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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it    
Commentary

TitleDescriptionDate
American Puritanism and Infantile Faith: The `Corrupt Betrayers` of the Palestinian PeopleMichael Neumann - Counterpunch - Palestinian hopes cannot rest on the character, good or bad, of its powerless leaders. If the Palestinians can hope, it is because there are non-Western forces with the power and the will to make Israel think twice about prolonging the occupation.31/1/2011
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CARTOON: The Giant Has AwakenedFrom Emad Hajjaj. ao29/1/2011
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The Palestine Papers and the "Gaza coup"Ali Abunimah - The Electronic Intifada "As revealing as the Palestine Papers are, clearly there is still much we don`t know. But one thing is certain: the divide and rule tactics used by outside powers, and the willingness of some Palestinians to go along with them, have been debilitating to the Palestinian struggle for freedom." 28/1/2011
The real Palestinian concessionAmira Hass - Haaretz - Hamas and the PLO are in the thrall of their false status as two governments whose existence and maintenance have become a goal in itself. Had they not given up on their people as a decisive factor, the two rival forces would have listened to it, and before anything else found a way to end the dual rule. 27/1/2011
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Israel`s lost weekendLos Angeles Times - Editorial - First came the unauthorized release of thousands of official documents baring secret, inside-the-room details from a decade of failed peace talks. The documents, leaked to Al Jazeera, revealed concessions by Palestinian negotiators on a variety of emotionally charged subjects, including Israeli settlements, refugees and the status of East Jerusalem. Although most of the revelations were hardly shocking to those who follow these things, they seem certain to further damage the credibility of the Palestinian Authority in the eyes of its people, who see no corresponding benefits to make such concessions palatable. 27/1/2011
In the Chaos, Let`s Not Forget about Israel Joharah Baker - MIFTAH - It is almost amazing that such a small nation – in all, the Palestinians everywhere comprise approximately 10 million people – could be dissected and divided into so many groups. But again, Israel knows what it`s doing. Enforcing a different set of rules for each category is one method to conquer and divide – it is much easier to oppress sub-groups than one united and cohesive people. 27/1/2011
Palestine Does Not Have To Be A Lost CauseAlan Hart - Countercurrents - In their claim for justice, I wrote, the Palestinians have 100% of right, legal and moral, on their side (whereas the Israelis have 99% of the might, conventional and nuclear, on their side). If this claim was properly presented and pressed by a credible Palestinian leadership, by definition a democratically elected leadership duly authorized to represent the views of all Palestinians, it would be more difficult for the governments of the major powers, the one in Washington DC especially, to go on refusing to use the leverage they have to end Israel’s occupation of Arab land grabbed in the Zionist state’s 1967 war of aggression. (Not self defense as Zionism asserted and succeeded in getting most people in the Western world to believe). 27/1/2011
How Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have responded to this week`s revelationsLaila El-Haddad - The Guardian - In Gaza, which has been blockaded with western backing and regional complicity since democratic elections five years ago, friends and family tell me the response is a mixture of anger, suspicion and uncertainty about the future. Fellow blogger Mohammed Suliman told me via Facebook that he found the revelations, chief among them that Mahmoud Abbas`s Palestinian Authority offered to concede almost all of East Jerusalem, "shocking but not unpredictable", referring to them as a "tragicomedy". 27/1/2011
A new truth dawns on the Arab world : Leaked Palestinian files have put a region in revolutionary moodRobert Fisk - The Independent - The Palestine Papers are as damning as the Balfour Declaration. The Palestinian "Authority" – one has to put this word in quotation marks – was prepared, and is prepared to give up the "right of return" of perhaps seven million refugees to what is now Israel for a "state" that may be only 10 per cent (at most) of British mandate Palestine. 27/1/2011
The World is no Golem Uri Avnery - gush-shalom.org - When important countries like Brazil, Argentina and Chile recognize Palestine, and draw behind them the other Latin American countries, this is significant. When Russia renews its recognition, through its highest official and on Palestinian soil, this is an important event. If anybody is relying on the rock solid American support we are used to, they should pay attention to a small news item that appeared this week: the permanent delegation of the PLO in Washington DC was allowed to fly the Palestinian flag over its building – a right generally reserved for embassies alone. bz25/1/2011
