21 February, 2011 — VTJP
News
International Middle East Media Center
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra to be Met with Protest in the U.S
IMEMC – Monday February 21, 2011 – 17:38, According to Adalah-NY, performances by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) will be met with protests in six of the seven cities where it is scheduled to appear during its U.S tour, during February and March.
Jerusalem Municipality to Further Annexation of Entire City with Green Parks Initiative
IMEMC – Monday February 21, 2011 – 15:54, The Wadi Hilweh Information Center, based in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, has published an article raising their concerns over an scheduled project to encircle East Jerusalem with parks to complete the annexation of the entire city and much of the surrounding area in the West Bank.
Tent Erected in Silwan to Commemorate Victim of Settler Violence
IMEMC – Monday February 21, 2011 – 15:51, On Sunday, residents of Silwan in East Jerusalem erected a tent of mourning dedicated to local deceased victim of settler violence, Husam Hussein Rwidy.
Settlers Destroy Olive Trees
IMEMC – Monday February 21, 2011 – 14:13, The Ma’an News Agency reported, on Monday, that a group of settlers uprooted olive trees and damaged Palestinian farmland near Nablus.
Israel Demolishes Khirbet Tana
IMEMC – Monday February 21, 2011 – 13:59, Israeli forces demolished a number of tents near Nablus yesterday, reports the Ma’an News Agency.
Thousands of Palestinians Protest U.S. Veto of Settlement Resolution
IMEMC – Monday February 21, 2011 – 11:23, An estimated 3,000 Palestinians marched through downtown Ramallah, in the central West Bank, on Sunday afternoon to protest the U.S. government’s veto of a United Nations Security Council Resolution condemning Israeli settlements as an ‘obstacle to peace’.
Settlers Attack Palestinias In Hebron & Yatta
IMEMC – Saturday February 19, 2011 – 14:54, On Saturday, Israeli settlers threw stones at several Palestinian residents in the city of Hebron and the nearby town of Yatta, wounding at least one.
Witnesses: Palestinian shot in Jerusalem clashes
2/21/2011 – JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Monday shot and injured a Palestinian man during clashes in Jerusalem, witnesses said. Onlookers said Israeli forces fired into the air and then sprayed bullets at a group of young men, injuring a resident of Al-Isawiya….
Latrun villagers protest Canada-Jewish National Fund relations
2/21/2011 – RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Vigils were held outside Canadian representative offices in Ramallah and Tel Aviv Monday, to protest Jewish National Fund charitable status in Canada in light of its building of Canada Park on Palestinian village ruins inside the 1967 Green Line. The park was built on land from the villages Imwas, Yalo, and….
81 NGOs urge rival factions to reconcile
2/21/2011 – GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Eighty-one Palestinian non-profit organizations from the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip issued a statement Monday calling on rival Palestinian factions to “take practical steps toward ending the disagreement.”Speaking to reporters at the headquarters of the Palestinian Network of Non-Governmental Organizations, a spokesman said it was time for….
No objections from Hamas on unity govt
2/21/2011 – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Hamas has suggested the formation of a unity government several times already, but always faced opposition from the PA, a senior party member in the West Bank told Ma’an Sunday. Hamas leader Ayman Daraghma did not rule out participating in a new Palestinian Authority cabinet, and hinted that the….
Fatah: Party wants reconciliation with Hamas
2/21/2011 – RAMALLAH (AFP) — President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party has said is ready for new talks with the rival Hamas movement over a long-elusive reconciliation, a spokesman said on Sunday. The announcement came hours after reports said PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad had offered the Islamist party a spot in a new cabinet being cobbled together….
In Gaza, Hamas says no word on unity
2/21/2011 – GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — There has been no “official initiative” to contact Hamas officials in Gaza following reports that PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was seeking participation from the party in a new cabinet, a spokesman said. Hamas leader Salah Al-Bardawil told Ma’an on Monday that there had been no contact with….
Hamas pours scorn on Fatah call for unity
2/21/2011 – GAZA CITY (AFP) — Hamas on Monday shrugged off calls for reconciliation with Fatah, saying its secular rival must prove its seriousness by freeing prisoners.” These declarations lack seriousness and credibility, they make no sense in light of the continued arrests and torture [of Hamas members] in Fatah prisons in the West Bank,” said Hamas spokesman….
World Bank officials laud progress in West Bank and Gaza
2/21/2011 – WASHINGTON (Ma’an) — World Bank managing director and MENA region vice president visited the West Bank and Gaza on Saturday and Sunday, noting successes in service delivery in the areas. Managing Director Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa Region Shamshad Akhtar met Palestinian leaders and toured projects….
Israel NGO probe ‘would harm human rights’
2/21/2011 – JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel’s Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has warned that plans to set up a parliamentary inquiry into left-wing NGOs and rights groups would have a “chilling effect” on basic human rights. The Knesset, or parliament, was due to vote on February 28 on a draft bill calling for the establishment of two….
WikiLeaks: Israel and Chile spied on Iran
2/21/2011 – JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel worked with Chile to spy on the Iranian ambassador in Santiago as Tel Aviv grew increasingly concerned about Tehran’s influence in South America, a leaked US cable from 2008 showed.” Israel is monitoring Iranian influence in the region, which includes enhanced Iranian diplomatic relations with Colombia and Venezuela,” read the….
Bethlehem prisoners’ monument vandalized
2/21/2011 – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Bethlehem prisoners’ society said a monument erected in 2008 was vandalized Sunday night, reporting that used motor oil was poured over the face of the stone carving which commemorated Palestinians detained in Israel. The statue, erected in a joint effort by the Palestinian Youth Parliament and the Palestinian Prisoners….
Two Gaza crossings partially open
2/21/2011 – GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities decided to partially open the Kerem Shalom and the Karni crossings to allow aid into Gaza on Monday, Palestinian liaison officials said. Palestinian crossings official Raed Fattouh said he was told to expect the delivery of 160 to 170 truckloads of goods via the Kerem shalom crossing in….
Ministry: 132 Palestinians detained for over 20 years
2/21/2011 – GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The Detainees’ Ministry in the Gaza Strip said Monday that more than 132 Palestinian prisoners have spent over 20 years in Israeli jails. Detainees Abdullah Judeh and Jihad Abdul Hadi entered their 21st year in prison on Monday, the ministry said. Judeh, 43, from Ramallah, was sentenced to life….
Israel mulls security impact of Google Street View
2/21/2011 – JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli ministers on Monday discussed the security and privacy implications of allowing Google Street View to photograph streets in Israel ahead of the launch here of the 3D-mapping service. Google wants to offer the service in Israel in the coming months but Israeli officials are concerned that the online mapping tool, which can….
Fayyad: US veto obstructed Palestinian efforts
2/21/2011 – JENIN (Ma’an) — Palestinian Authority Prime Minster Salam Fayyad on Sunday said the US veto of a UN anti-settlement resolution was a clear obstruction to Palestinian efforts to end Israel’s occupation. All 14 other Security Council member states voted in favor of the resolution condemning illegal settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land….
EU fears for citizens in Libya
2/21/2011 – BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — European governments faced mounting fears for their citizens in Libya on Monday as Tripoli warned of civil war, but cracks remained on how to deal with veteran leader Moamnar Gadhafi. After a deadly crackdown on revolutionary protesters, events took an increasingly violent turn with Libyan state television headquarters sacked and witnesses reporting….
Iraq moves to head off demos as protester killed
2/21/2011 – BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq scrambled to head off further protests on Monday by cutting politicians’ pay and ramping up support for the needy after a teenage demonstrator was killed at a rally in the country’s north. Protests in recent weeks have taken place nationwide, in Iraq’s Sunni, Shiite and Kurd….
London Brent oil price hits $105 on Libya violence
2/21/2011 – LONDON (AFP) — Brent oil prices soared above $105 per barrel on Monday, striking a fresh two-year peak as analysts said deadly violence in Libya had fueled concerns over spreading unrest in Arab producer states. In late morning deals, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April surged to $105. 08 per barrel, the highest level….
Egypt requests freeze on Mubarak assets abroad
2/21/2011 – CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt’s prosecutor general on Monday requested a freeze on the foreign assets of Hosni Mubarak and his family, 10 days after the longtime president resigned in the face of a popular uprising. Abdel Magid Mahmud tasked Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit with contacting foreign countries to seek a freeze on assets….
Libya’s Gadhafi under siege as cities overrun
2/21/2011 – TRIPOLI, Libya (AFP) – Protesters overran several Libyan cities on Monday and regime stalwarts started defecting as the pillars of Moammar Gadhafi’s hardline four-decade rule began to crumble. A suggestion in Brussels by British Foreign Secretary William Hague that Gadhafi may have left the country for Venezuela was swiftly denied by Caracas, home to….
Why writers make reluctant revolutionaries
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Robert McCrum, Guardian – Worried about the future role of the book? Consider this tale of two novels. In France, disaffected voters have been defiantly reading La Princesse de Cl?®ves , a tale of thwarted love by…
Ian McEwan attacks ‘great injustice’ in Israel
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – The Guardian – The British author Ian McEwan launched an eloquent attack on Israeli government policies in his speech accepting the Jerusalem prize for literature, saying “a great and self-evident injustice hangs in the air”. Before…
Israel’s demophobia
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – The spectacular downfall of President Hosni Mubarak has cast a spotlight on a great many facts about the Middle East: the contempt and hatred that the masses harbor toward the dictators of the region; the wanton…
Israel court rules Hebron Jews can’t reclaim land
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Ma’an – The Israeli settler community suffered a setback when the Supreme Court ruled Jews could not be given property which belonged to them in the city before 1948, an Israeli newspaper reported. Haaretz reported that…
Settlers uproot 270 olive trees near Nablus
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Ma’an – A mob of extremist settlers stormed Palestinian farmland and uprooted olive trees near Nablus in the northern West Bank, Palestinian officials said. Residents of an illegal outpost “waged war on olive trees uprooting 270…
Former ministers and steel tycoon face corruption charges
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Al Masry Al Youm – The Attorney General started investigations into four former state officials on Friday. Former Minister of Interior Habib al-Adly, former Minister of Tourism Zoheirr Garranah, former Minister of Housing Ahmad al-Maghrabi, and…
Egypt’s Copts march to demand a secular state
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Al Masry Al Youm – Hundreds of Coptic Christians protested in front of the State Television building on Sunday to call for the amendment of Egypt’s Constitution to establish a secular state. The march started in…
Army says it will not allow more labor protests
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Al Masry Al Youm – The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said on Friday that it will not allow any more professional strikes or protests to be staged because of the negative impact they have…
Muslim Brotherhood member: Copts and women ‘unsuitable for presidency’
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Al Masry Al Youm – “Political parties have the right to nominate women or Copts for the presidency,” said Muslim Brotherhood member Mohsen Radi. “But we find it unsuitable. Perhaps they should be nominated only for…
Israel’s hand on hilt, eye on peace as region roils
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Dan Williams, Reuters – Anxious about political upheaval in Egypt and other U.S.-aligned Arab states, Israel will boost military preparations but try to avoid confrontation unless it sees an enhanced threat from arch-foe Iran. This was…
Parliament stops work to listen to Iraqis’ gripes
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Alert Net – Iraq’s parliament has suspended work for a week and sent lawmakers to their home areas to help soothe rising anger over corruption, food shortages and poor services, the speaker of parliament said on…
Egypt women stand for equality in the square
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – The Washington Post – Women think as differently as they dress here, but they have emerged from the barricades agreeing on one thing: This is their moment in history, and they cannot afford to lose it….
British PM holds talks in Egypt
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Al Jazeera – David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister, is in Egypt to urge a “genuine transition” to democracy, becoming the first world leader to visit the country since the overthrow of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak. Arriving…
A settler’s argument for the right of return
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Eliaz Cohen, +972 – For over sixty years, Israel’s independence and Palestine’s Nakba have been marked simultaneously and seen as intertwined; and for over forty years, the consciousness of “liberation and return” and the consciousness of…
Report: Fayyad offers Hamas Gaza, unity government
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Ma’an – Appointed PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has reportedly offered space in a unity government to Hamas, the Associated Press reported Sunday. Fayyad told the news organization that the move was aimed at ensuring presidential…
PLO to make fresh UN anti-settlement bid
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Ma’an – The Palestinians aim to launch a new bid to clinch UN condemnation of Israeli settlement building, after Washington vetoed a Security Council motion, a senior official said on Saturday. Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Palestine…
The Awakening
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Economist – The people of the Middle East have long despaired about the possibility of change. They have felt doomed: doomed to live under strongmen who have hoarded their wealth and beaten down dissent; doomed to…
When Armies Decide
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – David E. Sanger, New York Times – There comes a moment in the life of almost every repressive regime when leaders — and the military forces that have long kept them in power — must make…
US veto draws ire
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Palestinians rally against move, but PA insists it will not spurn US Haaretz – A Palestinian official said on Friday that the United States veto of an Arab-sponsored United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement…
In a Town Built Upon Patronage, a Test of Egypt’s New Order
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – New York Times – In a town he represented in Parliament for 46 years, Kamal al-Shazli left his mark. There is the Kamal al-Shazli School on Kamal al-Shazli Street, around the corner from the Kamal al-Shazli…
US urges reforms, condemns violence in Libya, Bahrain
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Alert Net – Top U.S. diplomats on Sunday condemned violent crackdowns on protesters in Libya and Bahrain but stopped short of calling for a change of government in countries facing a wave of pro-democracy demonstrations. U.S….
