And other news from Today in Palestine:
Land and Property Theft and Destruction/Ethnic Cleansing
Israel demolishes Bedouin village
About 300 residents of a village in the Negev desert have lost homes and possessions.
link to english.aljazeera.net
Alert: Thousands of police evacuating and demolishing the village of El-Araqib in the Israeli Negev
Thousands of police are in the village of el-Araqib right now – beginning a mass evacuation, demolition, and erasure of this historical Bedouin village. if you have access to the media, please send them to this village as soon as possible! the village of el-Araqib is between Rahat and Beer Sheva, and in a location that the Goldberg commission deemed outside of the areas allowed for the Negev Arabs… an area designated only for Jews… the JNF (Jewish National Fund) is planting a forest on this village lands – to make sure that the Bedouin cannot live on their village lands or use them for agriculture. the villagers turned to the israeli courts, as the JNF were planting this forest at the bequest of the Israeli government, but against Israeli law… the people of el-Araqib won the court battle… but this morning it seems that the Government of Israel has started a war — of the Government against its own citizens. for more information: Dr. Yeela Raanan, Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages (RCUV). +972 54 7487005 yallylivnat@gmail.com.
link to theonlydemocracy.org
1000s of Israeli police said to be evacuating/erasing historical Bedouin village, Philip Weiss
"Thousands of police are in the Negev desert village of el-Araqib right now (5:30 a.m. in Israel), beginning a mass evacuation, demolition, and erasure of this historical Bedouin village," writes Yeela Raanan of the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages (RCUV). "If you have access to the media, please send them to this village as soon as possible! The village of el-Araqib is between Rahat and Beer Sheva, and in a location that the Goldberg commission deemed outside of the areas allowed for the Negev Arabs... an area designated only for Jews...
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/1000s-of-israeli-police-said-to-be-evacuatingerasing-historical-bedouin-village.html
JCSER: “Hundreds of Palestinians Losing Residency Rights In Jerusalem”
The Jerusalem Center for Social and Economical Rights (JCSER) issued a report detailing the latest numbers of Palestinians who lost their residency rights in occupied East Jerusalem due to Israeli restrictions and measures.
link to www.imemc.org
Settlers block West Bank roads to protest building freeze
Settlers blockaded 11 intersections across the West Bank on Monday evening in response to the home demolition on Monday at the Givat Ronen outpost.
link to www.haaretz.com
Israel's New Land Grab Master Plan, Stephen Lendman
The new plan updates older ones, going back to the first, what Israeli historian Ilan Pappe documented in his 2006 book, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," on David Ben-Gurion's Plan D (Dalet in Hebrew), his final master plan following Plans A, B and C, what Palestinians call the Nakba, the catastrophe, commemorated annually to never forget. By bombarding and besieging villages and population centers, destroying communities, and expelling or killing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, it planned an exclusive Jewish state, excluding Arabs by any means, including mass-murder, dispossession, and persecution, ongoing to this day, what Palestinians heroically resist. It took six months to complete, expelling or slaughtering about 800,000 people, and destroying 531 villages and 11 urban neighborhoods in Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and other cities. It was barbarous ethnic cleansing, Palestinians shown no mercy, including women and children, yet it was just the beginning, much more yet to come, including new ethnic cleaning plans.
link to www.aljazeerah.info
Solidarity/Activism/Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment
Ahmad Burnat needs your support to get out of prison
At 1:30 in the morning on July 19th armed Israeli soldiers drove into our village, Bil’in, under the cover of the pitch black night, and raided the house of my friend and well known activist Wajeeh Burnat, who was featured in the documentary Bil’in Habibti. This time, the raid was conducted to take Ahmad, his 17 year-old son. It is not often that we ask for such help, but we turn to you today asking for a donation, large or small, to help in securing his release.
link to palsolidarity.org
Report: Christian Peacemaker Team In Hebron
Hebron – PNN - Finding the way to the Christian Peacemaker Team (or CPT for short) office was not easy. We eventually found our way down Chicken street, so called for the chicken market which used to flourish just a couple of years ago. Now, every shop is closed down. At the end of the street is a 6 foot high stretch of barbed wire, with around 8 feet of concrete behind it. Our guide, a local named Salaam, shows us a doorway, right next to the wire, where a sign clearly says 'Doctor's surgery'. However, with further inspection, there is a doorbell with CPT written above it, next to the rather misleading sign. After around 5 minutes of waiting, a call comes down to, "come on up."
link to english.pnn.ps
Turkey working to prevent Lebanese sail to Gaza
According to Israeli officials, Ankara deems additional flotillas pointless after partial lifting of blockade on Gaza. 'Turkey wants to lower its profile, let diplomacy take its course,' official says.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Violence and Aggression
Israel army fires tear gas at funeral
Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli forces raided a cemetery during a woman's funeral processionnorth of the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday. Soldiers chased the mourners into the cemetery in Beit Ummar and fired tear-gas canisters at them, Palestine Solidarity Project spokesman Muhammad Ayyad Awad said. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the soldiers fired in response to rocks which were thrown at them from the funeral procession.
link to www.maannews.net
Army Invades Beit Forik
Israeli soldiers invaded on Monday at night Beit Forik village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus after closing all of its entrances.
link to www.imemc.org
IOF attacks Burin villagers in efforts to protect settlers
July 27th, 2010-- Israeli Occupation Forces arrested four Palestinians and wounded three others after a group of approximately 20 settlers attacked the home of Ibrahim Eid, which is located close to Bracha, a new Israeli settlement in the area.
link to stopthewall.org
Settlers riot in Burin, shooting and setting fire to olive trees
At 11:30 yesterday, 26th July 2010, settlers from the Berakha Shomronim settlement began shooting at Palestinians in the village of Burin and setting fire to crops on their land. Trouble flared when Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of a structure in an illegal settler outpost because of the freeze on settlement construction. Israeli police failed to contain the settler riot which followed and closed Huwara checkpoint, near Nablus, in response.
link to palsolidarity.org
Settlers launch new attack
Nablus - Ma'an - On Monday evening, settlers launched their second attack of the day on a northern West Bank village, setting fire to land and olive trees and throwing rocks., Ambulances and firefighters rushed to Burin village to control the flames apparently started by residents of the illegal Yizhar settlement, Palestinian Authority settlement affairs officer Ghassan Doughlas said.
link to www.maannews.net
No words to console Gaza child after mother is killed by Israeli shelling
Around 8:45pm on 13 July, 2010, a few of the women of the Abu Said family in the northern Gaza Strip were enjoying the cool of the evening in the courtyard in front of their house. They heard a muffled shooting sound, followed soon after by another, and then by a loud buzzing noise, as if a swarm of insects was approaching at full speed. Vittorio Arrigoni reports from the occupied Gaza Strip.
link to electronicintifada.net
Revolving Door For Israeli Criminals
Police release rabbi arrested for inciting to kill non-Jews
Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, head of the Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva, released from police custody hours after being arrested for encouraging the killing of non-Jews.
link to www.haaretz.com
Detainees
PA police arrest 6 in Beit Ummar
Hebron - Ma'an - Police arrested five residents for using fireworks and one for firing a weapon in the southern West Bank village of Beit Ummar on Monday. A police statement said the gun, which was fired in celebration, was seized and warned of the dangers of fireworks and weapons.
link to www.maannews.net
Returning doctor detained by Israeli intelligence
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israeli authorities detained a doctor returning Monday from five years of medical study in Ukraine, witnesses said. Bahaa Abdullah Jaradat was taken by Israeli intelligence officers at the Allenby crossing on the West Bank-Jordan border, onlookers said. It is not known where Jaradat, from Sa'ir in the southern West Bank Hebron district, was taken.
link to www.maannews.net
The Siege (Gaza & West Bank)/Humanitarian and Human Rights/Restriction of Movement
Goods – Needs Vs. Supply – June 27 – July 24
link to www.gazagateway.org
Cameron calls Gaza 'prison camp' (AFP)
AFP - Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday urged Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip, slamming the current state of the Palestinian enclave as a "prison camp."
link to us.rd.yahoo.com
Clean Water for Gaza: Maryam's Story
Early last year, Israel destroyed much of Gaza's rudimentary water infrastructure in a protracted bombing campaign. Since then, an ongoing economic blockade has prevented Gazans from importing materials they need to rebuild the water system. Contaminated drinking water is putting people at risk for cholera, typhoid and other diseases.
