179 Tel Aviv's Dark Christmas - cities forbid open celebration of Xmas & New Year

(1) UCLA Courses: "Remarkable Jews" and "Racist White People"
(2) Tel Aviv's Dark Christmas - cities forbid open celebration of Xmas & New Year
(3) NYT correspondent in Israel is 'thoroughly Israeli', & married to an Israeli
(4) Major donor to Israel admits bribing New York state officials
(5) `We Are a Nefarious People' - Former Meretz leader
(6) EU criticizes Israel for Pushing Arabs out of East Jerusalem
(7) Australia's new Opposition Leader joins Rudd at Australia Israel Leadership lunch
(8) Palestinians in East Jerusalem lose residency rights, not entitled to citizenship
(9) Former Vice-President of EU: Israel Must End Siege, Appear Before ICJ
(10) Haaretz's Amira Hass awarded journalism prize by Reporters Without Borders
(11) Israeli minister plans to send troops into schools to boost conscription
(12) Egypt thwarts fuel smuggling into Gaza

(1) UCLA Courses: "Remarkable Jews" and "Racist White People"

From: ReporterNotebook <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com> Date: 03.12.2009 03:42 PM

UCLA Courses: "Remarkable Jews" and "Racist White People"

{Comment - MS}
Dear friend,

Check out these two UCLA Extension classes for January 2010, one dealing with Jews in American and their remarkable achievements, and the other dealing with "Whiteness" in American history and all the effects of lingering white racism and white privilege. Pay $535 to challenge your "preconceived racial assumptions" about white people, but only $80.00 to be informed of the wonderful Jews.
{end Comment}

The Jewish People and America
 General Interest 731.003

https://www.uclaextension.edu/r/Course.aspx?reg=V4915

Instructor
Jerry Binder

Learn about the extraordinary relationship between a wandering people and a golden land. Discover the lessons it teaches us about the evolution of the Jewish people from hopeful immigrants seeking a haven to esteemed citizens who found a home. This program documents remarkable achievement in the face of obstacles and ingenuity in creating opportunity in a new land. This story about Jewish hopes and the realities of the American promise provides penetrating insight into how an immigrant people forged liberating New World Jewish identities across the American landscape in commerce, arts and culture, sciences, law, higher education, medicine, entertainment, and more. This course chronicles not only what is familiar in our remarkable Jewish American life and times, but also shines a light onto what has been overlooked, revealing an inspiring new contextual history.

January 7, 14, 21 & 28

Understanding Whiteness in American History and Culture: Deconstructing White Privilege for the Reconstruction of an Anti-Racist White Identity (Online)

History XL M151C

Instructor
Cheryl Matias-Padua

https://www.uclaextension.edu/r/Course.aspx?reg=V4281

Eurocentric American history often masks the saliency of how the formation of Whiteness ultimately supports mechanisms of race and racism. This course outlines the historical development of Whiteness and critically analyzes the sociological results that stem from its birth. Segmented into three modules, the course provides a historical framework of the birth of Whiteness; explores Whiteness (namely, White Supremacy and White Privilege) and how they impact people of color and uphold racial hierarchy; and, in acknowledging that the relevance of history is inextricably tied to modern society, draws from liberatory, transformative, and emancipatory praxis, to engage in a REconstruction of anti-racist white racial identity. Throughout the course students are expected to critically engage in dialogue and identify and challenge their preconceived racial assumptions. For technical requirements click here.

(2) Tel Aviv's Dark Christmas - cities forbid open celebration of Xmas & New Year

From: Roy Tov <roytov@live.com>  Date: 08.12.2009 02:05 PM

at the page bottom there is a link to the "Cross of Bethlehem," a good gift for the approaching Christmas.
 Blessings, r.

