In Palestine – Israel's airforce rockets various targets in Gaza in retaliation to escalating rocket attacks on Israel.
Friday 4: In Israel – An outbreak of the human-lethal H5N1 strain of Avian Flu in the petting zoo of a Binyamina kindergarten sparked a cull of as many as 4,000 chickens in the Binyamina area today.
Sunday 6: In Jerusalem – AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN, Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, Minister of Strategic Affairs, and leader of the government coalition's Israel Beiteinu Part, warns Prime Minister EHUD OLMERT that he will remove Israel Beiteinu from the coalition if negotiations began on the core issues of the conflict.
Monday 7: In Jerusalem – Negotiators on behalf of Palestine and Israel struggle to find a common base (because of continuing Israeli building activity in East Jerusalem), ahead of the US President's visit scheduled for Wednesday. The three core issues are:
      • settling national borders;
      • the fate of Jerusalem; and,
      • Palestinian refugees outside Palestine.
Tuesday 8: In Jerusalem – Israel's OLMERT and Palestine's ABBAS (ABU MAZEN) agree to discuss the core issues.
Wednesday 9: In Jerusalem – US President GW BUSH arrives in Israel for talks.
Mid month: In Gaza – Israeli military unit infiltrates Gaza and kills 19 members of the Qassam Brigades (the military wing of HAMAS), including the son of MAHMOUD AL-ZAHHARr, a top HAMAS leader in Gaza.
In retaliation HAMAS fires a barrage of rockets into Israel.
Israel responds by closing the Gaza border crossings and tightening its economic stranglehold on Gaza.

In Jerusalem – AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN, who had founded the Yisrael Beiteinu ('Our Home is Israel') party in 1999, resigns from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's coalition in January last year in protest at new, U.S.-sponsored talks with the Palestinians. (See February 2009).
In London, UK – Following a review of the death of ASHRAF MARWAN (Israel-Egypt double agent) the investigation is transferred to the Specialist Crime Directorate, both because of its public nature and because the shoes Marwan was wearing when he fell, key evidence in the case, had been lost. (See: June 2007).

Thursday 17: In Canada – The Supreme Court rejects MICHAEL SEIFERT's application to appeal against his extradition to Italy, where he was found guilty in absentia for war crimes while working as a German SS Guard at the Italian Bolzano Camp. (See November 13, 2007)
Wednesday 30: In Jerusalem – Israel’s Supreme Court rejects a petition by ten Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations to stop Israel from cutting supplies of fuel and electricity to the Gaza Strip, as part of a governmental decision authorizing punitive measures against the population of Gaza.

Tuesday 12: In Damascus, Syria – IMAD MUGHNIYEH, liaison between Hezbollah and Iran, is assassinated by an exploding headrest as he enters a car. Israel's Mossad is suspected.
Friday 15: In Canada – MICHAEL SEIFERT is handed over to Interpol at Toronto Airport for extradition to Italy for war crimes (See above).
In Palestine – HAMAS aggression against the civilian population of Israel continues with retaliation by Israel's military, often with little regard for civilian casualties.
Unidentified gunmen blow up the YMCA library in the Gaza Strip. Two guards are kidnapped, offices were looted, vehicles stolen, and more than 8,000 books are destroyed. That attack comes only days after a Hamas “modesty patrol” attacked a Christian youth’s car after he was seen driving a female classmate to her home. Both were injured in the attack.

In the UK – Home Secretary Jacqui Smith makes public its banning of Israel's Likud party member MOSHE ZALMAN FEIGLIN on the grounds that his presence in the country "would not be conducive to the public good."
A letter to Feiglin from the Home Office dated February 15, 2007, says that Smith based her decision on an assessment that his activities "foment or justify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs; seek to provoke others to terrorist acts; foment other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to serious criminal acts and foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK". (See December 11).
Tuesday 18: In Jerusalem, Israel – German Chancellor ANGELA MERKEL addresses the Parliament of Israel.

