November 2009

Israel proposes work camps for illegal migrants

by Paul Woodward 11.05.2009

Israel proposes work camps for illegal migrants By Dana Weiler-Polak, Haaretz, November 5, 2009 The government is considering establishing work camps in the south of the country, where illegal migrant workers will receive shelter, food and medical care, Army Radio reported Wednesday. In exchange, illegal migrants would perform manual labor outside the camps, but would [...]

Read the full article →

Israel moves to rein in right-wing extremists

by Paul Woodward 11.05.2009

Israel moves to rein in right-wing extremists By Josh Mitnick, Christian Science Monitor, November 4, 2009 A US native from this isolated settlement was arrested by Israeli security services nearly a month ago amid allegations that he killed two Palestinians more than a decade ago and attempted to murder two others more recently. The local [...]

Read the full article →

Karzai’s top rival denounces Afghanistan’s new government

by Paul Woodward 11.05.2009

Karzai’s top rival denounces Afghanistan’s new government By Alissa J Rubin, New York Times, November 5, 2009 The erstwhile rival to President Hamid Karzai in the presidential election’s second round held a news conference on Wednesday in which he denounced Mr. Karzai’s newly anointed administration as illegal and said that the government would be unable [...]

Read the full article →

Italy convicts 23 Americans for CIA renditions

by Paul Woodward 11.05.2009

Italy convicts 23 Americans for CIA renditions By Rachel Donadio, New York Times, November 5, 2009 In a landmark ruling, an Italian judge on Wednesday convicted a base chief for the Central Intelligence Agency and 22 other Americans, almost all C.I.A. operatives, of kidnapping a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan in 2003. The [...]

Read the full article →

US House rejects Goldstone report

by Paul Woodward 11.04.2009

Congressman Brian Baird (D-WA) told Al Jazeera: “The resolution [HR867] itself, I don’t think accurately characterizes the Goldstone report itself. It certainly doesn’t accurately characterize, nor does it really attempt to characterize, the reality on the ground and the devastation and death that occured there. And nor does it speak at all to the suffering [...]

Read the full article →

McGovern: get out of Afghanistan

by Paul Woodward 11.04.2009

McGovern: get out of Afghanistan By Narda Zacchino, Truthdig, November 4, 2009 George McGovern has some advice for President Barack Obama: Get U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. “I’m convinced that war is going to turn sour. I’m convinced we’re not going to prevail there,” McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, said Sunday at a Truthdig [...]

Read the full article →

Why are the United States and Israel at the top of human rights hit lists?

by Paul Woodward 11.04.2009

Why are the United States and Israel at the top of human rights hit lists? By James Ron and Howard Ramos, Foreign Policy, November 3, 2009 Human Rights Watch and its rights-watching peers have heard it all. They’re quasi-terrorists with an anti-U.S. ax to grind or perhaps stealth fighters for global capitalists. They’ve been accused [...]

Read the full article →

Opposition supporters clash with Iranian security force

by Paul Woodward 11.04.2009

Opposition supporters clash with Iranian security forces By Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post, November 4, 2009 Street battles between Iranian security forces and anti-government demonstrators erupted Wednesday after opposition supporters tried to disturb state-sanctioned rallies marking the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy, witnesses and state media reported. Security forces posted on nearly [...]

Read the full article →

Israel’s unbroken legacy of righteous victimhood

by Paul Woodward 11.03.2009

Some victims we are By Larry Derfner, Jerusalem Post, October 28, 2009 The kill ratio was 100-to-1 in our favor. The destruction ratio was much, much greater than that. To this day, thousands of Gazans are living in tents because we won’t let them import cement to rebuild the homes we destroyed. We turned the [...]

Read the full article →

Congressman speaks out in defense of the Goldstone report

by Paul Woodward 11.03.2009

Baird on HR 867: ‘This is about whether it is right to restrict the movements and hopes of more than 1 million people every single day’ By Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss, November 3, 2009 From the great Congressman Brian Baird, the clinical psychologist who represents Rachel Corrie’s district in Washington, and who has been to Gaza, [...]

Read the full article →

Who wants to die for Obama?

by Paul Woodward 11.03.2009

One-term president? By Gary Wills, New York Review of Books Blog, November 3, 2009 I am told by people I respect that Barack Obama cannot pull out of both Iraq and Afghanistan without becoming a one-term president. I think that may be true. The charges from various quarters would be toxic—that he was weak, unpatriotic, [...]

Read the full article →

A stalemate looms in Obama’s Mideast peace effort

by Paul Woodward 11.03.2009

A stalemate looms in Obama’s Mideast peace effort By Tony Karon, Time, November 3, 2009 The Obama Administration’s bid to relaunch an Israeli-Palestinian peace process is falling apart faster than you can say settlement freeze — in no small part because President Obama began his effort by saying settlement freeze. On Monday, Secretary of State [...]