Tel Aviv's Dark Christmas

Roy Tov

http://roytov.com/articles/christmas.htm

Few foreigners can realize the reality of a Christmas in Israel. Most would interpret the dark streets and the overwhelming quiet as a sign there are no Christians around. They would pay no attention to the fact the Christmas night is darker and quieter than those immediately before or after.

"After all there aren't any laws prohibiting Christmas," they would foolishly whisper over the phone to their friends abroad, showing off their vast knowledge of Israeli legislation and their complete misunderstanding of how the Israeli society works. Some of its darkest aspects are not enforced through parliamentary legislation; that would attract too much attention to actions human societies would label as anti-democratic and as violations of basic human rights.

Densely populated and utterly small, Israel is not divided into provinces or counties, but into councils and municipalities. Interestingly, the word used for "councils" ("moatzot") is the same one as for "soviets," the Soviet Union was called "Brit Hamoatzot" in Hebrew. Municipalities and councils have the power to legislate for as long as these laws respect the Israeli one. Mostly, these "local laws" (as they are called) deal with the day-to-day functioning of that local organizations. They set parking rules, take the trash out the streets and - what else? - ah, they set rules regarding the allowed business hours. This apparently innocent point of the local bureaucracy is the tip of a dark iceberg. Invariably, all major cities forbid the open celebration of Christmas and the New Year.

On the night of Dec 31, 1999, the Israeli television broadcast a special program. Every hour, the celebration of the new year in a different location was shown. Australia, Thailand, India. Fireworks everywhere. When it came the time for Israel to celebrate the moment, cities to the north and south where shown, but Israel kept dark. A black point on a luminous planet. There was no better sign that the event was considered serious, than its complete banning by the Israeli authorities.

Most foreigners visiting Israel during Christmas misinterpret reality. It isn't that there are no Christians, but that they are oppressed. If the foreigners cared about looking around, they would see quiet festivities held beyond closed doors and carefully darkened windows. If they really cared, they would analyze the Israeli government official statistics and see they are obviously cooked up; that the number of Christians is larger than reported. The facts are clear. Most major Christian denominations keep temples in Holy Land - with the exception of the Lutheran Church, which is banned by the Israeli government. Many local communities, dating back to Jesus times, are Christian. A large percentage of the Palestinian population - many of them with Israeli citizenship - are Christians. Many ethnic Jews have accepted Christ, but are considered Jews by the Israeli Ministry of Interior, which doesn't recognize freedom of religion. At least a hundred thousand persons of the 1990's Russian immigration were Christians; though they were defined as Jews by the ministry.

Yet, the Israeli government prefers to claim reality is a Jewish-Muslim dichotomy, void of substantial links to the Christ. They forget He was one of us, that He came also for us. There is no better testimony of that than Tel Aviv's Black Christmas. ==

The Cross of Bethlehem: The Memoirs of a Refugee:
http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Bethlehem-Memoirs-Refugee/dp/1439257701/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258394298&sr=1-4

(3) NYT correspondent in Israel is 'thoroughly Israeli', & married to an Israeli

From: Kristoffer Larsson <kristoffer.larsson@sobernet.nu> Date: 07.12.2009 08:23 AM

http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/nyt-correspondent-in-israel-is-thoroughly-israeli.html

‘NYT’ correspondent in Israel is ‘thoroughly Israeli’

by PHILIP WEISS on DECEMBER 5, 2009 · 23 COMMENTS

A few weeks back I wrote a letter to New York Times correspondent Isabel Kershner asking her if she is Israeli, as I’d been told. She did not respond. Well my friend J.J. Goldberg of the Forward has now answered my question. In a blog item devoted to Jewish anxiety (yes, Jews are at risk, remember) over the New York Times’s use of the word "Jewish nationalists" in a headline about Zionists romping in Jerusalem, Goldberg writes:

The Times correspondent who wrote that article, Isabel Kershner, immigrated to Israel from her native England as a young woman and spent a couple of decades in Israeli journalism and Jewish education before joining the Times a few years ago. By now she’s thoroughly Israeli (and, for full disclosure, a friend).

