JERUSALEM – The Goldstone Commission has delivered an unremittingly scathing report on Israel’s 22-day war against Hamas in Gaza last December and January. But the outstanding question is what kind of action the report – legal and political – will yield. Will it, in fact, result in any action at all? The 574-page report was …
Continue reading “Israel Struggles to Wriggle Out of the Dock”
This week, two respected human rights organizations — one Palestinian, one Israeli — each came out with very full reports into the extent of the damage caused by the assault Israel waged against Gaza last winter. According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), which is based in Gaza, 1,419 Palestinians were killed during …
Continue reading “NGO Reports on Gaza War Belie Israeli Claims”
Philip Giraldi says Obama can be tough on Israel
The hyperventilating by Israel’s leaders over a story published in a Swedish newspaper last month suggesting that the Israeli army assisted in organ theft from Palestinians has distracted attention from the disturbing allegations made by Palestinian families that were the basis of the article’s central claim. The families’ fears that relatives, killed by the …
Continue reading “The Missing Link in Palestinian Organ Theft”
JELAZON, West Bank — Fourteen-year-old Muhammad Nayif’s mother broke down as she spoke to IPS. Nayif died after being shot three times in the chest by Israeli soldiers Monday night. Palestinian medical personnel who tried to reach the critically injured boy near the Jelazon refugee camp north of Ramallah were threatened at gunpoint by Israeli …
Continue reading “Israelis Target Medical Teams”
The White House reprimanded the Israeli government Friday over reports that Israel plans to build hundreds of new housing units in West Bank settlements, the latest in a series of showdowns between Washington and Jerusalem over settlement construction. The new construction plans represent a direct challenge to the Barack Obama administration’s Middle East peace plans, …
Continue reading “New Israeli Settlements Plan Heightens Tensions”
GAZA CITY – Until Monday, Omar and Khaled Al-Habil were the owners of a 20m fishing trawler staffed by five or six fishermen at a time, but employing around 18 in cycles. But that morning the vessel came under heavy Israeli navy machine-gun fire, and then shelling. The trawler caught fire. "It’s destroyed, completely destroyed," …
Continue reading “Israelis Destroy Boats, and Lives”
Philip Giraldi on Congress’s first love
The Barack Obama administration — perhaps the president himself — will reportedly be launching a new round of authoritative Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations sometime during the upcoming U.N. General Assembly session, which is scheduled to start in New York on Sep. 15. So far, most media attention has focused on the administration’s ongoing tussle with Israeli …
Continue reading “Can Final Peace Deal Overcome Settlements Roadblock?”
Jonathan Cook on PLO openness
