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- Video: Medea Benjamin interrupts Obama speech on US drone … 19
- Glenn Greenwald on the Woolwich attack and blowback from the … 23
- Church of Scotland accepts controversial report on Israel/Palestine 7
- Half of Israel’s eligible youth don’t enlist– and ranks of … 7
- Chelsea Clinton’s multifaith initiative 14
- More on the ‘creepy’ al-Dura report 11
- Exile and the Prophetic: Does John Kerry have the keys … 8
- Wolf Blitzer looks for a religious state 12
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- Two friends meet for 5 minutes in Jerusalem 1699
- Palestinian-American Raed Zidan plants flag on top of Everest, dedicates … 1360
- Christians denounce Israel’s manhandling of worshipers at Holy Sepulcher on … 952
- Barbara Boxer’s visa bill for Israel comes under concerted attack 809
- In photos: Gaza marches and rallies mark 65 years of … 442
- Washington Post’s racism map omits Israel 438
- Israeli report on al-Dura case is vengeful and ‘surreal,’ says … 399
- International Criminal Court opens preliminary investigation into attack on Mavi … 355
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- Kennedy’s insistence on right of return prompted Ben-Gurion to rewrite … 97
- International Criminal Court opens preliminary investigation into attack on Mavi … 96
- Barbara Boxer’s visa bill for Israel comes under concerted attack 93
- Abulhawa declines to ‘balance out’ several Israelis in ‘Al Jazeera’ … 91
- Washington Post’s racism map omits Israel 73
- Uncompromising hope inspired by Ghassan Kanafani 63
- Dershowitz should stop lying about Tutu’s record 56
- Biden says Jewish ‘influence’ behind American cultural politics is ‘immense… … 51
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- The Latest from Mondoweiss for 05/24/2013 - http://t.co/iRBi8bhnlT, 2 hours ago
- RT @Moe_Diab: Please take the time to read this touching article. Two friends meet for 5 minutes in Jerusalem http://t.co/1bXte5Ilc5 @Mond…, 3 hours ago
- RT @alexbkane: Obama says expanded surveillance raises "difficult questions" , but his Justice Dept. has stalled on an inquiry into NYPD sp…, 16 hours ago
- RT @samknight1: Flashback: Israel helped train Guatemalan dictator Rios Montt, recently convicted of genocide. https://t.co/oYsxDokunE, 17 hours ago
- RT @samknight1: Israel to train Chiapas police? Well. Say goodnight to the Zapatistas and probably a whole lot of indigenous groups http://…, 17 hours ago
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Recent Comments
click link to see last 100 comments- Israel cracks down on American travel to West Bank by requiring tourists to obtain military permit (43)
- Citizen: @ German Lefty RE: “Well, Israel does have Germany as a role model. It’s just not the current...
- Abulhawa declines to ‘balance out’ several Israelis in ‘Al Jazeera’ forum on Nakba (94)
- Citizen: @ German Lefty Danke schon It’s not very different here in USA.
- pabelmont: “Same basket?” I’m not sure in which regards anyone is putting all Israelis in the same...
- German Lefty: @ Citizen Why was it you would not have believed any Palestinian describing the conflict? And,...
- Kennedy’s insistence on right of return prompted Ben-Gurion to rewrite history: They fled ‘of their own free will’ (100)
- Kerry goes for the Hail Mary, but Obama is punting (38)
- talknic: Kerry in perspective. http://wp.me/pDB7k-19a
- Video: Medea Benjamin interrupts Obama speech on US drone policy (19)
- German Lefty: That was awesome…..wondering if MSM will play this. Here’s Chris Hayes:...
- Glenn Greenwald on the Woolwich attack and blowback from the ‘war on terror’ (23)
- pabelmont: God put Bush in the White House? I always thought it was the dear, dear supreme court. And Will Rogers,...
- Jewish philanthropies stay away from org dedicated to Yiddish culture because it doesn’t focus on Israel or the Holocaust (35)
- Bumblebye: No you don’t! Done and dusted.
