Daily News Channel
A right-wing Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was sworn in on Tuesday, and its refusal to accept a two-state solution with the Palestinians has already set it on a collision course with the Obama Administration. Netanyahu’s showdown with Washington may happen soon.
Israel’s new hard-line foreign minister immediately distanced himself Wednesday from the 2007 relaunch of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians adopted by his predecessor, Tzipi Livni. Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the far-right Yisrael Beytenu movement, said the Annapolis agreement was never adopted by Israeli’s government and is not binding.
Incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that "extremist Islam is trying to bring us down through terrorism from north and south" as his Cabinet prepared to take office. He offered an olive branch of sorts to Palestinians, but did not hold out the promise of their own state. “In order for there to be peace, our Palestinian allies and partners also have to fight terrorism,” he said
The Israeli military on Monday rejected allegations that its soldiers committed atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza. The conclusion follows a military police investigation into claims made at a conference that the army had intentionally killed civilians and damaged property during Israel’s incursion into Gaza in December and January
“Unsustainable.” That was President Barack Obama’s blunt assessment on Tuesday night of the current state of affairs between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Israeli Military said Thursday that the "vast majority" of Palestinians killed in the recent Gaza conflict were "terror operatives" and the number of people killed was less than Palestinian sources reported. In an e-mailed statement the Israel Defense Forces spokesman’s office claimed their figures contained the names of 1,166 Palestinians killed in the conflict, called “Operation Cast Lead.” The Israeli military said 709 of them were “identified as Hamas terror operatives, among them several from various other terror organizations.” The remaining, the statement claims, were comprised of 162 names who “have not yet been attributed to any organization.” “Furthermore, it has come to our understanding that 295 uninvolved Palestinians were killed during the operation, 89 of them under the age of 16, and 49 of them were women.” The Israeli military said it was releasing the findings to counter “false information originating from various Palestinian sources, and in order to remove any doubt regarding the number of Palestinians killed in Operation Cast Lead.” The numbers presented by the Israeli military differ sharply from those reported by Palestinian sources. At the conclusion of the fighting, the Hamas controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza had put the death toll at over 1,300, with the majority made up of non-combatants
The Israeli military’s firing of white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas during the Gaza offensive "was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Wednesday. “In Gaza, the Israeli military didn’t just use white phosphorus in open areas as a screen for its troops,” said Fred Abrahams, a HRW senior emergencies researcher
Israeli soldiers routinely and intentionally put children in harm’s way during their 22-day offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza, according to a United Nations report made public Monday.
The Israeli military plans to investigate claims by Israeli soldiers that Palestinian civilians were killed and Palestinian property intentionally destroyed during Israel’s recent 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip. The claims were made by Israeli soldiers who were graduates of a pre-military course at an Israeli college.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert postponed a Cabinet meeting scheduled for Monday as talks aimed at securing the release of a kidnapped Israeli soldier were extended. “In light of the negotiations that are currently continuing in Cairo regarding the release of Gilad Shalit, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided…