This week …

News Highlights:

  • UN Secretary General appoints an inquiry into the deaths and destruction at UN facilities in Gaza during the Israeli aggression.
  • Israeli forces destroy Bedouin Jahalin structures, leaving 30 homeless including 15 kids; this is just one expulsion in this community to make way for settlement expansion.
  • Israeli elections show Kadima and Likud close in the results, and rightwing extremist Avigdor Lieberman whose party came in third says he will hold the key to forming the next government.
  • Hamas says a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal will not happen until after the Israeli elections.
  • Irish trade unionists to launch a boycott a boycott of Israeli goods.

Feature:

The first in-studio panel discussion of 2009 analyzed developments in the region, especially the Israeli elections and what is happening in the Palestinian political arena. The panel noted the move to more rightwing parties in the Israeli election, but also explained that for Palestinians it really didn’t make much difference as to which party formed the government, as it was Kadima and Labour who had led the brutal attacks on Gaza just weeks ago. Noted Israeli columnist Gideon Levy had said a few days before the elections that a Likud victory would remove the “lie of negotiations and the injustice of the peace process”. The panel also talked about the Palestinian political landscape, possibility of an upcoming prisoner release, and when and if Palestinian elections would happen.

Focus on Zionism:

Highlights of a Feb. 10th, 2009 press release by the Canadian Arab Federation about harassment and defamation they are suffering from Bnai Brith.