Tuesday 23: In West Jerusalem – Israel's attorney general MENACHEM MAZUZ has recommended indicting President MOSHE KATSAV on charges of rape, obstruction of justice and fraud – the most serious allegations ever leveled against an Israeli politician. Despite escalating calls for his resignation, KATSAV, 61, has so far refused to step down as ceremonial head of state and steadfastly denied the accusations of sexual misconduct that first surfaced in July 2006, even as charges have multiplied in subsequent months.
Thursday 25: In France – President CHIRAC urges Israel to stop its violations of Lebanon's airspace. Two Israeli F15s make mock low-level attack runs over one French military outpost of the 11,500 strong United Nations peace-keeping force, and were "just two seconds" from being attacked by a French anti-aircraft missile.
In Israel – Israel's head of state President MOSHE KATZAV is given a three-month leave of absence (in view of accusations of rape, sexual harassment, breach of trust, obstruction of justice, harassment of a witness and fraud) approved by the Knesset and Knesset speaker DALIA ITZIK assumes the office in a "caretaker" capacity. (KATZAV is formally indicted for rape and other sexual offences in March 2009 a Tel Aviv court).

Sunday 28: In USA – The State Department issues a preliminary report to Congress concluding that Israel may have violated the terms of classified US-Israel procurement agreements on the use of cluster bombs in populated areas (2006 in Lebanon). (See December 2007 response).

Tuesday 30: In Palestine – Fatah and HAMAS reach a ceasefire agreement mediated by Egypt after a series of clashes that led to the death of 32 Palestinians, and both sides welcome a Saudi initiative to meet in Mecca.

Friday 9: The international Quartet of leaders welcomes the role of Saudi Arabia in forming a Palestinian National Unity government, but later reaffirms international calls that demand it recognise the state of Israel, renounce violence, and abide by previous peace agreements.

Thursday 15: In Palestine – ISMAIL HANIYA and his cabinet resign, but is re-appointed by ABBAS and begins the process of forming a new Palestinian unity government.
In Germany – ERNST CHRISTOF FRIEDRICH ZÜNDEL is sentenced to a five year prison term, the maximum sentence possible for violating the Volksverhetzung law (Section 130, 2.(3)) in the German criminal code which bans incitement of hatred against a minority of the population, which is how his Holocaust denial is interpreted by the Federal German court. He is released from prison March 1, 2010. ZÜNDEL's maternal grandparents were the Jewish Nagal and Isador (Izzy) Mayer. (Izzy Mayer was a trade union organizer for the garment industry in the Bavarian city of Augsburg).

Sunday 18: In Israel – Israel’s Police Chief MOSHE KARADI resigns after being found guilty by a government commission of misconduct whilst serving as head of the Israel Police Southern District.

Monday 5: Israel urges the European Union to not resume direct aid to Palestine until Iranian-backed Palestinian HAMAS accepts past peace accords, renounces violence and recognizes Israel as an independent political state.
Israeli Foreign Minister TZIPI LIVNI says the Palestinian governing body HAMAS would only change its policies if the international community does not compromise on its existing policies and agreements.

Friday 9: Kish island, Iran – Jewish American and retired FBI agent (Organised Crime Division), ROBERT A. LEVINSON, working as an investigator for SafirRosetti is captured, reportedly by Iranian agents (according to the Financial Times, after a meeting with Dawud Salahuddin, born David Belfield, aka Hassan Abdul Rahman and Hassan Tantai, an American fugitive wanted for the assassination of a former Iranian diplomat in Maryland in 1980) and held in a secret prison of its Revolutionary Guard on suspicion of espionage. (Kish island is an Iranian duty-free zone that does not require visas. Levinson was also one of the world's top experts on money laundering and the Russian mafia).

Thursday 15: In Hungary – British author DAVID JC IRVING (holocaust-denier) gives a speech for a far-right nationalist rally. (See May 18).
In Palestine – Palestinians reach agreement on the formation of their new government.

Saturday 17: In Gaza City, Palestine – The new unity government holds its first cabinet meeting with its ministers in the West Bank participating from Ramallah via video link.
Israel refuses to talk to the coalition government, saying it fails to meet international demands to renounce violence, recognise the state of Israel, and honour past peace deals.

