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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
Will ICC see through Israel’s sham justice?Charlotte Silver - EI - “Since its founding in 2002, the ICC has almost exclusively investigated and prosecuted the heads of African states who are not only considered responsible for reprehensible crimes but also hold little power on the global stage – neither being attributes with which Israel wants to be associated” [ry] 31/10/2016
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Israel: 1984 EverlastingStanley L. Cohen - CounterPunch - Empty Declarations of Democracy… Vacant Boasts of humanity [ry] 31/10/2016
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Habima Theater and the need for a cultural boycott of IsraelMichel Warschawski - AIC - The national theater`s upcoming performance in Kiryat Arba settlement proves that boycotts against Israeli activity in the West Bank alone will never destabilize the occupation [ry] 31/10/2016
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Red Rag column - Women`s `March of Hope`; revoking Israeli citizenshipGideon Spiro - The last time citizenship was revoked from Jews was in Nazi Germany, under the Nuremberg laws (which applied to me and my family), for reasons that included reasons similar to what you attribute to El-Ad: disloyalty. It is a jest of fate that in a state that has pretensions to being Jewish, there sits a Knesset Member who embraces the Nazi sewer 81 years later. gm30/10/2016
How Abbas can counter Netanyahu’s maneuverAkiva Eldar - Al Monitor - The struggle for implementation of the Palestinian people’s right to become a full member of the family of nations is nearing a decisive stage. In the coming weeks, US President Barack Obama will decide whether to bring Palestine into the United Nations through the narrow window between the Nov. 8 presidential elections and the changing of the guard at the White House. If the Palestinians lose this round, they risk losing their diplomatic achievements of the past 28 years. [bz]30/10/2016
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Coalition chairman doesn`t understand the democratic process Tova Tzimuki - Ynet - MK David Bitan can`t revoke B`Tselem Executive Director Hagai El-Ad`s citizenship, as the latter`s comments against the Israeli occupation fall under the freedom of expression, a super-constitutional right.-rh 27/10/2016
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Claim to Victimhood: Enabling the Oppressing of OthersYves Engler - Dissident Voice - "...when claims of historic victimhood are used to oppress others, the ideology is no longer progressive, but rather has descended into xenophobia, jingoism and racist chauvinism." - id26/10/2016
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Will foreign pressure save or destroy Israel?Akiva Eldar - Al Monitor - "After the executive director of Israeli human rights group B`Tselem spoke out against settlements before the UN Security Council, the resulting criticism took issue only with his call for international intervention to advance peace." - id 26/10/2016
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Media ignores Christian, Muslim rights in UNESCO assaultRay Hanania - The Arab Daily News - "The biased mainstream American news media never stops when it comes to racism against Christian and Muslim Arabs and their rights in Israel." - id26/10/2016
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Christian Zionists May Want to Reconsider Their Christophobic Settler AlliesRichard Silverstein - Tikun Olam - "...the Christian Zionists’ most ardent allies are the most hateful toward any religion other than Judaism." - id26/10/2016
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It’s not Netanyahu, it’s the left-center leadersHaim Ramon - Ynet - Barak, Livni, Lapid and Herzog are all to blame for cooperating with the prime minister’s deception instead of exposing him. And Peres after he finally let go of his illusions about Netanyahu, nonetheless avoided criticizing Netanyahu in public, though harshly criticizing him in private meetings - that Netanyahu was leading Israel to destruction, was bringing its end as a Jewish and democratic state closer and was isolating it from the family of nations. [bz]25/10/2016
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Opposing the occupation means being anti-Israel, to NetanyahuMairav Zonszein - +972 - No one questions, for example, the patriotism of those – both in Israeli government and civil society — pushing to retroactively authorize settlement outposts built on private Palestinian land that even the government says are illegal. [bz]25/10/2016
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While Bibi was busy slamming me on FacebookHagai El-Ad - Times of Israel - Sift through all the slander directed at B’Tselem and you will be hard-pressed to find a single official response to the actual facts we stated. No one in government has denied that Israel plans to maintain control of the Occupied Territories and their Palestinian residents for as long as possible, or the terrible impact of the settlements and the occupation on the daily lives of Palestinians. No one has questioned the unprecedented figure on home demolitions I quoted at the UN; or the consequences of the intricate permit bureaucracy with which Israel rules Palestinians’ lives; or the fact that all of Israel’s state systems are implicated in this massive injustice – including the Supreme Court and the State Attorney’s Office. Not a single fact that B’Tselem presented has been countered or even challenged. [bz]25/10/2016
