Fun and Games (Haaretz, 21/08/08)
Oh, the Olympics, the Olympics. How I love the Games. "We'll be in the new house for the Olympics," I promised about a month ago (as my wife just reminded me), when the renovations began. And now the Olympics are here and there's no electricity yet in the new house. By Sayed Kashua.
Not the good guys vs. the bad guys (Haaretz, 17/08/08)
But one does not have to be a propagandizing Georgian newspaper to paint this new war in stark black and white. After all, the West and Israel are doing it, too: Georgia, a tiny democracy, dear to the West and darling of the U.S., is facing off against the aggressive, conquering, bullying Russian bear, not to mention the new Nazi. Good guys versus bad guys, David versus Goliath, "Adolf Putin" versus the freedom fighters.
The Anger, the Longing, the Hope (Uri Avnery's column at Gush Shalom, 16/08/08)
We were the first Israelis to come to Cairo, and one of the things we were very curious about was: how did you manage to surprise us at the beginning of the October 1973 war?
The general answered: "Instead of reading the intelligence reports, you should have read our poets." / I reflected on these words last Wednesday, at the funeral of Mahmoud Darwish.
Israel's front-line thugs (The Guardian, 07/08/08)
Consistent stands against the depravity of the West Bank's lawless settlers are the only way to put an end to their crimes. / News that leftwing activists are facing increased pressure to stay out of the West Bank is a worrying development in local politics, especially at a time when settler attacks on Palestinians are on the increase. Rather than clamp down on the settlers perpetrating the violence, the authorities are pursuing a path of locking the doors to the outside world and pretending that nothing at all is amiss.
Olmert's crimes (Haaretz, 01/08/08)
The critics of Ehud Olmert on the right, including senior figures in his party, claim that the prime minister has turned negotiations with the Palestinians and Syrians into a shovel with which he seeks to dig himself out of the police investigations against him.
Israel, Palestine Now Fighting Over Cemetery Space (The Onion, 28/07/08)
After decades of bitter conflict and the loss of thousands of innocent lives, Israeli and Palestinian forces clashed once again this week, with each side laying claim to a five-mile stretch of desperately needed cemetery space.
Telling it Like it Isn't (New Matilda, 22/07/08)
Distortions, delusions, misrepresentations. No wonder Western leaders and media don't understand the popularity of groups like Hezbollah and Hamas in the Arab world.
Despite all the sabre-rattling, it looks as if Tehran wants to talk (The National Newspaper, 12/07/08)
The Wrong Questions on Iran - Again (Rootless Cosmopolitan, 09/07/08)
From triumph to torture (The Guardian, 02/07/08)
Israel's treatment of an award-winning young Palestinian journalist is part of a terrible pattern. By John Pilger.
Report: Soldiers routinely abuse Palestinian prisoners (Haaretz, 22/06/08)
A report by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) to be released today claims that Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers routinely abuse Palestinian detainees and the army and law enforcement ignores the abuse.
We’re Making Deals (Forward editorial, 19/06/08)
Suddenly, after years of diplomatic stalemate on every front, Israel is talking deals, deals, deals, all up and down its famously rough neighborhood. Jerusalem is talking — indirectly, through third parties — with three enemies that were off-limits just months ago. It’s talking with Hamas..., Hezbollah [and] Syria...
ANALYSIS / Cease-fire deal means Hamas is calling the shots (Haaretz, 18/06/08)
Video: In defense of Jerusalem (Jerusalem Post, 16/06/08)
Prof. Mordechai Kedar of the Arab Studies Department in Bar-Ilan University comes to the defense of Jerusalem in stormy al-Jazeera debate.
Israeli Ministers Mull Plans for Military Strike against Iran (Spiegel Online, 16/06/08)
The Israeli government no longer believes that sanctions can prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. A broad consensus in favor of a military strike against Tehran's nuclear facilities -- without the Americans, if necessary -- is beginning to take shape.
Getting fed up (Haaretz, 16/06/08)
Iran has turned into a land of refuge for politicians who are rich in screwups and short on accomplishments. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatens to wipe us off the map, how can one disturb the prime minister with trifles such as the Arab peace initiative? ... The compulsive fixation on the Iranian issue ensures Israel's status in the eyes of creation as the source of trouble. When Israel is perceived as the central factor in the tensions with Iran, it should not be surprised if it is depicted in the world as the major offender in the spiraling cost of oil.
Mismarriage of Convenience (Foreign Policy, June 2008 Issue)
Iran and Israel are stuck in a dysfunctional relationship that neither party can escape on its own. Here’s how to break up their fight.
On the Future of Israel and Palestine / An Interview with Ilan Pappé and Noam Chomsky (Counterpunch, 06/06/08)
Telling lies about Bil'in (Live From Occupied Palestine blog, 06/06/08)
Today, once again, the Israeli military lied to its citizens and the rest of the world. / In an article published today (June 6) on Ynet, the online version of the Israeli mass daily Yedioth Ahronoth, the Israeli military claimed that it was justified in attacking an anti-wall and anti-occupation demonstration, in which an Irish Nobel Peace Laureate and the Vice President of the European Union participated, because demonstration participants were "rioting" and "throwing stones" at the Israeli military... As a non-violent and peaceful participant in this demonstration, I completely dispute these claims made by the Israeli military.
Study: Israeli Jews and Arabs want peace (The Harvard University Gazette, 22/05/08)
A new study released May 15 finds strong support for coexistence efforts among a majority of Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel. The findings may buoy hopes for long-term peace in the region.
A prophet perplexed (The Guardian, 16/05/08)
Herzl's dream has been realised, but with the kinds of conflict and society he never foresaw. Writes Benny Morris.
Palestinian Rap Group DAM Use Hip-Hop to Convey the Frustrations, Hopes of a Dispossessed People (Democracy Now!, 15/05/08)
As Palestinians Mark 60th Anniversary of Their Dispossession, a Conversation with Palestinian Writer and Doctor Ghada Karmi (Democracy Now!, 15/05/08)
Let's be done with all the Talanskys (Haaretz, 12/05/08)
Revealing the identity of the primary witness, Morris Talansky, in the lastest Ehud Olmert affair raises questions that go beyond the prime minister. Serious questions need to be asked about the relationship between American Jewry and Israel. Writes Gideon Levy.
“But what if nobody takes notice?” (Conflicts Forum, 11/05/08)
“But what if nobody takes notice?” is the question posed by Robert Malley and Hussein Agha in an article in the recent New York Review of Books concerning the putative ‘shelf agreement’ being discussed between President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert. A ‘shelf agreement’ is an exercise in outlining some principles for the settlement of the Palestinian issue, rather than to attempt a full solution.
Into the Lion's Den (The New York Review of Books, 01/05/08)
In its final year in office and the first year of its Israeli–Palestinian diplomacy, the Bush administration has introduced the latest and in some respects oddest idea for achieving peace, the shelf agreement.
From darkness into light (Haaretz, 09/05/08)
Again we celebrated the holiday of freedom while Gilad Shalit remained in captivity. We spoke of going from darkness into a great light, but left the talks about releasing the abducted soldiers in the dark. We have become accustomed to let our future depend on Shin Bet people who negotiate covertly, and we have stopped asking what we could do to release the abducted soldiers.
Israel’s 60th birthday - what the media left out (Crikey, 08/05/08)
A celebration that ignores the plight of Palestine (The Ages, 08/05/08)
An Op-Ed by Michael Shaik (the public advocate for Australians for Palestine) and Antony Loewenstein.
Is Iran next? (Unleashed, 08/05/08)
You have to be sad, then happy (Haaretz, 04/05/08)
Israel At 60 (Forward, 01/05/08)
Unforgiven (The Atlantic, May 08 edition)
The rift between a beleaguered prime minister and a grieving novelist mirrors the division confounding Israel. Can the two men overcome the differences that separate them? Can Israel overcome its paralysis to make the hard choice necessary for its survival as a Jewish democracy?
We're not celebrating Israel's anniversary (The Guardian, 30/04/08)
Yes, it is apartheid (Haaretz, 30/04/08)
Our Defense Forces, our war crimes, our terrorism (Haaretz, 29/04/08)
Redress the balance on Palestine (Sydney Morning Herald, 29/04/08)
Ahmadinejad and wiping Israel off the Map, A Persian Perspective (Kamangir (blog), 27/04/08)
Taking back the land: joint, non-violent resistance against Israeli occupation and apartheid (Live from Occupied Palestine (blog), 25/04/08)
Soldier Jailed for Facebook Pic (Forecast Highs, 25/04/08)
EI exclusive: a pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia (Electronic Intifada, 21/04/08)
Like gang warfare (Haaretz, 21/04/08)
On both sides of the fence locking in the Gaza Strip, there is a war of desperation going on. Hamas is fighting against the insufferable siege that the Gaza Strip has been under for many months, and the Israel Defense Forces is mostly preoccupied with avenging Hamas' actions.
Our reign of terror, by the Israeli army (The Independent, 19/04/08)
In shocking testimonies that reveal abductions, beatings and torture, Israeli soldiers confess the horror they have visited on Hebron.
The Israeli 'settler' serving in Italy's parliament (Haaretz, 18/04/08)
Israeli Arabs Take On Gentrification in Jaffa (Forward, 17/04/08)
Group Alleges Government Allowing ‘Judaization’ of Mixed Town.
Area C strikes fear into the heart of Palestinians as homes are destroyed (The Guardian, 15/04/08)
Israelis defend rules that reject 94% of non-Jewish building applications.
Palestinians versus Tibetans - a double standard (Haaretz, 13/04/08)
PM to IDF commanders: Think of Palestinian suffering at roadblocks (Haaretz, 11/04/08)
Once We Were Strangers (Forward editorial, 10/04/08)
Grab more hills, expand the territory (London Review of Books, 10/04/08)
A review of The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-77 by Gershom Gorenberg and Lords of the Land: The War over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007 by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar.
Healing Israel’s Birth Scar (Rootless Cosmopolitan, 09/04/08)
Israelis ambivalent at 60th celebrations (JTA, 09/04/08)
Israelis are conflicted about the country's celebration of its 60th birthday, with many using it as an opportunity to talk about what's wrong with the country rather than what is right.
Rabbi Eliyahu: Approve outposts, encourage birth rate (Ynet, 09/04/08)
Thousands of religious-Zionist youths rally under slogan 'Rise and be encouraged', in honor of Mercaz Harav attack's 30-day anniversary. Rabbi Eliyahu comforts bereaved parents, strengthens youths.
UN expert stands by Nazi comments (BBC News, 08/04/08)
The next UN investigator into Israeli conduct in the occupied territories has stood by comments comparing Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis.
Hizbollah turns to Iran for new weapons to wage war on Israel (The Independent, 08/04/08)
Writes Robert Fisk.
Sixty years after Deir Yassin (The Electronic Intifafa, 08/04/08)
As a 10-year-old growing up in Johannesburg, I celebrated Israel's birth, 60 years ago. I unquestionably accepted the dramatic accounts of so-called self-defensive actions against Arab violence, to secure the Jewish state... When I became involved in our liberation struggle, I became aware of the similarities with the Palestinian cause in the dispossession of land and birthright by expansionist settler occupation.
We Must Engage Hamas (New Matilda, 07/04/08)
Shunning Palestine's leading political party isn't helping anyone, writes Antony Loewenstein.
Gaza Running on Near Empty (Inter Press Service, 06/04/08)
Ayman Eid stands as motionless as his orange Hyundai taxi. Never mind taking a passenger somewhere, Ayman has no idea how he will ever get home. /
The queue at the petrol station seems endless. Drivers have run out of petrol even to queue up in their cars; they just queue up themselves, empty cans in hand. Only the lucky leave with a full can by the end of a day...
Border Police let settlers retake illegal West Bank outpost (Haaretz, 06/04/08)
Settlement Freeze (Forward editorial, 03/04/08)
A rash of reports coming out of Israel indicates that a spurt of new construction is under way in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The development should be alarming to anyone who cares about Israel’s welfare.
The Path of Most Resistance (New Matilda, 03/04/08)
Why do people have to be shot before the Western media take notice?
Shas: Olmert promised to build in East Jerusalem (Haaretz, 02/04/08)
Peace Now: Settlement freeze is dead (Jerusalem Post, 31/03/08)
Livni's perseverance (Haaretz editorial, 31/03/08)
It is important that the talks Livni is conducting with the chairman of the Palestinian negotiating team, Ahmed Qureia, remain confidential, and that they continue without hindrance, for the good of both sides.
How occupation has corrupted Israel’s soul (SMH, 30/03/08)
Book review of "Israel and the Clash of Civilisations" by Jonathan Cook.
Palestinians Fear Two-Tier Road System (New York Times, 28/03/08)
Ali Abu Safia, mayor of this Palestinian village, steers his car up one potholed road, then another, finding each exit blocked by huge concrete chunks placed there by the Israeli Army. On a sleek highway 100 yards away, Israeli cars whiz by.
Abusing democracy (Haaretz, 28/03/08)
In an opinion piece published in Haaretz on March 24, "The Vision of an Arab-free Knesset," Shahar Ilan wrote: "Those who seek to cast them [representatives of the Arab public] out will engender a process which, in a short period of time, could lead to the formation of an Israeli Arab parliament, calling for autonomy or an uprising in Israel." / Unfortunately, aspirations for the creation of an Israeli Arab parliament, and for Arab autonomy in Israel, have been harbored for years by the leaders of Israel's Arab community.
Israel's royal welcome (The Gurdian, 25/03/08)
On April 7, Prince Philip will be hosting a dinner at Windsor Castle organised by the Jewish National Fund. They will be marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Israeli state. However this is not a private dinner. Nor is the JNF an ordinary organisation.
With friends like these (Haaretz, 23/03/08)
The parade of highly-placed foreign guests and the warm reception received by Israeli statesmen abroad have not been seen for quite some time... The visitors are taken, of course, to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, the Western Wall and now to Sderot as well - the new national pilgrimage site. A few also pay a perfunctory visit to Ramallah; no one goes to the Gaza Strip, and they all have nothing but praise for Israel. Not a word of criticism on the occupation, on Israel's violent operations in the territories, on the siege and the starving - with the exception of a few vague remarks on the need for a solution.
Real Friends (Uri Avnery's column in Gush Shalom (21/03/08)
Kanzlerin Merkel made a pilgrimage to Israel and groveled before Olmert and Barak. Before and after her, other world leaders did the same.
They did not do any good to Israel. They hurt it. Real friends of Israel would not encourage Olmert and Barak to continue on a road that leads to disaster.
Most Palestinians favor violence over talks, poll shows (International Herald Tribune, 18/03/08)
ANALYSIS: Merkel condemns Qassams, but ignores Israel's actions (Haaretz, 19/03/08)
A minister of war (Haaretz, 16/03/08)
Defense Minister Ehud Barak is a bitter disappointment. He was the first statesman who dared suggest brave, though lacking, solutions. Now, he has turned into the chief saboteur of any chance for a calm in the fighting, a cease-fire or diplomatic progress. Barak has long forsaken talk of peace. He certainly does not believe in Olmert's peace initiative and is trying his best to destroy it.
The PA's hollow protests (Haaretz, 13/03/08)
The evacuation of the settlements in the Gaza Strip, it should be said again, was a brilliant move by Israel to speed up the political separation between the West Bank and Gaza; it all the while masqueraded as "the beginning of the pullout."
Israeli government boycotts Al Jazeera (Reuters, 12/03/08)
Don't mention the war as Israel lauded (Sydney Morning Herald, 08/03/08)
A defeated policy, not a defeated people (The Electronic Intifada, 07/03/08)
Compared with the international silence that surrounded Israel's recent massacres of Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Gaza Strip, condemnation and condolences for the victims of the shooting attack that killed eight students at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem have been swift.
Let’s Make a Deal (Forward editorial, 06/03/08)
There’s one option, however, that’s gotten barely any media attention and deserves a closer look. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and head of Fatah, offered this past week to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Eitam to Arab MKs: Day will come when we will banish you (Ynet, 05/03/08)
Religious MK says Arab lawmakers who participated in 'treacherous' Umm al-Fahm protest against IDF operation should be 'expelled to Gaza'; El-Sana: Eitam should stand trial for his actions during first intifada.
'Guardian' editor apologizes for Jenin editorial (The Jerusalem Post, 03/03/08)
Contrary to Israel's Chief of Staff, at least half of those killed in Gaza did not take part in the fighting (B'Tselem, 03/03/08)
'Restraint' is deceitful, and 'forbearance' is vain (Haaretz, 02/03/08)
Even yesterday evening, after the IDF already had killed about 50 Palestinians, at least half of them unarmed, and including quite a number of women and children, Jerusalem continued to claim, "At present there will be no major ground operation." It's incredible: The IDF penetrates the heart of a crowded refugee camp, kills in a terrifyingly wholesale manner, with horrible bloodshed, and Israel continues to disseminate the lie of restraint. Two days earlier Israel killed more Palestinians than have been killed by all the Qassams over the past seven years. Among the dead were four children and an infant. The next day Israel killed another five boys. And who is the victim? Israel. And who is cruel? The Palestinians.
Israel in Deadly Denial (Rootless Cosmopolitan, 02/03/08)
Guest Column: Uri Avnery As dozens of Palestinian civilians are killed in Israel’s fierce retaliation for the latest round of rocket fire, the veteran Israeli peace campaigner Uri Avnery discusses the inevitable — it may take the death of hundreds or even thousands more Palestinians, and scores more Israelis, but in the end, Israel will talk to Hamas.
Racism in Israel on the rise (Ynet, 08/12/07)
Association for Civil Rights in Israel publishes annual report; reveals country overwhelmed by racism, restriction of personal freedoms, discrimination, especially towards Israeli-Arabs. Report not surprising, say Arab MKs.
Poll: 81% of Israelis want JNF land for Jews only (Ynet, 11/10/07)
Poll shows overwhelming support for JNF policy of selling land to Jews only; strongest support among National Union-NRP, Yisrael Beiteinu, United Torah Judaism and Labor Party voters.
Gaza: The Breakthrough That Did Not Happen (Haaretz, 27/02/08)
Majority of Israelis want to negotiate with Hamas (Salon.com, 27/02/08)
Inside a Failed Palestinian Police State (Rootless Cosmopolitan, 26/02/08)
Hezbollah and the ‘Unknown Knowns’ (Information Clearing House, 25/02/08)
We know well who killed the top Hezbollah commander, Imad Mugniyah on Feb 12th in Damascus.
While in the US media, only journalists like Seymour Hersh will have the nerve to point out the obvious, the Israeli media has not shied away from evidence of the Israeli intelligence’s involvement in this well-calculated assassination.
Israeli diplomat postpones meeting after Costa Rica recognizes Palestinian state (Santa Barbara News-Press, 25/02/08)
Jerusalem first (Haaretz, 24/02/08)
Construction continuing in West Bank settlements despite PM's pledge (Haaretz, 20/02/08)
Peace-minded residents of Gaza, Sderot blog together online (Haaretz, 20/02/08)
A demographic threat on the wane (Haaretz, 19/02/08)
These figures indicate that the "demographic revolution" - the Arabs becoming the majority in the area west of the Jordan River - will happen in a year or two. Such a dramatic development cries for a comment by those politicians and analysts who continuously nourish the idea of a "demographic threat," which they believe threatens the existence of the Jewish Zionist state.
German intellectuals: Israel's creation made Palestinians victims of Holocaust (Haaretz, 19/02/08)
Israelis 30 times more likely to be wiretapped than Americans (Haaretz, 19/02/08)
A third of settlements on land taken for 'security purposes' (Haaretz, 17/02/08)
Liquidation sale (Haaretz, 17/02/08)
It was like an especially wild orgy: First the great intoxication of the senses, then the bitter sobering up the next morning. Within a few hours, Israel went from celebrating the assassination of Imad Mughniyah to the fear of what would follow.
Israeli Scholar Says Jews Are Locked In Ancient Past and Future, Blind to Horrific Present (Mondoweiss, 16/02/08)
Disengagement and the Frontiers of Zionism (Middle East Report Online, 16/02/08)
Neighborhood memories (Haaretz, 18/02/08)
Robert Fisk: Bloody end of man who made kidnapping a weapon of war (The Independent, 14/02/08)
It wasn't the staring eyes, nor the way he picked up an apple in front of me and cut it open with such careful deliberation. It was the vice-like handshake, the steely grip that made my fingers hurt. "Imad Mougnieh," he said, as if to show he wasn't on the run, wasn't afraid to use his real name.
Israeli town sues Google over claim it was built on Arab village (Haaretz, 13/02/08)
Notes from the Underground: Iranians and Israelis connect online (On the Face, 13/02/08)
Ex-Israeli generals denounce checkpoints (The Associated Press, 13/02/08)
Rare meeting between settlers, Palestinians held in Hebron (Ynet, 10/02/08)
(Video) Jewish leaders say local sheikh told them 'this city is yours just as much as it is ours'
Perpetual blame game (Haaretz, 10/02/08)
The explosive dialogue between Hamas' Qassams in Sderot and the Israel Air Force strikes in Gaza has long resembled a perpetual motion machine - an eternal chain of action and automatic reaction, whose logic is no longer clear to anyone, because it seems to be self-sustaining.
A nuclear-free mirage (The Guardian, 07/02/08)
The Middle East cannot be freed from weapons of mass destruction unless the US turns the spotlight on Israel
A Strike in the Dark (The New Yorker, 11/02/08)
What did Israel bomb in Syria? By Seymour M. Hersh.
An Accidental War (New Matilda, 06/02/08)
If it weren’t for the US, the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon might never have happened, writes Antony Loewenstein.
JNF to erect signs in parks, citing destroyed Palestinian villages (Haaretz, 04/02/08)
The Strangulation of Gaza (The Nation, 01/02/08)
Refusing talk to facilitate talk – the paradox of Islamist dialogue: An overdue task or an exercise in appeasement? (Conflicts Forum, 17/01/08)
Lecture by Alastair Crooke, The Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut.
Was war essential? Report doesn't say so (Haaretz, 01/02/08)
Israel’s War With Hezbollah Was Not a Failure (Forward Op Ed, 01/02/08)
What Next for Gaza? (The American Prospect, 31/01/08)
Last week's border destruction granted a period of grace for Gaza, but it has also shown the holes in Israeli, Egyptian, United States, and Palestinian Authority policies.
ANALYSIS: Winograd Committee report says 'we are all guilty' (Haaretz, 30/01/08)
Winograd: Final ground op 'did not achieve military goals', but approving it was essential step (Haaretz, 30/01/08)
Finally, a popular uprising (Haaretz, 30/01/08)
The fall of the Rafah wall was a fitting combination of planning and the precise reading of the social and political map by the Hamas government, mixed with a mass response to the dictates of the overlord, Israel.
The Meaning of Peace (New Matilda, 30/01/08)
Palestinians in Gaza are currently being denied food, water and electricity. Why isn’t Israel being brought to account under international law, asks Randa Abdel-Fattah.
No easy solution while Hamas keeps warring (The Age, 28/01/08)
Gaza is the no-win situation that history sometimes deals out.
Palestinians suffer as the world fails Gaza (The Age, 28/01/08)
Talking is not enough to halt the colonisation of the West Bank.
Double threat to peace (Haaretz editorial, 27/01/08)
For 34 years, since the separation of forces after the Yom Kippur War, the Israel-Egyptian front has been quiet. The peace agreement signed by Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin has been stable and firm for more than a quarter of a century, despite fluctuations of governments and conflicts on other fronts. Peace with Egypt is one of Israel's greatest strategic assets, although it is a cool peace. The entire Arab world followed it in moving ahead toward coming to terms with Israel. Over the past week danger has hung over this peace.
Why the mighty fell (Haaretz, 27/01/08)
Here they are again, the protesting officers. After their failure in the wake of the Second Lebanon War, they have returned to us on the eve of the release of the final Winograd Committee report. Now, as then, their protest is hollow. They are crying out together with the bereaved parents, but their cry is infuriating. While protest in this complacent country is a good thing, in this case its content is deceptive, it focuses on the trivial and disregards substance. Writes Gideon Levy.
Whose monopoly now? (Haaretz, 27/01/08)
First there was delight. Senior officials in Israel said that Egypt had taken on this trouble called Gaza. You could almost hear the chadenfreude in their voices. After not wanting to hear about Gaza or its refugees for a generation, Egypt received both, explosively. Now, at last, there will be a responsible country, and not Israel, to deal with the refugees.
Ending The Stranglehold on Gaza (The Boston Globe, 26/01/08)
Worse than a Crime (Uri Avnery’s column in Gush Shalom, 26/01/08)
IT LOOKED like the fall of the Berlin wall. And not only did it look like it. For a moment, the Rafah crossing was the Brandenburg Gate. It is impossible not to feel exhilaration when masses of oppressed and hungry people break down the wall that is shutting them in, their eyes radiant, embracing everybody they meet - to feel so even when it is your own government that erected the wall in the first place.
The Fading of the Two-State Solution (Challenge, Issue 107, January/February 2008)
The siege of Gaza has failed (Haaretz editorial, 25/01/08)
The situation that arose once the Egypt-Gaza border was flung wide open has apparently not yet penetrated Israeli consciousness.
In praise of the Jewish blogosphere (Haaretz, 25/01/08)
The PR War in Gaza (Newsweek, 23/01/08)
They neither see nor remember (Haaretz, 23/01/08)
The security establishment was quick on Monday to boast of the success of its tactic of escalation against Gaza: Look, the number of Qassams declined. By the time these lines are published, the security establishment may spin another logical axiom: Since we renewed the supply of diesel fuel on a one-time basis, the Palestinians have gone back to firing Qassams. The conclusion: Continue the escalation.
As Gaza Plunges into Darkness, Israeli and Palestinian Fighters-Turned-Peace-Activists Speak Out (Democracy Now, 22/01/08)
Israel: Law for Censorship of Web Comments Passes Initial Knesset Voting (Global Voices Advocacy,19/01/08)
Canadian FM puts Israel, U.S. on torture watch list (Haaretz, 17/01/08)
Haaretz's Gideon Levy wins prize for cultural dialogue (Haaretz, 16/01/08)
Levy was awarded the prize for an article published on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, entitled "The children of 5767" (5767 is the Jewish calendar year that ended on September 12, 2007). The article told the stories of all the Palestinian children killed by Israel Defense Forces fire over the previous year.
Report: Israeli military courts automatically convict Palestinians (Santa Barbara News-Press, 06/01/08)
Gaza Outages Expand After Fuel Cutbacks (Associated Press, 06/01/08)
As Winter Sets In, Electricity Goes Off For Civilians.
Our Violent Presence (Tikkun Magazine, 02/01/08)
Ha'aretz columnist Amira Hass argues that Israelis in the West Bank are engaged in violence.