In East Jerusalem – The Israel Antiquities Authority, commissioned by right-wing political organization ElAd (Ir David Foundation) committed to the Judaizing of East Jerusalem, begins digging under the homes of some of Silwan’s residents without informing them. Fearing that their buildings’ foundations were being undermined, the residents petition the Israeli Supreme Court. On the very same night they file their appeal, their homes are raided by Israeli police, and five people were arrested. ElAd is committed to making Palestinian Silwan into a Jewish neighbourhood. 'Archaeology' is now viewed by many Palestinians as a means of forwarding the settlers’ goal, which is essentially ethnic cleansing.
Wednesday 16: In Palestine – Thirteen Palestinians, including a cameraman working for Reuters, are killed in Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip as fighting brings the number of casualties to 21 today.
Monday 28: In Palestine – A mother and her four children are killed by an Israeli air strike against alleged militants in Beit Hanoun, Gaza.

Friday 9: In Israel – A Jerusalem court agrees to hear preliminary testimony from MORRIS TALANSKY at an open hearing regarding corruption allegations against Israel's Prime Minister, but the date is not set. State prosecutor MOSHE LADOR reports that TALANSKY expressed concern to police that Prime Minister EHUD OLMERT may send someone to harm him.
Wednesday 21: In Germany – Deutsche Post admits its error in printing a customer request for postage stamps bearing the image of Nazi leader and former deputy of Adolf Hitler, RUDOLPH HESS, in commemoration of his birthday. The incident is indicative of continuing neo-Nazi influence in parts of Germany.
In Israel and Syria – Israel and Syria announce they have begun indirect talks in Turkey in open dialogue with the aim of a comprehensive peace.
Thursday 22: In Israel – Police question the Prime Minister for a second time on suspicion of corruption. Prosecutors say they suspect OLMERT misused large amounts of cash received from a US businessman when he was mayor of Jerusalem. OLMERT subsequently became Israel's minister for Trade and Industry, before becoming Prime Minister. (See May 9).
Tuesday 27: In Palestine – Prime Minister FAYYAD writes to the European Union accusing Israel of "flagrant disregard" of Palestinian rights by continuing to build Jewish settlements in the West Bank and refusing to remove checkpoints which hamper economic development. He urges the EU not to upgrade its relations with Israel until it "abides by international and human rights laws", including freezing settlement activity, and also calls on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to deny Israel membership because of its continued settlement expansion.
In Gaza – BASIM NAIM, the HAMAS minister of health, says "... it should be made clear that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian government in Gaza denies the Nazi Holocaust. The Holocaust was not only a crime against humanity but one of the most abhorrent crimes in modern history. We condemn it as we condemn every abuse of humanity and all forms of discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender or nationality." (Source: The Guardian, May 12, 2008).

Monday 2: In Israel – The government stops transfer of about $74 million in tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority to punish for its May 27 letter of FAYYAD to the EU.
This money is the main funding of the Palestinian Authority's budget to pay salaries to its more than 165,000 government employees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel tells the Palestinian government that it is delaying the transfer of the tax funds for technical reasons, but it also announces plans to build nearly 900 new homes in the occupied West Bank.
Sunday 8: In Israel – An Israeli treasury spokeswoman says that the tax revenue of the Palestinian government, which Israel withheld from June 2 to punish for the Palestinian Prime Minister's call to the European Union not to upgrade relations with Israel, was transferred last week.
Near Susiya, Palestine – Four Jewish settlers club Palestinian shepherds on Palestinian land in a military zone closed to Israelis. A relative of the victims documented the vicious attack with a B'Tselem camera. Later (June 7, 2009), the Hebron police close the investigation on grounds of "offender unknown"[?].
In the Gaza Strip – Palestinian militants fire a barrage of Qassam rockets toward western Negev which explode in open fields in the Eshkol region, lightly injuring one migrant worker.
Monday 12: In the USA – U.S. Justice Department announces that an appeals panel has upheld an order to deport 83-year-old JOSIAS KUMPF of Wisconsin, accused of serving as a Nazi SS guard whose duty was to finish off dying Jews in a two-day massacre in Poland of more than 40,000 Jews in November 1943.
Wednesday 18: In Palestine – Hamas leader ISMAIL HANIYEH announces an Egyptian brokered truce with Israel effective as from Thursday 19 June 2008 at 6 a.m. According to information reported the agreement includes a commitment by the Gaza authorities to halt attacks by Palestinian armed groups against Israel immediately, and a commitment by Israel to cease its military operations in Gaza.
Saturday 21: In Okanagan, British Columbia, Canada – Hate-filled words and swastikas are sprayed all over the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre.
Monday 23: North-West of Beit Lahia, Gaza – Israeli military stationed at the border open fire on a group of Palestinians trying to collect fire wood near the border, violating the newly agreed cease-fire with Hamas. In retaliation two mortar shells are fired from central Gaza, one landing near the Nahal Oz crossing and the other in the Negev desert; no injuries are reported.
Tuesday 24: In Nablus, West Bank – At dawn the Israeli armed force launches a raid in which an Islamic Jihad activist and another Palestinian man are killed.
Wednesday 25: Israeli Defence Force closes all Gaza border crossings except the Erez pedestrian terminal, in retaliation to the firing of rockets from Gaza by Islamic Jihad into Sderot on Tuesday, rather than responding militarily.
Israel holds a military exercise in the skies over eastern Greece of over 100 F15 and F16 fighter jets in a simulated attack on Iran, at the same distance from Israel as Iran's Natanz nuclear facility.

Wednesday 3: In Jerusalem – Retaliating over the rampage of a Palestinian with a bulldozer which killed three people, the Israeli government implements the evil practice of collective punishment (punishing relatives and dependants of the guilty) cutting off all social benefits from the family of the attacker, and intended demolition of the family home, etc; actions which have continued to motivate such rampage actions in the past.
(In the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s Israel systematically destroyed family homes of Palestinians involved in attacks but in 2005 had stopped the practice after Lieutenant General MOSHE YAALON reported that it was an ineffective deterrent).
Monday 7: In West Bank – The Palestinian village of Bil’in launches a lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court of Canada against two Canadian construction companies (Green Park International Inc. and Green Mount International Inc., both registered corporations in Quebec) accusing them of committing war crimes by building houses for Israel illegally on their land.
Tuesday 22: In Palestine – The Israeli Army's nightly operations in Palestinian Nablus undermines Palestinian security efforts and political credibility, President MAHMOUD ABBAS has warned, and threatens to withdraw his forces if the situation is not corrected.
Tuesday 29: In Washington – U.S. Secretary of State CONDOLEZZA RICE says "The Middle East is not going to get better without the creation of a Palestinian state [to live] side by side with Israel in peace, security and democracy," at a news conference with Italian Foreign Minister FRANCO FRATTINI.

In Gaza, Palestine – Israeli refusal of Gazan patients' access to hospital appointments in Israel or in the West Bank escalates from 10% to 35%, caused by Shin Bet's (Israel's secret police/domestic intelligence agency) 'coercion'/'extortion' that the patients first supply information to Shin Bet on HAMAS militants, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel.
Friday 1: Near Tartous in Syria – MOHAMMED SULEIMAN, adviser to the Syrian President, is shot dead on a beach from a vessel offshore. Israel's secret service Mossad is suspected.
In Jerusalem – Since 2000, Israel has sold hundreds of millions of dollars in arms and combat training to the ex-Soviet state of Georgia in the Caucasus. The weapons include guns, ammunition, artillery shells, tactical missile systems, anti-aircraft systems, automatic turrets for armoured vehicles, electronic equipment, remotely piloted aircraft, and were authorized by the Israeli defence ministry.
Monday 11: In Europe – The presidency of the Council of the European Union expresses deep concern over Israel's continued construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem (400 housing units in Neve Yaakov and inviting tenders for 286 and 130 housing units in Beitar Illit and Har Homa), saying the decision undermines "the credibility of the ongoing peace process" is illegal under international law, "prejudges the outcome of final status negotiations", and "compromises the viability of a concerted two-state solution." It calls on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to honour their respective "road map" undertakings reaffirmed at the Annapolis conference, and urges Israel to completely freeze settlement activity, including "natural growth" in east Jerusalem, and dismantle all unauthorized outposts built since 2001.
In Palestine – Israel Defence Force and Israeli Border Police's heavy handed dealing with Palestinian civilians continues to fuel further conflict in the region by indirectly encouraging support for the militants.

Sunday 7: In Israel – Israeli police have recommended to Attorney General MENI MAZUZ that charges be brought against Israeli Prime Minister EHUD OLMERT for corruption.
Sunday 14: In Palestine – Olive trees of the Palestinian farmers of Awarta are burned by the nazi-minded Jews of the Itamar West Bank settlement, in another attempt to drive the Palestinians out of their homeland, with no protection or redress from the either Israeli army or police present in the area.
Monday 15: In Israel – Over the past 18 months, the municipality of Tel Aviv/Jaffa has issued 497 eviction orders against families living in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Ajami (south of Jaffa port), threatening to make 3,000 people homeless (in a bid to make way for investors), including those who have continued to live in their families’ original homes from before 1948 and who lost their status as owners when the state confiscated their properties overnight making them tenants in their own property and forcing them to pay rent to state-controlled company, Amidar. MENTAI LAHAVI, vice-chairman of the local building and planning committee, admitted recently: “The municipality froze all [building] permits in the area for a long period and would not even let people replace an asbestos roof. They turned all the residents of the neighbourhood into offenders.”
Tuesday 16: In Gaza – Violence between the ruling Islamic HAMAS and the outlaw Doghmush clan leaves 11 dead and more than 40 wounded.
Thursday 18: In Israel – Foreign Minister TZIPI LIVNI is elected as new leader of Israel's ruling Kadima political party.
At the United Nations – South African Archbishop Emeritus DESMOND TUTU presents the findings of an enquiry into the killing of civilians (including children) by the Israel Defence Force at Hanun in Gaza in November 2006. He declares the repeated firing of the twelve high explosive shells into the civilian area as most likely deliberate and therefore a war crime, for which compensation should be paid and the responsible persons prosecuted. Israel denies the charge (See November 6, 2006).
In Palestine – The World Bank blames Israeli restrictions for the Gaza Strip poverty rate having soared to 79.4% and in the West Bank to 45.7%, and concludes that –

The World Bank Report concludes that 98% of Gaza's industry has been inactive since the Israeli blockade began.
In Tel Aviv, Israel – Despite intensive ongoing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Administration, KADOURA FARES, a leader of the Palestinian peace coalition at a Geneva Initiative conference demands that ABU MAZEN (ABBAS) halt peace talks with Israel while Israel continues to expropriate Palestinian land in the West Bank for the purpose of enlarging illegal Israeli settlements and building new ones, citing Palestinian disillusionment with futile negotiations.

Tuesday 23: In Jerusalem, Israel – MORDECHAI VANUNU is still under restrictions by the Israeli authorities and banned from speaking to foreign media. for which he has been sentenced to six months imprisonment by an Israeli court, which is now reduced by a District Court to three months.

Tuesday 30: In Israel – Israel's domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, warns that Israel's treatment of its Palestinians is provoking the latest acts of domestic terrorism, negating the purpose of its expensive security wall. However, Defence Minister EHUD BARAK argued that the home demolitions [collective-punishment deterrent] should resume following the recent attacks in West Jerusalem by residents from East Jerusalem. The Shin Bet contradicts BARAK's view and warn that attacks will most likely increase in the future as a consequence of this treatment.
In America – The US Congress postpones an urgent vote on an internationally significant financial rescue package in order to honour a Jewish holiday.

Lebanese kingpin, CHEKRY HARB, who was arrested in Bogota for cocaine smuggling and money laundering (12% of which was paid to Hezbollah), is regarded as sign of an increasing Hezbollah presence in South America. In June, the US Treasury Department had designated two Venezuelans of Lebanese descent, one a diplomat, as Hezbollah financiers and supporters in its war with Israel.

Thursday 2: In Lebanon – In the village of Abasiyah, Sheikh NABIL KAOUK says Israel only understands the language of force and his Hezbollah believed it had an obligation to complete the liberation of all Lebanese land [village of Ghajar] and that Lebanon could only 'retake' its lands using armed struggle since diplomacy has hit a dead end.
Saturday 11: In Acre, Israel – Arab Israeli, TAWFIQ JAMAL is stoned by a Jewish mob for driving his car to pick up his daughter in the Jewish area of the city during their Yom Kippur Fast. The Jewish attack triggers retaliation from the Arab community and rioting spreads across the city forcing some of the Arab minority to leave.
Thursday 16: In Washington, USA – Doug Bloomfield writes in the Washington Jewish Week "American Jewish leaders have been quick and correct to call upon Muslim leaders in this country to condemn Islamic terrorism forcefully, particularly when it's against Jews, and to mobilize their followers to oppose all such violence. But when it comes to Jewish violence and terrorism, they are strangely silent."
Wednesday 22: In Gaza, Palestine – Israel closes its cargo border-crossing with Gaza again in retaliation for another rocket attack from that territory.
In London – Senior Iranian official, SEYED SAFAVI, head of the Research Institute of Strategic Studies in Tehran and adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned foreign diplomats gathered to discuss the effects and consequences of a possible Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear reactor, that numerous Israeli threats in recent years to carry out an offensive strike on Iran has backfired as some Iranian hardliners believe that the only way to prevent such an Israeli attack is by hitting Israel first.
In Adelaide, Australia – SARA ROY of Harvard University in the US, in presenting the 2008 Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Adelaide University, states that –

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) estimates that in the north of the West Bank, Palestine, approximately 80% Palestinians who own land on the other side of Israel's new 'security wall' have not received permits from the Israeli authorities, and hence cannot cultivate their fields.

In the Gaza Strip – Electricity production has plunged for lack of fuel resulting from Israel's embargo, leaving much of the coastal area darkened, but Israeli officials allege there is enough fuel and that HAMAS officials are trying to embarrass them by closing electricity plants.
Wednesday, 5: In the United States – SARAH PALIN (governor of Alaska and US vice-presidential candidate) describes as "small, evidently bitter type of person" the source of the slanderous charge that she did not know that Africa was a continent. The "small ...bitter person" turns out to be American Jew EITAN GORLIN, seeking publicity for his project, assisted by DAN MIRVISH, on how to deceive the media through fake reporting. (How constructive a contribution to society! And, of course, the Torah command 'love you neighbour as yourself' doesn't really apply to Palin).
Thursday 6: In Washington – American born Jew who had fought for Israel in the first gulf war, RAHM ISRAEL EMANUEL, accepts the post of White House Chief of Staff under OBAMA. (See Nov.20).
Saturday 8: In Gaza – Israel begins a virtual news blackout by preventing foreign journalists from entering the territory. (See November 18).
Sunday 9: In Sharm el-Sheikh, the international 'Middle East Quartet' of Russian Foreign Minister SERGEY LAVROV, special envoy to the Middle East TONY BLAIR, USA Secretary of State CONDOLEEZZA RICE, AND UN Secretary-General BAN KI-MOON, agree, after hearing from Foreign Minister of Israel TZIPI LIVNI and Palestinian Authority President MAHMOUD ABBAS, on continued negotiations without a deadline toward an independent Palestinian State.

In Jerusalem: Monks of the Armenian Orthodox church and the Greek Orthodox church trade punches and kicks in conflict in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher over precedence within the tomb. The fighting is ended by Israeli police with the arrest of a monk from each side.
Wednesday 12: In Britain – The UK's only Shariah-compliant bank, Birmingham-based Islamic Bank of Britain, is instructed by its clearing bank, Lloyds TSB, to cease all dealings with Interpal (Palestinian Relief and Development Fund), a British charity working among Palestinians in Gaza as from December 8, 2008. Interpal had been under investigation by the UK Charities Commission for channeling funds to HAMAS, the government of Gaza with a reputation for terrorism. Interpal is on a list of banned groups in the United States. This is the second time Interpal has had to find a new bank – NatWest bank 'reluctantly' closed Interpal's account in April 2007 after a group of families of suicide bomb victims launched a claim against the bank in the US.
Thursday 13: In Ottawa, Canada – Lebanese naturalised Canadian part-time professor at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, HASSAN DIAB, is arrested by Canada's RCMP at his home in Gatineau, on charges relating to the bombing of French Reformist Jewish synagogue October 3, 1980, in Rue Copernic, Paris, France, beginning a series of such attacks across Europe. Charges and evidence are sealed under Canada's Extradition Act until DIAB's extradition hearing in February 2009. DIAB (54) is wanted in France on multiple counts of murder, attempted murder and wilful destruction of property by an organized group after a bombing killed four, wounding 26, outside a Paris synagogue in which the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Special Operations, was blamed.
Tuesday 18: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights NAVI PILLAY says – "By function of this blockade [of Gaza] 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children have been forcibly deprived of their most basic human rights for months" concerning Israel's imposition of collective punishment on Gaza for militants firing rockets into Israel. (See December 19, Prof. FALK).
In Palestinian waters – Israel Defence Force arrests three Palestinian fishing boats with their occupants for transporting three international journalists to the coast of Palestine to avoid the Israeli blockade of Gaza, confiscating the boats and imprisoning their crews. The journalists are: Briton ANDREW MUNCIE, American DARLENE WALLACH, and Italian VITTORIO ARRIGONI.

Wednesday 19: In Israel – The Palestinian Authority places Hebrew advertisements in three Israeli newspapers presenting the March 28, 2002, Beirut Arab League summit peace-proposal, re-launched at the Riyadh summit in 2007, to explain it to the Israeli public as a counter to previously slanted reports by Israel's officials. Israel alleges that the primary obstacles to its implementation are the unified status of Jerusalem and the returnee-rights of Palestinian refugees.
Thursday 20: The human rights watch organization 'Gisha' accuses Israel that the refusal of its army to allow fuel, cooking gas and other commodities into the Gaza Strip constitutes collective punishment of 1.5 million civilians.
Israel had allowed 30 truckloads of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip on November 17, and the entry of 650,000 litres of diesel fuel, required to operate Gaza's electric plant. But Gisha points out that Israel promised its High Court of Justice to allow 2.2 million litres of industrial diesel each week as a minimum humanitarian requirement, which it has not done.
In Washington, USA – American born Jew, DAVID M AXELROD, is appointed as Senior Advisor to the OBAMA administration. (Axelrod is a close friend of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. See Nov.6).

Monday 24: In Palestine – Israel opens its Gaza border crossing to supplies.
In the USA – The Holy Land Foundation Muslim charity (previously Occupied Land Fund) is found guilty of 108 charges of supporting terrorism by forwarding the money to HAMAS in Gaza. In a previous trial which failed, at least three jurors complained publicly about juror WILLIAM NEAL, citing bullying tactics in which he cursed and belittled fellow jurors for taking any positions that were in favour of a conviction. The Foundation has been shut down since December 2001, but still has assets of $12.4 million of which the prosecution seeks forfeiture. PETER MARGULIES, Roger Williams University law professor who studies terrorism financing cases, commented:

In Jerusalem – Israel Defence Minister EHUD BARAK supports a continued truce with HAMAS of Gaza in spite of recent rocket attacks, citing a drop from an average of 500 attacks a month to ten per month as a result of the truce, and rebuts opposition complaints that ten is too much by pointing out that the recent rocket attacks followed an Israeli operation inside the Gaza Strip three weeks ago in which the army blew up a tunnel being dug toward Israel and killed four Palestinians.
Thursday 27: In Canada – Former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, DAVID AHENAKEW, is retried for hate speech against Jews. (See July 8, 2005).
In Israel – The Attorney General announces that he intends charging the acting Prime Minister EHUD OLMERT with the double billing of Jewish groups for trips abroad, and Foreign Minister TZIPI LIVNI therefore calls on him to resign.
Saturday 29: In Israel – At least six Israeli soldiers are wounded in a military base in southern Israel by mortars fired from Gaza by Palestinian militants. The violence further mars a five-month-old truce between Israel and Gaza which began breaking down in early November.

Thursday 4: Hebron, Israel – Israeli police drag Jewish settlers kicking and screaming from a building occupied by them since March 2007, in terms of an eviction order issued by the Israel High Court 16 November 2008. The action of the police came in response to protests by Palestinians which resulted in three Palestinians with gunshot wounds and some Palestinian cars and goods burned by Jewish settlers.
The Israeli military ominously declare Hebron to be a 'closed military zone'.
Friday 5: Hebron, Israel – Zionist Jews carry out a pogrom against Palestinian residents. Masked Jewish settlers of Kiryat Arba surround a Palestinian house and begin to burn it with the ABU SA'AFAN family inside. In spite of Hebron being a 'closed Israeli Military zone' the lives of the Palestinian family is only saved by a group of journalists breaking into the house to free the inhabitants, even though the hundreds of Zionist settlers climbing on the roof of the ABU SA'AFAN house to destroy it was visible from a great distance.
Justice Minister DANIEL FRIEDMANN calls the settlers' assaults a "shocking pogrom" and tells Channel One television "I regret very much the security forces weren't prepared to prevent" them.
Palestinian witnesses report that Jewish settlers set fire to hundreds of Palestinian olive trees near the town of Qalqilya, near the scene of the similar torchings of Thursday.

Sunday 7: In Jaffa Port, Israel – Israeli police seize the boat of several Arab members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) loaded with humanitarian aid including medicine and food supplies planning to sail to Gaza to avoid the Israeli blockade/blockade of the area. The Israeli police claim that they are acting according to a law preventing any unauthorized docking at Gaza.
Tuesday 9: In Jerusalem – NIR BARKAT, 47, a secular, high-tech business investor and a former Israel Defence Force paratroop officer is elected as Jerusalem's new Mayor by a margin of 52% in a race against his ultra-orthodox haredi rival MEIR PORUSH who polled 43%.

'Once in royal David’s city stood a big apartheid wall . . .'

The Twelve Days of Christmas was sung as –

The event, Bethlehem Now: Nine Alternative Lessons and Carols, was organised by the Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods campaign (J-BIG, launched in September 2008), and the pro-Palestinian group Open Bethlehem.
PROSOR however, criticized the Church of England for not being outspoken enough in condemning J-BIG's critical parody, and blaming the last 2,000 of Jewish suffering on the Christian view of Jewish guilt for the treatment of Jesus.

Thursday 11: In Israel – Kadima party leader and Foreign Minister of Israel TZIPI LIVNI makes comments to a high school audience that Arab Israeli citizens which wish to express their nationality must express it "elsewhere", that is in a future Palestinian state. Her underlining of the Jewish nature of the state of Israel reinforces a common Jewish perception of its essentially racist character.
• A far-right Likud party member MOSHE ZALMAN FEIGLIN states "Nazism promoted Germany from a low to a fantastic physical and ideological status. ...The ragged, trashy youth body turned into a neat and orderly part of society and Germany received an exemplary regime, a proper justice system and public order".
(Feiglin was sentenced to six months in prison in 1997 for sedition after leading a civil disobedience campaign in protest at the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords of 1993, but the sentence was later commuted to community service).
FEIGLIN previously wrote on the Palestinian issue, advocating –

