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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
Mearsheimer responds to Goldberg`s latest smearStephen M. Walt - Foreign Policy "In a certain sense, it is hard not to be impressed by the energy and imagination that Jeffrey Goldberg devotes to smearing Steve Walt and me. Although he clearly disagrees with our views about U.S.-Israel relations and the role of the Israel lobby, he does not bother to engage what we actually wrote in any meaningful way." ca30/9/2011
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Prominent Israeli journalist: Screw foreigners’ copyrightsYossi Gurvitz - +972 "Yair Lapid’s vapid comment shows us the rotten heart of the Israeli center." ca30/9/2011
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Against `fake statehood`Amira Howeidy - Al-Ahram Weekly "It is "a mini-state with a disfigured geography and no sovereignty," as Palestinian intellectual Joseph Massad describes it. The problem this poses, Massad wrote in an article published by Al-Jazeera on 15 September, is not just in the futility of the step, but its consequences, regardless of whether or not the UN grants the PA membership." ca30/9/2011
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Rosh Hashanah 5772: Hope and the Social Justice MovementCarlo Strenger - Haaretz - The Jewish year 5771 brought two diametrically opposed developments in Israel. One was the flood of anti-democratic laws passed and proposed in the Knesset. The other was the social justice protest movement, in which Israel’s democracy suddenly came alive29/9/2011
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UN Bid Heralds Death of Palestine`s Old GuardJonathan Cook - CommonDreams.org - The Palestinian application, handed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon last week, has now disappeared from view -- for weeks, it seems -- while the United States and Israel devise a face-saving formula to kill it in the Security Council. Behind the scenes, the pair are strong-arming the Council’s members to block Palestinian statehood without the need for the US to cast its threatened veto. 29/9/2011
Israel Ordered to Pay $400,000 to Aramin Family for Girl’s MurderRichard Silverstein - Tikun Olan - You cannot put a value on the life of a little girl, especially when an Israeli policeman with a gun kills her so brutally. It is almost an insult that the Court has done so, especially in light of its refusal to hold the killer accountable. He has likely gone right back to his former job and either will kill again, or at the very least continue abusing Palestinians, as is the habit of the Israeli Border Police, true thuggish enforcers of Israeli power. 29/9/2011
Last week at the UN, Israel lost AmericaLarry Derfner - +972 - “With Obama’s America now having zero credibility in the Middle East, where does this leave Israel? Alone and vulnerable to an extent that’s unfamiliar to Israelis. Until now, the U.S. held sway with the Palestinians; it doesn’t anymore. It held sway with Egypt, Jordan and Turkey; I wonder how much it has left now. In highly dramatic fashion, the U.S. stood up for the occupation and against Palestinian independence, and the result of this disgrace is that outside of Israel and America, the occupation is more unpopular and Palestinian independence more popular than ever. It’s the Palestinians who have the wind at their back now, and Israel that’s pissing in the wind”26/9/2011
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Shlomo has no state Merav Michaeli - Haaretz - "It`s called spin, or tactics, but in effect it is cynical, unscrupulous behavior that is scandalous and sickening. Netanyahu didn`t invent it, but he has refined it to a level of art that befits the Hollywood actor that he should have been. In Israel there is a legacy of destructive cynicism - Defense Minister Ehud Barak`s claim that there is ‘no partner,’ Ariel Sharon`s claim of ‘the end of the occupation’ in Gaza - but Netanyahu has stretched it to the limit"26/9/2011
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Why Obama stabbed the Palestinians in the backReuven Kaminer - The US continues to build its regional strategy on a sick, blind devotion to an Israeli, anti-Arab, regional hegemony. The Likud people are chortling all over the place. Netanyahu has the President of the United States in his hip pocket. Members of the �moderate� public in Israel have now joined legends of liberal and progressive people in the United States who, having been fooled by Obama at one stage or another, now justifiably consider themselves betrayed.25/9/2011
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Abu Mazen’s Gamble Uri Avnery - Barack Obama’s miserable performance was a nail in the coffin of America’s status as a superpower. In a way, it was a crime against the United States. 25/9/2011
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Abu Mazen ready for historical peace - Netanyahu made sure America can`t broker itGush Shalom - "Mahmoud Abbas has taken the excuses out of Netanyahu`s hands. The State of Palestine, under his leadership, is fully ready to make peace with the State of Israel on the basis of the 1967 borders, to resume negotiations if no settlement facts are created on the land subject to negotiations - but the Palestinians are not ready to continue to live under occupation." 25/9/2011
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Jon Stewart lampoons Obama’s stance on Palestinian statehood (including video)Haaretz - “Thank you for your interest in our building, and please come back once you have a letter of recommendation from your mortal enemy”.24/9/2011
