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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
Netanyahu`s red line isn`t getting him anywhereAaron David Miller--Without firing a shot, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has achieved remarkable results in his efforts to counter Iran`s nuclear program. dn29/9/2012
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Sabra and Chatila three decades on Sonja Karkar - Al-Ahram - "And the killing continues today." - id 28/9/2012
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Abbas, the man who drew the Green Line Akiva Eldar - Haaretz - "This time too, the historic initiative offering Israel peace and diplomatic relations with all the Arab and Islamic states (Iran has not objected ), passed over Netanyahu`s head." - id 28/9/2012
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King Bibi in the political casino Adam Keller - Crazy Country - "Maybe the phrase "Middle East Peace Process" would still cease to be a sad and pathetic joke." - id28/9/2012
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Spotlight: The Paris Protocol and the Palestinian economyGisha - +972 - A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip set himself on fire and two Palestinians in the West Bank tried to do the same in protest against the economic situation. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was reported to be considering resignation and Palestinian Authority Minister of Civilian Affairs Hussein a-Sheikh submitted an official request to Israel to review the Paris Protocol. In view of the heated debate, here we provide some general background on the agreement and its implications.24/9/2012
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America, Israel, Iran: a six-week crisis Paul Rogers - Open Democracy - The second is that if war is avoided and Barack Obama wins a second term, there will then be intense pressure on Israel to refrain from war, and Iran will soon reach the point where its nuclear facilities are vulnerable only to US attack.-rh 27/9/2012
Spineless bookkeeping: The use of Mizrahi Jews as pawns against Palestinian refugees Yehouda Shenhav - +972 - Calls to define Jews from Arab countries as refugees were silenced in the past by Israeli governments. The change of policy has to do with the relatively new recognition that Israel will not be able to escape its responsibility for the Nakba. But leaders of the new campaign should first learn the history of their unfounded idea.-rh 27/9/2012
Men Behaving Badly Moustafa Bayoumi - MERIP - what is really driving the current explosion is not really wounded religious sensibilities, or cultures of complaint, or atavistic Islamic rage. It is politics. And it is often a local politics of jockeying for power through mobilization of a religious base, whether in the United States or in Muslim-majority counties. The problem is that if you do not know the politics of the Muslim-majority countries involved, all you see are the screaming beards.-rh 26/9/2012
Why Judith Butler had to be shut downCecilie Surasky - Muzzle Watch - But the truth is Butler became a lightning rod because one of the world’s best-known philosophers, who happens to be Jewish, is also deeply engaged in questions of Judaism, Jewish ethics and Zionism. Her lifelong investigation of these questions, in the spirit of Arendt and Buber who inspired because they walked their own paths—led her to keep one foot solidly in Jewish culture while placing the other in solidarity with precisely the people much of the Jewish world want us to forget, Palestinians.-rh 26/9/2012
Munayyer, and Mearsheimer offer one state scenarios, and my responseJerry Slater--No serious observer doubts that a two-state settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is currently all but dead, thanks to the continuing Israeli occupation, repression, settler expansion, and creeping ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. An increasing number of activists and academic specialists on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict regard this process as irreversible. Consequently, many now advocate a “one-state settlement,” meaning the creation of a binational democracy in all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, with equal rights for all its citizens, regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity: the democratic republic of “Isratine,” as some have called it. dn 23/9/2012
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The Triumph and Tragedy of Greater Israel: the two-state solution is dead Henry Siegman, former Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress [published Sep.6.12]--The two-state solution did not die a natural death. It was strangulated as Jewish settlements in the West Bank were expanded and deepened by successive Israeli governments in order to prevent the emergence of a viable Palestinian state. The settlement project has achieved its intended irreversibility, not only because of its breadth and depth but also because of the political clout of the settlers and their supporters within Israel who have both ideological and economic stakes in the settlements’ permanence. dn 23/9/2012
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The true crisis of Zionism: Allan Brownfeld--The true crisis of Zionism: silent majority of US Jews have never supported it dn 23/9/2012
