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  • Goldstone sugarcoats persecution to try to save Israel
  • South Africans think Israel is practicing apartheid
    • mig November 1, 2011 at 1:19 pm

      Yes, you talk about anything but Israel actions. I guess that china uses apartheid in tibet because israel uses apartheid vs. palestinians. Same to russia & syria. They all claim that all is apartheid because israel started it. They just follow example.

      Right eee ?

  • UNESCO votes to admit Palestine as a full member
    • mig October 31, 2011 at 5:44 pm with 2 replies

      Whizdom :

      conflicting reports. Can the US continue to be an active member if we don’t pay our dues? Vicky Nuland says yes. UN bylaws say no. which is correct?

      US can still be active member, but no right to vote. No money, no honey in UNESCO.

  • The Israeli army shot at me and 3 Palestinian kids in Gaza today
    • mig October 30, 2011 at 3:34 am with 3 replies

      It also seems like the days of qassam rockets are over.

      Bye bye.

      the missile of choice is now the Grad (which was used by Hezbollah in 2006) and they are being fired my multi-missile firing mechanisms.

      Hezbollah has used those years. And multi-missile mech's ? I dont think so.

      Unfortunately for the IJ, their leadership has taken a toll during this last exchange.

      What is IJ ?

  • Oktoberfest in Palestine
    • mig October 28, 2011 at 5:02 pm

      eee :

      Once you throw in some Germans in lederhosen you have to admit that the analogy becomes more compelling.

      At what, that in Warsaw Ghetto was germans with lederhosen ?

  • Palestine's UNESCO bid to come up Monday (amid Simon Wiesenthal Center hypocrisy)
    • mig October 28, 2011 at 12:46 pm with 2 replies

      LA Times :

      Israeli museum not so tolerant, group of archaeologists say

      REPORTING FROM JERUSALEM -- A group of prominent international archaeologists are among the latest people to publicly denounce plans to build a museum on the site of a centuries-old Muslim cemetery not far from Jerusalem’s historic Old City.

      In a letter addressed to the board of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, the mayor of Jerusalem and the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, all of whom are backing the controversial project, 84 archeologists argued that construction of the museum would desecrate the sanctity of the site, known to be the location of the Mamilla Cemetery, or Ma'man Allah, the sanctuary of God.

      The site is “one of the most historically renowned and ancient Muslim cemeteries in the world," said the group, which includes American, European, Arab and Israeli architects. “Such insensitivity towards religious rites, towards cultural, national and religious patrimony, and towards families whose ancestors lay buried there causes grave concern from a scientific and humanitarian standpoint.”

      The project is slated for 33 acres of land in the heart of Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Municipality gave the property to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

      However, the project has been dogged by lawsuits filed by opponents who say not only would it defile a sacred site, but it's also too large. Differences over architectural design and a turnover of architects have also slowed the project's launch.

      The archaeologists contend that such treatment of the burial site would not have occurred if were a Jewish burial site, and they quoted an Israeli official from the Ministry of Religious Affairs as saying that excavations would immediately stop "if one Jewish skeleton were found."

      But the Wiesenthal Center has defeated legal challenges in Israeli courts and has vowed to press ahead with the museum.

      link to latimesblogs.latimes.com

      Letter :

      link to ccrjustice.org

  • 4-year-old Palestinian girl is rendered quadriplegic by Israeli military training in occupied West Bank
    • mig October 29, 2011 at 8:14 am

      I wouldnt call it shocking statement Annie, because that is actually US policy. Statement shows actual US situation versus Israel. You cant be get elected if you dont call 24/7 your commitment towards to Israel. Its sad to see wonderful state like US to changed to be pawn of foreign state.

  • 'A historic forum:' Sylvia Schwarz tells Minneapolis gathering that privileging Jews is racism
    • mig October 29, 2011 at 8:26 am

      What you know about Israeli laws ?

      Look at Israeli laws in action :

      link to hamoked.org

      link to acri.org.il

      link to gisha.org

      link to yesh-din.org

      But one thing is certain, you dont read these.

    • mig October 28, 2011 at 12:59 pm

      RW :

      This was not “the beginning”. This is after just settlement (not expropriation) was harrassed violently, organized, even many many attacks on civilians that had legally purchased land.

      That really wasnt beginning. Let see AGAIN to year 1919, and King-Crane commission report :

      "The fact came out repeatedly in the Commission's conferences with Jewish representatives, that the Zionists looked forward to a practically complete disposition of the present non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine, by various forms of purchase."

      "The Peace Conference should not shut its eyes to the fact that the anti-Zionist feeling in Palestine and Syria is intense and not lightly to be flouted. No British officer, consulted by the Commissioners, believed that the Zionist programme could be carried out except by force of arms. The officers generally thought that a force of not less than 50,000 soldiers would be required even to initiate the programme. That of itself is evidence of a strong sense of the injustice of the Zionist programme, on the part of the non-Jewish populations of Palestine and Syria. Decisions requiring armies to carry out are sometimes necessary, but they are surely not gratuitously to be taken in the interests of serious injustices. For the initial claim, often submitted by Zionist representatives, that they have a "right" to Palestine based on an occupation of 2,000 years ago, can hardly be seriously considered. "

      link to unispal.un.org

      Can you find this more interesting ?

  • Grapel deal includes US F-16 sale to Egypt & Jordan's King Abdullah reminds us he's Israel's only friend in region
  • Minneapolis panel pitting Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews gets no media attention
    • mig October 28, 2011 at 2:25 pm

      RW :

      So you don’t believe that people from outside of the land have the right to buy land legally, and live there?

      Did british rulers have a right to judge that ?

      And, the British did not give land to outsiders.

      OOooooo they did. So you didnt read that document that i give ??

      Again, there are statistics on the degree of public

      Great. Give a link.

    • mig October 28, 2011 at 5:34 am

      RW :

      Sentimental link creates legal right ?”

      No it doesn’t. It creates the motivation to purchase land and settle. It does NOT connote the legal right to expropriate occupied land.

      We have a problem here. Those people came from outside of the palestine. Second, british rulers didnt have a legal right to give away an inch of a land to outsiders.

      It does connote the equal legal right to Palestinians to individually settle in unoccupied land and establish title rights by that.

      Unfortunately state of Israel has different approach to this.

      The questions of the national character of state or untitled land is complex and is abused by all that make claims.

      Its very easy one :

      link to icj-cij.org

      For example, the claim that Jews had only purchased 7% of the land and therefore it is overwhelmingly nationally Palestinian, with the presumption that the 93% other land was owned by individual Palestinians is a falsehood.

      First, its not a "claim" that zionistas purchased 7 % of land. Its a fact.
      Second, to that "93 %" question. I strongly suggest that you read follow document, specially chapter 4. Hardly in ANY country, whole land is owned by individual persons. So is it your claim, that to a non-state area, anyone can go and just take land "because it doesnt belong to anybody". Maybe you & ziobot gang forget something in here ? That quite a lot british rulers used old ottoman laws in palestine. And make a guess just for a fun, did ottomans have a regulations at all to the so called "state land".

      link to unispal.un.org

      The majority of the land of Israel is desert, the Negev, that nobody held title to, was public or common land.

      Good to know. So anyone can walk in and take a piece of land because it doesnt belong to Israel, or anybody else in matter of fact a'la RW. Where did i put my passport, im finding tickets to the next flight.....

    • mig October 28, 2011 at 1:41 am

      RW :

      Zionism, the liberation of the Jewish people from extended persecution was a good thing, a needed thing.

      I agree. Dark side in this of course is that these persecuted peoples started persecute other peoples without of a blink of an eye.

    • mig October 27, 2011 at 2:53 pm

      RW :

      There is no setting in which the nationalist greater Israel theme of “the land is historically Jewish”, applies legally whether one applies features of international law, or of common or even statutory law.

      Yup, that theme is a hoax.

      The sentiment of “next year in Jerusalem” (both literally and metaphorically -not one to the exception of the other), creates a sentimental link, a valid basis of motivation to settle in the land legally.