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AlJazeera English Video: Palestine Papers spark fury in Ramallah 25/1/2011
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"Risks for peace" Robert Grenier - Aljazeera - The Palestine Papers reveal us [Americans] to have alternatively demanded and encouraged the Palestinian participants to take disproportionate risks for a negotiated settlement, and then to have refused to extend ourselves to help them achieve it.25/1/2011
Barak UnmaskedRan HaCohen - antiwar.com - Barak sacrificed his position in order to make sure that the godfather of Israeli colonialism returned to power.25/1/2011
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Israel still has a partner for peace Haaretz editorial - If Israel continues to prefer expanding the settlements to ensuring its status as a Jewish democratic state, we will lose the last Palestinian partner who could prevent its perpetuation as an isolated, condemned apartheid state. 25/1/2011
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Palestinian Papers: What The Al Jazeera Blockbuster MeansM.J. Rosenberg - Foreign Policy Matters - We are not an honest broker. We are no broker at all. Worst of all, we know (the Al Jazeera papers confirm this) that we are endorsing Israeli positions that we know not to be true. Why do we do it? The same reason we don`t ban assault weapons. A lobby (only in this case, the lobby of a foreign government) is dictating our policies with no regard for the greater American good. 25/1/2011
A fine line between Palestinian remembrance, radicalization [forwarded by Rupa Shah]--Lee Berthiaume--"I`m so happy when I come to school," responds one 12-year-old in English. Another, however, complains in Arabic through a translator that there was a shortage of textbooks at the beginning of the school year. Then I get an answering I wasn`t expecting. "I don`t care about the school," says one girl. "I want to be in Palestine, my homeland." 23/1/2011
Barak UnmaskedThe professional warrior and former chief of staff was in fact a far-right Trojan horse within the Israeli left. The fact that he had consistently opposed the Oslo Process was silenced and forgotten, so that his rapid termination of that Process with the bloody Intifada in 2000 could be portrayed as a great surprise, not as a premeditated plan, and blamed on the Palestinians.the professional warrior and former chief of staff was in fact a far-right Trojan horse within the Israeli left. The fact that he had consistently opposed the Oslo Process was silenced and forgotten, so that his rapid termination of that Process with the bloody Intifada in 2000 could be portrayed as a great surprise, not as a premeditated plan, and blamed on the Palestinians.22/1/2011
Tunisia echoes in the Arab streetby Dina Ezzat- Al-Ahram Weekly "The surprising success of the Tunisian revolt emboldened many in the Arab world to press for more social and political justice."21/1/2011
`Good hit. Alpha.`Amira Hass - Haaretz - T. asks his audience: "Who knows who Salah Shehadeh is? Salah Shehadeh is the Hamas chief of staff. In 2002 there`s Sheikh Yassin, he`s the spiritual leader, and there`s Salah Shehadeh, the military commander. [The base commander] told me it was Salah Shehadeh, and I said, Great. I have no idea who or what you`re talking about. We made a good hit, `alpha` in air force jargon, and that`s it, we went to bed. The next day, actually the same day, we`re told that the strike killed Salah, his wife, his daughter, his son and others ... That`s the subject. And I fired ... 20/1/2011
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‘And No One Wants to Know’: Israeli Soldiers on the OccupationDavid Shulman - The New York Review of Books - The information was meticulously checked and re-checked for accuracy; there is no mistaking the ring of truth in the reports, which reveal consistent patterns, and thus have a powerful cumulative force. To read them is to see the profound moral corruption of the occupation in all its starkness. They show us ordinary, decent young soldiers, caught up in an impossible situation, sometimes trying desperately to make sense of that situation, but mostly following their orders without question. In a number of cases, those interviewed have clearly been psychologically and spiritually scarred by their participation in horrific events of which they had little understanding at the time. 20/1/2011
