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 09/01/2010

Code Pink aims to stage barbed-wire Gaza outside White House tomorrow

Aug 31, 2010 

Philip Weiss

From CodePink’s press release on a street theater action planned for the front of the White House tomorrow: A Peace Charade – A Theatre Parody of the Peace Talks:

Led by CODEPINK, activists will come together to put on a short performance, with the White House as their backdrop, to parody the farce masquerading as peace talks. The performers will include “President Abbas,” “Prime Minister Netanyahu,” and “Secretary Clinton”. There will be people from Gaza, behind barbed wire, complaining that they are not included, and settlers and IDF soldiers busily building more settlements while the talks are going on. The activists will employ large props, witty dialogue, and the White House background to put on an engaging and funny performance that delivers an important message: these talks are little more than a farce meant for producing photo opportunities for the U.S. while allowing a continuation of Israeli settlement expansion, land annexation and the siege of Gaza.

“While we are making fun of a process that will go nowhere, we will also be making a serious point that real negotiations can only happen if the people of Gaza are represented through their elected government, Hamas, and if there is a halt to Israel’s expansionist policies,” says CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin, who will play Hillary Clinton in the play. The actors/actresses will also be available for serious interviews on their views of the peace process.

What:

When: Wednesday, September 1st, 12 PM

Where: In front of the White House

Who: The CODEPINK Theater Troupe

Meshal: Most Palestinians, from elites to regular people, reject the talks

Aug 31, 2010 

Philip Weiss

From Huffpo, a piece saying that the peace process under Obama is risking greater violence. Interview by Shamine Narwani of Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Damascus:

KM: These negotiations are taking place for American and Israeli considerations, calculations and interests only. There are no interests at all for us as Palestinians or Arabs. That’s why the negotiations can only be conducted under American orders, threats and pressure exerted on the PA and some Arab countries.

The negotiations are neither supported nationally nor are they perceived as legitimate by the authoritative Palestinian institutions. They are rejected by most of the Palestinian factions, powers, personalities, elites, and regular people — that is why these “peace talks” are destined for failure.

This represents a perfect example of how the US administration deals with the Arab-Israeli conflict — how American policy appears to be based on temporary troubleshooting instead of working toward finding a real and lasting solution.

Consecutive US administrations have adopted this same policy of “managing conflict” instead of “resolving conflict.” This can be useful for American tactical and short-term purposes, but it is very dangerous on the long-term and the strategic levels. This approach will ultimately prove catastrophic for the region.

SN: There is debate about whether Hamas accepts the premise of a two-state solution — your language seems often vague and heavily nuanced. I want to ask if you could clarify, but I am also curious as to whether it is even worth accepting a two-state solution today when there has been so much land confiscation and settlement activity by Israel in the West Bank and East Jerusalem? 

KM: Hamas does accept a Palestinian state on the lines of 1967 — and does not accept the two-state solution.

SN: What is the difference between the two?

KM: There is big difference between these two. I am a Palestinian. I am a Palestinian leader. I am concerned with accomplishing what the Palestinian people are looking for — which is to get rid of the occupation, attain liberation and freedom, and establish the Palestinian state on the lines of 1967. Talking about Israel is not relevant to me — I am not concerned about it. It is an occupying state, and I am the victim. I am the victim of the occupation; I am not concerned with giving legitimacy to this occupying country. The international community can deal with this (Israeli) state; I am concerned with the Palestinian people. I am as a Palestinian concerned with establishing the Palestinian state only.

SN: Can you clarify further? As a Palestinian leader of the Resistance you have to give people an idea of what you aspire to — and how you expect to attain it?

KM: For us, the 20 years of experience with these peace negotiations — and the failure of it — very much convinces us today that the legitimate rights of Palestinians will be only be gained by snatching them, not by being gifted with them at the negotiating table. Neither Netanyahu nor any other Israeli leader will ever simply gift us a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority has watered down all its demands and is merely asking for a frame of reference to the 1967 borders in negotiations, but Netanyahu has repeatedly refused to accept even this most basic premise for peace. Nor will America or the international community gift us with a state — we have to depend on ourselves and help ourselves.

As a Palestinian leader, I tell my people that the Palestinian state and Palestinian rights will not be accomplished through this peace process — but it will be accomplished by force, and it will be accomplished by resistance. I tell them that through this bitter experience of long negotiations with the Israelis, we got nothing — we could not even get the 1967 solution. I tell them the only option in front of us today is to take this by force and by resistance. And the Palestinian people today realize this — yes, it has a steep price, but there is no other option for the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people tried the peace process option but the result was nothing.

Smear campaign targets pro-Palestinian Brooklyn College professor; alum suspends ’significant bequest’

Aug 31, 2010 

Zoe Zenowich and Alex Kane

A campaign reminiscent of past academic battles over Israel is afoot, this time targeting Brooklyn College professor Moustafa Bayoumi, who edited the newly released book titled Midnight on the Mavi Marmara: The Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and How it Changed the Course of the Israel/Palestine Conflict.

Critics of Bayoumi say it is inappropriate for the college to assign his book, How Does It Feel to be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America, to the approximately 1500 incoming freshmen, a longstanding tradition meant to engage students in collective dialogue through writing. Critics are accusing Bayoumi’s book of seeking to “inculcate students with a political viewpoint,” claiming the decision lacks “balance.” But upon closer examination of the concocted controversy, it becomes clear that the targeting of Bayoumi is principally for his advocacy for Palestinian human rights. His adversaries are using the college’s decision to have his book read by freshmen as a tool to raise questions about his stance on Israel/Palestine.

Assigning the book to incoming freshmen is meant to “humanize a population that’s being increasingly dehumanized,” Bayoumi told a group of Brooklyn College students today in an afternoon meet-the-author session where students had the opportunity to ask questions.

Bayoumi has been labeled a “radical pro-Palestinian” professor by Brooklyn College alumni Bruce Kesler, who recently wrote that the college will no longer be receiving a “significant bequest” from him. Kesler, a contributing editor to the right-wing group Family Security Matters, a project of the Center for Security Policy, whose members include former Vice President Dick Cheney and neoconservatives like Elliot Abrams, has brought the most attention to Bayoumi, with an article citing him appearing in the New York Daily News.

Kesler is not the only person to join in on the smear campaign. The Jewish Week has joined in the fray, citing anonymous professors from the college as saying that Bayoumi’s book will “indoctrinate” students.

Professor of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College, Jonathan Helfand, told Ashley Thorne of the National Association of Scholars, a conservative group that opposes “racial, gender, and other group preferences,” that the book on the flotilla “is at best biased, at worst vile propaganda.” The NAS also opposes the use of Bayoumi’s book, referring to it as “polemical,” and the decision to assign it as “troubling.”

Abigail Rosenthal, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Brooklyn College, called Bayoumi the “author of a blatantly one-sided collection on the Gaza flotilla” whose book on Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. “will intimidate incoming students who have a different point of view.”

And Campus Watch, an organization dedicated to suppressing criticism of Israel on campus, has highlighted an article on Pajamas Media about Bayoumi.

One of the criticisms directed at How Does It Feel to be a Problem? is the claim that the book draws a parallel between “the horrible and pervasive discrimination and injustices that Blacks were subjected to a century ago and Arab-Americans today,” which Kesler labels “ridiculous.” But in their zeal to make it look like Bayoumi’s book on young Arabs in America is their real problem, as opposed to his advocacy for Palestinians, the critics don’t seem to have read the book. The first footnote in Bayoumi’s book, whose title comes from a famous W.E.B. DuBois line, explains that by making a link between blacks and Arabs in the U.S., he means to “draw attention to how difference operates in American society, but this certainly does not mean that Arab-American life since September 11, 2001, is in any way equivalent to the ravages of slavery and segregation.”

