Fighting for the Olive Trees
Below is a reportage from a Ta’ayush activist about Beit Jala. An action took place there yesterday in an attempt to save an olive grove from destruction in order to make space for the annexation wall that Israel is building through the West Bank.
http://josephdana.com/2010/03/
Dividing Palestine: The Drought of ’48
Hajr Al-Ali - MIFTAH - In slicing Palestine up, Israel has cut Palestinians off. Surrounded by the boundless sea shores, I could not help but think of how Israel has appropriated the majority of Palestinians’ water-rich land and barred Palestinians from accessing it. According to a recent report by Amnesty International, “Israel uses more than 80 percent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 percent.”
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
"I can't live without this place"
"The Israeli police used a bullhorn and shouted 'death to Arabs!' toward me once," Abed Rabbeh remembers, his hands wrapped around a small ceramic cup of tea. "Another time, they tried to tell me that my grandfather was born in Dheisheh refugee camp and that I have no roots in this land." Nora Barrows-Friedman reports on one man's struggle to stay on his West Bank land.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott,
Hamas women rally in Gaza for West Bank shrines
Gaza – Ma'an – The Hamas women’s movement staged a peaceful demonstration outside the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) building in Gaza on Wednesday protesting Israeli infringement on Palestinian religious sites in the West Bank.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Nonviolent protests are also taking place in Gaza
Those people out there who still wonder where the Palestinian Mandela or Gandhi is should start paying attention to the numerous peaceful actions going on throughout Palestine. Non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation, akin to the weekly protests in Bil’in and Ni’lin against the illegal wall, is now becoming a weekly occurrence in the Gaza Strip. It’s a story that deserves more attention.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Anti Wall Protest Continue At Beit Jala Town, Southern West Bank
Residents of Beit Jala town, southern West Bank, along with Israeli and international supporters chained themselves to olive tree in protest of the Israeli built wall on their land.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Résistance à Beit Jalla
Palestinian, foreign and Israeli peace activists scuffle with Israeli border police officers during a demonstration against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank village of Beit Jalla, near Bethlehem. Wednesday, March 3, 2010. Dozens of Palestinian protesters and their supporters have scuffled with Israeli security forces who were uprooting olive trees to extend Israel’s contentious West Bank separation barrier.
http://www.aloufok.net/spip.
High Court permits Sheikh Jarrah protest under restrictions
Judges grant motion filed by east Jerusalem neighborhood residents, ruling police must allow demonstration in restricted area, enable 300 protestors to rally in streets for half an hour.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Convicted leftist: Court operating in 'occupation bubble'
Ezra Nawi, who was convicted of assaulting police officers near South Mount Hebron, appeals jail sentence. 'People like me pose a threat,' he says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
‘This is New York. This is the moment’ (IDF benefit dinner)
Next Tuesday night at the Waldorf, there’s a $1000-a-plate dinner to support the Israel Defense Forces. The video above, by a coalition of protest groups, says that 1,200 tickets have been sold. Their demo begins at 5 pm at 53d and Lex. They are urging demonstrators to wear black.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
The Sixth Annual Israeli Apartheid Week 2010
http://jewssansfrontieres.
'Israel Apartheid Week' events commence
Leftist, Muslim groups launch campaign equating Israel to apartheid regime in South Africa. Jewish intellectual Noam Chomsky tells Ynet Israel should not be defined as 'Jewish state'. Israeli diplomats: Activity no cause for alarm.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Inside Story - Israeli apartheid week
A controversial campaign in the Western world links Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the treatment of blacks in apartheid South Africa, called the Israeli apartheid week. Inside Story asks: Is criticism of specific Israeli policies raising doubts about Israel's right to exist? And is Israel now on the PR offensive to fight back?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Boycott, Divest From, and Sanction Israel?: A Debate on BDS With Omar Barghouti and Rabbi Arthur Waskow
In 2005, a coalition of Palestinian civil society groups called for people all over the world to engage in a non-violent campaign to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel until it complies with international law. The call was inspired by the international boycott and divestment initiatives applied to South Africa in the struggle to abolish apartheid. We host a debate between Omar Barghouti, a founding member of the BDS campaign and a Palestinian human rights activist and commentator, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, a longtime anti-war and civil rights activist who is the founder and director of the Shalom Center.
