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Palestinian Suicide Bomber Kills Three Israelis in Eilat
by Revital Levy-Stein
 A suicide bomber attacked a bakery in the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat last week, killing three other people in the first suicide attack in Israel in nine months, police said. (AP/Guardian-UK)
The blast tore through the Lechamim bakery in a residential neighborhood, far from the beach-front hotels. (Ha'aretz)
See also Hamas Defends Suicide Bombing
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum defended Monday's Palestinian suicide bombing in Israel as legitimate "resistance." He also said attacks on Israel were preferable to the recent bout of Palestinian infighting in Gaza. (AP/International Herald Tribune)
See also Israel Forgoes Eilat Retaliation by David Sharrock (Times-UK)
Israel Names First Muslim Cabinet Minister
 Israel appointed its first Muslim cabinet minister last week, a step he said would help its Arab citizens identify more strongly with the Jewish state. "The first step has been taken and this has given Israeli Arabs a feeling of belonging," Galeb Magadla told Army Radio after the cabinet ratified his appointment as a minister without portfolio. "I see this as a historic and important step toward equality and promoting peace in the region," Amir Peretz, Israel's defense minister and Labor Party chief, said at the cabinet meeting. (Reuters/Washington Post)
See also Arab Minister Good for Israel by Rabbi Naftali Rothenberg (Ynet News)
Frontline IDF Soldier: "The Villages Were Empty Except for Hizbullah"
by Michael J. Totten
 An Israeli soldier in a long-range patrol unit said: "These whole villages, they were empty, just filled with Hizbullah terrorists....Israel left them standing. Many of our soldiers were killed because of that, so Israel wouldn't be blamed after the war for war crimes and destroying civilian houses." "No civilians were walking around South Lebanon. I know. I was in their villages. In their houses. Anyone who was there was definitely working for Hizbullah or working as a Hizbullah fighter....I never saw one woman or any children in Lebanon. I was going in and out for the whole time since the day when the soldiers were kidnapped." (Middle East Journal)
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Gunbattles Rage in Gaza
by Nidal al-Mughrabi
 Gunbattles raged in Gaza on Saturday as senior officials from the rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas met to try to curb an intensifying power struggle which has killed 23 people in three days. The internecine conflict has brought the coastal strip to a near-standstill and increased pressure on the "quartet" of peace brokers - the United States, U.N., EU and Russia - to make a fresh effort to revive Middle East peace talks. Hamas fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades at Al Azhar university, a Fatah stronghold, and Hamas snipers shot at Abbas's presidential guard and a police station in Gaza City. Hamas accused the presidential guard of continuing to fire at the Islamic University, next to Al Azhar, and of storming the Ministry of Agriculture. (Reuters)
International Aid to Palestinians Up Since Hamas Win
by Aimee Rhodes
 International aid to the Palestinians increased by nearly 10 percent following Hamas's election victory, the United Nations under-secretary general for political affairs told the UN Security Council last week. Ibrahim Gambari said on the anniversary of Hamas's win that aid to Palestinians in 2006 had actually increased, despite the reassessment of donor programs and the cessation of financial transfers by Israel to the Palestinians. (Jerusalem Post)
Palestinian FM: Israel Should Move to Canada
 "One large Islamic nation should be established in the Middle East, and where will Israel go? It should go to Canada. There is much open territory there in which a Jewish state should be established," said Palestinian Foreign Minster Mahmoud A-Zahar in a recent interview with Canada's Globe and Mail. (Al-Bawaba-Jordan)
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