Commentary
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Title | | Description | Date |
Shalit’s Case is Also Palestinian | | Joharah Baker - MIFTAH - Palestinians have a huge stake in Shalit’s future, namely because his fate hinges on the future of tens of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners languishing – some for years – in Israel’s prisons. Ironically, their capture is not an issue for the powers that be, many of whom were kidnapped right out of their own homes, before their families and carted off in the middle of the night to an unknown destination. There is not one Palestinian who has experienced this – unlike the single Israeli soldier – there are thousands.
| 30/6/2010 |
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Israel`s anti-boycott belligerence : A bill seeking to outlaw boycotts of Israeli institutions and products – including in settlements – is diplomatically explosive | | Miri Weingarten - The Guardian - A new "anti-boycott bill", the third in a series of proposed laws that aim to curtail the ability of civil society to criticise Israeli government policy, will punish Israelis or foreign nationals who initiate or promote a boycott of Israel. The bill not only prohibits boycotts of legal Israeli institutions, but also of settlement activities and products. It seeks to impose fines on Israelis who "promote boycotts" and transfer the fines to boycotted organisations. It will impose a 10-year entry ban on foreign residents engaging in boycotts, and forbid them to carry out any economic activities in Israel.
| 30/6/2010 |
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Gaza Freedom Graffiti in the Warsaw Ghetto | | www.kampania-palestyna.pl - Yonatan Shapira former Israeli Air Force captain and now refusnik and BDS activist said: ‘Most of my family came from Poland and many of my relatives were killed in the death camps during the Holocaust. When I walk in what was left from the Warsaw Ghetto I can’t stop thinking about the people of Gaza who are not only locked in an open air prison but are also being bombarded by fighter jets, attack helicopters and drones, flown by people whom I used to serve with before my refusal in 2003.
| 30/6/2010 |
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Lieberman plan to strip Palestinians of citizenship | | Jonathan Cook -
Ma`an -
"Lieberman’s revival of his “population transfer” plan - an idea he unveiled six years ago - comes as the Israeli leadership has understood that it is “isolated like never before,” according to Michael Warschawski, an Israeli analyst."
| 30/6/2010 |
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Sinking Ship | | John J. Mearsheimer -
American Conservative -
"The bloody operation was condemned around the world—except in the United States, of course."
| 30/6/2010 |
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Is this what Israel has to offer? | | RAY HANANIA -
J-Post -
"...are leaders like Netanyahu and Lieberman all Israel has to offer? A courageous leader must surface, someone who can do the unthinkable to preserve Israel and make peace a reality."
| 30/6/2010 |
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Why Israeli academia will be boycotted | | Moshe Shoked -
Haaretz -
"More than anything, Sa`ar`s recent initiatives will help worsen the brain drain and the university boycott that awaits us." | 30/6/2010 |
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Sustainable development needs a complete lifting of the siege | | Interview with Omar Shaban - bitterlemons - If the siege is kept in any form (...) industry will not operate, leaving all of Gaza dependent on either cash aid or in-kind assistance. | 29/6/2010 |
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The invisible Israelis | | Amira Hass - Haaretz - There are Palestinians who oppose any joint activity with Israelis. They are cross with the Popular Struggle Committees, which consider Israelis active against the occupation as partners to all intents and purposes. It seems their influence has permeated the PLO`s Negotiations Department as well, which is one of the strongholds for meetings with Israelis, even of the type that perpetuates the occupation.
| 29/6/2010 |
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Let Them Eat Coriander - Gaza Starves More Slowly | | Jonathan Cook - CounterPunch - "Easing the siege so that Gaza starves more slowly may be better than nothing. But breaking 1.5 million Palestinians out of the prison Israel has built for them is the real duty of the international community" | 28/6/2010 |
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Shalit, For Example | | Uri Avnery - Gush Shalom - "The inability of Netanyahu to make decisions and stand behind them reveals the full extent of his incompetence as a leader. Instead, we have a specialist in marketing […], a person who wakes up in the morning with polls and goes to sleep at night with polls. The pollsters tell him that freeing Gilad Shalit would be popular in Israel, but freeing the Palestinians would be unpopular. […] That is frightening. If he cannot make a straightforward decision about the fate of Shalit, how can he make decisions about the problems that affect the fate of all of us, not for one year but for generations to come?" | 28/6/2010 |
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American Jews Who Reject Zionism Say Events Aid Cause | | SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN - New York Times - As shocking as Mr. Naman’s insistence on taking Israel out of Judaism may seem, it actually adheres to a consistent strain within Jewish debate. Whether one calls it anti-Zionism or non-Zionism — and all these terms are contested and loaded — the effort to separate the Jewish state from Jewish identity has centuries-old roots.
| 27/6/2010 |
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A Call For Livable Futures | | Rela Mazali - Huntington Post - What to do when the country I live in totally loses its compass? Totally loses its shame? What to do when the regime that collects my taxes uses them to deploy its high-tech military, armed to the teeth, against activists sailing to oppose a criminal siege? When this country`s politicians authorize soldiers to shoot-to-kill into a deck-bound crowd? And then tell me they are protecting me? What to do when the governments of the world are too deeply implicated to hold this regime, this country accountable? | 27/6/2010 |
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US Social Forum Rejects "Pink-washing" of Israeli Apartheid | | Jewish, Palestine solidarity and queer organizations have witnessed and experienced "StandWithUs" disrupting events and discussion on Palestinian rights and then claiming censorship when stopped. Their presenter has claimed to speak for the "queer Middle East" when in reality he speaks only for Israel. When asked to include other voices of queers from the region, he has refused. | 26/6/2010 |
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Why this obsession with Israel and the Palestinians? | | I think of myself as an average sort of Englishman...So why do I...take such an interest in the Israel-Palestine conflict? Perhaps I am an antisemite? Israel promotes itself as the state for all Jews, including – despite themselves – my [Jewish-British] friends. This produces a particular attitude towards Israel...Another reason for my disproportionate interest in this conflict is that I feel I have been lied to, and I feel that people are still trying to lie to me and I don`t like it. | 26/6/2010 |
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Fighting talk: The new propaganda | | Robert Fisk - The Independent - So an "occupation" becomes a "dispute". Thus a "wall" becomes a "fence" or "security barrier". Thus Israeli acts of colonisation of Arab land, contrary to all international law, become "settlements" or "outposts" or "Jewish neighbourhoods". It was Colin Powell, in his starring, powerless appearance as Secretary of State to George W Bush, who told US diplomats to refer to occupied Palestinian land as "disputed land" – and that was good enough for most of the US media. There are no "competing narratives", of course, between the US military and the Taliban. When there are, you`ll know the West has lost. | 24/6/2010 |
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In defense of dignity and freedom | | Ilana Hammerman - Haaretz - After 43 years of occupation, Israel has lost the right to be called a state of law | 23/6/2010 |
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Gaza: State of siege | | Editorial -
Guardian -
"In the absence of peace, Israel continues to expand into the space surrendered by a divided Palestinian leadership."
| 23/6/2010 |
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Palestinians need to look forward, not backward | | RAY HANANIA -
J-lem Post -
"But mainly, Palestinians need to stop listening to the no-future activists who promise only confrontation." "...while Israel “talks the talk,” it doesn’t “walks the walk.”"
| 23/6/2010 |
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Easing the Gaza Blockade | | Editorial -
NYT -
"Israel needs to implement the new policy quickly and make sure that, unlike now, all decisions and criteria are explained publicly."
| 23/6/2010 |
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Creative ideas threatened by continued settlement building | | Ghassan Khatib - Bitter Lemons - Any settlers who choose to stay in a Palestinian state must understand that the land that they are illegally using now does not belong to them but to Palestinians who are likely still alive and hold the deeds.
| 22/6/2010 |
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Give them an inquiry | | Zvi Bar`el - Haaretz - Rather than investigating Israel`s deadly raid of the Gaza-bound aid flotilla, an international inquiry should look into how Israel managed to sell its destructive Gaza policies to the countries of the world | 21/6/2010 |
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The Flotilla Probe | | Editorial -
Forward -
"The initial signs have not been encouraging. The panel named by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be a judicial commission of inquiry, as defined under Israeli law, but something far less authoritative." | 20/6/2010 |
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The end of Sicarii Zionism* | | Dov Yirmiya -
Gush Shalom -
"But with the latest move, the tragicomic charge of the ridiculous Zionist "armada" in an effort to tighten its stranglehold on an enclave of a million and half miserable Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, our arrogant little people have clearly gone too far."
| 20/6/2010 |
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The way forward | | Gershon Baskin - Jerusalem Post - Israel’s preference is to deal with security prior to setting borders; the Palestinians’ preference is to first deal with borders. -- It is essential to deal with borders so that we can put the issue of settlements to rest. | 22/6/2010 |
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Will Israel’s impunity continue? Gaza sinks slowly | | Alain Gresh - Le Monde diplomatique - Will Israel have to pay a price for its latest assault? Despite international opinion and damage to relations with Turkey and the Arab world, the answer is likely to be no | 21/6/2010 |
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How Long will Israel Piss from the Diving Board? | | It is worthwhile discussing the mindset that has led to the attack on the flotilla, the mindset of "pissing from the diving board:" we do whatever we feel like doing, and someone will clean after us. Thus far, it has worked beautifully for us... [but this] strategy relies upon the support of a narrow, shrinking layer of politicians and businessmen, as we stick our tongue out at the rest of the world.
