August 2011

Gaddafi’s fall unlikely to alarm Arab leaders

by News Sources 08.22.2011

Brian Whitaker writes: Just a few days before completing his 42nd year in power, Muammar Gaddafi appears to have become the third Arab dictator to fall in the past eight months. Tunisian president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali was the first to go, hounded out of the country in January after 23 years in power. [...]

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Libya rebels have won the war but biggest battle will be uniting factions

by News Sources 08.22.2011

Martin Chulov writes: The lessons of what becomes of a Middle East state that suddenly loses its strongman are recent and raw. More than eight years after Baghdad fell with the same ignominious haste as Tripoli, it remains a basket case of competing agendas, a disengaged political class and citizens left with the reality that [...]

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How NATO helped Libya’s rebels

by News Sources 08.22.2011

The New York Times reports: As rebel forces in Libya converged on Tripoli on Sunday, American and NATO officials cited an intensification of American aerial surveillance in and around the capital city as a major factor in helping to tilt the balance after months of steady erosion of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s military. The officials also [...]

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Top ten myths about the Libya War

by News Sources 08.22.2011

Juan Cole writes: 1. Qaddafi was a progressive in his domestic policies. While back in the 1970s, Qaddafi was probably more generous in sharing around the oil wealth with the population, buying tractors for farmers, etc., in the past couple of decades that policy changed. He became vindictive against tribes in the east and in [...]

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After Gaddafi, let’s hope for the best in Libya

by News Sources 08.22.2011

Brian Whitaker writes: As recently as last Friday, Kathleen McFarland, a security analyst at Fox News, was lecturing President Obama on America’s “missteps” in Libya. “Libya and Syria are the textbook examples of why it’s important to pick your battles, and then make sure you win the one you pick,” she wrote. “President Obama picked [...]

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Fighting rages near Gaddafi’s compound

by News Sources 08.22.2011

Al Jazeera reports: Heavy fighting and gun battles have broken out in areas of Tripoli after opposition fighters gained control overnight of much of the Libyan capital in their battle to end Muammar Gaddafi’s decades-long rule. Clashes erupted on Monday after tanks left Bab Azaziya, Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli, to confront the rebel assault Many [...]

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Watch Al Jazeera broadcasting live from the center of Tripoli

by Paul Woodward 08.21.2011

Dennis Kucinich gets the prize for the worst-timed op-ed of the year: “Time to end Nato’s war in Libya” appearing today in The Guardian. As the war enters its sixth month, it is time for the US president and secretary of state to clean up the mess they’ve created with this needless military intervention, and [...]

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Libya — the first real victory in the Arab Awakening?

by Paul Woodward 08.21.2011

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy To all those who argued that NATO’s involvement would irredeemably taint the Libyan revolution, here’s an idea that could be too much to wrap your mind around. Look at the ongoing struggle in Syria, the brutally crushed revolution in Bahrain, the unfinished revolution [...]

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Israel’s security strategy — when in doubt, hit Gaza

by Paul Woodward 08.21.2011

Three days after the attacks by gunmen outside Eilat in southern Israel, what do we know about the identities of the gunmen? Almost nothing. In the mainstream media they are blithely referred to as “Palestinian gunmen” yet so far the only basis for this description is the unsubstantiated word of Israeli officials. Those officials have [...]

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Celebratory explosions in Tripoli?

by Paul Woodward 08.21.2011

In a telephone address to the Libyan people, Muammar Gaddafi appealed to them to “Go forward, go forward,” and he then hung up. An advance is indeed under way, but not the one Brother Muammar was asking for. “If you can call any mobile number in Tripoli, you will hear in the background the beautiful [...]

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Egyptians protesting outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo

by News Sources 08.21.2011

On August 19-20, 2011 Egyptians mobilized for a demonstration in front of the Israeli Embassy demanding the removal of the flag and for the ambassador to leave as an Egyptian Army officer and 2 soldiers were killed at the Israeli-Egyptian border by Israeli helicopter the day before. A man called “Ahmed El-Shahat” managed to climb [...]

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Libyan capital rocked by blasts and gunfire

by News Sources 08.20.2011

Al Jazeera reports: Sustained automatic gun fire and a series of explosions have rung out in Tripoli, reports in the Libyan capital said. Blasts and gunfire rocked Tripoli after the break of the dawn-to-dusk fast of Ramadan on Saturday and witnesses reported fighting in the eastern neighbourhoods of Souq al-Jomaa, Arada and Tajoura. A government [...]

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Israeli army hasn’t the faintest idea who launched the Eilat attacks

by Paul Woodward 08.20.2011

The Real News Network‘s Lia Tarachansky asked IDF Spokesperson Lt. Colonel Avital Leibovitz how the IDF reached their conclusions about who was responsible for Thursday’s attacks near Eilat in southern Israel. Tarachansky: On what are you basing your conclusion that this group [the Popular Resistance Committees] is responsible for the terror attacks? IDF Spokesperson: We [...]

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Next stop Tripoli — Libya’s rebels sense victory is within reach

by News Sources 08.19.2011

The Independent reports: Another town falls. Another hook of the trap around Tripoli locks into place. More die, more homes burn, the hatred deepens. But after months of savage strife, there is now a sense that the endgame is at last approaching in Libya’s bloody civil war. The latest battleground was Sabratha, an ancient city [...]

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While Gaza is being bombed by Israel, Hamas armed wing decides a unilateral ceasefire is worthless

by News Sources 08.19.2011

Ma’an News Agency reports: The military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, has called off a ceasefire with Israel and will allow factions in Gaza to respond to Israeli attacks, Al-Aqsa Radio reported late Friday. “There can be no truce with the Israeli occupation while it commits massacres against the Palestinian people without justification,” a [...]

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Anti-Arab sentiment in Israel

by News Sources 08.19.2011

Eli Ungar-Sargon writes: Over the past three years, my wife Pennie and I have been working on a documentary film about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During our second production trip to the region, one of the many remarkable people we encountered was Uri Davis. He is one of a handful of Israelis who has built a [...]

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Hold Israel accountable with Leahy law

by News Sources 08.19.2011

Josh Ruebner writes: Apologists for Israeli occupation and apartheid claim that advocates for holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses of Palestinians are “singling Israel out for extra scrutiny” or “holding Israel to a higher standard than other countries.” Yet, ironically, Israel’s supporters also claim that U.S. military aid to Israel is sacrosanct and, [...]

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Out with Mubarak, in with Marx?

by News Sources 08.19.2011

Austin Mackell writes: In a recent TV discussion, Hossam el-Hamalawy, the prominent Egyptian leftist blogger, was asked: “So you’re the president of Egypt. You wake up, what’s the first thing you’re going to do to reorient the economy?” Hamalawy’s answer was admirably concrete: raise the minimum wage to 1,200 Egyptian pounds ($198) per month, set [...]

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The writing is on the wall for Gaddafi

by News Sources 08.19.2011

Brian Whitaker writes: Take a look on Google and you’ll find more than 1,500 news items combining the words “Libya” and “stalemate”. Repeating the search for Syria and “stalemate” reveals a mere 109 items, and for Yemen only 73. This is rather strange, because the Yemeni and Syrian uprisings – unlike that in Libya – [...]

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The context of the Eilat attacks and the threat to Gaza

by Paul Woodward 08.19.2011

Israelis who today for some reason feel safer because Gaza is getting bombed, might pause to consider this question: why would a member of the group that launched attacks outside Eilat yesterday — a group supposedly based in Gaza and sworn to the destruction of Israel — today blow himself up in an attack on [...]

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Al Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula

by News Sources 08.19.2011

In a report for The Jamestown Foundation, Andrew McGregor writes: In the absence of police and government security forces, al-Qaeda-sympathetic movements, including al-Shabaab al-Islam (The Youth of Islam), have formed in the Sinai Peninsula. The demands of these Salafi-Jihadist groups reflect both local and regional concerns. Among their demands are calls for a full implementation [...]

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Who benefits from the attacks in Israel?

by Paul Woodward 08.18.2011

Today’s attacks in southern Israel in which gunmen killed eight people were clearly carefully planned. It seems reasonable to assume that as much attention was given to the attacks’ timing. Reuters reported: The Magen David Adom ambulance service said seven people were killed along the road, just meters from the border with Egypt. The military [...]

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Libya’s rebels face questions as transition looms

by News Sources 08.18.2011

Reuters reports: Opponents of Muammar Gaddafi have managed to cobble together an alliance and, with plenty of NATO help, fight the Libyan leader’s forces to what increasingly looks like the verge of defeat. Now the hard part might be about to begin: The rebels’ National Transitional Council (NTC) might soon have to step up and [...]

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Libyan rebels ‘capture Zawiya oil refinery’

by News Sources 08.18.2011

Reuters reports: Libyan rebels took control of an oil refinery in the western town of Zawiyah and blocked the main highway north to the capital on Thursday, further isolating Muammar Gaddafi’s Tripoli stronghold. Rebel advances in recent days have cut Gaddafi’s forces off from their main resupply routes following a months-long stalemate, putting the Libyan [...]

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