We’re on the wrong path
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – The U.S. government vetoes a UN resolution it agrees with. We’ve long ago given up on getting Israel to freeze, much less dismantle, settlements that are universally recognized as being against international law. We can’t help…
Jordan protest turns violent
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Al Jazeera – At least eight people have been injured in clashes that broke out in Jordan’s capital between government supporters and opponents at a protest calling for more freedom and lower food prices. The protest…
Confusion over Suez ship crossing
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Al Jazeera – Iranian media has reported that two Iranian warships were in the Mediterranean, in the first such passage since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution and on their way to a Syrian port. However, a senior…
U.S. restricts staff movement in West Bank as ‘precaution’
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – Haaretz – The United States consulate in Jerusalem is restricting staff movement in some Palestinian areas of the West Bank. The move comes a day after the U.S. vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that…
We Need a Revolution in Songs About Egypt
Palestine Note 21 Feb 2011 – David Hajdu, The New Republic – The revolution will always be harmonized. If no song in itself can change the world, revolutionary change usually happens to music, as it is today in the Middle East. News…
British PM holds talks in Egypt
AlJazeera 21 Feb 2011 – Cameron discusses military-to-civilian transition with interim leaders but avoids Muslim Brotherhood representatives.
Iran’s ‘silent’ protests
AlJazeera 21 Feb 2011 – Security forces clashed with anti-government protesters, many of whom marched in silence to avoid violent crackdowns.
WikiLeaks: Israel, Chile Cooperated to Spy on Iran
PNN – Tel Aviv – PNN – Israel and Chile vowed in July 2008 to cooperate in espionage operations against Iran, according to secret American diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. An American diplomat was…
Protests Reach Tripoli, Gaddafi?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Son Warns of Civil War
PNN – Tripoli – PNN – Medical sources in Libya announced on Monday that more than 300 people have been killed in the past five days by police attacks on anti-government protesters in different…
Palestinian Worker Wounded by Israeli Gunfire in Gaza; Troops Arrest Five in West Bank
PNN – Gaza — PNN — A Palestinian worker was injured on Monday when Israeli troops stationed east of Gaza City opened fire on him. Palestinian sources said that a group of workers were…
A Pyrrhic Victory in the UN Security Council
PNN – By Adam Keller — Gush Shalom- Israel is becoming a liability to the United States, bringing US into the same international isolation into which Israel itself was cast. The so-called Israel Lobby,…
HRW: Death Toll Up to At Least 233 in Libya
PNN – HRW — to PNN – The estimated death toll from four days of protests in cities across Libya has risen to at least 233 according to information from hospital sources in Libya,…
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (10 — 16 February 2011)
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Palestinian supporters hack Israel Trauma Coalition website
Jeruslalem Post 21 Feb 2011 – Hacked homepage showed a Gaza Palestinian flag on the side of a ship with freight, apparently meant for the Gaza Strip.
Barkat: 2011 budget to improve lack of e. J’lem classrooms
Jeruslalem Post 21 Feb 2011 – Budget also includes funding for more cultural activities, improved tourism infrastructure, and expanded sport complexes.
Shaath: Negotiations with Israel are self-deception
Jeruslalem Post 21 Feb 2011 – Palestinian Authority negotiator says regime change in Arab world will strengthen Arab support for Palestinian cause.
Hamas: PA hasn’t contacted us over conciliation effort
Jeruslalem Post 21 Feb 2011 – Gaza-based official tells Ma’an his group inclined to reach deal based on “full partnership, nat’l constants, upholding right to resistance.”
Time to say thank-you to Congress
Jeruslalem Post 21 Feb 2011 – In a surprise move, Obama vetoed the UNSC resolution condemning settlements. It’s time for Israel to say thank you, and the best way would be for Netanyahu to propose cutbacks in American aid, thereby strengthening the alliance with the US.
‘Israel was worried about Iran’s S. America influence’
Jeruslalem Post 21 Feb 2011 – WikiLeaks: US cable reveals that Israeli defense official worked together with Chile gov’t to monitor “unusual activity.”
State asks West Bank village of Burrin to seal its mosque
Jeruslalem Post 21 Feb 2011 – The village has refuted the claim of illegality on the ground that it believes the mosque is located in Area B.
Eda Haredit calls off IDF conversions approval protest
Jeruslalem Post 20 Feb 2011 – Arye Deri mediates understandings between Yosef, Ashkenazi rabbis.
The Israel Factor: Learning to live with the new Obama
Jeruslalem Post 20 Feb 2011 – Our panel still views many of the potential Republican 2012 presidential candidates as being preferable to the current US president.
International Solidarity Movement
Israeli army demolishes homes in Khirbet Tana for the fifth time
2/21/2011 – International Solidarity Movement – 20 February – The villagers in Khirbet Tana, near Beit Furik in the Nablus region, once again faced Israeli bulldozers destroying their homes. Only ten days after the last demolition, the Israeli army arrived in the village, and jeeps full of soldiers blocked the roads to the village whilst the bulldozers and diggers completely destroyed ten….
Israeli army arrests teenagers at protest north of Tulkarem
2/21/2011 – International Solidarity Movement – 20 February – Eight young Palestinian men were arrested by the Israeli military yesterday in the village of Deir Al Ghusun, north of Tulkarem. Three of them remain in custody, Jala Anwar, Omar Abu Safa and Sohayb Abu Shakra, all aged 17 years. The teenagers were taking part in a protest against the illegal Israeli separation….
Peres: There will be a Libya without Gadhafi
Ha’aretz – At start of four-day visit to Spain, Peres calls it ‘irony of history’ that Libya leader recently expressed desire for a ‘Middle East without Israel.’
Iran warships expected to arrive at Suez Canal early Tuesday
Ha’aretz – Canal officials say ships to pay a fee of $290,000 for the crossing; if ships make the passage, it will mark the first time in three decades that Iranian military ships have traveled the canal that links the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.
El Al plane involved in second ground crash in three months
Ha’aretz – TheMarker learns that the plane, destined for London, was grounded and replaced after a dent was discovered when loading the luggage.
