandon its perceived efforts to build nuclear weapons. Stepping up the pressure, Mr. Obama spoke by telephone on Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will meet with Israeli military officials in Tel Aviv next week.

Israeli Officials Say Drill Will Take Place in Summer - With growing concern about the prospect of a US or Israeli attack on Iran, reports coming out of the Israeli media today say that a massive “defense drill” which was seen by many as part of the groundwork for such a war has been postponed. Unnamed Israeli officials quoted on Israel’s Channel 2 say that the drill has been postponed because the US wants to “avoid causing further tensions in the region” and that it will now be held in the summer. The deployment of thousands of US troops to Israel for the drill had raised red flags across the region, with many fearing that an attack was in the offing. The last time a drill anywhere near this size was held was in 2009, and that only involved about 1,000 US troops – this time reports had about 9,000 in Israel. There was no indication from the reports what that US troops sent to Israel for the drill will do now that it has been postponed, as leaving them inside Israel for the next 6-7 months in anticipation of the drill would likely be provocative in and of itself.

PressTV: Iran confirms receiving US Hormuz letter
PressTV: 'Obama ready to give Iran strike order'

Jason Ditz: Top Israeli Official Slams Obama For Not Being More Hostile to Iran - One of the top officials in the Israeli cabinet, Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon has condemned President Obama today, saying that he is not being nearly hostile enough toward the Iranian government and needs to impose harsher sanctions. Yaalon, who also holds the position of Strategic Affairs Minister (a cabinet position created explicitly for moving against Iran), insisted that Obama was trying to avoid an embargo on Iran’s oil exports “for fear of oil prices rising this year, out of election-year considerations.”

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, demanded on Sunday the removal of the Israeli Occupation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, considering that the continuing of the Israeli Occupation blocks the establishing of an Independent Palestinian state, the Maan News Agency reported Sunday afternoon. - Ki-Moon statement came on Sunday in the Lebanese capital of Beirut as he delivered a speech before the International Conference on Reform and Transition to Democracy, according to the Hebrew “Richet Beit” broadcast website. He stated that the Israeli Occupation is an obstacle towards establishing a Palestinian state, calling for halting all Israeli settlement construction in the Occupied West Bank, considering that both “old & new” Israeli settlements are illegal. He also added that it is a real obstacle towards establishing a Palestinian state. The UN chief further said that the two-State Solution is long-awaited and the status quo would inevitably lead to another Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the course due. “It is our duty getting out of this current impasse and bringing in last peace,” he pointed out. The UN Chief is paying a visit to the Lebanese capital of Beirut, attending the UN International Conference on Reform and Transitions to Democracy. The 3-day meeting is discussing how to transition Arab countries to democracy or reform regarding the ongoing Arab Spring.

A Palestinian official says Palestinian prisoners are subjected to the most inhumane treatment and are tortured in Israeli prisons, which are even more gruesome than Nazi concentration camps. - In an interview with Iran's Fars News Agency on Sunday, Palestinian Minister for Captives Affairs Ataollah Abu Sabah said of the 44,000 Palestinian inmates currently languishing in Israeli prisons, seven are women and 23 are members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Abu Sabah described the desert prison of Naqab (Negev), where the detainees are kept in tents, as the Israeli regime's worst prison. Last year, an Israeli TV station released video footage of Palestinian detainees being tortured by Israeli troops in the notorious Naqab prison in 2008, as a result of which one Palestinian died and several others sustained injuries. The Palestinian official further confirmed reports that the relatives of the inmates and sometimes even their lawyers are forced to strip and are interrogated.

Magazine report claims Israeli spies used fake US spy identities to work with Pakistani fighters targeting Iran. - Agents with Israel's spy agency, Mossad, have posed as CIA agents in operations to recruit members of the Pakistani group Jundallah, according to a report in US-based Foreign Policy magazine. Using US dollars and passports, the agents passed themselves off as members of the US Central Intelligence Agency in the operations, according to memos from 2007 and 2008, said the report which was published on Friday. It is "unclear" whether the recruitment programme is ongoing. [Bullshit! - It's obviously going on 24/7] "Israel has done this before. I know of a report very widely accepted in the US of Israeli Mossad agents in the United States, actually recruiting American Muslims," Mark Perry, who authored the report, told Al Jazeera.

Mark Perry: False Flag - A series of CIA memos describes how Israeli Mossad agents posed as American spies to recruit members of the terrorist organization Jundallah to fight their covert war against Iran. Buried deep in the archives of America's intelligence services are a series of memos, written during the last years of President George W. Bush's administration, that describe how Israeli Mossad officers recruited operatives belonging to the terrorist group Jundallah by passing themselves off as American agents. According to two U.S. intelligence officials, the Israelis, flush with American dollars and toting U.S. passports, posed as CIA officers in recruiting Jundallah operatives -- what is commonly referred to as a "false flag" operation.

Iran needs to get in front of these terrorist attacks against nuclear physicists. The attacks are always made using two people on a motorcycle attaching the bomb to the car with magnets. The terrorists obviously know whose car to attack, and the movements of that car. They must have insiders at the universities where the physicists work to associate each targeted physicist with a particular vehicle, and are trailing the cars from the universities. In order to catch the terrorists, Iranian authorities will have to start covertly following these cars themselves (they may even consider dummy cars). All they need to do is catch one pair of terrorists to break the terrorist network and determine who is behind the attacks. My guess: MEK being run by the CIA, working for their Jewish masters to create the idea that there must be a nuclear bomb program or else there would be no reason to kill all these scientists and passersby.

