Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet
Land Theft and Destruction
West Bank college boosts settlements, Jonathan Cook
NAZARETH, ISRAEL // Ehud Barak, Israel’s defence minister, approved last week the upgrading to university status of a college in a settlement located deep inside the West Bank, a move certain to further undermine Palestinian confidence in the peace process.
The decision, authorising the first Israeli university in Palestinian territory, is expected to entitle the college to significant extra funding, allowing it to expand its student population. About 11,000 students, most from inside Israel, already attend the college in Ariel, studying amid a population of 18,000 settlers.
http://www.jkcook.net/
Soldiers Get “Free Space In Settlements” For Military Service
Israeli Paper, Yedioth Aharonoth, reported Monday that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, approved a deal that grants former soldiers free pieces of land in the occupied Negev and Galilee.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Israeli PM plants trees to signify claim to West Bank settlement blocs
JERUSALEM, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday planted trees in West Bank settlements, in a move which he said sent a clear message that Israel would retain major settlement blocs under any peace deal with the Palestinians. "The message is clear, we are here, and we will stay here. We plant and build. This is an inseparable part of the State of Israel forever," local news service Ynet quoted Netanyahu as saying at the Kfar Atzon settlement, part of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
‘This is our village!’ – a report from Nabi Saleh
The following is a shocking video from Nabi Saleh, a Palestinian village of 500 residents located north of Ramallah. The village has been engaged in growing demonstrations during the past few weeks to protest the illegal seizure of valuable agricultural land by the Hallamish (Neve Tzuf) settlement. Settlers have also recently uprooted of hundreds of the village’s olive trees.You can find more on the recent protests in Nabi Saleh at Ibn Ezra.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Settlers Attack Ta’ayush at Hilltop 18
“I was shocked that they did it with so much hatred. Thirteen of us arrived there, and we were attacked by four people, who were urged on by others,” -Keren, Ta’ayush Activist.
http://josephdana.com/2010/01/
Army attacks Ni’lin overnight
January 24th, 2010-- Early this morning, Occupation forces attacked Ni’lin and arrested Rateb Mustafa ‘Ameera. Fierce clashes broke out in the streets, with residents defending their homes and soldiers firing live ammunition. For nearly two weeks, Ni’lin has faced nearly nightly incursions. 18 have been arrested this month.
http://stopthewall.org/
Two Ni’lin prisoners released, demonstrations continue
January 23rd, 2010-- In spite of a week of arrests and raids, the people of Ni’lin marched against the Wall this Friday. Prior to the demonstration, residents celebrated the release of several prisoners, on of whom had been held for some four months.
http://stopthewall.org/
Soldiers block tree planting, arrest one after al-Ma’sara protest
January 23rd, 2010-- The village of al-Ma’sara held their weekly anti-Wall demonstration, this Friday carrying young olive trees to plant on their isolated lands. They were blocked by Occupation forces, who made good on their threats against the popular committee and arrested one at the close of the demonstration.
http://stopthewall.org/
Three more arrested in attempt to crush Ni’lin anti-Wall movement
January 21st, 2010-- Soldiers pulled three more residents of Ni’lin from their homes early this morning in the latest attack on the local popular resistance. This is the fourth day this week in which villagers have been arrested, marking a serious escalation in the repression of the anti-Wall movement in the village.