So: Kershner’s Israeli. And she is married to an Israeli, Hirsh Goodman. The other Times correspondent, Ethan Bronner, is an American Jew also married to an Israeli. At the most important newspaper in determining the conventional wisdom in the U.S., that is quite amishpocheh, as my mother would say (Yiddish for clan). South Africa never had it so good!

h/t Alex Kane. Thanks.

(4) Major donor to Israel admits bribing New York state officials

From: WVNS <ummyakoub@yahoo.com> Date: 07.12.2009 08:54 AM

Major donor to Israel causes pleads guilty...
Philanthropist pleads guilty to bribes
December 4, 2009
http://www.israel-palestinenews.org/2009/12/philanthropist-pleads-guilty-to-bribes.html

Be sure to view the "relationship map" at above website

LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- Elliott Broidy, a leading investor in the Israeli economy and major donor and activist in the Los Angeles Jewish community, pleaded guilty Thursday to the felony charge of rewarding official misconduct.

According to New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Broidy admitted that he made nearly $1 million in payoffs to four senior New York state officials as he pursued an investment from the state public pension fund. He has agreed to forfeit $18 million in management fees and a judge may impose a sentence of up to four years in prison following Broidy's guilty plea, the Wall Street Journal reported. The development is part of Cuomo's wide-ranging pay-to-play probe on whether decisions about how to invest retirees' money in the giant pension fund were wrongly influenced by money and politics.

Cuomo said that Broidy has acknwoledged paying at least $75,000 for high-price luxury trips to Italy and Israel for a top official in the New York State Comptroller and his relatives. Several media sources quoted unnamed sources identifying the official as the former comptroller Alan Hevesi; his lawyer reportedly declined to comment.

By raising $800 million, Broidy turned his Markstone Capital Group into the largest private equity fund in Israel, at a time when the intifada was at its height and most investors were shunning the Jewish state. In Los Angeles, Broidy has been a major donor to the United Jewish Fund and Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a trustee of the University of Southern California and USC Hillel, and has served on the Hebrew Union College board of governors and as a trustee of Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

He is credited with revitalizing the dormant California-Israel Chamber of Commerce in the mid-1990s, together with Stanley Gold and Stanley Chais. Gold is president and CEO of Shamrock Holdings and outgoing president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. Chais, a large contributor to Israeli and Jewish causes, faces three legal actions as an alleged middleman for Bernard Madoff.

Broidy has also been a GOP heavy hitter, serving as finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and a top fund raiser for the presidential campaigns of President George W. Bush in 2004 Sen. John McCain in 2008.

Gold said that he has known Broidy for some 20 years and worked with him on behalf of the local Jewish federation and Wilshire Boulevard Temple, as well as the California-Israel Chamber of Commerce. "Elliott has given freely of his time and energy to the community, of which he has been an outstanding member," Gold said. "Our hearts go out to him and his family at this difficult time."

Gold added, "Elliott is a decent and good man. It is not my style to desert a friend in his hour of need."

Broidy's New York attorney Christopher Clark issued a statement saying that his client "regrets the actions that brought about this course of events, but is pleased to have resolved this matter with the New York Attorney General and will be cooperating in the ongoing investigation."

Clark also said that Broidy has "resigned from all operational, supervisory, and other roles at the firm of Markstone Partners in order to focus his attention on legal matters."

(5) `We Are a Nefarious People' - Former Meretz leader

From: IHR News <news@ihr.org> Date: 05.12.2009 06:31 PM

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3812366,00.html

Shulamit Aloni: We are a nefarious people

Former Meretz leader tells Ynet on 81st birthday that 'what we do in West Bank is worse than all pogroms'

Naama Lanir
Published: 11.29.09, 16:08 / Israel News

Former Meretz leader Shulamit Aloni told Ynet on her 81st birthday Sunday that she was dissatisfied with the condition of the State of Israel.