Bayoumi’s How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? has also been used at other colleges, like Johnson State College in Vermont.

So far, Brooklyn College has stood its ground. In a statement given to the Daily News, the college says that it is “regrettable that Mr. Bruce Kesler misunderstands the intentions of the Common Reader experience and the broader context of this selection.”

However, there’s bound to be sympathy among pro-Israel Brooklyn College and City University of New York donors with regard to those sentiments expressed by Kesler and others. Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, for one, who sits on the board that governs the city’s public college system, is a prominent supporter of Israel, and was a key player in the witch hunt against the Khalil Gibran International Academy.

The smears against Bayoumi bring to mind similar campaigns, like the one that undid Norman Finkelstein’s tenure bid at DePaul University and the failed attempt to deny Joseph Massad, a professor at Columbia University, tenure.

Those campaigns may be a harbinger of things to come for Bayoumi, who is not tenured at Brooklyn College.

Zoe Zenowich is a Senior in the Scholars Program at Brooklyn College, where she is the managing editor of the Excelsior, a student newspaper. She is currently interning for the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and has interned for the Nation and the Economist.

Alex Kane is a college student, journalist and blogger based in New York City. He is a reporter for the Indypendent, and a frequent contributor to this site. His articles have also appeared in Common Dreams, Electronic Intifada, Extra! and Palestine Chronicle. He blogs at alexbkane.wordpress.com. Follow him on Twitter here.

Unchallenged violence and intimidation, coming soon to a mosque near you

Aug 31, 2010

Alex Kane

Reading accounts of the far-right English Defense League’s (EDL) recent anti-Muslim rally in Bradford, England is disturbing. EDL members, shouting slogans that state that Allah is a “pedophile” and that they “love the floods” currently devastating Pakistan, clashed with riot police during a rally held last Saturday in a city with a significant Muslim presence.

More disturbingly, recent events here don’t seem to be far from what Muslims in England have experienced. And no one in power is doing anything to stop it.

Islamophobic attitudes are rampant in both Europe and the United States. A recent TIME magazine poll found “that many Americans harbor lingering animosity toward Muslims. Twenty-eight percent of voters do not believe Muslims should be eligible to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Nearly one-third of the country thinks adherents of Islam should be barred from running for President.”

Public expressions of hate against Muslims is on the rise. In Connecticut, as Hailey Woldt, who worked as a researcher to find out “what it meant to be Muslim in post-9/11 America,” highlighted, “a group of children leaving a Bridgeport mosque last week, as reported by the Connecticut Post, had to brace themselves as they walked past a group of about a dozen Christian protestors yelling ‘Islam is a lie’ and ‘Jesus hates Muslims.’”

During the August 22 rally near Ground Zero, anti-community center protesters surrounded a black man, apparently thinking he was Muslim, and forcefully confronted him. A fire at a Tennessee mosque was ruled to be an arson, and there were reports of gunshots being fired nearby. Today, Talking Points Memo highlights how the armed group the Minutemen are now taking up the anti-Muslim mantle, warning of border-crossing terrorists. And we can’t forget the stabbing of Ahmed Sharif, a Muslim cabdriver in New York City.

The Islamophobic thread running through Europe and the United States doesn’t end there, and Israel/Palestine plays an important role. Pamela Geller, the far-right anti-Muslim blogger who is leading the anti-Muslim crusade here, has defended and made common cause with the EDL, as Newsweek’s Mark Hosenball reported.

Geller and the EDL are part of the alliance between far-right groups, who see the Israel-Palestine conflict as a key battle in the fight to end “Islamism,”and right-wing Zionists like Geller.

Far-right groups keen on using violence, implicitly or overtly, are not new to the United States. The real danger today lies in the spinelessness of American politicians, who are aiding the hate or tacitly sitting by while attacks against Muslims continue. And it also lies in the complicity of some American Jews, like the Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman and neo-conservatives like William Kristol, who are strong supporters of Israel and have come out against the Islamic community center near Ground Zero because, as MJ Rosenberg put it, “they believe that the more acceptance there is of Muslims here at home, the less reflexive hatred there will be for Muslims abroad. And that, in their view, reduces America’s sympathy for Israel.”

The horror that Muslim children in Bridgeport, CT felt when protesters shouted “Jesus hates Muslims” at them; the fear of the Muslim community in Tennessee after a fire at a mosque and reported gunshots; the blood that gushed from Ahmed Sharif; all of these incidents are not taking place in a vacuum. Expect similar stories in the future, though–our politicians are aiding and abetting this dangerous trend.

Signed sealed delivered I’m yours

Aug 31, 2010 

Philip Weiss

What’s she running for? Sarah Palin celebrated Shabbat in Pennsylvania last Friday night with many Jews, before her appearance at that Glenn Beck rally. From Benyamin Korn of Jews for Sarah:

my organization, Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin, set up a Shabbaton — a Sabbath gathering for meals, songs, prayers, and conversation — with the assistance of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, to be a part of their weekend with Mrs. Palin….

By evening, the halls of the Hershey Lodge were filled with the aroma of chulent, the traditional Sabbath stew. More than 1,000 citizens came to the $200-a-plate dinner with the governor, including a small group whose members paid $25,000 each to sit at the governor’s table. Our Jews for Sarah tables included a cross-section. Some came from Philadelphia, Baltimore, or North Jersey, while others from farther afield. Dr. Joseph Frager, president of the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, made the drive from Queens.

Some say that Jews aren’t moving right, by the way. I’m not buying, I think the community is politically transformed from the one I grew up in…

Some diasporas from persecution have honor

Aug 31, 2010 

Philip Weiss

Janet Maslin in the Times on Isabel Wilkerson’s new book, The Warmth of Other Suns, which documents the ways that blacks sought to flee the Jim Crow south.

She has documented the sweeping 55-year-long migration of black Americans across their own country….

Ms. Wilkerson makes a case that people who left the South only to create hometown-based communities in new places are more like refugees than migrants: more closely tied to their old friends and families, more apt to form tight expatriate groups, more enduringly attached to the areas they left behind. She argues that these people, among them her Georgia-born mother and Virginia-born father who raised Ms. Wilkerson in Washington, D.C., were better educated and more closely tied to their families than other scholars have assumed. She works on a grand, panoramic scale but also on a very intimate one, since this work of living history boils down to the tenderly told stories of three rural Southerners who immigrated to big cities from their hometowns.

…Ms. Wilkerson interviewed more than 1,200 people whose lives had followed the same basic pattern: early years in the South followed by relocation in either the North or the West.

‘How to kill goyim and influence people’

Aug 31, 2010 

Max Blumenthal 

Weiss: Earlier today I complained that Americans are not getting the news about what Israel is becoming. My endless complaint. Here is someone who can cut the corridor, as they say: Max Blumenthal, whose message from Jerusalem a year ago was killed and killed and killed but still it lived, and who is now exploring the violent underbelly of Israeli settler fundamentalism, which is completely supported by the government. Here he’s writing about the origins of a tract that encourages the murder of goyim, and tying it into the genocidal speech toward Palestinians by leading Orthodox rabbi Ovadia Yosef the other day (not part of this excerpt). Terrorism, in front of our eyes:

As soon as it was published late last year, Torat Ha’Melech sparked a national uproar. The controversy began when an Israeli tabloid panned the book’s contents as “230 pages on the laws concerning the killing of non-Jews, a kind of guidebook for anyone who ponders the question of if and when it is permissible to take the life of a non-Jew.” According to the book’s author, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira… “If we kill a gentile who has has violated one of the seven commandments… there is nothing wrong with the murder.”… Citing Jewish law as his source (or at least a very selective interpretation of it) he declared: “There is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us, and in such a situation they may be harmed deliberately, and not only during combat with adults.”

