Commentary
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Title | | Description | Date |
On Growing Up in Ferguson and Palestine | | Naomi Shihab Nye--I grew up in Ferguson, Mo. No one ever heard of it, unless you lived elsewhere in St. Louis County.
Then my family moved to Palestine – my father’s first home. A friend says, “Your parents really picked the garden spots.” dn
| 31/8/2014 |
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The victors of the Gaza war were also the losers | | Talal Jabari - +972 - Hamas has placed the issue of building a Gaza seaport and an airport squarely on the negotiating table. Are our memories that short? Gaza once had a functioning airport; the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat used it while based in Gaza. And the European Union was in the midst of building a seaport. Both of these were reduced to rubble in previous spouts of violence. What’s to stop the Israeli military from doing so again? [bz] | 30/8/2014 |
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Israeli Agribusiness Demanding Relief From Government as BDS Intensifies | | Jessica Desvarieux interviews Shir Hever - The Real News - `Well, actually, we`ve been under boycott for years, but now it has come to the point where we cannot be silent about it anymore, and we demand that the government will do something.` [bz] | 30/8/2014 |
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It`s time for the EU to impose sanctions on Israel | | Bruno Jantti--Although the EU has followed the US in supporting Israel in the past, there are signs that this might change. EU citizens are way ahead in awareness and opposition to Israel`s conduct from their American counterparts and therefore are much more likely to pressure their governments toward changing their policies towards Israel. dn | 30/8/2014 |
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Netanyahu`s miscalculation: Bullish or foolish | | Marwan Bishara--Israeli and Palestinian claims of victory after 50 days of fighting in Gaza are part politics, part populist. Putting a brave face on an ugly war is necessary to cover up the terrible losses both sides have incurred. But these losses are not the same for both sides. In fact, it`s the contrast between their losses that in essence defines the war and its results.dn | 30/8/2014 |
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Legal Scholar Edward M. Gaffney Jr. Rises to the Defense of Human Rights and Hedy Epstein | | Douglas Kmiec--Every teacher has heard the snide comment, "those who can, do; those who can`t, teach." Whatever the origin of that ungenerous comment (probably the sour grapes of a nonperforming student), there is no teacher more capable of refuting that specious proposition than Professor Edward M. Gaffney of the Valparaiso University law school. dn | 30/8/2014 |
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Red Rag weekly column: superfluous death | | Gideon Spiro - Daniel Tragerman was given a state funeral that moved
all whose heart is not made of stone. Now let us use a little
imagination and duplicate that delightful and beloved child a
thousandfold, and we get about a thousand Palestinian children who
have been killed by Israel`s bombs in the three Gaza wars of recent
years. Every Palestinian child has a name, loving parents and dreams,
just like Daniel. | 29/8/2014 |
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No winners in Israel-Hamas cease-fire | | Ben Caspit -
Al Monitor -
"On Aug. 25, Israel’s Channel 2 reported that the prime minister’s approval ratings plummeted to merely 38%, compared with 82% just a few weeks ago. And he has yet to face the deadly political criticism, which will come mainly from the right wing. So it is not only Meshaal’s fate that will be sealed in the coming weeks, but also Netanyahu’s. These two have not been able to break loose from each other’s stranglehold for 17 years." - id
| 27/8/2014 |
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The end of the operation: Hamas blinked first | | Ron Ben-Yishai -
Ynet -
"Hamas has already previously announced that it has agreed in principle to a 40-year hudna (armistice) with Israel. It stipulated, however, that Israel must withdraw to the 1967 borders." - id
| 27/8/2014 |
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Dr. Rania Masri`s Speech at Crisis in Gaza and West Bank | | Context and Action Forum - youtube - Looking at the Gaza crisis in the wider context. When existence is resistance (...), Demanding full human and civil rights for Palestinians [bz] | 26/8/2014 |
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Israel`s other war: Silencing Palestinian citizens | | Shadan Jabareen - +972 - Like so many Palestinians living here in Israel, I am now paralyzed by fear, frustration and sadness. How can there be peace when a country that claims to be democratic silences and discriminates against a minority that constitutes 20.7% of the population? How can there be peace when this country does nothing to stop the violent attacks against us? [bz] | 26/8/2014 |
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Unfair and unbalanced | | Serge Halimi - Le Monde diplomatique - “The story is always that of a peaceful little state, poorly protected, without a single powerful ally, which manages to win through, sometimes without a scratch. And the confrontation always starts at the precise moment when Israel appears as the victim, shocked by misfortune — an abduction, an attack, an act of aggression, an assassination. […] And everything else, everything that matters, is forgotten: the military occupation of the West Bank, the economic blockade of Gaza, the colonisation of the land” [ry] | 25/8/2014 |
