IDF

Why Israel needs war

by Paul Woodward 05.12.2012

Israel is very attached to its US-funded Qualitative Military Edge. The idea is that Israel is uniquely vulnerable in a uniquely dangerous neighborhood and the only way it can guarantee its survival is by keeping technologically ahead of its enemies. But there’s another dimension to this that gets far less attention: Israel’s need to perpetuate [...]

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‘Undercover Israeli combatants threw stones at IDF soldiers in West Bank’

by News Sources 05.07.2012

Haaretz reports: Undercover soldiers hurled stones in the “general direction” of IDF soldiers as part of their activity to counter weekly demonstrations in the Palestinian village of Bil’in, the commander of the Israeli Prison Service’s elite “Masada” unit revealed during his recent testimony in the trial of MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash). Barakeh has been charged [...]

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In a Palestinian village plagued by crime, a thin line runs between burglars and IDF soldiers

by News Sources 05.05.2012

Haaretz reports: On March 23, in the middle of the night, an undercover force of the Duvdevan special-ops unit entered the prosperous and serene Palestinian village of Kafr Ramun, reportedly as part of a training exercise. Three brothers woke up, alarmed, thinking the men outside were thieves, and tried to chase them away with sticks [...]

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New video showing Lt. Col. Eisner’s multiple attacks on protesters

by Paul Woodward 04.20.2012

When video footage showing Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner slamming his rifle into Andreas Ias’ face first went viral, Eisner’s defenders were quick to dispute the evidence. A common refrain was that the clip lacked context, the assumption presumably being that if viewers saw more extended video then Eisner would be exonerated. Well, the context is [...]

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Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner represents the Israel Defense Forces

by Paul Woodward 04.15.2012

Haaretz reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday condemned the beating of a pro-Palestinian activist by a senior IDF officer, which was seen in a film posted on YouTube earlier Sunday. “Such behavior does not characterize IDF soldiers and officers and has no place in the Israel Defense Forces and in the State of Israel,” [...]

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Video: Palestinian on hunger strike “in mortal danger”

by News Sources 03.24.2012
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Escalation is good for Israel

by News Sources 03.11.2012

Zvi Bar’el writes: Advocates of a strike on Iran couldn’t have hoped for a more convincing performance than the current exchange of fire between Israel and Gaza. “A million Israelis under fire” is only a taste of what is expected when Iran’s nuclear project is completed. When that happens, seven million Israelis will be under [...]

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How Israelis tried to kill Anthony Shadid in 2002

by News Sources 03.10.2012

David Kindred writes: Until the Israeli sniper shot him, it had been a good day. Shadid’s notebook was full because he had been eyewitness to a drama that was a perfect metaphor for the latest Israel-Palestine war. He started a long walk back to the hotel. There he would write for his newspaper, The Boston [...]

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Israel’s routine abuse of Palestinian children

by News Sources 01.22.2012

The Guardian reports: The room is barely wider than the thin, dirty mattress that covers the floor. Behind a low concrete wall is a squat toilet, the stench from which has no escape in the windowless room. The rough concrete walls deter idle leaning; the constant overhead light inhibits sleep. The delivery of food through [...]

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Jewish extremists engaged in 228 attacks on Israeli security forces and dozens of arson attacks on mosques in 2011

by News Sources 01.07.2012

Haaretz reports: Israel Police has been unsuccessful in running its agents in the West Bank, a senior police officer said Thursday, adding that officers have been struggling to gather evidence on crimes committed by right-wing activists. Haim Rahamim, head of the investigations and intelligence wing of the Judea and Samaria District in the West Bank, [...]

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Israeli sniper shoots unarmed protester in Nabi Saleh

by News Sources 12.23.2011

The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee reports: Earlier today, an Israeli military sniper opened fire at demonstrators in the village of Nabi Saleh, injuring one in the thigh. The wounded protester was evacuated by a Red Crescent ambulance to the Salfit hospital. The incident takes place only two weeks after the fatal shooting of Mustafa Tamimi [...]

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Israel’s emerging ‘Jewish Hezbollah’?

by News Sources 12.19.2011

Mark Perry writes: Seven months ago, during the early morning hours of May 30, Jewish settlers visiting Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus in the Palestinian West Bank engaged in a shoving match with IDF soldiers deployed to protect them. Within minutes, the confrontation escalated; several soldiers were punched by Jewish worshippers and rocks rained down on [...]

