All Hail the Peace Makers (Israelis and Palestinians fighting for peace and justice in the holy land) part 16
January 4, 2011 - 9:23pm
A Palestinian woman died yesterday morning after inhaling tear gas at a demonstration Friday in Bil'in. While Palestinians claim her death was caused by tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers, the Israel Defense Forces says the circumstances are not entirely clear.
Palestinian dies after inhaling tear gas at Bil'in protest
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/residents-of-jerusalem-area-village-fight-battle-against-separation-fence-1.334877
Exhausted from the prolonged struggle, the Indians of the village of Walajeh know their fate has been decided and they will be encircled by the winding separation wall. They will be cut off from their eastern neighbor, Beit Jala. They will be a tiny enclave next to the other choking enclave, that of Bethlehem, which is surrounded by thriving Jewish settlements (those of Gush Etzion, Har Gilo, and so forth ), the inseparable part of the State of Israel.
Hi, Joe!
GOOD MORNING, Joe. At home In the US, your name is mud. But here you can really feel at home.
In your time, you succeeded in infecting all of the US with hysteria. You detected a Soviet agent under every bed. You waved a list of Soviet spies in the State Department (a list which nobody was ever shown). In a hundred languages around the world - including Hebrew - the name McCarthy, McCarthyism, has become a household word. Yes, you made your mark alright.
The Crown and the Coals LEBANON IS in crisis. And what is new?
Since the founding of the state, 90 years ago, the word "crisis" has been inseparably linked with its name.
From the Israeli perspective, this crisis has a double significance.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/residents-of-jerusalem-are...
Exhausted from the prolonged struggle, the Indians of the village of Walajeh know their fate has been decided and they will be encircled by the winding separation wall. They will be cut off from their eastern neighbor, Beit Jala. They will be a tiny enclave next to the other choking enclave, that of Bethlehem, which is surrounded by thriving Jewish settlements (those of Gush Etzion, Har Gilo, and so forth ), the inseparable part of the State of Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/shin-bet-disclosing-number-of-detainees-who-haven-t-seen-lawyer-compromises-security-1.335265
A petition demanding the Shin Bet security service release figures on the extent to which it prohibits detainees from meeting with lawyers was rejected Tuesday by the High Court of Justice.
"Get away from the window, you're crazy!" screamed Kauthar. She was terrified to find her daughter standing on the couch by the window, observing the street from the seventh floor. The window had bars. She was afraid not that the girl might fall, but that she would be struck by fire from a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle). A next-door neighbour had been killed that way only a day or two earlier: a missile hit him as he was talking on his phone on the balcony.
That was on one of the first days of the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which began on 27 December 2008. People very quickly learned the hard way that their daily activities could tempt death: standing by a window, trying to find a spot that still had a shred of mobile-phone reception so you could tell your worried father in the Rafah refugee camp that everything was all right, riding a motorbike, going up to the roof to take the washing off the line or feed the pigeons, paying a condolence visit, baking bread in the backyard oven, taking water to the goats. Journalists' notebooks and reports from human rights organisations overflow with testimonies from ordinary civilians, people who lost loved ones or who were wounded under these non-combat circumstances.
http://www.newstatesman.com/print/201101060014
The airmen who bombed the home of a Hamas military leader in 2002 did not know or did not want to know the identity of their target before the strike, according to T., one of the crewmen directly involved, who spoke recently with students at a secular yeshiva in Tel Aviv.
The July 22 bombing of the home of Salah Shehadeh, who had headed Hamas' military wing, in the densely populated Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, killed a total of 15 people, including Shehadeh and his assistant. The other victims included eight children (ranging in age from less than a year to 14 years old) and three women.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israeli-pilot-describes-good-s...http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/amira-hass-some-free-advice-for-israel-s-lawmakers-1.336136
Last week, an Israeli woman I know drove a Palestinian woman to the western side of the separation barrier - not for a day of fun in Tel Aviv, as a few Israeli Jewish women do regularly, but due to urgent, unfortunate personal reasons. The police, at the behest of right-wing activists, summoned the transgressors for questioning. In Jewish and democratic Israel the Israeli women are double offenders. They transport Palestinian women without that piece of paper that only Palestinians are required to carry, and bring them out via one of the roads that are open to anyone in the world except for the legal owners of the land on which they were built.
That reminds me: In 1977 I found myself in Romania during the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu. Among his many prohibitions in the name of socialism was a ban on hosting foreigners. But I had grown very close to a young couple with a baby who lived in a matchbox in a crowded Bucharest tenement. "Ceausescu can't tell me who can sleep in my apartment," Vera said defiantly as she made up a cot for me in their narrow kitchen. We lost touch after a few years, but her courage still warms my heart. I recall that one could be fined the equivalent of one or two months' wages and earn another black mark from the Securitate. I don't remember even asking about the punishment for the tourists.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-nation-is-behind-you-galant-1.336533
The seizure of public land, unauthorized road paving, misleading testimony, double standards in land allocation - all under the cover of an army uniform. Is this a precis of the history of Israeli colonialism? Not at all. These claims are the basis of the High Court of Justice petition by the Green Movement political party against Yoav Galant's appointment as the next Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, accusations that Maariv journalist Kalman Liebeskind has made repeatedly in investigative reports over the past two years.
Part 1: Ilan Pappé & Ronit Lentin. Trinity College Dublin. 17-11-2010
Leftists March Against 'Dark Regime''
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4013941,00.html
"Thousands of left-wing activists belonging to groups Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has labeled 'terror aiders' gathered in Meir Park in Tel Aviv Saturday evening to protest against 'anti-democratic trends in the Knesset.' 'Tonight we are telling the Labor Party that it is a full partner of the most racist government in state history.."
We are not loyal - to a government of racists!
"The Slumbering Majority wakes up" proclaimed large signs as the human river flowed from the entrance to the Gan Meir Park and unto the streets. Later on, KM Nitzan Horowitz would proclaim from the podium, to the crowd overflowing the Museum Plaza: "Look around you: We are not small and we are not weak, and we have no reason whatsoever to despair!".
Justice Ministry closes case of East Jerusalem man shot at point-blank range by police after running over soldiers
The widow of a motorist who was shot to death by police in East Jerusalem in June learned yesterday from her lawyer that the Justice Ministry closed its investigation into the case. In a conversation with Haaretz Moira Jilani, a U.S. citizen, expressed shock over the closure of the investigation.
Hebron: Yehoshua and Adel are having a fight. A commotion ensues. Yehoshua, an Israeli citizen, is arrested, spends the night in the lockup in Jerusalem's Russian Compound and, the following day, a judge at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court releases him on NIS 1,000 bail. Even though he lives in Hebron, Israeli law applies to him and he must be brought before a judge within 24 hours of his arrest.
Beinisch doesn't understand
Palestinian military prosecutors vow to stop arresting civilians
The Palestinian military prosecutor's office will stop detaining civilians, and civilians will no longer be tried by Palestinian military courts, according to a pledge made by senior officials in the Palestinian security establishment to representatives of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq.
The pledge is backed by senior political officials in the Palestinian Authority, Al-Haq was told.
The World is no Golem
ISRAEL IS, as we well know, the land of unlimited impossibilities. In Israel, for example, the diplomats are striking.
A strike of diplomats? But that is impossible! Postmen strike. Longshoremen strike. But diplomats? The most conservative, the most establishment people? The people who serve any Israeli government, whatever its complexion? Who find pretexts for all its actions, whatever they may be?
The Aljazeera Scandal ALWAYS thought this a specifically Israeli trait: whenever a scandal of national proportions breaks out, we ignore the crucial issues and focus our attention on some secondary detail. This spares us having to face the real problems and making painful decisions.
There are examples galore. The classic one centered on the question: "Who Gave the Order?" When it became known that in 1954 an Israeli spy ring had been ordered to plant bombs in US and British institutions in Egypt, in order to sabotage the effort to improve relations between the West and Gamal Abd-al-Nasser, a huge crisis rocked Israel. Almost nobody asked whether the idea itself had been wise or stupid. Almost nobody asked whether it was really in the best interest of Israel to challenge the new and vigorous Egyptian leader, who was fast becoming the idol of the entire Arab world (and who had already secretly indicated that he could possibly make peace with Israel).
So, what do the reports of Israeli demonstrations for democracy in the Arab states tell us about the "peace makers" in Palestine, all of which is, by the way, occupied territory?
A Villa in the Jungle?
WE ARE in the middle of a geological event. An earthquake of epoch-making dimensions is changing the landscape of our region. Mountains turn into valleys, islands emerge from the sea, volcanoes cover the land with lava.
People are afraid of change. When it happens, they tend to deny, ignore, pretend that nothing really important is happening.
Israelis are no exception. While in neighboring Egypt earth-shattering events were taking place, Israel was absorbed with a scandal in the army high command. The Minister of Defense abhors the incumbent Chief of Staff and makes no secret of it. The presumptive new chief was exposed as a liar and his appointment canceled. These were the headlines.
Al, I need your help. I opened this place up to material from Palestinian activists, but the thread is still rather Jew centric. I was wondering whether you could provide the work of some peace endorsing Palestinian rabble rousers. Does Ali Abunimah have a blog, outside of the EI that is?
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/idf-soldier-claims-wrong-information-led-to-gaza-family-s-deaths-1.338609
My meeting with Uri (not his real name) - along with several other soldiers who took part in the Cast Lead military attack on Gaza that ended two years ago this week - was arranged by Breaking the Silence, an organization of army veterans whose mission is to expose Israelis to IDF practices in the occupied territories. Uri's testimony about civilian killings in that attack appears to correspond with one of the testimonies provided by graduates of the Rabin Pre-Military Academy, the published version of which prompted an angry response by the IDF spokesman's office, directed at the soldiers, the academy and the media. Breaking the Silence had chosen not to publicize Uri's testimony, which appears below, in accordance with a rule that requires at least two eyewitnesses to such grave incidents before they are publicized. Uri's responses to Haaretz's questions corroborate testimonies of Palestinians survivors of the onslaught, underscoring their importance and value.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/news-for-sad-jews-1.338813
Equipped with an extra pair of glasses, I went to the village of Maghar near Ramallah, on Route 60. In order to make the location clearer to the Israeli reader, I shall mention that it is east of the settlement of Shiloh and its subsidiaries. "Shiloh gave birth to five," as they say in the village, referring to the unauthorized outposts there whose names are Shvut Rachel, Kida, Adei Ad, Givat Harel and Esh Kodesh.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-real-palestinian-concession-1.339252
The real concession of the Palestinian leadership is on its occupied people as an active force in the struggle for independence. For this, there is no need for leaked documents.
Indeed, the "Palestine Papers" confirm an open secret: Contrary to the declarations recited in public, the leadership of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority is prepared for far-reaching concessions on the holy grail of the traditional Palestinian position: the right of return of refugees from the Palestinian "nakba" of 1948.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/demolition-of-palestinian-homes-in-west-bank-s-area-c-tripled-in-2010-1.339216
The number of Palestinian residences demolished by Israel's Civil Administration in the part of the West Bank under full Israeli control tripled last year compared to 2009, data complied by B'Tselem shows.