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What Clinton gets so wrong about Israel-Palestine Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man - +972 "Hillary Clinton believes that the façade of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process is preferable to no peace process at all, we learned this week from the presidential candidate’s private emails, hacked by Russia and published by WikiLeaks.It’s hard to imagine a more troubling statement about Israel/Palestine..." ca 21/10/2016
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The Death of the Two-State Solution : What the Bankruptcy of White House Policy Means for the Israelis and Palestinians Sandy Tolan - TomDispatch - In a regime of growing confinement, the Israelis have steadily undermined Palestinian sovereignty, aided and abetted by an American acquiescence in Israel’s ongoing settlement project. Now, at least, there is an opportunity to lay the foundations for some newer kind of solution grounded in human rights, freedom of movement, complete cessation of settlement building, and equal access to land, water, and places of worship. It will have to be based on a new reality, which Israel and the United States have had such a hand in creating. Think of it as the one-state solution.-rh20/10/2016
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Netanyahu faces off against UNESCO over Jerusalem resolutionAkiva Eldar - Al Monitor - "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prefers to ignore the fact that from a diplomatic-international standpoint, the Jewish holy sites in the Old City are under occupation." - id 19/10/2016
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Israel and Its Media Enablers Deliberately Lie about UNESCO Jerusalem ResolutionRichard Silverstein - Tikun Olam - "Unlike all the reporters, editors and politicians who wrote this meretricious nonsense, I actually found the resolution (pdf) and read it...Nowhere in the text does it denigrate a Jewish bond to what Israel calls the Temple Mount.  It simply doesn’t address the issue at all.  Nor should it." - id 19/10/2016
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Media ignores Christian, Muslim rights in UNESCO assault Ray Hanania - The Arab Daily News - "Media outlets like the racist Huffington Post, the biased Washington Post and New York Times, Politico and so many other mainstream news organizations, are ignoring facts to pimp for Israel, and that’s a shame. - id 19/10/2016
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An empty chair at Peres` funeralYacov Ben Efrat - Challenge - "Odeh is not laying out an alternative approach. It appears he is just giving up. Peace and equality are not on his agenda. Instead there is the Nakba, as well as something deeper and more amorphous: the demand that Israel apologize." - id 19/10/2016
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Red Rag column: Zvi Razi, RIPGideon Spiro - I am in mourning for the historian Prof. Zvi Razi, a trailblazer in the field of scientific research, human-rights activist, democrat, humanist and socialist. gm18/10/2016
Trapped `from fence to fence` in GazaJehad Abu Salim - +972 - One of the famous common sayings used by Palestinians in Gaza: we’re trapped ‘min al-silik ila al-silik’ (from the fence to the fence). This simple phrase sums up Gaza’s current reality: a fenced place, surrounded by dead-ends and, within it, a caged human sea with almost no hope or future. [bz]18/10/2016
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If Israel Lets in Palestinian Refugees, Will It Lose Its Jewish Character?Joshua Schreier and Mira Sucharov - Forward - Consider a post-peace Israel where refugee claims have been settled, where the everyday brutality of occupation no longer precludes normalcy, and where the work of truth and reconciliation has begun. (...) Such an Israel could enable different cultural expressions not only to coexist, but also to inter-twine in creative ways. [bz]18/10/2016
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Red Rag column - The Hater in Heaven - Yom KippurGideon Spiro - God hates human beings. He did not stand by the Jewish and Roma victims of the Holocaust. He did not stand by the Cambodians who were murdered by the Khmer Rouge. He did not stand by the Vietnamese who were killed by the Americans. He has ignored the Palestinians for 50 years of Israeli rule. He is indifferent to the fate of the residents of Aleppo in Syria, who are being bombed every day. He has not put an end to war. He abhors Indigenous Americans. He has no mercy on the slaughtered residents of Darfur, he has shown indifference to the fate of the victims of the Armenian Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda. But he is very good to tycoons. gm17/10/2016