      Sentimental link creates legal right ?

      The history creates the momentum that makes the legality less relevant for a period.

      And here did RW throw the international law to the trash can. I am amazed why i'm not amazed at all.

      The harrassment of legally purchasing settlers in Israel.

      Unfortunately. All 7 % which they bought. And because zionista plans were quite known by palestinians.

      The uprisings, civil and international wars, with at least partially the motivation of sending the Jewish refugees and legal settlers alike back to “where they came from”. The harrassment of North African, and middle eastern and Persian/Iranian Jews following the formation of the state of Israel.

      What international wars you mean ? And that harrassment is mostly exaggerated.

      The persecution in Europe and to a much lesser extent, the dhimmi status in the Arab world, contributed to the desire, the utopia of Zionism.

      Dhimmi status ? Completely exaggerated.

      That brilliant idealists like Martin Buber and Albert Einstein acknowledged need for and celebrated the formation of the Israeli state, in 47/48/49, confirms to me that the state was a need, and not only an opportunism.

      In fact Albert Einstein was against whole State Of Israel in first place.

      link to einsteinonisrael.com

      Is a Jewish state needed now, is a relevant question.

      Not at all. Talk about State Of Israel instead. Israel state makes definitions, not us here.

    • mig October 27, 2011 at 2:13 pm

      Balfour declaration didnt have a legal backround.

    • mig October 27, 2011 at 2:05 pm

      eee :

      Richard Witty is the only realist here. The rest are dealing in fantasies, but not only that, dangerous fantasies. Zionism like other forms of nationalism is here to stay. It is not racism and it is not colonialism, it is a basic yearning of the Jewish people for a state of their own.

      And kicking indigenous population out. Was that the "basic yearning" also ?

      What Witty is trying to tell you is the following: If you define the conflict or argue for getting rid of Zionism you are defining the conflict in an all or nothing way, not as something that two people can reach a compromise about.

      Was there desire to leave a just a little bit apartheid in SA ?

      On the other hand, if you accept Richard’s sound advice, you would define the issue as making changes in Zionism and reaching an historical compromise. That is a realistic goal for which you could get much support, support that you are losing with your radical all or nothing approach.

      twiddly diddly dee. Should we do those changes to zionism ? Historical reaching my hasbara.

  • J Street presses division inside Jewish community, blaming neocons for leading 'charge to war in Iraq'
  • Israeli effort to remove Bedouins from East Jerusalem is part of the plan to make two states impossible
    • mig October 26, 2011 at 8:52 am

      Human rights are not competition who gives how much.

    • mig October 26, 2011 at 1:21 am

      Negev Bedouins and Unrecognized Villages

      The Arab Bedouin minority of the Negev is one of the most discriminated groups within the Arab population and within Israeli society as a whole. More than half of the approximately 160,000 Negev Bedouins reside in unrecognized villages, which the state refuses to provide with a planning structure and place under municipal jurisdiction. The government uses a variety of measures to pressure Bedouins into relocating to government-planned urban centers that disregard their lifestyle and needs. Whole communities have been issued demolition orders; others are forced to continue living in unrecognized villages that are denied basic services and infrastructure, such as electricity and running water.

      link to acri.org.il

  • David Brooks propagandizes for Netanyahu-- he has no partner for peace
    • mig October 26, 2011 at 1:33 am

      Gilad Shalit has been brought home to an Israel that has no plan for peace

      Binyamin Netanyahu's words ring hollow with Palestinians, whose outward-facing strategy has problems of its own

      The posters are still up, showing the face of Gilad Shalit, the boy soldier freed last week after five years hidden in the dark. "How good it is to have you back home," runs the slogan, appearing on the side of shopping malls in Tel Aviv and on lampposts in Jerusalem. Shalit's return has enabled Israelis to walk with an unaccustomed spring in their step, despite their fear that the price was dreadfully high.

      It should go without saying that Israelis would have preferred a one-to-one exchange, releasing a single Palestinian prisoner, rather than more than a thousand – many of them guilty of horrendous acts of violence – in return for Shalit. But, contrary to what some have suggested, it was Hamas, not Israel, that set that 1:1000 exchange rate; it was Hamas, not Israel, who decided that the freedom of a single Israeli was worth the freedom of a thousand Palestinians.

      Yet the boost at Shalit's return is unlikely to last long. Just as the sight of his emaciated face and sunken eyes on every front page confirms that the damage of his captivity will haunt him for years, so Israelis who yearn for the security that can only come with an accommodation with their neighbours know there is no remedy imminent for them either. Except now the familiar pessimism comes with a twist.

      While their own government has next to no strategy to resolve the conflict, it is now the Palestinians, so often buffeted by events, who have a plan and are pursuing it. The problem is that both strategies, old and new, are insufficient.

      link to guardian.co.uk

  • 'J Street' urges Israel lobby group to sever ties with Elliott Abrams's wife Rachel for 'unhinged hate speech' against Palestinians
    • mig October 26, 2011 at 12:58 am

      No, its not Shia/Sunni relations. I'll help you a bit :

      link to en.wikipedia.org

    • mig October 25, 2011 at 5:02 pm

      DBG :

      mig, it is a great basis for a negotiation.

      It is.

      is Israel just supposed to put everything down and agree to it with our an coordination or negotiation with the Palestinians?

      Yes. It all begins and ends in Israel.

      Right now they won’t even sit down with Israel to discuss it.

      No they dont.

      Bibi has mentioned he’d sit down and talk based on ’67 borders, he also offered a governmental freeze of all building in the WB/EJ.

      Semantics. And governmental freeze ain't enough. All to freeze.

      you guys can talk about past plans until you are blue in the head, nothing will happen without direct negotiations.

      Walk the walk, talk the talk. Now look here. Plenty of many times we have seen that Israeli foot draggin in negotiations. Yes, i know all of those stories what you have heard or read in Israeli media how Israeli negotiators has turned every stone while trying to solve the problem, and get agreement. And then we read that real story how they went.

      And i agree completely with you with this need to negotiate, and get negotiated agreement. But one thing is missing in this puzzle, and we wait that puzzle from Israeli side. Action. Partial marriage doesnt exist. Partial freeze isnt that trick. If Israel cant do that before negotiations start, how they can do it later. How they will sell that to the public then, if they cant sell it now.

    • mig October 25, 2011 at 4:23 pm

      DBG :

      LOL, you have it all figured out mig, don’t ya.

      Not all, but pretty close. That "rift" between S-A and Iran started Iran revolution. Now, i guess you can find out rest of the story by yourself. Try wiki, mentioned there.

    • mig October 25, 2011 at 1:32 pm

      DBG :

      The Arab peace plan is a great idea, why don’t the Palestinians sit down and hash it out?

      Palestinians sit down ? That Arab peace plan was directed to Israel, and tell us what Israeli response was ? ( offer has given twice )

      And i agree, that plan is great. Sorry that in Israel nobody gives a thought. So much from that offer.

    • mig October 25, 2011 at 10:53 am

      DBG :

      Mig I am sure in your mind it has something to do with the US and/or Israel.

      It has absolutely nothing to do with US or Israel. Try again.

      Because they of course are the root of all evil.

      Issue was S-A vs. Iran.

      I am sure in your mind it has nothing to do w/ the Sunni/Shia divide and their fight to control influence over the ME after the fall of Egypt.

      Right, it doesnt have anything to do with Sunni/Shia relations. Now you can continue your errors. But 1 point for at least trying something. Carry on. Try again.

    • mig October 25, 2011 at 12:54 am

      DBG :

      They’d just go through Saudi Arabia, who would be happy to open their airspace against their not so new regional enemy.

      Someone has fooled you in good time. There are elements in Iran that S-A dont like that much, but enemy label.....thats way too exaggerated. Biggest reason why S-A is at odds with Iran.....

      No, on the second thought, find out yourself.

  • World condemns Israel's Jerusalem landgrab, while US says it is 'within the frame of our policy concern'
    • mig October 25, 2011 at 1:07 am

      Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur.....!!!