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US-made tear gas becomes fatal ingredient of protests

by News Sources 12.17.2011

Joseph Dana writes: Residents of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank have been demonstrating, each week for the past two years, against the slow encroachment on their land by Israeli settlers. Gathering in the village centre on Friday afternoons, villagers along with Israeli and international activists attempt to march, under the watchful eye of soldiers, [...]

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Israeli military base attacked by Jewish extremists in West Bank

by News Sources 12.15.2011

The Guardian reports: A gang of 50 Jewish settlers and rightwing activists have broken into an army base near the Israeli settlement of Kedumim in the West bank, setting fire to tyres and hurling rocks at both Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. One settler forced open the door of a jeep carrying the Efraim Regional Brigade’s [...]

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Israeli vs Palestinian right to protest

by News Sources 12.15.2011
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West Bank mosque set alight in suspected ‘price tag’ attack

by News Sources 12.07.2011

Haaretz reports: Arsonists attempted to set fire to a Palestinian mosque, Israeli police and residents of a West Bank village near the settlement of Ariel said on Wednesday. Residents of the Palestinian village of Burkina discovered that two vehicles were torched overnight, and that there had been attempt to burn the local mosque as well, [...]

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Iran captures ‘lost’ U.S. spy drone — the first remote hijacking?

by Paul Woodward 12.04.2011

The Los Angeles Times reports: A drone that Iranian officials claimed to have shot down may be an unarmed U.S. reconnaissance aircraft that went missing over western Afghanistan late last week, according to U.S.-led forces in that country. “The operators of the UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] lost control of the aircraft and had been working [...]

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Israel — still an embarrassment to its friends

by Paul Woodward 11.29.2011

Joe Klein writes: My friend and colleague, the great war photographer Lynsey Addario, has been through a lot this year — kidnapped by the Libyans, difficult assignments in Afghanistan, Somalia and Gaza, and a much less taxing three weeks hanging with me on my annual road trip, all while pregnant… and now she has been [...]

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Israeli soldiers treat New York Times photographer like a Palestinian

by Paul Woodward 11.28.2011

After Lynsey Addario, a Pulitzer Prize-winning war photographer working for the New York Times, was forced by Israeli soldiers to pass through an X-ray machine three times in spite of her protests that it might harm her unborn child, Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner expresses shock: The Times remains shocked at the treatment Lynsey Addario [...]

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The flotilla and the siege of Gaza

by News Sources 11.08.2011
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Israeli security websites crash after Anonymous threat

by Paul Woodward 11.06.2011

On Friday, Anonymous accused Israel of engaging in “piracy on the high seas” after the Israeli navy intercepted the latest flotilla heading for Gaza and warned that it would “strike back”. Today the following Israeli government websites crashed: Shin Bet, Mossad, IDF, IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Health Ministry, Justice Ministry, Construction and Housing Ministry, Science and [...]

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Former Mossad chief warns Israel: ‘Religious extremism is a greater threat than nuclear Iran’

by News Sources 11.04.2011

The Jerusalem Post reports: Former head of the Mossad Efraim Halevy condemned religious extremism in the IDF on Thursday night, warning that “Israel’s true existential danger comes from within.” According to Halevy, religious extremism is a growing peril to Israel’s existence and is more threatening than Iran’s nuclear program. “When I was in Bnei Akiva, [...]

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Israel Navy contacts Gaza-bound aid vessels

by News Sources 11.04.2011

Haaretz reports: Two protest boats approached the Gaza coast on Friday with the intent to violate Israel’s naval blockade of the territory and were met by Israeli navy vessels, Palestinian activists said. In Gaza, activist Amjad Shawwa said the boats were about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Gaza and had been warned over the radio [...]

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In Israel, press freedom is under attack

by News Sources 11.01.2011

Dimi Reider writes: On Sunday, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced Anat Kamm, a 24-year-old journalist and former soldier, to four and a half years in prison for leaking documents containing evidence of what she suspected might be war crimes committed by her commanders. Uri Blau, a prominent Israeli investigative reporter at Haaretz who received [...]

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