Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Al-Jazeera Video: Riz Khan - Is the one-state solution viable?
"Efforts to find a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem have been littered with failures. So is it time to consider the one-state alternative?"
Ahmadinejad bears a message for Israel
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Asia Times
"Apart from threatening to throw a stone in Israel's direction, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad hopes to achieve a lot during his two-day visit to Lebanon that started on Wednesday, from reiterating support for Hezbollah to improving trade and economic ties. Paramount, though, will be a warning of a frontal attack from south Lebanon should Israel dare to attack Iran...."
Asia Times
"Apart from threatening to throw a stone in Israel's direction, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad hopes to achieve a lot during his two-day visit to Lebanon that started on Wednesday, from reiterating support for Hezbollah to improving trade and economic ties. Paramount, though, will be a warning of a frontal attack from south Lebanon should Israel dare to attack Iran...."
EU police mission complicit in Israeli, PA rights abuses
David Cronin, The Electronic Intifada, 12 October 2010
"....The reality is far from glamorous. Rather than helping to nurture institutions that could prove essential in a future Palestinian state, both the EU and US are acting as proxies for the Israeli occupation. Moreover, they are acquiescent in human rights abuses perpetrated by Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces against the Palestinian people.
Contrary to the impression frequently created by news stories, the PA does not have a police force that can justifiably be viewed as independent of Israel.....
The extent to which Dayton may have advised forces loyal to Fatah to resort to brutal means in attacking Hamas supporters has not yet been revealed. One thing that is clear, however, is Dayton's understanding that his job was to underscore the Palestinian Authority's subordination to Israel. "We don't provide anything to the Palestinians unless it has been thoroughly coordinated with the state of Israel and they agree to it," he has said.
Daud Abdullah, director of Middle East Monitor, a research institute in London, says it is inconceivable that Dayton was unaware of the abuses conducted by Palestinian security forces. "There has been no let-up in abuses as far as we know," Abdullah added. "The fact that money is still flowing and [international] officials are still on the ground makes them culpable for what is happening."
COPPS has a budget of nearly 7 million euros ($9.7 million) for this year. This sum appears small on its own. Yet it cannot be separated from the wider support that the EU gives to the Palestinian Authority, which amounts to 947 million euros since 2008.
Europe's representatives rarely miss an opportunity to trumpet their generosity to the Palestinians. Although donors are undoubtedly financing the provision of many essential services in the occupied territories, tough questions need to be asked about a great deal of this aid and how it is being tailored to serve Israel's interests. Few taxpayers would be pleased to know that their hard-earned euros are subsidizing an illegal occupation and the systematic human rights abuses that go with it."
"....The reality is far from glamorous. Rather than helping to nurture institutions that could prove essential in a future Palestinian state, both the EU and US are acting as proxies for the Israeli occupation. Moreover, they are acquiescent in human rights abuses perpetrated by Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces against the Palestinian people.
Contrary to the impression frequently created by news stories, the PA does not have a police force that can justifiably be viewed as independent of Israel.....
The extent to which Dayton may have advised forces loyal to Fatah to resort to brutal means in attacking Hamas supporters has not yet been revealed. One thing that is clear, however, is Dayton's understanding that his job was to underscore the Palestinian Authority's subordination to Israel. "We don't provide anything to the Palestinians unless it has been thoroughly coordinated with the state of Israel and they agree to it," he has said.
Daud Abdullah, director of Middle East Monitor, a research institute in London, says it is inconceivable that Dayton was unaware of the abuses conducted by Palestinian security forces. "There has been no let-up in abuses as far as we know," Abdullah added. "The fact that money is still flowing and [international] officials are still on the ground makes them culpable for what is happening."
COPPS has a budget of nearly 7 million euros ($9.7 million) for this year. This sum appears small on its own. Yet it cannot be separated from the wider support that the EU gives to the Palestinian Authority, which amounts to 947 million euros since 2008.
Europe's representatives rarely miss an opportunity to trumpet their generosity to the Palestinians. Although donors are undoubtedly financing the provision of many essential services in the occupied territories, tough questions need to be asked about a great deal of this aid and how it is being tailored to serve Israel's interests. Few taxpayers would be pleased to know that their hard-earned euros are subsidizing an illegal occupation and the systematic human rights abuses that go with it."Bahrain-based Saudi-financed "Islamic" bank Arcapita doing rich business with Israel military
By Ali Abunimah
"....As the earlier post explains, Cirrus has a long history of working with Israeli companies and recently chose an Israeli military contractor called TAT Technologies to supply $10 million worth of aircraft parts. TAT Technologies is run by Israeli military officers, including a former commander of Israeli occupation forces in southern Lebanon, and its factory is built on the land of the ethnically-cleansed Palestinian village of Yasur.