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Netanyahu doesn`t miss an opportunity to avoid peaceYoel Marcus - Haaretz - While we are busy distributing gas masks and preparing for the possibility that missiles will fall on Tel Aviv too, in Ramallah they are preparing for a normal civic life.24/9/2011
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The Middle East’s New Geopolitical MapPATRICK SEALE - Counterpunch "America’s most grievous mistake, however — the source of great harm to itself, to Israel, and to peace and stability in the Middle East — has been to tolerate Israel’s continued occupation and dispossession of the Palestinians. These policies have aroused intense hate of Israel in the Arab and Muslim world and great anger at its superpower protector.We are now witnessing a rebellion against these policies by the region’s heavyweights — in effect a rebellion against American and Israeli hegemony as spectacular as the Arab Spring itself." ca 23/9/2011
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Abbas will head home with little to showAvi Issacharoff - Haaretz "Throughout the West Bank, the hope has been that Abbas` move would bring some sort of recognition in the UN, whether in the Security Council or the General Assembly, as early as this weekend. Abbas` request to the UN secretary general to present his application to the Security Council will not be considered enough of an achievement, while the Security Council will postpone its deliberations to an unknown date and even then, it is unlikely to pass." ca23/9/2011
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Obama, Abbas and Netanyahu squandered their golden opportunityAri Shavit - Haaretz "This historic moment is still dangerous. The mistakes of the past 30 months have created an abysmal gap between the Palestinians` expectations, the Israelis` needs and the international community`s perceptions. This gap is asking for trouble." ca23/9/2011
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Red Rag weekly columnGideon Spiro - Destruction of an embassy - 10th anniversary of 9/11 - Nuclear war? - Did it happen, or not? - Settler terrorism23/9/2011
The One-Sided US Veto Neve Gordon & Yinon Cohen - Countercurrents - The US has never considered using its veto power to stop Israel from carrying out unilateral moves aimed at undermining peace. Instead, the US has frequently used its veto to prevent the condemnation of Israeli policies that breach international law. Now the Obama Administration wants to use the veto again, with the moral justification that unilateralism is misguided. But the real question is: Why is unilateralism bad when it attempts to advance a solution, yet warrants no response when unilateralism threatens to undermine a solution? 22/9/2011
Palestinian Authority Will Not Push For Immediate Security Council VoteSaed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies - Palestinian Presidency spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rodeina, stated that the Palestinian side will be willing to return to the negotiating table after Israel stops all of its settlement activities, violations, and after it agrees that talks should be based on the full withdrawal to the 1967 border 22/9/2011
Obama Rebuffed as Palestinians Pursue U.N. SeatHELENE COOPER and STEVEN LEE MYERS - The New York Times - President Obama addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, saying, “Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the U.N.” The extraordinary tableau Wednesday at the United Nations underscored a stark new reality: the United States is facing the prospect of having to share, or even cede, its decades-long role as the architect of Middle East peacemaking. 22/9/2011
Dreams of a helpful America keep Palestinians hopingRobert Fisk - The Independent - In Ramallah yesterday, they didn`t love the UN but they understood its uses. Quite a few shopkeepers, all men of course, even suggested that they wanted Barack Obama to veto a Security Council vote on "Palestine`s" statehood, since this would finally prove to all Arabs that America was not their friend.22/9/2011
IDF probe finds serious shortcomings in incident that led to Palestinian man`s deathAmos Harel - Haaretz - Serious shortcomings have been found in Israel Defense Forces soldiers` handling of an incident in which a Palestinian was shot to death by troops in the West Bank village of Kusra on Friday, an army investigation has revealed. rh 29/9/2011
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2 for 2, or 2 for 1?THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN - NYT - "Israel really wants two states — both for itself. That is pre-1967 Israel and post-1967 Israel, i.e., Israel, the West Bank and East Jerusalem." - id 28/9/2011
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The (unplanned) victory of the UN statehood bidJonathan Cook - The Electronic Intifada - "Events at the UN are creating a new clarity for Palestinians." - id 28/9/2011
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Obama gets a kosher seal of approvalChemi Shalev - Haaretz - U.S. President Barack Obama certainly never dreamt that one day he would be so warmly endorsed by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, of all people. But today, following Obama’s speech at the UN General Assembly, Lieberman was literally gushing with praise. To contradict the attacks of Texas Governor Rick Perry, the Republican frontrunner, for Obama’s supposedly “arrogant” attitude toward Israel, Obama will now be able to wave to his Jewish voters a kosher “seal of approval” from no less an authority than Lieberman, the “Rebbe,” as it were, of the ruling Israeli right-wing coalition. 22/9/2011