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The Toolbox of Racist Repression - From Gaza to Ferguson | | Corinna Mullin and Azadeh N. Shahshahani - CounterPunch - “As sociologist Lisa Hajjar argues, ‘One way a government can project the appearance of acting in accordance with the law is to produce interpretations that the law does not apply.’ Both Israel and the United States have used such legal obfuscation and evasion, as well as the elaboration and adoption of new laws, to justify inhumane treatment and oppressive rule. It is often not violations of the law, but rather the law itself that functions as a tool of power” [ry] | 25/8/2014 |
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Son of Death | | Uri Avnery - Gush Shalom - “There is no way out of the Gaza Strip. If the Israeli army is sent to conquer the entire Strip, the fighting will be ferocious, causing hundreds of Israeli and thousands of Palestinian dead and injured, and untold destruction. The Prime Minister will be one of the political victims. Netanyahu is fully aware of that. He doesn`t want it. But what else can he do? One can almost pity the man” [ry] | 25/8/2014 |
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The End of Liberal Zionism | | ANTONY LERMANAUG--LONDON — Liberal Zionists are at a crossroads. The original tradition of combining Zionism and liberalism — which meant ending the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, supporting a Palestinian state as well as a Jewish state with a permanent Jewish majority, and standing behind Israel when it was threatened — was well intentioned. But everything liberal Zionists stand for is now in doubt. dn | 24/8/2014 |
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The grand failure of Israeli hasbara | | Jamil Khader--Israeli attempts to shape the narrative of the Gaza war have failed in the face of global solidarity with Palestinians. dn | 23/8/2014 |
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The outlaw state of Israel, part II | | Richard Falk and Akbar Ganji--In Part I of this article we described the reasons as to why Israel has become an outlaw state. In this part we discuss US support for Israel and its consequences. dn | 23/8/2014 |
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The Outlaw State part I | | Richard Falk and Akbar Ganji--Since 1948 Israel has drawn a long list of military aggression, human rights violations and war crimes. dn | 23/8/2014 |
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Gaza and the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood | | Henry Siegman - Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Center - Occupied people who are told by their occupier that their subjugation is permanent and that they will never be allowed to exercise the right to
national self-determination and sovereign existence on territories recognised by the international community as their rightful patrimony have every right to resort to resistance, including violent resistance, to achieve their freedom, if they are reacting to the violence that is keeping them illegally under occupation.-rh
| 21/8/2014 |
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US missile shipment delay should teach Israel lesson | | Akiva Eldar - Al-Monitor - The United States must act now, no later than the day after the Nov. 4 congressional elections, to submit to the UN Security Council a binding and updated version of UN Resolution 242 based on the Arab Peace Initiative and the Clinton parameters.-rh | 21/8/2014 |
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Gaza demilitarization won`t solve Israeli-Palestinian conflict | | Daniel Levy -
Al Monitor -
"Israeli leaders are making this demand; US officials are endorsing the demand; and Europe`s foreign ministers have stated that "all terrorist groups in Gaza must disarm." Sensible as the idea may sound, however, it`s a red herring — and a potentially dangerous one." - id
| 20/8/2014 |
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Globalizing Gaza - How Israel Undermines International Law Through "Lawfare" | | Jeff Halper - CounterPunch - Just as Israel exports its weaponry and tactics of suppression to such willing customers as US and European militaries, security agencies and police forces, so, too, does it export its legal expertise in manipulating IHL and its effective PR/hasbara techniques. [bz] | 19/8/2014 |
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Palestinian unity is no substitute for a viable political system | | Sam Bahour - +972 - Where do the U.S. and Israel want Hamas: as part of a transparent political system, or in underground tunnels? [ry] | 18/8/2014 |
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Israel’s target is not Hamas, but Palestinian statehood | | Dan Glazebrook - Middle East Eye - Genuine sovereignty would end Israel’s current presumed right to steal Palestinians` land, control their borders, place them under siege, and bomb them at will [ry] | 18/8/2014 |
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A Marxist View of Gaza | | John Taylor - The Unz Review - “Hey, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”, Chico Marx | 18/8/2014 |
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Why Latin American leaders are standing up to Israel | | Laura Carlsen - AlJazeera - The frostier their relations are with the US, the more likely they are to sympathize with the Palestinians [ry] | 18/8/2014 |