| 19/6/2010 |
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The meaning of strangulation | | The remarks were not made in anger or haste, as were the now infamous, flippant and ill-conceived comments that cost White House reporter Helen Thomas her job, if not her legacy. Instead, they were made quite deliberately, with an air of thoughtfulness, while leaning over a lectern, as if lecturing to a class. | 19/6/2010 |
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Independent journalists dismantling Israel`s hold on media narrative | | Abraham Greenhouse, Nora Barrows-Friedman - The Electronic Intifada - Determined not to allow the Israeli government to continue dominating public discourse on the flotilla attack with its questionable version of events, independent journalists around the world analyzed and identified inconsistencies with the Israeli narrative. This work played a pivotal role in making a more complete and accurate picture of the events available to an English-speaking audience: the vast majority of English-language corporate media outlets, with the notable exception of Al-Jazeera English, simply restated Israeli claims and conducted little or no investigative work to ascertain their validity.
| 17/6/2010 |
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Palestinians divided on blockade changes | | Ma`an - "Whether or not mayonnaise was allowed into Gaza for the first time last week, the siege is illegal." | 18/6/2010 |
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It`s Ehud Barak who broke your heart, honey. Keep your eyes on the money. | | Yuval Ben-Ami - blog - At last I can afford to buy tickets to shows of visiting music stars. This is because they are sure to be canceled and the money is sure to be refunded. The cultural embargo on Israel has begun, and boy is it shaking us up.
| 18/6/2010 |
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Easing of Gaza blockade marks victory for flotilla activists | | Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff - Haaretz - Despite the contradictory statements issued by the Prime Minister`s Office yesterday, the general direction is clear. Whether the decision has already been made, as the English statement indicates, or will become official only at a later stage, as the Hebrew statement implies, Israel has folded. | 18/6/2010 |
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Good morning, Ehud | | Yoel Marcus - Haaretz - The only way Barak can make his influence felt is the threat that Labor will resign from the government. We have deteriorated to a point where we`re a hair`s breadth away from an imposed solution.
| 18/6/2010 |
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The Blinding of Emily Henochowicz - An Eye for an Eye | | JOHNNY BARBER - Counterpunch - It was another deliberate attack on an unarmed peace activist by the Israeli military. In and of itself this incident, an American student maimed by our main Middle East ally seems newsworthy. (Imagine for a minute that Hamas, Hizbullah, or Iran had maimed an American- the threats and condemnations would have been fierce and immediate.) Coming within 24 hours of the Freedom Flotilla attack it certainly should have been considered newsworthy. But it wasn’t.
| 17/6/2010 |
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How the U.S. Corporate Media Got the Israel Flotilla Catastrophe So Wrong | | Arun Gupta - AlterNet - Amid the continuing fallout over the deadly confrontation aboard the Gaza aid ship, Mavi Marmara, there is a critical historical lesson: There is only one real victim, and that is Israel. Sure, the “small, isolated” nation may appear to have been the aggressor, having surrounded a humanitarian convoy in international waters with naval assault boats and helicopters before storming in with heavily armed elite forces killing and wounding dozens of civilians, but it was acting in self-defense.
| 17/6/2010 |
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Israel’s Greatest Loss: Its Moral Imagination | | Henry Siegman - Haaretz - Of course, even the most objectionable Israeli policies do not begin to compare with Hitler’s Germany. But the essential moral issues are the same. How would Jews have reacted to their tormentors had they been consigned to the kind of existence Israel has imposed on Gaza’s population? Would they not have seen human rights activists prepared to risk their lives to call their plight to the world’s attention as heroic, even if they had beaten up commandos trying to prevent their effort? Did Jews admire British commandos who boarded and diverted ships carrying illegal Jewish immigrants to Palestine in the aftermath of World War II, as most Israelis now admire Israel’s naval commandos?
| 16/6/2010 |
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Israeli Attack May Violate International, Maritime Laws | | Thalif Deen -
Antiwar -
"The London-based Amnesty International Tuesday dismissed the “independent commission” as a virtual farce."
| 16/6/2010 |
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Israeli Raid Coverage | | LINN WASHINGTON -
Counterpunch -
"It’s no surprise that the avowedly right-wing FOX ignored this incident, but the liberal-leaning MSNBC ignored this story also."
