Middle East Madness
Ben White
The Guardian
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:00 EST
A young student deported from the West Bank to Gaza is just the latest victim of Israeli efforts to sever ties between the territories
Twenty-one-year-old Palestinian student
Berlanty Azzam was seized by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in the West Bank last month. Bound and blindfolded, she was
forcibly deported to the Gaza Strip. Berlanty was in her final semester at Bethlehem University in the West Bank, and was returning from a job interview in Ramallah.
The problem was that she had an ID card registered in Gaza, and
the Israeli occupation, in the words of the human rights organisation, B'tselem, "almost completely forbids the movement of Palestinians between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip".
Bethlehem university has had "
continuous problems" getting Gaza students the requisite permission from Israel, according to communications officer Stephanie Rhodes.
B'Tselem
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:19 EST
In the summer of 2007, Israel instated a new procedure regarding residents of the Gaza Strip wishing to exit Gaza in order to receive medical treatment. According to the procedure, authorization some of these requests are authorized only if the resident first undergoes a questioning by the Israeli Security Agency (ISA). In a response by the Prime Minister's Office to a letter from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) on 22 May 2008, the purpose of the questioning was described as "evaluating the degree of danger posed by the applicant". However, testimonies given to human rights organizations in Israel indicate otherwise. The organizations have documented cases in which the ISA has exploited the questionings to exert inappropriate pressure on ill persons, with the aim of forcing them to collaborate with the Agency and give information to agents, as a prerequisite for receiving a permit to exit Gaza for medical treatment. As the questionings take place in Erez Checkpoint, the ISA has even used them, in some cases, as a means to arrest persons and take them to interrogation within Israel.
MSNBC
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:19 EST
© The Associated Press
This satellite image taken Sept. 26, provided by GeoEye, shows a nuclear facility under construction about 20 miles north-northeast of Qom, Iran.
Vienna - Iran's recently revealed uranium enrichment hall is a highly fortified underground space that appears too small to house a civilian nuclear program, but large enough to serve for military activities, diplomats told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Iran began building the facility near the holy city of Qom seven years ago, and after bouts of fitful construction could finish the project in a year, the diplomats said.
Both the construction timeline and the size of the facility - inspected last month by the International Atomic Energy Agency - are significant in helping shed light on Tehran's true nuclear intentions.
Iran says it wants to enrich only to make atomic fuel for energy production, but the West fears it could retool its program to churn out fissile warhead material.
James Cogan
World Socialist Web Site
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:00 EST
The awarding of development rights over the huge West Qurna oilfield in southern Iraq to Exxon-Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell last Thursday once again underscores the criminal character of the continuing US-led occupation. As the direct result of the Iraq war, major American and other transnational energy conglomerates are now gaining control over some the largest oilfields in the world.
West Qurna has proven reserves of 8.7 billion barrels of oil. Iraq's total reserves are currently put at 115 billion barrels, though dozens of potential fields have not been explored adequately. Before the US invasion in 2003, rights over West Qurna had been awarded by the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein to the Russian oil firm, Lukoil. The pro-US puppet regime in Baghdad has torn up all pre-war contracts.
Ali Abunimah
Electronic Intifada
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:12 EST
© Rahul D'Lucca
At the height of the global anti-apartheid movement, in 1989, a bus in London displays a message calling for boycott of South Africa
Anyone who rejects the two-state solution, won't bring a one-state solution. They will instead bring one war, not one state. A bloody war with no end.
Israeli President Shimon Peres, 7 November 2009
One of the most commonly voiced objections to a one-state solution for Palestine/Israel stems from the accurate observation that the vast majority of Israeli Jews reject it, and fear being "swamped" by a Palestinian majority. Across the political spectrum, Israeli Jews insist on maintaining a separate Jewish-majority state.
But with the total collapse of the Obama Administration's peace efforts, and relentless Israeli colonization of the occupied West Bank,
the reality is dawning rapidly that the two-state solution is no more than a slogan that has no chance of being implemented or altering the reality of a de facto binational state in Palestine/Israel.
Haaretz
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:29 EST
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the U.S. must choose between supporting Israel or Iran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
Ahmadinejad addressed the 25th Session of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Turkey, saying that U.S. President Barack Obama should make a choice in order to fulfill his campaign promise of change.
The Iranian president said that in order to make change, big decisions must be made, and they are awaiting the U.S. president's correct decision regarding which country he supports, IRNA reported.
Ahmadinejad added that Iran cannot accept the extended hand of a country which clasps Israel's hand as well, referring to the U.S.'s traditionally close ties with Israel.
The Iranian President criticized the West for classifying non-Western nations as "second class societies." Turkey, Iran and Asia are all cradles of civilization, while many European countries have killed millions in world wars, he said.
Pooja
RefreshingNews9
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:35 EST
The multiple crises afflicting Yemen are not a surprise to anyone who has been watching, and certainly not to those in Washington, says Richard Spencer.
Yemeni soldiers take up positions against Houthi fighters on the Saudi border last week
Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki is the man investigators fear held some sort of sway over Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged Fort Hood shooter. He is the radical cleric whose mosque in Virginia Major Hasan attended and to whom, we now know, he addressed 10 or 20 emails that were intercepted by US intelligence agencies over the past year.
Sheikh Anwar's latest blogpost describes Major Hasan as a "hero", a man of conscience. Given that the cleric says other Muslims have a right, or a duty, to behave similarly, army investigators will no doubt be keen to see who else was in contact with him. But the blog is worth reading for other reasons, too. Last month, for instance, Sheikh Anwar told us to expect the unexpected. But the message had nothing to do with Fort Hood. Instead, his focus was closer to hand: "Could Yemen be the Next Surprise of the Season?" he asked.
Ma'an
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:32 EST
© Ma'an Image
A man digs a tench to drain water near his
tent in Gaza, November 3
Unable to rebuild their homes from Israel's military offensive 10 months ago, many Palestinians in Gaza could spend the winter without shelter if Israel does not end its blockade, the United Nations warned on Monday.
"The winter will be particularly hard on the children of Gaza, whose capacity to withstand the rigors of a cold, wet winter has already been severely undermined by a marked deterioration of basic services and descent into poverty," the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, Maxwell Gaylard, said in a news release.
Ma'an
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:28 EST
© Ma'an Image
Abbas waves to supporters in Hebron on Sunday
President Mahmoud Abbas is considering resigning from his roles on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee and the Fatah Central Committee, Palestinian officials said on Tuesday.
The sources, who spoke on the condition that their names be withheld, also said that Abbas' announcement last week that he will not seek reelection as president was a serious decision and not a political maneuver as analysts have said.
Abbas is also waiting for the appropriate moment to announce his resignation from the PLO and Fatah governing bodies, the sources added.
Ma'an
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:19 EST
© Ma'an Image
Kouchner and Abbas in Paris in September
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner expressed his fear that Israel
no longer appears prepared to pursue negotiations in the Middle East, adding that Paris remains fervently opposed to settlement construction in the West Bank, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.
In an interview with France Inter radio, Kouchner elucidated that he did not anticipate a forthcoming breakthrough in peace talks between Israel and Palestine.
"What really hurts me, and this shocks us, is that before there used to be a great peace movement in Israel. There was a left that made itself heard and a real desire for peace," Kouchner said.
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