link to www.reliefweb.int
Taking water to the Jordan - International humanitarians deliver water to parched Palestinians
Date: 26 Jul 2010, YANOUN, West Bank, A few days ago, I was handing out bottles of water within a few miles of Israel/Palestine's only major river, the Jordan., The village of Al Fasayel lies in a desert landscape, a contrast to nearby Israeli settlements, which have access to almost unlimited water. Al Fasayel itself has not had water on tap for over seven weeks.
link to www.reliefweb.int
Gaza kids struggle to leave their world of silence
GAZA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The four-year-old Gaza boy Noor stuttered when he tried to utter the word "baba". A deaf specialist, sitting next to him, was teaching him to say the easy word, hoping to help the boy leave the world of silence. Noor and another eight hearing-impaired children were in one room with their specialist mentor who produced several musical sounds and slowly moved her tongue and lips to teach them the correct pronunciation of the early childhood expressions.
link to news.xinhuanet.com
Life on hold as construction material restricted into Gaza
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip -- Salah Jalal Abu Leila lives in a crowded tent with his family of 12 beside a dusty main street in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya; they have been living here for more than a year. "Our home was completely destroyed in the war. I worked for 16 years in Israel to build my home and in one attack the Israelis destroyed everything I worked to build," Abu Leila says.
link to www.maannews.net
Political/Other Developments
Israel signals new cooperation with UN over Gaza flotilla (The Christian Science Monitor)
The Christian Science Monitor - Israel appears to have improved its cooperation with the United Nations over its controversial Gaza policy after coming under pressure from activists seeking to break Israel's sea blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory. The latest fleet of activist ships is preparing to set sail from Lebanon.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100726/wl_csm/316152
U.S. warns Abbas: Direct talks or lose backing for state
U.S. President Barack Obama may not help set up a Palestinian state if PA President Mahmoud Abbas does not enter direct negotiations with Israel soon, according to an internal Palestinian document.
link to www.haaretz.com
Hamas warns Abbas to reject direct peace talks (AFP)
AFP - Hamas on Tuesday warned Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas not to relaunch direct peace talks with Israel, which it said "would only serve the Zionist occupation."
link to us.rd.yahoo.com
Abbas to ask for extension to proximity talks
Bethlehem – Ma'an – President Mahmoud Abbas will request an extension to US-mediated indirect talks with Israel from the Arab Peace Initiative Committee when in Cairo on Thursday, a PLO official said Monday. Executive Committee member Hannah Amireh told Ma'an radio that Abbas would ask for talks to continue until 8 September, one month over the 4-month deadline sanctioned by the Arab League.
link to www.maannews.net
Fatah lawmakers to assess rumored cabinet shuffle
Ramallah – Ma’an – Palestinian lawmakers affiliated to Fatah are scheduled to hold a meeting Tuesday in Ramallah in the central West Bank to discuss the expected PA government’s reshuffle and other developments. Azzam Al-Ahmad, speaker of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, will head the meeting which all Fatah lawmakers based in the West Bank are expected to attend.
link to www.maannews.net
Report: Mitchell tells Abbas Bibi here to stay
George Mitchell urges Abbas to enter direct talks, says Netanyahu unlikely to be replaced soon, according to Palestinian document.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Mishaal Explains Hamas’s Strategy in Dealing with the Israeli Occupation
DAMASCUS, (PIC)– Khaled Mishaal, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, has explained Wednesday that his Movement follows firm and well-studied strategy in dealing with the Israeli occupation, the internal Palestinian social fabric, and the international community. In an interview with the Jordanian Al-Sabeel newspaper, Mishaal said that his Movement doesn’t reject negotiations with the enemy as an option but he explained that the Israeli occupation is an extraordinary condition being a foreign body implanted in Palestinian uprooting millions of Palestinian people out of their homes at gunpoint. Such a situation made negotiation with the Israeli occupation as the only option something unacceptable because it was proven that negotiations without having force to back your stand is a waste of time, he elaborated.
link to www.intifada-palestine.com
Israeli, Jordan leaders discuss Palestinian talks (Reuters)
Reuters - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah discussed on Tuesday ways of launching direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, a Jordanian palace official said.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com
Israel PM meets king on surprise Jordan visit (AFP)
AFP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II on the Middle East peace process during a previously unannounced visit to Amman on Tuesday, the palace said.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com
Other News
Gazans want "Marshall Plan", Israel policy falls short (Reuters)
Reuters - Wael El Wadiah's Gaza snack food factories once employed 250 people. Today, denied access to the West Bank market by Israel, he employs a few dozen workers in what is left of a business built up over 25 years.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com
Hamas leader says group considering Gaza draft
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The top security official in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Tuesday he is considering setting up a bigger military force, first with volunteers and eventually with conscripts as well. Such a step could further tighten Hamas' control of Gaza and deepen the rift with the group's Western-backed rivals in the West Bank. Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007, wresting control from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Currently, Hamas has a paid security force of about 18,000.
link to www.google.com
Paying the price of lies: Arab man convicted of raping Jewish sex partner because he lied to her speaks out
One of the most prominent features of Sabar Kashour, with the exception of his large puppy eyes, is the presence of a massive wedding ring on his finger. Had this ring been on his finger in September 2008, he might have avoided the entanglement that currently stirs up great emotion among members of Israel’s legal system and human rights group.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Law providing released soldiers with free higher education in settlements might damage Israeli academia
Gush Shalom - As if it was not enough that Israeli youths are conscripted for military service often spent in daily oppression of the Palestinians, from now on also after discharge they will be directed towards an `academic` strengthening of the occupation, settlement and dispossession of Palestinians.
link to www.kibush.co.il
Press freedoms fall victim to Fatah, Hamas disunity
The split between the the Hamas-run Gaza wing and the Fatah-run West Bank wing of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has overshadowed every aspect of public life, including, many rights groups have documented, infringements on press freedoms and the work of journalists. Rami Almeghari reports from Gaza for The Electronic Intifada.
link to electronicintifada.net
Foreign investors took time off from Israel in 2009
Foreign direct investment in Israel fell by 64% in 2009 to only $3.9 billion, down from $10.9 billion in 2008. Israel fell from 54th place in 2008 to 80th in 2009 in terms of FDI.
link to www.haaretz.com
MESS Report / Crash raises questions over Israel's ageing helicopter fleet
Decisions to replace helicopters, like the CH-53 that crashed in Romania on Monday, are complex, involve heavy costs and take a long time.
link to www.haaretz.com
Mubarak's Racist Pen Pal: Mubarak says 'fully recovered' in letter to Rabbi Yosef
Egyptian president responds to letter sent by Shas spiritual leader inquiring after his health, says he's in best condition 'contrary to several reports in Israeli press'.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Oliver Stone apologizes for saying Jews control the media
Less than 24 hours after Sunday Times interview, in which Oscar-winning director says Hitler's actions should be 'put into context', Stone issues apology.
link to www.haaretz.com
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
Abu Mazen and Obama’s Peace Pantomime, Tony Karon
Obama is unable to offer Abbas an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, because that is not what Netanyahu has in mind. Indeed, recent reports suggest that during his meeting last weekend with Egypt’s President, Hosni Mubarak, the Israeli prime minister presented a proposed map of a Palestinian State that fell well short of the Arab League’s proposal for peace. Nor is Netanyahu under pressure from the US to offer more. In fact, Netanyahu believes that he can bend Washington to his will, as he so memorably explained to a family of Israeli settlers in a recently surfaced video clip from 2001: “I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction.”
link to tonykaron.com
Israel's Secret Police Exposed, Jonathan Cook - Nazareth
The arrest by Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet, of an Israeli Jew accused of killing at least four Palestinians has thrown a rare light on the secret police, including attempts by one of its agents to enlist the accused to assassinate a Palestinian spiritual leader. Chaim Pearlman, who was arrested a fortnight ago, has been charged with murdering four Palestinians in Jerusalem and injuring at least seven others in a series of knife attacks that began more than a decade ago. Police are still investigating whether he was involved in additional attacks.
link to palestinechronicle.com
Joel Rubin: Swiftboating Sestak on Israel
A new right-wing neoconservative attack group on Israel policy has been formed by the same ideologues that brought you the war in Iraq. This group -- the Emergency Committee for Israel -- has decided to make Pennsylvania's upcoming Senate race its pivotal moment to enter national politics. It has done so by running television ads against Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak that turn Israel into a political wedge issue, cynically playing on the worst fears of Americans who do not share their policy views on Israel.