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Can universal jurisdiction help Palestinians seek justice? | | Rawan Abdulnabi - AlJazeera - Israeli officials complicit in war crimes against Palestinians can be held accountable abroad [ry] | 18/8/2014 |
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Jewish Support For Israel Fades In The United States | | Sarah Posner--Three weeks ago, a group of young American Jews gathered outside the New York offices of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the umbrella organization founded in the 1950s and which claims to speak for a consensus of the American Jewish community. The young Jews outside, though, were challenging that organization’s claim to speak in their name. They read aloud the names of Palestinians and Israelis killed in the latest military escalation between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and they recited the Mourner’s Kaddish. dn | 17/8/2014 |
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Gaza reminds us of Zionism’s original sin | | Miko Peled -
The Electronic Intifada -
"The policies of racist discrimination and humiliation at Ben Gurion airport, and the policies of ethnic cleansing and murder of Palestinians in Gaza, emanate from the same Zionist ideology." - id
| 20/8/2014 |
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The Emperor is naked | | Adam Keller -
Crazy Country -
"The images of death and destruction from Gaza were seen on TV around the world and made a profound impression, and even the horrors emanating from north Iraq failed to overshadow them (as Netanyhau may have hoped)." id | 20/8/2014 |
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Why It`s Hard to Believe Israel`s Claim That It Did Its Best to Minimize Civilian Deaths | | Idan Barir - Huffington Post - Having served as a crew commander in the
Israeli artillery corps, I feel compelled to counter the claim that
Israel was targeting militants and doing its best to avoid civilian
casualties. Artillery shells cannot be aimed precisely and are not meant
to hit specific targets. After a 2006 incident, when a a stray Israeli
shell landed inside the home of the Ghabeen family in Beit Lahiya and
killed a young girl named Hadeel, the Attorney-General told the Supreme
Court that no more artillery fire was to be used in the Gaza Strip. But
just a few years later, during Operation Cast Lead, extensive artillery
fire was again aimed at the heart of the Gaza Strip. And up until the
recent ceasefire, throughout Operation Protective Edge, Israel has fired
thousands of artillery shells into Gaza - causing intolerable harm to
civilians and widespread destruction. ak | 19/8/2014 |
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Why did Israelis support the pointless Gaza war? | | Aeyal Gross- Haaretz - We imprisoned Gaza’s residents, but we didn’t manage to stop the stockpiling of rockets or construction of the tunnels. The tunnels, which Israel knew about beforehand, were pulled out as a belated excuse for the war once it turned out that the fighting wasn’t stopping the rockets. (...) One day, we will ask how Israeli society accepted what was done in its name. The attacks on houses, on children at the beach and on entire neighborhoods went beyond any claim of attacking targets from which rockets were fired or where rockets were stored. [bz] | 19/8/2014 |
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Israel`s witch hunt against leftist organizations is McCarthyism in action | | Haaretz Editorial--The witch hunt against leftist and civil-rights organizations in Israel is picking up speed just as Operation Protective Edge winds down. This week the director of the National Service Administration, Sar-Shalom Jerbi, informed the director of B’Tselem, Haggai Elad, that he was disqualifying B’Tselem as a receiving organization for civilian national service volunteers. Gili Cohen reported yesterday on the Haaretz website that in explaining his decision, Jerbi said the organization, whose full name is B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, acts against the state and the Israel Defense Forces. dn | 17/8/2014 |
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Eight hundred dead Palestinians. But Israel has impunity | | Rober Fisk--[since this was written, the number of Palestinian dead in Gaza has risen to over 1,900, but Fisk`s complaint holds as well for this larger number than the earlier one. dn] There’s something very odd about our reactions to these two outrageous death tolls
Impunity is the word that comes to mind. Eight hundred dead Palestinians. Eight hundred. That’s infinitely more than twice the total dead of flight MH17 over Ukraine. And if you refer only to the “innocent” dead – ie no Hamas fighters, young sympathisers or corrupt Hamas officials, with whom the Israelis will, in due course, have to talk – then the women and children and elderly who have been slaughtered in Gaza are still well over the total number of MH17 victims. dn
| 17/8/2014 |
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The Spoils of War: Violence in Gaza Leads to Youth Radicalization | | Julia Amalia Heyer in Rafah, Gaza Strip--The most recent cease-fire appears to be holding in the Gaza Strip, but vast damage has already been done. In addition to the appalling loss of life and destruction of property, the war has pushed even more Palestinians to the radical fringes. dn | 17/8/2014 |