"....As the earlier post explains, Cirrus has a long history of working with Israeli companies and recently chose an Israeli military contractor called TAT Technologies to supply $10 million worth of aircraft parts. TAT Technologies is run by Israeli military officers, including a former commander of Israeli occupation forces in southern Lebanon, and its factory is built on the land of the ethnically-cleansed Palestinian village of Yasur.
Since publishing that post, I have received new information from a former employee who is also a current minority shareholder at Cirrus. According to this individual Atalla was an active board member of Cirrus until 2001, but was forced to resign along with other independent board members when another investor, the First Islamic Investment Bank of Bahrain took a majority stake in Cirrus. Atalla and his firm NEST U.S.A. Inc. remain shareholders of Cirrus as of this time, according to NEST's own website.
In 2005, the First Islamic Investment Bank of Bahrain changed its name to Arcapita. Arcapita is financed by investors in Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and is well-connected to those countries' ruling families.
The Arcapita website states on its current corporate investments page that it acquired a stake in "Cirrus Design Corporation" in 2001, but does not say how big the stake is. A 2007 report on aviation industry website AVweb, put Arcapita's stake at a controlling 58 percent......"
But the Coffins Do Come In
By Mohammed Omer
"GAZA CITY, Oct 13, 2010 (IPS) - Samir Tahseen Al-Nadeem died after waiting 35 days for an exit permit for treatment for his heart condition. He was 26. The medicines he needed could not get in. But the coffins do.
The health ministry now lists 375 deaths due to shortage of life-saving medicines. The medicines sit just outside the borders of the territory until most pass their expiry dates. But there are no expiry dates on about 10,000 coffins that have been donated for Gaza. The coffins do make it to those that eventually need them....."
"GAZA CITY, Oct 13, 2010 (IPS) - Samir Tahseen Al-Nadeem died after waiting 35 days for an exit permit for treatment for his heart condition. He was 26. The medicines he needed could not get in. But the coffins do.
The health ministry now lists 375 deaths due to shortage of life-saving medicines. The medicines sit just outside the borders of the territory until most pass their expiry dates. But there are no expiry dates on about 10,000 coffins that have been donated for Gaza. The coffins do make it to those that eventually need them....."
Time for New Palestinian Political Strategy
By Dr. Elias Akleh
Palestine Chronicle
"Palestinians had long lost confidence in their Palestinian Authority as their representative, who was supposed to defend their rights and work to achieve their statehood. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, was imposed on the Palestinians in the 2005 election when the Israeli forces had arrested and restricted the movements of other Palestinian candidates and his campaign was given 94% of TV coverage. Although his presidency had expired in January of 2009 he is still, illegally and unconstitutionally, occupying his position. Polls had shown that his popularity is very low.....
There is a consensus that the path of peace negotiations has miserably failed and would never yield peace, yet members of the Palestinian negotiating team insist on negotiating because it secures their positions. Arab leaders support negotiations in the hope of containing the Arab/Israeli conflict in Palestine only. Israel wants negotiations to extract more political concessions. The US calls for negotiations in order to appear as an honest peace broker while at the same time guarantees Israeli military superiority in the region. The losers are Palestinians themselves; negotiations had harmed their cause; they have lost more land and more rights.
There is a dire need for an immediate new more assertive Palestinian political strategy. There is an urgent need for a new more effective Palestinian election, involving not only Palestinians under Israeli occupation, but also Palestinians in all Palestinian refugee camps and in exile, to choose a more representing political body, who would sincerely and assertively fight for the Palestinian rights on the international arena. The 17 years old Palestinian negotiating team with its futile negotiate-only mindset needs to be dismantled and be replaced with another team who is ready to negotiate only after Israel withdraws back to 1967 borders. .....
Palestine Chronicle
"Palestinians had long lost confidence in their Palestinian Authority as their representative, who was supposed to defend their rights and work to achieve their statehood. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, was imposed on the Palestinians in the 2005 election when the Israeli forces had arrested and restricted the movements of other Palestinian candidates and his campaign was given 94% of TV coverage. Although his presidency had expired in January of 2009 he is still, illegally and unconstitutionally, occupying his position. Polls had shown that his popularity is very low.....