Attorney Shlomo Lecker, who has represented the Jahalin Bedouin tribe in the West Bank for years, attributed the increase in Area C demolitions directly to the increased pressure applied over the last two years by both settlers and a new organization, Regavim.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/egypt-or-not-palestinians-have-lost-their-faith-in-rising-up-1.340269
Over the shelves of lettuce and broccoli (product of Israel ), and the honey, eggs, parsley and coriander (product of Palestine ), the demonstrators on television are no longer the same. The TV set in the vegetable shop in Ramallah is situated opposite the cashier, and the live broadcasts from the streets of Tunis two weeks ago, and from Egypt and Jordan this past week, drew more ratings than the soap operas and religious sermons customers often see playing there.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/when-israel-s-protective-net-of-tyranny-tears-1.340720
There is a miraculous moment in popular uprisings, when fear of the machinery of repression no longer deters people in their masses and that machinery begins to unravel into its component parts - who are also people. They stop obeying and begin thinking.
Where is that moment for us? A group of Palestinian businesspeople had discussed the possibility of joining the popular struggle in the villages near Ramallah against the separation fence. That was before the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The conclusion, a participant told me, was that they cannot allow themselves to take part in those activities because the very next day "Beit El" (the nickname for the Civil Administration, whose base is located near the eponymous settlement ) will revoke all the special passes that allow their businesses to exist. The experiences of others in similar circumstances (for example, senior Fatah officials who deigned to take part in a demonstration or two and had their VIP passes revoked ) are enough to create the fear.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/when-israel-s-protective-net-of-tyranny-tears-1.340720
There is a miraculous moment in popular uprisings, when fear of the machinery of repression no longer deters people in their masses and that machinery begins to unravel into its component parts - who are also people. They stop obeying and begin thinking.
Where is that moment for us? A group of Palestinian businesspeople had discussed the possibility of joining the popular struggle in the villages near Ramallah against the separation fence. That was before the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The conclusion, a participant told me, was that they cannot allow themselves to take part in those activities because the very next day "Beit El" (the nickname for the Civil Administration, whose base is located near the eponymous settlement ) will revoke all the special passes that allow their businesses to exist. The experiences of others in similar circumstances (for example, senior Fatah officials who deigned to take part in a demonstration or two and had their VIP passes revoked ) are enough to create the fear.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/why-isn-t-the-pa-supporting-the-egypt-uprising-1.340966
The Palestinian leadership has been careful not to support the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and has banned demonstrations in solidarity with the rebelling peoples. Palestinian television has virtually ignored the events in Egypt.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/egypt-unrest-spurs-palestinian-authority-to-pledge-elections-1.341129
Spurred by the events in Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and its ruling Fatah party also promised to hold local elections, followed by general elections, very soon. Palestinian Minister of Local Government Khaled Qawasma made the announcement in midweek, adding that local elections would likely be held in May.
But Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said it would refuse to take part in the elections unless a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation agreement is reached. Hamas officials said they do not trust the PA and Fatah to hold fair elections.
Breaking the Silence short documentary
Viewpoint with James Zogby Hanan Ashrawi (Part 1)
Hanan Ashrawi: Peace in the Middle East - Who Needs it?
End of the Two-State Solution
Rashid Khalidi: Leaked "Palestine Papers"
Dianna Buttu at Brandeis University-Israel Occupation Awareness Week part 1/4
Arch Bishop Abuna Elias Chacour- Part 1
Should I post in this thing or is it a closed thread? ???
Only one who lost all basic human feeling can oppose the aspiration of young Egyptians to live in a democracy.
To maintain and strengthen the peace with Egypt, we must end the occupation and make peace with the Palestinians.
Only one who has lost all basic human feeling can oppose the aspiration of masses of young Egyptians, mostly secular, to live in a democracy and enjoy the basic rights which citizens of Israel take for granted - the right to freely express their opinions, to organize politically as they please and to freely elect their government and parliament. It is in the supreme interest of the State of Israel that in its neighboring countries a real democracy will prevail, a democracy growing from below out of the dreams and aspirations and determined struggle by thousands and millions of people.