In January, Shapira was briefly detained by the Israeli police, while two leading rabbis who endorsed the book, Dov Lior and Yaakov Yosef, were summoned to interrogations by the Shabak. However, the rabbis refused to appear at the interrogations, essentially thumbing their noses at the state and its laws. And the government did nothing. The episode raised grave questions about the willingness of the Israeli government to confront the ferociously racist swathe of the country’s rabbinate…

In response to the rabbis’ public rebuke of the state’s legal system, the Israeli Attorney General and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kept silent. Indeed, since the publication of

Torat Ha’Melech

, Netanyahu has strenuously avoided criticizing its contents or the author’s leading supporters. Like so many prime ministers before him, he has been cowed into submission by Israel’s religious nationalist community. But Netanyahu appears to be particularly impotent. His weakness stems from the fact that the religious nationalist right figures prominently in his governing coalition and comprises a substantial portion of his political base….

The disturbing philosophy expressed in Torat Ha’Melech emerged from the fevered atmosphere of a settlement called Yitzhar located in the northern West Bank near the Palestinian city of Nablus. Shapira leads the settlement’s Od Yosef Chai yeshiva, holding sway over a small army of fanatics who are eager to lash out at the Palestinians tending to their crops and livestock in the valleys below them. One of Shapira’s followers, an American immigrant named Jack Teitel, has confessed to murdering two innocent Palestinians and attempting to the kill the liberal Israeli historian Ze’ev Sternhell with a mail bomb. Teitel is suspected of many more murders, including an attack on a Tel Aviv gay community center.

Despite its apparent role as a terror training institute,

Od Yosef Chai has raked in nearly fifty thousand

dollars from the Israeli Ministry of Social Affairs since 2007, while the Ministry of Education has pumped over 250 thousand dollars into the yeshiva’s coffers between 2006 and 2007.

Now Israeli academics sign on to occupation-boycott, citing disaster for Jewish state

Aug 31, 2010 

Philip Weiss

Another shoe drops on boycott. Here are Israeli academics, many of them obviously Zionist, saying that they will not go into the territories. Their petition helps to dispel the big clouds surrounding academic boycott here in the U.S. Yes these Israelis are leaders; because as Omar Barghouthi has said, If you will boycott just an egg, we want you to boycott that egg.

The Israeli gesture also gets at the poverty of the American discourse on this issue.

Why is it that these lecturers have gone further than liberal Zionists here? Why is it that you will now see liberal Zionists in the U.S., granted permission by the Israelis, taking similar steps? Why must they have Israeli permission? Why can’t American liberals come to this understanding on their own? Remember: they didn’t need the Phoenix Suns (brave) gesture against the Arizona law to say, We’re gonna boycott Arizona. Finally, when will the existential crisis that the Jewish state is in due chiefly to its endless expansionism be communicated to the American people, without hysteria, by the media? Why is Israeli media freer to discuss the one-state-solution than the American media? (It is all about deference to Zionism inside American culture, and the guardian role granted the Israel lobby by the Jewish community and the U.S. establishment.) From Ynet:

“We are dealing with a catastrophe whose implication is a failure to partition the land; this may threaten the State’s existence as a Jewish entity.” [said Economics prof Ariel Rubenstein]

Rubinstein added that he does not dismiss the possibility of imposing an academic boycott similar to the one imposed against South Africa during the apartheid era. “Under some circumstances, academic boycotts should not be rejected, but the question is who imposes the boycott and why,” he said….[meaning, he’s against the right of return…]

Another signatory to the boycott petition is Professor Amiram Goldblum, a chemistry lecturer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

“By signing, we declare that we shall refuse invitations for lectures or seminars in the territories,” he said. “We will not appear at the Ariel College or at its branches, because we believe that any appearance or academic discussion there violates the law and international conventions, which Israel should adhere to like all other nations.”

Advocates for 3 U.S. hikers captured by Iran spotlight their leftwing activism

Aug 31, 2010 

Philip Weiss

Here is a great piece by Stephen Zunes on Huffpo about the three American hikers captured by Iran a year ago, evidently when they were on Iraqi soil, visiting a famous water fall. Zunes situates the travelers’ experience in leftwing activism. They had worked in a Palestinian refugee camp. They had visited their hospitalized friend Tristan Anderson, maimed by the Israelis. They are from the Bay Area, and  Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal are from the Bay Area, and Bauer has published a fine investigative piece in the Nation on Bush-era sponsorship of Iraqi death squads. (He had support from the Nation Institute, too.) Zunes:

Perhaps as a testament to his own youthful idealism as a community organizer, President Barack Obama acknowledged their activism in a statement calling for their release, saying, “They are simply open-minded and adventurous young people who represent the best of America, and of the human spirit. They are teachers, artists, and advocates for social and environmental justice.” Overall, however, the Obama administration appears to place freeing them from Iranian captivity as a relatively low priority.     

After months of working unsuccessfully through official channels, some of the friends and family members of the detainees have decided to publicize their plight — along with their history of activism — in the hopes that global civil society, particularly the progressive activist community, can take the kind of initiative not yet coming from Washington.       

The fear-mongering and saber-rattling that U.S. hawks have directed at the Iranian regime make it difficult for some progressive activists in the United States to speak out against the repression of the right-wing theocratic regime in Tehran. Yet, while the military threat posed by Iran is often greatly exaggerated, the repressive nature of the regime is not. Indeed, the absurd notion that these three progressive anti-imperialist activists would be spying for the U.S. government is but one more demonstration of the moral and political bankruptcy of the Iranian regime. And, given that — despite all the extreme anti-Iranian rhetoric — Washington is not doing much in support of these American captives, it’s up the progressive community to organize on their behalf.     

Leading progressives such as Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, Angela Davis, Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin, Alex Cockburn, Christian Parenti, and the late Howard Zinn have called for their release. As Chomsky put it, “These young people represent a segment of the U.S. population that is critical of [U.S.] policies, and often actively opposed to them. Hence their detention is particularly distressing to all of us who are dedicated to shifting U.S. policy to one of mutual respect rather than domination.”