Knesset postpones vote over panels of inquiry into leftist NGOs
Ha’aretz – Netanyahu frees Likud MKs from faction vote; four senior Likud members have already been given the right to oppose.
MKs pay tribute to departing IDF chief Ashkenazi: ‘You strengthened the army’
Ha’aretz – Lawmakers and ministers from across the political spectrum praise Ashkenazi for his decades of service, honesty and morality.
Top Netanyahu aide, Uzi Arad, to quit National Security Adviser post
Ha’aretz – Although FM Lieberman has rejected speculation that Arad will be named ambassador to London, Netanyahu says matter up for consideration.
Israeli army storms 2 Palestinian legislators’ homes in WB
21 Feb 2011 – West Bank, (Pal Telegraph)-Israeli forces stormed Monday the house of a Palestinian legislator, Abu Eghaisha, in Ezna town in Hebron, southern West Bank and detained his son.
Israeli troops shoot worker in Gaza
21 Feb 2011 – Gaza Strip, (Pal Telegraph)-A Palestinian citizen was shot Monday by Israeli gunfire during his work in al-Ziotuon neighborhood in the south-east of Gaza city.
Israeli forces capture Palestinians in WB
21 Feb 2011 – West Bank, (Pal Telegraph)-Israeli soldiers detained Monday two Palestinians from Yatta town , southern Hebron and erected several military checkpoints .
The United States Stands Alone with Israel in the UN Security Council [or How (Dis)honest is the Honest Broker?]
Uruknet February 21, 2011 – In what appears to be as close to a consensus as the world community can ever hope to achieve, the United States reluctantly stood its ground on behalf of Israel and on February 18, 2011 vetoed a resolution on the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that was supported by all 14…
Egypt’s Path Could be Distinct from Turkey’s and Iran’s
Uruknet February 21, 2011 – … The likeliness of the Turkish scenario in Egypt is quite questionable. The actors of the Turkish process were pro-business Islamists, conservatives, (neo)liberals and right-wing nationalists. The major players in the Egyptian protests, by contrast, are leftists, (pro-labor) Islamists, and along with them liberals and left-wing nationalists. These groups are still gathering together, despite the dictator’s…
Revolution in Libya: Protestors Respond to Gaddafi’s Murderous Backlash with Remarkable Courage; US and UK Look Like the Hypocrites They Are
Uruknet February 21, 2011 – …Unlike the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, where there was remarkably litle bloodshed, and the dictators Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak fell from power through the pressure of sheer numbers, there are no signs that Colonel Gaddafi has any intention of relinquishing power without a bloody fight. As the Guardian also reported, sources…
Comrade Sa’adat celebrates Egyptian revolution and calls upon Palestinians to overthrow occupation
Uruknet February 21, 2011 – Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, released a message on February 20, 2011 saluting the Egyptian revolution and its achievements, and the triumph of the Egyptian people over the corrupt Egyptian regime. Comrade Sa’adat issued the message through an attorney from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club,…
Joint Press Release: Adalah, Al Mezan and PHRI Condemn Arrest of Patient’s Brother at Erez Crossing: Israel Must Stop Manipulating Gaza Patients’ Needs to Arrest them and their Escorts
Uruknet February 21, 2011 – At approximately 10:30am on Tuesday, 15 February 2011, the Israeli occupation Forces (IOF) arrested Mohammed Mosa Zo’rob, 28, from the town of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, as he was accompanying his sick sister, Hanan, 42. The patient suffers from cancer and the Guillain-Barr?© syndrome, and Mohammed had previously donated bone marrow…
Egypt-Israel “peace treaty” brought more war than peace
Uruknet February 21, 2011 – As the Egyptian revolution approached its climax the first priority of Israel and the West was that the so-called cornerstone of Middle East peace and security remain in place — the much-fabled 1979 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated the almost sacred truth that the “longstanding peace treaty…
Al-Tuwani children’s struggle to go to school
Uruknet February 21, 2011 – On the afternoon of 7 February 2011, masked Israeli settlers from Havat Maon outpost chased a group of twelve Palestinian schoolchildren who were walking home from school in al-Tuwani village in the occupied West Bank’s South Hebron Hills. The Israeli military had failed to arrive to escort the schoolchildren, forcing the children to take a…
Settlers uproot 270 olive trees near Nablus
Uruknet February 21, 2011 – A mob of extremist settlers stormed Palestinian farmland and uprooted olive trees near Nablus in the northern West Bank, Palestinian officials said. Residents of an illegal outpost “waged war on olive trees uprooting 270 using chainsaws and other means,” in Duma and Qusra villages, said Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement activities…
Nobody Could Have Predicted (Part 8)
Uruknet …that forcibly establishing a Jewish state in Palestine against the wishes of its pre-existing non-Jewish majority – a state which would be surrounded by 200 million Arabs and one billion Muslims who are overwhelmingly sympathetic to the plight of the pre-existing population, and which would require for its continuing existence the repeated involvement of those Western powers who engineered…
End the Division (One people against Zionism)‚ÄòGaza Youth Breaks Out’ calls for a unified Palestinian leadership to ‚Äòlead us to freedom with all pride and dignity’
Uruknet February 20, 2011 – On behalf of the Palestinian Arab people, on the blood of the martyrs, widows and bereaved, orphans and thousands of prisoners in Israeli jails and all our people in the Palestinian diaspora, we call on all the Palestinian factions to unite under the banner of Palestine, in order to reform the political system in Palestine,…
Report: Fayyad offers Hamas Gaza, unity govt
Uruknet February 20, 2011 — Appointed PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has reportedly offered space in a unity government to Hamas, Agence-France Presse reported Sunday. Fayyad told the news organization that the move was aimed at ensuring presidential and legislative elections would go forward by September, after Hamas earlier refused to participate in the PA-run call to vote. According to…
Witnesses: Israel demolishes tents in West Bank village
Uruknet February 20, 2011 – Israeli forces bulldozed dozens of tents on Sunday, donated by the Palestinian Authority to the residents of Tana, a village east of the West Bank city of Nablus, locals said. Atif Hanini — mayor of nearby town Beit Furik — said six Israeli army jeeps accompanied bulldozers to demolish the tents. Hanini said residents were…
Egypt’s military rulers invite political opposition into cabinet
The National 22 Feb 2011 – British prime minister makes surprise visit, urges Egyptian government to follow through on promise of democratic reforms, while activists demand Shafiq’s departure
Alternative Information Center
Stinking Collective Punishment in West Bank Village Nabi Salah
Alternative Information Center – During the weekly demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Salah against the creeping annexation of their lands by the area settlements, the Israeli army imposed a particularly stinking collective punishment.