Evidence of Israeli 'cowardly blending' comes to light (Information Clearing House, 04/01/08)
It apparently never occurred to anyone in our leading human rights organisations or the Western media that the same moral and legal standards ought be applied to the behaviour of Israel and Hizbullah during the war on Lebanon 18 months ago. Belatedly, an important effort has been made to set that right.
Words won't stop the construction (Haaretz editorial, 01/01/08)
Equality’s Last Gasp in Israel (Washington Post Post Global, 31/12/07)
Arabic-Speaking Nebbish Hits Prime-Time Television in Israel (Forward, 26/12/07)
Amjad Alayan is Israeli television’s first Arab sitcom hero — a term applied loosely here, since the bespectacled Amjad is, well, a nebbish. Think George Costanza of “Seinfeld” fame with an Arabic twist.
Shooting Back (Democracy Now, 26/12/07)
The Israeli Human Rights Group B’Tselem Gives Palestinians Video Cameras to Document Life Under Occupation.
Iranian Jews: Reports of Iranians immigrating to Israel an 'outright lie' (Ynet, 26/12/07)
After 40 new Iranian immigrants arrive in Israel, Jewish community head in Iran tells reporters that Iranian Jews remain tied to their homeland
Civil rights group: Israel has reached new heights of racism (Haaretz, 16/12/07)
Not Negotiable (New Matilda, 10/12/07)
After the recent Annapolis ‘peace’ conference between the Israelis and the Palestinians, a group in Israel showed citizens of the country what they really thought of the negotiations in the US...
By Antony Loewenstein.
The Post-Annapolis Blame Game (Honest Reporting, 06/12/07)
Israel's opponents laying the groundwork for blame if peace process fails.
Dichter cancels UK visit for fear of being arrested (Ynet, 06/12/07)
Former Shin Bet chief cancels trip to UK following British criminal lawsuit against top Israeli security officials involved in assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Salah Shehadeh, which also left 14 Palestinian civilians dead.
Jewish Media Mistranslates Hamas Statement on Anniversary of the UN Partition Resolution (The Magnes Zionist blog, 01/12/07)
Anarchists post 'power outage notices' (Jerusalem Post, 05/12/07)
Over 10,000 posters warning of a power outage were plastered over residential doors and public locations in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa by left wing activists in protest of the government's decision to cut-back the power supply to the Gaza Strip.
The end of the military option (Haaretz, 04/12/07)
Lieberman's cigar test (Haaretz, 03/12/07)
By Akiva Eldar.
Will peace cost me my home? (Los Angeles Times, 01/12/07)
Any Mideast pact must give Palestinians the right to return home.
A halt, not a suspension (Haaretz editorial, 30/11/07)
When Ehud Olmert warns that the world could impose a "South African solution" on Israel if two states are not created, side by side, he is tacitly admitting that expansion of the settlements is making Israel look increasingly like an apartheid regime.
The One State Declaration (29/11/07, electronicintifada.net)
“The following statement was issued by participants in the July 2007 Madrid meeting on a one-state solution and the November 2007 London Conference.”
Poll: 50% in U.K. think Jews more loyal to Israel than home nation (Haaretz, 28/11/07)
Israel says army ready for Gaza invasion (Newsweek, 30/10/07)
A Moral Witness to the 'Intricate Machine' (New York Review of Books, 06/11/07)
"I am an Israeli. I live in Jerusalem. I have a story, not yet finished, to tell." This is the opening line of David Shulman's powerful and memorable book, Dark Hope, a diary of four years of political activity in Israel and the Palestinian territories. It is a record of the author's intense involvement with a volunteer organization composed of Israeli Palestinians and Israeli Jews, called Ta'ayush, an Arabic term for "living together" or "life in common." The group was founded in October 2000, soon after the start of the second Palestinian intifada.
Screaming Silence (Forward editorial, 30/11/07)
No discussion of Annapolis can be complete without considering the roles of the minor players inside and outside the assembly hall. These are the folks commonly spoken of as the supporting cast. A better term this time might be unsupporting cast.
We have not given up (The Guardian, 26/11/07)
The Palestinian people will not yield to the west's cynical pressure on them to surrender.
Demands of a thief (Haaretz, 25/11/07)
The public discourse in Israel has momentarily awoken from its slumber. "To give or not to give," that is the Shakespearean question - "to make concessions" or "not to make concessions." It is good that initial signs of life in the Israeli public have emerged. It was worth going to Annapolis if only for this reason - but this discourse is baseless and distorted. Israel is not being asked "to give" anything to the Palestinians; it is only being asked to return - to return their stolen land and restore their trampled self-respect, along with their fundamental human rights and humanity. This is the primary core issue, the only one worthy of the title, and no one talks about it anymore.
By Gideon Levy.
U.K. radical left wing sees one-state solution to Israel-Palestinian conflict (Haaretz, 21/11/07)
Peace is not child's play (Haaretz, 21/11/07)
By Akiva Eldar.
A gesture to the Prisons Service (Haaretz, 21/11/07)
The release of another 440 Palestinian prisoners is a nice gesture to the Israel Prisons Service. It lessens the terrible overcrowding in the jails, albeit only slightly. And it eases the burden on the security establishment, which has not completely succeeded in avoiding its obligation to allow some family members to visit their loved ones once every two weeks. By Amira Hass.
What do you mean when you say 'no'? (Haaretz, 18/11/07)
Undoubtedly, Israel wants peace. But a tiny detail seems to have been forgotten: Israel has signed a series of binding agreements to freeze settlement activity, which it never intended to fulfill. Of the 40 years of occupation, only during three has construction been stopped despite all the agreements and promises to do so. There is no reason to believe that Israel will behave differently this time.
See you at the next summit (Haaretz, 18/11/07)
The Annapolis conference is over before it started. Its fascinating discussions and earth-shaking decisions have not been conducted and made at the American port city, but at the Knesset in Israel.
How to Get Out? (Uri Avnery’s column in Gush Shalom, 17/11/07)
THE ANNAPOLIS conference is a joke. Though not in the least funny.
Still a democracy? (Haaretz, 15/11/07)
The government of Israel, with all due respect, does not represent the Jewish people but rather the citizens of the State of Israel who elected it. Israel is a sovereign state, which is still considered to be a democracy. In other words, it is a state for all of its citizens. Therefore it must not demand of the Palestinians to recognize it as a Jewish state, because in that way it would be declaring that any citizen whose mother is not Jewish or who did not convert with our strict Orthodox rabbis is a second-rate citizen, and his rights as a human being and a citizen are not ensured.
Gaza's Humanitarian Crisis: Who's to Blame for What? ( Institute for Palestine Studies, 13/11/07)
VIEWPOINT / Germany should pay as long as even one survivor lives (Haaretz, 15/11/07)
Like on the first Land Day (Haaretz, 14/11/07)
By Amira Hass.
Are two states still viable? (Haaretz, 14/11/07)
Mish’al’s speech to Arab intellectuals (Mideast Wire, 11/11/07)
On November 5, Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khalid Mish’al gave a speech to Arab intellectuals gathered at the Palestine Culture Institute in Damascus. The following is the text of the speech carried by pro-Hamas Al Aqsa TV.
Good news from Gaza (Haaretz, 11/11/07)
The group of reservist paratroopers returned all astir: Hamas fought like an army. The comrades of Sergeant-Major (Res.) Ehud Efrati, who fell in a battle in Gaza about two weeks ago, told Amos Harel that "in all parameters, we are facing an army, not gangs." By Gideon Levy.
Former UN chief: No wonder everyone hates you (Ynet, 09/11/07)
Boutros Boutros Ghali blames Israel for lack of peace in Middle East, paints a stark picture for future of Arab-Israeli relations; 'After 30 years, I don't even see one centimeter of progress'
UNRWA chief: Blockade on Gaza is fueling support for extremists (Haaretz, 08/11/07)
Whose Road Map? (The Jerusalem Post, 08/11/07)
A moment before the lights go out (Haaretz, 07/11/07)
Alan Johnston, the BBC corresponded kidnapped in Gaza, related in an interview that at a relatively early stage, he started suffering from all kinds of aches because of the water he drank. This was the same water that the kidnappers drank, but Johnston's unaccustomed body sent warning signals: This is not water that is fit for drinking. And this is the water that reaches most of the taps in the Gaza Strip. Salty, in a few places brackish to contaminated, with an oily consistency. That is clearly felt when bathing. By Amira Hass.
West Bank Settlements ‘Expanding’ (BBC News, 07/11/07)
No exceptions (Haaretz, 05/11/07)
How can a country, which according to endless foreign reports has kept secret for years several atomic weapons, manage to rally the international community in a struggle against a neighboring country that insists on acquiring nuclear energy? By Akiva Eldar.
French President Accused of Working for Israeli Intelligence (Al-Ahram, 04/11/07)
Israel Urged to Aid Oil-Stained Lebanon (Inter Press Service, 02/11/07)
When the Israeli Air Force destroyed a slew of oil storage tanks and a key power station in Lebanon in July 2006, the environmental damage was described as devastating.
ANALYSIS: Rabin memorial offers pop stars and empty clichés (Haaretz, 04/11/07)
PM seeks deal with PA on 'core issues' while Bush still in office (Haaretz, 04/11/07)
Gov't defends decision to curb power supply to Gaza Strip (Haaretz, 02/11/07)
A new Jerusalem and Babylon (Haaretz editorial, 02/11/07)
The relations between Israel and the the world's Jews, especially those in the United States, have always been fraught with hypocrisy. While everyone has been careful to pay lip service to Israeli democracy and its citizens' exclusive right to determine their fate, Jewish tycoons have known how to translate the millions they donate into influence and esteem.
Barak, don`t come to the rally! (Israel HaYom, 01/11/07)
Defence Minister Ehud Barak is due to speak at this year`s Rabin Memorial Rally. This is good enough a reason to doubt and hesitate, to think twice about attending. Barak is the worst of the leaders manning the government ministries and taking charge of the people`s hopes. Writes Moriah Shlomot - former Secretary General of Peace Now.
Ex-Minister Aloni: Barak should be tried by UN (Yediot Aharonot, 01/11/07)
You can learn it in a negotiations course (Haaretz, 01/11/07)
It is not easy to discuss the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in a practical manner, without past grudges. Too many emotions, historical memories and political interests are involved, turning every discussion of a solution to the conflict into a slogan contest: "diplomatic horizon," "partition of Jerusalem," "right of return." By Aluf Benn.
Lebanon to UN: Israel breached truce deal hundreds of times (Haaretz, 01/11/07)
Middle Eastern links: In place of a boycott... (The Independent, 01/11/07)
Last week, four British vice-chancellors visited Israel to strengthen ties with its universities and those in the Palestinian Territories. Could this win Britain new friends in the Middle East? Lucy Hodges reports
Engaging Hamas and Hezbollah (The Electronic Intifada, 29/10/07)
Nothing could be easier in the present atmosphere than to accuse anyone who calls for recognition of and dialogue with Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamist movements of being closet supporters of reactionary “extremism” or naive fellow travelers of “terrorists.” This tactic is not surprising coming from neoconservatives and Zionists. What is novel is to see it expressed in supposedly progressive quarters.
Getting your victims to love you (Al-Ahram, 25/10/07)
To mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, Arab-Israeli schoolchildren are expected to negate their very identity, writes Azmi Bishara.
The importance of a failed summit (Haaretz, 29/10/07)
Do not belittle the Annapolis summit. Despite all the prophecies of failure, justified as they are, this summit could still make an important contribution to the history of Israeli-Arab negotiations: For the first time, it will become crystal-clear who aspires toward peace and, more important, who flees from it as if from fire. Writes Gideon Levy.
Desmond Tutu Likens Israeli Actions to Apartheid (Inter Press Service, 29/10/07)
Shin Bet chief: Palestinians too 'exhausted' for new intifada (Haaretz, 29/10/07)
Correcting a deadly practice (Haaretz, 28/10/07)
The way a government or armed group responds to a Human Rights Watch report says a lot about its willingness to curb abuses. Does it grapple seriously with the findings or simply dismiss them? Human Rights Watch encountered a bit of each when we recently released reports on why civilians died during Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah.
Amos Oz, in Spain, says he doubts the government is brave enough for peace (Haaretz, 28/10/07)
ANALYSIS: Israel's real intention behind sanctions on Gaza Strip (Haaretz, 26/10/07)
There is an enormous gap between the reasons Israel is giving for the decision to impose significant sanctions against Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, and the real intentions behind them.
Palestinian cancer patient denied entry from Gaza into Israel for hospital care (The Independent, 26/10/07)
Some assassination plot (Haaretz, 24/10/07)
A dense row of policemen from the Palestinian Presidential Guard is deployed in the streets of Ramallah whenever the entourage of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) passes through, or whenever a high-ranking guest visits him. Judging by the dramatic manner in which the Israeli media dealt two days ago with the "assassination attempt" against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, one might have concluded that the plotters were pulled from among the ranks of the Presidential Guard at the last moment, when they were just about to shoot at Olmert's car when he was on his way to taste the cooking of Saeb Erekat's wife. By Amira Hass.
Democracy or hypocrisy (Haaretz Editorial, 24/10/07)
Every year on the anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination the religious camp feels persecuted and shunned, and in its feeling of collective guilt it turns on the left, the secular community, the media and the Rabin family - as if they have all come together to perpetuate the shame. The other camp, whose boundaries also shift and sharpen on the assassination's anniversary, sees the multiplicity of statements by the religious camp as a sign that the feeling of collective guilt has been internalized.
Sarkozy tells PM: Palestinian refugees will not return to Israel (Haaretz, 23/10/07)
Oxford cancels one-state debate (Jerusalem Post, 22/10/07)
Study: Arabs excluded from Israeli media (Ynet, 21/10/07)
New study finds Israeli-Arabs, who make up 20% of the Israeli population, are practically absent from TV screens, airwaves. Furthermore, media outlets very rarely employ Arabs workers.
Peace without justice is no peace at all (The Age, 23/10/07)
In trying to debunk Ghada Karmi's one state solution for Israel/Palestine, Colin Rubinstein in his Age online opinion piece ("That road does not lead to peace" 17/10/07) insinuates that such a solution is a euphemism for wiping Israel off the map. Nothing could be further from the truth. What needs to be eradicated is Zionism - the racist ideology that prohibits the Palestinians, whether in Israel or under Israel's occupation, from enjoying their basic rights.
Bar-On urges World Bank to halt cooperation with Gaza projects (Haaretz, 22/10/07)
Finance Minister Roni Bar-On met Monday in Washington with World Bank President Robert Zoellick, and urged him not to cooperate in any manner with Hamas and economic projects in the Gaza Strip.
Israel shaken by troops' tales of brutality against Palestinians (The Guardian, 21/10/07)
A psychologist blames assaults on civilians in the 1990s on soldiers' bad training, boredom and poor supervision
Ex-Ahmadinejad translator: Lebanon war strengthened Iran (Jerusalem Post, 21/10/07)
Business under fire (Haaretz, 18/10/07)
Yitzhak Rabin's government decided, more than 10 years ago, that Israeli companies may not sell arms to Burma (Myanmar). Despite that, two large transactions were carried out: In one case, the Israel Military Industries sold Burma several million dollars' worth of rifles, automatic rifles and ammunition, and Soltam sold 18 155-millimeter cannons, worth about $20 million. The middleman in these deals, and several others, was Koor Trade, which then had an office in neighboring Thailand.
Journalists under fire in Gaza (Al Jazeera, 19/10/07)
In Gaza, many journalists say they are being bullied and threatened by Hamas forces. Since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in mid-June, 13 media institutions have been shut down, looted or set on fire including the official Palestinian TV and Radio stations. Several journalists have been detained for up to 24 hours, including one cameraman who was hospitalised after being beaten.
Israel impeding effort to clear cluster bombs (The Daily Star, 18/10/07)
Ninety percent of the land contaminated by cluster bombs in South Lebanon should be cleared by the end of 2008, the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center (UNMACC), said on Wednesday "A number of factors caused the delay in clearing all the 38 million square meters of infested land," UNMACC spokeswoman Dalya Farran said during a news conference in the Southern city of Tyre. "Israel refusing to provide us with maps of where it has dropped cluster bombs constitutes the main obstacle," she added.
Peace studies: Children of Israel (The Independent, 18/10/07)
In a city marked by division, the Max Rayne school is unique – the only one in Jerusalem where pupils, principals and teachers are from Jewish and Arab communities.
Bitter olive harvest / Justice falls short in the West Bank (Haaretz, 18/10/07)
Abed Al-Fatah Al-Hindi, a resident of the Nablus-area village of Tal, reaches the main highway between the Hawara and Git junctions, near the Gilad Farm. An International Red Cross crew stands waiting for him. He is bleeding from a large scalp wound, and his left eye is swollen.
A paramedic bandages his head, and a volunteer from Rabbis for Human Rights cleans his face. "Every year there's a mess," the villager tells Haaretz. "It's just the first day of the olive harvest, and six settlers attacked me. There wasn't much we could do."
Religious tensions flare as Mideast conference nears / Event to address 'apartheid' in region (Boston Globe, 14/10/07)
Amnesty Int’l Slams Lebanon For Plight of Palestinian Refugees (Associated Press, 17/10/07)
Jewish rightist: 'Finish Hitler's work, kill Ashkenazi Jews' (Haaretz, 17/10/07)
A right-wing Jewish extremist has been disseminating calls for the assassination of leftists and Ashkenazim on Internet sites in Israel and abroad.