Israel begins planning the military invasion of Gaza a day after OLMERT call for a regional peace conference with Arab states.
The US gives ABBAS $60m to boost his presidential guard and for other security expenses.
Sunday 15: 02.00AM, Gaza City, Palestine – Masked gunmen abduct the security guard outside the Palestinian Bible Society and place a large bomb at the door severely damaging the building.
In Israel – The Fisher Fund, established seven years ago by Attorney GIDEON FISHER, takes steps to sue, as a class action, the current German government for the mental health problems of the children of Jewish Holocaust survivors.

HAMAS rocket attacks on Israel provoke Israeli air raids as the HAMAS-FATAH conflict escalates into civil war in Gaza.
Thursday 10: In Israel – Dr HANAN ESHEL accuses the Israel Antiquities Authority of needlessly causing serious damage to the Bar Kochba period Leviticus scroll fragment in a crude attempt to date it. (See: February 2005).
Friday 18: In Poland – British author DAVID JC IRVING is deported for violating Polish law forbidding the promotion of Nazism and anti-Semitism.
Sunday 20: Northern Lebanon – Over 200 heavily armed Fatah al-Islam fighters launch an al-Qa'eda (Jihadist) ideology-driven attack on Lebanese government forces 13 kilometres north of Tripoli from the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, after a bank-robbery investigation by authorities uncover a large arms cache in the refugee camp.
Wednesday 30: In Israel – The Chief Rabbi of Safed, SHMUEL ELIYAHU, is reported in the Jerusalem Post as advocating the 'carpet bombing' of areas from which rockets may have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel (regardless of any number of civilian casualties).

Gaza – HAMAS attacks the Fatah administration of Gaza and takes control of the territory. Fatah retreats to the West Bank Palestinian territory.
Masked gunmen attack the Rosary Sisters School and the Latin Church in Gaza City. Hamas gunmen use rocket-propelled grenades to storm the main entrances of the school and church, then destroy almost everything inside.
HAMAS kidnaps Professor SANA AL-SAYEGH, a teacher at Palestine University in Gaza City, and force her to convert to Islam against her will. Her family’s attempts to meet with Hamas leaders to find her repeatedly fail. Requests by community leaders to meet with Hamas are turned down.
Monday 25: In Israel – More than 20 houses in two Bedouin-Arab villages are destroyed by Israeli security forces, leaving over 150 people homeless. Following a 2004 demolition court order, Israel seeks to forcibly move about 1,000 of the al-Qi’an tribe from Atir and Um Heiran, in order to build a new Jewish village in their place. About half of the 160,000 Bedouins in Israel’s Negev live in “unrecognised” villages, which the government is seeking to close, and they resist resettlement on the basis of the high crime and unemployment rates in the townships.

Wednesday 27, 13:00 UCT+1: at Carlton House Terrace, London, UK – ASHRAF MARWAN (أشرف مروان‎), Egyptian billionaire and reputed spy for Israel's Mossad, falls to his death while writing an exposé of his spying activities.
A witness of his fatal fall from the fifth floor, who was on the third floor of a nearby building, tells police that he saw two men "wearing suits and of Mediterranean appearance" appear on the balcony moments after Marwan's fall, look down, and then return inside the apartment.
At MARWAN's funeral in Egypt, its President Mubarak says, "Marwan carried out patriotic acts which it is not yet time to reveal."
MARWAN's son, GAMAL MARWAN, claims his father was working on his memoir before his death. GAMAL said his father’s manuscript and tapes had vanished, and that he was a patriotic Egyptian (See January 2008). ASHRAF MARWAN had been chief of staff to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, a leading Arab industrialist, and became a business partner of Mohamed al-Fayed, the owner of Harrod's department store in London. (Marwan's name as agent was betrayed by Eli Zeira, former Major General in the Israel Defense Forces and director of Aman, Israel's military intelligence, during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The postwar Agranat Commission, set to investigate the reasons for the costly war, found Zeira to be negligent of his duty, and he had resigned).

Friday 29: In the US – Jewish American RICHARD FALK (Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton University and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara) publishes his article "Slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust". (To read it click).

Wednesday 4: In Ottawa, Canada – Regarding the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) as "occupied territory", Canada's government considers the barrier to be contrary to international law under the Fourth Geneva Convention. They oppose the barrier and the expropriations and the demolition of houses and economic infrastructure preceding its construction.