Israelis Can`t Recognize Terrorism Staring Back at Them From the Mirror Amira Hass - Haaretz - Our imposed military rule, now in place for decades, is terror as far as the Palestinians are concerned. I, too, believe it is terror because people are intimidated to the point where their lives are taken and their health, wellbeing and property are damaged, for the benefit of our masters’ rights, for the sake of achieving political, economic and territorial gains such as Sussia or Kfar Adumim, the irrigation of lucrative seasoning herbs in the Jordan Valley or exporting arms. Terrorizing is the meaning of the tens of thousands of armed men scattered across Judea and Samaria, as well as in united Jerusalem. They are frightening because they were sent there in order to preserve an evil order of dispossession. [bz]15/10/2016
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The left bears responsibility for assassination of the mind! Nassar Ibrahim - AIC "The worst exploitation of humans is exploitation in the name of religion. Charlatans and quacks must therefore be fought till everyone knows that human dignity is the red line and without it there is death” Che Guevara.Yes. The Jordanian left, the Palestinian left and the Arab left also bear responsibility for murdering the mind and culture…including for the 25 September murder of Jordanian writer and political activist Nahed Hattar. And for any bullet that will be shot in the coming days at any head, be it in the name of religion or in the name of any political or social radical thought which aims at murdering the mind, awareness and liberty." ca14/10/2016
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The battle over Obama’s legacy, featuring Netanyahu, Zogby, liberal Zionists, and 88 senatorsPhilip Weiss - Mondoweiss "Let’s look at the landscape. Haaretz reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lobbied Secretary of State John Kerry on this issue in a Saturday night phone call. Don’t dare to lift a finger. Barak Ravid reported yesterday:..."ca14/10/2016
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Abbas unfazed by criticism of participation in Peres` funeralDaoud Kuttab - Almonitor - In the aftermath of Abbas’ participation at the funeral, a flood of what appears to be raw anger and opposition was part of discussions in shops and homes. While those in opposition were the loudest and most vocal, a number of saner voices have since emerged trying to put the visit in perspective. Much of the opposition appeared to be politically motivated, reflecting fractures in support for Abbas not only in the public at large, but even with the ruling Fatah movement.-rh 12/10/2016
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The Settlements vs. the Peace ProcessMitchell Plitnick - FMEP - Israel claims that the settlements are not illegal because the laws of belligerent occupation do not apply to the West Bank.” The vast majority of legal opinions, including those of the High Court of Justice in Israel directly contradict this claim. As recently as 2004, the High Court in Israel ruled “…that Israel holds the (West Bank) in belligerent occupation,” and that its authority over the Palestinians “… flows from the provisions of public international law regarding belligerent occupation.” No ruling since has superseded this view. [bz]9/10/2016
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It’s not the flotilla, it’s GazaAriela Ringel Hoffman - Ynet - Gaza is a strip choked between the Israeli border and the Egyptian border, without any way out through air or by sea, depending on its enemies’ mercy. How much water it will receive, how much electricity will flow, how much flour and how many matchboxes. If they want, they will give. If they don’t want, they will not give. Israel can soon, if it wants, celebrate a decade since the beginning of the siege, which was declared immediately after Hamas rose to power in legitimate elections. [bz]8/10/2016
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Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly: an exercise in absurdity Rasem Obeidat - AIC "But, Netanyahu never asks what the reasons are that compel our children to carry knives. He did not mention in his speech the humiliating checkpoints, or stop and frisks of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers and police alike. Nor did he mention the executions, like one captured on camera of martyr Abed al-Fattah al- Sharif in Hebron. He also forgot 16-year-old Mohammad Abu Khdeir, who was burned alive and murdered by Israeli settlers in 2014." ca7/10/2016
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At the Boiling Point With IsraelTHE EDITORIAL BOARD - NYT "Mr. Netanyahu, however, feels no real pressure to halt the construction. Certainly not from the Palestinians, who are divided under a weak leader. Certainly not from Arab states like Saudi Arabia, which have shown little real commitment to Palestinian statehood and now are forging business and intelligence ties with Israel, a former enemy that is now a thriving economic and technological hub." ca7/10/2016
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How Abbas proved his courage to IsraelisShlomi Eldar - Al-Monitor - "Criticism at home did not deter Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from participating at the funeral of President Shimon Peres and demonstrating his commitment to peace." - id 5/10/2016