"It's hard for me to say a kind word about the state today," she said. "We are in great distress morally and socially, as well as in the realms of politics and law."

Aloni specified by saying that she was disappointed with the right-wing government doing most of the Left's work, and gave an example of the recent decision to freeze construction in settlements for 10 months.

"The Right has two left hands, but the Left doesn't even exist today," she said.

She also condemned those opposed to a prisoner swap deal for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

"No one should be speaking this nonsense about 'blood on the hands'. Since 2000, with the launching of the second intifada, we have murdered thousands. We too have blood on our hands," she remarked.

"We need to release those demanded (by Hamas) immediately," she went on. "After we release them, Israel can keep tabs on them."

Aloni also lashed out at settlers who torch Palestinian olive groves in the West Bank. "It is against all morals, and even the halacha," she said. "The halacha says: Thou shalt not destroy fruit-bearing trees."

The former prominent politician added, "We are a nefarious people. What we are doing in the West Bank is worse than all the pogroms done to the Jews." But she qualified her statement by saying she was "not referring to the Nazis, but the Cossacks".

Aloni also condemned Israel for its attitude towards the Obama administration. "They give us support, weapons, and donations," she said.

"The US administration does not want to say how it perceives us, but we are lucky there is such a large Jewish lobby there that maintains support for us. Everyone wants to come out all right with the Jews because no one wants to be accused of anti-Semitism."

Aloni added criticism of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, calling him "the most dangerous man" and "pompous". However she had a kind word for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "He still thinks over things sometimes," she said.

(6) EU criticizes Israel for Pushing Arabs out of East Jerusalem

From: IHR News <news@ihr.org> Date:  05.12.2009 06:31 PM

Israel Under Fire for Pushing Arabs Out of East Jerusalem
Sphere News
http://www.sphere.com/2009/12/02/israel-under-fire-for-pushing-arabs-out-of-east-jerusalem/

POSTED: 12/2/09

JERUSALEM (Dec. 2) -- East Jerusalem, at the crux of the conflict between Jews and Palestinians for more than 40 years, is more contested than ever this week in light of several reports that suggest Israel is pursuing a deliberate policy of "judaizing" the city Palestinians view as their future capital.

A classified European Union report, leaked to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, slams Israeli policy in East Jerusalem and calls on EU countries to help strengthen Palestinian claims to the city. The Israeli government is particularly concerned at indications that the EU may soon officially recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.

In addition, an Israeli human rights group says Israel is stripping more and more Palestinians of their Jerusalem residency permits. On Monday, Palestinians and Jews clashed after an Israeli court ruled that the Palestinian family living in a house had no right to occupy an addition they had built onto the house and that settlers could move in.

The classified EU report, which was drafted by European consuls in Jerusalem and the West Bank town of Ramallah, accuses the Israeli government and the municipality of Jerusalem of working deliberately to change the city's demographic balance and sever East Jerusalem from the West Bank. Today, some 200,000 Israelis and 250,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed 1967 in a move never recognized by the international community.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to never relinquish Israel's control over all of Jerusalem, while the Palestinians insist that East Jerusalem will be the capital of a future Palestinian state. The U.S. position has been that Jerusalem is one of several "core issues" that must be resolved through negotiations.

The report suggests, however, that Israel is working before any such negotiations to create facts on the ground. The EU report says that although 35 percent of greater Jerusalem's residents are Arab, only 5 to 10 percent of the city's budget goes to Arab neighborhoods. It also says that Palestinians have received fewer than 200 building permits per year over the past several years, while they need another 1,500 housing units per year. The report calls on the EU to become more active to secure Palestinian control over Jerusalem.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor confirmed that Ha'aretz had faithfully rendered the report, even as he maintained that it contains errors of fact. "The consuls never contact the Israeli government on any of this, so it is based exclusively on Palestinian information," he said. "Some of the information is simply incorrect."