Video: EU-Israel Cooperation
Alternative Information Center – While the European Union hopes to be a major player in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and presents itself as being an honest broker, analysts say that the EU has taken a decidedly pro-Israel stance.
Palestinian Refugees, Supporters Protest Canada Park
Alternative Information Center – Palestinian, Israeli and international activists gathered in front of the Representative Office of Canada to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and the Embassy of Canada to Israel in Tel Aviv for protest vigils on Monday (21/2)…
PA Calls for Boycott of International Tourism Conference Jerusalem 2011
Alternative Information Center – Palestinian Tourism Minister Khulud Daibes is calling on the international community to boycott the International Tourism Conference Jerusalem 2011, taking place from March 29-31, in the Israeli-occupied city.
Two Month Old Baby, Father Injured by Tear Gas Shot in Their Home in East Jerusalem
Alternative Information Center – Friday evening (19/2) Silwan resident Issam Qawasmeh and his 2 month old son were forced to seek medical treatment after Israeli border guards launched a tear gas grenade into the family’s living room, filling the home…
Israeli Pinkwashing Campaign to be Launched at Berlin Tourism Show in March
Alternative Information Center – Berlin’s International Tourism Trade Show (ITB-Berlin) will be the site from which the Israeli government launches its campaign to promote gay tourism to the city of Tel Aviv.
Letters: US veto will damage prospects for peace
The Guardian 21 Feb 2011 – Now that the US government has vetoed the resolution in the UN condemning illegal Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank ( Leader , 21 February), surely it is up to European countries to back up their support…
OPT: Fatah wants reconciliation with Hamas: spokesman
Relief Web 21 Feb 2011 – Source: Agence France-Presse
Palestinians protest at ‘despicable’ Obama UN veto
Relief Web 20 Feb 2011 – Source: Agence France-Presse
MIDEAST: Mubarak Name Easier to Erase Than his Legacy
IPS It was easy enough to rename Mubarak Children’s Hospital the Al Tahrir Hospital in Gaza. Not so easy is the task of managing patients who need to cross over to the Egyptian side for treatment, or come back in.
PERU-ISRAEL: Diplomatic Impasse over Corruption Cases
IPS The Peruvian government has offered to put Israeli citizen Dan Cohen on trial in Peru, after refusing to extradite him to Israel on the grounds that there is no extradition treaty between the two countries. Cohen is alleged to have taken bribes of 4.1 million dollars while serving on the…
Egypt freezes Mubarak’s assets
YNet News – Worldwide assets of Mubarak family to be frozen as British PM meets with top….
Israeli accused of Swiss diamond theft is extraditable
YNet News – Jerusalem District Court rules Felix Prakopetz charged in Switzerland for….
IDF: More Druze choose medical field
YNet News – Number of Druze doctors, combat medics is on rise; record number of Druze to….
Hamas bans men from women’s salons
YNet News – Hamas has imposed another Islamic ruling on Gazans, ordering women’s beauty salons to employ only females. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported Monday …….
Chilean miners to visit Israel Wednesday
YNet News – Thirty-one of the 33 miners who were trapped for 68 days underground in Chile are due to arrive in Israel Wednesday for a week-long tour. “It won’t be a circus,” the …….
Settler gets community service for weapons theft
YNet News – A 19-year old settler was sentenced to just 100 hours of community service Monday, without a conviction, for stealing weapons and ammunition from IDF warehouses in the …….
Plans to expand Har Homa rejected
YNet News – Jerusalem Municipality’s local planning and construction committee announced Monday it would not approve plans to expand the Jewish Har Homa neighborhood in east …….
Palestinian Information Center
Abu Marzouk: Israel most concerned over Egypt power shift
PIC 21 Feb 2011 – Dr. Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief in Hamas’s politburo said Israel is most concerned of repercussions following the shift of power Egypt.
IOF troops arrest data center manager, Khalil notable
PIC 21 Feb 2011 – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed Wadi Hilwa data center in Silwan town in occupied Jerusalem on Monday evening and arrested its manager Jawad Siyam.
Moalem: US veto against settlement activity “shameful”
PIC 21 Feb 2011 – Syrian foreign minister Walid Al-Moalem has described the latest US veto at the UNSC aborting a resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian land as “shameful”.
Hamas: Sudden Fatah reconciliation calls need backing on ground
PIC 21 Feb 2011 – The Hamas resistance movement in Gaza is demanding that sudden reconciliation calls by senior Palestinian official Nabil Shaath are backed by practical steps.
Radwan: Hamas preparing new plan for reconciliation
PIC 21 Feb 2011 – Dr. Ismail Radwan, a Hamas leader, said that his movement was preparing a new vision for national reconciliation based on comprehensive dialog and political partnership in a way preserving constants.
Egypt’s Muslim brothers to establish political party soon
PIC 21 Feb 2011 – Leader of the Muslim brotherhood Dr. Mohamed Badi’a said the group decided Monday to initiate preparations for the establishment of a political party under the name of “Freedom and Justice.”
Israeli raid on home and office of MP Attoun in O. Jerusalem
PIC 21 Feb 2011 – Israeli troops stormed and ransacked the home and office of Jerusalemite MP Ahmed Attoun, facing eviction from the holy city, as well as other houses of his relatives and kidnapped a number of them.
PFLP refuses participation in Fayyad’s new gov’t
PIC 21 Feb 2011 – The popular front for the liberation of Palestine said it declined an offer made by Salam Fayyad, the head of the de facto government in the West Bank, urging it to participate in his new cabinet.
Housing Minister condemns large-scale settlement construction plan in OJ
PIC 21 Feb 2011 – Gaza Minister of Public Works and Housing Yousef al-Mansi condemned approved plans to erect 3,300 homes for Jewish settlers in Jerusalem as announced by Israeli occupation.
Palestinian worker wounded in IOF shooting
PIC 21 Feb 2011 – A Palestinian worker was wounded on Monday morning when Israeli occupation forces (IOF) opened gunfire at him east of Gaza city, medical sources reported.