3-year-old in Hebron has cerebral atrophy, but Israel won’t let her mother in Gaza come back to her

Aug 31, 2010 

Seham

and other news from Today in Palestine:

Land and Property Theft and Destruction/Ethnic Cleansing

Israel expands 2 settlements ahead of direct talks with Palestinians
RAMALLAH, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — Three days before the direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are officially launched in Washington on Thursday, a Palestinian official revealed on Monday that Israel began to expand two Jewish settlements in the West Bank.  The Palestinian state-run news agency Wafa has quoted Ghassan Daghlas, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) official, who is in charge of the Jewish settlement file in northern West Bank, as saying that the expansion have begun in the settlements of Elon Moreh and Giv’at Gilad north of Nablus.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/30/c_13470018.htm

Rabbi Yosef gives PM breathing space on building freeze
Shas spiritual leader supports quiet continuation of settlement building freeze as Netanyahu travels to US to kickoff negotiations; values peace with Palestinians despite recent inflammatory remarks.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3946523,00.html

Israeli settlements to be determining issue in peace talks
The building of new Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory will be one of the key and determining issues in upcoming peace talks that will be held in the US capital Washington DC.   Israel has been criticised by all sides, including the US, for its illegal construction of thousands of new homes, which have been separated by an imposing wall.   Nour Odeh reports from the Palestinian village of Al-Walajeh in the West Bank, where many are suffering from the unlawful settelements. [August 30, 2010]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyTXHbIF6WI&feature=youtube_gdata

6 families ordered to vacate homes for demolition
NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Monday told six Palestinian families in the Nablus district their homes would be demolished and ordered them to vacate within 48 hours, an official said.  The families were from Um Ar-Rashash, near Duma village, Palestinian Authority settlement affairs officer Ghassan Doughlas said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=311933

A fortnight of injustice in Sheikh Jarrah
The past two weeks in Sheikh Jarrah have seen a resurgence of settler harassment and violence against the local Palestinians – beyond low intensity abuse that is the norm.  Verbal sparring and abusive exchanges were sparked when a young settler entered the occupied Al-Ghawe house on August 16th. The teenager then went to the top of house and hoisted a huge Israeli flag up on the roof, next to the oversized menorah, a deliberate act of provocation intended to insult the evicted Palestinian family further.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/08/14158/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29

Solidarity/Activism/Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment
Invitation: Mass demonstration “No direct bilateral negotiations under the conditions set by the US and Israel”
August 31st, 2010– The coordination committee formed in opposition to the direct negotiations held under conditions set by the US and Israel calls on all political forces and Palestinians to join a mass demonstration.
When: Wednesday, September 1 2010
Where: al-Manara Square, Ramallah
When: 11.00 am
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2360.shtml

“Solidarity tastes different inside prison”, Ameer Makhoul
“My human dignity, basic human rights and constitutional rights are suffering from basic violations. I still have no permit to meet my lawyers without being recorded.” The Electronic Intifada publishes an edited excerpt from a 7 August 2010 letter written by Ameer Makhoul from Israeli prison.
http://www.google.com/reader/view/?tab=my#stream/user%2F10557706263859290149%2Fstate%2Fcom.google%2Fstarred
Catalonian Youth Advocate Palestine Via Music
Nablus – PNN exclusive – a group of Catalonian youth currently visiting the Palestinian territory have taken the responsibility to advocate the Palestinian cause using a number of methods among them music.  The group visit is organized by Solidarity with Palestine from Barcelona, an organization that is specialized in advocacy work for the Palestinian cause.   The organization advocacy work is done by organizing tours to Catalonian musical groups visiting schools, workshops, and art galleries and movies, Ashraf Ayoup, an organizer for the organization told PNN.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8719&Itemid=63
MK Oron: Artists have a right not to perform in West Bank settlements
300 demonstrators gathered outside Habima Theater in Tel Aviv to protest the theater’s decision to stage performances in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/mk-oron-artists-have-a-right-not-to-perform-in-west-bank-settlements-1.311131?localLinksEnabled=false

Actor’s West Bank boycott gets boost from 150 academics and artists
Men and women of letters lend their support to artists that announced their intention to boycott Ariel cultural center.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/actor-s-west-bank-boycott-gets-boost-from-150-academics-and-artists-1.311149?localLinksEnabled=false

Should people boycott Israel? Pt2 with  Omar Barghouti
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5551
The Siege (Gaza & West Bank)/Humanitarian/Restriction of Movement/Human Rights/Racism
Goods – Needs Vs. Supply – Aug 1 – Aug 28
http://www.gazagateway.org/2010/08/goods-needs-vs-supply-aug-1-aug-28/
Industrial Fuel – Needs Vs. Supply – Aug 1 – Aug 28
http://www.gazagateway.org/2010/08/industrial-fuel-needs-vs-supply-aug-1-aug-28/
PA Health Ministry to send fuel to Gaza hospitals
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said Monday it would provide fuel to hospitals in Gaza.  Gaza’s sole power station shut down earlier this month due to lack of fuel leading the Strip’s hospitals to declare a state of emergency.  Director of Gaza City’s Dar Ash-Shifa Hospital Hussein Ashour said Monday that lives were at risk due to fuel shortages in the Strip. The hospital had only 16,000 liters of fuel left, Ashour said, adding that generators consume 7,000 liters daily. In the event of a power cut, the hospital would be unable to power the intensive care ward, operating rooms, dialysis wards, the cardiac unit or oxygen suppliers, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=311962

Gisha: Is the Closure of the Gaza Strip Really for Security Reasons?
GIsha-  PNN- head of today’s testimony by Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Gisha sent a letter to The Turkel Public Commission to Examine the Israeli May  attack on the aid ships bound for Gaza.  Gisha letter reveals that the closure of Gaza was not imposed only for security reasons but also in order to wage “economic warfare” against the Gaza Strip.  The Turkel Committee is an inquiry set up by Israel to investigate the Israeli navy attack on Gaza flotilla on May which left nine aid workers dead and 54 others injured. The Committee  also investigate the Blockade of Gaza. It is led by Israeli retired Supreme Court Judge Jacob Turkel. The two other members of the panel are professor of international law Shabtai Rosenne, and military expert Amos Horev. The probe will be overseen by two International observers: Northern Irish former First Minister William David Trimble, and Canadian former military judge Ken Watkin.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8716&Itemid=63
Mother of sick 3-year-old stranded in Gaza
HEBRON (Ma’an) — The father of a 3-year-old girl suffering from cerebral atrophy is appealing for his wife and sons to be allowed to leave Gaza and return to the family home in the West Bank.  Osama Rasras, from Beit Ummar near Hebron, said his three children travelled with their mother to Gaza to visit his wife’s sick father. Israeli authorities would not allow them to leave for 18 months, during which time Dalal could not access medical treatment.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=311700
Palestinian student says denied travel at Allenby
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) – Israeli authorities on Tuesday prevented a Palestinian student from exiting the West Bank at the Allenby Bridge, as he was en route to Cyprus to continue his studies, the young man said.  The Ramallah resident said it was the second time he had tried to cross the bridge and return to the Near East University in Cyprus, and the second time he was denied permission to cross out of the West Bank.  Not permitted to travel out of the Tel Aviv or the now-defunct Gaza airports, Ala Idreis said he was on his way to the Queen Aliya International Airport in Amman.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=312093

Life Amid The Ruins: Gazans Still Feel Under Siege
In the Gaza Strip, many homes remain in ruins after Israel’s military incursion at the end of 2008 crippled the territory. The war destroyed thousands of buildings, but the Israeli government won’t allow construction materials in even though there is a dire need.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129479819

Students from Gaza: Disregarded Victims of Israel’s Siege of the Gaza Strip – A Report on Israel’s Prevention of Gazan Students from Studying at the West Bank Universities
The Palestinian National Authority’s (PNA) educational system is an integrated national system that has been designed to meet the educational needs of Palestinian students in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Accordingly, the various Palestinian universities have, over the years, developed particular specializations. Thus, specializations that are available in the Gaza Strip may not be available in West Bank universities and vice versa. The close geographical proximity of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank has always facilitated the education system in the oPt. In the absence of Israeli movement and access barriers, Gazan students can, for example, reach a university in Ramallah City in the West Bank by car in approximately one hour. As some major fields of study are not available in Gazan universities, thousands of Gazan students, particularly those who seek to obtain post-graduate degrees in medicine, dentistry, veterinary studies, radiology, medical engineering, environment protection, law and democracy, and human rights used to travel to the West Bank to study there.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SKEA-88UFU3?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P
Egypt banned Hamas pilgrims, party says
GAZA (Ma’an) — Hamas accused Egyptian security services Monday of obstructing the travel of pilgrims affiliated with the party to Mecca.  The Islamist party said it was “puzzled” by Egypt’s decision to prevent Hamas-affiliated pilgrims from passing through the country to reach Saudi Arabia, noting that the only route available to pilgrims is via the Rafah crossing on Egypt’s border.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=311992

Stuck inside of Cairo with the Gaza blues again, Susan Johnson
And here I sit in Cairo, exhausted and disappointed. I have been denied entrance to Gaza twice! I’m amazed I’m not angry and ready to give up, even though I’m discouraged.  My trip began August 24 with my flight from JFK being delayed for two hours. Arrival in Cairo though three hours late was simple; purchasing a visa, exchanging money, processing through passport control, collecting bags, walking out of the terminal into the blast of Egyptian heat and relief upon seeing “Susan Johnson” in the midst of the driver’s signs.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/stuck-inside-of-cairo-with-the-gaza-blues-again.html

Violence/Provocations/Detentions

Mayor: Settlers open fire at Palestinian farmers
NABLUS (Ma’an) — A village mayor in Salfit said Tuesday that 10 armed Israeli settlers opened fire at three Palestinian teenagers as they tended to their land in Deir Istiya.  Village Mayor Nathmi Salman said Yousef Muhammad Al-Qaysi, 17, Sharaf Dawoud Ubeid, 18, and Udayy Azzam Ubeid, 18, were all tending to their land at 7:40 a.m. on the northern side of the village when mounted settlers rode past and fired on them. No injuries or damage were reported in the incident he said, adding that the village is in close proximity to the illegal West Bank settlement of Immanuel, which were built on lands owned by village residents.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=312101

Israeli forces invade Rafah; clashes reported
Late Sunday night, Israeli tanks, bulldozers and armored vehicles invaded the southern Gaza Strip, east of Rafah, and began bulldozing land in the An-Nahda neighborhood.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59343

East Jerusalem neighborhood attacked by Israeli soldiers; at least 4 detained
The Silwan neighborhood, which has been the site of an Israeli municipal plan to rid the neighborhood of its Palestinian residents, came under fire once again on Monday when Israeli forces invaded to abduct Palestinians that they claim took part in clashes with settlers last Thursday.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59345

Detainees’ mothers plan sit-in at Red Cross HQ
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The Detainees’ Mothers Committee said Monday that it will spend a night in front the International Committee of the Red Cross’ headquarters in Gaza City to protest Israel’s policy of barring Strip residents from visiting detainees, a member said.  Mother of detained Ibrahim Baroud said the sit-in will be held a day before Eid begins, the Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, which is expected around 10 September.  Rafat Hamdounah, the head of the Detainees’ Studies Center, said dozens of mothers will join the sit-in to “express their condemnation of the Israeli Administration’s treatment of them and their sons,” a statement read.  Hamdounah called for organizations to support the sit-in and for the media to widely cover the issue.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=312081
Political/Flotilla Developments

Mideast talks reopen under tough conditions (AP)
AP – The U.S. relaunches Israeli-Palestinian talks this week, its third push over the past decade to solve one of the world’s most intractable conflicts — and this time under some of the most difficult conditions yet.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100830/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_mideast_talks
U.S. anticipates ‘vigorous process’ between Israel, Palestinians
Washington officials and analysts express cautious optimism about direct peace negotiations, but cast doubt on one-year framework.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-anticipates-vigorous-process-between-israel-palestinians-1.311144?localLinksEnabled=false

Israel PM assures right wing ahead of Washington summit (AFP)
AFP – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to reassure his right-wing Likud bloc in Israel’s ruling coalition on Monday he would not bow to territorial concessions in peace talks with the Palestinians.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100830/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestinianspeacenetanyahu

Abbas, Barak held secret meeting in Jordan (AFP)
AFP – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak have met secretly in Amman ahead of Middle East peace talks that start in Washington this week, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100831/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestinianspeaceabbasbarak

Sha’ath to accompany Abbas to Washington
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Sha’ath will accompany President Mahmoud Abbas to Washington, the official announced on Tuesday in Ramallah during a meeting on Israel’s settlement policy.  Sha’ath is expected to be among a small handful of officials traveling to the American capital for a short series of peace talks, the first face-to-face meetings in more than 20 months.  The peace-talk delegate made the announcement in parallel with a news conference accusing Israel of only partially implementing its 10-month settlement freeze in the West Bank.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=312127

Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad signals make or break for two-state solution
Talks in Washington – the first direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine for 20 months – ‘can and must’ succeed, says PM.  The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, warned today that a “moment of reckoning” was approaching as Israel and the Palestinian Authority prepare to embark this week on their first direct negotiations for 20 months.  Setting out his second-year plans to build the institutions and framework of a Palestinian state – which the US wants complete in 12 months – Fayyad said the talks “can and must” succeed or the chances of a two-state solution to the conflict would fade.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/30/israel-palestinians-us-washington-talks
Fayyad says self-sufficient economy PA’s next goal
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — A year into his two-year plan to build a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says the next goal is be a self-sufficient economy.  Speaking at a presentation marking the midway point of his plan, Fayyad said recent growth was a result of foreign aid, but aid-dependency must be reduced to build an economy that can support statehood.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=311976

Barghouthi: Abbas should reconsider talks
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouthi said Monday that any concessions made by Palestinians in negotiations would only embolden Israel.  Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah, Barghouthi urged President Mahmoud Abbas to reconsider his decision to engage in direct talks, set to resume Thursday in Washington after a 20-month hiatus.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=311972

Diana Buttu: direct talks bound to fail
As US officials arrived in Jerusalem last week to meet with Palestinian Authority and Israeli government officials, The Electronic Intifada interviewed Ramallah-based lawyer and former PLO advisor Diana Buttu about this week’s US-brokered direct talks between the two parties.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11492.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Poll: Palestinians back negotiations with Israel
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Two-thirds of Palestinians are in favor of either direct or indirect negotiations with Israel, the results of a new poll released Monday finds.  The Palestinian Center for Public Opinion surveyed over 1,000 Palestinians from the West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem and Gaza earlier this month, ahead of the resumption of direct talks in Washington on 2 September.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=311905

Palestinians skeptical of new round of peace talks
Mahmoud Abbas is risking his political future in agreeing to the talks. After a string of failed negotiations and with continued settlement building in the West Bank, less than 25% of Palestinians predict success.  As Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas prepares to embark down a well-trod path of peace talks — a road he’s spent a career helping to pave — the pragmatic leader is risking his political future in what some predict could be his last trip to the negotiating table.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/BxlUd0DQVEY/la-fg-mideast-abbas-20100831,0,1915578.story
UN probe of Gaza flotilla talks to Israeli-Arab MK (AP)
AP – An Israeli-Arab lawmaker said Tuesday she told U.N. investigators probing Israel’s deadly raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip that its commandos were on a mission to kill.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100831/ap_on_re_mi_ea/gaza_blockade
Arab MK Zuabi: IDF boarded Gaza flotilla ships with intent to kill
Zuabi testified before UN panel probing Israeli naval commando raid that left nine Turkish citizens dead on May 31.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/arab-mk-zuabi-idf-boarded-gaza-flotilla-ships-with-intent-to-kill-1.311287?localLinksEnabled=false