link to www.huffingtonpost.com
Progressive Brian Lehrer channels intolerant rightwingers in grilling a Muslim leader, Philip Weiss
WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer is progressive. He reflects liberal Manhattan values and he takes on rightwingers on countless issues, gun control, gay rights, feminism, economic justice. But not when it comes to the Middle East. Last week Lehrer did an interview with a woman who supports the mosque at Ground Zero. Daisy Khan, executive director for the American Society for Muslim Advancement, is married to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is leading the mosque plans; and anti-Muslim prejudice suffused Lehrer's interview. He channeled Rick Lazio, the Republican candidate for N.Y. governor, who has made attacks on the Cordoba mosque a centerpiece of his campaign.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/progressive-brian-lehrer-channels-intolerant-rightwingers-in-grilling-a-muslim-leader.html
L.A. Times: ‘Many’ Palestinians ‘prefer the one-state solution’, Alex Kane
The one-state solution debate is picking up steam and media coverage in the wake of Israeli journalist Noam Sheizaf’s Ha’aretz article on prominent right-wing calls for the incorporation of the West Bank into Israel. For more on the significance of Sheizaf’s article and the growing calls from the right for some type of one-state solution, I would recommend reading Ali Abunimah’s analysis here.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/l-a-times-%e2%80%98many%e2%80%99-palestinians-prefer-the-one-state-solution.html
The Forgotten American, ROGER COHEN
TROY, New York — The Dogans were a quiet family little noticed by their neighbors here in upstate New York. Ahmet Dogan had come to the area from Turkey to study accounting at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was a serious student; the Dogans did little entertaining. But when their younger son, Furkan, was born in 1991, the family threw a party and a neighbor recalled a toast “to the first U.S. citizen in the family.” Furkan Dogan would live just two years in Troy, returning to Turkey with his family in 1993. But he was proud of his American passport and dreamt of coming back after completing medical school. Five Israeli bullets — at least two of them to the head — ended that dream on May 31. Dogan was 19.
link to www.nytimes.com
Caterpillar Caught in Web Of Middle East Politics
At first glance, the contention that a construction equipment company in Peoria, Ill., is implicated in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems strange. But earlier in July, the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States adopted a resolution that strongly criticized Caterpillar Inc., the manufacturer whose tractors, bulldozers and mining equipment help build and farm America, for its role in Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands.
link to www.forward.com
Iraq
Monday: 28 Iraqis Killed, 74 Wounded
Despite extra precautions, belligerents detonated a car bomb in Karbala. A separate car bomb destroyed the al-Arabiya studios and a lawmaker's home in Baghdad. At least 28 Iraqis were killed and 74 more were wounded in those two attacks. Curiously, no other attacks in Iraq were reported. Meanwhile, members of the Iraqiya party refuse to allow the political impasse preventing the formation of the next government to become "internationalized."
link to original.antiwar.com
Iraq's parliament fails to convene as scheduled (AP)
AP - A lawmaker from Iraq's largest Shiite bloc says a parliament session expected Tuesday will not be held as discussions faltered again over the formation of a new government.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com
Iraq's political impasse is a bad omen for the Arabs
In June 2004, I was invited for a dinner at a restaurant near an airport in the Gulf. I saw a group of bodyguards dressed in traditional Gulf attire entering the restaurant. Before I knew it, we were sitting next to a table whose guest of honor was Iyad Allawi, the newly appointed prime minister of Iraq, who was being hosted by the foreign minister of that Gulf country. I witnessed how warm their relationship seemed to be. They were exchanging laughs as though they were two old friends, catching up after a prolonged absence.
link to www.dailystar.com.lb
Iraqi Shiite group promoted 'virtue' by the sword (AFP)
AFP - A group of masked, sword-wielding Shiite youths aiming to "promote virtue and fight vice" terrorised a southern Iraqi city from early July until its members were rounded up.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com
Iraq fights another form of violence - in the home (Reuters)
Reuters - As the violence of sectarian warfare ebbs, Iraq's government has taken tentative first steps to combat another kind of violence -- domestic abuse, primarily against women.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com
IRAQ: My Baghdad field trip
Fifteen kidnapped people released, 238 raids, 14,008 searches, 227 arrests (including 126 without warrants), 18 mortars found, 213 weapons found, eight explosive belts found, four terrorists killed, 167 IEDs dismantled, 18 sticky IEDs dismantled and one car bomb dismantled.” I was reading the achievements of an Iraqi army division in the four months leading up to June. I went on reading: “The enemy activities: 24 clashes, 46 IEDs, 38 sticky IEDs, nine car bombs, 10 bodies found, 15 assassinations, nine houses exploded, three grenade attacks, three explosive belts."We were spending our day with a general, who narrated his achievements before Western and Iraqi reporters. “We were honored by the killing of the heads of terrorism Abu Omar al Baghdadi and Abu Ayoub al Masri,” he said.
link to latimesblogs.latimes.com
Lebanon
Lebanon arrests alleged German spy
Engineer accused of passing sensitive information to handlers. A German engineer was arrested in Lebanon Tuesday on suspicion of espionage in the country's latest attempt to root out alleged Israeli spies, Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar reported. The suspected spy, reportedly named Manfred Peter Mog, was employed at a cheese factory in the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon, were he was in charge of machine maintenance. He was suspected of using transmitters to pass sensitive information to his handlers, according to the report.
link to www.jpost.com
Natural gas could lead to new Lebanon-Israel war (AP)
AP - The discovery of large natural gas reserves under the waters of the eastern Mediterranean could potentially mean a huge economic windfall for Israel and Lebanon, both resource-poor nations — if it doesn't spark new war between them.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100727/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_lebanon_israel_gas_threats
Lebanese Druze leader warns against sectarian tension
BEIRUT, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblat on Monday called for dialogue among political factions in order to defuse rising tensions. Jumblat told Al Anbaa newspaper that dialogue is the only way to preserve "calmness" in Lebanon. "For those who forget, let's remember that we were talking to each other at the peak of political divisions and the period of sharp tensions," said the Lebanese MP. "Why don't we return to dialogue in order to prevent Lebanon from sliding again toward divisions and sectarian tension," he added. Jumblat said that the capability to return to dialogue is possible if the factions showed the "political will."
link to news.xinhuanet.com
Saudi king to visit Lebanon amid tensions: govt official (AFP)
AFP - Saudi King Abdullah will visit Lebanon on Friday and will urge rival parties to exercise restraint amid tensions over the possible implication of Hezbollah in the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, a government official said on Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100726/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonsyriasaudidiplomacy
Egyptian FM warns against harming Lebanon's stability
BEIRUT: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheit warned on Monday against undermining Lebanon's stability by resorting to force to resolve regional and international disputes. Abu al-Gheit made his statements ahead of scheduled talks between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz in Egypt on Wednesday.
link to www.dailystar.com.lb
Ghanem: Labor Ministry will boost Palestinians' conditions
BEIRUT: West Bekaa MP Robert Ghanem conveyed assurances by the labor minister that the government will enhance the living and working conditions of Palestinians in Lebanon, on Monday.
link to www.dailystar.com.lb
Iran
West should discard carrot-stick policy before dialogue with Iran: MP
TEHRAN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian lawmaker said Tuesday that the West should first discard the carrot and stick policy prior to any dialogue on Iran's nuclear program, local media reported. "The European Union (EU)'s call for the continuation of nuclear talks with Tehran is in direct contradiction to its recently approved package of anti-Iran sanctions," head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran's Majlis (Parliament) Alaeddin Boroujerdi was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.
link to news.xinhuanet.com
Iran: U.S. will likely attack 2 Mideast countries within 3 months
Speaking on state television, Iranian President Ahmadinejad also list of demands before Iran will resume nuclear talks.
link to www.haaretz.com
EU to hit Iran with 'toughest ever' sanctions, diplomats say
Proposed EU sanctions are understood to go further than current UN sanctions, calling for a ban on 'dual-use' goods which can be used for both military and civilian purposes.
link to www.haaretz.com
Iran won't trade with countries imposing sanctions
"Any country that creates limitations for Iran's assets, we will stop trading with them," Hamid Borhani, deputy head of the Central Bank of Iran, told the semi-official Mehr news agency. "We have to protect our assets."
link to news.yahoo.com
Iran delivers response to IAEA
"Through submitting an official letter, I expressed the Islamic Republic of Iran's readiness to engage in negotiations over fuel [provisions] for the Tehran nuclear reactor," Soltanieh said.