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Israel will pay a high price for its diplomatic stubbornness Gideon Levy - Haaretz - Look at the Palestinians and look at us. Look at their leaders and recall ours. Not, of course, those we have today, but those we once had, the ones who established the state for us. The Palestinians are the new Jews and their leaders are amazingly similar to the former Zionist leaders. 22/9/2011
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Palestine an Israeli interest : Recognition of Palestinian state as important to Israel as to the Palestinians Frances Raday - Ynetnews - The recognition of a Palestinian state is as important to Israel as to the Palestinians. For Israel to continue to function as a democratic and Jewish state, it must bring about a symmetrical right of self-determination for the Palestinians. 22/9/2011
Yediot: IDF Investigation Confirms All Eilat Attackers Were Egyptian, Not GazanRichard Silverstein - Tikun Olam - Landau writes a damning critique of Israel’s behavior after the attack: Israel knew that the terrorists were not from Gaza and did not receive their orders from Gaza. Even further, Israel dragged Hamas into an escalation of conflict against the latter’s wishes. Israel knowingly lied to its citizens about the origin of the attack and the purpose of its targeted killings [of five PRC leaders and a one year old baby] in Gaza22/9/2011
A World of Support Julie Holm - MIFTAH - It can be questioned whether the international community’s support for a Palestinian state will affect the outcome of this week’s UN negotiations and possible vote. I hope, however, that it will reach Palestine and that the Palestinian people understand that even though the leaders of the western world are more concerned with diplomatic relations, the majority of people of these countries support the Palestinians’ right to an independent state, and will continue to do so no matter what happens at the UN in the days to come. 22/9/2011
Questioning Ashrawi on Palestinian U.N. Bid: Will You Go to the General Assembly? Is this a PA Ploy?Sam Husseini--Big story this week was the Palestinian U.N. bid. Palestinian negotiator Hanan Ashrawi was on ABC’s “This Week” and Christiane Amanpour of questioning revolved around when the Palestinian delegation would resume talks with the Israelis that have gone on for decades. I asked the opposite question: What are they going to do to make the U.N. state membership bid real instead of relying on more “negotiations”? Are they going to let the bid get bogged down in the Security Council, where the U.S. wields a veto or are they — as noted international lawyers have recommended — move it in short order to the General Assembly, where an overwhelming majority of countries favor Palestinian state membership? 27/9/2011
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Netanyahu uses rhetoric of peace to practice violence.Merav Michaeli--Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu`s UN speech on Friday was not a good one.27/9/2011
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Netanyahu`s speech of lies Akiva Eldar--Benjamin Netanyahu promised he would feed us the truth, not another campaign speech, but a test of this promise seems apposite. 27/9/2011
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Unconditional Support for Israel Encourages Bad BehaviorIvan Eland - Antiwar - "Hopefully, Obama will not continue to capitulate to the Israeli lobby. " - id 21/9/2011
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Obama`s perfect storm Mark LeVine - Al Jazeera - "Letting both the US and Israel know that the continuation of the status quo will no longer be painless is better than most other alternatives." - id21/9/2011
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Encountering Peace: Maybe the whole world isn’t against us?GERSHON BASKIN - J-Post - "The Palestinian move to the United Nations is not about the destruction of Israel, or even about the de-legitimization of Israel." - id 21/9/2011
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UN bid good for Israel?Ron Ben-Yishai - Ynet - "The UN move also minimizes the risk of another violent Intifada, while granting the sides, including the US and Europe, a vital timeout of some months at least." - id21/9/2011
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Mahmoud Abbas is having the time of his lifeBy Chemi Shalev - Haaretz - At 76 years of age, with less than a year to go before his supposed retirement, the Palestinian president has suddenly got the world in his hands, or at least at his feet. 20/9/2011
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Palestinian state bid reveals world hypocrisyAziz Abu Sarah - +972 - "A 130 pound man has no chance of winning a boxing match against Mike Tyson, but if you take Tyson out of the boxing match and challenge him in chess, he might have a chance" (one of the Palestinian officials describing the negotiations boxing match). 20/9/2011
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Jordan`s King says Israel must choose if it is fortress or part of MideastHaaretz - Jordan King warns of possible `negative impact` from ongoing negotiations stalemate; says U.S. veto against Palestinian statehood at UN Security Council would only further isolate Israel. 20/9/2011