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Violence and Western Civilization | | Ron Forthofer--Israel’s slaughter of over 1900 Palestinians in Gaza, by far and away most of whom were civilians, got me thinking about Western civilization. Mahatma Gandhi is often cited as responding to a question about Western civilization saying he thought it would be a good idea. However, recent research suggests Gandhi likely didn’t make this quip. dn | 17/8/2014 |
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`I know how to kill, but I know I want peace` | | Yonatan S.--I also belong to a certain category of people – less numerous – who truly want peace. The cheapest form of heroism is the heroism of a soldier in battle, Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz once said. I believe that he was right in every word. I understand how the mother of a combat soldier who reads that sentence might get angry – my mother would, too. My wish for all the mothers of all the combat soldiers is that their sons will not be combat soldiers forever. And yet, like their sons, I was and still am a fighter, like all fighters. Which is why I allow myself to quote that important observation. dn | 17/8/2014 |
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Noam Chomsky on BDS, the Occupation and apartheid | | Noam Chomsky - Democracy Now/Znet - "To call it apartheid is a gift to Israel, at least if by `apartheid` you mean South African-style apartheid. [...] The Israeli relationship to the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories is totally different. They just don’t want them. They want them out, or at least in prison." gm | 16/8/2014 |
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My plea to the people of Israel: Liberate yourselves by liberating Palestine | | Desmond Tutu--Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, in an exclusive article for Haaretz, calls for a global boycott of Israel and urges Israelis and Palestinians to look beyond their leaders for a sustainable solution to the crisis in the Holy Land. dn | 16/8/2014 |
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Sometimes it’s good to talk – even to ‘terrorists’ | | Giles Fraser--This was, apparently, the land of terrorists – a word that remains so freighted with emotion that those labelled with it are deemed beyond human conversation. “We won’t talk to terrorists” is such a familiar political mantra that we tend to assume we know why we won’t. But things change. And they change through talking. I mean, if former IRA boss Martin McGuinness can take part in a toast to the Queen at Windsor Castle, then anything’s possible. Surely? dn | 16/8/2014 |
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Israeli official confirms US nixed arms shipment; pols argue over who’s to blame | | Marissa Newman -
The Times of Israel
"WSJ report of frayed relations between Washington and Jerusalem, including combative Obama-Netanyahu phone call, sparks firestorm among Israeli politicians." ca
| 15/8/2014 |
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Expelled, ghettoized and killed by Israel: The story of my cousin in Gaza | | Ghada Ageel -
Mondoweiss
"Equal rights are a great advancement for Americans from a variety of religious and racial backgrounds, but they are absent in Israel and the territories. Legalized discrimination is the law of the land for anyone with eyes to see." ca | 15/8/2014 |
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`I know how to kill, but I know I want peace` | | Yonatan S. -
Haaretz
" The cheapest form of heroism is the heroism of a soldier in battle," Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz once said. I believe that he was right in every word... "No true revolution happens without violence” is utter nonsense. It sounds very logical, but it’s not true." ca | 15/8/2014 |
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Israel accused of using illegal weapons in Gaza war | | Rasha Abou Jalal -
Al Monitor
"During a press conference on July 13 at Al-Shifa Hospital, attended by Al-Monitor, Dr. Fosse said, “Many of the casualties that have arrived at the hospital confirm Israel`s use of internationally banned weapons of the [Dense Inert Metal Explosive] DIME variety." Testimony given to Al-Monitor by Palestinian nurses, doctors and human rights activists indicate that the Israeli army used DIMEs, which causes the loss of limbs and leads to wounds that do not respond to treatment." ca
| 15/8/2014 |
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Gaza: Neighbourly crimes of complicity: Why Arab regimes have abandoned the Palestinians in Gaza. | | Richard Falk - Al-Jazeera - It should be recalled that at earlier stages of the Palestinian ordeal, the governments of the neighbouring Arab countries did exhibit strong, if ineffectual, solidarity. They jointly attacked Israel, initially in 1948 to prevent the establishment of Israel, and later in the failed wars of 1967 and 1973 that challenged Israel`s existence. But such solidarity at the level of Arab governments is now a distant and ironic memory.-rh | 14/8/2014 |
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The Nobel Prize For “Unimaginable Restraint” | | Robert Fisk - Information Clearing House - But when the Israeli ambassador to the US told us (after almost 2,000 Palestinians had been slaughtered, most of them civilians) that the Israeli army should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its “unimaginable restraint” in the Gaza war, I had to glance at the calendar. Was it 1 April, perhaps?.-rh
| 13/8/2014 |