There is a consensus that the path of peace negotiations has miserably failed and would never yield peace, yet members of the Palestinian negotiating team insist on negotiating because it secures their positions. Arab leaders support negotiations in the hope of containing the Arab/Israeli conflict in Palestine only. Israel wants negotiations to extract more political concessions. The US calls for negotiations in order to appear as an honest peace broker while at the same time guarantees Israeli military superiority in the region. The losers are Palestinians themselves; negotiations had harmed their cause; they have lost more land and more rights.
There is a dire need for an immediate new more assertive Palestinian political strategy. There is an urgent need for a new more effective Palestinian election, involving not only Palestinians under Israeli occupation, but also Palestinians in all Palestinian refugee camps and in exile, to choose a more representing political body, who would sincerely and assertively fight for the Palestinian rights on the international arena. The 17 years old Palestinian negotiating team with its futile negotiate-only mindset needs to be dismantled and be replaced with another team who is ready to negotiate only after Israel withdraws back to 1967 borders. .....
Further, and most important, the legitimate armed resistance to Israeli occupation must be re-introduced alongside the political struggle as an indispensable method for liberation. Aggressive armed resistance to the Israeli occupation is the only deterrent Palestinians have to stop Israeli expansion. The Egyptian October 1973 War liberating Suez Canal and Hezbollah’s liberation of south Lebanon in 2000 serve as good examples for the saying “what was stolen by force could not be regained except by force”. "
China’s Pipelineistan “War”
Anteing Up, Betting, and Bluffing in the New Great Game
By Pepe Escobar
"Future historians may well agree that the twenty-first century Silk Road first opened for business on December 14, 2009. That was the day a crucial stretch of pipeline officially went into operation linking the fabulously energy-rich state of Turkmenistan (via Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) to Xinjiang Province in China’s far west. Hyperbole did not deter the spectacularly named Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan’s president, from bragging, “This project has not only commercial or economic value. It is also political. China, through its wise and farsighted policy, has become one of the key guarantors of global security.”
The bottom line is that, by 2013, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong will be cruising to ever more dizzying economic heights courtesy of natural gas supplied by the 1,833-kilometer-long Central Asia Pipeline, then projected to be operating at full capacity. And to think that, in a few more years, China’s big cities will undoubtedly also be getting a taste of Iraq’s fabulous, barely tapped oil reserves, conservatively estimated at 115 billion barrels, but possibly closer to 143 billion barrels, which would put it ahead of Iran. When the Bush administration’s armchair generals launched their Global War on Terror, this was not exactly what they had in mind. ...."
By Pepe Escobar
"Future historians may well agree that the twenty-first century Silk Road first opened for business on December 14, 2009. That was the day a crucial stretch of pipeline officially went into operation linking the fabulously energy-rich state of Turkmenistan (via Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) to Xinjiang Province in China’s far west. Hyperbole did not deter the spectacularly named Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan’s president, from bragging, “This project has not only commercial or economic value. It is also political. China, through its wise and farsighted policy, has become one of the key guarantors of global security.”
The bottom line is that, by 2013, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong will be cruising to ever more dizzying economic heights courtesy of natural gas supplied by the 1,833-kilometer-long Central Asia Pipeline, then projected to be operating at full capacity. And to think that, in a few more years, China’s big cities will undoubtedly also be getting a taste of Iraq’s fabulous, barely tapped oil reserves, conservatively estimated at 115 billion barrels, but possibly closer to 143 billion barrels, which would put it ahead of Iran. When the Bush administration’s armchair generals launched their Global War on Terror, this was not exactly what they had in mind. ...."
Those ‘Crazy’ North Koreans
Or maybe not…
by Justin Raimondo, October 13, 2010
"Those North Koreans are so touchy, shooting torpedoes at South Korean ships – or maybe not – and threatening to take on the “Yankee imperialists” at the slightest provocation, either real or imagined. Except, it turns out, that the provocations have been more real than imagined, as the Associated Press reports:
by Justin Raimondo, October 13, 2010
"Those North Koreans are so touchy, shooting torpedoes at South Korean ships – or maybe not – and threatening to take on the “Yankee imperialists” at the slightest provocation, either real or imagined. Except, it turns out, that the provocations have been more real than imagined, as the Associated Press reports:
“From the 1950s Pentagon to today’s Obama administration, the United States has repeatedly pondered, planned and threatened use of nuclear weapons against North Korea, according to declassified and other U.S. government documents released in this 60th-anniversary year of the Korean War.