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PA President Abbas is a politician, not an activistMairav Zonszein - +972 - "Whether we (activists against Israeli occupation and policies) like it or not, there is a difference between ideology and politics, activism and diplomacy. States don’t act out of moral resolve but rather out of political interests - real politik – and most human rights activists don’t act out of pragmatism but rather out of conviction. In most cases, activists are never satisfied because reality never lives up to ideals" 19/9/2011
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Palestine: A virtual stateThe Guardian, Editorial - A fresh wind is blowing through the Middle East – one with which the US has still to come to terms19/9/2011
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Special report: Palestinian bid for statehood divides a peopleDonald Macintyre - The Independent - And in taking his case to the UN, Abbas defies both the US and Israel19/9/2011
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Was Elliott Abrams Hitler’s Senior Advisor?Ran HaCohen - antiwar.com - Separation between the two peoples? Is this not a form of racist discrimination, of ethnic cleansing, of Apartheid? Perhaps it is. But it also happened to be the slogan of Israel’s Defense Minister Barak: "Separation, We are Here, They are There." 17/9/2011
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Palestinian Options at U.N. Lead to Legal Threat to Israel`s MilitaryJoe Lauria - The Wall Street Journal - [Even] a Palestinian observer state could join the ICC and ask the court to investigate any alleged war crimes and other charges against Israel committed on Palestinian territory after July 2002. including Israel`s 2008-09 assault on the Gaza Strip. 17/9/2011
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Digging in, the essence of Netanyahu`s foreign policyAluf Benn- Haaretz - This is the lowest point in Israeli foreign policy since the groundbreaking visit to Jerusalem by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1977. The region is spewing out the Jewish state, which is increasingly shutting itself off behind fortified walls. 17/9/2011
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At the UN, the funeral of the two-state solutionIlan Pappe - Electronic Intifada "It could be either painful and violent, if Israel continues to enjoy international immunity and is allowed to finalize by sheer brutal force its mapping of post-Oslo Palestine. Or it could end in a revolutionary and much more peaceful way with the gradual replacement of the old fabrications with solid new truths about peace and reconciliation for Palestine. Or perhaps the first scenario is an unfortunate precondition for the second. Time will tell." ca "16/9/2011
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UK amends law to protect Israelis from prosecutionMa`an News Agency - "A British law limiting citizens` rights to seek the arrest of foreign politicians for alleged war crimes took effect on Thursday, removing a thorn in British-Israeli relations." ca 16/9/2011
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For the love of IsraelRamzy Baroud - Al-Ahram Weekly "House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen`s (R. FL)résumé is a distressing read. The congresswoman "endorses US imperial wars, police state laws, corporate empowerment, tax cuts for the rich, laying waste to Libya, perhaps a second Bay of Pigs, and Israeli lawlessness, while, at the same, opposing Palestinian statehood... Irving Moskowitz,the benefactor of a controversial Jewish development in eastern Jerusalem, is a major donor to US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen," reported the Jewish Telegraph Agency on 11 January," ca16/9/2011
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A Sad Day for the UN (and the Rule of Law) - The Legal Flaws in the Palmer ReportRichard Falk / Phyllis Bennis - CounterPunch - "The report ignores altogether the crucial fact that a unilateral ceasefire had been observed by Hamas ever since the end of the Gaza War in early 2009. An earlier joint Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire had been declared in July 2008, and had led to a virtual halt in rocket attacks until it was broken by Israel in November of that year, in a lethal assault on Gaza that led to a crumbling of the ceasefire and thereafter to Israel’s Operation Cast Lead on December 27, 2008. The Palmer report cannot be legally persuasive on the central issue of self-defence without addressing the relevance of these ceasefires "19/9/2011
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The day the Zionist left diedYitzhak Laor - Haaretz - "We have seen a lot of death over the past 11 years, along with expanded settlements and their consolidation. And we have seen the total emasculation of the Zionist left which, from a historical standpoint, should have been the standard-bearers of the struggle for peace. This week we need to remember the disgrace from that time, particularly because everything that is now starting anew manages to turn a blind eye to the last of the colonial enterprises in the world"19/9/2011
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Palestinian U.N. bid teaches us about AmericaSam Bahour - Cleveland.com - September will pass, Palestinian state or not. What may persist, however, is the self-inflicted and possibly irreversible damage to U.S. interests generated by its refusal to join the rest of the world in backing Palestinian self-determination. Americans should be leading this nonviolent move toward independence, not leading the effort to thwart it. 18/9/2011