| 16/6/2010 |
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Yalla Peace: Out with the old (system) | | RAY HANANIA -
J-lem Post -
"To survive, Palestinians need a real election system that will result in true representation by the people and for the people, rather than the failed system that has sputtered on and off since 2003."
| 16/6/2010 |
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A Palestinian Ben-Gurion? | | Gadi Taub -
Ynet -
"And if we pull out of there, and stop being the world’s last democracy to still maintain an occupation, the world will no longer set Goldstones upon us." | 16/6/2010 |
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The truth that cannot be seen | | Alex Levac - Haaretz - More and more frequently we Israeli press photographers prefer to present ourselves as amateurs to avoid conflict. While in every Western democracy a press card opens doors, in Israel it opens only museums.
Not one organization sees to our rights.
| 15/6/2010 |
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Losing our ability to think | | Emmanuel Rosen - Ynet - Anat Kam is a treacherous spy who should be hanged, just like Tali Fahima is the devil. A failed operation by our Navy commandoes turns into a heroic effort, and soldiers who were beaten up because they were sent unprepared turn into the nation’s beloved heroes. Anyone who thinks otherwise becomes a traitor. | 15/6/2010 |
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No Regrets - Obama, the ADC and the Gaza Flotilla | | Jennifer Loewenstein - CounterPunch - "What distinguishes the Obama administration’s Middle East foreign policy from that of the Bush administration and those before it is the rhetoric in which its fundamental continuity is enveloped" | 14/6/2010 |
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Who is Afraid of a real Inquiry? | | Uri Avnery - Gush Shalom - "If a real Commission of Inquiry had been set up (instead of the pathetic excuse for a commission), here are some of the questions it should have addressed:"
| 14/6/2010 |
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A hilltop government | | Zvi Bar`el - Haaretz - When it turns out that this country has managed to acquire so many "enemies," there is a suspicion that maybe we`re not talking about paranoia or a successful public-relations spin, but actual strategy | 14/6/2010 |
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Will Flotilla tragedy bring change in Israel? | | Miko Peled -
EI -
"When the president decides that it is time to end the Israeli war on Palestinians he will engage in a head-on collision with Israel and its American bully, the influential pro-Israel lobby group, AIPAC." | 13/6/2010 |
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The public has a right to know | | Editorial -
Haaretz -
"The government`s efforts to avoid a thorough and credible investigation of the flotilla affair seem more and more like a farce." | 13/6/2010 |
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Marmara, and beyond | | Amira Howeidy -
Al-Ahram -
"NATO member Turkey, till recently one of Israel`s closest regional allies, has grown increasingly critical of its onetime partner."
| 11/6/2010 |
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Is Netanyahu capitulating? | | Avraham Burg -
Ynet -
"The most rightist, national, and nationalistic government that ever served here is the first in our history to start the process of dismantling the state."
| 11/6/2010 |
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Averting Another Gaza | | BERNARD KOUCHNER, FRANCO FRATTINI, and MIGUEL ANGEL MORATINOS -
IHT -
"We want those talks to be able to address the final status rapidly."
| 11/6/2010 |
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Modern Folly, Ancient Wisdom | | ROGER COHEN -
IHT -
"I was talking the other day to the Israeli ambassador to a West European nation and he complained that he could rarely set foot on a university campus these days." | 11/6/2010 |
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The truth behind the Israeli propaganda | | Robert Fisk - The Independent - The amazing thing in all this is that so many Western journalists – and I`m including the BBC`s pusillanimous coverage of the Gaza aid ships – are writing like Israeli journalists, while many Israeli journalists are writing about the killings with the courage that Western journalists should demonstrate. And about the Israeli army itself. Take Amos Harel`s devastating report in Haaretz which analyses the make-up of the Israeli army`s officer corps.
| 10/6/2010 |
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Israel’s cult of victimhood | | Jonathan Cook - Ma`an News Agency - Benny Begin, a government minister whose famous father, Menachem, became an Israeli prime minister after being what today would be called a terrorist as the leader of the notorious Irgun militia, told BBC World TV that the commandos had been viciously assaulted after "arriving almost barefoot." Ynet, Israel’s most popular news website, meanwhile, reported that the commandos had been "ambushed."
| 10/6/2010 |
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Israel Without Clichés | | TONY JUDT - The New York Times - No. 1: Israel is being/should be delegitimized. Israel is a state like any other, long-established and internationally recognized. The bad behavior of its governments does not “delegitimize” it, any more than the bad behavior of the rulers of North Korea, Sudan — or, indeed, the United States — “delegitimizes” them. When Israel breaks international law, it should be pressed to desist; but it is precisely because it is a state under international law that we have that leverage.