Israel`s Labor party not to be mourned Jonathan Cook - The Electronic Intifada - But peace failed to materialize, and the settlements` continuing expansion steadily eroded the Palestinians` belief in Israel`s good faith. Labor`s last shot at peace-making was the Camp David summit of 2000. When Barak, as prime minister, failed to reach a final-status agreement with the Palestinians, claiming there was "no partner," he killed off Israel`s fickle peace camp and made his party politically irrelevant again. 20/1/2011
Symbolism isn`t Everything…But it is Something Joharah Baker - MIFTAH - As for symbols such as the Palestinian flag waving over the PLO mission in Washington DC, I can say this. While most people take the sight of their national flags for granted, we Palestinians have never had this luxury. That is why it is an accomplishment – however symbolic - to see it flying in the US capital even if this has not changed the status quo of the Palestinians vis-ŕ-vis its relationship with the US. If nothing else, it is a reminder that, "yes, we are still here and we are not going anywhere." 20/1/2011
Zionist Left Writes Its Own ObituaryJonathan Cook - Antiwar - "Netanyahu has pressing reasons for wanting Barak to stay in the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. He has provided useful diplomatic cover as Netanyahu has stymied progress in a U.S.-sponsored peace process." 19/1/2011
Yalla Peace: What`s the alternative?RAY HANANIA - J-Post - "Many would like to see the fires of freedom spread across the Arab world and into Israel, where the Jewish state enjoys a dual system – full democracy for some and less for others." 19/1/2011
Barak`s move enrages Arab Labor membersHassan Shaalan - Ynet - ""This move has direct implications on the Arab sector. It endangers democracy and bolsters the Israeli Right."" 19/1/2011
Israel concerned Russia will recognize Palestinian stateBarak Ravid - Haaretz - Nabil Sha`ath told Al-Hayat newspaper that Medvedev would affirm the Soviet Union`s 1988 recognition of a Palestinian state - a recognition that was based on the declaration of independence made by Yassir Arafat that year. Such a move would be significant, particularly since Russia is a member of the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiatiors. bz 18/1/2011
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New era for Israel’s LeftAvraham Burg - Ynet - Say it clearly: Full Jewish-Arab partnership, without any “buts.” Democracy for all citizens. A complete end to the occupation, without any deals and sophisticated formulae, without blocs, and without leftovers. And a truly social economy. Turn your backs to Barak and establish the Labor-Meretz-Hadash coalition.18/1/2011
A separation and an opportunity Haaretz editorial - The new Atzmaut faction will be the government`s resuscitation machine. But the split in Labor, including the departure of eight Labor MKs from the coalition, holds a big opportunity for the left wing, which until yesterday was hardly represented in the Knesset. A bloc will now form around three banners - social justice, advancing peace and saving democracy. Such a bloc will provide an alternative to the ideology of hatred. Its very existence will force opposition party Kadima, too, to take a firmer position against Netanyahu and his government, and present an alternative to Netanyahu and Barak`s policy of entrenchment and stagnation. bz 18/1/2011
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Following the storm: Netanyahu is at the mercy of LiebermanNoam Sheizaf - +972 - In case anyone had any doubts, this government won’t be able to take even the tiniest step towards a peace settlement with the Palestinians. Netanyahu has no room to maneuver: The slightest indication that he is willing to consider concessions, and the rightwing elements in his party would have the government fall. bz 18/1/2011
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Settlers no longer look to Israel, or its lawsZvi Bar`el - Haaretz - There, beyond the Green Line, there are norms taking root that render Israeli courts impotent. Over there, the new real estate laws and symbols of the State of Israel are being created. Judea and Samaria, as we have been taught, is here17/1/2011
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Gov`t protects the people, not the other way aroundZeev Sternhell--In a democracy, restrictions must be imposed on legislation, because the purpose of a liberal democratic regime is to protect human and civil rights and ensure equality. When the legislature ignores these basic duties, it undermines the very reason for democracy`s existence. 16/1/2011
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Public letter from the founders of Gisha in response to attacks on human rights organizationsIn 2005, we founded Gisha with the goal of protecting the right to freedom of movement of residents of the occupied Palestinian territory. We did so out of a belief in the importance of promoting human rights, particularly for those living under occupation, who are impacted by state policies but are not citizens of Israel, and who therefore do not participate in the Israeli political system. 16/1/2011
Letters to the Editor Cape Town Times Terry Crawford-Browne-- have just returned to Cape Town after three months of monitoring the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and the villages of the Bethlehem area. My colleagues and I were at the checkpoint four days a week from 4am until 7:30am to collect data for the World Council of Churches and the United Nations, and to provide a calming international presence when tensions flared. We formed part of a team of 27 people from 12 countries. 16/1/2011
King’s words live in Palestinian cityDorothy M. Zellner--It may surprise people to know that Palestinians read Dr. King’s words and call his name and study the American civil rights movement, among other histories of other peoples, for ways to bring to the attention of the world the fact that little by little, their land is disappearing along with their rights. The center of this effort now is in small West Bank villages like Ni’lin and Bil’in, where non-violent demonstrations have taken place weekly — for years. Yet these non-violent demonstrations of civilians are met with Israeli armed might. 16/1/2011
The last step in liberationBy Mazin Qumsiyeh - "After I finished my last book on popular resistance in Palestine over the past 130 years, I became 100% sure that political Zionism will fail and that Palestinian refugees will return to their homes and lands. My certainty is based on the lessons of history in Palestine and lessons from similar struggles like South Africa, Vietnam, and Algeria. Some of the peculiarities that will be critical for our success are:" 14/1/2011
US must rejoin international community by recognizing the state of PalestineJohn V. Whitbeck - The Christian Science Monitor - The United States has demonstrated a slavish subservience to Israel, as reflected yet again both in the absence of a single brave voice raised against this new House resolution and in the Obama administration’s recently rejected offer of a huge military and diplomatic bribe to Israel in reward for a mere 90-day suspension of its illegal settlement program. In so doing, the United States has effectively excluded itself from the true international community (properly redefined to refer to the great majority of mankind) and become a true rogue state, properly defined as one acting in consistent and flagrant contempt of both international law and fundamental human rights. 13/1/2011
Pregnant TV reporter objects to `humiliating` Israeli security checksCatrina Stewart - The Independent - Najwan Simri, a 31-year-old Palestinian producer at Al Jazeera, said that she was humiliated by the rigorous security search. "They told me to take off my jacket, my skirt and then my shirt, and finally, they told me to take off my bra," she said. "I then thought to myself, `Enough, I won`t do it`." 13/1/2011
Shepherd Hotel Demolition an Outrage MIFTAH - MIFTAH calls on the international community to take a decisive stance against Israel`s continued policy of demolitions in east Jerusalem, which is considered occupied under international law. Israel should be held accountable for its unlawful actions just like all other nations. 13/1/2011
The nation is behind you, GalantAmira Hass - Haaretz - The IDF, the greenhouse that has nurtured Galant, is the major land broker in Palestinian areas that were occupied in 1967. All the land that private speculators have managed to purchase by cunning and stealth does not come close to the vast territory stolen on military orders signed by our finest commanders.13/1/2011
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Israel`s Assault on Human Rights Neve Gordon - The Nation - In early January forty-one (versus sixteen) Knesset members voted in favor of a proposal to establish a parliamentary inquiry commission into the funding of Israeli human rights organizations. MK Fania Kirshenbaum, who submitted the proposal, accused human rights groups of providing material to the Goldstone commission, which investigated Israel’s 2008-09 Gaza offensive. 13/1/2011
To err is humanAdam Keller - Crazy Country - "According to that (Oslo) agreement`s timetable, the occupation should have ended in May 1999 and by now the State of Palestine should have been nearing its eleventh Independence Day and Israeli soldiers would not have been firing tear gas in Bil`in or standing at checkpoints in the Jordan Valley or controlling the access of patients to the Mukassad Hospital in East Jerusalem or detaining wanted people near Hebron or conducting shooting incidents on the Gaza Strip border."12/1/2011
Israel`s radical left has given up on taking powerYitzhak Laor - Haaretz - "It`s worth studying how "the great white secular hope" - one of the most dangerous mayors in the Middle East, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat - got elected. Dyed-in-the-wool leftists volunteered for his campaign, in the name of hatred of the ultra-Orthodox." id 12/1/2011