Read the full article →

Iran’s politics stand in the way of a nuclear deal

by Paul Woodward 11.03.2009

Iran’s politics stand in the way of a nuclear deal By Michael Slackman, New York Times, November 3, 2009 Iran’s leadership has once again equivocated after agreeing to a deal that would ease its nuclear standoff with the West. But this time, that may be as much a product of the nation’s smoldering political crisis [...]

Read the full article →

NIAC and J Street, progressive foreign policy groups, become political targets

by Paul Woodward 11.03.2009

NIAC and J Street, progressive foreign policy groups, become political targets By Sam Stein, Huffington Post, November 2, 2009 In the usually wonky world of non-profit issue-advocacy organizations, a decidedly political campaign has been waged against foreign policy institutions that promote diplomacy over militarism. Two relatively new organizations — each covering distinctly opposite ends on [...]

Read the full article →

US blocks ‘Syria torture’ lawsuit

by Paul Woodward 11.03.2009

US blocks ‘Syria torture’ lawsuit Al Jazeera, November 3, 2009 A US federal appeals court has ruled that a Canadian man cannot sue the US after he was held at a New York airport and then transferred to Syria, where he alleges he was tortured. Maher Arar, a Syrian-born software engineer, was detained by US [...]

Read the full article →

Fareed Zakaria interviews Matthew Hoh

by Paul Woodward 11.02.2009

Fareed Zakaria interviews Matthew Hoh Fareed Zacharia GPS, CNN, November 1, 2009 (The CNN embedded video above works in IE, Chrome but not Firefox.) Matthew Hoh: The first place where I really had — where this was codified for me and where I started to understand what we were doing and how we were involved [...]

Read the full article →

Clinton: Israel’s settlement offer falls short of U.S. wishes

by Paul Woodward 11.02.2009

Clinton: Israel’s settlement offer falls short of U.S. wishes Haaretz, November 2, 2009 Israel’s offer to restrain settlement expansion is an unprecedented and positive step but still falls short of Washington’s wishes, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday. “The Israelis have responded to the call of the U.S., the Palestinians and the [...]

Read the full article →

Opposition in Iran urges continuing challenge

by Paul Woodward 11.02.2009

Opposition in Iran urges continuing challenge By Robert F Worth, New York Times, November 2, 2009 As Iran prepares for a major commemorative rally on Wednesday, the leaders of the opposition movement called over the weekend for a renewed challenge to the government, setting the stage for a possible showdown between protesters and the police. [...]

Read the full article →

Military refines a ‘constant stare against our enemy’

by Paul Woodward 11.02.2009

Military refines a ‘constant stare against our enemy’ By Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times, November 2, 2009 The Pentagon plans to dramatically increase the surveillance capabilities of its most advanced unmanned aircraft next year, adding so many video feeds that a drone which now stares down at a single house or vehicle could keep [...]

Read the full article →

Two-State Solution: The Broadway Musical

by Paul Woodward 11.01.2009

Two-State Solution: The Broadway Musical By Paul Woodward, War in Context, November 1, 2009 Remember a mere five months ago when Hillary Clinton, with all the toughness she had displayed during her primary campaign, said bluntly: “[Obama] wants to see a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not ‘natural growth’ exceptions”? The [...]

Read the full article →

America, stop sucking up to Israel

by Paul Woodward 11.01.2009

America, stop sucking up to Israel By Gideon Levy, Haaretz, November 1, 2009 Now is the time to say to the United States: Enough flattery. If you don’t change the tone, nothing will change. As long as Israel feels the United States is in its pocket, and that America’s automatic veto will save it from [...]

Read the full article →

Afghan challenger drops out of runoff election

by Paul Woodward 11.01.2009

Afghan challenger drops out of runoff election AP, November 1, 2009 President Hamid Karzai’s challenger withdrew Sunday from next weekend’s runoff election, effectively handing the incumbent a victory but raising doubts about the government’s credibility at a time when the U.S. is seeking an effective partner in the war against the Taliban. Former Foreign Minister [...]

Read the full article →

Why the Iranian nuclear deal was bound to fail

by Paul Woodward 11.01.2009

Why the Iranian nuclear deal was bound to fail By Tony Karon, The National, November 1, 2009 The surest sign yet that the Iranian nuclear deal is in deep trouble is its endorsement by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. “A positive first step,” Mr Netanyahu called the deal. This was in marked contrast to his [...]

Read the full article →

Turkey plans to dump dollar in trade with Iran

by Paul Woodward 11.01.2009

Turkey plans to dump dollar in trade with Iran Reuters, October 31, 2009 Turkey is seeking to switch to payments in national currencies for $10 billion worth of trade with neighbouring Iran to lessen exchange rate risks and bolster trade volumes, a Turkish government source said on Friday. Turkey has made similar proposals to China [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →