Rabbi evokes Holocaust in condemning mosque arson

Two cars were torched in the northern West Bank on Friday in what Palestinian security services say is the latest of several attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied territory.The words "price tag" were scrawled in Hebrew on a nearby wall, a reference to hardline settlers' policy to punish Palestinians whenever the Israeli government threatens to curb Jewish settlement activity.The Israeli army confirmed that attackers burned two cars in the Palestinian village of Jinsafut, which is located near several settlements.

Israel's chief Ashkenazi rabbi Yonah Metzger on Sunday called on US President Barack Obama to free Jewish-American spy Jonathan Pollard if he wants Jews to vote for his reelection.Israeli public radio quoted Metzger as saying Obama should free Pollard, who was convicted of spying for Israel, before pushing the Jewish state into peace initiatives."Obama should prove his friendship with Israel and immediately free Jonathan Pollard before applying pressure to advance diplomatic initiatives," he said during a Friday sermon at a Jerusalem synagogue, Israeli radio reported.

Vandals spray-painted and torched a mosque in the southern West Bank very early Monday in an attack Palestinian witnesses and officials blamed on Israeli settlers.They said six armed men in a white car drove into Beit Fajjar village near Bethlehem at 3:00 am (0100 GMT) and spray-painted Hebrew insults on the walls before setting the building alight.Some of the group were wearing Jewish skullcaps and at least one wore a mask, they said, adding that the men appeared to be Israeli settlers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the desecration of a mosque in a village in the occupied West Bank by suspected Jewish settlers.In a statement, he "vigorously denounced the aggression against the mosque" and said he had "told the security forces to act with determination to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice."

Jewish settlers torched a car and tried to set fire to a house in a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank on Saturday, a Palestinian official said.The pre-dawn attack occurred in the village of Burin, just south of the city of Nablus, said Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settler activity."They torched a car that belongs to Bashi al-Zain and tried to burn his house by pouring on gasoline, but the owners of the house become aware of it and they started chasing the settlers with stones," Daghlas said.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s decision to launch a pair of “Palestinian-only” bus lines in the West Bank on Monday — presented by the government as a goodwill gesture, assailed by critics as racism and welcomed by Palestinian riders — is shining a light on the messy situation created by 45 years of military occupation and Jewish settlements in the area.

Investigations have shown that arson was the most likely cause of a fire at a mosque in the northern West Bank, Israeli firefighters who probed the incident said on Friday.Israeli investigators initially suggested Tuesday's fire at a mosque in the town of Lubban ash-Sharqiya could have been caused by a short-circuit, but Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas blamed it on hardline Jewish settlers and warned that it threatened the peace process.

Assailants vandalised a West Bank mosque on Friday, torching its library and spraying hate messages in Hebrew in an attack blamed on hardline Jews angered by plans to curb settlement building.Clashes erupted as villagers hurled stones at Israeli troops sent to investigate the overnight incident at the mosque in the northern West Bank's Yasuf village. The security forces responded with teargas.One of the slogans sprayed on a wall read: "Get ready to pay the price." Another read: "We will burn you all."