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A Message from Romnyahu Uri Avnery - gush-shalom.org - The possibility that these two peoples could live peacefully in one state, serving in the same army and police, paying the same taxes and abiding by the same laws enacted by the same common parliament, is nil. The possibility that these two peoples could live peacefully side-by-side in two states, each with its own flag and its own elected government (and its own soccer team), does exist. Such co-existence can take different forms: from a loose confederation with open borders and free movement to closer forms of evolving structures, like the European Union. bz22/9/2012
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Romney and His Palestinian ProblemShmuel Rosner - IHT Global Opinion - Romney has seriously harmed his ability to talk to the Palestinians. Should he be elected an unlikely peace would become even more unlikely. [A columnist based in Tel Aviv, Rosner is a senior political editor for The Jewish Journal.] bz22/9/2012
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Oslo – a missed opportunity Danny Caravan - Ynet - Has Israel fulfilled its part of the agreement? The answer is no. Oslo`s goal was to gradually diminish the occupation until it was no longer, but we continued to be an occupying nation. We expropriated lands and continued to abuse the Palestinians and take away their most basic human rights, which Israel pledged to respect when it adopted the UN`s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the meantime, the settlements in the West Bank continued to flourish, in complete violation of the agreement. bz22/9/2012
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Palestinians need a one-state solutionPalestinian autonomy is an illusion.Ghada Karmi--A plan B involving a struggle for equal rights would expose the reality of occupation by Israel, dn22/9/2012
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Sabra and Chatila three decades onSonja Karkar Sonja Karkar - AlAhram Weekly "Fifteen years later, Robert Fisk, the journalist who had been one of the first on the scene, said “had Palestinians massacred 2,000 Israelis 15 years ago, would anyone doubt that the world’s press and television would be remembering so terrible a deed this morning? Yet this week, not a single newspaper in the United States — or Britain for that matter — has even mentioned the anniversary of Sabra and Chatila.” Thirty years later it is no different." ca 21/9/2012
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The new expropriation regime in the West Bank - Week 2362 of OccupationDaniel Breslau - Occupation Magazine - Israel’s takeover of West Bank lands for settlement construction has proceeded without interruption since 1967. But the legal strategies for carrying out land acquisition and legitimating it in the eyes of the Israeli public and the international community have evolved over the 45 years. There are now signs that the regime of expropriation is once again changing its shape, this time making even fewer concessions to international law and opinion.20/9/2012
Red Rag: Hiroshima survivors in IsraelGideon Spiro - Hiroshima survivors in Israel; the hard-hearted children of the "Yekkes"; "House of Contention" in Hebron; Maariv`s robbery of its employees; Happy New Year?26/9/2012
UN Chief: “Door Closing To Two-State Solution”IMEMC - "Speaking at the General Assembly, the UN Chief said that Israel’s expansion of settlements is hindering the prospects of achieving peace in the Middle East, and added that “the door to achieving peace might be closing, for good”. ca 26/9/2012
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Meretz promotes peace plan to replace OsloMa`an News Agency - "The leftist party is proposing that Israel declares, without preconditions, that the conflict be resolved by ending the 65-year occupation of Palestine along 1967 borders with 1:1 land swaps." ca26/9/2012
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Not the Old Middle EastIAN BREMMER - NYT - "By signaling that Washington will try to get what it wants not by spending more money but by threatening to withhold it, the White House has again made clear that it will not lunge into the latest Middle East turmoil but will continue to keep its distance." - id19/9/2012
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Binyamin Netanyahu`s Iran strategy erases the Palestinian problem Chris McGreal - Guardian - "There wasn`t a single mention of the Palestinians during the 15 minute interview." - id19/9/2012
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WATCH: Mitt Romney says two-state solution is `unthinkable`Mairav Zonszein - +972 - "Romney is more aligned with the rightwing in Israel (possibly even more to the right than Netanyahu himself) than he is with his own party, whose platform does at least nominally endorse a two-state solution." - id19/9/2012
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Are there Alternatives to dependence on international aid? Yes!Nora Lester Murad - This Week in Palestine - Most people I know believe that Palestine is changing, and not for the better. Even those who enjoy a higher standard of living than in the past have a lower overall quality of life. The Palestinian commitment to community is eroding, and individualism and materialism are seeping into the void. The main culprit? Palestine is dependent on international aid. 18/9/2012