Thursday 12: In Al-Amin al-Thaniyah, American occupied Baghdad, Iraq – US troops execute civilians on the basis of suspicion.

Wednesday 18: In Britain – Prime Minister GORDON BROWN appoints JAMES PURNELL, a pro-Israel apologist, as secretary of state for culture media and sport, and as such he will have an oversight role over the British Broadcasting Corporation and the rest of the British media. A second Israel apologist, JIM MURPHY, takes the position of minister of state for Europe with responsibility for, among other things, the BBC World Service and the British Council. Mr Murphy served as chairman of 'Labour Friends of Israel' during 2000-02 and has also been a member of the Anglo-Israeli All Party Parliamentary Group.
Monday 23: In Israel – Israel releases 255 Palestinian (security offences) prisoners, mainly of their Fatah faction. The release is a ploy to reinforce Palestinian President ABBAS, weeks after HAMAS seized control of the Gaza Strip.
The Austrian Justice Ministry declares that they will pay €50,000 for information leading to the arrest and extradition to Austria of SS Dr 'Death' ARIBERT HEIM. (See October 1941, 1950), not knowing he had died in Cairo, Egypt, in August 10, 1992.

In Palestine – DANI DAYAN is elected chairman of the Yesha Council, a Jewish umbrella organisation which represents and promotes Jewish settlement in Gaza and the West Bank. (In February 2005, Israel's Minister of Interior found that the Yesha Council had misappropriated funds provided by the Israeli government for the political campaign against disengagement from Gaza and four settlement in the West Bank).

Saturday 4: In Canada – Authorities finally agree to imprison MICHAEL (MISHA) SEIFERT (the “Beast of Balzano” Nazi war criminal), the Ukrainian-born German Canadian who was been convicted in absentia by an Italian court on nine counts of murder while working as an SS Guard at the Balzano prison camp in Italy, after having lived in East Vancouver since 1951. (See November 13).
Monday 6: In Israel – Protests are held on behalf of the about 120,000 needy survivors of the Holocaust, about half of whom live in Israel, over its government's offer of a subsidy of 83 shekels, about $20 per month. It is estimated that about 35 of these Holocaust survivors die in Israel each day.
Wednesday 22: The 'Palestine Monitor' openly rebukes American Presidential candidate RUDI GIULIANI for his presumptuously ignorant and misleading statement that –

published by the American Council on Foreign Affairs; in disregard of the fact that 45 democratically elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, including the minister of education, are imprisoned by the Israeli military.

Tuesday 4: In Israel – The Supreme Court of Justice rules that construction work on Israel's Security Wall on land of the Palestinian village of Bilin must stop and the Wall be re-routed. The Wall on Bilin village land would have annexed about 2300 dunams (600 acres) out of 3400 dunams (850 acres) of Palestinian land. The new route will not return all the annexed land to the village. According to sources in the village only 1100 dunams (275 acres) of land will be retrieved while the rest will remain on the Israeli side of the Wall.

Thursday 6: In Syria – Israeli warplanes bomb Syria's nuclear reactor which is within months of becoming operational (according to American Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in a confidential cable to US diplomats). It was being built with the assistance of North Korea. (Israel is reported to have paid Syrian Saleh Al-Nijm 1.5 million dollars for information on the location of the nuclear reactor).

Monday 17: In Germany – The Karlsruhe-based Federal Court of Justice upholds the conviction and sentencing of Canadian Neo-Nazi ERNST ZUENDEL to five years imprisonment for denying the Nazi Holocaust and inciting hatred of Jews (Case 1 StR 337/07).
Friday 19: In Washington – Palestinian Monetary Authority governor GEORGE ABED announced that they will be ready to form a central bank and issue a currency by about 2010, should a sovereign Palestinian State be created.

Friday 26: In Gaza, Palestine – Bible Society worker and member of Gaza Baptist Church, 32-year-old RAMI KHADER AYYAD, is kidnapped and murdered (stabbed and shot) for his Christian witness in this HAMAS controlled territory, leaving behind his pregnant wife and two young children.
Tuesday 30: The Report of the United Nations Secretary-General on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) states that –

LYNDON LAROUCHE attempts to lobby British MPs to defends his organisation against suspicion over the violent death of JEREMIAH DUGGAN who was attending the anti-Semtic LaRouche's Schiller Institute.
Monday: 12: In Palestine – SAEB EREKAT senior Palestinian Authority negotiator, says –

– concerning Israel's insistence that it be defined as a Jewish State even though more than a million of its citizens (over 20%) are not of the Jewish Faith.

