❶ Analysis: How Israeli settlements stifle Palestine’s economy
❷ Palestinian shot dead in Nablus after alleged attempted attack
❸ UN Secretary-General Accuses Israel of ‘Breeding’ Palestinian Attacks
❹ The ‘neo-Palestinians’
❺ Opinion/Analysis: Why is Israel recruiting so many Jordanian workers?
❻ Poetry by Naomi Shihab Nye
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ Analysis
AL-SHABAKA: THE PALESTINIAN POLICY NETWORK.
HOW  ISRAELI  SETTLEMENTS  STIFLE  PALESTINE’S  ECONOMY
Nur Arafeh, Samia al-Botmeh, Leila Farsakh
Dec. 16, 2015
Israel is marshaling pro-Israel forces in Europe as well as in the US against the European Union’s recently issued guidelines on labeling some of its settlement products, for fear that this will lead to stronger measures . . . .
___Israel sees the European Union’s recently issued guidelines on labeling some of its settlement products as the thin edge of the wedge. It fears this will open the door to stronger measures against its illegal settlement enterprise and is marshaling pro-Israel forces in Europe as well as in the United States.  More . . .
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCY
PALESTINIAN  SHOT  DEAD  IN  NABLUS  AFTER  ALLEGED  ATTEMPTED  ATTACK
Dec. 17, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian near the Huwarra military checkpoint in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus on Thursday, Israeli media reported.
___Initial reports indicate that the Palestinian was shot dead after allegedly attempting to stab an Israeli soldier at the checkpoint. No Israelis were injured during the incident.
___The deaths mark at least 123 Palestinians to be killed since violence escalated in the occupied Palestinian territory in October. More . . .
❸ IMEMC-INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST MEDIA CENTER
UN  SECRETARY-GENERAL  ACCUSES  ISRAEL  OF  ‘BREEDING’  PALESTINIAN  ATTACKS
Dec. 16, 2015
This past Tuesday, in Jakarta, Indonesia, the International Conference on the Question of Jerusalem was organized by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. It was sponsored by the United Nations.
___In a statement delivered on his behalf to the Conference, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon said that the recent Palestinian attacks on Israelis are “bred from nearly five decades of Israeli occupation.”
___“It is the result of fear, humiliation, frustration and mistrust,” he said . . . .  More . . .

❹ AL-MONITOR (ISRAEL PULSE)
THE  ‘NEO – PALESTINIANS’
Ben Caspit
Dec. 16, 2015
The “new Palestinian,” or “neo-Palestinian,” is the name the Israeli security establishment has coined to refer to the generation of young Palestinians leading the current terror wave that Israel continues to find difficult to define, characterize and restrain some two and a half months after it began . . . . There is no infrastructure, no planning, no hierarchy, no leaders, no organizations and no intelligence.
___“This is something else entirely, something we have not completely identified,” admitted a higher-up in Israeli security speaking on condition of anonymity. “It is a social phenomenon, maybe even a mental one. It is the outcome of circumstances and deep processes that have come to fruition. . . .  More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis
AL-MONITOR (PALESTINE PULSE)
WHY  IS  ISRAEL  RECRUITING  SO  MANY  JORDANIAN  WORKERS?
Adnan Abu Amer
Dec. 16, 2015
Many Palestinians are wondering why Israel is replacing Palestinian workers with ones from Jordan. None of the speculation seems positive
___In light of ongoing Palestinian armed operations against Israeli settlers, Israel has been taking punitive measures against Palestinians. When the violence began in October, Israel decreed that Palestinians could not travel to their workplaces inside Israel. It would not issue new work permits. On Oct. 4, Israeli Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz threatened to withdraw more than 100,000 work permits.
___However, the Israeli Security Agency (Shabak) opposed those government decisions and on Nov. 26 demanded that additional work permits be granted for Palestinians. The move was seen as one designed to keep Palestinian workers employed so they wouldn’t join unemployed Palestinians in their attacks against Israelis. More . . .

“19  VARIETIES  OF  GAZELLE,”  BY  NAOMI  SHIHAB  NYE

A gash of movement,
a spring of flight.

She saw them then
she did not see them.

The elegance of the gazelle
caught in her breath.

The next thing could have been weeping.

Rustic brown, a subtle spotted hue.

For years the Arab poets used “gazelle”
to signify grace,
but when faced with a meadow of leaping gazelle
there were no words.

Does one gazelle prefer another
of her kind?

They soared like history
above an empty page.

Nearby, giant tortoises
were kissing.

What else had we seen in our lives?
Nothing better than 19 varieties of gazelle
running free at the wildlife sanctuary. . .

“Don’t bother to go there,”
said a man at our hotel.
“It’s too far.”

But we were on a small sandy island,
nothing was far!

We had hiked among stony ruins
to the Tree of Life. ***
We had photographed a sign that said
KEEP TO THE PATH in English and Arabic.

Where is the path?
Please tell me.
Does a gazelle have a path?
Is the whole air the path of the gazelle?

The sun was a hot hand on our heads.

Human beings have voices―
what have they done for us?

There is no gazelle
in today’s headline.

The next thing could have been weeping. . .
Since when is a gazelle
wiser than people?

Gentle gazelle
dipping her head
into a pool of silver grass.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. 19  VARIETIES  OF  GAZELLE:  POEMS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  EAST. New York: Green Willow Books, 1994. Available from Barnes and Noble.
About Naomi Shihab Nye.
*** About the Tree of Life