Month: January 2009

The US section of Amnesty International sent an "urgent" letter Friday to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, calling on her to end what it called Washington’s "lopsided response" to the ongoing Israeli air strikes on Gaza that have reportedly killed more than 400 Palestinians, including scores of unarmed civilians. While the letter also expressed concern … Continue reading “Amnesty Calls on Rice to Drop ‘Lopsided’ Gaza Stance”

In times of crisis, most Arabs tune in to al-Jazeera television. Sometimes it’s comforting for the truth to be stated the way it is, with all of its gory and unsettling details, without blemishes and without censorship. When Israel carried out massive air strikes against Gaza on Saturday, December 27, terrorizing an already hostage and … Continue reading “Gaza and the World: Will Things Ever Change?”

The "Israeli model" has long been held up by hawks in the United States as the gold standard for dealing with adversarial nation-states, guerrillas, and terrorists. The storyline goes that Israel is a small country surrounded by aggressive enemies that use unfair measures (including terrorism) to try to wipe it off the face of the … Continue reading “Is Israeli Policy Crazy?”

Updated at 11:28 p.m. EST, Jan. 2, 2009A pair of attacks, one of them significant, took place just south of Baghdad in what has been called the “Triangle of Death.” This Sunni-dominated area was once among the deadliest in Iraq. Overall, at least 35 Iraqis were killed and 123 were wounded across Iraq. No Coalition … Continue reading “Friday: 35 Iraqis Killed, 123 Wounded”

Pat Buchanan was widely vilified by the neocons and the politically correct left when he famously described the Congress of the United States as “Israeli-occupied territory.” Oh, what a conniption the liberals and the Commentary crowd had! That was during the countdown to the first Gulf War, when almost no one rose to object – … Continue reading “The Huffington Post: Israeli-Occupied Territory”

For a decade Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting that the US is going to fall apart. He says D-Day will be in 2010. For years he was ignored, but now he’s being sought out by the media and invited to Kremlin receptions. Could America’s time be over? Despite the burst of interest in … Continue reading “Coming Soon: The Disunited States?”

Ever since Hamas triumphed in the Palestinian elections nearly three years ago, the story in Israel has been that a full-scale ground invasion of the Gaza Strip was imminent. But even when public pressure mounted for a decisive blow against Hamas, the government backed off from a frontal assault. Now the world waits for Ehud … Continue reading “The Real Goal of the Slaughter in Gaza”

It was about midnight last Sunday when my phone rang. “I’m not sure I will survive tonight, the Israelis are bombing us everywhere.” It was Mahmoud, a young resident of Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt. We first met when I visited the troubled coastal territory after Israel dismantled … Continue reading “Gaza Attacks: Murder with Impunity”

Updated at 7:50 p.m. EST, Jan. 1, 2009At least 13 Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded on the first day of complete Iraqi control of security. The country formally took control of the Green Zone and likewise the rest of Iraq during a ceremony today; however, U.S. troops will remain in the Green … Continue reading “Thursday: 13 Iraqis Killed, 10 Wounded”

RAMALLAH – Israel is again preventing journalists from entering Gaza to report firsthand on the escalating crisis there as its military operation, codenamed Operation Cast Lead, enters its fifth day. Israel imposed an unprecedented news blackout in November and banned foreign journalists from the Gaza Strip for an entire month. This followed an Israeli cross-border … Continue reading “Media Banned From Gaza as Humanitarian Crisis Escalates”