News:
- Kerry Pushes Dual Peace Bids on Middle East Return
- Israel, Hawking and the Pressing Question of the Boycott
- "Journalist not found": Newseum has expunged Palestinians murdered by Israel from its website
- The Claims Don't Add Up: Syria Has No Reason to Use Chemical Weapons
- FBI files reveal Anti-Defamation League (ADL) spied on Arab students
- Boston Becomes Toxic
- On Nakba Anniversary, Refugees Make Almost Half of Population
- Israel's Samson Complex: Netanyahu Rebuffs Peace with the Arab World
- Are Israelis Appropriating the Nakba?
- 65th Commemoration: Ongoing Nakba and Secondary Forcible Displacement
News 
Opinion & Analysis
Opinion & Analysis
The Missing Analysis
Below are commentaries and analyses from highly diverse sources that we feel are informative, intelligent, and deserve wider distribution. While we feel that each contains useful information and valid perspectives for readers to consider, that does not imply that we agree with each and every statement they contain.
Wednesday, 21 November 2012 18:57
It's Palestinians who have the right to defend themselves
Written by Seumas Milne
The Guardian - The way western politicians and media have pontificated about Israel's onslaught on Gaza, you'd think it was facing an unprovoked attack from a well-armed foreign power. Israel had every "right to defend itself",Barack Obama declared. "No country on earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders."
EconoMonitor - The discussion of ‘who did what to whom, when’ about the current shooting war between Israel and Gaza misses the point. Whether or not Hamas fired its rockets first or whether Israel justifiably killed the senior Hamas military commander, Ahmed al-Jabari, is beside the point. So is the question of whether Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered the attacks to strengthen his position in the coming Israeli elections. So is the question of whether…
The American Conservative - Sunday’s Washington Post featured an op-ed by John Prados, described as a “national security expert,” entitled “He slept with her. Who cares?” in the print edition. Who cares indeed — apparently not Prados, who prefers to see a sex scandal surrounding General David Petraeus where the real issue is the pervasive corruption and entitlement mentality of Washington’s military elite. Or does Prados assume that most Americans travel around with a mistress…
Electronic Intifada - Barack Obama’s victory in the US presidential election last week was greeted with general unease in Israel. Surveys conducted outside the US shortly before polling day showed Obama was the preferred candidate in every country but two — Pakistan and Israel. But unlike Pakistan, where the two candidates were equally unpopular, he scored just 22 percent in Israel against a commanding 57 percent for Mitt Romney.
Monday, 19 November 2012 19:39
The Four Guilty Parties Behind Israel’s Attack: Why Gaza Must Suffer Again
Written by Jonathan Cook
CounterPunch - Nazareth. A short interview broadcast by CNN late last week featuring two participants – a Palestinian in Gaza and an Israeli within range of the rocket attacks – did not follow the usual script. For once, a media outlet dropped its role as gatekeeper, there to mediate and therefore impair our understanding of what is taking place between Israel and the Palestinians, and inadvertently became a simple window on real events.
Monday, 19 November 2012 19:17
Did Israel Assassinate Hamas' Chief Peace Negotiator?
Written by Mohammed Omer
Vice - Wednesday begins normal enough. The regular policeman at the Al Sarayya junction conducts traffic from his usual spot. Families rush about collecting supplies, and shopkeepers tidy up. A mother urges her children, distracted by something tantalizing, to move faster. To the west, the sun begins to set. A slight Mediterranean breeze scented with the salt and seaweed stirs as the residents of Gaza prepare for the evening meal.
This summary was complied by The Institute for Middle East Understanding. LEGAL STATUS OF THE GAZA STRIP While Hamas nominally controls most of the territory inside the tiny Gaza Strip, Gaza remains under overall Israeli military occupation according to international law. Although Israel withdrew its soldiers and some 8000 settlers from the interior of Gaza in 2005, it continues to control virtually all entry and exit, as well as Gaza's airspace and coastline, therefore retaining…
Aljazeera - The media double standards in the West on the new and tragic Israeli escalation of violence directed at Gaza were epitomised by an absurdly partisan New York Times front page headline: "Rockets Target Jerusalem; Israel girds for Gaza Invasion" (NYT, Nov 16, 2012). Decoded somewhat, the message is this: Hamas is the aggressor, and Israel when and if it launches a ground attack on Gaza must expect itself to be further attacked by rockets. This…
LRB Blog - In response to a recent upsurge in tit for tat strikes between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, Israel decided to ratchet up the violence even further by assassinating Hamas’s military chief, Ahmad Jabari. Hamas, which had been playing a minor role in these exchanges and even appears to have been interested in working out a long-term ceasefire, predictably responded by launching hundreds of rockets into Israel, a few even landing near…
A ceasefire was announced on Wednesday, November 20 after a week of intensive assaults on Gaza that killed approximately 170 Palestinians. Media are blaming Hamas rockets which killed 6 Israelis in the same period of time, but Israel initiated the violence and broke subsequent ceasefire. The following timeline was partialy compiled by The Institute for Middle East Understanding.
Thursday, 15 November 2012 16:21
Israel’s Real Agenda: Expand And Obtain As Much Palestinian Land As Possible
Written by Philip Giraldi
AntiWar.com - Most observers have become wearied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's frequently voiced demands that Iran must be attacked because it is a threat to the entire world. The reality is otherwise, that Iran's theocratic government's security apparatus oppresses mostly its own people and its military lacks the capabilities that would enable it to threaten either Israel or the United States. Israel's government knows that perfectly well and has even conceded that Iran…
Thursday, 15 November 2012 13:23
Alan Hart: Obama: "The best is yet to come." Really?
Written by Alan Hart
...that's why I am not abandoning hope that in the last year of his second term President Obama will feel himself free enough to do what I truly believe he really wants to do - confront the Zionist monster, beginning with its lobby in America... By Alan Hart When President Obama tried to get a real Middle East peace process going by calling on Israel to halt its illegal settlement activity and his "Yes, we…
Thursday, 15 November 2012 01:35
Palestinians aren't holding their breath for Obama
Written by Akiva Eldar
Cairo, the site of the U.S. president's 2009 speech, like the entire Arab world, is totally different from what it was at the start of Obama's tenure. The new Middle East reality poses new challenges for the United States, as well as different rules. Haaretz - It's no secret that at the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem they weren't opening bottles of champagne to celebrate the extension of U.S. President Barack Obama's rental agreement for…
Wednesday, 14 November 2012 19:41
The Reality of the "Lesser Evil": Is This Child Dead Enough for You?
Written by Chris Floyd
CounterPunch - To all those now hailing the re-election of Barack Obama as a triumph of decent, humane, liberal values over the oozing-postule perfidy of the Republicans, a simple question: Is this child dead enough for you? This little boy was named Naeemullah. He was in his house — maybe playing, maybe sleeping, maybe having a meal — when an American drone missile was fired into the residential area where he lived and blew up…
No intervention or dissident group can control the freewheeling revolution. The American Conservative - Re-elected President Barack Obama’s first foreign policy challenge is likely to be Syria and one has to hope that he will have the wisdom to avoid grasping the nettle. After watching last week’s video of rebels lining up twenty-eight captured soldiers and executing them at close range with machine guns, one might well ask what has been going on in that…
Thursday, 08 November 2012 18:37
In Obama's Second Term, Kill Lists Will Continue
Written by Philip Giraldi
AntiWar.com - Outside of websites such as Antiwar.com, there has been remarkably little commentary over the issue of the White House–managed kill lists, which played no part in the election but will nevertheless continue to be a keystone of security policy in the new administration in Washington.
Wednesday, 07 November 2012 17:13
Palestinians show lukewarm reaction to Obama’s re-election
Written by CNI
Jewish Journal - Palestinians reacted lukewarmly to the news of President Barack Obama’s re-election for a second term, saying they are not hopeful this will improve their situation. On the political level, Palestinian officials called upon Obama to help in peace efforts. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas congratulated Obama on his reelection. In a statement published by WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, Abbas said he hoped that Obama “continues his efforts to achieve peace in…
Wednesday, 07 November 2012 17:03
Palestine's date farmers suffer double burden of occupation and indifference
Written by Phoebe Greenwood
The Guardian - The hillsides of the West Bank are rustling with industry. It's autumn, temperatures have finally dropped and the harvest has begun. Palestinian villages empty every morning as people attend to their olive trees, tapping at the branches with long sticks and gathering the falling fruit. In the low, humid planes of the Jordan valley, dates are drooping from palm trees. The crop is abundant but few Palestinian farmers are expecting a profit.
The American Conservative - The defeat of Mitt Romney is a victory for those of us who seek sane foreign and defense policies based on the traditional conservative principles that government policies should always serve clearly defined U.S. national interests while avoiding unnecessary interventionism overseas. Romney was truly an empty suit on foreign policy and it should be assumed that he would have continued the worst parts of the Obama program while adding some particular…
Tuesday, 06 November 2012 14:16
Boycott campaign is essential for effective pressure on Israel
Written by Abir Kopty
The National - The Palestinian cause is not a charity. The international community, however, has often failed to grasp the nature of the struggle for justice, preferring to channel funds to Palestinian "development" projects to compensate for the lack of will to put serious pressure on Israel. That mentality has been challenged by two recent reports that suggest that lip service to justice for Palestinians could be transformed into critical action.
National Summit to Reassess the US-Israel "Special Relationship"
The public is invited to a nonpartisan symposium Nov. 8-9 that will examine the impact of the US-Israel relationship on Americans. Panels will include top military, diplomatic, intelligence, academic, governmental, and economic experts, as well as former Congressional representatives. Read more
