November 2009

Who is a Jew? Court ruling in Britain raises question

by Paul Woodward 11.09.2009

Who is a Jew? Court ruling in Britain raises question By Sarah Lyall, New York Times, November 8, 2009 The questions before the judges in Courtroom No. 1 of Britain’s Supreme Court were as ancient and as complex as Judaism itself. Who is a Jew? And who gets to decide? On the surface, the court [...]

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Afghanistan: Time to leave

by Paul Woodward 11.09.2009

Afghanistan: Time to leave By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, November 8, 2009 Britain should start withdrawing, not reinforcing, its troops in Afghanistan. Sending extra troops is unnecessary and will prove counter-effective. The additional number of British troops is small, but the US is poised to send tens of thousands more soldiers to the country. The [...]

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Defying supreme leader, reformist Khatami continues to question election

by Paul Woodward 11.09.2009

Defying supreme leader, reformist Khatami continues to question election By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, November 7, 2009 Iran’s moderate former President Mohammad Khatami continued to question the results of the June 12 presidential election, defying the nation’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said flatly last week that publicly voicing such doubts was illegal. [...]

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Iraq passes crucial election law

by Paul Woodward 11.09.2009

Iraq passes crucial election law By Timothy Williams and Sa’ad Izzi, New York Times, November 9, 2009 After weeks of political stalemate, Iraq approved a law on Sunday to administer a critical national election in January, a significant milestone for its fragile democracy and a step that will allow the rapid withdrawal of American combat [...]

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Obama hosts Netanyahu

by Paul Woodward 11.09.2009

Obama hosts Netanyahu By Charles Levinson and Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2009 The prime minister’s visit comes as fears grow inside the Obama administration that its aggressive plans for promoting Mideast peace could be unraveling. Mr. Netanyahu hasn’t agreed to a complete freeze of settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem as [...]

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Admiral Mullen: Nuclear Iran is existential threat to Israel

by Paul Woodward 11.09.2009

Admiral Mullen: Nuclear Iran is existential threat to Israel By Amir Oren, Haaretz, November 8, 2009 The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, said last week in Washington that a nuclear Iran would pose an existential threat to Israel. Mullen said he would prefer that the U.S. work diplomatically to [...]

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The Fort Hood massacre and questions of terrorism

by Paul Woodward 11.09.2009

Fort Hood gunman gave signals before his rampage By James C McKinley Jr. and James Dao, New York Times, November 9, 2009 In late July, Major Hasan moved into a second-floor apartment on the north side of Killeen, paying $2,050 for his six-month lease up front, said the apartment manager, Alice Thompson. The two-story faded [...]

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Hezbollah gears up for new war

by Paul Woodward 11.08.2009

Hezbollah gears up for new war By Mitchell Prothero and Peter Beaumont, The Observer, November 8, 2009 Hezbollah is rapidly rearming in preparation for a new conflict with Israel, fearing that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will attack Lebanon again prior to any assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Last week, Israeli commandos seized a ship in the [...]

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Is using aid to Israel as leverage becoming a mainstream idea?

by Paul Woodward 11.08.2009

Is using aid to Israel as leverage becoming a mainstream idea? By Glenn Greenwald, Salon, November 8, 2009 Tom Friedman today has some very harsh words for both the Israelis and Palestinians, both of whom — he claims — are not serious about reaching a peace agreement. As a result, these are the principles which [...]

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Obama leaning toward 34,000 more troops for Afghanistan

by Paul Woodward 11.08.2009

Obama leaning toward 34,000 more troops for Afghanistan By Jonathan S. Landay, John Walcott and Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy, November 7, 2009 President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to send more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year, but he may not announce it until after he consults with key allies and [...]

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Fears of anti-Muslim backlash after Fort Hood massacre

by Paul Woodward 11.08.2009

Fears of anti-Muslim backlash after Fort Hood massacre By Paul Woodward, The National, November 8, 2009 The shooting rampage by a US army psychiatrist, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, at Fort Hood in Texas, came almost six months after the Camp Liberty killings in Iraq where an American army sergeant killed five fellow soldiers at a [...]

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In an unstable Pakistan, can nuclear warheads be kept safe?

by Paul Woodward 11.08.2009

In an unstable Pakistan, can nuclear warheads be kept safe? By Seymour M Hersh, The New Yorker, November 16, 2009 In the tumultuous days leading up to the Pakistan Army’s ground offensive in the tribal area of South Waziristan, which began on October 17th, the Pakistani Taliban attacked what should have been some of the [...]

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U.S. State Department: Israel is not a tolerant society

by Paul Woodward 11.07.2009

U.S. State Department: Israel is not a tolerant society By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz, November 6, 2009 Israel dismally fails the requirements of a tolerant pluralistic society, according to a new report from the U.S. State Department. Despite boasting religious freedom and protection of all holy sites, Israel falls short in tolerance toward minorities, equal treatment [...]

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Prospect of more U.S. troops worries Afghan public

by Paul Woodward 11.07.2009

Prospect of more U.S. troops worries Afghan public By Alissa J Rubin, New York Times, November 6, 2009 As Americans, including President Obama’s top advisers, tensely debate whether to send more American troops to Afghanistan, Afghans themselves are having a similar discussion and voicing serious doubts. In bazaars and university corridors across the country, eight [...]

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The predator war

by Paul Woodward 11.07.2009

What are the risks of the CIA’s covert drone program? By Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, October 26, 2009 On August 5th, officials at the Central Intelligence Agency, in Langley, Virginia, watched a live video feed relaying closeup footage of one of the most wanted terrorists in Pakistan. Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban [...]

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Iraq on the edge

by Paul Woodward 11.07.2009

Iraq on the edge By Joost R. Hiltermann, The New York Review of Books, November 19, 2009 Iraqis prefer checkpoints manned by Iraqis—as I observed time and again, they have learned how to navigate them. They often appear to know one of the security men—perhaps a distant relation or a friend of a friend. They [...]

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Fort Hood suspect was ‘mortified’ about deployment

by Paul Woodward 11.06.2009

Fort Hood suspect was ‘mortified’ about deployment By James Dao, New York Times, November 6, 2009 Born and reared in Virginia, the son of immigrant parents from a small Palestinian town near Jerusalem, he joined the Army right out of high school, against his parents’ wishes. The Army, in turn, put him through college and [...]

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Middle East peace process R.I.P.

by Paul Woodward 11.06.2009

Obama fails in Middle East By Robert Dreyfuss, The Nation, November 6, 2009 The announcement by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that he will not run for reelection is the exclamation point on the utter collapse of the Obama adminstration’s Middle East policy. Launched to great expectations — the appointment of George Mitchell, Obama’s Cairo declaration [...]

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UN assembly votes for probes of Gaza war charges

by Paul Woodward 11.06.2009

UN assembly votes for probes of Gaza war charges By Patrick Worsnip, Reuters, November 5, 2009 In a move that angered Israel, the U.N. General Assembly voted on Thursday to urge the Jewish state and Palestinians to investigate war crimes charges leveled in a controversial U.N. report on the Gaza war. The Arab-drafted resolution is [...]

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Afghanistan’s civil war

by Paul Woodward 11.06.2009

No insurgency here By Nader Mousavizadeh, Foreign Policy, November 5, 2009 Two conclusions are inescapable from the fiasco of Afghanistan’s presidential elections and the McChrystal assessment: There is no electoral solution to Afghan government’s crisis of legitimacy, and there is no military solution to the challenge of the Taliban. And when observing the current Afghan [...]

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Iran tested advanced nuclear warhead design – secret report

by Paul Woodward 11.06.2009

Iran tested advanced nuclear warhead design – secret report By Julian Borger, The Guardian, November 5, 2009 The UN’s nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned. The very existence of the technology, known as a “two-point implosion” device, [...]

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Report: U.S. stopped Israel from attacking ‘Hezbollah arms ship’

by Paul Woodward 11.06.2009

Report: U.S. stopped Israel from attacking ‘Hezbollah arms ship’ Haaretz, November 6, 2009 The United States informed Israel of a ship carrying tons of weapons allegedly en route from Iran to Hezbollah, but vetoed Israel’s plans to attack, the A-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported on Friday. Israel raided the ship in the waters off the coast [...]

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How Israel creates the scenario for the next war

by Paul Woodward 11.05.2009

The doomsday weapon By Gideon Levy, Haaretz, November 5, 2009 Every few weeks you have to sow fear, every few months you need to make threats, and once every year or two you have to have another little war. Blind cooperation between the defense establishment and the media holds the promise of another round of [...]

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Palestinians may need to pursue “one-state solution”

by Paul Woodward 11.05.2009

Palestinians may need to pursue “one-state solution” By Mohammed Assadi, Reuters, November 4, 2009 Palestinians may have to abandon the goal of an independent state if Israel continues to expand Jewish settlements and the United States does not stop it, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Wednesday. It may be time for Palestinian President [...]

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