| 10/6/2010 |
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Hamas 1, Netanyahu 0 | | Haaretz - Editorial - The Israeli blockade of Gaza and all it entailed - the goods forbidden entry, the lies about how there was no humanitarian crisis there - was a form of collective punishment against an impoverished and oppressed population that cast a moral stain on Israeli democracy. Nor did this blockade achieve its promised goals. The Hamas government did not fall, Gaza residents did not rise up against it, and Gilad Shalit is still in captivity. | 10/6/2010 |
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Ships, Lies and Videotapes | | Joharah Baker - MIFTAH - Then, finally, the inevitable Israeli offense, the charge of anti-Semitism. I had wondered when Israel would play their "Holocaust card", their cry-wolf of "the world is anti-Semitic.` Lo and behold, it came, in a broad headline a few days later that read, "IDF video shows flotilla passengers tell Israel Navy to `go back to Auschwitz.`" The video is heavily edited, cut and scratchy and the Israeli army was later forced to issue a retraction over the video, the authenticity of which they could not verify. No kidding. When Israel botches up or at least thinks it has to mend its damaged image, it scrambles for sympathy through outrageous stunts like these. We have grown accustomed to this Israeli-style offensive, which always begins with words like "security and the right to self defense" and almost always ends up with cries of anti-Semitism and some grotesque allusion to the Holocaust.
| 10/6/2010 |
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The Real Threat Aboard the Freedom Flotilla | | Noam Chomsky - In These Times - Like other states, Israel has the right of self-defense. But did Israel have the right to use force in Gaza in the name of self-defense? International law, including the U.N. Charter, is unambiguous: A nation has such a right only if it has exhausted peaceful means. In this case such means were not even tried, although—or perhaps because—there was every reason to suppose that they would succeed. | 10/6/2010 |
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Our 2 Op-Eds in the Israeli Press about Israel’s Future | | Assaf Oron - TheOnlyDemocracy.org - Both articles deal with Israel’s existential problems rather than focus on current events. The Ynet article reminds Israelis, that the deteriorating quality of our public life bears a direct impact upon the raison d’etre for the Jewish state itself. The Haaretz article tackles Israel’s recent foreign-policy philosophy (embraced by most of the public) head-on. | 10/6/2010 |
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Gaza Blockade Legal? Hardly. | | Yousef Munayyer - Palestine Center Brief No. 204 - Clearly, not only does the San Remo Manual not apply to this blockade since Gaza is occupied territory and not a state, even if Gaza was a state, the nature of the blockade is contrary to the stated requirements in the Manual. Further, since the Geneva Conventions do apply to this situation, the blockade and siege of Gaza are intentional efforts on Israel’s behalf that leave it in default of its primary obligation as a belligerent occupier: the protection of the Palestinian civilian population.
| 9/6/2010 |
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Not by cement alone | | Amira Hass - Haaretz - Step by step, Israel developed draconian restrictions on Palestinians` freedom of movement, until it declared every Gazan in the West Bank, now and especially in the future, an illegal alien and an infiltrator. These are the essential prohibitions that must be breached. These are the prohibitions about whose existence Erdogan and U.S. President Barack Obama must be taught, and their abolition demanded.
| 9/6/2010 |
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Humanitarian narrative means no one sees Israel as a victim | | Conor Foley -
Guardian -
"Increasingly friendless on the international stage, the voices defending it sound unconvincingly defensive or shrill and paranoid. It is on its way to becoming a pariah state." | 9/6/2010 |
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Critical lessons | | Yossi Alpher -
Bitter Lemons -
"When Mossad Chief Meir Dagan tells the Knesset that Washington is beginning to look upon us as a strategic burden rather than an asset, he is sounding a warning. Is anyone listening?" | 9/6/2010 |
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Lift needless Gaza siege | | Ran Cohen -
Ynet -
"If we continue on the same path, we will create, with our own hands, a world that endorses Hamas, possibly against all logic."
| 9/6/2010 |
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Stop avoiding the investigation | | Ha`aretz Editorial - The government ministers who are chiefly responsible for our policy on Gaza and decisions regarding the flotilla are hiding behind flimsy excuses.
| 8/6/2010 |
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Israel’s Gaza policy has strengthened Hamas | | Gershon Baskin - Jerusalem Post - The brilliant generals` and military analysts` desire and need to justify a policy which is so blatantly and morally wrong must have blinded their ability to see what is really happening and what the siege policy has turned us into.