http://www.democracynow.org/
Pro-Apartheid
So Who Are The Nazis? Meet Atlas’s Thugs
In the days leading up to Israeli Apartheid Week’s opening event at Columbia University, leading anti-Muslim blogger Pam Geller posted an image of an SS officer with the name of one of the event’s speakers, Ben White, emblazoned on his uniform. (The image recalled placards held by far-right settlers depicting Yitzhak Rabin in an SS uniform just days before he was assassinated.) Geller was among the crowd at the Columbia event, making sure to catch White’s eye as he walked to the podium to speak. He told me that she mouthed to him, “You’re a Nazi.” The day after the event, Geller posted another characteristically juvenile screed describing White as “Nazi boy.”
http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/
Siege Related Deaths/Aggression/Violence
Medics: Palestinian teen killed in tunnel collapse
Gaza – Ma'an – A Palestinian teenager was killed on Wednesday when a tunnel collapsed along the Egypt-Gaza border, medics said. The victim was identified as 18-year-old Ahmad Sobhy An-Najjar. Medics at Najjar Hospital in Rafah told Ma'an the teenager was pronounced dead on arrival.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli Tanks Open Fire At Residents' Homes And Farmlands In Northern Gaza
Israeli tanks stationed at the boarders shelled on Thursday midday residents homes and farm lands at the Beit Hannon town in northern Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Three injured by Gaza security forces
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Three members of the Al-Khaldi family were wounded by a security officer in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday, in what appeared to be a personal dispute.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Detainees
The Israeli Military Detain Eight Palestinian Residents From The West Bank
Eight Palestinian civilians were detained on Thursday by Israeli troops during morning invasions targeting West Bank communities.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Israeli prison guards launch larges search operation in Hadarim
Special forces affiliated with the Israeli prisons authority launched the biggest search operation of a number of prisoners' cells in Hadarim jail for many years.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
IOF round up 8 Palestinians, renew administrative custody of Jihad leader
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed a number of villages and cities in northern West Bank at an early hour on Thursday that ended with rounding up eight Palestinian citizens.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Khafsh: IOA deliberately detains intellectuals
Fuad Al-Khafsh has charged the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) with deliberately arresting Palestinian intellectuals and scientists to force them leave the country.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Court: PFLP leader to remain in solitary confinement
Supreme Court judges reject appeal made by Ahmad Saadat, who was responsible for assassination of Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, after being presented with evidence he sends messages to terrorist operatives from prison.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Humanitarian Issues/Siege/Human Rights
Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory 24 Feb- 03 Mar 2010
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
UN envoy: Gaza an open-air prison
John Holmes, the United Nation's humanitarian chief, has revisited the Gaza Strip, a year after Israel's assault on the territory ended. He told Al Jazeera that it was disappointing how little has changed since the war and that there has been no real possibility of reconstruction, mainly because of Israel's siege of the Strip.
http://pulsemedia.org/2010/03/
Besieged Gaza banks glutted with Israeli shekels, destitute of other foreign currencies
Husam Barakat, a 45-year-old Gaza resident, went to the Arab Bank branch several times a day trying to draw 2,000 U.S. dollars from his account, but was always told that the bank did not have any dollars. "My bank account is in dollars, but when I went to withdraw dollars, the employees told me they didn't have any dollars but only (Israeli) shekels," said Barakat, who owns a small business in Gaza, adding "the problem is not only with the Arab Bank, but with all Gaza banks."
http://www.aljazeerah.info/
Sink The Boats
It is well known that fisherman in Gaza are among the worst affected by the Israeli blockade. Il Manifesto correspondant Michele Giorgio met with a former Israeli Navy officer, now working with Breaking The Silence, who gave a first hand account of how they were trained to police fishermen.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
Strawberry Fields Forever: A Struggle For Farming
Trying to make a living as a farmer in Gaza these days is taking a toll on the family ties so integral to the Palestinian culture. Traditionally, occupations are passed from father to son for generations, and their tie to the land is particularly strong. Before Israel imposed a suffocating blockade on the 14-kilometer-long Gaza Strip in 2007 (as punishment for electing Hamas as its governing party), farmers could make a good living growing carnations and strawberries for export and vegetables for the local market.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
MIDEAST: Occupation Turns Palestinian Women Into Breadwinners, Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH, Mar 4, 2010 (IPS) - Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, with its ubiquitous closures, checkpoints, military raids and arrests, has decimated the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and Gaza.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?