Survey: 25% of Germans believe Nazi period had some benefits (Haaretz, 17/10/07)
Rice-Olmert-Abbas: End of the Affair (Rootless Cosmopolitan, 16/10/07)
UN Accused of Undermining Palestinian State (Inter Press Service, 16/10/07)
Envoy Urges UN To Quit Mideast Mediating Group (Reuters, 15/10/07)
The United Nations should pull out of the Quartet of Middle East mediators unless the group starts taking Palestinian human rights seriously, a U.N. envoy said on Monday… the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights for the Palestinian territories, told the BBC the world body “does itself little good” by remaining in the Quartet group of the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
What ‘Safe’ Cluster Bombs Do In Lebanon (Inter Press Service, 15/10/07)
Palestinians Prepare to Stand Up for What Matters (Inter Press Service, 15/10/07)
While the international community concentrates on final status negotiations between the Palestinian government and Israel, the Palestinian people plan to stand up Oct. 17 to show the world what really matters to them.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are expected to take part in demonstrations highlighting poverty and inequality in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinians in the territories number three to four million.
Iran, the Inflatable Bogey (Rootless Cosmopolitan, 07/10/07)
Trita’s new book Treacherous Alliance – the Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran and the United States, (Yale University Press, 2007) is an absolute must-read, precisely because it cuts so decisively through the rhetoric and obfuscation that fills media coverage of the issue, and makes clear that the relationship is managed on an unsentimental, national-interests basis by all sides.
The 41st kilometer (Haaretz, 16/10/07)
A zoo. This is one of the ways that Palestinians describe the conditions under which nearly 1.5 million of them have been living: in an area of some 360 square kilometers, closed in on three sides by sophisticated barbed-wire fences, concrete walls and military lookout towers, and to the west by Israeli navy ships that seal them off from the sea. Overhead, in the sky, unmanned aircraft and hot air balloons continually photograph whatever happens inside this closed cage, which has seven gates connecting it to the world, all of which are sealed off almost hermetically. Writes Amira Hass.
One reason for the absence of peace: How religious ideologues bent the Israeli state to their purpose (Economist, 11/10/07)
Needed in Gaza: Israeli journalists (Haaretz, 14/10/07)
The last time, we traveled together to the Indira Gandhi Park. Nearly a year has passed since then. We traveled to this playground, on the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, with our dedicated Gazan taxi drivers, Munir and Sa'id, to document the killing of kindergarten teacher Najweh Khalif in front of her children by an errant tank shell that missed the kindergarten's minibus by only several meters. We have not been able to return to Gaza since. Writes Gideon Levy.
The honeymoon is ending on 'mission impossible' (The Guardian, 13/10/07)
As he gets to grips with the extent of his task as a peace envoy, the former prime minister is said to be astonished and appalled by life in the West Bank
Prayer in heart of Damascus (Ynet, 05/10/07)
(Video) Ynet exclusive: Reporter visits Syria during High Holydays; spends Yom Kippur at Damascus synagogue
German historian publishes chilling read: Hitler's fan mail (Haaretz, 10/10/07)
'I didn't suggest we kill Palestinians' (Jerusalem Post, 10/10/07)
Arnon Soffer arrives at our meeting armed with a stack of books and papers. Among them is a copy of an interview I conducted with him three and a half years ago ("It's the demography, stupid," May 21, 2004), and print-outs of angry responses the geostrategist from the University of Haifa says he continues to receive "from leftists in Israel and anti-Semites abroad, who took my words out of context."
The passage that aroused the most ire was as follows: "When 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it's going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It's going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day."
Israel's rising right wing (Salon.com, 09/10/07)
Together, an enigmatic billionaire and a resurgent Bibi Netanyahu could put Israel on the war path. Dick Cheney, AIPAC and Iran are all watching closely.
Israel to seize Arab land near Jerusalem (Relief Web, 09/10/07)
Israel has ordered the confiscation of Arab land outside east Jerusalem, a newspaper and Palestinian officials said on Tuesday, reviving fears that the occupied West Bank could be split in two.
Israeli Columnist Akiva Eldar on Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East, Iran, Military Censorship in Israel and the Influence of the Israel Lobby in the United States (Democracy Now, 08/10/07)
Akiva Eldar, chief political columnist and a senior analyst for the Israeli daily “Ha’aretz,” calls for a nuclear-free Middle East and questions whether the Israeli lobby in Washington is contributing to the security of Israel.
Does Israel deserve our support? (On-Line Opinion, 08/10/07)
To Western readers, this question seems absurd, even irreverent. It is an article of faith to regard the Jewish state as right and legitimate, deserving of support no matter what it does.
Its long record of abuse against the Palestinians under its rule, amply documented by aid agencies, international bodies and human rights organisations, (including Israeli ones), has barely eroded the traditional support given to Israel by the West, especially the English-speaking world. Writes Ghada Karmi.
Mohammed al-Dura lives on (Haaretz, 07/10/07)
All of these are tasteless questions designed to divert attention from the truly important issues: According to data collected by human rights group B'Tselem, Israel is responsible for killing more than 850 Palestinian children and teenagers since al-Dura was killed, including 92 in the past year alone. Last October, we killed 31 children in Gaza. This is what should have raised a storm and not the measurements by the former head of the Israel Defense Forces' Southern Command, Yom Tov Samiyeh, aimed at proving that his soldiers did not kill al-Dura, or the "investigations" by the physicist Nahum Shahaf. Writes Gideon Levy.
Ahmadinejad: Referendum on transfer of Israel to Europe (Ynet, 05/10/07)
Iranian leader says during Jerusalem Day rally in Tehran, 'Let a referendum be held in Palestine on the transfer of Zionists to Europe, Canada or Alaska.' Adds: Israel committed crimes under pretext of the Holocaust.
One Thousand, Two Hundred And Seventy-Six People Per Week (Lawrence of Cyberia, 29/10/07)
The Palestinian independent news agency, Maan News, reported last Sunday on a news item that was broadcast the previous evening on Israel’s Channel Two… Two thousand, five hundred and fifty-two arrests in just two weeks adds up to an awful lot of people circumventing Israel’s Wall. And of course those numbers reflect the absolute minimum number of Palestinians who successfully bypass it, as they count only those who are arrested while working inside Israel, not those who remain there undetected.
Doctors: Only severely wounded Palestinians allowed into Israel (Haaretz, 05/10/07)
Israel is allowing entry to only the most severly wounded Palestinians, and not to those at risk of losing limbs or suffering other debilitating handicaps, according to Physicians for Human Rights.
Israelis Fighting Israeli Apartheid (Rootless Cosmopolitan, 02/10/07)
Peace How? (Forward, 03/10/07)
A Forum on Mideast Diplomacy With Yossi Beilin, Daoud Kuttab, Aaron David Miller, Khalil Shikaki and Ephraim Sneh.
The Lost Lesson of Sabra and Shatilla (Forward, 03/10/07)
Last month’s 25th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatilla massacre passed by largely unnoticed. At the time, however, the atrocity perpetrated by Lebanese Christian Phalangists against hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians in the two refugee camps outside Beirut horrified the world.
Unfortunately, the Phalangists had been dispatched on their dubious mission by the Israeli military, thus bringing down an international torrent of scathing criticism on the Jewish state. From this dramatic turning point on, Israel’s incursion into Lebanon reversed from juggernaut into slow slide to disaster.
Na'ima is threatening the Jewish majority (Haaretz, 03/10/07)
… In recent weeks, the Jerusalem Education Administration has been trying to find room for the 16 children for fear ACRI [Association for Civil Rights in Israel] would turn to the High Court of Justice. As has happened every year in recent years, the threat to petition the High Court forces the Jerusalem Municipality to pressure school principals into crowding another Palestinian child into an already crowded classroom, to find a solution for the petitioners.
Where is the occupation? (Haaretz editorial, 03/10/07)
The occupied territories and the Palestinians living there are slowly becoming virtual realities, distant from the eye and the heart. Palestinian workers have disappeared from our streets. Israelis no longer enter Palestinian towns for shopping. There is a new generation on each side that does not know the other. Even the settlers no longer meet Palestinians because of the different road systems that distinguish between the two populations; one is free and mobile, the other stuck at the roadblocks.
Democracy is more than going to the polls (Haaretz, 02/10/07)
"The protest wave has calmed down," some Israeli journalists said Friday of the Burmese military junta's success in driving thousands of demonstrators off the streets, using excessive violence…
The word "calm" was an automatic reflection of how most Israeli Jews and their media see the constant, 40-year Israeli oppression of the Palestinians. This is the norm one thinks of when the Palestinians disrupt the calm. Writes Amira Hass.
Israel’s Toy Soldiers (Common Dreams, 01/10/07)
If you are a young Muslim American and head off to the Middle East for a spell in a fundamentalist “madrassa,” or religious school, Homeland Security will probably greet you at the airport when you return. But if you are an American Jew and you join hundreds of teenagers from Europe and Mexico for an eight-week training course run by the Israel Defense Forces, you can post your picture wearing an Israeli army uniform and holding an automatic weapon on MySpace.
Poll: Most Israelis Support Using Nukes (Common Dreams, 01/10/07)
Approximately 72 percent of Israelis support the use of nuclear weapons in certain circumstances, according to a Canadian survey released recently. The survey – conducted jointly at the end of July by the Simons Foundation and Angus Reid Strategies – was answered by adults in six countries and showed that 37% of Israelis believed the use of nuclear weapons to prevent a war would be justified, while 35% believed the weapons could be justifiably used during a war.