Puzzled by a ‘red line’ demandDavid Ignatius--As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues his almost daily demands that the United States announce its “red line” for going to war with Iran, the question puzzling the White House is what he wants beyond what President Obama has already stated. dn16/9/2012
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No Rush to WarNYTimes Editorial--Amid the alarming violence in the Arab world, a new report about the costs of a potential war with Iran got lost this week. It says an attack by the United States could set back Iran’s nuclear program four years at most, while a more ambitious goal — ensuring Iran never reconstitutes its nuclear program or ousting the regime — would involve a multiyear conflict that could engulf the region. dn16/9/2012
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Benjamin Netanyahu’s Neocon GambitsDavid Remnick--It is hard to everestimate the risks that Benjamin Netanyahu poses to the future of his own country. dn16/9/2012
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The German-Israeli love affair Must EndGhada Karmi--I have never understood why Germans are so hostile towards Palestinians. We all know that Germans are consumed by guilt about Jews. Even now, nearly 70 years after the end of WWII, they still feel some measure of this, by heredity if nothing else, since most of them weren`t even born before 1945. And neither, for that matter, was Israel. Nazism had ended three years before Israel`s establishment. Yet, this new state has come to represent all the Jews who suffered from the holocaust and their descendants, apparently for all time. Israel became the shrine for German atonement, remorse and guilt, unabated by the passage of time. dn16/9/2012
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Zero ExpectationsHaaretz Editorial--Netanyahu’s New Year addresses of the past four years reveal his greatest and most lasting triumph: the complete lowering of expectations.dn16/9/2012
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A letter to the IDF soldiers at Sabra and ShatilaEllen Siegel--On the 30th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, a Jewish American nurse who provided humanitarian aid in a Beirut hospital recalls her first encounter with IDF soldiers. Today, she asks them to take a few moments during the Jewish New Year to remember.dn16/9/2012
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Statement from the Ramat Gan Committee of Baghdadi Jews, 14 September, 2012 / 27 Elul, 5772Ramat Gan Committee of Baghdadi Jews--This was originally posted, in Hebrew, by Almog Behar. It was translated to English by Mati Milstein, and posted on Face Book. I don`t have a link. Racheli Gai. dn 15/9/2012
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A new hasbara campaign: Countering the `Arab Narrative` Ben White--`Justice for Jewish refugees from Arab countries`, new propaganda initiative from Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. dn15/9/2012
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Exploiting Jews from Arab CountriesLara Friedman-- Last month saw an assault in Congress on Palestinian refugees—an effort to use legislation to re-define the Palestinian refugee issue out of existence. This week the other shoe dropped, when a bipartisan group of members of Congress introduced a new bill embracing the cause of “Jewish refugees from Arab countries” in a way that Congress has never replicated on the Palestinian side (for more info, see this list of all bills/resolutions dealing with Palestinian and/or Jewish refugees since 1989). dn15/9/2012
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Mainstream American media and pro-Israel polls are turning against NetanyahuLisa Goldman--Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu seems to have miscalculated with his latest attempt to bait President Obama and manipulate the results of the U.S. elections results. On Monday, Netanyahu leveled what the New York Times described as “unusually harsh public comments about Israel’s most important ally,” regarding the Obama administration’s policy on Iran. dn15/9/2012
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Netanyahu’s warmongering spells high noon for the Israel lobbyPhilip Weiss - Mondoweiss "We can only hope that Netanyahu`s government will fall over this battle. Because just as American Jews don`t like dual loyalty suspicions (and if called on to choose, they`ll side with the U.S.), Israelis don`t like to be alienated from Uncle Sam. Shamir fell after he took on Bush in `91. The lobby surely overreached with the Iran war push. As it overreached with the devouring of the West Bank." ca 14/9/2012
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The Anne Frank and Rachel Corrie storiesJennifer Loewenstein - Al Ahram Weekly "In our day, she is an unknown martyr in the annals of official history. Her courage has been decried and condemned, her name sullied and vilified. But I believe that Anne Frank would have admired Rachel. She would have recognised the universal call for justice in the face of war and terror, the dangers inherent in the dehumanisation of an entire people and the brutal occupation of their land. She would have verified the violence that a silent and indifferent world bestows upon the victims of nations bloated with power and a righteous sense of their God-given destiny, nations determined to avenge their past, and licensed to kill." ca 14/9/2012