“Air Force bombers flew nuclear rehearsal runs over North Korea’s capital during the war. The U.S. military services later vied for the lead role in any “atomic delivery” over North Korea. In the late 1960s, nuclear-armed U.S. warplanes stood by in South Korea on 15-minute alert to strike the north....."
The new documentation reveals Pyongyang, and Beijing, have been threatened with nuclear annihilation by four US Presidents: Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Ford. The US stationed nuclear missiles in South Korea until Jimmy Carter pulled them out. Given this, how could the North have refrained from building nukes? The answer is: they couldn’t.
I love how the AP piece ends:
“Korea specialists generally accept Pyongyang’s stated rationale that it sought its own bomb for defensive reasons — ‘as a response to the U.S. deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea,” says author Selig Harrison.
“Yoshiki Mine of Japan’s Canon Institute for Global Studies, who as a diplomat dealt with both disarmament and North Korea, said the northern regime feels its existence as a nation is threatened. The U.S. nuclear option ‘does give the North Koreans an excuse to develop, acquire and own nuclear weapons,’ Mine told the AP. ‘They have indicated many times that as long as this basic security is not secured, they would not abandon nuclear weapons.’”
“Korea specialists generally accept Pyongyang’s stated rationale that it sought its own bomb for defensive reasons — ‘as a response to the U.S. deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea,” says author Selig Harrison.
“Yoshiki Mine of Japan’s Canon Institute for Global Studies, who as a diplomat dealt with both disarmament and North Korea, said the northern regime feels its existence as a nation is threatened. The U.S. nuclear option ‘does give the North Koreans an excuse to develop, acquire and own nuclear weapons,’ Mine told the AP. ‘They have indicated many times that as long as this basic security is not secured, they would not abandon nuclear weapons.’”
You might say the North Koreans feel an “existential threat,” a phrase the Israelis are quite fond of using whenever they ramp up the “bomb Iran” rhetoric. But not all feelings of existential dread are equal: some are more dreadful than others. "
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Helen Thomas: You cannot criticize Israel in the U.S. and survive
Former White House correspondent Helen Thomas stands by her controversial remarks on Israel that led to her retirement.
Former White House correspondent Helen Thomas has acknowledged she touched a nerve with remarks about Israel that led to her retirement. But she says the comments were "exactly what I thought," even though she realized soon afterward that it was the end of her job.
"I hit the third rail. You cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive," Thomas told Ohio station WMRN-AM in a sometimes emotional 35-minute interview that aired Tuesday. It was recorded a week earlier by WMRN reporter Scott Spears at Thomas' Washington, D.C., condominium.
Thomas described Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as "a hawk." ''I thought women in politics would have more compassion, be more liberal," Thomas said.
Swiss ship to join Gaza-bound flotilla
A ship with Swiss nationals aboard is scheduled to take part in an aid flotilla bound for Gaza next spring, a solidarity group announced on Monday. Nathan Finkelstein, a spokesman with the Geneva-based Collectif Urgence Palestine, said about 45 people could be aboard the ship as part of a flotilla with vessels from 17 countries. It could set sail as early as February.
Vanunu`s freedom denied again
Eileen Fleming - Salem News - Having recently spent three months in detention for the "crime" of talking to foreigners, whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu returned to the Supreme Court, seeking to rescind the restrictions imposed on him the government. As on previous occasions, his appeal was denied. On 12 December this year, Vanunu is due to be granted the Carl-von-Ossietzky-Medal for 2010. Evidently, he will be able to arrive at the Berlin ceremony.
“Why Is the U.S. Government Deaf to What Has Been Done to My Son?” Asks Father of an American Murdered on the Gaza Flotilla
Through his lawyers in Turkey, Ahmet Dogan, the father of Furkan Dogan, the 19 year old American citizen who was executed by Israeli commandos has challenged the U.S. government its lack concern about the death of his son.
Dogan was killed by commandos who shot him twice in the head and three times in other parts of his body on May 31, 2010 on the Mavi Marmara in the Gaza flotilla.