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How the War in Gaza Could Have Been Avoided : The US and Israel passed on chance after chance to avoid the deadly war in Gaza—and prevent the deaths of thousands. | | Sandy Tolan - The Nation - Alongside the toll of death and broken lives, perhaps the saddest reality of the latest Gaza war, like the Gaza wars before it, is how easy it would have been to avoid. For the last eight years, Israel and the US had repeated opportunities to opt for a diplomatic solution in Gaza. Each time, they have chosen war, with devastating consequences for the families of Gaza.-rh
| 13/8/2014 |
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Gaza Crisis: `The Real Danger to Israel Comes from Within` | | Julia Amalia Heyer interviews Eva Illouz - Spiegel online - The voice of the extreme right is much louder and clearer than it was before. That`s what`s new: a racist right that is not ashamed of itself, that persecutes dissenters and even people who dare express compassion for the other side. The real danger to Israel and its sustainability comes from within. The fascist and racist elements are no less a security threat than the outside enemies.-rh | 13/8/2014 |
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How journalists become complicit in Gaza`s suffering | | Samer Badawi -
+972 -
"
“Journalism,” wrote the Swedish war correspondent Stig Dagerman, “is the art of coming too late as early as possible.” The dictum resounds in Gaza, where an eight-year Israeli siege – which has left this land all but unlivable – went woefully underreported well before Gaza was is in the throes of war." - id | 13/8/2014 |
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University of Illinois fires professor for expressing views critical of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza | | Ray Hanania -
The Arab Daily News -
"McCarthyism on the rise in America against American Arabs and Muslims." - id
| 13/8/2014 |
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How dare they? | | Adam Keller -
Crazy Country -
"...possibly, the outcry at the terrible things broadcast from Gaza to TV viewers worldwide, though not in Israel(!), might have some deterrent effect on the political and military decision makers." - id | 13/8/2014 |
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Hannibal Directive is the beginning of fascism in Israel | | Uri Arad - Ynet - These things do not happen in a vacuum: [Netanyahu`s] flattery of fascist rabbis, his path of de-legitimization against the left who`s "forgotten what it means to be a Jew", his vanity and arrogance toward Mahmoud Abbas, his continuing support of settlement construction and racist legislation, his tireless use of techniques of fear and his failure to unequivocally condemn manifestations of racism, violence and fascist ideas, allow them to bloom and blossom. [bz]
| 12/8/2014 |
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Were Gaza tunnels built to harm Israeli civilians? | | Emanual Yelin - +972 - We’ve seen six instances in which Hamas used the tunnels against Israel. Once when Gilad Shalit was captured, and the rest during the current operation. In all instances, Hamas’ target were IDF soldiers, not the communities. [bz] | 12/8/2014 |
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The world is letting Israel get away with it again | | Larry Derfner - +972 - The assault on Gaza has hurt this country’s image – and it doesn’t care [ry]
| 11/8/2014 |
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Let diplomacy win, because an army can`t | | Ariana Melamed - Ynet - The IDF can destroy every house in Gaza and kill any terrorist emerging from a tunnel, but in the 21st century war is won in the negotiating room [ry] | 11/8/2014 |
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Metro Gaza | | Uri Avnery - Gush Shalom - "Two months ago, Abbas was the punch bag of Netanyahu. Now he is the pet of Netanyahu and Israeli public opinion. At the same time, paradoxically, Abbas and Hamas have also been drawn closer together. This could be a unique opportunity to start a serious peace process, in the wake of the solution of the Gaza Strip problems.
If…" [ry] | 11/8/2014 |
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Red Rag weekly column: Letter to the IDF Chief of Staff | | Gideon Spiro - Operation “Solid Cliff” will be remembered to our eternal
shame for massacres of a civilian population. The killing-field now
numbers about two thousand killed and ten thousand wounded, and that is
not the final tally. Every day more corpses are discovered under the
rubble. The percentage of children among the victims is horrifying. | 10/8/2014 |
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Why the Gaza port matters | | Samer Badawi--While prospects for a negotiated end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza remain bleak, making use of the existing sea passage to Gaza could offer a way forward for all parties, including Egypt. dn | 10/8/2014 |
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Paralyzed Gazan girl witnesses war, this time from Israel | | Gideon Levy and Alex Levac--Maria Amman, a young Gazan who was severely disabled in a 2006 missile attack that killed her mother and other relatives, spent the Gaza war in Israel while her family back home suffered. dn | 10/8/2014 |
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Progressive politics after Gaza | | Andrew Levine - Every member of the House and Senate, every single one, is now on record in support of Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity. Cowardice, ignorance, and malice account for their moral and political turpitude; there are no mitigating factors.