    • mig October 24, 2011 at 2:57 pm

      That is why Israelis only trust the US to guarantee a deal.

      Yup, and US in boat, no deal ever. Thats why Israel trusts US.

      It is the only power that has extensive forces in the middle east and the only power that can project force.

      Project force ? Did someone say that peace cant be forced ? Yes, no ? When was last time that US "projected some force" towards to Israel ? Around 1956 ? When US still had some President who had some balls, and didnt take orders from AIPAC/Knesset.

  • 'NYT' features Amy Goodman and her antiwar record
    • mig October 25, 2011 at 1:19 am

      So is it fault of Amy then ?

    • mig October 24, 2011 at 2:22 pm with 1 replies

      hoph :

      Any regular listener of Democracy Now cannot miss the parade of left-wing talking heads that are a far-left mimicry of the exact same thing on the far-right.

      ++++ So you didnt find any negative about topics that DN covers. Just left-right political battle.

  • The US has a 'perfect record of abysmal failure' with the peace process -- it's time for new leadership
    • mig October 24, 2011 at 2:50 pm

      So who is the alternative to the US?

      Any state in the world.

    • mig October 24, 2011 at 2:48 pm

      Yup, Israel is taking cover behind of UNSC and Arab states. As always, blame someone else.

    • mig October 24, 2011 at 2:44 pm with 1 replies

      eee :

      Who can step into the US shoes?

      Any state in the world.

      Only the US has the ability to make Israelis take security risks for peace.

      I see. It has turned to be so that peace is a risk, not that situation what is now. Maybe you should try turn your head 180 degrees, and try again.

      Another post howling at the moon with zero constructive criticism and no real alternative proposed.

      Because you know that US with leading post in so called "peace process", nothing happens. Thats why you are so scared if someone who starts really pushing peace, its Israel who is in the giving side. You know it, and we know it.

  • As settlers disrupt olive harvest, Israeli officer declares: 'I am the law, I am God.'
    • mig October 23, 2011 at 6:49 pm with 2 replies

      "Rafi Dagan, an Israeli commanding officer, stated “I am the law. I am God”

      ++++ Israeli officer has been promoted to the Heavenly class i see....

      Biblical miracles are following soon i guess.

  • What's good for Gaza was not good enough for Shalit
    • mig October 24, 2011 at 1:50 am

      I guess that hamas doesnt have right to enter to those wonderful markets that they have in Gaza. According to those ziobots in Israel ( how about our zbots in here ? ).

  • In anxious/nostalgic interview of Amos Oz, NPR's Rob't Siegel says Shalit was held 'hostage'
    • mig October 23, 2011 at 4:36 am

      Must Jews always see themselves as victims?

      Fierce debate has been raging in 'The Independent' about Israel's conduct in Gaza. Here, one leading Jewish thinker argues that until Jews shake off their persecution complex, there can never be peace in the Middle East

      By Antony Lerman

      In the wake of Israel's attack on Gaza, eager voices are telling us that anti-Semitism has returned – yet again. Eight years of Hamas rockets and the world unfairly cries foul when Israel retaliates, they say. Biased media are delegitimising the Jewish state. The Left attacks Israel as uniquely evil, making it the persecuted Jew among the nations. Even theatres keep wheeling out those anti-Semitic stereotypes, Shylock, Fagin and the "chosen people", just to torment us. If this bleak picture were an accurate portrayal of what Jews are experiencing today, who could deny that suffering is the determining feature of the Jewish condition?

      In most Jewish circles, if you pause to question this narrative and suggest that it might be exaggerated, that it unrealistically implies a level of dreadfulness and victimhood unique to Jews, you'll attract hostility and disbelief in equal measure, and precious little public sympathy. But in the work of Professor Salo Baron, probably the greatest Jewish historian of the 20th century, we find powerful justification for just such a questioning.

      Professor Baron spoke out angrily against what he called the "lachrymose conception of Jewish history", which placed suffering at the centre of Jewish life. "Suffering is part of the destiny" of the Jews," Professor Baron said in an interview in 1975, "but so is repeated joy as well as ultimate redemption." Another distinguished historian, Professor Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, said Baron always fought against the view of Jewish history as "all darkness and no light. He laboured mightily to restore balance".

      Baron, who was born in Poland and went to America in 1930 to teach at Columbia University in New York, died aged 94 in 1989, perhaps one of the most significant years in post-war Jewish history. With the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR, the suppression of Jewish religious practice and cultural expression came to an end. More than two million Jews were finally free to choose to be Jewish or not. An astonishing number chose Jewishness and a remarkable revival of Jewish life began. This historic moment aptly illustrates the central truth of Baron's critique.

      Twenty years on, that revival continues, but the world's response to Israel's war on Gaza and the dramatic rise in anti-Semitic incidents in a number of countries since the war began have led many to paint a very dark picture of the current Jewish predicament. So, in thinking about the accuracy of this, especially in view of the poisonous weed of anti-Semitism that Howard Jacobson, writing in The Independent last month, claims to find growing in practically every patch of criticism of Israel, I wondered what light Professor Baron would have found in the current darkness. Would he have concluded that the lachrymose conception of Jewish history has returned and that a restoration of some balance is required? Have we Jews succumbed psychologically to a sense of eternal Jewish victimhood, a wholly negative Jewish exceptionalism, or is paranoia justified?

      Some pioneering research, published as Israel's bombing of Gaza began, throws some light on this. It reveals just how much the feeling that no matter what we do, we are perpetually at the mercy of others applies to Jewish Israelis. A team led by Professor Daniel Bar Tal of Tel Aviv University, one of the world's leading political psychologists, questioned Israeli Jews about their memory of the conflict with the Arabs, from its inception to the present, and found that their "consciousness is characterised by a sense of victimisation, a siege mentality, blind patriotism, belligerence, self-righteousness, dehumanisation of the Palestinians and insensitivity to their suffering". The researchers found a close connection between that collective memory and the memory of "past persecutions of Jews" and the Holocaust, the feeling that "the whole world is against us". If such a study were to be conducted among Jews in Britain, I suspect the results would be very similar.

      For Jews to see themselves in this way is understandable, but it's a distortion and deeply damaging. As Professor Bar Tal says, this view relies primarily on prolonged indoctrination that is based on ignorance and even nurtures it. The Jewish public does not want to be confused with the facts. If we are defined by past persecutions, by our victimhood, will we ever think clearly about the problem of Israel-Palestine and the problem of anti-Semitism?

      To justify its attack on Gaza, Israel threw the mantle of victimhood over the residents of southern Israel who have lived under the constant threat of rocket attack from the territory since 2001. Israeli government and military spokespeople seemed to get a remarkably sympathetic hearing in the media when they made this argument. But history did not begin in 2001. As the Israeli journalist Amira Hass notes, the origin of Israel's siege dates back to 1991, before suicide bombings began. The relentless emphasis on Israeli suffering, to the exclusion of all other contextual facts, and the constant mantra that no other country would tolerate such a threat posed to its citizens over such a long period provided the basis for arguing that the military option was the only alternative. The victim is cornered and there's only one way out.

      But the popular Israeli phrase ein breira, "there is no alternative", won't stand one second's scrutiny. There was a wealth of informed senior military and security opinion, especially following the disaster of the 2006 Lebanon war, which argued that there is no military solution to the problem of Islamist groups such as Hamas and Hizbollah. Even before Lebanon, in 2004, former IDF spokesman Nahman Shai, a senior figure in the Israeli establishment, said: "Despite all the anger, frustration, and disgust we feel, we ought to talk to Hizbollah. We must exploit every possibility to reach a compromise with them and gain precious time. Does it really embody all the evil in the region? What are we waiting for? We can always go back to fighting terrorism."

