exhorted the public to "protest peacefully - march for your freedom" and announced that there would be marches in all major city centres.

But the report says the road map and finer details for the mass action were not clear. It says the MDC was "vague about the specific form, content and timing of the action".

"It was unclear, however, how such marches would proceed, in what way these demonstrations would yield dialogue, and what demands the MDC was making on such dialogue," it says.

"Adverts and messages before the 'D-Day' demonstrations scheduled for June 6 were more clear about the venue, but did not specify the time people were to gather."

The report says this "contributed to some frustration among activists who wanted to participate in demonstrations but who were not sure what was expected of them".

"While everyone was looking for something beyond the stayaway, many were not sure exactly what that would be," it states.

Hasan, 48, married and the father of four, the principal of an elementary school in Jisr al-Zarqa, says quietly, "What should I tell you, that I am starting to develop a hatred for the Palestinian people? That would not be true. That I now think that all the Palestinians are despicable murderers? No. I know there are all types. In the meantime, the pain is greater than any anger. Certain things keep going through my mind. The question that cuts through my heart is: How is it possible to come and murder innocent people, just like that, without any thought about what will happen to their families? It's such a barbaric deed that the mind can't take it in. I am in a state of shock. And I was in shock before this, too, when Jewish friends of mine from Hadera were killed in terrorist attacks. I have lost two friends to terrorist attacks."

What is the thought that keeps going through your mind?

Hasan: "The thought that we, the Palestinians of 1948, share a terrible fate: war, distress and death. It's an old thought that now takes on new and far deeper meaning."

Share with who - with the Palestinians in the territories?

"No, by `we' I mean me and you - the Jewish Israelis. We have a common fate. They kill Jews and they kill us. I feel that I am an Israeli, I identify 100 percent with the state."

And don't you identify with your people, with the Palestinians?

"In certain things I do identify, of course. But I can't identify with people who organize terrorist attacks or with the perpetrators. Not before my brother was killed and not after. I understand a state that says: If someone kicks you, kick him back. They have broken all the rules. It was the duty of the Palestinian leadership to put a stop to it."

Jaber: "It is indeed hard to digest. To me, it reflects in the sharpest, most acute and most painful way the impossibility of our situation. On the one hand, we lost Suad. An 18-year-old kid got on the bus and murdered her. On the other hand, we, the Arabs in Israel, immediately get an outpouring of hatred. We are blamed. There is incitement against us. And yet, at the same time, Israelis slam the Palestinians with Apache helicopters, and children and lovely, innocent young women like Suad are killed. What can I say?"

Maybe that the terrorist attacks are a terrible thing and that the Palestinian leadership should have stopped them from the outset?

"I condemn these attacks totally. But the terrible grief at the death of my beloved niece does not change my feeling about what Israel is doing to the Palestinians: I condemn it in the same measure."

Malawi authorities handed the men over to U.S. officials Monday night, said Fahad Assani, Malawi's director of public prosecutions.

The men were immediately flown to nearby Botswana on a chartered Air Malawi flight, Malawi intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity.

With no knowledge the men were already gone, the High Court ruled Tuesday that the prosecutors either charge the men or release them by Wednesday morning. Malawi has no extradition treaty with the United States.

The Israeli attorney general has launched a criminal investigation into a local neo-Nazi website that jokes about gas chambers, advocates shooting Palestinians and denies that the Holocaust happened.

The website, published in Russian by a group calling itself the White Israeli Union is believed to be the work of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who claimed to be Jews when they entered Israel but who are blamed for the sharp rise in anti-semitism and advocacy of white supremacy.

Among other things, the site encourages readers to join an Israeli army combat unit to kill Arabs. Its pictures include one of a man in Israeli military uniform with his arm raised in the Hitler salute.

The website says it is run by "Ilya from Haifa and Andrei from Arad", who describe themselves as "people who have pride in themselves and are sick of living among the dirty bastards."

Unlike its image, however, the Hyde Park Internet site is not as permissive as the real Hyde Park in London. "A person cannot open a forum called `Death to the Arabs.' It's against the law," says Shtalrid. So is the law where freedom of expression stops? "Not exactly," he explains. "We have our own moral yardsticks, which don't permit us to open forums that encourage murder and death. But the main criterion is the law. Hyde Park is not the place to whitewash something illegal." And how do the two of them know what's legal and what isn't? "We aren't jurists. We relate to issues the way `a reasonable person' would relate to them," Yanous replies.