link to www.presstv.ir
Pipes: To Get Obama To Act, Netanyahu Should Threaten To Nuke Iran
“I think it’s realistic for the Israelis to attack and do real damage,” Pipes said.
link to thinkprogress.org
U.S. and other World News
US Attack Kills 52 In Afghan Village
A Nato rocket attack on a village in Afghanistan last week killed 52 civilians, including women and children, the office of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has said in a statement.
link to english.aljazeera.net
Download Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary,_2004-2010
Wikileaks Afghanistan files: download the key incidents as a spreadsheet
Key incidents from the Wikileaks Afghanistan war logs selected by Guardian writers. As a spreadsheet, with co-ordinates
link to www.guardian.co.uk
US criticises Wikileaks release of Afghan war documents
The White House has condemned the leaks of more than 90,000 classified documents on the war in Afghanistan posted by the whistleblower website, Wikileaks. The Pentagon earlier called the release "criminal", and said it could take weeks to assess any damage that the leaks may have caused. Rosiland Jordan reports on Washington's reaction to what is now being called the Afghan war logs. (July 27, 2010)
link to www.youtube.com
Documents leak leaves White House on defensive about Afghanistan policy
There are few bombshells, but the volume of data and the focus on the conduct of the war are likely to embolden critics at a time when Congress has expressed doubts about Obama's Afghanistan policy. The leaking of a trove of U.S. documents has put the Obama administration on the defensive about its Afghanistan policy and may deepen doubts in Congress about prospects for turning around the faltering war effort.
link to feeds.latimes.com
WikiLeaks emerges as powerful online whistle-blower
WikiLeaks website and founder Julian Assange operate in relative secrecy even as they seek to publish classified or private documents to spark public debate. Partnering with news media adds new heft. Though propelled to fame by its recent disclosures about the U.S. military, WikiLeaks has homed in on targets as wide-ranging as corruption in the family of a former Kenyan ruler, alleged illegal activities by a Swiss bank and Sarah Palin's private e-mail account.
link to feeds.latimes.com
Leading article: A light shone on the dark side of this war
The tens of thousands of secret US military documents passed to the Wikileaks website paint a far grimmer picture of the war in Afghanistan than our political leaders have ever conveyed. They show that Western forces are often scandalously careless of civilian life in that country. Some 140 incidents are recorded in which Afghan civilians were killed. They died in misdirected airstrikes, shooting sprees by panicking troops, or raids by Special Forces. And it not only the US military which has been responsible for such carnage. Polish, French, German and British troops are also recorded as killing civilians. While it is impossible to verify all that is contained in these documents, it is clear enough that appalling events have gone unreported by Western forces.
link to www.independent.co.uk
The Wikileaks 'source': Former army analyst facing 52 years in prison
As governments around the world assessed the damage done by Wikileaks's Afghanistan war logs, thoughts also turned to a lonely US Army private, who goes by the screen-name bradass87, currently behind bars in Kuwait.
link to www.independent.co.uk
Pakistan ex-intelligence chief denies aiding Talban
US officials believe that the intelligence agency of ally Pakistan has been secretly supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan, leaked records say. Wikileaks, the online whistleblower organisation, published more than 90,000 secret US military documents on Sunday, revealing alleged support for the Taliban in their conflict with US-led Nato troops. The unverified files say that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, the country's spy service, has been holding strategy sessions with Taliban leaders to aid them. Al Jazeera interviewed to the man mentioned in that report - retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence who accused of being actively involved in supporting the Afghan Taliban. He denies the allegations against the ISI and says the sources of the leaks have ulterior political motives. [July 26, 2010]
link to www.youtube.com
Digesting the Wikileaks document dump, Stephen M. Walt by Stephen M. Walt
I'm just starting to digest the Wikileaks material on Afghanistan, but suffice it to say that it confirms all my misgivings about our current commitment there. As I've said since I started blogging, the stakes in Afghanistan are not worth the current level of cost and effort, and the prerequisites for a meaningful "victory" are lacking. Obama made a basic error when he escalated the war effort (not once but twice), and our best hope now is to shift from a largely military strategy towards one that reduces our military footprint, emphasizes power-sharing, political reconciliation, and broader diplomatic engagement with other regional stake-holders. If you want a quick survey of other reactions, look at the digest offered by Andrew Sullivan here.
link to walt.foreignpolicy.com
Who will explain the havoc wreaked to the families still reeling with grief? | Rachel Reid
Since the period covered by these leaked war logs, the situation on the ground has got worse - not better - for Afghan civilians. Seven children killed by rockets in a mosque, a 16-year-old girl abused by a district police chief, more than 80 civilians killed in bomb attacks written off as insurgents. This dismal glimpse into the relentless chaos of war, seen through the hazy eyes of international soldiers in Afghanistan, comes from the massive leak of military field reports. And while US department of defence officials were quick to say that things have changed, this is sadly only half true.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Revealed: Document Exposes US Double-talk On Lockerbie
The document, acquired by a well placed US source, threatens to undermine Obama’s claim last week that all Americans were “surprised, disappointed and angry” to learn of Megrahi’s release.
link to www.timesplus.co.uk
Inside Story - Al-Qaeda's French hostage killing
A French national held hostage by al-Qaeda's North African wing has been confirmed dead. Seventy-eight-year old Michel Germaneau was kidnapped in Niger some three months ago by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Is this killing a show of force? And how much of a threat is this al-Qaeda-affiliated armed group becoming?
link to www.youtube.com
www.TheHeadlines.org
Seham- When was Nema Abu Said killed by flechettes? If it didn’t happen recently, it doesn’t belong as a headline of today’s news, no matter how evil or tragic the fact may be.
If you did even the most cursory skimming of the headlines in Seham’s post you’d know that it happened on July 13th, two weeks ago.
The report in the Electronic intifada is dated as of yesterday.
link to electronicintifada.net
Perhaps you should read a bit more before inserting foot in mouth.
Perhaps you can tell us when this happened, WJ: Star of David
LOL, what is the point Avi, who said the internet savvy Gazans (lol, in must be the 21st century, people in ‘concentrations camps’ have more access the the internet than the southern US) didn’t put that in there themselves, you know, Pallywood style?
The biggest step to Holocaust denial? Saying that even the photos are fake!
Or, would you rather discuss the relevancy of 2000 year-old events in light of today’s colonial expansion?
What other justification is there for the alleged Zionist ownership of the land that you and they continue to steal?
We keep hearing from rabid colonists about God’s promise to them, and yet they can’t provide a legal deed to support their ownership of any land in the territory under Israeli occupation.
Why is that, do you think?
I’ll give you a piece of advice, get yourself a job as a spell checker at a small local Gazette or high school newspaper. You’ll get far more satisfaction from that. At least then you’ll be taken seriously by 14 year old youths.
A week ago last Wednesday. Really, Wondering Jew, try “Le Google”! It’s beaucoups easy–if you actually give a damn about a Palestinian woman in Gaza being cut into shreds.
link to alertnet.org
Mourners carry the body of Palestinian woman Nema Abu Said during her funeral in the village of Johar a-Deek in Gaza Strip
14 Jul 2010
Source: Reuters
Mourners carry the body of Palestinian woman Nema Abu Said during her funeral in the village of Johar a-Deek in the central Gaza Strip July 14, 2010. Israeli army shelling killed Abu Said and wounded two of her relatives in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday, hospital officials said. Asked about the incident in Johar a-Deek, which is near Gaza’s boundary with Israel, a military spokeswoman said forces opened fire at Palestinians suspected of mounting an attack. She did not immediately elaborate. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA – Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST IMAGES OF THE DAY)
REUTERS/IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA
I found it after I posted. Nonetheless this is not Today in Palestine. It is evil and terrible, but it is not Today in Palestine. A newspaper or a news digest usually has a headline and then describes the event in the body of the piece. This did not. If Seham wishes to emphasize the horrible thing that happened to this woman then at the end of the news digest let him write: Two weeks ago a woman was killed by Israeli forces, etc. Otherwise this is very confusing.
>> Nonetheless this is not Today in Palestine. It is evil and terrible, but it is not Today in Palestine.
Gotta agree with you. Maybe it’s time to change the name of that segment to “This Week in Palestine” or “Recently in Palestine” or maybe even just “In Palestine”.
What a fine piece of work you are, Wondering. What a piece of crap.
Wondering, that’s for the absurd suggestion. I won’t be heeding your advice though.
“What a fine piece of work you are, Wondering. What a piece of crap.”