DIANA BUTTU ON THE PALESTINE PAPERS [VIDEO]
Intifada-Palestine: 26 Jan 2011 – In this special segment of Palestine Studies TV, Diana Buttu, a former member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Negotiations Support Unit, spoke about the recent leak of thousands of internal Palestinian documents concerning the ongoing negotiations with Israel. They were published and covered extensively by Al Jazeera and The Guardian. She spoke about their significance, the political fallout and what they say about Israel’s basic position on negotiations and the prospects for a two-state solution. Palestine Studies TV is a special project of the Institute for Palestine Studies. www.palestine-studies.orgmore
JEFF GATES: ISRAEL STRIKES BACK
Intifada-Palestine: 26 Jan 2011 – Jeff Gates Timing is everything when waging war “by way of deception,” the motto that has long guided Israeli war-planners. Whenever Israel’s geopolitical goals are threatened, chaos is assured. In national security terminology, the January 24 th bombing at Moscow’s busiest airport was “out of theater repositioning.” Moscow airport First among Tel Aviv’s priorities is their need to maintain traction for the latest geopolitical narrative: a “global war on terrorism” against “Islamo-fascism.” The fact that America’s two latest wars serve Israeli goals remains largely unmentioned in Western media. Six days prior to the Moscow bombing, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev traveled to the West Bank to endorse a Palestinian state with its capital East Jerusalem. He pointedly noted “this was the first visit of a Russian president to Palestine not united with a visit to another country” (Israel). Then he joined a fast-lengthening list of nations confirming that, to date, 109…more
THE STUTTGART DECLARATION FOR A ONE STATE SOLUTION IN PALESTINE — AN ANALYSIS BY DR. LAWRENC DAVIDSON
Intifada-Palestine: 26 Jan 2011 – Dr. Lawrence Davidson Part I — Historical Context When Yasir Arafat took over the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1969 he changed it from a tool of the Egyptian government to a dynamic united front seeking national liberation for the Palestinian people. What sort of national liberation? Arafat’s initial hope was to transform Palestine/Israel from an exclusive religious-ethnic state designed for Jews to an inclusive democratic secular state with equality for all its citizens. One could hardly imagine a more progressive political goal. However, because of a series of distorting factors such as guilt felt over the Holocaust, Zionist lobby pressure operating within many governments, and the racism still operating against Arabs and Muslims, neither Palestinians nor their healthy political goal of a secular democracy got fair hearings in the West. That being the case, history unfolded in its now familiar fashion. The West turned a blind eye while Israel…more
PALESTINE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A LOST CAUSE
Intifada-Palestine: 26 Jan 2011 – Alan Hart The most sickening (I mean truly vomit inducing) thing about the Al Jazeera revelations, the so-called Palestine Papers, is not what they confirm about the quisling status of the impotent and corrupt Palestine Authority. Nor is it what they confirm about the Israeli leadership’s complete lack of interest in peace on terms other than those which require the Palestinians to surrender — to abandon their struggle for even an acceptable minimum amount of justice. What then is the most sickening thing? By offering or at least indicating that it was prepared to offer such huge concessions, the PA leadership encouraged Israel’s political and military leaders in their belief that if only they are intransigent, repressive and brutal enough for long enough, they can break the will of the Palestinians to continue their struggle and force them to accept a handful of crumbs from Zionism’s table . That’s the really…more
China police show up en masse at hint of protest
LA Times 21 Feb 2011 – Pre-announced demonstrations in 13 Chinese cities bring plenty of paramilitary, uniformed and undercover police, but not many protesters. Six people are reportedly detained overall. In military terms, it might be called a disproportionate preemptive strike, one that underscored how nervous the Chinese government is about pro-democracy demonstrations taking place thousands of miles away in the Middle East.
Fears of Chaos Temper Calls for Change in Morocco
New York Times 21 Feb 2011 – As in Jordan, demands for the resignation of the government have not touched the king, who is considered by many to be a reformer on the side of the poor.
Link by Link: Egyptians Were Unplugged, and Uncowed
New York Times 21 Feb 2011 – The Internet blackout in Egypt illustrated the need for an independent community of technical experts to protect Egyptians’ connection to the world.
‚ÄòOnce you start looking at the truth you can’t stop’ (soldier pisses on 13-year-old boy, boy is imprisoned for 8 months)
Mondoweiss – Last week at an event for our Goldstone book at Alwan for the Arts , Rebecca Vilkomerson of Jewish Voice for Peace said that the Gaza onslaught of ’08-’09 had caused “an irreparable rupture” between Israel and “some portion” of the American Jewish community. She added: “Once…
Knife in two-state-solution’s back traced to Israel lobby
Mondoweiss – Glenn Greenwald describes the sad tidings from New York— and acknowledges that the Israel lobby effected Obama’s first veto in the UN Security Council. Note that he uses the language of national interests: at one of the most critical times in that region in more than…
Last year the ‚ÄòTimes’ called accomplice in slaughter, Seif Gaddafi, the ‚ÄòWestern-friendly face of reform’ in Libya
Mondoweiss – Gaddafi vows not to flee Libya- sources Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat- Libyan sources told Asharq al-Awsat that the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, will not flee the country if the situation escalates, and that he intends to die on Libyan soil. http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=24232 Full Text of Saif Gadaffi’s…
Kind of like taking tea with Mubarak while Tahrir was shaking
Mondoweiss – Palestinian writers are refusing to meet Ian McEwan, who is in Israel, accepting an award and meeting up with man of yesterday David Grossman. Oh I loved Ian McEwan in the day. Here Ynet’s coverage : Having shrugged off calls to refuse an Israeli literary honor, Ian…
‚ÄòObama settlements’ —Tel Aviv demo
Mondoweiss –
Division in Palestine
Palestine Monitor – On the West Bank, the bigger chunk of a would-be Palestinian state, aging leaders have been pondering how to thwart an eruption by a frustrated people seeking to emulate their Egyptian cousins. Some think they can deflect anger, albeit non-violently, onto Israel. Others have called for…
Uzi Arad Resigns As Bibi’s National Security Advisor
Tikun Olam – Uzi Arad: the spy who came in from the cold after the Franklin-Aipac spy scandal (Tess Scheflan) Caught up in a tug of war between Avigdor Lieberman and Bibi Netayahu over who would become Israel’s new ambassador to London, Uzi Arad resigned in a huff as…
IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Prefers Faith to Planes, Tanks
Tikun Olam – Deputy IDF chief of staff Yair Naveh, who ordered the targeted killings of Palestinians, a story which Anat Kamm leaked to Uri Blau, said at an army ceremony : The events currently shaking the Arab world “were ordained from above” by a guiding hand, Israel Defense Forces…
Egypt seeks Mubarak assets freeze
BBC 21 Feb 2011 – Egypt’s top prosecutor requests the freezing of the foreign assets of Hosni Mubarak, 10 days after he was forced to stand down amid mass rallies.
Egypt re-opens museums and sites
BBC 21 Feb 2011 – Egypt re-opens many of its museums and historical sites, which had been closed since the civil uprising started in January.