| 9/8/2014 |
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Jewish survivors and descendents of survivors of Nazi genocide unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza | | IJAN--As Jewish survivors and descendents of survivors of the Nazi genocide we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine. We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and Western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world. dn | 9/8/2014 |
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This is what Palestine needs | | Samer Jaber--The Israeli forces should withdraw from Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 so the UN can take over. . . . The framework of the confrontation has not changed and Israel will continue to sustain its occupation. The Palestinian side is defending itself and longing for the end of the occupation and self-determination. The so-called peace process of the last two decades has provided a cover for Israel to maintain the status quo, the occupation and continued Palestinian displacement. dn | 9/8/2014 |
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Noam Chomsky on Democracy Now | | Democracy Now--Hideous. Sadistic. Vicious. Murderous. That is how Noam Chomsky describes Israel’s 29-day offensive in Gaza that killed nearly 1,900 people and left almost 10,000 people injured. dn | 9/8/2014 |
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Gaza’s new resistance paradigm | | Ramzy Baroud -
Al Ahram Weekly
"Of course, Palestinians know best — much better than Obama and other preachers elsewhere. They know that collective resistance is not always a tactic determined through social media discussions; that when one’s children are pulverised by US-supplied killing technology, there is no time to lay flat and sing “We shall overcome,” but to prevent the rest of the tanks from entering into the neighbourhood — be it Shejaiya, Jabalya or Maghazi." ca
| 8/8/2014 |
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Jodi Rudoren and Abe Foxman mull over ‘the Arabs’ owning New York hotel | | David Samel -
Mondoweiss
"Gary Rudoren, the husband of NY Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Jodi Rudoren, created a video to honor his parents’ 60th anniversary and posted it on youtube. Gary is in high spirits as he takes his parents on a virtual tour of his and Jodi’s daily life in Jerusalem. At about 14:25, the scene shifts to a luxury hotel, where Gary enters a suite to find his wife chatting amiably with Abraham Foxman, Executive Director of the Anti-Defamation League, a perch from which he has been enthusiastically defending and promoting all things Israeli, including of course its military aggression..." ca | 8/8/2014 |
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Gaza war stifles democracy in Israel | | Akiva Eldar -
Al-Monitor
"One extreme example of the malady that has overwhelmed Israeli democracy is the unprecedented decision by the Knesset’s ethics committee to suspend an Arab elected official, Knesset member Haneen Zoabi, from the legislature for half a year. Zoabi is being punished for saying that the murderers of the three teens abducted near Hebron were not terrorists and for speaking out on behalf of a popular resistance against the Israeli occupation." ca | 8/8/2014 |
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Israel`s Gaza offensive resurrects Hamas | | Daoud Kuttab -
Al-Monitor
"War is a terrible thing, and there are no real winners. Politically, the current war has resurrected an Islamic movement that had nearly surrendered politically and was financially bankrupt." ca
| 8/8/2014 |
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I’m a Rabbi in Mourning for a Judaism Being Murdered by Israel | | Rabbi Michael Lerner - Tikkun - The worship of power is precisely what Judaism came into being to challenge. We were the slaves, the powerless, and though the Torah talks of God using a strong arm to redeem the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, it simultaneously insists, over and over again, that when Jews go into their promised land in Canaan (now Palestine) they must “love the stranger/the other,” have only one law for the stranger and for the native born, and warns “do not oppress the stranger/the other.”-rh | 7/8/2014 |
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How to fix it : Ending this war in Gaza begins with recognizing Hamas as a legitimate political actor. | | Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson - Foreign Policy - This tragedy results from the deliberate obstruction of a promising move toward peace in the region, when a reconciliation agreement among the Palestinian factions was announced in April. This was a major concession by Hamas, in opening Gaza to joint control under a technocratic government that did not include any Hamas members.-rh | 7/8/2014 |