"Up to this moment, I still do not understand why the United States government is deaf to what has been done to my son, an American citizen. I urge the U.S. government to act to defend the rights of my son. I also would like to know why the U.S. voted against the Gaza Flotilla Report of the UN Fact Finding Mission at the Human Rights Council last week, as that report included information about the execution of my son, " said Dogan. (http://www.huffingtonpost.
U.S. votes against the U.N. Human Rights Council Fact Finding Mission report
The only country to vote against acceptance of the U.N Human Rights Council fact finding report (http://www2.ohchr.org/
Mark Kornblau, a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said "The report's language, tone and conclusions are unbalanced." [Rejoice all you Arabs and Muslims that voted for Barack HUSSEIN Obama, thinking he was different than Bush]
Palestinians may try to delegitimize Israel as a Jewish state.
[Lieberman: The Racist , colonizer from Moldavia who can't even speak Hebrew well because it was not his mother tongue has the Chutzpah to talk about Hitler in one of the worst analogies I have heard... Israel is clearly setting up for ethnically cleansing Arabs of 1948, and Lieberman is the point of contact and the mouth piece behind it]
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday that the Palestinians' refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state raises concern that before reaching a peace deal, they would try to create autonomous Arab regions within Israel.
While meeting with Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb in Jerusalem, Lieberman also said that there is a possibility that the Palestinians may try to delegitimize Israel as a Jewish state.
"The Palestinians' attitude towards recognizing Israel as a Jewish state forces us to insist on it," said Lieberman.
On Sunday, Lieberman met with the foreign ministers of Spain and France and told them that Israel will stand up to its critics.
"In 1938 Europe placated Hitler, sacrificing Czechoslovakia instead of supporting it, and gained nothing from it," Lieberman said. "We will not be the Czechoslovakia of 2010, we will stand up for Israel's vital interests."
He also told the two foreign ministers to solve the issues in their own countries before attacking Israel.
interview with the great Carlos Latuff
“Why the hell is a bourgeois publication interested in interviewing a pro-Palestinian cartoonist?” asks the skinny 40-something in a black and white keffiyeh. If it wasn’t Carlos Latuff, the now legendary Brazilian political cartoonist, we might have been offended. But for a man who has made a career championing a political cause some 15,000 kilometres away from the home he shares with his working class parents in Rio de Janeiro, a cup of tea is probably a means of capitalist oppression. And having avoided the temptation to question why being pro-Palestinian and bourgeois were somehow mutually exclusive – he might want to visit Abdoun to appreciate how many Palestinians have successfully graduated from the refugee camp – we managed to convince him that as Arabs, some of us actually Palestinian, the NOX staff does care rather a lot about the 40-year occupation. Maybe even as much as he does.
Bad first impressions aside, we moved to a comfortable spot in Darat al-Funun, the scene of an exhibition and talk, and he proved more than willing to discuss his career-long commitment to the cause. “I am an ordinary guy,” he says. “There is nothing special about me. The special thing in this whole formula is the Palestinian people. They transform ordinary people to pro-Palestinian activists – this is why I am here, this is why I am now displaying my art in Amman. It’s the Palestinians. Me, I am just ordinary.”
A crowd of well-over 500 people who attended the event would no doubt dispute his claims of “ordinariness”. Latuff, a cartoonist from Brazil, came to focus almost exclusively on Palestine after his visit to Hebron in 1998 and a conversation with a local man. “Khalid Idriss did not know me, neither knew what I did for a living,” he explained in the talk. “To him I was someone from the outside and his story can be echoed through me. So he invited me to his home. He took out his wallet and started pulling out broken teeth,” Latuff recounted passionately. “I said, ‘Jesus Christ, what is this?’ And he said, ‘It’s all the teeth I lost to the butts of the M16s of both Israeli settlers and soldiers.’ He then brought his teenage daughter and lifted her shirt off her back to show me all the scars and wounds. So I promised him to get his story out. Today, I am still keeping my word.”
NOX: You were one of the top finishers in Iran’s 2006 International Holocaust Cartoon Competition. Aren’t you afraid of being accused of being anti-Semitic?