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Borderline Views: Israel’s delegitimization from within David Newman - Jerusalem Post - The attempt to legislate against NGOs and free speech, and the desire to control the curriculum of schools and universities through some centrally imposed ideology is McCarthyism in an extreme form. The unchallenged adoption of these views is destroying Israel as a democracy, and is justifying its growing delegitimization. 11/1/2011
Shameful imprisonment Haaretz editorial - Pollak`s incarceration is a link in a troubling chain of persecution by the establishment against leftist activists in the country. Following years of arresting non-violent Palestinian demonstrators, Israeli activists are now also being arrested: Nuri al-Okbi, who was convicted of setting up an illegal garage, received an aggravated sentence only because he was an activist for Bedouin rights, as Judge Zecharia Yeminy stated explicitly. Mossi Raz, a former MK, was beaten by a policemen and arrested during a demonstration against the killing of a protester in Bil`in. Now comes Pollak`s arrest. bz11/1/2011
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There can be no coexistence with a racist consensusMK Haneen Zoabi/translation Sol Salbe - +972 - The process of incitement and persecution against the “Jewish Left extremists”, set a different dynamic in motion than the persecution of Arab citizens. This time the political persecution is extending to all layers of Jewish society, permeating into political and cultural dimensions that even the Shin Bet and the establishment had not considered. bz 11/1/2011
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Red Rag Weekly ColumnGideon Spiro - Bolshitism - neo-Nazis in the IDF? Racism does not stop - Unclean hands - Letters to three judges11/1/2011
Gaza on the edge of no returnAmira Hass - New Statesman - Immediately after the offensive ended, Hamas declared victory. "In 1967 Israel subdued all the Arab armies in six days, but it could not conquer the Gaza Strip from us even after three weeks." But people in Gaza preferred to quote an old man who courageously proclaimed on television: "One more victory like this and all of Gaza will be wiped out." bz 11/1/2011
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Israeli Leftists Show Alliance in Wake of Palestinian`s DeathTony Karon - Time Magazine - The growing assertiveness of Israel`s leftists has the authorities worried. A number have reported being questioned by the Jewish department of Israel`s Shin Bet security services. And the Knesset is considering legislation, likely to pass, that would make it a criminal offense for Israelis to call for international sanctions or boycotts of their state. That may be because the symbolic weight of leftist protest in Israel is potentially far greater than its numbers. bz 11/1/2011
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Netanyahu will deliver a Palestinian stateAkiva Eldar - Haaretz - "We could close the Foreign Ministry," an aide close to Abbas told me last week, smiling from ear to ear. "Bibi [Netanyahu] and [Foreign Minister Avigdor] Lieberman are doing all the work for us." When a representative of Israel`s government dedicates the "culture hall" at the West Bank settlement of Ariel and a large majority of Knesset members authorize the expansion of the Har Homa neighborhood (seen as a settlement by the entire world ), who really believes that Israel is serious about two states or the division of Jerusalem? (...) So perhaps, in the end, Netanyahu really will establish Palestine. bz 10/1/2011
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Our anti-Zionist government Daniel Oz--Op-ed: Zionism is about affirmation of Jewish rights, not denial of another people�s rights9/1/2011
Israel`s witch-hunt against leftist organizationsJewish Peace News--Numerous public figures and organizations -- from leftists and liberals in Israel and the US, to centrist journalists and mainstream Jewish Diaspora organizations -- have sharply condemned the Israeli Knesset`s January 5th decision, passed by a lopsided 47-16 margin of lawmakers, to investigate the funding sources of Israeli leftist organizations.9/1/2011
Declaring Palestine: Revisiting Hope and FailureIn late 2010 the fervor of recognitions returned... This time around, however, there is little fanfare and no genuine hope. Palestinians now understand that to capitalize on the growing international solidarity, the Palestinian leadership needs to free itself from the iron grip and political monopoly of the United States and embrace its partners of old, from the time before Oslo, the "peace process," the Roadmap and all the other broken promises. ao8/1/2011
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On the morning after the putschPeople who still mistakenly think Israel is the “only democracy in the Middle East” should be informed this title is no longer relevant. One doubts whether Ayalon, Kirshenbaum, Danon and the rest understand just how much aid they provide to the de-legitimization of Israel, but the process ought to be completed... ao8/1/2011
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Israeli Facebook groups may face investigation for inciting racism Haaretz - "Death to all Arabs," which has 170 members, explicitly calls for acts of violence to be carried out against Arabs and has supportive words for violent acts against Arabs. The Deputy Attorney General Shai Nitzan told police to investigate the group for inciting both violence and racism. 6/1/2011
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MK Ben-Ari: Eradicate treacherous leftistsRoni Sofer - Ynetnews - After Knesset approves establishment of inquiry commission into funding of left-wing Israeli organizations, National Union MK tells Jerusalem conference they are `enemies of Israel,` equates them to Hamas, Hezbollah 6/1/2011
B’Tselem proud of its activities and completely transparent. The Knesset’s decision is what harms Israel’s international statusB`Tselem - We are proud of our work to promote human rights in the Occupied Territories, which is conducted legally and with complete transparency. Persecution and attempts at silencing will not stop us. In a democracy, criticism of the government is not only legitimate – it is essential. B`Tselem calls on all members of Knesset to hold an informed debate on the information provided by human rights organizations, instead of harassing and smearing those who dare to question and criticize6/1/2011
Gaza Youth Manifesto Joins SupportersAne Irazabal - IMEMC & Agencies - “Fuck Hamas. Fuck Israel. Fuck Fatah. Fuck UN. Fuck UNWRA. Fuck USA! We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community!” the document begins. In addition, the document goes further explaining the humiliations that Gazans suffer on the daily basis, not only because of the Israeli blockade, but also due to the internal Palestinian division between Fatah and Hamas factions. 6/1/2011
Israel`s Barbaric Solitary Confinement Stephen Lendman - Countercurrents - Social psychologist Hans Toch coined the term "isolation panic" to describe symptoms he observed in men he interviewed, including panic, rage, a sense of total loss of control, emotional breakdown, regressive behavior, and self-mutiliation. He distinguished between difficult but tolerable incarceration and intolerable long-term isolation, how America and Israel treat thousands, subjecting them to barbaric torture. If sustained long enough, it destroys the human spirit, psyche, mind and body 6/1/2011
When did it become illegal to be a Leftist in Israel?Gideon Levy - Haaretz - Peace activists are questioned by the Shin Bet security service and warned ahead of time against committing any violations. A physicians` group is "on the extreme left," a social foundation "despises Israel," dedicated women who monitor checkpoints are "traitors" and an information center is considered "an accomplice to terrorism." 6/1/2011
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The IDF speaks in two voices in the Jawaher Abu Rahmah affair – because it knows its case is weakYossi Gurvitz - +972 - On Monday the IDF went on a coordinated media offensive against the Bil’in activists and the Abu Rahmah family, claiming not only that Jawahar Abu Rahmah was not killed as a result of inhaling IDF gas, she wasn’t even present in the demonstration on Friday. This comes on a day when the Haaretz editorial questioned the use of CS gas, claiming it may be especially deadly. 6/1/2011
Israeli Knesset plenum votes to investigate human rights groupsCecilie Surasky - Muzzle Watch - “The political persecution of human rights group will cause great damage to Israel and across the world, and will lead to the delegitimization [of Israel] and the representation of it as a McCarthyite state in which a witch hunt is taking place,” added the NIF. 6/1/2011
Co-memory and Melancholia: Israelis Memorialising the Palestinian NakbaYehudit Kirstein Keshet - Bookreview - The Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948, is decidedly the skeleton of skeletons in Israel’s national cupboard. Ignored in school text-books, its public commemoration disparaged and, latterly, banned by law, it is nevertheless a very present absence, a threatening and taboo topic. Rational discussion of the Nakba with the average Jewish Israeli, including many on the liberal Zionist Left, is almost impossible. Most will cling to the triumphalist myths of 1948: the victory of the few against the many, the purity of Israeli arms versus the allegedly barbarous onslaught of the ‘Arab’ hordes. 6/1/2011