Israeli contractor revokes hundreds of work permits
Nablus – Ma'an – More than 400 Palestinian work permits were revoked by a private Israeli security company that operates guard posts in a number of settlements throughout the occupied West Bank, officials said Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
How to Build the Home of Your Dreams in Gaza
Building the “perfect home” is a dream shared by many people, especially if you are one of the tenants of the 3,500 homes that were destroyed or of the 56,000 homes that were damaged in last year’s military operation in the Gaza Strip. This week, we’ve pulled together some instructions to help you build your dream house in Gaza. Make sure to keep these useful tips handy!
http://www.gazagateway.org/
Goods – Needs Vs. Supply – Jan 31 – Feb 27
http://www.gazagateway.org/
Industrial Fuel – Needs Vs. Supply – Jan 31 – Feb 27
http://www.gazagateway.org/
War Criminals
In the Pursuit of Accountability for ‘Operation Cast Lead’; An Analysis on the follow-up GA Resolution adopted on 26 February
On 26 February 2010, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a follow-up Resolution to the Goldstone Report. The follow-up Resolution does not apply the Goldstone Report’s recommendations on avenues for achieving accountability. Instead it persists in calling upon the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of the last resolution. Furthermore, the resolution prolongs the accountability process by extending the three-month recommended deadline for the responsible parties to carry out domestic investigations in compliance with international standards, to an additional five months. Nevertheless, the follow-up Resolution is a second opportunity for the responsible parties to ensure that the perpetrators of international crimes during ‘Operation Cast Lead’ are held to account. The implementation of the follow-up resolution is crucial to the effort to end impunity.
http://www.alhaq.org/
Zionism
Sheikh Jarrah Jews praise Baruch Goldstein on Purim
(Video) Residents of east Jerusalem neighborhood celebrate holiday with songs of praise for Cave of Patriarchs massacre. Left-wing activists plan protest.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Israel's Arab Helpers
Egypt criticizes UN report on migrant deaths along Israel border
Egypt attacked the United Nations on Wednesday, saying its criticism of the shooting deaths of migrants at the border with Israel was "full of mistakes and incorrect allegations."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Political Developments and Diplomacy
Haniyeh rejects West Bank local elections
Gaza – Ma’an – De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday rejected Palestinian Authority (PA) plans for local elections in the West Bank as a step that would deepen political divisions. Speaking to lawmakers at the war-damaged Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) building in Gaza, Haniyeh urged the PA “not to carry out any procedures that would deepen the division.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
PFLP official: Secret unity talks underway
Gaza – Ma'an – Confidential talks are underway between rival Palestinian factions, aimed at restoring national unity, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine politburo member Jamil Majdalawi told Ma'an on Wednesday. Talks began in February, aimed at overcoming the obstacles faced in ratifying the Egyptian-sponsored unity deal, Majdalawi said, adding that the dialogue has remained out of media speculation to ensure its success.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israel-PA peace talks could begin Sunday
Indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority may begin as early as Sunday, Haaretz had learned. U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell will land in Israel on Saturday night, and the American administration is hoping the sides will declare the beginning of indirect talks the following morning, ahead of the arrival of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Mitchell returns to Middle East amid talk of talks (Reuters)
Reuters - The special envoy for Middle East peace will travel to the region over the weekend to see if Israel and the Palestinians are ready to begin indirect peace talks, a senior official said on Wednesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Biden seeks Jewish input on Mideast trip
Vice President Joseph Biden invited U.S. Jewish group leaders to the White House yesteday to get input for his upcoming trip to Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan (and possibly Egypt, if Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is not in Germany). Among those who attended the powwow yesterday, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations's Alan Solow and Malcolm Hoenlein, the Orthodox Union's Nathan Diament, the Jewish Federation of North America's Kathy Manning, AIPAC's Lee Rosenberg, the Reform Jewish Movement's Rabbi David Saperstein, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism's Rabbi Steven Wernick, former Congressman Robert Wexler, as well as long-time Biden friends Jack Rosen, formerly with the American Jewish Committee, and philanthropist and Democratic donor Haim Saban. Among those who attended from the White House: Dennis Ross, the NSC's senior Iran and wider regional strategist, NSC Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa Daniel Shapiro, Biden and his longtime advisor Tony Blinken.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/