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Israel: Adrift at Sea AloneThomas L. Friedman - NYT - The U.S. government, fed up with Israel’s leadership, remains a hostage to its ineptitude, because the powerful pro-Israel lobby in an election season can force the administration to defend Israel at the U.N., even when it knows Israel is pursuing policies not in its own interest or America’s. 18/9/2011
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Only Palestinians can create a new Palestine : The UN vote on Palestinian statehood has accelerated the drive for self-empowerment and economic independenceTareq Baconi - The Guardian - Last-minute efforts are unlikely to convince Palestinians of the value of the old dynamic of bilateral or multilateral negotiations. In a tumultuous environment led by people calling for equality, sovereignty and human rights, this choice has been given further credibility. The UN vote merely determines what form the execution of this choice takes. 15/9/2011
Israeli Online Magazine Editor: New Israeli Boycott Prohibition Law Has Turned Me Into ‘A Censor’Shir Harel - Think Progress - This deeply anti-democratic law was anticipated and debated for months as it moved through the legislative process. After it passed, many felt disbelief that such a blatant infringement of freedom of speech could be legislated in Israel. But the day I edited a post for the first time not for style, language or form, but for its opinions, the magnitude of what happened hit me. What I’m doing now isn’t editing — I’ve become a censor 15/9/2011
Israel does not want a Palestinian state. Period.Gideon Levy - Haaretz - What will we tell the world next week, at the UN? What could we say? Whether in the General Assembly or the Security Council, we will be exposed in all our nakedness: Israel does not want a Palestinian state. Period. And it doesn`t have a single persuasive argument against the establishment and the international recognition of such a state15/9/2011
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The State of Palestine Julie Holm - MIFTAH - In the midst of this political quagmire, there is one voice that should not be forgotten; that of the Palestinians themselves. Is it not the people who form the basis of the nation on which a state is built? Even though the Palestinian people are far from having a united voice in the UN-statehood bid, they are the ones who should be heard the most. 15/9/2011
U.S. Scrambles to Avert Palestinian Vote at U.N.STEVEN LEE MYERS and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK - The New York Times - Mr. Abbas and his Arab allies argue that Israel’s unwillingness to take sufficient steps to create a state of Palestine had obviated the path laid out in the Oslo peace accords of 1993. Mr. Araby said that a United Nations vote would “change the Israel-Palestinian conflict” and become an important step toward a resolution. “It will turn from a conflict about existence to a conflict about borders,” he said. 15/9/2011
Noam Chomsky: U.S. to Veto Palestinian Statehood Bid Despite `Overwhelming International Consensus`Noam Chomsky - Democracy Now - If the Palestinians do bring the issue to the Security Council and the U.S. vetoes it, it will be just another indication of the real unwillingness to permit a settlement of this issue, in terms of what has been for a long time an overwhelming international consensus. 15/9/2011
What State Do Palestinians Want?Mahmoud N. Musa - Countercurrents - The decision to call for one-state or two-states affects all Palestinians, be they living in the West Bank, Gaza, Israel or are refugees. A referendum should be conducted, after a reasonable period of discussion, on the course to be taken. In the meantime, the Palestine Authority should refrain from acting on behalf of Palestinians. rh 15/9/2011
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EU helps Israeli colonel pose as Florence Nightingale David - The Electronic Intifada - Why is the EU helping Hirschhorn to masquerade as a Florence Nightingale-type figure when he is a colonel in an army that abuses human rights as a matter of routine? His resumé notes that he was medical officer with the military’s Galilee division from 2004 until the end of Israel’s war against Lebanon in 2006. After that, he was put in charge of trauma issues for the military. 15/9/2011
Britain should say yes to Palestinian statehood – and so should IsraelJonathan Freedland- Guardian - "Britain doesn`t usually count for much in the Middle East, but this time it could make all the difference." 14/9/2011
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Yalla Peace: The blame game RAY HANANIA - J-Post - "Instead of seeking peace, Israel is empowering its enemies." 14/9/2011
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Veto a State, Lose an AllyPrince Turki Al-Faisal - NYT - The United States must support the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations this month or risk losing the little credibility it has in the Arab world. 13/9/2011
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Towards the UN vote: only the EU left as mediator Crisis Group - Most Palestinians do not strongly support the UN bid; but they would strongly oppose a decision to retract it without suitable compensation. 13/9/2011
