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12/25/2004:

"Bethlehem Rings in More Hopeful Christmas"

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Thousands of pilgrims and a new Palestinian leadership celebrated Christmas in the town of Jesus's birth Saturday with prayers for peace after the death of Yasser Arafat.

But Israeli restrictions on Palestinians entering Bethlehem and a barrier Israel is building in the West Bank cast a shadow over the celebrations.

At midnight mass, moderate leader Mahmoud Abbas filled the seat that had been left empty for Arafat for three Christmases past because Israel had stopped him traveling to the West Bank town -- accusing him of fomenting bloodshed, a charge he denied.

Welcoming Arafat's successors, the Latin Patriarch for the Holy Land, a Palestinian, urged all parties to end violence.

"It has lasted too long," Michel Sabbah, Pope John Paul's representative, told the Church of the Nativity gathering.

"It is time for Palestine and Israel to defeat the evil of violence and give birth to a society of brothers and sisters in which nobody is subject to another, nobody is occupied by another and nobody threatens the security of another."

Abbas, who wants an end to fighting and to resume peace talks with Israel, is expected to win a presidential poll on Jan. 9 to pick a successor to Arafat.

Amid the incense and prayers, the silver-haired Abbas in his gray business suit cut a profile far removed from ex-guerrilla Arafat, who favored olive uniforms and a checkred headdress. Abbas, like Arafat and most Palestinians, is a Muslim.
Full Article: nytimes.com/reuters

All this praying for peace is pretty much unbearable at this point. Now that Arafat's dead, it's all gravy. The gray business suit apparently makes all the difference. I like that first run-on sentence, "Thousands of pilgrims and a new Palestinian leadership celebrated Christmas in the town of Jesus's birth Saturday with prayers for peace after the death of Yasser Arafat." Christ and anti-Christ?

Israeli Whistleblower Vanunu Freed Without Charge
nytimes/reuters

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu was freed on Saturday after being detained trying to get into the Palestinian town of Bethlehem for Christmas in defiance of restrictions, police said.

Police said Vanunu, a convert to Christianity from Judaism, had defied travel restrictions imposed after his release in April from an 18-year prison term for treason. He was detained for questioning on Thursday.

Vanunu was ordered to post bail of 50,000 shekelsand to remain at his lodgings at Saint George's Anglican cathedral in Jerusalem for the next five days.

"We are not planning to charge him," a police spokeswoman said .

Vanunu's revelations to a British newspaper led experts to conclude that Israel had between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons.

Under restrictions imposed after his release from jail, he is banned from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Vanunu is also forbidden to speak to journalists. Six weeks ago he was arrested for breaking this restriction, but released after a few hours.
They're picky about who they let in to the party.