Court asked to protect Zoabi’s rights
Labor’s Cabel, former MKs say High Court petition motivated by love of democracy.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3946873,00.html

Other News

Comptroller: IDF officers lack training
State comptroller’s report on appointments of army’s senior officers reveals grim picture.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3947019,00.html

Arab-Israeli suspected of security offenses
Umm al-Fahm resident suspected of jeopardizing national security, gag order placed on investigation’s details.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3946996,00.html
How To Kill Goyim And Influence People: Leading Israeli Rabbis Defend Manual for For Killing Non-Jews, Max Blumenthal
When I went into the Jewish religious book emporium, Pomeranz, in central Jerusalem to inquire about the availability of a book called Torat Ha’Melech, or the King’s Torah, a commotion immediately ensued. “Are you sure you want it?” the owner, M. Pomeranz, asked me half-jokingly. “The Shabak [Israel’s internal security service] is going to want a word with you if you do.” As customers stopped browsing and began to stare in my direction, Pomeranz pointed to a security camera affixed to a wall. “See that?” he told me. “It goes straight to the Shabak!”
http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/08/how-to-kill-goyim-and-influence-people-leading-israeli-rabbis-defend-manual-for-for-killing-non-jews/
Rabbinate provides address for couples whose Judaism is contested
Marriage registrars appointed to tackle problems faced by couples whose Judaism is under question. Itim: State trying to evade finding appropriate solution to problem.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3946418,00.html
PLO urges Yale president to speak out on ‘anti-Arab hate-mongering’ conference
Last week we reported on a disgraceful 3-day conference at Yale  that described criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism. Today Maen Rashid Areikat, the PLO Representative to the United States, sent a letter to Yale President Richard C. Levin, objecting to the conference. It follows
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/yale-conference-was-anti-arab-hate-mongering-says-plo-rep.html
Hamas headband? Fatah keychain? Gaza Strip gift shop has it all
Gaza Strip’s Chairman Arafat Gift Shop sells souvenirs that span the Palestinian political spectrum, even if there are no visitors to buy them.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/5DkE_QpoI74/Hamas-headband-Fatah-keychain-Gaza-Strip-gift-shop-has-it-all
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest

Abbas faces a mission impossible
High hopes are placed on the long-stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace talks that resume in Washington this week. United States President Barack Obama desperately needs a success story in the Middle East, and so does Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unwillingness and Abbas’ likely inability to deliver spell failure.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LI01Ak01.html

Direct talks will fail – is that what the US is planning on?, Tony Karon
There is more chance of Saddam Hussein’s elusive weapons of mass destruction suddenly turning up in Iraq than there is of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas agreeing on the terms for a two-state solution in Washington this week. That does not mean the direct talks being orchestrated by President Barack Obama are pointless. On the contrary, they represent a moment of truth, not for the Israelis or the Palestinians, but for Mr Obama, who is creating a crisis by forcing irreconcilable differences between the two sides onto the table. The question now becomes, what is Washington prepared to do once the Israelis and Palestinians fail to agree.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20100830%2FOPINION%2F708299938%2F1080

‘Bullied’ but not surrendering; US may have forced the PA to the negotiating table but Palestinians will not submit, Lamis Andoni
The resumption of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) will allow Barack Obama to have his day presiding over the launch of another series of futile negotiations and, in providing an opportunity for Binyamin Netanyahu to assert his unwavering commitment to Israel’s colonial policies, will earn the Israeli prime minister further bragging rights.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/08/201082954745720754.html

What to Read About the “Direct Talks” (and why you should still be pessimistic), Stephen M. Walt
President Obama is hosting a dinner for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sept. 1, in order to kick off the new round of direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. As regular readers know, I don’t think this effort will go anywhere, because the two sides are too far apart and because the Obama administration won’t have the political will to push them towards the necessary compromises.
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/08/29/direct_talks_deja_vu

Obama sets himself up for failure on peace talks, Josh Ruebner
Speaking before State Department personnel on his third day in office, President Obama stated it would be his administration’s policy to “actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as Israel and its Arab neighbors.”  During his first eight months in office, Obama pursued this goal by repeatedly calling on Israel to freeze its settlement of Palestinian land to set the right tone for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. In the face of Israeli intransigence, however, he made an abrupt volte face on the sidelines of last fall’s U.N. General Assembly session, declaring, “It is past time to talk about starting negotiations — it is time to move forward,” even while ongoing Israeli colonization of Palestinian land made the ostensible goal of these negotiations — a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict —increasingly unlikely.
http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/116481-obama-sets-himself-up-for-failure-on-peace-talks

A poisoned process holds little hope,  David Gardner
As the caravans of Middle East peace negotiators rumble into Washington next week for the umpteenth time, the pervasive cynicism and sense of deja vu all over again is overwhelming – and with good reason.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/de207f42-b08a-11df-8c04-00144feabdc0.html

Too Early to Write-off New Israel-Palestine Talks?
In his article in the Globe and Mail, Aluf Benn asks is it “Too Early to Write-off the New Israel-Palestine Talks”?  Too early to write-off direct talks?  Please!  Representatives for these “direct talks” on the Palestinian side in a sense do not even exist: Abbas’s election mandate timed out a year ago, and he stays in office under emergency measures – i.e, he has absolutely no democratic legitimacy.  But even poor Abbas, a kind of Palestinian “step’n’fetch it” figure if ever there was one, wanted nothing to do with such talks while Israel continued stealing land. The American administration browbeat him for months, threatening him with loss of all aid, into attending.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/08/too-early-to-write-off-new-israel-palestine-talks/
Back on TV due to popular demand…. ‘The Peace Industry’, Joseph Glatzer
The Nobel Prize award winning show, “The Peace Industry” comes back for its 19th season on September 2nd, after an almost 2 year hiatus.  It is one of the longest running and most popular shows in TV history.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/back-on-tv-due-to-popular-demand-the-peace-industry.html

NYT Op-Ed offers tiresome dichotomy of good Zionists vs bad religious settlers, Matthew Taylor
Gadi Taub’s NYT oped on the coming negotiations is so problematic, ahistorical, Israeli-centric, and rife with elisions, it reads like… well… a lot of other stuff cluttering the pages and electrons of said publication.  It leads off with the rhetorical question, “Will Israel remain a Zionist state?” – as if this is the most important issue to be tackled at the talks. Not “Will the systematic and willful oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people finally come to an end?” (Which all sane observers are doubtful will be the result.) Then he sets up the Zionist left’s desperate, tiresome good guys vs. bad guys frame: the pious seculars vs. the evil religious nuts.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/nyt-op-ed-offers-tiresome-dichotomy-of-good-zionists-vs-bad-religious-settlers.html
Rocket Redux, the Israeli fiction, David Samel
A few months ago, I authored a post on the fiction that when Israel withdrew from two decades of military occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah responded with thousands of rockets rained down on Israeli communities. At the time, I cited false statements to that effect made by Michael Oren in a NY Times op-ed and Ethan Bronner in a Times article (links provided in that post). Unsurprisingly, Bibi Netanyahu has now joined in, quoted in today’s Ha’aretz:
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/rocket-redux-the-israeli-fiction.html