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Turkish-Egyptian alliance: Israel faces regional isolationThe Guardian, Editorial - Netanyahu can either prepare for another war or accept that Israel can no longer impose its will on its neighbours12/9/2011
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Preparations for the statehood bid ignoring PalestiniansJoseph Dana - +972 - "Despite its power and reach, the Palestinian Authority (PA) have made little effort to explain their controversial statehood bid in the United Nations to the rank and file living in the occupied West Bank. The plethora of opinion pieces, news articles and speeches by Palestinian Authority officials on the statehood attempt have not largely been directed at Palestinians and most have not appeared in Arabic"12/9/2011
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A Win-Win Proposition for Palestine - Will the US Declare Independence at the UN?John V. Whitbeck - CounterPunch - "The question at the UN this month is not, as is still frequently misreported, whether Palestine will declare independence. (It did so 23 years ago.) The question at the UN this month is whether the United States of America will declare independence"12/9/2011
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Daphne and ItzikUri Avnery - Gush Shalom - "From the start, the leaders of the protest insisted that the movement is not ‘political’, neither ‘left’ nor ‘right’. It is solely concerned with social justice, solidarity and welfare, not with affairs of state like peace, occupation and such. How long can this stance be maintained?"12/9/2011
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Otherwise Occupied / On obedience Amira Hass - Haaretz - Future researchers will ask: Was the person who did not permit toilet paper to be brought into the Gaza Strip in a life-threatening situation? 12/9/2011
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The Price Gush Shalom - ad in Haaretz - Turkey is turning into a foe, / The peace with Egypt is evaporating. / The Gaza siege is strengthening Hamas. / The refusal to recognize Palestine / Is isolating Israel.10/9/2011
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The New “Existential Threat”Andrew Levine - Counterpunch - What happens in the UN could be a game changer. In conjunction with the rise of democratic movements throughout the region, the collapse of Israel’s alliances with Turkey and Egypt, the growth of the boycott-divestment-sanctions movement in the West, and the emergence, in Israel itself, of its own version of the Arab spring, there is a sense abroad, and in Israel, that the times they are a changin’ – and not in ways likely to comfort friends of the status quo. 10/9/2011
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Shooting Ourselves In The Foot At The U.N.MJ Rosenberg - Political Correction - Netanyahu, like most bullies, is only impressed by those who bully him right back. Obama`s repeated capitulations win him no points with Netanyahu, who believed from day one that Obama could be rolled. He has been proven right while his many dovish critics at home — who insisted that there would be a price to be paid for disrespecting the United States — look like Nervous Nellies. 10/9/2011
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Worst move ever? J Street opposes Palestinian statehoodby Noam Sheizaf - +972 "Dictating the Palestinian path to independence as a pre-condition to dealing with them is the mistake the Israeli left has done again and again, usually with the help of the United States. The administration is repeating it now, and J Street follows. With both, it seems that it’s not the understanding of the current moment in the geo-political conversation which dictates policy, but rather short-term political considerations and the fear of a rightwing backlash. It’s partly understandable for the administration (especially near elections), less so for an organization which was all about opening up the debate." ca9/9/2011
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Israeli pyromaniacs are setting the Mideast on fireBy Gideon Levy - Haaretz "It`s as if summer 2011 never happened, as if there had never been a protest here: Israel is being led with dreadful blindness by a handful of irresponsible politicians, dangerous pyromaniacs without equal, yet the public remains apathetic. The government is pregnant with danger, conducting a scandalous policy, yet there is no protest." ca9/9/2011
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The Palestinian leader can`t retreat now Donald Macintyre - The Independent - Mr Abbas has not only been criticised by Israel. At the other end of the spectrum a vocal pro-Palestinian lobby has argued that Palestinian Authority UN membership will sacrifice the primacy of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and, as a result, the interests of the diaspora refugees. 8/9/2011
Time to Eliminate the `Fear Factor` Joharah Baker - MIFTAH - But fear should never become an excuse for even more evil. The United States has a right to defend its citizens just like any other country. Israel also has that right. But that does not give either of them an equal right to kill in the name of freedom and security and to perpetrate fear as a way of sustaining this horrible status quo. 8/9/2011
Osama bin Laden’s message RAY HANANIA - J-Post - "What we are seeing today is the weakening of the moderates and those who have hope for peace. We are seeing what Bin Laden and the extremists always hoped for. Continued conflict." - id 7/9/2011