Rising Calls For An American Imposed Peace PlanBernard Avishai - Will U.S. President Barack Obama grasp the opportunity to jump-start a reasonable version of the Quartet’s master plan for the Holy Land? It is a formulation, after all, that reflects the weight not only of its sponsors’ best collective judgment and self-interests but also of their untapped collective powers of enforcement, including the selective bestowal or withdrawal of diplomatic, economic, or military support. 4/1/2011
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Israel must allow Palestinians to protest in peaceHaaretz Editorial - Just as the settlers` protests against the Gaza disengagement passed without deaths, so should the Palestinian protests against the fence pass. There are enough ways to break up demonstrations, if this is at all necessary, without risking the lives of the participants. 4/1/2011
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How the army spin machine works in the Abu Rahmah killingJerry Haber - The Magnes Zionist - All this information is presented by the army twice – first as fact to a select group of rightwing bloggers. Then, as “questions” that the IDF will release late in the evening for the morning papers. The differences in formulation are striking. 4/1/2011
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Now it is Palestine`s turn to create facts on the groundSimon Tisdall - The Guardian - Many predict war in the Middle East, but there is another way: a sovereign independent state should be declared, recognised by the US and the UN 3/1/2011
Unarmed demonstrators face a difficult struggleDonald Macintyre - The Independent - "Whatever the medical factors, if any, that may have increased Ms Abu Rahma`s susceptibility to the military`s heavy use of tear gas on Friday, she is the 21st person to have been killed since 2004 in such protests"3/1/2011
Interim Forever!Uri Avnery - Gush Shalom - "Peace plan? Lieberman? Oh yes. Contrary to everything you thought, Lieberman wants peace, indeed is yearning for peace. So much so that he has spent days and nights working out an entire Peace Plan of his own"3/1/2011
The Children`s JudgeAya Kaniuk and Tamar Goldschmidt. Translated by Tal Haran--True, in the military courtroom itself Palestinians are neither shot nor beaten. They are not �targeted for elimination� nor even sentenced to death. At least not in the courtroom. But the military court is also the place where all illusions die. And hopes. Because that is where Palestinians learn that injury caused them, is no error, nor misunderstanding, but a matter of policy.2/1/2011
Top Israeli news story of 2010: The Gaza flotilla raid BEN HARTMAN--Like other military and diplomatic conflagrations in the past, the Gaza flotilla�s aftermath was most felt in its exposure of Israeli weaknesses. 2/1/2011
The view on the ground of the Palestine papersLaila El-Haddad - Guardian - ""And the US was witnessing all this and calling itself `an honest broker`! This is just yet another hit to the already dead peace process."" 26/1/2011
Palestine Papers confirm Israeli rejectionism Jonathan Cook - EI - "Israel spurned a set of major concessions the Palestinian negotiating team offered over the following months on the most sensitive issues in the talks." 26/1/2011
Red Rag columnGideon Spiro - Nobody was surprised - "Arab money" - Murderer of Muslims? - Can these bones live? - Susannah York - Jerusalem Prize - These are your judges, Israel26/1/2011
The Palestine Papers: An end to the myth of Israel’s generosityNoam Sheizaf - +972 - The obvious result of the massive leak of documents will be a blow to the Palestinian Authority’s credibility – most notably, to the public image of President Mahmoud Abbas and chief negotiator Saeb Erakat. Yet from a wider perspective, the release of the Palestinian offers during the 2008 talks serves as proof that Israel in fact had a partner for peace on the Palestinian side. Actually, the question from now on will be whether Israel itself is a partner for an agreement. Furthermore, after the steps Palestinian and Israeli negotiators took towards each other in previous rounds of talks, the current Israeli offers, such as a temporary state on half of the West Bank’s territory, will appear cynical and unrealistic. bz 25/1/2011
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This seemingly endless and ugly game of the peace process is now finally overKarma Nabulsi - The Guardian - The peace process is a sham. Palestinians must reject their officials and rebuild their movement24/1/2011
US was Cheerleader for Massacre - Wikileaks Cables on Israel`s Gaza OnslaughtKathleen Christison - CounterPunch - "Though the cables often simply rehash Israeli press reporting, providing little new insight into Israel’s attack or the planning behind it, they show with pitiless clarity the U.S. government to be little more than a handmaiden and amanuensis of the Israeli military machine"24/1/2011
Palestine papers: Now we know. Israel had a peace partnerJonathan Freedland - The Guardian - The classified documents show Palestinians willing to go to extreme lengths and Israel holding a firm line on any peace deal24/1/2011