PA map experts called up ahead of talks
The Palestinian Authority is engaging in consultations ahead of the resumption of indirect peace talks with Israel, a senior Palestinian source told Ynet. According to the source, the indirect negotiations are expected to be launched in the coming days, during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden and Special Envoy George Mitchell to the region.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Extra-Judicial Assassination
Australia sends police to Israel over Dubai assassination (The Christian Science Monitor)
The Christian Science Monitor - An Australian police team arrived in Israel on Wednesday to look into the misuse of three dual citizens identities in connection with the January assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Report: Australia cops probing Dubai passports involved in hit-and-run
Three Australia police officers in Israel to investigate the misuse of Australian passports by suspected assassins of a Hamas leader in Dubai were involved in a hit-and-run accident on Wednesday, Australian news outlet ABC reported.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
US bank in Dubai killing ties cards to partner (AP)
AP - The U.S. bank linked by Dubai police to the slaying of a top Hamas commander said Wednesday that prepaid credit cards allegedly used by the hit team were provided through a partner company, and that the bank's own procedures did not flag the card users as suspicious.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
An Israeli Affront Against Germany
Following the assassination of Hamas militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, German state prosecutors are considering murder charges in the case. Investigations in Dubai and the West are strongly pointing to Mossad involvement in the targeted killing. One should not speak ill of the dead, the Prophet Muhammad once intoned. But Mahmoud al-Zahar, 64, the leader of the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza Strip, is now forced to make a small exception. Sitting on the ground floor of his home in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, he talks about his comrade Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was liquidated by a hit squad in a Dubai hotel on Jan. 20. How could al-Mabhouh have been so careless and booked his flights over the Internet, asks the co-founder of Hamas? "That was more than stupid. " Shortly after al-Mabhouh's death, when Hamas leaders began pointing the finger at Israel, many observers wrote it off as just another Middle East conspiracy theory.
http://www.spiegel.de/
Mossad: Might or myth?, As`ad AbuKhalil
The assassination of Mahmoud Mabhouh, a Hamas commander, in Dubai is a watershed moment in the long history of the Mossad.
Israeli officials who ordered the assassination did something that Zionists have always done - underestimate their Arab opponents.
In his first impressions of Arabs, David Ben-Gurion, the first Israeli prime minister, compared them to children. Ahad Ha'Am, an essayist considered to be the father of cultural Zionism, described the merciless beatings that Arabs were subjected to for no reason by Zionist settlers - the pioneers of the movement - in the late 19th century. Other Zionists have compared the Arabs of Palestine to animals. All this prejudice would in the 1960s and 1970s benefit the rise of sophisticated Lebanese and Palestinian resistance movements which would plan operations keeping in mind that the Israelis would likely underestimate their chances of success.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Mossad Comes to America: Death Squads by Invitation, James Petras
The principle propaganda mouthpiece of the Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (PMAJO), the Daily Alert (DA), has come out in full support for Israel’s practice of extra-judicial, extra-territorial assassination. In the face of world-wide governmental condemnation (except from the Zionist-occupied White House and US Congress), the PMAJO slavishly backs any brutal murder committed by the Israeli secret police anywhere in the world and at anytime. The recent assassination of Hamas leader, Mahmoud Mabhouh, in Dubai is a case in point. The PMAJO has defended all of Mossad’s criminal actions leading up to the murder, including extensive identity theft and the stealing or falsification of passports and official documents from several European countries, presumably allied to the Zionist state. Among the Mossad agents who entered Dubai to kill Mabhouh, twelve agents used stolen or forged British passports, three Australian, three French, one German and six Irish. These agents assumed the identity of European citizens in order to commit murder in a sovereign nation.