| 8/6/2010 |
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Red Rag Column | | Gideon Spiro - The actions of the Mavi Marmara passengers were consistent with Israeli law, which permits deadly force to repel intruders. | 7/6/2010 |
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How Israeli propaganda shaped U.S. media coverage of the flotilla attack | | This campaign of suppression and propaganda worked to shape American media coverage (as state propaganda campaigns virtually always work on the gullible, authority-revering American media). The edited IDF video was shown over and over on American television without question or challenge. | 5/6/2010 |
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The Israeli flotilla attack: victimhood, aggression and tribalism | | Will the fact that one of the dead at Israel`s hands was an American teenager with four bullet wounds to his head alter the Obama administration`s full-scale defense of Israel? Does that question even need to be asked? | 5/6/2010 |
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US helps Israel avert international inquiry | | Thalif Deen,
The Electronic Intifada,
"Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who led the Security Council debate on the Israeli attack, complained that the United States had "delayed and watered down" the final presidential statement. " | 4/6/2010 |
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A new approach to Gaza | | by Giora Eiland -
Ynet
"The main reason for the failure to reach such agreement stemmed from an Israeli refusal to negotiate with Hamas combined with our insistence to safeguard Egyptian and Palestinian Authority interests. " | 4/6/2010 |
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A Credible Investigation | | Editorial -
New York Times
"before things get even more out of control, the world — and Israel — needs an impartial international investigation. Instead of pressing for that, the Obama administration is encouraging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s misguided belief that Israel can lead its own probe with international participation. That is not going to suffice. " | 4/6/2010 |
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A cornered Israel is baring its teeth - Jonathan Cook | | Jonathan Cook
Maan News
"Moshe Dayan, Israel’s most celebrated general, famously outlined the strategy he believed would keep Israel’s enemies at bay: “Israel must a like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother
| 4/6/2010 |
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South Africa Recalls Ambassador To Israel | | by Saed Bannoura -
IMEMC & Agencies
"The Qatar-based Al Jazeera reported that South Africa has recalled its ambassador to Israel to protest the deadly Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla Ships filled with humanitarian supplies, and peace activists." | 4/6/2010 |
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The Shadow over Israel | | by Margaret Atwood -
Haaretz -
"The Shadow is not the Palestinians. The Shadow is Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, linked with Israeli’s own fears. The worse the Palestinians are treated in the name of those fears, the bigger the Shadow grows, and then the fears grow with them; and the justifications for the treatment multiply. " | 4/6/2010 |
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Red Rag column: In the nuclear domain too, Israel is irresponsible and unpredictable | | Gideon Spiro - Atoms for Apartheid - The world`s most dictatorial democracy - Children of migrant workers - Party of God | 3/6/2010 |
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New Israeli Tack Needed on Gaza, U.S. Officials Say | | ETHAN BRONNER - The New York Times - “The attempt to control Gaza from outside, via its residents’ diet and shopping lists, casts a heavy moral stain on Israel and increases its international isolation,” he [Aluf Benn] wrote. “Every Israeli should be ashamed of the list of goods prepared by the Defense Ministry, which allows cinnamon and plastic buckets into Gaza, but not houseplants and coriander. It’s time to find more important things for our officers and bureaucrats to do than update lists.”
| 3/6/2010 |
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Fundamentalist Israeli Legislators Disrupt Speech Of Arab MP, Call For Deporting Her To Gaza | | Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies - Several fundamentalist members of Knesset in Israel attacked on Wednesday Arab legislator, Hanin Zo’by, while she spoke during a Knesset session designated to discuss the deadly attack carried out by Israel against the solidarity ships heading to Gaza.