The report is good, the situation is bad Haaretz Editorial - Israel longs for vision, wisdom and resolution. The Turkel committee has contributed very little in those areas24/1/2011
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The Egyptian masses won`t play ally to Israel Gideon Levy - Haaretz - As long as the masses in Egypt and in the entire Arab world continue seeing the images of tyranny and violence from the occupied territories, Israel will not be able to be accepted, even it is acceptable to a few regimes31/1/2011
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The Hosni Mubarak Fan Club - Neocons, nutballs, and the US governmentJustin Raimondo - Antiwar - "The worst dictatorships could prosper, thousands could be tortured and killed – but as long as Israel is served by the course of events, all’s right with the world. That’s what people like McCotter, Elsner, and Hoenlein fervently believe. And the government of Israel agrees with them"31/1/2011
Without Egypt, Israel will be left with no friends in MideastAluf Benn--The fading power of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak`s government leaves Israel in a state of strategic distress. Without Mubarak, Israel is left with almost no friends in the Middle East; last year, Israel saw its alliance with Turkey collapse.30/1/2011
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An Arab revolution fueled by methods of the WestZvi Bar`el--We don`t have to wait for other regimes to fall to understand that the revolution is happening before our very eyes. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will not fall due to demonstrations in Cairo`s Tahrir Square, and Yemen`s ruler will also continue to rule by force. But it`s a revolution of awareness and of the fundamental notions of what the Middle East is. Most importantly, we need a revolution in the way the West views the region.30/1/2011
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Ian McEwan can`t escape the politicsA response--January 29. 2011--We thank Ian McEwan for responding to our letter (Letters, 24 January), but we, the undersigned, must continue to express our profound disagreement with his decision to accept the Jerusalem prize. Courtesy does not oblige us to respect a decision that fails the Palestinian people by rejecting their call for an international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against the Israeli state. BDS was launched by over 170 civil society organisations in 2005: after Susan Sontag and Arthur Miller received the prize.30/1/2011
Letters to Emir Kusturicathe French BDS Campaign and the European Platform for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, in three languages, French, English and Serbian:--By performing in Israel as an artist, on the other hand, you are offering your image to this country, and Israel will use your image to polish its own, to prove itself a representative of "civilized" culture and in this way to trivialize its crimes. It is absolutely certain that the state of Israel will view your concert as a form of political support, not merely a cultural event.30/1/2011
Mondoweiss--The War of Ideas in the Middle EastMondowess--Our heros in Egypt are not waiting for our children to dream30/1/2011
An Eywitness letter to Macy GrayTali Shapiro--Demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territories come with a heavy price. Whether its the wounded and dead, or the constant harassment. Nabi Saleh has been subject to military closure, houses sprayed with putrid water (another method of “crowd dispersal”), night raids, arrests of activists (regardless of age), and torture which includes threats, beatings and contorted body positioning.30/1/2011
Revisiting Hope and Failure - Declaring PalestineRamzy Baroud - CounterPunch - "What Palestinians do have today is a much gratitude to the Latin American countries that have recently joined the host of nations that recognize independent Palestine. [...] Many Palestinians now understand that to capitalize on the growing international solidarity, the Palestinian leadership needs to free itself from the iron grip and political monopoly of the United States and embrace its partners of old, from the time before Oslo, the `peace process`, the Roadmap and all the other broken promises"10/1/2011
The IDF uses propaganda like an authoritarian regimeGideon Levy--Instead of working toward revealing the truth behind the recent death of an anti-fence demonstrator the IDF is reaching into its bag of lies.9/1/2011
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Israel`s very own Revolutionary Guards Zvi Bar`el--The Knesset does not want to look like the parliaments in the Arab countries, but it does not want to give up the authority to act like them. 9/1/2011
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