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Do we really want peace?Galia Golan - Ynet - "The government of Israel has failed to provide its citizens with security because it has rejected ending the Arab-Israeli conflict." - id 7/9/2011
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Gaza siege chokes Israel diplomaticallyZvi Bar`el Haaretz - "It is the sense that Israel is increasingly isolating itself within its righteousness, magnifying the genuine and the imaginary threats." - id 7/9/2011
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A century-old warningAdam Keller - Crazy Country - "Is Binyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel in September 2011, truly unable to see what Micha Joseph Berdichevsky described so clearly a hundred years ago?" - id 21/9/2011
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Those ungrateful Palestinians Adam Keller - Crazy Country - "But now Ramadan has ended and the time of leniency with it, and now the checkpoints and gates will close down, and there will be no further prayer permits, and no further trucks with supplies sent to the Jordan Valley." - id 7/9/2011
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Israel Isolates ItselfRoger Cohen - NYT - “We need not apologize,” Netanyahu thundered Sunday — and repeated the phrase three times. He’s opted for a needless road to an isolation that weakens Israel and undermines the strategic interests of its closest ally, the United States. Not that I expect Obama to raise his voice about this anymore than he has over Dogan.
[US citizen and Mavi Marmara casualty Furkan Dogan may already have been lying wounded when the fatal shot was delivered, as RC quotes the Palmer Report.]
6/9/2011
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`US veto of Palestinian statehood could cause disastrous consequences for US-Saudi relations` Patrick Seale - Agence Global - An influential member of the Saudi Royal family, Prince Turki al-Faysal, warned the United States that “there will be disastrous consequences for US-Saudi relations if the US vetoes UN recognition of a Palestinian state.” He added that “the game of favouritism towards Israel has not proven wise for Washington... It will soon learn that there are other players in the region...” 6/9/2011
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Israel might find itself forced to deal with new and prolonged waves of protestShaul Arieli - Haaretz - Nonrenewal of the talks with the Palestinians risks losing our strategic alliances with Turkey, Egypt and Jordan. 6/9/2011
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Turkey crisis is just start of Israel`s diplomatic tsunami Akiva Eldar - Haaretz - The crisis in relations with Turkey is a red alert of the attacks we`re in for on the diplomatic, security and economic fronts, affecting the lives of 450,000 protesters, demanding social justice5/9/2011
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Israel Wages Lawfare Against Gaza FlotillaPhilip Giraldi - AntiWar - "Lawfare is bloodless warfare. When it is used by a government or an officially sponsored group, it has two aspects. First, it can be used to expand government prerogatives, making what was illegal legal and indemnifying those government employees who have broken the law. Second, it can serve as a tool to punish those who oppose government policies"5/9/2011
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For 10 years, we`ve lied to ourselves to avoid asking the one real questionRobert Fisk - The Independent - "Why so, I ask myself, after 10 years of war, hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths, lies and hypocrisy and betrayal and sadistic torture by the Americans – our MI5 chaps just heard, understood, maybe looked, of course no touchy-touchy nonsense – and the Taliban? Have we managed to silence ourselves as well as the world with our own fears? Are we still not able to say those three sentences: The 19 murderers of 9/11 claimed they were Muslims. They came from a place called the Middle East. Is there a problem out there?"5/9/2011
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Israeli game overAl-Ahram Weekly - Emad Gad "In an attempt to respond to some of the demands, the "temporary" Egyptian government announced that it would recall the Egyptian ambassador from Tel Aviv. It would have been a logical step that might have assuaged an angry public. However, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) felt that such a move would be excessive at the outset of the crisis and should only be considered in the context of a tit-for-tat escalation. SCAF also believed that, in addition to being premature, taking such a step at this juncture would severely hamper future elected governments that would be unable to retract a "popular" decision." ca2/9/2011
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Flagging real changeAl-Ahram Weekly - Amira Howeidy "The crisis between Cairo and Tel Aviv might have been contained but it is no longer business as usual in post-revolution Egypt." ca2/9/2011
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Legal opinion challenges PLO statehood bid : Palestinians risk losing their rights under the new bid, as representation is called into question, legal expert says.Guy Goodwin Gill - Aljazeera - The opinion, written by Guy Goodwin-Gill, a professor of public international law at Oxford University and a member of the legal team representing Jordan`s government in `The Wall` case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in 2004, tackles the issues of Palestinian rights, representation, and the right of return, which may all be seriously affected by the outcome of the bid. 1/9/2011
