A Stand For Justice
Bloodshed on Israel borders on Nakba Day
Israeli gunfire killed at least two people on the border with Lebanon as thousands of mainly Palestinian refugees demonstrated along the tense frontier, according to a Lebanese security official.
And Israel's military said dozens of people were wounded when the army opened fire at "thousands" of protesters crossing from Syria into the Israeli–annexed Golan Heights
Israeli troops fire at Palestinian protesters on borders, killing at least 12
Thousands of Palestinians marched from Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank toward Israeli border positions on Sunday, hurling rocks and surging across one frontier before the Israeli army opened fire, killing at least 12 people and injuring scores.
Israeli troops clash with protesters
Thousands of Arab protesters tried to burst through border fences along Israel on Sunday, and at least 15 people were killed when Israeli defense forces fired to keep them out.
Palestinian teen dies of gunshot in east Jerusalem
Fahri Abu Diab, a local activist in east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood, said Palestinians threw stones Friday at a Jewish settler enclave in the area, known as Beit Yonathan. Abu Diab said Ayyash was close to the enclave, and that a settler guard fired from the rooftop at the stone throwers. He said Israeli border police fired tear gas, but not live rounds.
Hebron Commemorates Nakba May 15
“Their independence is our Nakba.” This banner on the streets of Bethlehem says it all. What Israel considers the beginning of their state since 1948 was the “Great Catastrophe” for the Palestinians. Nakba, for the Palestinans, is the day remembering the loss of over 400 of their villages to the invading Israeli armed militias. At that time hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled to other parts of Israel, to Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. More than 750,000 lost their homes, set up camps and waited for the day when under international law they would return to their homes.
Mideast envoy resigns as US refocuses on region
With Israelis suspicious of Obama even before he assumed office, Mitchell further unnerved them by taking a tough line against West Bank settlements, saying that any construction was unacceptable. The Palestinians, initially encouraged, became disillusioned when the U.S. was unable to persuade Israel to freeze settlement construction.
Israel to transfer cash to Palestinian government
Israel collects tax funds and customs fees from Palestinians who work in Israel on the Palestinians' behalf. It is supposed to transfer the money to the Western–backed Palestinian Authority.
But it held up the transfer this month, saying it feared money would reach militants in the Hamas–ruled Gaza Strip.
Israel hunts Syria infiltrators after day of bloodshed
Interviewed by Israel's privately owned Channel 10 television, Hijazi spoke of his pride at making it to Jaffa, his ancestral hometown, now a mixed Arab–Jewish district of greater Tel Aviv.
"This isn't Israel, this is my country," he said. "I don't want to go back to Syria. I want to stay here where my father and my great–grandfather were born and bring my family here."
Hamas sends signals of moderation to West
Arab protesters descend on Israeli borders
Sunday's unrest – which came after activists used Facebook and other websites to mobilize Palestinians and their supporters in neighboring countries to march on the border with Israel – marked the first time the protests that have swept the Arab world in recent months have been directed at Israel.
The events carried a message for Israel: Even as it wrestles with the Palestinian demand for a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem – areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war – there is a related problem of neighboring countries that host millions of Palestinians with aspirations to return.
U.S. Congress members to Turkey's Erdogan: Stop Gaza flotilla
Members of the U.S. Congress issued a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday in which they urge Turkey's premier to stop the departure of another flotilla to the Gaza Strip. For whom do these Congresspersons work?
Israel blocks anti-war activists' ship from Gaza
The military said it ordered the ship to return to an Egyptian port where it had been anchored for several days. But it said the vessel disregarded the order, prompting it to fire warning shots. The ship then changed course to return to Egypt.
Rampaging Israeli settlers invade Palestinian village of Tuba
The rampaging settlers stole seven sheep, killed two, and injured others, including one which lost an eye. In addition, the settlers upended three water tanks, which held a total of 4.5 cubic meters of water. They destroyed fences, punctured a storage tent and three large sacks of yogurt, damaged a goat pen and destroyed the ventilation pipe of an outhouse. They also set loose a donkey, which later returned.