PressTV: Iranians hold funeral for terror victim
PressTV: Khamenei: CIA, Mossad behind Iran killing
Stephen Lendman: Waging Covert War on Iran
Jim Lobe: Whoever Killed the Scientist Was Aiming at Much More
John Glaser: Bolton Says Sanctions and Assassination Programs Are ‘Half-Measures,’ Argues for War
AWIP: Another nuclear scientist killed in Iran; Israel accused

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev has said the threat of a US military attack against Iran, heavily supported by the US Israeli lobby, is escalating. - Patrushev, who served as Director of Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB from 1999 to 2008, believes the United States may get itself involved in yet another war, at least partially due to Israeli influence. "There is a likelihood of a military conflict escalation, to which the Americans are being pushed by Israel," he said in an interview with Interfax. Americans who identify themselves as Jewish (but not necessarily religiously) are estimated at 6,489,000 (2.2% of the population) according to the US Census Bureau. Yet despite these modest numbers, Israel enjoys what could be described as disproportionate influence in US politics due to lobbying groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Some researchers argue that the US decision to invade Iraq, for example, was largely motivated by pressure from these pro-Israeli groups.

PressTV: 'US preparing for every option on Iran' - US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro has described Iran as a regional threat, saying Washington will resort to “all necessary means” to stop Tehran's [civilian] nuclear program.

Iran is outraged at the recent assassination of its nuclear scientists, but lacks the political leverage to do anything about it diplomatically and the military and intelligence capacity to defend itself. - Tehran urged the U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday to condemn Tuesday’s assassination which resembled previous killings of Iranian nuclear scientists and which are probably being carried out buy the U.S. and Israel. Tehran has called them terrorist attacks aimed at sabotaging their nuclear program, which all evidence suggests is civilian in nature. [...] The U.S. denies any role in the murders, while Israel is slightly more open about it. In August, the German newspaper Der Spiegel leaked an admission by an Israeli intelligence officer that Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, was behind the assassinations. And the French newspaper Le Figaro this week reported that Israeli Mossad intelligence agents are operating in Kurdistan, where they are recruiting Iranian exiles to work against the Iranian regime.

PressTV: Iran urges UN to condemn terror acts
Fars News Agency: Iran's Letter to UN Lambasts Foreign Terror Campaign against Iranian Scientists

According to sources in Iran, a nuclear scientist was killed in Tehran today by a bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist. It is very clear to most of us who stands behind these continuous attacks on Iran’s scientists and military personnel. However, the discrepancy between Hebrew and English press reporting on the incident is pretty staggering and demands some deliberation.

While the Israeli English outlet Ynet reports on the incident in a pretty cold manner, it goes as far as reporting on “mysterious explosion in Iranian capital”, the Hebrew Ynet is happy to suggest that Israel is probably behind all those ‘mysterious attacks’.

The Hebrew publication ends its coverage of the story stating that yesterday Chief of Staff - Major General Benny Gantz, said that 2012 would be a “critical year for Iran”. he refered specifically to “continued pressure (on Iran) from the international community and the things that happen to them unnaturally". It doesn’t take a genius to gather that if General Ganz speaks about future “unnatural” events, he must be closely familiar with the details of such events!!!

While the English Ynet, operates as a Hasbara outlet, spreading Israeli propaganda for the Goyim and English speaking Jews, the Hebrew version, is there to boost the Israeli morale. And as it happens, Israeli love to see their ‘enemies’ being, terrorised, slaughtered and murdered.

The true ‘mysterious’ nature of the Jewish state and its relation with the world is indeed a disturbing one and a reason for serious concern.

PressTV: Santorum: Death of Iran experts wonderful
Frank Gardner/BBC: Iran and the undeclared campaign
Alex Lantier: Iranian nuclear scientist assassinated in Tehran
AWIP: Another nuclear scientist killed in Iran; Israel accused

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (05 – 11 January 2012) - Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF wounded 4 Palestinian civilians, including a woman, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, during the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall in the West Bank. As a result, 3 Palestinian civilian was wounded. Dozens of Palestinian civilians and international human rights defenders suffered from tear gas inhalation. IOF also arrested 5 Palestinian civilians, including a woman. In the Gaza Strip, on 06 January 2012, a Palestinian woman was wounded by the Israeli gunfire while she was grazing animals in the central Gaza Strip. On the same day, IOPF fired 3 artillery shells at Palestinian areas in the northern Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported, but Palestinian civilians, especially women and children, were extremely terrified. Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 68 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 20 Palestinian civilians, including two children and a university professor. In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted one limited incursion into the north and leveled areas of Palestinian land which they had already razed. Restrictions on Movement: Israel had continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

The New Year has seen an increase in attacks against innocent Palestinian children living under the occupation. These attacks go unnoticed and unmentioned in the Western media, but they can be seen on this site…The following video is the picture that the zionists want you to believe is the truth about Israel (I call it zionism’s seven deadly sins), but the reality appears afterwards … NO ONE GIVES ISRAEL THE RIGHT TO KILL OR HARM CHILDREN, THE 8th DEADLY SIN.