There's an old joke told in Northern Ireland about a guy in Belfast who is stopped by a ruffian and asked his religion.

Wanting to avoid trouble all around, he responds, "I'm Jewish."

Without missing a beat, the ruffian says, "Fine. A Catholic Jew or a Protestant Jew?"

Rarely do punch lines highlight such truths. Northern Ireland is a deeply religious country, a rarity in Western Europe. In this nation your church defines you, even if your church happens to be a synagogue, mosque or Buddhist temple.

For some Protestants, the alliance with Jews has more to do with religious ideology than political expedience. They view their ties to the Jews in the context of religion and history.

"There is a movement in Protestantism that sees the Jewish people as an integral part of the Christian salvation. They believe the second coming is impossible without first the ingathering of the Jews to Israel," Richardson says.

[...]

Billy Logan, a well-known Unionist with moderate views, is head of a Protestant group called the Royal Black Institution, which adheres to a literal interpretation of the Bible.

He says, "I believe from ancient times the Jewish people have a right to a homeland. I fervently support Israel and we consider ourselves true friends of our Jewish neighbors."

By contrast, the Catholics, as a minority struggling for reunification with the mostly Catholic Republic of Ireland, often draw parallels between their struggle and that of the Palestinians.

In a country where colors have the kind of significance usually associated with gang warfare, both Unionists and Republicans have adopted the corresponding banners of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Belfast, each side has flown the flag of its respective Middle East proxy.

The incongruity of the blue-and-white Israeli flag flying alongside the Union Jack and other Loyalist banners — and the green of the Palestinian flag flying alongside the Irish Tricolor — has some Belfast Jews somewhat bemused.

A few years ago something struck me when I came back from a short trip to Europe. I realized how relieved I always was to be home. The western world is a bit straight laced for me. I love the chaos. I love it that roads aren't perfectly straight. I love it that people are a bit crazy. And bad tempered. And say what they think, instead of giving you a dirty look and leaving you to guess.

I hear a lot of people who come to Israel are put off by the Israelis' brusque manner. Of course, they can't make light of the situation by laughing at it, by making jokes with strangers at the bus stop. They can't disarm clerks, policemen, or security guards with casual familiarity. Not that they don't try. I've seen. But do the people they are talking to really get them.

The U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement signed in 2000 gives Jordanian companies free access to U.S. markets without having to first strike deals with Israelis. But [Jordanian Minister of Industry and Trade] al-Bashir said Qualified Industrial Zones could still benefit Jordanian businesses by allowing them to work with and learn from Israelis with more experience in the U.S. market.

[Israeli minister Ehud] Olmert said the benefit went beyond business. "The most important part of it is building regional cooperation between us and Jordan - the building of trust and the creation of an environment of business cooperation," he said. "In the context of the Middle East, the value added of these trusts and these relationships is, in my mind, great."

"After we had prevailed on Zanu and themselves to have the discussions, he now leaves the discussions and calls this mass action thing, that now puts him in jail.

"Why do you leave the talks when the people agree let's go and talk?" an animated Lekota said in reply to questions on South Africa's stand on Zimbabwe.

"He must go with his own position to the talks, and then Zanu must come with their own position.

"But when he left that, we felt he weakened our position. We really felt he weakened our position, but we'll continue, even now, we continue to say to Mugabe, they've got to go to the talks."

This is a startling statement from a man who was at the forefront of South Africa's mass-action movement, which aimed to pressure the apartheid government into making real concessions at the negotiating table. Lekota should know better than most that the use of state power to oppress a people cannot go unopposed by those seeking a democratic society.

At best, Lekota's statement is a signal of the frustration that our government is feeling at the failure of "quiet diplomacy" to show results. At worst, it is an indication that he and his principals would prefer to see an emasculated opposition at the negotiating table in order to ensure an outcome that is skewed in Mugabe's favour. There have been enough signals of misplaced struggle loyalty to Mugabe in the recent past to suggest that there may be some truth in the latter scenario.