Lebanon

Army details Israeli airspace violations
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army command detailing violations of Lebanese airspace by Israeli drones on Monday. A statement said at 7:30 am on Monday an Israeli reconnaissance plane violated Lebanese airspace over the southern village of Rmeish, and then flew over the towns of Riaq, Baalbeck, Hermel, and south Lebanon.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=118815
    
Israeli Activity Near Lebanon Border; Mizrahi Predicts Major War Next Year
31/08/2010 The Israeli daily Maariv reported Monday that the Israeli army will deploy the “Kfir” infantry brigade to the border with Lebanon further north.  Maariv said that the security situation in the West Bank, where the brigade has been operating for the past 20 years, has improved and other army units will replace the “Kfir” Brigade which will be sent to the north. The daily added that the move comes in line with the strategic vision of General Avi Mizrahi, the commander of the central region, to improve the performance of the brigade. Mizrahi has given his orders to the “Kfir” brigade to move out of the West Bank next year to take part in the “major war” expected in the north, Maariv reported. It added that the infantry brigade will hold drills in a medium simulating Lebanon and Syria and that all exercises will include armored and artillery units. “Combatants will take part in operational activities next year on the northern border,” the Israeli daily said.  
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=152359&language=en

Hariri: ‘Security has no sectarian, religious identity’
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Monday that the capital, like the rest of Lebanese territories, should never for any reason be above the rule of law and the state’s authority in imposing its sovereignty and preserving security.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=118818

UN votes to keep peacekeepers on Israel-Lebanon border until 2011
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the presence of UNIFIL remains critical following the incident on August 3, during which Lebanese and Israeli forces exchanged fire.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/un-votes-to-keep-peacekeepers-on-israel-lebanon-border-until-2011-1.311145?localLinksEnabled=false

Families of the lost seek answers; laws against forced disappearance sought
BEIRUT: The relatives of victims kidnapped during the 1970-1990 Civil War or the long years of Israeli or Syrian occupation gathered on Monday to protest continued secrecy over the disappearances.  Wearing plastic expressionless masks to hide their faces as a symbol of the indifference shown to the disappeared by the authorities, the families joined with the Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture (KRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to call for national governments to prevent future abductions and help in confirming the fate of the missing.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=118805#axzz0y86qerJI
Authorities arrest suspect in murder of Egyptian
BEIRUT: An man was arrested on the Syrian-Lebanese borders on suspicion of being involved in the murder of an Egyptian national.The NNA reported Monday that Ahmad A. was arrested by members of the General Security at the Bukaia border crossing while returning back to Lebanon from Syria.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=118809
Israel Threatens War with Lebanon, Stephen Lendman
Palestine is belligerently occupied. Threats continue against Iran and Syria as well as Lebanon, specifically Hezbollah, elected partner in the nation’s unity government, bogusly designated a US State Department Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), what Israel also calls it, repeating veiled and overt warnings, suggesting violence or an impending attack.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/08/israel-threatens-war-with-lebanon/

Iraq

Monday: 8 Iraqis Killed, 10 Wounded
At least eight Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded in light violence as Iraq prepares for the official end of U.S. military operations. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Baghdad to officiate at handover ceremonies.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/08/30/monday-8-iraqis-killed-10-wounded/

At least one killed in bomb attack in Iraq’s Mosul
At least one civilian was killed and 12 others were wounded on Sunday in a coordinated cart bomb and hand grenades attacks in the city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, a provincial police source said.
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/7121718.html
Policemen attack journalist’s home in Baghdad
Policemen fired on the Baghdad home of the head of the Iraqi Press Agency, Haydar Hassoun Al-Fizaa, on 27 August, injuring his wife and other relatives, before searching the premises and damaging furniture.  The attack on Al-Fazaa’s home in the east Baghdad neighbourhood of Al-Shaab was carried by police officers travelling in seven interior ministry vehicles. With the help of neighbours, Al-Fizaa was able to take his badly-injured wife to hospital. Other members of the family were also hospitalised.  Officials said the police had not known that Al-Fizaa owned the house and carried out the raid on the basis of information that a hostage was being held there. They also claimed that no shots were fired during the operation.
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4c7cbb632.html

Mysterious killings spread panic in Iraq
Iraqis say a postelection political deadlock has given free rein to terrorists, but no one knows who they are or how they choose their victims.  It has been a month now and still there are no answers. There is just a father gripping the photographs of his son.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/9skzHmxVexg/la-fg-iraq-assassinations-20100831,0,2759500.story
Iraq Shiite leader sees end to political impasse ‘in days’ (AFP)
AFP – An Iraqi Shiite leader, Ammar al-Hakim, said on Monday the long-delayed formation of a new government could be resolved within days but refused to be drawn on the name of the next prime minister.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100830/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpoliticskuwait
An Iraqi Mother Finds Her Eldest Son, Where She Least Wants To
An Iraqi family’s journey from morgue to cemetery.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=a281aecc036f9395e67344c2965b5db3
For Iraqis, Victims of War Are So Much More Than Numbers, By ANTHONY SHADID
A quest to confirm the death of a loved one — a son, husband, father and brother — took years, along with courage and luck.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=9ad332b549fda21669bd189244fa60c3

Fearful Iraqis scrambling to buy weapons
BAGHDAD – Four days after his brother was slain in a Baghdad robbery this month, Muntather Shaker borrowed $1,500 and bought a pistol. He carries it in his back pocket, sleeps with it under his pillow and is ready to use it to defend his family.
http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=87ce20f6206f27e5489289f8afdb7b82

Inside Story – Leaving Iraq
As the US completes its combat troop drawdown from Iraq, domestic security forces are put to the test. A suicide attack against army recruits on Tuesday, in which 63 pople were killed, raised concerns about the Iraqi security forces’ ability to take care of its own, let alone the safety of ordinary Iraqis. Are Iraqi security forces up to the job? What is their security strategy, if there is one at all?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e17EVkC21A&feature=youtube_gdata

Iraqis fear bleak future
Barack Obama, the US president, said in a message this weekend that Iraq would “chart its own course” as US combat operations come to an end. This may have been welcome news for war-weary Americans, but it has fuelled anxieties about the future among Iraqis. Meeting the August 31 deadline allows Obama to say he is fulfilling a pledge to end the war launched by George Bush, his predecessor, seven years ago. However, some 50,000 US troops will remain until the end of 2011 to advise Iraqi security forces in combat missions and protect US interests – in what Washington is calling an “advisory and support” role. But the failure of Iraqi leaders to form a new government almost six months after elections, and persistent attacks by insurgents, have done little to instill confidence among Iraqis. Overall violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the peak in 2006-07 of the sectarian killings unleashed after the 2003 US-led invasion, but levels of violence remain high. Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna reports from Baghdad on Iraqis who are left wondering what the future will bring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToMctGViNA4&feature=youtube_gdata

Iraq war: Inquiry launched into Iraqi boy’s disappearance from UK base
The British government has ordered an urgent inquiry into the disappearance of an injured Iraqi child who has not been seen since being placed in the care of UK military medics in 2003.  In one of the most bewildering episodes of the Iraq occupation, Memmon Salam al-Maliki, an 11-year-old boy, disappeared within days of being taken to a British base after he was wounded while playing with unexploded munitions. Although his injuries appeared not to be life-threatening, his family have not seen him since.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/30/inquiry-iraqi-boy-disappearance-from-base