      Early in January this year, Israel's former Mossad chief and former national security adviser, Efraim Halevy, said: "If Israel's goal were to remove the threat of rockets from the residents of southern Israel, opening the border crossings would have ensured such quiet for a generation." Daniel Levy, former adviser in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, shows clearly where the wrong choices were made: withdrawing from Gaza without co-ordinating the "what next" with the Palestinians; hermetically sealing off Hamas and besieging Gaza after the 2006 elections instead of testing Hamas's capacity to govern responsibly; instead of building on the ceasefire, Israel was the first to break it on 4 November. In short, there were other alternatives.

      The current flurry of diplomatic activity only confirms this. Tony Blair's first trip to Gaza, Hillary Clinton's talks with Israel's leaders and stronger language on settlements and the $5bn pledged for Gaza at the Egyptian donor conference are all discomfiting signs for Israel's polity, now in a state of electoral upheaval. They show that the Gaza offensive blasted open the doors to alternative diplomatic options, as well as the possibility of a new Palestinian unity government. Instead of validating the government's line that this was justice for Israel's traumatised southern citizens, it only served to demonstrate to the world, and especially to the new Obama administration, Israel's responsibility for the injustice of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

      It's not a political judgement to feel compassion for Israelis terrorised by Hamas rockets, and it's just the same for Palestinians living in a virtual prison in Gaza. But the objective predicaments of the two populations are not the same. To convince yourself that a turkey shoot is an act of great heroism, you need the "self-righteousness" and "blind patriotism" Professor Bar Tal found in his study. You see yourself as David against the Islamist Goliath. The world sees a powerful elephant and an aggressive, rogue mouse that draws blood. The elephant hands the mouse the power of veto over the entire Middle East peace process by demanding that the mouse recognise the elephant's existence before any meaningful negotiations with Palestinians can take place. All this does is send a message of weakness: "We genuinely believe that our existence is threatened by this mouse."

      Professor Baron argued that you cannot understand the history of the Jews outside of the histories of the societies in which Jews lived. Yet this narrative of victimhood is sustainable only on the basis of a negative Jewish exceptionalism which severs the Jewish experience from the historical mainstream.

      The hope and optimism which accompanied the collapse of communism and the Jewish revival in Europe in 1989 have certainly been eclipsed by a defensive, fearful, ethnocentric mindset, which makes a just resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict ever harder to achieve and casts a pall over Jewish life everywhere. So why are we reading our own times through the prism of a lachrymose view of Jewish history?

      If you're urging me to list the faults of the enemies of the Jews, to say it's all because of them, you might as well stop reading now. Yes, of course our predicament is partly caused by others who wish us no good, but before we heap blame on them, I want to hold up a mirror to ourselves, to know what's our responsibility. The liberal historian of Zionism, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, said it's "wrong to deny the Jews the dignity of having made their own history, even its pain". Consider these five interlocking points.

      There is every reason why the Holocaust should be a constant influence on our thinking. But by insisting on owning it, fencing it off and seeing it as uniquely unique, we're in danger of lifting the Jewish tragedy out of history altogether. And this process has been a conscious act. If seen as completely unfathomable, the Holocaust is easily used to justify extraordinary measures to ensure that it doesn't happen again. This is a dangerous road to travel.

      Being so defined by the Holocaust, Jewish leaders in Israel and elsewhere regularly use the tragedy to dramatise Israel's position or the threats facing Jews. So when the US Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman described the attack on the Caracas synagogue as "the scene of a modern-day Kristallnacht" – the 9 November 1938 pogrom in Germany in which 91 Jews were killed, more than 30,000 were arrested and 191 synagogues were set on fire – he diminished Kristallnacht. But more than this: it perpetuates the view that we Jews are for ever the objects and never the subjects of history. This was never more than partially true, but ever since the establishment of the state of Israel, it has ceased to be true at all. Israel changed everything – whether you're close to Israel or not. Israel acts on the world stage; it calls itself a Jewish state; what it does affects the Jewish position worldwide; it cannot pretend to powerlessness; it's the subject of history, not the object, and in being so turns Jews everywhere into subjects of history too.

      This is starkly illustrated in the fact that the UK Jewish community's defence body, the Community Security Trust, reports a dramatic increase in anti-Semitic incidents since the beginning of the Gaza war. This is not a new phenomenon. For some decades, incidents have increased at times of high tension or violence in Israel-Palestine. Jewish leaders and commentators are indignant at the implication that Jews worldwide are responsible for Israel's actions. Don't conflate Jews and Israel, they say. But matters are far more complicated. Most Jews support Israel; they feel it's part of their identity; official Jewish bodies defend Israel when it's criticised.

      None of this justifies one single act of anti-Semitism against Jews perpetrated because someone claims to be angry about Palestine. But we can't have it both ways. If you're close to Israel, you can't just own your connection with the country when all is quiet; you have to own it when what Israel does provokes outrage. The consequence of this is recognising that by provoking outrage, which is then used to target Jews, Israel bears responsibility for that anti-Jewish hostility. If Israel were truly concerned about Jews worldwide, it would think long and hard about the implications of this reality.

      The incongruous truth is that while we are drawing attention to anti-Semitism more comprehensively than at any time in the past 30 years, I sense that so much of the Jewish world is more comfortable with an identifiable enemy that hates us than with a multicultural society that welcomes Jews on equal terms.

      Any anti-Semitism must be taken seriously, even at the best of times, but our appetite for the apocalyptic assessment of the anti-Semitic threat seems to know no bounds. When the Labour MP Denis MacShane writes that "Neo-anti-Semitism is a developed, coherent and organised system of modern politics that has huge influence on the minds of millions" and that it "impacts on world politics today like no other ideology", can we really take such hyperbole seriously?

      It's perfectly possible to acknowledge the pain caused by increased anti-Semitism but reject wild scenarios and counterproductive ways of dealing with the problem – such as demonising strong criticism of Israel. We should be able to have a dialogue about alternative ways of interpreting what's happening and what needs to be done. Sadly, the Jewish establishment here and other self-appointed gatekeepers of Jewish dignity see this as traitorous and a denial of anti-Semitism.

      Nothing illustrates better how we are in thrall to the uniqueness of our suffering than the shocking silence from most Jewish leaders that has greeted the rise of Avigdor Lieberman – a politician who, in Haaretz's words, "conducted a racist campaign against Israel's Arab citizens and is suspected of grave criminal acts" – to king-maker for the next Israeli government. It's sickening that the leaders of Israel's three largest parties have courted him and conferred respectability upon him, with not the slightest hint that they might be metaphorically holding their noses.

      Before we put down the mirror, the final image we see is that of Lieberman.

      We are not condemned to accept the fate which the closed-minded ethnocentricity of so many Jews dictates to us. Ameliorating our predicament, restoring the balance, could come from acknowledging modest but profound truths, even if we get to them through distasteful comparisons.

      I know that the siege, bombardment and invasion of Gaza were not like the German obliteration of the Warsaw ghetto – a comparison that critics of Israel are spreading through the internet I believe. And our need for calm and compassionate examination of the reality of the conflict would be greatly enhanced if we could retire such comparisons. But if we pause to think of the suffering of a dying Jewish child in the ghetto and a dying Palestinian child in Gaza, who would dare to suggest that their suffering is any different. Yet, as Professor Baron seems to imply, we fall all too easily into the trap of thinking that there is something unique about Jewish suffering. There isn't.

      Antony Lerman is the former director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research

      link to independent.co.uk

  • Struggling for water in Gaza
    • mig October 23, 2011 at 5:53 am

      Israeli authorities carry out demolitions of water infrastructure.Hundred of Palestinian families affected in the northern West Bank.

      In September, the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA) carried out the demolition of six artesian water wells in the villages of An Nassariya, Beit Hassan, and Al Bqai’a, in the northern West Bank; three of these structures were demolished for the second time in less than three months. None of the owners of the wells received any notification or demolition orders.

      Each of the demolished wells was used for the irrigation of roughly 500 dunums of farmland, and more than 400 Palestinian families were affected. Of particular concern, following the demolitions, there are reports that some of the farmers have resorted to diverting sewage stream through storm water flooding channel as a coping mechanism, and are using raw sewage for the irrigation of vegetable crops.The Israeli demolition of water infrastructure in the West Bank has been of ongoing concern. From the beginning of 2009 to date,48 rainwater cisterns and 38 wells have been demolished, half of which were recorded this year alone (24 cisterns and 19 wells in 2011) affecting more than 14,000 people, over half of whom are children.