Tuesday 13: In Canada – Canadian Federal Court Justice JAMES O'REILLY rules that the government is within its rights to revoke MICHAEL SEIFERT's citizenship (see August 4), but he expresses doubt about SEIFERT's guilt for the Balzano atrocities, in spite of sworn eye-witness testimony identifying him as responsible for shooting prisoners, starving a 15-year-old to death, and gouging out the eyes of another; and the previous guilty-verdict of an Italian court which had weighed the evidences against him. (See January 17, 2008).

Thursday 15: In London, UK – Home Secretary JACQUI SMITH writes to Israel's Likud party member MOSHE ZALMAN FEIGLIN informing him that he is banned from entering the United Kingdom. (See copy of the letter.)

Monday 26: In Washington – US President GW BUSH has separate private talks with with Israeli Prime Minister EHUD OLMERT and Palestinian Authority President MAHOUD ABBAS at the White House, in preparation for in a summit at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, tomorrow, aiming at a joint statement of principles toward the formation of a separate Palestinian State.

Tuesday 27: In Annapolis, Maryland, US – At a conference attended by 44 nations, Israel and the Palestinian Administration agree to talks toward a two state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli problem for conclusion by the end of 2008, with the steering committee meeting scheduled for December 12. Palestinian President ABBAS says his government would work –

'tirelessly in extremely difficult conditions'' to fight 'lawlessness, violence and terrorism',

and Israel's Prime Minister OLMERT says –

'We are willing to make a painful compromise, rife with risks, in order to realize these aspirations'.

In Israel – Internal Security Minister AVI DICHTER (Israel's Kadima party) cancels a planned visit to the UK for fear that an arrest warrant would be issued against him by local authorities over the July 2002 assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Salah Shehadeh.
(Dichter served as the Shin Bet chief during the aerial attack on Shehadeh's Gaza home, which also left 15 Palestinian civilians dead, among them his wife and three children.)

Friday 7: In Gaza Strip – Police in HAMAS-run Gaza confiscate drugs – including hashish and cocaine, heroine and ecstasy – worth some $4 million and arrested 115 dealers. HAMAS alleges that security forces loyal to President MAHMOUD ABBAS's FATAH faction allowed drug abuse to flourish before the Islamist group violently seized the coastal enclave in June 2007.
Wednesday 12: In West Jerusalem – Prime Minister OLMERT and President ABBAS today set a target of December 2008 for a peace agreement that would end six decades of conflict, but the two sides encountered troubles early during the session, which lasted just 90 minutes, with Palestinians criticizing Israel for a construction project planned in east Jerusalem and military activity in the Gaza Strip, and Israel complaining about continued rocket fire from the Gaza Strip although this is under HAMAS control.
Monday 17: In Paris – International donors of nearly 90 countries pledge to support the embattled Palestinian government of President ABBAS, pledging $7.4 billion in aid over three years (European Union – $640 million; United States – $555 million; France – $300 million). Development charity Oxfam warns donor nations that they are pouring cash "into a leaking bucket," because aid efforts already in place are being seriously hampered by Israeli restrictions on movement.

In Russia – For their Chanukah celebration this year, officials of Birobidzhan (Jewish population c.4,500) in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast of Siberia, claim to have built the world's largest menorah. (See May 7, 1934).

In Israel – the Israel Defence Force (IDF) concludes its investigation into its 2006 use of cluster bombs (see January 2007 US State Dept report) alleging –

• The IDF also announces that it would not press charges against officers who ordered the use of cluster bombs during the 2006 war.
In Gaza – MOUSA ABU MARZOOK, the deputy of the political bureau of HAMAS describes their 1988 founding charter as "an essentially revolutionary document born of the intolerable conditions under occupation". MARZOOK addS that "if every state or movement were to be judged solely by its foundational, revolutionary documents . . ., there would be a good deal to answer for on all sides," noting as an example that the U.S. Constitution engaged in codifying slavery.

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