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Hamas Seizes Final Fatah Positions in Gaza City
by Avi Issacharoff
 Hamas fighters seized control of the Palestinian presidential compound in Gaza City on Thursday, the last of four key Fatah-run security compounds in the city which are now all under Hamas control. Hamas gunmen broke into the homes of Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammed Dahlan in Gaza and looted them. 99 Palestinian policemen loyal to Fatah who were border guards at Rafah fled to Egypt. (Ha'aretz)
See also Fatah's Collapse in Gaza Rocks its West Bank Status - Khaled Abu Toameh
Fatah gunmen and PA policemen rounded up more than 30 Hamas officials and supporters in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarm on Thursday in an attempt to consolidate Fatah's grip on the West Bank. Hamas does not have security bases in the West Bank, nor does it have armed groups that roam the streets openly. Yet Hamas remains popular in several cities. In the last municipal elections, Hamas candidates scored major victories in Ramallah, el-Bireh, Bethlehem, Nablus and Kalkilya. (Jerusalem Post)
Olmert to Tell Bush: New Chance for Diplomacy
by Aluf Benn
  Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will tell U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House Tuesday that he does not intend to miss the chance for diplomatic progress created by the events in the Gaza Strip. Olmert and Bush are expected to discuss ways of stabilizing and strengthening the rule of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Olmert is expected to tell Bush that Hamas' rise must be prevented in the West Bank and that "pragmatic" elements in the PA should continue exerting pressure on Hamas in Gaza. (Ha'aretz)
Israel Launches Super Spy Satellite
 Israel's military launched a spy satellite last week, the Defense Ministry said, and a senior official suggested it could help keep track of developments in Iran. The Ofek 7 satellite was "launched and successfully injected into orbit," the ministry said in a statement. Israel's Army Radio said its resolution was high enough to detect objects of 28 inches on the ground. (ABC News)
Hizbullah Accused of Stockpiling Rockets
 Hizbullah has stockpiled as many as 20,000 rockets in underground bunkers in southern Lebanon near Israel's border, the Sunday Times of London reported. Hizbullah, an Iranian-supported militia, has rebuilt its fighting capability in Lebanon even as United Nations peacekeeping forces monitor the area, the Times said. "Hizbullah will never leave southern Lebanon," said former Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. "It's now armed with rockets that could hit central and even southern Israel." (UPI/Washington Times)
Where Kids Are Targets
 There is a game the children of Sderot play. It is the Qassam game, and the children pretend that rockets are coming in from the Gaza border a half mile or so from their homes, and the children all cry "Red color! Red color!" and they run and duck and try to find shelter. That is the Qassam game. These are children who are 5 or 6 years old, running from rockets in sport because they were born into a world that rains down rockets on their town, sometimes dozens of them a day. That is all they have ever known. Meanwhile, the Qassam rockets still land on Sderot, killing and maiming, as the Palestinians have become increasingly accurate. "They keep getting better and they keep throwing more," says 43-year-old Polat, who is in the United States last week, along with 35-year-old schoolteacher Michal Kakoon and 21-year old student Stav Cohen, to describe to the U.S. and to the United Nations the frightening lives they live. (NY Daily News)
See also Gaza Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony (YouTube)
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Boycott Backlash Begins
by Nathan Jeffay and Melanie Newman
 UK academics faced an unprecedented backlash this week as a threatened boycott of Israeli universities raised the spectre of international sanctions against British goods and research. The Israeli Government, an American research foundation and lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic are lined up to sink any boycott of Israeli academe stemming from a motion passed at the inaugural congress of the University and College Union. (The Times-UK)
See also UK Proposes Joint Academic Seminar (Ynet News)
See also Tony Blair: End Israel Boycott by Yaakov Lappin (Ynet News)
See also Petition of Solidarity with Israeli Academics (Scholars for Peace in the Middle East)
See also "We're All Israeli Academics" by Yaakov Lappin (Ynet News)
Palestinians Shot by Their Own Side, Healed by Israel
by Charles Levinson
In Gaza, Aref Suleiman was raised on Palestinian struggle against the Jewish state. Today he lies in an Israeli hospital bed in Ashkelon, his body riddled with Palestinian bullets, his wounds tended daily by Israeli nurses. "Palestinians shoot me and Jews treat me," he laughs bitterly. "It was supposed to be different. The Jews are like honey, like flowers," he says. "They wash me, clean me, and change my gown every day. Even in my home, my own family wouldn't change me every day." (Telegraph-UK)
See also Nowhere Safe for Gaza Residents - Sarah El Deeb (AP/Washington Post)
Palestinians Attempt to Capture Israeli Soldier
by Steven Erlanger
 Palestinian gunmen from Gaza, using an armored vehicle labeled "TV," crashed through the Gaza-Israel border fence at Kissufim crossing last week. One of the Palestinian gunmen was shot dead in a gun battle with Israeli soldiers. A spokesman for Islamic Jihad, Abu Ahmed, said three of the four gunmen had returned to Gaza, and the intention had been to try to capture an Israeli soldier. (New York Times)
See also Pregnant Palestinian Planned Suicide Bomb (Reuters)
See also Gaza Terrorists Put TV Sticker on Car (YouTube)
Security Council Refuses to Condemn Iran
by Edith M. Lederer
 The UN Security Council refused to approve a statement last week that would condemn remarks about Israel's impending destruction attributed to Iran's hard-line president because of objections from Indonesia, council diplomats said. France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, who called for condemnation of the remarks attributed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said: "At stake is...a real question of principle. When the president of a country talks about the destruction of another country, a member of the United Nations, this is a serious issue." "A statement by a head of state calling for or implying the destruction of a member state of the United Nations is as a matter of principle unacceptable, and this is a threat to international peace and security," said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. (AP/Washington Post)
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