http://stopthewall.org/
Three foreign activists injured in Jewish settlers' attack
Three foreign solidarity activists were injured on Sunday after Jewish settlers assaulted and threw stones at them east of Al-Khalil city.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Sheikh Jarrah: Settlers throw urine bottles, activists arrested
Thursday, January 22nd, settlers occupying the Gawi and Al-Kurd family’s homes were reported to be harassing and attempting to provoke the evicted Palestinians and solidarity activists to a violent response. Other settlers stood by with film equipment, ready to record any response to their provocation. The evening’s heckling resulted in the arrest of Marwan Abu al Saber. Al Saber was released later that night.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
BDS must target Israeli academia
The movement of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions called for by Palestinian civil society in 2005 against Israel continues to slowly but surely gain traction around the world as many begin to understand the importance of making Israel pay a price for its expansionism and apartheid policies. However, one aspect of BDS that seems to make many uncomfortable is the boycott of Israeli academic institutions, with many saying that academia should never be a political target. The counterargument to this point has been made many times over, here and elsewhere, not least because Israeli academia in general contributes directly to Israel’s military research, has a leading role in formulating and developing apartheid policy and fails to stand up against the Israeli government’s frequent denial of the Palestinian right to education.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2010/
LA Jews for Peace and friends make their voices heard in front of the Federal building on the 1 year anniversary of Israel's Operation "Castlead "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Aggression/Violence
Israeli Occupation Forces fire on Iraq Burin
Israeli Occupation Forces opened fire on Iraq Burin once again, following a settler attack that has become almost a weekly routine for the village. One villager was injured and treated at the hospital after being struck in the thigh by a tear gas canister. An expectant atmosphere hangs over the village each Saturday now. The peaceful silence, punctuated only by donkey brays or the sound of children playing, offers a strange prelude to what each resident knows is coming. ISM activists have been maintaining a presence in Iraq Burin over the Saturday period – the Jewish religious holiday of Shabbat – but better known in the Occupied Territories for the territorial violence waged on this day by Israeli settlers on the rural Palestinian population.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Settlers Attack Nablus Village, Two Youth Wounded By Soldiers
Palestinian medical sources reported on Saturday evening that two Palestinian youths were wounded by Israeli military fire as the soldiers opened fire at local residents who were defending themselves after being attacked by fundamental settlers near Nablus.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Border Police Assault Bethlehem Labourers
Israeli Border Police assaulted ten Palestinian labourers in the early hours of Sunday morning. The men were seized on the Palestinian side of the Al-Zaiem crossing, attempting to reach the construction site they work at in East Jerusalem. The men, from Al-Khadr village south of Bethlehem, did not possess working permits for Jerusalem. They were captured on the Palestinian side of the fence and severely beaten with sticks and rifles.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
Dweik condemns 'attack' by PA security forces
Ramallah – Ma’an – Aziz Dweik, Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and Hamas affiliate, condemned on Monday what he described as an attack by security forces against his staff at the PLC headquarters, including the searching his car and detaining its driver for two hours, he said in a statement. "This attack represents a clear policy undertaken by these parties, who seek to disable all efforts for the success of reconciliation efforts," Dweik's statement read.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Detainees
Abbas’s militias kidnap six members of Hizb Attahrir in Al-Khalil
Mahmoud Abbas’s militias kidnapped Saturday evening six members of Hizb Attahrir (the liberation party) during raids carried out in the towns of Dora and Daheria, south of Al-Khalil city.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Israeli Occupation Forces kidnap 4 in Beit Ommar, West Bank
At 4am on January 21st, at least 30 members of the Israel Police, Border Police, Army and Secret Police (Shin Bet) raided the village of Beit Ommar, arresting four men. At the home of Mohammed Salibi, the Occupation Forces broke the window of the door in an effort to enter, as well as another window. Upon entering with a search dog, they asked for the whereabouts of Mohammed
from his brothers, Alah, 20, and Ahmed, 14, who were sleeping at the time. Alah, who previously spent 3 months in Occupation jails, was thrown against the wall. Three agents picked up Ahmed and threw him on the ground. Cabinets were also smashed in the house and personal items thrown on the ground.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
IOF soldiers round up 11 Palestinians
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up eleven Palestinians at the early hours of Monday including nine in Ramallah, local sources reported.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Fatah: De facto security forces detain affiliate in Gaza
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Sources within Fatah in Gaza accused the de facto government's security forces on Monday of detaining one of the movement's affiliates in the Strip. Relatives of Sameh Younis Al-Jedi said that on 16 January he was taken in by Hamas security forces and after being intensively questioned, his ID card was confiscated. He was then told to visit the security headquarters in Abu Khadra on Sunday and has not been heard from since, his family said. Al-Jedi's family said that Hamas and the de facto government are responsible for his life and called on human rights organizations in Gaza to intervene and secure his release.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Egypt and Israel's Humanitarian War Against Palestinians