http://dissidentvoice.org/
Other News
Palestinians suspect Israel's hand behind double scandal
RAMALLAH // As Palestinians digest a second political scandal in as many months the question many are asking is, why now? The revelations that the son of a senior West Bank Hamas leader had for years spied for the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, came not long after a video purporting to show a senior aide to the Palestinian president apparently soliciting sex in return for employment.
http://www.thenational.ae/
Gaza: Palestinian women's union rally for equality
Gaza – Ma'an – The Union of Palestinian Women in Gaza rallied in front of the Al-Azhar University on Wednesday, calling for the defense of women's rights. Amal Hamad, the UPW's coordinator, said that "today, Palestinian women in Gaza protest against Israeli attacks in Jerusalem and against holy sites. This is the result of internal conflict."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Hamas bans men from women's hair salons (AP)
AP - Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas government has banned men from working in women's hair salons.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
How will the next Palestinian uprising look?
Amira Hass - Haaretz - The truth is that the suicide attacks on civilians gave Israel a golden opportunity to implement plans, which had always existed, to confiscate more and more Palestinian lands, using the excuse of "security." The use of weapons did not stop the colonialist expansion of the Jewish settlements. On the contrary. And the use of weapons only accelerated a process Israel began in 1991: disconnecting the Gaza Strip from the West Bank.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Democratic discourse in D.C.: Neocons and ‘good Palestinians’ by Philip Weiss
Tomorrow John Kerry will hold a hearing on Israel/Palestine in which there will be three Jews representing some diversity, Rob Malley on the left to David Makovsky, neocon. Never forget: Democrats are just about as involved with neocons as the Republicans are, because neocons represent an important segment of Jewish life (and Jews are a key component of the American political establishment). There is of course just one Palestinian voice on the panel: Ziad Asali of the American Task Force for Palestine. ATFP are "good Palestinians." They support the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, Mahmoud Abbas, the two-state solution. They were represented at J Street last year. But Seham has written on this site that Ziad Asali is at one end of Palestinian opinion. And even the Forward acknowledges in a strong piece on the status of the two-state solution, "public support among Palestinians for the concept of ‘two states for two peoples’ is losing ground to rival approaches, such as a one-state solution that would encompass Jews and Palestinians…"
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
‘LA Times’ says Republican rivals to challenge Senator Boxer are out-Israeling one another, Philip Weiss
Jacob Heilbrunn covers the argument among Republicans over the Israel bona fides of Tom Campbell, the likely Republican nominee to take on Barbara Boxer. Note a few points: As the LA Times says, it’s all about Israel. This is a reflection of one thing, Jewish power in the American political process, at least in California and New York (and Chicago and D.C. too!). Note that David Frum is backing Campbell to a faretheewell despite considerable evidence that Campbell has a record of opposing the Israel lobby. I believe Frum is backing Campbell in precisely the way that Marty Peretz backed Obama. He’s the putative nominee. We have to claim him now. The worst thing is that he would get into office without Jewish support. (This is the effect of being a minority forever in western culture, and needing to study power.) Heilbrunn.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
People never change their views, Philip Weiss
Actually they do. Look at the distance that Henry Siegman, born in 1930, has traveled. Today he talks about apartheid and the disappearance of democracy in Israel and has suggested that the world recognize a Palestinian state. the need to impose a And in 1988, during the first intifada– Siegman was head of a Jewish organization and supported Israel’s deportation of a leading figure in nonviolent Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Chas Freeman: This time apartheid has western complicity, Chas Freeman
Impolitic as it is to mention this, in rejecting the analogy with apartheid in South Africa, the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen is not only denying realities on the ground in Palestine but also the principal and most awkward difference between the two cases. South Africa’s whites did not have a dedicated cadre of coreligionists or ethnic kin abroad who labored to protect them from the consequences of their deviance from the norms of humane behavior as defined by Western civilization at large. Nor, despite open sympathy for South African whites in the American South and among ardent anti-Communists, did apartheid enjoy international ideological support outside the neo-Nazi fringe. Israel’s policies are supported morally, politically, and financially by large Jewish communities and a vocal minority of Christians abroad, especially in North America, which is where global power remains concentrated. Without that support and those subsidies, Israel manifestly could not act as it does. The dependence of South Africa on external factors was far less direct or clear.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
What it means to go to Ben Gurion airport with an Arab friend, Lia Tarachansky
I’m too distracted to fall asleep. Everyone is quietly snoring. The sun rises ever so slowly and the wings of the plane rudely cut through the calmness of the clouds. It’s hard to believe that the intensity of the sun repeats itself with this beauty every day. That it’s not for this special day that led me to be on this flight, on my way to Barcelona. I guess my mind makes it negligible just to maintain every-day continuity. Can’t comprehend all of chaos theory at once.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Gaza’s youth not ‘superfluous’, Yousef Munayyer
‘TO CUT down on gang-related crimes, policies could be put in place to curb the African-American population growth in places like Harlem and Compton. The government could consider cutting off welfare benefits for families in these urban areas to discourage births of blacks and cut down the supply of ‘superfluous young men’ who have nothing else to do in their lives but be preyed on by criminal gang leaders who give them a sense of belonging. Ultimately these policies are an effective way to limit gang related crimes.’’