      The demolition of cisterns in these areas means the loss of their primary coping mechanism, especially in times of water scarcity. The wells demolished this month were dug without the approval of the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee (JWC), as required under the Oslo Interim Agreement of 1995. However, according to the Palestinian Water Authority(PWA), although it had agreed before the JWC to shut down the wells, it conditioned its agreement upon the provision of an alternate source of water to the affected communities, which has not yet occurred.Moreover, in contrast to previous demolitions of water infrastructure, all of this month’s demolitions were carried out in Area B of the West Bank. Unlike in Area C, under the Interim Agreement planning and building powers in Area B lie with the Palestinian Authority. Therefore, it remains unclear under which authority did the ICA carried out these demolitions.

      The demolitions occurred within the context of long-standing discriminatory allocation of water resources in the West Bank is made clear given the preferential water resource distribution provided to Israeli settlements located in the same areas. While Israeli settlements receive an average 280 liters per day per capita, the Palestinian population is allocated an average of 60 liters per day per capita, well below the recommended 100 liters as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

      CASE STUDY ON DEMOLITION OF WELLS IN AN NASSARIYA
      An Nassariya is a rural community in Area B the Nablus governorate, whose residents rely heavily on agriculture. On 8 September 2011, Israeli forces destroyed three of the village’s wells with a bulldozer. The army confiscated pumps, engines, filters and 4 000 liters of gasoline (at 7 NIS per litre), and threw the owners’ tools into the wells. They did not show a demolition order to anybody present. The demolition affected the livelihoods of 350 families.Testimony of Nagahe Zaad (54), farmer:“I plant tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, melon, aubergine, peppers and many other things. Our sheep eat the foliage after we have harvested.
      Now we have no water and we cannot plant and our sheep drink the sewage water from the open canal. When it happened, I just stood there. I felt so angry, but there was nothing I could do. It took about three to four hours and it all happened right before my eyes. No one was allowed to enter the area. I was thinking of all the other farmers who depend on the water. I fell to the ground and was taken to a doctor.We are willing to live with Israelis and we will share our water. I along with the two other owners of wells have decided that we shall now rebuild only one well, so we can share the costs. But this means that we will produce less, and we know the Israelis will destroy our wells again, but I have been a farmer all my life. My father and grandfather also farmed on this land. We now live with this, we will not move.” Testimony given to the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), Yanoun team

      link to reliefweb.int

    • mig October 23, 2011 at 5:31 am

      Negotiate about water perhaps ? In the joint Israeli / Palestinian group, where Israel has veto power. Wanna talk more about negotiate things ?

      Hint : " The principal reason for the water shortage in the West Bank is the unfair distribution of the water resources shared by Israel and the Palestinians. One of these resources is the Mountain Aquifer which is composed of a few reservoirs of groundwater that lie on both sides of the Green Line. Although this aquifer is the sole water source for residents of the West Bank, Israel uses eighty percent of it, leaving only the remaining twenty percent for the Palestinians. Israel refuses to alter this distribution or to allow the Palestinians access to alternate water sources such as the Jordan River basin, thus preventing the Palestinian Authority from either connecting additional communities to a running-water network, or from increasing the water supply in locations where a running-water network exists.

      Another cause of the water shortage is the poor infrastructure that Israel handed over to the Palestinian Authority in 1995 in the framework of the Oslo Agreements. Since then, the Palestinian Authority has improved the infrastructure, but it still does not meet minimal standards. For example, on average, some 33 percent of the water carried through the pipes is lost by leakage. In addition, Mekorot, the Israeli water company, which supplies more than one-half of household and urban water consumption in the West Bank (the rest is supplied by Palestinian bodies), reduces the quantity of water sold to Palestinians in the summer months by 15 to 25 percent to meet consumption needs in Israel and in the settlements.

      Another phenomenon that aggravates the shortage in some areas of the West Bank is the practice of Palestinian farmers illegally tapping into water pipes leading to Palestinian communities. The southern West Bank village of Bani Na'im, for example, lost almost all the water supplied to it by Mekorot in the summer of 2007 due to this practice. Most of the illegal taps take place in Area C, in which Israel is responsible for law enforcement. However, security officials have refrained from taking sufficient action to apprehend the thieves. Palestinian police officials in Hebron District informed B'Tselem that they had contacted the Civil Administration a number of times to coordinate the entry of Palestinian police to Area C to handle the problem, but their requests were denied.

      Israel's policy regarding water supply in the West Bank is illegal and discriminates on racial grounds. It flagrantly breaches international law which requires Israel to ensure proper living conditions for the local population and to respect the Palestinians' human rights, including the right to receive a sufficient quantity of water to meet their basic needs."

      link to btselem.org

      And to that have we been in negotiations ever ? Yes. Plenty of times. Biggest was when foreign ministers from several countrys was around table. Wanna talk more about negotiating....

  • Gary Ackerman blasts NYU divestment campaign, NYU students and faculty blast back
  • Connect the dots: In '02, NYPD began training in Israel; 9 years later, spying against NYC Muslims exposed
  • Palestinian citizens of Israel are second class citizens, even in the Prague airport
    • mig October 21, 2011 at 6:21 am

      Not only arabs are second class, they are in fact third class citizens in Israel.

      Petah Tikva teacher of Ethiopian students: Israeli society is racist

      Rabbi Amiel Keinan says 'great honor' to teach children from now-closed, predominantly Ethiopian school Ner Etzion; Keinan enrolled his own son in Ner Etzion, explaining 'it's an excellent school and we're against racism.'

      For Rabbi Amiel Keinan, the request that he teach a class of children at the Kfar Ganim Amit yeshiva in Petah Tivka who had been reassigned from the city's Ner Etzion school, was like coming full circle. All of the children at Ner Etzion other than Keinan's own son Ran were of Ethiopian background, and Ner Etzion was closed at the beginning of the current school year in an effort to integrate the students at other schools.

      Keinan called it a "great honor" to teach the children from his son's former school. One of his new students, Daniel, said it was fun to attend the Kfar Ganim Amit school. Keinan's son, he added, was the only "nach" at Ner Etzion, using the word for "white" in the Ethiopian Amharic language. All of the other 289 children there were Ethiopian.

      link to haaretz.com

    • mig October 20, 2011 at 12:51 pm

      eee :

      "Israel has a free press and an open society."

      ++++ LOL. Someone believe that still ?

      "Your allegations are baseless. People in Israel have lived through the second intifada."

      ++++ And palestinians, but i guess that they dont count in this....

      "They have lived through this terror campaign and seen its consequences first hand on their communities and their daily lives."

      ++++ Palestinians has suffered much i agree.

      "And they are not going to quickly forget this episode and who was behind it."

      ++++ Project called "Israel".

    • mig October 20, 2011 at 12:24 pm

      Or waving hands in hole.....

    • mig October 20, 2011 at 12:23 pm

      eee :

      "But in Israel everyone knows or has heard of victims of terror."

      ++++ Unfortunately. So you just did racial profiling.

      "And therefore it is quite normal to be extra cautious."

      ++++ No, its not normal at all. Looks like you dont know anymore what is normal.

      "After Americans live through something like the second Intifada, we will see how they will act."

      ++++ Would 9/11 do ?.

      "Hopefully it will never happen."

      ++++ 9/11 few years back did. Iraq and Afganistan are living examples from that.

  • The joyful theater of Tahrir
    • mig October 18, 2011 at 1:24 am

      "The UN soldiers were not very welcome in israel, but in Egypt it was much worse. "

      ++++ We also visited Egypt ( when i served Unifil ), but we didnt get any notice from locals. Normal " were are you from" etc. but that was all.