Gazan women search for gravel to feed their children
Gaza, January 25, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - The four-year-old Israeli siege on Gaza has caused unemployment to soar and basic supplies to be expensive and scarce. Seeking a little income any way they can, Gaza women are being forced to dig for gravel, a basic construction material that can then be sold. The blockade has deprived more than 50,000 Palestinian workers of their source of income.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Obeid: Gaza electricity station to come to a complete halt by Thursday
The sole electricity generation station in Gaza Strip is to stop functioning by Thursday because the EU stopped financing fuel shipments to the Strip, Kenan Obeid said.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Egypt's "death wall" sparks continued protest
lRafah, Egypt, January 25, 2010 - Three construction drills that look like giant corkscrews pierce the ground close to Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, part of an effort to disrupt smuggling tunnels that has led to shootouts. Smugglers and sympathizers of Hamas, the Islamic movement that rules Gaza, say pipes inserted into the holes will house motion sensors to detect underground traffic. Residents of the Egyptian border town of Rafah say the Egyptians are also constructing a subterranean wall made of steel panels to block tunnels at a depth of 18 meters.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Hamas: Mubarak helping Israel starve Gaza Palestinians
Hamas on Monday sharply criticized Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak's defense of his country's expanded fortifications on its border with the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian government has faced rising domestic and regional criticism since a report first published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said Egypt was building an underground steel barrier along the Gaza border to curtail smuggling through tunnels under the border. "Mubarak's remarks defending the steel wall are an address on the blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip," Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri told reporters in Gaza City.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Masri: Mubarak's insistence on building the wall contradicts earlier statements
Hamas MP Mushir Al-Masri has regretted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's assertion that his government would continue to build the steel wall along its borders with the Gaza Strip.
Mubarak's Self-Defense: Let Them Provide What Egypt Has to Palestine!
24/01/2010 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday criticized the Arab-International Forum for the Support of the Resistance that was held in Beirut mid-January. "We are being subjected to campaigns from Arab and regional powers which have not once provided what Egypt has to Palestine and its people," Mubarak said in a speech to mark Police Day. "Egypt does not accept pressure or blackmail. It also does not allow chaos on its borders or terrorism and sabotage on its territories," he said. "It is the right of the Egyptian state, and even its duty and its responsibility. It is the right of every state to control and protect its borders," Mubarak added. "What we do not accept, and will not accept, is that we take our borders lightly, or that our territory is violated, or that our soldier or installations are targeted," Mubarak said. "We continue with the construction and reinforcements on our border, not to please anyone, but to protect our national security from violations and from terrorist acts such as those in Taba, Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab and Cairo," he added.
http://almanar.com.lb/
The Egypt-Hamas standoff in Gaza: a view from Israel
In the course of recent weeks, the relationship between Egypt and the Hamas government in Gaza has deteriorated and their latent conflict has become public. The specific reasons for this state of affairs are two decisions taken by the Egyptian government.The first was a decision to build a new metal wall that penetrates deep into the ground along the Gaza border.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Mubarak Slams Hamas, Defends Iron Wall
Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, slammed Hamas for criticizing the Iron Wall that Egypt is constructing along, and under, its border with Gaza. Mubarak claims the construction of the wall is a sovereign decision despite support and supervision from the United States.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Why all Israel lobbyists should be forced to go thru the Qalandia checkpoint, Philip Weiss
When I went through the Qalandia checkpoint in Palestine a week or two back, I kept thinking, Anyone who lobbies for Israel in the U.S. should be forced through this checkpoint. All the congressmen should come here too. What upset me was the banality of humiliation: experiencing the draggy line that took 20 minutes, and the cattle car/industrial buzzings and lights and automatic gates; seeing a dapper middle-aged guy forced to go back for who knows what reason; seeing the fingerprint reader; and then watching a matronly woman whose papers weren’t perfect standing in paralysis or fear or helplessness before looking around with a redfaced childish expression of dauntedness. Observing her humiliation angered me. Then I went through and the young Israelis barked, "Open it, open it," at me as I held up my passport.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
I Have a Dream, by Ayman Quader
This is Ayman Talal Quader, a Palestinian living in the Gaza Strip, where its people have been besieged for almost 4 years. I was born in July, 1986. I received my education in the UNRWA schools since my childhood. Then I finished my studies from the Islamic University of Gaza from the English Department in 2008.