| 3/6/2010 |
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Lying About The Gaza Flotilla Disaster | | MJ Rosenberg - Political Correction - As for the Israeli argument that its soldiers were attacked, that is ridiculous. Israeli commandos were ordered to board a civilian ship in international waters and the government that sent them claims that the resisting passengers attacked them without provocation. This is like a carjacker complaining to the police that the driver bashed him with a crowbar that was under the seat. Neither carjackers nor hijackers should expect their victims to acquiesce peacefully. | 3/6/2010 |
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Exit strategy: Lifting the Gaza blockade | | Haaretz - Editorial - Like a robot lacking in judgment, stuck on a predetermined path - that`s how the government is behaving in its handling of the aid flotillas to the Gaza Strip. The announcement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the security cabinet meeting Tuesday that the blockade of Gaza will continue and that Israel will keep on using force to prevent ships from entering Gaza`s port suggests that the foolishness continues and no lessons have been learned from this week`s incidents. | 3/6/2010 |
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Israel naval raid a folly foretold : How confused and panicky a country must be to act as Israel did. | | David Grossman - Los Angeles Times - Israel`s actions are but the natural continuation of the shameful, ongoing closure of Gaza, which in turn is the perpetuation of the heavy-handed and condescending approach of the Israeli government. It is prepared to embitter a million and a half innocent people in the Gaza Strip to obtain the release of one imprisoned soldier, precious and beloved though he may be. And this closure is the all-too-natural consequence of a clumsy and calcified policy, which again and again resorts by default to the use of massive and exaggerated force, at every decisive juncture, where wisdom and sensitivity and creative thinking are called for instead
| 2/6/2010 |
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ACRI Newsletter June 2010 | | Hagai El-Ad - ACRI`s Executive Director - Given Israel`s experience with demonstrations at times of extreme tension, ACRI urged Israel`s leaders to facilitate the planned demonstrations in Israel and the OPT according to the law, and to refrain from using disproportionate force. We did this especially in light of the events of October 2000, wherein 13 individuals, all except one Arab citizens of Israel, were killed by security forces during demonstrations in Israel`s North. We also pointed to the illegal suppression of demonstrations and widespread arrest of protesters, most of them Arab, during Operation Cast Lead.
| 2/6/2010 |
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Will security officials implement statement by Netanyahu to transfer all civilian goods into Gaza? | | Gisha - News Release - Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking him to instruct the security authorities to implement a policy of free passage of civilian goods into and out of the Gaza Strip, subject only to individual security inspections.
| 2/6/2010 |
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Who will bring Israel to book over flotilla attack? | | Daniel Machover - The Guardian - Turkey is therefore perfectly entitled to demand that all evidence, including the identity of all Israeli naval and other forces, is handed over to its criminal justice authorities for a full investigation and that Israel allow Turkish law enforcement officials unimpeded access to the Israeli suspects. Israel is after all a party to the 1959 European convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters.
| 2/6/2010 |
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In the Eye of an Israeli Leftist : Dedicated to member of kenesset Hanin Zoabi | | Udi Aloni - It is not true that among the participants of the flotilla there are proponents of peace and proponents of war. Its beauty lies in the seemingly impossible coalition of contrasts of men and women, homosexuals and clergymen, Moslems and Jews, Christians and communists, anarchists and Hanin Zoabi and Dror Feiler. They all agreed to unite for an unarmed action. They all decided to act for freedom without a fight.
| 2/6/2010 |
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US and the Middle East: Holed below the water line | | Editorial -
Guardian -
"...work has to finally start on rebuilding a peace process worthy of the name: one based on dealing with both wings of the Palestinian national movement without preconditions." | 2/6/2010 |
|
America`s Complicity in Evil | | PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS -
Counterpunch -
"The Israeli state has declared that anyone with a moral conscience is an enemy of Israel, and every American president except Eisenhower and Carter has agreed."
| 2/6/2010 |
|
Yalla Peace: Stupid, stupid, stupid | | RAY HANANIA -
J-lem Post -
"The Israelis, too, should be ashamed of their policies, which have abandoned moral principles and instead exploit Palestinian extremism. This Israeli practice of using Palestinian extremism to justify excessive brutality is shameful."
| 2/6/2010 |
|
How did we get so dumb? | | Sima Kadmon -
Ynet -
"In a normal country, we would have urged someone to resign. Sorry, what I meant to say is that in a normal country someone would have already resigned by now. Yet around here, the prime minister decides to return home from North America after long hours of deliberations. And this is supposed to reassure us." | 2/6/2010 |
|
It`s time for real disengagement | | Aluf Benn -
Haaretz -
"Every Israeli should be ashamed of the list of goods prepared by the Defense Ministry, which allows cinnamon and plastic buckets into Gaza, but not houseplants and coriander. It`s time to find more important things for our officers and bureaucrats to do than update lists."
| 2/6/2010 |
... |
Analysis: Condemnation of Israeli assault complicates relations with U.S. | | Glenn Kessler - Washington Post - The worldwide condemnation of the deadly Israeli assault on the Gaza aid flotilla will complicate the Obama administration`s efforts to improve its tense relations with Jerusalem and will probably distract from the push to sanction Iran over its nuclear program.
| 1/6/2010 |
|
Israel itself may be among the victims of its pathology | | Eyad Sarraj - The National - Israel’s action may reinforce calls to boycott its products. This could be a turning point in the struggle to end the siege and the Israeli occupation.