      In fact, situation was completely different in Israel. When they heard that we serve in Unifil, then those verbal attacks started. But of course, i cant speak behalf of all served staff. Just what i personally saw and heard.

  • Boycott update: Champion fencer Sara Besbes stands down rather than plays Israeli
  • Iran hysteria: Senator Mark Kirk says 'It’s Okay to take food from the mouths of’ innocent Iranians
  • Americans believe red herring-- Iran is Enemy #1. Why?
    • mig October 14, 2011 at 12:30 am

      RoHa :

      "The embassy hostage crisis of 1979."

      ++++ Yup, and how that got started.

      "On 22 October 1979, at the request of David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger,[57] President Jimmy Carter reluctantly allowed the Shah into the United States to undergo surgical treatment at the New York–Weill Cornell Medical Hospital. While in Cornell Medical Center, Shah used the name "David D. Newsom" as his temporary code name, without Newsom's knowledge.
      The Shah was taken later by U.S. Air Force jet to Kelly Air Force Base in Texas and from there to Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base .[58] It was anticipated that his stay in the U.S. would be short; however, surgical complications ensued, which required six weeks of confinement in the hospital before he recovered. His prolonged stay in the U.S. was extremely unpopular with the revolutionary movement in Iran, which still resented the United States' overthrow of Prime Minister Mosaddeq and the years of support for the Shah's rule. The Iranian government demanded his return to Iran, but he stayed in the hospital.

      There are claims that this resulted in the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the kidnapping of American diplomats, military personnel, and intelligence officers, which soon became known as the Iran hostage crisis."

      link to en.wikipedia.org

    • mig October 14, 2011 at 12:22 am

      RW :

      "Iran’s hegemonic efforts are bad. They antagonize their neighbors."

      ++++ Yup, you call them Iran hegemonic effort, US calls same "national interests". Except Iran doesnt send troops surrounding countrys.

    • mig October 14, 2011 at 12:18 am

      RW:

      "America’s interests are threatened by Iran, key issues like supply chain for oil"

      ++++ Absolute rubbish. Every country in this beach ball called earth, uses oil in a form or another. In same logic all states should send own troops in region to protect own interests too. But we dont have. Because we use thing called trade, free market, describe your own favourite.

  • Do we really need another 'Gandhi'?
    • mig October 14, 2011 at 7:24 am

      Also peaceful protests hasnt work either. Any other options available ? Negotiating ? So bibi can do the same as Oslo accords ?

      And what Arab invasions you mean ?

  • Some preliminary questions about the alleged Iranian terror plot
  • Afternoon headlines
    • mig October 12, 2011 at 10:56 am

      Shingo, that was just one step. From Anwar Sadat archives :

      link to sadat.umd.edu

      link to sadat.umd.edu

    • mig October 12, 2011 at 9:24 am

      biorabbi :

      "7. Make a deal with the West Bank of the Jordan"

      ++++ What is a West Bank of Jordan ?

      "engage with ‘viable’ Palestinians who can deliver a feasible truce"

      ++++ In west bank ? Israel has never offered, or has been taken into consideration proposed ceasefire/truce offers to west bank.

      " Exchange land from inside the green line for any settlements which a final status agreement might detail."

      ++++ And how about palestinians who are living in there ? In area between green line and separation wall. Their number is about 250 000. Whats gonna happen to them....

      "8. Jerusalem. I would suggest ignoring it since it cannot be divided as far as I understand since certain Churches actually skirt the border. Maybe with an international force within the old city."

      ++++ Then you dont have a deal. Take Jerusalem out, and deal is out. End of story. Your other proposals looks good to me. But offer these to palestinians, not to us.

    • mig October 12, 2011 at 9:11 am

      biorabbi :

      "I am very excited about this deal and what it ‘could’ represent."

      ++++ And i'm skeptic. After a few months, same number of palestinians are back in Israel dungeons. Take note after swap, how news increase in arrests field. Has happened every time before.....

    • mig October 12, 2011 at 9:06 am

      DBG :

      "why did Israel:
      - exchange the Sinai for peace

      ++++ After 1973 war ? Anwar Sadat offered 1971 peace to Israel, if they return Sinai back to Egypt. And Israel responce was two No's. No peace and and Sinai return. Instead they got -73 war, and after that peace & Sinai was returned to Egypt.

      - withdraw from Southern Lebanon

      ++++ Too many casualties.

      - disengage from Gaza?

      ++++ Stressed to much IDF while protecting settlers.

  • In Cairo, we consecrate the freedom of religion
  • Operation Enduring Failure: Ten years of war on Afghanistan
  • Kol Nidre in Cairo. Not
    • mig October 8, 2011 at 3:41 pm

      And how some german army high command officers tried to contact british officials to stand firm in München negotiations. To stop Hitler.

      Peter Ustinov interview, starts about 03:55

      link to youtube.com

    • mig October 7, 2011 at 7:47 pm

      eee :

      " The Arab world does have a tradition of intolerance to Jews."

      ++++ History tells other story.

      "That is clearly what history shows."

      ++++ You dont know history. After Spain kicked jews out, they mostly moved to arab states. And then....?

      "Yes, there were times and places of tolerance but overall there was intolerance."

      ++++ Scholar links. Hasbara links dont count.

    • mig October 7, 2011 at 6:09 pm

      eee :

      "Initially, the old Sepheradic Jewish families in Palestine were ambivalent about Zionism but all these families eventually became fervent Zionists."

      ++++ Because of why ....

      " They never pushed back against Jewish immigration."

      ++++ Only zionist ideology.

      "So don’t rewrite history."

      ++++ Better that YOU dont talk about history. After that all gets mixed up.

    • mig October 7, 2011 at 6:05 pm

      eee :

      "What happened in mandatory Palestine was a civil war."

      ++++ Not quite so.

  • Brutal eviction of Palestinian family in Jaffa caught on tape
    • mig October 7, 2011 at 12:40 am

      Israel finally agrees that Palestinian minors are not legally adults

      Caabu has welcomed the announcement that Israel will class all Palestinians aged under-18 as minors, but urges further action to protect children from abuse.

      At present Israel’s military court system classifies Palestinians in the Occupied Territories as an adult from the age of 16, two years below international norms.

      However, following an extensive lobbying campaign by a number of human rights organisations, including Caabu, the Israeli military has announced it will treat 16 and 17 year olds as children.

      Caabu’s Parliamentary Officer, Graham Bambrough, cautiously welcomed the announcement, but said that the Israeli military must go further:

      “Caabu is pleased that the Israeli military has committed to bring to an end the gross injustice that sees Palestinian children aged 16 and 17 tried as adults, in contravention of international law. However, the entire military justice system remains stacked against the Palestinians brought before it, especially children. Trials are conducted in Hebrew, confessions that are later retracted remain common place and allegations of abuse are rife. Sadly it is still the case that many children will meet their lawyer for the first time in the court room.”

      “In particular, the Israeli military must commit to the video recording of all interrogations of children and to end the practices of cuffing minors with painful plastic tags for prolonged periods of time, as well as the degrading shackling of children in court.”

      Caabu has taken four parliamentary delegations to visit the military courts in the past ten months. Delegates have included Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Rt Hon Simon Hughes MP, former Minister for the Middle East Rt Hon Ben Bradshaw MP and former Director for Public Prosecutions Lord Ken MacDonald.

      The issue has been extensively debated in the House of Commons and House of Lords, and raised in detail with both the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli embassy in London.