http://intifada-palestine.com/
Gaza's children speak of their desire for freedom
Gaza – Ma'an – Dozens of children living in the besieged Gaza Strip expressed their desire to live decent lives where their rights are guaranteed in a world far from war and internal conflict, during the final stages of a three week event dedicated to children's art and drawing.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Young people endeavor to have fun in besieged Gaza
GAZA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Bathed in warm winter sunshine, 21- year-old Noor al-Harrazin chatted with her companions while smoking hookah in a Gaza City restaurant. In the impoverished Gaza controlled by Hamas militants and battered by Israel's massive offensive a year ago, a group of girls and boys sitting together and smoking hookah in a public cafe makes people wonder: is this Gaza ? "Yes, this is Gaza," said Noor.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Refugees
Sign this Petition to Support Civil Rights of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon
http://almanar.com.lb/
Political Developments and Diplomacy
Fatah and Hamas no nearer to unity as Palestinian parliament's term ends
Legislature still hamstrung as rival faction accuse each other of sabotaging democracy.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
New US initiative to restart peace talks: Palestinians (AFP/File)
AFP/File - The United States has proposed a new initiative to nudge Palestinians back into peace talks with Israel, a Palestinian official told AFP on Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Israel's ex-negotiator: Full Mideast peace deal impossible
"I do not believe that in the foreseeable future there is a possibility of an agreement with the Palestinians on all the issues, especially on the problematic core issues," says Udi Dekel, who headed the negotiations task force in the previous government.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israel stops Belgian minister from entering Gaza
Israel has barred Belgian Development Minister Charles Michel from crossing the border into Gaza, saying the "political" visit would legitimize the Hamas-led government.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/
Belgium To Ask E.U For A Unified Stance Against Israel For Preventing Officials From Entering Gaza
Belgium has decided to ask the European Union to make a decision as to whether it will sanction Israel for preventing E.U. officials from entering the besieged Gaza Strip to observe the destruction and suffering that is being inflicted upon the residents.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Time for George Mitchell to resign, Stephen M. Walt
If Mideast special envoy George Mitchell wants to end his career with his reputation intact, it is time for him to resign. He had a distinguished tenure in the U.S. Senate -- including a stint as majority leader -- and his post-Senate career has been equally accomplished. He was an effective mediator of the conflict in Northern Ireland, helped shepherd the Disney Corporation through a turbulent period, and led an effective investigation of the steroids scandal afflicting major league baseball. Nobody can expect to be universally admired in the United States, but Mitchell may have come as close as any politician in recent memory.
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/
Other News
Another housekeeper sues Sara Netanyahu
Yedioth Ahronoth reports that two months before former Netanyahu housekeeper filed lawsuit, case filed by another employee. Gag order imposed on details of suit.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Global Screening Of Gaza War Documentary “To Shoot An Elephant”
To Shoot An Elephant is a documentary by Spaniard Alberto Arce and Palestinian Mohammad Rujailah, filmed in Gaza during the war a year ago. To mark the first anniversary of the end of the war, the film, released under a Creative Commons licence, was shown at special screenings around the world.
http://globalvoicesonline.org/
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
Ethan Bronner's propaganda services, As`ad Abukhalil
It has reached new lows: the propaganda services of the Ethan Bronner on behalf of Israel and its war crimes. You need to do a search: the New York Times devoted more space to Israeli and Zionist criticisms of the Goldstone report than to the report itself. And now, every two weeks, Ethan Bronner interviews Israeli war criminals who tell him that the Goldstone report was inaccurate. Here is a very long article from yesterday's NYT about how Israel plans to respond to the Goldstone report. I mean, Bronner could have waited for the Israeli bogus report to be issued, but he could not wait. He wanted to cite Israeli responses before they even have official responses. Of course, once the Israeli whitewash report is issued, Bronner will have yet another article about it. [end]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Gaza's thin red line one year later, Eva Bartlett
"The last Israeli attacks were the hardest, the most dangerous. It wasn't a war, it was a massacre. They shot anyone walking, anyone outside of their home, in their home ... it didn't matter. And it didn't matter if the victims were children or adults; there was no difference."
http://electronicintifada.net/
What is the endgame in Gaza?, Ahmed Moor
I want to focus attention on an issue that hasn’t gotten enough press. The Mubarak regime is building a subterranean steel wall on the border with Gaza. Conservative estimates put the depth of the wall at 18 meters (nearly 60 feet). The BBC reports that American engineers designed the wall panels, which were constructed in America.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
Akiva Eldar / What would Netanyahu do without Peres?