Nationalism, Democracy, and the Arab Awakening
Antiwar.com 21 Feb 2011 – The revolutionary wave sweeping through the Middle East promises to topple sclerotic Arab regimes throughout the region, but there is a marked difference between, say, Egypt and Iran — and the difference is the nationalist factor. In Egypt, the people rose up against a US-supported dictatorship…
Kill a Palestinian and You Shall Enter Heaven [Satire]
Sabbah report 21 Feb 2011 – The message is so plain and simple that even Shas Party members can understand it. Obama works for the Jews. The NJDC’s statement shows how happy the Jews are with this.
(en) Palestine-Israel, The less radical left added to the joint struggle, compete with the anarchists against the wall
A-infos 21 Feb 2011 – The Solidarity Sheikh Jarrah loose front of Zionist left, humanist religious trend, crystallized and expanded mainly to the annexed East Jerusalem and within 1948 borders. Our comrades from Jerusalem joined them from the beginning and contributed to their radicalizing. They sometimes join us in our Bil’in…
Articles
We’re on the wrong path
Steve Feldman, Palestine Note2/21/2011
The U.S. government vetoes a UN resolution it agrees with. We’ve long ago given up on getting Israel to freeze, much less dismantle, settlements that are universally recognized as being against international law. We can’t help but support dictators in Middle East countries, even though doing so violates our fundamental principles. There’s something seriously wrong with our approach to the Israel/Palestine conflict. The problem lies in the foundation of our understanding of the conflict and the people involved.
Too many Americans have the sense that the entirely moral Israeli people face an evil, immoral enemy bent on killing Jews. So many of us were taught notions, like “Palestinians fled to further the killing of Jews,” when hundreds of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children were actually made refugees by force, when Christian and Muslim Palestinian families were violently expelled from their homes. We have seen written documentation of Haganah war plans, Haganah Plan D, that specifically called for expulsions of Palestinians, whole villages of Christian and Muslim Palestinian families.
I’m no longer amazed at the hard documentation that continues to come to people’s attention, including a June 1948 Israeli Defense Forces document, “The Emigration of the Arabs of Palestine in the Period 1/12/1947/- 1/6/1948.” According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, the report listed 11 factors that caused the exodus. Listed in what the document described as “order of importance”:
Direct, hostile Jewish [Haganah/IDF] operations against Arab settlements.
The effect of our [Haganah/IDF] hostile operations against nearby [Arab] settlements….(…especially the fall of large neighbouring centers).
Operation of [Jewish] dissidents [Irgun Zwa?? Leumi and Lohamei Herut Yisrael ]…. more.. e-mail
Israeli media ‘fears’ the new Egypt
Neve Gordon, Redress2/22/2011
Over the past three weeks the Israeli media has been extremely interested in Egypt.
During the climatic days of the unprecedented demonstrations, television news programmes spent most of their airtime covering the protests, while the daily papers dedicated half the news and opinion pages to the unfolding events.
Rather than excitement at watching history in the making, however, the dominant attitude here, particularly on television, was of anxiety — a sense that the developments in Egypt were inimical to Israel’s interests. Egypt’s revolution, in other words, was bad news.
It took a while for Israel’s experts on “Arab affairs” to get a grip on what was happening. During the early days of unrest, the recurrent refrain was that “Egypt is not Tunis”.
Commentators assured the public that the security apparatuses in Egypt are loyal to the regime and that consequently there was little if any chance that President Hosni Mubarak’s government would fall. Media switch
Once it became clear that this line of analysis was erroneous, most commentators followed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s lead and criticized President Barack Obama’s administration for not supporting Mubarak. The Foreign News editor of one channel noted that: “The fact that the White House is permitting the protests is reason for worry;” while the prominent political analyst Ben Kaspit expressed his longing for President George W. Bush. more.. e-mail
American Zionism against the Egyptian Pro-Democracy Movement
James Petras, Dissident Voice2/21/2011
One of the least analyzed aspects of the Egyptian pro-democracy movement and US policy toward it, is the role of the influential Zionist power configuration (ZPC) including the leading umbrella organization — the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (CPMAJO) — Congressional Middle East committee members, officials occupying strategic positions in the Obama Administration’s Middle East bureaus, as well as prominent editors, publicists and journalists who play a major role in the prestigious newspapers and popular weekly magazines. This essay is based on a survey of every issue of the Daily Alert (propaganda bulletin of the CPMAJO), the NY Times and the Washington Post between January 25 — February 17, 2011. 1
From the very beginning of the Egyptian pro-democracy movement, the ZPC, called into question the legitimacy of the anti-dictatorial demands by focusing on the “Islamic threat”. In particular, the ultra-Zionist Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the Daily Alert harped on the “threat” of an “Islamic takeover” by the Muslim Brotherhood even as the overwhelming number of non-Zionist experts and reporters in Egypt demonstrated that the vast majority of protesters were not members of any Islamic political movement, but largely advocates of a secular democratic republic.
