News stories by Mel Frykberg, page 7

Despite the Egyptian revolution, which ousted Israeli ally and former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, and despite Israel’s claim to have eased the blockade on Gaza following last year’s bloody clashes on the ill-fated Mavi Marmara flotilla, the coastal territory’s economy remains crippled thanks to both countries.

Israeli confidence that Nakba day, marked by The Great March on May 15 in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel and neighbouring Arab countries, would remain under control, has backfired badly.

Israel has lashed out at the recent ground-breaking deal in Cairo, which will see unification of the two main Palestinian political factions after four years of bitter infighting, by threatening economic sanctions against the Palestinians.

The countdown to the birth of an independent Palestinian state continues as September approaches. Although the new state will have the moral support of the majority of the international community, Israel’s lack of flexibility - supported by a possible U.S. veto - could stymie any recognition of permanent borders by the U.N. Security Council.

Palestinians are reeling from the double-murder of two pro-Palestinian peace activists over the last few weeks, one in the West Bank and one in Gaza, with many believing that Israeli intelligence had a hand in the grisly killings, even if indirectly.

After several days of intense violence, during which 19 Palestinians were killed and one Israeli wounded, a fragile calm has returned to Gaza. But political commentators argue that this could well be a precursor to Israel’s next war on the coastal territory.

The Israeli government has warned the U.N. Security Council and the EU that it will resort to unilateral countermeasures if the international community recognises Palestine as an independent state at the General Assembly session next September.

'If the regime that encourages incitement, racism and anti-democracy is not toppled soon, we will find that the future is already here,' says Israeli columnist Sefi Rachlevsky in the Israeli daily 'Haaretz'.

Israeli settlers observed their own 'Day of Rage' last Thursday, launching reprisal attacks on Palestinians for the recent murder of a settler family in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, and the demolition of a settlement structure by the Israeli authorities.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians from across the political spectrum took to the streets throughout the West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday to mark 'March 15, the day of rage' to protest the political division between Hamas and Fatah.