Carlos Latuff: Of course, I was bashed as a racist and anti-Semite. But have you seen the cartoon that won? It does not deny the holocaust, but actually reaffirms it. Today, we are witnessing a whole new holocaust against the Palestinians, and yet you can’t even say that in the media. I don’t care if people call me anti-Semitic, and I don’t care about what people think of me; I care about the Palestinians. It’s really amazing that when the Western media heard about the International Holocaust Cartoon Competition, they all cried “Rage!”. Just a few weeks earlier, they were defending “freedom of speech” over the Mohammad cartoon incident. Their double standards were exposed, and I saw a good a chance to make a point about the Palestinian cause.
Bad first impressions aside, we moved to a comfortable spot in Darat al-Funun, the scene of an exhibition and talk, and he proved more than willing to discuss his career-long commitment to the cause. “I am an ordinary guy,” he says. “There is nothing special about me. The special thing in this whole formula is the Palestinian people. They transform ordinary people to pro-Palestinian activists – this is why I am here, this is why I am now displaying my art in Amman. It’s the Palestinians. Me, I am just ordinary.”
A crowd of well-over 500 people who attended the event would no doubt dispute his claims of “ordinariness”. Latuff, a cartoonist from Brazil, came to focus almost exclusively on Palestine after his visit to Hebron in 1998 and a conversation with a local man. “Khalid Idriss did not know me, neither knew what I did for a living,” he explained in the talk. “To him I was someone from the outside and his story can be echoed through me. So he invited me to his home. He took out his wallet and started pulling out broken teeth,” Latuff recounted passionately. “I said, ‘Jesus Christ, what is this?’ And he said, ‘It’s all the teeth I lost to the butts of the M16s of both Israeli settlers and soldiers.’ He then brought his teenage daughter and lifted her shirt off her back to show me all the scars and wounds. So I promised him to get his story out. Today, I am still keeping my word.”
NOX: You were one of the top finishers in Iran’s 2006 International Holocaust Cartoon Competition. Aren’t you afraid of being accused of being anti-Semitic?
Carlos Latuff: Of course, I was bashed as a racist and anti-Semite. But have you seen the cartoon that won? It does not deny the holocaust, but actually reaffirms it. Today, we are witnessing a whole new holocaust against the Palestinians, and yet you can’t even say that in the media. I don’t care if people call me anti-Semitic, and I don’t care about what people think of me; I care about the Palestinians. It’s really amazing that when the Western media heard about the International Holocaust Cartoon Competition, they all cried “Rage!”. Just a few weeks earlier, they were defending “freedom of speech” over the Mohammad cartoon incident. Their double standards were exposed, and I saw a good a chance to make a point about the Palestinian cause.
Al-Jazeera Video: Anger at Israel's controversial oath
"Israel's Arab community has been angered by the government's proposal requiring any non-Jew taking Israeli citizenship to swear allegiance to the country as a Jewish and democratic state.
The controversial phrase added to citizenship law in move is seen by critics as attempt to get support for new settlement freeze.
Palestinians say the law would legitimise discrimination and the dispossession of the indigenous people.
Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reports from Jerusalem."
Israeli Army Invades Silwan and Arrests Children
"Tuesday night Israeli troops launched large-scale raids of homes in several neighbourhoods and battled with children in the town of Silwan near the Al Aqsa Mosque. The invasion was accompained by breaking doors and windows of many houses and intimitading women and children, according to eyewitnesses.
The children resisted Israeli soldiers, hurling stones and glasses, burning tires and placing obstacles in front of military patrols. Israeli troops retaliated with sound bombs, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas. One of the injured was identified as Silman Syam, 10.
In Beir Ayoub, near Silwan, several undercover soldiers disguised themselves as Palestinians in order to arrest four children. The children were identified as Ihab al-shwaky,11; Mohammad Mansour,13; Baha' al-Rajbe,12; and Jehad al-Shwake,12 . The children were taken to the al-Maskobeya detention and interrogation center in West Jerusalem."
The children resisted Israeli soldiers, hurling stones and glasses, burning tires and placing obstacles in front of military patrols. Israeli troops retaliated with sound bombs, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas. One of the injured was identified as Silman Syam, 10.
In Beir Ayoub, near Silwan, several undercover soldiers disguised themselves as Palestinians in order to arrest four children. The children were identified as Ihab al-shwaky,11; Mohammad Mansour,13; Baha' al-Rajbe,12; and Jehad al-Shwake,12 . The children were taken to the al-Maskobeya detention and interrogation center in West Jerusalem."
