Gates: Military strike won’t halt Iran nuke program

Link In AP, here “…Gates told Senate appropriators that a military attack on Iran would merely send the country’s nuclear program further underground. Instead, he said that the United States and its allies must convince Tehran that its nuclear ambitions would spark an arms race that would leave the country less secure. ..” Posted by [...]

Saudi Slams US Claim of King Talks with Israel’s Peres

Saudi Slams US Claim of King Talks with Israel’s PeresReaders Number : 121 30/04/2009 Saudi Arabia on Thursday denied a US claim that King Abdullah met with Israeli President Shimon Peres late last year and demanded clarifications from Washington. An unnamed Saudi official, quoted by the state-run SPA news agency, said that the claim made [...]

Hamas: Any government not approved by the PLC is illegitimate

Hamas: Any government not approved by the PLC is illegitimate [ 30/04/2009 - 11:53 AM ] GAZA, (PIC)- The Hamas Movement stated that any government not approved by the PLC would be unconstitutional and illegitimate, and thus it would not deal with this government. Commenting on news reports saying that Abbas intends to form a [...]

"Inevitably, there will be political consequences… an opposite political impact."

Link AP, here “Inevitably, there will be political consequences,” al-Sayyed told The Associated Press in an interview. “It was only natural that when the tribunal took a decision that goes against the politically motivated detention, there would be an opposite political impact.” The tribunal’s decision was a setback for Lebanon’s pro-Western political bloc headed by [...]

Professor’s Comparison of Israelis to Nazis Stirs Furor

Link By DUKE HELFAND The UC Santa Barbara sociologist, who is Jewish, sent images from the Holocaust and from Israel’s Gaza offensive to students in his class. He has drawn denunciation and support. Controversy has erupted at UC Santa Barbara over a professor’s decision to send his students an e-mail in which he compared graphic [...]

Tony Blair and the full measure of justice

LinkJoy Ellison writing from Hebron, occupied West Bank, Live from Palestine, 30 April 2009 Quartet envoy Tony Blair visits al-Tuwani near Hebron, occupied West Bank, 19 March 2009. (Mamoun Wazwaz/MaanImages) An elderly Palestinian woman grabbed my hand and held it over her chest. “Feel my heartbeat,” she said. “We are really afraid of the settlers.” [...]

The Palestinian Authority’s authoritarian turn

Link Ben White, The Electronic Intifada, 30 April 2009 Appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad at the opening ceremony of the Presidential Guards College in the West Bank city of Jericho, March 2009. (Mustafa Abu Dayeh/MaanImages) Last week, less than two weeks after I had talked with him in his an-Najah University faculty office, [...]

Obama and "Two States" – Seamless Continuity From Bush Time

link By ELLEN CANTAROW A false claim is wafting through the press: Obama is hanging tough with Benjamin Netanyahu, he’s going to “twist Israel’s arm” and at long last force the Jewish state into a two-state agreement, settling the Israel-Palestine question for good. There’s even talk that Obama backs the Arab League’s 2002 peace initiative, [...]

Soldiers Confirm Israel’s War Crimes in Gaza

Soldiers Confirm Israel’s War Crimes in Gaza ‘Anyone who’s in there is a terrorist’, said the commander. By Kim Bullimore Testimony given by Israeli soldiers involved in Israel’s 22-day December-January assault on Gaza to a pre-military preparatory program at the Oranim Academic College in Israel on February 13, and which the March 18 Haaretz daily [...]

Hamas: Any government not approved by the PLC is illegitimate

“… Saudi king spoke with Israel’s President Shimon Peres at a UN…” Reuters, here “Saudi Arabia demanded on Thursday that the U.S. State Department retract a claim that King Abdullah met Israel’s president last year, in a rare public rebuke toward the kingdom’s veteran ally.William Burns, undersecretary at the State Department, told a conference on [...]