April 2010

What Israel means to me

by Guest Contributor 04.30.2010

By David Shasha*, April 30, 2010 Over the years there has been a constant spate of books containing the testimonials of American Jews proclaiming their teary-eyed and deeply emotional love of the state of Israel. These books are part of the larger program of Israeli Hasbarah, the form of advocacy that seeks to assert the [...]

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Israel official: Accepting Palestinians into Israel better than two states

by Paul Woodward 04.29.2010

After a recent poll indicated that in increasing numbers Palestinians are losing faith in the two-state solution, remarks by Reuven Rivlin, a senior member of Likud and the Speaker in Israel’s parliament, suggest that a one-state solution may be more likely than most commentators generally imagine. Haaretz reports: Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Thursday that [...]

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Israel’s fascist mood

by Paul Woodward 04.29.2010

Responding to the results of a poll I highlighted yesterday, Gideon Levy writes: Israel is ready for a monster. Nothing will stop it. Every kind of violent and dangerous leader and every war crime will be welcomed here, welcomed by the stupid and ignorant. Our immune systems have long weakened. The press will be silent, [...]

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How to: risk World War III, and blow billions doing it

by Paul Woodward 04.29.2010

At Wired, Noah Shachtman writes: The Pentagon’s plan to fire ballistic missiles at terrorists isn’t just a nuclear Armageddon risk. It’s a ludicrously expensive way to accidentally start World War III: each weapon could cost anywhere from a few hundred million to $1 billion. The Defense Department wants to spend about $240 million next year [...]

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The perils of PowerPoint

by Paul Woodward 04.29.2010

An article by Elisabeth Bumiller in the New York Times includes the diagram above. The illustration is indispensable for the lede — it does little to convey the principle failings of Powerpoint, least of all the cognitive style that Powerpoint engenders. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the leader of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, was [...]

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Who’s afraid of nuclear terrorists?

by Paul Woodward 04.29.2010

A couple of weeks ago, President Obama hosted a nuclear security summit in Washington to address an issue so grave, 40 heads of state were in attendance. Had Obama also extended invitations to the mayors of America’s major cities, it’s unclear how many would have been able to squeeze the summit into their busy schedules. [...]

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How Israel operates as an apartheid state

by Paul Woodward 04.28.2010

In a talk delivered to the Fifth Bilin International Conference for Palestinian Popular Resistance, held in the West Bank village of Bilin on April 21, Jonathan Cook described some of the aspects of Israeli apartheid — the systematic discrimination between Jews and non-Jews inside the state of Israel. A few weeks ago I met Uzi [...]

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Israelis have an un-American view of democracy

by Paul Woodward 04.28.2010

Imagine reading this report in an American newspaper: More than half of white Americans think human rights organizations that expose immoral behavior by the United States should not be allowed to operate freely, and think there is too much freedom of expression here, a recent survey found. The pollsters surveyed 500 white Americans who can [...]

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When will time run out for a two-state solution?

by Paul Woodward 04.27.2010

Yousef Munayyer says it’s time for the Palestinians to give the Israelis an ultimatum: the Palestinian Authority should set a date for the Israeli occupation to end and settlements be dismantled. “If this deadline is not met, the PA should dissolve the authority and convert the disjointed national movement into a broad civil rights movement [...]

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Obama’s Middle East star gazing

by Paul Woodward 04.27.2010

“Despite the inevitable difficulties, so long as I am President, the United States will never waver in our pursuit of a two-state solution that ensures the rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians.” President Barack Obama, Washington, April 26, 2010. “There has never been in the White House a president that is so committed [...]

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Preparations for a military strike on Iran

by Paul Woodward 04.26.2010

Ten days ago, the New York Times published a story about a memo on Iran from Defense Secretary Robert Gates to National Security Adviser Gen James Jones. David E Sanger and Thom Shanker reported on the contents of this memo, yet neither of them possesses a copy of the memo, nor have they read it, [...]

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Abbas says Obama needs to impose a Middle East solution

by Paul Woodward 04.26.2010

In a speech to the Fatah leadership, Mahmoud Abbas pointed out the contradiction inherent in the posture that President Obama has assumed. On the one hand Washington has been pushing the line that a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict represents a vital American interest, yet at the same time Obama says, “we can’t want it [...]

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In the name of Zionism

by Paul Woodward 04.26.2010

In his latest column, Uri Avery writes: If one speaks in Israel of “Zionism”, one means “not Arab”. A “Zionist” state means a state in which non-Jewish citizens cannot be full partners. Eighty percent of Israel’s citizens (the Jews) are telling the other twenty percent (the Arabs): the state belongs to us, not to you. [...]

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Jerusalem is crumbling under the weight of its own idealization

by Paul Woodward 04.25.2010

The Sheikh Jarrah activists who are want a just Jerusalem wrote an open letter in response to a letter that Elie Wiesel published as a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal last week. Wiesel described Jerusalem as “the world’s Jewish spiritual capital” and “the heart of our heart, the soul of our soul.” The [...]

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Israel’s indispensable enemies

by Paul Woodward 04.25.2010

The brutality with which the Iranian authorities have suppressed political dissent since last June’s disputed presidential election has been widely reported. The Washington Post now reveals that the political turmoil has had another effect: it has resulted in a new supply of intelligence as disaffected officials leak information about Iran’s nuclear program. As a result, [...]

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Why the Taliban might win

by Paul Woodward 04.24.2010

Christian Science Monitor reports: While current US counterinsurgency doctrine in Afghanistan broadly conforms with historical best practices, the Taliban enjoy a slew of advantages that historically correlate with insurgent success, according to a new study of 89 past and ongoing insurgencies worldwide. Factors that favor the Taliban include receiving sanctuary and support in another country, [...]

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The looming risk of Egyptian democracy

by Paul Woodward 04.24.2010

As the end of rule looms for Egypt’s autocratic leader, Christopher Dickey looks at the prospects for Hosni Mubarak’s replacement being a champion of democracy: the former IAEA director, Mohamed ElBaradei. In the event that ElBaradei declares his candidacy for president, the Obama administration will face a dilemma: whether to support the rise of democracy [...]

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U.S. targets an American abroad

by Paul Woodward 04.24.2010

Vicki Divoll, observes that President Obama’s de facto death sentence for the American Muslim cleric, Anwar al Awlaki, indicates that in its application of the law, this administration has a greater regard for Awlaki’s right to privacy than his right to life. According to media reports, the United States has taken the apparently unprecedented step [...]

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Wave of fatal bombings widens divisions in Iraq

by Paul Woodward 04.24.2010

The New York Times reports: A coordinated series of explosions struck a party headquarters, two mosques, a market and a shop in Baghdad on Friday, deepening the country’s turmoil amid a political impasse and a concerted military campaign against the leaders of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The attacks, which killed at least 58 people and [...]

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Nuclear force without nuclear restraint

by Paul Woodward 04.23.2010

Military organizations, like muscles, atrophy unless they get regular exercise. And as much as the destructive power of the Cold War’s nuclear arsenals is credited with having prevented their use, there is no form of deterrence that can have as much appeal to the military as an actual show of force. The fear of disarmament [...]

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How the FBI and the press attempted to destroy an innocent man

by Paul Woodward 04.22.2010

The one thing we know about President Obama’s view of the war on terrorism is that he doesn’t like the name. But when it comes to one of the longest running and unresolved debates — whether counter-terrorism is a law enforcement or a military issue — it’s unclear how far the current president departs, if [...]

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Dare Israel go it alone in attacking Iran?

by Paul Woodward 04.21.2010

As some senior Israeli officials see signs the US may be willing to live with a nuclear-armed Iran, the Wall Street Journal says Israel is now considering unilateral military action. Many Israeli military experts say Israel can easily cope with any military retaliation by Iran in response to a strike. Iran’s medium-range rockets would cause [...]

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Obama administration looks beyond sanctions against Iran

by Paul Woodward 04.21.2010

David Ignatius sketches some of the details in the the sanctions regime being crafted by Stuart Levey, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, but he concedes that sanctions have rarely been effective instruments for changing policy. For policymakers, the discussion is beginning to shift to the sensitive area suggested by Gates’s memo [...]

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American kleptocracy — How fears of socialism and fascism hide naked theft

by Paul Woodward 04.21.2010

At TomDispatch, William Astore writes: America is not now, nor has it often been, a hotbed of political radicalism. We have no substantial socialist or workers’ party. (Unless you’re deluded, please don’t count the corporate-friendly “Democrat” party here.) We have no substantial fascist party. (Unless you’re deluded, please don’t count the cartoonish “tea partiers” here; [...]

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