Movie with a message: Sabbath of the suicide bomber (The Independent, 01/10/07)
Israeli director Dror Zahavi's latest film is an uncompromising yet moving study of the Arab-Israeli relationship through the story of a Palestinian terrorist. Donald Macintyre reports.
Israeli military aid to Burmese regime: Jane's Intelligence Review (World War 4 Report, 29/09/7)
The Burmese junta currently shooting unarmed protestors received a cynical plea for restraint from the Israel government on Sept. 29. According to the Israeli paper Ha'aretz, the Israeli foreign ministry announced "Israel is concerned by the situation in Myanmar, and urges the government to demonstrate restraint and refrain from harming demonstrators." The article ended by pointing out that "Israel denies selling weapons to Burma or Myanmar." (Ha'aretz, Sept. 29)
Not true, according to a March 1, 2000 report in the authoritative British publication Jane's Intelligence Review by William Ashton.
Who really rules Israel? Jewish state controlled by four informal networks, not by government (Ynet, 28/09/07)
Four informal "networks," [The defense network, The capitalist network, The strictly Orthodox rabbinical network, & The network of senior bureaucratic officials] which are unelected and often act surreptitiously, rule Israel, with "strong leaders" associated with them to some extent and even being controlled by them. The membership of these networks is not permanent and their makeup changes. Yet the members of these networks have a joint agenda, common ideological and practical perceptions, joint interests, common ways of acting, and the ability to influence public opinion, and of course influence politicians. Writes Gabriel Sheffer.
Q & A with Ruth Wisse (Haaretz, 01/10/07)
In her new book, Jews And Power Wisse questions the way the strategies of the Diaspora continue to drive the Jewish state. In this provocative book, Wisse argues that "in displaying the resilience necessary to survive in exile, the Jews left too much to God. Not burdened by the weight of a military, they believed they could pursue their mission as a 'light unto the nations' on a purely moral plane. Wisse demonstrates how their political weakness increased Jewish vulnerability to scapegoating and violence."
The war for the house (Haaretz, 30/09/07)
“… Last Thursday, the bulldozer arrived. How did the bulldozer get to a home at the end of the narrow alleyway? Along the way, as they say, the bulldozer paved a route of destruction for itself, damaging all the homes in its path. Here it demolished a stone fence, there it cracked a wall. What difference does it make already? Some of the homes have now become hazardous for human residence, their cracked walls threatening to collapse. The bulldozer finally reached its destination and began razing the building.” By Gideon Levy.
Twilight Zone / The children of 5767 (Haaretz, 28/09/07)
By Gideon Levy.
Abbas to Dahlan’s Men During Gaza Uprising: ‘Slaughter Them’ (‘Tikun Olam: Make the World a Better Place’ blog, 20/09/07).
For those who peddle the view that the Hamas coup in Gaza was unprovoked this is embarrassing. As Ma’ariv explains “Abu Mazen instructed his general: ‘Slaughter them.’” Also includes a video from Maariv (Hebrew only).
French Court Takes a Fresh Look at Intifada’s Most Violently Disputed Image (Forward, 26/09/07)
A French judge reignited a long-running controversy last week over the coverage of the shooting of Mohammed al-Dura, a Palestinian boy whose televised death in 2000 became an iconic image of Israeli brutality and a rallying cry across the Middle East.
ANALYSIS: The clear loser from Ahmadinejad's visit is Israel / In his speech at Columbia University, the Iranian President used the podium to single out Israel and Zionism (Haaretz, 26/09/07).
Israel's leading writers demand talks with Hamas on a ceasefire (The Independent, 26/09/07)
“A group of Israel's most influential writers – including David Grossman, Amos Oz and A B Yehoshua – have called on the government to open talks with Hamas on a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Disrupting the separation policy (Haaretz, 25/09/07)
But those frustrated by the limited impact of Israeli anti-occupation activity are ignoring two of its salient characteristics. First, by helping to return one dunam of land to one individual, enabling farmers to complete an olive harvest without harassment and attacks by settlers, shortening the waiting time at a checkpoint or releasing a patient or a minor from detention without trial, life is made a bit less difficult for particular individuals at a given moment. This results from the activity of people who, by exploiting their immunity as Jewish Israelis, challenge the occupation bureaucracy. Writes Amira Hass.
Equal opportunities for Adobe's work candidates in Israel (Online Petition)
Civil Society and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict / Beneath the Hideous Veneer of "Security" (Counter Punch, 23/09/07)
On January 26th 1976 the United Nations Security Council debated a resolution (S11940) introduced by Jordan, Syria and Egypt that included all the crucial wording of UNSC resolution 242. It accepted the right of all states in the region to exist within secure and recognized borders while re-emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force. This resolution added for the first time, however, what was missing from 242: recognition of Palestinian national rights. The phrase "all states" was taken to include a new Palestinian state in the occupied territories.
Racism and War: Overcoming Us and Them (Information Clearing House, 23/09/07)
Puppet leader (Haaretz, 23/09/07)
Mahmoud Abbas has to stay home. As things stand right now, he must not go to Washington. Even his meetings with Ehud Olmert are gradually turning into a disgrace and have become a humiliation for his people. Nothing good will come of them. It has become impossible to bear the spectacle of the Palestinian leader's jolly visits in Jerusalem, bussing the cheek of the wife of the very prime minister who is meanwhile threatening to blockade a million and a half of his people, condemning them to darkness and hunger. Writes Gideon Levy.
Who needs the JNF? (Haaretz Editorial, 23/09/07)
Tomorrow the High Court of Justice will hear a petition against the Jewish National Fund (JNF) from Arab citizens who have been barred from acquiring land in Carmiel, because the JNF does not lease land to non-Jews. That the heart of an Israeli city holds land intended for Jews only 60 years after the establishment of the state is inconceivable. The petition opposes wrongful state discrimination against Arab citizens by means of the JNF.
Hamas: Palestinians have right to oppose occupation by all means (Haaretz, 23/09/07)
"Palestinians have the right to oppose Israeli occupation by all means available," Hamas said Saturday, following media reports of a thwarted suicide attack set for Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur.
Foam on the water (Uri Avnery’s column in Gush Shalom, 22/09/07)
TODAY IS Yom Kippur, and almost automatically my thoughts, like those of everybody else who was around at the time, go back 34 years, to that Yom Kippur.
Palestine: democracy not Zionism / A decent two-state solution to the 'Palestinian problem' has become impossible (The Christian Science Monitor, 14/09/07)
The courage to refuse (Haaretz, 22/09/07)
By Shraga Elam.
Israel bars students from leaving Gaza at last minute (20/09/07)
By Amira Hass.
Who killed our homeland? (Haaretz, 19/09/07)
"Enough of always blaming the Israelis for our problems. The time has come for a reckoning, and to condemn those among us who are bringing catastrophe down upon our people," says poet-director Saed Swerky, 37, the author of the play that has set shock waves rippling among Gaza's 1.5 million-plus inhabitants.
UN chief: Cutting off fuel to Gaza is violation of international law (Haaretz, 19/09/07)
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Israel on Wednesday to
reconsider its decision to declare the Gaza Strip a hostile territory, warning that any cutoff of vital services would violate international law and punish the already suffering civilian population.
It Is Unjust and Absurd To Apply Economics To The Hell That Is Palestine (Common Dreams News Center, 18/09/07)
The [UK] government must acknowledge the present catastrophe in Palestine is a direct consequence of Israeli intransigence.
What the saudi peace plan really means - Israel’s cost to the Arabs (Le Monde Diplomatique, September 2007)
President George Bush has called for an international meeting to discuss how to restart Middle East peace talks. Though chances of success are low, one of the more promising initiatives is the newly relaunched Saudi peace plan. This is a giant step for the Arabs, reversing decades of hostility to Israel.
Thanks to The Washington Post (Haaretz, 18/09/07)
“We can rely on friends like the United States: Our faithful ally has once again come to our assistance. Were it not for the American media, we would know nothing whatsoever about that mysterious night. Only because of the United States is the fog now beginning to lift. It is such a sign of weakness that 10 days after the action that was - or was not - taken by the Israel Air Force in Syria, the Israelis were fated to grope around in the dark or to rely on the American media, as if there were no local media here.” Writes Gideon Levy
A double standard on academic freedom in the Middle East (The Baltimore Sun, 17/09/07)
Two hundred thousand Palestinian children began school in the Gaza Strip this month without a full complement of textbooks. Why? Because Israel, which maintains a stranglehold over this small strip of land along the Mediterranean even after withdrawing its settlers from there in 2005, considers paper, ink and binding materials not to be "fundamental humanitarian needs."
THE PALESTINIAN MANDELA ( Uri Avnery's Column in Gush Shalom, 15/09/07)
The division of the Palestinian territories into a "Hamastan" in the Gaza Strip and a "Fatahland" in the West Bank is a disaster. / A disaster for the Palestinians, a disaster for peace, and therefore also a disaster for Israelis.