Once their initial propaganda ploy failed, the ZPC developed several new propaganda lines: the most prominent of which was a sustained defense of the Mubarak dictatorship as a bulwark of Israel’s ‚Äòsecurity’ and guardian of the so-called “Peace Accord” of 1979. In other words, the ZPC pressured the US administration, via Congressional hearings, the press and AIPAC to support Mubarak as a key guarantor and collaborator of Israel’s supremacy in the Middle East; although it meant that the Obama regime would have to openly oppose the million-member Egyptian freedom movement. Israeli journalists, officials and their US Zionist counterparts willingly admitted that although the Mubarak regime was a bloody, corrupt tyranny, he should be supported because a democratic government in Cairo might end Egypt’s decades-old collaboration with the brutal Israeli colonization of Palestine. more.. e-mail
Gaddafi uses deadly force against protesters
Electronic Intifada: 21 Feb 2011 – CAIRO (IPS) – Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi has unleashed the bloodiest crackdown so far against pro-democracy protesters seeking his ouster, killing dozens of people in only four days of protests.more
In Gaza, Mubarak’s name easier to erase than his legacy
Electronic Intifada: 21 Feb 2011 – RAFAH, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) – It was easy enough to rename Mubarak Children’s Hospital the al-Tahrir Hospital in Gaza. Not so easy is the task of managing patients who need to cross over to the Egyptian side for treatment, or come back in.more
Al-Tuwani children’s struggle to go to school
Electronic Intifada: 21 Feb 2011 – On the afternoon of 7 February 2011, masked Israeli settlers from Havat Maon outpost chased a group of twelve Palestinian schoolchildren who were walking home from school in al-Tuwani village in the occupied West Bank’s South Hebron Hills. The Israeli military had failed to arrive to escort the schoolchildren, forcing the children to take a longer path without the army’s escort.more
Egypt-Israel “peace treaty” brought more war than peace
Electronic Intifada: 21 Feb 2011 – In the wake of Egypt’s revolution, Israeli and Western commentators have called the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty “cornerstone” of regional peace and stability. That Israel always viewed the treaty as a blank check for war, however, is evident both in its behavior and in fears that the abrogation of the treaty might mean Israel will have to curtail its military interventions. Richard Irvine comments for The Electronic Intifada.more
Division in Palestine
Palestine Monitor: 21 Feb 2011 – On the West Bank, the bigger chunk of a would-be Palestinian state, aging leaders have been pondering how to thwart an eruption by a frustrated people seeking to emulate their Egyptian cousins. Some think they can deflect anger, albeit non-violently, onto Israel. Others have called for elections to all Palestinian governing bodies, including the presidency, the parliament and local councils, within six months. Yet others think the best way forward is to try once again to share power with Hamas, the rival Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip. In truth, no one knows what will happen. The most unlikely development is the early resumption of peace talks with Israel. Most Palestinian leaders acknowledge that things on their home ground have been going wrong. Five years ago they could boast, albeit briefly, that their fledgling state was more democratic than almost anywhere in the Arab world. But today’s Palestinian Authority (…more
Condi Weighs In: The Politics of Self-Rehabilitation
Palestine Chronicle: 21 Feb 2011 – By Steve Breyman She couldn’t resist adding her voice to the current discussion over the Arab uprisings. As the popular revolt in Egypt drove Hosni Mubarak from power, former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice lamented in a February 16 Washington Post op-ed, “It didn’t have to be this way.” The ironic thing is, she’s right about that. When former high-level policymakers contribute to current debates over policy, a primary motivation is to show how on top of today’s issues they were when in power. Or how they saw the current problem clearly then, but their recommended course of action was overruled. Or how if the present administration would only stay the old course, all would turn out well. For Rice, several factors (none of the above) explain her return to the fray. She has lessons to draw from her diplomatic experience. She needs to inform or remind us that she’s…more
Israeli Media ‘Fears’ the New Egypt
Palestine Chronicle: 21 Feb 2011 – By Neve Gordon Over the past three weeks the Israeli media has been extremely interested in Egypt. During the climatic days of the unprecedented demonstrations, television news programmes spent most of their airtime covering the protests, while the daily papers dedicated half the news and opinion pages to the unfolding events. Rather than excitement at watching history in the making, however, the dominant attitude here, particularly on television, was of anxiety— a sense that the developments in Egypt were inimical to Israel’s interests. Egypt’s revolution, in other words, was bad news. It took a while for Israel’s experts on “Arab Affairs” to get a grip on what was happening. During the early days of unrest, the recurrent refrain was that “Egypt is not Tunis”. Commentators assured the public that the security apparatuses in Egypt are loyal to the regime and that consequently there was little if any chance that President…more
Onward Revolution: Ridding the Region of U.S. and Israeli Influence
Palestine Chronicle: 21 Feb 2011 – By Tammy Obeidallah Two dictators gone in less than a month. Mass protests from Yemen and Bahrain to Algeria and Libya. In Lebanon, Hezbollah—due to a broad coalition of Muslim, Christian and now Druze support—named the country’s new Prime Minister. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad hailed these recent developments as the start of “a new Middle East free from U.S. and Israeli interference.” Somehow I doubt this ‘new Middle East’ is what then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice envisioned when she was having her infamous ‘birth pangs’ in 2006. The predictable hypocrisy contrasting US reactions to the demonstrations in Egypt which toppled Mubarak as opposed to those that transpired in Iran after Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s re-election illustrates that “democracy” is only to be lauded when the movement is pro-Western. In a Muslim society, that means it has to be “moderate” and friendly to Israel. Rather than focusing on the reforms that will…more
American Zionism against the Egyptian Pro-Democracy Movement
Dissident Voice: 21 Feb 2011 – One of the least analyzed aspects of the Egyptian pro-democracy movement and US policy toward it, is the role of the influential Zionist power configuration (ZPC) including the leading umbrella organization — the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (CPMAJO) — Congressional Middle East committee members, officials occupying strategic positions in the Obama Administration’s Middle East bureaus, as well as prominent editors, publicists and journalists who play a major role in the prestigious newspapers and popular weekly magazines. This essay is based on a survey of every issue of the Daily Alert (propaganda bulletin of the CPMAJO), the NY Times and the Washington Post between January 25 — February 17, 2011. 1 From the very beginning of the Egyptian pro-democracy movement, the ZPC, called into question the legitimacy of the anti-dictatorial demands by focusing on the “Islamic threat”. In particular, the ultra-Zionist Washington Post , the Wall Street…more
What if the Egyptian Protesters Were Democrats?
Dissident Voice: 21 Feb 2011 – Their recent upheaval would certainly have been different, perhaps dramatically different. In the past month, the people of Egypt—inspired by the recent democratic revolution in Tunisia and preceding emergent revolutions in Libya, Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen, and Morocco—have undertaken a revolt of truly stunning proportions, one that includes men and women from all class strata, religious and ethnic origins, and ideological commitments. They managed to rid themselves of a longstanding and brutal dictator worth over $40 billion and supported by the collective power of the United States, European Union, Israel, and the Arab Gulf States. Now that two Arab dictators have been vanquished by the collective will of unaffiliated protesters, many American commentators have been forced to rethink their assumptions about the supposedly tribal and authoritarian Arab mind. Such commentators, sometimes conservative but often liberal, fancy themselves guardians of a civic and political enlightenment that in reality is misinformed in…more
The Veto and the Case for Impeaching President Obama
Dissident Voice: 21 Feb 2011 – Never before has an American President’s fear of offending the Zionist lobby and its stooges in Congress been so exposed as it was by Obama’s decision to veto the Security Council resolution condemning continued illegal Israeli settlement activities on the occupied West Bank and demanding that Israel “immediately and completely cease” all such activities. In a different America — an informed America — some might think, I do, that Obama should be impeached. The charge? TREASON After she had exercised the Obama administration’s first veto, the plea made by U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice for understanding of America’s position could not have been more absurd. “Our opposition to the resolution before this Council today should not be misunderstood to mean that we support settlement activity. On the contrary, we reject in the strongest terms the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity.” So why the veto? Ambassador Rice said: The United States…more
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The New Dark Age 
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