UNTIL THE very last moment, the Israeli leadership tried to keep Hosni Mubarak in power. It was hopeless. Even the mighty United States was impotent when faced with this tsunami of popular outrage. In the end it settled for second best: a pro-Western military dictatorship. But will this really be the outcome? Tsunami in Egypt
Egypt's revolution and Israel: "Bad for the Jews"
The view from Israel is that if they indeed succeed, the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions are bad, very bad. Educated Arabs -- not all of them dressed as "Islamists," quite a few of them speaking perfect English whose wish for democracy is articulated without resorting to "anti-Western" rhetoric -- are bad for Israel.
I was asked for some resources about the Palestine Papers, which were released by Al Jazeera on 23 January. These 1600 documents, dated from 1999 to 2010, including minutes, reports, emails, maps and presentations, constitute the largest leak and the deepest insight into the failed "peace process" ever.
I was asked for some resources about the Palestine Papers, which were released http://aliabunimah.posterous.com/the-palestine-papers
Amira Hass - Deja Vu in the Occupied Palestinian Territories 1/8
Burke Lecture: Israeli Policy of Separate Development
The Genie is out of the Bottle THIS IS a story right out of "1001 Nights". The genie escaped from the bottle, and no power on earth can put it back.
When it happened in Tunisia, it could have been said: OK, an Arab country, but a minor one. It was always a bit more progressive than the others. Just an isolated incident.
And then it happened in Egypt. A pivotal country. The heart of the Arab world. The spiritual center of Sunni Islam. But it could have been said: Egypt is a special case. The land of the Pharaohs. Thousands of years of history before the Arabs even got there.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/palestinian-security-suppressing-west-bank-fervor-over-egypt-protests-1.341722
We are still preoccupied with demonstrations and their dispersal in this part of the world. After the immediate shock and anger died down last Wednesday, however, one could not help but notice the European, mainly French, scent that wafted from Al-Manara Square in Ramallah where the Palestinian Authority once again suppressed a demonstration of support for the Egyptian people that evening. A few hours earlier, in the same streets, supporters of Fatah had held an undisturbed demonstration in support of the Egyptian government and President Hosni Mubarak.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/egypt-s-thirst-for-freedom-has...
CAIRO - Prior to Mubarak's fall, demonstrators in Tahrir Square shouted "The army and the people - one hand." After the man who ruled for the past 30 years was toppled, those who listened closely noticed that the chant had changed slightly: "The people and the army - one hand."
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/for-palestinian-police-in-west-bank-israel-is-still-laying-down-the-law-1.343269
Last week's column, which in Hebrew was titled "Dispersing a demonstration with a French scent," prompted a visit to the headquarters of EUPOL COPPS, the EU Police Coordination Office for Palestinian Police Support, which trains the civilian police force in the West Bank. The initiative was theirs, and the perfume, it turns out, was Jean Paul Gaultier.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/egypt-protesters-remind-army-who-is-really-in-charge-1.343621
CAIRO - The political demands of the coalition that fomented the recent revolution in Egypt appeared yesterday in a position paper published in numerous Egyptian newspapers.
Millions of Egyptian cell phone users on Tuesday evening received the following text message from the "Armed Forces": "The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces urges honest citizens to take part in efforts to reach a save haven."
This was a poetic way of warning the public against continuing to strike, continuing to close the country's bank and stock market, and continuing slowdowns in industrial production.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/egypt-military-s-pleas-to-end-...Orientalism as a Tool of Colonialism 1/4
The latest from b'tselem
Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish - I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey, Jan. 18, 2011
Memory, Inequality and Power
A Crazy Prophet "WHY DON'T the masses stream to the square here, too, and throw Bibi out?" my taxi driver exclaimed when we were passing Rabin Square. The wide expanse was almost empty, with only a few mothers and their children enjoying the mild winter sun.
The masses will not stream to the square, and Binyamin Netanyahu can be thrown out only through the ballot box.
