❶ YA’ALON: NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO TRY DOUMA TERRORISTS
❷ BBC forced to admit it misled over Palestine
❸ Soldiers Kidnap Four Palestinians in Hebron; Army Kidnaps Four Palestinians in Ramallah, One in Beit Jala
❹ Obama’s ISIS czar says we can’t defeat extremism without resolving Palestinian issue
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ISRAEL GETS A RAISE DESPITE INSULTS TO OBAMA, 50 YEARS OF VIOLENCE TO PALESTINIANS
❻ Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim
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❶ IMEMC News
YA’ALON:  NOT  ENOUGH  EVIDENCE  TO  TRY  DOUMA  TERRORISTS
December 15, 2015
The Israeli Minister of Defense, Moshe Ya’alon, on Tuesday said that the terrorists who burned the home of the Dawabsha family, killing a baby and his parents, were identified, except that the court evidence against them is “not enough.”
___Ya’alon, speaking to army radio, admitted that the attack was “CLEARLY  A  JEWISH  TERROR  ATTACK”  which “he is ashamed of,” adding that “Israel does not have enough evidence against the defendants to keep them detained or prosecute them.”
More . . .

❷ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
BBC  FORCED  TO  ADMIT  IT  MISLED  OVER  PALESTINE
Dec. 11, 2015
For the second time in just over six months, the BBC has been forced to admit that its flagship news and current affairs program — Today — has misled its audiences over the situation in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
___In a broadcast in October, veteran presenter John Humphrys and Middle East correspondent Kevin Connolly implied in a two-way conversation that all of those killed in that month’s violence were Israeli.
___In fact, at the date of broadcast, on 19 October, more than 40 of those killed were Palestinian and fewer than 10 Israeli.
More . . .
❸ IMEMC News
SOLDIERS  KIDNAP  FOUR  PALESTINIANS  IN  HEBRON
Tuesday December 15, 2015
Dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded, on Tuesday at dawn, the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and several nearby towns, searched and ransacked many homes, and kidnapped four Palestinians, including a former political prisoner.
More . . .
Related. . . ARMY  KIDNAPS  FOUR  PALESTINIANS  IN  RAMALLAH,  ONE IN  BEIT  JALA
❹ MONDOWEISS
OBAMA’S  ISIS  CZAR  SAYS  WE  CAN’T  DEFEAT  EXTREMISM  WITHOUT  RESOLVING  PALESTINIAN  ISSUE
Philip Weiss
Dec. 14, 2015
President Obama’s new ISIS czar said yesterday that resolving the Israel Palestine conflict is necessary to defeating Islamist extremists.
___Rob Malley, senior advisor to Obama “for the Counter-ISIL Campaign in Iraq and Syria” and White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, said at a New York conference that the conflict enables ISIS in two ways. Extremists “refer constantly” to the situation of Palestinians. So they would lose a recruiting tool if the matter were resolved. And the failure to resolve the conflict makes it “very difficult” to get “the kind of open cooperation that we really need to get changes on the ground”–
More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
ISRAEL  GETS  A  RAISE  DESPITE  INSULTS  TO  OBAMA,  50  YEARS  OF  VIOLENCE  TO  PALESTINIANS
Rachelle Marshall
January 2015
National pride and respect for international law are no match for political expediency when it comes to America’s “special relationship” with Israel. This was demonstrated again in November, when President Barack Obama and Congress agreed to consider $50 billion in military aid to Israel over the next 10 years—a hefty increase of $2 billion a year. The additional aid is intended as consolation to Israel for a nuclear agreement with Iran that makes Israel safer.
___As if this were not irrational enough, President Obama welcomed Netanyahu to the White House on Nov. 9 and again reassured him of America’s unwavering support. Republicans who are calling for cuts in domestic spending are promising even more money to Israel, and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has pledged that if elected, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be her first guest at the White House.
More . . .

“JOB’S  DIARY,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
I shall tell the world.
I shall tell the world―tell them
Of the lamp they shattered in my home,
Of the axe that destroyed a lily,
Of the fire that consumed a braid

I shall tell them of the unmilked ewe-lamb
Of the morning coffee―left undrunk
Of the mother’s dough left unbaked
Of the mud roof where the grass grows now
I shall tell the world

Neglected daughter of my neighbor
I still have your doll―put away
I have it so come back
Come back
On the train of the East wind

And Hanna
I have forgotten your features
Yet, I ache to remember
In my heart I hear your footsteps
How beautiful we were―together
My neighbor’s daughter, Hanna and I

How beautiful together we were
So why have our eyes
Become focused in foreign land?
And our hands roped
To this curse?
I shall tell the world―tell them
I shall tell the world!

From: Aruri, Naseer and Edmund Ghareeb, eds. ENEMY OF THE SUN: POETRY OF THE PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE. Washington, DC: Drum and Spear Press, 1970. Available from Amazon.
About Samih Al-Qasim

Rob Malley, senior adviser at the White House on Middle East and counter-ISIL campaign (White House Photo)