http://www.boston.com/
Enlightened American Jewry is worried about… Palestinian ‘demographic time bomb’, Philip Weiss
Here is Jesse Singal, a liberal American Jew and frequent contributor to the Boston Globe, saying that Jews have the right to criticize Israel. Good reporting on the Hillel event featuring Jeremy Ben-Ami. Note the repeated invocation of an idea– the "demographic time bomb"– that in an American context would be seen as racist. Again, this is American Jews holding Israel to a far lesser standard than they would hold their own country, a tenet of the Israel lobby.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Kramer versus Kramer, Stephen M. Walt
There has been an interesting flap in Cambridge this past week regarding some appalling remarks made by one Martin Kramer. As some of you undoubtedly know, Kramer is a hard-line Israeli-American commentator who has made something of a name for himself attacking the Middle East studies profession, and just about anyone who is remotely critical of Israel’s actions or the U.S.-Israeli “special relationship.” (Full disclosure: he’s taken various ill-aimed swipes at me in the past few years). He was an early supporter of Campus Watch (the organization Daniel Pipes founded to blacklist scholars it disapproved of), and Kramer has also sought to convince Congress to curtail or at least closely monitor the Title VI funding it provides to support Middle East studies and other area studies programs at American universities. He is affiliated with a number of right-of-center organizations in the United States and Israel, and for the past few years, he’s also been a research fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs here at Harvard, under the auspices of its National Security Studies program.
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/
Native Indian Genocide: Parallels in Palestine
"One of the greatest crimes against humanity occurred right here in the United States of America. Support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People is a start to right this great wrong," declared the American Indian Movement in a press release on 24 September 2009. Perhaps my natural sense of outrage and revulsion at the injustices and atrocities inflicted upon indigenous peoples by the U.S., Zionists and other colonizing powers is inherited from my mother. Before she died, she told me that ancestors on her father’s side of the family traced their roots back to the Iroquois nation.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Truth and Consequences in the Gaza Invasion, NORMAN FINKELSTEIN
Editors' Note: This article is excerpted from Norman Finkelstein’s important new book about the Gaza conflict, “This Time We Went Too Far” published this month by OR Books. To purchase a copy of the complete book please visit OR Books. This book is not available from bookstores or other online retailers.
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Refusal to surrender: "My Father was a Freedom Fighter" reviewed
Palestinian-American author, journalist and editor of the Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud's latest book My Father was a Freedom Fighter is an antidote to the US, European and Israeli media's decontextualization and dehumanization of Palestinians. It's also an instant classic, one of the very best books to have examined the Palestinian tragedy. Robin Yassin-Kassab reviews for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Iraq
Suicide bombers kill 7 in Iraqi poll attacks
Suicide bombers killed seven soldiers and wounded 25 in two separate attacks on polling centres in Baghdad as security forces, inmates and the infirm took part in early voting ahead of Iraq's national polls., A source at the Interior Ministry said the first attacker struck at a polling station in western Baghdad's Mansour neighbourhood, killing three soldiers. The second bomber attacked in central Baghdad, killing four soldiers who were lining up to vote ahead of the March 7 election.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Wednesday: 38 Iraqis Killed, 75 Wounded
Diyala province was the scene of at least two attacks today, one massive. At least 37 Iraqis were killed and 66 more were wounded there and across Iraq. The attacks in Baquba and nearby Saidiya could be part of a campaign to undermine Sunday's election.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Bomber poses as patient to attack hospital
Three suicide bombers, including one who sneaked his explosives into a hospital, killed at least 32 people yesterday in a former insurgent stronghold north east of Baghdad, sending a deadly signal ahead of Iraq's elections at the weekend.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Iraq's Sunni voters yearn for change
* Association with Saddam difficult to shake
* Sunnis expected to participate in March poll
* Broad political participation seen crucial to peace
http://www.alertnet.org/
Early voting begins in Iraq
Early voting has begun in Iraq's parliamentary elections. Security personnel, detainees and hospital patients were among those allowed to vote ahead of Sunday's election, when most Iraqis will cast their ballots. Security is tight after Wednesday's suicide bomb attack in the city of Baquba, which killed at least 32 people. These are only Iraq's second elections for a full parliamentary term since the US-led invasion in 2003. Al Jazeera's Mike Hanne reports from Baghdad. [March 4, 2010]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Iraq expats in Jordan ready to vote
One of the biggest stumbling blocks on the road to the election in Iraq was deciding who would be allowed to vote. After a long fight for their chance to take part, some 100,000 out of an estimated 1.3 million expatriate Iraqis have reportedly registered. They can cast their ballots in 16 countries on March 5, 6 and 7. The Iraqi expatriates make up a fifth of the total number of people eligible to take part in the ballot. Al Jazeera's Nisreen Shamayleh reports from Amman. [March 4, 2010]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Anbar governor back to duty
Nothing will stop him from doing his job. Thats the message from Qasim Mohammed Abid, the governor of Anbar province in western Iraq, who has returned to office after recovering from a suicide bomb attack in December. A man wearing an explosive vest had ran towards him to detonate near him, killing his two bodyguards, and severely injuring Abid. He has undergone extensive treatment in Iraq, the United States, and Germany. Abid's return comes just four days ahead of Iraq's national elections. Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh reports from the city of Ramadi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Birth defects 'rise' in Falllujah
A BBC probe reveals worryingly high levels of birth defects among children in Fallujah, Iraq, scene of fierce fighting six years ago.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-
UK violated jailed Iraqis' rights
Faisal Al Saadoon and Khalaf Mufdhi, former officials of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, have been detained for six years and are currently held in Rusafa jail near Baghdad. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg unanimously found the pair were "at real risk of being subjected to an unfair trial followed by execution by hanging" in Iraq, reversing a decision made at the High Court in London.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Sliding Backwards on Iraq, By RAED JARRAR and ERIK LEAVER
Last week, President Obama's out-of-control military brass once again leaked a statement contrary to the president's position. This time the statement came from Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who officially requested to keep a combat brigade in the northern part of the country beyond the August 2010 deadline. Floating this idea just two weeks before the Iraqi national elections is dangerous for Iraqi democracy, for U.S. soldiers on the ground, and for the future of U.S.-Iraqi relations.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
Lebanon
Speech: Hezbollah secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on March 1st
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.