      Notes:
      1. For further comment or information contact Graham Bambrough via bambroughg@caabu.org or 07734329182
      2. At present, whilst all Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are subject to military law, Israeli minors in settlements live under Israel’s civil code. Palestinian children are classified as adults from 16, while for Israeli children the age is 18. Palestinian children in the West Bank are tried in a military court, Israelis in a civilian one. An Israeli child has to see a judge within 24 hours of arrest; a Palestinian within eight days. An Israeli minor can be held on remand for 15 days, a Palestinian three months. In Israel there are severe limitations as to when a child can be handcuffed, but there are no such protections for Palestinians. What’s more a Palestinian child’s sentence is decided on the basis of their age at the time of sentencing, and not at the time when the alleged offence was committed.
      3. Israel arrests and prosecutes 700 children per year and since 2000 over 7,000 Palestinian minors have been prosecuted in military courts.
      4. Further information on the treatment of children in the military court system can be found in Caabu’s new report Britain and Palestine: A parliamentary focus – link to caabu.org

      Prosecution of children 16-18 in Israeli military courts

      Extract from a report, Defence for Children International ± Palestine Section, Follow-up to the Concluding Observations (Israel), Twelve Months On
      Reporting period:1 August 2010 to 31 July 2011
      Submitted to UN Human Rights Committee, 1st August 2011
      Published by The Centre for Civil and Political Rights, Geneva

      3. Overview
      3.1 Each year approximately 700 Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank are prosecuted in Israeli military courts after being arrested, interrogated and detained by the army, police and security agents. It is estimated that since 2000 alone, around 7,500 Palestinian children have been detained and prosecuted in the system.

      3.2 Within this system, children are frequently arrested from the family home by heavily armed soldiers in the middle of the night. The children are then painfully tied and blindfolded before being placed in the back of a military vehicle and transferred to an interrogation and detention centre. It is rare for a child, or his/her parents to be told the reason for arrest, or where the child is being taken. The arrest and transfer process is frequently accompanied by both physical and verbal abuse.

      3.3 On arrival at the interrogation and detention centre, the child is questioned in the absence of a lawyer or family member, and there is no provision for the audio-visual recording of the interrogation as a means of independent oversight. Few children are informed of their right to silence. Children are frequently threatened and physically assaulted during interrogation often resulting in the provision of a coerced confession, or the signing of documents which the child is not given a chance to read or understand.

      3.4 Following interrogation, children are brought before a military court which has jurisdiction over children as young as 12 years old. Once a child turns 16, they are considered to be an adult. In the overwhelming majority of cases bail will be denied and an order for detention until the end of the legal process will be made.

      Most children ultimately plead guilty, whether the offence was committed or not, as this is the quickest way out of the system. In 2009, custodial sentences were imposed on children by the military courts in 83 percent of cases, in contrast to a custodial sentence rate of 6.5 percent in the Israeli civilian juvenile justice system.

      3.5 A juvenile military court was established in September 2009, following mounting criticism relating to the prosecution of children as young as 12 years in the same military courts used to prosecute adults. In practice, the juvenile military court convenes every Monday and Thursday, using the same facilities and court staff used by the adult military court. Children continue to be brought into court in groups of twos and threes, wearing leg chains around their ankles and dressed in the same brown prison uniforms worn by adults.

      Handcuffs are usually removed from the child on entering the court room, and replaced on exiting. On occasion, adults and children have been observed being brought into court together.

      At the time of writing, there appears to be few substantive differences between the adult and juvenile military courts, beyond a general attempt to separate children from adults.

      3.6 Once detained a significant proportion of children are transferred to prisons and detention facilities inside Israel, in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits such transfers out of occupied territory. The practical significance of this is that many children receive infrequent or no family visits.

      link to jfjfp.com

  • A society coming apart at the seams: Settlers attack IDF in the West Bank
  • In solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners
  • As UNESCO moves toward Palestinian recognition, Congress threatens to cut funding
    • mig October 6, 2011 at 1:11 am

      "What part of that does this Congress not understand?"

      ++++ None ? As usual. Oh wait, they do. Picking parts that suite own agenda.

  • Better days will come
    • mig October 6, 2011 at 1:07 am

      eee :

      "Did the victims of 9/11 remember American assaults in the Muslim world and the US backing of Israel?"

      ++++ No. They have some excuses to this. Protecting American interests etc. in various places....

      " Or is this some kind of American Alzheimer where they remember only actions by Muslims but not by Americans?"

      ++++ Yes. Same thing works in another places too. Partial blindness to own actions, very common hoax.

    • mig October 5, 2011 at 2:17 pm

      "The people in Tel-Aviv still remember very well the buses, pubs, restaurants and discos blowing up."

      ++++ Remember occupation too ?

      "The government has nothing to do with that."

      ++++ Everything.

  • Study finds Israeli occuption costs Palestinians $6.9 billion a year in lost commerce
    • mig October 5, 2011 at 2:27 pm

      "Who cares if it is “illegal” or not?"

      ++++ Right. Straight from zionist archives ?

      "Who is the judge in this case, the UN that can’t pass a resolution about Syria?"

      ++++ UN can, but few members in SC can't. Don't blame UN from this.

      " Yeah, we should listen to them."

      ++++ You can't even if you try.

      "It is against Israeli interests and that is why Israel attempts stopping it."

      ++++ Hello Witty....here is your partner to tango. Justice just went to sewers.

  • NYT reviewer: Small group of Bush advisers will take real reason for Iraq war to their (restless) graves
    • mig October 5, 2011 at 12:42 am

      “Why were people willing to lie to the American public in order to go to war against Iraq? Who were the liars?”.

      ++++ Funny coincidence from this Iraq & Afganistan affair :

      Bush rejects Taliban offer to surrender bin Laden

      After a week of debilitating strikes at targets across Afghanistan, the Taliban repeated an offer to hand over Osama bin Laden, only to be rejected by President Bush.

      link to independent.co.uk

  • Israel doubles rate of Palestinian home demolitions and plans to uproot 30,000 Bedouin. Clinton says Palestinians need to be more flexible.
    • mig October 3, 2011 at 1:14 am with 1 replies

      Israel want's to start negotiations without preconditions. Until yesterday....

      "Israel to demand adjustment of Quartet Mideast peace plan, official says
      Despite Netanyahu's acceptance Quartet statement, top minister says Jerusalem will demand several changes in the document, insist on freeze of Palestinian UN membership bid at the Security Council."

      While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Sunday that he welcomed "the Quartet's call for direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions," the premier intends to present a list of qualifications to the Quartet's statement on a resumption of Mideast talks that in effect enfeeble that statement.

      The plan, presented at UN Headquarters in New York by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, calls for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to renew direct talks within a month, to present proposals on borders and security within three months, and to reach a final agreement by the end of 2012.

      Netanyahu's statement on Sunday, coming over a week after the Quartet on the Middle East published its roadmap for peace talks, was the result of two meetings between the PM and his top ministers.

      The delay in Israel's response was due to ongoing talks with U.S. officials, in which Israel asked for certain clarifications and assurances regarding the Quartet's statement.

      Speaking with Haaretz, one minister who participated in those meetings said that Israel's answer to newly offered roadmap for peace amounted to a "yes, but" and that Israeli officials would present several qualifications concerning points included in the plan.

      One such reservation is the three-month timetable presented in the Quartet document, with Israel expected to claim that such a schedule was unrealistic.

      Israel will also object to separate negotiations concerning borders and security arrangements, and is expected to insist on a parallel discussion of the Palestinians' recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, Palestinian refugees, and a Palestinian agreement to declare the conflict between the two peoples as resolved.

      In addition, Netanyahu is expected to demand that the Palestinian Authority, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, freeze its bid for full UN membership in the Security Council during peace talks.

      Responding to the Israeli adoption of the Quartet statement, several Palestinian officials reiterated on Sunday that the PA would not return to direct peace talks if Israel did not freeze all settlement construction and recognized the 1967 borders as the basis for a future Palestinian state.

      Speaking with Palestinian news agency WAFA, Nabil Abu Rudeinah, chief aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said that Israel had to freeze settlement construction and recognize 1967 borders for talks to resume.

      "[R]eturning to negotiations requires the commitment of Israel to halt settlement activities and to recognize the 1967 borders without any equivocation or any attempts to avoid the international resolutions,” Abu Rudeinah said.

      "If Israel is serious, it has to commit without any reservations to the international resolutions as stated in the road map, the resolutions of the United Nations and the Arab peace initiative," he added.

      Also commenting on Israel's announcement on Sunday, Palestinian official Saeb Erakat told the French AFP news agency that Netanyahu's statement was an "an exercise in deceiving the international community."