At-Tuwani: Palestinian trees destroyed in ongoing settler vandalism
In the early morning of 12 May 2011, Palestinian farmers discovered
that during the night unknown perpetrators had vandalized ten olive
trees in Humra valley, near At -Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. The
trees and the land belong to At-Tuwani resident Salman Jibrin Raba'i.
The evidence suggests that the vandals sawed and then broke branches
off the trees, completely destroying seven trees and partially
damaging another three.
Palestinian president declares three days of mourning
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, yesterday declared three days of mourning for 15 people killed in mass marches toward multiple Israeli borders that marked a stunning new tactic in the struggle for Palestinian statehood.
Photographer deliberately shot by Israeli soldier during Nakba Day clashes
Reporters Without Borders was told that Othman was clearly identifiable as a journalist at the time of the shooting and was deliberately targeted. The press freedom organization urges the Israeli authorities to investigate the circumstances in which he was shot and punish those responsible.
Army dogs wage war on illegal Palestinian workers
Palestinians desperate for work in Israel will go to extremes to sneak past the West Bank barrier, but now they face a new hurdle –– army attack dogs sent to sniff them out.
Bibi Prepares To Address a Friendly Congress, an Impatient White House
In his address Netanyahu is expected to use the strong backing he enjoys in Congress to counter the administration’s anticipation of a bold new approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A foreign leader has more weight over Congress than the American president. See a problem here? It's treason.
Abbas urges UN: Recognize Palestinian state, pave way for legal action against Israel
"It would also pave the way for us to pursue claims against Israel at the United Nations, human rights treaty bodies and the International Court of Justice," he added, saying that the Palestinians were going to the UN "to secure the right to live free in the remaining 22 percent of our historic homeland because we have been negotiating with the State of Israel for 20 years without coming any closer to realizing a state of our own."
Palestinians postpone local elections to October
"Palestine would be negotiating from the position of one United Nations member whose territory is militarily occupied by another ... and not as a vanquished people ready to accept whatever terms are put in front of us," Mahmoud Abbas wrote in The New York Times, presenting his most detailed explanation yet of his reasons for the U.N. bid.
Israel burnishes missile shield as Mideast churns
Partly funded by the United States, Arrow III is envisaged as the future Israeli bulwark against Iran and Syria, with shorter–range interceptors providing protection against rockets favored by neighboring Lebanese and Palestinian guerrillas.
Israel Hunts Syria Infiltrators After Day of Bloodshed
In Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories, people gathered to mourn the 14 people killed when Israeli troops opened fire on thousands of protesters who sought to breach its northern borders.
Egypt blocks Sinai access to halt Gaza march
On Thursday, an interior ministry statement affirmed Egypt's support for Palestinians but urged activists to cancel the march to avoid any risks it may pose for Egypt at this critical stage.
Obama's draft speech to urge '67 borders, negate PA's state bid
Obama is expected to urge Israel to return to the 1967 lines while negating the Palestinian Authority's planned unilateral bid for statehood in September.
Hamas accepts 1967 borders, but will never recognize Israel, top official says
Speaking to Ma'an on Wednesday, Zahar, hinting at the possible political line of a future Palestinian unity cabinet, said that recognizing Israel would "preclude the right of the next generations to liberate the lands," wondering: "What will be the fate of the five million Palestinians in the diaspora?"
The Long Overdue Palestinian State By MAHMOUD ABBAS
SIXTY-THREE years ago, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was forced to leave his home in the Galilean city of Safed and flee with his family to Syria. He took up shelter in a canvas tent provided to all the arriving refugees. Though he and his family wished for decades to return to their home and homeland, they were denied that most basic of human rights. That child’s story, like that of so many other Palestinians, is mine.