Toward Palestine's 'Mubarak moment'
The slow collapse of Palestinian collective leadership institutions in recent years has reached a crisis amid the ongoing Arab revolutions, the revelations in the Palestine Papers, and the absence of any credible peace process.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) controlled by Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction has attempted to respond to this crisis by calling elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and the PA presidency.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/egyptians-celebrate-mubarak-s-fall-and-send-a-warning-to-the-new-regime-1.344487
CAIRO - Egyptian newspapers estimate that two million people took part in the victory celebrations in Tahrir Square. Even if they exaggerate, certainly hundreds of thousands responded to an initiative born, once again, on Facebook: demonstrating in the square every Friday until all the revolution's demands are met.
Egyptians' cynicism was defeated at Tahrir Square
CAIRO - During the revolution, hundreds of people passed through an apartment in one of the tall buildings on Tahrir Square. One friend would bring another and they would go up to enjoy a high vantage point, use the bathroom, catch a fighter's 40 winks on whatever vacant bit of floor remained, escape the bullies down below and somehow remain in the area.
The lighter side of the uprising
CAIRO - At the height of the demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square, people would keep sheets of paper of different sizes on which they wrote jokes that they had invented. Demonstrators would gather round, laugh, take pictures and then invent their own variations.
With the fear gone and no consensus rule, Cairo has become protest city
CAIRO - The groups behind the revolution in Egypt reached an agreement Monday night in negotiations with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces: The demonstration in Tahrir Square calling for the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq is to take place Friday and not yesterday, as planned.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/egypt-workers-continue-to-strike-amid-fears-of-revolution-backlash-1.345548
CAIRO - While Egypt's new cabinet ministers are promising to meet the demands of the revolution and save the country from disorder and economic collapse, the opposition wants the new cabinet dismissed immediately.
oops!
Egyptian army apologizes for dispersing protest near square
CAIRO - The Egyptian army apologized yesterday for dispersing protesters outside a government building near Tahrir Square the previous night. In protest, demonstrators returned to the city square at dawn yesterday, pledging to continue protesting until the revolution's demands were met.
60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Catch me
Soldiers kill mother and leave body with her children, May 2008
13 year-old beaten during interrogation and imprisoned for two months
Introduction: The "quiet transfer" in Hebron
Army imposes harsh restrictions on fishing in Gaza Strip
Wrong Side OF ALL the memorable phrases uttered by Barack Obama in the last two years, the one that stuck in my mind more than any other appeared in his historic speech in Cairo in the early days of his term. He warned the nations not to place themselves "on the wrong side of history."
Lay Off Amira Hass
http://www.maxajl.com/?p=5038
"Everyone knows the Israeli left is feeble. Everyone knows that Zionism is hegemonic amongst Israeli Jews. We also know that the Israeli left gets over-promoted, and that people, especially left-liberal Americans and Europeans are quite desperate to hear rustlings of change from within Israeli society. They are not there yet. But I don't see the point of this sort of attack..."
oops!
The Dwarfs JERUSALEM IS abuzz with brilliant new ideas. The brightest minds of our political establishment are grappling with the problems created by the ongoing Arab revolution that is reshaping the landscape around us.
Here is the latest crop of mind-bogglingly innovative ideas:
Minister of Defense Ehud Barak has announced that he is going to ask the US for a grant of another 20 billion dollars for more state-of-the-art fighter planes, missile boats, a submarine, troop carriers and so on .
At the moment, I've lost my interest in pursuing peace with these people.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/12/israel-attack-west-bank.ht...
"Israeli soldiers hunted Saturday for the killers of five family members who were stabbed to death as they slept in their West Bank home.
Palestinian militants were suspected of killing a husband and wife and three of their children — aged 11, three and four months — on Friday night near the Itamar settlement.
Another family member, a 12-year-old returning from a youth group, found the bodies.
At the moment, I've lost my interest in pursuing peace with these people.
"These people."
You racist colonial shit. Fuck off and go elsewhere.
I'm sure those grieving the brutal knife murder of a 4 month old little girl, her siblings and parents appreciate your sympathies, Unionist. Your compassion is truly moving.
By the way, read a few paragraphs in.
"In Gaza, residents and Hamas officials applauded the killing of the settlers."
That's who I mean by "these people". These are the people who would be at the negotiating table discussing "peace." The people who rejoice at the murder of children.
Go fuck yourself.
Yeah, I'm the bad guy here. Not the people who murder children. Or the people who pass out candy and baked goods in gaza to celebrate the murder of children. I thought everyone in Gaza was starving, by the way. Seems there's plenty of cake to be passed around to celebrate the murder of a family while they slept in their beds on Shabbos. A family who, by the way, was kicked out of their home in Gaza as part of the "peace process".
They should all be kicked out with the Israelies staying in Israel and the palestinians having Occupied lands back, including East jerusalem.
Khirbet Tana - Before and After Demolitions stills, march 2011
Israel's negative ratings rise sharply in US, UK, BBC global poll finds
Israel remains one of the world's most negatively viewed countries alongside Iran, North Korea and Pakistan, according to the latest annual survey of global opinion by the BBC World Service.
Are you suggesting that Israel is being unfair building 500 houses on the West Bank as compensation for the murder of five Israelies?
It could be an ingenious plan.
As fair as the Israelies are, they nodoubt would allow one hundred Palestinian houses to be build on Israeli property for every Palestinian murdered by one of them.
That should solve the problem sooner then anticipated.
Certainly stabbing a whole family is a lot less efficient than firing a phosphorus shell at a UN school - but no one ever accused the Palestinians of efficiency.
Speaking of Palestinians - are we sure this is a politically motivated act? Once they find the perpetrator (and they will, even if they have to jail and beat hundreds) I would not be surprised to find that he (if it is a he) is someone who is profoundly ill, and the motivations are lost in the mess of a sick mind.
If some of the actions of the IDF are touted as rogue occurances, and Abu Ghrab is just a few bad eggs - is it not believable that this is a 'one offer'?
Certainly the Israelis are treating it as a political .... making it so .... yet, I for one, would like to see some evidence.
Maybe an Israeli stabbed that family.
A Dirty Word ON THURSDAY EVENING I could not think of anything except Libya.
First I heard the blood-curdling speech by Muammar Qaddafi, in which he promised to occupy Benghazi within hours and drown the rebels in a bloodbath.
I was extremely worried and extremely furious with the international community and especially with the US, which had wasted days and weeks of precious time with empty phrase-mongering, while the dictator reconquered Libya bit by bit.
Who is annexing Whom?
IN A rare late-night session, the Knesset has finally adopted two obnoxious racist laws. Both are clearly directed against Israel's Arab citizens, a fifth of the population.
The first makes it possible to annul the citizenship of persons found guilty of offences against the security of the state. Israel prides itself on having a great variety of such laws. Annulling citizenship on such grounds is contrary to international law and conventions.
Napoleon's Dictum
IT WAS Napoleon who said that it is better to fight against a coalition than to fight as part of one.Coalitions mean trouble. To conduct a successful military operation, one needs a unified command and a clear, agreed upon aim. Both are rare in coalitions.
On Land Day, Budour Hassan (@Budouroddick on Twitter), visited Lifta, the village where my mother was born, just outside Jerusalem, and planted an olive tree in honor of my mother and me, as the photo shows.
http://aliabunimah.posterous.com/photo-a-tree-in-lifta-for-me-and-my-mum-awaitThe Gold and the Stone
THERE IS something tragicomic about the persona of Richard Goldstone.
First there was a veritable storm of fury when the original Goldstone report was issued.
What a fiend! A Jew who claims to be a Zionist and an Israel-lover, who publishes the most abominable slanders about against our valiant soldiers, aiding and abetting the worst anti-Semites around the world! The very prototype of a self-hating Jew! Still worse, a "mosser" - a Jew who turns another Jew over to the evil Goyim, the most detested figure in Jewish folklore.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1302911451/
THE OTHER day, the almighty General Security Service (Shabak, formerly Shin Bet) needed a new boss. It is a hugely important job, because no minister ever dares to contradict the advice of the Shabak chief in cabinet meetings.