For example, he said, the report says there are no Palestinians on the Jerusalem city council but fails to mention that Palestinians can participate in municipal elections but choose not to as a political statement.

Palmor said he is more concerned about a second document being circulated by Sweden, which currently holds the presidency of the EU. It calls on European foreign ministers to recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. The proposal is set to be discussed at a two-day meeting in Brussels next week on the peace process. Israeli officials say if adopted, it would be a major change from the current international position.

"This would recognize Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem but not Israeli claims to West Jerusalem," said Palmor. "The situation with Sweden has become quite tense." ...

(7) Australia's new Opposition Leader joins Rudd at Australia Israel Leadership lunch

From: Josef Schwanzer <donauschwob@optusnet.com.au> Date: 03.12.2009 04:57 AM

http://jewishnews.net.au/2009/12/03/rudd-and-abbot-head-to-head-at-israel-forum/10035

Rudd and Abbot head-to-head at Israel forum

CHANTAL ABITBOL

The Australian Jewish News

Posted on 03 December 2009

Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom was joined at a lunch in Sydney by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd and the newly elected Opposition Leader Tony Abbot came head-to-head for the first time at the Australia Israel Leadership Forum gala luncheon on Thursday in Sydney.

A gathering of who’s who in Australian politics and the Jewish community, the lunch was also attended by a delegation of senior Israeli politicians, including Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom.

The envoy is in Australia this week for a series of meetings with government officials aimed at building relations between the two countries.

Sharing the same stage with Rudd for the first time since being voted in as Liberal leader on Tuesday, Abbot declared: “Australia’s new era of political partisanship could hardly have had a more convivial start.”

He also used the platform to reaffirm his unwavering support for Israel: “I’d like to think that nowhere in the world [does Israel] have more stauncher friends than us.”

Shalom also spoke to the 500-strong crowd, stressing Israel’s desire to resume peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, as well as the Jewish state’s concern over Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

“The sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council [on Iran] were too light,” Shalom said. “Maybe the time has come has come to take a lateral move by the US, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Japan and others to impose sanctions on Iran.”

Outside the venue in inner-city Sydney, about 40 pro-Palestinian activists took to Martin Place to protest the forum.

More coverage in the December 11 edition of The AJN

(8) Palestinians in East Jerusalem lose residency rights, not entitled to citizenship

Thousands in East Jerusalem lost residency rights

From: Sadanand, Nanjundiah (Physics Earth Sciences) <sadanand@mail.ccsu.edu> Date: 04.12.2009 11:19 PM

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=243675

Published Wednesday 02/12/2009 (updated) 03/12/2009 09:40

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israel’s Interior Ministry stripped 4,577 Palestinians of their right to live in East Jerusalem in 2008, reports said, an all time record in 42 years of occupation.

The state-figures were made public in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Wednesday. The total was 21 times higher than the average of the previous 40 years.

In the first 40 years of Israeli occupation Israel revoked residency rights of 8,558. More than double that number lost their ID cards in 2008 alone.

The Interior Ministry told Haaretz that the increase stemmed from a 2008 decision by the previous Israeli government to investigate the legal status of thousands of Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

The 250,000 Palestinians with Israeli-issued East Jerusalem identity cards have the same legal status as people who immigrated to Israel legally, but are not entitled to citizenship, Attorney Yotam Ben-Hillel of Hamoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual said.

"They are treated as if they were immigrants to Israel, despite the fact that it is Israel that came to them in 1967," Haaretz quoted him as saying.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem along with the rest of the West Bank in 1967, and annexed a chunk of the West Bank as a part of what was then declared Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Palestinians in the annexed territory refused Israeli citizenship. Like the international community, they do not recognize the legitimacy of Israeli control over the area.

Jerusalemite lawyer Usama Al-Halabi said in a recent interview with Ma’an that “every Palestinian with Israeli identity has no real rights to life in Jerusalem. Israel can confiscate the identity at any time.”

