- The Hidden Costs of the War on Terror
- J Street's Ben-Ami: 'U.S. Congressmen live in fear of pro-Israeli intimidation'
- In Redistricting Race, Howard Berman (D-CA) Pulling Out All the Stops for Israel
- Hardline Israel backers gave cash to Rep. Joe Walsh, author of Op-Ed calling for Israeli apartheid
- Peter Beinart’s cognitive dissonance on ‘threats to Israel’s demographics’
- AIPAC BOMB IRAN RESOLUTION ON HOUSE FLOOR TODAY
- Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948
- The Israel Lobby Never Sleeps
- A Tipping Point for Israel
- US Weapons-Grade Uranium Diverted to Israel: Secret NUMEC Investigation Files Now Online
Opinion & Analysis Alison Weir
Alison Weir
Alison Weir is the president of the Council for the National Interest, a former journalist and the founder of If Americans Knew, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the Israel-Palestine conflict, specializing in statistical analysis. Weir writes and speaks widely about Israel-Palestine, with particular focus on media coverage. Her articles on the subject have been published in anthologies both in the U.S. and abroad and in diverse online and print publications.
Ms. Weir has given talks at numerous universities, including Harvard Law School, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Yale, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the Naval Postgraduate Institute; four times at the Asia Media Summit in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, and has twice given briefings on Capitol Hill.
Former U.S. Congressman Tom Campbell (R-CA) said of her presentation: “Ms. Weir presents a powerful, well documented view of the Middle East today. She is intelligent, careful, and critical. American policy makers would benefit greatly from hearing her first-hand observations and attempting to answer the questions she poses.”
The New York Times reported of her lecture in Greenwich, Connecticut: “When the speech ended, Ms. Weir was met with thunderous applause, and across the room there was a widespread sense of satisfaction that someone was saying what needed to be said.”
In 2004 she was inducted into honorary membership of Phi Alpha Literary Society, founded in 1845 at Illinois College. The award cited her as a: “Courageous journalist-lecturer on behalf of human rights. The first woman to receive an honorary membership in Phi Alpha history.”
Website URL: http://www.alisonweir.org
Israel kills 11 in Gaza air strikes
Gaza (CNN) -- Eleven Palestinians were killed and at least four critically injured Friday and early Saturday after a series of Israeli airstrikes targeted suspected militants across Gaza, according to Palestinian medical officials. [First-hand account of airstrikes below]
Stockman: To Address Gas Prices, Stop Beating the War Drums against Iran
Former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman tells CNN that soaring gas prices could be addressed by stopping the war drums against Iran and by getting rid of the neocons who are pushing such a war.
ZAKARIA: ...what do you think will happen with oil? Because the demand certainly doesn’t justify $105 barrel oil. I mean, China is -
STOCKMAN: I think you can address this decisively by stop beating the war drums right now. And Obama could do that, and he could say the neocons are history.
Jodi Rudoren, Another Member of the Family: Meet the New York Times’ New Israel-Palestine News Chief
CounterPunch, by ALISON WEIR – Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun Magazine, is known for his frequent condemnations of Israeli violence against Palestinians. He is labeled “pro-Palestinian” for such statements and is regularly attacked by pro-Israel zealots who charge that he is disloyal to the Jewish state.
Yet, in reality, Lerner frequently speaks of his devotion to Israel and states that his actions are taken in considerable part to protect it.
A while ago Lerner explained the difference in his feelings about Israelis compared to his feelings about Palestinians. “[T]here is a difference in my emotional and spiritual connection to these two sides,” Lerner said.
“On the one side is my family; on the other side are decent human beings. I want to support human beings all over the planet but I have a special connection to my family.”
This statement comes to mind when one considers the New York Times bureau chiefs who cover Israel-Palestine.
As Israeli girls run away to Arab villages, Israel's "Anti-Assimilation Organization" and "Pro-Jewish Identity NGO" are on the job
Israel National News reports that a young Jewish teenager fell in love with an Arab, converted to Islam, and decided to marry him, running away from home to do so. The parents, horrified, called the police, and after weeks of searching, located her.
New York Times Distortion Up Close and Personal
A little over a week ago, some members of our organization, If Americans Knew, met with New York Times Public Editor Daniel Okrent to discuss the findings of a detailed study we had completed of two years worth of Times news stories on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Okrent was going to be writing a column discussing the paper’s coverage of Israel/Palestine, and we felt our study would be an important resource.
Uprising on the Anniversary of a Death
There is a quiet battle going on for the memory of a young woman who could have been my daughter, or perhaps yours.
On one side are those who would like to erase her from history; her actions, her beliefs, her murder. If they are unsuccessful at that, they will settle for posthumous slurs on her character, falsifications of her death.
On the other side are those who feel her shining principles should be praised, her courage honored, her death grieved. On this side are those who believe that heroism is noble, bravery admirable, and compassion for others the most fundamental form of morality.
The Meaning of Calm Relativity, LA Times Style
Well, I just got hung up on again. This time by an editor on the Los Angeles Times foreign desk. He didn’t give me his name.
I had called and attempted, as politely as possible, to give him a correction for the story on the Times’ website tonight. This will probably be their front-page lead news story tomorrow morning.
The trouble is, their headline and lead paragraph are just plain wrong. And now, of course, they’ll stay wrong in the paper tomorrow.
Russia, Israel and Media Omissions
As is often the case with AP’s coverage of news having to do with Israel, there’s a serious omission in its reporting on the Russia-Israel connection even when it involves oil and the United States.
Making America as ‘Secure’ as Israel
When you’re receiving advice “free” or otherwise, it’s wise to first evaluate the source. It’s probably not the best idea to hire a squinting optometrist, a limping podiatrist, or a toothless dentist. If you’re considering a heart surgeon and a search for his previous patients turns up too many graves, perhaps it’s time to reconsider. In fact, if he’s having heart pains, in all kindness perhaps you should call him a doctor.
Heroism in the Holy Land
There are a small number of people around the world who exhibit extraordinary courage. An even smaller number commit repeated acts of heroism. San Francisco resident Chris Brown is one of them.
More Opinion & Analysis
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The Hidden Costs of the War on Terror
Written by Philip Giraldi
Benjamin Franklin once observed that those who would trade their liberties for security will wind up losing both. James Madison stated that no nation can preserve freedom in the midst of perpetual warfare. Few can question that America’s Founding Fathers epitomize true conservatism. There is something seriously wrong in America today precisely because the elites from both political parties have forgotten about Franklin and Madison and ignored their wise counsel.
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Peter Beinart’s cognitive dissonance on ‘threats to Israel’s demographics’
Written by Matthew A. Taylor
Mondoweiss - In Tikkun, Peter Beinart struggles to make Israel both Jewish and democratic without affecting Palestinians:
Lerner: Would it be acceptable in your mind to have a democratic Israel if through demographic changes a majority of Israelis were Palestinians? Or would you say that to preserve its Jewish character it would be permissible to infringe on its democratic character?
Beinart: It would be wrong for Israel to take any coercive measure to reduce its Arab population... We are a long way away from the time when an Israeli state would have an Arab majority, but if Israelis thought that was about to happen, I would oppose any measures (such as expulsion of Arabs) designed to coercively impose a Jewish majority.
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Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948
Written by Nur Masalha
IPS - The year 2012 marks the sixty-fourth anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophic uprooting of the Palestinians and the dismemberment and de-Arabization of Palestine in 1948. The name “Palestine” was wiped off the map. Some five hundred villages and towns disappeared; markers of the Palestinian presence on the land that had survived the Crusades were obliterated to make way for a new militarized European immigrant-settler community.
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The Israel Lobby Never Sleeps
Written by Philip Giraldi
The Passionate Attachment - There has been no media reporting on H.R.4133 — United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012 introduced into the House of Representatives of the 112th Congress on March 5th “To express the sense of Congress regarding the United States-Israel strategic relationship, to direct the President to submit to Congress reports on United States actions to enhance this relationship and to assist in the defense of Israel, and for other purposes.”
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A Tipping Point for Israel
Written by Philip Giraldi
A tipping point is where physical momentum, inclined in one direction, reverses its course, stabilizes, and then begins to move the opposite way. Those of us who have been arguing for a sane United States foreign policy in the Middle East have well understood that the odds on shifting the prevailing narrative have been heavily against us thanks to the overwhelming resources possessed by a powerful domestic lobby. Ten years ago in America, it was impossible to place even a letter in a mainstream newspaper or magazine that was in any way critical of Israel. Apart from Pat Buchanan, no one on television provided a critique of Israel and its policies. In the U.S. media, Israel was ever the beleaguered little democracy surrounded by savage Arabs.
But then, all of a sudden, the conspiracy of silence began to break down.
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Michael Sfard: ‘The Israeli government has declared war against the rule of law’
Written by Annie Robbins
Mondoweiss - The day after we reported high drama in the wild wild West Bank, the government of Israel filed another petition to the high court to appeal the demolition of Ulpana, the illegal outpost previously slated for demolition on Tuesday May 1st. This time the state claimed their appeal was due to new evidence the demolition of the illegal outpost would "have significant ramifications as to the future construction in Beit El"!
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The House That Sabri Built
Written by Rajah Shehadeh
International Herald Tribune - BEIT IJZA, West Bank — One of the first statements under oath that I took for Al Haq, a human rights organization I helped establish, was from Sabri Garaib, a farmer from Beit Ijza, a Palestinian village ten miles northwest of Jerusalem. I remember sitting on the porch of his house overlooking the garden and the low, undulating hills planted with wheat and barley that spread out on all sides. All 112 acres, I was told, were in danger of being expropriated by the new Jewish settlement of Givon Hahadasha.
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Ron Paul Gets One Wrong
Written by Philip Giraldi
One of the refreshing aspects of the Ron Paul revolution has been its willingness to re-examine America’s fractured foreign policy and return to the old principles of national interest and constitutionalism to serve as guidelines for how the nation should behave internationally. Paul has been bold enough to assert that foreign aid, which accomplishes little for the recipient and diminishes the donor, should be eliminated. This has offended constituencies that are major beneficiaries of the status quo, including the nation of Israel and its powerful lobby.
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