I had a discussion on Facebook recently over the Gaza conflict. I was posting about the horrific abuses of Israel, he was countering with the supposed equal abuses of Hamas. After we traded points a few times I came to see where our difference of opinion actually lay. You see, fundamentally we both see things from the same side - war is ridiculous and the atrocities of this conflict are completely inexcusable. Killing children or civilians is completely psychopathic. We both want an end to this conflict. And yet we were arguing.

Where my friend was hung up was that the article I had posted wasn't "balanced". It was calling out Israel on war crimes, human rights violations and the like, but it wasn't citing any of the equally horrific things that Hamas has done. The familiar "human shield" argument was trotted out, as could be expected.

On the one hand, this position is really indicative of someone who is not properly informed and relies on liberal media for information. In other words, it's the Zionist position, that both sides are equally at fault and that the situation is "complicated", and that Israel has a right to defend itself (against its prisoners, apparently).

Latest reports from Ukraine indicate that the Kiev junta has begun forceful mobilization of all men from 18-60 years of age. Everyday more and more families receiving draft notices. Young men are being abducted on streets or on trains and are being taken away by force. They are being rounded up and loaded on trucks bound for the country's restive Eastern parts, like cattle to slaughter.

A new report has revealed a disturbing set of tactics used in the pursuit of domestic terrorism in the USA. Among the findings was the fact that the FBI directly and repeatedly involves itself in planning a large percentage of foiled terror plots - often by convincing impressionable or mentally disabled people to join FBI plots, then arresting them.

Human Rights Watch published the 214-page report, titled "Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses in US Terrorism Prosecutions." It documents a number of cases which the group describes as being marred by overly-aggressive prosecution, entrapment, and draconian treatment of prisoners.

"Americans have been told that their government is keeping them safe by preventing and prosecuting terrorism inside the U.S.," said Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. "But take a closer look, and you realize that many of these people would never have committed a crime if not for law enforcement encouraging, pressuring, and sometimes paying them to commit terrorist acts."

Post-9/11 anti-terrorism investigations have often utilized secret evidence, anonymous juries, extensive pretrial incarceration, and reached convictions for allegations significantly removed from actual plots, the report shows.

While noting that some terror plots are genuine, the report contends that "in some cases the FBI may have created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals by suggesting the idea of taking terrorist action or encouraging the target to act."

Dharamshala: - Describing the ongoing violent conflict between Palestine and Israel in Gaza as 'unimaginable', The spiritual leader of Tibet His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said he did not expect such sort of violence from people who claim to hold religious principles.

"Unthinkable. All major religious traditions - Islam, Christianity, Hindu, of course, Jainism and Buddhism - teach us the practice of compassion, love, forgiveness, tolerance. So then a person who believes in certain faith, why do you involve in such violence?," His Holiness the Dalai Lama told media-persons on Monday, July 21 at Kangra airport in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, India.

Israel continues to reject Hamas's offer of a ten-year ceasefire because it would undermine Israeli arms sales, which reached $7 billion in 2012


Transcript below.

Israel is targeting journalists in the Gaza Strip like it did during its last two major attacks on the 1.8 million Palestinians there.

Since the current assault began on 7 July, Israel has killed at least seven Palestinian journalists and media workers and directly struck at least four media offices. The latest journalist to be killed, Rami Rayyan, was reporting on families going to the market during what they thought was a four-hour ceasefire on Wednesday afternoon when Israel shelled the Shujaiya market.

The Electronic Intifada spoke with journalist Yousef Al-Helou just after the attack.

"Journalists say it is an Israeli attempt to silence the truth," Al-Helou said. "But Palestinian journalists are determined to continue their work because they say that it is their duty to expose Israeli actions in Gaza that amount to war crimes." (Listen to the full interview with Yousef Al-Helou via the audio player at the top of this page, or read the rush transcript below.)

Attacks on media centers

On Tuesday, 29 July, Israel bombed an Al-Aqsa TV office in the northeast part of Gaza City. Forty-five minutes later, in another part of the city, Israel struck an Al-Aqsa radio office. No one was killed in those attacks, but the offices suffered damage to their media equipment. Both the TV and radio stations resumed broadcasting after brief interruptions.

Last week on 27 July, an Israeli rocket hit another Al-Aqsa TV office, and on 22 July the offices of Al Jazeera were struck.

While the Israeli military apologized for firing at Qatar-based Al Jazeera, calling it an "error" and claiming that the military would "investigate" the incident, Israel has not conceded responsibility for hitting the Palestinian broadcasting networks. In an emailed statement, the Israeli military justified the strikes, saying they were aimed at "the propaganda dissemination capabilities used to broadcast the messages of [Hamas'] military wing."

The journalist Yousef Al-Helou said that Palestinian journalists have received text messages warning them of their danger: "Now the Israeli army has sent six messages to journalist in Gaza ordering them to stay away, or saying that the Israeli army will not be responsible for your safety."

The worsening of life for people in Gaza is a deliberate goal of the Israeli military.

Israel is waging war on civilians in Gaza. Ordinary Palestinians, television stations, schools, hospitals, power plants and water facilities are all targets in the eyes of the Israeli army, one of the most powerful militaries in the world.

On Monday night, in what is being described as the most intense Israeli bombardment since the assault began three weeks ago, the air force bombed Gaza's sole power plant, and killed over 100 people.

It is a violation of international law to destroy civilian infrastructure and lives if there is no concrete military advantage in doing so. "Israel is repeatedly and flagrantly violating the law of armed conflict," a group of international legal scholars said in a statement released this week. "Most of the recent heavy bombings in Gaza lack an acceptable military justification and, instead, appear to be designed to terrorize the civilian population."

But Israel, shielded from accountability by the U.S., continues to violate the laws of war. In fact, it is following a specific military doctrine developed by Israeli military officials that calls for punishing the civilian population in the territory where resistance to Israeli actions emanates from. Its purpose is to restore Israeli deterrence; to make Israel's armed enemies think twice before resisting, a goal Israel attempts to meet by wantonly destroying civilian infrastructure. Another goal is to turn the civilian population against the authorities that rule them. In this war, it's Hamas Israel wants to weaken.


The Dahiyeh doctrine, as it is known, was first used in 2006. In the summer of that year, Israel went to war in Lebanon to battle the militant group Hezbollah, which was created in the late 1980s for the express purpose of resisting Israel's occupation of Lebanon. Sparked by an attack on Israeli soldiers and the subsequent capturing of two soldiers to press for the release of Hezbollah prisoners in Israel, the 2006 assault on Lebanon inflicted enormous damage on the country. Over 1,000 Lebanese, the majority of them civilians, were killed.

Russia's deputy foreign minister says relations with the US will not improve in the near future, as Washington's sanctions policy has already gone too far.

"Of course, there will be no new 'reset' like the one that happened a few years ago, and that yielded some positive results, I am still sure that this period was marked with a number of positive changes in Russian-US relations. But now I cannot foresee or expect anything like this," Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with the Russian media.

"It is unlikely, because Washington has gone too far in its anti-Russian rhetoric and the constant urge to punish us for something, now it will be difficult to 'rewind' the situation," he noted.

The Russian diplomat said it was very regretful the US foreign policy doctrine does not extend beyond the use of sanctions and quasi-sanctions in reply for all events that do not satisfy their current desires.

Ryabkov also said that Russian authorities were facing a major setback in cooperation with the United States and this setback was because of the US initiative

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called a ceasefire within a 40km radius of where Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crashed. Russia has urged all parties in eastern Ukraine to lay down their arms while inspectors investigate what caused the tragedy.

Thursday, July 31 19:38 GMT:

Russia's General Staff chief, Gen. Valery Gerasimov has called "unacceptable" the use by the Kiev military of combat air force, heavy - including rocket - artillery and missiles against civilians. The comment was made during a phone conversation with US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Both houses of the US Congress are considering passing a resolution that condemns Hamas for using human shields despite not having any evidence to prove Hamas is employing this tactic.

Over the last 22 days, the Israeli army has deliberately bombed family homes, UN shelters, schools, places of worship, hospitals, water infrastructure and more, killing more than 1,300 Palestinians, 80 percent of whom have been civilians, including nearly 300 children.

In propaganda echoed by the US State Department, the Israeli government has repeatedly claimed that Hamas is using women and children as human shields to protect its weapons and rocket launchers, forcing Israel to massacre innocent Palestinians.