At summer school, Iraqi refugees in Syria try to catch up
Displaced by war, children of Iraqi refugees enter ambitious programs to help compensate for missed school and the mental stresses of war. But Iraqi enrollment in Syrian schools has dropped 30 percent in the past year.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/OPCo_fTZG5M/At-summer-school-Iraqi-refugees-in-Syria-try-to-catch-up
Serving in Iraq Killed my Faith in God
The destruction I saw made me question everything I had previously thought about religion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/aug/30/serving-iraq-killed-my-faith-in-god

Why Moqtada Haunts the White House
There will be plenty spirits of Iraq policy past, present and future crowding the dais tonight as the President announces a “successful” transition and “a promise kept” for the drawdown of American troops from Iraq.  There’s George W. and Dick Cheney and their ghoulish courtiers – Donald Rumsfeld and his number two Paul Wolfowitz, not to mention coalition provisional authority viceroy L. Paul Bremer and Douglas Feith, all who dragged the country into Iraq and then botched it irreparably.
http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2010/08/30/why-moqtada-haunts-the-white-house/
What Is the US Legacy in Iraq?, PATRICK COCKBURN
A few days after the US announced that it had withdrawn its last combat brigade from Iraq, the local branch of al-Qa’ida staged a show of strength, killing or wounding 300 people in attacks across the country.  Its suicide bombers drove vehicles packed with explosives into police stations or military convoys from Mosul in the north to Basra in the south.  The continuing ferocious violence in Iraq, where most days more people die by bomb and bullet than in Afghanistan, is leading to questions about its stability once US forces finally withdraw by the end of next year.
http://www.counterpunch.com/patrick08312010.html

Iran

Iran ex-prosecutor suspended over prison deaths
TEHRAN: Tehran’s notorious former prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi and two judges have been suspended over the prison deaths of three anti-government protesters, Iranian newspapers reported on Monday, quoting MPs.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=118799

Obama Resists Pressure for Red Line on Iran’s Nuclear Capability, Gareth Porter
IPS — President Barack Obama’s refusal in a White House briefing earlier this month to announce a “red line” in regard to the Iran nuclear programme represented another in a series of rebuffs of pressure from Defence Secretary Robert Gates for statement that the United States will not accept its existing stocks of low enriched uranium.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/08/obama-resists-pressure-for-red-line-on-irans-nuclear-capability/
U.S. and Other World News

Entire US-Mexico border to be guarded by Predator drones
The launch of a fourth Predator drone Wednesday will mean the entire US-Mexico border is now patrolled by the unmanned aircraft.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/593iD_P4mmM/Entire-US-Mexico-border-to-be-guarded-by-Predator-drones
Rights groups challenge Obama on targeted killings
WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (Reuters) – Civil liberties groups sued the Obama administration on Monday over a program they said illegally tries to kill U.S. citizens believed to be militants living abroad, like the anti-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.  The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit on behalf of Nasser al-Awlaki, the father of the Muslim cleric, arguing targeted killings violate the U.S. Constitution and international law.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30206918.htm
Veterans’ group: CIA blocking lawsuit over experiments on troops
An advocacy group working on behalf of Vietnam veterans has asked a federal judge in California to sanction the CIA, saying the spy agency has been blocking efforts to uncover its role in alleged experiments on US soldiers from the 1950s to 1970s.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/0827/veterans-group-sanction-cia-experiements/

Mubarak signals Egypt succession by taking son to Washington
Gamal Mubarak, long presumed heir to the ageing president, will meet Israeli delegates to peace summit – and maybe even Netanyahu himself.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/mubarak-signals-egypt-succession-by-taking-son-to-washington-1.311264?localLinksEnabled=false

Imam Sadr and companions still alive in captivity of Libya, son tells news agency
BEIRUT: The son of disappeared Imam Musa Sadr has said his father and his companions is still alive in Libyan jails. Sadreddine Sadr told the state-run National News Agency (NNA) in an exclusive interview on Monday that his father Sadr, who disappeared during a visit to Libya in 1978, was still alive and being held captive by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=118823
Islam in America

Newsweek: Majority in GOP say Obama likely supports radical Muslim extremists
Majority in GOP say Obama likely supports radical Muslim extremistsIs President Obama secretly a radical Islamic fundamentalist here to impose a tribal system of law on the American public?  Ask any Republican and there’s more than a 50 percent chance they’ll say “yes,” if a recent Newsweek survey is to be believed.  While the questionnaire, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates, focused mainly on approval of the president, his party and their policies, poll-takers also focused on one particular issue of current public discussion: the president’s religion.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/0830/newsweek-majority-gop-obama-supports-radical-muslim-extremists/
Andy Ostroy: Racist Maniac Stabs Muslim Cabbie — Is Republican Hate-Mongering Working?
Republican leaders today are doing exactly what George W. Bush did nine years ago when conflating al Qaeda terrorists with Saddam Hussein and Iraq, turning the masses against an easy scapegoat.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-ostroy/racist-maniac-stabs-musli_b_695999.html
The Ground Zero Synagogue—Lebanon Becoming More American than America
 Incidentally, July and August of 2006 only tell a small part of the story when it comes to Israeli aggression against Lebanon. There have been decades of invasion, devastation, and occupation which predated 2006. Several thousands of Lebanese have been killed at the hands of the Israeli Defense Force. Tens of billions of dollars of damage have been levied on the Lebanese infrastructure and private and public property courtesy of the IDF over the course of decades.
http://www.zeropartypolitics.com/2010/08/ground-zero-synagoguelebanon-becoming.html

Letter to Cordoba Center on Behalf of a Former ‘Slave’
Prelude
I. The three century old remains of 20,000 African men, women, children former slaves
were discovered after the clean up of the World Trace Center’s collapse.
II. Between twenty and thirty percent of all stolen Africans brought to America as slaves
were Muslim. A Letter on behalf of Cordova Center by one such “slave”
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16230

Handicapping Islamophobia, Scott McConnell
All of sudden two of the usually completely distinct spheres of my life are on the same highway, merging into the same lane. Two days ago my new golf friend Stephanie Wei posted this on her golf blog, calling out a woman golf luminary for posting Islamophobic comments on her facebook page. As I know her, Stephanie is not political, but no fan of bigots either. In the golf world her post was widely picked up. I wasn’t surprised, for there is no American sport whose top players are more Republican, and self-consciously Christian than the PGA tour. At the same time, golf has a (pretty well-deserved) self image as being a realm of fair play and decency in a fallen world. The issue of Islamophobia cuts right into that, teasing out all the contradictions and spinning them about.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/handicapping-islamophobia.html

FBI: No Probable Cause Required For Surveillance
The bitter controversy over the building of a Muslim community center and mosque near the site of the terrorist attacks in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, is sparking new fears of government snooping on Islamic holy places –  which it now claims it can do without a warrant.  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Asian Law Caucus (ALC), and the San Francisco Bay Guardian newspaper, are suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in San Francisco over the agency’s failure to respond to a five-month-old request for information on its investigation of Bay Area Muslim groups.
http://original.antiwar.com/fisher/2010/08/30/fbi-no-probable-cause-required/

“Sensitivity”: The New Islamophobia, Anthony Alessandrini
Alongside the unfolding of attacks upon the proposed Park51 community center in Lower Manhattan, as well as the attacks on other proposed Muslim community centers and mosques throughout the U.S. in recent months, comes the news that a growing number of Americans (especially conservative Republicans) believe that President Barack Obama is a “secret Muslim.”  In the face of all this, it is hard not to conclude that, as Alex Pareene has recently put it, for many Americans, “Muslim” has come to mean “someone they dislike.”

“Sensitivity”: The New Islamophobia


www.TheHeadlines.org

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