I think you are being overly generous to whinging jew.
“Nonetheless this is not Today in Palestine. It is evil and terrible, but it is not Today in Palestine.”
What if the event took place yesterday at 11.55 PM, does it qualify for ‘Today” or only when it starts at 12AM? Just wandering..
BTW, WJ..I’m sad to see that I haven’t been wrong in my diagnosis of this strange phenomenon of yours more than 2 months ago…
I can’t help it. First of all, I’m Jewish, so I have to face the fact that in some wierd way, he is some part of me and I am some part of him (totally non-objective, viewpoint, but there it is).
Besides, he’s rendering us a big service! He is demonstrating, in no uncertain terms, how certain, how confident Zionists are in their control of the narrative and speech, and how quickly they crumble when they lose it.
He also demonstrates, in no uncertain terms, how inseperable Zionism is from their own egos. They can’t even keep their mouths shut when it would be to Zionism’s advantage to do so.
I wonder if Ike ever felt that way, Mooser, because he was German?
The day will come when karma will feed you humble pie and you’ll learn your lesson. I hope that day is not far off.
Avi- You are a very bitter person.
No, on this occasion you were being an objectionable sneering hormonal 13yr old. Seham often posts things that broaden a story that may have been simply & very briefly reported elsewhere. Not everything can make a post of its own even with merit -on which you have none with this hair-splitting nonsense.
Bumblebye- Did you know the full story before I commented?
Stop being immature.
This from a guy for whom marriage is too much human contact. Nothing bitter about you, Wondering Jew. You’re just saving your precious bodily fluids, huh?
So you’re the guy who will change if we speak to you nicely?
You, sir, are a turd.
Mooser- I pray you’re s4c and not s4s.
Spoken like the typical armchair chicken hawk Zio scum, cheering on from a distance.
May you reap what you have sown. And may the hand of justice teach you and yours a lesson you’ll regret forever.
The rhetoric is getting ridiculous on here. all of these vague threats it is fucking silly.
Threats Schwartzman?
Did you even read the threats comming out of Israel?
Shingo,
your diversion tactics are getting old man. wait they ARE old. I was talking about the rhetoric on THIS comment section Shingo. If you want to discuss that, fine, if not pipe down!
Who diverting Schwartzman?
I asked you what threats. It wasn’t a trick question.
“Mooser- I pray you’re s4c and not s4s.”
I can translate! “I pray you’re s4c (shit for christ) and not s4s (shit for shit).
He just loves that “shit for christ” gag, huh?
Well, let me tell you something, Wondering Jew: Everybody (even Google Spell-Check) of almost any faith, knows that “Christ” is usually capitalized, if only as a courtesy. And believe me, WJ, I mean that to sting!
“your diversion tactics are getting old man. wait they ARE old. I was talking about the rhetoric on THIS comment section Shingo. If you want to discuss that, fine, if not pipe down
You really should talk to Phil Weiss or Adam Horowitz, and set them straight about their blog. I’m sure they will welcome anysuggestions from you. Put them in that circular file over there.
“if not pipe down”
Aren’t they brave when nobody can get to them?
Bumblebye- Did you know the full story before I commented?
does that mean we never have to hear about that pizza parlor again?
I mean that to sting!
is that another vague threat? ????
i hope you reap what you have sown mooser, i’m telling phil.
Schwartz – those are not threats, they are curses. The wrath of the gods is being invoked upon Zion and its minions.
Wondering, I have no problem at all with the use of that murder as the headline for the news list, but, I didn’t select the headline, Phil did.
And if the murder happened last week or the week before that doesn’t matter to me, I will keep including all these murders on my list as I come across them.
America Under Attack
Terrorists struck the United States Tuesday morning in harrowing, widespread attacks that included at least three commercial jet crashes into significant buildings.
link to september11news.com
Five dancing Israelis, huh.
Your arguments, guys, are sounding more and more like ones of definite losers! If that’s all what you have to oppose, such pettiness and mendacity, than the days of your pathetic state are numbered..Oh put that in years for WJ, I can only see that he’d be nitpicking..”Did you say days, you said days!?..”
Losers!
Yeah weren’t they nearly all from Saudi Arabia, and didn’t one of the five dancing Israelis on top of the van later say on Israeli TV that he had gone to America to capture the event? Why did the US let all those Israelis they had rounded up fly off to Israel anyway?
THAT’S your idea of commenting on a tragedy like this? “*snore*”
Seriously. You really do make me sick. And that’s about the most polite thing I can say.
“Behold the problem of the one staters: there is no need for dialogue…Well, maybe that’s enough. But then again, maybe it’s not enough….”
WJ,
I recommend the following remedy: Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking, by D.Q. McInerny
It would save loads of trouble, time, and wasted ASCII chars.
This is the Zionist technique known as “distraction”: get involved in a pointless controversy of the date so that you can avoid the primal existential reality: a poor woman cut to pieces by Zionist dart-shrapnel.
Wondering Jew, get ready: a change is coming.
Jim H- How is it a distraction, when nobody even commented before I came along? If I didn’t give a shit I would’ve said. Oh look another headline without a story. I bet you that happened a year and a half ago and left it at that. but no. I stopped and commented and got the full story. did you and avi know the full story before I came along? I’m not sure. maybe. Maybe not. So it was no distraction.
And as far as warning me about the change that is coming, if it were offered in a human way, I would accept it like a human. but you offer it with a typical leftist snooty attitude.
If you freely admit that nothing but violence will cause you to change, that’s what you’ll get.
Jim Holstun
“This is the Zionist technique known as “distraction”
Exactly. The goatsods have nothing to say.
Behold the problem of the one staters: there is no need for dialogue. History, or justice is on your side and you don’t need to talk to the other side, you can just curse the other side and that is enough. Well, maybe that’s enough. But then again, maybe it’s not enough. In which case you and your curses and epithets will be worthless.
“History, or justice is on your side and you don’t need to talk to the other side, you can just curse the other side and that is enough.”
Behold the Zionist stonewallers. Why make peace, or make any progress towards peace when you can talk about it, or better still, talk about talking about it.
WJ,
Your supposed example of “dialogue” is carping about whether a news report issued today on something that occurred two weeks ago belongs under the heading of “Today in Palestine”. That’s not dialogue, its the height of nit-picking. You didn’t even bother to read the included Electronic Intifada report, published yesterday, about the incident, which would have immediately answered your question.
You don’t want dialogue;you want to control the conversation, and pass judgment on what others say or do. If you were truly interested in when the incident happened, all you had to do was read that portion of the news aggregation.
BTW, that is what “Today in Palestine” is–a news aggregation service that features the daily reporting from various sources, including EI, about Palestine and related subjects. You can find it here:
link to
You’d think that an intelligent person who wasn’t looking to find any fault in order to dismiss a report would notice that “Today” is capitalized and thus denotes the title of something, not merely the word “today”, which you have found necessary define in the most narrow of meanings in order to kvetch about its use. The news report about the woman’s death and the difficulty of her children in understanding and absorbing what happened to to her was posted just yesterday. Are you really so shallow that your only response is to quibble about whether the report belongs in a news aggregation service called Today in Palestine?
If what you think you are doing is “engaging in dialogue”, then it is no wonder that others here heap scorn upon you. I think you know better, but you want to control the dialogue to only discuss that which you want to discuss, and only in the manner in which you want to discuss it, and only with those that will conform to your rules of discussion. But that is not, and never was the meaning of dialogue. Since you have already stated several times that you don’t wish to discuss things with me, I find it laughable that you fail to see your own hypocrisy when you criticize others for not wanting to talk to “the other side”.
The fact of the matter is that in any daily news you can find conversations about what has happened sometimes weeks before, last year or a couple or hundred years ago, etc. In cases of murder it can go on for weeks or months, however, essentially what WJ is saying is that something of this import is not worthy of mentioning, period. It is similar to the news about a white person that can go on daily for weeks on end, but people of color are not newsworthy, or even worth mentioning. It is part of the racist makeup, which wishes to ignore what goes on daily and deeply. Unfortunately I am around it all the time, it has become a privileged art form.
It is also a fact of the matter that this activity is supposed to be veiled in an age of unparalleled communication, where nothing could transpire without being noted in some manner. Instead we are treated to fantasy, the twisting of atrocities into something noble or just a wall of silence, cover-up.