| 1/6/2010 |
|
The Second Gaza War: Israel lost at sea | | Bradley Burston - Haaretz - We are no longer defending Israel. We are now defending the siege, which is itself becoming Israel`s Vietnam. We were determined to avoid an honest look at the first Gaza war. Now, in international waters and having opened fire on an international group of humanitarian aid workers and activists, we are fighting and losing the second. For Israel, in the end, this Second Gaza War could be far more costly and painful than the first. | 1/6/2010 |
... |
Israel and the aid convoy: How to make enemies | | The Guardian, Editorial - Israel`s defiant reaction to the raid on the Gaza aid convoy is almost as appalling as the attack itself | 7/6/2010 |
|
The Israeli flotilla attack: victimhood, aggression and tribalism | | Glenn Greenwald - Salon - "One can express all sorts of outrage over the Obama administration`s depressingly predictable defense of the Israelis, even at the cost of isolating ourselves from the rest of the world, but ultimately, on some level, wouldn`t it have been even more indefensible -- or at least oozingly hypocritical -- if the U.S. had condemned Israel? After all, what did Israel do in this case that the U.S. hasn`t routinely done and continues to do? " | 7/6/2010 |
... |
The Phony Claim of Self-Defense - Israel`s Dilemma | | Nadia Hijab - CounterPunch - "Israel is stuck. For decades, it has used the same strategy to achieve its objectives and to rout all challengers: overwhelming force. When it meets violence with violence -- even when it uses disproportionate force as in Beirut in 1982 and 2006 and Gaza in 2008 -- Israel claims self-defense and usually manages to spin the facts its way" | 7/6/2010 |
|
Veteran peace activist: Israel trying to get Gaza people to overthrow Hamas | | Mazal Mualem - Haaretz - Benjamin Netanyahu is lying when he says the Gaza blockade exists in order to prevent the transfer of weapons to Gaza, Uri Avnery tells Haaretz | 7/6/2010 |
... |
Video : `Israel is a Lunatic State` - Finkelstein on Gaza Flotilla Attack | | Russia Today TV | 6/6/2010 |
... |
Netanyahu and Lieberman are imposing a siege on Israel | | Haaretz Editorial-
If Israel is to break out of the international siege and strategic catastrophe it now faces, it urgently needs a different policy.
| 6/6/2010 |
... |
You will have no protection | | Alice Walker -
EI -
"
I am thankful to know what it means to be good; I know that the people of the Freedom Flotilla are/were in some cases, some of the best people on earth. They have not stood silently by and watched the destruction of others... support boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to End the Occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and by this effort begin to soothe the pain and attend the sorrows of a people wrongly treated for generations. This action would also remind Israel that we have seen it lose its way and have called to it, often with love, and we have not been heard. In fact, we have reached out to it only to encounter slander, insult and, too frequently, bodily harm.
"
Disengage, avoid, and withhold support from whatever abuses, degrades and humiliates humanity.
| 6/6/2010 |
|
Why Israel Chooses Violence | | Patrick Seale-
"
Today, Israel sees Iran as its main challenger. If it decides to attack Iran’s nuclear sites, it wants to be sure the United States will join in to finish the job and protect it from any backlash. But to ensure America’s backing it must demonstrate its own utter resolve to confront -- and defeat -- any threat to is supremacy, however trivial. The attack on the Gaza flotilla should perhaps be seen, therefore, as a show of force to prepare the ground, politically and psychologically, for an attack on Iran.
" | 6/6/2010 |
|
Gaza power station low on fuel | | Gaza –
Ma`an
"The power station in the Gaza Strip will be forced to shut down Friday due to lack of fuel, officials said late Thursday. Generators at the station, the only one in Gaza, are operating at 40 percent capacity, energy authority engineer Kan’an Obeid said."
| 25/6/2010 |
|
Red Rag column | | Gideon Spiro - The elders will save us - Helen Thomas - Don`t give in to Israel - Withdrawal of citizenship - Who`s the racist here? | 25/6/2010 |
|
Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is not a surprise--it’s what we wanted | | Geoffrey Aronson - Foreign Policy - The failure of the international community to confront Israel`s decision to isolate Gaza from Israel and the West Bank is at the root of the web of crises centered on Gaza today. However understandable the international focus on Gaza`s humanitarian emergency, what is at issue is the fact that Gaza`s current nightmare is the consequence of Israel`s continuing effort to separate the political, economic, and security destiny of the West Bank from that of the Gaza Strip--an objective that the international community has tacitly supported because of opposition to Hamas` rule in Gaza (for more on this, see Tony Karon`s piece in Time magazine and Marc Lynch`s Middle East Channel post).
| 24/6/2010 |
|
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