The soldier is a human being, isn`t he?Aya Kaniuk and Tamar Goldschmidt - Mahsanmilim - Murder is always shocking. And because afterwards there is nothing. But what shocked me in particular was how Mu`tasem’s mother saw him very soon after he was murdered, lying on the ground by his house door, his brain splashed on the asphalt. This is how she saw him, her son, and somehow this is what shocks me most of all.1/9/2011
Israel’s new peopleYair Lapid - Ynet - Last night, the new people came out to squares all across the nation and told their government: “We are here, we are unhappy, and we got the power. If you don’t do anything about it, we intend to use it.” 4/9/2011
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Israel`s social protest gave birth to a new languageYitzhak Laor - Haaretz - For many years, the state victimized us with the help of commentators who taught us the sentence "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." What has died here around us is that kind of patriotism. 4/9/2011
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Red Rag Weekly ColumnGideon Spiro - Fall of a tyrant: Gaddafi and Levy - the trumpeter-torturer - Bedouin cannon fodder in the IDF3/9/2011
Dogs of War Uri Avnery - One of the scenarios the army is preparing for is for Palestinians shooting at soldiers and settlers “from inside the mass demonstrations”. That is an ominous statement. I have been at hundreds of demonstrations and never witnessed anyone shooting “from inside the demonstration”. But it is a handy pretext for shooting at non-violent protesters. 3/9/2011
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Israel may have missed its chance for Mideast peaceYoel Marcus - Haaretz - The principle of doing nothing espoused by former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has turned out to be lethal. And it`s continuing in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The Iron Dome anti-rocket system will not save us when the voice of Israel is the voice of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The long coma is coming to an end with a bang. 3/9/2011
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Ten reasons Palestine is right to bring its case to the UNBradley Burston - Haaretz - "Abbas has shown himself both a man unafraid to gamble, and, against all odds, one who knows how to turn a crapshoot to advantage. Here are ten reasons that Abu Mazen`s Hail Mary route at the UN may succeed after all." 14/9/2011
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Bankruptcy of the bypass diplomacy Adam Keller - Crazy Country - "Rabin was assassinated, and management of what was still called "the peace process" fell into the hands of Binyamin Netanyahu, and the devastation left by Netanyahu was completed by Ehud Barak proposing "generous offers" which were not that generous, and the bloody wilderness through which Israel was led by Sharon and Olmert and Netanyahu again." 14/9/2011
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Netanyahu`s masquerade is overSefi Rachlevsky - Haaretz - The extremist leader must use fraud to resolve the dissonance between his extremism and his leadership position, which requires a centrist image. 13/9/2011
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The protest march of September 3 — where to?Yacov Ben Efrat - Challenge Magazine - The current social movement is the opening volley of a new era. Despite its shortcomings, it has exposed the nakedness of the distorted social order, clearly pointed out its ills, and formulated a comprehensive agenda which has become a worthy basis for further action. 7/9/2011
Israel chokes Palestinian trade, says UN studyIRIN - The Electronic Intifada - “The back-to-back system, internal West Bank checkpoints, and the clearance process at Israeli ports that require Palestinian goods to be searched several times and often held in warehouses for long periods, delay trade,” said the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) deputy economic minister Abdel Hafiz Nofal. 7/9/2011
Hamas regime needs the Gaza blockadeAmira Hass - Haaretz - Hamas needs a blockade to regulate from within so that the subjects of "independent Gaza" will be exposed as little as possible to different realities and will not question its policies. Hamas needs the blockade and needs Gaza to be cut off from the rest of Palestinian society to ensure the continuation of its regime. rh 7/9/2011
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Sad and Happy Uri Avnery - The settlers will be called upon to mobilize their “quick-reaction teams” to confront the demonstrators, thus fulfilling the prophecies of a “bloodbath”. In an almost comical turn of events, the army is also providing means of crowd dispersal to the Palestinian security forces - the armed forces of the future Palestinian state, which is opposed by Israel... 17/9/2011
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September MadnessHenry Siegman - Foreign Policy Magazine - The U.S. can be counted on to make the protection of Israel`s interests -- as defined even by its most reactionary and xenophobic governments -- its first priority. (...) Palestinians, as well as the international community, must come to terms with the hard reality that a two state solution will have to be achieved not only without U.S. help but in the face of its opposition. 17/9/2011
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