This is why we have this tool at our fingertips, to undo this elite use of communication, to in some small way level the playing field. We should know everything about this woman cut down in this horrific manner, to unveil, to bring to note her humanity which has been unjustly stolen with the aim of her dying in a contrived oblivion. Good job Seham.
Wondering Jew, I will never mention you little marital problem again. I see now the other side of the equasion, and I admire your restraint, and your respect for the law. I love being married, but there’s a limit: If the only women with whom I could share an emotional bond were below the age of consent and under treatment for an emerging criminal insanity, I would remain celibate, too.
You are celibate, of course, pre-marital sex isn’t kosher.
Mondo is his surrogate, or proxy (which is right?) battleground, as he wasn’t “eligible” for military service as a youngster.
But as a bachelor, he’s very elegible! I wonder if that piano-pounding kvetcheress upstairs is single?
Watch out, or you might find yourself in deep dudu:
link to ynetnews.com
Excellent Read: Chas Freeman in DC on Israel….
link to huffingtonpost.com
Some folks think Mr Freeman is an irrational dissenter, for example, Mister Dick Witty. Dick finds that Mr Freeman has too narrow a view on what is in the USA’s best interests. The Obama regime must have thought so too. Personally, I think that’s turning reality on its head. Then again, I’m not running for any political office, nor am I trying to maintain such a career.
Swiftboating Sestak on Israel.
Call Sestak and tell him how you feel.
We need to get to these guys early, the moment Hasbara and neocons hit.
You don’t want him getting scared and pulling positions.
Tell him it’s now the American thing to do to fight neocons and Israel.
link to huffingtonpost.com
It’s all over. Israel bulldozes entire Al-Arakib village..Cattle and trees included..3oo Bedouins homeless in less than 2 hours and nowhere to go..!
I am beginning to understand the essence of this blog. It is not a newspaper. Its headlines are more similar to titles of poems than they are headlines of newspapers. when jeff goldberg writes something obnoxious in his headline that is horrible, but when phil weiss writes something impressionistic in his headline, then this is art. It is closer to poetry or short story writing than to a newspaper. Got it.
Oh yeah and the comments section is like the knife fight in butch cassidy. no rules. forget dialogue. Dialogue is for sissies. Insults are for he men. Pile on anyone you disagree with. Got it.
I suppose you people don’t really expect a one state solution soon, because dialogue might come in handy in a one state solution. But it ain’t coming soon, so there’s no need for dialogue for another twenty years or so. Meanwhile a one state solution is a great reason to stuff up your ears and call somebody names. Got it.
Whatever. Your callous disregard for the very crimes with which you are complicit will get you exactly what you deserve, WJ, sooner or later.
It’s a good thing you don’t have a son to sacrifice up to the golden calf that is Zionism, Witty-style. I’d hate to think more poor souls were driven to the level of fanaticism and cruelty by their parents that your little police state represents.
But don’t you see Chaos,
This woman was murdered last week. It’s not news or important anymore.
If she were Jewish on the other hand, well, we still hear how a suicide bomber ombce blew up a pizza bar.
Wondering Jew,
That was the most accurate, honest and well written depiction I have seen regarding the tactics used in the “war of ideas”.
I will feel as though I have accomplished something when commenters dispense with the personal attacks and name calling, and really dialog about the issues at hand.
Thank you so much, I hope this message reaches you.
“That was the most accurate, honest and well written depiction I have seen regarding the tactics used in the “war of ideas”.”
Well waddya know! A Zionst scum bag appreciates the conflation and straw man arguments posted by a fellow Zionist.
Like flies to…
“I will feel as though I have accomplished something when commenters dispense with the personal attacks and name calling, and really dialog about the issues at hand.”
I still don’t understand how we can make “personal” attacks when we don’t even know your real name.
Not that I would mind listing your sex-crime convictions and embezzlement convictions. Just as a matter of public safety, of course.
Whine all you like WJ, but what experience has shown us is that polite and ineffectual dalogue is interpreted by Zionists as an endorsement of their policies and ideology.
After the Gaza and flotilla outrages, I decided it was pointless being polite to you nut jobs. Israel is out of control and beyond redemption as far as I’m concerned, and the only course I see worth pursuing it making it abundanly obvious that the world is sick to death of Israel and it’s sick practices. It seems there’s no other way of getting through to you than to hit you guys over the head with a boulder.
“It seems there’s no other way of getting through to you than to hit you guys over the head with a boulder.”
The capitulation to Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s mind-set and spin. Swindlo leads the way for the new rhetorical attack and offence strategy of the “critics” of Israel. Way to go, guys.
Yeah say it like it is Jonah,
I hear that Israel are planning anotehr atatck on Gaza this summer. Are you planning on takikng your family on a picnic to wach the white phosphorous being dropped on children? Or are you thinking of taking a girl out and making out under the moonlight with the sreams of women and children to set the mood?
Further to this WJ, your self pitty in light of this headline highlights how tone deaf and self obsessed you people are. Palestinians are killed by Israeli bombs and all you can think about is how nasty people are to you.
You guys simply don’t get it. You’re completely devoid of empathy and perspective. If this haad been a Hamas rocket or suicide attack, the whole fo Irael woudl be incensed and rightly so, but it’s just another Palestinians family, women and children. Nothing worth gettign upset about.
Same shit different day for Zionists.
Shingo – I couldn’t agree more with what you wrote.
I have joined this blog just recently but had been following it for almost 1 ½ year. The pattern you describe is just that : Zionists’ arguments are based on equivocation, misrepresentation, prevarication and double speak mixed with feelings of victimhood, self-rightousness and entitlement.
People who have gotten used to privilege under a system based on ethnic discrimination see its abrogation as a threat to their welfare, because truly the result of the implementation of the Zionist ideology is just that. That’s why the likes of WJ fear the 1SS. You hit the nail on its head when you said, and I’m paraphrasing : ”Zionists are only interested in an endorsement of their policies and ideology.”
I have to admit I’m completely puzzled by all the dumping on WJ in this thread. Nowhere in his initial comment did he state or imply that the event in question was right or good or just. He merely pointed out – perhaps superficially, but certainly accurately – that the event happened two weeks ago and shouldn’t really be considered part of “today’s news”. I don’t see what’s wrong with that.
Had he attempted to portray a two-week-old issue as “current news”, he would have been called out on that (or worse), so it seems only fair that he should be allowed to call others out on similar misrepresentations.
More significantly – in my opinion – it seems to me that there’s enough legitimate crap going on over there ~today that padding “today’s news” with two-week-old events simply isn’t necessary.
Anyway, just a few thoughts. I hope no one gets too bent out of shape about them. :-)
“I don’t see what’s wrong with that.”
Well eljay, I disagree..He seemed to dismiss the validity and the gravity of this bit of news for being already “old” . Where technically he is right (as often he wants to show he is), he’s forgetting that as long as we’ve never heard of it ( None of us seemed to have been aware that such a tragic incident took place) it’s news worthy still and can qualify for Today’s info delivery… But what angered people most is that there’s a pattern, a history of such nitpicking and obsession with insignificant details especially when it was perceived, rightly or wrongly, as a total lack of sensitivity to the subject from his part.
And if one wants to follow WJ on such technicalities, yesterday’s news do not qualify as “today”s news. Too late!
>> Where technically he is right … he’s forgetting that as long as we’ve never heard of it … it’s news worthy still and can qualify for Today’s info delivery.
I see your point. Personally, I would have been more bothered if the event had been reported in its own thread – rather than part of a “Today in Palestine” thread – and he’d made dismissive remarks in that thread…but that’s a moot point.
>> … But what angered people most is that there’s a pattern, a history of such nitpicking and obsession with insignificant details especially when it was perceived, rightly or wrongly, as a total lack of sensitivity to the subject from his part.
Fair enough. I guess I don’t know his patterns well enough to understand the disgruntlement.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. And for not biting my head off. ;-)
I sometimes wish, eljay, that we had the type of comment system which allows a quickly-accessed archive of each commenter’s letters, under their “name” (handle). Salon has such a system.
My computer-search skills are very poor, so if somebody knows how to do that with Google or the internal search function, please let me know.
I’m pretty sure that if you could see WJ’s comments aggregated, you would know why we get so aggravated. Or we could put them together with Witty’s, and have an eternal source of swamp-gas.
It’s called “decent software”
Hey, Mooser:
“I’m pretty sure that if you could see WJ’s comments aggregated, you would know why we get so aggravated. Or we could put them together with Witty’s, and have an eternal source of swamp-gas.”