Friday 19: In Gaza – the fragile six-month truce between HAMAS and Israel expires. The armed wing of the HAMAS, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, announce that the truce has officially expired.
Professor of International Law in the US and UN Human Rights expert, RICHARD FALK (official United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories) is detained by Israeli authorities and expelled. FALK comments on this –

Sunday 21: In Teheran, Iran – In the face of Israel's strategic planning of a strike on Iran's nuclear facility, ESMA'IL KOWSARI, deputy head of Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, states that Tehran has reached agreement with Russia on the delivery of S-300 missile systems.
Wednesday 24: In Gaza – In retaliation for Israel's killing of three of its militants, HAMAS fires 60 rockets into Israel.
Friday 26: In Jerusalem – Israel calls for a 48-hour cease-fire with HAMAS claiming it wants to consider all possible political solutions, in order to give HAMAS a false sense of security, by which time Israel's decision to attack Gaza on Saturday 27 is now already 24-hour-old.
Saturday 27: In Gaza – Considering itself safe, HAMAS' men meet in offices and barracks and dozens of policemen gather at a defense ceremony, while nearly 60 Israeli fighter jets are already in the air, heading for Gaza (source: Ulrike Putz in Ashkelon for Der Spiegel).
Israel's military so continues its disproportionate response to HAMAS' retaliation (for Israel's violation of the previous cease fire), killing more than 300 and wounding nearly 1000.
Monday 29: In Gaza – After continuing air strikes (300 since Saturday) pushing the death toll to near 400, Israel military prepares for a full military assault on the residential areas of the Gaza Strip with tanks and artillery, and HAMAS rockets still continue to fire into Israel with an increased range.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations says that Israel is committed to destroy HAMAS (the freely elected government of Gaza).
As the dominant military party, Israel's actions indicate a serious lack of political intelligence.
Egypt sends aid to its border with Gaza to help wounded Palestinians.

During debate in the Israeli Knesset (Israel's parliament), Israeli-Arab Knesset Members accuse the Israeli government of waging a war in Gaza for election purposes. Knesset Member AHMED TIBI states, "There are those who are counting bodies and at the same time counting Knesset seats. Bodies for votes, this is done primarily by the Labour Party."
Israeli Defence Minister EHUD BARAK, chairman of the Labour Party and candidate for prime minister of Israel, is the architect of the Gaza military operation and stands the most to gain politically from it.
Knesset Member MOHAMMED BARAKEH states, "There are those who are profiting from Palestinian blood in order to get elected".
In spite of the freedom of speech principle both Knesset Members are evicted from the meeting.
However, in Paris, France, Israeli Foreign Minister TZIPI LIVNI says –

“There is no humanitarian crisis in the [Gaza] Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce ...Israel has been supplying comprehensive humanitarian aid to the Strip ...and has even been stepping this up by the day.”

Tuesday 30: United Nations – International aid agencies warn of an impending humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza if Israel's blockade of Gaza and attacks on its infrastructure continue.
Wednesday 31: Off Gaza –It is reported by Russian intelligence services that American aircraft carriers in the Eastern Mediterranean are assisting the Israeli Air force with information in its continuing assaults on the Gaza Strip.
In Jerusalem – Israel’s Supreme Court rules that the Israeli government must allow journalists entry into Gaza to cover the ongoing conflict. The court order is ignored by the Government of Israel and the Egyptian government complies with Israel's ban on journalists entering Gaza.
In USA – American-born Jew, BEN-AMI KADISH (mechanical engineer of United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center) pleads guilty to espionage for Israel passing information via Israeli agent Yosef Yagur from 1979-1985. The classified information handed over to the Israeli's includes data on nuclear weapons, a jet fighter weapons system and information on the Patriot missile system. (Judge William H. Pauley III states, "Why it took the [US] government 23 years to charge Mr. Kadish is shrouded in mystery." Kadish is sentenced to a fine of $50,000).