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Gaza war was built on lies | | Daoud Kuttab - Al-Monitor - Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip began, continued and is ending on a lie. The chief liar and man responsible for the disproportionate use of Israeli firepower that has resulted in nearly 2,000 Palestinian deaths — mostly civilians — versus three Israeli civilians, is none other than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.-rh
| 7/8/2014 |
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Kaddish for Gaza | | Rolf Verleger - Talk given at the manifestation organized by the German-Arabic Society in front of Bellevue castle (office of the German president) in Berlin, July 30, 2014 - I would like to say the Kaddish, which is the traditional prayer by Jewish mourners. I will say it for the dead people of Gaza and – because in death everybody is alike – for the dead Israeli soldiers even though they have died for an unjust case.-rh
| 7/8/2014 |
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Israel’s Colonialism Must End | | Ali Jarbawi -
NY Times -
"If the occupied population chooses to stand in the way of the occupier’s goals, then they are demonized, which allows the occupier the supposed moral excuse of confronting them with all possible means, no matter how harsh." - id
| 6/8/2014 |
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Can Netanyahu pluck peace from the rubble of Gaza? | | Matthew Kalman - Haaretz - If Netanyahu is seen to agree to a ceasefire now when the Israeli public believes that the job is only half done, that the Hamas military infrastructure is still in place, then he will be perceived as having been defeated and not having scored a decisive victory against Hamas. He knows that he would be facing almost certain defeat at the polls in the next election if he is perceived as not having finished the job. [bz] | 5/8/2014 |
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How Netanyahu Got Snookered - The Moral Universe Will Swing Palestine’s Way | | Andrew Levine - CounterPunch - "Nevertheless, the Palestinian people will survive. The vast majority of Israelis these days won’t like that one bit; and neither will Americans and others who have been deluded into accepting the Israeli narrative. But it is an inexorable fact. As a modern day Friedrich Nietzsche might say: whatever does not annihilate them, strengthens them. And, as a modern day Martin Luther King might then add: the arc of the moral universe will, in time, swing Palestine’s way. Inasmuch as it bends towards justice, how could it not?" [ry] | 4/8/2014 |
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Dress the Gaza Situation Up All You Like, But the Truth Hurts | | Robert Fisk--There was a time when our politicians and media had one principal fear when covering Middle East wars: that no one should ever call them anti-Semitic. So corrosive, so vicious was this charge against any honest critic of Israel that merely to bleat the word “disproportionate” – as in any normal wartime exchange rate of Arab-to-Israeli deaths – was to provoke charges of Nazism by Israel’s would-be supporters. Sympathy for Palestinians would earn the sobriquet “pro-Palestinian”, which, of course, means “pro-terrorist”. dn | 3/8/2014 |
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A `self-hating` Jew`s guide to answering Zionist talking points | | Jared Sacks--I grew up being indoctrinated by Zionists throughout my life. As a child, I was told that the state of Israel is somehow “necessary” to prevent another Holocaust. I was also told that Palestine/Israel was empty and uninhabited when Jews began emigrating there in the late 1800s, and was still sparsely populated after World War II. I was taught that the Jews are a chosen people with the right to their own homeland.dn | 3/8/2014 |
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What, it took Washington 25 days to call the Gaza war barbaric? | | Gideon Levy--On Saturday morning the Palestinian Health Ministry phoned A. from Rafah and asked him to open his vegetable refrigeration room. The idea was to make room for dozens of bodies piling up in the city’s small hospital. A.’s refrigerator quickly filled up with bodies, including of many children. dn | 3/8/2014 |
... |
Yet Another War of Deceit | | Ran HaCohen--The Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights is now 47 years old. Two generations of Israelis have grown up, matured and been educated in a country depriving millions of their political rights. In Israel’s political leadership, settlers residing in the Occupied Territories and recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union are over-represented. No wonder, then, that basic notions of democracy have been virtually abandoned.