Google: “Never forget. Never forgive”
Thanks, I will. As I said my search skills are very poor. Do you have a suggestion for the search terms which will bring up all, or most of a person’s comments at Mondoweiss?
Would, say, “Mooser Mondoweiss comments” work?
It might be very simple to do, but I haven’t even tried yet.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
I Googled that, and got a bunch of stuff from “Sweeny Tod”.
Mooser:
try–>site:link to
Mooser
Might work.
“Thanks for taking the time to reply. And for not biting my head off. ;-)”
And I hope no ruffled feathers either, eljay! I appreciate, to a great degree I have to add, all your posts especially your pronounced penchant to sarcasm and irony..I love it..
“…but when phil weiss writes something impressionistic in his headline, then this is art.”
The headline Phil wrote was “Nema Abu Said, a 33-year-old mother of five, killed in Gaza flechette attack” and under that he wrote ‘and other news from Today in Palestine’.
There is nothing “impressionistic” about the headline. Nema Abu Said was killed by IDF flechettes, and the news was a part of the aggregation from Today in Palestine. Both of those are pure statements of facts. The only one indulging in “impressionism” is you. Or are you now denying that she was killed?
You are becoming frantic in your attempt to cover your own speciousness.
You keep talking about wanting dialogue, but your only “attempt” at “dialogue” is to question whether Today in Palestine really meant today in Palestine and frankly its only a petty and irrelevant kvetch, not a dialogue. You are studiously avoiding talking about what actually happened, and instead want to bog everyone down in pointless minutiae. You don’t want dialogue, not on the subject of one state or two state or ethnic equality in Israel. No, you want to score petty points on the meaning of “today” and if others disagree and point out your pettiness, you want to accuse them of not desiring dialogue. Look in the mirror. You aren’t open to serious dialogue unless you can write the script for both sides. People aren’t responding to you the way you want them to. That’s life. Dialogue happens when you can accept that, not before.
beautifully said tree.
“I am beginning to understand the essence of this blog.”
Yes, yes, the food tastes like poison, and the portions, so small!
Zionist-supporters, the ultimate Jewish joke.
WJ, if you lived here you’d realize you’re painting a portrait of the US MSM, rather than this samisdat blog.
I suppose you people don’t really expect a one state solution soon, because dialogue might come in handy in a one state solution. But it ain’t coming soon, so there’s no need for dialogue for another twenty years or so
Well said. And what better example of productive dialogue is there than the various examples you have served, eh Wondering Jew? Let’s talk about the Israel forces that murdered a Palestinian mother of five. Oh no, you protest, the headline says “Today in Palestine,” and the crime occurred before that? Where ever is the dialogue going to proceed when such important details that you shrewdly bring to the forefront of discussion, are so casually dismissed by the commenters here? Take note here: this is why the peace process isn’t working, as WJ so capably demonstrates.
Notice how wondering jew is desperate to completely derail the topic from the murder of that Palestinian woman? It’s like can’t trample her corpse fast enough to label us left-wing commies.
Funny isn’t it? They keep on telling us how inconsequential this blog is, yet they won’t leave and are desperate to see it change.
It is interesting that the plea in the midst of almost uncountable atrocities is always “dialogue,” yet has WJ introduced any dialogue on this thread? No, he makes a petty statement about daily news even though any daily news that I know of does not negate anything that might have happened a while back by a couple of weeks (see comment at July 28, 2010 at 1:06 am, but by all means WJ ignore a statement like this). The point is that there is enough daily to fill an entire blog happening during this tragedy? No, he just makes a pedantic statement of no value, no dialogue.
The type of dialogue he calls for could be entitled the “dialogue of death,” not uncommon and akin to “diplomacy by death,” while fresh atrocities occur and are planned by the minute lets talk. Lets interject a petty and fallacious point. It is like when Lebanon was being bombed, and Condi Rice kept schlepping between Lebanon and USA/Israel delivering nothing but more time for death and destruction –
DEATH BY DIPLOMACY
Or like a madman taking over a home with a large family, who keeps shooting one member at a time, while telling the father during the process – lets negotiate.
Nicely put VR. You hit the nail on the head.
WJ reminds me of another tone deaf Zionist who was posting comments about nasty things Hezbollah were saying about Israel just as the news of the flotilla massacre was breaking. Never mind that the IDF had shot 9 people to death in cold blood in international waters. All he wanted was a dialogue about hiw feelinds being hurt.
Like I’ve been saying from the beginning, WJ is reprehensible. NONE of these Zionist shills act in any way respectful and rational.
I’ve bookedmarked this thread so that I can link it as a preface whenever I go after WJ, as a reminder to people who told me to back off from WJ because he’s supposedly reasonable.
I guess we will have to make our own archives, and call it “WJ’s Greatest Shits”!
O darn, Spell-Check let me down, gotta watch that when a typo forms another more appropriate word.
they are not going anywhere, they just want us to be nice to them. but whether we’re nice to them or hit them over the head with a boulder it will make no difference, they’ll still remain and insert themselves w/their endless bullshit. that’s the nature of the hasbara patrol. while they want a ‘jewish state’ there will be no place to discuss palestine without them, and no intention of any part of palestine without them, they will not ever reciprocate and leave us alone ever so why should we be nice to them? it will never shut them up.
“I will feel as though I have accomplished something when commenters dispense with the personal attacks and name calling,”
Max Narr
In case tthere are new readers, this is completely fraudulent. None of us have any “personal” information about posters, nor do we even know there real name. There are NO “personal attacks here. Every comment is purely a reaction to something these bozos have said, and they can’t face that, so they’re going for the whining.
He’s full of shit. No one is “outing” in any way, any of the posters.
That doesn’t mean there are no personal attacks here, no insults and namecalling. It would be better if there weren’t.
No potsherd, there are reactions to what commenters (under their “handle”, if they want to use their real name, that’s up to them)
say. How can I personally attack someone I’m not even sure exists?
If, say, I looked up a poster by his real name, got personal information, and revealed it, that is a personal attack. We don’t even know if we are “attacking” a real person, an AI bot, or several people who use the same handle?
We don’t even know their sex, race, religion, income, marital status, or a single thing about them, unless they choose to tell us. And frankly, I think the personality they display here is completely false, it’s their “ziocaine” identity.
There are no personal attacks here. That is a ruse.
And if it’s attacks on you that are bothering you, I need to know, is “potsherd” just an unusual first name, or should I address you as Mr. or Ms. Potsherd?
And just to make it easier for people, there’s no point in looking me up and revealing embarrasing facts about me. My life can stand the closest examination! The statute of limitations has run out on most of it, it’s been seven years since my last (fourth) bankruptcy, I made resitution for the embezzlement (well I promised to), and I never laid a finger on that girl, and she told me she was twenty seven, a little overdeveloped, and in elementary school as part of a teacher-training program! And all my school records are from before the sex change.
So let them try and make something of that!
No, Mooser, the problem is not with personal information, it’s with the insults and acrimony directed at posters, regardless of whether their RL identities are know.
Richard Witty, I assume, uses his real name but it means neither more nor less to me than the handle “Mooser”. If I call RW a fatuous ass, this is an insulting personal attack (even if true) and has nothing to do with his RL identity.
Which doesn’t mean I am prepared to reveal my own. Not because of insults here but concern for RL repercussions.
Okay, on one thread you tell me there is no solution except violenece, because of the obduracy and intransigence of the Zionists, but now you are saying we can’t call Witty a fatuous ass.
So you say we might have to kill all the Israelis to bring peace, but some sarcasms and name calling will prevent the, what, “peace process”?
Max Narr, is trying to disseminate (sorry, WJ) the canard that posters here obtain personal information about posters, and put it in their comments. This is an attempt to scare people away from commenting.
Or do you want me to believe that Max Narr and the rest sit home crying all night because of what somebody said about them at Mondoweiss? If that’s the case, Zionism is in sad shape, and I guess it won’t take sticks and stones to break their bones.
Of course, I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t take advice from a “shit for christ”. (If it wasn’t for the inherent disrespect and ugliness of that epithet, or if I knew what it meant, it would so be my new handle.)
Potsherd, if you are bothered by what they call you, you have my sympathy.
Aw come on, Mooser, we’ve all noticed how your old heartfelt personal expose on your self-conflicted self has changed to crass
attacks on the Good Guys ever since this blog has become your sole source of revenue. We use to get how you feel being locked into an antlered body, now all we get is barely disguised propaganda against those who have never harbored any self hate and are merely supporting pure self-governance across the humane Welt.
