Month: January 2009

Dr. Atallah, a physician in Gaza, invited us to meet him in his home in Gaza City, just a few blocks away from the Shifaa Hospital. Early this morning, he and his family returned to their home after having fled five days earlier when the bombing attacks on Gaza City had become so fierce that … Continue reading “The Strongest Weapon of All”

Barack Obama has taken the presidential oath of office at a time of bitter war and economic crisis.  He promised to meet the many challenges facing America, but within our tradition of constitutional liberty: "we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals," he told the nation in his inaugural address. Those ideals … Continue reading “Investigate and Prosecute the Bush Administration”

Yes, we now know the ever grimmer statistics: more than 1,400 dead Gazans (and rising as bodies are dug out of the rubble); 5,500 wounded; hundreds of children killed; 4,000 to 5,000 homes destroyed and 20,000 damaged – 14% of all buildings in Gaza; 50,000 or more homeless; 400,000 without water; 50 U.N. facilities, 21 … Continue reading “Change Gaza Can Believe In”

In the age of Obama, we’re going to have to get used to the new zeitgeist in Washington, and in the media: the perpetual high moral dudgeon of contemporary liberalism. While the Bush administration had its own style of moralizing – the rhetoric of “liberation,” the idea that we were doing the people of Iraq … Continue reading “The Liberals’ Grand Bargain”

Two separate universes were in evidence on Tuesday. In the world of Barack Obama, the sense of change, the optimism and the intelligence were palpable, as two million Americans from every part of the United States – and numerous visitors from around the world – flocked to Washington D.C. to watch his inauguration as the … Continue reading “Chaos and Lies: Why Obama Was Right to Halt the Guantánamo Trials”

Updated at 9:23 p.m. EST, Jan. 22, 2009At least 10 Iraqis were killed and another three were wounded on a light day of attacks. No Coalition soldiers were reported killed; however, several nations are reevaluating their missions in Iraq. U.S. President Barack Obama spent his first day in the White House asking the Pentagon to … Continue reading “Thursday: 10 Iraqis Killed, 3 Wounded”

U.S. and international human rights groups Wednesday praised President Barack Obama’s directive to immediately suspend the work of military commissions established by his predecessor, George W. Bush, to prosecute suspected terrorists at the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and pressed for its earliest possible closure. Obama’s order, issued quietly several hours after he … Continue reading “Rights Groups Applaud Move to Halt Gitmo Trials”

CAIRO – Tens of thousands of houses inside the Gaza Strip were destroyed by air strikes and artillery during Israel’s recently concluded military campaign. Areas along Egypt’s border with the hapless enclave, meanwhile, have not been immune from the devastation. “Dozens of homes on the Egyptian side of the border were badly damaged as a … Continue reading “Cairo Excuses Israeli Attacks on Egyptians”

Despite the bitter cold, over a million people crowded on the streets of Washington, DC in rapture to watch as Barack Hussein Obama II became the 44th President of the United States on Tuesday. Obama’s rise to power can only be described as meteoric. He became the New Hope of the Democratic party following a … Continue reading “Continuity”

Late last night, a text message notified us that the Israeli government was very close to declaring that they would stop attacking Gaza for one day. Shortly before midnight, we heard huge explosions, four in a row. Till now, that was the last attack. Israeli drones flew overhead all night long, but residents of Rafah … Continue reading “Respite in Gaza”