Palestinians, Israeli troops clash over teen death
Masked Palestinians whirling slingshots clashed with Israeli riot police in two Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem on Saturday after the shooting death of a teenage stone thrower. It was a sign of rising tensions on the eve of Palestinian commemorations of their uprooting during Israel's 1948 creation.
Demjanjuk convicted over Nazi camp deaths
Now in the U.S., new litigation is under way following the AP report that brought to light the 1985 FBI report questioning the legitimacy of the Trawniki identity card used in the current prosecution. That revelation has led to new court action, with a federal judge in Cleveland agreeing this week to appoint a public defender to represent Demjanjuk there.
Demjanjuk Convicted — By the KGB By Patrick J. Buchanan
“A German court has found John Demjanjuk guilty of helping to murder more than 28,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp in Poland.”
Not until paragraph 17 does one find this jolting fact: “No evidence was produced that he committed a specific crime.”
Israel’s Security Elite Joins the Opposition
It probably won’t surprise you to hear that the leaders of Israel’s security establishment, the people who’ve led the fight against the state’s enemies for decades, are more frightened now than they’ve been in a long time. You might be shocked, though, to hear what’s got them in a panic.
Israel was infiltrated, but no real borders were crossed
Therefore, on Sunday the Syrians penetrated an area held by the State of Israel, but they did not cross the Israeli border. Nor did Palestinians from the Gaza Strip attempt to cross the Israeli border in the south. They crossed the cease-fire line that was ratified in the Oslo Accords but never demarcated as a border between Israel and any neighbor in the south of the country.
Israel and Palestine Here comes your non-violent resistance
So now we have an opportunity to see how Americans will react. We've asked the Palestinians to lay down their arms. We've told them their lack of a state is their own fault; if only they would embrace non-violence, a reasonable and unprejudiced world would see the merit of their claims. Over the weekend, tens of thousands of them did just that, and it seems likely to continue. If crowds of tens of thousands of non-violent Palestinian protestors continue to march, and if Israel continues to shoot at them, what will we do? Will we make good on our rhetoric, and press Israel to give them their state?
Historian writes of 'pleasure' at murder of pro-Palestinian activist
Arrigoni, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, was murdered in Gaza last month after being abducted by Islamic extremists. He was strangled with a plastic cord. Hamas subsequently killed those responsible for Arrigoni's death.
Former UN envoy: Israel's international status at all-time low
The Jewish Roots of Madoff's Crime
Madoff’s $50 billion fraud, which landed him in jail for the rest of his life; decimated hundreds, perhaps thousands, of investors, and left his own family in ruins, was not a Jewish crime — it was too far-flung and globalized to deserve that narrow description. It was a crime perpetuated by someone who happened to be Jewish. But now, two and a half years after Madoff’s arrest, Henriques’s work makes it evident that this was a crime enabled by Jewish businessmen like Chais, Shapiro, Levy and Picower; by Jewish power brokers like Ezra Merkin, and by Jewish institutions that gave into the allure of easy, reliable, bountiful money without doing the due diligence they owed their clients, donors and causes.
Gag order in case of Egyptian spying for Israel
An Egyptian court has imposed a gag order on the trial of a local businessman accused of spying on his country, Syria and Lebanon for Israel.
Those Irrepressible Neocons
Jennifer Rubin, on the other hand, was just one of those plugging along in Kingdom Neocon (she was a contributing editor to Commentary and its blog, Contentions) until recently, when the neocon editor of the Washington Post editorial page, Fred Hiatt, plucked her from obscurity and brought her to the Post.
Beyond their Commentary roots, the two are almost ideologically identical. And that means that they are both driven, above all other considerations, by dedication to the concept of Greater Israel (a concept which is taken more seriously inside the Beltway than it is in Israel itself).
....So let's not hear from this crowd about the poor Iranians or Syrians or Libyans, or whatever other group they suddenly profess to care about. Better they should think about those thousands of Americans, along with the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, who perished as a consequence of the horrific war they enthusiastically agitated for. Don't they have enough to atone for without adding more deadly U.S. military interventions? Beautiful piece.
Pollard Again By Philip Giraldi
The Lobby has been active lately in the lead-up to the AIPAC conference. A letter calling on Obama to free Pollard has been circulating since January and has attracted a number of endorsements including George Shultz. Last week 36 congressmen signed on to a letter originated by Rep. Steve Israel (no irony intended) calling on the Turkish government to stop the next aid flotilla planned for Gaza, which will likely depart next month. The letter implies that there will be dire consequences, and rightly so, if the ships are allowed to sail. Today the White House press secretary all but commended Israel for killing twenty protesters along the Syrian and Lebanese borders during demonstrations on Sunday, praising the “restraint” and noting that it was a proper remedy for “unauthorized border crossing.”
Arab Spring Fails to Improve U.S. Image
for the most part, Obama’s handling of issues in the Muslim world, including the recent uprisings in the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran and Afghanistan, are met with disapproval.
The Bright Red Line
When a single member of CUNY’s board of trustees declared that Kushner’s views on Israel ought to disqualify him for this purely academic honor, the incendiary topic of where-you-stand-on-Israel was thrust into a place it did not belong. And a majority of the CUNY board, apparently flummoxed by this ridiculous charge, went along and tabled the nomination.
Three Mountains, Different Views
It is doubtful that the Palestinian residents of Hebron sympathize with the Tent of Nations slogan, “We refuse to be enemies.” It is, however, evident every day that the Jewish settlers here actively reject the slogan.
A High-Profile Call for Marriage Equality in Israel
If a Jew wants to marry a non-Jew, a Cohen wants to marry a divorced woman, or, of course, if two Jews of the same gender wish to wed, they are out of luck. The only way for these “forbidden matches” to be recognized legally is if they take place abroad.
Kushner Foe In Biggest Brawl of His Long Career
In 1999, Wiesenfeld’s name was linked to a Pataki administration scandal involving alleged political manipulation of the state parole board. Wiesenfeld was never charged with any crime, but federal officials probed allegations that a Pataki fundraiser had passed names of prisoners coming up for parole to Wiesenfeld, who sent inquiries — and, in at least one instance, a letter of recommendation on the governor’s stationery — to the parole board.
U.S. accuses Syria of inciting Israel border clashes
White House spokesman Jay Carney expressed regret for the loss of life in confrontations on Israel's frontiers with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday but said Israel "has the right to prevent unauthorized crossing at its borders." We're still Israel's bitch.
For the Best Argument Against a Unilateral Declaration of Statehood, Look to the Palestinians Themselves
In a March 2009 memo to the Palestinian leadership, the negotiating unit worried that if the International Criminal Court recognizes this truncated version of Palestine as a state before “the termination of the Israeli occupation,” it would not only “prejudice border negotiations from both legal/political and physical points of view,” but could also “weaken Palestine’s claim to the remaining part of the occupied Palestinian territory.”
I think the fear here is that with Israel's non-stop settlement-building, there isn't going to be anything left for a state by the time the Palestinians are granted one, if ever.
Peace prospects bleak for Netanyahu U.S. visit
There is little indication the right–wing leader will, or can, offer new peacemaking ideas to persuade Palestinians not to take a detour at the U.N. General Assembly in September around the brick wall that the U.S. peace efforts have run into.
AL-KHALIL/HEBRON: New video highlights the work of CPT Palestine
Produced, filmed and edited by journalist Catherine Rabenstine, the nine-minute
film interviews CPT's Palestinian partners who are resisting non-violently the
Israeli military occupation in Hebron/Al Khalil and the South Hebron Hills.
Rabenstine also interviews CPT Palestine members in the field, who describe
their work and their partnership with Palestinians practicing "sumoud," or
steadfastness, in raising their families, going to school and doing their work
in the face of enormous systematic violence imposed by the Israeli Occupation.
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