There was an obvious candidate, known only as J. But at the last moment, the settlers’ lobby was mobilized. As director of the “Jewish department” J. had put some Jewish terrorists in prison. So his candidature was rejected and Yoram Cohen, a kippah-wearing darling of the settlers was appointed instead.
That happened last month. Just before that, The National Security Council also needed a new chief. Under pressure from the settlers, General Yaakov Amidror, formerly the highest kippah-wearing officer in the army, a man of openly ultra-ultra nationalist views, got the job.
AMRAM MITZNA is a nice guy. He is modest and radiates credibility. He reminds one of the late Lova Eliav, the Secretary General of the Labor party who quit the party in disgust. Like Eliav, he has a lot of practical achievements to his credit - Eliav built the Lakhish area villages in South-Central Israel, Mitzna volunteered to administer the remote town of Yerucham deep in the Negev.
Tahrir Square, Tel Aviv
On Friday night, two men—presumably Palestinians—entered the West Bank Jewish settlement of Itamar. The settlement of 1,000 was established in 1984, deep in occupied land (28 km from the Green Line). It is named after the son of the biblical Aharon, Itamar, whose grave—according to a 13th-century legend—is located in the adjacent Palestinian village of Awarta (population 6,000), 8 km southwest of Nablus.
The men entered the home of the Fogel family. Using knives, they murdered in their sleep Udi (37), his wife, Hadas (36), and three of their children: Yoav (10), Elad (4), and Hadas (3 months old).
http://original.antiwar.com/hacohen/2011/03/15/chronicles-of-death/
Convergence Northwest: Commentary by Jeff Halper
http://youtu.be/C_R9Ryo33-Q
Fatah, the Palestinian political organisation, has reached an agreement with its rival Hamas on forming an interim government and fixing a date for a general election, Egyptian intelligence has said.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/04/201142715211984572...One Word
The news about the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas is good for peace. If the final difficulties are ironed out and a full agreement is signed by the two leaders, it will be a huge step forward for the Palestinians - and for us.
“REJOICE NOT when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth, / Lest the Lord see [it], and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.”.
This is one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible (Proverbs 24:17-18), and indeed in the Hebrew language. It is beautiful in other languages , too, though no translation comes close to the beauty of the original.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1304763741/
I COULD not restrain myself. Though I was alone in the room, I burst out laughing.
I was reading a newspaper report about the latest poll. People were asked to evaluate the nation’s leaders.
It appears that the President of the State, Shimon Peres, is by far the most popular leader in Israel. 72% of those polled approve of him, only 20% disapprove. The runners-up were far behind: 60% for the Knesset speaker, Reuven Rivlin, the same for the Governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, and 57% for the aggressive State Comptroller, Micha Lindenstrauss. The President of the Supreme Court, Dorit Beinish, was already under the 50% approval rate: she got 49%, followed by Tzipi Livni with 48%
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1305287487/
Expansion in East Jerusalem: Jeff Halper & Alison Weir
http://youtu.be/ouuRNz96BaI
Jeff Halper - the siege of Gaza
http://youtu.be/t3Jjnd0s3hQ
THE GENERAL'S SON
http://youtu.be/ZgAeMvznaCM
Unity statement - followed by the Kathleen Wells interview with Uri Avnery (audio)
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1303935244/
Israeli humor - Hope kindergarten
http://youtu.be/M9Sdkps0Quo
Occupation 101 | Full Documentary
http://youtu.be/lxZzcdadv6A
Bestselling Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, who was held in Israel for participating in the Gaza-bound aid flotilla in 2010, plans to be aboard a new Gaza aid convoy to sail this June.
Organizers say the convoy will be double the size of last year's effort, which was stopped by Israeli commandos.
Mankell, 63, is among 20 other Swedes expected to take part. Other participants will come from Europe, Canada and the U.S.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/05/25/henning-mankell-gaza-convo...
closing for length. Looking forward to part 17.