- Israel cracks down on American travel to West Bank by requiring tourists to obtain military permit (43)
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Category Archives: US Policy in the Middle East
Video: Medea Benjamin interrupts Obama speech on US drone policy
Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin interrupted President Obama several times during a speech at National Defense University on the ongoing “war on terror,” including U.S. drone policy and the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
Glenn Greenwald on the Woolwich attack and blowback from the ‘war on terror’
Glenn Greenwald wrote another of his important blowback articles this morning in the Guardian; Was the London killing of a British soldier ‘terrorism’? He asks an essential question concerning the definition and use of the term “terrorism”. The media in western societies should be scrutinizing this definition and the hypocrisy with which the term is applied.
Posted in Media, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics, War on Terror
23 Comments
Exile and the Prophetic: Does John Kerry have the keys to Kafka’s (middle east) castle?
Israel is making Kafka’s castle seem easy to access and navigate. But, then, Palestinians already live in a Kafkaesque world where their appeals to democracies and dictatorships end up in the same garbage can. Since we know that democracies can be imperial and colonial powers, democracies can likewise be regressive and enablers of regressive politics on distant shores. Israel may be a democracy for Jews but it increasingly acts like the only regressive democracy in the Middle East.
Kerry goes for the Hail Mary, but Obama is punting
Kerry’s trip to the Middle East is either: Groundhog day to 1991, messianic, or a laughingstock. In any case, nothing will happen, experts say, without Obama showing a willingness to take on AIPAC and the Israeli government. And he won’t. Above, Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with Kerry during Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem, on April 8, 2013.
Israel cracks down on American travel to West Bank by requiring tourists to obtain military permit
Israeli authorities have found another way to impede free access to the occupied territories for American travelers. Haaretz’s Amira Hass reported over the weekend that tourists from the U.S. have had to sign a declaration requiring them to obtain a military permit for travel to the occupied West Bank. It’s another example of Israeli restrictions on American travel to occupied Palestine, and it exposes a galling aspect of the “special relationship”: all the military aid and diplomatic support to Israel doesn’t shield Americans from being routinely discriminated against based on their political affiliations or ethnic background.
Barbara Boxer’s visa bill for Israel comes under concerted attack
In the wake of the horrific Nour Joudah case, in which an American teacher was refused entry to Palestine to resume her job this year, activists are ramping up their campaign to thwart the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act. The legislation would “codify into law U.S. acceptance of Israel’s discrimination and allow it to continue to deny visas to U.S. citizens,” according to a letter sent by a coalition of Palestine solidarity groups.
Posted in Activism, Israel Lobby, Israel/Palestine, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics
Tagged featured
93 Comments
Turkish PM raises Mavi Marmara at White House press conf, calls grow for Obama to investigate killing of Furkan Doğan
Yesterday, President Obama held a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Although the focus was on Syria, and the myriad scandals overtaking the White House in the past week, Israel/Palestine came up as well.
Glenn Greenwald brings facts and reason to ‘Real Time’, ruins Bill Maher’s night
Last night Bill Maher had Glenn Greenwald on his show. Maher, a self-professed atheist who thinks religion is poison but thinks Israel is wonderful got a big surprise.
Posted in Media, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics, War on Terror
88 Comments
Exile and the Prophetic: Henry Siegman — Elder Jewish (prophetic) statesman
At the Middle East Policy Council event, Siegman declared that the Middle East peace process is “probably the greatest scam in modern diplomatic history, and future historians are going to be absolutely in awe in how that was pulled off.” For Siegman, this isn’t a recent development.
Senator Boxer’s far-fetched defense of the visa waiver exemption for Israel
Senator Barbara Boxer’s recent letter in the Los Angeles Times defending legislation that would allow Israel in the Visa Waiver Program while give it a pass on key requirements was a disingenuous and poorly reasoned attempt to mollify critics of the provision.
The Samson complex: Israel again rebuffs peace with the Arab world
Faced with a diplomatic impasse between Israel and the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, John Kerry extracted from the Arab League an agreement to dust off a decade-old regional plan, the Arab Peace Initiative. The new Arab overture, like its antecedent, barely raised a flicker of interest from Israel. This response serves as a rejoinder to one of the conflict’s most enduring myths. Even before 1967, Israel presented itself as eager for acceptance from the Arab states. This fiction, which continues to shape western perceptions.
Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics
Tagged featured
38 Comments
US promotes regional states/Israeli alliance against Iran while leading provocative naval drills in the Gulf
The U.S. is promoting a military alliance among Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey in order to counter what they perceive as an Iranian threat.
Posted in Iran, Israel/Palestine, syria, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics
Tagged 4 + 1, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirate
38 Comments
Chomsky endorses Albany, NY ‘Stop $30 Billion Military Aid to Israel’ billboard
The Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel is proud to announce yet another billboard has just gone up calling for an end to military aid to Israel–this time in Albany, New York.
Israeli right denounces reported settlement freeze, promised by Netanyahu to Kerry
Israeli’s new Housing Minister Uri Ariel says Jewish Home Party will oppose any Gov’t budget without settlement expansion included
It’s in Jerusalem’s DNA to be under ‘sole Jewish rule,’ mayor declares
May 8 is Jerusalem Day, and Israelis are already celebrating by issuing declarations about how many Jewish babies Jerusalem Jews are producing and how many Palestinians are producing
Jabara’s classic ‘Zionism: Racism or Liberation?’ deserves a new life
Abdeen Jabara in ’76: “In the examination of any society, one must distinguish between discrimination as it exists between individual citizens or private parties, on the one hand, and discrimination as a part of public policy or state action, discrimination contained not just in the way the laws are applied but in the terms of the law itself…. The goal of constructing and maintaining a Jewish state made the ‘national’ discrimination a necessary part of the state itself”
Exile and the Prophetic: Getting Israel ‘right’
I love it when American pundits talk about American intervention just shy of American boots on the ground – as if everyone else’s suffering is unimportant in comparison.
Arab League slights boycott of Israel by backing ‘land swaps’
Until last week the Arab world’s position on Israeli borders was firm. Then Secretary of State John Kerry visited the Middle East and the Arab League reversed its stance on settlements, backing “land swaps” between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Syria wrap: Grumbling This won’t be easy, NYT’s Bill Keller suits up for another Mid-East war
US has accused Syrian regime of using chemical weapons, but UN investigator says rebels have used them. At the New York Times, Bill Keller, who pushed the Iraq war, advises, “Syria Is Not Iraq,” and that “getting Syria right starts with getting over Iraq.” The columnist ascribes great power to the U.S. to be able to fix things over there– on what basis?
Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, syria, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics
38 Comments
Land swaps in Israel/Palestine (and a bridge for sale in Brooklyn)
Doesn’t the land-swap business in the Middle East strike you as political corruption in the international market place? The Arab League presented its amended “Land Swaps for Israeli-Palestinian Peace” plan yesterday and presented it to the US administration in Washington D.C. Secretary of State John Kerry heralded their plan as a “big step” toward peace in the Middle East. Swapping land in Israel/Palestine, where Israeli settlements stay in place and Palestinians receive land Israel doesn’t want, is a scam.
Close Guantanamo now
Morris Davis, the Chief Prosecutor for the Terrorism Trials at Guantanamo Bay for more than two years, has authored a petition at Change.org calling for President Obama to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. He writes: “If any other country were treating prisoners the way we are treating those in Guantanamo we would roundly and rightly criticize that country. We can never retake the legal and moral high ground when we claim the right to do unto others that which we would vehemently condemn if done to one of us.”
State Dept human rights report on Israel: ‘most significant human rights problems during the year were terrorist attacks against civilians; institutional and societal discrimination against Arab citizens’
Last Friday the U.S. State Department released its Country Reports for Human Rights Practices, including one for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Palestine and the Left
Read the introduction to Jacobin magazine’s special section on Palestine and the Left.
Preparing for Iran?: US on verge of $10 billion arms deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia and UAE
New York Times: The Defense Department is expected to finalize a $10 billion arms deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates next week that will provide missiles, warplanes and troop transports to help them counter any future threat from Iran.