      "If he accepts the Quartet statement then he must announce a halt to settlement activity, including natural growth, and accept the principle of the 1967 borders because this is what was clearly demanded by the Quartet statement."

      link to haaretz.com

  • Why isn't Kusra killing on the front page of our newspapers?
  • Vice PM Moshe Ya’alon: Regime change in Ramallah will ultimately be necessary for peace talks to progress
    • mig September 30, 2011 at 2:01 pm with 1 replies

      "he does not believe that peace talks will be possible with the current Palestinian leadership"

      ++++ Yup, same hasbara coming up again. Remember how Arafat got same treatment ?

  • PA says Tony Blair has lost all credibility (though he's better than Dennis Ross)
    • mig September 30, 2011 at 2:06 pm with 1 replies

      "George Galloway liked to say that not since Caligula proclaimed his horse a member of the Roman senate was there a more inappropriate appointment than Blair to “peace envoy.”

      ++++ I second that.

  • 'Time' features generational divide over Israel-- when will 92d St Y stage this family affair?
    • mig September 30, 2011 at 1:06 am

      lli :

      "Should they see Israel seriously threatened, that will change."

      ++++ Exactly. Straight from the horse mouth. One on The classic example how people are intimidated into a war. And this case, continued clash. Keep repeating same argument over and over. Finalle when these people decide to jump out that circle, thats a hard fall into a reality.

  • Pro-Israel whitewash of 10-year-old's killing unravels in court (and online)
    • mig September 30, 2011 at 1:20 am

      Good job Hostage. In fact, i responded to same argument in facebook the other day. That conversation ended to my one reply, quite similar as yours.

  • Mourning the Jewish New Year
    • mig September 28, 2011 at 1:54 pm

      hoph :

      "Excuse me. My people were three years removed from (yet another) mass slaughter at the hands of Christians."

      ++++ Was reason that they were christians ?

      "We were not going to stay in Europe or trust the Western world to take care of us."

      ++++ World is a scary place. Its a miracle that you manage to live day by day because you find monster lurking around every corner. Have you consulted your shrink lately from these fears ? Sounds you should and pronto.

    • mig September 28, 2011 at 1:28 pm

      hoph :

      " Smearing the Jewish religion shows your hatred and your pathology."

      ++++ Does that fall to same criteria what you just did to christianism or islam ?

    • mig September 28, 2011 at 1:24 pm

      Khiam. Seafoid, it was Khiam. Brutal torture center. I talked to guy who was there, he show me his scars. Done by most moral army.

  • Background on Israel as a 'Jewish state' and the ongoing discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel
  • Let's negotiate over how we divide the pizza while I eat the pizza
  • Knesset to vote on full Israeli annexation of the West Bank
    • mig September 27, 2011 at 4:22 pm

      Ahem, it was Israel who left Oslo framework long time ago ? Wanna see that video about Bibi again ? After that neither of sides has told which parts of Oslo agreement are still valid. Your years late eee...

  • 'Young, Jewish and Proud' issues challenge to the Jewish community
  • Israel approves new settlement homes, U.S. says that's OK keep talking...
  • The view from the West Bank: Statehood bid? What statehood bid?
    • mig September 27, 2011 at 4:47 pm with 2 replies

      "negotiation with Israel"

      ++++ And they are gonna talk about what ?

    • mig September 27, 2011 at 4:44 pm

      "Patronizing aren’t we?"

      ++++ Dont know, are you ?

      "Well we shall live and see what comes of this round of UN show."

      ++++ From Israel side....hmmm....let me guess....same old ?

      "Meanwhile-nobody cares, neither Israelis nor Palestinians, only here people “can’t sleep”, “being sick” and so on."

      ++++ We care, thats why we are here for. But you dont get it....naaaah...didnt think so.

      "Once you and the rest of the marry bunch realize that funneling your ideals into Middle East realities is not worth even the time you spend thinking about it."

      ++++ What, you wanna keep all the fun for yourselves ? Buddy, thats selfish. We wanna bits of that too....

      "Wishing for Israel disappearance and the return of old days is the same silly game played around the world, when it comes to old conflicts and national disputes."

      ++++ OMG, good old "sky is falling" is back.

      "What really bugs people here that actually Jews had managed to pull this off after 2000 years of exile."

      ++++ Yes, and pull it from Palestinians back.

      "Which is kind of ironic for me, for people hating Israel so much here and using same arguments."

      ++++ You should exercise that irony little bit more. Lies doesnt fit to irony well.

      "Get a grip with reality otherwise it blow (literally) in your faces."

      ++++ You mean palestinian faces. Eh, has been allready.

      "Or maybe the bitterness and frustrations may have their toll on you."

      ++++ Are you talking now from experience ?

      "Anyway there is always something to learn."

      ++++ Cant hardly wait when you start doing so.

      "P.S. She was coming from Ramallah to Beit Sahour by taxi and, according to the stories here, should have been “beaten”, “abused”, “breast-fondled”, and denied access. But she went through-those soldiers must have been Mondoweiss readers."

      ++++ You noticed that huh ?

      "God bless."

      ++++ And from full heart, You Too. May God have mercy for your soul.

    • mig September 27, 2011 at 11:37 am with 13 replies

      Dima :

      "So many words, so much hype and romanticism, mixed with hatred towards Israel and unconditional love towards poor Arabs, who suffer and the ONLY cause of their suffering is the same cursed Israel."

      ++++ Gosh, you are learning....

      "Do tell was that the PA who signed the Oslo agreements, creating the partitions to area A, B and C (including E1 in Hebron)?"

      ++++ And all this was thought to be solved in final status negotiations no longer than 5 years.....which was ended PM Bibi....

      "What is the deal with all Palestinian supporters- if you don’t like the deal , then screw it and it becomes “dreaded Area C”? Deals are made to be fulfilled and lived upon, without daily cries of unfairness and injustice."

      ++++ Bibi tells it all in video :

      Netanyahu admits on video he deceived US to destroy Oslo accord

      link to youtube.com

      Nice to hear that you blame Bibi from this fiasco ;)

      "The separation wall is the result of these cries and cruelty towards civilians inside Israel."

      ++++ No. Israel officials did study this and found out that suicide bombers travelled to Israel through gates.

      " Now you will have to live with it. You couldn’t without, since it was that easy to get to Israeli towns and kill-deal with it now."

      ++++ Repeat that video ?

      "Tell me why is your taxi wasn’t stopped at the checkpoint? It had Palestinian passengers inside and according to posts here “everyone” is checked and harassed."

      ++++ Was taxi going to west bank or coming to Israel ?

      "Now, I do agree with one point of your post-UN bid was done purely for domestic politics and EVERYONE know that, just it sometimes hard to admit in public. Unless people on the ground could live together nothing will change the realities in Israel and Palestine."

      ++++ See, you can get something say after all. GJ and all the best.

    • mig September 27, 2011 at 11:05 am

      Yes, wonderful man was Lawrence. He saw right through zionist from the beginning. Btw, its out of my understanding how Lawrence managed to see ugly Israel in 1917 ? If he could, he truly was man with vision.....

  • Although attention is focused on New York, the real struggle for Palestinian rights is playing out on the ground
    • mig September 27, 2011 at 5:25 pm

      I'm too, all thou it would be imho good if settlers would be allowed to stay in palestinian areas. In Israel is arab minority, why should not be in palestinian state jewish minority. But, im not palestinian leader, i just look what international law says. But if palestinians ok's that, thats it then. Other thing is what settlers say about it. So far looks like they dont wanna be under palestinian rule. We will see then.

    • mig September 27, 2011 at 5:15 pm

      Actually there was NO freeze at any time. Ask from Peace Now.

    • mig September 27, 2011 at 11:13 am with 2 replies

      "That’s quite a lot in terms of human rights."

      ++++ No. In gaza pullout this was tested in Israel high court, and it was legal. So nobody's human rights was in stake. Same thing apply to west bank.

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