Hebron becoming a 'ghost town' (Youtube video) (Al Jazeera English, 21/06/07)
Ha'aretz, Israel's Liberal Beacon (The Nation, from the September 24, 2007 issue)
“The daily editorial meeting at the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz is a sacred, if sometimes rancorous, noontime ritual. It takes place in the editor's office, which like the rest of the newsroom is embellished with avant-garde paintings from the art collection owned by the Schocken family, the paper's publisher and owner. Debates are freewheeling and nonhierarchical, the way early kibbutzniks might have argued over crop rotations. With the meeting convened by editor David Landau, the dozen or so deputy editors and senior writers haggle over what should be the lead editorial for the next day's edition and on which side of the issues Ha'aretz should array itself. …” Writes Stephen Glain.
This is how the moderates look (Haaretz, 09/09/07)
By Gideon Levy
BIL'IN! BIL'IN! ( Uri Avnery's Column in Gush Shalom , 08/09/07)
“ WHEN MY friends fall prey to despair, I show them a piece of painted concrete, which I bought in Berlin.”
A pitch for Palestine (The Times Online, 08/09/07)
A Letter to the Editor. “Sir, Today at Wembley, 22 Israeli and English footballers, proud to represent their countries, will engage in a sporting contest when they play their crucial qualifier for Euro 2008. / In dramatic contrast, Her Majesty's Government has denied the Palestinian Under-19 squad, equally proud, the chance to travel here to play a number of matches with British clubs. The decision to deny the team their visas is bizarre, taken with no formal reason being given. …”
Israeli Indiscriminate Attacks Killed Most Civilians / No Evidence of Widespread Hezbollah “Shielding” (Human Rights Watch, 06/09/07)
“Israel’s indiscriminate airstrikes, not Hezbollah’s shielding as claimed by Israeli officials, caused most of the approximately 900 civilian deaths in Lebanon during the July-August 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch investigated more than 500 of the deaths.”
Ha'aretz columnist defends speech labeling Israel an 'apartheid state' (JTA, 04/09/07)
Ha'aretz columnist Danny Rubinstein had the unrepentant last word after being dropped by a British Zionist organization that objected to his calling Israel an "apartheid" state.
Children of war (Haaretz, 02/09/07)
“Again children. Five children killed in Gaza in eight days. The public indifference to their killing - the last three, for example, were accorded only a short item on the margins of page 11 in Yedioth Ahronoth, a sickening matter in itself - cannot blur the fact that the IDF is waging a war against children. A year ago, a fifth of those killed in the "Summer Rain" operation in Gaza were children; during the past two weeks, they comprised a quarter of the 21 killed. If, heaven forbid, children are hurt in Sderot, we will have to remember this before we begin raising hell.” Writes Gideon Levy.
The hills are alive (The Guardian, 25/08/07)
Palestinian lawyer Raja Shehadeh has fought Israeli settlers in the courts. Now he's taking the battle to the countryside, with his boots on. Writes Rory McCarthy.
Too many authorities (Haaretz, 23/08)
“ The residents of Gaza are torn between too many authorities: Israel, the occupier that shirks its obligation as an occupying power; the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, which is abandoning its citizens while continuing to try to ostracize the majority movement and make it fail; Hamas, which boasted about "liberating" Gaza and uses Qassam fire and declarations of "resistance" to escape its political and economic failures; the donor states, which use (generous) donations to cover up political powerlessness; and the United States, which is leading the boycott campaign and supports Israel.” Writes Amira Hass.
Eyal Weizman interview: Israel's oppressive architecture of occupation (Socialist Worker Online, 21/08/07)
Dissident architect Eyal Weizman explains the mechanics of Israel’s occupation of Palestine to Anindya Bhattacharyya.
Give them the Temple Mount (Haaretz, 21/08/07)
‘ The good news is that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recognizes that the only way to restore Mahmoud Abbas' stature, which Ariel Sharon stripped from him, is to translate the concept of "political horizon" into practical terms - i.e., into a document of principles for a final status agreement. The bad news is that Israel is sticking to the same basic conceptions that thwarted earlier attempts to deal with the "core issues" of borders, Jerusalem and the refugees.’ Writes Akiva Eldar.
Who is loony? (Haaretz, 19/08/07)
‘Benjamin Netanyahu has once again demonstrated he is a political virtuoso. One may even start to suspect that he invented Moshe Feiglin. Talk is one thing - "we'll uproot Feiglin" - but the result is something else: The Feiglins helped reinvent the Likud Party leader… Netanyahu should be grateful to the man who enabled him to deceive the media and the public.’ Writes Gideon Levy.
In the role of party pooper (Haaretz, 17/08/07)
‘ Poor Ehud Barak. All he did was repeat recently the "there's no partner" formula he bequeathed to the Israeli discourse after his failure at Camp David and during the intifada - the formula that has become a consensus uniting right and left. And now he is discovering that the very same formula being explained as his attempt to "pass Benjamin Netanyahu on the right" is being described as a blow to the first signs of a diplomatic process.’ Writes Meron Benvenisti.
A year after the Second Lebanon War/ Most of the war crimes were Israel's (Information Clearing House, 16/08/07)
Hamas is ready to talk (The Guardian, 16/08/07)
‘We welcome the call for dialogue, and reject insincere demands for an undemocratic boycott’. Writes Mousa Abu Marzook.
Israeli soldiers express pain of war (Asia Times, 15/08/07)
Boycott movement targets Israel (The San Francisco Chronicle, 15/08/07)
‘When does a citizen-led boycott of a state become morally justified?’
High Court has been wrongly besmirched (Haaretz, 15/08/07)
‘ As a war of petitions rages between supporters of the Supreme Court and supporters of the justice minister, it should not be forgotten that on the really important issues, Supreme Court justices demonstrate national responsibility and are synchronized with the prevailing mood. They proved this once again last week when they accepted the state's position that 10 students from the Gaza Strip should not be permitted to travel to the West Bank for two months in order to complete a clinical internship, without which they will not be able to work as occupational therapists in Gaza. There is currently only one certified occupational therapist working in the strip.’ Writes Amira Hass.
Time to attack (Haaretz, 15/08/07)
‘The system of "sacred balance" is Israel's way of surviving and feeling normal. If something happens on the left, it immediately must be canceled out by an event on the right - and then everyone can relax. These equations create the illusion of sanity and save the sticky majority, which is searching for the warm and opinionless center, from having to relate to matters in a matter-of-fact way. It is from there, from the wide open spaces of a valueless and content-free consensus, that Israel's ruin will come - because if everything is balanced and canceled out, there is no need to take a position, or to do anything. It is therefore not surprising that Israel, with all its equations, cannot make decisions on matters of morality and state.’ Writes Avraham Burg.
The Middle East Peace Process Scam (London Review of Books, 16/08/2007)
‘Both Bush and Olmert have spoken endlessly of their commitment to a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, but it is their determination to bring down Hamas rather than to build up a Palestinian state that animates their new-found enthusiasm for making Abbas look good.’ Writes Henry Siegman.
Oslo Revisited (Information Clearing House, 13/08/07)
By Uri Avnery.
Is Anti-Semitism in Europe on the Rise? (Spiegel Online, 10/08/07)
A sober show in Berlin offers an introductory treatment -- if not a thorough examination -- of rising anti-Semitism in Europe and the Middle East since September 11.
'You have no future in this country' (Haaretz, 10/08/2007)
The children of Hebron are very reminiscent of the children at the summer camps of Jesus - those who live in America's Bible Belt, who have been poisoned by religious ideology and have become the spearhead of Christian fundamentalism. Writes Daniel Ben Simon.
A visit to the jungle (Haaretz, 07/08/07)
“According to all maps, including those of our American friends, the land on which the new university sits is supposed to be an inalienable part of the new Palestinian state. How, then, should the common Palestinian citizen interpret the news about the upgrading of the large Israeli college in the very heart of the West Bank? What value could Olmert's promise to Abbas, that he will further a peace accord that will bring about an end to Israeli occupation, have in the Palestinians' eyes?” writes Akiva Eldar.
PlayStation Palestine (Haaretz, 04/08/07)
“The good news is that something is stirring in the peace process. For the first time in seven years an Israeli prime minister declares that there are Palestinians to talk to - namely Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayad…. The bad news is that the initiatives and plans are based on an imaginary reality and on establishing a make-believe Palestinian state. A PlayStation Palestine.” Writes Aluf Benn.
Back to a corrupt occupation (Haaretz, 03/08/07)
“In one of the alarming news items of the past week, it was reported that Israel has green-lighted the transfer of 1,000 rifles from Jordan to the security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.” By Amira Hass.
Guillotining Gaza (Information Clearing House, 30/07/07)
“THE death of a nation is a rare and somber event. But the vision of a unified, independent Palestine threatens to be another casualty of a Hamas-Fatah civil war, stoked by Israel and its enabling ally the United States.” Writes Noam Chomsky.
Scandal in the third grade (Haaretz, 30/07/07)
“The political scandal that erupted this week revolved around one sentence in the Arabic version: "The Arabs call the war 'Nakba,'