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How We Became IsraelAndrew J. Bacevich - The Conservative American - "This “Israelification” of U.S. policy may prove beneficial for Israel. Based on the available evidence, it’s not likely to be good for the United States." - id12/9/2012
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Has Obama Called Bibi’s Bluff?Patrick J. Buchanan - AntiWar - "How has Bibi gone about getting America to fight Israel’s war?" - id12/9/2012
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Jewish refugees?Saleh Al-Naami - Al-Ahram - "With astounding gall, Israel is now claiming that more Jews "fled" Arab countries than Palestinians fled Palestine." - id12/9/2012
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Iran threats help Bibi, Barak Prof. Yossi Yona - Ynet - "Therefore, now is the time for the Israeli public to display political maturity and refuse to fall victim to Netanyahu`s diversions." - id12/9/2012
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If Israel wants to end the race, let it get rid of its nukesLarry Derfner - +972 - Iran didn’t start the Mideast nuclear arms race – Israel did10/9/2012
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Between the fences: 1938 and 2012 Moshe Zimmerman--Can Israeli behavior toward refugees on the Egyptian border be accepted, given the memory of 1938 etched into our consciousness? dn9/9/2012
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The liberal way to run the world - "improve" or we`ll kill youJohn Pilger--What is the world`s most powerful and violent "ism"? The question will summon the usual demons such as Islamism, now that communism has left the stage. The answer, wrote Harold Pinter, is only "superficially recorded, let alone documented, let alone acknowledged", because only one ideology claims to be non-ideological, neither left nor right, the supreme way. This is liberalism.dn9/9/2012
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To whom does the public space belong?Ali Haider--Everyone knows the phenomena of racism and exclusion aimed at Israel’s Arab population are on the rise. It should be the responsibility of the mayor and other politicians to combat them. dn 8/9/2012
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Sayed Kashua talks back: Maybe I learned Hebrew just for this momentSayed Kashua--I was so pleased when I received a letter last week from the French publisher, informing me my latest book had been selected as one of three candidates for a readers’ prize in France. dn8/9/2012
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Israeli regime systematically persecutes Bedouins Press TV--[video ICAHD London about 15 minutes] Press TV in its program Remember Palestine has conducted an interview with Reverend Dr. Stephen Sizer, active member of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, London to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview. dn 8/9/2012
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The March of FollyUri Avnery--NOTHING COULD be more scary than the thought that this duo - Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak - is in a position to start a war, the dimensions and outcome of which are incalculable. dn8/9/2012
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An Israeli proxy war on IranIsmail Salami - Al-Ahram - "The fact is that Israel has a long history of showing its teeth to and spewing out threats against Iran, but it has never mustered up the courage to launch an attack on the country as it knows what would be the consequences of such foolhardiness." - id6/9/2012
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Why aid projects in Palestine are doomed to failJeremy Wildeman - EI - "I found there were two key problems that when combined made the delivery of effective aid nearly impossible: Israel’s control of the borders and the major donors prioritizing their relationship with Israel." - id6/9/2012
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It`s not normal Rami Livni - Haaretz - " We need to end the occupation not only because of the Palestinians. We need to do it also for ourselves." - id6/9/2012
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Dempsey’s DissentJustin Raimondo - Antiwar - "... this is the first time since the days of George Herbert Walker Bush that a major player has reminded that Shitty Little Country of its littleness." - id5/9/2012
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ANALYSIS-Chastised Israel seeks way forward with US over IranCrispian Balmer- AlertNet - ""Israeli leaders cannot do anything in the face of a very explicit `no` from the U.S. president," said Giora Eiland." - id5/9/2012
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The people aren`t stupid Amira Hass - Haaretz - "he people of Israel proved last year that they are not devoid of knowledge or of the recognition of injustice. Therefore, every single member of this thinking crowd bears direct responsibility for the disasters that will befall this place." - id5/9/2012
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Empty-handed in the battlefield Adam Keller - Crazy Country - "The home which Rachel Corrie was trying to protect had been rebuilt shortly after the soldiers left, and also the rows of houses in front and behind it. The children are playing there, more or less quietly.She did not die in vain." - id5/9/2012
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How do you say `price tag` in Arabic? Akiva Eldar - Haaretz - The security Israelis currently enjoy, which allows them to ignore the humiliation of Palestinians and the desire for vengeance it breeds, is temporary 4/9/2012
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Master of MischiefUri Avnery - Gush Shalom - "Lieberman bases his bizarre demand on his contention that Abbas is the main obstacle to peace – an assertion that few experts around the world would take seriously. Lieberman’s real reason for his initiative may be the very opposite: that Abbas’ stance puts Israel in the uncomfortable seat of the peace-destroyer"3/9/2012
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Week 2360 of OccupationThrough the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, it was announced last week that the Palestinians would not submit a formal application to the UN General Assembly for recognition as a non-member state at this time. Here are some observations from a just-published study of Israeli government-approved textbooks, carried out by Nurit Peled-Elhanan, Palestine in Israeli School Books (I.B Tauris, publisher). The sixteen books were published since the Oslo accords, starting in 19933/9/2012
Netanyahu`s Kennedy moment Trita Parsi and Roi Ben-Yehuda --While Netanyahu`s inner circle is agreeing with him, rest of the country seems to be increasingly united in opposition. dn2/9/2012
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If only Israel were South Africa Gideon Levy--When comparing the similarities and differences between the occupation regime in the territories and the apartheid regime in South Africa, one must include the endings: There, it is a good one, while here an ending seems so far away dn2/9/2012
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Ombudsman What about Israel’s nuclear weapons?Patrick B. Pexton--The Washington Post Readers periodically ask me some variation on this question: “Why does the press follow every jot and tittle of Iran’s nuclear program, but we never see any stories about Israel’s nuclear weapons capability?” dn2/9/2012
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No Justice for Rachel Corrie Neve Gordon--Twenty-three-year-old Rachel Corrie traveled to Gaza at the height of the second intifada intending to initiate a sister city project between Olympia, Washington, her home town, and Rafah as part of her senior-year project at Evergreen College. After a two-day seminar in the offices of the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank, she continued on to Rafah to join ISM members, who were demonstrating against the Israeli military’s massive demolitions of houses on the Egyptian border. Less than two months after her arrival, on March 16, 2003, Corrie was crushed to death by a Caterpillar D9R Israeli military bulldozer. dn1/9/2012
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Snubbed by Obama?Aaron David Miller--There were political reasons for the president not getting together at the U.N. with either the Egyptian or Israeli leaders. dn30/9/2012
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Twilight Zone The specter of a third intifada Gideon Levy--30/9/2012
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Two women and one stubborn Israeli mythAsher Schechter--One was sent to jail for draft dodging 12 years after leaving the country; the other is under investigation for not jumping into the fray of a recent attack. Two women, two different cases, one Israeli myth alive and well. dn30/9/2012
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Bugs Bunny in the United Nations AgainAdam Keller--This speech I wrote myself. Who needs speechwriters? I personally wrote it, I have been working on it for a whole week. I prepared public opinion in advance to tune in to the best show in town. dn30/9/2012
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Ari Shavit`s final countdown: Iran is hereAri Shavit - Haaretz - At a certain point something went awry. Netanyahu went too far and overdid the pressure. He did not try to persuade the West but only threatened the West. He did not make the necessary political concessions to accord Israel international legitimacy. (...) Suddenly, therefore, the tables were turned. Instead of Iran being perceived as an evil power undermining the world order, Israel began to be perceived as a crazy state threatening world peace. bz29/9/2012
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How to Help Iran Build a BombWilliam J. Broad - NYT - A surprising number of scholars and military and arms-control experts argue that a strike could actually lead to Iran’s speeding up its efforts, ensuring the realization of a bomb and hastening its arrival. bz29/9/2012
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The Grand Default Uri Avnery - gush-shalom.org - Perhaps even Golda would have reconsidered if she had not been surrounded by journalists and politicians singing her praise, celebrating her wisdom and courage and applauding every one of her stupid pronouncements. The same type of people, even some of the very same people, are now doing the same with Binyamin Netanyahu. bz29/9/2012
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