Archive for July 17th, 2009
Olmert slams US focus on settlements
In an Op-Ed titled ‘How to Achieve Lasting Peace’ published in the Washington Post on Friday, Olmert said that “the issue of settlement construction commands the agenda between the United States and Israel.” Calling the emphasis on settlements “a mistake,” Olmert warned that not only does it not contribute to the peace process or relations with Arab states, but that it “has the potential to greatly shake US-Israeli relations.” Read More…
Related:
- Hezbollah calls on int’l community to end Israeli violations
- Israel facing challenge of deterioration in relations with Turkey
- Russia urges Israel to end West Bank settlement expansion | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ]
- British PM Brown: Stop settlements to end “deadlock”
- Dangerous, Untreated Wastewater in the West Bank
- Apartheid five years on
- Netanyahu’s substitute for sovereignty
- Palestinians fear Israeli-U.S. understanding over settlements
Nasrallah blasts silence to Israeli brutality
Hezbollah’s secretary general blasted the international community for accepting Israeli aggression towards the Palestinians and the Lebanese.
“Israel is a racist state; a state which was invented; a state which was placed at the heart of our region that is respected by the whole world and the whole world expresses its understanding of its brutality and its killing of thousands,” said Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
“The G8, the Security Council, and the entire world expressed their understanding of the Israeli act,” he added in a televised speech on Friday. Read More…
Israeli warships attack Gaza coastline
The coastline along the Gaza Strip has come under the fire of patrolling Israeli warships which invariably monitor the shores. The barrages, which had taken aim at vast swathes of the littoral area on Friday, caused no casualties, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency quoted locals as saying. The naval bombardments frighten off the local fishermen further restricting the sources of livelihood for the blockaded sliver.
Related:
In ‘unity’ sermon, Rafsanjani regrets ‘crisis’ handling
As Iran tries to cope with the aftermath of its disputed presidential election, influential cleric and politician Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani puts forward proposals to end the post-vote “crisis.” Ayatollah Rafsanjani, who was leading the Friday prayers at Tehran University for the first time since election, told hundreds of thousands of people that ambiguities surrounding the June 12 presidential vote had broken the trust of Iranians in the establishment. Read More…
Related:
Secret US-Israeli meeting to focus on Iran
Amid reports that Israel is preparing to bomb Iranian nuclear sites, political heavyweights in Washington and Tel Aviv make plans for a secret get-together. Ria Novosti reported on Friday that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is planning to visit Tel Aviv within the next two weeks to discuss a whole range of international issues, including Tehran’s nuclear case, in secret meetings with the Netanyahu government.
Related:
The Israel Project’s Secret Hasbara Handbook Exposed
The Israel Project’s 2009 Global Language Dictionary
Douglas Bloomfield and Newsweek have exposed a secret hasbara handbook written for The Israel Project by star Republican marketer, Frank Luntz. The oddly-named Global Language Dictionary [ Backup ] (pdf) is a veritable goldmine of arguments, strategy, and tactics. At 116 pages, it’s not for the faint of heart. But anyone who wants to get inside the head of the Israel lobby must read this document. Read More…
Related:
Israeli bill would require referendum for Golan pullout
The Israeli government moved this week to institute a measure that would require parliamentary approval or a national referendum before any withdrawal from occupied Syrian territory. Called the “Golan Bill” by the Israeli media, the measure would require the approval of two-thirds of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, or a national referendum.
Hamas PM Haniyeh: Jews are not our enemy
De facto Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh met on Thursday with a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews who arrived in Gaza with a US aid convoy.
Haniyeh told the members of the Neturei Karta sect that Jews are not the enemies of Arabs or Muslims. “Our problem is with the occupation, that stems from the Zionist ideology and its desire to disperse all the Palestinians,” he said. Read More…
Israel: Rise of the Right
Ilan Mizrahi has spent 16 years photographing and filming right wing Israeli settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron. His film, Israel: Rise of the Right, looks at the followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, an American-born rabbi and politician who proposed the mass expulsion of Arabs from Israel before he was assassinated in 1990.
Feeling the Hate in Tel Aviv
The Sequel to the Video YouTube Censored
