Syyria on alkanut varustamaan Hez-b-Allahia ilmatorjuntaohjuksilla

Tensions between Hamas and UNRWA
following the theft of food and blankets and
the Hamas takeover of a supply convoy.
Eventually, Hamas returned the stolen
humanitarian aid. Those incidents are a result
of the policy of Hamas, which strives to control
the humanitarian aid brought to the Gaza Strip.



UNRWA supply trucks in the Gaza Strip (UNRWA website, January 17)

We saw the green shimmer of the Saudi national flag, and the red and green bands of the Iranian. They were highly charged, pumped up with a raw, aggressive energy, chanting, brandishing weapons above their heads.Instinctively, we did what TV crews do. We started filming. Suddenly we were surrounded. I heard the cocking of an AK47 at my side, felt a pistol at my temple.
Cameramen are notoriously the most vulnerable of us. They watch the world through a viewfinder and can see only what is on the end of their lens.
Greg, our cameraman, had not seen the pistol at his own head. I told him to stop filming. We were manhandled down the street and into a walled compound.
The foreigners who had come to Bosnia had organised themselves into an independent fighting force known as the Seventh Muslim Brigade. Local commanders had little control over them.
On trial
Presently we were led into a room. There, behind a table draped with green cloth, sat three middle-aged men, too dark-skinned to be Bosnian. Throughout what followed, they never spoke.
A local man, bearing the insignia of the brigade, told us we were on trial, that this was a tribunal. I asked what we were accused of. “Spying,” he said.
They began to call witnesses. “Yes I saw the spies trying to run away when they were arrested,” the witnesses said, one after the other.

I began to doubt the reliability of my own memory. Had we tried to run away? Yes we had run, but only to get quickly into the best vantage point for the camera.The local man asked me whether I understood the seriousness of the charge, whether I understood that the rules of war demanded that spies be shot?
I began to play over and over again in my mind the moment we had made what I now thought of as our fatal error. If only we had turned left and not right. If only we had arrived 20 minutes later, or 20 minutes earlier. We sat and waited to hear our fate.
Three men arrived. They directed us to the town’s police station.
The police chief was large, taciturn, manifestly exhausted. We were in his custody now. He had a piece of paper taped to his door identifying him as the “INSPEKTOR ZA STRANCI” - the inspector for foreigners.
In my anxiety, the title struck me as bizarre. There were no foreigners in Zenica except aid workers and peace keepers and us. And then it struck me. Of course there were other foreigners.
The Seventh Muslim Brigade. The so-called foreign mujahideen.
The inspector sat behind his desk. A young woman, not yet 30 I guessed, slim, pretty, long chestnut hair, sat beside him looking on. “Give me your passports,” the inspector said. Three of us handed over our passports.
Greg said he had left his in the car. The inspector turned to the young woman. “Take this one to the car, get his passport, bring him back,” he said. Greg and the young woman got up and left.
Tension
The inspector waited until the door was closed and he had heard the high-heeled clip-clop of her footsteps disappear down the corridor.
“Now listen to me,” he said, as Vera translated.
“I am going to do my best for you, but you are in deep trouble. The foreign Muslims want you shot as spies. This would be a disaster for us, for our reputation abroad.
“But there’s been huge tension in this town since they arrived. We are the civilian police and we try to uphold the law, but there are so many of them and they are well armed. They do what they like.
“Today they’ve come back from the front line and they are fired up. They’ve been going round town smashing up shops that sell liquor, killing people’s pigs and burning the carcasses. It seems Bosnia is not Muslim enough for them.
“I am in danger myself,” he said. “I am distrusted by them because I am a Roman Catholic, a Croat, even though this is my home town.
“The woman who has gone to car with your colleague has been put in my office to spy on me. So please, when she comes back, this conversation never happened.”
And he repeated, “I will do my best for you.”
After a few minutes, Greg and the young woman reappeared. Greg was visibly shaken. The colour had drained from his face.
I asked him what was wrong. He described what he’d seen.
The police station was under siege, he said, surrounded by two concentric rings of men - an inner ring of men dressed in blue police uniforms, with their guns trained out; and an outer ring of men in green, with their guns trained in.
We sat in sullen impotence for what seemed like hours. And then, as quickly as our crisis had emerged, it ended.
The Inspector for Foreigners came into the room. He looked out the window. He said, “Come with me.”
He led us down two flights of stairs to the front door of the station. The Muslim Brigade had disappeared.
“Go to your car,” the Inspector said. “Walk, don’t run. Behave normally. And get out of town.”

Israelissa pidettiin tiistaina parlamettivaalit, joissa valittiin edustajat 18:teentoista Knessetiin. Vaaleissa olleet puolueet, niiden johtajat ja saadut äänimäärät, kun 99% äänistä on laskettu:

Kadima 28 paikkaa; tähänastinen ulkoministeri Tzipi Livni
Voimakkaasti vasemmalle kallistuva keskustapuolue.

Likud 27 paikkaa; entinen pääministeri Benjamin Netanjahu
Konservatiivipuolue

Israel Beiteinu (Israel on kotimme) 15 paikkaa; entinen kabinettiministeri
Avigdor Lieberman; maahanmuuttajien oikeudet, oikeistopuolue (ehkä
tarpeettomastikin saanut haukkojen leiman)

Labour 13 paikkaa; entinen pääministeri Ehud Barak; työväenpuolue.

Shas 11 paikkaa; kabinettiministeri Eli Yishai; uskonnollinen sefardipuolue.

United Torah Judaism 4 paikkaa; puheenjohtaja Yaacov Litzman, uskonnollinen Ashkenazipuolue.

National Union 4 paikkaa; puheenjohtaja Yaacov Katz; äärioikeistolainen uskontopuolue

Jewish Home (Uusi NRP) 3 paikkaa; puheenjohtaja Daniel Herschowitz; kansallismielinen uskontopuolue.
Hadash 4 paikkaa.

Meretz 3 paikkaa; puheenjohtaja Haim Oron; äärivasemmistolainen kyyhkyjen
puolue.
United Arab List 5 paikkaa.
Balad (arabipuolue) 3 paikkaa.