For example, in a step highly reminiscent of anti-Semitic boycotts against Jews in Eastern and Central Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Israel’s foreign minister Lieberman explicitly urged Israelis (i.e. Jews) to boycott businesses of Israeli Arabs. Having grown up in a Soviet dictatorship, it is the same Lieberman who found Putin’s 2011 elections in Russia fair and democratic. dn
| 3/8/2014 |
... |
Palestine: The Hatred and the Hope | | David Shulman--In the midst of the wearisome compulsions of the present Gaza war, with its familiar but no less heart-wrenching horrors, two striking, perhaps surprising developments—one ominous, the other somewhat hopeful—are taking place far from the battlefield: on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and in the towns and villages of the West Bank. Seen together, they tell us something of what the near future may hold for Israel and Palestine. dn | 3/8/2014 |
... |
`The front line is none of your business` | | Martin Lejeune - Gaza City, 1st August - “During such attacks from
Israel, the population decides to stand together and resist in unity
explains Mahmoud Abu Rahma, Director of the independent Al-Mezan Center
for Human Rights in Gaza City. The center bravely records human rights
violations of all warring factions in the Gaza Strip. | 2/8/2014 |
|
Sending our sons into battle: the failure of another Israeli generation | | Anshel Pfeffer--We can blame the Palestinians, the Arabs and the international community all we like, but it was our responsibility to make sure our children wouldn’t have to go off and kill or be killed. dn | 2/8/2014 |
... |
Tensions Escalate Between Israel and a Second Party in Gaza: The United Nations | | Somini Sengupta -
NYT
"The United Nations has been dragged into the conflict: Eight of its staff members have been killed in the past 24 days, and more than 100 of its facilities have come under fire, including the school. United Nations officials said they had repeatedly told Israel of its exact location." ca
| 1/8/2014 |
... |
Gazafying Dissent | | Tithi Bhattacharya and Bill V. Mullen -
Mondoweiss
"Israel does not want you to talk about the children it kills in Gaza. And neither does your government..As the death toll rises in Gaza, and anger mounts around the world, Israel and its allies have adopted a new tactic.They have largely abandoned attempts to recover Israel’s democratic legitimacy. They have resorted instead to the outright criminalization of all dissent. And even to kill for it." ca
. | 1/8/2014 |
... |
Zionism and Its Discontents | | Roger Cohen -
NYT
"What I cannot accept, however, is the perversion of Zionism that has seen the inexorable growth of a Messianic Israeli nationalism claiming all the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River; that has, for almost a half-century now, produced the systematic oppression of another people in the West Bank..." ca | 1/8/2014 |
... |
Amira Hass and the end of Jewish ethical history | | Marc H. Ellis -
Mondoweiss
"What Hass wants is a return to a Jewish world and history that formed her. Though she knows this world was tainted, she still hopes that somehow the overall thrust of Jewish ethical history can pull us through. Hass is wrong. However one defines the Jewish condition, Jews like Hass continue to argue for a Jewish morality in the state of Israel that no longer exists." ca | 1/8/2014 |
... |
Winning the battle, losing the war | | Editorial -
The Economist
"For all the blood and misery in Gaza, Mr. Netanyahu will soon have a chance to show he has heard the critics. Having won his battle, he could return to the negotiating table, this time with a genuine offer of peace. Every true friend of Israel should press him to do so." ca | 1/8/2014 |
... |
Only Israel can break through diplomatic impasse | | Afif Safieh -
Al Monitor -
"I do not know how to measure pain or how to quantify suffering, but one of the ironies of history is that in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the oppressor seems to hate its victim much more than the victim hates its oppressor." - id | 6/8/2014 |
... |
This is Netanyahu’s final status solution | | Noam Sheizaf -
+972 -
"All Israeli prime ministers from 2001 onward originally came from the Likud. Despite all sorts of “revelations” they experienced with regard to the Palestinian issue, and despite the new parties they formed, broke off from or returned to, none of them took active measures on the ground that were meant to lead to a fair compromise with the Palestinians." - id | 6/8/2014 |
... |
Physical and mental tunnels | | Adam Keller -
Crazy Country =
"...the Prime Minister himself who used a famous poetry quote "Satan himself has not created a fitting revenge for the blood of a small child." Like most of those who quote this, Netanyahu forgot the other words of Bialik`s poem: "Cursed be the one who cries `take revenge`."" - id
| 6/8/2014 |
... |
Israel-Gaza conflict: No victory for Israel despite weeks of devastation | | Robert Fisk--Palestinians have won: they are still in Gaza, and Hamas is still there
’Twas not a famous victory – but that’s what the Palestinians of Gaza are celebrating. There was much shaking of heads in the international media when the fireworks burst over that shattered land on Tuesday night. After more than 2,100 dead – about 1,700 of them civilians – and 100,000 wounded, what did they have to crow about? An end to the killing? Peace? dn
| 31/8/2014 |
... |
An Israeli reservist asks: What did I fight for in Gaza? | | Tamir V.--For now, writes the soldier, the well-brought-up Zionist young people continue to show up dutifully for reserve duty. But they are also filled with despair. dn | 31/8/2014 |
... |
Threats of blackmail should not stop Palestinians seeking justice | | Diana Buttu--While Palestinians heal, repair and try to reconstruct their lives, they should not be asked to simply ignore Israel’s crimes. Rather, this time the international community must insist that Israel is held accountable for its continued crimes so as to ensure that these types of actions never happen again.dn | 31/8/2014 |
... |
What happened to the idea of `never again`? | | Ron Forthofer--Many Americans may think this foreign policy issue doesn’t concern them. If they think about this issue at all, many say that it’s not our business and we should just let them fight it out. However the US has been deeply involved in this conflict since before Israel declared its existence.dn | 31/8/2014 |
... |
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