And by the way, Potsherd, what is the reasoned response to a person who lectures us for paragraph after paragraph about the “genocidal” (yes, that’s a quote) effect of out-marriage on the Jews, speculates on Phil’s anti-Jewish tendencies as revealed by the choice of person he fell in love with and married, and then reveals he is 55 and not married? Do you know of a non-sarcastic response to that?
All of those sarcasms and insults are not directed at the actual person who signs himself “Wondering Jew”, they can’t be! I don’t even know what sex he is, or if he even exists, or is even a single person. They are directed at “Wondering Jew” the Internet identity, and what he thinks are the pro-Zionist, pro-Israeli, or pro-Jewish or discourse advancing, things to say, and what this Internet identity chooses to say and how he chooses to say it. As I said, this “Wondering Jew” has very little to do with the real person behind the handle. We can only deal with what he presents about himself as “Wondering Jew” and how he presents it.
If there is the slightest hope of solving the I-P issues without extreme violence, Zionists had better accept the kind of reactions their speech provokes when they can’t control the context. And that they can do it on the Internet, where no-one gets punched or shot or stabbed, is a privilege. They should avail themselves of it, instead of constantly complaining about it. And I know this sounds sort of weird, but you don’t need to show any consideration for the person behind the handle, cause there really isn’t one.
That we can come here and express ourselves, all of us, under the rubric of anonymity is the only consideration anyone should need.
And as I said, they should avail themselves of it. At least by doing that they might know, when they do have to say things under their own names, how to do it.
Phil is giving them a tremendous opportunity they refuse to take advantage of, they don’t think it’s necessary.
Sorry to go on at length, but here’s another example. People who have gone to Witty’s blog (I went once, but couldn’t hack it) say he is much more coherent, much more sensible, and writes complete sentences. So when we respond to this “Richard Witty”, which one are we responding to? Obviously, the “real” Richard Witty is not the one we see here, So we have to assume that the “Richard Witty” he presents us is the one he wants to, because he thinks it will advance his cause, or the discourse, and we have to respond to that.
Me, I’m more and more convinced Phil is right, let’s try wrenching the narrative out of their hands before it’s necessary to take guns into ours. Didn’t SA teach us that? Take away the narrative, disturb the colonial economic advantages, and all of a sudden, the God-given land they were going to die for becomes not quite so important. If it could be done that way, maybe it can keep the schlemiels in Israel from making schlimazels out of the innocent Israelis.
I apologise for the prolixity of this, I won’t do it again.
It’s a hell of a way to make a living. For this I dropped out of junior high, where I was voted both “a shit for shit” and “a shit for christ”?
I shoulda took a left at Albuquerque.
Sorry, this response is to Citizens “personal” attack, on me, and all of America’s largest ungulates! Never forget, Bullwinkle was cancelled after two seasons!
“Which doesn’t mean I am prepared to reveal my own”
Who’s asking you to? And do you really think “Richard Witty” is his real name? Who ever heard of a Jew named “Richard”?
Mooser, I’m just bothered by the discussion here, which could and should be so valuable, degenerating into namecalling. Nothing more.
But you started this entire shit storm with your lame comment about the relevance of reporting the slaughter of a Palestinian mother a week after it happened. So quit your whining!
“Mooser, I’m just bothered by the discussion here, which could and should be so valuable, degenerating into namecalling.”
Potsherd, you should be glad the discussion is here, whether it’s name-calling or not. You would not want to see what would most certainly happened if Wondering Jew had called me a “shit for christ” to my face. Of course, when he is persuading intermarried American Jews or non-Jews of the importance of supporting Israel to the death, he’s welcome to try it. I’m sure it will be very effective. He must think it works, he’s repeated it.
But no doubt you think that (“a shit for christ”) was a perfectly reasoned thing to say, but my gentle chiding about finding hims a victi… I mean wife, is out-of-line.
Okay, I’m gonna go out on a limb here (a very dangerous place for a moose to be): Remember the story Phil told about the Thoreau Club? What do you think would have been a better response for him, to decide that everyone is an anti-semite, cry, shout, and take swings and then lock himself in a schul or decide that with a few adjustments in his social method, he could talk to anybody?
I don’t mind giving people the benefit of the doubt, but when they use it to dispossess or kill others, it’s time to stop. And if that’s all you have to deprive them of to stop it, it’s a bargain for everybody.
Mooser, get a grip. “Who ever heard of a Jew named ‘Richard’?”
Goldstone.
I think, as one who uses my real name, that it’s a very valuable discussion, full of information and quite a lot of sensible and valid, not to mention funny, argument. There’s got to be some rhetoric in various styles within discussions like this, but you can just let your eye skim over the rhetoric which doesn’t suit your mood. I find some Zionist rhetoric very disturbing and inhuman and it used to interfere with my sleep, but I’ve learned just to treat it as dream that vanishes.
Mooser:
“what is the reasoned response to a person who lectures us for paragraph after paragraph about the “genocidal” (yes, that’s a quote) effect of out-marriage on the Jews, speculates on Phil’s anti-Jewish tendencies as revealed by the choice of person he fell in love with and married, and then reveals he is 55 and not married? Do you know of a non-sarcastic response to that?”
How does a Catholic respond to a priest telling him/her to marry a Catholic and NOT use birth control? Most of them think that’s perfectly normal, or at least they used to. True, they don’t raise the specter of genocide – just ‘salvation’. Difference?
There are too many times when the discussion is derailed into this shit (like this discussion) and I know from experience that many people who could make valuable contributions are turned off and turned away by it.
MHughes: using your real name
I have to admit, not to my credit, that I stopped using my real name because the Zionist rhetoric, attacks and threats, including seeing my name blacklisted by the ‘Brothers of Judea’, made me feel helpless and scared me. I’ve never experienced anything like this feeling of being muzzled, and I’m not a shrinking violet. But the way they twist everything into anti-Semitism and Israel-bashing is truly irrational and therefore frightening, as is the wrath and venom with which they come after their critics. So I’d prefer not to sink to that level, tempting as it often is (and I have succumbed to that temptation).
Maybe I’ll come out of the closet again when I find some way to deal with them without losing it
“shit for christ”
I’m not familiar with this (awful sounding) expression..Never heard it before..Although I have a slight idea of the negative connotations implied, I’m not quite sure I get it entirely. Someone cares to explain? Please..
Is it something like “in bed with the enemy”, “sold to the enemy” or I’m way off the track?
How does a Catholic respond to a priest telling him/her to marry a Catholic and NOT use birth control? Most of them think that’s perfectly normal, or at least they used to. True, they don’t raise the specter of genocide – just ’salvation’. Difference?
you don’t know many Catholics, do you, antidote.
Here’s how my 86-year old Italian Catholic mother would responded to a priest when SHE was given the lecture: “You no play the game, you no make the rules.”
Antidote, I can’t believe this! Why the hell do you think they call it his Christian name?
I was trying to make a joke, and as usual, failed.
“How does a Catholic respond to a priest telling him/her to marry a Catholic and NOT use birth control?”
“Thanks, Padre, and I’ll let you know how that works out at my next Confession.”
But I really shouldn’t put down the Catholic view of marriage. My wife always tells people we met when I threw a “Hail Mary” pass at her.
“I’m not familiar with this (awful sounding) expression….”
Neither am I. But when a Jewish man, 55, and single uses that expression (or “epitaph” Witty would say) after telling you those other facts about himself, how much more “personal” information do you need to know what you are dealing with and how to deal with them?
“Meanwhile, young Nader asks relatives and visitors about his mother. None of his relatives have yet found the right words to explain to this innocent child what happened to his mother. Do those words actually exist? ”
I don’t get it, why this family? Why this farm?
What the hell?
Oliver Stone says Jews control the US media (7/26/10)
Oliver Stone says Jews do not control the US media (7/28/10)
(Note both publications were in the Israeli press, not the US press)
Oops, Stone’s unaccountable reversal only took one day, not two.
7/26/10
link to haaretz.com
7/27/10
link to haaretz.com
and another day to get Foxman to demand more
7/28/10
link to haaretz.com
I kind of hope this does not get a lot of press in the US media. Just so Foxman can’t triumph about another rise of anti-Semitism to justify his professional efforts
“I am beginning to understand the essence of this blog. It is not a newspaper.”
You mean this isn’t the NYT or Jerusalem Post? Damn, and I spent all that time looking for the crossword puzzle! And no wonder I can’t start my barbeque with it!