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Israel: Strong Words Must Be Followed by Strong ActionJames J. Zogby - LobeLog - This administration, like those before it, will argue that their hands are tied—that Congress will undercut them or overrule them. But in the last three months of this administration, President Obama has an opportunity to set things right. He can, for example, restate the 1970’s State Department finding (which has never been overturned) that all settlement activity is illegal. He can allow the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution declaring the illegality of settlements and imposing international sanctions against Israel for its violations of international law. And he can refuse to block an Arab effort to refer the issue to the International Criminal Court.-rh12/10/2016
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Trump Should Stop Calling Terrorism a Cancer, and So Should Everybody ElseJohn Knefel - truthout - John Horgan is a professor and terrorism researcher at Georgia State University, and has extensively studied strategies for countering political violence. "Metaphor tends to substitute for any serious thinking about counterterrorism," he told me in an email. "There`s no doubt that responses to terrorism sometimes exacerbate and obfuscate the problem. When disease metaphors are used, it can give the impression that there`s a simple cure, but it can also lead to the impression that we need to take drastic action. History has taught us that taking drastic action in responding to terrorism almost always makes things a lot worse."-rh12/10/2016
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Seeing the Other on Yom Kippur in JerusalemOrly Noy - +972 Magazine - By the time this is published, Israel will have already placed a full military closure on the Palestinian territories ahead of Yom Kippur. East Jerusalem will be completely shuttered. Millions of people will be severely restricted, effectively imprisoned, so that we Jews can speak with God. What value does such prayer have if it necessitates such a violent injustice, one that erases the Other from our field of vision? [ak]11/10/2016
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Red Rag column - Shimon PeresGideon Spiro - The words of praise the heads of state gave at Peres’ funeral, as if he were the world champion of peace, made me wonder if they had mistakenly come to the wrong funeral. It was precisely on matters of peace that Peres’ achievements were painfully meagre. gm11/10/2016
Pro-Israel? Or pro-Palestinian? What will be Obama’s legacy? Ray Hanania - Arab News - "It is disappointing to see the president fight for Palestinian rights for much of his years, and in failure, take the safe route out by showering Israel with support." - id 5/10/2016
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No matter who wins the US Presidential election, Palestine has already lostal-Khalil team - International Solidarity Movement - "Since the US gives more aid money to Israel than any other country through its government and countless zionist charities, the political course of the US is the number one factor determining the future of the occupation." - id 5/10/2016
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Shimon Peres: The Peacemaker Who Wasn’tHANAN ASHRAWI - New York Times - Now that the funeral of Shimon Peres, the former Israeli president and prime minister, is over and the effusive praise of world leaders has subsided, it’s time for a critical look at his legacy. While many remember him as a courageous and tireless advocate for peace, Palestinians recall a different man — one who was very good at talking peace but not so good at walking the walk. bz]4/10/2016
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Shimon Peres` Funeral Proved That anti-Semitism Is DeadGideon Levy - Haaretz - It’s true that Israel is already one of the most pampered nations; the world heaps more money and indulgences on it than on any other state, and lets it go as crazy as it wants. But Israel chooses to spit in the world’s face and then cries that the world hates it. On Mount Herzl, the world once again proved how easy it is to go back to a situation where every Israeli could be proud of being Israeli and not have to hide it out of fear and shame. How much Israel’s fate is in its own hands depends on its behavior. If it wants, it can be admired. And if it wants, it can be a pariah. [bz]2/10/2016
A man of peace? Not exactly. But still… Adam Keller - Crazy Country - Would he have succeeded? Would we now be living in a completely different situation, in a real New Middle East? Or would Peres have wasted this chance, too... [bz]2/10/2016
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Why Nahum Barnea is not for evacuating AmonaNahum Barnea - Ynet - From an ethical perspective, whoever petitions the High Court over outposts built on private land is helping legitimize settlements in the rest of the area; from a practical perspective, the greater the protest in the settlement sector, the larger the compensation that will be paid for evacuation by consent. [bz]1/10/2016
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