Mideast Politics

I keep thinking of something that Ken Auletta, author of the new google book, said on NPR a few weeks back. (It’s been so long, I forget which show). When Auletta was preparing his book, Sergey Brin of Google came Razor-ing into an office and challenged Auletta just to publish his book on-line, free for [...] Related posts:What Obama Told Goldberg, Behind Closed DoorsAccused Israeli spy told FBI both his parents were JewishRoosevelt Told the People How He Felt. We Damn Near Believed Him

It now appears that the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (IRPSA), Howard Berman’s sanctions bill targeting Iran’s refined petroleum sector, is likely to come up for a vote in the near future. AIPAC and other hawkish “Israel lobby” groups have made the sanctions bill their top priority for months now, and today brought news that [...]

Last month, the second-largest Dutch pension fund PFZW joined an already impressive group of investors that have divested from Africa-Israel. Africa-Israel is the target of an international boycott campaign by Palestine solidarity activists because of its involvement in the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Adri Nieuwhof reports for The Electronic Intifada.

I couldn't bring myself to write about the round of bombings in Iraq yesterday. More today. I have nothing useful to say about that. Meanwhile, there is some word that payoffs to Awakening groups will stop at the end of this month. Interesting campaign move.  And once again foreign fighters seem to be slipping into Iraq from Syria.  Proven provider John McCreary's bottom line: "Day by day, the security situation is deteriorating  ... [I]t will get much worse in the next few months." Getty Images

In 2005, I wrote It Pays to be Jewish, which included the following, [..] He (Eidelberg) goes on to describe the conceptual differences between Judaism and contemporary democracy noting that Judaism has a different conception for democracy (replacing the considered judgment of the majority subject to the Torah for the will of the majority, freedom (freedom [...]

Famous actress and philanthropist Angelina Jolie has been secretly supporting seven Jordanian children and is considering buying them a house, Contact music website reported on Wednesday. ...

Ethan Bronner’s piece in the Times today on the likely prisoner-exchange deal for Gilad Shalit underscores the lack of diversity in the Times reporting staff. The article is written completely from an Israeli and Jewish perspective. It repeatedly refers to Palestinian prisoners–there are over 10,000–as "murderers" and "terrorists," when we all know that this number [...] Related posts:Israeli Tourism Ministry still features a map of Israel that includes occupied territoryTimes’s Bronner describes ‘unspeakable suffering’ of Israeli assault‘The Israeli government has ruthlessly and cynically exploited the continuing guilt among gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as a justification for the murder of Palestinians’

Back in the spring, and several times since then, President Obama suggested that if progress hasn't been made in the talks with Iran, he'd move toward harsher measures, including what Secretary of State Clinton has called "crippling sanctions." That time is drawing near, and assorted hawks are clamoring now for Obama to put up or shut up. "You said you'd get tough with Iran," they're saying. "The time is now." Of course, the time isn't now. After the October 1 session in Geneva, where some limited success was achieved, the talks have stalled, exactly as I (and many others) predicted. Iran's internal politics is muddled, and neither the Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, nor President Ahmadinejad, are in a position to strike a deal with the Great Satan just now. They're under attack from conservatives and reformists opposed to the Oct. 1 deal, which would have sent the bulk of Iran's enriched uranium to Russia and France for processing, and the anti-Ahmadinejad opposition is showing...

Twenty-four ex-German ambassadors have urged the country's chancellor and new foreign minister to be tougher on Israel.

In January and February 1966, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, J. William Fulbright, held a series of televised public hearings to discuss the deepening military involvement of the United States in Vietnam. Fulbright summoned to testify three pro-Administration witnesses (Secretary of State Dean Rusk, AID Administrator David E. Bell, and [...]

Former German ambassadors call for assertive stand against Israel’s settlement policy; say Israel cannot have peace, keep hold on territories

AFP - Thousands of demonstrators rallied outside the Israeli prime minister's residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday to protest a 10-month moratorium on new building permits for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Swissinfo Iran Says it Will Strike Israel's Nuclear Sites if Attacked FOXNews BEIRUT — Lebanon's Al Manar TV says Iran's defense minister has warned that his country will strike Israel's nuclear sites if the Jewish state attacks ... Iran to target Israel's military sites if attacked: defense ministerXinhua Nuclear row: Tehran threatens to target Israelguardian.co.uk Iran warns it will hit Israeli nuclear sites if attackedWashingtonTV Atlantic Online (blog) -Jerusalem Post -Kashmir Watch all 93 news articles »

What do you get when you combine the minds of “ER” creator Steven Spielberg and Phil Rosenthal, the executive producer of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” then throw in a dash of Israel? A new reality series that thrusts a group of American doctors into a bustling Israeli hospital.

Sarah Palin continues her American book tour, making friends in the all the right places (like mad Zionists). It’s hard to know how to respond to this video of her “fans” in Ohio (though Salon’s Glenn Greenwald explains the background). Suffice to say, they’re mostly frightened, passionate and utterly ignorant about the world around them:

Rod Dreher has this about right: BC: King David comes to the throne of Israel 167-161 BC: Maccabeean revolt 1135: Maimonides born ca. 1698: The Baal Shem Tov born 1948: Reborn state of Israel proclaimed 1989: Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski, better known as Krusty the Clown, makes his first television appearance. 2009: Sen. Orrin Hatch writes "Eight Days of Hanukkah"

Finding friends in new places: Israel’s army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, has left on a trip to India, the first time the head of the Israeli military is visiting the country, the army said on Dec. 6. Ashkenazi left for India late on Dec. 5 as part of a trip to Asia, it said [...]

The Copenhagen climate summit is causing massive global coverage. Some in the US press are rightly claiming that the world is relying too much on Barack Obama, but writer Naomi Klein argues that Washington should not be viewed as the savior: The highlight of my first day at COP15 was a conversation with the extraordinary Nigerian poet [...]

As a Palestinian political prisoner who has spent the past 20 years in Israeli jails I would like to highlight some of the general characteristics of the prisoners' movement's struggle to build a system of self and collective education as a central part of developing a patriotic and revolutionary culture that can be a pillar of the liberation movement. Khaled al-Azraq writes from Nafha prison.

Bill Sammon, in examining data from the Gallup Poll earlier this week, reported this: President Obama’s job approval rating has fallen to 47 percent in the latest Gallup poll, the lowest ever recorded for any president at this point in his term. Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and even Richard Nixon all had higher approval ratings 10-and-a-half [...]