Ahmadinejad and the Limits of American and Israeli Power
By Juan Cole
TruthDig
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Middle East’s populist answer to the American tea party, has stirred controversy with his trip to Lebanon, which will begin Wednesday. He is planning to visit villages in southern Lebanon on the border with Israel that have been rebuilt with Iranian aid after Israeli incursions and wars, the last in 2006. Ahmadinejad’s theatrical politics often make him a laughingstock, but his trip is intended to make the serious point that Tehran can stand up to Western sanctions and thwart attempts to box the Islamic Republic in.
Ahmadinejad is a major thorn in the side of U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Iran rejects the legitimacy of Israel, one of the pillars of American policy in the Middle East (though Ahmadinejad has never actually threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the map, a charge based on a mistranslation). Iran supports nativist paramilitaries such as that of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Badr Corps in Iraq....
The first visit of a president of the Islamic Republic to Beirut signals that neither the U.S. nor Israel is hegemonic in the region, and that Iran is willing to brave even a Spartan existence under sanctions for the sake of its independence and its projection of influence in the Middle East. Right wing Christian critics of Ahmadinejad’s trip charge Tehran with attempting to signal that Iranian territory extends into southern Lebanon. But many long-suffering southern Lebanese hope Ahmadinejad will show Israel the new limits of its power."
TruthDig
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Middle East’s populist answer to the American tea party, has stirred controversy with his trip to Lebanon, which will begin Wednesday. He is planning to visit villages in southern Lebanon on the border with Israel that have been rebuilt with Iranian aid after Israeli incursions and wars, the last in 2006. Ahmadinejad’s theatrical politics often make him a laughingstock, but his trip is intended to make the serious point that Tehran can stand up to Western sanctions and thwart attempts to box the Islamic Republic in.
Ahmadinejad is a major thorn in the side of U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Iran rejects the legitimacy of Israel, one of the pillars of American policy in the Middle East (though Ahmadinejad has never actually threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the map, a charge based on a mistranslation). Iran supports nativist paramilitaries such as that of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Badr Corps in Iraq....
The first visit of a president of the Islamic Republic to Beirut signals that neither the U.S. nor Israel is hegemonic in the region, and that Iran is willing to brave even a Spartan existence under sanctions for the sake of its independence and its projection of influence in the Middle East. Right wing Christian critics of Ahmadinejad’s trip charge Tehran with attempting to signal that Iranian territory extends into southern Lebanon. But many long-suffering southern Lebanese hope Ahmadinejad will show Israel the new limits of its power."
Israel's Other 'Peace' Plan: Arm-twisting Obama
By Jonathan Cook
Palestine Chronicle
"....The League's new deadline was chosen precisely to appease Washington. Mr Obama's most pressing concern is shoring up his Democratic Party's vote at the congressional midterm elections in early November. Neither Israel nor the Palestinians wants to be seen walking away from the president's peace initiative before then.....
Mr Netanyahu, meanwhile, is reported to be working on a counter-offensive he hopes will win Washington's approval. Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, officially confirmed to The Washington Post last week that the Obama administration had offered Israel a range of generous diplomatic, security and financial "incentives" to secure a few months' extension of the partial moratorium on settlement building.
Mr Netanyahu is reported to have turned down the offer but only, it appears, because he believes he can win a more valuable concession. His real aim, the Israeli media reported last week, is to persuade the White House to reaffirm a promise made in a 2004 letter from Mr Obama's predecessor, George W Bush, that Israel will not be required to withdraw to the pre-1967 borders in a peace deal...."
Palestine Chronicle
"....The League's new deadline was chosen precisely to appease Washington. Mr Obama's most pressing concern is shoring up his Democratic Party's vote at the congressional midterm elections in early November. Neither Israel nor the Palestinians wants to be seen walking away from the president's peace initiative before then.....
Mr Netanyahu, meanwhile, is reported to be working on a counter-offensive he hopes will win Washington's approval. Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, officially confirmed to The Washington Post last week that the Obama administration had offered Israel a range of generous diplomatic, security and financial "incentives" to secure a few months' extension of the partial moratorium on settlement building.
Mr Netanyahu is reported to have turned down the offer but only, it appears, because he believes he can win a more valuable concession. His real aim, the Israeli media reported last week, is to persuade the White House to reaffirm a promise made in a 2004 letter from Mr Obama's predecessor, George W Bush, that Israel will not be required to withdraw to the pre-1967 borders in a peace deal...."
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