Last spring President Shimon Peres went all the way to the White House to convince the heads of the U.S. administration that "peace is at the top of the agenda" for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Perhaps this is what U.S. President Barack Obama meant when he told Time magazine that, had he foreseen earlier the political problems between the two sides he would have been careful not to place expectations so high.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
God Bliss / Gila Svirsky
...It’s hard work transforming international public opinion after the Israeli bombardment of Gaza one year ago, which played out so poorly in the Goldstone Report and European capitals. But in Israel, there’s no need to shift public opinion at all, after that very popular war. “What blockade? There’s no blockade of Gaza,” said my cousins in Jerusalem, who are as well informed as most Israelis. If you place a million people under siege and the local media are not there to cover it, does the siege exist? ... So is it all about image? Inside Israel, it’s about no image. Israeli media carried no reporting whatsoever from inside Gaza during the bombardment, and it was considered subversive during the fighting to listen to reports from CNN, the BBC or, God forbid, al-Jazeera. It is still forbidden for Israeli journalists to enter Gaza....
http://groups.google.com/
Israel and Islamic Terrorism: A study in symbiosis, Justin Raimondo
The most recent audio missive from Osama bin Laden, claiming responsibility for the attempted Christmas bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, rationalizes Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab’s act in the name of the suffering of the people of Gaza: "America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine," avers the Muslim Pimpernel. "It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly. Therefore, with God’s will, our attacks on you will continue as long as you continue to support Israel."
http://original.antiwar.com/
Good Morning, Mr. President; All is Not Well
It took Barack Obama just over a year to realize what we Palestinians have known all along. This conflict is much more complicated than outsiders choose to believe it is. "Intractable" was the word President Obama used to describe the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in an interview given to Time Magazine on January 21. "It is just really hard," he admitted.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.
Iraq
Baghdad suicide bombers kill dozens in hotel attacks
Three separate attacks on targets used by westerners in centre of Iraqi capital.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Iraqi killed, policeman injured in Mosul
An Iraqi civilian was killed and a policeman was injured in Mosul, while three bodies were bodies were found in the northern Iraqi city, a police source said Saturday.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/
Moqtada Sadr Defends Iraqi Resistance
Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr blasted Shiite leader Ammar al-Hakim on Friday for tacitly supporting an extended stay for foreign troops in Iraq.
http://www.officialwire.com/
Inside Iraq - Iraq's election dilemma
Inside Iraq asks what the ramifications will be of the decision to ban some candidates from participating in the upcoming election.
'Chemical Ali' executed in Iraq
Ali Hassan al-Majid, the cousin of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, has been executed in Iraq for crimes against humanity, a government spokesman said. Al-Majid - nicknamed "Chemical Ali" by the Western media - was sentenced to death last week for ordering the gassing of Kurds in the Iraqi village of Halabja. "The condemned Ali Hassan al-Majid has been executed by hanging until death today," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Monday. In March 1988, Iraqi jets swooped over the village of Halabja and sprayed it with a deadly mix of mustard gas and the nerve agents Tabun, Sarin and VX. Three-quarters of the victims in the five-hour assault were women and children. It is thought to have been the deadliest gas attack ever carried out against civilians.
One on One - Ahmed Alsoudani - Part 1
Meet the Iraqi artist and find out how his art forced him to flee Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
One on One - Ahmed Alsoudani - Part 2
Meet the Iraqi artist and find out how his art forced him to flee Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Lebanon
Tragedy off the Lebanon coast
Rescue boats and helicopters scoured the Mediterranean Sea after an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed just off the coast of Lebanon early on Monday. The passenger jet carrying 90 people, which took off from Beirut en route to Addis Ababa, disappeared off the radar just minutes after take-off. Some witnesses say they saw the aircraft go up in flames before it plunged into the sea. Bodies and pieces of the wreckage began to wash up on the coast within hours of the crash. But the reason for the accident is still far from clear. Al Jazeera's Tarek Bazley reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Hezbollah's New Political Platform
What stands out in the political platform issued by Hezbollah at the conclusion of its recent general congress is how it assesses its own history and development since its founding in the mid 1980's. This document reviews a quarter of a century of multi-faceted experiences and sacrifices. It reflects a multiplicity of alliances and inspirations, if not splintered identities. At one and the same time, Hezbollah aspires to be a "national liberation" movement among other such movements in the world; a "resistance" movement at the regional level, with all the connotations the latter designation evokes among Arabs in relation to the Palestinian struggle; and increasingly a "force of national defense" for Lebanon. In this third designation, Hezbollah dispenses with any lingering doubt regarding its resolve to become a full partner in Lebanon's confessional system, if not its acceptance of the socio-economic conditions underlying such a system.
http://www.zcommunications.
"Why is Nasrallah demonized in the western media?" --An interview with Franklin Lamb, PhD
Are the Lebanese people grateful to Hezbollah for forcing Israel to retreat in the war of 2006?
Franklin Lamb---I think in their hearts most Lebanese are indeed grateful and even proud that for the first time since the founding of the State of Israel Lebanon has been able to effectively resist its numerous aggressions. Certainly Hezbollah has plenty of detractors particularly among the American and to a lesser extent French supported right wing Phalangist Christian factions and some Sunni communities fearful of the rise of the long discriminated against Lebanese Shia. But when Lebanon is threatened by Israel they tend to unite behind the National Lebanese Resistance. Expelling Israel on May 24, 2000 earned Hezbollah general respect in Lebanon and the region.
http://www.
U.S. and other world news
Petraeus receives some important medicine from believers in human rights
On Thursday, January 21, 2010, General David Petraeus addressed Georgetown students and faculty in Gaston Hall. Approximately 10 student protesters gathered inside and outside Gaston to condemn Petraeus’s strategy in the Middle East – paying off “enemies” and using tactics of brutal counter-insurgency to “win” the local population – and the university’s decision to invite him.
http://antonyloewenstein.com/
Firm will remove Bible references from gun sights
A spokesman for U.S. Central Command initially said the Trijicon sights didn't violate the ban and compared the citations on the sights to the "In God We Trust" inscription printed on U.S. currency. On Thursday, however, Army Gen. David Petraeus, Central Command's top officer, called the practice "disturbing."
http://www.dailyfinance.com/
The price of our Middle East policy
Glenn Greenwald - Salon - The connection between our conduct in the Middle East and the motivations for anti-American Terrorism receives far too little attention in general, and the role played by our steadfast support for Israel receives less attention still. It goes without saying that the mere fact that Islamic radicals object to a certain policy (and that policy thus fuels anti-U.S. Terrorism) is not, by itself, a reason to discontinue that policy, but it`s certainly a cost that ought to be seriously weighed in deciding whether that policy is wise.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
Obama czar wrote that Muslims are ‘prone’ to ‘virulent’ conspiracy theorizing– maybe due to bad parenting, Philip Weiss
Cass Sunstein is in Obama’s Harvard klatsch, a Harvard professor who has gone on leave to serve as a czar: heading Obama’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Well, two years back Sunstein wrote a paper called "Conspiracy Theories," (here, co-authored by another Harvard prof, Adrian Vermeule) that is mostly about the bad opinions that circulate in Muslim societies about American foreign policy. The paper argued that Muslims are specially prone to conspiracy theorizing. The paper blamed this chiefly on the lack of free flow of information in their societies (and while it said that many westerners are also prone to conspiracy thinking) entertained the idea that this febrile thinking comes from Muslims’ childhood.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
Canada's man in Tehran was a CIA spy
Ken Taylor, the Canadian diplomat celebrated 30 years ago for hiding U.S. embassy personnel during the Iranian revolution, actively spied for the Americans and helped them plan an armed incursion into the country.
http://www.theglobeandmail.
Reporters without Borders say Arab TV police plan "disturbing"
Cairo - Media watchdog Reporters without Borders said Saturday that the Arab joint proposal to create a regional office to monitor satellite channels is a 'disturbing' move. 'This proposal is disturbing,' Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. 'The danger is that this super-police could be used to censor all TV stations that criticize the region's governments. It could eventually be turned into a formidable weapon against freedom of information.'
http://www.monstersandcritics.
Inside Story - Berbers in North Africa
Would a unified Berber entity be a threat to the existing regimes in the region?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
www.TheHeadlines.org
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment