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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it    
Commentary

TitleDescriptionDate
Who is a Palestinian Refugee? Adam Keller - Crazy County - "And who is a Jewish refugee? And what should the US Senate do about it?" - id 30/5/2012
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German aid to Israel’s war machine is an invitation to abuse human rightsAnnette Groth - EI - “The business opportunities provided by a brutal occupation have helped three Israeli companies secure a place on the list of the world’s top arms dealers […]. All three of these firms — Elbit, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael — happen to be recipients of scientific research grants from the European Union European Union. This reflects how the EU has been eager to nurture both its relationship with Israel and the international market in ‘security goods’” 28/5/2012
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A Bird’s Eye ViewUri Avnery - Gush Shalom - "The Main Effort of the Zionist/Israeli movement is to achieve a Jewish State in all of Eretz Israel - the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. In other words: the prevention of an Arab Palestinian state. When one grasps this, all the events of the last 115 years make sense. All the twists and turns, all the seeming contradictions and deviations, all the curious-looking decisions make perfect sense" 28/5/2012
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Israel is the most naive and racist country in the WestGideon Levy - Haaretz - Racist, because in no other country can politicians make remarks about migrants as they do here and still remain in office another day; naive, because only now has Israel discovered the problem that has been facing the "first world" for years. Only in Israel can a parliamentarian from the ruling party describe the migrants as a "cancer," and, far worse, it is only in Israel that she could do so knowing that her contemptible racism would merely gain her support.-rh 31/5/2012
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For the first time in 12 years: Israeli Supreme Court orders military to reconsider application of Gaza-West Bank student banGisha - Adv. Nomi Heger, Director of Gisha`s Legal Department, commented: "Today`s decision is a victory for common sense. We hope that the Israeli military will internalize the senselessness of sweeping restrictions on freedom of movement – especially for outstanding women seeking to promote women`s rights in Gaza".-rh 24/5/2012
Power With PurposeThomas L Friedman - The New York Times - The Israeli peace camp is dead, and the Arab awakening has most Arab states enfeebled or preoccupied. So Israel gets to build settlements, while the Arabs, Americans, Europeans and Palestinians fund and sustain a lot of the occupation.-rh24/5/2012
Israel is responsible for the the safety of West Bank Israelis and PalestiniansEditorial - Haaretz - "The policy of handling violent settlers with kid gloves, as reflected in the incident near Yitzhar, comes in addition to inadequate enforcement policies on the part of the police." - id 23/5/2012
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Reality check - Jeremy Ben-Ami vs. Bill KristolAsked "What do you intend to happen if Israel does not end the occupation?", Bill Kristol - an outspoken supporter of the Netanyahu Government - did not dissemble or blather. His answer was chillingly straightforward: We can withstand a Palestinian demand for one-man-one-vote. The indefinite maintenance of the current status quo “is also an option." He said openly what Netanyahu thinks and intends. 22/5/2012
Time honoured: Israeli PM revels in his star statusDonald MacIntyre - The Independent - Unsurprsingly, delighted aides to the Prime Minister distributed the article to Israeli journalists21/5/2012
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The New ProtestUri Avnery - Gush Shalom - Social justice is a political aim par excellence. It means, among other things, to take away money from other uses and devote it to social purposes. In Israel, it inevitably means taking away money from the huge military budget, as well as from the settlement drive, from the subsidies paid as a bribe to the Orthodox and from the parasitic tycoons. 19/5/2012
Red Rag weekly column: `One leader, one nation, one kingdom`Gideon Spiro - One leader, one nation, one kingdom - Ahinoam Nini - file closed on Samouni family massacre - Nakba Day19/5/2012
Settler policy rests on history of Israel`s tactical deceptionsTony Karon - TheNational - There`s a method in Mr Netanyahu`s game that dates all the way back to Israel`s founding in 1948. Israel`s founders didn`t like the terms of the partition plan offered by the UN in 1947, but they accepted them in principle - and then substantially revised them on the ground in the war that followed. 19/5/2012
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The Nakba and the Minister of Education and the Minister of Culture and usAdam Keller - Crazy Country blog - There must still be, in refugee camps somewhere, people who remember Wadi en-Nada from their childhoods. Had they wanted – and been able - to visit Ruppin Street in the city of Holon, it is doubtful whether they could have recognized anything. (Perhaps, here and there among the houses, an ancient tree which had already been there in 1948...)19/5/2012
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The one-state reality vs. the two-state ideaNoam Sheizaf - +972 - Israel is the sole sovereign both east and west of the Green Line. Since this system not only favors Jews but is perceived by them as the best of the immediate alternatives, changing it means working against the current desires of most Israelis. [Part of http://www.thedailybeast.com/openzion.html discussion] bz 19/5/2012
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Is U.S. going above and beyond for Israel?Walter Pincus - Washington Post "“Those funds are already committed to existing large-ticket purchases, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, C-130J transport planes and other items,” according to George Little, spokesman for Panetta. He also said the Israelis had increased their own spending on Iron Dome this year and the U.S. funds are to “augment” their funding." ca18/5/2012
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Demonizing the NakbaLarry Derfner - +972 - The truth, rather, is that by demonizing Nakba Day, the winners of the War of Independence are telling the losers that they’re not even allowed to cry, not in public, anyway.-rh 17/5/2012
Two wrongs do not make a right Neve Gordon - Aljazeera - But if there is any hope for this region, the recognition must be reciprocal. The Palestinians, who have no doubt been wronged, must concede, as the late Edward Said urged them to do, that two wrongs do not make a right. Only once there is mutual recognition of the two historical narratives will an opportunity for reconciliation truly emerge.-rh 16/5/2012
Who is delegitimizing Israel?Paul Woodward - War in Context - Anyone who is really afraid of the delegitimization of Israel should consider that Israel may face no greater threat than the one posed by its own defenders.-rh 16/5/2012
Hopes grow of a confidence-building deal on Iranian nuclear programmeJulian Borger - Guardian - "Western officials ... said that they are now clearly dealing with a far more nuanced, cautious and subtle Iranian stance that the rejectionist position of only a few months ago." - id 16/5/2012
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Recognizing Nakba, Reaching PeaceHanan Ashrawi - Haaretz - "In being forcibly expelled from their homes, Palestinians lost their properties, personal history, and cultural assets." - id 16/5/2012
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Why the inconvenient truths of the Nakba must be recognizedTom Pessah - +972 - "When you dive into the history of 1948, certain features become familiar. Some Palestinians used violence against Jews; some generals stretched the definition of security risk to its widest possible interpretation. There were Israelis who protested […] But most Israelis didn’t object: they trusted their security forces that had successfully repelled the incoming Arab armies, and they often benefited from the vast properties the refugees left behind"15/5/2012
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Don’t dump it on GazaYakir Elkariv - Ynet - Israel should solve its electricity woes once and for all instead of cutting off Gaza power15/5/2012
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What an Israeli attack on Iran will mean for the MuslimsAhmed Rashid - Haaretz - If Israel bombs Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran is likely to mobilize on the basis of the much wider support it can muster in the Muslim world15/5/2012
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Who`s afraid of Nakba Day?Shaul Arieli- Ha`aretz - To the Palestinians in 1947, a state on only 45 percent of the land was unfair because they constituted a decisive majority of the population and owned 90 percent of its privately owned land. In the war which followed, the Palestinians became the main victims: 750,000 refugees were created, 11 mixed cities were emptied of their Arab populations and more than 400 villages and 4 million dunams (about 1 million acres) of land were lost to the Palestinians, (...) At present, we in Israel - like the Palestinians in 1948 - are holding an intransigent "it`s all mine" attitude, misreading the political map and the international mood. 14/5/2012
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Operetta in 5 ActsUri Avnery - Gush Shalom - The main thing is that the elections have been postponed. It is up to the partisans of peace and social justice to use the time gained to put together a real political force, ready for the test. After having peered into the face of near-certain electoral disaster, they must now get together and prepare themselves for the fight.12/5/2012
Israel facing major West Bank uprising over Palestinian hunger strikeAdrian Blomfield - The Telegraph - Israel has been warned that it faces a major uprising in the West Bank after six Palestinian prisoners taking part in one of the largest and most protracted hunger strikes ever staged in its jails were said to be close to death. bz 12/5/2012
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No justice for the victims of GazaRaji Sourani - al-Jazeera - The failure to properly investigate and punish injustices in the Samouni family case is a crime itself. 12/5/2012
Lobby waging war on campus speech Steven Zunes says UC punishing criticism of Israel - gm12/5/2012
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Israel`s huge rewardNina Burleigh - Has President Obama given up on Israel? The U.S. may soon give the country its biggest defense paycheck yet 12/5/2012
Netanyahu, Barak, and Mofaz are delegitimizing IsraelGideon Levy - Haaretz - Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Mofaz are telling their nation and the world: We are leaders in a country of dwarfs, its citizens are all boors and idiots, and we can sell them any lie. If we tell them day is night and spitting is rain, they’ll believe it.-rh10/5/2012
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Haaretz Publishes Pseudonymous Apologia for Torture, and They’ll Make You Pay to Read ItRichard Silverstein - Tikun Olam - The column revolves around the misdeeds of Doron Zahavi, the torturer who dare not speak his name in Israel, where he is known as “Captain George.” Zahavi sodomized a Lebanese militant named Mustafa Dirani in order to extract information about the whereabouts of Israeli captive pilot, Ron Arad. Dirani filed suit against his torturers and was eventually released from the IDF torture facility where he’d been held. His trial is still pending.-rh 10/5/2012
A matter of educationAdam Keller - Crazy Country - "The Minister took care to get things straight: Of course, there can be no connection between the behavior of rowdy pupils and the presence of Israel in Judea and Samaria, the Land of Our Forefathers." - id9/5/2012
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From Here to There!Adi Ophir - Maarav - "A state that is not a nation state, wherein citizenship is granted on the basis of duration of stay, subordination to the laws of the state, and employment, and wherein the national associations within it are equally protected and nurtured; nationalism that does not require a state, and its existence is ensured in every state and country; conditions for peaceful and secure Jewish existence wherever Jews live; federative arrangements between Jews and Palestinians within a single, dual, or split state framework, and in any event one that grants Jews and Palestinians the freedom to nurture their nationhood as well as the freedom to live in total indifference toward this aspect of their identity"7/5/2012
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Illegal Settlements Bonanza - Israel Plots an EndgameRamzy Baroud - CounterPunch - "Israeli settlements have been contextualized through Israeli legal and political references, as opposed to references commonly accepted in international law. The emphasis on differences between Israeli governments, political parties and religious/ultra-nationalist settlement movements is distracting and misleading; colonizing the rest of historic Palestine has been and remains a national Israeli project"7/5/2012
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A putsch against warUri Avnery - Gush Shalom - In some countries, army officers arrest the president, occupy government offices and TV stations and annul the constitution. In other countries, they do it more quietly. They just inform the elected leaders that, if they don’t desist from their disastrous policies, the officers will make their views public.6/5/2012
The utopian vision of ‘security’ is killing IsraelDahlia Scheindlin - +972 "Isaiah Berlin’s seminal critique of utopia holds that no matter how noble the idea at hand, the assumption that one truth can be universal and overriding denies the reality of conflicting, but equally vital, human truths. We may believe all humans agree on the right to life and physical security. But we also cherish other human rights and freedoms, and sometimes these are in conflict. Acknowledging and struggling with that tension makes us human; automatically trampling one value for the other results in disaster." ca4/5/2012
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Never againGilbert Achcar - Middle East Monitor - The latter conclusion - "Never again" tout court - is the only true repudiation of the Nazi Weltanschauung; not its symmetric reversal, but a radical rejection of all its underlying assumptions. It implies awareness that what happened to the Jews happened in different forms and on different scales to different people throughout history, and will happen again and again as long as ideologies of racial and ethnic superiority and hatred find their way to embodiment in superior armed force.-rh3/5/2012
To talk about ourselvesNir Baram - Haokets - Today it was reported that after Nir Baram’s speech at the Writers’ Festival two years ago, this year writers were asked to submit their speeches in advance for the approval of the festival organizers. Baram dared – heaven forfend – to be political, and he reminded those who live by the sea of the danger that they might stop hearing the rustle of the waves. Here is his complete speech.3/5/2012
Zionism is not racism, but Zionists can be racistsHenry Siegman - Foreign Policy - The founders of Zionism were among the most enlightened and progressive leaders of the Jewish world. They were not racists, and neither were the members of the U.N. General Assembly who voted in 1947 to create a Jewish state alongside a Palestinian state. But Netanyahu and his government have proven that although Zionism is not racism, Zionists can indeed be racists.-rh2/5/2012
Elections soon - but about what?Adam Keller - Crazy Country - "Not only a real peace initiative toward the Palestinians is beyond the ability or desire of the current government of Israel. So is also enforcement of the law on settlers who robbed Palestinian land in broad daylight." - id 2/5/2012
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Boycotting the true heart of IsraelBradley Burston - Haaretz - "Hila Betzaleli and Achinoam Nini are the true heart of Israel, the heart which needs support and protection and recognition. The heart that is the reason that there`s still an Israel to love." - id 2/5/2012
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Has Israel’s leadership come down with mad-Jew disease?Chemi Shalev - Ha`aretz - Diaspora Jews spend sleepless nights agonizing over yesterday’s editorial in the Duluth Daily that could be construed as implying that the Palestinians may also have a point. Suddenly they hear the three outgoing heads of of Israel`s own revered security services charge that Israel is being run by a couple of morally-lapsed loony-tune leaders. 1/5/2012
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A sign that European Executives know...Fanny-Michaela Reisin - Internationale Liga f. Menschenrechte - I know that many of you will say, that the boycott of settlement products is not enough. However I regard this official news within the main morning news of the main German radio station as a breakthrough. 1/5/2012
Israel`s back-room deal strengthens an authoritarian trendJonathan Cook - The National - Mr Netanyahu, meanwhile, has created a national unity government that more precisely reflects the majority mood: an unalloyed, aggressive and xenophobic rightwing consensus.-rh 9/5/2012
Why we can never compromise on principle RAY HANANIA - J-Post - "So I wonder, where does righteousness fall in the case of torture used by one nation against another? Is it the issue of who struck first? Or is it an issue of racial superiority?" - id 9/5/2012
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The Netanyahu-Barak-Mofaz trio is a unity of cowardsUri Misgav - Haaretz - " All three, formerly commanders in the General Staff`s elite special-operations force, truly cannot expect the public to ever trust them again." - id 9/5/2012
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Choose Your Theatre: London or ArielVardit Shalfy - Haaretz - Did the theaters really have no choice but to surrender to the dictate of Culture Minister Limor Livnat? What would have happened had they embarked on a public struggle, lowering the curtain on their stages for one night or a week; petitioning the Supreme Court against the arbitrary cuts in their budgets. 8/5/2012
Israel`s atomic arsenal could fall victim to a new U.S. nuclear policyAmir Oren - Haaretz - Well-informed military analyst Amir Oren says that if Obama wins in November, he will likely push for dramatic new reductions in nuclear arsenals; in addition to the U.S. and Russia, Israel may also have to give up some of the nuclear warheads it reportedly holds. 8/5/2012
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Coalition deal’s bright side: Days numbered for rotten governmentDahlia Scheindlin - +972 - The main towering advantage of postponing the elections until late 2013 is that it ensures only another year and a half of one of the worst governments Israel has ever had... 8/5/2012
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Israeli Official Weighs an Imposed Palestinian BorderJODI RUDOREN - The New York Times - Mr. Barak called for “an interim agreement, maybe even unilateral action,” during a conference sponsored by the institute here. Referring to fears that Jews will become a minority in their own state, he added, “Inaction is not a possibility.”-rh 31/5/2012
The Nakba is alive for both Jews and Arabs : It must be stated openly: All the disasters connected with this country are shared by the Jews and the ArabsSalman Masalha - Haaretz - It is worthwhile to understand the root of the Israeli-Palestinian tragedy. Because the disaster of this land, or, to be more exact, of those who inhabit it, Jews as well as Arabs, stems from the wide abyss between the two opposing concepts of the charged term "homeland."-rh 31/5/2012
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Israel weighs `unilateral move`BBC News - Responding to Mr Barak`s comments, an adviser to Mr Abbas said any Israeli unilateral moves in the West Bank and East Jerusalem would "lead to the formation of a Palestinian state in temporary borders, to which we object".-rh 31/5/2012
Israel is doing everything to separate Gaza, West Bank : Israel wants Hamas rule in Gaza because it guarantees the disconnect between the Strip and the West BankAmira Hass - Haaretz - Like the State of Israel, the Hamas education ministry doesn`t like it when Gazan youth go to the West Bank or overseas. And for good reason: Political and religious indoctrination ebbs when horizons open up. If Israel genuinely wanted to weaken Hamas rule, it would respect freedom of movement, which has been restricted since 1991.-rh30/5/2012
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Yalla Peace: Palestinian financial problems RAY HANANIA - J-Post - "Recently, Israel has withheld large sums of funds from the Palestinians, putting the daily lives of more than 174,000 Palestinian government employees in peril." - id 30/5/2012
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By supporting Israel, Hillary Clinton breaks US human rights lawJosh Ruebner - EI - "“Human rights organizations reported that ‘physical interrogation methods’ permitted by Israeli law and used by Israeli security personnel could amount in practice to torture.”" - id 30/5/2012
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Chosen people? Not quiteDina Avramson - Ynet - "Does God love them less? Does He appreciate their work less? Is a Buddhist monk who sits in a cave for three years less connected than me?" - id 30/5/2012
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Two letters by Mairead Maguire the New York Times did not want to publishMairead Maguire - I have now decided, with some sadness, not to be associated in this Partnership [with the US State Department] as I do not agree with many of the Policies of the US State Department. Indeed I have, as a Nobel Peace Laureate, (and in the spirit of Alfred Nobel) often called for disbandment of NATO, end of militarism and war, and for Disarmament and demilitarization. I cannot therefore, in good conscience, be part of a Partnership with the US State Government (NATO).6/5/2012
39 ways to limit free speechDavid Cole - al-Jazeera - A US citizen has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for merely having translated an article from Arabic to English and posting it on the Internet. It is not even alleged that he has ever committed an act of violence in his life. 6/5/2012
`We`ve gone way beyond Apartheid`Frank Barat - al-Jazeera - Peace activist Jeff Halper speculates that Israel may annex Area C - with the consent of the Palestinian Authority.6/5/2012
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