Because of their status as non-citizen residents, Palestinians in Jerusalem can easily lose their ID cards. According to lawyers who spoke to Ma’an, simply leaving for five years, or obtaining residency or citizenship in another country can endanger a Jerusalem resident’s rights.

(9) Former Vice-President of EU: Israel Must End Siege, Appear Before ICJ

From: Sadanand, Nanjundiah (Physics Earth Sciences) <sadanand@mail.ccsu.edu> Date: 04.12.2009 11:19 PM

Morgantini: Israel Must End Siege, Appear Before ICJ

Date : 2/12/2009

 http://english.wafa.ps/?action=detail&id=13452

RAMALLAH December 2, 2009 (WAFA)- The former Vice-President of the European Union, Louisa Morgantini, said that Israel must end the siege on the Gaza Strip and that it is necessary that it appears before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

She told WAFA after a press conference held on the occasion of launching the launch of the book, 'Palestine’s Guernica', that Israel must cease all forms of settlement activities because they are is completely illegal, and that its decision to halt settlement activities for a period of ten months is not serious. She stated that Israel uses this method to gain more time, where it continues to throw many families in Sheikh Jarrah and other parts of East Jerusalem out of their homes, and continues the demolition of houses.

She continued: The book 'Palestine Guernica', which reviews and documents the events surrounding the recent war on Gaza last December and its associated events, which took place before, during and after, is very important to expose Israel's policies, and hold it accountable for them.

The book launched by the Palestinian Monitor was named 'Palestine’s Guernica' after the massacre committed by the Fascists led by Franco in 1937, in the town of Guernica in the Basque, which killed hundreds of civilians by aerial bombardment, in a manner similar to what happened in the Gaza Strip, where the objective was not only to kill the massacre of civilians, but also to kill the human spirit and the spirit of resistance in the Palestinian people.

Morgantini said, in a press conference held on the occasion of launching of the book, that understanding the meaning of Guernica is very similar to what happened in Gaza, Deir Yassin, and Jenin before.

She added: This work is very important, and it must reach every individual in the world to expose Israel's plan of destruction, aimed at putting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in a 'cage'.

She pointed out that the book explains exactly what happened, where Gazans could do nothing but stay during the bombardment, because they did not have anywhere to go in the prison in which they live.

She emphasized that Israel can not remain above international law, and it was time for the hypocrisy of the international community to end, and to stop talking about human rights without doing anything about the violations occurred.

She said the report of the Goldstone is only the beginning, there is a change happening on the ground, and we have to make Israel pay the price for its actions, saying: 'We have to start by saying to Israel: Enough is enough, you cannot stay above the law and you must pay the price'.

 She talked about her intention to participate in the march of freedom and peace to Rafah, aimed at breaking the siege on the Gaza Strip at the end of December. ...

(10) Haaretz's Amira Hass awarded journalism prize by Reporters Without Borders

From: Sadanand, Nanjundiah (Physics Earth Sciences) <sadanand@mail.ccsu.edu> Date: 04.12.2009 11:19 PM

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1132274.html

Haaretz's Amira Hass awarded journalism prize by media watchdog

By Haaretz Service

Haaretz:  Wed., December 03, 2009

The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday awarded veteran Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass a "Press Freedom" prize, for "independent and outspoken reporting."

In granting the award, the watcdog's committee cited Hass' articles about the Gaza Strip during Israel's winter offensive against Hamas in the coastal territory.

Hass, who has lived in both Gaza and the West Bank, has also been awarded a number of prizes in the past for her reporting.

She was awarded the Golden Dove of Peace Prize by the Rome-based organization Archivo Disarmo in 2001, and won the UNESCO Guillermo Cona World Press Freedom Prize in 2003.

In October this year, the International Women's Media Foundation granted Hass the Lifetime Achievement Award.