SLA in the US (part II): Mr. X
In response to part I, M. sent me this: "Thanks for posting those comments on the SLA in Dearborn- and thank you even more for making it clear that these thugs don't exactly have our communities welcome! I remember when I first learned of "Mr. X"'s move to Dearborn- I would ask my family members- "why Dearborn?- These people have the finances and connections to live anywhere in the USA, why must they come to the very city that they are most hated in?" The answer has tended to be that these thugs want to prove to everyone that they really don't care what we think of them. I am sure that they like the access to Arabic food and products-- but these people tend to be recognized and unwelcome when they enter local business. More on "Mr. X" - he not only has state of the art surveillance tecnology-- his house has a huge 25 ft flag pole on its front lawn with the American flag and the Marines flag up. (I believe that his son is in the Marines- but I don't know for sure- it could be delusions of self grandeur.) His house looks like a fortress, on a major corner in east Dearborn- with flood lights on at all times of the night. (Personally, all you need to see are the gaudy animal statues on his front lawn to know where his tastes lie.) He also openly has two wives (clearly violating American polygamy laws) with no hassle from the authorities in this regard. (His wives spent much of last summer in Lebanon- fore their home is near my grandparents home in Bint Jbeil. In 1999 when my grandfather traveled back to Lebanon to see the status of our family home, this "Mr. X" made sure to send someone to knock on our family home's door. They passed the message that "Mr.X" was going to have a road built from his home (on a hill) directly to one of the village's main roads and that to do so he would have taken chunks of my grandparents' land. Alas, he decided not to do so and he wanted to matter-of-factly send the message that my grandfather "should be happy". Thanks for the favor you bloody murderer!)" [end]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Hezbollah to LF: If Your House Is Glass, Don't Throw Stones
04/03/2010 In response to the statement issued by the Lebanese Forces in which it attacked former Prime Minister Omar Karame and Lebanon's opposition forces, Hezbollah issued on Wednesday a statement in which it slammed the LF desperate attempts to stir instigations between members of the patriotic league. "Hence, we are not surprised by this vile attack on one of the country's most prominent figures known for his patriotism, integrity and sense of responsibility," Hezbollah said in its statement, expressing solidarity with the former PM. Hezbollah expressed belief it is Karame's right to expresshis position on the crime of his brother's assassination which is a huge crime against Lebanon and the Lebanese people.
http://almanar.com.lb/
U.S. and other world news
60% of Americans: Only force can stop Iran
Fox News poll shows most US citizens believe only military option will prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear arms but US security experts call on Obama to oppose attack.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Despite 935 documented lies, Rove book insists Iraq war was justified
The former White House political adviser blames himself for not pushing back against claims that President George W. Bush had taken the country to war under false pretenses, calling it one of the worst mistakes he made during the Bush presidency.
http://rawstory.com/2010/03/
Riz Khan - America versus free speech - Part 1
Washington always claims that one of its top foreign policy initiatives is to spread democracy and freedoms around the world. But a recent bill in the US Congress has many wondering if the US wants to become one of the world's biggest censors of media freedoms. In early December the US House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming majority to pass a bill punishing Arab TV stations that engage in "anti-American incitement to violence". The bill - known as House Resolution 2278 - has to pass many stages before it becomes law, but it has shocked many for contradicting American support for free speech.So, what are the implications of such a law for the concept of free speech?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Study Links Religion and Racism
A meta-analysis of 55 independent studies carried out in the United States with more than 20,000 mostly Christian participants has found that members of religious congregations tend to harbor prejudiced views of other races. In general, the more devout the community, the greater the racism, according to the authors of the analysis, led by Wendy Wood, Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at USC College and the USC Marshall School of Business. The study appears in the February issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review.
http://uscnews.usc.edu/
Netanyahu would meet Assad 'any time, any place'
The Prime Minister's Bureau said Wednesday that Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to meet with the Syrians immediately and without preconditions. In the unusual statement, made to the widely distributed London-based newspaper Asharq Al Awsat, the bureau also said the prime minister was willing to go to Damascus to bring about a renewal in talks.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Peace not wanted
Israel does not want peace with Syria. Let's take off all the masks we've been hiding behind and tell the truth for a change. Let's admit that there's no formula that suits us, except the ludicrous "peace for peace." Let's admit it to ourselves, at least, that we do not want to leave the Golan Heights, no matter what. Forget about all the palaver, all the mediations, all the efforts.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Iran, Seven faces of civilization
A documentary revealing the gems of Iranian Civilizations.
http://video.google.com/
Muslim woman barred from flight for refusing ‘naked’ scan
They are the first to refuse to pass through the £80,000 scanner, introduced by the government at Heathrow and Manchester airports last month. The X-ray machines allow security staff to see a ‘naked’ image of passengers to show up hidden weapons and explosives.
http://www.
Anti-Islam Dutch MP gains momentum
"On June 9th we will become the biggest party in the Netherlands" That statement was recently made by Geert Wilders, a leader of the Freedom Party, who is well known for his outspoken stance against Islam and immigration. According to preliminary vote counts in local elections, the party has earned leading spots in major cities such as the Hague and Almere. Experts say the strong showing indicates a promising position for the Freedom party in June's national elections. Al Jazeera's Zeina Awad reports. [March 4, 2010]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
www.TheHeadlines.org
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