(11) Israeli minister plans to send troops into schools to boost conscription

From: Sadanand, Nanjundiah (Physics Earth Sciences) <sadanand@mail.ccsu.edu> Date: 04.12.2009 11:19 PM

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-minister-plans-to-send-troops-into-schools-to-boost-conscription-1822419.html

Soldiers would meet teachers in bid to encourage students to join up

By Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem

Wednesday, 18 November 2009, The Independent

The Israeli education minister has unveiled plans to take teams of senior army officers to high schools across the country to help teachers "foster the motivation" of pupils to serve in combat units following a decline in conscription rates.

In an announcement that infuriated liberals in a country where compulsory military service is still a fact of life, the right-wing Likud member Gideon Saar announced that about 200 meetings would be held between teams of senior army officers and teachers, with the stated intention of encouraging schools in "contributing to the society and community".

Saar, who has previously courted controversy by floating the idea of increasing education funding for schools where more people enlisted, also said that he would experiment with publishing individual schools' conscription rates, a move aimed at embarrassing those with a higher than average proportion of "draft dodgers".

Yossi Sarid, a former education minister who headed the liberal Meretz party, slammed the scheme. "I don't think there is any reason for military people to be involved in the education system," he said. "I don't think they have anything to teach the teachers."

The army has always been a given for Israeli high-school students, who screen for units and take tests as they approach graduation. In recent years, though, there has been growing right-wing criticism of draft evasion, coupled with dissatisfaction among part of the public that not serving in the army has become more accepted in the society than in the past.

"The idea is to have a discussion regarding subjects of values that are confronted in the schools. There will be a getting acquainted inside the teachers room on the subject of 'what the Israel Defense Forces means to me'," says Dorit Bar-Chai, an education ministry official involved in planning the programme. "If there are educators who did not serve in the army, that's okay, they can still speak about what the army means to them."

Mr Saar's plan is seen as significantly escalating the militarisation of Israeli education and is seen as a reflection of the conservative values prevailing under Mr Netanyahu. Former minister Yossi Sarid argued that the plan was launched because "Patriotism is always popular for politicians and patriotism in Israel means the army." He added:"This plan says something about the militaristic character of Israeli society. It is definitely getting more militaristic." And Hagit Gur-Ziv, a lecturer at the Seminar Hakibbutzim Teachers College in Tel Aviv, told Ha'aretz newspaper: "This shows there are no limits." ...

(12) Egypt thwarts fuel smuggling into Gaza

From: WVNS <ummyakoub@yahoo.com> Date: 08.12.2009 09:35 AM

Egyptian forces thwart fuel smuggling into Gaza
07/12/2009
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=244992

Al-Arish – Ma'an – Egyptian security forces thwarted a diesel smuggling operation and shut down a storehouse containing commercial goods, also prepared for smuggling into the Gaza Strip on Monday.

Egyptian forces stormed a fuel storehouse in the bordering As-Salam neighborhood of Rafah, containing 30,000 liters of diesel which was hidden with the intention of smuggling into Gaza, security sources said.

Diesel smugglers use underground pipes and a generating motor to pump fuel into the Gaza Strip, and therefore, Egyptian security forces search for illegal diesel dens close to the border, the sources added.
The Egyptian forces confiscated the fuel and destroyed it by mixing it with water.

Israeli authorities have restricted the transfer of both domestic gas and industrial fuel into the Gaza Strip for three months, by closing the Nahal Oz fuel pipeline in northern Gaza regularly. This has prompted a critical gas crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip, as bakeries and agricultural greenhouses have been forced to shut down as a result.

The gas crisis has further affected Gaza's hospitals, with insufficient gas to provide heating for its patients and to sterilize surgical equipment.

Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities raided another storehouse in the As-Sarsouriyah border town, confiscating large quantities of cigarettes and mineral water bottles. Sources did not say if these items were confiscated and destroyed like the fuel.